News: Willard - Slovenians Gave Birth to Willard (75 Years - 1982)

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

Surnames: Cesnik, Plautz, Suda, Severson, Snedic

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 7/29/1982

Slovenians Gave Birth to Willard (75 Years - 1982)

Known as one of the largest agricultural settlements of Slovene families, the hamlet of Willard is trying to preserve its cultural heritage.

Sunday, July 25, marked a special event when the Slovenska Druzba (a social club) held its annual picnic—it was the 75th anniversary of the first Slovenians settling in the then Town of Eaton which later became the Town of Hendren.

Willard, named for one of the Foster line railroad people, was only a point on the railroad in 1907, marked by a trail through the woods. The community’s first priest came periodically on a (hand-pumped) railroad cart.

Ignac Cesnik, Sr., is credited with luring his countrymen to the community; he brought the hand cart to bring in new landowners.

By 1920, Holy Family Parish was organized, and the first church was built two years later. Religion helped in enduring the hardships in carving out farms. Some say it was “stumps, stones and stamina” but other can say “potica, polka and prayer” made the community.

The present church, a large structure with a parish center attached, was dedicated in 1968. Here not only community events have been celebrated by the state convention of the Slovenian Women’s Union convened here several times.

Hard, Rough Start

With only 2 1/2 miles of “improved” dusty country roads in the township in 1905, residents have come a long way.

These Industrious people found means of earn a little extra money like raising a cash crop for the local pickle factory. It was in the days when cars and trucks were getting more important. The Willard-based Plautz Brothers, a road construction firm grew. One of the firm’s first trucks was used to haul an extra supply of potatoes to Milwaukee and a load of grapes was brought back. (Those grapes were important to make wine like in the old country.)

The early industries in the Willard area included a number of cheese factories—this was a dairy farming country. Then there were carpenters, masons and bricklayers and painting services. When the rural electric lines came in, some learned to ply their talents there too.

At the present time, Willard has Stanley Suda’s Store which is a supermarket and shopping mall all-in-one with farm equipment, feeds and fertilizers as well as groceries and household supplies. Across the street is Mary’s Store. Then there are the Willard Builders and down the street is the Willard Farm and Auto Repair. Just last week the new brick post office building was opened. For hours of refreshment there are two taverns.

The Willard Athletic Club has brought in quite a few tournaments of the Severson Field, which is equipped with a stadium and park. The Athletic Club also has its own building with a hall, which is also used as the Hendren Town Hall.

In earlier years, Willard had a state graded school with two years of high school.

Slovenians Play Role

The Slovenian story goes that it only takes a cook stove and a button-box accordion to set up housekeeping. Slovenians are still keeping up the tradition. The annual polka fest was held recently, which brought in many families from Minnesota and other areas to enjoy the music and dancing.

In 1973, there was revival in the Slovene language when District I Technical Institute-Eau Claire, sponsored language classes. Quite a few young people attended with John Snedic as instructor. When the classes were discontinued a few years later, Snedic became president of the Slovenska Druzba. The club continues with singing as a way to keep up the language and a Slovenian choir sings for special occasions at the church.

Book is Published

It was the club which started collecting the history of those early settlers for a history book. “It took us two and a half years,” Frank Pakiz said, “to collect what we did. We could have had much more but it would have cost so much that no one would want to buy it.” He added, “This last winter I spent most of my spare time sorting out pictures. There must be 400 in the book.”

Others working on the 220-page book were John and Ann Snedic, Jean and Frank Govek, Donna and Gordie Wolf, Frank and Mary Parkel, Marion Herrick, Anne Collier, Agnes Lesar and Rose Pakiz. The title is “Spominsha Zgodovina—Historical Memories.”

Marion Herrick pointed out in the book’s opening statement, written in Slovene and in English, “This Willard history is written in honor of our pioneering parents who tackled the forests and sod to make beautiful farms. With hard work, good up-bringing of children, interest in social activities, they left a proudly developed area.”

Of those first settlers of 75 years ago, there are 51 farms still in the same family. (Those names were posted in the church shelter where the celebration was held.)

Of the early settlers who have gone elsewhere there were 100 invitations sent to those over 75 years old. “We had about 40 of those attending the celebration,” Herrick explained. There were some four to five hundred who gathered for the festivities. Those from away enjoyed seeing the float which had been prepared for Greenwood Dairy Days.

This wasn’t the first venture in doing a book as the women had compiled a collection of their favorite recipes, “Kuharice Iz Willarda” Cookbook from Willard.

On Sunday, August 22, the women will again be cooking up their specialties like chicken and all the trimmings. No special Slovenian dinner would be complete without potica, a rich bread dough wrapped around a richer filling of ground nuts and honey.

(Note: On the page of this story, was a photo of many Slovenian folks and their musical instruments. It says, Many of the Willard area wore traditional Slovenian holiday costumes of their native land for the celebration of the 75th anniversary of Slovenian migration to the Towns of Eaton and Hendren. The party was held Sunday.)