May 1882

The first caucus of the voters of the City of Neillsville was held at Fireman’s Hall last Thursday afternoon and resulted in the nomination of the following ticket:

Mayor – James Hewett

Treasurer – John Jones

Clerk – F. A. Lee

Assessor – R. M. Campbell

Police Justice – R. F. Kountz

A caucus of the voters in the first ward, held at the store of F. A. Balch & Son, in the evening of that day, nominated Hon. C. Blakeslee for alderman and W. S. Colburn for supervisor.  The third ward caucus, held in the editorial rooms of the Republican and Press the same evening of that day, nominated O. P. Wells for alderman and S. F. Chubb for supervisor.  The second ward caucus was held at Fireman’s Hall last Friday afternoon, at which Hon. F. D. Lindsay was nominated for alderman and James O’Neill for supervisor.  The caucuses were unusually well attended by the voters interested, with the exception of that held for the second ward, in which but a small percent of the voters were represented.

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Will Woodward, the janitor at the Clark County court house, has made some decided improvements in the appearance of the court house grounds.  During the past few weeks, the grounds have been supplied with some shade trees.  If Woodward has his way about it, the new trees won’t be destroyed by either horses or cattle.  Those grounds were never designed for a pasture and should not be used for that purpose.

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A heavy frost last night, May 17, makes the farmers doubt the propriety of planting much corn this year. The late rains have enabled the grass and grains to get a good start, but we need good warm weather for gardens and other crops. The apple, blueberry and all fruit trees are a total loss for this year with the blossoms having been frozen.

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Ben Travis, of the Humbird community, has gotten a new Wheeler & Wilson sewing machine wagon.  In a few days you will see him going through the countryside appearing as though he would do honor to a lightning rod peddler.  He will be praising up the merits of his new sewing machine.  We wish him success in his business.

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B. F. French, appointed city attorney, has been granted a salary of $25 per year.  F. D. Lindsay has been offered $50 for the old jail.  It will be used as a city lockup.

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The little building used as a harness shop by Sol Jaseph years ago has rested at the rear of Hart’s building, on Third Street, for several years.  The building has been bought and landed on the lot north of Campbell’s blacksmith shop on Grand Avenue.  When it started on its journey of being moved, plans were to place it on the lot west of Bradshaw’s shop to be used for city offices. But its journey was continued to the place where it now occupies.

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J. L. Gates has bought a half interest in the Rossman property on Main Street.  Together, they will erect a two-story double brick building suitable for stores on the ground floor. The upper portion of the building will probably be fitted up for offices.

May 1947

John Swenson has purchased the grocery business of Bernard Pietenpol, located on Highway 10.  He will assume management of the business on Monday.  The Swenson family will move into the living quarters adjoined to the store.  The Pietenpol family will move into the Swenson home, which they will rent.  Pietenpol’s future plans are not definite.

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Six Neillsville men, along with several thousand other sportsmen, opened the trout season on northern-flowing waters last Saturday and Sunday.  The fellows returned with 11 trout and a story of seeing one 8 ½ pound rainbow beauty that had been take from the Brule River.  Those who made the junket in two cars were: Matt Gassen, Louie Meinholdt, Eugene Wegner, Elmer Georgas, Bill Hill and Louie Scholtz of Granton.

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The St. John’s Lutheran congregation has decided to enter upon a building project. The decision was reached at a meeting of the voting members, held at St. John’s Church on Sunday afternoon.  The structure will be a combination of church and school.  The preliminary discussion points to a building constructed upon institutional lines, to care for school, recreational and social activities, as well as public worship.

Plans and construction will be committed to a building committee. The committee will be made up of seven, of whom three will come from the church council and four from the congregation.

The decision carries with it the purpose to enter promptly upon the financial campaign. The congregation entered upon the building programs with the full understanding that it will be a major financial operation.  There is now the nucleus of a building bund, amounting to $10,000.  This fund has been in charge of William Foemmel, Herbert Blum and Arthur Bardeleben.  Their function has now been extended to include the custody of all funds raised for the building.  Plans for the financing have not been made.  But the raising of the money will presumably involve the work of the finance committee, which operates upon the district plan, with the parish divided into 12 districts.

The building campaign plans to undertake the actual construction not later than 1950.  The dates involved are of historic significance to the people of St. John’s.  It was just 60 years ago, May 8, 1877, when St. John’s church became a member of the Wisconsin Synod. At that time, the congregation was engaged in the construction of its present building that was dedicated October 9, 1877.  In 1950, the Wisconsin synod celebrates its centennial.  Upon the occasion of that centennial, St. John’s congregation hopes to be housed in the new structure, with the prospect that the dedication will fall within the centennial year.

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St. Bernard’s Church, of Thorp, held its “Thirteen Hours Devotion” on Sunday, May 4.  The services began at 6:15 a.m. and continued on through the day with a beautiful closing at 8 p.m.  The school children, numerous church organization members and nine priests from out of town made up the procession in the evening ceremony.

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The Volkmann tourist cabins, the small house and the building housing a tavern have been sold.  The property is located along Division Street, at the south end of Hewett Street.  It will transfer possession to Mr. and Mrs. Charles Scheuermann on or before the 15^th of this month.  The Scheuermanns, until recently, operated the Soo Café in Owen.

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William Gehrt has sold his 60-acre farm, in the Town of Levis, to Mr. and Mrs. Ernest H. John of Bowler, Wis.  The farm is located on the River Road, near the Lynch Bridge.

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Neillsville High School will have 48 seniors graduating on May 22.  The class is still relatively small, influenced by war conditions.  The graduates of 1947 are the freshmen of 1943, a year when young farm boys were greatly needed at home.  Now the pressure is off and the farm boys are flocking to high school in the old way.  The freshmen class in Neillsville High School has about 90 members.

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Two new industries are coming to Neillsville this week, both through the efforts of Reidar Olsen, formerly of Chippewa Falls.  One of the companies, previously knows as Olsen Bait, has been purchased by Victor Anderson and his son Gerald.  The other, fishhook manufacturing, will be set up and developed by Olsen as his own industry.

These two industries will occupy the quarters heretofore by the Nelson Muffler Company, west of the Weidenhoff plant.  The space will be divided between the two companies. The bait operation will be under the management of Gerald Anderson.  However, Olsen, who invented the machinery, will be at hand and will have an interested eye upon the project.  Olsen is a designer and inventor, residing in Wisconsin since 1921.  He has designed and set up the economical manufacture of a boat, as well as the bait business.  The bait project dates back to 1931.  For the manufacture of baits, Olsen devised special dyes and machines, which produces bait rapidly and cheaply.  The operation is largely automatic and will require relatively few operatives, especially at first.

The fishhook business was initiated by Olsen while he resided in California.  He was there during World War II, working in Lockheed and Hughes airplane engineering.  During the past two years, he has concentrated on the fishhook project and is now ready to go into production.

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The change in ownership of two Neillsville businesses has been announced this week.

Walter Beyer, former deputy county clerk, has purchased the grocery business conducted by John C. Brandt.  Mr. and Mrs. Epding have purchased the Neillsville Taxi Company from Clarence Burchell.

The transfer of the Brandt property had been in the making for some time.  Beyer worked with Brandt for several weeks before the purchase of the store was completed. Beyer is being assisted in the business by his wife, the former Edna Tews.  Both of the Beyers have experience in retailing locally.

The building, in which the grocery business is being conducted, has been purchased from Brandt by Edgar Tews, a brother of Mrs. Beyer.

Brandt says he plans to do some serious vacationing before getting back into the work harness.

The purchase of the taxi company brought with it a change in the location of the business.  The Epdings are operating the business from the Merchants Hotel, which they also operate. Burchell, who ran the taxi business for several months, is now employed by the Svetlik Tractor and Equipment Company.

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The Neillsville Athletic Association was organized this past week. An organizational meeting was attended by about 40 sports enthusiasts of Neillsville and the adjacent rural areas.

Elected officers are: Jack Tibbett, president; M. J. Hopkins, vice-president; Willard Allen, secretary-treasurer; Oscar W. Gluck, publicity chairman.  These men along with Everett P. Skroch, Ernest Vine of the Town of Grant and Lester Steinhilber, constitute the association’s board of directors.

The association will get under way with a good financial start.  The money taken in on various enterprises in connection with the local baseball team will go into the association funds.

The purpose of the association is to further all types of athletics in and around Neillsville on a year-around basis.  Accordingly, the recently formed softball league, as well as the baseball team, will come under its sponsorship. 

An interest in athletics for members of the fairer sex as a part of the association’s program was seen in the meeting.  Plans are to lay the ground for forming a women’s softball league.

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Rural teachers in Clark County are proceeding slowly this year in signing up for schools. Thus far, reports to the office of the County Superintendent indicate that about one-third of the schools have contracted with teachers for the next school year.

The reason for the slowdown appears to be uncertainty in the minds of the teachers about the market for their services.  In general, they are anticipating some somewhat higher salaries.  Some of them are figuring that they will fare better if the school aid bill is enacted by the legislature.  The effect of this measure would be to increase the funds available for school expenditures.

A survey recently conducted by the Milwaukee Journal indicated that the wages of rural teachers will be up in Wisconsin by an average of $20 to $30 per month.  Russell Drake, Superintendent of Schools, estimates that Clark County will probably conform to about that average.  In the past school year, the average pay of rural teachers in Clark County was $171 per month.  The present prospect is that the average for the coming school year will be $190 to $200 per month.

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Marriage licenses were issued this month to the following couples:

Irene Shefchik, Loyal and Roman Braun, Loyal; Lorena F. Vanderhoff, Spencer and Russell A. Gehrke, Loyal; Regina E. Gorsegner, Thorp and Carl H. Broeking, Stanley; Helen E. Lobacz, Greenwood and Fred L. Krzyzanowski, Thorp; Ina B. Stephens, Owen and Martin E. Peterson, Owen; Bernice G. Strebing, Neillsville and Richard Thompson, Neillsville.

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The Neillsville baseball team will meet the Loyal team on their home grounds at 2:15 p.m. Friday, May 30, Decoration Day.

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Neillsville became a city in 1882, after being known as a village in its beginning.  The above photograph was taken in 1911 from the top of the water standpipe.