Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

March 23, 2016 Page 11

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

March 1911

 

Dwight Roberts closed up his fruit business on Monday and sold his building on the corner to the Walk Bros.  He has not fully decided what he will go into, but thinks of doing some faming and market gardening.  Competition in his class of goods made it unprofitable to continue in business.

 

Dwight expects to start in the near future for Linn County, Oregon. We wish him success in the West.

•••••••••

H. M. Root received a letter last week from Fred Huntzicker stating that the Eilert Brewery has been completed and is in operation.  Their beer was put on the market Feb. 16, and meets with great favor with consumers, having been prescribed by Fresno physicians, something the profession of that city has not done for any other brew.

•••••••••

Anton Kransinsky, a wealthy German of Monifort, Grant County, Wis., who last fall bought 560 acres of land in Levis, has during the winter completed a fine house, barn and other buildings at a cost of not less than $2,000.  Mr. K. moved into his place last month, bringing with him 18 head of cattle, 4 good horses besides other livestock.  He had two large railcars of farm machinery and household goods delivered.                           

•••••••••

August Schlender, after logging for ten days across the Alps in Levis, took a rest last Saturday and went to Neillsville on needed business.                                                                                            

•••••••••  

T. E. Brameld sent another bunch of twenty-seven ewes to Medford Tuesday, Pat Kelley’s team taking them across country.  Mr. Brameld got an order for two hundred more, but farmers are reluctant to sell nice sheep at this time of year.

•••••••••

O. B. Spellum and Emil Ketel did some fine work in window trimming at Spellum’s grocery last week.  A great deal of taste and ingenuity were displayed in the designs.                                               

•••••••••   

C. B. Dresden got back Monday from Two Harbors, Minn., where he put in the winter driving a team of horses in the pinery.  He reports the times very good and work plenty in that region.  He appears healthy and hearty, indicating that logging camp board up there is about as good as it can get.                       

•••••••••

Marshfield has a white elephant on its hands in the shape of a cute Indian named Sagola, or Sapolio.  He is like O’Houlehan’s dog in the fact that try as hard as they will, they can’t lose him.  He is enjoying life serenely at the city bastille, taking three square meals a day at a restaurant while the authorities pay the freight.  He has been set out of town a score of times, but always, like the famous feline, returns to his native heath.  The question that causes the city “dads” of Marshfield to lay awake nights is what to do with him, because as soon as he is sent out of town he is met by police at his destination and given a pass back to Marshfield, and seems to like the amusement first rate.

•••••••••

There will be an auction at John Dwyer’s farm in the Town of York, Thursday, March 28, commencing at 10 o’clock.  The following will be sold: 1 pr. 5-year-old mares, 1 top buggy, heavy and light harnesses, 1 pr. Light sleighs, a logging damp kit consisting of 65 pairs of blankets, axes, crosscut saws, cant hooks, chains, etc., all household furniture.  Terms made known at sale.  Auctioneer, A. A. Holverson                               

•••••••••  

John Dodge of the firm of E. C. Dodge and Company creamery men is in this vicinity looking after their interests.  They are putting in a new creamery in the Town of Grant and one at Chili. 

 

Will Short who has operated a creamery at Hillside, Wis., during the past year, has returned to take charge of the new creamery, which is being put up in Chili.  He will move his family to Chili, where they will reside.

•••••••••

Frank Dwyer last week closed the deal by which he sold his farm in the northwestern part of Grant to Marcus Hosely, of Green County.  This farm consists of 240 acres of very fine land, with good buildings.  It is the old Dwyer homestead, and one of the first farms cleared up in that neighborhood.  Consideration $9,000

•••••••••   

From Maj. M. Murphy’s Musings:

 

The beauty season of Clark County is fast approaching.  The yearly resurrection morn is reddening the east, and the sap mounts blade and truck and stem to mantle the earth again in living green.  There is something reassuring in this inevitable return of spring, buried beneath a weight of snow.  Clinched down by ice and frost all vegetable and much animal life seems gone beyond recovery.  But every law of the universe is pulling for their release.  The old earth in orbit flight nods its north pole each day nearer to the sun and though storms may rage and March winds wail, their grasp grows daily weaker, and finally must cease.                                                                     

•••••••••

Marshfield’s new city hall tower is to be equipped with a 2,000-lb. bell and a large clock that strikes half hours.

•••••••••

Two iron bridges for Pine Valley and two for Levis have been landed in Neillsville, and are being hauled to their respective locations.  Those in Pine Valley go on the Cunningham and Jack creeks.

••••••••• 

H. O. Moe, of Sherwood, was a caller at the Rep. and Press office Monday.  He is very much pleased over the fact that a skimming station is to be built in his neighborhood, and is purchasing cows to help the enterprise along.

•••••••••

W. G. Hyslop, of Blair, came up to this town Thursday of last week to look after interests in his creamery.  He will put up a new creamery near the Day post office in the spring.

 

(Day was located near the Hwy. 95 and Poertner Ave. intersection in the Town of Levis. DZ) 

                                                            

March 1946

 

A petition was circulated in Neillsville in 1878, requesting that the high school department of the local public schools be discontinued.  This petition was signed by quite a number of local citizens, including B. F. French and George Lloyd.  In response to this petition, a special school meeting was called for March 16, 1878, and there was considerable discussion.  Thereafter a vote was taken, and it was unanimously decided to keep the high school going.

 

This incident is recorded in an old book of records, which has just come to light.  The book was in the office which was formerly occupied by C. R. Sturdevant and which was cleaned out in the change of occupancy.  The old school records were gathered up by Donald E. Peters, the Superintendent of schools, who found among them this old book of minutes.  The book goes back to 1866.  Among other early happenings of interest there recorded are these:

 

Of school buildings now in use, the South Side Building is oldest.  It was constructed in 1874.  The successful bidders originally were Bacon & Bradshaw, but they wanted $500 down before they went to work.  This precaution was not well received by the school board and the school electors, who were receptive when James Hewett came forward with an offer to take over the contract at the offer of Bacon & Bradshaw, with the building cost as little as $7,000.

 

The contract specified what the contractor should do, but the building committee of the school board had to do certain things, also, including the furnishing of the lumber.  The South Side School is revealed by this record as being just a little more than 70 years old, the Biblical three score and ten.

 

The old book shows that the North Side School was of a later vintage.  It was authorized Jan. 25, 1886, and the minutes show that the plan was to be the same as that of a school building just erected at Alma Center.

 

The entire receipts of the school district in the year 1868 were $1,554.60, out of which $312.50 was paid to the one teacher then employed.  For the following year, the amount raised for the teacher was $400.

 

The district received in 1887-88 from nonresident students a total of $242.30 for tuition.  This item is now running a little more than $13,000.

 

In the early days there could be heat in the school affairs.  For instance, a petition was addressed to one of the early school clerks, telling him in no uncertain terms that he lacked interest in the school and that it would be a public service to him to quit.  The petition was signed by only two men, as the minutes show, but one of the two was Richard Dewhurst.  So, the clerk pulled out immediately, or sooner, and a new clerk was selected for the job.

•••••••••

Marriage licenses:

Robert Poler, Town of Washburn, and Wanda Ferguson, Town of Washburn,

 

Elmer Brombach, Town of Hendren, and Joyce Beyreis, Village of Spencer,

 

Edward Hull, Town of Hoard, and Marian Haas, Town of Thorp,

 

Loren Baates, Village of Abbotsford, and Mae L. Moore, Village of Abbotsford,

 

Edward R. Bliven, Town of Weston, and Betty Mae Martin, City of Marshfield

•••••••••

A fair out of debt and with about $400 in actual cash on hand will be celebrated next Satruday in Neillsville.  This celebration will take place at the annual meeting of the Clark County Fair Association, to be held at 12:15, Saturday, March 16, in the Kiwanis Club room, Neillsville Bank building.

 

To mark the occasion the Kiwanis Club will furnish lunch to those in attendance.  The business meeting will follow immediately.                                                                                        

•••••••••

The Black River went on a rampage at the head of Lake Arbutus last Friday afternoon and spread havoc in the cottage colony there.

 

The damage as estimated by the Clark County Press was not less than $20,000.  This estimate has been checked with various observers, who advise that the figure is conservative.  The Press considers that there was about equal damage on the two sides of the river; that the loss of the Murphy’s, W. L. and Edward, approximates $10,000, they having sustained all the loss of importance on the west side; that the loss of eight cottagers, the county, the telephone company and the power company, on the east side, would approximate $10,000.

 

All of this loss was incurred in 20 to 30 minutes on Friday afternoon, March 15. It was about 2 o’clock when the ice went out.  Its going was precipitated by a wall of water; which carried enormous floes of ice over the riverbanks to a maximum distance of half-a-mile.

 

The stage had been set for a major demonstration of nature’s power.  In January, there had been a breakup.  The ice had come down the river and had lodged upwards from the head of Lake Arbutus.  There was a heavy ice dam across the river at about the point of the Judge Crosby cottage.  From that point upward, much of the thread of the steam was filled with ice, and this January ice had frozen solidly together.

 

Thus had been created a major barrier, of such size and strength as to offer tremendous resistance as the floodwaters began to come downstream in the early part of the week.  The water piled up behind this ice, building up an enormous head and carrying upon it masses of fresh ice, coming down from above.

 

The worst damage to the cottages was from ice floes, which were carried under them and which lifted them into the air.  When the water subsided, practically all of the summer cottages north of the Crosby cottage were raised above their normal level and were resting upon an uncertain and uneven foundation of ice floes.  The only buildings, which stood up against the ice were those constructed upon foundations of heavy masonry.

 

The Black River floodwaters have occasionally gone on a rampage through the years, causing destruction along its route across Clark County.  The above photo was taken in September 1938, on the old US Hwy 10 route, west of the city limits.  The view includes an area just beyond the bridge, which flooded about one-half of a mile of the highway, including the bridge.  Barely visible in the background is the old railroad trestle that went over the highway.

 

•••••••••    

John Verhunce of Willard was graduated from the Reisch-American School of Auctioneering at Mason City, Ia., March 15.  He has returned to Clark County.  Mr. Verhunce has been operating a farm west of Willard since 1943.      

•••••••••

Richard Prochazka, who is helping Uncle Sam with his Navy right now, is all puffed up because he is a Neillsville boy.  He is located away out on the Pacific coast, and most of the time he works.  But in his spare time, he goes to Sonoma and bowl.  When he recently walked into the bowling alleys there, he saw a list of the big bowling spots in the United States, as recognized by the association and there was Neillsville away up at the top of the list, with 32 teams in a city of only a little better than 2,500 in 1944-45, and with 36 teams in the season of 1945-46.

 

Richard has kind of told all, that’s the city he comes from, and he has had to stretch his hat a little; he may have to get a new one.

 

(At that time, Wisconsin had a reputation of being a state with many bowlers.  It was nearly impossible to find an alley available for open bowling on any evening, due to being filled by bowling leagues. DZ)

•••••••••

The Lutheran Church in the Town of Levis, Jackson County, not far from Osseo, was struck by lightning last Friday night and completely consumed.  There was no fire protection.  The church was 57 years old and seated 300 persons.

•••••••••

Three Greenwood students received “A” ratings as the district forensic contest, held at Stevens Point Friday, March 22.  They were Harvey Humke, Pat Plunkett and John Olson.  They will compete at Madison.

•••••••••

There will be a sheep shearing demonstration at the Otto Hasz farm located 2 ½ miles from Granton, Thursday April 4, starting at 10:30 a.m. for all interested sheep raisers and custom shearers.

 

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