Surnames: Prasnik, Rohan, Beilfuss, Halven, Steinle

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 08/14/1947

Loyal Farm Wife Admits Burning Buildings

Neillsville, Aug. 8 - A 24 year-old housewife who told authorities she "didn’t want to stay on the farm" while her husband worked in Chicago pleaded guilty in justice court to setting fire to her farm home and other buildings on the property near Loyal.

Mrs. Dorothy Prasnik, 24, told her story to Deputy State Fire Marshall William Rohan, Eau Claire, and to Clark County District Atty. Bruce Beilfuss. Later she was placed under $1,000 bond and was bound over to circuit court by Justice of the Peace Glenn Halven. Her husband, Mike, put up the bond.

The fire occurred early Monday morning a few hours after Prasnik had left for Chicago where he is employed, taking one of the couple’s three children with him. Mrs. Prasnik, who formerly worked in Chicago while the children were cared *** Note: The remainder of this article was missing.

----Source: Colby Phonograph (Colby, Clark County, Wis.) 08/21/1947

Michael Prasnik, age 28, of Loyal, was sentenced to serve from two to ten years in Waupun State Prison after he pleaded guilty to an arson charge before Circuit Judge Roland J. Steinle of Milwaukee sitting in circuit court at Mauston. Prasnik’s wife was sentenced to serve from two to five years in the Women’s State Prison at Taycheedah after she had pleaded guilty to a similar charge and implicated her husband.

Pleas for probation for both defendants were denied by Judge J. Steinle.

The pair were charged in connection with a fire which destroyed farm buildings on their acreage at Loyal Aug. 4. They have three small children.