Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

December 18, 2013 Page 11

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

December 1893

 

The furnace in the new Congregational church is completed and although it is a homemade affair, is said to do its work admirably. Services will be held in the building now in a week or two.

•••••••••

The freight traffic has become so heavy on our railroad line that an extra train was run up from Merrillan, Tuesday.

•••••••••

At the World’s Fair, snow has drifted 10 feet deep on the roof of the manufacturer’s building and it is thought the hundreds of tons of snow will crush the nave to atoms. The agricultural building is a wreck, full of snow.  In the liberal arts building, thousands of dollars worth of etchings lie, soaked with snow.          

•••••••••

The cold snap that hit here keeps on snappin’.  Early December and this morning the temperature is 20 below.

 

It was quite cold weather last Tuesday over on the north side.  Mr. Carlson left a hen chicken outside that evening and she went to roost in a tree. During the night, she froze stiff and solid. All day, yesterday the dead hen retained her position on the branch of a tree, just where she went to sleep and congealed.      

•••••••••

On Friday evening December 15th, there will be a six o’clock supper at the Unitarian Church dining room, given by the ladies for the purpose of raising funds to pay for the Christmas tree celebration.  Please attend and bring your friends.

•••••••••

Now and then some fool evangelist may run Neillsville down, but haven’t we built two beautiful new churches during the last two years?                                                                                    

•••••••••

It would be wise during these quiet times to think up new means of making both ends meet.

•••••••••

Not long ago, Wallace Allen of Loyal tracked a badger to a hole in some land of his nearer that village, and with a half dozen friends, went to work to dig down and capture the emblematic quadruped.  Picks, shovels and lots of muscle were brought into play and, of course, at the first stroke of the pick, the animal of the state seal, took alarm and went to digging to get away.  It was an interesting struggle. The badger kept at a neatly uniform distance below the surface and packed the dirt back of him as he progressed; packing it so solidly that it was difficult for the men to keep on his trail.  He dug through about 70 feet of ground, doubling on his track sometimes and passing under a large tree once, a trick that cost his pursuers two hours delay, then passing through a solid deposit of gravel. Finally, after six or seven hours of exciting work, the badger was overtaken and captured in a bag.  He has been presented to the city of Milwaukee and added to that city’s park zoo.                                                                                                                                                                                           

•••••••••

Last week, while the Times newspaper was at press, the genial architect, builder and statesman, J. J. McGillivray of Black River Falls, called and said Hello.  We couldn’t pump it out of him, but we believe he was up to get Lute Marsh’s new house under way to be built next spring.                                          

•••••••••

It is settled, on the streets, that we are to lose Doc. Brewster and family and that they will reside in the state of wooden nutmegs.  With both dentists away, the regular medicine fellows make no bones of yanking the tusks from suffering humanity.                                                                                                   

•••••••••

Quail Brothers, a well known lumber firm of Phillips, Wisconsin, have secured the largest contract ever made in Wisconsin by a single firm. The contract is from one of the Weyerhauser firms to land 300,000,000 ft. of timber on the Chippewa River, which extends over a period of twenty-five years.  Their headquarters will be at Hayward, Sawyer County, and operations will not begin until next year.                                                      

•••••••••

Ralph and Lou Varney passed through the city Tuesday on the way to their home at Hemlock, for the holiday vacation. They are Galesburg University students.                                            

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Tom P. Haugen, residents on Clay Street, welcomed to this world of fun, frolic and good luck, a bouncing baby boy on Dec. 11, 1893, who weighed fully 10 pounds. This is their eighth of that gender and Tom says he is a dandy, just like all of them. But Tom thinks that it’s a strange thing that the girls are so shy.

•••••••••

Wednesday evening, Dec. 27, 1893, the fine old King residence on Pleasant Ridge Road was lighted up as never before, with gay festive anticipations.  It was the occasion of the marriage of Miss Myra Naoma King, third daughter of Mrs. J. W. King, to Mr. Joseph Oldham, of here, son of Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Oldham of Levis.

 

The ceremony took place at 6 o’clock, Rev. G. N. Foster pronouncing the words that made the two one. There were 35 guests present. After the ceremony, the dining room was sought and all sat down to a banquet.

 

The presents were numerous, valuable and useful. The evening was spent with all having a good time.

 

Today, Mr. and Mrs. Oldham begin housekeeping in their new home on their farm south of Wildish’s, which is furnished and provided with every needful thing.                                                  

•••••••••

The Greenwood Gleaner shamelessly perpetrates the following:

 

A certain plump young damsel went to a store a few days ago to get a peck of apples, taking, as she supposed, a freshly laundered flour sack. She held the sack while Oscar poured in the apples.  A singular thing then happened. The fruit went through the sack and rolled over the floor.  On examination, it was found that there were two holes in the bottom of the bag, both trimmed with embroidery. Oscar fainted.

 

December 1943

 

Edward Decker has sold the South Lynn Cheese Factory and farm to Edward H. Verhagen.  Possession of the cheese factory was given as December 1.  The Deckers are intending to return to Thorp, where they have bought a home.  Mr. Decker intends to go into the local dairy business there, catering to the home trade.

 

The Deckers have been at South Lynn for five years. The factory was closed before they bought it.  They have worked up the business until they have 37 patrons.  They have a family of four children, one of whom, a girl, has been attending Neillsville High School.                                                                     

•••••••••

Thirty-three from Clark County were accepted for the November list of men called by the selective service board.  Of these, 11 went into the army, 19 into the navy and three into the marines.  It was noted as significant that the navy and marines got double the number taken for the army. Some were fathers.

 

For the army, Neillsville and vicinity contributed none. Greenwood furnished Edward T. Wolowik; Loyal sent Sherrin L. Mack; Curtiss sent Norman A. Bakke, John J. Skutak and Harold M. German, all of route 1; Withee sent Emil E. Rohland.

Owen furnished John P. Devine, Carl E. Sillampa and Onnie Puro; and Thorp sent James G. Caterina, Jr. and James W. McHenry.

 

For the Navy: Neillsville contributed Milo R. Mabie, John E. Adams, Hilmer A. Dudei and Joseph P. Reinart; Greenwood furnished Edward A. Malinowski and Lester Severson; From Withee: John L. Blunck, Edgar J. Lindjer, Lester Bytof and Edwin E. Niemi; From Thorp: Robert C. Herman and Leonard E. Krych; From Curtiss: Norbert W. Buss and Loren Peterson; From Owen: Cecil W. Beede and Thomas Simon; From Colby: Calvin E. Schultz and Arnold H. Gosse; From Dorchester: Delbert C. Drake.

 

Those joining the marines were: Russel A. Gehrke of Loyal, Jimmy C. Thomson of Chili and Stanley J. Fisher of Spencer.

•••••••••

Town of Foster News reported by Mrs. Ray Durst: Arthur Baures and several other men went up near Hawkins hunting.  Each hunter brought back a doe. 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Schutte and son returned to their home in Milwaukee after visiting relatives here several days.

 

Several farmers have gotten their lime from this locality.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Roy Durst and family spent Thanksgiving Day with Mr. and Mrs. Alvin Schutte in Neillsville.

•••••••••

Granton now has a full-fledged Rotary club.  At a banquet Tuesday evening, a token presentation of the charter was made by John P. Adler, district governor and 27 men accepted it through the fitting words of George J. Edlebeck, chosen as the club’s first president.

 

The presentation was made in the cordial atmosphere of  real outpouring of neighbors from Clark County, with more than 200 persons present in the village hall and with large representation from the Rotary clubs of Neillsville, Greenwood and loyal.

 

The Granton club takes the number 5667 among Rotary clubs and is the fortieth Rotary club to be organized in 1943.  Of the 40 new clubs, Governor John Adler said, 29 are in foreign countries and so the Granton club was the eleventh to be organized this year in the United States, and first of the year in District 143.

•••••••••

Flight Officer Douglas Hagie, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ed Hagie, writes home about being shot down, by the enemy. The bomber of which he was the pilot was shot down and he and his buddies were forced to bail out. They landed in the Pacific and were in the water several hours before being picked up by some of their comrades.

 

Douglas received several cuts about his face but was out of the hospital in a few days.

 

Just a little prior to this incident, their camp was bombed by the enemy, which did a lot of damage.

•••••••••

Neillsville, Granton, and Chili, Clark County, were right out in the world on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Instead of local people going miles to see the trains, those trains whizzed right through Clark County.  It was the first time that main line passenger trains every visited southern Clark County and it will probably be the last time, especially if the officials of the Northwestern have their way.

 

Some nine or ten main line passenger rains journeyed through this county, in addition to an indefinite number of freight trains. It was traffic such as the Omaha line had never previously dreamed of.

 

The occasion was the freight wreck of large dimensions just northwest of Merrillan.  With the main line blocked, the traffic was routed from Chippewa Falls over the Soo Line to Marshfield; then Chili, Granton and Neillsville to Merrillan, and then on the main line to Chicago.

 

The first of the mainline passengers to make this round-about trip was No. 514 which was following the wrecked freight Sunday night. That passenger train was about 15 hours late in reaching Chicago.

 

But in entertaining the traffic of the main line, southern Clark County did not play host to the 400.  This was due to the nature of the train and the fact that it does not jibe with the kind of track and curves, which are found on the Omaha line. The 400 is what is known as an articulated train, with long coaches.  It requires very gradual curves and the grades must be extra high on the outer radius of each curve. The grades and curves of the Omaha line in Clark County are of a more conservative type, not congenial to the high-flying things like the 400, which had to stay home, being absolutely canceled during the railway tie-up.                                                                    

•••••••••

The marriage of Miss Elizabeth Embke, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Embke, Town of York, and Frederick Stelter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stelter, Sr., Neillsville, took place on Saturday, December 11, at 2:30 p.m. at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Neillsville with a single ring ceremony.  The Rev. Arthur Laesch of Granton performed the ceremony, in the absence of the Rev. William A. Baumann, pastor of the church.

 

The bride wore a medium blue suit and carried a bouquet of white chrysanthemums. The bridesmaid, Miss Rosalie Stelter, Madison, sister of the groom was attired in a navy blue suit and carried yellow and white chrysanthemums.  The groom’s attendant was Roland May of Milwaukee.

 

The bride has been employed as waitress at Wagner’s Café.  The groom is a graduate of the Neillsville High School and is engaged in farming.

 

In the evening, a reception was held at the home of the bride’s parents in the Town of York. A dinner was served at 6 o’clock to 50 guests.  The couple went to housekeeping at once on the groom’s farm, Route 3, Neillsville.

•••••••••

Clark County is furnishing about 5,000 Christmas trees this year to the outside world.  These trees are carrying Christmas cheer into Iowa, Illinois and even as far away as Kansas City, Mo.

 

By the sale of these trees, Al Covell, the county forester, becomes the basic Santa Claus to unknown thousands of little people.  Not on this account has Mr. Covell changed his appearance or general style of manly beauty.  He has not affected long whiskers, or a paunch.  Indeed his view is that in the sale of Christmas trees he is nobody’s Santa Claus, but just a businessman selling forest products to the best advantage.

 

For, there is definitely a commercial side to spreading Christmas pleasure by means of trees.  From the trees the county realizes from 18 to 28 cents each, depending on the size.  For trees up to six feet high the price is 18 cents; six to eight feet, 23 cents; eight to ten feet, 28 cents.  All told the county will realize $1,000 this year from the sale of trees and this money will go into the general fund.

 

The Christmas trees are black spruce, which grow in swamps. They will not produce valuable timber.  It takes from eight to ten years for a Christmas tree to develop a height of six feet.           

•••••••••

The first “green” Christmas in many years was observed in Neillsville and surrounding vicinity last Saturday.

 

To an area so accustomed to a “white” Christmas; it was an odd circumstance; so much so that many remarked: “It hardly seems like Christmas.”

 

 

This photo taken of Loyal Main Street looking north circa 1900 (Photo courtesy of Jay Parker)

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤

 

 


© 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