November 1906

On Monday, a black bear, which had been shot in the town of Washburn, was brought into the city, and sold to Tom Lowe for $45.  Frank McPherson fired the fatal shot, though we are informed that several others were involved in the hunt.  The carcass weighed 255 pounds.                                                                    

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A considerable shipment of young trout from the government hatchery, obtained through Congressman J. J. Esch, arrived at Merrillan on Wednesday, and were then place in that area’s neighboring streams.  H. E. Richard, Dr. Moore, and Oscar Richard were the recipients.                                                                        

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R. R. Boullion made a successful dusk-hunting trip to the Mississippi River bottoms, first of the week.  He brought home a dozen fine mallards.                                                                              

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Tuesday, the front of the water reservoir of Geo. Trogner’s kitchen range burst.  This being connected with the water pipes; the water ran through the stove flooding the kitchen floor with ashes and water until Mrs. Trogner succeeded in turning off the water.                                                                                                   

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Up in the northeast part of the Town of York, in Dist. No. 4, is a new schoolhouse, nearly completed, which we presume is the finest country schoolhouse in Clark County, in fact it is probable there are but few better in the state.  It is built for two departments both on the ground floor, has a modern system of heating, and ventilation, and is entirely modern in all respects.  It is a credit to that neighborhood, which is one of the most progressive in our acquaintance.

(That rural school was known as the Romadka School, which was located along CTH H, two -and-one-half miles east of the CTH H & K intersection. DZ)                                                                      

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Emery Bruley has designed an ornament resembling an acorn for the top of his steel fence posts to be used at gates and along places where ornaments are desired.

(Emery Bruley had a patent on steel fencing, with that fencing being sold throughout the state. DZ)

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John Arquette, proprietor of the Home Knitting Company of Marshfield, has decided to move to Neillsville, and we understand will occupy H. J. Brooks’ building opposite the Merchants Hotel.

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A large party of hunters has gone into the woods a few miles north of Withee.  Among those in the party were Jim Connor, J. H. Harris of Elkhorn, W. L. Smith, and M. C. Ring of Neillsville, and L. O. Garrison, and Dr. T. McKittrick of Thorp.  These nimrods expect to bag a lot of game within the next two weeks.

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A story comes to us from the wilderness that Dick Townsend captured a deer in a most marvelous manner.  The report is that Dick shot the deer in the hip breaking a bone.  Dick dropped his gun and pursued the deer until he succeeded in catching it by the ears, hanging on like a puppy to a gingham apron hung on a clothes line, until the deer dropped dead from exhaustion.

We tell the tale as ‘twas told to us.  It may, or may not, be as the case was told.

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The new schoolhouse at Granton, built of concrete, is a fine appearing building and a credit to the town.  It is the first public building of its kind in the county and if it stands the test it is quite probable that concrete will be used more and more in this locality.                                                                                       

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Thanksgiving Dinner at Merchant’s Hotel

Menu: Cream of Tomato Soup, Olives, Celery, Cheese, Fillet of White Fish, Potatoes Mignon, Prime Roast Beef, Deme Glare, Goose, Sage Dressing, Escalloped Oysters, Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potatoes, Green Peas, Hubbard Squash, Celery Salad, Mincemeat or Apple and Pumpkin Pie, Caramel Ice Cream, Assorted Cakes, Coffee, Tea, and Milk.

(Potatoes Mignon were potatoes peeled, cut in length strips, covered with melted shortening, then baked, sometimes with added sliced onions.  Deme Glare was a rich, brown sauce made from beef roast drippings, cooked down. DZ)

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William Dux died at his home in this city Nov. 17, 1906, after an illness of five weeks.  His age was 38 years, and his place of birth was Germany.  In 1893, he was married and the same year came to America.  Since coming to Neillsville he has worked in the furniture factory besides taking care of his greenhouse. He was a man of good morals, very industrious, and a good citizen in every way.  His death is a particularly sad one, as he leaves with his widow seven small children.  The funeral took place at the Lutheran Church.  Rev. Brandt officiating. 

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Ashes from the business portion of the city will be gathered and taken away Saturday morning, Dec. 1, and each Saturday morning thereafter.  Ashes, must not be set out in wooden pails or boxes, and no rubbish can be mixed with the ashes, or it will not be hauled away.  John Stannard, Fire Warden

(At that time, the large wood-burning stoves used to heat the big business buildings, produced a lot of ashes, which the fires warden didn’t want scattered along the streets or near buildings due to smoldering coals. DZ)

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Dr. Maxwell, the veterinarian offers for sale his driving mare.  She is one of the best roadsters in this vicinity; stylish, handsome, and all right in every way.  She can beat twelve miles an hour, and keeps up the pace.  This is a chance for a good driver.                                                                                                          

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The only Farmers’ Institute to be held in Clark County this winter is to be held at Bright in the Town of Green Grove, Jan. 17 and 18.

Notice by W. C. Bradly, Conductor                                                             

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Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Counsell are moving from their farm on Pleasant Ridge into the city, occupying the house they recently bought from John Burr.  Their daughter, Mrs. Nettie Short and children, will live with them.

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South Pine Valley News:

The skimming station near the Prince of Peace Church, and the Levis Creamery have shut down for the winter, which brings their milk to the Day Creamery Co.  The Levis Cheese Co., is putting in a winter’s supply of cheese boxes.

There will be entertainment at the Dells Dam Church on Thanksgiving Day, and at the Prince of Peace Church in the evening.

November 1961

A public open house of the new Pine View School, newest of the buildings in the School District will be held Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4 o’clock. 

The school is located seven miles southwest of Neillsville on Highway 95, and was completed just in time for school opening this fall at a cost of $45,628.69.

In charge of the arrangements is the Pine Valley PTA, made up of residents of the former Levis-Dewhurst school district, which was consolidated with the Neillsville School District July 1 of this year.  They plan to serve coffee, donuts, and cookies during the open house.  All residents of the area are invited.

Aiding with the members of the Levis-Dewhurst building committee, which included these members of the school district board, which functioned during the preliminaries of construction earlier this year: Mrs. Virginia Marek, Clerk; Mrs. Dorothy Kalina, treasurer, and Mrs. Permilla Opelt, director.  Other building committee members included: Marion Kluckhohn, Leon Schultz, Tony Adamec and William Neville, Jr.

The Pine View School is the first school building in Clark County to be constructed of standard prefabricated steel.  It may be one of the first in the state to employ this type of construction.  The Tesmer Construction Corporation of Neillsville was the general contractor.

Present enrollment numbers are 75 pupils from the first through the eighth grades. Mrs. Joyce Richmond has 28 in grades one to three; Mrs. Marie Henning also has 28 in grades four through six; and Mrs. Irma West, building principal, has 19 enrolled in grades seven and eight.

The building also contains a large and modern kitchen, fully equipped, where Mrs. Louis (Martha) Lautenbach, and Mrs. Ervin (Elsie) Holub preside for the school’s hot lunch program.

Custodian is Louie Lautenbach.                                                                    

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A steel bridge is being completed over Cawley Creek, west of the Uncle Sam School in the Town of Weston and should be ready for use within two weeks.

The old bridge had been condemned and the town purchased one span of a five-span bridge, which formerly was located on the back water of the Mississippi River, near Winona, Minn.

Concrete abutments were constructed during the fall.

The steel structure is now in place and the fill at each end of the bridge is all that must be done.  Travel is still being made over the old bridge.  West of the bridge are the farms of Chester Turville, Bert and Herman Schultz, William Fleischmann, and land owned by Arthur Norman.                                                          

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A crude, hand-painted Swastika on a square piece of white cloth was removed from the radio tower at the Northern States Power Company building last Wednesday afternoon. 

The flag had been tied at the 90-foot level of the antenna tower.  Clarence “Bud” Bremer ascended the tower about 4:30 p.m. to haul the old-time symbol of Nazi Germany down from the place it had flown since last Sunday night.

On one corner of the flag, in smaller print were these words: “Forgive them, God, for they know not what they do.”

The Swastika, presumably was put up as a Halloween prank; but to many who say it, and remembered what it stood for, it was no joke.  Particularly was it humorless for the men of the northern States Power Company, who realize better than any, how serious it could have been had someone fallen from the 90-foot tower level, or “frozen” there with fear.

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The old blacksmith shop at Dells Dam, which has been in operation 41 years, will be closed about Thanksgiving Day.  Donald Hagie, who has operated the shop for the last few years, has accepted a position as blacksmith and maintenance man at Winnebago State Hospital in Oshkosh.

Mr. Hagie wrote a state examination in Eau Claire, October 9, and was notified last week that he had scored number one in the state.  He was interviewed in Oshkosh last week, and accepted the position.  He will start work there November 30.  His wife, Jo, and children Bruce, 10, and Sandra five, will accompany him.

The old Dells Dam smithy building was built in 1904 for a cheese factory.  In 1920, the late Floyd Hagie, father of Don, opened it as a blacksmith shop.  During the early years, most of the work was in shoeing horses and repairing wagons.

Don took apprenticeship from 1947 to 1951, and was granted a license.

“In recent years,” said Don, “there has been no horseshoe work to do.  The horse has just about been eliminated from the farm by tractors.  But, with the various mechanical equipment on the farm there has always been plenty of repair work to do.”

Mr. Hagie was employed several years as a substitute rural mail carrier and in the Neillsville post office as a temporary clerk-carrier.  He decided to make welding and blacksmithing a life profession, and has since 1955.

The Hagie shop has been a handy place for farmers, and others as well.  With the closing of the Hagie shop, the rural blacksmith will disappear from Southern Clark County.

Many tools and much of the equipment have been sold with delivery to be made at closing time.  Hagie will keep the anvils and hammers, which he and his father used.

(During the Depression and drought years of the 1930s, I remember as a child, accompanying my dad, hauling some broken parts from a plow, cultivator, or such implement, put in the trunk of our 1925 Buick coupe, to drive to see “Black Joe” who had a smithy shop about 20 miles north of Mitchell, SD, along Hwy 37.  He was called “Black Joe,” due to his face and clothing being black from the fired forge’s residue.  If it hadn’t been for that nearby blacksmith shop and Joe to do repair work, dad wouldn’t have been able to keep farming, as there wasn’t money to buy and replace machinery. DZ)

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A goose-plucking bee was held at the Leon Metcalf home Tuesday with several neighbors assisting.

(For the later generations who don’t know what a “plucking bee” entailed; it was a group of people getting together to help a neighboring farmer who butchered a flock of farm-raised geese that then needed to have feathers plucked from them.  They also had to remove the many pinfeathers that required using tweezers, so the geese were well cleaned for holiday marketing.

There were also “feather-stripping bees,” when friends got together to help strip goose feather, which required each feather being stripped of the hard quill that was in the center of the feather.  The feathers were then used in making feather-down filled pillows, or the lining of feather-tick quilts for winter bedding.  When kids were told to do that job on winter evenings, it seemed like a form of punishment, as it was tedious work.

However, nothing was warmer than a feather tick quilt when sleeping in an unheated upstairs bedroom with 20-degree below zero temperatures outdoors.  DZ)                                                     

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The Dells Dam Butter & Cheese Co. started business in 1904, in a building located at the southeast corner of Sherwood Road and Clark Avenue off of Hwy 95.  The 1905 Clark County census noted there were 23 creameries, and 30 cheese factories in the county at that time.  In 1920, sometime after the cheers factory went out of business, Floyd Hagie started a blacksmith shop in the vacated building.  In 1955, Floyd’s son Don took over the business, operating it there until 1961.  The building still remains on that site.

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