December 1909

Last week, the New Restaurant opened the doors in the building just west of the Neillsville Bank, and Mrs. Baum has indeed a neat and clean little restaurant.  Lunches of all kinds will be served at all hours and regular meals will be served at the rate of 25 cents per meal.  Mrs. Baum will also keep on hand at all times an excellent supply of home baked goods of all kinds.  On next Saturday afternoon a free lunch will be served to all who call and inspect the new restaurant and the public in general is invited to call.  A special Thanksgiving Dinner is being prepared.

Some other specials are: Boston baked beans, 15, 20 and 25¢ jars.

Waffles and coffee served during the holidays, only 10¢.

Homemade nut and wheat bread available every day.                            

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Tragsdorf, Zimmerman & Co. has just finished trimming a beautiful line of ladies hats for Thanksgiving wear.  They have nearly every conceivable shape and color and the prices are reduced 15%.  To those who wish a new hat, this is their grand opportunity.                                                                                            

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Jim Paulus and Ole Hauge were deer hunting.  They both came back empty handed, but not because they did not see any deer to shoot at.  Quite the reverse, they saw so many that the inhabitants south of Thorp thought that a small war was in progress.  But it was a bad case of buck fever.  One day Jim was walking along an old logging road when he almost stepped on a fine buck.  Jim has a keen sense of justice, and he did not feel that it was altogether fair to kill the buck at his feet without giving it a chance.  So he gave it a kick and started it off so that it would have an equal chance for its life.  The buck took advantage of it, but he says that as the buck was up in the air most of the time, it confused him and he fired all his ammunition through the tops of the trees.

Ole was equally fortunate in seeing game, but his companions say that whenever he cited a deer he would stand watching it, lost in admiration of its beauty and grace.  Ole always did have an eye for beauty and he said that those deer looked as pretty as three queens and he did not have the heart to shoot them.      

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Our entire stock of groceries, dry goods, tobacco, patent medicines, gents furnishing goods, stationery, hats, caps, shoes, overshoes camp blankets, hardware and tinware must be sold within the next 10 days and we are offering anything and everything to be sold.  Phone orders must be paid for on delivery.  It will pay you to visit our store.  A. J. Swope & Co. at Dells Dam                                                                                                 

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Tuesday, a deal was closed, wherein Dwyer & Wolff sold their meat market in the Rabenstein building to Jacob Malter.  Mr. Malter took possession yesterday morning.  Wm. Betz is working for him.

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Monogram fobs made to order.  Just the thing for Christmas giving; Get your order in early at Nelson’s Jewelry in Neillsville.                                                                                                 

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Ben Thoma, Nick Linster and Albert Wagner, all from the Town of Weston, returned from logging camp on account of bad weather. Nick had bad luck.  Someone stole his grip with all his camp supplies, so he really had to return home.  But some think that Nick gave it away so he would have an excuse to go home, because he is not very fond of the lumberjack trade.

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The value of cats in the postal service has come to be so well recognized that an annual appropriation is made by Congress for their maintenance.  They are classed as employees and so carried on the payrolls.  Instead, however, of being paid in coin of the realm they are rewarded in “cat meat.”

Up to the present time, the government, which is every ready to adopt the most approved methods, is satisfied that cats are catchers of mice, the rodents, which tamper with mail.  Although it is a time of rigid economy in the department and of reduction of expenses, it has not been thought expedient to decrease the appropriation for cat hire or reduce the number of cat employees.  The only thing at present that threatens to deprive the cats of their official positions seems to be the ever-soaring price of meat.

During the present fiscal year, the department will expend for the cats $135, a sum by no means excessive from which the government is receiving ample returns.                                           

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The Village of Chili was started when the Omaha railroad was built in 1890.  Before that time, the principal settlers in around there were Ira and Sydney Fike, who came from Michigan a generation or so before and were logging for a Necedah firm.  Whiston Davis was also one of the early settlers.  P.N. Christenson operated a saw mill there for many years.  Since the village plat was laid out, it has had steady growth until now, it is a settlement of about 200 inhabitants and has a bank, Farmers Cooperative Produce Company, two general stores, a hardware store, cheese factory, garage, harness shop, meat market and potato warehouse.

A year or so ago, Chili occupied a front page position in the newspapers on account of a bold robbery in mid-day, a stranger dropping off the afternoon train, entered the bank, held a gun to the cashier and made away with several thousand dollars and not a trace of him was found, although the alarm was sounded and hundreds of men searched every nook and corner for miles around for several days.

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A circa 1920 photo of a railroad maintenance crew while they were working on the

Omaha track that ran through Chili (Photo courtesy of Jay Parker)

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George Ure and Gottlieb Sternitzky were the founders of the Town of Lynn and little village of the same name.  Mr Ure is the father of the present clerk of court and secretary of the Lynn Mutual Fire Insurance Co. and Lynn Mutual Tornado Insurance Company.  Mr. Sternitzky was the father of Henry, Charles, Ernest, and James Sternitzky, all prominent Clark County residents.  The two pioneers came from Chicago in 1855, Mr. Ure paying $300 for an eighty, which he never saw, but which turned out to be a first-class piece of land, now worth thirty or forty times the cost price.  They drove through from Sparta with a team of horses.  Bartemus Brooks and sons Alonzo, Dan and Erwin were also among the first-comers.  Archibald Yorkston arrived shortly after and Frederick Yankee with his sons August, William, Herman and Henry, all of whom are well known Clark County residents today.

In the old days it was the custom for all the settlers to club together and go to Sparta for flour once a year.  One year, Mr. Hoover was so sick that he could not accompany the caravan and when they returned, they found him without flour in the house.  He dickered with a neighbor for a barrel of flour in exchange for forty acres of land, on which later over a million feet of pine lumber was cut by W. T. Price.

Lynn is a station on the branch line of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad up from Babcock where it connects with the main line.  This line crosses the Omaha railroad a half-mile from Lynn.  The two roads were built at the same time and there was a sharp clash when the construction crews met at the junction.  The Omaha was pushing through from Neillsville to Marshfield and the St. Paul had dreams of a through line to the Superior country.  The St. Paul got to the crossing first and chained an engine to the tracks with a carload of armed men guarding the right-of-way and for several days excitement ran high, although it subsided without any physical violence.  The Wisconsin Central trains pushed through a line to Ashland about the same time and the St. Paul never completed its line, but the prompt work of the contractors in those early days gave it the right-of-way at the junction, although it runs only three or four trains a week, while the Omaha has several through trains daily.

December 1949

George Mensik, once a member of the Joe Saltis gang in Chicago, now converted to Christianity, will be the speaker at the Greenwood Rural Missions Church at meetings to be held December 6, 7 and  8 at 8 p.m.

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A mystery “car snatcher” who borrowed the car of John Rychnovsky, Neillsville, on Monday evening and used the vehicle in a wild joy ride before returning it, is sought, Police Chief Drescher said Tuesday.

The Rychnovsky car had been parked on East Sixth Street alongside the post office Monday evening, while its owner went to the movie.  At about 10:30, the car was seen rolling down Hewett Street from the south.  It whipped to a sharp U-turn and slewed to a stop before the Lato Tavern.  Rychnovsky was called from the theater and Drescher informed, but the joy-rider had already made his escape, after caving in the right front door of Rychnovsky’s car at some time during the evening.  When the mystery driver made his spectacular stop, he slid his borrowed vehicle against an auto belonging to Darel Kuhl, Route 3 Loyal, and damaged the bumper of the Kuhl car.

Chief Drescher said the driver was unidentified, and must have escaped while the witnesses were in the theater calling Rychnovsky.  It is not known how long the car had been used, Drescher said.

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Workers at the Farmers’ Union mill here have been fighting a losing battle with a nine-foot hole.  With shovels flying, they sought to drive a nine-foot excavation into soil underlying the mill.  The hole was to provide a testing place for the mill’s new 75-horse-power hammer mill.

What appeared to be solid mother earth on the surface, however, proved to be quick-sand.  As fast as the hole was reamed out to a sizable depth, the walls collapsed and the work had to be repeated.

The project has consumed two weeks, and it appears the hole has forced the fight to a draw.  The Farmers’ Union men have decided to affect a compromise.  They’ve dug a hole, but the revised model is only 6 foot deep, rather than the nine-foot depth originally called for.                                                                      

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Talent in profusion was in evidence last Sunday evening at the Christmas Concert at the Holy Family Church at Willard, given by the parish choir and band.  This Slovenian congregation mixed the English and the Slovenian tongues, both in their printed programs and in their execution.  Thus the concert was unique.

The concert started with “God Bless America,” played by the parish band, which followed with “My Home Land,” speaking for the attachment still felt by the older people for the land of their birth.  Then the choir rendered three numbers in a light vein, for which William Kuntara played piano accompaniment.  Then there were three numbers, two of which were by Mr. Frank Sladich on the Hawaiian citara and the third by Edward Pekol on the accordion.

In the next section, the Volovsek orchestra took over and then Sylvester Debevec sang a solo, with the mixed choir helping.  In another number, parts were taken by Johnny, Vicky and Maryann Stout.  Then, Gary Ruzich on the piano and Jimmy Mallmann with the clarinet did a number, followed by a trio, with Mrs. Angeline Ruzich at the piano, Donna Ruzich with the flute and Junior Ruzich with the clarinet.

William Kuntara sang a bass solo, with the mixed choir and Edward Pekol on the accordion.  The concert concluded with the singing of America, accompanied by the band.

The church choir, heard to advantage in the concert, consisted of the following: organist, Mrs. Angeline Ruzich; singers were: Mrs. John Lesar, Mrs. Joseph Lesar, Mrs. Antonia Gosar, Mrs. Mary Stout, Mrs. Margaret Lunka, Miss Agnes Lesar, Miss Betty Volovsek, Mrs. Virginia Volovsek, Ivan Ruzich, John Lesar, John Volovsek, Tony Gosar, Alexander Metlikovic, Junior Ruzich, Alphonse Volovsek, Sylvester Debevec and William Kuntara.

The parish band consisted of Adolph Volovsek, John Volovsek, William Volovsek, Tony Volovsek, Betty Volovsek, Frank Volovsek, Sr., Edward Pekol, Angeline Ruzich, Junior Ruzich, Grace Landwehr, Elaine Kuenkel, Barbara Koschak, Donald Lesar, Aves Lunka, Charles Krapf, Paul Plautz, Philip Plautz, Jimmy Mallmann, Frank Sladich, Anna Sladich and William Kuntara.

The concert was directed by William Kuntara. 

Included in the audience were persons from Neillsville, Greenwood, Owen, Marshfield and Cadott.

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The annual Christmas party of the Rotary club was held last Saturday evening with an estimated 60 persons dining and dancing at the Merchant’s Hotel.

In the course of the evening, Santa Claus arrived with a host of presents to be distributed in another of his pre-Christmas stops at Neillsville.

Miss Sally Butler, international president of the Business and Professional Women’s clubs, speaker of the evening, discussed Christmas in other lands.

The Nemitz Brothers supplied music for dancing, following the distribution of gifts.  The program has been arranged by Art Epding, Rotary president.                                                                 

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About 200 Lutefisk lovers disposed of 200 lbs. of the Norwegian dish at the Legion Lutefisk and Lefse supper at the Legion Hall last week. At the same time, they consumed about 300 pieces of Lefse, each piece averaging 12 inches in diameter.

Serving began at 5:30 p.m. and continued until 10 p.m., Mrs. Otto Schlimme reported, but the heaviest traffic in Lutefisk sales came between 6 and 8:30 p.m. 

Along with the Lutefisk and that 300 feet of Lefse, ham was served baked in wine sauce, but the Lefse was the biggest job preparing.  A crew of five women began Sunday afternoon preparing potatoes, went back at the job Monday afternoon, and spent all day Tuesday getting this flat food ready for the table.

Amongst those preparing the dinner were: Mrs. Walter Borde, Mrs. Otto Schlimme, Mrs. Rose Milton, Mrs. John Gullikson, Mrs. Della Botnen, Mrs. Otto Dux, Mrs. William Seelow, Mrs. Anna Kleckner; Mrs. Minerva Viergutz was in charge of the dining room.  There were 14 waiters, assisted by Legion members.

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