BioA: Frank, Mr./Mrs. Leonard "Lenus" (60th - 1940)
Contact:  Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Frank, Huntley

----Sources: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark County, Wis.) Thurs., 13 June 1940

Frank, Mr./Mrs. Leonard "Lenus" (60th - 1940)

In the midst of surrounding which they had brought about in the last 58 years, Mr. and Mrs. Leonard (Lenus) Frank of Weston observed their 60th wedding anniversary Saturday.

Nearly every building, tree or spot within sight of the comfortable farm home brought back memories of milestones in their long and happy life together. And while they prepared to hold open house the following day, now and then they paused to tell stories which made many of their surroundings seen vividly alive and real.

For instances, there is the old well near the west kitchen door. It is one of the oldest dug wells in Clark County, and was patterned after the first one, on the parental home of Mr. Frank, a scant three miles away in Pine Valley.

Its moss and fern-lined top is protected by a high, solid, and weather-beaten board fence. From a pulley wheel suspended above, a bucket is lowered on a rope into the water, 36 feet below.

The well is one of but few of its kinds left in the country today, and is still in constant use. Over the years the ferns which lean over the edge of the stone wall, and the green moss which clings to the wall several fee below ground level, have come up from nowhere.

It was the late 1880’s that Mr. Frank decided to dig the well near the house. Before that they had taken water from a shallow "hole" in a nearby hollow on their farm.

John and Tom Huntley, both of whom since have left this earth, handled the rope and bucket as Mr. Frank handled the excavating. It was natural that progress should be comparatively rapid on the first day of digging; but after it became necessary to bucket the dirt, progress was made at the rat of about six feet a day.

At 36 feet Mr. Frank decided to stop digging, and started to work his way back up again. Four days were required to fashion heavy stone into an almost perfectly round wall, yet not a drop of mortar was used.

For man years an honest-to-goodness old oaken bucket was sued to haul water up from the well, but in recent years it has been practically impossible to secure an oaken bucket, so commonplace metal has taken the place.

In the front yard of the Frank home stand several fine pine trees. (Continued on page 10 - rest unavailable at this time.).