From Our Early Files Aug. 10, 2022
25 YEARS AGO
Aug. 14, 1997
Despite their protests that they didn’t want one, members of the Whitehall district board of education will be getting a raise. District residents attending Thursday’s annual meeting voted to raise the annual salaries paid to board members by five percent. Board members who addressed the salary-increase motion, which was made from the floor, said they didn’t want a raise.
Members of the Trempealeau County Board of Supervisors — or their successors — could be getting up to a 50 percent increase in the pay they receive for attending meetings. The board’s finance committee last week approved a resolution that increases the per diem for submission to the full board when it meets this coming Monday. The committee also recommended pay raises for county elected officials and the county board chairman. The per diem resolution increases from $50 to $75 the amount paid to supervisors when they attend the once-a-month county board meetings. But the $75 payment will also apply when board members have to attend more than two committee meetings per day.
Floyd Arneson, 71, of Taylor, was injured on Friday morning when his automobile was struck by a car driven by Patricia Rodriguez of Arcadia. Rodriguez was attempting to pass Arneson, who was turning into the driveway of the Trempealeau County Healthcare Center on Highway 121, west of Whitehall.
The King Royal Bros. Circus will be coming to Arcadia on Aug. 19. Two shows will be performed, one at 5 p.m. and the other at 7:30. The circus features clowns, acrobats, aerialists and exotic animals such as elephants, hippos, kangaroos and midget zebras. The big tent will be set up at Memorial Park.
The trial dates for Independence teen Ryan Bogdonovich, 16, who is charged with the homicide of Gerald Bisek, 31, have been set for Sept. 29 through Oct. 3. Bogdonovich is accused of shooting Bisek in the chest with a 20-gauge shotgun during a domestic dispute between Bisek and Bogdonovich’s mother on May 17.
For nearly 12 hours on Saturday, some six-dozen men and women volunteered to construct a new community playground at the Trempealeau Elementary School.
First Trempealeau County fairgoers got a look at Jane Thompson’s Best of Show Award-winning quilt. Now, her story quilt, or at least photos of it, are going statewide. Wisconsin Public Television’s program “More Quilts of Wisconsin” will air on Channel 31 three times starting Saturday.
The Galesville city council has been advised to adopt an historic preservation ordinance to help protect some of Galesville’s oldest architecture. The recommendation came from the residents who sit on Mayor Terry Collins’s advisory committee on the old Gale College site. The city has three historic districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places, members of the advisory committee noted. That listing obligates the city to adopt rules for safeguarding old sites, committee members said. The three sites are a section of historic homes on West Ridge, the downtown business district surrounding the Square and the portion of the old Gale campus with buildings and George Gale’s gravesite.
50 YEARS AGO
Aug. 17, 1972
The contract for the 18-acre municipal park to be developed on Ellis Street has been awarded to the R.J. Jurowski Construction Co. of Whitehall. Jurowski’s bid was $85,000, and did not include the snowmobile bridge originally proposed by the city.
Work was begun last week by Weilep Construction Co. of Gilmanton on the Whitehall-Pigeon Rod and Gun Club farm pound project. Completion is expected in the middle of September.
Mrs. Flora Diffie of Whitehall was found innocent Friday by an Eau Claire County jury of being a party to the crime of kidnapping an Eau Claire teenager March 8. Mrs. Diffie’s attorney successfully argued that his client was the victim of a plot hatched by her husband, Joseph Diffie Sr., and three Independence-area residents, all of whom have already been convicted of the crime.
Two Arcadia girls, Ann Herrick and Jean Meistad, spent two weeks this summer as members of the volunteer staff at the Easter Seal day Camp and Recreation Center in Milwaukee.
Issuance of a building permit for two eight-unit apartment houses for senior citizen housing to Arcadia Housing, Inc. was one of the main items of business before the Arcadia city council on Thursday. Both proposed units will be constructed on Gillespie Avenue on a portion of land purchased specifically by the city with senior citizen and low rent housing in mind.
Arcadia Furniture Corporation will note its second anniversary in Arcadia this week. From a small beginning of 30 employees when the operation began on Aug. 17, 1970, the form presently has a payroll of 200 and produces four 50-foot carloads of furniture per day.
A Trempealeau youth, James Eichman, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Eichman, became Trempealeau County’s seventh traffic fatality of the year Monday evening when he was blown off his motorcycle after its gas tank exploded when he collided with the rear end of a broiler truck owned by A-G Cooperatives of Arcadia.
All the schools of the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau School District will begin with a full day of school for all students on Aug. 24.
The Centerville Ball League will sponsor a fastpitch softball tournament at the ball park in Galesville this weekend. Five women’s games and 11 men’s games have been scheduled with 10 trophies awarded.
75 YEARS AGO
Aug. 14, 1947
Nolo contendere was the plea entered before Circuit Judge R.S. Cowie of La Crosse in Whitehall on Monday by American Legion Post 186 of Independence and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6550 of Strum to charges of owning and operating slot machines. Both posts paid fines of $100 plus court costs.
Donald, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Palmer Hanson of Fuller Coulee, had a narrow escape from drowning last week when he was swimming with Jerome Jacobson under a bridge near the Sverre Aasen place. Donald tried to stand on the bottom but found it was deeper than he thought, and went under several times. Fortunately, Sverre had decided that he needed to watch the boys, and arrived just in time to save him. He could not swim, but found a pole with which he reached Donald.
Threshing is underway in the York area. The Stanley Dettinger farm was the first job.
Warren Shankey will have the grand opening of his neighborhood store on Aug. 22. The new store, modern in structure and inside arrangement, faces on Pearl St. and adjoins the Shankey home, formerly known as the Dr. Krumholz residence.
Arcadia’s new floodlights at the city park are getting a real workout with games scheduled for several nights in the near future. Mr. Hunnicutt, city electrician, spent long hours last week perched near the top of the 80-foot poles affixing the equipment and making connections. The result is a system that is receiving nothing but praise.
Several Galesville friends drove to Eau Claire Sunday for the baseball game and to see Alvin “Windy” Ekern, who has entered professional baseball.
George Christiansen, clerk for the past year at the Rexall Drug Store in Galesville has resigned and will enter the Wisconsin University in mid-June.
100 YEARS AGO
Aug. 17, 1922
It is estimated that about 2,000 people were present to hear U.S. Sen. Robert La Follette speak in Whitehall last night. In spite the intense heat, they packed the Village Hall to capacity, and the overflow gathered at the bandstand. Mr. La Follette held his audience until 11 o’clock, and the crowd also gave an enthusiastic hearing to area native Herman Ekern, who spoke both at the bandstand and in the hall.
The Whitehall graded school will begin the school year on Monday morning. Barracks have been built, and all grades will housed there until the new building is ready for occupancy. Additional barracks will accommodate the high school when it opens on Sept. 5. The faculty will consist of six teachers each in the high and graded schools.
It would be interesting to know if the people in town generally understand what a boon the rest room at the Whitehall Village Hall is to the traveling public. The writer has personal knowledge of car after car which stops there, and how when repairs are needed, what would otherwise be a tedious wait, is spent in comfort in the cool shade of the grounds. Tourists are not unappreciative, as it is quite frequent to hear remarks of approval and praise of the well-kept grounds and the blooming plants.
Last Friday, in one of the fastest games ever played here, the nationally-known Union Giants and Whitehall played to a 10-inning scoreless tie. The game was called when the two captains and Umpire Torgerson agreed that it was too dark to continue. The start of the game was delayed by rain, which also held attendance to about 800.
County superintendent Helen Berg announced the following school appointments in the Arcadia vicinity: Cortland, Mrs. Selma Johnson; Wiliamsburg, Maud Bischof; Norway Valley, Jennie Swenson; Hartman, Violet Wiffler; Penny, Nellie Enright; Rainey Valley, Mary Hunter; American Valley, Agnes Manning; North Creek, Olga Herberg; Plum Creek, Daisy Davidson; Korpal Valley, Alida Herberg; Lewis Valley, Petronella Kamrowski; Newcomb Valley, Cora Arneson; Kolstad, Mildred Phillips; Woyczkik, Hilda Thimmesch; Caledonia, Bridget Enright; Brezinski, Magdalen Brandt; White, Esther Miller.
Judge Gardner’s court was busy in old time fashion on Monday. Two area farmers aired their troubles, which grew out of throwing sod and other missiles in adjoining fields. A. F. Giere and Elmer Barlow fought the case.
125 YEARS AGO
Aug. 12, 1897
The Whitehall school opens Sept. 6.
Work was begun Monday on Anderson and Ekern’s new law office on Main Street.
Whitehall laid out Independence in a game of ball here yesterday, to the tune of 11 to 4. The Whitehall boys just got down to business as the game closed.
Adams and Taylor are finishing the interior of their store. When their improvement is completed, they will have one of the most commodious and desirable store buildings in the county.
E. Palmer makes a very efficient janitor at the courthouse. He seems to be the right man in the right place. Mr. Palmer is a genial, all-around good fellow, and the custodianship of the courthouse could not have been left in better hands.
The Whitehall and Pigeon Trading Association have just received a large consignment of La Crosse and Beloit plows. There are conceded to be the best plows made, and both makes are guaranteed to give satisfaction. Manager Hockland will be pleased to demonstrate to our farmers the superior points of these celebrated plows.
Prof. W.L. Mortenson of Neillsville, a former resident of Whitehall, Sundayed with friends in town. He has not visited here in several years and was surprised with the many substantial improvements in the place within that time.
Blair — A representative of Fairbanks, Morse and Co. of St. Paul was talking with our village council yesterday about waterworks. The village fathers contemplate the building of a reservoir on the Granberg bluff, and the putting in of a force pump at the flouring mill. This scheme would afford us ample and durable fire protection. We ought to have a system of waterworks.
