HISTORICAL DATES AT EIDSVOLD

 

A portion of Eidsvold in 1906.

 

1880 The railroad came through Eidsvold Nov. 18, 1890 EIDSVOLD EPITOME - “Hallo - Hallo” the telephone line between this place and Thorp was completed.

Jan. 28, 1899 Fire destroyed the Nye, Lusk and Hudson mill at Eidsvold. The fire was caused by the explosion of a large lamp in the boiler room at about two o’clock Thursday morning. The loss being about $15,000. Flames soon spread all over the mill and efforts to extinguish the fire were of no avail. The loss is partially covered by insurance. The mill will be rebuilt as the company has plenty of timber adjoining the mill and over one million feet of logs on hand in the mill yard at the present time that were not damaged by the fire.

 

Feb. 25, 1899 The C. M & St. P. Road will build their road to Stanley in the spring.

 

Mar. 11, 1899 Active operations have begun at Eidsvold Nye, Lusk and Hudson in the erection of their new saw mill.

 

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Mar 18, 1899 Nye, Lusk and Hudson are doing much to advertise lands in the towns of Worden and Reseberg May 13, 1899 Nye, Ludsk and Hudson’ss new mill at Eidsvold is being started this week, and will soon be running at full blast. It is a modern mill in every respect and will be of much benefit to the whole community. The mill is fitted with 10-inch band saws and an edger of the newest kind. The mill is equipped throughout with the finest machinery for making the finest kind of lumber. The main part of the mill is 40 X 100 - the same size as the one destroyed by fire recently.

 

July 28, 1900 On Sunday the new church erected in Eidsvold will celebrate with appropriate ceremonies. The Rev. Hoyme, president of the U. L. C. will be in charge wit Rev. Granskou. A special train will run from Eau Claire and will reach Stanley at 9:40 so that all who have no other means of conveyance can go by train for the small sum of fifteen cents.

 

Sept. 1, 1900 Prof Barber is teaching the Eidsvold School.

 

July 5, 1902 Rural route No. 2 with Alonzo Ruscher as carrier was started from the Stanley post office on Tuesday. This route lies all within Clark County and takes in Eidsvold.

 

Sept. 13, 1902 The Northwestern Lumber Company has brought down the last of their timber on the Eau Claire river. The raw material will be exhausted as far as the Eau Claire river and further supplies must come by rail. This was the last year for the log drive on the North Fork of the Eau Claire River through Eidsvold.

 

Jan. 14, 1905 The Hotel DeBaxter at Eidsvold is running to the full extent of its capacity.

 

March 29, 1905 The Eidsvold people are rejoicing to think that they are to have a new post office.

 

July 15, 1905 The patrons of R. F. D. No. 3 will be pleased to learn that the Town Board of the town of Thorp will finish the road from Martelo Warner’s to the city limits, assuring them of receiving their mail, this is the east-west road north of Eidsvold.

 

Nov. 17, 1906 Irvin Boardman has purchased the Barrett Bros. General Store at Eidsvold and the Barretts have moved to Thorp.

 

Dec. 20, 1906 As a result of a meeting of farmers held at Hans Anderson’s on December 7, a cheese factory will be erected by Wm. Ferro, at Christianson’s corner one mile west of Eidsvold in the near future.

 

May 2, 1907 Jerome Foster, who resides near Eidsvold, was a caller here on Thursday last. Mr. Foster is 77 years of age and as a Civil War veteran will profit by the recent Act of Congress passed to ex-soldiers over 75 years of age the sum of $20.00 per month. Mr. Foster draws but $12.00 now.

May 23, 1908 The only merchant in Eidsvold will close out his stock of merchandise starting Monday. The building he occupies leaks so badly that he finds it impossible to continue in that location.

 

June 20, 1908 Ervin Boardman, the Eidsvold merchant who has been selling out his merchandise at cost, has changed his mind about moving west and will remain here. He purchased the George Eaton property and will continue the mercantile business at that place.

 

July 18, 1908 Ervin Boardman has closed a deal for the Eaton place in Eidsvold. Mr. Boardman will now finish the store building he started some time ago.

 

Oct. 30, 1908 Wm. Soderberg has gone into camp north of here where he will put in logs for the Chippewa S. & R. Company.

 

Nov. 14, 1908 A new Presbyterian Church at Eidsvold is one of the probabilities in the near future. Members of Rev. Amy’s congregation at that place took action regarding the matter.

 

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Dec. 12, 1908 The passenger trains now stop on Tuesday and Fridays at Eidsvold to pick up cream.

 

June 8, 1911 Erve Boardman has purchased a new International motor buggy and the way Erve gets around in it is not slow.

 

Sept. 14, 1911 Al Craig is preparing to move the town hall on to its new foundation.

 

Oct. 19, 1911 When Eidsvold opened its eyes on Friday morning she found the river had overflowed its banks, and had floated shingle bolts, logs, hay, corn, pumpkins and all kinds of driftwood down the river. Part of the dam and some of the fences were washed out.

 

April 26, 1912 A wreck on the railroad at Eidsvold occurred at an early hour on Friday last, sixteen box and flat cars being piled up. The track was cleared about ten o’clock the same evening by two wrecking outfits. Most of the cars were loaded with coal.

 

July 20, 1912 E. J. Wood, broom maker of Eidsvold, turns out eighteen brooms a day with his hand machinery, and finds it difficult to keep up with his orders.

 

Dec. 10, 1914 All things come to them who wait and so Eidsvold has a depot after thirty years of waiting. Of course, it’s rather small but we’re thankful for small favors.

 

Dec. 17, 1914 Eidsvold - now that we have such a nice depot - Mr. Meyers ships his cheese from here.

 

July 15, 1915 Al Craig from Thorp has the job of raising the old school house and putting a wall under it.

 

March 3, 1916 Lodge No. 466 Mystic Workers of Eidsvold will give a grand masked ball at Story’s Hall, March 3, with music by Fasers Orchestra.

 

Oct. 20, 1933 Hester Ann Jerard, who could boast of the largest family of direct descendants of any person in the Stanley country, died Thursday at her home on Second Avenue, at the age of 89 years. Surviving are one daughter, fourteen grandchildren, fifty great grandchildren, fourteen great, great grandchildren. She and her late husband came to the Stanley country in 1882 and settled on a farm southwest of Eidsvold which is now know as the Wagner farm. She moved to Stanley in 1914, where she had since resided. Funeral services were held on Sunday afternoon from the Methodist Church, Rev Floyd Fahlgren officiating with internment in the Eidsvold cemetery.

 

Nov. 30, 1933 Walter Bratz has sold his cheese factory and store to Charles Flunker of Colby and they have taken possession. Miss Vilus Haas and Raymond Gadke are still employed there.

 

Hilda and James Clark

P. O. Box 32

Maple Plain, Minnesota 55359

AND SO IT WAS -------

 

There was a tendency among the oldtimers to talk much about how wonderful everything was in the old country. One settler had come from Saxony and longed for a trip back. So the family raised onions for a whole season…….a whole railcar full which netted $100. He journeyed there and back but never said another word about this German Shangrila.

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Then there was a family who came from the interior of Poland. In a land of having to obtain a permit or passport at almost every stop, or a bribe to an official it was cheaper to slip someone a small sum and during the wee hours of the night have him row you and the family and whatever you could carry across the river which was at the time the border. Of course, you were set down in the poorest part of town which, in that case, was the Jewish ghetto. Can you picture an 11 year old boy stumbling around at that hour, more asleep than awake. And so he stumbled into some pans of semmel a Jewish bakery lady had set outside on the ground to raise. I can still see him imitating the irate lady and how she raged at him and so must always remember when I eat hard rolls.

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Grandma Schneider told how prolific the wild berry crop was and how the settlers had no way of preserving the bountiful crop.

 

She also told about one family who were clearing their land and day after day had left a small baby tied into a high chair alone in the loghouse. Whether the baby had a touch of rickets or if it was the result of this too early sitting, the child’s spine became deformed so severely that she spent most of her seventy-some years in a wheelchair, so bent that she hardly resembles a human being. Her mind was keen……what a price to pay….and so needless.

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Our country churches are disappearing one by one. There is something nostalgic about these churches and it hurts to see the abandoned ones in some instances being used for storage of grain and hay. Those that remain have flocks that stick together when many times it would be easier to join a church in town now that transportation is no longer a problem bit keeping a pastor is. Always, the country churchyard nearby with the dates and styles of markers show the span of years.

I have a favorite one west of Neillsville where I have so many times eaten my lunch in the shade of the trees and enjoyed the peace and quiet, and maybe sketched for awhile. My sister who lives in Jefferson County tells of one elderly lady, now widowed, and living away from the country church where she had been baptized and confirmed, still attends faithfully and regularly though she has to hire someone to rake her there. In getting there she passes several churches of the same denomination…..but she promised at her confirmation to be faithful to her church and so she is.

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One night at one of our Dale Carnegie classes one of the older men told of a childhood happening that tickled my funny bone no end. This must have been a good 70 years ago. The family lived some distance from town and a trip there and back took some time. Relatives were coming to visit and so Ma and Pa hitched up the team and drove to the depot to meet the train. Later after supper his two sisters, aged about 12 and 14 couldn’t stand it any longer and asked their mother if she hadn’t noticed…they had cleaned up the house while she was gone -- to her surprise and had even put fresh straw in the straw ticks in the beds. Whereupon Ma got wild and they spent the rest of the evening in the pig yard with a lantern looking for the $1500 which was their life savings. However he never did tell me if they found it.

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The old time German men were martinets. They would not milk cows -- this was woman’s work. It is told of one oldtimer whose wife was sick abed and so he brought the cow into the log house and she milked it there.

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One family was blessed with no less than eight sons and no daughters. All the boys had to learn to knit and darn their own mittens and socks. Pa said Ma had enough to do without those chores.

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And we must not forget one old neighbor, one whose wife No. 1 had died in childbirth leaving several small children. Wife No. 2 had babies at regular intervals with Pa acting as midwife. He magnanimously insisted she spend nine full days in bed after each birth BUT on the tenth day vacation was over and she was up and about early and milked a dozen cows and cleaned the barn. This grand old gal, probably due to survival of the fittest, lived to the ripe old age of 85 years. This farmer owned the first car in the area and every other year put it up on blocks for the whole summer to give it a rest!

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Another oldtimer, loudmouthed and lazy, beat up his wife regularly as a matter of custom and thrived on hot peppers and booze. She was a good hearted but simple sort of woman who did all the heavy work, kept her mouth shut and faithfully played Florence Nightingale to her husband’s hangovers. Since they had no children she made pets of all the farm animals and chickens. The latter roamed the house at will. When I was a little kid my father bought a three month old pig from them. We drove there with a horse and buggy and had taken along a gunny sack for the pig. Somehow or other four miles later we arrived home with the pig sitting on the seat between us. This at the time seemed real natural to me though I admit my mother was a bit shook.

 

One time when we were at their house, she showed us “the nice little prune kettle” that she had bought at the Abbotsford Hardware Store. It turned out to be a child’s potty. And in all our family ever after the tiny potty was known as the “prune kettle”!

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Many small towns boasted an “Opera House”…..why so named is not clear. Ours had a large stage curtain with a hand painted scene from Julius Caesar - the ET TU BRUTIS scene. Among the Roman senators at the left of the scene, if one looked carefully, was one senator without a head. This was not an oversight. The curtain had been painted by a local man who had to leave his fatherland PDQ after he had participated in a duel. He had been a professional artist in the old country but settler life being what it was here, he turned to house painting to make a living. He was a strange, restless man, artist by nature, house painter by vocation, and Free Thinker by way of religion. Anyway he tried to solve his mental torment by committing suicide, this just before the curtain was completed.

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Robbed of all his personal effects, money and his ticket to Texas as he lay seriously ill of ship fever, my father, then only eighteen, arrived at Ellis Island in 1879 with nothing but a strong desire to get away from the old country and make a start here. The railroads were in the midst of a price war, one could ride from New York to Chicago for one dollar. Incidentally the Interstate Commerce Commission was to come out of this dispute. Being from Germany, speaking only German, Germantown near Milwaukee, seemed a good place to go. After a year there as a farm hand he was able to make a down payment on land in Clark County. On his arrival in Dorchester, on asking for directions on how to get to his land he was told to follow the creek going southwest for two and a half miles, then a trail going west about a mile and he would find a surveyor’s corner post of his 80 acres of woods. There were no roads.

 

The clearing of the land was a tedious backbreaking job. With a team of borrowed oxen and a block and tackle, pine trees (those under two feet in diameter were considered worthless) were anchored to the bottom of the center tree and all pulled together, tipped toward the center. Then the big piles were burned, roots and all. This did away with the stump removal problem.

 

During the time of the Cleveland era depression, times were very bad. My father’s family were down and out. It was a large family, nine children and my grandfather had died of pneumonia the first winter they had lived here. He was the first grave in the Dorchester cemetery. My father wrote a letter to his oldest sister who had remained in New York asking for a loan to tide them over. He walked the four miles to town - to Dorchester-, with several dozen eggs to trade for supplies and asked for enough change to but a stamp for his letter. The storekeeper told him he was not able to pay cash for eggs so he walked home again with the unmailed letter in his pocket.

 

Elsie Bremer

111 West Spruce

Abbotsford, Wisconsin

THE OLD STUMP PULLER

 

In the spring of 1918 my parents, Joseph and Hulda Poertner and four teenage children settled on wild land in Clark County in the township of Hewett. This land at one time had big timber growing on it, which had been logged off leaving large stumps.

 

George Poertner on the Stump Puller

Taken southwest of Columbia

 

My father purchased a stump puller (see picture) at a farm auction near Humbird. As soon as the winter snow was gone my Father and we children stated to clear land. After cutting trees and brush and burning the same - we proceeded to pull the stumps with the stump puller.

 

This stump puller consisted of a large cast iron spool which was mounted on a heavy swivel plate with a 25 foot long pole or “reach” as it was called. This was attached to the steel plate. This reach was the means by which a one-inch thick steel cable approximately 100 feet long was wound onto the spool.

 

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At the far end of the reach we hooked the singletree and the horse. At the end of the steel cable was a heavy metal hook.

 

The platform with the stump puller attached was pulled with a team of horses to an area among the stumps. It was anchored in place with four heavy crow bars driven into the ground deep enough to clear the cable and for staying power. There was a low-down cable attached to the platform which was anchored to a tree or stump opposite from the one to be pulled out.

 

After we set up, my Father looked over the stump to be pulled and made the decision where to dig away the sod and dirt making it clear for placing the large metal hook onto a strong root. One of my brothers stood by with an axe readied to cut the roots at the far ends when needful.

 

When the hook was in place I then led the horse round and round in a circle, the diameter was approximately 40 feet. We continued to go round and round , winding the cable onto the spool thereby causing a pull on the hook which would lift the stump out of the ground.

 

Many times there was a slippage by the hook which caused a catch or “dog” as it was called - to drop into a cog slot and this would check the slack in the cable. This “dog” would prevent a sudden jolt which could cause breakage to the single tree or the harness on the horse. There could also be a strong enough jolt to unbalance the horse also.

 

This may sound to be dull work and unexciting, but I will attempt to tell you of a day which was very exciting and nerve wracking.

 

One day after about two hours of leading the horse round and round the circle and perhaps the accomplishment of one or two stumps pulled out - we were working on a good sized oak stump. The cable had a very strong pull on it, so much as to cause a bow in the reach. At times such as this we all grew tense thinking of the danger if something were to break -- and snap it did!

 

The heavy chain pull broke the single tree and tore the pull chains loose, leaving the horse loose from the reach.

 

The speed of the pull back by the cable on the reach was so great it prevented the “dog” from falling into the cog slot. The reach swung around in the opposite direction at a tremendous speed.

 

At the snap of the single tree the alert horse jumped outward from the sweep of the reach lifting me with the bridle to safety.

 

I estimate the reach to have missed the horse’s legs by an inch or two. I was thrown to the outer side of the horse by its quick lunge. If the reach were to have hit the horse and me, we could have suffered broken legs or maybe worse. This is one time when sensitivity or just plain “horse sense” prevented an accident.

 

Ruby Yndogliato

Route 3

Neillsville, Wisconsin

WILD FLOWERS

 

Wild flowers grow almost everywhere, in woods, fields, deserts, mountains, along roadsides and streams.

 

Woodland flowers thrive on soil rich in humus which is formed by rotting leaves and wood. Many woodland flowers bloom in early spring and cannot stand bright sunlight.

 

The most common wild spring flowers in this area are bloodroots, spring beauties, trilliums, adder’s tongue and hepatica, which as children, we called “Mayflowers.”

 

Some of my most cherished memories are the walks to school on beautiful sunny days of early spring. The road climbed a long hill and passed through tall hardwood trees, a perfect place to search for the first flowers of spring.

 

What a thrill it was to find a deep lavender or exotic pink Mayflower. The paler colors or white flowers were never quite as exciting to pick, and we vied with one another to see who could pick the greatest number of the most beautiful shades. It seemed the different shades had fragrances all their own.

 

We gathered bouquets, or they would more aptly be described as fistfuls by the teacher who was the recipient of these offerings.

 

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After school we would pick more flowers to present to our mothers upon our return home. They were exclaimed over, and dutifully put in water, most likely a jelly glass for lack of a vase.

 

During the month of May our little bouquets were most often placed on the “May altar” usually a small table in a corner with a statue of the Virgin Mary on it. Our church dedicates the month of May to her honor. Fresh flowers and candles are kept here and we children welcomed the opportunity to bring flowers to honor the Mother of Jesus.

 

Later in spring, after the earlier flowers had faded, the shy violets would begin to poke their heads through the grass. Occasionally we would find a highly prized yellow or white blossom, but the most common was the purple variety. Here again, we searched to find the largest blossoms and the deepest shades.

 

Later again, came the marsh marigolds, the cowslips and buttercups. These grew in swampy areas, and wet feet were the order of the day if we wished to pick a bouquet of these. We carefully tried stepping on the small hummocks poking up through the water so we wouldn’t get our shoes wet, but inevitably we would slip, resigning ourselves to a scolding when we reached home.

 

A patch of cowslips on a bright blue day is a dazzling sight and well worth waiting for during the long cold days of winter.

 

Blue flag, the best known wild iris, also grows in swampy areas and it seems like the dragon flies hovering over their tall stalks are always part of the scene.

 

The wild geranium, the shape of its petals resembling apple blossoms, is also found in the shady woods later in the summer. Its pink blossoms were gathered and speedily taken home to be placed in water as they wilted so easily. Their beautiful fragrance lingers in my memory.

 

Wild roses grew profusely along the roadside and we admired their beauty as we trudged in search of wild berried growing in the fence row. Many unsuccessful attempts were made to transplant these in the garden. These we avoided picking because of the prickly thorns. They also wilted so quickly after picking.

 

Fall brought its share of flowers too, but somehow, none captured my fancy as much as the earlier blooms.

 

Purple wild aster and goldenrod, the bane of the hay fever sufferers, grew in wild abundance along the wayside, signaling the end of the lazy summer, bringing to mind the school bell would soon be calling us back to class.

Wild flowers are becoming more scarce, but I am happy they still grow in my memories.

 

Mrs. Frank (Rose) Pakiz

Route

Greenwood, Wisconsin 54437

RAISING RUTABAGAS

 

There were no silos on Finn farms in northern Clark County in the teens of 1900, so farmers raised rutabagas. This juicy root crop was grown by the ton to provide palatable nutrition in addition to hay. Virgin soil and a perfect climate produced sweet, meaty ‘bagas as large as a man’s head.

 

It took the labor of the whole family to produce the crop. After father prepared the acres of seedbed and marked out the rows, mother and father and the older children planted the tiny, pinhead-sized seeds with a salt shaker - one shake a foot apart. Later, Dad bought a hand-pushed seeder that went a little faster.

 

When the pants had sprouted, they had to be thinned by hand to leave only the strongest two or three to develop. This is where even we preschoolers came in handy. We crawled on hands and knees up and down the endless rows.

 

Our knees got sore and overalls dirty, especially after a rain. There were rewards - the feeling of all working together, the long talks to sisters and mother as we moved up the rows, and the lunch basket that went along for a mid-morning snack. We had no thermos. Mother filled a quart jar and set in a Quaker Oats box that was lined with newspaper with only room for the jar. The milk or coffee stayed hot or cold better than in the open.

 

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