February 26, 2020, Page 21, Neillsville, Clark Co., Wisconsin

Homer Root reports an incident that occurred to him recently in Milwaukee, which shows that honesty still exists and is appreciated. The correspondence below explains the matter:

Dear Sir: At midnight on Jan. 29, I bought a ticket from you to Neillsville, Wis. I handed you $10 and received back $2.45, which was correct. I took care of the $2, but carelessly left the 45¢ just outside your ticket window. If you noticed it and took care of it, please mail it to me in the stamped addressed envelope, enclosed here with, and this oblige.

Who says that honesty has gone glimmering to the past? Who says that this lively world is getting worse instead of better?

You sent me 5¢ too much. Enclosed herewith please find the same and also 10¢ extra with which you can buy a cigar.

Drs. Milton C. and Sarah Rosekrans and Mr. and Mrs. Donald E. Peters motored to Eau Claire Sunday where Dr. Sarah Rosekrans took work at the child clinic. She expects to return later this week. On the return from Eau Claire, Dr. Rosekrans’ car got stuck four times in the drifting snow, then he and Mr. Peters were required to engage in some fancy shoveling before they got back home.

The above photo of Dr. Milton and Dr. Sarah Rosekrans was taken while they were vacationing in the Rocky Mountains. Milton and Sarah (Didriksen) met while both were medical students at the University of Minnesota. After getting married, following their internship in 1927, they came to Neillsville to set up their medical practice. Milton, who enjoyed outdoor sports, had grown up in Hixton. (Photo courtesy of Clark County Jail Museum.)

Last Thursday, Feb. 21, the ice on Black River went out, the earliest, according to old-timers, since 1877, the year of the Al Brown winter. During the warm spell, the snow left, and hundreds of motorists took advantage of the weather Sunday to enjoy an outing. A large number of golf fans spent the afternoon Sunday at the Pinecrest and reported the course in excellent playing condition.

By Tuesday, most of the frost had come out of the ground and sinkholes were appearing in the roads. It was feared by some that the warm weather would start fruit trees blossoming and result in a shortage of fruit when cold weather returned and killed the buds.

Mr. and Mrs. Baird are happy over the birth of a little girl. Mrs. Baird and baby are at the home of her mother, Mrs. Shupe.

Mrs. B. Christman, suffered a broken hip when she fell in her home a couple of weeks ago. She is at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

A number of Star Cheese Factory patrons met at E. Keuer’s home Saturday evening to see about last year’s end balance due them.

Mrs. Paul Nitschke and little girls spent several days with her parents last week.

Mr. and Mrs. Orin Montgomery and son Byrl, and Mr. and Mrs. R. Quicker and family visited at Harold Lavey’s Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dorst and daughter attended a card party at Bill Eibergen’s Saturday night.

Capt. Kenneth Boullion, who is on a furlough because of his feet being frozen in the Belgian fighting, spent a couple of days at the home of his parents in Humbird. His mother accompanied him to Minneapolis Tuesday. He expects to spend the rest of his time with his family in Bismarck, N.D. Capt. Boullion and his company spent 36 hours in a hillside trench without food and proper clothing to protect them from the cold weather while under continuous mortar fire from the enemy.

First Lieut. Arthur R. Wagner of Neillsville, Wis., recently was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for gallantry in action.

He is the husband of Mrs. Dolores I. Wagner, who is living at 151 North Prospect Ave., Neillsville.

Lieut. Wagner is serving with the 83rd Division, commanded by Major General Robert C. Macon, which landed in France in Mid-June. His division assisted in spearheading the drive from Carentan to Periers, Normandy, then captured the fortress of St. Malo in Brittany. The division also fought in northern France, Luxemburg and Germany.

Clarence L. Sturdevant, a son of Neillsville, has been nominated to the temporary rank of major general, his name appearing on a list of promotions of general officers. Gen. Sturdevant is assistant chief of engineers. He was chiefly responsible for the engineering of the Alcan Highway of 1,630 miles. After that project was under way, he participated in engineering surveys in New Guinea and nearby islands.

A glimpse of the Red Arrow division’s activities on Leyle is given by General Orders No. 104, issued by W. H. Gill, major general in command. These orders were issued on December 22, just before Christmas and just after the Thirty-Second, or Red Arrow division mopped up the Japanese in the Ormoc Valley. A copy of these orders was sent to Mrs. Allen Montgomery of Granton, by her husband, Pfc. Allen Montgomery, who is fighting with the 32nd division in the Philippines.

First Lieut. Norbert D. Moh of Granton has returned from a tour of 21 months overseas. During his year of duty as a First Pilot on a troop carrier plane, he was stationed in Africa, Sicily and England. He took part in the airborne invasion of Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Holland, besides supplying and evacuating troops during the battles. Having visited over 25 countries, he still thinks there is no place like Wisconsin.

Although his ship was severely shot up at times, neither he nor any of his crew was injured and he returned safely to his base. At the time of his return from overseas, he was a flight leader in a Pathfinder squadron.

He wears an Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, and the European Theater ribbon with four campaign stars and the presidential ribbon.

Lt. Moh came home via Kansas City, where he was joined by his wife, and will spend a short leave at the home of his mother, Mrs. Dora Moh, Granton. He will report to Florida for reassignment.

In one of the most dramatic exploits of World War II, American Rangers and guerrillas snatched 513 men of Bataan, Corregidor and Singapore from under the flaming muzzles of Japanese guns. This was done on Luzon Island on Tuesday night of last week.

One hundred twenty-six picked men of the Sixth ranger battalion and 286 Filipino guerrillas, under the command of Lieut. Col. Henry Mucci of Bridgeport, Conn., made a commando raid 25 miles behind Japanese lines to empty a prison camp and partly fulfill one of the Philippines objectives closest to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s heart.

They took Japanese guards by surprise and rescued 486 Americans, 23 British, 3 Netherlanders and 1 Norwegian; all that were left in the prison camp in Nueva Ecija province of eastern Luzon.

Many more hundreds of able-bodied war prisoners had been sent to work camps in Japan. Hundreds of others had died.

The rangers attacked with such merciless precision that not one of the Japanese stockade guards was left alive.

All but two of the men were brought out alive. Two enfeebled hearts flickered out when the men were in sight of the American lines.

Within 27 minutes all captives had been released and were on their 25-mile journey to freedom, some walking, others carried on backs of husky rangers or riding on carabao carts. Nearly 100 were so weak from malnutrition, disease and three-year-old wounds that they could not walk.

The rescue cost the lives of 27 rangers and Filipinos as the commando unit fought off continuous savage tank led Japanese attacks along the escape corridor. The raiders killed 523 Japanese, more than one for every prisoner released, and knocked out 12 enemy tanks. The Japanese force tried to intercept the fugitives. But the gallant stand of the guerrillas had given the rangers enough of a start so as to escape.

This first mass liberation of Allied prisoners of war in the western Pacific was accomplished by an all-night forced march east of the American lines to Cabu.

The commando force left American lines under protection of air cover without detection.

The raid, ordered on short notice when intelligence reports disclosed the whereabouts of the camp, was such a success that Gen. MacArthur decorated every man in the force.

Col. Mucci was awarded the distinguished service cross, Maj. Robert Lapham off Davenport, Ia., who led the guerrillas, and all other officers were awarded the silver star, and all enlisted men the bronze star “for this heroic enterprise.”

“No incident of the campaign has given me such personal satisfaction,” Gen. MacArthur said.

(The above news article is a reminder of the horrors experienced by these American and some Allied soldiers who were captured, tortured and held prisoners for a period of time by the Japanese armed forces during World War II. As time goes on, such atrocities can be forgotten or denied of ever happening. Let us remember. DZ)

Neillsville relatives and friends of Capt. Charles Leasum, whose home is in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., were overjoyed to learn that he was one the 513 Allied war prisoners rescue from the Japanese prison camp at Cabatuan on Jan. 30, after more than two years of imprisonment. Prior to the war, Capt. Leasum was a practicing physician and surgeon in a government hospital at Sturgeon Bay. Capt. Leasum is a cousin of Mrs. John Mattson of Neillsville; his mother, now residing in Blair, is a sister of Mrs. Mattson’s mother, the late Mrs. Nettie Hanson. One brother, Dr. Nels Leasum, is located at Osseo.

You will be given six weeks of basic training before being sent to a recognized Army Medical Technician School. After six weeks, you will have four weeks of additional on-the-job training. Those who qualify will become Technicians Fifth Grade immediately on completion of their training.

The Rev. James Cerne, one-time pastor of the Holy Family Church in Willard, is understood to be among German internees returning to the United States aboard the Grisholm, Swedish exchange ship.

Taken by the Germans when they overran Yugoslavia, Rev. Cerne has been confined in a concentration camp in Bavaria, according to information of friends here.

Anthony Arseniuk of Thorp is one of 12 Wisconsin civilians, formerly interned in Germany, returning on the Grisholm, which reached Jersey City, N.J., on February 21.

Seventeen cents was the profit made by the Neillsville Country Club in the year of 1944. This rate of profit may not accord with the popular conception of what a country club makes, but to the stockholders, who met Monday evening, it was a satisfying performance. To them seventeen cents looked a lot better than $1,700 in the red, which, was the operation result of many a golf club in the year 1944. Indeed, some golf clubs are going under during this war.

Those interested in the country club one year ago, it looked as though the year 1944 would be critical. With the war taking men away and reducing playtime of all next to nothing, could the interest be maintained, and could the revenue be kept up to the necessary expenses? Also, could the course be maintained, for a golf course requires lots of manicuring, and it goes to ruin if neglected? The answer to these questions was in the lap of the gods throughout the year 1944; it was also in the lap of the Neillsville people who are devoted to their beautiful golf course, and who want to make sure that it is not a casualty of the war.

As the stockholders met Monday evening, it was evident to all that one man, president of the club, William A. Campman’s leadership has been primarily responsible for keeping the golf course going during the war. To him the presidency was no empty honor. He led the group of members who used the scythes upon the weeds and who tr9immed the trees. Alternating with him in the presidency, and enthusiastically devoted to the course, has been R.E. Schmedel, who during his incumbency put much time and thought in to the club’s affairs.

Another man who has had an exceedingly important part in keeping the Country Club in the black is Ray Strebing, the grounds keeper. With manpower short, Ray has been a one-man crew, doing the work of two men and doing it well. The golf course has been very well maintained, a great accomplishment when compared with what is happening to some other golf courses within our area and state.

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