No single county in Wisconsin has made more progress in the past twenty years than Clark County. Fifty years ago practically the entire county was covered with a heavy growth of timber. This was a bonanza for the lumbermen, and many people felt at that time when lumbering interests were a thing of the past that the cut over lands would be a serious problem to overcome, but such has not been the case. It is found that at the present time more valuable crops have been harvested each year from these formerly cut over lands than the timber that had taken centuries to produce. Such was the fertility of the land upon which this mammoth was located and it has responded to the intelligent culture to such an extent that wonderful crops of clover, corn and field grains repay the farmers bountifully for their toil and investment.
Clark County Harvest Scene.
From actual experience in visiting the county from time to time during the past twenty years It pleases rue very much to bear evidence of the rapid progress being made upon these fertile lands. Really, one marvels to think of the great change that has come over this country during the past few years. From the little cabin of the woodman with his few acres the clearings have gradually expanded until now we find some of the most fertile and productive farms of the state within in the borders of Clark County. The cultivated lands have risen in value so that we find them fully as high in Clark County as they are in any other portion of the state. There also are immense opportunities in Clark County as there are great tracts of cut over land that are just as good as some of the lands which have been converted into farms that can be purchased at reasonable rates. Wisconsin is certainly fortunate in having a county which has yet for its young people opportunities of securing land that cannot be surpassed anywhere in the entire world.
A Typical Clark County Farm House.
The moderate climate together with the fertile soils make Clark County especially fitted for growing the pedigreed seed grains. Many of the young boys upon the farms of Clark County have been made happy by growing the most beautiful corn in the world known as the Golden Glow. This seed corn finds a market every year and has been the means of carrying encouragement to our stock raisers over the entire state. The beautiful pedigreed barley and other pedigreed seed grains grow to perfection in Clark County and offer an opportunity that can not be surpassed in any other portion of the world.
As a dairy section in Wisconsin Clark County hands out an opportunity that welcomes you in the work. Her great amount of beautiful hard wood lands which have been converted into fine farms, and her beautiful clear running streams and springs are factors that, add greatly to the dairy interests of this section of the state. Already beautiful pure bred herds are known almost everywhere in the county, and farmers are becoming known prominently for the efforts they have put upon grading up the herds and putting in pure bred stock. As a matter of fact the farmers of Clark County are determined to banish forever from their farms scrub seed grains and scrub stock and put In the place only those breeds of grain and cattle which have had long, patient breeding work placed upon them. The rapid progress which has been made in the past, together with the great opportunities yet afforded in Clark County, makes it attractive for the people who are now liv1ng within its borders and those who wish to come and find homes for the future.
WELL KNOWN MEN OF CLARK COUNTY, WISCONSIN
Anderson, O. C., County Treasurer [Photo]
Berg, C. C., Granton [Photo]
Clark, Homer C., Neillsville [Photo]
Cresswell, Dr. W. B., Neillsville [Photo]
Crosby, Emery W., Assemblyman [Photo]
Davis, Fred W., Granton [Photo]
Devos, A. L., Neillsville [Photo]
Graves, A. A., Loyal [Photo]
Hantke, Louis, Sheriff [Photo]
O'Neill, Hon. James, Judge of the Circuit Court [Photo]
Rossman, Elmer, Register of Deeds [Photo]
Rush, W. J., District Attorney [Photo]
Schoengarth, O. W., County Judge [Photo]
Sniteman, C. C., Neillsville [Photo]
Ure, George A., Clerk of the Court [Photo]
Wilding, Myron E., County Clerk [Photo]
Woelffer, Victor C., Neillsville [Photo]
Zimmerman, J. G., Neillsville [Photo]
FREE BOOKS
For Everyone in Clark Co.
The man who is ready to select a site for his home must not ignore the fact that its interior must not be unattractive and that his home must have in it those things which meet the universal craving for intellectual food. To such a man it will be no inconsiderable consideration that he who becomes a citizen of Clark County has unsurpassed opportunity for securing the best reading matter.
In the first place there are in the county four public libraries, situated at Thorp, Neillsville, Owen and Abbotsford. Each library throws open its resources of interesting books not only to the residents of the municipality in which it is situated, but invites in the residents of the surrounding country. Then too each of the school districts in the county is accumulating under the state law a library which is open. to children and adults alike.
He who becomes a resident of Clark County becomes also a part owner in a half million volumes of books owned by the state and located at Madison., Wis. By an effective though simply organized and easily operated system practically every book owned by the state and stored at Madison is available to the Clark County citizens who can make use of it. The Wisconsin Library Commission seeks to supply books in two ways.
The commission will also send upon request special groups of books upon agricultural subjects including such subjects as farm management and social life, farm buildings and machinery, fertilizers and drainage, potatoes and soiling crops; dairy farming, live stock, fruit raising, soils, field crops.
A FEW WORDS REGARDING THE EDUCATIONAL SIDE OF CLARK CO.
By Professor M. H. JACKSON of The Wood Co. Training School
I remember asking a prominent man who had just finished a talk in which he had ridiculed country schools and country conditions, if he really thought that country education had gone backward. This was a long time ago but I shall not soon forget his emphatic reply:
“Bless you, no sir” said he, “the country school is as far ahead of the country school I attended as a caboose beats a wheelbarrow, but we want to make it a “Pullman.”
The poor belabored country school has turned out a tremendous army of successful men and women in spite of its drawbacks inefficiencies. My interests have always been in the country, and my work is now out in the country. There are heroes and heroines out there whose names will not be published in books or carved on tablets of brass or stone. There are girls from Clark County who have worked their way through higher institutions of learning who have prepared themselves for it by sawing wood in the woods with their fathers and brothers. I am speaking of two whom I know. They are both successful teachers now. They are not afraid of snow and mud in their walks to and from school.
Not all who try make good teachers. There are tragedies in life even at its best, but I want to say with emphasis that no braver person ever faced a school than the army of country school teachers of Central Wisconsin. I know them. I meet them often at teacher’s institutes, and I meet many of them in their schools, and I am glad to bear testimony to their singleness of purpose strength of character and kindness and willingness of heart.
We have been told that there are no reserved seats in heaven. Probably there are not, but I want to say right here that if there are, I know of hundreds of country teachers who live below have not walked in shoveled paths, whose rooms are not electric lighted and steam heated, who do their own janitor work in dust and smoke, who reach the school house early in all kinds of weather, I say I know hundreds of these whose pay does not measure up to that paid scrub women in our capitol at Madison, and they deserve to be in at the distribution of coupons for reserved seats to any good places here or hereafter.
Clark County is situated in the heart of our big grass region. Its splendid soil will support a much larger population that now we think. The county is developing rapidly, and so are her schools. Fine buildings and equipment are rapidly taking the place of the old, and her school boards are demanding better and better teachers for the salary paid.
I am glad of this opportunity to congratulate you all including your efficient County Superintendent, her corps of able country teachers and your country school boards for your efforts in building up a better and more efficient country schools in Clark County.