From Our Early Files April 21, 2021


 

 

25 YEARS AGO

April 25, 1996

The Whitehall city council held a reorganizational meeting last week, but most of the resulting changes were due to the appointment of a week earlier of new alderman Jeff Hauser.

Whitehall High School sophomore Erika Skadahl earned a gold medal in prose reading during the state forensics meet held Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Arcadia High School students Bryce Klopotek, a senior, and Roman Patzner, a freshman, also earned gold medals.

Several local people attended the Franciscan Skemp Healthcare-Arcadia’s open house for the new connector wing on April 21. They watched as Wendell Olson and Ann Nelson, co-chairs on the committee to raise funds for the new wing, cut the ribbon officially opening the new facility. The connector wing is expected to ultimately save citizens a great deal of money as it represents the facility’s integration.

Arcadia native Leon English, DDS was recently named the Marquette University 1996 Distinguished Alumnus in dentistry. English, who joined the United States Navy in 1942, returned to Marquette University after his tour of duty completed in 1946. He graduated from the university then returned to Arcadia to work with his father Dr. William English. He worked in dentistry in Arcadia until retirement in 1992.

Russian exchange student Lyudmila Ivanova has been able to make friends and speak the language while she has been in the United States, attending Arcadia High School.

It was nature that attracted Jan Anderson to the banks of the Black River and it’s nature that’s forcing her to move her town of Caledonia home away from the river. An eroding bank that came within two feet of a screen porch beside her log home forced her into a motel for several months while a new basement was dug for the multi-level structure. The bank once stood 30 feet to the east of her home. After a dam at the other end of the river burst following a summer of heavy rains in 1993, the river began to wash away the shore on the north edge of her property.

Trempealeau County law officers from three jurisdictions converged on a gravel road between Galesville and Ettrick. An estimated 30 people who’d arrived in maybe 20 vehicles for a beer party scattered. Some of them ran into nearby woods, others were apprehended and given a field sobriety test. About 10 underage drinkers were cited. At least one driver was cited for drunken driving after forcing an officer to drive into a ditch during an escape attempt, according to Ron Corcoran, a Trempealeau County Sheriff’s detective. Ten vehicles were tagged for illegal parking on the gravel road and were towed off.  

Blair-Taylor High School students selected for Badger Boys and Girls State Games include Angela Stewart Jessica Schock, Mike Hammond, Erica Strasburg, Jennifer Myskewitz and Nick Nehring.

Members of the Blair-Taylor Junior Prom court include Heather Gonyo, Steve Shefelbine, Erin Benedict, Kris Reismann, Joni Capouch, Russell Dace, Lilly Palmer, Andy Gautsch, Carol Stenberg, Jay Thompson, Ryan Mayer, Jenny Heimdahl, Kurt Hulett, Erica Strasburg, Nick Nehring and Jennifer Schock. Crownbearers are Claire Jennings, daughter of Rob and Jean Jennings, Blair, and Tim Herried, son of Kathy Webb and Mike Herried, Taylor.

50 YEARS AGO

April 29, 1971

American Legion members and other volunteers are needed to assist in building a new bridge at the Whitehall mill dam. Elmo Fjeld and crew will be working on the project starting the morning of Saturday, May 1.

Louis Mish, 20, Independence, and his passenger, 18-year-old Geraldine Krueger of Eleva, were injured in a one-car accident early Sunday morning on Hwy. 93 near Elk Creek.

Early risers on Tuesday, April 27, saw snow falling. The flakes were huge, but melted quickly and turned to rain. Very dry conditions have prevailed here, and the rainfall was welcome.

Natalie Anderson of Pigeon Falls was slightly injured when the car she was driving went into the large hole dug in Main Street by Foss Mobil for the laying of General Telephone Co. lines.

Dave Schreiber, Arcadia, received the congratulations of W.B. Gautsch, Arcadia superintendent of schools, upon being selected to receive the “Fan of the Year” award for his support of high school athletics during the past year.

Randy Nilsestuen of Arcadia was elected president of the Student Senate at Wisconsin State University-River Falls.

The 1971 trout fishing season in the La Crosse area opens at 5 a.m. May 8. The Department of Natural Resources is again making final plans to initiate the annual stocking program, according to Willis Fernholz, area fish manager.

For the 1971-72 school year, teachers of the Gale-Ettrick district will receive approximately the equivalent of a “standard of living” salary increase over the present contract now in force.

David Boullion, 27, Galesville, was killed at 1:30 p.m. Saturday when an electric pole he was climbing collapsed and fell on him at the Trempealeau Archery Range about two-and-a half miles south of Trempealeau. According to Stanley Anderson, Trempealeau County sheriff, Boullion, a lineman with the Dairyland Electric Cooperative, was doing some volunteer work at the archery range by checking out some electrical connections on the pole.

75 YEARS AGO

April 25, 1946

Daniel Hoan, long-time mayor of Whitehall and candidate for governor of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket in 1944, will speak at an open meeting called for Trempealeau County liberals of all parties at the City Hall in Whitehall tomorrow evening.

The Civilian Production Administration has granted a building permit to Knut Amble, Whitehall jeweler, for an 18- by 40-foot business building to be situated directly west of the Walgert Hotel on Scranton Street.

Norman Nelson, who was recently discharged from service after many months in the European war theatre, has gone to farming. Norman has purchased the 120-acre former Mallum farm located two miles southwest of Pigeon Falls.

L.J. Wood has purchased the building which he has been occupying the past several years with his tavern, and the living quarters attached to it, which he has been renting to the Oscar Steen family, from Martin Rognlien of Eleva. Mr. Wood plans to make improvements to the entire structure as soon as materials are available.

Trempealeau County Circuit Judge J.C. Gaveney, 82, has submitted his resignation to Gov. Goodland. He has been in ill health since last October. One of the oldest judges in the United states, Gaveney was appointed to the bench Nov. 26, 1930, and has served ever since. Graduating from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1885, Gaveney has admitted to the bar and was practicing law in the country until he became judge.

Elizabeth Giemza, six-month-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Giemza, North Creek, died Saturday night at St. Joseph’s Hospital of convulsions. She had been ill for several weeks.

100 YEARS AGO

April 28, 1921

At the oratorical and declamatory contest held at the Village Hall Monday night, first place in the oratory was won by Ray Cornwell. Selma Steig won first place in the declamatory.

Circuit court was in session for a few hours for the purpose of naturalization, Judge Higbee presiding. Out of 50 applications for final naturalization papers, only four passed the examination, Edwin Otto Scherr, Phillipp Herman, Andrew O. Dahl and Michael Melzarek. Failure of many of the applicants was due largely to inability to answer the question, “Who made the constitution?” We venture the assertion that not one in 100 could give an intelligible answer to this question, including the attorney for Uncle Sam who propounded this enigma.

How prone we are to censure the telephone operator for not responding to our call the instant we ring, never stopping to think of the other calls that are probably as important as ours. Last Friday, there were 1,134 calls between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. at the local Lincoln Farmers Telephone exchange.

The Whitehall Undertaking Co. has a desk at the Isaac Nelson hardware store, and the flower business and any other business connected with that concern will be taken care of at that place.

The senior class of AHS was working on the production, “Green Stockings”a comedy in three acts.

Louise Schmidt was valedictorian of the Arcadia High senior class and Kathryn Bigham salutatorian. Wilmer Rosenow was third.

George Schmidt was elected president of the Arcadia Cemetery Associatio9n, with Miss Annie Courtney as secretary and J.C. Gaveny as treasurer.

Carpenter’s Harp Orchestra will furnish music for a dance in the Woodman hall at Trempealeau Tuesday evening.

Teachers’ examinations will be held in the courthouse in Whitehall on Friday and Saturday.

The majority of local people are aroused over the report “no Sunday baseball in Trempealeau this season.”

Galesville High School will graduate 31 in the class of 1921. Of those, 22 are girls and nine are boys.

O/D. Witherbee is Galesville’s new mayor. He was appointed by the council to succeed W. S. Wadliegh, who resigned. Mr. Witherbee came within three votes of being elected mayor in the spring election.

125 YEARS AGO

April 23, 1896

W.H. Stallings has stone on his recently purchased lot near the Baptist church for the foundation for a barn.

Silas Patterson, an itinerant hunter, captured seven young wolves in Hale the first of the week, upon which the bounty was $70.

The body of the child of Julius Hanka, which was drowned in the Trempealeau River by falling from what is known as the Wood bridge west of the village on the April 14, was found on a sandbar about two miles below the scene of the accident Thursday.

The special program rendered by the Excelsior Literary Society at Opera Hall Friday evening attracted a large crowd and gave excellent satisfaction. The recitation by Miss Kittie Melby, in the role of an old maid, was simply immense and repeatedly brought down the house. Miss Melby is a natural elocutionist.

The Osseo Browne-Best rape case came up for examination before Judge Odell Monday, but was adjourned one week to enable an important state’s witness to testify. Dr. Best was placed under $500 bonds, which were promptly furnished by his Osseo friends, whom he accompanied home that evening. The doctor proposes to fight the case, and feels confident that he can clear himself of the unsavory charge brought against him.

Blair -- What’s the matter with some of our capitalists putting up several cottage residences in town? This would fill a long-felt want, besides it could not help providing a paying investment for money thus expended. The demand for dwellings to rent in Blair is at a premium, and a move for additional homes here should be started at once.

 

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