Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

January 8, 2003 Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

 

Clark County News

    

January 1883

 

The people of the Longwood vicinity appeared to be in readiness to greet the holidays and have a good time. The area people succeeded in raising about $30 for the Christmas tree party, which was well attended.  There were tin whistles and earthen dolls for the small children.  N. H. Withee donated toys quite liberally.

 

A happy crowd of revelers assembled at Irish’s, where they partook of a good supper and a merry hop.

 

Despite the cold weather, a merry crowd gathered at F. J. Sheldon’s for New Year’s night.  Everyone danced until daybreak.  The guests also partook of a good oyster supper and additional refreshments.

••••••••••

Our farmer friend, J. M. Boon, of Christie, has purchased a fine span of horses from Edward Erickson, of Monroe County. Boon has started hauling lumber from Kit Durham’s mill in Weston, to the railroad station here in Neillsville.

••••••••••

News comes from Madison that the Upham Manufacturing Company, with a capital stock of $500,000, filed its articles of association with Secretary of State Timme.  The Upham place of business is to be in Marshfield. The incorporators are C. M. Upham of Shawano, W. H. Upham of Merrill, H. Wheeler and F. R. Upham of Marshfield.  The object is lumbering, merchandising and manufacturing.

••••••••••

Wm. McAdams has eloped from the Levis area to the pinewoods on the East Fork.  He has taken Lee Archer’s team of horses to haul logs for T. J. LaFlesh.

••••••••••

Dr. F. N. Phelan and Miss Lela Evans, both of Dorchester, were married at the E. H. Winchester home in the village of Dorchester.  The Justice of Peace J. J. Lansworth performed the ceremony.  A large crowd of friends wished the young couple’s union to be long and happy.

••••••••••

The 11th annual convention of the Wisconsin Dairymen’s Association will be held in the village of Elkhorn, Walworth Co., commencing Jan. 31st thru Feb. 2nd.  In connection with the convention there will be a display of butter and cheese.  Liberal premiums will be offered by the association and other businesses.  Reduced rates for those traveling to the convention will be given on railroads.  All dairymen interested in the dairy husbandry are cordially invited to attend this convention.

••••••••••

Attention is called to the advertisement of the Hatfield Stage.  The stage began running yesterday and will make close connections with trains going both ways to and from Hatfield.  The stage office is at Jaseph & Dole’s grocery store.  The knobby rig will be patronized by travelers to and from points on the F. G. W. & St. Paul railroad.  The stage will also carry express but not mail.

••••••••••

Full soon the festive Episcopalian will harmonize himself with heaven by that process of readjustment known as cold victuals.  Lent begins in about a week.

••••••••••

It has been reported that G. A. Lupient, of Dorchester, who left for the Dakota Territory, is snowed in somewhere out in the western prairie.  We would advise our friend, Lupient, with his one arm, to hire someone to dig him out and bring him back to Wisconsin where we are not subject to the horrors and terrors of the western prairie.

••••••••••

Where are the prophets, who during the open winter of 1878-79, proclaimed an end of snow in these parts?  They are probably around telling omens of a financial smash-up in the near future.

 

January 1943

 

The perpetrators of the charivari for David and Esther Parry, last Tuesday night, worked it out on a business basis.

 

The young couple, who kept their marriage a secret for nine and one-half years, was caught in a trap during the Rotary-Ann party. This is the way the payment figured:

 

Fifteen dollars for getting married and $1 for each year they were married and kept it a secret. The discordant din subsided when Parry shelled out $25 for the amusement of the noisemakers.

••••••••••

The last remaining Civil War veteran of Clark County and one of the few remaining veterans of Wisconsin was laid to rest in the Greenwood cemetery during a heavy snowstorm Sunday afternoon.

 

Funeral services for Albert Darton, 98, were held in the Methodist Church there. The church was crowded to capacity for the Masonic rites.  In spite of the snowstorm, a large procession accompanied the body to the final resting place in the Greenwood cemetery.

 

Leading the procession was the Old Glory, which belonged to the old G. A. R. post here, the post which Darton was the last member.  Thus, Sunday’s procession became the last that the flag will be used at.  Several years ago, The G. A. R. flag was turned over to the senior class for safekeeping.  Each year since that time, it has been handed down from senior class to senior class with pomp and ceremony.

 

Veterans’ organizations of Clark County were represented at the services. The County Council of the American Legion was represented by Commander Harry Roehrborn and by Adj. John M. Peterson, who serves as the Clark County service officer.  The Otto Haugen American Legion Post of Neillsville was represented by Joseph Felser and other posts also sent their representatives.

 

Darton, who died December 30, was an active and highly respected resident of Loyal.  During the later years of his life, he was known for his frequent visits to shut-ins and calls upon the ill.  His greatest enjoyment in later years was a good game of sheephead and he was considered a fine player.

 

During the years that passed since the Civil War, Darton always lamented that he lost the one chance his outfit had to see real action in that great struggle between the North and the South.  It came in the closing year of the war, when his regiment, the 45th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, defended Nashville, Tenn., from a furious attack by the Confederates under General Hood.

 

It happened that the young, adventuresome Private Darton was on furlough at the time.

 

Had it not been for a younger brother, Darton might have been in the Union army four years, rather than one.  It was in December 1861, that a schoolmate stayed one night at the Darton home.  During the night the two boys decided they would enlist at Hartford the next day.

 

The younger brother, William, Jr., overheard them as they made their plans.  The next day, he followed them into Hartford.  While they were talking with Dick Young, recruiting officer for the 17th regiment, William ran back home and told his father.

 

Their father rode a horse into town and found the boys, accompanied by the recruiting officer, near the railroad station. The father ordered young Darton to take the horse back home, but Young interposed; “He’s my man now, Bill.”

 

“If he’s your man,” replied Darton’s father, “you’re a better man than I.”

 

In 1861, youths under 18 could not enlist without the consent of their parents and Albert Darton was not yet 18, so he returned home.

 

He watched as his father went off to war, though, and took care of the farm until his father came back, ill, two years later.  It was a year before the elder Darton had recovered enough to work.  In interim, young Darton decided to take up where his father left off.  In the spring of 1864, he joined the 45th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and served under Capt. Henry VanEwyk, a Milwaukee man and General Thomas.

 

Albert Darton was the second of eight children born to William and Sarah (Brasure) Darton.  He was born in Ontario, Canada, on December 5, 1844.  When he was a year old, the family moved onto land near Hartford, which they bought for $1.25 per acre.

 

The year following the end of the Civil War, Darton married Eliza Ward at Sheboygan.  In 1871, they moved onto land near Loyal.  There, they cleared off land for a farm and raised their family.  They had two children, Nellie Catlin, now living near Spencer, and Rhoda, who died several years ago.

 

For the past several years, Darton had made his home with his grandchildren, Mr. and Mrs. Allie Drake of Loyal.  It was before the Drake home each Memorial Day the children of the public school, for several years, carried out a portion of their Memorial Day program.  Following the cemetery exercises, the band always stopped before the Drake home and played a salute to the aged Civil War veteran as he sat upon the porch.

••••••••••

At least 15 young men were inducted into the army at Milwaukee Monday, according to records of the selective service board at Loyal.  The records were not complete Wednesday and the final count may give a larger number.

 

Those who were known to have been inducted into the army were:

 

Keith Bennett, Walter Beyer, Harold Francis, Gordon Frantz, Robert Free, Donald Gress, James Hauge, Charles Kauffman, Theodore Kunce, Loren Mallory, Glen Marden, Kenneth Olson, Milton Schoenfeld, Wallace Schwellenbach and Robert Sischo.

 

Others from nearby known to be among the group are: Steve Rosandich, George Sternitzky and Henry Hasz of Granton; Wesley Schwarze, Robert Carl and Raymond Ackerman of Greenwood.

 

They were among the 183 Clark County men who made up the January selective service contingent.  Several of the men who were inducted went on to Fort Sheridan, Ill., immediately.  Their names are among those of which there was no available record on Wednesday.

••••••••••

Four sons in the service is the record of Mr. and Mrs. Steve Rosandich, of the Nevins area.  Their fourth boy, Steve, Jr., left from Loyal to be inducted into the army, last Sunday.  From their oldest son, Mike who is in the service, they have received a cablegram, saying, “Best of wishes. Am well.”  They don’t know where this message came from, except that it was by cable. Their guess is that Mike is in Ireland.  Their two other sons in the service are Johnny who is in Massachusetts and Tommy who is in Oklahoma.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Rossow, of the York Center community, also have four sons in the service.  Verlan, their fourth boy, left Sunday, to join the army.  A fifth, Roy, is employed at the York Center Cheese factory and has been deferred.  Gilbert, their sixth son, age 16, is at home.

••••••••••

A drastic change in high school education will be made in Neillsville at the beginning of the next semester.  The entire program of the high school will be directed to the training of young people for war service. The curriculum will be revolutionized.  The teaching will be directed toward those practical arts which will fit the boys and girls to play their part.

 

A step in the direction of this change was taken Monday, when the school men of Clark County joined others from central Wisconsin in a conference at Eau Claire.  There, at the State Teacher’s college, they met educators from the state department of public instruction and representatives of the military services. They were given a vision of the complete change in method and objective, which will characterize wartime education.  What it all amounts to is that every high school in the United States will be transformed, as nearly as possible, into a junior military academy.

 

Physical fitness classes for high school senior boys are scheduled to be in full swing by the end of the week, according to City School Sept. (Supt.) D. E. Peters.

 

Under the direction of Leon Larson, football coach and physical education instructor, senior boys will receive 50 minutes of physical conditioning exercises each school day.  The class will be required of all senior boys who are physically fit.  Juniors will be included in the physical fitness program if time will permit a schedule to be worked out.

 

The program will follow the general procedure outlined by the army and will be complimentary to the physical program given army recruits. This program includes four general activities, aquatics, gymnastics, combative activities and sports and games.  However, because of the limitation of facilities, the program here will not permit the inclusion of aquatics.

••••••••••

Led by Martin Wagner, who walked five miles to play, Coach Gordon Eggleston’s Neillsville High School Cagers trounced Greenwood last Friday, by a score of 34 to 26.  It was Neillsville’s third win in as many starts this season.

 

It was Wagner’s night at Greenwood and he worked hard to get it.  To begin with, the lanky senior had to walk through five miles of drifted roads to the city.  When the team finally took the floor at Greenwood, Wagner was fit and ready, as he proved to the discouragement of Fabian and Huntzicker, Greenwood centers, who tried to bottle him up.

 

After the team had returned to Neillsville; Wagner who already had five miles of waking and 40 minutes of basketball under his belt – Wanted to strike out for home on foot.  But, gas rationing or no gas rationing, Coach Eggleston put his foot down on that idea.

 

With its towering front line of six-footers, Neillsville dominated the play throughout the game.  Although, they were not “up to snuff,” to use the words of Coach Eggleston, because of their long lay-off since before Christmas holidays, they did win.  Neillsville made plenty of openings, but failed to cash in on most of them.

 

Wagner accounted for five field goals and three free throws to carry off scoring honors for the evening.  Speich, diminutive Greenwood forward, led his team with 10 points.

 

The Neillsville line-up included: Neville, Subke, Magnuson, Roberts, Wag (ner) (may be names missing)

 

Greenwood’s players were: Jackson, Speich, Hidill, Fabian, Lindeman, Perman and Humke.

 

(Great depths of snow and gas rationing required walking by many during that time frame.  The township roads weren’t readily plowed and the cars of those days didn’t easily start. DZ)

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

 

A Neillsville winter scene, in the early 1900s, looking west from the intersection of East Fifth and Court Street; the Presbyterian Church is partially visible on the left side of the photo.

 

 

 

 


© Every submission is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

 

Show your appreciation of this freely provided information by not copying it to any other site without our permission.

 

Become a Clark County History Buff

 

Report Broken Links

A site created and maintained by the Clark County History Buffs
and supported by your generous donations.

 

Webmasters: Leon Konieczny, Tanya Paschke,

Janet & Stan Schwarze, James W. Sternitzky,

Crystal Wendt & Al Wessel

 

CLARK CO. WI HISTORY HOME PAGE