Good Old Days

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

Clark County News

June 1878

Our Lynn correspondent has given the following information:

A company has been formed, in Lynn, for the purpose of making cheese.  The necessary capital is to be raised by stock subscriptions, each share being five dollars.  The company will put up the building, purchase the necessary machinery and make the cheese for two cents per pound.  They will also purchase milk from non-members.  The profits accruing to the company will go to liquidate the debt.  After the debt is paid, the profit shall be divided among the company as a percentage on the share.  Henry Sternitzky has donated some land for the building site.  It will be located on the south side of the Nasonville Road, where it crosses the bridge on the Sternitzky Creek, close to the road.  A fine spring of water is on the property.  Work will begin on the building this week.  When completed, it will be the second cheese factory in our county.

Shop at James O’Neill’s store for the best prices: Print yard goods, from five to six cents per yard, gingham are eight to ten cents per yard.  O’Neill is discontinuing the grocery business.

P. S. Dudley has a choice lot of buck-wheat seed for sale at his store, cheap.

The Germans had a very pleasant and enjoyable dance at Eilert’s Brewery on Saturday evening.

Our village is being very liberally supplied with telephone.  Wires are being run in every direction.  Most phones are home-made and seem as good as the imported variety.

The residents of Clark County are perfectly cool and unconcerned about the gold discovery reports on the eastern border.  The findings in Wood County have made their residents wild.  We have no doubt that there may be an amount of gold in our county.  It may be easily accessible by importing a volcano and blowing the gold up to the surface, but our people remain calm.  They are the coolest set of folks you ever saw about such things.

We are glad to learn the whortleberry crop wasn’t injured by the frost.  In the absence of many other small fruits and berries which have been destroyed, the whortleberries will be unusually valuable.  (The whortleberry is also known as a huckleberry. D.Z.)

G. W. Henderson, of Unity, is the inventor and patentee of an improved skein for wagons.  The improvement consists of additions to the shoulder of the thimble, ends of the bolster, the back and sand-board.  The front will rest solidly, thus adding strength to the axle tree.  The invention is a very valuable one, preventing broken axles.  A draft of the invention can be seen at Trogner’s wagon shop.

Lee & Co. offer specials this week: 14 lbs. Dried peaches, halves, $1.00; 14 lbs. New English currants $1.00; 12 lbs. Michigan dried apples $1.00; seven 2 lb. cans Cove Oysters $1.00.

The Republican Press sports a new header this week, which we think is an improvement.  In dropping the words “Clark County”, we have no intention of ignoring the locality.  It is done merely to shorten the title that was too long to look appropriate.

The Greenwood folks are exerting themselves to the utmost to get up the biggest Fourth of July celebration ever held in Clark County.  The celebration is to be strictly under the auspices of the temperance societies, with our old friend, Jones Tompkins as president of the day.  Orations will be delivered by Rev. Bert E. Wheeler, of Chippewa Falls, and Rev. M. B. Balch, of Black River Falls.  The celebration will close with a grand ball at Robinson & Cos. Hall.

Last Friday, John B. Mason’s steam saw mill, in the Town of Grant, was destroyed by fire.  The fire originated in the shavings near a shingle saw and spread rapidly.  Employees had barely time to escape the area, not having time to stop the operating machinery.

W. C. Crandall will pay the highest market price in cash for ginseng root, delivered to his store in Neillsville.  The roots must be thoroughly clean.

June 1898

The 121^st Anniversary of the adoption of the American flag will be observed on June 14^th and will be celebrated throughout the country.  Let every flag in Neillsville be flying, on that day.

Loyal is going to let the eagle scream on July 4^th.  That’s the stuff, Loyal!

Seredo (Sereno) Wren and Sarah West Smith, both of (the Town of) Grant, were married at Pleasant Ridge.

The Neillsville Bank had a new, handsome steel ceiling put in early this week.  The interior now wears a prouder air.

The Thorp students ready to graduate this year, prefer to wait another year before completing their school work.  Rumor is that there will probably be a high school established there soon, therefore no commencement exercises will be held this year.

Workmen have been at work hauling black earth from page’s woods and spreading it over the clay ground around the new Clark County jail building.  After covering the bare ground with the black earth, grass seed will be sown for a grassy lawn.  It is a work of beauty and will greatly add to the appearance of the county property.

The annual commencement exercises of the Neillsville High School were held Friday evening, July 17, at the armory.  The program consisted of vocal and instrumental music and the usual orations.  The graduates were: Ernest Lee, Paul Berg, Oscar Schoengarth, Mamie Johnson, Leslie Pitcher, Clyde Lloyd and Bert Hart. 

Ross Paulson has started a creamery in the Town of York.

There will be a 4^th of July celebration at Shortville on Section three at A.O.U.W. picnic grounds.  There will be games, races, etc. in the forenoon.  Bowery dance will be held in the afternoon and evening with good music.  Refreshments will be served and a midnight supper provided for all attending.

A new meat market is to be established on Neillsville’s main street, just north of the Republican-Press building.  Ed Laubenheimer, H. E. Bartell and Wm. Stein of Milwaukee have purchased the brick building which presently had been occupied by Geo. Hick’s confectionery store.

Workmen were busy moving several bodies from the old Weston Rapids cemetery, about two miles south of Neillsville, to the cemetery in Neillsville.

A grand Fourth of July celebration is planned by the folks at Kurth’s Corners.  There will be refreshments, games; a dance in the afternoon and evening, concert by Bryant & Himes Comedy Co.  Songs will consist of Irish, Dutch and comedies.  Bring baskets of food for the picnic dinner.

G. W. Allen’s house was struck by lightning at Greenwood during a storm Saturday night.  The bolt passed through and ignited a closet filled with clothing and bedding.  Mrs. Allen and Frank Nichols were both papering walls in the front room at the time, both received slight shocks.  The fire was extinguished by cutting a hole in the roof and pouring water from pails down into the closet.  Owing to some problem of not getting up enough steam in the fire fighting engine, it didn’t get to pumping until the bucket brigade had gotten the fire out.

The farmers of the Town of Colby have supplied the Steinwand factory with 5,000 lbs. of milk; The Radtke factory with 2,500 lbs., and Sommerfeldt factory with 1,800 lbs. of milk per day.

June 1948

There will be a dedication of the new $12,000 athletic field at the Clark County Fairgrounds on the Saturday evening of Thorp’s strong Cloverbelt League team’s appearance here at the opening game.  A large crowd will witness the baseball game between Thorp and Neillsville as Thorp’s ace will port side into the fray.  Neillsville’s Athletic club has been trying secure Jim Haas, former Univ. of Wis. hurling star, and his Augusta teammate, Young, as its battery.

The formal dedication of the ball field will precede the ball game.  The ceremonies will begin at 7:30 p.m. with the Neillsville High School band providing music for the occasion.  The baseball game will get underway about 8:30 p.m. under a blaze of 156,000 kilowatts of electricity shot into the night by 104 great reflectors.  This will culminate more than a year’s work from paperwork to actual completion of the field, ready to be used for baseball games.  The field, located in the center of the race track, will also be used for softball and football games.

A lease agreement was negotiated between the Neillsville Athletic Association and the Clark County Agriculture Society, operators of the fairgrounds. 

There is a great shortage of teachers in Clark County. At present there are 39 vacancies for teachers in the county’s 132 rural and graded schools.  The average monthly pay for teachers in the 1948-49 terms will be from $210 to $212.  Before the war many teachers were receiving $80 a month and happy to get that.

The Loyal Auto Wrecking yard is offering parts from the following: 1930 Model A; 1935 Plymouth; 1935 Chevrolet truck, 1 ½ ton; 1934 International truck; Fordson tractor.  H. H. Van Gorden & Sons have for sale, one week only, carload of salt, 100 lbs. granulated, $1.00; Block salt, 50 cents each

Blucher Paulus has sold the Realty and Bottling works business on Fifth Street.  The realty has been bought by Roy Montgomery to be managed by Chester Lewis from La Crosse.

The business had been in the Paulus family for 28 years.  It was conducted by James Paulus from 1920 to 1944.

Auto-test, Inc., under management of Bill Yenni, made its first shipment of lights this past week.  Eighteen timing lights of a distinctly new design went out from the factory, making its entrance into the nation’s market.

Free wedding dance for Harold W. Anderson and June Yde will be Thursday, June 24 with music by Howard Sturtz Orchestra; wedding dance for Clarence Ziegler and Gen Manning on Saturday, June 26 by Irv Lutz orchestra; both dances will be at the Silver Dome Ballroom.

The Inwood Ballroom, Hatfield, will have a dance with Stan Thurston Band on Sunday, July 4^th and Dale Simons Blue Denim Boys on Thursday, July 15^th.  Food is served on Sunday afternoon and every evening except Monday.  Bohemian Food also served on Sundays.

(Some names were omitted from the 1948 Neillsville High School Graduating Class, as follows: Genevieve Burchard, Cynthia A. Feuerstein, Juliette Dux and Phyllis B. Fahlgren.  The 1948 class members are planning a reunion in August, this year. D.Z.)

A Tornado by Neillsville on July 3, 1907, as it passed over the farm of John Charles near the city limits.  The photo was taken from the residence of Carl Rabenstein on North Grand Avenue.  Rabenstein was an editor of the Clark County Press.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Roberts)  (Press had Robenstein, but it should be Rabenstein)

Congregational Church, Neillsville, Wis. Circa 1900