January 8, 2020, Page 9, Neillsville, Clark Co., Wisconsin

Oshkosh has 1,200 men employed in the manufacture of furniture the year round. Neillsville will take a position abreast of Oshkosh in the near future. We have the factory already built.

The flow from the great artesian well at Woonsocket, South Dakota, has been brought under control. A lake covering 40 acres had been formed in the lower part of town. A dense fog has been constantly rising due to the warm water. Half pressure is now turned on, and the water runs through a six-inch pipe and throws a solid stream 150 feet. Artesian experts say the well is one of the most powerful in the world.

(During the 1930s, our family lived 25 miles southeast of Watertown, SD. I remember occasionally wading in Woonsocket Lake on hot summer days, while visiting relatives who lived nearby. Also, in that country, there was a small town named, “Artesian,” being in the center of the artesian wells district.

When an artesian aquifer is tapped by a well pipe, the pressure pushes the water up the well, sometimes all the way to the surface, creating a flowing well without the need of a pump.

There were two artesian wells on our farm site, one near the house for household use, which had a turnoff valve tap, and one near the barn for watering the livestock. Water from the well pipe near the barn ran continually, emptying into a stock tank, overflowing into a trough and then into a ditch running past the barn and onto the pasture.

Artesian well water has a large amount of alkali content. A white, salty substance would collect around the faucet of the well near the house. Out-of-the-area visitors, who weren’t accustomed to drinking artesian well water, could only drink a very small amount, otherwise their digestive systems would become upset. I remember the migrant harvest-hands who worked at shocking grain bundles on our farm becoming very sick after drinking the artesian well water.

Now in this day and age, the alkali water problem can probably be solved by an attached filtering system that removes the alkali. DZ)

For Sale: I will sell my 8 lots located on Fourth Street, between Oak and Forest streets, separately or together, at a very reasonable price.

Hemlock Mills along the Black River, north of Greenwood, has employed a new and expert miller, Mr. Hagen from La Crosse, who is now in charge and will be found to give excellent satisfaction in his work.

The Spokeville section of our county is overrun with railroad surveyors and prognosticators. Meanwhile Joe Marsh, Wallace Allen and Pete Gwin can fairly hear the steam-whistle of the C.M. & St. P. locomotives, as they whiz up through Bill Arm’s neighborhood.

L.S. Kleinschmidt, a farmer living near Nasonville, a farmer living near Nasonville, while walking along Monday carrying an ax upon his shoulder, slipped and fell, the ax striking the heel of his right foot, nearly severing a cord in the ankle.

The building is going up just west of the washboard factory. It belongs to S.F. Reineking.

Wm. Neverman and Ernest Eilert are busy cutting and stowing away ice, which is now 16 inches thick and the finest ice ever harvested.

(Neverman and Eilert were owners of the Neillsville Brewery, which was located within the block between East Sixth Street and the creek. They harvested a supply of ice off of the creek to be stored within the brewery building, so as to keep the bottled and kegged beer cooled during the warm weather. DZ)

The Neillsville Furniture Manufacturing Co. is at work, buying timber with which to stock the factory. Ash and other woods, such as birch, oak, maple, etc., will henceforth not be cut down and set afire in log heaps to get them out of the way, as was the custom ten years ago.

(To learn that quality virgin hardwood timber had been cut down, put into piles and burned as a means of getting rid of it, nearly makes one cry. A few years later, the furniture factory started making beautiful furniture out of the local hardwoods. DZ)

The drying houses at the Furniture Factory are enclosed and ready to receive lumber.

Many loads of fine oak logs are being rolled into position at the Pennock Hub and Spoke Mill from the local farmers’ bobsleds. In many instances, we noticed a single log formed a bobsled load that was bring pulled by a team of horses. It is a surprise for many to see such monster logs coming out of the neighboring woods.

G.J. Hart Grocery, opposite the Reddan House, on Third Street in Neillsville has on hand Whitefish, mackerel and trout, which can be bought by the pound. Also, it has flour, graham, cornmeal, rye flour, buckwheat; dried apricots, peaches, prunes, apples, dates, currants, figs, grapes, blackberries, raisins and in fact anything else you would want to find in a first class grocery store.

The Daniel Olsons of Greenwood have a second son, born on New Year’s Day at the Greenwood maternity home. The first son came on New Year’s Day, 1943. Mrs. Olson is the former Alice Wendt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Wendt of Greenwood.

Mary Olson sold her 80 acres of standing timber to a party in Loyal, who now have put a crew of men there cutting timber. Some of the farmers around here are also sawing logs there.

Percy Zickert, who is employed at Wisconsin Rapids, spent the holidays here with his family.

Mrs. Clayton Bassett spent several nights with her mother, Mrs. William Evans of Loyal. Her mother is recuperating from recent surgery.

Mr. and Mrs. Clayton Bassett and family spent Christmas at the Harvey Brussow home at Loyal,.

Norbert Lavey, son of Mr. and Mrs. Glynn Lavey, is employed on the Albert Grimm farm.

Mr. and Mrs. Walter King and sons of Coloma came up Sunday and spent the day with relatives in the area.

Beverly Amundson of Neenah was a house guest of Mr. and Mrs. William G. Lindow and daughter, Alvira over the New Year Holiday.

Little Jeanette Pusheck, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Pusheck, was honored guest at a birthday party on Sunday. It was her seventh birthday.

The Dickey property is now in the legal possession of the local school district. The transaction was concluded a few days ago when C.R. Sturdevant, clerk of the board, drew an order for the funds, signed it with David E. Thayer, and made delivery to William A. Campman. He then received the deed.

The completion of this purchase had taken some time, chiefly because of the necessity of adjusting heirships’ interests. The years have brought changes to the Dickey family, including the death of Mary A. Dickey, the mother, Edgar E. Dickey, one of the two sons; and Blanche Dickey, who once taught the first and second grades of the public schools here.

Surviving of the family formerly living here are Marion Dickey, who taught the seventh and eighth grades, and Chauncey B. Dickey, a brother. There two signed the deed, and also Marion E. Dickey, a son of Edgar.

The passing of this deed is an historic occasion, for it marks the first transfer of this property since May 15, 1865. It was upon that date that Mary A. Dickey, the mother, bought the land from James O’Neill, Senior, who was one of the original O’Neill’s in these parts, an uncle of Judge James O’Neill. Since that time, the Dickey family has resolutely held out against efforts to get them to part with this land. Various persons have tried to buy it, but they would not sell; not until there was a prospect that the land could be used for a new high school. That project appealed to Marion Dickey, the former teacher, and she promptly gave her consent. This happened in the early summer of 1944. The deliberation of the subsequent proceedings has been necessitated by the legal situation, and not all by the Dickeys, who have proceeded steadily in their purpose to get the property into the hands of the school district. The consideration, $1,500 was a modest valuation for the approximately 15 acres, which has been perhaps the most viewable and best situated, vacant piece of land in the residential area of Neillsville.

The Dickeys have been gone from Neillsville for many years, but their retention of the land was supposed to speak for the intention to return some day and to build upon it. The old Dickey home, a small frame house, is in ruins now, but it still commands the one best view from Neillsville, the Neillsville mounds to the northwest, and the broad sweep of the golf course and the fairgrounds to the southeast. This little frame house is close the spot upon which a new high school building would logically be constructed.

This land is but two removes from the government of the United States. It was part of a forty upon which James O’Neill, Sr., entered August 4, 1853. He was, at that time, consolidating the city of Neillsville. He then entered five forties in what is now the central part of Neillsville, including the business district. He took a patent from the government upon the forty in question November 15, 1854. Presumably, he paid for this land approximately what is now considered to have been the going rate of about that time or a little later, $1.25 per acre. The Dickey site presumably cost him about $20.

When O’Neill purchased the land from the government in 1853, it was just a piece of woods, located near a creek. Nobody else would have given more for it. Its increase in value has come slowly with the years. Two full generations have come and gone since that purchase from the government.

The residence of the Dickeys upon this land must have extended close to 40 years. Mrs. Dickey, the mother, is credited with extraordinary character and capacity, for her children were recognized for their good conduct and good manners. They did not have any great lot of money. The father had a little shop on the extreme northeast corner of the site, not far from the house. The recollection as to what he made there is a little vague. One of the old-timers thinks he did blacksmithing; another that he was a cooper and sometimes made beer barrels for the local brewery. He is also supposed to have worked the land on the property.

As for the children, the two girls, Blanche and Marion, taught in the local schools. Edgar was clerk of a local store, perhaps in the Dickenson store, or in the store of Hewett & Wood. Like his sisters, he was a worker, and it was he who led the family to Portland. The fourth child was Chauncey B., a deaf mute, who is still living and lives with his sister in Oregon.

The decision to buy the property was reached at the annual school meeting, held last summer. The vote was taken after Fred Bullard reported on the successful transaction of preliminary negotiations that were conducted by him with Miss Dickey.

T/5 Norman DeCremer arrived in Neillsville early Monday morning on a 21-day furlough at the home of his mother, Mrs. Alma DeCremer. The past Christmas was his fifth Christmas away from home, as he left Neillsville with the service company in October 1940. He has served in New Guinea and was overseas 12 months. Norman says that the sight of the Golden Gate in San Francisco harbor was the most welcome of his whole life.

Kenneth Olson graduated last Tuesday from officer’s training at Ft. Benning, Ga., with a commission of 2nd lieutenant. Mrs. Olson, who has been there with him since Christmas, accompanied him to Neillsville Thursday for a few days visit at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Oluf Olson. They left for a short visit with her father at Crandon and will then go to Ft. Fannin, Texas, where Mr. Olson is to report for duty.

Pfc. Howard A. Canfield, better known by the boys as “Buck,” left in 1941 with the 128th Division. He has had 33 months overseas duty in the southwest Pacific. He is now in the Philippine Islands. His brother, S 1/c Raymond P. Canfield, has had 16 months of service in the Navy. He is now at the naval aviation-training center in Memphis, Tenn.

Miss Katherine Perman, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Dan Perman of Greenwood is taking cadet nurse training at St. Luke’s Hospital, Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Perman have another daughter in the navy nurse corps, a son in the navy and a son-in-law in the army air force.

For Sale: House on the Main Street of Granton, Wisconsin, located on the corner just north of the bank. A well built house, electricity and water. Why pay high rent when you can buy a house like this for one-half cost? I am anxious to liquidate this item. Bargain price. Liberal terms.

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