Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

November 27, 2002, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

November 1907

 

By a law passed last winter, the Clark County Board is required to elect a new officer to be known as County Highway Commissioner.  The provisions of the law are too long and complex to be given here.  But the provision states that the officer shall be a competent engineer or an experienced road building, which indicates that it is highly important that a first class man be appointed.  The success of the law depends on the ability of the officers appointed.  If incompetent, the law will soon fall into disrepute and be repealed.

••••••••••

Last Wednesday was the golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Nemitz.  The event was celebrated at the home of their daughter, Mrs. Fred Dux, west of Neillsville.  Nearly 50 guests were present and enjoyable day was spent.  Rev. H. Brandt performed the celebration ceremony.  They received a number of useful gifts; among them was $50 in gold given by their children.  Mr. Nemitz is 77 years of age and his wife is 71.  They came to America in 1886.  They have seven children and 25 grandchildren, living.

••••••••••

Frank Root, butter maker in the Pleasant Ridge creamery for the past two years, has resigned his position there.  Root left Monday to go to Madison where he intends taking a course in the Wisconsin Dairy School.  J. G. Hyslop, who made butter here for a number of years, will return from an Independence creamery where he has been working and will take charge of the Pleasant Ridge creamery.

••••••••••

Henry Speigel, about 65 years of age, residing in the Town of Grant, was deer hunting last week out in the East Fork country.  Wednesday morning, he left camp and became separated from his hunting companions, getting lost.  A lively search was started the next day and continued until Saturday afternoon when he was found.  Having wandered around in a circle, he was still able to walk even though he had had no food.

 

Several fellows around the Bruce Mound area went out in search of deer this past week.  The second growth of timber is so thick it makes hunting an uphill struggle. 

 

The men from Chili who went to the hunting grounds were; August Prust, H. Koser, H. Henning, Jake Henning, Fred Heinze, August Bauman, Hugh Fraser, Will and Chas. Bealer and others.  If each one should get his two deer, there would be enough to keep Chili in meat all winter.

 

Bill Rupnow and cousin and a friend came to hunt deer in the town of Hewett area.  They each shot a deer and seemed satisfied with their hunt as they both put their deer on the train and left to go home with them.  A great many of our local hunters have been successful in killing one or more deer.  Every day we see hunters pass through here from the north, taking home loads of venison.

••••••••••

Joe Bertz, the livestock buyer from Loyal, was in the Town of York on Saturday.  He bought some cattle and hogs that were delivered on Monday.

••••••••••

Last Saturday, Claude Mills walked five head of livestock from his farm near Christie to Neillsville. Failing to get the price he had been promised, he drove the livestock back home again.

••••••••••

Three of Neillsville’s well-known young folks took an automobile trip into the country one day last week.  Their auto balked on them and they hired a blind horse to transport them back to town.

••••••••••

Mr. Patrick Kelly and Mrs. Mary Goeden were married Tuesday, Nov. 26, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.  Rev. A. Dorrenbach officiated the ceremony.  The groom is one of the best-known men in this community and has many friends. The bride’s home is west of the Black River, in the Town of Pine Valley, where she has a comfortable farm home and where they will reside.

 

November 1942

 

Ole Aspen, mail carrier on rural route two, is showing what can be done in this business of collecting scrap metal.

 

This week he had been running his mail route with a four-wheel trailer hitched to the back of his automobile.  Every piece of scrap metal he has spotted along the county roads has gone into the trailer.

 

On the first day, Monday, the trailer was loaded high with about 1,000 pounds of scrap. Tuesday, the load was even larger, bringing his two-day collection total to well over one ton.

 

Most of the metal had come from the roadside, where it had been gathering rust with no apparent interest from anyone and no particular owner.

 

Aspen has donated his collections to the U.S.O. scrap pile.

••••••••••

Gasoline registration for passenger cars and motorcycles will be conducted in the high schools of Clark County and in Chili and Willard next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 12, 13 and 14.

 

The gas registration sign-up will be conducted by the teachers and high school seniors, with members of the county rationing board and school principals acting in supervisory capacities.

 

At the time of the registration, all owners of passenger cars and motorcycles will be given a basic “A” ration card.  The “A” ration card will permit the purchase of an equivalent of 32 gallons of gasoline every two months, according to early announcements.

 

Those who believe they are eligible for more lenient rations – “B” and “C” cards – will find applications forms available at the time of registration.  These forms must be filled in separately and mailed or delivered to the ration board panel in the nearest city or Village of Clark County.

 

The board panels will check the applications for supplemental gasoline rations determine the eligibility of each application and determine the amount that should be given over the basic “A” ration.

 

You can save rubber and help win World War II if you will do these things listed below:  Drive only when absolutely necessary.  Keep your speed under the 35 miles per hour.  Keep your tires properly inflated.  Have the tires checked regularly. Share your car by giving others rides when you are going the same direction.

••••••••••

A. E. Russell has leased and is now occupying the Eberhardt building on South Hewett Street.  This is the location formerly occupied by Schiller Furniture store.  Russell will occupy the main floor, balcony and basement for the Gamble Store and will sublet the upper floor.  The upper floor consists of living apartments. Russell purchased the Schiller furniture stock and will continue in the furniture business, which has long been conducted in this location.

 

Russell is thus the first and only businessman, so far, in Neillsville who has chosen to expand as the answer to the problems of war.  In his new location, his business is occupying approximately double the floor space of the former location.  The outlook is that the enlarged space will be a close fit.

 

The Gamble store agency here has been conducted definitely as a family project.  Mrs. Russell continually serves the business, along with her husband, and their daughter who frequently takes a hand in helping.  The only additional help has been rendered by a high school student. A year or so ago, Russells had the help of a full-time man.  In the new location, they intend to try, at least at first, to manage as in the recent past.  Thus, in a time of restricted manpower, they intend to reduce their own problems to its lowest dimensions. With this better location on Neillsville’s Main Street, they are confident they will be able to continue business as they have been for an extended period of time.

••••••••••

The story of an “impossible” trek over the Owen Stanley mountain range in New Guinea by American troops, directed by Maj. Herbert M. Smith, of Neillsville, is told by Robert J. Doyle, Milwaukee Journal war correspondent, in a radioed dispatch from New Guinea.

 

By making this move, American soldiers flanked the Japanese at Buna, principal Jap base on northeast New Guinea, which now is threatened by American forces under Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur.

 

“Experienced military men shook their heads at the plan to take the force over a pass which they said no white man ever had crossed,” wrote Doyle.  “But, Maj. Smith, after sending a daring patrol of modern Daniel Boones over the rugged range, was able to take his entire force – several hundred tough soldiers – over the range in just two weeks.

 

As the patrol pushed ahead marking supply bases on the route, a group of engineers and infantrymen using the hand tools built a jeep trail to the first supply dump,” Doyle wrote.

 

“American engineers helped build a bridge with nothing but logs tied with strips of bark.  When the first truck of the force came over the road, one man looked up and said, ‘Boy! Are we in the war now!  Here comes our infantry.’  The force built 35 miles of road in five days.”

 

“After three supply dumps had been established, Major Smith received orders from Port Moresby to start over the mountain. The leading elements crossed the high pass and reached the farthermost base in 10 days.  After the rest of the force arrived, the troops moved down the north side of the mountain to a bush camp 30 miles from Buna to await the order to attack.”

 

While the commander at Port Moresby was writing a message to the men under Major Smith, he received this radioed message from Cat. William Boice, one of he officers under Major Smith:

 

“Thanks for rations.  Please have faith in us.  We will lick the h--- out of them.”

••••••••••

Deer hunting season opened last Saturday in the Clark County area.

 

Robert Gunder of Milwaukee, 17-year-old nephew of Henry Stiemke of Neillsville, borrowed everthing (every thing) for hunting but the buck.  He got that himself.

 

Gunder hitch-hiked a ride to Neillsville from his home; borrowed a shotgun from Stiemke, then borrowed ammunition from another uncle, Willard Scheiderer of Milwaukee.

 

He went hunting in the Columbia country and dropped a six-point buck with two shots, which wasn’t bad for a greenhorn.

 

But he did not have a hunting knife.  So he tried to borrow a knife from the first stranger that came along.  The stranger did come by, doing him one better – he dressed the deer out for Gunder.

 

Gunder took the deer home to Milwaukee on the Tuesday night train.

 

Incidentally, he did put up the money himself for the hunting license and deer tag.

••••••••••

Stations were being established this week for the collection of deer and bear fats, shell casings and deer hides, Game Warden Alva Clumpner has revealed.

 

The Game Warden said that these things are essential for the production of war material.  These items are being collected throughout the entire state during the deer and bear hunting season. 

 

Stations are to be established in service stations or garages in Neillsville, Granton, Humbird, Owen, Greenwood, Loyal and Thorp.  A civic organization will be made responsible for the collection in each community and the proceeds will go to the organization in charge.

 

Especially desired is the tallow found around the intestines of a deer, stated Clumpner.

••••••••••

Neillsville Mayor H. J. Naedler has issued the following proclamation for Thanksgiving Day:

 

“All America in times of peace or war, since President Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving proclamation in Civil War times, has each year observed one day of offering thanks to God for the blessings received.”

 

“We again have much to be thankful for:  Numerous recent successes of our armed forces, who are willing to endure suffering and even sacrifice life to uphold our freedom and liberty; and necessary essentials of livelihood.”

 

“Therefore, I ask all to observe this day of Thanksgiving in a proper and fitting manner.”

••••••••••

The Pleasant Ridge Creamery, an old and well-known cheese factory of the Town of Grant, will close at the end of November.  Vinton Lee, veteran cheesemaker, who has made cheese there and lived in the building since 1919, is retiring.  His household effects will remain in the building, but he plans to spend the winter away.

 

This old cheese business dates back to 1898, when it was incorporated.  It was organized in the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood, one of the finest farming sections of Central Wisconsin.  Its membership consisted mostly of neighbors.  Its stocks are rather widely held, but its patrons number only 16 at the time of its closing.

 

The factory has a history of 44 years, with continuous operation except for 11 months in World War I.  It closed in 1918 and re-opened in 1919.  When Lee announced his desire to retire, his old friends recognized the improbability of securing a successor on terms commensurate with the present volume of business.  So the decision is to put everything into good order, to retain all the equipment and to lock the doors. The plant will be kept in readiness for operation if and when the conditions indicate.

 

The officers and directors are: Alvin Eisentraut, president; Bert Swann, vice-president; Arno Drescher, director; William Duge, treasurer and Harold Huckstead, secretary.

••••••••••

The “Kaffee Klatsch” favorite indoor pastime for many Neillsville businessmen and others became a thing of the past this week – another casualty of World War II.

 

The lineup at the restaurant counters, which began at 7 a.m. each morning, dwindled to a mere trickle as restrictions on coffee were ushered in with the “freeze” on retail coffee sales at mid-night on Saturday.

 

As a customer said, “coffee please,” he was given an explanation that coffee would only be served to those who ordered food to go with it.

 

Those who made three or four trips a day for their coffee will feel the pinch. The betting is that politics and lunch counter war strategy will receive far less public airing than before.

 

(Last week, we had an error on a heading date on the “Oldies” page.  Instead of 2002, it should have read Nov. 1952. DZ)

€€€€€€€€€

 

William Schiller was owner of the Schiller Furniture and Funeral Home business located at 430 Hewett Street in Neillsville during the 1930s.  (Photo courtesy of the Bill Roberts’ Collection)

 

 


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