Irma Sollberger

FORMER PRESS WRITER TURNS 100

Irma Sollberger, a life-long resident of the Neillsville area and a former scribe of the "Columbia" for the Clark County Press, turned 100 years old this past week.

Sollberger, whose laugh remains that of someone a quarter her age, was born in Pine Valley, joining two brothers and one sister.  When she was five or six, Sollberger would follow her father, a school clerk, to school.  She would sit and watch the students from a bench, her eyes scanning the classroom, her brain becoming inspired. 

She would become a teacher.

"I made up my mind then that I wanted to be a teacher", Sollberger said of growing up in the classroom.

She would later teach at Hillside School, a one-room schoolhouse in Pine Valley.  She then moved to Columbia, at the time a small, unincorporated village west of Neillsville.  She began teaching at Columbia’s school, Sunny Nook.  She doesn’t recall how long that she taught there, but remembers how much she enjoyed the job.

"I enjoyed teaching", Sollberger said.  "I liked the children".

While living in Columbia, Sollberger began writing the weekly "Columbia" column that appeared in the "Neighbors" section of the Press.  She would fill the column with a number of Columbia happenings, she recalled.

"I wrote about people that came to visit", said Sollberger.  "I wrote about the weather, about the birds and anything   that happened".

Sollberger recalled the train that would come through Columbia on its way from St. Paul, Minn., to Marshfield.  Columbia residents could take the train into Neillsville in the morning and return in the afternoon for only a few cents.  Sollberger also remembers a train wreck on those tracks that happened near her home.  Of course, she wrote about the event in her column.

"I enjoyed writing", Sollberger said.  "I liked writing for the Press".

Sollberger liked writing about Columbia, yes, but she enjoyed living there so much more.

"I loved my life in Columbia", Sollberger said.  "There are all good memories".

Her husband, William "Bill", a former cheese maker, began farming in Columbia.  Sollberger would help in any way that she could, as it was a way to keep her in the midst of the nature that she loved so much.  Sollberger had a garden and canned vegetables.  However, her favorite activity was feeding birds.

"I loved birds", Sollberger said.  "Oh, how I loved them".

Sollberger had two bird feeders and would write about the birds that fed from them in her column, a task that she was quite competent at.  In a "Columbia" column from 1995 Sollberger wrote, "feeding the birds, I noted a goldfinch changing from its olive green back to summer gold again".

Sollberger wrote her "Columbia" column into the 1990’s.  She now lives at the Memorial Medical Center Nursing Home, where she celebrated her birthday with family, friends and other nursing home residents last Saturday.

"I don’t realize it yet", Sollberger said with that sweet, youthful laugh.  "I don’t feel 100 years old.  I’ve always felt young".

(This transcriber would like to add that Irma Sollberger was her 5^th and 6^th grade school teacher back in the late 1940’s.  I remember her well, with her red hair.)

Obit: Sollberger, Irma Isabelle (1905 - 2006)

Here is an example of Irma's descriptive writing.

COLUMBIA

By Irma Sollberger

Oct. 31 with a temperature of 28 degrees at 7:40 a.m. and meadows of white with frost.  The sky is lightly lined with gray and the sun is shining through. Quiet after a normal amount of weekend traffic.  A lovely weekend weather wise, warm and sunny enjoyed by residents and out-of-towners. 

Bird feeders are becoming more active with chickadees and nuthatches most numerous.  Adding a roll of suet has attracted Downy and Hairy woodpeckers.

Barbara Urban is enjoying and feeding some added wild life.

A turkey hen with two almost full-grown youngsters comes almost daily to pick up seeds scattered by the birds from her feeder.

Marie Endel reports a cardinal at their feeder.  Cardinals are scarce here.

Mary Heimstead of Neillsville and Elmer Hoesly returned home Tuesday after leaving here Friday for Bloomington, Ind. Where they visited her son, Gary Heimstead and family.  The drive totaled about 1200 miles.

Mary Hill of Fairchild stopped in Sunday forenoon and picked up Irma Sollberger and we traveled to Black River Falls where we had dinner.  A still, beautiful drive through the country side.

On our return to Columbia we stopped on Babcock’s Hill at the little cemetery, which has again been vandalized, fence twisted, decorations moved and trampled on.

Les Zasoba of Hatfield was a Wednesday visitor of Dorothea Mashin.  Les also visited Irma Sollberger Sunday afternoon.

Other visitors of Irma Sollberger were John Hoesly of Spencer and Harvey Sherman of Merrillan.

11:09 and the temperature has risen to 52 degrees, the sun is shining brightly and tonight is Halloween.  Always quiet here. Never spooky!

Note: this "Columbia" column originally appeared in the Nov. 2^nd 1994 issue of The Clark County Press.  Sollberger was 89 when she wrote it.

Clark County Press, July 27, 2005