Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

September 13, 2006, Page 24

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Good Old Days" Articles 

 


The Good Old Days 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

  

September 1956

 

St. John’s Lutheran School of Neillsville opened September 4 with a total enrollment of 103.

 

Miss Darlene Bailey, of Baraboo, has returned and is teaching grades one, two and three.  Grades four, five and six are in charge of Miss Arlene Blumhardt of Bowdle, S.D.  Victor Lehmann, principal, teaches grades seven and eight.

 

St. Mary’s Catholic School opened September 5 with an enrollment of 152 in grades one through eight.  Three sisters of the order of School Sisters of Notre Dame are in charge.  They are Sister Ricardo, principal and teacher of grades six, seven and eight; Sister Grace Marie, grades three, four and five; and Sister Enrico, grades one, two and three.

 

There are 105 rural schools operating in Clark County this year, it was announced this week by Leonard Morley, county superintendent of schools.

 

They employ 115 teachers, whose average experience is 10.1 years in the educational field, with 8.2 of those years in Clark County.

 

In those numbers are 33 “permit teachers,” as compared with 50 permit teachers last year.

 

The average salary of the teachers, Mr. Morley revealed, is $295.41 per month, which represents an increase of $2.04 from last year’s average of $293.37 per month.  The top salary paid in Clark County’s rural school is $340 per month the lowest salary is $260 per month.

•••••

Leonard Vandehey, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Vandehey, Sr., former Neillsville residents, is hospitalized in Walsenberg, Colo., where he is recovering from injuries received when a bus carrying the Albuquerque, NM, baseball team, of the class A Western League, overturned near that city.  Ten players were injured.  Only Vandehey and one other player required hospitalization.

 

The Vandehey family once lived in Loyal, where Leonard attended high school.

 

In Neillsville, the family lived on the North Side and Leonard attended St. Mary’s School.  In his grade school days, here, he showed signs of becoming an outstanding ball player.  He is an outfielder and a contender for the Western League batting championship this season.

•••••

Mrs. Charles Lucht, Sr., was pleasantly surprised Saturday evening, September 1, when Mrs. Alvina Yesse and daughter, Esther, of Edgar, Mr. and Mrs. William Fisher, of Spencer, Mr. and Mrs. gust Voigt, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Oestreich, and Mr. and Mrs. Art Lucht, Loyal, came to help her celebrate her 94th birthday anniversary at the Charles Lucht, Jr., home.  Other relatives and friends called during the day.  The many gifts of flowers, cards and fruit added to her pleasure.

•••••

The Ordie Marshall apartment building, an old landmark of the city, which once housed the “laundry” and was later known as “the old Monk building,” will be razed or removed.

•••

The property, at the corner of Grand and West 6th Street, has been purchased as an addition to the parking lot for the new IGA super market, which soon will open here.  Bids now are being sought for the building, which must be removed or torn down.

•••••

Two young men from Neillsville enlisted in the Air Force at Eau Claire, September 18, Jerry L. Quicker, son of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Quicker, and Ronald O. Yankee, son of Mrs. Gilbert Yankee.

•••••

The Neillsville Warriors home opening, of the football season, will be this evening, September 27 at 8 p.m.  The probable starters in the line are: Tom Overman, end; Ronald Meier, Tackle; Ted Ormond, Guard; Don Pagenkopf, center; Dean Zickert, guard; Tom Dorski, tackle; Tom Barr, end; and backfield, quarterback, John Schwellenbach; Don Shaw halfback; Charles Swann, fullback; and Jim Swenson, halfback.

•••••

Stan Pasek and his orchestra, direct from Chicago, will be playing at the Mile-A-Way ballroom north of Thorp, Sunday, September 30.

•••••

The Rev. Idar J. Tanner has accepted a call to become pastor of the new church in Neillsville, Calvary Lutheran.  The pastorate will begin January 1.

 

Mr. Tanner comes from a 13-year pastorate in Oconomowoc.  Under his leadership, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, there, grew from a membership of 450 to more than 900, having completed three years ago a modern church plant costing $220,000.

 

Mr. Tanner has had three pastorates. His first was at Proctor, Minn.  Then, he went to Ulen, Minn.  In each of these places, he served seven years.  Then, he went to Oconomowoc.

 

The local committee is more than gratified at the acceptance of Mr. Tanner, for they regard him as one of the top clergymen of the denomination.  He has had outstanding success as a pastor, and is counted upon by the local committee to make a success of the task before him here, which is to build a parish from scratch.

 

The immediate Tanner family consists of the Rev. and Mrs. Tanner and two adult children, a son and a daughter.  The son is Rev. Ira Tanner of Greenwood, recently installed as pastor of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church there.  The daughter, Jean, is a teacher in the public schools of Tucson, Arizona.  She is now temporarily in Europe.

 

Not the least notable of the Tanners is the father of Idar Tanner and the grandfather of Ira.  He spent a normal active live as a pastor in a seminary and was retired and pensioned 21 years ago.  But a little matter of retirement didn’t slow him down.  He became a professor in Waldorf College at Forest city, Iowa, and is active on the faculty there at the age of 91.  He is author of a course of study, which is being taken up by all the Sunday schools of the denomination.

 

The Rev. and Mrs. Idar Tanner will occupy, upon their arrival, the new parsonage, which the congregation is constructing upon Hill Street.  The roof is going upon that building this week, and no difficulty is anticipated in having the home ready well before the Tanners arrive.

 

The parsonage is located to the west of Hill Street, which is the street upon which Veterans Village once faced.  To the east of Hill Street will be located the new church building.  Excavation for that building lies in the near future.  The plan is to complete the basement this fall, to put a temporary superstructure for the entrance, and to use the basement temporarily for worship.  The plan is that the basement will be ready by the time Mr. Tanner’s pastorate begins.

•••••

The 75th anniversary of Stanley was celebrated the last weekend in August.  There was a three-day program of events, including a parade.

 

Since Stanley is located only a little west of the Clark County line, it is the nearest market for many farmers residing in the extreme northwest corner of the county, in the Towns of Thorp and Worden.

 

Before Stanley was even a hamlet, 75 years ago, Almond Brown made his home there in the 1870’s.  The early settlers before him had to contend with Indians living in the area until the treaties of 1942 and 1854 ceded all remaining lands in this territory to the Federal Government.

 

Brown lived there long enough to see communities grow up all over this area and long enough to see roads replace the trails he had to blaze.

 

Michael McCafferty built the first farmhouse in the Town of Thorp in 1871.  Other early homesteaders in the neighborhood were: J. S. and Ephraim Boardman, D. R. Goodwin, and C. C. Clark by 1872; and George and Nelson Courth, William Buyatt, S. S. Warner, Zeph Worden, William Gerard and F. M. Fults by 1873.

 

Things took a change with the coming of the railroad in 1880.  In 1881, L. C. Stanley and W. P. Bartlett layed out and platted a village.

 

Fred Rabanstorf moved from Fairchild to the new community the same year and opened a store.  He had trouble getting mail from Boyd and Edson.  He got up a petition, naming the Town of Stanley in honor of L. C. Stanley of Chippewa Falls and became the town’s first postmaster.

 

A saw mill was in operation by 1882, built of Clint Craig.  Fire destroyed the mill and a new one was built in 1884.  Craig sold the mill to H. Helgerson, two years later.

 

Nye, Lusk and Hudson of Thorp leased the mill in 1887, and also operated a company store.

 

In the meantime, Delos R. Moon of Aurora, Ill., was sent by Hall Brothers of Aurora to Eau Claire to take care of their bank.  The bank closed in 1861.

 

In 1867, Moon entered into partnership with Porter, a lumber manufacturer.  Three years later, they consolidated with S. T. McKnight of Hannibal, MO, and in 1873 the two firms merged into the Northwestern Lumber Co. of Eau Claire, Stanley and Porter’s Mills.  The firm had much to do with the rapid growth of Stanley.

 

By 1895, the community felt itself large enough to become a village.  The Northwestern Lumber Co. was employing 600 men, operating its own store and railroad.  The official census listed Stanley with a population of 1,136.

 

By 1898, the population had grown to almost 2,000 and a movement started to get a city charter.  There was feuding back and forth trying to hold up the charter, but the necessary 100 signatures got on the petition and the charter became official.

 

Packed up and ready to leave on a fishing/camping outing at the East Fork, back in 1924.  Left to right are: Charlie Hubing, Ruby Eisentraut, Irene Bradford, Marie Hubing and Lila Davis; the young women, who lived in the Pleasant Ridge and Town of York area, decided they wanted to get away from it all for a week.  Charlie Hubing agreed to provide transportation for them, their camping gear and cane poles, accompanied by his Airedale dog who was accustomed to riding on the truck’s front fender.  A week later, Charlie returned to bring the campers home and as the story goes, they were glad to see him as the food supply had dwindled to only a few potatoes.  There was no mention as to how many fish were caught.  Many will remember Ruby (Eisentraut) Seif as a teacher in rural schools and the Neillsville Elementary School.  Lila Davis married Charlie Hubing in 1925 and she presently lives in Neillsville.  (Photo courtesy of Charlene (Jacob) Dascher, granddaughter of Lila and Charlie Hubing)

 

 


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