From Our Early Files July 28, 2021
25 YEARS AGO
Aug. 1, 1996
A 19-year-old strum woman was crowned the 1996 Trempealeau County Fair Queen on Thursday. Alexis Girtman received the crown from her predecessor, Jennifer Miller of Whitehall, during the opening night program at the county fair in Galesville. Also crowned that night were Girtman’s attendants, Kendra Slaby of Arcadia and Kimberly Jaskowski of Eleva and Miss Congeniality, Connie Stellpflug of Galesville.
Faced with vandalism and rowdy conduct in its Ekern Park, the village of Pigeon Falls is prescribing a dose of personal responsibility. The teenagers and young adults involved in the incidents will be given a chance to police themselves, village officials are saying. But they are also holding the trump card: closing the park and taking away a popular gathering place.
The Arcadia baseball team had its hopes and dreams crushed at the hands of South Milwaukee, which defeated the Raiders 8-2 at the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Summer Baseball Tournament in Stevens Point last Wednesday afternoon. Arcadia had a 2-0 lead in the fifth inning before a two-run home run tied the game as part of a six-run inning. South Milwaukee would end up winning the championship as they cruised through the remaining teams once they got by the Raiders.
Had the pipe bomb that ripped Centennial Olympic Park happened an hour earlier, Bob Duellman of Galesville and his son, Dan, might have been witnesses, or worse. Duellman flew to Atlanta Friday for a weekend of Olympic events that began with a private party for the medal-winning swimmer Whitney Hedgepeth. Dan Duellman, a suburban Atlantan, and a Hedgepeth sister are friends. From the afternoon party in the suburbs, the two Duellmans visited downtown, including Underground Atlanta. Several blocks and several hours later, they were in Centennial Olympic Park, on a course that took them near the entertainment stage near the tower where the pipe bomb went off, resulting in two deaths and numerous injuries.
The good news for Jenna Wegner is that she won the trophy for showing the supreme senior champion at the 1996 county fair’s Junior Dairy Show. The bad news is that Jenna is only 11 years old and won’t be 12 until November. That means she’s too young to take her cow to the Wisconsin State Fair.
The Rev. S.S. Urburg, for 26 years the pastor at Bethany Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Ind., plans to retire this summer. The fourth-generation Lutheran pastor was born in Blair where he was baptized and confirmed in the First Lutheran Church, a congregation served by is father and grandfather for 78 years.
The cities of Blair and Osseo will receive Department of Natural Resources funding to assist with the repairs to the Lake Martha dam in Osseo and the Lake Henry dam in Blair, state senator Rod Moen announced.
50 YEARS AGO
Aug. 5, 1971
Fourteen Friendly Town children from the inner-city Chicago area spent two weeks as guests of homes in Trempealeau County. Hosts in this area included the Gerald Schansberg, David Schaefer, Carsten Linnerud and Verna Cantrell families of Whitehall, and the Ronald Petersons of Pigeon Falls.
For the second year, Whitehall will host the state fast draw championship, on Aug. 21 during Beef and Dairy Days. Colonel Larson, representing the Marlin Firearms Co., will conduct the contest for boys ages nine to 12.
Arcadia city officials and several businessmen met Monday morning with a representative from the Eau Claire office of the DNR to discuss the city’s solid waste disposal problems. Representatives of the towns of Arcadia and Glencoe were also present. The DNR representatives said the department has launched a special program this summer in which it investigates all landfill sites in the state. All sites will be required to conform to DNR orders after Oct. 1. DNR officials had a letter on hand with several improvements Arcadia needed to make in order to meet regulations.
Pastor Konrad M. Urburg, 67, Blair, pastor of First Lutheran Church in Blair and Fagernes Lutheran church, rural Arcadia, died suddenly Saturday evening en route to Lutheran Hospital, La Crosse, where he was being taken by an ambulance after becoming ill at his home. He had suffered a heart condition several years ago.
Glen Reit has announced that he is the new Arctic Cat snowmobile dealer in Arcadia.
“It almost looks as if the county fair is making a comeback.” That was the reaction of a member of the Trempealeau County Fair Board Sunday night shortly before the closing local county exposition in Galesville. Albert Scherr, fair board secretary reported that not only the number of exhibitors, but the total paid attendance would probably be over 500 above the attendance of the 1970 fair. Lee Sacia, a board member, estimated the attendance up almost a quarter.
Ettrick Pickle Days will be held this week Thursday-through-Sunday. There are 12 girls entered in the queen contest, which takes place Friday.
Thieves broke into Marty’s Super Market in Blair. A lot of damage was done and much money was taken.
75 YEARS AGO
Aug. 1, 1946
Arnold Wochos, Trempealeau County agent, has resigned his position after two years of service here, and will accept appointment as agricultural agent for Manitowoc County. Mr. Wochos was instrumental in increasing the extension staff services.
Whitehall City Clerk H.J. Elstad has received notice of the approval of the plans for the construction of the pumping station and water treatment plant to be built at the site of the new well, drilled last December. The station is part of the project to develop a ground-water supply to replace the existing supply, which is pumped from the Trempealeau River.
All 1,000 seats were taken at the two showing of the Mills Bros. Circus at Whitehall Monday, and there was a large overflow for the matinee. Hutchins-Stendahl American Legion Post 191, which sponsored the show, cleared $491 on the sale of tickets. Fifty percent of the proceeds goes to a swimming pool for the city, 10 percent towards improving the log cabin in Melby Park, where Colonel Larson’s camera club meets, and 40 percent toward organizing a Legion-sponsored drum and bugle corps.
When Alvin Windjue shot a 30 Tuesday evening, he broke all records on the Whitehall golf course. Scores of 31 have been made infrequently, one last week by Dr. R.L. MacCornack, but never a 30 before.
Arcadia city street commissioner Nic Ammann is around town once more after his release from St. Joseph’s Hospital last Wednesday. He is still a bit shaky and walks with the aid of crutches, but he is recovering nicely from his recent accident in which he received a head and neck injury while at work in a manhole. He spent three weeks in the hospital, most of that time in a cast.
Pouring of concrete for the basement floor of the $4 million Dairyland Power Plant at Alma was completed last week. A total of 1,500 cubic yards of cement went into the laying of the basement floor, which is reinforced by 90 tons of steel mesh network. The concrete slab is three-and-a half feet thick. Pouring of the concrete for the walls and substructure is now in process with 110 men employed.
Doris Anderson, Blair, was presented a $500 Ina H. Butler scholarship.
100 YEARS AGO
Aug. 4, 1921
At the regular meeting of the Whitehall Improvement Association Monday night, the principal matter for consideration was the Kiwanis picnic that will be held at the park grounds next week Wednesday. Committees were appointed to attend to every detail, and when the several clubs meet here that day, Whitehall will be ready to greet them. The Kiwanis have invited the whole of Whitehall to join them, and it is the duty of every citizen to see that they are cordially received and royally entertained.
Indoor baseball is being played at the park grounds evenings, as it is expected a local team will be organized to plat the Kiwanis visitors next week.
Independence — Last Monday morning, while Roman Mlynek was working with the crew digging the trench preparatory to laying the water mains to the new well in Independence, the wall of the trench caved in, burying him underneath the dirt. He was quickly rescued, and although he had inhaled some sand into his lungs, at this time he is getting along nicely.
The Pepin Pickle Company established a branch salt-in station in Arcadia. A shed and six large slating tanks were erected south of the Arcadia Mill, with Frank Rossa as local manager.
The Sheppard Bill, providing for cooperation between the federal government and states in “protection of maternity and infancy” was passed 63-7 by the U.S. Senate and sent to the House. Advocates decaled the legislation as a great humanitarian step; opponents term it “Bolshevistic.”
The body of Private Julius Dhove, the first of Galesville’s soldier dead to be returned from France, reached the city last Saturday afternoon, accompanied by a United States soldier. Funeral services were held Sunday at the Upper Table Park. The Galesville Concert Band headed the procession, the funeral car was drawn by four horses with uniformed mounts. Julius was born in Crystal Valley in 1891 to Mr. and Mrs. Jochiam Dhove. His mother died when he was five years old and his father died when he was 10.
Harold Olson, fishing the upper part of the lake in Galesville, landed a 15-pound pickerel, the best single catch of the season.
The new electric light system is being extended to the fairgrounds. Fair week will find the buildings and grounds a blaze of white and colored lights for the evening show.
125 YEARS AGO
July 30, 1896
The barricade around the jail windows has been put up this week, and now outsiders are effectually precluded from conversing with the inmates.
Foreman Van Horn is putting a railroad crossing on Adams Street, and then this thoroughfare will be open to the public.
Phillips, the man who has served six months in the county jail for attempting to take the life of Brother Barth, at Arcadia, has finished his period of confinement and was released yesterday.
Ed Whitney of Independence, son of M.F. Whitney, was hit on the back of the head by a fly ball during a practice game at that place Saturday, and lies in a perilous condition. For some time life was despaired of, but he is now thought to be out of danger.
Arcadia — At the Republican town caucus held in the village hall Saturday, for the purpose of electing delegates to the county convention, over 40 votes were cast. This large attendance at a caucus held in the midst of harvest does not agree with the claims of our friends on the other side, that free silver has taken the town without any consideration to party lines. We noticed some old-time Democratic faces in the hall also.
Independence — Nic Rumpel has purchased a pair of white rats, and thinks with them he can rid his place of rats.
