October 1917

Last Friday, two representatives of the state highway commission were in Neillsville. They held a meeting at the courthouse for the purpose of gathering information relative to the new trunk line system of highways.  A large number of interested parties and several county board members attended the meeting.  The highway commission is holding these meetings at all county seats in the state.  The purpose of the meetings is to secure accurate information relative to the best roads within the state that will include the trunk line system.  This information will be presented to the sate highway and legislative committees who will then designate roads for the new system.

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The formal opening of the new Commercial Bank building, in Neillsville, was held last Saturday.  A great throng of visitors attended the event.  There were flowers for the ladies, cigars for the men and other souvenirs distributed during the day.  Officers and directors of the bank conducted tours all afternoon and evening showing the visitors through their banking establishment.  The new building is one of the most attractive buildings in the city and because of its architectural design catches the eye of all who pass through Hewett Street.  The front of the building is of white stone with the name of the bank emblazoned in gold letters across the top. The banking room is reached from the street through a vestibule entrance that opens directly into the banking room.  The desk of the president and cashier are at the right of the vestibule and the teller’s cages are at the rear of this office. The floor of the bank is of tile and the oak woodwork throughout is finished in silver gray.  The interior finishing throughout is especially handsome and well balanced.

At the rear of the tellers’ cages is the large vault and safety deposit room.  The directors’ and customers’ room, behind the vault area, is comfortably fitted.  The lighting throughout the bank is of the indirect system and combined with the day light, the building is bright and well lighted at all times.

The Commercial State Bank building, built in 1917, still stands on the west side of Hewett Street’s 500 block.  The street-level front was remodeled in later years.  (Photo courtesy of the Bill Roberts’ collection)

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This week, The Neillsville Times received a letter from Chas. Hubing.  He states that he is now at Camp Greene, Charlotte, North Carolina, with the 4^th Ambulance Co. 41^st Division, in which he enlisted in July.  He says his company will be ready for France in about two months and that the weather there is just like the month of June would be here.

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Donald Crothers received a telegram, Tuesday, to report at the U. S. Aviation School at Austin, Texas.  He left that evening to take up the actual work of flying an airplane for Uncle Sam.

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For the past two or three weeks, L. B. Ring has been making quick time from his home to the 32-acre woodlot across the Black River to Ross’ Eddy.  Each day, Ring can be seen carrying an axe, and dressed in togs; bespeaking laborious intentions.  With his axe and brush scythe, he has swamped out a road from the Eddy to the southwestern corner of the lot, a distance of over half a mile.  The roadway is now wide enough for a logging road and a team of horses.  After this was accomplished, Ring selected a level spot on the high land near the west end of the road and cleared up an acre of land, piling the wood and stacking the brush.  There are about 15 acres, or more, that will make good farmland, to be cleared later, while the balance will be partially cleared for pasture.  The woods are dense and the stumps pulled off took a lot of muscle and timber jack tactics.  We expect to see a settler’s shanty go up there and a crop of potatoes to be put in next spring.

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Last Thursday noon, Charles Neff and Miss Elvira Hemp were united in marriage. The wedding ceremony was performed by Rev. David Grether at the Hemp home. The wedding was a very quiet one, with only immediate relatives of the young people in attendance.  The Hemp home was prettily decorated with ferns, roses, smilax and asters.  A splendid dinner was served at the conclusion of the ceremony, served by Miss Josie Bass and Mrs. Will Meyers.  Mrs. Mart Lastofka played the wedding march.

The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Hemp.  She is one of Neillsville’s most pleasant young ladies.  Having grown up here, she is a graduate of Neillsville High School. She took a six weeks’ training course at Oshkosh Normal and ten took up the vocation of teaching schools in this vicinity.  Neff is the son of Dorr Neff and will make his mark at his chosen vocation, that of farming.  He attended school here and then took up the management of his father’s farm at which he has been eminently successful.

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The Community Store has a Saturday special this week. They need the room worse than they need the 100 large, extra good, candy pails that they have on hand.  On Saturday, you can purchase 3 pails for 25c which are worth three times as much.  They make good stock, scrub or utility pails for household needs.

October 1952

A survey shows 1,801 milk houses are yet to be built by patrons of Clark County’s dairy plants.  Milk houses to the number of 2,186 have been completed and 979 are under construction.

These figures are the result of a survey made by Jacob H. Hoesly, state dairy inspector.  His survey was made with the help of each dairy plant in the county.  Each plant was asked to repot on its own patrons and each complied.

While the farmers in this area have 1,801 milk houses yet to build before the Nov. 15 deadline, they do not face an impossible task.  Most of them are figuring to do the construction after silo filling.  The farmers feel they will be in compliance to the Nov. 15 deadline.

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A barn raising was held September 29, on the Niemi farm at the edge of Withee.  The raising, attracting many neighbors and friends, is a step in the construction of a very large, modern dairy barn on the Niemi place. The old barn was burned the evening of September 1.

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E. F. French and his niece, Viola, known as Dolly Youmans, arrived in Neillsville on Monday evening.  They were met at Merrillan by their old friends, the George Zimmermans.  They are here for a reunion with the Guy Youmans family, with Mrs. Robert French and some of their old friends who remain in the Neillsville community.

E. F. French is a son of B. F. French of local fame, pioneer lawyer, doctor and a colorful character.  The members of the French family were active members of this community at the turn of the century.  Then they departed, mostly to establish themselves in Los Angeles, where one of their members, Dr. John Rollin French, was one of the founders and owners of a hospital.  The brother, E. F. French, had charge of the maintenance of the hospital.

For years, the surviving members of the family lived together in a home owned by E. F. French.  With him were his sisters and his niece, Viola, who was housekeeper and practical nurse.  Finally, E. F. and the niece were left alone.  French sold his home and is now on the loose, though he will probably return to Los Angeles where he will be near his son, Edwin Elwood.  Viola will presently go to live with her sister, Beth, Mrs. Clarence Sturdevant, near Washington.

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A lake, of 15 acres or more, is being created in northeastern Clark County.  The location is three miles west and two miles south of Dorchester on the farm owned by Harold Reishus and operated by Frank Bloom.  The lake will have a depth of about 20 feet at the center.

The making of this lake is an experimental project, intended to test machines under study by the International Harvester Co.  Reishus, owner of the land, is a vice-president of that company.

The interest of Reishus in this area comes about through his father who years ago, was pastor of the Old Norwegian Lutheran Church at Dorchester.  The old church building stood about where the Max Vircks residence is now located.  A daughter of the Reishus family continued living in Dorchester for a long time, her husband being Emil Erickson, who ran a hardware store in Dorchester for several years.

The machinery under test at the lake site is notable for size, both large and small.  The large tractor is an improvement upon the TD-4 caterpillar, weighs 28 tons and is rated at over 200 horsepower.  It is 30 per cent more powerful than any tractor now in production.  The tractor under test is not in production, but is intended for production when the kinks have disappeared from it.  Since it is a model, many parts of it were made special by hand.  The aggregate cost is estimated at $50,000.  Each of the rubber tires upon which it rolls, cost $2,000.  The earth scoop digs up and moves 16 cubic yards at a time. 

The small tractor is known as the Cub and is the smallest made by the International Harvester Co. It is on nine horsepower.

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Official pictures of the Badger-Iowa Big 10 conference game, to be played Saturday, and of the Badger-Illinois tilt of two weeks ago, will be shown here Tuesday night.

The showing will be open to the public in the Congregational Church.  Ed Gibson, field secretary for the University of Wisconsin alumni association, will be the narrator.

Wisconsin fans of this area will be interested particularly in watching the offensive play of Harland Carl, Greenwood, at left half and Jerry Witt, Marshfield, at right half.

Invitations have been extended to high schools at Granton, Fairchild, Loyal, Greenwood and Neillsville.  Jess W. Scott, who is in charge of the program, also issues an invitation to all in Southern Clark County who are interested in the football fortunes of the Badgers.

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Mrs. Adolph Noah, 87, a pioneer and one of the oldest residents of Greenwood, died October 15 at the home of her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Emil Noah.

Mrs. Noah, the former Louisa Hoehle, was born on June 4, 1865, in Germany.  She came to this country in 1888 and settled in Plymouth.  For a short time she worked in the Mission House.  She came to this area and after being married, lived on the Noah farm seven miles northwest of Greenwood.

Her marriage to Adolph H. Noah took place September 25, 1890, in the West Side Church.  Mr. Noah died in 1935.  She was a member of the Ladies Aid society and of the West Side Church.

She is survived by three daughters; Mrs. Wm. (Selma) Hollmann of Granton; Mrs. Arthur (Bertha) Schwarze of Greenwood; Mrs. Arthur (Alvina) Peters of Milwaukee; three sons, Oscar of Alma; Emil of Greenwood and Albert of Sydney, Montana; two stepchildren, Alvin Noah of Baxter, Iowa and Mrs. John (Clara) Wendt of Owen; 38 grandchildren and 43 great-grandchildren.

A daughter, Mrs. Emma Kraut, died in Austria in 1940.  Three brothers and three sisters also preceded her in death.

Funeral services were held Saturday at the Emil Noah home, in Greenwood and at the West Side Church.  The Rev. Charles Koch officiated.  Burial was in the West Side Cemetery.

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Memories of the old days have followed in the wake of the alumni reunion of the Emmanuel Lutheran Church of Longwood.  This is one of the oldest organizations of Clark County, dating back informally into the 1880s.  At that time meetings were held in the homes around Longwood and the ministers came from Stanley and Neillsville. 

The formal organization came in 1894 and the first confirmation took place the next year.  The first confirmation class consisted of six persons.  Of these, three are dead: Carl W. Sorenson, Carl J. Sorenson and Hana Sophie Hansen.  The three survivors are: Harold Jorgenson of Seattle, Inga Sorenson Kuester of Colfax, California and Inga Hansen Anderson of Stevens Point.

Since that first class, 185 members have renewed their baptismal vows through confirmation; some in the town hall, some in the small house that stood on the present church site, some in the school house and many in the present church structure, which was dedicated in 1910.

Various physical changes have come with the years.  The little house that formerly stood on the church site is now the Chris Rasmussen home, having been sold and moved to its present location one mile north and one mile east of Longwood.  The old school house, greatly changed, is now the beautiful modern home of the Adolph Jackson family.

Originally, the church was known as the Norwegian Emmanuel Lutheran Church.  But as decade after decade went by, the first Norwegians became old and faded away.  Their children intermarried with those of other backgrounds, and so, in 1950, the Norwegian part of the name was dropped.

In 1939, the original church building was razed and a full basement was put under it. In 1950, the new parish hall was built west of the church edifice and this new building is used for Sunday School, Luther League, L.C.R., the Ladies Aid and Brotherhood.

The church has been served by nine pastors: Rev. Barnston, 1894; Rev. C. M. Larson, 1901; Rev. J. C. Houghum, 1903; Rev. S. A. Erdahl, 1914; Rev. Theo. Kleppe, 1915; Rev. M. K. Aaberg, 1917; A. E. Norsen, 1937; Rev. T. M. Nelson, 1947 and the present pastor, Rev. M. Egge, 1952.

(The Emmanuel Lutheran Church is located on Colby Factory Road, ¼ mile west of Hwy. 73, near Longwood. DZ)

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Ruth Vornholt, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mark Vornholt, of Neillsville, has become the bride of Jesse M. James and will make her home in Los Angeles.  Her husband is presently in the employ of the Rick Helicopter Co.  He had served with the U. S. Army in Korea.  After his discharge he was a ground man for the Rick organization in Alaska.

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