Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

September 9, 2015, Page 10

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 September 1895

 

The general complaint in the West Pine Valley community is drought.  Half a dozen families are getting their water supply from the creek and spring on D. D. Manes’ lower farm.                                                 

•••••••••

On Monday at Charles Shepherd’s farm, a big rasp was carelessly thrown into Al Raether’s steam engine thresher along with a shovel full of chaff, and before the engineer could stop the motion a concave and fourteen cylinder teeth has been broken.  Work was delayed only an hour and a half, however.  Dwight Roberts was under or close to the thresher, and he says the terrific noise made created a panic there for about a minute, you bet!

•••••••••

Preparations are under consideration for the dedication of the Congregational Church, which will take place Sept. 17.

•••••••••

A.J. Bullard hived a swarm of bees August 3rd and by August 23rd the bees had made 75 lbs. of honey.  Pretty good for 20 days work.  Andrew appropriated 25 lbs. and sold it in town.                       

•••••••••

For the Minnesota State Fair at Hamlin, Minn., Sept. 9 to 14 inclusive, the C. St. P. M. & O. Railway will sell tickets at one fare plus 50 cents for the round trip, tickets good until and including Sept. 16, 1895.

•••••••••

The Neillsville campers have all disappeared from Ross Eddy.  The nights have gotten too cool.

 

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Ross Eddy was a popular camping spot for Neillsville residents.  It was located on the Black River, where a drop in its riverbed provided a rippling flow of water and an ideal swimming hole.  It also was only about one mile from town, a short ride with horse and buggy to carry vacationers, camping gear and other necessities.

 

•••••••••

The work on the George Weisner’s cellar is going on rapidly and will soon be done.  The Peter Johnson building has the front finished, cornice on and tin roof.  It is a substantial and handsome addition to Hewett Street.

 

The Sniteman crew is in on the second story of that structure and pushing things.  The iron cornice and ornaments on the new Sniteman block are being treated with aluminum finish, with a little gold bronze at the pints.  It is a striking front.  James Campbell is putting on the finish and Jim is a fine craftsman.

 

John Carter says he will go ahead and build his new house and barn on Oak Street, no matter about the lumber destroyed at the Free Planing mill fire.                                                                              

•••••••••

A patriotic citizen has offered to build a cistern or huge well south of town that will utilize the spring brook known as Frantz Creek, free if the city will attend to pumping the water to the standpipe.  If the common council will accept the offer, we will produce the man’s name.  The creek will never run dry and the water will be food to drink.

 

(The Frantz farm, with creek running on its edge, was located about a mile south of Neillsville.)

•••••••••

Grouse are a plenty in the woods, here about and hunters are bagging gray squirrels by the bushel.

•••••••••

 Al Sternitzky’s barns, grain stacks, hay, grain, etc. were destroyed by fire the other day, together with the separator of Mr. Lautenbach’s steam threshing machine outfit and three of his horses.  The machine and crew were at work there and fires started in the barn, set by a pipe as likely as not.  The threshing crew was powerless to stop it. There was some insurance on Sternitzky’s property by the Lynn Co., but none was on the separator.  O. Lautenbach has ordered a new separator through Phil Berg and will soon be busy again.                                                      

•••••••••

Jack Free decided last week that he would immediately rebuild the planing mill recently destroyed by fire and he desires us to announce the fact.  He will be ready in two or three weeks to make shingles and will rush the new mill to a finish.  The new mill will stand a little further west than the old site.  The city has come to an understanding with Mr. Free and Mr. Withee, and will open a continuation of 9th Street west from the mill to the creek near the furniture factory.  Mr. Free has arrangements with his creditors that enable him to put in the new mill.

•••••••••

The C. S. Graves Land Co. sold 1,000 acres of farmlands near Columbia last week, at prices ranging from $7.50 to $10.00 an acre.  That part of our county bids fair to become the most populous agricultural neighborhood south of this city in the county.                                                                                                   

•••••••••

The transformation of the main floor and store of the C. C. Sniteman Co. is now going on, a temporary partition dividing the front and rear portions of the drug store.  There is not to be a particle of plaster used in the building, which is being sheeted and steel finished throughout.                                                    

•••••••••

Carl Ketel, aged 86 years, died on Saturday morning, at 7:15 at the home of his some, William.  He was born at Dimim, Germany, July 3, 1809, where he grew up to be a shepherd.  He came here with his family in 1875.  He leaves a son, Charles, who is carrying on the business of shepherd, which the father left, in Germany.  Also a daughter, Mrs. Christiana Nitz, at Manitowoc and three sons here, William, August and Herman, who are highly, respected citizens.  He leaves in this city, seventeen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.  He was a kindhearted old man, greatly beloved by his sons, who never allowed him to work out and proud to be of a service to him.  The funeral was held Monday at the house, conducted by the Lutheran minister.

 

September 1945

 

Fred Marg, who resides on the riverbank north of Neillsville, still carried his left arm in a sling, result of horse kick.  Mr. Marg testifies that it was a good kick, because it came on August 18 and it is still incapacitating him.

 

What happened was that he slapped his mare Fan with a rein line.  He had slapped Fan with a line plenty of times before, but this time, Fan was in a mood and resented it.  She let fly with both feet.  Mr. Marg jumped, but not far enough or fast enough.  Fan missed with one hoof, but hit with the other and messed up the muscle of the upper arm.  The bone was not broken, but the injury is serious enough.                                                                   

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Miller of Neillsville R. 1 have received from their son Clarence the story of his war experiences.  The uncensored letter comes from Germany and it gives his complete story of combat experience:

 

“They recently released the censorship regulations so I thought I would drop you a few lines to let you know a little more about my escapades since I left the good old U.S.A. 

 

“Well, we left New York Harbor February 11.  I doubt if I will ever forget that first day out at sea.  It was snowing, cold and I was so blue I almost felt like crying and most all the others did too.  We had a fairly nice trip over, although we swept out a submarine once or twice but nothing ever came of it.  They surely had us guessing, though.  We arrived in Glasgow, Scotland, February 22, and from there took a train ride to Bridgewater, England, where we made our home until the invasion of France.

 

“On June 4 we left Portsmouth, England, for the coast of France.  We were all expecting a pretty rough ride across the Channel but, as luck was with us, things were pretty quiet.  We manned the ackack guns on the ship and were on the alert status most of the way across.  When we neared the beach everything began to pop.  I never saw so many planes and ships concentrated in one area in my life.  There was enough noise from the massive navy guns on our warships alone to drive a man crazy.  The whole beachhead area was just one big cloud of dust from shellfire and dive-bombing.

 

When we hit the beach I got my first taste of war, and to say the least, it was repulsive.  I had read a lot in papers about the German artillery, but I never realized it was so ruthless and merciless until we came face to face with it on the beach.  The first night we got very little sleep and most of us didn’t get any, but sleep was the least of our worries.  There was a German plane over just after dark and it came every night thereafter about the same time.  We called him “Bed-check Charlie,” anyway he started dropping his bombs and three dropped within a few yards from us but they were duds and we would have been buried alive or killed by shock.  Bed-check Charlie came on schedule every night and dropped bombs.  I didn’t think a good-sized fly could have lived through what was taking place the first night, but I’m still here and thank God for that.

 

“After the first three weeks, one of our gun sections was reduced from 11 to 7 men.  Three of my best buddies were killed by a “bouncing Betty” mine and one was wounded.  It was my job to take them to the army cemetery.  That really hurt deep inside after living, eating and sleeping with them for so long.

 

“From the beach we were sent inland to guard an air strip at Coigny, France, staying for some time until Cherbourg fell and the front line moved further away.

 

“Then came the break-through at St. Lo; we stayed with the front line ‘til we got another big land field for our planes.  From there we got passes to Paris and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and beautiful girls, too.

 

“From there we went to Liege, Belgium, where I got my first glimpse of the highly publicized Buzz bombs.  We were lucky to get a few of them, they traveled so fast and are hard to hit.  I saw Liege a while later and there were lots of homes that were nothing but a pile of rubble.  Then came the German break-through, and Krenkelt was near the Siegfried line.  It was on December 16 and we were in the middle of the big drive the Germans were making.  By the time we found out about it we were already surrounded and out escape routes were cut off.  I never in my live saw such a bunch of beat-out boys, including myself.  They threw in more shells in those three days than I thought was possible.

 

“I don’t know how many cigarettes I smoked that day, but it was a lot, even non-smokers smoked that day.  Our lives weren’t worth one red cent at that time.  The chips were definitely down and by no means in our favor.  On the third night of the attack the infantry, with the support of our field artillery and ackack guns finally succeeded in opening up one of the roads.  I never was so happy in all my life to get out of a place as I was that night.  From there, we retreated several miles back to a place called Sourbroth and made another stand and held the Germans for several weeks until the weather cleared enough to push them back again.

 

Finally we got them on the run and kept driving them out on the Cologne Plains within a few miles of Cologne itself.  We then crossed the Rhine River at Ludendorff Bridge.  We were the first ackack of our kind on the opposite shore.  We kept the Germans from knocking out the bridge.

 

“After the Rhine we were up around the Ruhr Valley and when the Krauts surrendered there, we were sent to the Third Army under Gen. Patton, which we were with until the war ended.  I didn’t want to make a book out of this story but it will give you an idea of what we have done in this war.”                                 

•••••••••

Werner Jenni has bought the property at the northwest corner of West and Sixth Street, heretofore occupied by the Christie service station and owned by John Moen.  It is his purpose to make additions and improvements and to operate a service station.                                                                                                          

•••••••••

A catch of small mouth black bass was made Sunday morning by Louis Meinholt, Eugene Wagner and John Gloff.  Fishing with flies in Lake Arbutus, they brought back nine bass.  The three men fished in the early morning from the shore.

•••••••••

Mr. and Mr. Fred Bullard and Mrs. Daisy Dahnert drove to Eau Claire one day last week to call on Harry F. Darling and family.  Mr. Darling is ill and confined to his home.  He is a grandson of James O’Neill, the founder of Neillsville.

 

Mr. Darling’s mother and her sister, Mrs. Belle Covell, were the first white children born in Neillsville and were daughters of James O’Neill, Sr.

 

Harry’s father, Frank Darling, was long a resident of Neillsville and prominent in band work.

•••••••••

Bring your eggs to Quality Egg Company; Paying top prices for Clean, Top Grade Eggs, 42 cents per dozen.

•••••••••

A & P Food Stores Ration News - New Red Stamps; now valid L1, M1, N1, P L, Q1 and Sugar Stamp No. 38,

4 Big Features - Sunnyfield Butter 48’ lb; sugar, 5 lb. Bag 34’; Ched-O-Bit Cheese Food, Creamy, 2 lb. pkg. 71’; Evaporated Milk 4/35’                                                                       

•••••••••

Chicken Dinner & Supper at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Greenwood, Sunday, Sept. 16; Serving begins 11:30 a.m.  Adults 75’, Children 35’ Games & Entertainment for all                                        

•••••••••

Community Sale at the Schweinler Barn on East 6th Street, Neillsville, Saturday, Sept. 15th, starting at 1:30 p.m.; if you have anything of value in the way of Furniture, Tools, Machinery, Livestock & other useful articles.  This is your chance to turn it into Cash! In Case of Rain, all items will be put in the barn and cared for.  Neillsville Finance Co.

•••••••••

See the New 1946 Ford in Neillsville, Friday, September 28.  No Longer Rationed!  New Car Orders will be filled in the order that they are received.  Svetlik Motor Co.

 

(For duration in World War II, no new cars or trucks were manufactured.  The demand for new vehicles at the end of the war was so great that there had to be a waiting list, first sign-up basis.  DZ)

•••••••••

Meyer’s Greenwood Cafι, Formerly Korupp’s Cafι, now open for business, serving Lunches, Dinners, Sandwiches.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Paul Meyer                                                                                          

•••••••••

The Curfew Ordinance Will Be Enforced on and after September 20th.  The Siren will be sounded at 10 p.m. hereafter rather than at noon.  By Order of Ray Kutsche, Chief of Police.                

•••••••••

The milk trucks of Clark County will be released on November 1 from the route restrictions imposed by war.  They will revert to a peacetime status, and will be in position to resume their old competitive method of securing and serving patrons.

•••••••••

Clark County will have a two-way police radio in the not distant future.  Police officers will carry in their cars radio devices, which will enable them to communicate with the sheriff’s office and with one another.  The method of communications will be the same as was developed during the war.

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