Clark County Press, Neillsville,

December 27, 2006, Page 16

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

December 1901

 

Last week, John Wolff bought the William Heffron’s farm of 15 acres lying within the city limits, just east of the Hawks farm.  John has an eye on the future and will improve the place and make it a fine home, where later he expects to reside.  For the present time, he will rent out the house.

•••••••••

On Monday, Robert Eunson purchased the livery business of E. E. Crocker.  With the business, he gets ten horses, buggies, surreys, wagons, cutters and sleighs as well as everything that goes with it, harnesses, robes, blankets, etc.  He has a span of horses of his own, which will make twelve horses to start with.  Mr. Eunson has had extensive experience in the livery business and will aim to keep teams and rigs in nice condition.  He will continue the business in Mr. Crocker’s barn, corner of Grand Avenue and Fifth Street.

•••••••••

Paul Rossman, Frank Carter, B. F. Thompson, Frank Klinke, Arthur Hubbell, S. L. Gates, Jas. Syth, Chas. Roseman, Alex Behrens and Mrs. Rebecca Tompkins, of Greenwood, were all in court Tuesday, for the case of Osborne Company vs. Mrs. Tompkins.  The trial decision was rendered in favor of Mrs. Thompkins.

•••••••••

When the thermometers get to playing tag with forty below, just think how your livestock would laugh with a Leason & Son Water Tank Heater.

•••••••••

Rev. John Willan will preach at the Lloyd’s mill schoolhouse, in Washburn, on next Sunday evening at seven o’clock.

•••••••••

Balch & Tragsdorf found life dull and dreary since they sold their farm in Levis this fall, so they purchased 160 acres from August Ableiter, across the Black River, in the same town, this week.  They are again enrolled in the granger ranks.

•••••••••

The population of Wisconsin, as shown by the recent census, numbers 2,060,942, an increase in five years of about 400,000.

•••••••••

The Rev. R. N. Toms will preach at the Prince of Peace Church, Pine Valley, next Sunday, at 11 a.m. and at Dells Dam at 2:30 p.m.  He will also conduct a special Christmas service at the Prince of Peace Church on the following Sunday, at 2:30 p.m.

•••••••••

Twenty-one free holders, residing in the Town of Unity, have made application to the town board of Unity for the laying out of a highway, commencing at the corner where Healy’s and Busche’s farms join, then running south as far as Vaughan’s corner.  This road, if laid out, will be very beneficial to farmers residing in the southern and southwestern part of Unity Township.

•••••••••

Ross Paulson shut down his milk skimming station in the Wilcox community, Town of York, on Monday.  Some farmers will take their milk to Granton, now.

•••••••••

Bill Stowell, who for some time was cook at the Merchants Hotel, will soon open a restaurant in Frank Darling’s building, now occupied by Mrs. W. Neff.  Mrs. Neff will move her dressmaking parlors to the rooms over Mr. Neff’s office and electrical laboratory on Sixth Street.  Mr. Neff recently bought the building from Judge O’Neill.

•••••••••

Chas. Baerwald, who played with the Neillsville Giants last season, has signed with the Cleveland club for next year.  Charley is a good ball player and will make a record when he gets into the big league.

•••••••••

Vesper, in Wood County, has a pearl button factory, the product of which is made of clam shells that are being taken from the Wisconsin River.

•••••••••

When Geo. Trogner sets out to build anything for himself, he does it just as well as if he were building it for someone else; and that is saying a good deal.  His new workshop on Grand Avenue is good enough for a parlor; it is commodious, clean, well lighted and well heated.  He states that he is prepared to do anything in the line of woodworking that comes along, including cabinetwork.

•••••••••

The Power House, in the city of Neillsville, wants wood delivered to their yard until it is filled up.  They need 4-foot, sound hard maple, birch and ironwood.  Contact R. F. Kountz, Secretary of the Electric and Water Supply Co.

 

December 1951

 

A Christmas tree, weighing 800 pounds and over 15 feet high, has been placed on a vacant lot on the Main Street of Neillsville, across from the Neillsville Bank.  A platform was built over a basement excavation to hold the tree, which has a branch-spread of over 10 feet.  The tree will be decorated and trimmed this Saturday, and will be lighted at night, adding to the Christmas decorations of Neillsville.

 

E. A. Georgas has donated the use of his “Adoration of the Shepherds” scene, which will be illuminated by a spotlight in front of the tree.

 

The vacant lot was formerly occupied by a furniture store.  The platform will be available after Christmas for bands, politicians and civic events.  Use of the lot, the platform and the tree were donated for the Christmas season.

•••••••••

First informal reports from state conservation department experts indicate that the state’s estimated army of 300,000 deer hunters bagged about 115,000 animals during the recent seven-day shoot for “any deer.”  While the harvest, if it is proved, is less than the bag of last year, it will be one of the heaviest in the state’s history.

 

Actual figures will not be available until hunters send in their game census cards.  The official harvest report will probably be released next spring.

•••••••••

The new substitute priest, at St. Mary’s Church, tells of coming to the United States:

 

“Your country is like reaching land after a storm at sea, it is so wonderful,” so the Rev. Fr. Peter Zic, formerly of Yugoslavia, described the United States.  He has been assigned as substitute priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Neillsville, taking the place of the Rev. Fr. John Priztel, who is on sick leave.

 

Although he only arrived in this country in September of 1950, the 42-year-priest spoke understandable English.

 

“I took a course in English when I found I cold come to this country, but I discovered I hadn’t learned anything when I arrived here.  The boat I caught from Bremerhaven, Germany, was not too bad because everyone spoke German and I could speak that.  However, English ws different I discovered.  The German-speaking customs officer told me that Wisconsin, where I was going, was noted for its rich milk, cream, butter and cheese.  That sounded fine to me.  In Yugoslavia we have milk, yet, but not like here.”

 

Rev. Fr. Zic was parish priest in Risika on the Dalmation coast of Yugoslavia, before the Germans and Italians invaded.  In 1941, he was sent to a detention camp in Italy but was not harmed.  The Allied troops liberated him in 1945.

 

“Neillsville is like my parish in Risika.  It is about the same size and there was a lot of farming carried on there, too. But we didn’t have these big factories as you have all this manufacturing.

 

The people here are different, too, so friendly.  They are always trying to help and if there is nothing they can help with, they give you a few friendly words instead.  In Europe, it is not like that.”

 

“The people there are unfriendly.  They don’t look at a man, the way you do here, and see a man.  They see what nationality he is.  Is he German, Italian or French?  They see him only through those kinds of glasses.  They don’t look upon a man as their brother, the way the Americans do.  I suppose one would hve to go back to history for the reasons.”

 

“You fought a war and hated the Japanese and the Germans.  Now the war is over.  They are your friends.  In Europe, it is not that way.  They hate because their fathers and grandfathers hated.  They carry the burdens of their ancestors.  People are living too much in borders there; too much divided the countries.”

 

People in Neillsville and the rest of the United States, who have lived through two world wars and now the cold war, think of things as being very unsettled.  “This country is in a horrible mess,” they said. Rev. Fr. Zic feels differently.  He describes American as an asylum of refuge compared to the rest of the world.

 

How did Rev. Fr. Zic happen to come to this country?

 

“The archbishop of the La Crosse diocese, the Most Rev. Tracey agreed to sponsor me.  He has sponsored other members of my order also.”

 

Rev. Fr. Zic was referring to the 11 Yugoslavian priests who helped the Rev. Gregory Rozman, bishop of Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, celebrate his 20th anniversary pontifical mass in Willard in 1949.

 

“When I was in the seminary in Yugoslavia, I studied under Bishop Rozman.”

 

Rev. Fr. Zic was garbed in the traditional gown of priests in his country.  Called a Cossack, it is a long, fitted black coat that buttons up the front.  He was sitting, working on his Sunday sermon in the rectory study when interrupted for the interview.

 

Rev. Fr. Zic studied church law in Rome after his liberation and qualifies as a doctor of cannon law.  He also acted as chaplain at displaced persons camps in Italy at Capua and Fermo.

 

Rev. Fr. Zic’s immaculate, square-tipped hands fingered a pencil as he discussed the religious life of people in the United States and also Neillsville.

 

“People here take their religion seriously, whether they are Catholic or not.  Everywhere here, you see churches that are well kept up.  The people in my church, here in Neillsville, are also very religious.  Of course, it is different from Yugoslavia. There was no other religion where I was.  In other parts of Yugoslavia, there were Greek Orthodox people, but in my part, Croatia, only Roman Catholics.  There were not problems there because of different religions, such as matrimony; but they had their problems too.”

 

Rev. Fr. Zic was unable to return to his country after the war because of the Communist regime.  Since his arrival, he has been serving as a substitute throughout the La Crosse diocese.  Probably after he learns the language better, and the customs, he will be assigned as priest to a parish similar to Neillsville.

•••••••••

A public auction, to try to recoup the losses suffered when the American Legion Post was burglarized two weeks ago, is being held tomorrow night at the American Legion clubhouse.  The post lost almost $250 when the hall was broken into and the money from a strongbox and jukebox was taken.

 

Everything from food to white elephants, all donated by post members, local businessmen, and private citizens, will be auctioned off by Chap Paulson, who has donated his services.  The sale starts at 8 p.m. in the ballroom.

•••••••••

A bump on his head, a bruised nose, and a lame shoulder attest to Art Pflughoeft’s story of being run over by a deer. 

 

According to Mr. Pflughoeft, he was rabbit hunting in the woods two weeks ago with his two dogs.  One of the dogs scared up a rabbit around 3:30 and he took aim at it.  But before he could fire, a deer, startled by the other dog, came tearing out of the underbrush, with his eyes glued on the dog following him.  The deer didn’t see Pflughoeft and bounded into him, hitting him just below the left shoulder.  The blow knocked him down.

 

When Pflughoeft fell, he bumped his head on a log.  When he came to, his dog was licking his face and it was getting dark.

 

“That’s getting too close to them,” he commented.

 

Incidentally, Mr. Pflughoeft didn’t get his deer during the season.  He lives south of Neillsville with his brother and was hunting 1 ¼ miles south of his home, along the old river road at the time of the accident.

•••••••••

 

The World’s Girl Basket Ball Champions, of 1937, played the Neillsville City Basket Ball team at the local Armory on Saturday, Feb. 5, 1937.  Admission charged for the event was 40 cents and 25 cents.  The team featured Miss Jackie Mitchell, who was the only girl baseball pitcher in the world to strike out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.  The World’s greatest girl basket ball player, “Izzy” Payne and many other famous girl athletes also appeared in person at the Neillsville game.  (The above wording was taken from an advertising poster) (Courtesy of Carl Wagner)

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