Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

April 3, 2002, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clark County News

 

April 1907

 

On Saturday night, Gus Krause and George Shummel gave a birthday party at the Woodman Hall.  A large number of their friends were present.  A fine supper was served and there was a good time enjoyed by all.  A surprise was given to the two gentlemen by their lady friends, each being presented with a fine chair in which they can rest and use for their old age.

••••••••••

Properties for sale: a nice house and lot on the main street of Neillsville, centrally located with water, sewer and good pump water; 80 acres of land, 6 ½ miles from Neillsville, some clearing, only $1,600; a nice little place, two miles from Neillsville, 11 acres with room, comfortable house, good cellar, fine well and windmill, well-made barn, good orchard of apples, plums, cherries, currants, blackberries and more.  It also has some personal property.

 

All of items will be sold cheap.

••••••••••

Charles Sramek, of Chicago, has bought the Ball farm in the Town of Levis.  He has moved onto the place this week.

••••••••••

Mr. Gardner, superintendent of the dam project, arrived at Hatfield with ten of his assistants.  They will plan for the different kinds of work needed on the project.  They will design the dam, the flume that will be nearly two miles long, the powerhouse and the line that will carry the power.  The only drawback, at present, is the tools needed for the project.  The boarding house and the store are about completed.  As soon as the tools arrive, the work will begin.

••••••••••

The burglar alarm at the Neillsville Bank ran into an open switch or something of that kind last Wednesday night.  About 10 o’clock Joseph Morley left the O’Neill House to go over and turn the alarm off.  Quite a little excitement prevailed.  A real burglar would not have escaped easily.

••••••••••

Mr. George Frantz and Miss Mary Neff were married at the Presbyterian Manse in Neillsville, April 11, 1907.  Rev. D. A. Rohrabaugh officiated the ceremony.  The groom was born and brought up on the Frantz farm south of Neillsville.  He later resided in the Town of Washburn.  He is a jolly good fellow and has a host of friends.  The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Neff of Hutchings Corners, where the family has lied since she was a little girl.  The newly wed couple will be renting the Joseph Oldham farm, southeast of the city, for the next three years.  They have purchased the livestock and most of the personal property that was on the farm.  They have now taken possession, setting up housekeeping there.

••••••••••

The following informative letter was sent to us to be printed:

 

To the Farmers of Clark County: Potatoes have been profitable for the last six years.  The price paid here has averaged, in these years, close to 32 cents a bushel.  Right now they are somewhat low, 24 cents per bushel.

 

If everyone would plant Burbank potatoes this year, the price of the coming crop would be five cents higher.  When a shipper must load from 10 to 20 varieties of potatoes and keep them separated in the rail car, the price per pound goes down.

 

The long white Burbank potato is what the large buyers of potatoes want.  Burbanks are very seldom hollow, keep well and retain their firmness until the new crop comes in. Therefore they are the more desirable potatoes for the merchant. The round potatoes are usually hollow when they get to be larger than one’s fist and consequently not desirable.  Five cents on a bushel is a good lot; 150 bushels per acre at five cents means $7.50 more for each acre you raise.  That’s worth-while going after.

••••••••••

The first runaway caused by an automobile occurred last Thursday night. The team of horses, owned by Mrs. August Wagner, took fright when they saw an automobile approaching on Hewett’s hill.  Mrs. Wagner’s brother, who makes his home with her, was driving the team.  One of her brother’s hands is disabled with a carbuncle, so he got out of the buggy to hold the horses by their bridle bits.  The team broke away from him and came running down the street at a fearful rate.  Mrs. Wagner was holding on to the reins and vainly screaming for help.  Her little child, about four years old, was in the buggy with her.  The sight and thought of the helpless mother and child likely at any moment to be dashed to death made the blood of the spectators run cold.  The team turned the corner at the Congregational Church and then broke loose from the buggy.  The woman and child were hurled over the buggy dashboard, causing the woman’s collarbone to be broken and the child’s face to be bruised.

 

This accident should be an admonition to automobile drivers, to use the utmost caution, going even beyond the limits of care required by law.  The business interests of the city demand that country people be not driven out or kept away for fear of such accidents.

 

April 1937

 

The stubs of an old Pleasant Ridge School order book have been brought to us by O. E. Counsell, a former clerk of the district.  It contains much interesting history and also much of actual news value.

 

Names of the school’s teachers of the period from 1868 to 1907 are recorded as well as the wages paid and the locations of the schoolhouses during that time.

 

Among the incidental orders drawn is one for $1 to Mrs. J. Selves for cleaning the schoolhouse.  This work, always done at a very low wage, seems to have been done in turn by a member of about every family in the district.

 

Teacher’s wages, according to the record, were also very modest, ranging from $10 to $35 per month during those 39 years.

 

The first schoolhouse, a log building, was erected opposite the Blackman farm.  This crude building was later replaced by a more commodious and substantial structure, located on the line between the George Swann and Louie Schultz farms, on the north side of the road.  It was moved to the present school site and was later torn down and replaced by the building that burned about 22 years ago.  At that time, Neillsville boasted of a civic secretary, Walter Schatz, who aided the people of that community in obtaining plans for the new fine building, which still serves the Reed District.

••••••••••

The Neillsville Armory has remodeled and redecorated the old building, putting in rest rooms, knew offices for the officers of the local Guard Company, new chairs and remodeled the stage.

 

There will be a celebration of the new changes that has been made in the Armory which was built in 1892, and which held its first grand opening on Jan. 1, 1893.  The Neillsville Lodge of the Loyal Order of Moose is sponsoring a big dancing party to celebrate the second grand opening of this old Neillsville landmark in which have been many successful dances and shows.

 

The night of April 8, will bring to the people of Neillsville and the surrounding community an evening to long (long to) be remembered by those who enjoy good music.  The Neillsville Moose and those connected with the Armory are endeavoring to make this a pleasant evening for you.

 

A grand march will be held at 11:30 p.m.  Get in on the grand march and have your picture taken with those that are not sorry they took this opportunity to celebrate this first after-Easter Dance to be held in the “Old Armory.”

••••••••••

The Clark County Conservation league has constructed a trout “hatchery” at Greenwood near the Joe Brown property.  They will place 5,000 baby trout in the hatchery tank about May 1.  Water from a large spring flows into a 7’x9’ cypress tempering tank, from which it passes to three 4’x18’ tanks inside a building.  It is said that the trout will be 7 or 8 inches long by fall.

••••••••••

A meeting of stockholders of the Whitetail Oil Syndicate was held Sunday at Lowe’s Furniture store.  It was decided to continue drilling this summer, prospects for oil being very encouraging.  Clark County residents own about 85% of the stock in the oil company.  Geo. A. Ure and Geo. H. Lowe plan to leave about the middle of the month for Montana to supervise the drilling work.

••••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Dux, of Pine Valley, have been married 55 years.  On Sunday, the wedding anniversary occasion along with Mr. Dux’s 77th birthday, were observed together.  Six of their seven children and families gathered at the Dux home farm to spend a few hours with the aged couple.

 

The children are: Mrs. Otto Zank, Mrs. Otto May, Mrs. Albert Wagner, Otto Dux, Fred Dux, Jr., Mrs. John Miller of Glidden and Paul Dux, the latter being at home with his parents.  Mrs. Miller was the only family member not present, but was represented by her daughter, Agnes, who is employed in Neillsville.  Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Schultz, who are close neighbors and friends, also went over to congratulate this fine couple.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Dux were married in Germany and then came directly to this country.  After living a short time with relatives in the area, they settled on the farm that has been home to them since.  They have been honest, hard-working farmers and have won the respect of the entire community.

••••••••••

Due to the large amount of work to be done on highway 73 this season, a branch office of the Wisconsin State Employment Service will be located at Greenwood.

 

This office will be in operation Monday of each week beginning April 26 to take registrations and renew registrations of those seeking employment both on road work and private employment.  The office will be in charge of Gale Hiles, under the supervision of F. J. Smrcina of Wausau.  Office hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5A:30 p.m.

 

Those renewing their registrations every 30 days will have preference for work.  Renewals may be made by telephone, in writing or in person.  New registrations must be made in person.

 

When work gets underway on the highways, the Greenwood office will be open on as many days each week as is deemed necessary and the men will be referred to jobs directly from there.

••••••••••

Frank Hemp owns a rare old violin that was made 128 years ago, according to the label inside of the instrument.  The label reads: “Georg Gutter Atorf im sachsichen Voigtland, 1809,” done in Latin script. This violin belonged to Hemp’s great-grandfather and was brought to America by his father.  About five years ago, Theodora Hemp took it to Milwaukee to have it repaired.  He was told by an artist, in that line, that he knew of only one other instrument of this make that was manufactured about a year later.

••••••••••

The Neillsville city council, Tuesday night, signed a contract with a company for washing and painting the inside of the standpipe. The contract states the cost for the work to be in the amount of $50.  The work is necessary to protect the metal tank from damage by rust.

••••••••••

The Junior Chamber of Commerce, through its secretary Everett Skroch, announced this week that it will continue its derive for funds to promote free outdoor moving picture shows in Neillsville. The movies will be shown for 22 weeks through the warm months.

 

At a meeting of the chamber, last week, John Adler of Marshfield appeared before the organization to discuss the question of free movies, but no agreement was reached.

 

Under present plans, it was said that the free shows will be shown on one of the side streets in the city.

••••••••••

Failure to repot a case of chicken pox resulted in the arrest of Carl Schoengrund, of Loyal, last week.  Dr. L. M. Morse, district officer of the Wisconsin State (Board) of Health received the complaint. According to Dr. Morse, Schoengrund permitted two of his children, who had the disease, to go to the Taft School where two or three more cases developed.

 

Following this discovery, the Schoengrund home was quarantined for two weeks.  At the end of the time it was charged that Schoengrund transferred his children to the Dodgeville School and permitted them to return to their classes without being inspected by the local health officer.

 

John M. Peterson, district attorney, arrested Schoengrund under the state statute that requires the head of a family to report communicable diseases.  The case was brought before A. E. Dudley, police justice, who fined Schoengrund $5 and costs, amounting to $22.90.

••••••••••

This is the time of the year to buy a new car at one of our Neillsville dealers. 

 

Fred Stelloh has the Hudson and Terraplane cars on display. Both of these cars have the new brakes, according to Bill Burgess.

 

Seif & Byse Sales Co. is the local Ford dealer. The 60 h.p. Ford V-8 economy car price begins at $529.  For only $25 per month, after down-payment, you can own a new 1937 Ford V-8.

 

R. H. Welsh Chevrolet Company offers the new ’37 truck that breaks all known economy and dependability records.  Through blazing heat, through blasting cold, across high mountains, across level plains, this Chevrolet half-ton truck rolled up amazing new records.  After traveling 10,244 miles, while hauling a 1,000-pound load, the total cost for gas was $101 and the total cost of repair parts during that time was 73 cents.  The average cost for gasoline was 21 cents per gallon on the trip.

••••••••••

Seif & Byse Ford Co., of Neillsville, offered wrecker-towing service as early s in the late 20s.  That was the time of the narrow dirt roads that became mires of mud in the spring season.  (Photo courtesy of Bill Roberts’ collection)

 

 


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