Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

August 18, 2010, Page 11

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

August 1910

 

Public Sale!  The undersigned will sell, at public auction on his premises, located 6 miles southeast of Neillsville, on Tuesday, Aug 16, commencing at 10 a.m. the following described property:

 

1 team horses; 1 hay rake; 1 cultivator; double work harnesses; 1 fanning mill; garden stuff; 4 cows; 1 spring drag; 1 potato plow; cream separator; 20 tons hay; 50 chickens; 1 smoothing harrow; 1 single-horse buggy; 2 lumber wagons; 1 mower; 2 plows; 1 set single harness; 1 set sleighs; corn in field; potatoes in the field; household goods, etc.

 

Terms made known on day of sale.  Joseph Lezotte, proprietor, A. H. Halvorson, Auctioneer

•••••••••

Mrs. Max Opelt, daughter, Lillian, sons Arthur and Maxie, and Gertrude Martin, all of Lynn, were Neillsville callers last week Tuesday.                                                                                             

•••••••••

There was a picnic party held in honor of Mrs. Nutting and children Saturday on the ledge near Black River.  A number of friends and relatives of Mrs. Nutting were present.  A fine lunch was served and good time enjoyed by all who were there. Mrs. Nutting took some fine pictures of the party, the ledge and the bridge along the river and intends to take them to her North Dakota home to show her friends some Wisconsin scenery.   

•••••••••

A week from next Tuesday, the Clark County Fair will open.  About all that is needed now to make the fair a success is favorable weather.

 

The fair this year will not be but four days, but will be one solid week of excitement, as the secretary of the fair has contracted with the Cosmopolitan Carnival Co. to appear in connection with the fair.  The carnival company is one of the largest on the road, traveling in its own special train, carrying with it 300 people, 19 shows, three big acts, including a high dive from a 90-foot ladder, Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, human roulette wheel, steam calliope, and an 18-piece band.  With the carnival band and the Greenwood band, there will be two bands in Neillsville that week and no end to music.

 

The carnival company will arrive here on Sunday, pitch its tents on the streets of the city and hold day and night fairs.  On the afternoon of the county fair, the carnival company will move its shows to the fairgrounds, showing there all afternoon, returning to the downtown in the evening.

 

The secretary of the fair has been fortunate enough to secure an aeroplane as a free attraction at the fair, and this act will be seen every day at the fair with daily flights made, weather permitting.  This will be the first time that a modern flying machine will be seen in this section of the state, and this attraction, together with the Glove of death and the carnival company acts are being heavily advertised, which will draw an immense crowd to Neillsville on fair week.  There will be a line of free attractions as well.

 

This year’s exhibits of livestock will be larger than in previous years. Crop exhibits will be smaller, but entries of grains are urged.

 

General admission is 25’ and grandstand, 15’.  Wednesday, Aug. 15th will be children’s day when all children under 15 will be admitted free.

 

Entries to the horse races are coming in and the speed department will be filled with some fast and exciting races to be expected.                                                                                                  

•••••••••

Yesterday morning, lightning struck Mrs. Sarah Wren’s farm home at Dells Dam. The house caught fire and was burned to the ground.  Mrs. Wren was home alone at the time but she escaped any injury, outside of severe shock.

•••••••••

The big sewers along Goose Creek made ideal cyclone cellars, and they were almost all filled Monday when a tornado was sighted near the Neillsville Mound.  A tornado had done some damage in Hewettville.

•••••••••

We, who live at Christie, saw the tornado Monday afternoon and I tell you people were frightened.  It looked at one time as though the tornado was coming this way.  Quite a number of neighbors gathered at the homes of S. E. Morse and Mr. Sleeter. It seemed as though everyone around here was watching it.  Oak limbs, pieces of tarpaper and marsh grass fell from the clouds a short time after the tornado cloud had disappeared.

 

We had a very hard rain in the evening.  Some of the Christie people were in Neillsville at that time.

•••••••••

The shrill whistle of the threshing machines can be heard along the countryside, but they aren’t as busy as other years as the small grain is light this year.                                                                    

•••••••••

The Dewhurst baseball team won over Shortville, Saturday afternoon, 22-19.  The Chili baseball team was beat by the Dewhurst team Sunday.  Soon Dewhurst will be able to play against the Yale team.

 

August 1950

 

The Neillsville Recreation bowling alleys were sold Tuesday to George Haack, Town of Weston farmer and widely known bowling enthusiast, Ted Schmidt, who established and operated the bowling alleys here for the last 10 years. The transfer of ownership has taken place.                                                                     

•••••••••

Dr. George E. Wahl of Eau Claire has opened an office in the Gladstone Hotel in Fairchild.  Dr. Wahl recently consented to come to the aid of the Fairchild community, which as been without the services of a doctor for the past ten years.  He will serve the people of the Fairchild area on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons.

•••••••••

Byron Zepplin has been elected head of the American Legion post in Loyal.  Other officers are: Clarence Brecht, adjutant; Robert Bredlau, sergeant-at-arms; Leo M. Meyer, historian; J. R. Thomas, Chaplain; Kenneth Kanneberg, athletic officer and Percy Voight, service officer.                                                             

•••••••••

Kenneth Vollrath, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Vollrath of Greenwood, is recovering from injuries sustained in an automobile accident.  He suffered head injuries and leg lacerations.

 

Kenneth apparently fell asleep at the wheel of his car and crashed head-on into a tree near Alvin Albert’s farm northwest of Greenwood.  The accident occurred at 4 a.m. Wednesday, as Kenneth was enroute home from the cannery in Loyal, where he has employment.

•••••••••

John G. Gerlach, who was a colorful figure in baseball about 50 years ago, is spending the summer at the home of his sister, Mrs. Virgil McHone, near Granton.  The last time the two sisters and their brother were together was 23 years ago in Portland, Ore., at the time of the death of their mother.                         

•••••••••

Mr. and Mrs. Fred Stelter celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Sunday, August 6, at their home on East Fifth Street.  Present for dinner and supper were seven children 25 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren in addition to many friends of the couple, making a total of 75 people.

 

The house was decorated with garden flowers and white wedding bells. A three-tiered wedding cake trimmed in white and gold was the table centerpiece.  In addition there was a tiny plastic tree that had each branch loaded with gifts of money.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Stelter were married in Russia July 13, 1900.  Ten children were born to this union with seven surviving.

•••••••••

If you ever visit the pleasant town of Neillsville, don’t miss meeting Dr. Frank Garman who, at lively 86-years of age, is perhaps the oldest practicing optometrist in the state, says the Eau Claire Leader newspaper.

 

In his 86 years, Garman has been a lumber jack, hardware owner, tin smith, mechanic, piano tuner, watch maker, farmer, plainsman and of course, an optometrist.  He was one of the early optometrist licensed in 1916 through the state’s first such licensing law and he has been an active member of the American Optometrists and the Northwestern Wisconsin Study group, in which he has played an important role. 

 

If the doctor’s original training, graduation in 1909 from the correspondence school at the College of Optics, South Bend, Ind., seems unusual now, it must be remembered that he was extremely well prepared in a day when eye glasses were usually peddled from door to door.

 

He was born on August 20, 1863, when, as he put it, “there was a very cute baby born in Glenburn, Maine, who has needed more than his good looks for the long haul to 1950.”

 

When 16 months old Dr. Garman was introduced to the “wilds” of Wisconsin where the father operated a saw mill on the Black River.  During the next five years, he says, he grew up among lumberjacks and river rats.”

 

After his father’s ankle was smashed between two rafts of lumber, the Garman family moved to a farm near Alma Center.  He began his formal education at that time attending a small country school in the area.  An untreated eye defect, which he suffered then, impaired his vision and today he speaks in all sincerity when he cautions parents to have their children’s eyes tested before they begin school.

 

When 22 years old, he and a friend, Edward Buckly, set out on a trip West in a prairie schooner pulled by two oxen. They lived on wild game during the six-week haul to South Dakota where they settled on a piece of land and decided to raise flax. The land was plowed, the flax sown, but, as Dr. Garman recalls it, “the hot winds harvested the crop.”

 

The young men sold the claim for $5, which hasn’t been paid to date, and they returned to Wisconsin.  Recently Dr. Garman learned that their former Dakota land acreage is now price at $8,000.

 

After his return, he began to acquire many of the mechanical skills, which he has mastered during his life-time.  He married Miss Nellie Blencoe when he was 39 years old.  “She ended all my troubles,” he says now.

 

The couple lived in Alma Center for several years before moving to Neillsville where Dr. Garman devoted all of his time to his profession.  He has become a familiar figure here through the years and although he claims that he is about due to retire, he still continues his professional services to his many old friends and customers.

 

And if you were to ask him to what he attributes his years of active living, he will tell you, “Maybe it is because I never smoked a cigarette nor have taken a drink of liquor.  Maybe it is just because I’ve always had a sense of humor.  Anyway no matter what has caused it, I think it was time well spent.”           

•••••••••

“Dutch” Manderfield, Neillsville County (Country) Club greens-keeper and pro, has purchased Steinie’s tavern.  Mr. Steinhilber has purchased the Tom Kelley house on State Street, now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Russell Larson.

•••••••••

Attention Kids!  Clean out those burlap bags around your farm.  Bring them to Van Gorden’s mill and Get Top Prices!  It will give you Money for the Fair!                                                                                           

•••••••••

Chicken Dinner, Sunday, August 27, at Holy Family Church in Willard, serving starts 11:30 a.m.; adult $1.00; Children 50 cents.  Bazaar is to be held in afternoon and evening.

•••••••••

The school electors of the Town of Hewett and Dewhurst are about to come to grips with their bus problem.  This time the proposal is to make a loan of $3,000 from state trust funds and to buy a bus with the money.  Repayment would be made over a seven-year period.  Upon this issue, a vote will be taken at a school meeting, to be held at the Hewettville School on Friday, Sept. 1.                                                                                            

•••••••••

Old Mr. Frost descended upon Clark County Friday morning and Sunday morning, August 18 and 20.  He showed his white whiskers in low spots, and left upon the corn and gardens the effect of his white breath.  The old gentleman may not be a smoker, but he left the searing marks of his breath all over the place.  The damage was wide spread in central and northern Wisconsin, according to Mr. and Mrs. George Wolff, who drove down to Neillsville from Chetek on Monday.  They saw corn damage all around them as they left Chetek and found it all the way down to Neillsville.

 

Early reports indicate that the damage, while widespread, is not in the nature of a catastrophe.  The damage has fallen chiefly in the low and flat areas of the county.  Corn and gardens on the higher land, and on land with good drainage, have largely escaped.

 

The areas worst hit seem to be in the Towns of Hewett, Dewhurst, Washburn, Sherwood and the southern portion of Lynn.

•••••••••

Get your school supplies at Sniteman’s; Roy Rogers tablets, w/colored cover pictures of your favorite cowboy, 10’; Loose leaf Notebooks, 35 to 40’; Leather ring memorandum books 50’; fillers 10’; Pencil boxes 15’ to 50’; crayons, box of 8, 10’; box of 24, 35’, box of 48, 59’.

 

Art gum erasers, 5’ ea.  Eversharp Fountain Pens, $1.50; Perma-point 29’; Ball Point, with Neillsville High Monogram $1.

 

Stop at Sniteman’s for your Noon-day and after school Parkins Ice cream treats!

•••••••••

Papers have been filed in the Register of Deeds for the transfer of the Luther restaurant building on the east side of Main Street in Greenwood.  The purchasers are William E. Kiviko and his wife, Lila as joint tenants.

 

The building is of brick construction and occupies a frontage of 35 feet. The consideration was about $12,000

•••••••••

S/Sgt. Herbert H. Langreck, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Langreck, Neillsville, Rt. 4, a member of the air force, is now assigned to “Far East Air Force” bases to aid in the Korean campaign.  He was formerly stationed with the Thirteenth Air Force at Clark Air Force base in the Philippine islands.

 

Sergeant Langreck joined the armed services in 1942.  He joined the air force November 16, 1948.  He left for overseas duty in the Philippines in November 1949 from Fort Lewis, Wash.

 

 

 

Neillsville Public School’s first bus was purchased in the early 1940s.  The bus, driven by Ray Strebing, traveled a route southwest of the city transporting high school students who lived in that area to and from school.

(Photo courtesy of Strebing Family’s Collection)

 

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