Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

July 28, 1999, Page 7

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

Good Old Days 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

July 1909

 

Neillsville is going to have a new bank – The First National Bank.  Last Friday the charter was received, but it is not provable that the bank will open up until its quarters in the new Cornelius building are completed.  The application for the charter was signed some time ago by Charles Cornelius, B. F. McMillian, Joe Marsh, S. M. Marsh, and G. E. Crothers.  McMillian is the lumberman whose operations in Marathon County have made him wealthy and after whom the village of McMillian is named.  McMillian is president of the First National Bank of Marshfield.  Joe Marsh is the owner of the Marshfield Telephone Co. and one of the prominent business men of that city.  The other applicants are well known business men of Neillsville.

 

George Trogner, of Neillsville, has taken the contract for erecting the new Cornelius block, and also will do the purchasing of all materials and hiring of all workmen.

 

C. A. King, a long distance walker, spent Saturday night in Neillsville on his way from St. Paul to Chicago.  King states that he started out from Port Arthur, Manchuria, in 1905, to walk 56,000 miles in seven years to win a wager of $12,000.  His westward route has taken him through Siberia and Europe until he reached the Atlantic coast.  He rode a ship to Montreal, walked to Vancouver, thence to Seattle, a distance of 3,000 miles, and now is on his way from Seattle to New York.  From New York, he will go back to Europe and walk to the pyramids at Cairo, Egypt.  Completing his walk, King will return to his home town, Detroit.

 

Architect A. F. Billmyre was in Neillsville on Friday and Saturday where he has charge of the building of a handsome new residence for Chas. Cornelius.

 

On June 30, a very pretty wedding took place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Van Fleet, of the town of Washburn, when their daughter, Dora, was united in marriage to Mr. Joseph Felser also of Washburn.

 

About 40 relatives and friends were present to witness the marriage.  Miss Mae Short acted as bridesmaid, and her brother, Ralph, was best man.  Rev. Chapman officiated, using the ring ceremony. After the ceremony a very fine supper was served under a large tent on the lawn, which had been setup for the occasion. 

 

School closed Friday in Central Levis with a picnic in Mr. Wren’s grove.  Miss Emma Ruege, the teacher, has taught there two years and was well liked.  Next year she will teach near Thorp for $50 a month.

 

Work on the Dell’s Dam is well under way.  Help is needed at the dam.  The pay is $1.65 per day and board charge is $3.75 a week.

 

Frank Ploskie and George Green left Levis last Saturday night and became lost out north of Neillsville.  They didn’t get back home until five o’clock Sunday morning.

 

Through the courtesy of congressman Esch and Postmaster A. E. Dudley, the following data concerning the Neillsville post office is published.  The names and terms of postmasters from the time the office was established as Clark County Court House in 1855 to the present time.

 

In Neillsville, established as Clark County Courthouse, May 1855, Samuel C. Boardman, postmaster; name of post office change to Neillsville, Oct. 6, 1856, Samuel C. Boardman, postmaster; George W. King, July 1857, postmaster; Chauncey Blakeslee, Dec. 1858, postmaster; William C. Tompkins, May 1860, postmaster; C. W. Carpenter, April 1863; A. J. Mandy, Nov. 1865; Wm. T. Hutchinson, Sept. 1867; J. W. Ferguson, June 1871; William Campbell, July 1881; Isaac T. Carr, Aug. 1886; Frederick Reitz, Sept. 1890; William Huntley, Dec. 1894; L. B. Ring, Jan. 1899; Frederick Reitz, March 1903. First presidential appointment was made on March 10, 1875.

 

This week’s specials at Tragsdorf & Zimmerman Co. Store are as follows: good heavy Castor oil for farm machinery, only 25¢ a gallon; separator oil, 10¢ quart; solid post, large high back, oak rockers, made in Jefferson, Wis., a choice at prices from $2.00 to $4.00 each; gold trimmed crystal berry or table sets, $1.00.

 

July 1939

 

Eat at the Merchant Hotel, “The coolest Spot in Town.”  They will serve a special dinner on Sunday, July 9, featuring a fried spring chicken dinner for 50¢.

 

Frederick Hillman of Antigo, a veteran of the Civil War has been making frequent trips to Neillsville to receive treatments for an infection in his foot.  Hillman, who was 90 years-old February 3, has been spending a few months at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Richard Zaeger, of Greenwood.

 

The veteran is very active for a man of his years; his memory is exceptionally keen and his sense of hearing remarkable.

 

As a boy of 15, he enlisted in Company K of the 17th Wisconsin Regiment at Milwaukee and served for about a year, or until the close of the Civil War.  He accompanied General Sherman on his famous march to the sea from Chattanooga, Tenn. to Atlanta, Georgia.  He was sent from Atlanta to guard a wagon train back to Nashville.  General Schofield took charge of the men on their way back and General Sherman took the main army on to the sea.

 

When asked why the train was guarded, Hillman answered, “The soldiers were hungry, so very, very hungry.  Everybody was hungry; no food could be left unguarded.”

 

He was one of the four or five hundred men who swam the Tallahatchie River in Georgia, after the bridge was burned, to keep back the rebels while a pontoon bridge was being built.

 

At the close of the war he marched from Newburn, N.C., to Washington to be mustered out of the service.  He was 16 years old.  The hard times while in the service gave him the strength and courage required of pioneer farmers, which he had continued to work at for many years.

 

The Neillsville Bakery has something new – It’s Brownee Bread!  It is baked fresh daily.  It’d delicious flavor will make you want more.  Brownee Bread may be purchased at our bakery counter or at one of the following grocers: May & Ruchaber, Farmers’ Store, Neverman’s, Bollom’s Meat Market, Roehrborn’s Store, Quality Market, Bartlett’s Cash Grocery, Nick’s Cash Grocery, C.C. Wasserburger and Wayne Potter’s Store.  Saturday’s special will be one dozen cookies, 10¢.

 

Merry ‘Ol Gardens, south of Withee, has two dances scheduled for next week.  Saturday, July 8, Irv Lutz & His Swing Orchestra will play.  Admission: Ladies 15¢ and gents 35¢.  Wednesday, July 12, Eli Rice & His new Swing Band will provide music; ladies 20¢ & gents 40¢.

 

Work of reconditioning the Clark County Fairgrounds and buildings is expected to be completed before the opening of the Fair, on August 15, Harold Huckstead, secretary of the Agriculture Society has announced. 

 

The fairground buildings have been undergoing extensive repairs and improvements for several weeks past, and all of the buildings have been refreshed with coats of white paint and green trim.

 

Among improvements in the buildings are the building of new stairways and doors in the boys’ dormitory, painting of the interior of the 4-H club dining hall and the erection of a new stage and office there.  The work is being done by the WPA.

 

The Clark County Courthouse yard is being improved. A retaining wall was recently built in the rear of the forestry building.  About 3,000 yards of dirt has been purchased for fill to make a more gentle slope to the sidewalk and to permit landscaping and easier lawn improvements.  The dirt is being taken from the bed of Goose Creek, just east of the flood control dam.  The cost for hauling is 18 cents a yard, according to Clark County Clerk, Calvin Nills (Mills).

 

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church of Green Grove Township will celebrate its annual mission festival Sunday, July 23.  Speakers will include the Pastor Rev. Ronald Goetsch and the Rev. H. Sprengler of Thorp.  German services will start at 10:30 a.m. and English services will be held at 2:30 p.m.  Music and singing will accompany the festivities.  A dinner and refreshments will be served.

 

Company A third infantry, Wisconsin National Guard, made its first trip to Camp Douglas 50 years ago.  Last Sunday George A. Ure, captain of the company at that time, and Berton Wells, a sergeant, and their wives went down to visit camp on the anniversary occasion.

 

The two men and Clemens Kuechenmeister, George Frantz, Fred Vine and Theodore Selves are the only survivors, now residing in (the) community, who were members of the company in 1889.  As far as could be determined, Ure and Wells were the only 50 year veteran members present last Sunday.

 

Other officers at the first encampment at Camp Douglas were: W. J. Hommel, first lieutenant; Bert Tolford, second lieutenant; and S. M. Marsh, first sergeant.

 

Camp in those days consisted of a village of tents, a log shanty which was used by the officers as a bath house, the guard house (a frame building), the rifle range and drill grounds, all located on a clearing 600 yards long by about 400 yards wide.  Skirmishes took place in the woods.

 

Many humorous incidents which occurred at camp are recalled by the men, among them an order by Colonel Moore on their first evening at Camp Douglas.  The men were in dress parade and were ordered to stack arms and march to the guard house, pick up the charred pine stumps which were scattered over a large area around the building and pile them neatly on the opposite side of the grounds.  Whether or not the men ever figured out the wisdom of that order was not commented upon.  However, at the time, all the eighty-niners dolled up in their “Sunday” clothes for the task which was anything but pleasant.  There were fatigue uniforms, ordinarily worn for camp duties.

 

The privates, too, had a bath “house,” consisting of a large hole in the ground, which was filled with water through irrigation ditches from a nearby swale.

 

Each company had its own cook and furnished its own rations.  Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Butterfield of Neillsville were camp cooks in 1889, the men recalled.  When they arrived in camp, there was no dressing room for Mrs. Butterfield, and a blanket was held up while she donned her working clothes, the woods serving as the south wall of her improved dressing room.

 

Ure and Wells were greatly pleased with the progress made by the company in the past 50 years but disappointed, the fact that no horses were used in the parade.  Officer’s cars have replaced the steeds of the earlier days when all persons holding officers ranking above captain rode horses in the military procession.

 

An Ice Cream Social will be held at the Clarion Counsell home Friday evening, July 21.  It is sponsored by the Pleasant Ridge 4-H Club.

 

There are a group of Clark County Boys who are in attendance at the Citizen’s Military Training camp at Fort Snelling, Minn.  Those at the camp were: Dwayne Felser, Charles L. Kauffman, Thomas A. Flynn, and Joseph Schiller of Neillsville; Arthur J. Halpin, Donald Kauffman, and Wilber Kehrberg of Loyal; LaVerne W. Brown, William J. Schwarze and Paul E. Schwarze of Greenwood; Max Baldeschwiler, James. L. Kaczor, Joseph N. Krych, Stanley Sckowronski and Stuart C. Walsdorf of Thorp.

 

Week-End Savings at Kuester’s Meat Market are as follows: Beef roast, 15¢ lb.; boiling roast, 12 ½ ¢ lb.; round steak 22¢ lb.; hamburger 16¢ lb.; pork roast, 16¢ lb.; pork sausage 15¢ lb.; liver sausage 12¢ lb.  They make daily deliveries, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

The Clark County Clerk recorded the following marriage license applications in July of this year, as follows: Frank Pachal and Esther Karnopp, both of the Town of Beaver; Gorman Uhlig, Abbotsford and Julia Pompitus, Town of Longwood; William D. Eibergen, Town of York, and Margaret O’Leary, Town of Mentor.

 

Lt. H. W. Klopf, was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Infantry, of the Wisconsin Volunteers.  This photo was taken at Camp Thomas, Chickamauga Park, Ga., on May 27, 1898.  Klopf was a Neillsville resident.

 

 


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