Clark County Press, Neillsville,

October 31, 2007, Page 24

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

October 1892

 

The new Black River Bridge will be an imposing structure, and the completed abutment on the west side looms up like the work of giants.

•••••••••

Frank Maxwell put in a furnace in Ross’s Eddy area this week that shows that he is one of the most skillful masons that ever worked in Neillsville.

 

Frank has the contract to put on the plaster in the beautiful new Unitarian Church.  It is to be the new rough finish work that is to be seen in the metropolitan church buildings.

•••••••••

H. A. North has had men at work a week or more excavation for an enlargement of the cellar at his corner property at Sixth and Hewett Streets.  He will put in a new stone basement and brick veneer on the building, raise the rear extension to two-story, and put a flat steel roof over the whole structure.  It will be a very substantial addition to the city.  Neillsville can’t afford to fall into the sere and yellow leaf.  Matt Kapellen will put a fine stone, brick and iron building on the corner diagonally opposite, next spring, and that will permanently fix the aspect of that corner, which will show brick and plate-glass on the four corners lots.

•••••••••

As an evidence of the prosperity of the city of Neillsville, it may be stated that there is scarcely a house or store vacant.  Every desirable building is rented and inquiries are made daily for houses to rent.  No more desirable place of residence can be found, when it is taken into consideration that we have churches in abundance, and schools that compare favorable with the very best in the state.  The location is everything that can be desired, being situated in one of the finest farming districts to be found in Wisconsin.  It is noted for being in one of the healthiest portions of the Northwest.  No better class of inhabitants can be found than in this city.  Many people are finding their way here, wishing to enjoy the superior advantages afforded, and many more will come as soon as residences can be built.

•••••••••

W. L. Hemphill has taken the Geo. Frantz farm in hand, and is devoting it to sheep raising.  The farm is extensive and the property of R. Dewhurst.  Bob now knocks about in overalls, and looks every inch the shepherd, without the shepherd’s crook and of course he doesn’t need that.  A flock of 50 sheep went down on Monday, the first installment. The farm is well designed for sheep raising and Bob will make it hum.

 

Geo. Frantz is arranging to leave the farm south of town where the family has lived since 1852.  Soon the Frantz farm-house will be occupied by Mr. Fred Kalpen, who will work the farm for Farmer Hemphill.

 

The roof of the Hemphill’s new barn on the Frantz farm looms over the landscape as seen from Ross’s Eddy like Edward Everett Hale’s moon.  Bob is clearing land at the northwest corner of his ranch, and keeps brush fires burning on every hilltop.  He has induced the path master to repair the rock-ribbed road leading in to the farm, and now one can drive that way in safety and comfort.

•••••••••

North Hewett Street is having done to it what will eventually be done to every hilly street.  The hills will be dumped into the hollows.

•••••••••

Well, we are in the soup now!  An Uncle Tom theatrical company wants to come here and we don’t have any theatre building.

•••••••••

The largest transfer in pinelands that was ever made in Northern Wisconsin was consummated in Ashland, Thursday.  The Cornell University sold to the Chippewa Logging Company 109,600 acres of pineland for a consideration of $841,706.  The lands are situated in Price, Taylor, Chippewa, Barron and Ashland counties, and have been a prize long sought by lumbermen.

•••••••••

Yesterday, a small boy pulling a cart loaded with three other boys went racing down past Darling’s store, and a lot of men who were looking on, said one to the other, “It will be a wonder if some of them are not hurt.”  Soon from around the corner came a wail, and the wise men said each in his turn, “I told you so!”  And when the weeping boy came by they reprimanded him for running, but when he said it was a bumblebee that hurt him, they shut up tight and kept shut.

•••••••••

At 4 p.m. Tuesday, Christ Hogeson of Weston drove upon the Hewett Street Bridge, at the north end, with a load of hay. Workmen were working on, around and under the structure, preparing for the new bridge.  There was a snap, and a crack, an awful flying of planks, sticks, timbers, hay, horses, wagon and Hogeson, the rickety old bridge had gone down.  At that end and below in the dry bed of the pond lay the outfit, mixed up in such a way as to lead those who saw it to believe that half a dozen people had been killed.  The reeling, pawing team of horses was thrown back upon the hay, Hogeson was tossed about like the boss pilot of a cyclone, and when all the timbers, dirt and debris had settled down, and a breathless and pale crowd had rushed to the rescue, it was found that nobody was hurt.  The horses were all right, the hay was dry, and even the bridge workman Palmer, who had been buried under the hay, was pulled out as safe and sound as when he had left home that morning.  But he was scared, and Hogeson was scared, and Tom Hommel was scared, for he thought of the sudden widows, and the cussing he would get.  But it all came out so well, he feels better.  Now when you cross the O’Neill Creek you’ll have to do so at the Grand Avenue Bridge.

 

 

October 1942

 

Wanted: pictures of America’s wartime presidents

 

The local War Price and Rationing board is looking for framed pictures of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson, America’s greatest wartime presidents, to hang on the walls of the Rationing Board offices.

 

The pictures would serve as patriotic wall decorations for the office.  But, more than that, Leo W. Foster, executive secretary, hopes they also would serve as reminders of the sacrifices that have been made by other generations to make America the land of the free.

 

Incidentally, he recalls, the legend about Washington’s flare for the truth might have a good influence.

 

Any persons who has a picture of one of these three presidents and who will donate its use to the board office, see Mr. Foster, or send a card in the mail.

 

(The following week, this news item appeared.)

 

Thanks to the interested and helpful residents of Neillsville, the local War Price and Rationing board now has pictures of America’s wartime presidents.

 

Mrs. W. B. Tufts has loaned the office a large colored portrait of George Washington; Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Rush have loaned a 12 by 14 inch picture of Abraham Lincoln; Mr. and Mrs. Syd Patey dug up a dist-covered picture in their attic with the pictures of all presidents from Washington through Theodore Roosevelt and have turned it over to the War Price and Rationing board office for use.

 

A picture of Woodrow Wilson, president of the United States during World War I, has been loaned by Mrs. Robert Dux of Wisconsin Rapids, a former Clark County resident.

 

Leo W. Foster, executive secretary of the office, had received the promise of Postmaster Louis W. Kurth that a picture of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt will be furnished. 

 

The pictures are loaned to the office, and will be returned later to their owners.

•••••••••

Starting today, applications for canning sugar must be made directly to the local War Price & Rationing board, Neillsville, Leo W. Foster, executive secretary, announced.  Because of the number of other essential programs now being directed, the traveling clerk will be unable to service sugar needs for the present, he explained. 

 

At long last!

 

The rationing board has approved an application for the purchase of a bicycle, the first approved since rationing went into effect.

 

The applicant was Randall Earl Gennrich, a Dorchester newsboy, who also sells defense stamps on his route.

 

The applicants made previously have been disallowed because the applicants were not eligible, according to the board.

•••••••••

Frank Marg has purchased the Watters farm, recently occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Marlin Bandelow.  He will take possession next spring.

•••••••••

An unusual growing season was stopped short with a killing frost here last Wednesday night, and was followed by the earliest snowfall in the memory of most local residents, four inches on September 26.

 

The frost signaled the end of a period of waiting for farmers hereabouts, most of who had been unable to get on corn ground because of heavy rains of the previous weeks.  Some farmers already had started filling silo and a very few had finished the job.  But, by and large, silo filling has become the feverish farm activity of the week.

•••••••••

Thirty-five miles per hour is a comparatively slow grind, but most motorists traveling over Clark County highways are conscientiously trying to observe the federally ordered speed limit.

 

According to Harry Frantz of Neillsville and Kenneth Mathewson of Owen, most motorists have slowed their pace since the order for a speed limit of 35 miles per hour went into effect.

•••••••••

Neillsville quietly observed an anniversary last Saturday, the second anniversary of the departure of the Service Company for a “year of training” in the South.

 

There were few who really dared hope that sunny Indian summer day, 1940 that the end of a year would see that group of 97 men back home to stay.  The world was in much of a mess, and the mess was getting worse. 

 

As they stood in marching formation before the public library, their commanding officer, Capt. W. B. Tufts, now a Major, responded to the farewell of more than 4,000 people who had come to wish them Godspeed.

 

“We have been called for a year,” he said.  “It may be more.  But, whatever we are called upon to do, you people at home can be sure that we will do our duty as good soldiers.”

 

Now, two years after that historic day in the city’s life, the men of the Service Company are somewhere in the broad expanse of the Southwest Pacific.  From the dusty North Australian coastal plain, from the jungles of New Guinea, in the Solomons, or wherever they are in the battle zone, come back those words, “we will do our duty as good soldiers.”

•••••••••

Thomas D. Wage passed away at the home of his daughter, Miss Gladys Wage, Thursday, October 15, after an illness of but a few hours duration.  He was 90 years of age.

 

Thomas Davis Wage was born April 28, 1852, on a farm near the small village of Herrickville, Bradford County, Pa.  When he was four years of age, his parents, John D. and Susan Fowler Wage, came to Clark County, Wis., to settle on a 320 acre farm, which the elder Wage had purchased from the government.  Access to the land, which is now the Ewald Thiede farm, located a mile south and a mile west of Trimberger Corners, was made to Neillsville through a trackless forest, a distance of about eight miles.

 

Here the young Thomas grew to manhood and after the death of his father he carried on the farm work and cared for his mother.  On his 24th birthday, April 28, 1876, he was married to Miss Henrietta Foster at Neillsville. They continued to live on the farm until 1883 when hey sold the farm and came to live at Maple Works, a thriving little crossroads settlement, now known as Trimberger Corners.  A few years later, he purchased a farm close by.  A portion of this farm now is the site of the village of Granton.

 

Mr. Wage lived continuously in the Town of Grant until May 30, 1941.  He went to live with his daughter, Miss Gladys.  At that time, the daughter had resigned from her teaching position to make a home for her father.  Following the death of his wife on the 30th day of May 1918, he lived with his daughter, Dora, Mrs. F. E. Winn, on the old farm.  During all these years, he was a constant companion of his grandchildren.  He was sympathetic and helpful to them in all their childish ambitions.  He took a personal interest in each one’s school life and looked forward each month to seeing their report cards.  The children understood that they must have good marks if they wished to receive the approval of Grandpa Wage.

 

Mr. Wage held the honor of attending the Clark County Fair each year for 70 consecutive years.  The Clark County Fair Association was organized in 1872, when he was a young man of 20.  He purchased a share of stock that year and without a single exception attended the exhibition each year, thereafter, including the 70th this fall.

 

Funeral services were held Sunday at the Lowe Funeral Home in this city, the Rev. G. W. Longenecker officiating.  Burial was made in the Windfall Cemetery, Granton.

•••••••••

Weekend Specials in Neillsville stores:

 

“Big Yank” Shirts, Choice of fancy plaid flannel twill or plain color heavy twill, $1.19 each, at the Gamble Store.

 

C. E. Seif & Sons, of Neillsville and Augusta, has Worthmore Oil, in 5-gallon lots 37c per gallon.

 

Quality Market is a Clover Farm Store.  They have Pillsbury Flour, 49 lb. Bag for only $1.95; Texas Sweet Seedless Grapefruit 6 for 25c; California Green Tops Carrots 2 lg. Bunches 13c; Clover Farms Rolled Oats, 3 lb. pkg. 21c; Camay Soap, 3 bars 20c.

•••••••••

 

These ornate gate supports stood as sentinels for many years, holding the steel gates that guarded the entrance to the M. C. Ring farm, located about one mile south of Neillsville along Hwy. 73.  The farmland, originally homesteaded by Robert Ross, was bordered on the south by the Black River with an eddy in that locale, which was named “Ross’ Eddy” in memory of the original owner.  (Photo courtesy of Clark County Jail Museum)

 

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