BioA: Adens, Mr./Mrs. William H. (Golden - 1940)

Contact:  Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Adens, Corbett, Benedict, Mortimer, Smith, Drescher, Dean, Zwick, Korth, Voight, Garvin, Garbisch

----Sources: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Thurs., 4 Jan. 1940

Adens, Mr./Mrs. William H. (Golden - 7 Jan. 1940)

EDENS OF YORK OBSERVE THEIR 50TH ANNIVERSARY

Pioneers Settlers Traded Home for Stake in a New Land

The town of York, in which Mr. and Mrs. William H. Edens celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, last Sunday, was a far different community from the York in which they settled 40 years ago, come May 10.

Woodlands have been transformed into pastures and fields by sweat of the brow and bite of the axe. The industry of the countryside has changed in the 40 years that passed, from that of lumbering to farming.

Yet, somehow, the spirit of hardy early settlers of Clark County - the spirit which has typified pioneer Americans - was not lost on the anniversary celebration.

While scores of friends and neighbors joined the children and grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Edens for the occasion, the old couple looked back on their early trials in a new country. And they were able to smile on their recollections.

Nearly all of York was woodland when the Edens settled there with their children, in 1900. They moved from Plymouth, where Mr. Edens had been a shipping clerk. With typical pioneering spirit, they had traded their Plymouth home for their three almost virgin York 40’s. And there was a peculiar thing about their trade, as Mr. Edens recalled it:

The land came to a war veteran, one Mr. Corbett, who had a cork leg and taught Mr. Edens’ Sunday school class. He acquired the land through a gambling debt.

When the Edens arrived, they found their 40 in woods, with the exception of an area of about three acres, which had been cut, but had not been stumped. That spring Mr. Edens had furrows plowed between the stumps, and planted corn. The yield was 70 bushels.

Working side by side, Mr. and Mrs. Edens started clearing their land. And whenever it came to using a two-handled saw, Mrs. Edens was there doing her share of the pulling and pushing.

"I don’t recall which end she used," Mr. Edens remarked; "but it doesn’t make much difference. One end pulled as hard as the other."

The children, too, came in for their share of labor in building up the farm and the home. Like all children of early Clark County families, they learned to work, and they worked hard.

At that time York Center consisted of a post office operated, in connection with a country store, by A. Benedict. The post office-store was located on the site of the present Abie Turner service station. Besides the post office, the Edens had six "near" neighbors. They were; Mrs. Stella Mortimer, whose place her son, George, now works; Clyde Smith on the farm now owned by Mrs. Julius Drescher; Mr. and Mrs. Walter Dean, who later went to Oregon, where they died; Mr. and Mrs. Fred wick, now the Emil Korth farm; Mr. and Mrs. Julius Voight, who lived on the place now operated by their son, Hank; and Mr. and Mrs. Al Garvin, who lived where Elmer Garbisch now resides.

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There was a photo with this announcement, but the copy was to dark.

Caption of from underneath of photo:

Mr. and Mrs. William H. Edens of the town of York observed their golden wedding anniversary Sunday, although the anniversary date is January 7, so that all their children could be present. A surprise celebration was given from them at the home of a daughter, Mrs. Ervin Vandaberg, also in York.