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July 17, 2024, Page 9 Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"
Extracted by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon. Index of "Oldies" Articles |
Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI
July 17, 2024, Page 9
July 20, 1944
Local scene shown
An oil painting of “Little Harbor” on Lake Arbutus is hung in the current art exhibit at the Milwaukee Art Institute. It is the work of Mercedes Ballam, formerly of Neillsville, who writes that she hopes to do some more painting up this way this summer.
The scene is in the vicinity of the Peet Warlum cottage. The background is the sunlit lake and shoreline, and its composition includes two motorboats, one owned by Elliott Warlum and the other by Clarence Stelloh.
The picture was entered for the exhibit of the painters of the Seven Arts Society, of which Mercedes Ballam is past chairman. The exhibit is held in conjunction with the Men’s Sketch Club of Milwaukee and the Women’s sketching class of the Art Institute.
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Wins college honors
Marguerite Brown, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Brown of Neillsville, has won a place on the academic honor roll at Lawrence College. Honors were awarded for her standing in the semester just completed. She is a senior in the conservatory of music.
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Advertisement in the Press, July 20, 1944, issue.
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July 8. 1954
Three local boys on a bike trip of 900 miles
Nine hundred miles on bikes plus unnumbered miles on a ship is the program of three ambitious young men of Neillsville. They are Skipper Lee, Paul Manz and John Swenson, who set out Wednesday morning for the Soo, the Canadian border, the Straits of Mackinac, Ludington, Lake Michigan and various ways stations.
The place of the boys is to see the big ships at the Soo, to plant their feet on Canadian soil, to pump their way back and across into Michigan, to cross Lake Michigan from Ludington to Manitowoc and then to pump their way back to Neillsville.
The bike part of the trip is figured at 900 miles, with a schedule of 80 miles per day.
The boys intend to rough it at night. They took a tent along, and each had a sleeping bag. But for food they will not rely upon their own skill; they will live off the eating houses as they journey along.
The boys have English bikes, with shifting gear ratios, which will enable them to negotiate hills to advantage.
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Fireman do neat job at Nick Freund home
The firemen of Neillsville made warm friends Tuesday in the Nick Freund household, when they quenched with little damage a fire set by lightning. Summoned quickly, the firemen caught the fire when it was young and put it out in a hurry.
But what won the regard of the Freund’s was that the boys left a minimum of damage in their wake. Needing to run a fire hose through a screened window, they removed the screen with no damage to it and left no trace whatever of unnecessary injury to the building. For this the Freund’s were more than grateful.
The fire followed the electric storm which hit Neillsville about 9:30 Tuesday morning, July 6. The windows in an upstairs room had been closed, and Mr. Freund went up to put a ventilator in a north window. As he went up to the window, a little wisp of smoke greeted him, proceeding from the north side of the building. It was evident that there was fire between the outer siding and the inner plaster. He called the fire department at once.
The blaze did a little damage on the north side of the house, and some water was used. But by evening, what between the care of the firemen and the labors of the family and friends, it was difficult to tell that anything had happened to disturb the peaceful neatness of the household.
The Freund home is at 1206 O’Neill Street, north of the Northside school.
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115 girls will model in contest day style revue
Clark County 4-H and F.H.A clothing project members will show the costumes that they have made at the annual contest day style revue, Wednesday, July 14. More than 75 girls will take part in the junior revue, modeling skirts and blouses and cotton dresses.
Best dresses, suits, sport outfits, and pajamas will be among the garments modeled by more than 40 older clothing project members. Two girls more than 14 years old will be selected to take part in the state fair style revue. The program, which is public, will begin at 1:00.
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Burton Wells of 302 Court Street, Neillsville, is shown here with a wooden chain which he carved from a fence rail. The chain is just a little less than 70 years old. It was carved out in 1886 or 1887, when Mr. Wells was 16 or 17 years of age. He then had a sprained ankle and whittled out the chain to put in the time. His present estimate is that the job took about three weeks. The basswood rail came from the Orve Cornell farm, now the former Milbreit farm, on the river road, southwest of Neillsville. The piece of rail, when the carving started, was three and one-half feet long. The chain is seven feet long. The doubling of the length was due to the way the links let out when the solid wood is cut from inside them. The wooden chain is a complete replica of an old-style logging chain, with a large hook at one end and a small hook and swivel at the other. The chain is still intact after all these years; no part of it has been broken. It is gilded; has a place of honor in the Wells home. The presentation of this picture is a sequel of the log fence story which appeared in The Press of last week. (Press photo July 8, 1954)
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July 18, 1974
Cow moose, far astray, sighted near Dells dam
A cow moose, far astray from its usual habitat in northern Minnesota or Canada was reported sighted in the Dells dam area, 10 miles southwest of Neillsville, Sunday.
The moose was feeding in the dead water area on the south side of Highway 95, just west of the Dells dam bridge. Dr. Robert R. Harvey, Neillsville optometrist, reported the sighting. He said he saw the animal twice, once while traveling to Lake Arbutus and again on his return.
Dr. Harvey said he stopped and watched the animal “for a long time.” It was standing belly-deep in water and apparently was feeding on the bottom.
“It was larger than any deer I ever have seen,” he recalled; “it had the wide nose, long, narrow bridge, long ears and heavy shoulders,” he said.
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Radio freak rallies local fire fighters
A number of volunteer firemen of Neillsville were routed out about 1 a.m. Saturday by a peculiarity of high frequency radio waves which activated their radio alarm boxes in their homes.
“I thought there was something funny about it,” commented William Zank, one of the volunteers, later. “Usually, they follow the alarm with a voice telling us where the fire is and what kind of a fire we’re going to. This time the alarm sounded and there was silence.”
Zank and others, however, reported to the fire hall and learned that they were routed out by a false alarm.
Skips in high frequency radio waves are not too uncommon and may occur during times of unusual atmospheric conditions. This is the first time, however, that they have set off the radio fire alarm summoning system here.
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County residents robbed as vandals clean parks
In a string of vandalism, country parks, and in the end, taxpayers, have suffered a loss, according to Don Kirn, director of Clark County Parks and Recreation.
Kirn pointed out that the beginning of the summer and tourist season brought a rush of park damage and harassment of campers in the county’s many parks, beaches, and campsites.
Listed by Kirn was damage to picnic tables, the tearing of boards off of buildings, fires started by vandal to outdoor toilets, driving on park lawns, and “hot rodding” through campsites.
Of most importance to Kirn was the intentional glass breakage evident on beaches and campsites. “Children run barefoot and have a good time until they get cut,” Kirn stated. Park staff have also found a case full of broken beer bottles in a camping parking lot.
Poor public relations are also a problem, Kirn said. ‘We have been trying to promote this area for years as a camping site and now have this,” he said in reporting that several youths have harassed campers at night, tipping tents over and honking horns in the early morning hours.
“I wonder why destruction like this takes place?” Kirn asked. “It belongs to those who destroy it,” he added.
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Winners of The Clark County 4-H style revue are pictured above. They are (from the left): Carole Richmond of Granton, first alternate; Karen Richmond of Granton, state fair competitor; Linda Lewandowski of Thorp, state fair competitor; and Debbie Oelrich of Unity, second alternate. (Press photo July 18, 1974)
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July 20, 1994
Polka fest draws large crowd
Over 1,500 dancers swirled across the dance floor in step to the reverberating music at the 10th annual Willard Polka Fest held this weekend.
Dancers two-stepped, waltzed and hopped to the music of John Flipzack and The Classics from St. Paul, Jeff Pecon from Cleveland, Ohio, Richie Yurkovich from Willard, Ray Konkel from Stevens Point and Gordon Hartman from Madison.
The Polka Fest began when interest in softball began to decline. “We needed something else in the area,” said organizer Don Kern.
The Willard Athletic Club, built in 1971, became the center of the event. A one-day Community Day had to be held there, which is now been replaced with the three-day Polka Fest.
The Athletic Club had developed the facility over the years to accommodate the larger crowds. “We keep investing into the facility,” said Kern.
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Library to beautify lot, maybe
The Library Board will be asking the city of Neillsville to help with labor needed to re-seed the lot adjacent to the library, where the Arbutus Cafe formerly stood, it was announced at a meeting of the Library Board on July 5.
Since library expansion is not anticipated to begin for a few years, the Library Board decided to seed the adjacent lot and will supply the black dirt needed for the project as well as the grass seed. They will ask the city to provide the manpower needed for the project at the next city council meeting on July 12.
In other business, the board has decided to not keep any issues of the Clark County Press that are available on microfilm. They have been keeping the papers although they are available on microfilm, and due to space limitations will no longer be doing so.
Children’s Librarian Pat Schlegel reported that story hours are going well but that the turnout is not quite as she expected.
Parents are helping out with the story hours by leading them, she said.
“Each parent brings a special talent to the group,” she’d said.
Library expansion was not discussed as it will be the focus of a special meeting of the library board to be held on July 19 at 7 p.m.
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