December 1925

Quotes from Neillsville’s “Man on the Street”:

County Agent Knipfel is an ardent advocate of reforestation and never misses the opportunity of driving the lesson home and explaining the project of replanting our devastated and fire destroyed forests.  Recently, he addressed a rural school meeting and of course dwelt for a time on reforestation.  “Now what has any one of you done to help preserve our noble forests?”

“Please sir,” piped up a small boy, “I shot a woodpecker.”

We claim Neillsville authorities are going to make it hot for moonshiners and are even now doing all in their power to put the bootleggers out of business.  When one of the fraternities gets in the hands of the law, a good stiff fine is in sight and we opine the authorities are going to crack it to them, by, gum, even if they have to accept a note in lieu of the ready cash for the fine assessed.  These moonshiners ain’t goin’ to get away no more in this burg, but notes will only be accepted in more or less unusual cases.                                                                         

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State Deputy Harry Hewett, made what is probably the largest find of illicit liquor since prohibition went into effect at Chippewa Falls last Thursday.  He with two other state men and a plain-clothes policeman were searching a soft drink place which was under suspicion.  Mr. Hewett moved some boxes in a hallway and noticed a place in the floor, which had been sawed out; on pulling up the boards that had been carefully fitted back in place, he found a hole dug out below the floor, where were stored 165 gallons of alcohol, all in gallon cans.  A dray was needed to haul it to police headquarters.

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The Klark Kounty Klavern, Greenwood, has been incorporated with the secretary of state according to an announcement on Saturday.  The K.K.K. concern will operate a general business of owning and operating a hall and assembly room for lunch and social purposes.  The concern is incorporated for $6,000.

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Bernard Vollrath of Greenwood took the train from Neillsville Tuesday, returning to the State University.  His brother, Ernest Vollrath and automobile, drove him down through the snowdrifts on Highway 73.  Where they didn’t go through the snowdrifts, they went over them.

(Vollrath may have been driving a Model T Ford.  When I was a child, I remember a country neighbor successfully driving a Model T coupe eight miles over snowdrifts to get needed supplies.  The Model T was a light-weight vehicle. DZ)

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Ed Gault, Sr. of Sunshine Corners, who was 72 years young Thursday, treated some of his relatives and friends to a fine oyster supper that evening at his home.  When he gives an oyster supper he doesn’t count the oysters either, that makes it finer.  He also had a cake with lighted candles.  Everyone wished him many more pleasant birthdays and hoped he would “set ‘em up” again next year.

(Where was the Sunshine Corners community?  Was it located between York Center and Neillsville? DZ)

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A number of new German books are now in the city library.  They are late editions and all books are of great interest.  The librarian would be please to have these books circulated.                    

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Otto Kunkel of the Globe area has gone to Neillsville Satruday and on his way home he got stuck between Leb. Kalsow’s and Ed Klueckmann’s farms.  He tried going backwards and forward but didn’t succeed either way, until finally John Seif came along and told him that one of car’s front wheels was off.  It sure was a good one on Otto and we believe that he’d been torturing that poor old Dort yet if it hadn’t been for Mr. Seif.  

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George Wildish, who is ranching at Webster, Montana, came Thursday for a visit with his father, John Wildish, and other relatives.                                                                                                     

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An extraordinary Sale of Genuine Buffalo Coats at W. J. Marsh Co. in Neillsville.

The Conrad Fur Company who manufactures our furs and whose representative is Mr. F. R. Wilkins will hold another of his wonderful sales with us on January 14th and 15th.  He writes us that they have completed the purchase of some 200 Genuine Buffalo Coats from the Quarter Master General of the U. S. Army.  These were sold from one of the Government Warehouses in San Francisco at public auction and our manufacturer secured this number and allotment at ridiculously low values.

These coats are in a perfect state of preservation and are being changed from the army coat style to the regular driving or automobile coat style.  These coats are being made as follows: All Buffalo, including collar and cuffs of Buffalo fur with a durable quilted lining for $75.

All Buffalo with South American Beaver trimming, collar, cuffs and pocket pieces, quilted farmer’s satin lining for $100.

The finest selected Buffalo with genuine Hudson Bay Beaver trimming or unplucked Otter trimmings wool linings with guaranteed Skinner’s Satin sleeve and yoke lining for $145.

These coats run in standard sizes from 38 up to and including 44’s and the 46’s sizes are 10-percent extra and ranging in lengths from 48 to 53 inches.

Due to extreme high prices on raccoon, these coats are a wonderful buy, both for the farmer and the city man.  They are wonderfully durable and will keep the wearer warm under all conditions.

December 1945

The American Legion Auxiliary is sending carpet rags to hospitalized veterans who make them into rugs.  This is part of the rehabilitation program planned to help the men regain their normal health.  Anyone in Neillsville who would like to help in this work, please wind your sewed rages into balls and leave at the J. C. Penney store on or before December 11.

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When the Thomas Garvin’s located near Neillsville in 1854, they could not get a cow.  They went through the first winter with little or no milk or butter, and there were three small children in the family. 

In the spring, Mrs. Garvin heard of a family that was moving away from the vicinity of Kurth’s Corners.  So she walked there to try to buy the cow.  She wore a new shawl, which had been given her by her brother, Robert Ross, an early logger, who has bought the shawl in La Crosse.

When she arrived at the home of the departing family, covetous eyes fell upon that shawl.  The owners of the cow would not sell for money, but they would trade for the shawl.  Mrs. Garvin was reluctant to part with the shawl, which she needed and which was a gift.  But then she remembered the long hard winter without milk or butter for the three children and she took off the shawl and handed it over.  Then she led the cow home to the west of the river, not far from the later location of the old West side train depot.

The Press is given this incident by Margaret Ross Scott of Two Rivers, Wis.  She had the story direct from Mrs. Garvin, who was her aunt.  From Fred Ackerman, The Press has a clipping of 1907, which tells of the death of Mrs. Garvin in Seattle.  At that time the Thomas Garvin’s had been away from Neillsville for five years and the surviving children, seven in number, all lived in Seattle, except Robert Garvin of Neillsville, Mrs. Scott says that the three children, for whom Mrs. Garvin bought the cow are dead, and it is her impression that all of the other children of the family are dead.

The official assessment count gives Clark County more than 100,000 cattle in 1945, and it is now difficult to realize that there was a time when a family with small children could not buy a cow.

The Thomas Garvin’s, arriving in 1854, were among the very early families to locate in this community.  The clipping, which tells of Mrs. Garvin’s death, stated that they were the fifth family to locate here.  That may be true, though there were quite a substantial number of persons in the vicinity.  That was the year of the organization of Clark County and of the vote over the location of the county seat.  At the election, more than 200 votes were cast, most of them doubtless by single men.

(Living one mile west of Neillsville’s Main Street, Mrs. Garvin had to have walked six miles eastward to get to Kurth Corners where she was able to purchase the much needed cow for her family’s needs, returning by the same route, with the cow in tow.  DZ)                                                                                     

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Fifteen noted sportsmen, the majority of whom are from Neillsville and its vicinity, emerged at the close of the hunting season with 14 deer and one wolf to their credit, though it is unknown who got the wolf.  Their successful catch was made near Dells Dam, where the hunters made their camp.  The lucky nimrods are: Lester Steinhilber, Arthur Meyer, Ray Eggiman, Paul Ehlers, Irvin Braatz, Ed Kutchera, Dr. Horace Frank, Earl Schultz, Reuben Schultz, Henry Zastrow, Albert Kuehling, Dr. E. L. Lee, Alex Gall of Neillsville, and L. Kutchera and Mr. Ford of Trempealeau.

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On November 17, Miss Dorothy Stowe, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Stowe, Unity, became the bride of Al Bushman, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Bushman, Loyal.  The marriage took place in the St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Greenwood, with the Rev. John Novak officiating at the 9:30 a.m. ceremony.

The maid of honor was Miss Virginia Bushman, sister of the groom.  The bridesmaids were Mrs. Jerome Delo and Miss Lois Stock.  Donald Bushman, brother of the groom, was bestman.  Jerome Delo and Ray Anderson were groomsmen.  Robert Lindner was the usher.

A wedding breakfast for the bridal couple was held at the home of the groom’s parents, and the wedding dinner and supper were held at the home of the bride’s parents with a reception in the afternoon.  A wedding dance was held at the Merry Ol’ Gardens with music furnished by Guy Woodford and his band.

Mr. and Mrs. Bushman are now at home on a farm southeast of Greenwood.

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Bounty has been claimed on approximately 200 red and grey fox trapped and shot in Clark County this year, according to County Clerk Herbert Borde.

Last Friday morning, Fred Behling of Route 1, Withee, claimed bounty on two grey fox and one red fox.  The county pays $2.50 bounty, and the state matches this amount, making the total award $5.00, the hides bring about $2.50 more.

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Robert W. Schiller is the new service officer for Clark County.  Wednesday morning the county board elected him to that position.  He was a captain in the late World War II; went out with the original Service Company; began action in the Buna campaign; went all through the Pacific fighting.                      

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Clarence (Bud) Bremer, star forward of the local V.F.W. post basketball team, suffered a fractured bone in the left elbow last Friday night when the vets tried to tame the Unity Tigers.

His elbow apparently came in sharp contact with the floor.  However, the injury did not seem to bother him much until he got home after the game.

Taming the Unity Tigers team turned out to be much more of a rugged job than the veterans had anticipated.  As a matter of fact, the Tiger-tamers were tamed by the Tigers, 33 to 51.  Schultz, star of the past Unity High School teams, racked up so many points that the scorekeepers got about as far behind as the ticker tape during the stock market crash of ’29.  His total for the game though, was about 35.                                            

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This will be the merriest Christmas in five years for the families of Clark County’s servicemen, for more than 1,000 of them are expected to be home and out of the armed services by that time.

By Tuesday of this week, 863 Clark County veterans of World War II had filed discharges in the register of deeds office.  At the current rate, according to Henry E. Rahn, the register, approximately 1,000 discharges will have been made.

Veterans find very little delay in having their discharges recorded in Clark County.  The discharge papers are recorded by a recently installed Photostat machine.  This machine makes a photograph of the original document and the photograph is then filed in the office.

This eliminates the necessity of copying and proof reading.  The whole procedure of making the Photostat requires but a few minutes, while to make the record by typing and proof reading requires a considerable amount of time.

The result has been, according to Mr. Rahn that the office has kept abreast of the unusually heavy amount of recording required.  In some counties, Mr. Rahn said, the register of deeds offices are from four to six or more weeks behind, in spite of extra clerical help.                                                                                                       

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“It spread like fire through Christmas tinsel.”

That was the way Mrs. Leo M. Staffon described the blaze of Monday, which gutted the old Fred Sears house on the South Hewett Street hill, adjoining the Mary Hemphill property.

The fire was discovered about 9:15 a.m.  It was a difficult one to fight, for it stayed in the partitions.  Added to the difficulties was the 11-below zero temperature, the coldest day of the season up to that time.

Firemen and equipment were encrusted by ice when they turned off the hoses and returned to the station at about 3:30 p.m.  One casualty of the extreme cold was Fire Chief W. F. Dahnert, whose ears were frost-bitten.

Accommodations were found for those living in the house.

The Staffon family, which includes four children, was taken into the Mrs. Helen Smith home temporarily.  Three of the children were attending school when the fire broke out.  They were: JoAnn, 16, Betty Ann, 11, and Gilbert, 9.

The Stevens family found accommodations at the home of T. M. Winter.

(The Sears house, an old landmark, was located on the northeast corner of Hewett and West First Streets’ intersection.  A few years later, a one-story house was built on that site. DZ)

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