Clark County Press, Neillsville,

October 17, 2007, Page 24

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

October 1897

 

R. F. Kountz, of this city, has the contract for putting in the water works at Greenwood.  He has already begun digging the well, which will be 30 feet in diameter and about 40 feet deep.  About 3,000 feet of water mains will be laid, and a building will be erected at a cost of about $4,500.  A pump and boiler will be purchased, but the kind has not yet been agreed upon.

 

The little city is rapidly forging to the front, and among other improvements that are contemplated in the near future is the establishment of an electric light plant

•••••••••

The John Paul Lumber Company will sell their lands situated in the several towns in Clark County.  For descriptions and further particulars, call on or address Agent W. L. Hemphill, Neillsville Wis.

 

The following are the towns in which the lands are situated: Beaver, Eaton, Green Grove, Hixon, Hoard, Levis, Mead, Warner, and Withee, also land in the Town of Rock, Wood County.

•••••••••

The members of the Wisconsin National Guard will find an enlarged and greatly improved reservation at Camp Douglas, when they go into camp there next year.  Forty acres of land has been presented to the State of Wisconsin by the North-western Real Estate Company.  This real estate company was formed by James L. Gates.  The tract is situated back of the main rifle pit and will ensure ground enough to prevent any possibility of an accident during the practice shooting of the guardsmen.

•••••••••

Last Sunday while looking through the new Clark County jail, Will Bradford and Bert Hart accidently (accidentally) locked themselves in and were unable to get out for a couple of hours.  Not knowing that the doors were self-locking, they closed the doors and when they tried to get out, could not do so.

 

Will Fox who was working in the jail, heard them.  After he had eaten his dinner he brought them a cold potato, piece of bread and a pickle and after they had eaten he released them.  They were the first prisoners and the first ones to eat a meal in the new jail.

•••••••••

A disastrous fire occurred at Spencer one day last week, in which the Blackstone House and the dry goods store of George Farrington was destroyed.  The loss is $8,000 with small insurance.

•••••••••

When a company of microbes gather in your system, take Rocky Mountain tea.  It ketches them every time and is available at C. C. Sniteman Co.

•••••••••

An antiquarian supper will be given by the Epworth League on Wednesday, Oct. 27th.  It will be held in the basement of the Methodist Church.  The following is the bill of fare: Pork and Cabbage, Potatoes, Rutabagas, Beets, Carrots, Brown Bread, Rye Bread, Butter, Pickles, Cheese, Pudding, Pies and Coffee.

•••••••••

Henry Bickmore, Del and Ray Sprague loaded staves on a rail car last Friday at Foster, for John Stewart of Greenwood.

•••••••••

The Honorable James O’Neill was summoned to Greenwood to settle the dispute between the Wisconsin Central Rail-road and the Foster Railroad Co.  Until he arrived, however, there was a continual jangle between the two sides.  As soon as the Central railroad men would finish their work, the Foster railroad men would tear it up with N. C. Foster of Fairchild assisting them.  Mr. O’Neill decided in the Foster Company’s favor when he allowed the Foster men to replace the track and let the Wisconsin Central engine return to Marshfield.  The Wisconsin Central Company was to have the right-of-way providing they extended the road in a certain specified time.  Their lease had run out before Mr. Foster purchased it.

•••••••••

A skimming station will be established on Fred Seif’s farm for the Clark County Butter Co.  A well is being dug now and a foundation for the building will be laid this fall.  The building will be built in the spring so it will be ready when there is a sufficient amount of milk for it in the Globe area.  The soil around here is rich and well adapted to the raising of all kinds of grain and vegetables.  We have one of the finest creameries in the county, which is owned by the local farmers.  Our creamery makes a first class quality of butter and receives the highest market price for it.  Anyone thinking of starting in the dairy business should take a look at this section of the county before settling elsewhere.

 

 

October 1957

 

A style show, beef barbecue, parade and several other events of interest to both young and old are planned for the Fall Festival to be held in Neillsville next weekend, Oct. 17-19.

 

Detailed plans for the three-day event were brought nearer to completion at a meeting of Neillsville Chamber of Commerce Directors here Tuesday noon.

 

The beef barbecue is on!

 

A corps of Service Company National Guard cooks, who are labeled as the best cooks in the business, will pool their talents with local citizenry under the leadership of Earle Siebert and his committee composed of James Hauge, Arthur Drescher, Edward C. Diehl and Charles Barr.

 

A 500-pound beef has been ordered.  It will be carefully barbecued in the parking lot opposite the city hall.  Beef burgers will be served free Saturday, according to the plans.

 

Exactly how the critter will be barbecued remained a matter of committee determination.  Two possible methods are being viewed, with the likelihood that at least half will be done in a covered pit, and the remainder on a spit.

 

Aside from the technical demonstration of barbecuing a beef, probably one of the events most likely to generate enthusiasm will be free rides on ponies and in the authentic storybook stagecoaches.  The ponies and stagecoaches will be made available by Chap Paulson, who operates his pony and stagecoach rides at Wisconsin Dells during the summers.

 

Pony rides will be available to children free of charge Friday night, October 18.  The stagecoaches will be pressed into service all day Saturday.  Every child who comes to Neillsville is invited to have a ride on a real pony, or in a real stage-coach.

 

Opening the Fall Festival events will be a style show in the Neillsville High School gymnasium.  A display of fall clothes will be presented by merchants of Neillsville.

 

Five gift certificates of $3 value each will be awarded during the style show.  These certificates will be exchanged for merchandise in the store of any Chamber of Commerce member in Neillsville.

 

Entertainment also will be provided between the style showings.

 

Friday’s big events will include a free dance, which will be held on the city’s main street, weather permitting.  Arrangements are being made to hold the dance in the American Legion Memorial hall in the event of inclement weather.

 

One of Saturday’s several big events will be a parade, which will include pet parade competition among all young folks who wish to enter pets.  A number of prizes will be awarded in the pet parade competition.  Also asked to take part in the parade will be the ponies and stagecoaches, boy and girl scouts and other organizations.

 

The purpose of the Neillsville Chamber of Commerce is to provide a worthwhile festival to mark the excellent harvest season this area has enjoyed, and to give everybody visiting the city a good time.

•••••••••

A new Highway 10 bridge over Wedge’s Creek, six miles west of Neillsville is now in use.  It replaced a narrow overhead structure, which is being dismantled in numbered parts so that it may be re-erected over Cawley Creek in the Town of Weston next year.

•••••••••

Clark County and the Town of Pine Valley in particular is the locale of a book now being written by a New York author and artist of note.

 

This was learned here last week when Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Vanderhoeve of Minneapolis visited in Neillsville a few days last week at the home of Dr. and Mrs. M. E. Bennett.  Mrs. Vanderhoeve is the former Dorothy Andrus, daughter of the late Hal Andrus who, a number of years ago, owned and operated a creamery in Pine Valley, just west of the railroad trestle on Highway 10.  Her visit here revived memories concerning her family and events connected with them.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Andrus came here from Sheboygan County.  Three of their four children were born at Pine Valley home connected with the creamery.  The children were Vera, Dorothy (now Mrs. Vanderhoeve), and a son, Kenneth.  Vera and Dorothy attended the school located west of them, where the building has become the Pine Valley town hall.  Later they moved into Neillsville and here the youngest daughter Lura was born.  Their Neillsville home is now 415 West 5th Street.

 

The creamery was burned to the ground in a night fire under mysterious circumstances early in 1907, and was never rebuilt.  At the time of the fire the Pine Valley creamery was operated by Gus Brindley, who with his family, resided in the apartment connected with the creamery.  The Brindley family moved into Neillsville and later returned to their home state, Indiana.  Mr. Brindley had formerly been a teacher in that state and in rural schools in this area.  He is now dead and members of his family live in Bristol, Ind., and in Berrien Springs, Mich.  His mother, the late Mrs. Frank Brindley, died in Fond du Lac in 1956, two months before her 100th birthday.

 

The Andrus family moved to the state of Washington.  Mr. Andrus’ health had been impaired by anxiety over financial losses and court proceedings following the mysterious fire.  He died soon afterward, leaving Mrs. Andrus with their four small children.  By determination and hard work, each of them received a good education, and were of invaluable help.  Their mother is Mrs. Ethel Andrus, who lives in Minneapolis.

 

Vera the eldest daughter is an artist and lives in New York City.  A few years ago she was invited to hang several paintings in the Louvre in Paris, France.  Last year she traveled to Paris and saw her own works displayed there.  As a small child, she had shown talent for painting and her father had promised that some day she would study in Europe.  For a number of years she has worked at the Metropolitan Art Institute in New York City.

 

Vera has also written a number of books for children.  At present she is working on a book, which is to tell the story of her family.  She has laid the scene in the Town of Pine Valley, Clark County, with events centering around a particular road, the now almost forgotten road turning north from Highway 10, just west of the trestle and leading to the old shale pit.

 

Lura, the youngest daughter, lives in the east and Kenneth is in Minneapolis.

 

While here Mrs. Vanderhoeve, in company of her cousin, Mrs. Bennett, visited the spot where her father’s creamery stood and secured from the old foundation some stones, which are to become a part of her rock garden in Minneapolis.  A few years ago when Jesse Leason, a brother of Mrs. Bennett, visited Vera in New York she expressed a wish for one of those stones from her childhood home.  On Mr. Leason’s next visit to Neillsville, he was able to make her wish come true.  Now that stone from Neillsville has become a prized possession of a successful artist and author who once was a little girl attending a Clark County rural school.

 

Mrs. Ethel Andrus is a cousin of the late Dr. W. A. Leason, father of Mrs. Bennett, who was many years a successful dentist of Neillsville, and the late Ralph Leason, who was engaged in the well and pump business and who was, in his own quiet way, an artist of ability.

•••••••••

Jack Bertz of Loyal has been appointed office manager of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation program at Neillsville to succeed Mrs. Norene H. Reinart, who has been employed in the office for 20 years.

 

Mr. Bertz is now on the job.  He has purchased the Joe Zilk, Jr. residence and plans to move to Neillsville with his wife and four children about November 1.

•••••••••

The community hall long used for church services and village social gatherings of all kinds has been purchased by E. L. Witte and will become the new Granton post office in the near future.

•••••••••

The former Oriole Hill School building was moved last week to the Alvin Miller farm by Peter Brecht of Loyal. 

 

During the past week, John Martin C. Brown and Fred Leubke have been building a hog barn on the Alvin Miller farm.

•••••••••

A Spinning Wheel party will be held at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Greenwood Thursday afternoon, with Mrs. Carl Turnquist as program chairman.

 

The hostesses will be Mrs. Leonard Olson, Mrs. Leo Olson, Mrs. William Abbott, Mrs. Lyle Verhulst, Mrs. Oscar Olson, Mrs. Arthur Turnquist and Mrs. Carl Turnquist.

 

Demonstrations on carding and spinning wool and the knitting of garments will be given by Mrs. Anna Elmer, Mrs. Alvina Wehrman, Mrs. Julia Turnquist, Mrs. Mary Danielson and others.

 

All members and anyone else interested in the project are invited.

•••••••••

The Loyal-Beaver township fire department took delivery of its new fire truck last Friday night.  It is an impressive white unit with a 600-gallon water tank, foam, and three hose lines ranging from one to 2 ½ inches.

 

It is the second truck for the townships since the organization of their fire protection district in 1947.  The first truck, a one-ton truck with a pumper, will be retained for future use.  However, it will be converted with the addition of a 500-gallon water tank.  Pumping equipment will be left, so that it may be used as a pumper, also if needed.

 

The township department is operated by the city of Loyal’s volunteer fire department

•••••••••

 

Pictured above is the 16-ton Dickson locomotive, which displays a manufacturer’s print of C.F. & E.C.R.R.R. 3, which was owned by N. C. Foster of Fairchild, an area pioneer of the railroad industry.  This engine was a favorite among several others owned by N.C. Foster so he named it “Willie,” after his son, Willard.  “Willie” was often put into duty for the short trips, such as transporting blueberry pickers to the marshes, or baseball fans from Greenwood to Loyal or Owen to watch Sunday afternoon games.

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