Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

August 3, 2005, page 12

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Good Old Days" Articles 

 

 

Good Old Days

 

Clark County News

 

August 1900

 

Miss Cora Fraser and Herman H. Henning, both of Chili, were united in marriage at the mansion House parlors, Wednesday evening, at Marshfield by Justice C. S. Vedder.  Thursday, they returned to their home.  The bride is a daughter of John Fraser, general merchant and the groom is engaged in the hardware and machinery business.

 

A new stone arch culvert is being constructed at the intersection of Fourth Street and Grand Avenue, extending across diagonally.  Wm. and Ezra Campbell have the contract and are pushing the work rapidly.

 

Fire caught around the sheet iron chimney of the Green Grove cheese factory, Saturday morning.  A large portion of the factory roof was destroyed before the fire was extinguished.  The cheese in the factory was all taken out, but it is feared that much of it will be damaged from the handling.

 

A large crowd was in town last Sunday, more than we had seen for a year.  The occasion was Catholic Church services, where several important matters were discussed.  One was the question of having a Catholic School, here for a couple of months, classes to begin next Monday.  The classes will be held at the church and Miss Lizzie Braun will teach.

 

Another matter of importance was the organization of a Catholic Knights Society, an insurance organization, which will be launched with about 14 charter members.  Their first meeting will be held next Sunday.

 

Steps were also taken to raise what was outstanding against the church here, and a discussion was held looking to the building of a residence in the spring, and in securing a resident priest for the congregation in Loyal.

 

On Monday, James Sturdevant sold his farm lying half-a-mile south of Neillsville, to William Berger, of Jefferson.  The farm contains nearly fifty nine acres of fine land, a well and barn but no house.  Consideration of sale was $2,325.

 

On Monday, proceedings were held before Judge Jacques with a jury paneled for the purpose to view the laying out and opening of an extension on 19th Street, from opposite Jas. Cannon’s house, which would extend to the pumping station.  The land is a part of Ernst Lustig estate in which minor heirs are interested, thus such proceedings had to be resorted to the property.  The jury, consisting of A. B. Marsh, J. W. Tolford, C. Rabenstein, D. Kennedy, John Paulus, M. F. Beaulieu, W. F. Woodward, C. M. Bradford, Frank Hewett and Paul Walk viewed the premises, heard evidence of witnesses, argument of counsel and decided that the street was not necessary at present.

 

Marshall Blackwood, who represents the A. Grossenbach Company, of Milwaukee, shipped a carload of cheese from Colby to his firm, yesterday.  The rail car contained over 20,000 pounds.  Mr. Blackwood has secured the output of cheese from nearly every factory about that area, including Dorchester and Spencer.  Colby cheese has attained a most excellent reputation and has assisted in building up the reputation of A. Grossenbach & Co.

 

A. O. Rhea, of the Thorp area, threshed from ten acres of grain on Tuesday, with the following result: Three acres of oats produced 200 bushels of grain; seven acres of rye, 268 bushels, machine measure.   The quality is also of the very best.

 

E. E. Crocker has started a livery stable at his barn, on the corner of Fifth and Grand Avenue.  He is prepared to serve the riding public with all kinds of rigs and conveyances.

 

A. E. Dudley has sold the south half of his double lot, where he resides on Grand Avenue, to Peter Peterson who will immediately build a residence thereon.

 

The little town of Chili is booming.  The Walk Bros. are going to have a warehouse for grain, which is the reason that the Sawyer mill is being moved near the railroad track and fixed up.  C. A. Youmans has the contract for it.  All kinds of grain and potatoes will be handled there after its completion about Sept. 10.  John Van Dommele bought the vacant lot opposite Fraser’s store and is going to erect a saloon on the ground, to be ready for business about Oct. 1. 

 

This week, Henry Schroeder, of Neillsville, was in Chili buying eggs and butter from the merchants there.

 

August 1955

 

Duane Riedel, who served last year as principal and eight grade teacher at Pleasant Hill State Graded School, between Abbotsford and Dorchester, will take over similar duties in Neillsville’s South Side School.

 

Mr. Riedel is a graduate of the Taylor County Normal School at Medford and has attended summer school courses at the Wisconsin State College at Stevens Point for several summers.  He also taught at Westboro, in Taylor County, before coming into the Clark County school system at Pleasant Hill.

 

He will fill the vacancy left last spring by Leonard Morley, now Superintendent of Schools.

 

Dr. and Mrs. Howard Brooks, of Neillsville, will observe their 50th wedding anniversary, August 26, with an open house at their home at 206 South Clay Street.  Friends and relatives are invited to call between 3 and 5 p.m.

 

Neillsville has been the Brook’s residence since their wedding in 1905.  Dr. Brooks, a graduate of the dental school at Northwestern University, established his office here in 1905, retiring nine years ago after 46 years of active practice.

 

Mrs. Brooks is the former Miss Della Dvorak of Muscoda.  She attended the Chicago Business College and following her graduation, was engaged in secretarial work in Chicago.

 

The Brooks’ have two children and six grandchildren.  Their daughter, Jessie Priscilla, was married to Donald T. Ward of New Haven, Conn.  The Wards have two daughters and a son, are now making their home in Wallingford, Penn.  Mr. Ward is a business consultant associated with the firm of Worden and Risberg, who have offices in Philadelphia.

 

Dr. James Wellington Brooks, their son, married Ruth E. Gilbert of Green Bay.  They now live in Bayside, a suburb of Milwaukee.  Their family is comprised of a son and two daughters.

 

Dr. J. W. Brooks is sales manager of the animal feed department of the Pabst Brewing Company.  This department handles the sales of the company’s vitamin and antibiotic feed supplements, as well as the byproduct feeds from their various breweries in the United States.  Dr. and Mrs. Brooks expect their children and grandchildren to be present for the anniversary observance.

 

Don Bersell, postmaster at Chili, has resigned from the Clark County School Committee, of which he was chairman.  In his letter of resignation, submitted to County Superintendent Leonard Morley, Mr. Bersell attributes his action to an order of the post office department.  The inference is that officials of the department consider this activity as inconsistent with his duties as Postmaster, but there is no information as to whether this is due to the nature of the activity or to the demands upon Mr. Bersell’s time.

 

Mr. Bersell has held this chairmanship during the consideration by the committee of recent difficult problems.  Included, has been the project for the organization of a Union Free high school at Granton and the consolidation of the schools of the Owen and Withee areas.  Mr. Bersell has presided at several public hearings upon these issues and has been successful in securing orderly consideration of the projects.

 

A new pavement on Hewett Street from the bridge to Fourth Street, the business center of Neillsville, was virtually promised to Neillsville Tuesday evening by the State Highway Commission.  The City council received a communication from the state body, in which the pavement was declared to be setup for construction in 1957.

 

The original plan, according to this letter, was to lay blacktop over the present brick pavement.  But the spring breakup had so badly wrecked this pavement, the letter said, that the state considers it better to remove the old pavement, to put in a deep sand lift and to lay the blacktop upon this.

 

The cost of the project is estimated at $48,000, of which the city’s share will be about $8,200.

 

The council heard this news with evident approval and set Sept. 23 as a date upon which the council would welcome an opportunity to discuss the project with representatives of the State Highway Department.

 

A half-million dollar building will be constructed for the Colby Union Free High School.  Construction is assured by a favorable vote, 481 to 322, on a bond issue of $480,000.  The election was held Monday.  The new building will be erected on a site just north of the Colby city limits.  The plan is to extend the limits to include the 80–acre site. 

 

Clark County has become a leader in the United States, and perhaps of the entire world, in the production of all cheese.  This proud position in the dairy industry was achieved in 1954, according to advance information given in Madison to Country Farm Agent Stanley W. Ihlenfeldt.  The exact figures are not yet available, but the advance information comes from authoritative sources.

 

Four Clark County youths will be inducted into the armed services through selective service in September it was announced here last week.  They will leave Neillsville September 8 for the inductive center in Minneapolis, along with seven others who will take pre-induction physical examinations.

 

The August contingent from Clark County, numbering three youths, left August 4.  They are James J. Bauer and William G. Meyer, both of Granton, and Conrad J. Becker of Loyal.

 

Installation services for Rev. Albert Guthmiller, new pastor of the Zion Evangelical & Reformed Church were held Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

 

Presiding at the installation were the three local Reformed pastors: Rev. Benj. Stucki, Superintendent of the Winnebago Indian School; his assistant, Rev. Jacob Grether; and Rev. R. C. White, who with Rev. Grether has filled the pulpit during the time the congregation has been without a regular pastor. 

 

Rev. Guthmiller assumed his duties in the Neillsville church July 7.  He is a recent graduate of the mission House Seminary at Plymouth, where he participated in athletics before entering the seminary.  During the 1st two years in the seminary, Mr. Guthmiller filled the pulpit of several Wisconsin Evangelical Reformed churches as a part of the seminary’s program to prepare ministers for their duties.  Last summer, he served as student pastor of a church at Conesville, Iowa, which is about 30 miles south of Iowa City.

 

Mr. Guthmiller is a native of Tripp, S. D., as is his wife.  During the time he was attending school at Plymouth, Mrs. Guthmiller was teaching rural schools.  She taught two years in South Dakota and the last two years in Wisconsin.

 

Tentative plans for the new auditorium-gymnasium to be built by the Granton Schools will be unveiled at a meeting of the architect and members of the school board tonight (Thursday).  Following this meeting, should the tentative plans be received with approval, the final detailed plans will be rushed to enable the school board to advertise for bids and hurry construction.

 

The first scientific mass “poisoning’ of fish in Clark County will take place Friday at Sherwood Dam, in southeastern Clark County.  There, under the super vision of biologists of the fisheries division, toxins will be added to the water to kill all fish life in the lake area.

 

Years ago, the Sherwood Dam waters produced some good fishing.  Not so in later years.  Fish that were lacking feed and oxygen have been stunted in development.  Bluegills, bullheads and other small fish, which abound in the waters, are too small to offer game recreation.

 

The purpose of the conservation department, working with the county parks and playground committee, is to kill all present marine life, then re-stock the Sherwood Dam lake with northern pike.

 

There have been 1,000 rainbow and brook trout, planted in the waters of Hay Creek, between County Trunk I and the old Church School, Conservation Warden John Gibbons revealed this week.

 

Local people, who knew in advance about it and cold get the reception, heard and saw Dr. Sarah Rosekrans of Neillsville as she appeared July 20 on WTMJ-TV.

 

Dr. Sarah was featured in the career conference section of the Women’s World program and was interviewed on the high-lights of her activities as physician-surgeon and singer.

 

“My father, who was a Congregational minister, in Danbury, Conn., thought that singing was too worldly for a career,” Dr. Sarah explained.  “So I studied medicine.

 

She told how, during the Depression, she drove from Neillsville to Chicago once every two weeks to spend a day studying voice.

 

The top thrill in her singing experience was that of singing for Jan Sibelius, famed Finnish composer, at his home in Helsinki.  The song she sang was one of his own compositions and Mr. Sibelius complimented her highly on her performance.

 

Danny Ray, one year old son of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Tesmer, is back at his home on East First Street after being rushed last week Wednesday to the hospital, where a bronchoscopy was performed.  Danny was eating watermelon when a chunk of it became lodged in his bronchial tubes.

 

Neillsville’s North Side Grade School was located near Prospect Street, between 11th and 12th Street.  The school was closed circa 1960 and the building was eventually torn down.  Cliff’s recreational park now occupies the former school site.  (photo courtesy of Bill Roberts Collection.)

 

 


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