From Our Early Files November 9, 2022


 

 

 

25 YEARS AGO

November 13, 1997

The Whitehall High School volleyball team never really got much of anything going in their Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association State Tournament match at Neenah High School and lost in four games to Abbotsford. Whitehall fell behind 2-0, losing the first set, 15-1, and the second, 15-10. Whitehall won the third set, 15-11, but lost the fourth, 15-10. The one consolidation that the Norse girls could take was that they lost to the eventual state champions. The Falcons, who were eliminated in the first round of the 1996 tourney, after dispatching Whitehall, went on to defeat Hustisford for the Division Four championship. 

The campaign to raise money for the new Whitehall Family Aquatic Center, although officially still short of its goal, already may be “over the hump.” Organizers of the Aquatic Center Capital Campaign reported a total of $390,600 in donations and pledges received as of this week. The goal of the campaign is to raise at least $400,000 of the $1.2 million cost of the new pool, which is presently under construction at the site of the city’s old pool. Campaign chairman Dave Pientok said a number of pledges received during phone solicitation effort last month were still outstanding. He said that, if all those pledge cards are turned in with the amounts promised, the total could go over $400,000.

An Independence teenager is facing a felony criminal complaint, the result of a juvenile game of “I dare you” that turned serious. Lance Rock made his initial appearance in Trempealeau County Circuit Court Friday charged with causing injury by negligent use of a dangerous weapon. Rock, 17, is also charged with misdemeanor battery. The charges stem from a May 9 incident at Rock’s Independence residence in which he allegedly cut a female’s wrists after she dared him – jokingly, she later told investigators – to do so. 

 A new branch of Subway sandwiches opened on Nov. 11 in Arcadia’s downtown district. Mike Hallum and Allen Ronneberg are the co-owners of the new branch restaurant. It is the third Subway the two men have opened together in the area. According to Hallum, the first Subway restaurant was opened in Osseo three years ago. After 10 months, the two opened another store in Whitehall. 

Daryl and Susie Fox of Arcadia raise and show Great Danes at dog competitions throughout the United States. Daryl, an Independence native, left the small community in the mid-1980s to join the United States Navy. While serving, he became interested in Great Danes. He bought his first Great Dane and fell in love with the breed. 

A state Department of Transportation official agreed to do a speed study and review lighting options in the area where a high school student was struck by a truck while crossing Main St. in front of the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau High School on Oct. 20. The pickup driver was tagged for failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk. 

The shrapnel that pierced Don Hellrung’s chest and stopped a quarter-inch short of his heart and the bullet he took in a leg as he ran for shelter during the U.S. invasion of Cambodia required a month’s stay in a hospital in Japan. But those weren’t his only wounds during a relatively short stay in Vietnam in 1969-70. There was what used to be called “shell shock” and now is known as posttraumatic stress syndrome. 

Opposition among some hunters to a proposed sanctuary beside Lake Marinuka has left lake district officials concerned that the opposition will carry over to a proposed dredging plan to be voted on Nov. 19. There’s no connection between the plan to remove part of the lake-encroaching delta of silt and the request to the city to create a sanctuary, said Norm Schein, who heads the Lake Marinuka Protection and Rehabilitation District. 

50 YEARS AGO

November 16, 1972

Two Holstein calves were reported from the back pens of the Whitehall Packing Co. plant sometime early last week. Charles Rosenberg of the company reported the thefts last week Tuesday.

Whitehall native Mrs. Robert Forsythe, the former Mary MacCornack, was elected to the Minnesota state legislature last week Tuesday, winning 81.5 percent of the vote in District 39-A in Edina.

Two Arcadia men were charged after the vehicle one of them was driving crashed into the bedroom wall of an Arcadia residence late last Thursday. The vehicle then backed out and drove away. Ronald Schock was apprehended the next morning by the Arcadia Police Department and was charged with driving after revocation. He was then turned over to the Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department. 

Miss Sheila Stateson teaches two Spanish classes and one in English I at Arcadia High School this year. She is hired cooperatively by Arcadia and Blair where she also teaches two Spanish classes. Stateson is a spring graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse with a Spanish major and English minor.

The Galesville Public Library will observe National Children’s Book Week Nov. 13-19. 

Monday, Nov. 20 marks the opening of the 1972 MS Hope Chest appeal of the Greater Wisconsin Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This is the first year in which the Hope Chest appeal has been conducted in Galesville. 

75 YEARS AGO

November 13, 1947

On Tuesday, the opening day of the annual Trempealeau County board meeting, attorney Burr Tarrant of Whitehall, supervisor from the Second Ward, presented a petition signed by 54 war veterans requesting that the county establish a housing authority, as provided for by a law passed by the state legislature this year.

Ethel Berg, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Berg of Pleasantville and a member of the Hale and Hardy 4-H Club, was one of the six queens crowed in the final program of the three-day Mardi Gras sponsored by civic groups in Winona.

Representing the Third Ward of Independence at the annual county board meeting this week was attorney Edward Kulig, who was elected to that position last spring but had since moved to the First Ward. A communication from Mayor John Markham certified him as Third Ward supervisor by appointment, until the next election.

No clue has been found yet as to the identity of the burglars who entered five businesses in Blair early Sunday morning and took varying sums of money from three of them.

Miss Elsie Witt is in training as chief operator and cashier at the Community Telephone Co. exchange. She will succeed Mrs. Theodore Johnson, resigned. Miss Verna Hamilton is also learning the switchboard and will be employed as operator, succeeding Mrs. Erling Johnson, also resigned.

Nearly 150 awards were made to 4-H club boys and girls of Trempealeau County at the annual achievement day program conducted at the Whitehall City Hall by County Club Agent Ray Shanklin. Club children received $2,000 in cash awards for their work during the year. 

Allen LaRoy Bjorge, three-month-old son of Mr. and Mrs. LaVern Bjorge of French Creek, died suddenly at 11 a.m. while being taken to the doctor. Allen was born Aug. 9 in Arcadia. Besides being survived by his grandparents, he is survived by one brother, La Verne, Jr., 2, and his grandparents Mr. and Mrs. Peter Urbick of Arcadia. 

A Little Six basketball team has been organized and held its first meeting. Four teams were guests, Melrose, Trempealeau, Holmen, Galesville. Fountain City and Arcadia will join later. They will open play on Dec. 3. L.E. Danauser is president and Alvin Ekern Sr., secretary. 

The Legion Rowles-McBride Post will hold an Armistice dance at the auditorium. An auction sale of firearms for members will be held at the club rooms. 

100 YEARS AGO

November 16, 1922

The fifth anniversary celebration of the Whitehall Community Hospital was carried out as advertised on Saturday, and Armistice Day was fittingly observed following that program. The Village Hall was filled to capacity, and many were unable to gain admittance. The ladies of the hospital auxiliary served dinner in the Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church basement to about 400 persons. During the noon hour, many took the opportunity to visit the hospital.

The Green Bay Railroad Co. is making rapid progress with its coaling station, located just west of the depot, on the south side of the main line. The elevator will be operated by electric power from the Wisconsin-Minnesota Lights and Power Co.’s high line.

White waiting for completion of the new gym, the high school will practice basketball in the Village Hall. Thus a number of games will be scheduled in the near future.

Hundreds of hunters are passing through Birchwood daily to the forests in search for deer, it is reported. Additional coaches have been attached to trains and heavier locomotives have been put in use to accommodate the larger number of hunters.

Peter Nordness luckily escaped with minor injuries Thursday when his car overturned on the macadam road near the asylum. Mr. Nordness was pinned beneath the car and had not railroad men on the noon train not noticed him, the result might have been serious.

A committee from the American Legion met with the village board Monday night and were granted use of the Village Hall for basketball. When the boys get warmed up, we should see some good games this winter.

Blair — The question of buying land adjoining the river for a park and tourist campground met with defeat by the close vote of 84 to 83. This question has stirred quite a lot of controversy pro and con, and there is talk of submitting it to the voters at a special election later on.

John Gantenbein, 65, city marshal at Alma, was dead and his son, Allen, 35, hospitalized with bullet wounds in his abdomen, the result of a shooting incident at the Probst saloon shortly after midnight. Enos Behner, a bartender at the saloon, was being charged with murder. 

Additional electric light service was granted, according to a resolution passed by the Arcadia village board. Lights were to be on all Sunday forenoon and until 12:15 p.m.; then an intermission until 3 p.m. when the lights would be turned on again for continuous service. 

A resolution adopted at the last meeting of the Wisconsin Packers Association held in Milwaukee provides canners must label cans to show whether the peas are hard or soft and the variety. This will be made a state law. 

Dr. Roy Hurley is offering a first class baby alligator, gentle and house trained. He has one and one only to give away, according to the Galesville Republican.

Mrs. Carrie Hunter has opened up her office for chiropractic treatments.  

125 YEARS AGO

November 11, 1897

W.G. Fuller and Co. sport a handsome little delivery wagon, the sides of which bear the inscription “City Cash Grocery.”

Mrs. Ole Larson places a fresh dandelion blossom on our table — something unusual for this season of the year hereabouts.

Dr. Parker and Wallace Cummings were run away with while riding after the latter’s horse last week. Both were thrown out of the buggy, but fortunately escaped serious injury.

Thomas and James Wright and Will and Ira Thompson returned from their deer hunt Monday. They killed three fine deer. Thomas has the thanks of ye editor for a fine piece of venison.

Andrew Nelson, an incorrigible youth who has spent some time at the reform school and who was permitted to come home at the request of his mother, Mrs. Nels Nelson Hestekind, will be recommitted to that institution again.

Blair — Our citizens are agitating the subject of putting a circulating library in the village, which is a move in the right direction. Dr. Bodom proposes to do a series of monthly lectures this winter, the proceeds to go toward promoting the success of this object.

Elk Creek -- John Bennett of Arcadia, whose threshing engine broke through the bridge near the Grange Hall some time ago, was up with a crew of men Friday trying to get it out.

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Trempealeau County Times

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Whitehall, WI 54773

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