Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

February 27, 2019, Page 9  

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled and Contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

February 1929

 

The slightly warmer weather on Monday helped the log-haulers considerably, the loaded sleighs running more easily than in the extremely cold weather. The logs from up-river came in better and also from Levis and Pine Valley camps, with Geo. Beeckler and Ed Zank making good records.

•••••••••

Last Sunday afternoon, an Open House was held at the Masonic Temple, at which time the building was open to the public. A great many people availed themselves of the opportunity to inspect the new building, and the reception committee was kept busy all afternoon taking visitors all through the edifice. The Masons are very proud of their new home and were pleased with the hearty response to their invitation to the public.

 

(The Masonic Temple building, located on the southwest corner of Hewett and West Fourth Streets intersection, has been remodeled and is now owned and occupied by Hillside Community Church. DZ)

 

The Masonic Temple as it appeared shortly after its construction was completed in February 1929. Neillsville’s Masons were a unit of the Freemasonry lodge. Some years ago, the remaining Neillsville Masonic Lodge members sold the building, which is now home of the Hillside Community Church, corner of West 4th and Hewett Streets. 

               

•••••••••

Last week, a fine addition was made at the W.J. Marsh Co. Store when a stairway was cut leading into the upper story of the building and which was formerly home of the Masonic Temple. The stairway leads up into a large room on the second floor to be used as a display and sales room for curtains, draperies, floor coverings, etc. The additional room relieves the congestion on the lower floor and gives the Marsh Company the needed space it has required for the curtain department.                              

•••••••••

The building formerly known as the Delane Hotel on Fifth Street, owned by Chas. And Linwood Shaw, is being rewired and remodeled on the first floor to accommodate the Neillsville Auto Sales Co.

•••••••••

C.B. Dresden’s team and sleigh with Jerome Shaw as driver, gave the first-and-second-graders of the North Side School and their teacher, Miss Eva Woodbury, a sleigh ride Friday afternoon. All seemed to enjoy the treat immensely.                                                                                   

•••••••••

Ben Stucki went to Madison Monday, taking with him blue prints and plans for the Indian School annex, which will be built next summer. At Madison, Balch and Lippert, the architects, and the Board will again go over the plans and some possible revisions will be made.                        

•••••••••

Dr. Kagey, employed by the Federal Government to do dental work for the Indians, spent some time here last week attending to the teeth of the pupils in  the Indian School. From here he went to Wittenberg to do work for the children in the Indian School there, Dr. Kagey’s wife was with him.

•••••••••

Edward Black, a progressive young businessman of Eau Claire and Durand, dropped into Ladysmith one day recently, driving his shiny DeSota sedan. Sheriff E. Wilson was so enamored over the appearance of the new car that he could not resist examining it. He found a quantity of what purports to be first-class whiskey, 118 pint bottles to be exact, and 13 gallons of alcohol. Realizing that the young man with so valuable a cargo and such a nice new car should not be required to seek further for accommodations, the sheriff extended to Mr. Black the hospitality of his home and insisted that he at least spend the night with him. The sheriff even placed the new car in his garage and has offered to take care of it for some time.

 

(The Prohibition was on during that time, a time when there was a great amount of “bootlegging,” selling illegal homemade brew that was peddled around the state’s communities in various ways. DZ)  

•••••••••

Won’t be long now. Jack Kearns has been tending to business faithfully all winter long having laid up a stack of extra days against the time when he can lug his golf cart around the back forty. He figured if he stuck around the store all winter and gained a lot of credit marks, that this summer he could sneak out the back way and he wouldn’t be missed. Jack is one of those “dyed in the wool” golf hounds.

 

Golf is the simplest looking game in the world when you decide to take it up, and the toughest after you have been at ten or twelve years. The idea is to get the golf ball from a given point into each of the “ nine cups” on the “greens” in the fewest strokes and the greatest number of words.

 

The ball must not be thrown, pushed, or carried. It must be propelled by a few hundred dollars-worth of curious looking implements, especially designed to provoke the owner.

 

After two rounds of nine holes each, and the final hole, the golfer adds up his strokes and stops counting when he reaches 79, then calls it the end of a perfect day.                            

•••••••••

Burleigh Grimes arrived Saturday noon from his home in Ohio, for a couple of days visit at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nick Grimes, who live in Owen. Burleigh is the ace of the pitching staff of the Pittsburgh Pirate baseball team. He left Monday noon for Chicago where he will join the Pittsburgh team in their training trip to California.                                                                               

 

February 1954

 

The Zimmerman name, one of the oldest in the city’s retailing line, passed from the main street of Neillsville last weekend with the sale of Zimmerman Bros. men’s clothing store.

 

The purchasers are Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Gustman and Mr. and Mrs. A.E. (Cully) Gustman. They have taken possession and are operating the store under the name of Gustman Bros.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Gustman long have been residents of Neillsville. The Cully Gustmans are former residents of the city, and have returned here from St. Louis, Mo.             

•••••••••

Floyd Short is back home on Pleasant Ridge.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Short, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Short and family, Mr. and Mrs. Dale Short and family, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Short were Sunday supper guests of Mr. and Mrs. Lavern Gaier. The family reunion was in honor of Floyd’s discharge and return from the service. Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Gaier and family of Marshfield also were guests.                                                                                          

•••••••••

New! Fordson Major Diesel Tractor at Sensational Low Price! $2,985.

Never Before a Value Like This in the 3-4 Plow Tractor Class!

+Extra Lugging Power + More hours of operation between overhauls + Six Speeds Forward

+ Two reverse speeds + Built-in Hydraulic system

+ Three-point linkage for rear attached equipment + Easy starts in cold weather,12-volt starter.

Now on Display at Svetlik Motor Co. Phone 52 – Neillsville.

•••••••••

Possibly the one man who has had the most to do with the old Dells Dam Bridge over the Black River, now to be torn down, is Guy Schultz, chairman of the Town of Levis.

 

He helped erect it in 1918. He has looked out on it every day from his farmhouse nearby. And he presided at the Levis town board meeting when the sale to Phillips of Eau Claire was arranged.

 

The bridge was erected in 1918 at a cost of exactly $6,666.66. Where all those sixes came from is anybody’s guess; but it’s a cinch, in Mr. Schultz’s language that the Elkhart (Indiana) Bridge and Iron Co., its builder, lost their shirt on this job.

 

The reason, according to Mr. Schultz, was that the bids were received in 1916. And before the bridge could be built the United States entered into World War I against Germany. That move tied up steel production in the nation, and there was no steel for a bridge at Dells Dam.

 

In the meantime, the price of steel zoomed, and the cost of labor increased. So, when 1918 came, and the erection of the Dells Dam Bridge was completed the Elkhart Bridge & Iron Co., had substantial reason to regret its monotonous-sounding bid price.

 

By the way of coincidence, World War II and subsequent channeling of steel production also delayed the building of the new highway 95 bridge, upstream a few hundred feet from the old iron overhead trestle bridge.

 

The od Dells Dam Bridge was erected to replace a previous bridge, which “went out on top of an ice jam,” Mr. Schultz recalls. For over two years those who wanted to cross the stream either had to ford at a place where the Indians cleared boulders and rocks for a narrow strip, or go to the Six Mile, or Lynch Bridge several miles upstream.

 

The erection of the Dells Dam Bridge required about three months, with 10 men working on the project, Mr. Schultz recalls. Most of the work was done by hand tools. The only motorized equipment was a gas-driven cement mixer. The big, heavy superstructure was raised over false-work by use “of a traveler,” hand winch and a triple block and line.

 

(In this day and age, you may still be able to find a creek or river, with a ford.

 

When I was a youngster, I remember being able to wade across the James River that had a raised bed of rocks set into the river bed that provided a wide path from one riverbank to the other. It was believed that some early settlers, or an Indian tribe had placed the rocks there for a ford to enable easier crossing for them in the days before bridges. We had found a former Indian camping area with a circle-shaped two-foot high flat-topped mound about 25 feet in diameter and other signs of their having lived nearby.

 

Mom and I would occasionally fish the river. It was fun to walk in my bare feet through the few inches of water that ran over the ford, carrying a cane pole while Mom carried a can of worms and her cane pole. A few cottonwood trees, on the other side of the river, provided shade while we fished. DZ)  

•••••••••

Quality Chicks, National Reputation – Honegger Leghorns

Gaier’s U.S. Approved White Leghorns, White Rocks, New Hampshire Reds, Ames In-Cross Hybrids.

Order your Chicks Now!

Gaier’s Hatchery, Located One Block West Of the First National Bank, Neillsville, Wis.

•••••••••

Quality dairy products are available to the householder through daily deliver from the Neillsville Dairy.

 

Deliverymen for the dairy carry many of the items housewives want in planning their meals, such as good cheese, cottage cheese, butter, as well as milk and chocolate and orange drinks. These items are regularly stocked for the routes and are always available.

 

Or, just go into Quicker’s Dairy Bar, get their top quality ice cream from the upright freezer, or select the milk, chocolate or orange drink, cheese, sundae topping, crackers or cookies you desire.

 

Phone the Neillsville Dairy today for daily home delivery service.

•••••••••

Military Ball, Formal or Informal, Saturday, Feb. 20,

Music by Ertz Steiger, & His Band.

Silver Dome Ballroom.

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Langreck of Neillsville announce the engagement of their daughter, Joan, to Dale Fitzmaurice, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Fitzmaurice of Humbird, who is serving aboard the USS Strembel. Plans for the wedding are indefinite.                                                      

•••••••••

Educators of Neillsville paid tribute last week to Supt. Donald E. Peters and John W. Perkins, agricultural instructor, who this year are completing 25 years of service in the local school system. 

 

A dinner honoring the couple was given at Weber’s Fireplace and was attended by members of the Board of Education, employees of the school system, and a few others who have been closely connected with the schools in the 25 years the two men have spent here.

 

 Mrs. Otto Zaeske acted as toastmistress and called on Kenneth Olson, president of the board. Mr. Olson presented each with a gift from the board; and Ivan Lauscher, principal of the high school, presented gifts to them from their co-workers. Frank Brown, a member of the school board at the time Mr. Peters and Mr. Perkins were hired, also spoke.

 

Miss Daphne Beeckler gave two appropriate readings; Earl Ruedy reminisced about several amusing experiences of the faculty members; and Scott Hunsberger sang the solo, “Without a Song.” Mr. Peters and Mr. Perkins each responded with short talks.

 

The rest of the evening was spent playing cards.                          

•••••••••

Sixty people attended the Blue and Gold Banquet of Loyal’s Cub Scout pack No. 49 in the municipal building Saturday evening. The Rev. O.W. Schantz is Cub Master, and also has charge of one den. Each den put on a skit for entertainment. Mrs. Neil Johnston and Mrs. M.W. Erickson are den mothers.

 

The following badges were awarded: John Theisen and Lynn Paulson, each a wolf badge and one gold and one silver arrow; Claude Paszek, bear badge and one gold and three silver arrows; Thomas Loos, a lion badge and one gold arrow; Marlin Fravert, a lion badge and one gold arrow. Those receiving Webelos badges, the highest award in Cub Scouting were, Tommy Brussow, Bill Erickson, Bob Gotter and Craig Johnston.

 

Bobcat awards went to, Ronnie Beaver, Franklyn Catlin, Elmer Clouse, Tommy Clouse, Victor Dahl, Raymond Degenhardt, Jerry Harms, David Helms, Lynn Paulson, James Pipkorn, Jerry Preller, Joseph Favreau and Ronald Radke.

 

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