Clark County Press, Neillsville,

September 12, 2007, Page 24

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

 

Compiled and contributed by Dee Zimmerman

 

 

Clark County News

September 1927

 

Last week, Marathon County completed a stretch of 15 miles of new road on U.S. Highway 29 east of Abbotsford, which is probably the finest piece of snow proof road to be built in the state.  If it proves to be what its name would signify, it will be a boon to the winter traveler and henceforth all roads of this class will be built along the same lines.  Ordinary roads are built along the same level with the surrounding country but this new road is built on an average of one to four feet above the level, thereby giving the road a clean sweep of the winds.

 

The ditch is so made that should the top of the road lie bare, the side will furnish the farmer with plenty of snow.  The experiment will be watched with interest.

•••••••••

Frank Hribar of Willard was in the city Saturday with Ignac Cesnik to secure a passport for Mr. Hribar, who leaves soon for Slovenja, Jugo Slavia, to get married.  He and his wife will return to this country to live.

•••••••••

Last Monday night G. C. Hill, of the Isaac Walton Club accompanied by friends took three trucks to the Merrillan train depot, unloading a carload of bass and pike.  The fish had been seined out of the Mississippi River bottoms by the Conservation Department.  The fish were planted into Lake Arbutus.  All were of a good size so they should grow rapidly.

•••••••••

Last week was canning week at the Indian School.  A vast amount of beans, corn and other vegetables and fruits were put up.  Most of the produce was homegrown.

•••••••••

The new dam at Greenwood Tourist Park is completed.  The water has now risen to a stage to make nice boating and bathing.  The dam was built by the Weaver Construction Co., of Owen, for a cost of $4,000.

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. August Mueller were very pleasantly surprised Tuesday evening, September 6th, when at about 8:30, friends, neighbors and relatives came with baskets laden with goodies to remind them they had been married five years.  The evening was spent in dancing and visiting.  Eske’s orchestra furnished the music and Mr. Martin Dankemeyer called for the square dances.

 

Mrs. Mueller was appropriately dressed for the occasion.  At 11:30, a charivari was given them and at twelve midnight a delicious picnic lunch was served.  Afterwards every one danced into the wee hours of the morning.  Everyone left at three-thirty, feeling they had all had an enjoyable evening.

•••••••••

On September 15th, J. B. Lowe & Son moved their stock of Funeral Equipment into their new home on Clay Street, which was recently purchased from P. S. Temby.  This will give the people of this community a nice funeral home, such as there is in the big cities.  The new funeral home will be open to any bereaved family in the community, who wishes to use it, at no additional expense.  The entire main floor of this palatial residence will be used for Funeral Parlors.  The second floor will be used for Mr. Lowe’s private residence, and the third floor will be used for a stock room.  Mr. Lowe has seen the need of a modern funeral home in Neillsville for several years and now they have one as nice and as well equipped as any in the state.

•••••••••

Auctioneer C. A. Olson and Sheriff Herman Olson left here Tuesday evening via the Auctioneer’s Buick coupe for Chicago to be at the ringside, Thursday night, of the greatest ring encounter the world has ever had, that of the Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey fight.  The Olson’s procured seats early and through the editor of the Saturday Evening Post, were fortunate enough to get seats 1 and 2 in the 4th row from the ring, which means within ten feet of the pugilists.  Sheriff Olson has had very thorough fistic training and has made something of a record in that line.  C. A. Olson also had some boxing training a number of years ago.

•••••••••

The Beeckler Brothers have bills out for a big auction sale on Monday, Oct. 10, at what was known as the M. C. Ring Stock Farm, 2 miles east from the court house.  This will be an all day sale of cows, young stock, horses, and all kinds of farm produce and machinery.

•••••••••

In many places of Wisconsin may be found amidst the scenes of modern industry, interesting bits of history and romance.  At Jim Falls is located a great hydro-electric station, developing power that goes to the Twin Cities and elsewhere to great industrial centers.

 

Here, long before Eau Clarie or Chippewa Falls were established cities, white men had made their habitation and built homes and mills and even schools.

 

Jim Ermatinger, a Scotchman was the first settler, and after him the falls was named.  He married an Indian woman, and two of his sons, now close to 90 years of age, still live in the village.

 

Just above the town and on the site now covered by the lake formed by the power dam, a settle named McCann lived at the time of the Civil War.  McCann bought from some Indians, who had captured the bird, a large bald eagle, a most magnificent specimen of its kind.  This live emblem of our country was taken to Eau Claire and there presented to a company of the 18th Wisconsin Infantry, later carried to the front in the Civil War.  The bird was christened “Old Abe” and went through many battles.  At first the bird was carried on a standard and prevented from escape by a cord or chain.  Later, however, Old Abe became thoroughly famed and was greatly attached to his human comrades, flying above them screaming in the smoke of the battle.  After the war, Old Abe was kept in a room in the Capitol, at Madison, where he later died.  However, he was stuffed and was on exhibition for many years until a fire wrecked the Old Capitol and he was consumed in the flames.

 

September 1947

 

Crowded conditions in the grades and an overflow in high school mark the opening of the public schools, according to D. E. Peters, the superintendent.  In the high school the assembly room, which has provided seats for all the pupils in the past few years, is now insufficient, and it has been necessary to overflow into another room.

 

The staff has been completed by the acceptance of Mrs. John Sliter, who is temporarily teaching the eighth grade in the Southside School.  She will continue until a principal has been secured.  Mrs. Sliter has a B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin and has taught seven years.  She was once a substitute teacher in the Neillsville Schools.

•••••••••

St. Mary’s Catholic School opened Tuesday, September 2, with an enrollment of 86, 42 boys and 44 girls.  The faculty members for the present school year are: Sister Mary Mechtild, teacher of grades 1, 2 and 3; Sister Mary Romuald, teacher of grades 4, 5 and 6; Sister Mary Ricarda, teacher of grades 7 and 8.

•••••••••

Everybody is invited to the Annual Bazaar and Chicken Dinner at St. Mary’s Church in Greenwood on Sunday, Sept. 7.  Dinner cost for adults is $1.00, children 50c

•••••••••

Bill Seif and Martin Nesbitt finished painting the C. E. Seif Sons building last week; but it wasn’t without incident.

 

As the two young men were on the last lap, on the west side of the building, a rope holding their platform frayed and started to break.  They spotted the break as the last strand started to give.  Both of them made a hasty exit through a top floor window.

 

A few seconds later, the rope parted, splashing paint, buckets, spray gun and other related items, on a pile of wood 30 feet below.  The next day, Bill and Martin gathered up their courage, fixed the rope and finished painting the wall.

•••••••••

Levi Fitzmaurice of Rt. 4, Neillsville, returned Saturday with a 56-inch Sturgeon, which he took from the Chippewa River flowage, below Jim Falls.  He made the catch last Friday night with worms for bait, after a battle of 20 minutes.  It weighed about 40 pounds.  Mr. Fitzmaurice reported many of the big fish being taken, during the short Sturgeon season, in that locality.

•••••••••

For the sheep breeders in this area, who are interested in getting a registered ram, the University of Wisconsin ram truck will stop at Abbotsford, September 30.  This will be the only stop in Clark County this year.  Those of you who have pure-bred rams you want to dispose of, it will be possible for you to take the animal up to Abbotsford and put it on the truck.  They will not buy it or take it in as a trade for another ram; but they will act as a selling agent for you at other stops they make.

•••••••••

Four sisters were together at Neillsville last week, all of whom had not been together for 32 years.

 

They were: Mrs. Charles Seif of Neillsville, her sister: Mrs. J. J. Hanes of Seattle, Wash., Mrs. Ed Wightman of La Crosse, and a half-sister, Mrs. Walter Amidon of Hewettville.  All are daughters of the late David Wood, who was a prominent lumberman in the area.

•••••••••

Fifteen members were present for the meeting of the Monday Progress Club on September 22.  Mrs. F. D. Calway was taken into membership.  Five minute talks were given by Mrs. G. W. Longenecker and Mrs. J. H. Brooks on “Early Churches in Wisconsin.”  Mrs. Longenecker told about the oldest church in the sate, which is still standing on Madeline Island.  Mrs. Brooks reviewed the organization of churches in Neillsville.  The earliest church service in Neillsville was held by a Methodist circuit rider, who came from Black River Falls in October, 1847.  This event will be commemorated next month by the local Methodist Church.

•••••••••

Diana of the hunt will have nothing much on the Neillsville hunters who plan to help about 9,988 other bow and arrow enthusiasts open the deer season in the Necedah forest, this weekend.

 

They will go loaded down with arrows and gear; and, if their fortune follows the usual pattern, they will return after an enjoyable outing.  But, just in the event Bill Hanley gets a buck, doe or fawn, Art Epding has promised to wheel him up Main Street in a wheelbarrow at 7 p.m. on a Friday night.

 

Among those planning to open the season Saturday are: Hanley, Epding, Dr. Arthur Fahrner, Earl Bruhn, Ralph Rosenbert (Rosenberg), Herbert Smith, John M. Peterson, William Gallagher, William Yenni, Harland Kintzele and probably a few others.

•••••••••

A three-reel motion picture of the 1946 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox will be one of the features of the first annual banquet of the Neillsville Athletic Association, Oscar W. Gluck announced this week.

 

The banquet will be held Saturday evening, October 4, at the Catholic Church.  A prominent speaker also is being secured, and awards will be made to members of the city baseball team, which this year won 18 and lost 5 games.

 

The banquet is open to men, women and boys interested in sports.  Members of the American Legion Junior baseball team will be guests of the local post of the American Legion.

•••••••••

There will be a Duck and Chicken Shoot at Tony’s tavern, 3 miles south and 2 miles west of Willard, Sunday, Sept. 28, at 2 p.m.  There will be no telescopic sights, 22 rifles only, are to be used.

•••••••••

Walter Keohand, band director of Neillsville High School, announces that band instruments are wanted, in any condition.  If you have an instrument that you no longer use, please phone Green 27.

•••••••••

The help of persons in all parts of Clark County is desired by the State Centennial Committee.  The work to be done is to search local cemeteries for old tombstones and to forward to the committee information gleaned from them.  The request of the committee, headed by Mrs. Alice Bright Parker, of Fort Atkinson, follows:

 

“The Wisconsin families section of the state centennial committee needs workers in every square mile of Wisconsin.  We are trying to locate every grave in the state, and get every grave stone copied down for future printing.  Every tombstone is a white page of history, all of them wearing, chipping and breaking as time goes on. The text that each stone bears; has got to be reported and all of them assembled together if a complete history of Wisconsin is to be written.”

 

“In many cases we don’t even know where the cemeteries are.  Many early families buried their dead babies near the house in unmarked graves.  Many family burial grounds are hidden beneath weeds and bushes.  Old township cemeteries long disused have disappeared from sight, each broken stone covered by vines.  Some graveyards have been discovered in the midst of a neighborhood dump.”

 

Please copy down whatever information you find on tombstones and in cemeteries, sending it to: Mrs. Alice Bright Parker, Fort Atkinson.

 

(In recent years, much has been done in recording valuable information, which was found in area cemeteries, a part of local history. D.Z.)

•••••••••

 

“One of the prettiest weddings of the season,” it was reported of the Emma Marg and Herb Bardeleben marriage, which took place in late July 1922.  Left to right: attending couple, Esther (Poppe) Meihak and Albert Marg; bride and groom, Emma (Marg) Bardeleben and Herb Bardeleben; attending couple, Arthur Ackerman and Martha (Lenz) Albrecht.  (Photo courtesy of Dorothy (Ackerman) Anderegg)

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