News: Granton- Citizens of the Year (Trimberger - 1980)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Trimberger, Williams, Peterson, Holmes, Sternitzky, Vincent, Witte, Erhardt, Neinas, Rose, Schoengarth, Berg, Sanger, Schlinsog, Guk

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 9/04/1980

Granton-Citizens of the Year (Trimberger - 1980)

Walter and Gudrun Trimberger, retired business people of the Granton area, were selected as Citizens of the Year.

Walter was born in 1899 in the Village of Granton; Gudrun came to this country from Norway when she was five years old. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June of 1974 at the Zion Lutheran Church in Granton; 300 of their friends and relatives joined them.

Walter completed his elementary education at the Lutheran parochial and Granton elementary school. His teachers, Mrs. Henry Williams, Effie Peterson and Gertrude Holmes were excellent teachers, he recalled.

When 10, he played the cornet in the Willie Sternitzky band. At 15, he played in the village band, conducted by G.D. Vincent. They regularly marched from the court house in Neillsville to the train depot playing their instruments as servicemen left for World War I. The week Walter was to leave for service, the Armistice was signed, and he did not have to report.

Walter’s father kept between 200 and 300 swarms of bees in the Village of Granton and for 15 years Walter helped gather honey. He has been stung so many times that bees no longer bother him.

Gudrun remembers the boat trip to America as she celebrated her sixth birthday by getting lost on the ship. Her folks settled in the Birchwood area.

She later became a school teacher. She knew a friend in this area and started teaching at the Heathville School in the Town of Fremont. She finished her teaching career as principal of the Romadka State Graded School, which is located five miles north of Granton. (She started her career making $60 per month and ended it with $115 per month.)

She met Walter as he, Erhardt Witte and Henry Neinas crashed a neighborhood party one evening at the Fred Elmhorst home. They later dated and were married two years later on June 18, 1924.

At first the couple farmed and milked about a dozen cows. They purchased a milk route in Granton from George Rose and ran this for 19 years. They delivered milk in pint and quart bottles and each day Gudrun had to wash about 60 bottles. A quart of milk sold for six cents in 1925 and for eight cents when they sold the route in 1944. They had mostly Guernsey cows so their patrons could always skim the cream off the top for whipped cream. They sold their milk route to Mr. and Mrs. Herman Schoengarth.

In 1925, they also started a still-standing gas station on the curve in Granton. The station is their former honey house, and the south part of the station is the old village town hall. They only ran the gas station in the summer because cars did not run in the winter. Their only winter customer was Hugh Berg, rural mail carrier, who had a 1925 snowmobile with runners. They sold gas for 18 cents per gallon the first years they were in business.

In 1931, they bought a half-acre of land from William Sanger on the corner of U.S. 10 and the Chili road and built a gas station, which was operated by renters. They sold it in 1946 and today it is a night club.

In 1937, the Trimbergers added the machinery shop and sold Oliver and New Holland machinery. They sold their first tractor for $650; the first day they sold two tractors, one to Emil Schlinsog and one to Arno Guk, both neighbors in the Town of Grant. They sold out their machinery business in 1986 and that year sold a 72-horsepower tractor for $3200 which is the largest tractor sale Walter had.

Inn 1968, they sold their property in Granton and because they could not find a suitable building lot in Granton they moved to Neillsville on Huron Street.

Since that time they have wintered in Mesa, Arizona, where they enjoy playing shuffleboard and have a number of trophies to show their skills. They attend Zion Lutheran Church regularly in Granton where they are members. Gudrun has been a member of the Ladies Aid since 1927 and a charter member of the Granton Women’s Civic Club. Walter is a charter member of the Granton Rotary Club.

Walter lost the vision in his left eye last winter and now has limited vision. He enjoys visiting, fishing and hunting. Gudrun enjoys games, sewing, gardening and making Afghans for each of her six grandchildren.

The Trimberger’s have two sons, Wayne, attorney in Neillsville; and Eugene, retired, Apache Junction, Arizona. In commenting on the award, they both said, “Granton is still our home, and we love the people there. Certainly, more people deserve this award than we do, but we appreciate being remembered.”