Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

March 5, 2008, Page 16

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

February 1883

 

The welcome toot of the railroad locomotive sounded this noon at 1:30, after two days’ of snow blockage.

* * *

The Cannon Brothers are engaged in cutting a road down to the G.B.W. & St. P. railroad, some nine miles south of their mill, so as to send shingles for shipment over the railroad.

* * *

There’s a little too much snow in the town of Levis, at least Albert Raether should be convinced of the fact, for the snow pushed the roof off from his barn, which was replaced the first of the week.

* * *

A logging camp Wm. Polley, situated seven miles from Longwood, broke up on Thursday, having completed the job. The men have moved to a point on Wedges Creek, where they will work the rest of the winter.

* * *

An occasional top silk hat is to be seen about town. If, as the report goes, knee-breeches and hose are to be revived and the braided queue, what is this world coming to?

(The queue was a braid of hair that hung down from the back of the head. D.Z)

* * *

The public always likes to hear of new enterprises and especially at Neillsville. It is therefore with great pleasure that we announce that Messrs. M.E. Hamlin and Sanford Coggins have formed a co-partnership for the purpose of opening and carrying on a furniture and cabinet making business. They have rented the brick store on Third Street, owned by Ring & Youmans, and will in a short time put in a stock of the best line of goods for this market. Both gentlemen are fine workmen. Considerable alterations will be made in the store to accommodate them.

* * *

Merrillan offers extra-ordinary inducements for a wagon and sleigh manufacturer establishment to locate there. Such an institution could find plenty of waterpower or cheap fuel, good location, easily accessible timber of the best quality in unlimited supply, as well as shipping facilities. Such businesses would be abetted by an active local demand, which the present production cannot nearly supply, together with low taxes, fair wages and other reasonable expenses.

* * *

The lumbermen around Dorchester are having a hard time logging, the snow being over three feet deep in the woods. Weather conditions are now to be cold. The winter is much like that of 1873.

* * *

A little daughter of August Yankee died last week, with diphtheria. Two more of the same family, also Mrs. Henry Yankee and two children, are seriously sick with the same disease.  Little or no precaution has been taken to prevent the spreading of the disease and many more are exposed.  There have seven deaths so far due to the disease.

The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Wechokee, of Lynn, died of diphtheria, last week. Their one son is still very sick with the same disease.

* * *

The taffler at the boarding house, in the Shortville community, undertook to build a fire with kerosene and came near burning up the men’s sleeping apartment; but no damage was done except that caused by a man who went through a window, escaping the fire.

* * *

Mr. Editor: Please permit me, through the midium of your valuable journal, to call the attention of our railway employees to an evil, which it is in their power to suppress and, which they ought to suppress. On returning to our city recently, I was pained and disgusted at the conduct of certain passengers, who deliberately lighted their pipes and cigars in the passenger coach and speedily made the place black with the offensive and sickening fumes of tobacco.  I enter my respectful protest against such an indecent and heartless practice. When a traveler has paid for his passage, he has a right to enjoy the little comfort he can get in an ordinary first-class coach, without being compelled to inhale the nauseating odors that come from the pipes, cigars and bad breath of selfish and unfeeling tobacco smokers. A Traveler

February 1943

Mrs. Minerva Viergutz, whose husband, Sgt. Theodore, is serving overseas, has become the third Neillsville woman to enlist in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

She enlisted last week, in Milwaukee and is now awaiting call for training.  Mrs. Viergutz is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Leland Davis.  At present, she is teaching at the Lone Pine School in the town of Foster, where she expects to remain until her call is received.

Oscabel Nielsen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Neilsen of the West Eton (Eaton) community, is joining the WAAC.  She is spending a vacation with her parents, prior to reporting for duty. Her home recently has been Hartford, Wis.

* * *

Rationing of canned fruits and vegetables under the point rationing system will start March 1, the OPA has announced.

The announcement set three dates of importance to every family in Clark County and the nation in the inauguration of the program:

March 1, when merchants’ stocks of canned goods will be frozen;

February 22 to 27, when registration for ration book No. 2, the point rationing book, will be conducted in the schoolhouses of Clark County;

March 1, when sales of canned fruits and vegetables will be resumed under point rationing.

The OPA order also applies to frozen fruits and vegetables and dried fruits.

* * *

When I. E. Svirnoff and M. J. Budde were taking a newly purchased cow to the Svirnoff barn at the George May farm, Saturday, they put on a rodeo act such as one expects to see only upon Midwest ranches.

It took hours to get the cow from the highway to the barn, the process being as good as a show all the way except for the human players, whose minds were as firmly set against a stubborn cow as the animal herself was bent upon having it her way.

The crowd of spectators grew as the show progressed, the cast taking turns at somersault. Now up, now down, the cow was rearing in true bronco style. Members of the audience were having their best laughs of the season throughout the exhibition, but came close to the roof-raising state when the two men trying to lead her, side-stepped and concealed themselves in the farm’s ancient outhouse, grabbing the rope as the cow walked leisurely by.

The men inside, holding the rope tied to the halter of the cow outside, was approaching the goal but the question of facing the animal, with the possibility of having to rehearse the scene, was something to consider.

Mrs. May had just suggested shooting the animal and dressing her out for beef when someone offered to approach her on horseback and was that a happy thought, for thus the cow allowed herself to be led, almost calmly, to her new stall in the barn.

* * *

A survey of professional nurses is being made by the U.S. Public Health Services, with local returns coming finally into the hands of Mrs. Elizabeth Stewart, the county nurse.

The records available indicate that there are 41 registered nurses in the county and to these, questionnaires were sent out. Twenty-five responses have thus far been received and these indicate that only seven are now actively at work in the profession. The others are married, mostly having families and are available only in an extreme emergency.

In this area, the survey is being conducted under the direction of Mrs. Edith M. Partridge of Cudahy, Wis., who requests that all graduate nurses in Clark County either send in questionnaires already furnished them, or else write to her for the short and simple forms, which are to be filled out. A complete survey is declared to be urgent in the war effort.

* * *

While seated comfortably at his fireside Monday morning, Feb. 15, with the thermometer hovering around 12 below zero, George Frantz was remembering that it was on the 15th day of February, 45 years ago, that a crew of men finished the last of the logging in Jack Parrett’s camp on the East Fork, below Tremont dam.

Among the members of the crew were: Mr. Frantz, Will Stevens, Louie Cornest, Frank Ayers, Ed Northup and others, whose names Mr. Frantz could not at the moment recall.

The crew broke camp on the 16th, bringing the sleighs through slush and mud, to the farm now owned by R. M. Horswill, just east of Neillsville. They followed a logging trail through the woods until they reached Cannonville, taking the main road from there for the balance of the trip.

(The East Fork logging camp ceased operations in 1898.  Cannonville, named after the Canon brothers, was located at the intersection of Hwy. 73 and County Trunk K.  An old church building remains on that corner, as well as a former garage building.  A cheese factory, which was once located on the east side of the garage, burned years ago.  D.Z.)

* * *

Evelyn Bartz, daughter of Mrs. Bertha Bartz, town of York, has joined the WAAC.  She expects soon to be in active service.

Miss Bartz is the last of the five Bartz sisters to quit teaching in Clark County.  At one time, the school year of 1939-40, all five of the sisters were teaching in this county. Evelyn’s last assignment was at the Oriole Hill School.  She resigned there about December 1, having tried to join the WAVE.  With her call being delayed by the Navy, she went to work in a defense plant in Milwaukee. Finally, still without the call to the Navy, she joined up with the Army. She is expected to spend a little time at home before reporting to duty.

Evelyn’s departure from teaching leaves only LeNore, of the five girls, still to remain in the teaching profession. LeNore is teaching primary grades in Antigo. She was in the Greenwood Schools in 1939-40.

Irma is Mrs. James West. She taught in southeast Clark County until recently.

Mildred and Gertrude were teaching in the Reseburg School State Graded School in 1939-40. Mildred married Gerald Fox in 1941 and is now with him at Norfolk, Va. He is in the Navy.

Gertrude was married to Donald Hughes and now resides on the Hughes farm on Pleasant Ridge. She is the mother of twin girls.

Mrs. Bartz has a sixth daughter, Kathryn, 8, who is a pupil at the Romadka School. Mrs. Bartz’s son, Lawrence, works her farm.

* * *

Gene Counsell, long a prominent citizen and agriculturist of the town of Grant, and later engaged in the flour and feed business in Neillsville for many years, passed away at his home in this city Saturday, Feb. 13, 1943, after several weeks of illness.

Mr. Counsell was born in a log cabin on the farm of his parents, Henry and Susan M. (Pope) Counsell in the town of Grant, March 17, 1869. He attended the Wilding and Reed schools and Neillsville High School, assisting with the farm work and helping his father clear land on the home farm. For five years, he worked for C. A. Youmans, who owned a farm in the home community. He moved from there to the home of his parents, where the family lived until they moved to Chili, Mr. Counsell being engaged in the feed business there. After the death of his wife, the former Minnie Heaslett, on Feb. 21, 1904, Mr. Counsell and his small son returned to the home farm. Mr. Counsel farmed on a scientific basis. He specialized in the raising of Oxford and Shropshire sheep, purebred Holstein cattle, Percheron horses and Berkshire hogs. Mr. Counsell helped to organize the Pleasant Ridge Creamery, of which he was treasurer for over 25 years. He was a stockholder in the Farmers Co-operative Elevator and Lumber Company. For many years, he served on the school board in his township and he also acted as the town’s treasurer.

Ten years after the death of Mrs. Counsell, he was married on the 14th day of January, 1914, to Miss Laura Heaslett, a sister of his first wife. They continued to live on the farm until 1918, when Mr. Counsell purchased a home in Neillsville and established himself once more in the flour and feed business, which he continued to conduct until his last illness, though on a small scale for the past several years.

Few men, there are, who have led a more blameless life than has Gene Counsell.  He was ever mindful of the good in all men, just and honest in every business transaction, yet he held no grudge against those who treated him otherwise. Tolerant with youth, children and young people, they felt at ease in his presence and enjoyed his company.

In the death of Eugene Counsell, Neillsville has lost a most valuable historian. Being reared in a pioneer home and community, Mr. Counsell was able to furnish any information concerning the early settlers, the location of the various logging camps, and the original owners of business buildings and farms.

The departed is survived by his wife and son, Victor, a farmer residing at Willard, two grandchildren, Ardith and Marjorie Counsell and a sister, Mrs. James Hughes of the town of Grant. He was preceded in death by his first wife and an infant daughter, two brothers, Joseph and William Counsell and by a sister, Mrs. Jesse Lowe.

* * *

The church at Columbia has been sold to Jacob Schmidt of Neillsville and is being razed by him. No church services have been held in it for about two years, it was old and badly in need of repairs. The building originally belonged to the Baptists, but other denominations have held services in it from time to time.

* * *

Sunday, Feb. 28, will be Red Cross Sunday and the weekend, Feb. 26 and 27 will be Red Cross Sabbath. On this date, the clergymen of all churches will speak on the work of the Red Cross.  It is hoped that every volunteer will join in this demonstration of a nation bound together by faith and a mighty chain of stout hearts and willing hands.

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The first general store in Columbia was owned by Heynderichx and Graves.  Later it became a feed and hardware store after it was purchased by August Schlender.

 

 


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