Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

June 29, 2016  Page 9

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

June 1901

 

Tay Community News:

 

D. H. Williams and wife and Dr. W. A. Leason and wife spent Sunday at Dells Dam.

 

Blucher Paulus, of Neillsville, and Robbie Lowry, of Levis, spent Sunday with the Milton boys. 

 

Mr. Andrus is hauling rock for a wall for his new house.

 

Billy Klann had the misfortune to cut his knee quite badly with a butcher knife while making a whistle. 

 

The schoolhouse has been improved the last week.

 

Mr. Brindley closed a successful term of school at the brick schoolhouse last Friday, giving his scholars a picnic in his woods, which was enjoyed by the scholars and parents.  There were about 110 in all that partook of the good eatables that were served; there was speaking and singing by the students and a song by H. Parker.  Considering the hot day, it was a success.  Archie Garvin took a snap shot of the children seated at the table.

 

Fred Dux is able to be up after putting a week with rheumatism.

 

Aug. Klann is doing some much needed roadwork on his division. 

 

(A search in the location of forgotten communities within Clark County is being made, with the Tay community being one of those.  Looking at an old county plat book, the Fred Dux farm was located two miles west of Neillsville, along Hwy. 10.  Jas. Milton farm bordered the east side of the Dux farm, with the L. F. Milton on the south of the Dux farm.  Andrus had a creamery about ½ mile west of the city along U. S. Hwy 10.  The Klann farm was on the south side of Starr Rd. and east side of Clark Ave., 2 ½ miles southwest of Neillsville.  Grand View school was located in that area. DZ)                                                                                                

•••••••••

J. J. Wright and A. L. Snyder, of Granton, have started a livery stable, putting in an up-to-date line of rigs.  They are justly entitled a share of the public patronage.

 

S. L. Marsh purchased a span of horses last week weighing each 800 lbs.  they are a beautiful pair and are being used in Wright & Snyder’s livery barn.  Just the team of horses’ you boys need to take your best girl out for a buggy ride.

•••••••••

Teeth from $4.50 to $8.00 at Dr. Leason’s, located over Spellum’s.    

•••••••••

In the Loyal area: C. H. Brown sold the Warren Shupe farm of 80 acres to Albert Lohr, of Hartford, Wis.  Consideration, $3,600                                                                                                         

•••••••••

One-day last week, Marshal Hommel’s horse tore off a board from the fence to which he was tied, and made a circuit across several North Side gardens, distributing the buggy along the route, but escaping uninjured.

•••••••••

For Sale in Neillsville:

 

Three houses, $500, $800 and $1,400, also some choice building lots, all bargains, inquire of Marsh & Tucker.

•••••••••

The athletes of the Black River Falls and Neillsville high schools met in field day contests Saturday afternoon at the Clark County fairgrounds.  There were about twenty-five Black River Falls people who accompanied their team.  The athletes competed in eleven events:  Shot Put; Half-mile Run; Running Hop Step and Jump; Standing High Jump; Hammer Throw; Standing Broad Jump; Quarter-mile Run; Running High Jump; Running Broad Jump; Pole Vault; and One-Hundred Yard Dash.                                                                                                        

•••••••••

About two hundred pleasure-seekers boarded the passenger train here last Sunday to take in the Saengerfest at Marshfield.  A large number of people also got on the train at Granton.

 

(Saengerfest is a song festival associated with the Germanic culture, European immigrants having brought that tradition to North America in the early 20th century.  As the Saengerfest concept gained popularity and spread around the world, it was adapted by Christian churches for spiritual worship services.  Sangerbunds are still active in Europe and in American communities with Germanic heritage. DZ)                                         

•••••••••

Len Howard returned from Madison Tuesday, having purchased a carload of new buggies.  They are of the same styles as the carload he sold this spring, a good choice for Fourth of July traveling.

•••••••••

Marriage Licenses:

 

Albert Kornis and Ella Scheel, both of Loyal; F. Nemitz and Mamie Wetzel, both of Pine Valley; Hixon M. Mead and Edna Bowen both of Longwood; Charles Marg, of Fremont and Ida Krause, of Grant; Herbert White and Maude Ketchpaw, both of Greenwood.                                                                    

•••••••••

Day Community News:

 

The butter factory at Hutching’s Corner, having been remodeled, will now receive a coat of paint.  Albert Duge, the genial butter-maker, is making over four hundred pounds of butter daily.

 

R. Lynch purchased a forty-dollar cow at the R. W. Canfield sale last Thursday.

 

Miss Rose Ruege closed a term of school in the McAdams district Friday.

 

Mrs. Floy Justice closes school in Dist. No. 1, of Pine Valley June 28.   

•••••••••

Wilcox Community News:

 

Frank Krejci had a barn-raising last week.

 

Julius Voigt has completed a new stable.

 

W. H. Dean had a new windmill put up last week.

 

Sylvester Root and family, of Forest Township, Fond du lac County were guests of the G. A. Root family last week.  We have learned that Mr. Root has purchased a farm at Pleasant Ridge and will move onto it next fall.

 

 

An early 1900s view of Withee’s Main Street shows one automobile parked along the boardwalk. 

Also, a sign is posted stating “Auto Livery.”

 

June 1951

 

A fireworks display was to be a major Fourth of July attraction at the Neillsville Country Club Wednesday evening.  An invitation to the public is to attend and to make free use of the country club facilities, which has been issued by the directors.  The holiday activities at the club include a flag tournament in the morning, a two-ball mixed fore-some in the afternoon, and a family dinner in the evening.  All events are open to the public.

•••••••••

Block numbering will go ahead this summer in Neillsville.  This was the decision Tuesday evening of the city council.  The green light was given when the Badger State Telephone Company informed the council that a new directory will be issued in November and that street numbers will be inserted in it if they are then available.

 

This notice gave occasion to revive the numbering project, which has been lying dormant.  The project involves the re-numbering of all dwelling and business places in the city.               

•••••••••

Special! Boy’s Oxfords, Tan Elk Blucher, Cord Sole & Heel, A Lot of Wear, Only $2.48.

 

Tennis Shoes, Boy’s Servus, $2.48 per pair.  Men’s Goodrich Tennis Shoes, pair $2.75.

 

Zimmerman Brothers Clothing, Shoes, Work Clothes                       

•••••••••

Silver Dome Ballroom – Dance, Saturday Nite, July 14, Music by Jerry Opelt & His orchestra, former Jerry Lipka Band;

 

Dance to “Howie Sturtz Orchestra” Sat. July 28;

 

Wed., Aug. 1, will be Silver Dome Waltz Night to “Moldren’s Accordion Band,” Cash Prizes for the 3 Best Waltzing Couples!                                                                                                         

•••••••••

Marriage Licenses:

 

Jean Zingsheim, Fairchild, and Robert Kutchera, Town of Mentor to be married in the Town of Mentor on July 14

 

 Milton John Knack, Clintonville, and Joan Elizabeth Meyer, Waupaca County, to be married at Loyal July 14.

•••••••••

If you see a number of cars parked outside a home in the Withee-Owen area any Saturday night, the chances are that the visitors haven’t come to celebrate a wedding or watch television.  They’ve come to take a bath.

 

It isn’t that there’s a shortage of bathtubs in this region settled predominantly by Finns.  It’s true that tubs aren’t commonly found in the homes of the area but the people don’t really miss them.  To a real Finnlander a bath is almost a ritual, and to be done right it has to be taken in a genuine “sauna” or bath house, with steam sizzling off hot stones until it drives the occupants out the door.

 

The Finns brought the “sauna” with them from the old country where the custom evidently originated some time before historians began to set such things down for posterity.

 

The genuine “sauna” is nothing more than a small house that in many instances might be mistaken for a woodshed if it weren’t for a small chimney protruding from the roof.  When the Withee section was first settled by large numbers of people of Finnish extraction these little houses were found on almost every farm.

 

These days they are often being put to other uses than the one for which they were originally constructed.  However, many of the old farmers, as they retired and moved to Withee and Owen, brought the “sauna” with them.  To them it was and is a more integral part of the home than a garage.

 

Not all persons who are “sauna” advocates have the space or money to construct one, however, so it’s common to find “bath guests” at the homes so equipped on the traditional Saturday night.

 

Just what is it like in a “sauna,” and what happens inside them on Saturday night?  We wondered.  So recently The Press went to Withee to find out.

 

One of the finest “saunas” in the Withee area is owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Rosenquist, a retired farm couple.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Rosenquist came originally from Finland.  They settled in Michigan for a time after coming to this country and then moved to a farm just north of Owen where they lived for 36 years.  They have lived in retirement in Withee for about two and one-half years.  Never, they say smilingly, have they lived anywhere without their “sauna” handy.

 

During the years they were on the farm they had a real old-country bathhouse.  The house had an open fireplace in which stones were heated.  When the stones were almost red hot, water was dashed on them to make steam for the bath.

 

For obvious reasons such a bathhouse is called a “smoke sauna.”  The occupants were smoked as well as steamed.

 

“By the time we moved, the walls and ceilings were smoked black,” Mrs. Rosenquist relates.

 

The “sauna” that Mr. Rosenquist built when he retired to Withee has the typical two rooms, one to undress in and one to bathe in, and the usual three tiers of benches on which the bathers sit in the steam room.

 

However, the new house has a refinement often found in Finnish settlements these days.  The heat from the stones comes from a cast-iron, pot-bellied stove with a chimney to conduct the smoke out of the room.

 

The stones are piled in a tub built around the top of the stove.  Large stones are place in the bottom of this tub and gradually smaller ones are place on top until the ones on the very top are the size of eggs or somewhat larger.

 

A wood fire is built in the stove on late Satruday afternoon.  When the stones are completely heated, a process which takes anywhere from one to several hours in “sauna,” depending upon the heating equipment and the temperature outside, the bathers strip in the outside room and go into the steam room to take their places on the benches.

 

Once the bathers are in the steam room one of them takes a dipper and splashed water from a pail or drum near the stove over the heated stones.  This procedure is repeated until the occupants are unable to bear any more heat.

 

At the beginning of this steaming process, it is the custom for the bathers to flail each other heartily with switches, which are soaked in a tub of water between bathing’s.  This is to stimulate the circulation and aid in the cleaning.

 

The Rosenquist’s have substituted a brush for the switches.  Another refinement over the old country custom is the use of soap.

 

Mr. Rosenquist pointed out that the stove in the “sauna” was heated at the time we visited him.  He dashed a dipper of water on the stones and watched the steam rise.

 

“If you want to see what it’s really like, why don’t you try it?” he offered.  Time was short, and we demurred with regrets.

 

An outdoor “sauna” such as the Rosenquist’s is no longer a common sight in Withee.

 

(At present, one wonders if any of these types of “saunas” may be found within the state.  DZ)

•••••••••

Now - Get Your Oil Stove, from $9.39 and up, at Russell’s Hardware.

•••••••••

Specially Priced! 2 Lots of Dresses – Pinafores, Without Jackets Some Ruffle-Trimmed, with Button-down backs, some Zipper fronts, Percale, Prints, Chambray – Were $3.19, Now, $1.98; 

 

Sunbacks, with Jackets, Prints, Chambrays, Waffle Cloth, Sizes 14,18-20, Values - $5.95, now $2.98; At McCain’s in Neillsville                                                                                                

•••••••••

Cattle rustlers are active in central Wisconsin, according to reports reaching Sheriff Dobes from adjoining counties.  He is running down one situation in this county, which may involve rustling.  An animal is missing.

 

Sheriff Dobes warns farmers to look closely after their stock and to keep an eye on trucks that stop along the road.

•••••••••

A pay raise of five cents an hour was granted to city employees by the Neillsville City Council at its Tuesday evening meeting.  The pay raise is retroactive to July 1.

 

An arterial stop at the corner of S. Court Street and First Street was adopted.

•••••••••

July 1951!  The private utility industry will observe Rural Electrification Week starting August 25.  According to industry spokesmen it marks the completion of Rural Electrification in America.

 

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