April 1908

Monday night a meeting of about fifty stockholders of the new Creamery Association met at the town hall to organize the Shortville Creamery.  The following officers were elected: Andrew Short, Pres., Paul Kuhn, Sec., and J. A. Short Treas.  A new churn has been ordered and business will begin about the middle of April.

A meeting was held in the city, Monday afternoon, to consider organizing a farmers’ company to purchase and operate a creamery in Neillsville.  A committee of three, O. M. Orvold, H. Bieneck and Fred Wendt were elected to get prices on both the Lange Creamery and from Mr. Andrus, so the committee, in their judgment, can determine whether the terms offered are reasonable or not.  They will then call another meeting with farmers to consider the purchase.

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Fred Reitz has moved his Tailor Shop over A. Unger’s Shoe Store, where you will find him ready at all times to take your measurements for a $4.00 pair of pants or a fine dress suit.  He will guarantee you a perfect fit and fine work.  He is also ready to clean, press and repair your clothing, make them look like new and do the work promptly.

Ladies, bring him your work and let him order you a nice suit, by one of the best tailoring concerns in Chicago.

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A contract has been entered into between James Paulus, who owned the O’Neill House, and August Schoengarth, owner of the Omaha Hotel.   They are to exchange properties.  Mr. Schoengarth will be receiver the O’Neill House with its full equipment including the barn and bus, the entire hotel establishment, with Mr. Paulus taking the Omaha Hotel together with the lots west, occupied by The Luethe Co., and a vacant lot adjourning the hotel lot on the east.

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The Ross teams went down the Black River Tuesday with loads of material for new cottages on the banks of Lake Hatfield to be erected by A.H. and Ed Holvorson.

It is reported that a car load of young bass, pike and muskellunge is to be planted in the Hatfield pond and that a large
amount of wild rice is to be sown in the sloughs and bayous to induce ducks to frequent the lake.  A good many ducks have been seen there this spring.

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Farmers, Stop and Figure: Earn three dollars per day yourself, which you are paying to the cream wagon, and haul your own cream to the nearest creamery by changing off with your neighbor.  We, the undersigned will pay for cream delivered at our skimming station or creamery as follows: for cream testing below 25 percent, we will pay the same price as for whole milk, for cream testing between 25 and 30, 1/2 cent per lb. for fat more than whole milk, and for cream testing 30 and above, 1 cent more.

 

Clark County Butter Co.

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John Wasserburger and Fred Bartell have exchanged property, Mr. Bartell taking the saloon building next to the Dresden House for his twenty-acre farm, which he bought last year from Mrs. Mary Bruley.

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The highest score given any of the twenty-four entrees in the University of Wisconsin Dairy School cheese exhibit this month was that of George J. Kust of Neillsville, who was given 96.25 for his cheddar cheese.

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Prof. H.A. Schofield has fitted up a tennis court at the park by the stand-pipe and is organizing a team of tall men, short men, fat men and lean men. He has secured about a full quota of volunteers who fill the bill.

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The Farmers Cash Store has Special Inducement Prices in Groceries for This Week Only –

 

4 lbs. good Coffee, 45¢;
4 boxes Breakfast Food, Only 25¢;
4 lbs. Evaporated Peaches, 45¢;
4 lbs. Evaporated Pears, 35¢
3 lbs. No.1 Raisins 25¢

These prices are strictly cash! We also have fine Limburger and Brick Cheese on hand.

 

We allow you 13¢ per dozen for your eggs.

 

Farmers will find the very best accommodation for their teams as we have extensive yards, large barns and many sheds all around the store building. A dollar saved is a dollar earned, which counts double at the present hard times. You can save it if you watch our “Great Bargain Prices,” which we shall announce every two weeks and make use of them.

April 1938

 

Extensive remodeling operations are under way in the former Balch building to be used for the new and larger Wagner’s Restaurant and tap room, when completed. A. C. Wagner has planned to make this one of the finest places of its kind to be found in a city the size of Neillsville. The old front has been torn down and a new front, along modernistic lines, will be built with two entrances, one for the new stairway going upstairs, with plans to later improve the rooms on that floor also. New partitions are being put in and then the entire place will be redecorated.

The plans and blue prints, prepared by Architect Kraiser of Marshfield, call for a dining room of 23 by 29 feet in size, a 
kitchen and lavatory 26 by 23 feet and a taproom at the rear, with side entrance on Sixth Street, 23 by 24 feet. The new restaurant and taproom is to be air-conditioned throughout and furnace reconditioned by Mr. Craig of the Holland Furnace Co.  Later the upstairs is to be air-conditioned, Mr. Wagner says. Albert Kalsow and Reinhold Schmidt are doing the carpenter work now under way.

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 James White, Andrew Lewis, Fred Lakosky and Attorney Hugh F. Gwin of Loyal, on behalf of businessmen of Loyal and farmers, went to Oshkosh to consult with officials of the Lakeshire Cheese Co., which closed up its large plant at Loyal last week.

Several days later, the Lakeshire officials wrote that another deal pending had not materialized and that they would be willing to sell the land on a land contract for $60,000, payable at the rate of $12,000 a year with five per cent interest on the unpaid balance.  This includes the machinery except cans and a drier. A meeting was held at the theatre at Loyal, Tuesday evening, to discuss the matter.

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There will be nine new members on the next Clark County Board as a result of the Spring Election. They are John Seif of the town of  Seif, Fred Drew of Eaton, Fred Seefeld of Unity, Art Schwarze of  Warner, Chas. Hoffman of Abbotsford, Franklin Kraut of Curtiss, Tom Polnazek of Thorp, Eino Backa and Eino I. Luoma of the city of Owen.

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The Wausau Concrete Co. had the low bid for furnishing Clark County with concrete culverts, ranging from 74¢ to $11.40 per lineal foot. The other bidders were the Fehr Works of Eau Claire and the Plautz Bros. of Willard.

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Notice – On Good Friday I would ask that places of business close from 12 to 3 p.m., in respect to the Day of Salvation.
Fred Stelloh, Mayor

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Mr. and Mrs. Harlan Bergemann and daughter have moved from Granton to Greenwood, where Mr. Bergemann is employed in the REA office. Mr. and Mrs. O.A. Peterson have moved into the house vacated by the Bergemanns. Clarence Nowak and family are now occupying the Peterson house; Arnold Garbisch and family have moved into the house vacated by the Nowaks and Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Oldham will move to the house vacated by the Garbischs.

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Cy Buker, son of Art Buker of Greenwood, has been listed as one of the first string (spring) pitchers of the University of Wisconsin baseball team, according to the team roster announced this week. Cy pitched for Greenwood in the Cloverbelt league last year and is being sought by Medford for its pitching staff this year.

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In one of the earliest baseball games ever played here, the Neillsville Flyers will open their 1938 season against the Future Farmers team of the Neillsville High School in a seven-inning practice game at the fairgrounds Monday afternoon, April 18, at 2:30 p.m.

Several who will play with the Flyers during the season are expected home for the Easter holidays to play with the team. This is the first year that a baseball team has been organized at the high school for many years. There will be no admission charge.

 

The Neillsville Flyers will hold practice at the fairground Friday evening at 6 o’clock.

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As a preliminary step toward the development of a second flowage, the Taylor County Recreational Committee, last week, authorized a survey of the Miller dam area on the Yellow River, north of Perkinstown. The first water ran over the new dam on the Mondeaux River in North Central Taylor County Tuesday, March 22. The dam, built by WPA, creates a flowage to have 25 miles of shoreline, with grass growing to the water’s edge.

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J. Leland McGinnis, a trainman for the Omaha Railroad, who is on a run through Neillsville, looks so much like the late Will Rogers that he served as a model for a statue of Rogers made by Jack Gardner of California, for the Rogers Memorial at Glendale, Calif. McGinnis is planning soon to return to Hollywood to appear in a picture of the Old West. At Present, he is on a run from Altoona to Marshfield.

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The new REA generating plant, built at Eagle Point at a cost of $705,000, is supplying current to 1,600 patrons in Buffalo, Clark, Trempealeau, Taylor and Chippewa counties. The plant is powered by three Diesel motors and has a capacity of 3,000 kilowatts and will supply 10,000 customers.

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Ominous forest fires in the vicinity of Pray and Merrillan Junction, Sunday, caused a pall of smoke to hang over quite a
territory in this section.  Bad fires also raged in Northern Clark County and Southern Taylor County.  The woods are extremely dry here as everywhere else and forest rangers are issuing special warnings for smokers and everybody else to be careful about starting forest fires, which may prove very costly.  With most of the CCC camps in this section closed, there is a lack of prompt and efficient fire fighting when a blaze brakes out in the woods area.

Over 90 fires broke out in the territory around Tomahawk and Merrill this week and several hundred elsewhere in the state.

 

Northern and Central Wisconsin forest and cut-over lands are dry as tinder in most places and it doesn’t take much to start a disastrous blaze.  Rains are badly needed to mitigate the danger of further fires and in the meantime, the utmost care should be exercised.

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Navigation opened up Friday noon on the Black River when Bob Dwyer and Snowball Meyer struck out for Hatfield via row-boat, launching their craft just below the Grand Avenue Bridge.

A large crowd of spectators gathered at the harbor to bid them farewell and then hurried to the Black River Bridge to watch them pass under, thence south to the Cunningham Bridge for a last view of the daring Holt-LaRue wave gliders.

They coped with the situation gallantly until a rock down near the Herian farm got in their way and upset the vessel, landing the pair in the icy depths of the river. Dame fortune or some such miracle chose for them one of the few spots where walking ashore was possible.

Thus the urge to cruise down stream to the lake was nipped in the bud.  Hats off to their bravery and the desire for adventure now arrested for a spell.

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The 50th wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford, last week, was a big event.  It came on Mrs. Ford’s birthday. She’s 71 and Mr. Ford is 75.  Mr. Ford cut timber from his father’s farm near Detroit, with which to build their first home.  He later found employment with the Detroit Edison Company, as an electrician at $35 a month.  While on this job he invented the first motor driven vehicle, working nights and Sundays.

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Green spruce trees, at a cost of $2 apiece, will be planted between Owen and Withee along what will be known as Memorial Boulevard.  Businessmen of Owen and Withee are to contribute $5 each and citizens $2 each.  Each tree planted will be dedicated to the memory of some soldier.

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The Press editor received the first dividend check Thursday from H.W. Krueger, receiver of the old First National Bank.  Wm. Crow really beat us but kindly passed on the honor to the editor.  The editor had money in three other closed banks and was assessed 100 per cent as a stockholder in one, but this was the first time he enjoyed the surprise of getting out 102 per cent or anywhere near it.  It was pleasant not to hear people telling how much they had lost.

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Twelve colonies of bees arrived Monday morning at the Neillsville post office from Fort Deposit, Louisiana.  The shipment was sent parcel post and was transported to the Nick Letsch home by mail carrier, Ole Aspen.

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The month of April is when the baseball season begins.  During the first half of the 1900s, every hamlet, town and village was represented by its own baseball team, each team being made up of local players.  Spectators looked forward to cheering on their hometown team, such as in the 30s when a highly contested game was played between the Chili and Neillsville teams at the fairground field.  The bleachers were filled to capacity with standing room only.   The above Neillsville baseball team played in the early 1930s. Left to right: Fritz Grap, Sr., Lefty (Albert) Zank, Walter Zank, “Dolly” Wasserberger, Bill Naedler,  “Duke” Zittelman, Free Carleton, Carl  Olsen, Armen “Stub” Gerhardt, and Dusack. (Photo courtesy of Walter Zank’s Family Collection)