Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI, September 25, 2019 Page 10

In the Cassville items of the Bloomington Record, shown to The Press by H.J. Brooks, is being published as an old diary of Wm. Pollock, for the year 1852. In it is mentioned the cholera epidemic in which many people died. Cassville is on the Mississippi River and that winter mail was carried from St. Paul by teams traveling on the river’s ice; there was steamboat service in summer. In the diary, prices on some grocery items are published: coffee, 4 cents a pound, sugar 6-1/2 cents, salt $1.80 a sack.

(Cassville is located between Prairie du Chien and East Dubuque, IL, which is quite a distance from St. Paul.

Diaries reveal who our ancestors were as people, like no other documents can do. They reveal plenty of genealogy information that otherwise would be lost. During the history of the United States, many people kept diaries, more than are realized. The custom of keeping a daily journal, a diary, was quite common in the 1800s and early 1900s. I have a friend in her late 90s who has through the years and yet today written in a diary.

While in high school, I received a five-year diary book as a gift. As I was reading through the diary recently, the written notes brought memories of my family and the high school years with my former classmates and teachers.

One humorous incident, written in my junior year, when our principal, Mrs. Wodarz, asked me to go outside where the junior boys were gathered and tell them to come to her office at once during that noon hour, as she wanted to talk to them. Having previously visited with some of the junior girls, she had learned that they didn’t have escorts for the junior prom. When the boys came into Mrs. Wodarz’s office, she gave them a stern talking-to, telling them that they had better get busy, as prom was only two weeks away, so they had to choose and ask a girl to be their date to the prom now, as the time needed for the girls to prepare to go to prom would soon be running out. DZ)

When Earl Wood was weighing some sheep, he had bought one day last week, one of them jumped through the gate at the scales and escaped up Grand Avenue. For several days it has been around the Joe Frei farm, but is so fleet-footed, it can’t be caught.

Although the weather has been very dry, Ferd Kopp of South Pine Valley has been picking some fine strawberries from his ever-bearing plants. Mr. Kopp raises some of the finest strawberries on the market, having fair success with the late variety.

Sherman Gress is hustling to get his building moving business cleaned up before cold weather sets in. Last week, he moved several silos near Chili, which is a job requiring considerable care. He now has the contract to move the Presbyterian Church, known as Rutga’s Chapel, on the Twenty-six Road to the farm of A.F. Manning, who will remodel it for a residence; he also has a building to move on Mr. Hook’s farm, which is rented by Alfred Oldham, and several other jobs in sight.

Jack Kearns’ new well and automatic electric pump, which supplies his drug store and the apartments above with water is now in operation. A turn of the faucet starts the pump and fresh water flows at high pressure. Closing of the faucet shuts off the power to the pump. The well water is used in making soda water served at the fountain in the store.

Hereafter if you find a black bear romping on your lawn, your only recourse is to “shoo” him away or let him romp, no more shooting of black bear in Wisconsin, as a recent law passed by the Legislature places bears on the protected list the year round along with moose and elk.

W.J. Marsh has installed a new steam furnace and oil burner in his store and will tear out the old brick hot air furnace, which has been doing duty in the store for nearly forty years. The old furnace was built by O.P. Wells, in which only wood was burned. For many years, Mr. Marsh said he bought four-foot wood at $3.75 a cord and ten cords were sufficient to keep the store in fuel through the winter season.

The 280 employees of the J.B. Inderrieden Canning Company who were treated to ice cream by Sheriff William Bradford, Saturday afternoon, which was the last day of the canning season. The party was held in the canning factory.

Friday forenoon just as the 11:13 passenger train came in sight, a girl who was taking the train discovered that she had forgotten her hat. On telling her troubles to Bert Dresden he jumped into his taxi, leaving orders at the depot that the train must be held until his return, and sped away. He had to go to East Ninth Street, but before the engine had hardly quit puffing Bert was back with the hat and cancelled his order for holding the train.

Richard Hemp, Irving Gerhardt and Lawrence Junchen went to River Falls last week to try out in the football squad at the State Teachers College, which opened this week Monday. Richard came home for the weekend, the other boys remaining to enter as freshmen.

Clark County is still on the western frontier where the homesteaders gather free farms from Uncle Sam, unless it should be that Bill Stockwell has picked the last homestead in the country. On September 7, Herbert Hoover, President of the United States, issued a deed or “patent” of Lot 1, Section 23, Pine Valley, to Arthur Raymond Stockwell, which is Bill’s real name; Bill being the name by which he does his everyday work but Arthur Raymond is the way he is now recorded in the archives of the United States land office, and in that which he holds title to his new possession.

Lot 1 is a rocky point of land on the Black River about opposite Ross Eddy and contains an acre more or less. It adjoins Bill’s other farm and is somewhat necessary adjunct to it, as it makes a convenient landing place when he crosses the river either by boat in summer or on the ice in winter. For years this little lot was supposed to be a part of the Ross Eddy farm and has been passed on by deed many times when that farm was sold, but some years ago it was discovered that it was still government land and the only way to get title to it was under the homestead law. It was of no value to anyone except to Bill or Mrs. Evans and she did not think its value wanted the expense and trouble of entry; thus, Bill comes in possession. By a little extra fencing he can include the lot in his pasture, and so in a measure, get some returns on his investment.

If it could be reforested and trimmed up picturesquely, it would be a nice place for a summer cottage. Who knows what years may bring forth?

When the pupils enter the new Neillsville High School this fall, some of them may look for the old home base, but they won’t find it.

Neillsville’s new high school is fresh without the old home base. You may hunt from one end to the other of this large building, something like a quarter of a mile, more or less, and you won’t find a single desk like the home base.

The old assembly room, too, is gone, and there is nothing exactly like it in the new building. When the kids gather for a first session, they will not go to an assembly room, where a faculty member will sit in front of them, with eye open upon their presence or their absence, upon their doings and misdoings. As a single group, they will not be together once all day, and as a unit they will not see Mr. Lauscher all day or be seen by him. He will be in an office or a classroom, and they will be scattered around in various places. The old days of the high school as one big family, with its members joining in a united morning session, have gone with the horse and buggy.

Miss Ruby Mohr, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mohr, Neillsville, and Harry Ambelang, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Ambelang, Neillsville R. 2 repeated their marriage vows Saturday September 4, at 2:30 p.m. at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, with the Rev. Albert Schewe performing the double ring ceremony.

Beatrice Mohr, sister of the bride, was her maid of honor and Dorothy Mohr, another sister and Mrs.

The groom was attended by Harold Mohr, brother of the bride, as bestman, Ernest Mohr and William Erpenbach, both of Neillsville, ushered.

Alaina Mohr and Donna Mohr, as flower girls wore dresses identical to those worn by the bridesmaids.

Following the ceremony, a reception was held in the St. John’s School for approximately 102 guests.

The district convention of the American Legion to be held in Neillsville Saturday and Sunday, September 25 and 26 opens at 1 p.m. Saturday with registration. Highlights are: “40et8” promenade at 4 p.m. Saturday; banquet at the Legion Hall at 7 p.m., followed by a dance at 9 p.m.; memorial service at 11 a.m. Sunday; Seventh district parade at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

(During World War I American troops were transferred to the battlefront on French trains within boxcars stenciled with a “40/8,” denoting its capacity to hold either 40 men or eight horses.

In March 1920 at an American Legion meeting in Philadelphia, 15 prominent Legionnaires originated the idea of “The Forty and Eight.” They envisioned a new and different level of elite membership and camaraderie for the leaders of the American Legion. The “40et8” box car of French railways, so familiar to the American ground troops of World War I , was chosen to be symbolic heart of the new organization being formed. DZ)

Those of you who like bustling activity and excitement will be in their glory if they’re in Neillsville come the last week of September and the first days of October.

First, on Sept. 25 and 26 comes the district American Legion convention, with all the fanfare and floss that attends the gathering of Legionnaires, and a big American Legion parade.

On Sunday afternoon, Sept. 26., The Midwestern Horsemen’s Association will conduct a horse show on the fairgrounds here, under the sponsorship of the service company of the 128th Infantry, Wisconsin National Guard.

These events will be followed by the first annual Dairy Festival, now projected to be a three-day event, from Sept. 30 thru Oct. 2. Headliners in this big all-out kickoff to a statewide Dairy Festival, will be such notables as Gov. Walter J. Kohler, who will be here Thursday afternoon to crown the Dairy Queen; Gordon Ruhl, head of the American Dairy Association of Wisconsin; Congressman Lester R. Johnson, representative of the 9th Congressional District; and Alice-in-Dairyland.

Friday Oct. 1, the Dairy Festival, will be joined in the annual Homecoming of Neillsville High School with the annual Homecoming parade, the football game and the Homecoming dance.

Coincident with the dairy festival will be open house at Memorial Hospital. Doors of this new and vital institution will be thrown open so that all coming to the city can visit and see what a well-equipped, modern hospital has been created to serve the needs of the whole area.

Members of the class of 1954 of Wood County Normal had a reunion at Rib Hill, Wausau, Sunday. The reunion was a celebration of their first paychecks as teachers. Miss Luella Henninger accompanied Miss Lila Sternitzky and Miss Loraine Bender of Granton to the reunion.

Half a century looked down upon the group, which gathered at the Union Church at Granton last Sunday evening. The half-century had a voice, too, in the person of Mrs. R.E. Winn. She told of the labors of the women, who, through the years, have carried on the work of the Ladies Circle. It was this organization, which 50 years ago was responsible largely for the impetus behind the construction of the Union Church building.

The occasion was formal acknowledgement of the gift by the Ladies Circle of the church building. The gift was made to the trustees of the Granton Methodist congregation. The formal thanks of that organization was expressed by Horace Hack for the board of trustees.

Milk haulers of the city will stage a “Milk Haulers’ Hop” in the American Legion Hall, Thursday, Sept. 30, as part of the three-day Dairy Festival here in Neillsville.

The “hop” or dance will be free to all persons. The expense of the shindig will be shouldered by the milk haulers who have engaged “Freddie Maeder and der Schweitzer’s,” as the band.

The old Neillsville Armory and opera House, built in 1882 on the northwest corner of Court and E. 4th streets, was intended to be both a military and social center for the area in its early days. The yearly Military Ball on Washington’s birthday was the highlight of the season. Ladies came dressed in their finest attire, and their gentlemen wee in high-button shoes, celluloid shirt collars, suits and curled, waxed mustaches, arriving in gleaming carriages drawn by high-stepping horses.

(That building remains on the site, now being occupied by an auto body repair shop. DZ)

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