Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

May 28, 2014, Page 9

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

May 1874

 

Marsh Sturdevant and wife started for Washington Territory last Monday, bidding a final adieu to this place.  Marsh is an energetic, driving young man, who will find a fortune on the Pacific coast if there is one there.

•••••••••

A young married couple, who recently came here, romped around Tuesday forenoon took a buggy ride in the afternoon, quarreled before they got back; had a fight in the street in the evening in which the woman came out best.  The couple separated the next morning, the husband took his way to La Crosse and the wife remained in possession of the chattels.

•••••••••

Mr. Hewett commenced work in earnest upon the new school building on Monday, be excavating for the new foundation and from appearance will have the work done this week.  An excavation of six feet covering the area of the building is required.  The building will be set back nearly two-thirds the length of the lots from the street, which gives it a very commanding position.  The location is a very fine one and with a $15,000 schoolhouse on it, will make the town look a hundred percent better.                                                                          

•••••••••

Dr. French and Ans Green caught a muskellunge one day last week, at the mouth of Cunningham Creek, weighing nearly twenty pounds.  They had some trouble in capturing the fish after getting it to bite, in which doing so, Doc got his fingers too near the fish’s mouth for comfort.                                               

•••••••••

J. H. Crowns has just opened a Photograph Gallery over Wells’ Wagon Shop and he would respectfully announce to the citizens of Neillsville and vicinity that he will be happy to take the shadows of all those who may favor him with a call.

•••••••••

Bill Neverman & Company has added still further improvements to the brewery this spring.  Besides enlarging its capacity and improving the quality of their beer, they have made it a very attractive resort and there is no quieter or more pleasant place to get a glass of beer than at the fountainhead.                        

•••••••••

Last Friday a part of the camp belonging to Sawyer & Austin, in the Town of Loyal, was destroyed by fire, which was communicated from the burning woods.  A stable containing a large number of logging sleds was completely destroyed, making a loss, with other property destroyed, of about $1,000.  The loss would have been still greater but for the discovery of the fire by the people living in the vicinity, who turned out and extinguished it.

•••••••••

A sufficient amount of money has been subscribed by the businessmen of this place to defray the expense of sprinkling the streets during the coming summer.  Mr. Aleck Holverson has undertaken the job.  He has had a large sprinkler manufactured at Marshall’s and commenced business with it this week.

•••••••••

Seventeen more converts to Adventism were baptized at the Windfall last Sunday.  A large number from here went up to witness the ceremonies.  (The Windfall was later renamed Granton. DZ)

•••••••••

The gentlemen, who went fishing in Wedges Creek very early in the week, tell some wonderful stories, but, strange to say, the keg they took with to keep the fish in was empty when they reached home.

•••••••••

A fishing party composed of Messrs, James O’Neill, Ed Merritt, L. J. Glass, L. L. Ayers, Sheldon Lynch, Loy and David Payn, set out for Lake Smith, in northern Clark County, on Monday morning.  They went amply provided for a week’s stay in the wilderness and with the general capacity for having a good time.

 

Last night, all of the wanderers with the exception of Ayers and Loy, returned and made the following report: “Damn the Mosquitoes.”                                                                                                    

•••••••••

Mr. John King has a very fine lot of wine plant, which he will deliver to all who are partial to the best tasting pie.  It is the nicest we have ever seen of the rhubarb class.  (Years ago wine was made from rhubarb plant. DZ)

•••••••••

Mr. J. L. Gates is building a very handsome gothic house on his lots on the south main street hill.  It will show five gables and several windows. When completed it will be one of the most noticeable dwellings in town.

 

(The Gates house is located at 18 Hewett Street. DZ)                         

•••••••••

The town board of Hixon has decided to build a bridge across Popple River whether the county renders them any assistance or not, and are at present chopping the road through from N. H. Withee’s place to the river.  The bridge will be built and the road chopped through to Colby during the present summer.

•••••••••

Butter is becoming a plentiful article again.  A good quality can be readily obtained at 20 cents per pound.

 

May 1944

 

Louis E. Dux of Neillsville has been given the right to the exclusive use of the name “Duxdale” as a dairy herd name in registering his Holstein pure bred cattle.

 

Glen H. Haas of Withee has acquired rights to the name “Glendale.”

••••••••

The farm of Mrs. John A. Schmidt, located just outside the north limits of the Village of Thorp, was sold at auction recently for $17,850; $85 per acre.  The successful bidder was Frank Stewart.  The high cow sold for $300 and the high bull was for $325.  It was the largest farm auction staged in the Thorp territory for a long time.

•••••••••

Pvt. Walter Zank left the first of the week for his return to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, having been here on a ten-day furlough with Mrs. Zank and children.

 

T/Sgt. Ralph E. Houser of Alma Center is back in the States after a harrowing experience in the air service.  As a member of the Eighth air force, he had completed a number of missions but on September 6, 1943, his plane blew apart in midair.  He parachuted to safety, but landed in occupied territory.  He made his way to Paris and ultimately escaped, after harrowing experiences, the detail of which cannot now be related for reasons of security. Sgt. Houser is 32 years of age.  He is the son of Mrs. Frank Houser of Alma Center.                          

•••••••••

Pfc. George W. Nauertz of Neillsville has received the Purple Heart for wounds received in action in the southwest Pacific.  He received the decoration and congratulations from Brigadier General Thomas Riley at a military camp in Australia.

•••••••••

Dr. Kulig inserted the following notice in last week’s issue of the Thorp Courier:

 

“People here in Thorp have a tendency to borrow and forget to return things.  Among the items I have lost from my garage is a pair of crutches, something very handy for some of my patients. Also a hammer, draw knife, pair of rubber boots, a double barrel shogun (shotgun) and all my fishing plugs and flies.

 

“Now if those borrowers would kindly return those articles, I would be much obliged, as I have neighbors who might want to borrow something.”                                                                                       

•••••••••

The war is hitting at the old people of Clark County, especially those who are not cared for by children or relatives.  With help short and attractive opportunities beckoning from the busy cities, local persons are less and less interested in taking them in and caring for them.

 

The result is that the situation is becoming critical and the county board through its welfare committee is seeking a solution.  This is being done following a presentation of the matter to the board at its session last week by Harold Trewartha, head of the county welfare department.  A report will be presented to the county board at the summer session, which will be held at the hospital at Owen.

 

One of the complications lies in the legal restrictions surrounding pensions.  Both federal and state participation in pensions are conditioned upon the maintenance of the pensioner elsewhere than in a public or charitable institution.  So long, as an elderly person is being thus cared for, neither the state nor the federal government will help to maintain him.

 

It was this condition, which led to the virtual abandonment of the county farm.  With the pension burden divided in the ratio of 50 per cent to the federal government, 30 per cent to the county, it was logical for the county to meet the conditions dictated from above.  The result was almost to empty the county farm home and to place elderly pensioners elsewhere.

 

The evident purpose of the restriction was to keep old-age pensions in a somewhat different category than outright relief; to give the pensioner as nearly as possible a normal family life, in an American home.  This plan and principal seemed to work quite well in normal conditions.  It resulted, especially in the early stages, in the establishment and maintenance of several home for old people, which were privately conducted.

 

But war conditions have interfered with this plan.  Elsewhere as well as in Clark County, serious difficulty has been experienced in finding places for the old folks to live.  The result seems to have been the development of alternative arrangements, which are modifications, in great or less degree, of the old idea of the county home or county farm.  In the emergency the strict interpretation of the federal and state laws is being modified somewhat, the report here being that one or more counties in Wisconsin have found ways to conduct or subsidize and ‘old folks’ home, not fully upon the farm plan, but in a manner somewhat similar to that.  The present investigation will presumably point to something of that sort.

 

The only situation in which an elderly person has an unqualified and unconditional claim upon pension funds it that contemplated by the federal Social Security act.  That is, in effect an insurance plan which payments are made throughout the active years of the prospective pensioner and in which the pensioner received the pension as of right, having purchased it.

 

In all other cases the old age pensions are conditioned upon need and must show that neither they nor their relatives are able to care for them.  Notwithstanding the growth of the pension system, the law still places upon each person the obligation to pay his own way, so long as he has anything to pay with and upon his relatives to care for him, if he cannot care for himself.  It is still the duty of the children to care for their old parent, if they can manage it wholly, it is their duty to come as near as they can, receiving only such public assistance as is required to the maintenance of their family status in the manner contemplated by law.                                                        

•••••••••

A modern filling station will be constructed on the old Dangers site, at the southwest corner of Hewett and Seventh streets.  This site has been purchased from the county by Schultz Bros., who will improve it as rapidly as the necessary equipment and materials can be secured.  It is possible that the old stonewalls will be pushed in and a fill made quite soon.

 

The site was once occupied by the Dangers general store, which burned years ago.  Since then the site has been vacant.  It is across an alley from the Neillsville garage property, which Schultz Bros. bought and occupied not long ago, now being conveniently located in connection with the garage business.

 

Schultz Bros. had bid on two state road contracts in Jackson County.  They will do 2.5 miles of shale surfacing on Highway 27 for $12,750 and two miles of shale surfacing on Highway 54 for $10,500.  The award of these contracts was announced from Madison on Monday.                                                       

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Quast, Town of Seif, while working in their garden on May 17, found a ring, which has been lost to their family 37 years ago.  It was Grandma Quast’s wedding ring and had been carried away in the tornado, which struck this area in July 1907.  The ring was still in good condition; even after having been buried in the Quast garden 37 years ago.

 

Mrs. Louis Quast had been in possession of the ring since her wedding day, about ten years prior to the tornado.  It had been carried in the storm about 100 feet from the house.  The ground where it was found had been used for a number of years as a cattle drive; so the cattle had been ramping over it for these many years.  It was the decision to break this land up into a garden, which led to the ring’s recovery.

 

The finding of this ring in the Quast garden brings to mind some of the details of the tornado, which struck this region on the third day of July 1907, missing Neillsville by about a mile.  The Louis Quast farm in the Town of Seif was one of hardest hit.  The barn was unroofed and walls broken and when the storm had passed, the horses were standing in what was left of the barn, looking out over the broken walls.  The Quast house was totally wrecked and contents scattered.  Articles of clothing and other things from the house were picked up as far away as the Neillsville Mound and many things were in fields and nearby pastures.  A son, Henry Quast was severely injured and a daughter, Elsie, was less severely injured.  Miss Elsie Wenzel was in the Quast home engaged in giving Elsie Quast a piano lesson when the storm struck.  All in the house miraculously escaped with their lives.  The storm did freakish things.  Some glass tumblers, very thin and delicately made, were carried from the Quast house and were later picked up unbroken in a pasture a half mile away.

 

The storm traveled to the southeast, damaging buildings, uprooting trees, but its next great destruction was done north of Neillsville at the Waters and Bieneck farms and at the Charles Farm now occupied by the Claude Paulson family.  Another place badly damaged was the Beyer place near the Beyer Church, Town of Pine Valley.

•••••••••

Claude R. Sturdevant of Neillsville is now a member of the Half-Century club of the University of Wisconsin.  His membership will be attested by a Golden Jubilee Certificate, awarded him and 106 others, who are surviving members of the class of 1894.  The presentation of the certificates will be made at a luncheon Friday, May 26.

 

 

Established in 1869, the Neillsville Brewery operated until Sept. 21, 1925.  During its 56 years of brewing beer on the East Sixth Street location, there were five different owners: William Neverman, Louis Sontag, Herman Schuster, Ernest Eilert and Kirt Listeman.  A record day of beer sales at the brewery was one July 3rd when 206 area farmers drove to the plant to purchase their holiday “cheer.”

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