From Our Early Files January 17, 2024
25 YEARS AGO
January 21, 1999
The Whitehall Police Department is back at full strength again as the result of action taken at last week’s city council meeting. The council voted to hire Paul Laursen as the fourth full-time WPD officer. Laursen replaced Dale Lyngen, who resigned in December.
Whitehall’s West Side Commercial Park will be the site for a new Trempealeau County Jail and Sheriff’s Department building if a county committee’s recommendation becomes reality. The county jail study committee recommended that the jail/law enforcement complex be built on city-owned land on Tower Drive, next to the new city fire station. The site was chosen over three other alternatives, but still has to win the approval of the full county board of supervisors.
The dual meet between Independence and Whitehall has decided the Dairyland Conference championship several times during the past decade. And it would be fitting, after Thursday’s 34-34 tie, if it did so again. But Melrose-Mindoro is almost certain to challenge the Norse and Indees, who shared the conference crown with the Mustangs last season.
It took 13 days for the Arcadia area to have its first 1999 baby, but the wait was certainly worth it for Eric and Kerry Rosecke of the town of Trempealeau. Kerry gave birth to Courtney at 1:53 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at Franciscan Skemp Healthcare-Arcadia. She weighed in at a healthy nine pounds, nine ounces and was 21 inches long.
Luella Syverson will celebrate her 100th birthday on Jan. 22. She was born in French Creek and will celebrate her birthday with residents of Franciscan Skemp Healthcare in Arcadia with about 30 to 35 family members expected to attend.
The Arcadia city council approved raising Class A liquor license fees by $50, operator licenses by $5, cigarette licenses by $5 and park usage fees by $10.
At 4 a.m. on Monday, Tony Willemarck of Galesville had no idea he was about to become a hero. On his way to the Millis Transfer Company yard in Black River Falls to pick up his trailer, the truck driver thought he saw snow sliding off the roof of a barn. But the snow was not snow, it was smoke pouring from Dan and Judy Byom’s calf barn on Highway 54. Willemarck leaned on his horn to awaken the family, pulled his truck into their yard and called 911 on a cellular phone. Inside the house, Dan and Judy heard the horn. Dan said he figured a motorist was in trouble and he was prepared to offer his help. The Byoms and Willemarck rushed to the barn to lead the 24 calves and 40 cows to safety.
Sarah Frisby, 19, of Galesville died early Monday morning when a car driven by Jennifer Jack, 24, of Winona, Minn. crossed the center line and hit Frisby’s vehicle head-on.
Lucas Varity’s automotive division announced it was closing its Fenton, Mich. pant with jobs shifting to Ettrick along with Winona and Rushford, Minn.
50 YEARS AGO
January 24, 1974
The Whitehall district school board will have at least one new member after the April 2 election, as incumbent Dr. Carl Webster did not file for re-election by Tuesday’s deadline. Peter Bieri, the other current board member up for election this year, did file, as did newcomers William Petersen and Verna Cantrell.
The recently organized Western Wisconsin Communications Cooperative will hold an area-wide public informational meeting Feb. 6 at the Sunset Memorial auditorium. The new co-op’s board of directors met Jan. 10 and elected the officers, including Peter Bieri of Whitehall as vice president.
Keith Nestingen scored 30 points Friday night as Blair crushed the Norsemen 69-44. Don Reck, who had missed most of the season with mononucleosis, returned to the line-up to lead Whitehall with 11 points.
Sportsmen’s Lake in Cashen Park will be the scene of the second annual ice fishing contest Sunday, sponsored by the Arcadia Lions and Sportsmen’s clubs.
Arcadia city clerk Warren Shankey reported the following vital statistics for 1973 in the city of Arcadia: Marriages, 35; deaths, 27; births, 33; stillbirths, two. This compares with 35 marriages, 30 deaths, 31 births and three stillbirths during 1972
Erling Hanson, Whitehall, president of Trempealeau Electric Cooperative has announced a planned $350,000 construction program in 1974. Major construction programs will be out of the New Amsterdam Sub, La Crosse County, and the Hegg and Strum stations in Trempealeau County. The majority of the construction will be underground.
Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau and Melrose-Mindoro both captured victories in the opening of round two of Coulee Conference play last Friday to set the slate for a midseason showdown this week. The two clubs each boast 7-1 league records with the Mustangs only loss of the year coming at the hands of G-E-T last November.
Raymond Anderson was elected vice president of the Bank of Galesville at the annual director’s meeting on Jan. 9. Anderson began working for the bank in 1959 and was elected assistant cashier in 1963 and cashier in 1967.
75 YEARS AGO
January 20, 1949
Officers of Whitehall Winter Sports, Inc., and enthusiastic ski fans were jubilant Tuesday afternoon when a brisk west wind brought snow. While the snow is light, it is enough to assure that the Central I.S. Association tournament will be held Jan. 30 at the Viking Valley hill north of town.
Joel Jackson of the Farmers Egg Service, Whitehall, has leased the Whitehall Hatchery from H.J. Holtan and will operate it this season. Mr. Holtan, who owns the building and equipment, plans to devote his time to operating the new veneer plant which he built recently and will open soon.
Whitehall’s annual Ice Carnival, sponsored by the Lions Club, will be held this year on Feb. 12 and 13, announces Kenneth Berdan, publicity man for the event. Among the features of the carnival will be a program at the skating rink on Saturday afternoon with out-of-town talent.
The new village of Strum held its first election as such Saturday. The vote was lighter than when citizens of the 520-acre area voted 191 to 57 to incorporate on Dec. 19. The population of the area was 521 when the survey was made last fall.
Richard Herman of Whitehall was the leader of the 13 boys from Trempealeau County who left from Whitehall Tuesday morning for La Crosse to be inducted into service. Among them were Robert Everson and Theodore Stendahl Jr. of Whitehall and Lemoin Olson, Clarence Halama, and Edward Sonsalla of Independence.
The Flying Pigeon Junior Ski Club entered 11 jumpers and made five placements at the ski meet sponsored by the Flying Eagles at Eau Claire Jan. 9. Ronald Johnstad placed first in Class C. In Class B, the placings were: Wallen Melby, third; Gordon Eid, fourth; Richard Dahl, seventh; and Wayne Amundson, eighth.
Charles Bart of Neenah has accepted the position of music instructor at the Arcadia High School to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Harold Becker, who taught there since 1948.
The second of a half-dozen farm institutes that have been planned for Trempealeau County this winter by county agent T.C. Main will be held at Arcadia High School on Jan. 27. This will be swine day.
100 YEARS AGO
January 24, 1924
The suffix “Banner” in the name of this newspaper, added years ago by Brother J.B. Beach when he supplied a department of this paper for the village of Blair, has outgrown its usefulness. We have frequently found it necessary to use an abbreviated form when referring to The Times-Banner, and the abbreviation, T-B, is too suggestive for further tolerance. It has become irksome, and we have concluded to go back to the name given the paper by the present senior editor in 1880, The Whitehall Times.
Chas. Fagerness was of Welch Coulee was brought to the hospital Wednesday with a fractured jaw and badly bruised head and neck. He was chopping wood on his farm, and ran to get out of the way of a falling tree, stumbling over a stump and falling, the tree striking him on the head and rendering him unconscious for eight hours.
The school board of Irvin Coulee has ordered material at Webb’s lumber yard for a modern school building to be erected in the spring. It will be 34 feet by 34 feet, with a complete basement and furnace, the estimated cost to be about $6,000. August Ringstad will do the mason work, and Gust Woychek will have charge of the carpenter work.
The whist party given by the Legion boys at the Village Hall Tuesday evening was the largest of its kind ever attempted by any local organization, as 40 tables were the scenes of hotly-contested games. The event was a smoker as well as a whist party, and the guests proved to their hosts that their brand of generously-supplied cigars and cigarettes were to their liking. Shortly before midnight, plates were passed and a sumptuous lunch was served in generous quantities to the 180 invited guests of the Legion.
The snow storms have abated and cars and trucks are somewhat in use around town. Travel by car to Blair and Independence is possible, but the road to Pigeon Falls is made only with horses. A few dollars spent on opening up the road to Pigeon would be a great convenience to the taxpayers. The time is coming when open auto roads will be demanded the year around on the main highways.
The 32nd M.P. Company basketball team defeated the Waupaca American Legion team, a forerunner among eastern state teams50-26.
Joe Braun & Son were putting up the season’s supply of ice. Blocks were about 16 inches thick with a mixture of frozen snow and water on top. It was hoped the second cutting would be clear as crystal.
125 YEARS AGO
January 19, 1899
S.E. Alexander’s oil tank wagon was tipped over just below Independence this morning. Mr. Alexander received bad bruises from being thrown to the ground, but no bones were broken.
G.W. Lamberson has a Jersey cow that has recently made a record worthy of special mention. In 30 days, Dec. 12 to Jan. 11, she produced 945.5 pounds of milk, having a percent of butterfat of 5.4, indicating a butter yield of 58.14 pounds for that period.
The case of the state vs. Wm. Houert, a saloonkeeper at Arcadia, was tried in Justice Ecker’s court last Thursday, District Attorney Cowie presiding. Houert was charged with selling liquor to a person on the black list, and was convicted and fined $10 and costs amounting to $39.50.
The C.&J. Michel Brewing Co. of La Crosse had been operating a cold-storage warehouse at Arcadia for some time, a sort of distributing point for their goods, the agency in the hands of G.O. Hohmann, and the business has been conducted without a license. At the insistence of District Attorney Cowie, the company has taken out a license. The Hileman Brewing Co. are doing business at Independence in the same manner, and the district attorney will ask them to comply with the law.
Independence — Eighteen of the young people of the village took a sleigh ride to Whitehall last week Wednesday evening, and a merry time is reported.
Independence — While E.S. Coy was coming from Whitehall last week Wednesday, the cutter slewed as he was coming off the bridge over the Trempealeau River, throwing him out and injuring him quite severely. One rib was broken which, with the other injuries, will lay him up for some time.
