The Thorp Courier (Thorp, WI)
October 15, 1997
Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Old Items Taken from The Thorp Courier files of 1897-1922-1947-1972-1987

100 Years Ago (1897)

A son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Biddle on Friday last.
 
An industry that is being developed each succeeding year in this vicinity is the manufacture of brick cheese which business is being carried on throughout the year by Ed. Karlen at his farm 1 ½ miles northwest of town who removed here from Monroe County about two years ago.  Mr. Karlen informs us that he has manufactured so far this year 6,000 pounds, which he has readily disposed of in the local markets here and at Stanley and also made several shipments to St. Paul.
 
75 Years Ago (1922)
 
Henderson Corner – The Henderson Factory paid $.45 for butter fat and $1.6556 per cwt. for milk, for the first half of September.  Average test 3.66 pounds of milk for one pound of cheese 10.06.
 
Field School Corner – Word has been received here from Chicago that a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Frank Herman.
 
The old company barn near the depot has been razed during the past week.
 
Miss Etta Kimbal, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Kimbal of the Town of Maplehurst, and Mr. Stanley Stryk of Redville, were married Sat. morning, Sept. 30, by Judge Buckley at Medford.
 
A man named Peter Gills, of Colby, was killed during the demonstration of tractor plowing on the Clark County Asylum Farm east of Owen during Fri. forenoon last.
 
Spend your money elsewhere, and the merchants will be forced to go out of business here and to seek a new location where more civic pride and community spirit exists among the people.  And you may be sure that no other business men will come in to take their place, for nothing scares business away from a town so much as “for rent” signs on vacant store buildings.
 
While digging a well on the farm of Frank Kozenda about one and one-half miles north of Lublin last week it was found necessary to put in a charge of dynamite in order to blast some rock in the bottom of the well at a depth of nearly thirty-five feet.  The charge was exploded on Mon. evening.  On Tues. morning a man named Walter Abel went down the well and in a few moments was overcome by gas.  Assistance was called for at once and Mr. Kozenda was let down the well with a rope and was also overcome by the deadly gas.  A third man, Frank Dubich, went down and succeeded in fasten ing the rope about the unconscious form of Kozenda and himself and both were pulled to the surface.  Later the body of Abel as (was) also brought up.  Dr. Jackey was called and reached the scene in less than an hour but his efforts to revive Abel proved of no avail.  His services however, were required to aid the other two unfortunate men, Kozenda and Dubich who suffered untold agony from the effects of the gas.
 
50 Years Ago (1947)
 
Miss Catherine Mae Abts, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Abts, of Arcadia, Wis., became the bride of Orville Brenner, so of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Brenner, of Gilman, Wis. on Oct. 7, 1947, 8:30 a.m. at Our Lady Perpetual Help Church, Arcadia.
 
Fire destroyed the Earl Butler planing mill, 4 miles west of Colby early Sun. morning causing a loss of about $8,000.
 
A baby boy, David Lee, weighing eight pounds twelve ounces was born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Hanson at the Stanley Hospital on Oct. 2nd.
 
Neiman’s Corner – A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. Mike Cieslek last week at Berwyn, IL.
 
Funeral services were conducted Thurs. Oct. 10th for Mrs. Louise Lawson Tway at the Thorp Funeral Home, who passed away on Oct. 5, 1947.
 
A very pretty wedding took place at St. Hedwig’s Church, Sat. morning, Oct. 11th, when Rev. Francis Piekarski united in holy matrimony Stanley Arciszewski, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Arciszewski and Dolores Wnek, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Wnek, all of Thorp.
 
Miss Evelyn Joyce Jasmer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Jasmer of Withee, became the bride of Frank Wall son of Mr. and Mrs. Mike Wall, of Thorp at St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, Withee Sat. Sept. 27th.
 
A very pretty (wedding) was solemnized in Aurora, Colo. on Wed. Sept. 24, 1947 at St. Therese’s Church when Donna LaRae Greer, daughter of Mrs. Gertrude Greer, Aurora, Colo., became the bride of Sgt. William C. Schmidt, son of Mr. and Mrs. Fred J. Schmidt, of Thorp.
 
Breezy Hill – A son, weighing four pounds was born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Haas at the Victory Hospital in Stanley on Thurs.
 
25 Years Ago (1972)
 
Walter Welgos will start celebrating today for three days, Thur., Fri. and Sat. Oct. 12, 13 and 14th, the Grand Opening of his new building for the IGA Store here.
 
Mr. and Mrs. Ted Stroinski are the proud parents of a new daughter, Rachel Jean, born Oct. 4th at the Marshfield Hospital.
 
An Explosion and resultant fire last Wed. destroyed a five room two story dwelling on the W. H. Szewczyk farm 5 miles northeast of Thorp, Town of Hixton (Hixon), just west of the Black River.  The elderly Szewczyk lived there with their son, Henry.
 
Edward F. Przybylski, 70, Kenosha, died Sun. at Woodstock Health Center following a long illness.
 
Funeral services were conducted Mon. at Pius the X Catholic Church in Wauwatosa for a former Owen resident, Nick C. Lehnen, who died at the age of 86 on Oct. 5th.
 
Mike Nowak, 73, died of a coronary heart attack on Sept. 29, 1972, at his home in Lublin.
 
Funeral services were conducted Mon. at the Hannibal Presbyterian Church for Mrs. Colonel Harp, 76, Town of Cleveland resident who died Thurs. at Senior Manor Nursing Home, Cornell.
 
Army Private Donald B. Danielewicz, son of Mr. and Mrs. Zigmund Danielewicz, Thorp recently completed eight weeks of basic training at the U. S. Army Training Center, Armor, at Fort Knox, Kentucky.
 
10 Years Ago (1987)
 
William Klouda, 87, died at the Thorp Care Center, Wed., Oct. 8, 1987.
 
Bennie Jackson, 85, died Sat. Oct. 10, 1987 at Victory Memorial Nursing Home, Stanley.
 
Brian Kudasik, 26, Thorp, died Sun. Oct. 11, 1987, as the result of a car accident in Taylor County.
 
John Swenton, 92, Gilman, died Sun. Oct. 11, 1987, at Victory Memorial Nursing Home, Stanley.
 
A late evening fire destroyed the barn of Town of Worden farmer Leon Burkhardt, Thurs. Oct. 8.
 
Cindy Green and Gary Slowiak were married Sept. 19, 1987 at St. Hedwig’s Chapel, Thorp.
 
A Concelebrated Mass of Christian Burial was held Thurs. Oct. 8, 1987, at St. John’s Catholic Church, Marshfield, for Peter J. Oster, 94, who died Mon. Oct. 5, 1987, in St. Joseph’s Hospital Hospice.
 
Robert Chinn, 27, Spencer, died Sat. Oct. 10, 1987.