April 1915

All over the state there were many contests this year on the license question. Neillsville came the closest to going dry in its history after a most energetic campaign carried on by an organization of young men.

The Town of Grant (along with the village of Granton) went dry by 4 votes. Greenwood went wet by one vote. Abbotsford was a tie. The Town of Fremont, with the village of Chili, went wet by 7 votes. Fairchild went dry. Black River Falls went dry by 87 votes. Withee went wet.            

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At the Tuesday election the chief interest outside of the license question was centered in the contest for mayor. It was a straight out race between Fred Seif, the present incumbent and J.L. Kleckner, with Kleckner winning by a majority of 69 votes. Mr. Seif’s total vote was 215 and Mr. Kleckner’s 284.  

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Mr. John Pribnow of the city of Colby and Miss Meta Maier of Thorp were married at the courthouse March 31 with Judge O.W. Schoengarth officiating.                                     

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The Dells Dam correspondent reports that the ice jam too out the iron bridge over Black River last Thursday. The jam was about a mile long, overflowing the river banks and Mr. Schultz’s field was covered with ice chunks eight to ten feet high. Nearly all the cottages had water in them, but no serious damage was done.

It is reported that Mrs. Meyers had to move out of her house on account of the high water.

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Motion pictures are to be taken of Neillsville, for the first time in its history.

Every man, woman and child in Neillsville and surrounding country are requested to be in Neillsville and get in the picture. The pictures will be shown later at the Badger Theater.

An expert cameraman will be in Neillsville all day Monday and Tuesday, April 17 and 18, taking moving pictures that will include all public buildings, residential sections, business blocks and all places of interest in and around Neillsville.

Don’t forget we want you in the picture. We want a big crowd on the business streets as everybody in Neillsville on that day can have their picture taken and have a chance to see themselves in moving pictures on the curtain at the Badger Theater.                                                                     

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August Hillert Jr., only son of Mr. and Mrs. David Hillert and Miss Anna Miller who makes her home with her sister, Mrs. Chas. Albrecht of Fremont were married at the Fremont Lutheran Church yesterday afternoon. Rev. Viergutz officiated the ceremony.                                              

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The Luethe Co. will deliver, for cash: dry Popple wood $1.60 per cord; dry mixed wood at $2.10 per cord; half dry maple wood and iron wood, uneven lengths, $2.25.                        

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The canning factory is canning the sauerkraut, which has been aging in the vats since last fall.

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The Brown Bros. are getting stock arranged in their new jewelry store. In Their window is a new Marine chromometer, which they will use for secur8ing accurate time instead of a regulator.

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Krasin Brothers have received the contract for the erection of the $17,500 school in Humbird. It will be a two-story brick building with four classrooms, three recitation rooms, an assembly room with a stage, and gymnasium. Work will start as soon as the frost is out of the ground.

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It’s April and the frogs are beginning to sing their songs in Sherwood;.

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John LaStofka, Vet Pease, A.P. Fulwiler, E.G. Rowe, John VandeBerg, Horace VandeBerg, Abe Turner and Waler Rowe, all of the Town of York, had wood sawyers at their places this past week.

Last Wednesday evening, some of our residents saw a large ball of fire drop from the sky. It was to the northwest.

April 1945

Aside from the published notices, there were two ways to know that Tuesday was Election Day. One was to watch the snowfall and the other was to see Oluf Olson take down the storm house in front of the main entrance to the courthouse.

Oluf has been around the courthouse some 30 years and he recollection is that he has taken down the storm house on Election Day at least 25  times out of the 30. To him it made no difference that on this Election Day the snow was falling. He worked right along in the snow, confident that the return to winter would be of short duration. To him it was Election Day and time to take the storm house down.

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The Ray Strebing’s have bought the property on East Division Street where they reside and conduct their grocery business. They have been renting and have now purchased the property from H.H. Van Gorden of Merrillan.                                                                                            

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Neillsville Golden Link Camp No. 78 of the Royal Neighbors of America held their 50th anniversary celebration on April 4, at the W.R.C. Hall. This was in keeping with the nationwide celebration of the 50th anniversary of the organization’s chartering.                                                                 

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One Town of Beaver resident has lived with his wife since 1912. They have had six children, of whom only one is still a minor. They have managed for 33 years, but the husband now alleges in circuit court that he just can’t take it any longer. He says his wife has nagged and abused him until his powers of resistance are completely exhausted. So, he has asked the court to give him a divorce. 

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Marriage Licenses:

Arlene Etta, Town of Mead, and Frank Thomas, Town of Warner.

Martha Erpenbach, Town of Pine Valley, and John Ronald Bergemann, Town of York.

Lorene McIlquhan, Harland, KY., and Frank W. Hull, Town of Hoard.

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Liquidating Sale: Special discounts to close out 100 horse collars and harnesses, house, barn and implement paints, milking machines, manure carrier, poultry equipment, gas engines, electric fence batteries. Wood wheel farm wagons $76, now $35. Full line of IHC tractor and implement repairs. Hundreds of items and some new and used machinery. Also 16 good home raised farm horses will be sold at greatly reduced prices. Located across the street from former Implement Store.  Fred Lakosky, Loyal, Wis.

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Spring Sale at H.H. Van Gorden & Sons

Robin Hood flour, 50 lbs. for $2.20, Timothy Seed, cwt. $9.

Clover Seed Just Arrived – Alsyke – Medium, Red – Mammoth.

One Carload Soy Bean Meal, 100 lbs. $2.90 for Quick Sale.

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Ernie Pyle, war correspondent who built a world reputation by writing about the common soldier and commonplace experiences and incidents, has been killed in action on Okinawa.           

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Capt. Alex Zake, once of Thorp, writes his sister, Mrs. Francis Nieman. He is stationed in India and is flying over the Hump into China. Excerpts from his letter: “The missions are very long and tiring. Sometimes I don’t get to sleep for 30 to 40 hours in a stretch. My Christmas holidays were very unhappy. My buddy was killed in China. My crew and I spent Christmas Eve in a bomb shelter in China during a Japanese air raid. I just landed my ship a few minutes before the raid started. Seems like all we do is fly and sleep, with little time off to eat. I had to take two days off to rest last week. I have the job of training the new boys that come here from the States. I get accustomed to all the routes we fly. The weather on these routes fives jus a lot of trouble. We almost had to leave our ship about two weeks ago during a bad storm.

T/3 Earl A. Williams has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal for meritorious achievement to direct support of Combat operations from Jan. 22 to May 26, 1944, in Italy. At a critical time, a severe shortage of motor vehicular radiators developed, which dead-lined many vehicles. He remedied the crisis by an adroit process of removing damaged tubes, soldering in new and straitening distorted frame structure. He acquired necessary material by an exhaustive search of all available salvage yards. As a direct consequence of his efforts, many vehicles were restored to their functions in the division. His ingenuity and persevering efforts contributed materially to the success of the operations. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Melford Williams, Granton, Rt. 1.

Corp. Allen L. Luber of Loyal, Rt. 1, son of Mr. and Mrs. August Luber, is a member of a unit to Europe, which has been commended by Lieut. Gen. James H. Doolittle. This unit is the only repair depot maintained on the continent by the Eighth Air Force. In that unit Corp. Luber is an operator of automotive equipment in the transportation division.

Mrs. Fern Schultz of the Loyal community has received the certificate of Merit awarded her husband, Sgt. Alfred A. Schultz. The citation reads: “Although under heavy enemy fire, Sgt. Schultz helped in laying a hasty mine field and setting up a strong defensive position. His courageous action helped make possible orderly withdrawal of an armored task force from an untenable sector.”

Major Milo Lindow, son of Mr. and Mrs. Luther Lindow of Chili, is serving with the U.S. Army and is now in Paris, France. He is a graduate of Ripon College and has been in service since 1941, 31 months of this time being spent overseas.

An air medal has been won by Sgt. Gordon E. Vine, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Vine of Granton R 3. The award was made to him for his work as an aerial gunner on a Liberator. The outfit of which he is a member has flown more than 200 long-range bombing missions to spike German oil production and transport facilities.
Gordon Vine, recently promoted to sergeant, graduated from Neillsville High School in 1941. He was a student in River Falls Teachers College when he entered the air corps in 1942.

Col. Edward J. Frei of Neillsville R 1 recently had a part in an exploit, which has been made a matter of record by the Army publicity men. He was a member of a repair crew, which put back in commission two tanks bogged down in no man’s land. These tanks had been in action in the forward of the American front line. The job of repairing the tanks and getting them back into the lines was given to a 13-man crew, of which Corp. Frei was a member. The crew went out under the covering fire of other tanks and small arms. For 24 hours they braved the extreme cold and heavy fire of the enemy and finally got two tanks in condition to run. Then they drove them across exposed area to the American lines.                            

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A final tribute to Roy E. Schmedel was paid Monday evening by the Kiwanis Club, of which he was a former president. The spokesman for the club was Wells F. Harvey, editor of The Press.

“It was my opportunity occasionally to go through the Condensary with Roy Schmedel. I saw that plant grow from a fire hazard of wood, with brick veneer, to a modern, fireproof factory of capacity at least doubled. This construction was the major effort of Roy’s career. He accomplished it without interrupting the daily flow of milk. It was a feat of major proportions.

“Just a few days before Roy’s death I made with him what turned out to be our last trip through the Condensary. He took me down into the basement, and showed me a dark room, which, he said, had always been an eyesore. He showed me that this room was then in a transformation. A tile wall, light in color was in process of erection. Upon the floor red tile had been partially laid. He took me  also into the intake room where the red tile floor where the red tile floor was being laid. On one side was the new flooring, new and clean. On the other rough concrete, yet to be covered.

“This work was in process when Roy Schmedel died. It was not given him to see the end of his labors. The Condensary had been transformed – almost. His great task must finally be handed to another.”

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Arthur Stadler, Town of Hoard, has been re-elected chairman of the Clark County Board by a vote of 33-18. The opposing candidate was Fred Drew of the Town of Eaton. His candidacy was advanced in one of the most interesting maneuvers in the recent political history of Clark County.

Mr. Drew had previously been considered a member of much the same political camp as Mr. Stadler. Because of his known attitude, he was chosen by this prevailing portion of the county board to become the watchdog on county highway committee.

In the case of Mr. Drew, the attitude of Otto Weyhmiller, the county highway commissioner, evidently had some connection with the old political rule, “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.” So, almost immediately after the spring  election, the friends of Mr. Stadler began to hear of Mr. Drew as a candidate for the chairmanship, with activity in Mr. Drew’s behalf imputed to Mr. Weyhmiller and his friends.

The way Mr. Stadler’s friends figured it was that the Weyhmiller group was counting upon their own support, in addition to the votes heretofore going to Mr. Drew from his old friends. If this were the outcome, Mr. Stadler, who took a forthright stand against Mr. Weyhmiller last fall, could be defeated.

Mr. Drew was placed in nomination by E.W. Kidd of Owen, friend of Mr. Weyhmiller and once bellwether of the flock. But something went wrong with the calculations. Mr. Weyhmiller’s friends voted for Drew, as anticipated, but the votes which he once garnered and by which he was elected to the highway committee, went almost wholly to Mr. Stadler.

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