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Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin
April 17, 2013,
Page 9
Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"
Transcribed by
Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.
Index
of "Oldies" Articles
Compiled by Dee Zimmerman
Clark County News
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April 1883
Mr.
Howard, of Pleasant Ridge, expects to clear five acres on his land that is near
the Cunningham Creek, this week.
The saw mill that has been moved up
to Washburn is at work there, using up more logs than it has ever sawed before.
David Carter has moved his
housekeeping effects up to the mill and now he sits under his own vine and fig
tree. He will work there for Schuster at
present.
County Clerk Charles F. Grow has
taken possession of the residence attached to the jail at the court house and
will supply the prisoners with food at the rate fixed upon by the County board.
The rent he offered to pay the county made it very desirable for the county to
accept.
Stop in at John Hoffmans Bakery &
Lunch House on Second Street in Neillsville.
There will be Fresh Bread, Pies,
Cakes, Rolls & other bakery, along with Lunch Accommodations. Hot Coffee & Tea
Farmers visiting town will find this
a good place to take dinner. Terms reasonable
Early this week, the gates on Dells
Dam on Black River were all carried away by the flood and it was by the merest
good luck that the bridge superstructure was left standing. Residents along the
river down in Levis were compelled to move to higher ground. The damage to the
dam is roughly estimated to be $2,000.
Last Sunday, April 8, a few
fortunate ones beheld the spectacle of the ONeill Creek breakup. It was a
grand site. Standing on the Main Street Bridge and looking down, the ice seemed
as firm, fixed and solid as it had all winter. Gradually the ice appeared to
rise. Up at the creeks bend quite a commotion was seen and heard. Great
pressure was evidently bearing against the firm ice near the bridge, suddenly
the ice cracked into separate sheets, which began crushing and battering against
each other.
With a big sweep the flood came down
from upstream and within ten minutes the tame looking ice covered creek had
become a swift and turbulent torrent, hurling blocks of ice against the bridge
guards, bulging, bellowing, breaking and pouring logs, ice, roots and muddy
water along the creek channel, making a stormy and lively rout. The piers just
below the bridge were dismantled and soon looked as if in need of repair. When
the creek flood reached Black River that stream was covered with smooth ice.
Three quarters of an hour later there was not a bit of fast ice to be seen below
the mouth of the creek. Logs will be running soon.
Colburns flouring mill was
compelled to suspend work several days on account of the ONeill Creek flood.
Since Arthur Hutchinson, formerly
postmaster at Pleasant Ridge has moved away that office has caused a little
inconvenience, but we are happy to state that at last matters have been arranged
to the satisfaction of all. Mr. Fred Vine, town clerk of Grant, has become
postmaster and the Department has changed the mail route, so that instead of
going by way of Kurths Corners the stage hereafter will turn northward at the
Ridge Church and then to Mr. Vines, striking the old route at the corner near
Howards. The distance is the same, but with a little more hill-climbing to do,
perhaps.
Saturday morning while the
locomotive was on the turntable at the depot, the turntable wheels ran off the
circular track nearly upsetting the engine, causing a delay of two
hours.
What might be called a double stick
occurred Saturday afternoon on Third Street, in front of the Bradshaw residence,
the participants therein being Mr. C. Krumway with his grays hauling a load of
sawdust, and Mr. Wm. Cornick, with a span of horses and a load of hay. The mud
at this time was deep as Dives in his crimes and for a short time mud,
bywords, horses, cattle drivers, sawdust and hay were made to fly, but finally
they all got out and drove away serenely. A few minutes before this happened a
wagonload of beer kegs got stuck there, but, not being too full of beer, the
kegs that is, the driver got out all
right.
Sol F. Jaseph has sold his neat
little cottage adjoining the Presbyterian Church to Mr. H. A. North, one of our
new hardware firm owners, for $1,000 and bought the Everett Bacon residence and
lot for $1,500.
A quartette of young dudes of Fond
du Lac wasted their sweetness for two mortal hours in trying to draw a response
to their serenade from a vacant house, where formerly lived a lady fair.
Tuesday, a person with a loathsome
disease of a dangerous character applied to poor commissioner Wm. Campbell for
assistance. That evening overseer Fike loaded the youth into the poor farm wagon
and took him over the hill. An attempt to get him boarded in the city was
unsuccessful. His advent into poor farm society makes the total number of
paupers ten.
April 1943
What the
Neillsville public schools are doing for the war was told to the Rotary club
Tuesday evening by Walter Scott, a Victory speaker from the high School. Walter
was demonstrating to Rotarians that the schools are functioning importantly and
paying their way. H instanced the following activities: course in pre-flight
aeronautics, saving time in later training; new courses in mathematics;
practical instruction in welding, with two machines available for work;
instruction in radio code; course to develop physical fitness; making model
airplanes; help with the lab or problem; cooperation with the Red Cross;
organization of extension classes for adults; the Victory speakers.
ONeill Creek went on a rampage, ice
and water, Tuesday at noon, March 30. The ice broke up and moved out, on the
high and rising waters. Great ice floes smashed high up on the banks, pushing
the old bathhouse aside on the south, and smashing the siding and underpinning
of the Ghent building on the north side.
The damage to the Ghent building was
threatening, as he ice tore away supporting members. It became necessary to
place temporary beams under the south wall.
The water in the creek and river was
approaching flood levels, with considerable loose ice moving downstream. Out of
the river, however, the main body of the ice had gone some time ago.
As a precaution, vehicular traffic
over the Grand Avenue Bridge was suspended.
The ONeill Creek at
flood stage, when the water rose within inches of the Grand Avenue
Bridges platform; happening more than once throughout the years of
that bridges existence. |
Fred
Bullard once asked his father for twenty cents to buy skate straps. He got the
money. It was the first and last time he ever asked his father for money.
Sometimes his mother gave him a little and she generally looked after his needs,
but from the time he was thirteen years of age he bought his own clothes and it
was not long before he was on his own altogether.
The
Bullard family, including the son, was of the old style. The father, Warren C.,
worked in the Neillsville saw mills and factories. When he was going steady, he
made $1.50 per day. Somehow the Bullard got along, but Fred grew up with a
healthful idea of the value of a penny. He was assisted in this endeavor by the
rate of pay, which he earned when at the age of 15 he worked eleven hours a day
for the Hein Stave mill. The pay was 50 cents a day. He was also assisted by
the rate he received when he went into the old electric light plant, with the
purpose of learning how to run it. He was paid $6 per month and they threw in
the chance to learn for good measure.
The modest
scale of earnings of his youth taught Fred V. Bullard the necessity of
managing. If returns could not be large, the way must be found to stretch what
came and to supplement it. One of the best ways, both to stretch and supplement
was to tend garden. When the Bullards lived on Seventh Street, not far from the
present Clark County hatchery, there were gardens on the surrounding areas,
including the present site of The Press building. Young Fred, then 13, went to
work in those gardens. It was his first whack at gardens and he has been
whacking away at them ever since. Each summer he has a big garden, adjoining
his home on the North Side. He finds it a good way to keep out of mischief and
to furnish food for the tight Wisconsin winters.
Early
learning to work, Fred Bullard had relatively little time for formal education.
He worked and went to school. He cared for cows and horses. One winter he
worked for Judge ONeill. He stuck it out until he had finished the seventh
grade. Most of the time since he has wished that he could have gone farther;
but work was on his trail, or he was on its trail and he had to let the long
hours of labor take the place of hours of formal education.
If Fred
Bullard learned less from books then he would have liked, he learned more about
machinery. He was one of the first to know about an electric light plant,
Neillsville being the third city in the United States to have electric lights.
He worked there 10 years or more and he learned a lot, not only about
electricity but also about steam, for in Neillsville the electricity was then
generated by steam. Always he has worked with machinery since. If his work was
not directly with machinery, he found machines to work with as a hobby. He now
has, in the basement of the North Side School, of which he is janitor, a
veritable machine shop, consisting almost wholly of machines, which he has
pieced together with odds and ends. In this way he has provided himself with a
sander, a wood-turning lathe, a drill press, a jig saw and a hand saw.
But there
is one thing in his machine shop, in the basement of the North Side School,
which Fred Bullard did not improvise. That is a combination saw, which is the
apple of Fred Bullards eye. That saw was the result of the good will of the
pupils and teachers of the North Side School. They wanted to give him something
for Christmas, in accordance with their usual kindly custom. They asked him
what. To him the what meant the combination saw, which he had wanted, and
thats what it was?
This
combination saw and three shirts and two sweaters and some other little things
from the children and teachers of the North Side School are the best evidence
that Fred Bullard has leaned that doesnt come from books. Out of the tight
experience of hard work he has learned the common touch. H knows the life of
people who work, because he has worked, modestly and earnestly throughout his
life in Neillsville of nearly a half century. He likes to think of himself, in
connection with the North Side School, not primarily as the man who keeps the
building warm and clean, but rather the friends of 90 or more North Side
children who attend there, and the friend and helper of the teachers who work
there.
One of the
things in which Fred Bullard is not educated in is politics. He never ran for a
public office until this spring, when he became a candidate for alderman in the
First Ward. He is diffident about his abilities as a vote-getter, and he does
not hold himself as an expert in city affairs. But if the old First Ward can
make use of such services as he can render, he would take considerable pride in
becoming alderman of the ward, which was once represented by his father-in-law,
the late W. W. Taplin, and in which he and the members of his family have spent
many years of pleasant associations.
Mr.
Bullard came to Neillsville in 1886, and he has resided here ever since, except
for short absences, the most stirring of which was his service with the local
company with the Spanish-American War. In the war, he went to Puerto Rico,
being in active service eight
months.
Axel Sorensen, chairman of the
committee rationing farm machinery, has been notified to stop rationing farm
fencing. This item may now be purchased without
restriction.
Government wheat will be available
in Clark County at about $1.14 per bushel. This is the prospective price, based
upon the normal mark-up. The sales to dealers will be on the current price at
the time of shipping, that price today being $1.05 per bushel.
At this price Clark County will be
taking on a share of the 100 million bushels of wheat now released from the
government surplus. Notification of the release of this wheat has been received
by Axel Sorensen, chairman of the AAA, pursuant to act of
congress.
Approximately 200,000 gardens will
be planted this spring by families living upon the rural routes in Wisconsin.
This is the estimate made by O. B.
Combs, extension horticulturist at the University of Wisconsin, after conferring
with county agents and neighborhood leaders throughout the state on producing
the 1943 family food supply.
Vinton Lee has returned from
Milwaukee, where he spent the winter, to work as a cheese and buttermaker for
the Neillsville Milk Products Cooperative, taking the position formerly held by
Harry Schlinsog. Mr. Schlinsog and his family will move to the Pleasant Ridge
Creamery, which he will operate beginning April 15th.
Harts South Side Grocery Specials,
Soda Crackers 2 lbs. 29’; North Dakota Spuds 100# $3.65; Hamburger, 5 rationing
points, 29’ lb.; Sliced Bacon, 8 points, 35’ lb.
The Franklin School, Town of
Fremont, will be closed during the next school year. This was determined at a
meeting of the electors of the district last week, the vote being 10 to 6 in
favor of the closing. The decision affects only the coming school year.
The pupils of the Franklin School
have numbered 10 the current year, with the prospect of perhaps even fewer in
the coming year. All of the children with possibly one exception are within
walking distance of other schools.
The Franklin School thus becomes a
war casualty. The decision has also been reached to reduce the White Eagle
State Graded School in the Town of Thorp from two rooms to one. The current
enrollment is 28.
(The Franklin School was located
one mile south and 3½ miles west of Chili. White Eagle State Graded School was
4½ miles west and 3 ½ miles north of Thorp. DZ)
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