Clark County Press, Neillsville,

January 31, 2007 Page 24

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

January 1902

 

L. M. Sturdevant and H. C. Clark have formed a law partnership under the firm name of Sturdevant and Clark.  They will make a good strong team.  Mr. Sturdevant’s business has for some time been too much for him to attend to.  Mr. Clark has been holding his office with Sturdevant, rendering assistance as needed, and finding that their working together went well, decided to make it a partnership.

•••••••••

Fred Seif, of the Town of Seif, has purchased half of Mr. D. Gate’s five-acre lot on Grant (Grand) Avenue, which was used this past fall as a football ground.  Mrs. Geo. Wiesner has purchased the other half of the lot.  This is a beautiful tract and will make fine building places.  It is reported that Mr. Seif will build a fine residence on his lot, in a year or more.  Mr. Wiesner states that they expect to use theirs for a similar purpose.  Cy Dewey is having rock hauled for a large residence on the five-acre tract just south, and will doubtless build next season.  These three proposed fine houses, together with G. L. Sontag’s and Geo. Trogner’s homes already there, will give to the south side of Grand Avenue, a metropolitan air.

•••••••••

The Wisconsin Farm Land Co. closed an important deal Thursday, by which they sold 3,000 acres in a bunch to ten different settlers, who will open stock farms.  The tract is situated in Clark County, near Tioga.

•••••••••

Judge James O’Neill occupied the pulpit at the M. E. Church, Sunday night.  The subject of his address was, “The Way of the Transgressor.”  The discourse was presented in a masterly way and showed deep thought. The subject was handled in a manner that brought forth the admiration of his audience.  The church was crowded and there ws not one who felt a regret when the discourse was finished.

•••••••••

Fred Wendt, who recently sold his farm in southern Pine Valley this week, purchased the old Chandler farm from Mrs. B. F. French.  It consists of nearly 200 acres, lying two miles north of the city.  Consideration of the property was $4,000.

•••••••••

The new flooring, for the courthouse, has arrived and will be put down immediately.  It is a fine grade of birch, 7/8 of an inch thick and will make a good floor.

•••••••••

During the past season, John Wolff has built a fine barn on his farm near the north limits of the city.  He has cleared up the land and greatly improved the premises.  The house will probably receive his attention next.

•••••••••

The North Side Lime Kiln Club has rented the building lately purchased by G. W. Smith. There, they will continue to spend their evenings at their favorite game of five spot.

•••••••••

The Levis Creamery Association held their annual meeting, last Monday night.  They are now waiting for a little snow to get in their next summer’s ice.

•••••••••

The dance held at Emil Poppe’s place, near Globe, was well attended and a very enjoyable time was had by all present.

•••••••••

Lewis Cook, of Unity, held an auction Saturday, at which he sold his farm machinery and livestock.  He intends taking up another profession.

•••••••••

Rice Davis has purchased a half-interest in the Meat Market, in Granton, and in the future the firm will be known as Hosely and Davis.  Mr. Hosely is a butcher, with considerable experience in that line.  He has proved to be an honest, capable businessman, while everybody knows the sterling qualities of Mr. Davis, who has lived here a good many years.  Mr. Hosely will have charge of the butcher shop and Mr. Davis will do the hustling outside, buying stock amongst the farmers around here.  They will no doubt recognize his handsome face, as that of a neighbor and friend, giving him their patronage.

••••••••

Earl and Irvin Learned, of the Wilcox community, gave an entertainment with their graphophone, in the district No. 3 schoolhouse last Thursday evening.  Monday evening, they held the same entertainment at a full house in the Redmond Church.  (A graphophone was a phonograph using wax records. D. Z.)

••••••••

Arthur Miles, Joseph Schweigert and Ernest Ratsburg, left Monday for Elmhurst, where they will work at making cant-hook handles for O. H. Altman.

 

January 1952

 

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Miller, of Milladore, have purchased the William Seeman cheese factory in the Town of Loyal.  The purchase price includes 10 square rods of land, the truck fleet and the contents of the cheese factory, which is located a mile and a-half north of Loyal, on County Trunk K.

•••••••••

Mr. Miller, who operated an American Cheddar cheese factory, at Milladore for five years, took over the Seeman plant, December 16.  He plans to continue making American Cheddar cheese at the Seeman factory.

 

The bottled milk plan was discontinued following the sale.

 

William Seeman, who operated the plant for 23 years, will retire.

•••••••••

Memories of ten years spent in concentration and detention camps are rapidly being forgotten by the Felix Tanbalski family, who arrived during the holidays to take up residence on the John Zajac farm, near Globe.

 

The Tanbalskis are the first displaced family to be brought to Clark County by someone other than a relative. Their coming was arranged through the Department of Agriculture. They were as unknown to John Zajac, as he was to them.

 

“I went down to Chicago, last summer, and visited a Catholic agency to get a displaced family to help on my farm,” he said.  “Since I was not Catholic, they didn’t think my chances were too good.  When I got back home, I went to see Stan Ihlenfeldt, the county agent, and he put in an application with the Department of Agriculture.  Then, in December, I got a letter.  The family was in New York and would arrive here December 20.  I didn’t know what to do.  The house, I was building for them, was still incomplete, as I didn’t expect them until spring.  Also, they didn’t know a word of English.”

 

The family consists of Felix, who is 43; his wife, Anne, who is 29; their son, Victor, who is six and was born in one of the camps; and Felix’s mother, Mrs. Victoria Tanbalski.

 

The family arrived and was temporarily put up in the Zajac home while the little house was being finished.  It will be their first home since 1942, when the Germans overran Poland.

 

The Tanbalskis originally had a small farm near Vilna, Poland.  When the Germans invaded, the Tanbalskis and other able-bodied people were shipped in freight cars, like cattle, to Germany to work on German farms. 

 

“We were fed only enough to keep us alive,” Mrs. Tanbalski told Mr. Zajac, who is acting as their interpreter.

 

After Germany was defeated, the Tanbalskis were kept in a detention camp near Frankfort while the Allies tried to figure out what to do with the thousands of displaced persons.  Russia took over the Vilna section because of the mines, so the Tanbalskis were left without a country or a home.

 

“We were told we could go back to Vilna if we wanted to. We didn’t know what was there, whether our house would be there to go back to, or if someone else had settled there, or if the Russians had built something on the land. We decided we would stay in the camp, where we knew we would have a roof over our heads.  Then they told us we could go to America to work on a farm.  So we decided we would go if we could,” Mrs. Tanbalski said.

 

John Zajac lives on a 240-acre farm, near Globe.  His children are grown and he has been unable to get help to run the farm.

 

“If I couldn’t get anyone, I was going to sell and move to the city.  The displaced persons service was my last hope.  I wanted help that would stay and make their home here.”

 

Little Victor Tanbalski, who is a bright and alert lad, has already begun to pick up expressions in English.  The Zajac Christmas tree was the first he had ever seen and he openly admired it, but always from a distance.  He didn’t quite understand the principle of it.  He will soon be joining the other children at the Worchel School.

 

“In about six months, he will know enough English to get along well in school,” Mr. Zajac said.

 

The contrast, of European and American methods of farming, were clearly brought out when the family started helping Mr. Zajac.

 

“The way I thought it would work,” he said, “was he would help me on the farm, milking the cows, running the tractors, and so forth, and her only job would be to strip the cows and wash the utensils.”

 

“I discovered that over there it was done differently.  The women took care of the cows and the men worked in the fields.  Of course, they were smaller farms, plowing with maybe an ox, but the rest of the planting, etc., was done by hand.  So Tanbalski doesn’t know how to milk, or drive a tractor, and the machinery is completely new to him.  He is learning fast, though.  But the work is difficult for him.”

 

The small house, built by Mr. Zajac for the family, is hidden from the other house by a clump of large evergreen trees.  It has a basement.  On the first floor, there is the kitchen, living room and bedroom.  Upstairs, there are two unfinished bed-rooms.  Small, but compact, the white painted house seems like heaven to the Tanbalskis, who have known only barracks for 10 years.

 

The horrors of the gas chamber, and the torture of the Nazis, were not unknown to the Tanbalskis.

 

“You could tell whether the people to be gassed were alive or dead, by the color of the smoke,” they said.

 

Mr. Zajac’s mother died from shock in one of the camps and two of his brothers died of tuberculosis from exposure in the camps.  He also has a reason for taking in a displaced family and giving them a home, in addition to the one of economics.

 

In the quiet countryside surrounding the Zajac farm, The Tanbalski family is gradually coming back to life, to peace, the way it was on their farm before the war.

•••••••••

Seven local truckers are waiting at Hudson for the settlement of a St. Paul strike.  At the same time, seven Milwaukee truckers are at Neillsville, waiting to return to their trucks.

 

The seven, stranded in Hudson include: Leo Staffon, Al Harrington, Wayne Bush, Gene Thiede, Maurice May, Louis Seif and Lee Buddenhagen.

 

The strike of St. Paul city freight handlers was called Tuesday morning.  Expecting a quick settlement, the seven local truckers started out.  A picket line has been placed on the Hudson Bridge so the men cannot cross.  Until there is a settlement, the 14 truckers will continue to wait, and traffic will continue to pile up.

•••••••••

Members of the 40 Square Dancing club held their regular monthly dance at the Neillsville Legion Hall, Monday night, with a large attendance despite the blizzard.  In charge of the program were Mr. and Mrs. Lars Thompson, as chairmen, Mr. and Mrs. Hubert H. Quicker, Rev. and Mrs. William Koehler, and Mr. and Mrs. Harold Ottow.

 

A feature was a penny dance.  Any man, caught without a partner when the music stopped, had to put a penny in a large pot in the center of the dance floor.  In this way, $5.02 for the March of Dimes was collected.  One woman remarked, after the dance, “I’ve never been so popular.”

•••••••••

John Morgenthaler, of Neillsville, narrowly escaped injury when his 1950-model car was struck by a freight engine on the Grand Avenue railroad crossing, last Wednesday afternoon.  Damage to the car was about $275.

 

The engine was switching boxcars on the American Stores Dairy siding and was traveling west with several cars.  Mr. Morgenthaler struck the right steam chest of the engine, smashing the front of his car.  No damage was done to the engine.  H. P. Doughty of Altoona was the engineer, and James Bock of Eau Claire, the conductor.

 

Mr. Morgenthaler is the Swiss-born carpenter who helped build the Hediger house, in Neillsville.

•••••••••

The Neillsville Women of the Moose will sponsor a Polio benefit dance, next Tuesday night at the Legion hall.  Jerry Opelt’s orchestra will furnish the music.

 

Members of the dance committee are: Mrs. Emma Larsen, chairman, and Mrs. Marion Linster, co-chairman; and Mmes. Mae Kallas, Lillian Moldenhauer, Frances Lyons, Sadie O’Brien, Beatrice Oens and Evelyn Oliver.

•••••••••

Thirty students at Granton High School have completed a classroom course in driver education.  Instructor of the course was Joseph J. Kalina.

 

Those who finished the course were: Darwin Canfield, Alvin Dahl, Violet Dietz, Doris Downer, Alice Erickson, Richard Erickson, Marjorie Galbreath, Carol Jean Garbisch, Duane Garbisch, Ronald Garbisch, Ernest Hankey, Claudine Heinzen, Marcia Hiles, Roger Lemonds, Eleanor Marek, Marjorie Paun, Zelda Pigott, Romelle Quicker, Bernice Schilling, Ronald Schlinsog, Larry Schmidtke, Robert Scott, Patty Rae Sternitzky, Stanley Sternitzky, LeRoy Thiemke, Ted Todd, Harlow Verhagen, Janet Winter and Carol Mae Zahradka.

•••••••••

Seven boys, who have been training for Golden Gloves competition under sponsorship of the Loyal Order of the Moose, put on a demonstration before the organization’s meeting, Monday night.

 

The members of the Moose have ordered new equipment for the boys for their practice gym above Becker’s Cafι.  Two of the boys, Hans Harder and Fred Seelow, won their first fights in the Gloves semi-finals at Marshfield, last Saturday night.

 

Those taking part in the demonstration included: Otto Hainz, Jr., Hans Harder, Fred Seelow and Merle Reams, among others.

•••••••••

 

 

A 1890s view of Neillsville’s North Side, when North Hewett

Street was also the site of some business establishments.

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