Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

February 27, 2008, Page 18

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Linda Cottrell-Sanders & Prepared by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

February 1928

 

A community hall has been built in the town of Levis, one-half mile east of Meadow View School at Shramek’s Corners. The building is 28 by 48 feet in size and well constructed. The need of such a hall had long been felt in that neighborhood, as the town hall is situated some distance away on the north edge of the town. A Community Club was organized, officers elected and committee appointed to go on with the construction. A vacant schoolhouse near Humbird was purchased, taken down and moved to the hall site on trucks and is now substantially rebuilt.

 

It is a great credit to the enterprise of the people who carried out the project. Later, a kitchen and other accessories will be built to add to the convenience of the place.

 

Those interested in the project plan to have their organization duly incorporated and will run the hall on a real business basis.  It will be used for all sorts of community purposes.

 

* * *

On Thursday of this week, Wheeler Forman, Rural Letter Carrier on Route 3 Neillsville, will complete a quarter of a century of service for the people on that route. He has seen the old folks on his route die of old age, the middle aged grow old, the young grow to manhood and womanhood and in a few instances the young people have married since he started the route and are now grandparents.

 

He is the only driver the route has had since it was established. For 24 years the route was 25 miles in length and the past year it was extended to 30 miles. Mr. Forman has traveled during his years of the route, approximately 188,000 miles, or far enough to encircle the globe more than seven times. He is to be congratulated on the esteem and good will he has built up along his route and it is to be hoped that he may yet serve his people many years.

 

The Rural Route system started in Neillsville 27 years ago when Joe Green was made carrier on Route 1, which covered parts of other present routes. Mr. Green was followed by A.M. Harriman, Bob Eunson, G. H. Egery and then by J.L. Walk, who for the past 23 years has been on continuously.

 

Route 2 was started by Elliott Sturdevant and was followed by Richard Welsh, who drove 14 years; was succeeded by J.D. Cummings who has been the present carrier for about eight years.

 

On Route 4, Mart Lastofka was the first carrier, starting 25 years ago. He was succeeded several years later by Will Poff, then by Blucher Paulus who was followed by the present driver, Arnold Yankee.

 

Route 5 was established about 19 years ago with Otto Neverman as carrier. He has been on continuously ever since.  For a long time the route was 24 miles in length but is now 25 miles.  Mr. Neverman says his route satisfies him exactly in the way he laid it out and the patrons seem satisfied too.

 

Route 6 was the old Columbia Route, Ole Aspen being the carrier when it was made into Neillsville Route 6 and has remained ever since.

 

Roads on the mail routes have greatly improved through the years and methods of travel have also improved, with all of these having helped the service. But the great thing that has generally marked the service and most emphatically so today, is the faithfulness, efficiency and courtesy of the carriers.

* * *

A German shepherd dog owned by William Kuester, living near Greenwood, disappeared and after nine days returned home. The dog’s hind leg showed that he had been caught in a trap and held there until the leisurely trapper came at the end of the nine days and nights of bitter cold weather, to release the tortured animal.

* * *

Mr. Frank Morse and Miss Caroline Kronberger were united in marriage at 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 14 at the residence of Rev. J.G. Ruth, near Granton, with Rev. Ruth performing the ceremony. The bride was attended by her sister, Miss Clara Kronberger, and Miss Della Block. The groom was attended by Mr. Frank Kronberger, brother of the bride, and Mr. Robert Block.

 

The bride wore a gown of silk flat crepe, a veil and carried a bouquet of pink and white carnations; her sister was dressed in lavender silk-satin and Miss Block wore green georgette. The groom and Robert Block wore suits of navy blue and Frank Kronberger wore a gray suit.

 

After the ceremony, the bridal party drove to Neillsville to have pictures taken.

 

The groom is the son of Mr. Ed Morse of the town of Loyal. He was brought up on his father’s farm and is a young man of fine appearance and highly spoken of. The bride is the daughter of Mrs. Barbara Kronberger of the town of York. She has always lived at home and is a young lady who has many friends.

* * *

Moen and Gall, who have been in partnership for some time as builders and contractors, have dissolved partnership. Each will continue by himself in the same line of work. 

Arthur Carl has quit working for the firm of Moen and Gall. He will now do cabinetwork and carpentering work of all kinds, on his own. Check with him for an estimate on your carpentry work. Call phone Red 271.

 

* * *

The Wisconsin Highway Commission has ordered the removal of all culvert end walls within two years. No more end walls will be built. It has been found that they are the cause of many serious accidents. Guardrails are also to be lowered on highways.

February 1958

 

After 39 years of continuous service with the Omaha and Northwestern railroads, Claude Westphal has retired and may be able to do some of the things that he was unable to do when regularly employed. In 1919, he started as a section hand at Neillsville and in 1922 was made section foreman.

 

“During my first year on the section,” Mr. Westphal recalled, “we traveled on hand car. In 1920, the motor-driven car came into use.”

 

“In 1919, there were two section crews working out of Neillsville, with seven men on each crew. In recent years a single crew consisting of a foreman and two or three men, did all of the work and there were periods when I had only one man.”

“In 1919 all engines were fired by coal. In recent years all engines are diesel burners. In the earlier years there were more trains traveling, but they were smaller. The coal fired smaller engine would not be able to pull the heavy trains that now pass through Clark County. There are fewer men employed today on the section and on the railroad.

 

Joe Resong, of Neillsville, formerly on Mr. Westphal’s crew, is now commuting to Merrillan and is working with the Merrillan crew. Fred Mohr, who was on the Neillsville section crew, now has a temporary lay-off. Victor Montag of Chili, also with the former crew, is not working at present. Ernest Feyen, who had been working part-time with the Neillsville crew, is hoping for work elsewhere.

 

The present setup has crews at Merrillan and Marshfield, dividing the track equally between the two places.

Although Mr. Westphal worked temporarily on different runs, his last run was from a half-mile east of Granton to four miles east of Merrillan. The railroad was known as the “Omaha” until in 1956, when it was changed to Northwestern.

* * *

Fire destroyed the old Theodore Braun cheese factory, nine miles northwest of Greenwood, last Sunday morning.

The building was occupied by Irvin Horn, a salesman, who used the upper floor for living quarters and the lower floor for storage.

When Mr. Horn was awakened about 7 o’clock, the building was so filled by smoke that he could not find his way around the living quarters. The dense smoke prevented firemen and neighbors, who responded to the alarm, from saving either household goods, or supplies stored in the basement.

Mr. Horn saved only the clothes he had on when he escaped from the burning building. He is staying for the present with his brother, Otto Horn.

Cause of the fire was thought to be a faulty oil heater in the basement. Some insurance was carried.

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Suda, of Willard, have purchased the Joe Lunka Feed Mill and Store in Willard. The Suda family took possession January 1. They will be assisted, at the present, by the former owners.

 

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Byron Zepplin have purchased the former Myre Furniture Company, in Loyal. They took possession February 1. Mr. Zepplin, at one time, owned part interest in the store, having sold his interest to Mr. Myre, in 1954. Mr. Myre will continue to operate his funeral home business.

* * *

The office of mayor in Colby is the only contest in the spring election. Candidates are Ted Baumgart and Vernon Loos.

* * *

Barbara Johnson, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J.W. Johnson of Withee, has been chosen the Owen-Withee High School candidate for the annual state D.A.R. award. Besides being editor of the “O-Withian News,” student newspaper and of the Annual Staff, Barbara also is active in band and forensics.

* * *

Using a big crane and boom with the delicate precision of a seamstress threading a needle, Bob Free of Neillsville edged a 9-1/4-ton ice building machine into its nitch at the Neillsville Milk Products Cooperative, Tuesday afternoon.

The huge machine is designed to take care of all the Milk Products’ cooling needs daily and it is now in place in the portion of the new addition assigned to it. The space into which Free deftly placed the seven-foot wide machine with his ungainly-appearing equipment was 10 feet wide at its narrowest point. That gave him a three-foot clearance and he did not need it.

 

When Free had it spotted, B.H. Crissinger, plant manager, said, the machine was exactly where it was planned and that’s where it would stay.

Free is an employee of the Clark County Highway Department.

 

The ice-building machine has a rated capacity of 45 tons. It is 24 feet long, nine feet and three inches high and seven feet wide.  Its size is such that its placement was required before the walls and ceiling could be completed around it.

The machine was made in Utica, N.Y., and was shipped here by railroad flatcar.

 

* * *

A total of 202 years’ service was represented when the Quarter Century Club of the American Stores Dairy Company was organized here last Friday, making up the 202 years were seven members who were presented recognition pins by Supt. Blodgett as their fellow-workers gathered around.

 

The seven are:

Mrs. Helen Meyer, 31 years; Tom Free, 30 years; Emil Hauri, Max Lukas and A.E. Meier, 29 years each; and William Meier and Edward Zank, 27 years each.

 

In making the presentation, Mr. Blodgett pointed out two other members of the staff, Arleigh Graves and Albert Holt, each who missed the quarter-century mark by but a few months.

 

* * *

Ten new members were added to the Atomic 4-H Club at its meeting Thursday night in the Kiwanis rooms in Neillsville.

 

The club now has 32 members, for the largest enrollment in its history. Melvin Appleyard, club leader and Mrs. Joyce Vandeberg, adult girls’ leader, were in charge.

 

The following were enrolled as new members: Timmy Flynn, Ronald Marden, Gordon Beyer, Bonnie Foemmel, Carol Hrasky, Omar Feyen, Chuck Haines, Rickey Hoffmann, Bernadette Feyen and Jimmy Simek.

 

* * *

The following 26 people were received into membership in the new Calvary Lutheran Church on Sunday: William Biggs, Mr. and Mrs. Otto Dux, Mr. and Mrs. Arden Hinkelmann and son, Arlyn; Bruce Holum; Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Krause and children, Barbara, Arthur, Catherine and Dennis; Mr. and Mrs. Melvin Mech and children, Dennis, Helen and William; Mr. and Mrs. August Selk; Mr. and Mrs. Harry Wasserberger; Mr. and Mrs. John Wik and children, Dennis and Rebecca.

This was the first Sunday those services were conducted upstairs in the sanctuary.

 

* * *

The area’s first ice fishing contest will be staged Sunday, March 2, on the pond at Fairchild by the Fairchild Rod & Gun Club. Prizes offered total $1,450 in retail value. The contest hours are 1 to 4 p.m. Proceeds will be used for public hunting ground and fish propagation.

* * *

Granton Merchants and Louie’s Bar were the first two of 10 Neillsville Women’s bowling teams to compete in the state tournament in Milwaukee this year. This year’s record-breaking entry consists of 2,303 teams, 3,321 doubles and 6,642 singles.

Members of the Granton Merchants team are: Mildred Zaleski, captain; Esther Hoeft, Alvira Schwarze, Cora Guy and June Gorst.

 

Louie’s Bar team members are: Ann Schoengarth, captain; Marge Kessler, Nancy Tock, Carol Chadwich and Carole Corey.

 

They bowled February 1 and 2 at the Olympic Lanes and the Capitol Pladium.

 

* * *

Neillsville IGA Carload Sale features IGA Family Flour, 50 lb. cloth bag, $2.99; Frozen, Fresh Ocean Perch, 5 lb. Cello Pkg., $1,29; IGA Fish Sticks, 4 – 8 oz. pkgs. for $1.00; Delicious Apples 6 lbs. for 99c.

 

* * *

 

Penney’s Fabulous Special Purchase! New Spring Cotton Dresses, variety of colors, in Misses and Half Sizes, $4.00 each.

 

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A circa 1940 scene of Hewett Street in the 500 block, on the east side: The Schultz Brothers store is on the far right, in the old building, which was razed and replaced with a one-story structure.  The wooden building, next door, accommodated two shops, Maytag Appliances and Neverman’s Variety.

 

 

 


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