November 1884

E. D. Webster, during the fall, made considerable improvements around his livery barn.  The whole structure has been raised a couple of feet and considerable grading has been done, as well as other repairs.

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Arrangements are being made by managers of the hub and spoke factory to move their saw mill.  They have been informed that the railroad will be extended into Neillsville next spring.  It will then pass through the mill’s present site, so the saw mill will be moved from where it is now, to the other side of the Black River.

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The fellow who took my horse out of the barn, last Sunday night, I wish to say that I am truly grateful for returning it all right, although the horse was quite muddy.  I will also be much obliged to him and wish his road clear and bright to the better land if he would return my bridle.  Yours truly, John Dwyer

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Partridges are uncommonly plentiful in this section of the county, this year.  Several have been seen in the business portion of the city this fall.  One flew through a window in James Houston’s house a few days ago and took refuge under a bed.  Another, Sunday morning, flew through one of the windows of Geo. Ludington’s harness shop and died from a cut received from the broken glass.  Still another partridge was shot at on Main Street Sunday morning, but flew away with no other injury than a bad fright.  Heaslett is a good shot on glass balls and clay pigeons, but nowhere on game.

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Mrs. O’Neill has by the expenditure of several hundred dollars on furniture, repairs and improvements, gotten the O’Neill House in first class shape to accommodate the public.  She reports that her business is constantly on the increase and to judge from appearances, one would be lead to believe that the house is doing the largest business that it ahs done for the last two years.  Mrs. O’Neill is a landlady who gives her attention entirely to the management of her house and we hope she will meet the success that she deserves.

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The Deutsch Amerikaner, the German newspaper formerly owned and published by H. J. Hoffman, has been sold to Herman Schuster.  Mr. Schuster is an educated German and will doubtless make a good newspaper of the Amerikaner.  Carl Rabenstein will continue his connection with the newspaper, but the editorial work of the newspaper will be under the supervision of Mr. Schuster.  The newspaper will have a great influence in bringing German people into Clark County, as it has in the past.  It will doubtless meet the desires of its other readers, too.

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State of Wisconsin Thanksgiving proclamation:

In accordance with the appropriate custom of setting apart a day for the giving of thanks for the prosperity of the year, in conformity with the proclamation of the President of the United States, I, Jeremiah M. Rusk, Governor of the State of Wisconsin, do hereby designate Thursday, the 27^th of November, instant, as a day of thanksgiving for the people of the State of Wisconsin and I commend their grateful and reverent observance thereof, in public and in private, in ways befitting a people thankful for the many blessings of a kind Providence.

In testimony whereof, I have here unto set my hand and caused, the Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin to be affixed.

Done at the city of Madison this 12^th day of November in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four.

By the Governor: J. M. Rusk.

Let the citizens of Neillsville respond most heartily to the proclamations of the President and our Governor, by turning out to Thanksgiving services.  A city of 2,000 ought to furnish a good-sized audience, at least.  Let our hard-working pastors feel for once that their efforts are appreciated.  Union services will be held at the Presbyterian Church, with a sermon by Rev. W. T. Hendren.  There will be plenty of time for other forms of thanksgiving.

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The Clark County Poor Farm will have a $1,000 addition next year. An improvement rendered necessary by the increasing number of inmates.

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The German Lutheran Church, at Maple Works, has been dedicated.

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Wils Covill, foreman for John Paul Company, informs us that he has three logging camps in on the East Fork and one on Wedges Creek.  The wages paid to their workers are from $15 to $20 per month, the average being about $18.

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George Huntzicker has moved into the Central House, which he now owns and we understand that he will be opening it as a hotel.

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Last Saturday, Geo. W. Bullard, of West Weston, brought into the newspaper office, a mangel-wurtzel, which weighed 19 ¾ pounds, was 28 inches in length and 20 inches in circumference. This enormous vegetable was raised on his farm in the western part of the Town of Weston.  He had a patch about 16 by 18 feet.  Mr. Bullard says he doesn’t know how you would measure the product amount, but he measured it by the cord, having about half of a cord.  (A mangel-wurtzel is an underground vegetable, a beet, which was grown to feed cattle. D. Z.)

November 1949

Neillsville School students, last Thursday, heard the saga of the Rickenbacher party and its 21 days on life rafts in the trackless expanse of the South Pacific.

The story was told by Lt. James C. Whittaker co-pilot of the plane carrying the famous Capt. Edie Riddenbacher and his party and the only man to keep a dairy (diary) of the day-by-day thoughts and events during those 21 lost days.  Of the eight men aboard the Flying Fortress when it was set down in the sea out of gas, seven were rescued.

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One hundred and thirteen persons attended the wind-up banquet at the Neillsville Country Club, last Saturday evening. This event was the closing of a successful golf season and a farewell for the winter to Mr. and Mrs. Tony Sylvester, popular professional and his wife.

Six big turkeys and four chickens, tastily roasted by Mrs. Edwin Evenson and her helpers, were served to the guests. 

An added tasty treat was a chestnut dressing “chefed” by Leo Foster.

The clubhouse was decorated in the Halloween motif, both in the upstairs lounge where the dinner was served and in the downstairs clubroom.  Hob-goblins, witches, cats and pumpkins decorated the walls in lavish profusion.

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Walter Durst has resigned as manage of the Neillsville Milk Products Cooperative.  Mr. Durst will be succeeded by B. H. Crissinger of Fairmont, Minn.  This change was made at a meeting of the directors of the Cooperative, held Saturday evening.  Mr. Crissinger was present at this meeting and acquainted the board with his qualifications.

The resignation of Mr. Durst grows out of weariness and considerations of health.  Prior to undertaking this managerial position, Mr. Durst had been in partial retirement, after a long period of operating a cheese plant.  He had spent years at the Hemlock cheese factory and had operated there under difficult war-time conditions.  What he went through there left its mark upon a physique, which had experienced the wear and tear of war.

After some years as manager of the Cooperative, Mr. Durst seeks less responsibility and tension and had so indicated to the directors.  His resignation was before them as they sought a successor.  The understanding is that Mr. Durst will not part company with this connection, but that he will now serve the Cooperative as a field man, engaging in the campaign for quality.

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Four men joined the Service Company, 128^th Infantry, at the meeting last Monday night.  They are: Glenn Suckow, Karl Petersen, Robert Kapfer and Donald Turner.  All are from the Neillsville area.

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Fourteen Boy Scouts and three advisers got a start, last Sunday, on a scout cabin at the city shale pit, which will be used principally for overnight hikes.

They cleared the land and started the framework for a 15’ x 15’ structure.  The building is planned to accommodate a patrol.  Assisting the boys were Dwayne Schweinler and Dr. R. D. Peters, scoutmaster and assistant, as well as Jack Tibbett, Northside Scout Committeeman.

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The property formerly occupied by the Jos. Weidenhoff, Inc., branch factory here, as been leased by a new concern, the Neillsville Warehouse Company, it was revealed this week.

The building, located on Eighth Street at South Clay, will be used for the storing of powdered milk.  It is understood here that this function will provide employment for four or five persons.

Officials of the Neillsville Warehouse Company are William A. Gordon and Russell C. Stemm, both of St. Paul, and John H. Neville of Racine.

The building has been vacant since the Weidenhoff organization consolidated its manufacturing activities in Iowa last spring.

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Duane Bassett, grandson of Mr. and Mrs. William Evans of Loyal, is a patient at a hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind.  He is receiving treatment for back and neck injuries sustained in an automobile accident.  A convertible he was driving over-turned.

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These are the top records of the week, which can be purchased at Bollom’s Record Shop in Neillsville: “Slipping Around,” J. Wakely – M. Whiting; “Milwaukee Polka,” Frankie Yankovic; “Now that I Need You,” Frankie Laine; “Dime a Dozen,” Margaret Whiting; “That Old Lucky Sun,” Frankie Laine; “Susy Waltz,” Frankie Yankovic.  We just received the most unusual record ever recorded, “Mule Train.”  Your choice of artists is available here: Frankie Laine, Bing Crosby, Vaughn Monroe and Gordon Macrae.

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Mrs. Wilhelmina Mueller, of Colby, recently observed her 98^th birthday anniversary at the home of her grandson.  Mrs. Mueller was born in Germany and came to this country at the age of two, crossing the Atlantic in a sailing vessel. She still makes her own bed and cares for herself.  She contributes her old age to heredity.

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The toll of deer-kills was the greatest witnessed here in Clark County, since 12 years ago and perhaps in the history of hunting.

The estimate of Warden Carl Frick is that from 4,000 to 5,000 deer have been taken in Clark County during this 5-day season.  Certainly if the purpose of an antlerless season was to reduce the deer herd, it succeeded in this area.  More deer were seen on car fenders, car tops, in car trunks and trailers on Neillsville streets on Saturday, alone, than had been seen here during a full nine-day season in the recent past.

It wasn’t exactly like shooting cows in a pasture, was one explanation; but it came nearly being that.

As the season opened Saturday morning, the sounds of gun shots, west of here, could be heard by residents in the city.  It was not long afterward that the first deer were being brought into the city.

It appeared that more out-of-town hunters were on hand for the season’s opening than at any other time since the re-opening of deer hunting in Clark County in the mid-thirty’s.  But by Sunday night, the majority of visitors had left, most of them with deer.

In spite of the heavy kill, Warden Frick expressed the belief that a good-sized deer herd remains.  Many had feared that the antlerless season would lead to such a slaughter as to completely disseminate the herd; but Warden Frick expressed the opinion Tuesday night that this had not happened and that deer will be plentiful enough to warrant to hunting season next fall.

“There are more deer in Clark County than a good many people believe,” he said.

Orville Jake, Neillsville, is in the local hospital where he was taken Tuesday after a stray bullet passed through his left leg, near the ankle and lodged in the fleshy part of the upper right leg.

He was the only hunter injured as the current five-day deer-hunting season neared its end.  Up to the last day, Clark County had gone without a serious mishap, a record not achieved for possibly eight years, although 10 deaths were counted in the state, five from gunshot wounds and five from heart attacks.

Jake was hunting in Jackson County, west of Pray, with a party of eight others when he was wounded.  Earl Pierce, Neillsville farmer, said he was standing within a few feet of Jake at the time.  They both had emptied their guns at deer and had slipped in more shells.

“We fired about the same time,” Pierce said, “and I didn’t hear any other shot.”

Jake was in a kneeling position, with his right knee on the ground.  The bullet passed through the left leg near the ankle and entered the right leg, where it lodged.

He told Pierce he had been shot.  The flow of blood from the wound was stopped after applying tourniquets made from handkerchiefs.  Pierce said the bullet came from the northeast. There were several hunters in the area.

The accident happened about noon and the section crew of the Green Bay and Western railroad just happened to be passing near the scene about that same time.  Someone stopped the crew; they loaded Jake on a hand-car and transported him to the first wagon road west of that location. There, he was loaded into a car and was brought to Neillsville hospital by Bob Poler and Ted Pierce, two other members of the hunting party.

Others in the group included Bill Buchsteiner, formerly of Greenwood and Neillsville, two of his friends from Reedsburg, Ernie Hubing, Bill Poler and Ernie Christie.

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One hundred years ago, deer roamed around the city of Neillsville, grazing on lawns and shrubbery just as they are known to do now. What safer place could they be when the deer hunting season arrives this time of the year?  (Photo courtesy of the Sontag family collection)