Clark County Press, Neillsville, Wisconsin

July 20, 2016, Page 9

Contributed by "The Clark Co. Press"

Transcribed by Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon.

Index of "Oldies" Articles 

 

Compiled by Dee Zimmerman

 

Clark County News

July 1931

 

A short time ago, Mrs. Anthony Kraft and her little son were working in the garden back of Miss Irene Maxwell’s house and found an old coin encrusted with dirt and corrosion.  On scouring up the coin it was found to be a half dollar and is dated 1822.  If this coin is genuine, it is probably worth quite a large sum.

 

Mr. Kraft, in searching in the garden, found a silver ring near where the coin was found.  This ring was also corroded, but was easily scoured quite clean.

 

The coin and ring were found not far from the site of the Old O’Neill House barn, and close to the original dwelling erected by James O’Neill, Sr., the founder of Neillsville, who came here in 1844, built a sawmill and established a town, thus it is quite possible that this coin and ring were lost by some early settler of that day.

 

Mr. Kraft also has a nickel dated 1868, which he found in his wood shed, which is near where the half dollar was found.

•••••••••

Mrs. Paul Youker, who lives in the Town of Hewett, has an old wall-pocket hanging on the inside wall of her woodshed.  A robin built her nest in the upper pocket, then laid three eggs in it and hatched out three robins.  They are feathered out now and just as tame as can be.  Mrs. Youker places food out in the shed, which the mother robin feeds her young.  Mrs. Youker says it is difficult for the old bird to find food enough for her three babies.

•••••••••

The state board of control has taken over the Vesper tile manufacturing plant and will operate it with the use of 12 prisoners.  After a year’s trial then more prison labor will be used to operate it.

 

Officials of the state board of control were in Vesper last week and mad all arrangements for the plant and the housing of the men.  The plant has only one kiln at the present time, but after the year’s test, three more may be added.

 

(Pittsville Record)

•••••••••

The Jorgenson Construction Co., of Denmark, Wis., contractors, have their machinery installed at Wagner’s corners on the Town line between Lynn and Fremont and have started work on the new concrete work on Hwy 10 to extend from Trimberger’s corners near Granton, eastward to the county line.

 

Judge O. W. Schoengarth, reporting for the committee appointed at the last Kiwanis meeting to investigate the number of local men employed on the paving job east of the city, stated that he found there were 13 of the total of 30 employed.  It was said the contractor had agreed to discharge four of the out-of-town men employed at unskilled labor and replace them with local men.

 

It was also stated that between 60 and 70 more local men will be hired as soon as the paving is started.

•••••••••

A group of high school boys from Fond du Lac drove up Monday to work in the Neillsville pea cannery.  They stated that in the Fond du Lac area, the peas were badly injured by blight.  The boys are camping in the mouth of Cunningham Creek, as they stay here to work at the cannery.                                                 

•••••••••

Mrs. Archie Van Gorden slipped on the floor while roller-skating at Hatfield Thursday evening and broke w bone in one ankle.  The Drs. Rosekrans who stopped in shortly after the accident, on their way to Black River Falls, took her with them to secure better facilities for taking care of the fracture, then brought her back to the Van Gorden cottage at Hatfield.

•••••••••

A number of people of the Star Corners community attended the Farmers Union picnic at Chili on July 4th, and then in the evening, a dance in Tony Vobora’s barn.

 

(The Tony Vobora farm was located at the intersection of Cty. Rd. W and Sand Rd., which may indicate the area of Star Corners. DZ)                                                                                              

•••••••••

John Trogner injured his right thumb seriously Monday when a boxcar door suddenly started moving and caught his thumb.  A tramp near the depot came to his rescue and opened the door for Trogner to release his thumb.  The injury was treated by Dr. H. W. Housley.                                                                    

•••••••••

Police Chief Rossman reports that nearly 100 Gypsies, riding in 9 cars arrived in the city Saturday, seeming to meet here from several different directions.  Mr. Rossman then rounded them up and gave orders to move on, which they did promptly.

 

(In the late 1930s, as a child I remember the Gypsy caravans that traveled through our South Dakota community every summer. They camped by the James River, while making their tours along the nearby country roads, asking for food.

 

Each caravan would usually include four or five cars, the first car stopping at a driveway, with the next car at the second stop, and so on.  My Mom would give each Gypsy, who came to our door, a loaf of home-baked bread.  Some families gave a dozen eggs, or whatever they could spare.  Their presence at our home made my Dad uneasy, so he never let them enter our house.

 

One late summer day, Dad had received payment for two grain threshing jobs, putting the cash in his billfold, then in his bib overall pocket.  That evening a touring car stopped by the mailbox, and soon a Gypsy lady came walking up the driveway.  Dad told Mom to package up a loaf of bread, as he walked out on the back porch.  Soon the Gypsy lady was standing on the porch conversing with Dad as she approached him, placing one hand on his bib-overall pocket.  Dad took her hand away from his chest.  The Gypsy lady commented.  “Big man afraid of little woman?”  Yes, he was afraid of her getting his billfold that contained a sizable amount of cash. DZ)      

•••••••••

Two local women autoists on their way from Neillsville to Merrillan got interest in watching a deer the other day and did not realize where they were until a jolt informed them they had run into the ditch.  A trouble car from Beene’s garage at Merrillan was summoned to tow their machine back onto the road. 

•••••••••

Demand for water during the hot spell has taxed the capacity of the city water system.  The water situation has been relieved by opening the gate in the O’Neill Creek dam so that the Condensery can use that water for plant purposes, instead of city water.                                                                                                     

•••••••••

B. H. Peterson, while fishing last week in Black River below Lynch’s bridge, found a five-pronged article that no one seems able to identify.  It has a socket in which is inserted a wooden handle, now considerably work away by the action of the water.  Four prongs are set in the form of a square and the fifth prong in the middle.  The lettering on the cap indicates that it was manufactured by G. Cherry and Co., who make creamer supplies.  It is on exhibit in the First National Bank window where it attracts considerable attention.                                                             

•••••••••

Deer are being killed and the meat offered for sale in Neillsville at 20 cents per pound by Indians, it was reported to The Press Monday.  The deer are being killed in the Tioga country, it is said.

 

July 1961

 

Members of the Neillsville Congregational and Evangelical and Reformed churches, who were among the first to unite at the church level, are now informed that the merger has been completed at the top level.  They are now the United Church of Christ.

 

Thirty-two synods out of 333 of the former Evangelical and Reformed Church and 3,547 churches out of 3,889 of the former Congregational churches have voted to approve the merger, which represents more than the two-thirds required.

 

This is said to be the first merger in America of churches of different structures, the Congregational church being traced to the Separatists in England and the Evangelical and Reformed to the Lutheran-Calvanists of Germany.  The merged church has about two million members.

•••••••••

 

In 1966, Neillsville’s United Church of Christ received a set of tolling bells, made in Switzerland, a gift from Herman Hediger, Sr., a member of the congregation and native of Switzerland.  Shown above, are (l-r) Earl “Slim” Bruhn, Rev. Wolfgram Koehler and Max Feuerstein viewing he newly arrived bells.

•••••••••

The new look in Neillsville consists of a large $10,000 machine and the clean pavement left in its wake.  The machine went into use June 27.

 

This big machine is expected to put into the discard the little bucket cart and broom with which Walter Jahr has been sweeping the paved streets, but it will not put Walter into the discard.  This faithful old employee of the city will continue on the city force, doing occasional spot cleaning and helping with the other labors of the city crew.

 

In the street-cleaning Walter is succeeded by Robert Lynch, who has been instructed in the operation of the big machine.

 

Walter Jahr’s sweeping outfit is worth about $40.  The new machine, costing $10,000, enters service upon a rental basis with monthly payments for three years.  The rent thus paid applies on the purchase price.

•••••••••

Wintergreen tea, fried snapping turtle meat and turtle eggs were among the delicacies eaten by Explorer Post Advisors Jack Grether and Warren Huddleston left Neillsville June 18 and returned to the home base June 28.

 

The trip, which had been planned for many months with the young men working and saving money to pay their share, went off without a hitch.  “There was no sickness and no accidents,” reports the Rev. Jack Grether.

 

The Post traveled in two cars to Moose Lake, about 60 miles northeast of Ely, Minn., and about five miles from the Canadian border.  They registered at the Child’s Wilderness Summer Canoe base, which is sponsored by Region 10 of Boy Scouts of America.

 

A guide with four years of experience, of college age, was provided by the camp and did a wonderful job of guiding and planning the trips.

 

“Fishing was good,” said Jack Grether, “and bass, walleyes and northern Pike were taken, but the boys had to work for them.  Four big fish feeds were enjoyed during the camping periods.”

 

The boys included David and Tim Grether, James Holmes, Raymond Williams, Marvin Denny, Nelson Roberts, Tim Harvey, Tom and Eddie Tomlinson and Darryl Braatz.                                              

•••••••••

Bees for pollination of cranberries have proved themselves in recent years with much larger yields of berries.  Rollie Benedict, Clark County beekeeper and inspector, is doing his share to produce a bumper crop.

 

Two truckloads of his bee colonies are in the Wisconsin Rapids Cranmoor area and will be left there to cross-pollinate the cranberries.

 

Mr. Benedict, who lives in the north section of the Town of York, near Loyal, has been loaning his bee colonies to the cranberry growers for several years.  “Nature used to “take care of cross-pollination,” said Mr. Benedict, “but there are not enough wild bees left today.  Chemical dusting of crops, orchards and gardens have taken their toll of bees in recent years.”

 

The bees will remain in the cranberry area for about four weeks.  When Mr. Benedict brings his bees home, he will have hives filled with very tasty 100-percent cranberry honey.                       

•••••••••

A honeymoon ride in a stylish buggy drawn by a single horse was experienced by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Winters 68 years ago following their wedding in the residence now owned by Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Georgas in Neillsville.  The ride was to their home in Shortville, where a wedding dinner was awaiting them, prepared by the groom’s mother.  The couple was attended by Mrs. George Bue and William Winters.

 

The groom nailed the windows at their residence so prankster friends would not break in on them; but everyone in Shortville had gathered for a charivari the night of the wedding.

 

“They came with guns and circle saws,” recalled Mr. Winters on the anniversary, “and they surely did a ‘bang-up’ job.”

 

When the new bride started to prepare bacon and eggs on the kitchen range the first morning after the wedding, she found the smoke coming into the room instead of going up the chimney.  The young groom got a ladder, climbed to the roof and found the chimney stuffed with rags.

 

Thomas Winters was born in Waupaca September 14, 1867, and when six weeks of age traveled in a covered wagon to Cannonville with his parents and grandparents.

 

“We settled on the Ed Waterman farm, one-half mile north of the old Cannonville School,” he recalled.  He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John Winters.

 

Mrs. Jennie (Short) Winters was born in Cresco, Ia., March 3, 1869, and came to southern Wisconsin at an early age.  She was a twin of James Short, Jr., of Winona.  Their mother died when they were nine months old, being raised by their grandparents.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Winters operated a farm north of Shortville for many years.  They owned and operated the Shortville Store for 25 years, purchasing it from Ed Ward, and moved to Neillsville in 1923.

 

They have three children: Mrs. Floyd (Anita) Wall and Mrs. James (Merrille) Vincent of Neillsville, and Mrs. Irving (Gladys) Stevens of Shortville.

 

A post-anniversary dinner was held for them at the James Vincent home on Clay Street.  Mr. and Mrs. Winters and Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Wall were guests.                                                                         

•••••••••

At the stock car races held Wednesday evening in Stratford, two Loyal women won in the Women’s Powder Puff race. Mrs. Ronald Domine won second and Mrs. Ralph Thomas won third.

 

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