Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

March 26, 1997, Page 20, Section B

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Good Old Days

 

By Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News, 1867

 

Clark County’s first township was Pine Valley, and it had the first rural schools on the Pleasant Ridge area.  Edward Huckstead was town treasurer in the 1860’s.

 

March 1860 records revealed a total of $54.37 received from the town treasurer for schools.  Of that amount, county tax was $6, and district tax was $48.37.  Amounts paid out on orders of the district clerk were as follows: 1-teacher, $13.20; 4 order endorsement for building $34.27; 5-teacher $12.50.  $12.50 was received from the Town Supervisor; State appropriation, $12.50 teacher’s wages.

 

School Records for 1863

 

Receipts listed were: James O’Neill, County Treasurer, for sale of certificate $2.79; H. Counsell, Town Treasurer, $33.39; Frederick Younce, Town Treasurer, District School money $20.10; James O’Neill for sale of certificates $9;  Town  Treasurer County School money $10.44.  Some expenditure was: Electra Brooks, teacher’s wages of $47 for the term; James Furlong, $2 for printing district orders; Geo. Hildrith, teacher’s wages, $41.50.

 

District No. 1, listed $300 as the cost of building a school house in 1876.  Thomas Reed loaned the amount of money and starting on October 15th an entry disclosed the first payment of $54 being made to Reed with 28 more payments following.  The remaining debt was paid in amounts of $5, $10, $20 from October 1876 through July 1877.  Reed’s financial help to the school district may have been the reason for the school being referred to as “The Reed School.”

 

Clark County News, 1937

 

Rural electrification took a long step forward at an all-day and evening meeting at Loyal when the Clark Electric Co-operative was officially organized.  Forty men, representing the area to be served by the largest electric cooperative in the state, met with the signers of the articles of incorporation of the REA cooperative and proceeded with the business necessary to get this project under way.  The articles of incorporation were recently signed by Herman Blair, Ed Luchterhand, Wallace Landry, Milton Page, and Theodore Humpke, all Clark County men.

 

Representatives of the newly formed golf club corporation, which is buying the Hawthorne Hill’s Country Club, appeared before the city council Tuesday night to request the donation of $500 from the recreational fund to assist them in completing the transaction.  As an inducement to the city, the aldermen were informed that the golf course would be opened to children free of cost six mornings a week where young people could learn and play golf under the supervision of a professional.

 

Francis Welsh, who was the first to address the council, stated that the golf course was being purchased at a cost of $5,300 and between 34 and 35 $100 shares had been sold up to date.  He asserted the group was having difficulty in raising the balance, but the deal could be put over with a $500 “lift” from the city.  He pointed out that the course would have to be abandoned unless help is received immediately and declared it was an asset of great value to the city.  Art Russell, who told the council he never played golf, said he favored the project.

 

Other speakers were Everett Skroch, secretary of the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Wm. Campman.  They emphasized the importance of preserving the course as a matter of civic pride and value. 

 

A special meeting of the council has been called for tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. at which the question of whether the money is to be contributed will be settled.

 

(The Club Corporation changed the golf course’s name after its purchase.)

 

Probability is that Neillsville will be forced to build a sewage disposal plant this year was brought to the attention of the city council when it was pointed out that the State Board of Health has criticized the present method of running sewage into O’Neill Creek.

 

Similar activities are being directed against other cities in the general move to do away with stream pollution in the state.

 

An ordinance regulating the travel of tractors on city streets was passed by the city council on Tuesday night.

 

The city council also passed an ordinance requiring all bicycle riders in the city to be licensed and will be provided regulations similar to those governing automobile traffic.

 

Horses are making a comeback on area farms.  Spring seeding begins, and more horses will be seen on Wisconsin fields than in any year since 1931.  Old Dobbin on the family farm is staging a comeback.

 

After years of declining horse numbers following World War I, the horse population in the State has again been increasing since 1934 when the low point was reached.  This year there are about 531,000 horses on Wisconsin farms which is an increase over last year.

 

Following the war, the demand for horses declined and prices were too low to encourage colt raising.  Fewer and fewer horses were raised and as the older animals died the Wisconsin horse population declined, reaching its lowest point in 1934.

 

The depression taught us something about the value of horses for farm work.  Now the demand for horses is strong and the average price is reported at $140 a head.  Wisconsin farmers are raising more colts as well as buying a large number of animals from other states.  Last year the state imported 32,000 horses.

 

There will be a marble shooting tournament in Clark County which has been proven to be a popular event with the number of entries coming in.  County superintendent, Laurence Millard, is in charge of the event and has scheduled three elimination contests at Owen, Greenwood and Neillsville.

 

The winner of the Clark County contest will go to La Crosse for the district meet and the winner of that meet will receive a trip to the state-wide meet at Milwaukee.

 

F. D. Calway won the supervisor-ship of Neillsville’s second ward by the flip of a coin on Tuesday night.  H. J. Naedler and Calway had a tie vote of 105 at the April 6 election and who would be alderman was settled before the council when Wm. Hemp tossed the coin after Mayor Fred Stelloh had assigned “heads” to Naedler and “tails” to Calway.

 

The parsonage at the Mapleworks Zion Lutheran Church near Granton was discovered to be on fire Monday, and would have been destroyed had it not been for the prompt and efficient work of the Granton Fire Department.

 

Leland Davis’s application for the privilege of running Uncle Tom’s cabin, soft drink stand at the Hewett and West Sixth Streets corner was denied by the city council.  The officials decided the stand would be too much of a hindrance to traffic.

 

The Clark County Conservation league has constructed a trout “hatchery” at Greenwood near the Joe Brown property where 5,000 baby trout will be placed about May 1.  Water from a large spring flows into a 7 by 9 ft. cypress tempering tank, from which it passes to three tanks 18 by 4 ft. inside a building.  It is said the trout will be 7 to 8 inches by fall.

 

April 4th marks the Fourth anniversary of the Civilian Conservation Corps Officers, Technical Staff and Enrollees of Company 655, Camp Arbutus Lake S-52. (Wis.)  Relatives and friends are invited to join them in observing the anniversary.

 

Observation will be nation-wide with appropriate ceremonies; and the members of this camp are asking the public to attend the exercises.

 

The six mid-week Lenten services at St. John’s Lutheran congregation yielded over one hundred dollars for missions.  Every Wednesday evening filled the church to capacity.  The communion services on Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week was attended by the largest number in the history of its 50 years of existence, a total of 383.  The church proved too small for the English Easter services at 9:30 a.m.

 

The Al’Aboard Lunch, which has been making a number of improvements lately, last week installed several new tables along the north side of the car.  The work was done by Art Kunze and is a fine addition to the restaurant (The Al’Aboard was a train railroad passenger car remodeled into a restaurant, set-up on the south side of the Legion Hall).

 

Circa 1890’s view of the lumber sheds located between the railroad tracks and O’Neill Creek, west of Grand Avenue.  A portion of the creek bridge abutment is visible on the right-hand edge of the photo.

 

An O’Neill Creek scene captured form the Grand Avenue Bridge, looking east, with the Wolff-Korman wagon factory and Grist mill in the background. 

 

 


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