The Good Old Days 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

Clark County News

November 1945

The Humbird railroad section crew had a narrow escape last Tuesday morning when a troop train struck their gas-operated rail car and demolished it.  The crew did not know that the train was to come through when one of the workers looked back and saw the train rounding the curve.  Setting the brakes, the men jumped from the section crew’s rail car only a few seconds before the troop train hit the car.

The Rev. George W. Longenecker has given notice that he will on January 1 terminate his pastorate of the Neillsville Congregational Church.  He will thus bring to a close a pastorate of 38 years, one of the longest pastorates in the history of the Congregational Church in Wisconsin.  On the state rolls of that church, he is the only pastor whose name appeared in 1898 and who is still in active service.

Longenecker has a record as a community minister.  Because of his friendliness and his tact he has been acceptable to persons of other churches and of those with no church affiliations.  The result being that he has officiated at 255 weddings and 800 funerals during the second period of his ministry here, beginning in 1916.  This extensive service, particularly in funerals, has grown out of Mr. Longenecker’s broad sympathies and Christian kindliness.  He has been able to preside at the funerals of men and women of a great variety of living and experience, able to serve without harrowing the feelings of the living.  This capacity has grown out of the fact that he has not attempted to settle the questions of future reward; he has left the questions of judgment to thy (the) Almighty.

The Longenecker’s came to Neillsville originally in 1897.  They brought two little children with them.  Two more were added to the family during the first period of their service here.  The first pastorate extended from 1897 to 1905.  In the latter year, Longenecker resigned with the purpose of resting for eight months from the ministry. His plan was to take up a homestead in North Dakota and to work the land.

So the Longenecker’s settled 24 miles from Berthold, N.D. and started their farming operation. But Longenecker could not get away from preaching. There was the inner urge and the call from outside.  The district superintendent wanted him to fill the vacant pulpit at Berthold and he preached there on his first Sunday in North Dakota.  Thereafter he just kept on preaching in that congregation.  Also he had taken with him a tent, which he bought at an auction while living here.  He put the tent up in his front yard and held services in it on Wednesday evenings.  To these services, the homesteaders came from miles around.

The years following the arrival of the Longeneckers in North Dakota, the railroad made a quick development of the village of Plaza.  The village sprang up in a hurry and was quite a place almost immediately.  The village was only four miles from Longenecker’s homestead, so Longenecker transferred his preaching to that location.  He first preached in a hardware store, then in other buildings, until finally a church building was available.

In his North Dakota location, Longenecker as not bereft of Wisconsin friends.  For instance, George Smith was already there and had settled nearby, became a postmaster and named his post-office “LaFollette.”  His son, George had political leanings and he put them into a newspaper, which he called the LaFollette News.  But that did not sound good to the railroad, as LaFollette had a reputation with the railroads.  So the railroad wrote back, saying “LaFollette is a name we do not care to perpetuate.”  Under those circumstances, George did what the mountain did; he moved to Mahomet.  He went over to Plaza, let them call their blamed old town just what they wanted to call it and changed the name of his newspaper to the Plaza Pioneer.

Also, the Longeneckers had a visit from August Roessler of the Neillsville community.  He wanted to buy land and Longenecker took him around in a search for it.  But August couldn’t find anything that looked as good to him as the Longenecker farm, which had upon it a 20’ x 20’, one and a half story high house, then regarded as a large home. So the Longeneckers sold the place to Roessler, gave up farming and went to a pastorate in Minot, North Dakota. 

Other Neillsville persons in that locality who were homesteaders: Ferdinand Deutsch, Neil Taplin and Forest Calway, of whom the last two did not reside there.

The Minot pastorate lasted from 1908 to 1910.  Then the Longeneckers moved to Provo, Utah, in a district of which the superintendent was a personal friend.  They remained there two years before returning to Wisconsin, taking a pastorate at Viola.  From there they returned to Neillsville in 1916.

Although his chief interest has been in the ministry, Longenecker has been at heart a farmer, too. During his first residency here, he bought a wild 160 acres in the Town of Seif and has retained it all these years.  Upon his return in 1916, the under-standing with the church was that he would divide his time between the church and the cultivation of the Fred Bruley place just north of the city.  When that place was sold, the Longeneckers bought their present home, Sunset Point, where they have a large space for gardening and where Longenecker has grown vegetables for himself and the neighbors, including melons when there were any left to divide.

In his earlier years, also, Longenecker was known for his love of horses.  He always kept a good buggy horse and a fine stepper.  He liked to drive them in a race and raced them more than once.

The plan of Longenecker is to take live easy.  He is 84 years of age, believes that it will be best for him to give way to a younger man, who can do the local Congregational Church what he can no longer do.

A petition calling for a full-time Clark County Veterans Service officer will be presented by the county veterans groups to the County Board, who meet at the courthouse next week.

The petition was drawn up by a committee of seven veterans representing veterans groups from all parts of the county.  It calls for the appropriation of $6,000 to set up the office and employ a full-time officer and a clerk.

Both men would be veterans of World War II.

For the past several years the county has employed John M. Peterson, Neillsville attorney and veteran of World War I, as county service officer on a part-time basis.  At the time the office was created, the veterans point out there were only about 1,500 ex-servicemen in the county. They estimate that soon, however, ex-servicemen in Clark County will number approximately 5,000.

To handle their claims and relations with the veterans’ administration and to look after the widows and families of veterans will require a great deal of work – much more that (than) can be done on a part-time basis. 

Veterans group leaders of the county point out that unless the duties of a veteran’s service officer are carried out now, the county may face a heavy tax burden for relief and care of veterans in years to come.

It is understood that the veterans groups favor the appointment of Capt. Robert W. Schiller of Neillsville as the full-time service officer. Captain Schiller served with the local Service Company in the Southwest Pacific.

The petition was drawn up Monday night at a meeting in Loyal.  Members of the committee which drafted the resolution were: Harvey Bitter, of Abbotsford; C. B. Beck, of Owen; Tom Polnaszek, of Thorp; Whitey Bertz of Loyal; Ed Johnson, of Humbird; and Lt. Col. Herbert M. Smith and E. H. Snyder, both of Neillsville.

Central Wisconsin Cheesemakers held their annual convention in Neillsville this past week.

The main topic of business at the meting was their protest against the continuance of Price Regulation 289 in a time of peace.  “It unfairly discriminates against Wisconsin producers and the American consumer.  It strengthens the monopolistic control by the national distributors of processed cheese.  We maintain that natural cheese should again be allowed to appear in the American market,” was stated in the resolution.

The resolution was adopted by the members of the Central Wisconsin Cheese and Butter makers’ Association at the annual convention held last Thursday.  It was the summarized expression of judgment, which followed the extended explanations made to the members of the attitude of the OPA and of the federal government.

A further meeting will be held in Washington November 14, at which time Regulation 289 and the “Plymouth-plus” ruling will be reviewed.

“The Spirit of the Pioneers” as applied to the present troubles of the diary industry was the topic of Wells F. Harvey, editor of “The Clark County Press,” in an address at the convention last Thursday.

Harvey referred to the happy coincidence that the convention came to Neillsville in the Centennial year, marking the 100^th anniversary of the first white settlement in Clark County.  He told how the pioneers had developed lumbering until they had sent down logs on the Black River which placed end-to-end, would have reached five times around the world at the equator; five billion board feet, worth $100 million.

“Considering these big figures in the light of present troubles, we are inclined to make much of our worries,” said the speaker.  “We worry over shortage of manpower in the dairy industry; over the difficulties of meeting the increasing demand for quality; over the stiff competition for milk; over the uncertainties of future markets.

“But the pioneers had their troubles, too.  Early lumbermen, including James O’Neill, tried to get lumber down the river in rafts, but the rafts hit the rocks and some of them were dashed to pieces, with much loss.  Then, they tried cutting the lumber into large pieces, called cants, and for years lumber and cants went down the river together.  Finally, they had to give up both lumber and cants and practically all the lumber went down the river in whole logs, which were cut up at the river’s mouth.  In those days lumber brought only $10 and $12 per thousand and it was only the very efficient mills which would make money.  By 1875 all the mills around Neillsville had disappeared except that of James O’Neill.

The pioneers found a way to lick their troubles and so must we.  The spirit of the pioneers is reflected in the gift of $500 to the Association to promote the art of cheese making.  The man who contributed that money has a vision worthy of the pioneers. And while today the troubles of personnel seems serious, with young men thinking of a 40-hour work week and the wearing of white collars, the time will come when a sounder estimate will be placed upon this industry, which comes nearest to the old Americanism in providing an opportunity for a young man to become his own boss.

The speaker also stated that competition in Central Wisconsin is difficult. There are more demands upon the cheese plant operators for quality in fluid milk.  The farmers are asked to improve their dairy herds with larger average production per cow.

On the question of markets, Harvey said that development of packaging in small sizes will be introduced and that will benefit cheese marketing.  There will be a large development in the use of cheese because of the more convenient and sanitary form in which it may be purchased.

C. A. Youman’s farmstead of 400 acres was located 1 ½ miles east of Neillsville, on south side of Hwy. 10 and included an attractive residence, a showplace c.1900.  The farm raised English Shire horses and purebred Holstein cattle with a large horse barn, hay barn, cattle barns and silo to facilitate the care of the livestock.  In 1909, the Youmans farm started using milking machines, probably the first such venture in Clark County.  Youmans was also a prominent attorney-at-law, having an office in Neillsville.  (Photo courtesy of the Loomis-Seffern Family Collection)