Community Life  

Seif Township, Clark County, Wisconsin

1906

October 1906 Between Wood’s Corners and the store at Globe are 200 piles of field rock, not counting those in the field corners. This means thousands of cords of paving material. Nothing is wanted but the start to macadamize that road the entire distance. Let Pine Valley and Seif buy a rock-crusher, and the city of Neillsville can rent them their steamroller, free. Clark Co. Press

1907

July 3, 1907--One storm starting near Tioga left a path of destruction in the Towns of Seif, Weston, Pine Valley and Grant on July 3, 1907.  On that Wednesday afternoon it was excessively hot, humid and very still. At about 4 o’clock, the sky became slightly cloudy with three or four layers of clouds, each moving in different directions, which caught the attention of many people.  Also, in the town of Seif, August Voigt’s house and buildings were badly damaged. The C. H. Shepherd farm was razed; John Schwamb’s house and barn were wrecked.  August Halbreader’s farm buildings sustained damage as did August Meihack’s barn.  Slight damage was done at Fred Hrack Jr.'s building, Adolph Hemp’s barn, and John Aumann’s barn was demolished.  Sereno Wren’s buildings received damage, as well as those of John Ott, Wm. Kurth and Ludwig Dugy.  Wm. Buddenhagen’s barn and windmills were damaged; John Charles barns and house were completely destroyed.  Sol Johnson’s house was blown from its foundation, Hy. Bieneck’s barn wrecked and roof blown from residence.  Fred Goerglitz and Seward Way’s barns were damaged. Clark Co. Press

John Charles farmstead as it appeared after the July 3, 1907 tornado, all buildings were destroyed.

The barn was razed and a portion of the house roof was taken off at the Hy.

Bieneck farm, a short distance north of Neillsville, during the 1907 storm.

1911

May, 1911--In the Town of Seif, many young folks attended a dance at Thoma’s.

The Globe store, at the crossroads of highways “G,” “H” and “O,” as the interior appeared in 1926. Lucille Prock McConnell in behind the counter. The minister of the Globe Lutheran Church is standing in the aisle, William Parsisus served the congregation 1916-1927 and Walter Matzkus was pastor from 1927-1939.

Memories

Decembert, 1939--Pioneer Frank Lang told some of his memories of living in Clark County.

Two sights have a world of meaning to Lang, an old-timer. Those are Cawley Creek and the big barn which his neighbor, John Zajac, built this spring. He goes over Cawley Creek in traveling to and from Neillsville. It is the now-inconspicuous stream jut north of the Imig school house. The Zajac barn can be seen every time he looks that way, for his farm and that of John Zajac are both in section nine, Town of Seif.

(The former Zajac farmstead is now the home of Randy and Natalie Hauge. D. Z.)

Cawley Creek reminds Lang of the days when he drove logs down the stream. Back then the creek was really something, with swift running water in the spring, and plenty of it. Lang used to ride the logs in it, and occasionally he slipped off and took a wetting. If nowadays we hear great tales of the prowess of men who rode the logs, the glamour would somehow be lessened if we could know how many times they lost their footing and went into the drink. At least, so says Lang, and he ought to know, for he admits many dunkings.

It was dangerous business. To break a jam meant imminent peril, with everybody for himself. If you were in the way of flying logs, you had to get out on your own steam. Everybody else was busy with his own affairs. After braving the perils of flying and rolling logs all day, the men slept in tents along the stream in the month of April, with spring rains running around them and through the tents as they slept. They gathered up rheumatic twinges, to last them into the days of lesser perils.

Twenty-five years ago Lang went into the wilderness of the Town of Seif. He undertook to clear a farm, and has accomplished that. Lang has 120 acres, and to farm it is simple, compared with the labors of clearing it and of farming it when the stumps were thick. He recalls the labor of raising and caring for hay in the old stump days. Then the stumps were so thick that the wagon could not be driven in the field. The hay was cut with a scythe and carried to the wagon. When the season’s hay crop was in the barn, it was a major accomplishment. The work was not much like that upon the Zajac farm this summer, when the hay was stowed away by modern machinery into the new barn.

To him, life in Clark County looks good, and relatively easy, as compared to the labors of the pioneer days.

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The land was just woods and my father cleared it and tried to make a farm out of it.
My father was Kenneth Wood.  I knew most of the neighbors and where they lived at the time and would like to share these memories.  Elaine (Wood) Greene/Jenson

One thing I remember and I'll try to describe it; was what we dubbed 'Clodhoppers'.  Dad took a piece of a board about the size of our foot.  He used a wood rasp and rounded the front of these boards so that they didn't have a square end on the front.  Sort of like the front of a ski.  Then he covered this with tin wrapping it over the front and back.  He then put a strap on it that went over our foot.  We used these the same way that we would use skis, but the neat thing about them was you could almost turn a square corner.  My brother and I would take turns making a trial and we would try to make it as difficult as possible.  One day my brother made a trail that had nearly a 90° turn.  Not to be out done I was going to prove I could follow that trail and ended up falling.  I broke the end of my tailbone when I landed on a small stump under the snow.  It was nearly 6 months before I could bend over and tie my shoes.  Contributed by Elaine (Wood) Greene/Jenson.