Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

July 17, 2019  Page 11 

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled and Contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

July 1904

 

The Mammoth Silver Front Drug Store of C.C. Sniteman has been treated to a new touch-up as to the woodwork on the front of the building and it looks swell.       

•••••••••

The Methodist Society has bought the Ed Houghton house on Grand Avenue and will use it for a parsonage.

•••••••••

It does a citizen’s soul good to see the paving operations going briskly upon the streets of the bright and lively city of Neillsville. Go west, go east, go north, go south and you’ll never see a city of our class that can beat us.

•••••••••

During the terrific storm Tuesday night, about a hundred phones in the city wree temporarily put out of commission, and at Greenwood the entire central switchboard was put out of action. Electrical storms are detested by the telephone folks who live in this area.                     

•••••••••

Miss Dude Hommel has given up her position as bookkeeper at the furniture factory, where she has served for four years. She will take a good rest, looking after the household affairs of her father.

•••••••••

Next Sunday, Marshfield will play Neillsville in a game of baseball at the Gates Park, and as we have nine players that possess the speed of lightning and a skill that passes understanding, a big game is sure to result. Let the entire town turn out and see the big game.                         

•••••••••

Fred Pflughoeft, who lives west of Neillsville, has his fine new barn finished and is very proud of it, and the envy of his neighbors.                                                                             

•••••••••

There’s to be a grand picnic and dance on the afternoon and evening of July 31st at Lynn, with a game of baseball in the afternoon between Lynn and Neillsville.                           

•••••••••

Neillsville is soon to have another automobile. At present, Dr. E.L. Bradbury owns the only one in town. If autos are to become common, there is nothing to do be macadamize the country roads. Farmers will soon be using autos. Autos are but a high-grade passenger traction engine, and not out of reach of any well-to-do citizen.

•••••••••

A bright young pickpocket of St. Paul went to Eau Claire a week ago Saturday to haunt the Ringling Bros. circus and ply his trade. He plied it, was caught, brought here Thursday, plead guilty before Judge O’Neill, and is now, without any other than his own record and personal self-helpfulness, engaged in the state’s service. He got three years.                                                                                   

•••••••••

Next Saturday, July 16, bids will be let for building the new grandstand at the county fairgrounds. It will be a very commodious and very modern structure. President J.W. Hommel is the architect, being a skillful manipulator of blue prints. The drawings are to scale, and the dimensions have been so drawn as to insure the greatest economy in the use of lumber.

 

(The first grandstand was built on the east side of the racetrack. DZ)  

•••••••••

A very handsome Steinway parlor grand piano came yesterday for Miss Frances Hemphill, a present from her amiable grandma, Mrs. M.S. Dewhurst.                                         

•••••••••

A very full young man was carted to the county jail Monday, on a dray, by the city marshal. He was very, very full.

 

(The reference of being “very full,” apparently meant that the young man had drunk too many intoxicating beverages. DZ)                                                                             

•••••••••

The adjourned school meeting Monday evening was attended by a large number of citizens, ladies as well as gentlemen indicating great interest in the matter of building a new schoolhouse.

•••••••••

News About Clark County

 

Pleasant Ridge:

 

Mrs. Lew Ayers of Neillsville is at her sister’s, Mrs. Mart Ayers, picking and canning berries this week.

 

Bennie Tragsdorf out this way Sunday.

 

A dance was held at the town hall Saturday night, and week, some thought all the inmates of an insane asylum were let loose!

 

Shortville:

 

Mrs. Edward Schroeder went to Leona last Friday to join her husband to stay for an indefinite time.

 

Chas. Wallace and family came from Sherwood to stay for awhile at their farm, probably not to return to Sherwood.

 

A number of people went berry-picking Sunday, near Lynn.

 

Granton:

 

Mabel Tyler, of Neillsville, spent last week with Bess Beeckler.

 

Sunday evening, lightning struck the barn of George Huntley and burned it to the ground. There was about 10 tons of Hay in the barn, it was insured for $270.

 

July 1949

 

Henry Goetzelt of Black River Falls celebrated the Fourth by shooting a golf ball into the crotch of a tree on the Neillsville Golf Course. He and his friends hunted high, wide and handsome, but saw no ball. Henry and Mary Lee, and Howie Baerwald looked down, but Sadie Haight looked up, and there the ball was, right up in the crotch of a tree near the sixth green.

 

To Henry that ball looked hopeless, but the three with him were unanimous in the verdict that he must bang away at it. So, Henry banged three times, but he couldn’t budge the ball. Then the three relented and Henry picked the ball out by hand.

 

Henry’s friends, however, were not so tough as they first appeared. After the fireworks were over, they let Henry count one stroke for the whole mess. But Tony, the pro, said the correct count was five: three for the strokes that hit nothing, and two for an unplayable ball and the placing thereof. Henry isn’t the only golfer who has landed a ball in a tree on the Neillsville Golf Course. An old tale is that an excellent player had an experience like Henry’s and used a golf club like a billiard cue, forcing the ball out of the tree with great force and accuracy. A similar experience befell the publisher of The Press when he was playing with Tony early in the season. On the first fairway he couldn’t find a ball and finally Tony located it, snugly hidden away up in a little spruce tree.

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Robert French have bought the Lester Volz home on West 5th Street. Lester Volzes are moving into the Glenn Roberts house on West Fourth Street, which they have purchased.

•••••••••

Joe Ylvisaker, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Ylvisaker, Sr., had the misfortune to fall off a porch and fracture his left arm on Wednesday.                                                                      

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. James G. Quicker of Granton will observed their golden wedding anniversary this coming weekend. They were married 50 years ago July 12, but for the convenience of relatives from a distance they are celebrating on Saturday, July 9. At 6 o’clock there will be dinner, chiefly for relatives and the immediate family, and from 8 until 10 in the evening there will be an open house.

 

The Quickers have a considerable family, the members of which will, if possible, join in the reunion. Oldest is Albert, who resides in San Diego, Cal., and whose health prevents the long trip. Next oldest is Roland of Granton; then Hilda, Mrs. John Barth, who resides on the old Quicker place south of Chili; then Leah, Mrs. Malvin Schafer, Lynn; Hubert of Neillsville; Reinhart of Neillsville; Esther, Mrs. Marvin Voigt, of Neillsville; and Irene, Mrs. LaVerne Vanderwyst of Granton.                                     

•••••••••

Fred E. Wall, local service station operator, is taking forced vacation from his work. He went roller-skating at Hatfield Sunday night. Being unused to roller skates, he got to rolling too fast and used his hands and arms as a brake against a wall. One elbow bent the wrong way.

 

This above  mid-1950s photo was taken of Wall’s Full Service Station that was located on the southwest corner of the Grand Avenue and West 5th Street intersection. At that time, the station attendant took care of putting gasoline into the customer’s car, check the level of oil in the engine and air pressure in the tires and washed the windshield if needed, thus called “full-service.” In 1956, the average cost of automobile gasoline was 22 cents a gallon and the cost of a new car was approximately $2,050.

 

•••••••••

Marriage Licenses:

 

Lyle Verhulst, 22, Greenwood, and Alice Franz, 19, Greenwood, July 9 by Rev. T.M. Nelson.

 

Garland H. Bentzler, 23, Loyal, and Jeanette Aumann, 18, Loyal, at Loyal, July 2 by Rev. Edwin Aumann.

 

Gordon Lund, 19, Stanley, to Delores Vanerjagt, 18, of Stanley to be married at Stanley, July 16, by Rev. John Mitland.

 

Jerome Brecht, 26, of Loyal, to Shirley E. Brasier, 19, Loyal, to be married at Black River Falls, July 7.

 

Rhinehart C. Lewerenz, 30, Neillsville, and Genevieve Koltys, 34, Thorp, July 16 by Rev. Piekarski.

•••••••••

Free Dance At the Meadowview Tavern, Every Saturday Nite,

Located 5 miles South of Neillsville on Hwy 95.

•••••••••

That the Mead Dam can be constructed within the funds available to the country seemed evident when the bids were opened last week. The total of the low bid figured to about $60,200. The county has appropriated $63,000, for the purpose, and there is an additional sum provided by conservation clubs of the county. There are also other costs, aside from the contract. The present indication is that the total cost will just about balance out with the money available.

 

Fifteen bids were finally submitted. Low total was that of E. and B. Gottschalk of Edgar, and that firm will probably receive the contract.                                                     

•••••••••

Binder Twine – Green Top, Red Top, State Prison, O.K. Brand. Also - Rye Seed (Limited Quantity)

H.H. Van Gorden & Sons Phone 88, Neillsville Wis.

 

(Back then, this time of the year, farmers were in need of twine to use in the grain binders hat cut and bundled the standing ripened grain, such as oats, wheat, rye and barley. The binder kicked out the twine-tied grained-straw into bundles that were thrown onto the ground, to later be set up in the shocks made up of seven bundles each, to be hauled in to the threshing machine. At that time, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas and Michigan each had a state prison that was set up to manufacture binder twine, which provided work for their prisoners. That twine was sold with the “State Prison” label.

 

My dad used binder twine for various purposes throughout the year, not only in the grain binder during harvesting season.

 

A chore that I would help Dad with was putting oats into gunnysacks. As each sack was filled a piece of twine was used to tie and close the top of each sack using a slipknot. The grain sacks were loaded into a trailer and hauled to the local feed mill where the grain was ground, then rebagged and brought back to the farm as ground feed for the dairy cattle. Daily, a scoop of ground grain was put on top of a ration of silage for each cow.

 

Around the barn, here and there, pieces of twine could be seen as quick fix, such as a loop of twine placed on the calf pen gate to keep it shut. DZ)                                       

•••••••••

Thirty-six years of service as school clerk lies behind Ed Sternitzky of the Sunbeam School at Lynn. Mr. Sternitzky was first elected in 1913, having served continuously since; was re-elected at the 1949 school meeting.

 

The length of service of Mr. Sternitzky came out when he presented his annual report to Russell Drake, superintendent of schools. Mr. Drake commented that it was unusually well prepared report. The reply of Mr. Sternitzky was that it ought to be, in view of his long experience.

 

Mr. Drake is under the impression that Mr. Sternitzky could possibly have the longest record of continuous service as school clerk of any official in Clark County.                  

•••••••••

Softball Game at Hatfield Diamond “Hatfield Hellcats”

Vs. Wisconsin Rapids “Hiawatha Bar”

Sunday, July 24 – 2:30 p.m.

•••••••••

A waning that the new State Speed Limits will be rigidly enforced, came this week from Capt. William Nelson of the Clark County Highway police.

 

The new speed limits are 65 miles per hour for daytime driving, 55 miles per hour in the nighttime. Previous to passage of the new law a couple of weeks ago, there was no speed limit on Wisconsin highways.

•••••••••

An automobile stolen from a Granton street Sunday night, was recovered in Wisconsin Rapids by police Monday night. The car, owned by L.C. Kirk of Marathon City, apparently had run out of gasoline, and was not damaged. Local authorities were advised that a youth, who had run away from the Wisconsin State School for Boys at Waukesha had taken the car, being apprehended in New Lisbon.

•••••••••

The executive officers of the Clark County Fair, Alvin Eisentraut, president, and Harold Huckstead, secretary, announce that the fair will be suspended for the year 1949. Their statement follows:

 

“The directors of the Fair have concluded that the only safe and wise course this summer is to call the fair off for August 19-22. This is the first time in 77 years that such a course has been considered necessary.

 

“This action is not due to the acute continuance of polio. The act is, that, as this is written, both polio and public reaction to it have lessened. It is quite possible that the disease is on the way out, and that, by fair time, it will have disappeared from the community.

 

“It is impossible, however, for the directors to await further debvelopments. We must either advertise the fair largely, incurring further expense in preparing for it, or we must cancel everything now to prevent possible substantial loss, so our only choice is to call the fair off, whatever the future might hold.

 

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