Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

October 10, 2001, Page 28

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

The Good Old Days

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

 

October 1901

 

Pearl Campbell will do sewing, by the day, at your house.

 

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Neillsville ought to have an all-night electric light service on its streets. There should be an arc light placed at the Omaha railroad depot also.  The traveling public complains a good deal about the dark and mysterious looking station.

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Chas. S. Reid, of Chicago, has rented Mrs. MacBride’s building on Sixth Street, east of Joe Lowe’s furniture store. Being here this week, Reid has been making preparations for opening a bakery in the building.  He is awaiting the arrival of his potable oven, fixtures and goods.  Plans are that his model bakery will be in operation by the first of next week.  The upstairs rooms of the building will be used as a residence.

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Up near Spokeville, there is a comparatively new settler, Mr. Boetz, who is carrying on his large farm, operations along lines somewhat unfamiliar to the older settlers.  For instance, he determined to underbrush 400 acres of timberland.  He turned 318 head of cattle into the acreage and left them to earn their living. The cows cleared up that land in great shape. They ate everything that would yield to their bovine teeth, even stripping the trees of their leaves as high up as they could reach.

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C. C. Sniteman and H. W. Klopf are the possessors of a very fine Victor gramophone, which they purchased while at Minneapolis recently.  The machine is one of the finest on the market.  It has 10 inch records and has a megaphone attachment with a 10 inch brass bell. They can royally entertain their customers with this wonderful piece of mechanism that reproduces both vocal and instrumental music with surprising sound.

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Wild grapes are in unusual abundance on Bruce Mound this season.  Parties of grape pickers heading toward Bruce Mound have been numerous.

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The R. Connor Co., of Stratford, needs 500 men to work as skidders and sawyers. They will pay wages from $30 to $35 per month.

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The Marshfield city council passed a resolution to purchase the fairground and race track known as the “Driving Park.”  It has heretofore been owned by ex-Governor W. H. Upham.   An association is being organized for the purpose of holding an agricultural and street fair next year.

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Rev. Nelson A. Voss, of Greenwood, is to be ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian church of Greenwood on Nov. 22.  A special program is being arranged.  Rev. T. C. Hill is in charge of the services and Rev. Kera will preach the ordination sermon.

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Automobiles are having their high priced inning now, just as the bicycle did six or eight years ago.  Now a bicycle can be bought for $15 whereas eight years ago the price was $75.  If autos drop like this in price, eight years hence a $1,000 machine can be had for $200, which is about the value of a horse, harness and buggy.  It is probable that by that time, an automobile will be made to carry two persons that will weigh no more than a buggy. The car is the coming carriage no doubt and some of the Neillsville people will be rolling in them.  How nice to ride about the country with no horses to be fed and curried, stabled and watered!  Speed the day – and the automobile.

••••••••••

Much local interest was attached to the visit here this week of Martin Morin. An aged man now, Morin, in the heyday of his younger years, kept the first store in Neillsville, way back in 1858.  He owned forty acres of land on the east side of what is now Hewett Street, our principal street.  At that time, it was a mere path through the forest.  In those early days, Morin carried the mail between Neillsville and Stevens Point.  He traversed the old Stevens Point road, going three miles north of Neillsville, then eastward, requiring three days for the round trip.  He built a shack at what we know as Kurth’s Corners, five miles east of here.  He cleared the land and it became known as Morin’s Corners.  At that time, he was the mail carrier along the area which is now known as the Ridge road.  Back then it was a go-as-you-please road between the present Ridge road and O’Neill Creek.  It would now be referred to as an old logging road.  After he got his store running, he had to get goods from Sparta. The old stage drivers and teamsters, Hank Myers, Bill Price and others, did the carrying for him.  Morin was delighted to see the old stump fields of 40 years ago now covered with the beautiful cultivation and crops.  Morin presently resides in Tomah.

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A lively crew of men and teams of horses began excavating dirt last week, for the new gravel paving to be done on Hewett Street.  The excavating work is now complete and the roadway is leveled, ready for the gravel.  On account of the need to remove the dirt, it was taken out for filling on Seventh Street.  The street committee figures that this expense is not all chargeable to the account of Hewett Street.  Some dirt would have had to have been procured from somewhere for the Seventh Street fill next spring, as plans call for gravel surfacing that street then.  It is good to realize that henceforth, instead of $1,800 or so being spent annually in street work that has to be done over the next year, it will now be more permanent with the cost not to be repeated so soon.

••••••••••

October 1946

 

The farm sale at $24,000 tops the current boom in the realty of Clark County.  The sale was that of the 300-acre farm owned by the Keller Bros., in the town of Eaton.  Included in the land sale was the personal property on the farm.

 

The personal property consists of 68 head of livestock, there being 32 milk cows and 36 head of young stock and bulls and a full line of farm machinery.

 

This sale is one of a long list of transfers recently made in Clark County.  From these transfers, it is clear that the realty market is moving at a more rapid pace, despite the higher prices.  It is possible that the relatively rapid movement of recent months is associated with the rising values.  The testimony of Frank Gander, supervisor of assessments, is that farm values of Clark County have responded to the boom more slowly than values elsewhere.  He attributes this to the relatively large number of Federal Land Bank foreclosures in this area.  The sale of these properties, he said, has tended to hold in check the rise in prices.  It is entirely possible that farm prices which seem high to local buyers are not high to buyers coming into Clark County from outside the area.  Elsewhere, buyers may have found that values are on an even higher level where they lived.

 

The Keller sale is one of the very largest farm transactions of the past seven years.  The Keller brothers, who made this sale, conduct their business under the name of Keller Bros. Distributing Co.  They are also owners of the Silver Dome ball-room in the Town of Hewett.  They purchased the farm in question three or four years ago and bought two other farms at the same time.  Members of the corporation are Mr. and Mrs. Albert H. Keller, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Keller and Walter and Paul Keller.

 

Another sale of note is that of Club Ten, located on U.S. Highway 10 east of Neillsville, at Kurth Corners. This sale was made by Otto Hainz to Mrs. Mary Walters of Beloit and her two sons. The sons will operate the business.  Mrs. Walters, it is understood, expects to make her home in Neillsville.  The former leasee of Club Ten has been Darrell Tompkins.

 

Two farms were sold in the Town of York.  The Herbert Fradette place, 80 acres in Section 33 was purchased by C. L. McConaughy of Janesville.  The Henry Braatz place, 80 acres in Sections 23 and 26, was bought by Hallie Schultz, Town of Lynn. The Fradette sale carried the equipment with it; the Braatz sale covered the realty only.

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The Neillsville City Council voted Tuesday evening to extend Clay Street 330 feet southward from First Street.  This will open an area upon which houses are projected for John and Tom Flynn and Mike Krultz, Jr.

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If you found County Trunk Highway H closed last Monday night, it was because Leo Kronberger needed a little sleep.

 

In Neillsville, Tuesday morning, Kronberger reported to Elmer F. Anderson, Clark County Highway Commissioner:

 

“Guess you’ll have to arrest me.”  “Why?” asked Anderson.  “I closed off the road last night.”  “You’re arrested,” said Anderson with a grin.

 

“Yes,” said Kronberger, “the night before I pulled 17 cars out of that bad spot in the road, by my farm.  So I put up a couple of 2x4’s and a light then closed the road off so I could get some sleep.”

 

“Well,” sympathized Anderson, “you probably got paid plenty for that night’s work.”

 

“Heck!” said Kronberger, “I have yet to see my first nickel for pulling those cars out.”

 

Kronberger’s farm is located along County Trunk H, on a stretch where new grading was put in this past summer, by the county highway crew.

••••••••••

A Clark County Veterans Homecoming event is being planned for November 9-10-11 in Neillsville.  All service veterans and their families are invited to attend. There will be three big days of fun for everyone.  Parades, street attractions, bands, contests, concessions, acrobatics, dances at the armory and Silver Dome Ballroom, a football game with the North, Thorp High School vs. the South, Neillsville High School.

 

Four candidates have been chosen to represent local organizations in the queen contest for the veterans’ homecoming.  Mrs. Robert W. Schiller is the contest chairman.

 

Those named are Gloria Milton for the Kiwanis Club, Janet Kunze for the American Legion; Mrs. Muriel Wagner for the Rotary Club and Dixie Graves to represent the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

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There have been some changes along Prospect Street.  Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Christie moved recently, from the upper to the lower flat in the house at the corner of Prospect and West Tenth Streets.  John Christie and his bride are now living in the upper flat vacated by his brother.  Mrs. Dale Schweinler and son, who had been living in the house, have gone to join her husband, Capt. Dale Schweinler, at Easton, PA.

 

Earl Darling has purchased the Arthur Wagner house on North Prospect and has moved his family from a home which they had been living in for some time, northwest of the city.  Mr. and Mrs. Roy Olson reside in the upper flat of the Darling house.

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Take advantage of Russell’s Furniture sale going on this week.  They have platform rockers, covered in tapestry, mohair or frieze, various styles, from $34.95 to $69.50.

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Attend the Duck Shoot at Grandview Tavern, three miles west of Neillsville, Sunday November 3.  Percy Zickert is the proprietor of Grandview Tavern.

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The Consolidated Water Power & Paper Company of Wisconsin Rapids is in need of help immediately.  They need 30 bricklayers with seven months of steady employment, paying $1.75 per hour and a 48 hour week.  It will be of the best working conditions and the company will furnish hotel rooms for the men to be working there.  Apply at the U. S. Employment Service in Neillsville, or direct to the company office in Wisconsin Rapids.

••••••••••

Mrs. Julia Reber has sold the All-Aboard restaurant to Hallie and Robert Horswill, sons of Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Horswill of Neillsville.  They plan to continue the operation of the restaurant.

••••••••••

For this week’s entertainment, here are some activities in the Neillsville and Clark County area.

 

The Ace-Thoma wedding dance will be Friday, Oct. 25 at the Silver Dome Ballroom.  On Saturday evening, Oct. 26, you can dance to the music of Romy Gosz at the Silver Dome.

 

Merry Ol' Gardens

This photo was added after the publication of this article by Holly (Jackson) Saunders, Great Granddaughter of the owners, Adolph and Adeline Jackson

 

There will be a Grand Opening of the Merry Ol’ Gardens ballroom on Saturday, Nov. 2, with new management.  The ball-room is located 4 ½ miles south of Withee, on Highway 73.  Howie Sturtz and his Swing Kings band will provide the music that evening.  H. Lyon and J. Neuenfeldt are the new proprietors.

 

 

The Connor Retail Lumber Yards were in business during the late 1800s and early 1900s in Central Wisconsin.  The above photo is of one to (of) those yards, somewhere in the area.

 

 


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