Clark County Press, Neillsville,

April 28, 2004, Page 14

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

April 1909

 

A surprise party at Richard Mundt’s home, at Chili, was held on Saturday night.  The party was well attended and a fun time was had by all.  Dancing was the order of the evening with fine music furnished by Mr. Kidd and some grand selections from Mr. Hothkiss’ (Hotchkiss’) new talking machine.  A good lunch was served at midnight.  The crowd went home in the wee small hours of the morning, feeling happy that they had been there.

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John Charles has traded 80 acres of his land to H. M. Root, taking the Boullion home, in Neillsville, in part payment.

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Seven room house for sale; 1 ½ acres of land, barn, chicken house, woodshed, good well and cistern, sewer and city water connections.  Inquire at the newspaper office.

••••••••••

Night Marshal Wedding reports that since March 29, he has given lodging to 43 different unfortunate ones in the fire department house.  These people did not have the price to pay for a bed at the hotels.  Wedding has made 15 disorderly conduct arrests.

••••••••••

In Neillsville, Charles Cornelius has material on the grounds for a fine residence and will start work soon.  If it progresses satisfactorily and he finds that he can have the work promptly and properly done, Mr. Cornelius will keep right on, building a solid brick business block on the corner he recently purchased from Paul Walk.  Mr. Cornelius is already having the corner cleared of the small buildings.  He will have the barber shop building moved p to the site of his new residence to be used as a warehouse while building there.  The proposed business block will be for the most part solid brick, with two stories and a basement.  It will be 51 feet wide on Hewett Street side and 71 feet on the West Fifth Street side.

 

There will doubtless be other building in the way of new structures and remodeling around the city.  Wm. Swan has some material on hand and may build a new house on his lot at the south end of Court Street.

 

In Pine Valley: Wm. Naedler will build an addition to his barn; M. Palmer and John Carlson will build silos; John Charles will build a new house and Wm. Buddenhagen, a large barn.

 

At Dells Dam: A. Schlender is putting up quite a large building for a branch store and other smaller buildings will go up.  Wm. Rath, two miles east of Dells Dam will build a new house; J. Neubecker on Rock Creek, a new barn; Martin Wesloski, a house and barn.

 

At Columbia: there are several new houses being built, such as those of F. Bonhoff (Bohnhoff), Wm. Schultz, F. R. Babcock, and Mr. Gibson.  Additions will be made on the homes of J. A. Iverson, H. Sweetland, F. Moser, C. T. Winston, J. J. Twanley and A. Schlender.

 

New houses are to be built by T. F. Lee, E. A. Soles, Fred Handtke, Sherman Davis and George Ivers, in the East York and West Fremont area.  Barn basements and additions will be made in the area by C. H. Ide, W. D. Rose, W. P. Budge, Henry Lawson, M. Dorst, Norman Kidd and George Ives.

 

In Washburn: a solid brick Union Church will be built at the Cannonville Corners, John Machel will build a new brick house and Lester Tilton will build a large dairy barn and a horse barn on his farm known as the Lowry place in Levis.

 

In the Town of Grant: Fred Riedel, Philip Breseman and Herman Schlinsog will build barn basements.

 

In the Town of Lynn: Henry Sternitzky will build an addition to his basement barn; Max Opelt an addition on his house; E. F. Brooks, put a galvanized roof on his barn; John Altenberg and August Gotter will build barns; Peter Jenson, a frame house and Wm. Reisner, a concrete house.

enry

••••••••••

Charles Decker has his International Automobile buggy on the track the last few days and operates it nicely.  It is an automobile of the high wheel type and has made a great record for going through bad roads of any kind.

 

James Phillips has bought one of the famous Reo automobiles and it is a beauty.  This auto is one of those from the carload brought in by Len Howard and Gilbert Johnson.

••••••••••

The old O’Neill barn has been bought by E. E. Crocker and is being torn down.  It is one of the oldest buildings in Neillsville.  In 1858, a man named Murray, who was working for Jas. O’Neill, Senator, took the job of moving the barn.  It had stood near the site of the present O’Neill House, near where the barn now stands.  E. M. Holden, Billy Ferguson and Geo. W. McAdams were hired to help him.  They cut four long straight elm trees, trimmed, or flattened them off for a sort of track, made rollers out of small round logs, got the “bull rope” out of the saw mill and constructed a “whimsy,” a sort of capstan.  The four men pulled, moving the barn by hand, back to where it now stands.

 

April 1954

 

Six young Clark County men left here, by bus, on April 8 and were inducted into the Army at Minneapolis: Ronald J. Hoeser, Loyal; Rudolph J. Jordan, Willard; Richard G. Schofield, Spencer; Neil W. Seefeld, Spencer; Charles E. Gutowski, Thorp; Edwin T. Przybylski, Thorp.

••••••••••

A flash fire completely destroyed the “Phillips 66” station Wednesday evening at Humbird.  George Staves, proprietor, and Andy Johnson were taken to the Krohn Clinic immediately to be treated for burns received in the fire.

••••••••••

A deal of no little interest in Neillsville is the purchase of the old Schuster home by Howard Mattson, of the staff of the Neillsville Bank.  Mr. Mattson will occupy the residence as his home.

 

Since the death of Mr. and Mrs. Schuster, Mrs. Edna Newell had continued to occupy the large house as her residence.  Mrs. Newell is a niece of the late Mrs. Schuster and had lived with the Schusters for years.  She was a life beneficiary under Mrs. Schuster’s will.  Since the sale of the property, Mrs. Newell has been living in one of the apartments in the Zimmerman building, in the business section.

 

The Schuster home is one of the older residences of Neillsville, built upon the spacious and rambling lines of the older day.  It was full of the good, solid furniture of another era, with a brass bed, for instance, which had so much solid brass in it that it was difficult to lift or to move around.  Mrs. Newell helped herself to such of this furniture as she could use in her new home, but she could use only a small part of it.  Under Mrs. Schuster’s will, she was entitled to take whatever furnishings she wanted.

 

The chief concerns of Mrs. Schuster, in making her will, was to see to it that Mrs. Newell was cared for up to the limit of the resources of her estate.  Hence, she made specific bequests to others of only $1,000 in an estate of a little more than $20,000.  There was a direct and specific bequest to Mrs. Newell of $2,000, and all of the rest of the estate, except the $3,000 in specific bequests, which was set up as a trust fund, with William A. Campman named as trustee.  Campman was given the duty of using the trust fund in Mrs. Newell’s interest, even if the fund were exhausted in caring for her.  The residue after Mrs. Newell’s death goes to distant relatives of Mrs. Schuster.

 

For a man who had lived long and worked steadily in business, J. F. Schuster left a relatively small estate.  As a business man he was definitely old-style, some of his business customs running back to the lumber days.  He was brought up to annual settlements, a plan whereby the old-timers got together once a year, or less frequently, produced their accounts of what they had and came to a settlement.  Mostly, these settlements were between friends and to them it did not matter if they were off a little, more or less.  They could give and take.  As the years passed it irked Mr. Schuster to encounter the modern quick-trigger young fellow, who wanted statements every month and who expected to be paid monthly, too.

 

Mr. Schuster was not the kind of man to profit by the old-style ways. His accumulation of wealth was in forms other than money.  For instance, there was the good feeling that he had over the park which he gave to the city of Neillsville and which bears his name.  He assembled this tract more than 30 years ago, gathering it up parcel by parcel.  Part of it, he got by buying tax deeds; part by paying owners what the market required and deeded it to the city, for park use.  The land is now worth many times what it cost 30 years ago.  It speaks for the foresight and business skill of a man who understood real estate and knew how to assemble small parcels of little value into one large parcel of very great value.  The Schusters adopted the companion of their home and the people of Neillsville, which makes them out as skillful business people.

••••••••••

May 12, which is National Hospital Day, has been chosen as the day to organize Memorial Hospital’s Ladies Auxiliary.  All women in the area to be served by Memorial Hospital, Neillsville, are eligible for membership.

 

“Other communities that are fortunate enough to have hospitals report that the hospital auxiliary is one of their town’s most poplar organizations,” says Mrs. J. W. Kearns, who is helping with the organization, “and the individual members find that the duties of the hospital auxiliary are the most personally rewarding civic work they have ever undertaken.  Without exception, they report on the unselfishness and devotion the members apply to their work.  The auxiliary can be most helpful and with the diversified program of a hospital auxiliary, each woman finds the committee on which she can do her best work.”

 

Harold Applin, the hospital administrator, will address the group, outlining the aims and purposes of the women’s organization.  He has had considerable experience with auxiliaries and feels very strongly that t hospital is not complete without an auxiliary.

 

The organization meeting will be held at the Neillsville High School assembly room, May 12, at 8 o’clock in the evening.  Charter members will then be registered.

••••••••••

The George Zuehlke (Zuelke), Sr., home, about two miles west of Loyal on Highway 98, was struck by lightning at 4:40 a.m. Saturday during a severe electrical storm.

 

The chimney was knocked off the house.  Bricks, plaster, insulation and soot were scattered about the room in which George, Jr., had been sleeping.  Two holes were made in the ceiling of his room.  Flues were blown from the chimney with furnace soot covering the kitchen and basement.

••••••••••

With two exceptions, the administrative and teaching staff of the Thorp Public Schools will be unchanged next school year.  N. E. Qualle, the supervising principal and all of his associates except Mr. Haldy and Mr. Hirzy, have renewed their contracts.  Both William Haldy and Ferdinand Hirzy were offered contracts, like the others, but they have made, or are making, other plans.  Mr. Haldy will go to Rhinelander as assistant coach.  The plans of Mr. Hirzy are not fully settled.

 

For Mr. Qualle, the coming year will be the 26th year of his service in the Thorp Schools.

 

Four teaching positions are yet to be filled, those vacated by Haldy and Hirzy and two places opened by the completion of the new school building.  The new places are physical education for girls and kindergarten.  Kindergarten was suspended during the construction, but was reopened April 23, then being housed in the new addition.

 

The teaching staff, under Mr. Qualle, consists of the following: Dale Amundson, science and assistant coach; Roy H. Brede, music; Robert J. Boehm, manual arts; Joseph A. Gaffney, mathematics; Jos. F. Korpal, commercial; Ardis Mae Olson, home economics; Mrs. Gertrude Swanson, English; Roy A. Swanson, agriculture; Bernard A. Wenninger, English and speech; William R. Witzig, social science; Mrs. Louis Misfeldt, grades 1 and 2; Mrs. Selma O. McKenzie, grades 3 and 4; Mrs. Hazel C. Roesler, grades 5 and 6; Mrs. Edna O. Milligan, grades 7 and 8.

••••••••••

Scott Hunsberger as bandmaster in the Neillsville High School inhabits the band room under the roof of the South Side School.  Hunsberger has turned to account the fact that he is nearer heaven than any other teacher in the local system.  In his lofty eminence, he has opportunity to spook around the neighboring attic and there he has recently been gazing upon the names of many students, who wrote them down with the dates of 1898, 1899 and 1900.

 

An old-time relic, which dates itself, is the theme of a debate, which took place May 14, 1900, between the seniors and juniors.  The theme was “Resolved that the Boers were justified in going to war with the English.”  The junior won, eight to six.

••••••••••

People looking for a good meal and a wary eye on their pocketbooks would do well to stop in at the Roadside Café, where Mrs. Regina Gaier is in charge.

 

Most people from around here know from experience of the expertise of Mrs. Gaier in things culinary.  If they don’t, they know of her reputation as a good cook.

 

With an eye towards those who tremble at the sound of some of the dinner prices they’ve run across, Mrs. Gaier has devised several special plates.  They incorporate all the fine foods ordinarily found on regular dinners that run more expensive; but they are reasonably priced.

 

For instance, there is the pork chop special at but $1.00; the lobster tail special at $1.35 per plate and the sirloin steak special at $1.50.

 

These special plates are found to be about right for those who do not feel up to eating everything that goes with the larger regular dinners.

 

The Roadside Café, which is located at the head of Hewett Street, where highways 10-73 and 95 meet, is a popular place for a noon-day luncheon because of its handiness, its fast service and its reasonable prices.

•••••••••••

 

 

The Charles Cornelius house, southwest corner of Clay and Second Streets, was built in 1909.  Fine, complimentary furnishings were chosen for the home’s spacious rooms, matching the interior’s dark mahogany varnished woodwork.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Lowe’s family collection)

 

 


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