Surnames: Pelton

----Source: Neillsville Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Thursday, 01/28/1926 

OSCAR PELTON HEARD FROM

In renewing his subscription to the Press, Oscar Pelton of Manhattan Beach, Oregon writes a few lines of reminiscences. Press readers will remember the letters from Mr. Pelton published last year. He says:

"I wrote a little sketch to the Press a year or two ago; and some of the readers will recall that I came through Neillsville in the fall of 1866, in October, driving an ox team and put up at Len Stafford’s north of Neillsville, and drove to Crosby’s camp a little above Popple River the next day. After finishing the job the men went on the East Fork and logged there the rest of the winter. While waiting for the ice to go out in the spring, we staid in Neillsville at the old O’Neill House.

I notice in your paper occasional mention of a brand of whiskey (moonshine) a little different from the whiskey of that day. There were a lot of men straying in Neillsville and Stafffordville the spring of 1867, and I have seen as many as fifty of them lying around the yard filled up with the "real old stuff". Of course many of the men who went up Black River in these days were model men, men who had gone through Civil War and fought to save their county. I served there years with them, from 1861 to 1864, enlisting as a boy of 17. I am 81 years old now and still a very active man.

Manhattan Beach is one of the most beautiful places on this beach. It is abut the size Neillsville was in 1867. The noted Roosevelt Highway runs through the place. We are 80 miles west of Portland. Manhattan is noted for its healthy climate; people come here with all sorts of complaints and recover in a little while. I am building some beach cottages to rent and have been working on them myself for some time.

If any Clark County people come to Portland at any time, don’t forget to come to Manhattan Beach.

Your truly,

Oscar Pelton.