History of Amherst, Wisconsin
(This information as originally on the Portage County Historical Society's website.)
The early history of Amherst has been preserved in papers written by members of the Red and White School Association. This organization was formed August 26, 1905 in preparation of a reunion of pupils and teachers of the Red and White Schools of Amherst Wisconsin. The early citizens of Amherst painted their schools these colors, hence the name. From this page you can view the entire booklet published in 1922. The booklet has been broken up into its component articles for ease of reading and research. |
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- Origin of Name (Introduction to Booklet)
- Letter from C. B. Webster
- Amherst 1855 to 1865 (Webster)
- 1908 Reunion (Webster)
- Amherst 1865 to 1885 (A. J. Smith)
- Amherst and its Schools 1885 to 1906 (Andrew P. Een)
- Paper Read at Banquet 1906 (Dr. F. E. Webster)
- Paper Read at Banquet 1906 (Della Blodgett)
- Paper Read at Banquet 1906 (George H. Welton)
- Memories of Old White School (W. F. Owen)
- Early Amherst and Present Amherst
Biographical Sketches of men who were indentified with early Amherst history.
Listing of Members of this Organization
In the year of 1853, Judge Gilbert L. Park of Stevens Point, in speaking with Adam Uline, chairman of the town board of Lanark, suggested that our town be named Amherst in honor of General Amherst of revolutionary fame. Since Mr. Uline was a native of Amherst, Nova Scotia, he readily fell in with the idea, and the town was formally named Amherst by the above named gentlemen. These are the facts so far as the records give them to us.
John F. Hillstrom, who came here in 1851, is our oldest resident, while John and A. P. Een follow closely behind, arriving in August, 1852.
AMHERST, WIS., AUGUST 26, 1905
The above is the date of the first meeting in preparation for the Reunion of the pupils and teachers of the Red and White School Houses of Amherst, Wisconsin, but it does not record the date of the first plan for the Reunion. That occurred about one year earlier when Hiram B. Simcox, Mrs. Mollie Wilson and Mrs. E. T. Johnson accidentally met and laid plans for such a reunion. Later, when these plans were laid before the late A. J. Smith, he at once fell in with the idea, offered the use of his office as a meeting place, and suggested that we call the above meeting. At that meeting it was voted that all pupils, teachers, and school board members of that period, be counted as members, and that an annual fee be levied to defray expenses. Monthly meetings were held during the first year, and the first Reunion was held July 25th and 26th 1906. At this Reunion, arrangements were made to have the history of Amherst written up by some of our prominent members. For this history, C. E. Webster of Almond was chosen to start as historian from 1855 to 1865, A. J. Smith from 1865 to 1885, and A. P. Een from 1885 to the present time, or 1906. These histories as given by those members are included in this booklet.
At the meeting of the Association in 1920, a committee consisting of Mrs. Mollie Wilson, Mrs. Alice Smith and Mrs. Lottie Johnson, was appointed to add to the early history of Amherst, any new material which could he worked up. This present edition is the old edition with some facts added, gleaned from the old settlers still with us in Amherst.
Almond, Wis., January 25th, 1906.
Mrs. E. T. Johnson, Secretary Amherst Old School House Association.
Dear Madam: Complying with your request, I will give you a few lines, stating an old man’s memories of early school life in Amherst and my brief connection with the old Red School House. In November, 1855, it was my fortune to become a citizen of Amherst. Coming up the Waupaca road for the first time, I passed the recently erected log walls, as yet without a roof, of the first schoolhouse erected in Amherst. It stood where now is the corner of the Waupaca road and the road running south over the red mill dam, south of the Waupaca road and east of the south road. Here, in the winter of 1855 and 1856, Miss Wylie organized Amherst’s first school and set the wheels in motion, which has lead up to the present proud position of Amherst in the educational field. How many in Amherst, today, remember the big boulder that occupied a proud position In the center of the street, nearly opposite where Dr. Guernsey’s store now stands, a huge relic of the glacial period, which was too big to be removed by the united energies of the men of that period, and was passed by on either side, like the Samaritan of old? Close by said stone, the patriotism of the day had erected a liberty pole one hundred or more feet high, from which floated, all the fall of 1860, Old Glory, made more glorious by the names Lincoln and Hamlin, in large let-ters along the lower edge of the flag. Patriotism was alive and warm in that day -- men and boys were feeding the soul and nerving themselves for the great sacrifices so soon to be demanded of them. At this time the old Red School House was new to the world and was the center in the way of the political and social life of the community. Here the sturdy pioneers met and voted for Lincoln. Here, subsequently, war meetings were held, and here men pledged their all, even life, to their country. Wanting a few weeks of being twenty-one, I could not vote, as I remember much to my sorrow. The election was held in November and a few days later I took charge - in a way - of the (as I remember) second winter term of school taught in the little Red School House. The desks at that time were built around three sides of the room, all facing the arena where the pupils were called out, lined up along the cracks of the floor and put through their mental paces. Sometimes, too, discipline was enforced, the culprit and the arm of the law, represented by the teacher, making it lively for the open-eyed spectators in the surrounding seats by a lively and exuberating struggle, whereby law was satisfied and discipline improved. Charlie Darling - how many in Amherst now remember him - presented me with a maple ruler, long, smooth and broad, which I carried proudly, as a soldier a sword, and which applied in the right place at the right time, did much to develop a sense of the majesty of the law in the then rising generation.
Suffice it to say that spring came all too soon; the youngsters had made progress and good will prevailed.
At that time Amherst had one store, Gordon’s, a blacksmith shop belonging to John and Emanuel Peickard, located where D. A. Day’s store now stands, a mill and Monroe Moyers’ hotel. James Wilson, William Wilson and Robert Wilson each lived in log houses working up the residence portion of the village. The post office was in Gordon’s store and was supplied weekly from Waupaca. The people were hospitable, friendly and progressive, bearing the hard-ships incident to pioneer life, bravely -- worthy parents of the hardy men who came after them, and now fill the field of Amherst’s activities.
Wishing continued success to all Amherst, and particularly its schools, I subscribe myself as one, who for a time, wielded the “maple” in the little Red School House of Amherst.
C. E. WEBSTER
Amherst 1855 to 1865 ( As read to the first Reunion of the Red and White School Association July 25 and July 26, 1906.)
By C. E. Webster
Friends, Associates, Comrades
To turn the mind back fifty or more years, to bring before the eyes a picture of Amherst as it was half a century ago, is a task beyond the ability of my feeble pen. If the story is told it must be done by one who was there. I will briefly touch upon a few salient points as memory brings them up.
Early in May of this year the writer was told by John Finch, of Stevens Point, a resident of Portage County since the early forties (1840’s), that he brought the first load of lumber that was taken into the town of Amherst some time in the winter of 1849 and ‘50 and unloaded where the Peter Grover house now stands. At that time no furrow had been plowed, no building erected, the beautiful hills and valleys of Amherst were trackless, but awaiting the hand of civilized man to make it a land of fruitful fields and happy homes. The Grover house was erected, the first in the township, and the traveler found therein hospitable entertainment. Home seekers were many and Amherst’s fertile acres were soon transferred from the Government to the hardy pioneers. About 1850 the sale began and at the close of 1855, all, or nearly all the land was taken.
The writer first saw Amherst November 2, 1855. Coming in on the Waupaca road, he found settlers along the road, after coming into the township as follows: David Allen, Edward Wright, S. Brimhall, Seth Thompson, William V. Fleming, A. T. Ryerson, the Wilson brothers, James, William and Robert, Peter Grover, thence along the river, Adin Nelson and further up, Jerome Nelson. Around the shores of Lake Emily, Amsa Ball, G. Harvey, Coburn and Charles Couch had staked out their claims and erected their cabins. In the southwest the Een and Hillstrom families were settled, and along the creek and river, Uri Wilmott and his four sons, David, Samuel, George and John, and P. P. Bangle had broken a few acres each and erected houses. The houses were nearly all built of logs and there was not a plastered house in the township. In the northeastern part of the township a few Norwegian families were erecting substantial buildings of hewed timber; This was Amherst as the writer saw it fifty-one years ago. In the summer and fall of 1855, Jerome Nelson erected a small sawmill where Nelsonville now stands, which greatly aided the settlers in their home building. In 1855 the Darling, Buck and Webster families were added to the population and in 1856, the Gasmann family came in and John Bickle with his young wife, at the head of a small colony of industrious Germans, settling in the western part of the township.
The soil was fertile, pasturage on the unfenced range free, food plenty, but money scarce and but little in circulation. The people were industrious and frugal, and life, though subjected to many restrictions measured from the standpoint of today, was lived with a zest and a spirit of good fellowship unknown today. Class distinction was unknown.
Early Mails
Waupaca was our post office in those days and for several years all the mail for the people up the Tomorrow River was brought up from Waupaca by any one chancing to visit that town, and might be found anywhere along the river from David Allen’s to Peter Grover’s. Letters were few in those days, the New York Weekly Tribune and perhaps a local paper finding way into nearly every household. Just before the war, a post office was established and William Loing appointed postmaster. Loing then lived on the Cate farm. The mail was brought from Waupaca weekly, farmers taking turns as carriers. The Star routes, as far as Amherst was concerned, were unknown in that day.
Schools
Early in 1855, School District No. 5 was organized. Why the first was numbered five, I never knew. A school house, built of poplar logs was erected near where George Fleming now resides and in December, the writer with perhaps twenty-five others, gathered under the tutorship of Miss Mary J. Wylie, of Eau Pleine, who brought order out of chaos and began educational work in Amherst. I recall the following pupils as having been present at this initial movement in the educational field: Stanton, Charles and Jane Bangle, William H, Eugene, George B. Allen, Martha Wright, Meliscent, Willie and Charles Fleming, Charles E., John N., Azuba and Augustine Webster, Charles and Alexander Darling, Elizabeth and Willie Wilmot, Frank Wylie, Jane Wilson and others whose names have escaped me. The majority of whom. have now finished their earthly career and sleep peacefully. School district No. 2 was organized in 1858 and a shanty built on the road west of the Cate farm, where the pupils of No. 2 met for a term or two. In 1858, Thompson and Shannon built a flouring mill near Ben Fleming’s. Bancroft and Grover also built a mill now on the property of the Jackson Milling Co. The lower mill backed water on the upper mill, trouble ensued. The law was invoked and the Amherst mill war was on. Finally the Thompson-Shannon party was defeated in the courts and the mill at Fleming’s is only a memory. About this time John Eudlick opened a store at the Shannon Mill, and A. Gordon at the Bancroft Mill. Two rival villages were started, the fittest survived and the center of population changing, the little Red School House came into being, occupying the site now occupied by Amherst’s substantial school buildings. In that day educational advantages were few and the masses did not come in touch with what is now known as higher education. The teachers of the day were energetic and zealous and handed out “the handful of things they knew” faithfully, and disciplined the little bands of learners and brought them in line for their life work. Miss Lida Loing, now Mrs. L. P. Harvey, was the first to teach in the little Red School House and the writer had the honor to preside therein in the winter of 1860 and ‘61, and again in 1864 after having returned from the war. Since that time, having lived elsewhere, I will not attempt to sketch Amherst history or tell the tale of its schools, but leave it to abler hands. You have with you on this occasion, former teachers and pupils who are entitled to their say, in fact, it is your duty to make them talk and tell you the story down through the years, from the feeble beginning that I have placed before you, to the grand achievements of the present day.
The social life of Amherst during the pioneer period was informal and pleasant in many ways. All were neighbors and all were friends, family visited family, oxen often being the means of conveyance. Neighborhood, political and religious topics would be discussed, a hearty midnight meal often served good will in all and through all. Social dances were often held and as the writer remembers, the girls in hood or sunbonnet were prettier than the girls of today with their elaborate millinery and other make-up. Recollection brings back many social parties at the home of Jonathan Aldrich. Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich, then upwards of sixty years young, would lead off with a French Four with a precision and agility of move-ment that would put the younger people out of “class.”
No, my young friends, all the merrymaking and fun was not left to your day. We of long ago managed to sandwich a little pleasure in with our laborious duties, and possibly got as much out of life as do the people of today.
The religious life of the day, as the writer remembers it, was crude, but many good people managed to live righteous lives despite the harsh teachings. The terrors of the law were placed before the people. Hell and hate had a larger place than did Christ and the love that passeth understanding. In that day dogmatic theology held the field and the true spirit of Christianity, the spirit that moved the people to live right was obscured: Happily the hard doctrines of fifty years ago are not now taught, nor accepted, except by the uninformed who occupy some obscure field in the religious work.
Politically Amherst was always Republican and rolled up a handsome majority for Fremont in 1856, and gave an almost unanimous vote to Lincoln in 1860 and 1864.
During the war nearly every able bodied man in Amherst went to the front and many laid down their lives that their country might live. Amherst was Patriotic then and is, thank God, patriotic today and will so continue until the end of time.
I will note before closing that the first person to be buried in Amherst was Thomas Fleming, who was placed at rest in the Lower Amherst cemetery in September 1855. The many cemeteries in the township today, where we can read, inscribed upon marble, the names of those whom we knew and loved, prove that the generations are passing and should remind us to do our work while here, that we as a people may not retrograde morally, politically, socially or physically.
Personal
In closing this paper I wish to speak of a few of the noble men who left their impress on the present generation in Amherst. There was, big hearted, open handed William V. Fleming, who was ever ready to aid his fellowmen; Peter Grover, full of energy and dash, who helped push things along; Enoch Webster, always calm, judicial, whose judgment was often sought and who should be remembered as the peace-maker, of such we read in the record; Charlie Buck the maker of epigrams, whose caustic wit could scorch the delinquent and commend the true; Captain J. G. Gasmann, who lent dignity to all occasions and whose influence was ever for the right; David Allen, James Wilson, William Wilson and many others, who always gave each man his due. All have finished their work here, and today are with the just and true in the Land of Light.The pioneer women of Amherst, faithful helpers, good, pure and true. Their many acts of love and service may not have been chronicled at the time, but as written in the Book of Life they will ever be bright and live through eternity. God bless them here and hereafter is the prayer of one who knew them in the days of trial, and rejoices in the memory.
Amherst in Auld Lang Syne (Paper read by C. E. Webster at Reunion, 1908.)
“Turn back, turn back, oh Time in your flight, Make me a child again, just for tonight.”
I am requested to recall a few memories of the days fifty and more years ago. If I incidentally tell you of a few things I don't remember, you must pardon me. Sixty years ago, Amherst was pathless and practically unknown, save by roaming Indians, who leaving the Wolf or perhaps the Wisconsin rivers, camped on the beautiful stream, Tomorrow, in their language, Waupaca.
Its hills and valleys, lakes and streams, shaped in the Ice age or glacial period, covered by soil and vegetation, the deposit of uncounted centuries, spread out a vision of beauty awaiting the hand of man, and many civilizing influences to make it the Amherst of today, the home of strong, happy, prosperous Christian people.
I recall Amherst as it was in its infancy, the hardy pioneers, who stroke by stroke brought its acres into subjection, erected homes and put in motion activities attending progressive civilization and the betterment of conditions for the generations who should succeed them. In 1858, or just fifty years ago, the mill was built by Bancroft and Grover forming a nucleus for the little village that sprang up about it, taking its name from the township in which located.
Its population was made up of New York, Pennsylvania and New England people, supplemented by Norwegian people from the Northland, of steady habits, industry and love of liberty, all making a people who believed in the school and the cause of education, as in their religion.
According to their means they built, and the little Red School House came into existence, standing near the bank of the pond and upon the site now occupied by your present modern school buildings. I remember the little red house, the memory of which we celebrate today, as the center of the religious, political and social life of the community. Therein for a time, people gathered to worship God. There Edmond Palmer taught the village singing school. There rustic voices sang, or attempted to sing:
‘Old John Cross kept the village day school,
And a queer old man was he, was he.”
Masculine voices whose training had mainly been urging forward the breaking team, and feminine voices, cultivated in sounding the dinner call across large fields were brought into harmony, all save the voice of your speaker, which the good old man ruled out as impossible. Palmer’s work in the little red house left Its impression upon the people of the time, and made opportunity for moonlight walks and whispered conferences, appreciated then and not unknown in this day.
The red house was also the town house; there political meetings and elections were held; there O. H Lamoreaux and other political would-be leaders aired their eloquence and told humorous stories; there the village court often met to settle neighborhood differences; there Myron Reed, then of Waupaca, made his first plea in court; there the resolute, patriotic men of Amherst met In the autumn of 1860 and almost to a man cast their vote for Abraham Lincoln, the grandest man of that or any age, for president of the United States; there again, within the walls of the little red house a chastened people, undaunted by war and sacrifice, In 1864 again voted for Lincoln and the prosecution of the war until an honorable peace could be attained; there in 1864, after having had an experience in the whirlwind of war, I cast my first presidential vote for Lincoln. To this little red house came in 1864 that grand old Democrat, Geo. W. Cate, who loved his party much, but loved his country more, cast his vote for Lincoln and the prosecution of the war. Into my hands he placed the open ballot and I had the honor of dropping It into the box. There Rev. Harmon Ellis, sustained by the Home Missionary Society of the Baptist Church, preached to his family and the little red house for many years. There caucuses were held and affairs of state gravely discussed by the men who founded Amherst.
The little red house, its paint dimmed and its siding warped by fifty years exposure to the elements still stands in a back yard in your city and I have again looked upon it today. Visit it, - ven-erate it! Get an idea of its size and outline, for its history in in-separable from the history of Amherst’s pioneers in the days that tried men’s souls. The interior of the little house was, in the days of its usefulness, finished and furnished by a row of seats around three sides of its walls, a desk, a mere wooden box near the door, one chair and a big box stove in the center. The pupils were seated around the room, backs to the walls and facing the center or arena, where the teacher walked, ruler in hand, in striking distance of any culprit who experimented with discipline. There by the big box stove my friend Al. Cate stood and dried himself, having skated beyond the danger line and being very near ‘‘the other side of the river”.
Eliza Loring taught the first school in Amherst village, gathering the first flock in the little red house. In 1860 it was my fortune to preside as teacher in the now historic building, and after an ex-amination by Town Supt. Ellis was pronounced qualified and duly installed. Teachers of today may be interested in the examinations of that day - one question and only one I remember. The old gen-tleman rather pompously asked me, “How many letters in the alpha-bet?” Having recently counted them I knew the right answer and told him so and got my credentials. “Race suicide” was unknown in those days and the red house was filled to overflowing. I struggled all grades and no grades from A, B, C to physics, giving them the best I had and as I remember it, the term was called successful. At least my failures were forgotten so that the board engaged me several years later, and after I had taken lessons in war, and perhaps - was thought that I from experience was better fitted as a disciplinarian. The red house filled its brief mission as an educational center honorably and sheltered educators whose names are widely known in the educational field. Here Hutton, Brainard, Lucas and Alban taught from its walls strong men and women who went forth armed with the three “R’s” and made a successful fight in life's battles.
I remember that the people of the time were sober, honest, patriotic and all used to manual labor. I remember that through honest effort, frugality and industry all made a comfortable support and so lead their children that they have filled honorable positions in life.
I think I remember that the cost of a girls wardrobe for a twelve month in those days, about equaled the spring millinery bill of the girl of today.
I remember that people often cooked and ate substantial meals in the kitchen and that napkins never figured in the weekly wash.
I remember that the dress suit for summer wear for young man in those days was made up about as follows: trousers and shoes from the store, a ‘boiled shirt’’, over which a hickory shirt was worn, the collar and bosom so turned in, that the aristocratic white shirt might show at the bosom, this with a straw hat that Mother made, constituted an outfit for the Fourth of July dance or any festive occasion.
I remember that the girls looked very pretty in those days, though somewhat unapproachable from the Crinoline habit of the time. As I remember it the boys of that time were awkward amid somewhat afraid of the girls, but I seem to recall that when the ice was broken, they were ardent wooers.
I remember that the boys about my age that often gathered at William Rices to eat watermelons were Charlie Een, John and Dan Hillstrom, William and James Rice, Edgar, William and Eugene Allen, Stanton and Charles Bangle, John VanSkiver, John Webster and Charles Darling. Names nearly all now recorded on tombstones.
I remember that William Fleming and brother, Ben. killed more deer than anyone in the township.
I remember driving from Amherst to Waupaca one night fifty-one years ago, the winter of the deep snow, for a doctor: snow in the road to the horses’ knees, I, wrapped in a horse blanket and sitting on a bob-sled, reached the doctor about midnight and was then told by him, that it was too far, the roads too bad and so damned cold that he wouldn't go. This long drive I made, 24 miles, through the worst night of the worst winter of our history, and never thought to use the telephone.
I do not remember that people in those days grumbled when the train was late and the mail delayed. Can't remember an instance of horses being cut on wire fences, or automobiles frightening the horses in the highways. Can't remember that prospective brides had “showers” showered upon them, or that the bride and groom spent their substance in a wedding tour, but that they went quietly at work the next morning, building and perfecting the home nest.
I do not remember that the industrious habits of the pioneers of Amherst ever worked against their success.
I do remember that the debates and discussions of the people of that day were sometimes rambling and tedious, and that amenities were not always in evidence. That Capt. Gasmann, somewhat autocratic from his long service on the quarterdeck, would, when his turn to talk had seemed to have been overlooked, shout “stop now”, so emphatically that he was usually heeded and his turn to talk conceded. I feel that his words would be appropriate now, but before closing I desire to pay tribute to the patriotic spirit of the pioneers of Amherst in the time of the Nation's peril. Amherst from ‘61 to ‘65 sent nearly every able-bodied man to the front in its boundaries. Men, who offered themselves freely for the achievement of fuller liberty and the perpetuation of the Nation. The Nation, the proudest, the strongest, the freest, the richest and the most intelligent Nation in the world today. The Nation that is now sending “Old Glory” around the world, guarded and protected by the strongest armament that ever awoke the echoes with the guns.
Amherst, 1865 to 1885 by A. J. Smith
In the selection of a historian for the above period, your relator believes a fatal mistake was made. First, that he was an entire stranger at the commencement, and second, he does not hold in memory that which is of the past, unless there is something in it for the future, and third, although holding a liar's license issued by authority of Annanias and his successors, he is not a first class story teller and in all history, where the main facts are supposed to be true, the good right aria is exercised in conjunction with the brain in drawing the long bow.
We have been informed by my collaborator, that the old red school house was built about the year 1858, and that he left it in good working order in 1865, when the township had a population of about four hundred, and there were two stores in the village, one blacksmith shop, one shoe shop, one hotel, one saloon, one church, one doctor and only ten dwelling houses within the limits of the village. This as your relator understands it at this day, and the mail was received twice a week from Waupaca, the carriers being the Folger brothers. One of them stuttered so badly that, should you ask him a question, he would have the answer ready on the next trip tip.
This was the condition of the village when your relator first saw it one August evening in 1805. It was not until October of the same year that he became a resident of the village and never having had much acquaintance with schools and less with school ma’ams, it was probably a year or two before he knew that there was such a thing as the school house in the place. But in those early days the school house was used as the polling place and the business of the town was transacted therein and other public meetings held, so he became acquainted with the fact that there was a building in which school was taught from five to seven months in the year; three months winter and possibly four, and two or three months summer school, at which time sheep and pigs occupied the ground floor and children just above them. While the records of those early days are totally gone from the school files, we believe that Julia A. Kemp followed Samuel D. Alban, whose term closed March 18th, 1865. Miss Kemp commenced May 1st, 1865 and taught four months. The enrollment was thirty-six girls and twenty-two boys.
She was succeeded by Martha C. Coburn, who taught two years, J. H. Felch teaching the winter term of 1867 and 1868. Hattie Gasmann taught the spring term of 1868, being the last school taught in the little red school house. The great white school house was built by W. C. Holly & Co., at a cost of $1563, which did not include the finishing of the upper room. That was finished in 1870, Gunder Wemme doing the plastering and C. E. Buck the carpenter work. J. H. Feich taught the winter term of 1868-9, W. F. Atwell teaching the summer term of 1869 for four months. G. W. Holland taught the winter term of 1870-71 and Lucinda Gordon the summer term.
In the fall of 1871 the school was divided for the winter term. Hepsy Bean taught the upper department and Hattie Thompson the lower. Miss Geraldine Bliss taught the summer school of 1871. H. A. Havenor and Hattie Thompson taught the winter term of 1872, and Miss Parmelia Orcutt the summer term. Then came L. H. Brainard and Dora Webster, who taught the winter term of 1873. Miss Libbie Swan wielded the birch during this summer term. The enrollment for the winter of 1873 was upper department, thirty-six; lower, forty-two; total, seventy-eight. An increase of twenty in eight years. Miss Swan had during the summer, thirty-four enrolled. Then came Phoebe Buck Teal, who with Dora Webster taught the winter term of 1874 and Mrs. Teal continued in the summer term of 1874.
The winter term of 1874-5 was taught by the Rev. Henry Orcutt and Dora Webster, and Miss Della Blodgett took charge of the summer term. Miss Blodgett and Mrs. Teal taught the winter term of 1875-6 and the two departments were first continued through the summer of 1876, Libbie Hummiston taking the lower department. Miss Blodgett and Miss Hummiston continued to teach until the spring of 1878, when Geo. H. Welton taught the consolidated school for four months with an enrollment of eighty scholars and an average attendance of fifty-one. Geo. H. Welton and Miss Annie Carter taught the winter term of 1878-9, Augusta A. Een and Annie Carter teaching the summer term of 1879. Geo. H. Welton again took the school and with Miss Ella Wilmot taught the winter term, continuing the summer term with Miss Martha Maddy. They continued in the school until the fall of 1882, when H. H. Suhs and Mrs. Dora Webster Keith taught until the end of the school year of 1885. In the fall of said year we leave W. F. Owen and Mrs. Keith in charge, with no record extant of the enrollment.
We are unable to name the school officers in the period allotted to me except the treasurers, who were: Enoch Webster, Wm. Loing, James Thompson, Wm. Wilson, Edgar Starks, A. H. Guernsey and J. O. Foxen who continued in office from July 1878 to the end of my record in 1885 and until July 1891.
Your relator was clerk in 1879, and was the first clerk to draw compensation. In 1884 he was succeeded by Edwin Grover.
The wages of teachers increased from $352 in 1868 to $820 when we had three departments in 1885. The little school house was built in the year 1885, Miss Carrie Guernsey being the first teacher therein. The lowest price paid for fuel was in 1879, when A. M. Nelson furnished ten cords of wood for $9.90. The cost of fuel in 1885 was $62.70, furnished by P. N. Peterson.
Of the annual meetings and proceedings of the boards we have no record. When the organization was first talked of, we had in the office a book of records going back to 1863, but some one kindly bor-rowed it and we have been unable to discover it since. In the light of these meetings and more especially this one, that book is almost priceless. If anyone has it we would be pleased to have it returned. The records except the registers are intact from 1887, which will make the task of the other collaborator comparatively easy.
The total paid for wages from 1868 to 1885 inclusive was $9,323, and for school buildings was $2,328. To warm the scholars only $523.20 was paid, a small sum in comparison with the sum now expended. We are not able to figure the cost per child for teachers from the fact we have not the enrollment. At the commencement of my history the students attending school under S. C. Alban were: William Phillips, Hollis Wilson, Harshall Holly, Estel Wilson, Alva Darling, Ferdando Czeskleba, August Gasmaun, John Gasmann, Fredie Gasmann, Edwin Grover, Edsil Gordon, Hans Gasmann, James Gasmann, Joseph Ellis, Clarence Phillips, Albert Cate, Nels Nelson, Charter Meeks, Thos. Wilson, John Hanson, John Wilson, Andrew Brown, Lynn Cate, Margaret Rob, Ida Cate, Alice Gordon, Maggie Gasmann, Annie Williamson, Sarah A. McLawlis, Sarah Wilson, Relief Grover, Libbie Palmer, Catharin Wilson, Annice Moyers, Anna Gasmann, Emma Wilson, Dora Webster, Susan Wilson, Melissa Collier, Nettie Collier, Nettle Palmer, Lucinda Gordon, Emily Webster, Phoebe Buck, Emily Buck, Adelia Rob, Amanda Ball, Effie M. Phillips, Emma Post, Elida Post, Emma Wright, Helen Holly, Ellen Childs, Eliza Hopkins, Augusta Czeskleba, Mahalla Post, Martha Chulds, Lizzette Czeskleba, Amanda VanSkiver, Ellen Warren, Sarah Rob, Mary Wilson, Lucy Childs, Merce Morrison. Total 66.
Of our village we can say but little during that period. It was identified with the Town and the public records are mostly destroyed. It had a steady growth and if we have it right we had as business places in 1885, two hotels, seven stores, two drug stores, two physicians, two blacksmith shops, one livery barn, one saloon, harness shop, meat market, tailor shop, two church buildings, cheese factory, and a population in the village proper of about 500.
When we first saw the village in the fall of 1865 we can remember those living on the north were: A. H. Bancroft, Peter Grover, and G. W. Cate; on the east, Harmon Ellis, Wm. Morrison, C. E. Buck and the Darlings. Hartman, Bobbe and Tom Olson were further away; on the south, James and William Wilson, Wm. Loing, Reuben Thompson, Ben Fleming, W. V. Fleming, David Allen, Orrin Maybee, Bangle, Dodds, and the Wilmots; on the west Robert Wilson, Stoys, Gasmanns - Nels, Chas., Godfrey, and some others.
The first cheese factory was built by Mitchell & Smith in 1874 or ‘75, which ran until 1878 when it suspended operations mainly for the reason that our oak cheese made from milk of the wild cow could not compete in the markets with cheese made from good milk. But that enterprise was worth thousands of dollars to the town and county, as it taught them a lesson that the farmers remembered, and within a few years another factory was started and which eventually led up to the present splendid factory or creamery we now have.
The Cooper Shop was built in the spring of 1863, a little north where Dwinell’s livery barn now stands, by Julius Czeskleba. This building burned down and Mr. Czesklba rebuilt near the present location of the Anderson shoe shop building, and was conducted by himself and his brother, T. W. Czesklba, for a number of years.
The Morgan stage line and the Nelsons - A. M. and J. J. - coming here in 1867 gave an upward push to business. Then Morgan of Plover built a store here in 1878 which further added to the greatness of our village, and when the Wisconsin Central railroad came our cup was nearly full. In 1874, the G. B. and Lake Pipin road was built and by going past and crossing the Wisconsin Central at what is now the Junction was our first and only drawback or jolt, which threatened the future of our village.
The first corporation in the town was the Amherst Dramatic Club. While the club as an institution had been in existence for a number of years, not until 1876 was it incorporated under the laws of the state, with A. H. Guernsey, A. J. Smith and M. A. Fleming as incorporators. The whole town was proud of the club and its plays. While no stars were added to the dramatic world, its work was highly commendable. It painted the Methodist church twice, not red, but in the conventional white. The inside of the hail at times took on a lurid hue, but nevertheless the club was a very enjoyable affair and filled its place well.
No great disaster occurred during my period. The Moyers hotel burned in 1869 or about that time. We dated events from the time of the floods taking out the Bancroft mill dam. The nearest the town ever came to a division was when the vote was taken to keep the hogs, sheep and cattle off the streets in 1880 or possibly later. In 1870, L. P. Harvey built the store so long occupied by our honored townsman, J. J. Nelson.
I desire to say that these items have been jotted down from memory alone and if not correct, please do not expose my ignorance here and now. If any one knows or remembers the history better, they can write it for preservation in the files of the association. These remarks may be within a mile of the facts, or they may not, but you can look the records over and you will find that the history of our village has been a progressive one. No halt or backward step has been taken. We did things when they were needed and in consequence, we had at the close of 1885 a thriving, promising village in which we all believed and were satisfied to live in.
Amherst and its Schools, 1885 to 1906 by Andrew P. Een
Ladies and Gentlemen: When your secretary informed me that I was expected to prepare a short history for this evening, I was also told that our schools should be the principal topic, and you will therefore find that most of what I have written is devoted to them. Much has been omitted that was well worthy of mention, but this has been done because I did not wish to bring a paper here, the reading of which would occupy over ten or fifteen minute's time.
At the beginning of the year 1885, the village of Amherst had a graded school of three departments. The higher and intermediate departments were conducted in the white school house which stood on the present high school grounds, while the primary department was the school house built the previous fall on Laconia street. The school continued as three departments and were taught in the buildings mentioned until 1891. At the annual school meeting held in July of the year named, it was decided to build a new schoolhouse and $5000 voted towards the same. Several adjourned meetings were held during the summer, at one of which plans drawn by I. M. Moss for the new school house were adopted, and at another such meeting Geo. H. Worden, Chas. Simons and Alfred Anderson were appointed as building committee to assist the district board, and the district board was instructed to receive bids for erecting the building up to the first of December. The contract was let to I. M. Moss and our five-room brick high school building was erected by him the following spring, at a cost of about $6,000. At the annual school meeting held in July 1891 the question of organizing as a high school was to be considered. Although not a resident of the district at that time, I was, however, present by invitation as County Superintendent of Schools, and addressed the meeting in favor of the high school proposition. Others also made remarks and the question was carried by a vote of 51 for, to only 6 against the high school. It was also voted to have an additional teacher, making the number four, and when the school opened in the following September the higher department was duly organized as a three years high school, under the state high school law, and below there was the grammar, intermediate and primary departments. The schools continued as thus organized until 1902. On August 10th, 1897, a special school meeting was held for the purpose of considering the propriety of adopting a four year course in the high school and a vote was taken on that question. The four-year course was defeated by a vote of 31 against, to 7 for that proposition. On July 3, 1902, the district board, however, again took up this question and by a resolution passed by the board, adopted a four-year course. At the annual school meeting held four days later, a resolution was adopted dividing the primary department and directing the district board to employ another teacher. This neces-sitated another schoolroom. The village hail stood a few rods south of the high school; the district board was authorized to exchange with the village and secure the village hall in exchange for the school house on Laconia street, which the school district still owned, but which had not been used as a school house for some years. The exchange was made and the first primary was established in what had previously been the village hail. An assistant was also engaged for the high school, the adoption of the four year course making this necessary, and therefore when the schools opened in September 1902, they were in charge of six teachers, as against four, the number that had been required for the eleven preceding years. During the four years that have passed since these last changes were made, no more departments have been added and the number of teachers re-quired remained at six.
On January 1st, 1885, the school board consisted of P. N. Peterson, clerk; Chas. Couch, director and J.O. Foxen, treasurer. Mr. Peterson held the office of clerk until 1887, when he was suc-ceeded by F. E. Timian who held the position until 1893 and was in turn succeeded by A. J. Smith, who served three years. Mrs. Tillie A. Adams served as clerk from 1896 to 1899, and A. J. Smith has been clerk from 1899 to the present time. Chas. Couch was succeeded as director in ‘89 by C. N. Fenton, who served in this capacity until ‘97 when he resigned. At the annual school meeting held in July 1897, G. W. Smith was elected to succeed Mr. Fenton and Mr. Smith has held the position of director from that time up to the present time. J. O. Foxen continued to hold the position of treasurer until 1891, when at the annual school meeting he was rewarded by a vote of thanks for long and faithful service. He was followed in the office of treasurer by P. N. Peterson, who held the same until 1894, when Mr. Foxen was again installed in that office and held it for two more terms. In July 1900 he was succeeded by L. J. Carey as treasurer, who has continued to hold that office up to the present time.
Herman H. Suhs was principal in the village schools at the beginning of the period under discussion, namely on January 1st, 1885; Mr. D. W. Keith presided over the intermediate and Carrie Guernsey was teaching the primary department. Mr. Suhs was succeeded as principal the following summer by W. F. Owen, who remained here for two years and was followed by M. S. McKee, who was principal of the schools from 1887 until 1891. Spencer Haven was employed as principal from 1891 until 1894 and was in turn fol-lowed by O. H. Day, who held the position for two years. Mr. Day was succeeded by H. S. Perry, who was employed as principal from 1896 until 1899. Wm. L. Bullock followed Mr. Perry and held the position two years. David Newberry came next and held this position from 1901 until 1905. Thomas Berto was principal of the schools during the school year of 1905 and 1906.
Mrs. D. W. Keith taught the intermediate department until 1887 and was succeeded by Lottie Gasmann who taught the same until 1891. Grace Fryar next had charge of this department for four years, or until 1895, and was followed by Agnes L. Nelson who taught there until Dec. 1896, and was succeeded by Alice Boss who taught there until June 1897. Minnie Gasmann taught this department from 1897 until Jan. 1899, Myra Fryar and Sadie Eldredge each teaching a portion of the remaining months of this year In this department. Maude Hungerford taught in this department from September 1899 until the next spring, when she resigned about a month before the close of school and Edna Sweet finished the school. Isola Chapin taught this department the next year and Edna Allen had charge of it the following year. Marguerit E. Jones was in charge from 1902 until the fall of 1903, when she resigned and was followed by Alice Rusk who taught from October 1903 until June 1904. Zelle Fryar presided in that room from 1904 until 1906.
Carrie Guernsey, who was mentioned as being in charge of the primary department in January 1885, was succeeded In April 1886 by Jennie Anderson who taught during the remainder of that school year. She was followed by Tillie Czeskleba who taught there from 1886 until 1888 and was then succeeded by Grace Fryar who remained in charge until 1891, when as already mentioned, she took Charge of the Intermediate department. Minnie Gasmaun taught the the primary department from 1891 until 1892 and was followed by Jennie Anderson who filled this position for twelve years, or until 1904. She was succeeded by Louise Diver who taught that school the last two years.
Margaret Messer was the first teacher in the grammar room after that department was started and taught there from September 1891 until June 1893. Wm. L. Bullock taught this department from 1893 until 1895. G. H. Putnam presided in this room the next year and was succeeded by Wm. L. Bullock, who came back and taught in the same room again for another year. Walter Verity next taught there for two years and was followed by Thomes Berto who presided in that room from 1899 until 1901. W. E. Keen had charge of this room the next year, and Edna Allen was the next teacher there. She taught in this room from 1902 until 1904. Lena Powers has had charge of the grammar department the last two years.
Mae Weller was placed in charge of the first primary when that department was organized in 1902 and remained in charge of the same until 1905. Amy Peterson taught this department during the past year.
Miss Bertha Tilotson was employed as assistant in the high school in 1902, when the four year course was adopted and continued as assistant there during the last four years.
Sixty-eight students hare graduated from the high school since its organization. Their names are as follows:
Class of 1892, three year course - Edna Smith, Grace Van-Skiver, Mary Bakke, Nellie Nelson, Hattie Moberg.
Class of 1893 - Edith Rollefson, Louise Nelson, Edna Grover, Myra Fryar, Lloyd Smith, George Nelson, Mae Weller.
Class of 1894 - Ella Bakke, Willie Berg, Gertie Lewis, Maude Lombard.
Class of 1895 - Thomas Berto, Lucy Moberg, George Guernsey, Gustave Nelson.
Class of 1896 - Zelle Fryar, Caroline Boss, Myrtle Timian, Joseph Berg, Edna Morehouse, Bernice Jaquith, Lucy Bishop, Esther Peterson, George Salscheider.
Class of 1897 - Emma Nelson, Stella Starks.
Class of 1898 - Maude Hathaway, Thomas Sands, Nella Rollefson, Clifford Smith, Antone Anderson, Carl Hall, Garth Cate.
Class of 1899 - Frank Hjertberg, Inga Severtson.
Class of 1900 - Effie Anderson, Ella Anderson, Beulah Hall, Alice Hart, William Holly, Josie Moyle, Hula Jacquith.
Class of 1901 - Emelie Ellandson, Mattie Jeffers, George Smith, James Berto, Clara Olson.
Class of 1902 - Nora Starks, Amy Peterson, Carrie Starks, John Lewis.
Class of 1903 - Four year Course, Raymond Peterson, Carrie Starks. (Miss Starks had graduated from the three year course the year before.)
Class of 1904 - Perry Boynton, Louise Diver, Robert Fowler, Verne Harvey, Flossie Jacquith, Maurice Wilson.
Class of 1905 - Margaret Jaquith, Inez Johnson, John Wenthworth, Anna Een.
Class of 1906 - Selma Ellingson.
During the last twenty-one years Amherst has experienced no boom, neither has it had any decline, and while its progress has not been rapid nor great, yet it has been steady and substantial as has already been evidenced by the development of its schools. During this period two fires have occurred that might be worthy of mention. In the spring of 1887, the principal hotel, which had been built by the Eens twenty years before, but which was now owned by John A. Salseheider and which stood on the site of the present hotel was burned and also another large building just north of it which was owned by Mrs. Gawthrop and conducted by her as a hotel. The next year Mr. Salseheider rebuilt the hotel, erecting the present brick structure. In April 1900 the White School House, which, after the new high school had been erected, had been moved down on Mill Street and was owned by the Temple of Honor, this society occupying the upper story while the lower story was used as an opera house, caught fire during the progress of a theatrical performance and was burned down together with several adjacent buildings.
In 1893 the Amherst Advocate was established by Hattie Moberg and has continued to prosper ever since. In September 1893, the International Bank was opened and has enjoyed a prosperous career having had deposits reaching as high at one time as $143.000. On March 9th, 1899, it however experienced ill luck in being entered by burglars who blew open the safe and took from the same bonds and money to the amount of $5520. The burglars, four in number, were soon caught, tried and sent to prison, and the bank finally recovered $4700 of the stolen bonds and money.
Milwaukee, Chicago and other cities have had much discussion over the problem of track elevation in order to avoid dangerous railroad crossings. In the summer of 1900 the railroad track through Amherst was elevated without any trouble or discussion, though perhaps done not so much to give our village safe crossings as it was to make more moderate the steep incline of the railway grade between Amherst and Amherst Junction.
In the spring of 1900 Amherst was duly incorporated as a village and the next year a system of waterworks for fire protection was built at a cost of about $3000 and, a fire company was organized and equipped with hose carts and other apparatus for fighting fires. Directly after all this was accomplished, a fire broke out in the high school building; the new fire company was quickly on hand and soon had the fire extinguished. The remark was made by many at this time that the cost of the waterworks had perhaps been saved to the village in this one case.
In 1905 Dwinell & Shidel instituted a system of electric lights for the village, bringing the electricity over wires from their mill property two miles away where the electricity is generated by water power. In the fall of this same year the Amherst Opera House Company, a corporation, was formed and the opera house was built at a cost of about $5000. Since the time last mentioned nearly a mile of cement sidewalk has been laid in the village and quite a number of fine new residences of modern design have been built.
Amherst now has a population of about 600 or more people, and, taking all things Into consideration It is believed that it is in all respects as progressive and up-to-date a village as any town of its size anywhere; and its residents have good reason to feel a just pride in their pretty village, resting pleasantly in the beautiful valley of the Waupaca river.
Paper Read at Red and White School Association Banquet, 1906 by Dr. F. E. Webster
I have not quite reached that age of which it is said that one’s memory like their eyesight is better for long distances, consequently, try as hard I may, I cannot recall clearly very many of the early teachers of the old white school.
The clouds shutting out my early childhood, are broken here and there and some incident sometimes trivial in nature stands clear my memory. When I was a very small boy, I distinctly remember going into the house and being taken upon the knee of a strange gent1eman. I was told that he was a school teacher and that his name was Mr. Hutton. I have never seen Mr. Hutton, to my knowledge, from that day to this, but I have always remembered him as the first school teacher of my acquaintance.
My first term of school was in the old red schoolhouse and Mrs. Coburn was the teacher. The building was in a dilapidated condition. The wooden seats were cut by jack-knives and near the seat which was occupied by George Bancroft and myself, side of the room was broken thru near the floor.
I do not remember of learning anything that first term except I learned to love my teacher, for Mrs. Coburn possessed the faculty of winning the affections of all the little ones in and we were never so happy as when we were allowed to stand her side and hold her watch or hand.
My next distinct impression is of standing by the old red school and looking with awe and admiration at the nearly completed new school building just south of the old one. It was to me a magnificent structure and as I was being assisted by some larger boy, up through one of the side windows so as to get a view of the interior, I felt proud to think that I was going to school in the new school
Thirty-seven years have passed and the glamour of childhood has long ago been dispelled by the cold realities of life, but I can still say that I am proud that I did attend the old white school at Amherst.
The first teacher I believe, in the white schoolhouse was Hosmer Felch. I have but two impressions of Mr. Felch as a teacher. One was that as he boarded at home, six miles away, he was often very late in opening school and the other that he made it extremely lively for the unruly pupils after he got there. I can still see one of the Boomer boys as he was jerked over the seat onto the floor and the dried prunes which he had in his pockets scattered over the floor.
Miss Bliss is remembered by the delightful time we had at a picnic held in the little grove now owned by Mr. Heath, and Dr. Atwell’s term of school is recalled by the big dog, which like the traditional little lamb, “followed him to school one day and made the children laugh and play.” One teacher of this early period is re-called by the fact that extremely large bustles were the rage at that time. I believe I received my first conception of numbers by counting the hair pins that found lodgement on that bustle from day to day, and not knowing anything of the cruel mandates of fashion, I thought it was an ingenious contrivance invented for that purpose and also might be a good seat for a little boy to take a ride.
I remember Mrs. Orcutt’s (now Mrs. Dr. Guernsey) term of school by the beautiful prizes she offered for punctuality and well learned lessons, and Mrs. Teal Mason’s pleasant smile and cheerful manner will never be forgotten.
For a few years the lower department only was used, as the second story remained unfinished. I believe Miss Hepsa Bean was the first teacher in the upper department and was followed by Mr. Havenor. Miss Thompson taught in the lower department about this time.
Most of the boys will remember the term of school taught by the Rev. Orcutt. The upper room at this time contained a few turbulent spirits who thought the mild mannered, soft spoken old gentleman was an easy mark. His earnest pleadings were of no avail and at last an open breach of discipline occurred. You who were present still remember what took place. The insurrectionists soon found that under the soft manner was an inflexible will and the apparently feeble frame had the muscle to back it up. The ringleaders received the thrashing of their lives and were glad to ask the old man’s pardon and receive his forgiveness. Mr. Orcutt won the respect and affection of all his pupils, and although his term of service was short, I know that he left a lasting, beneficial effect upon the lives of all those who came under the influence of his beautiful character.
Miss Blodgett agreed to meet with us during this reunion only after receiving the solemn promise of the officers of this association that no mention of the time that elapsed since she taught in the old white school house would be allowed. And as she has apparently found the magic spring of perpetual youth for which Ponce de Leon searched so long, the secret is safe, unless the gray hairs of some of her pupils give it away.
The period of Miss Blodgett’s labors in our schools was one of transition. The old methods of teaching were becoming obsolete and the smaller schools of the state were just beginning to feel the in-fluence of our normal schools and their new methods. Before this time our mental training had largely been allowed to follow the lines of least resistance. Those studies we liked, we spent most of our time upon, while those we did not like were either cut out or neglected.
This fact was brought strongly to my notice upon entering school at the beginning of the winter quarter under Miss Blodgett. I detested grammar and consequently had neglected the study. I found my class, mostly girls, well advanced in Green’s Grammar and on finely. I remember they were diagramming sentences according to a new method. It looked beautiful but it was all-Greek to me I thought grammar was all right for girls, but boys would never have any use for it, so I prepared to cut it out. Teacher wouldn’t let me and I was made to understand that in order to have a symmetrical foundation for an education, one must work the hardest on the weakest places. I plunged in and by the help of my teacher and my good girl friends, who slyly passed me their slates so I could copy my lessons, I managed to keep my head above water. I did a lot of floundering in that grammar class - never touched bottom once and I have a suspicion that my old teachers will think I never will.
In our Ignorance we thought we all about our letters from A to Z Miss Blodgett soon showed us that we did not know the first principles of the alphabet. She started a new-fangled study called “orthoepy” and then our troubles began. The letter A we found could be pronounced in 8 or 10 different ways. We wrestled with the vowels and consonants, linguals and sub-linguals and diphthongs. We had to describe the exact position of the tongue and other organs of articulation in framing the letter R, so that we could pronounce it distinctly and thus proclaim to the world, and the New England states in particular, that we came from the Great Middle West.
It was a hard job, but we won out and when I came up for examination to enter the Oshkosh Normal, those very same questions were fired at me by Pres. Alban, and if it had not been for that train-ing in orthoepy under Miss Blodgett, I would have been obliged to have taken a course in the preparatory before entering that school. So I had reason for thanking my teacher for knowing what was good for me and holding me to the work against my inclination.
I wonder if any of the “A” Geography class remember the long list of unpronounceable Spanish names of states and cities in Mexico? I don’t believe Cortez worked half as hard in conquering that country as we did in learning to spell and trying to pronounce those names. Occasionally I see one of these words in the daily paper and it seems like meeting an old friend. I thought it was time wasted, but years afterwards when I was compelled to memorize long Latin anatomi-cal names in a medical college, I felt very grateful to Miss Blodgett and appreciated the training in memory I had received in her “A” Geography. Miss Blodgett put in five years of faithful and consistent work. School advanced under her instruction and I am glad to say it has been constantly on the upgrade ever since.
Nearly all the pupils under Geo. Welton considered him an ideal male teacher, and I for one have never changed my mind. He was strict in discipline without being overbearing and, tyrannical. He was sympathetic; so we all felt free to carry our burdens to him. He was one of the boys outside of school, without losing his dignity and consequently our respect. He taught nothing but the common school branches, but what George taught he taught well. He planted the seed of ambition in the minds of his pupils and pointed the way upward to a higher education, and I am glad to say that many of his pupils profited thereby. It was during George’s last term that some of his larger boys showed a leaning toward literature as a profession. They at first, like Dickens’ Silas Wegg dropped into poetry, but their Pegasius must have been of the bronco breed for they were soon unhorsed.
After this failure in poetry they developed a keen rivalry to see which could write the best “Dime Novel.” As my seat happened directly in front of them, I was chosen referee, or literary critic and each chapter of the blood curdling romances was passed to me for my verdict. Everything progressed finely, the novels were nearly completed, when one day teacher happened to stroll that way un-noticed while they were in the throes of composing a thrilling climax. You can imagine the climax and the two great literary lights were suddenly extinguished forever, for one is a promising life insurance agent and the other, assistant cashier in a bank.
The last term of school I attended in the white schoolhouse was taught by Herman Suhs. He was a good teacher, well pre-pared and thorough and those who wished to learn made good progress. It was during this winter that the school board introduced a new system of heating the rooms. For some unknown reason the furnace worked backwards expelling all the heat out of doors and drawing the cold weather inside. We had to sit clothed in overcoats, overshoes, caps and mittens, our breath congealed and we shook as one with the ague. The only warm one in the room was the teacher. He was terribly hot at A. J. Smith. Outside the schoolhouse it was different. The neighbors began talking about an early spring and were often seen out looking for robins. That was the way I grad-uated from the Old White School House. I was literally frozen out.
The terms of school conducted by Mr. Owen and Mr. McKee, I know very little about except that the school under their instruction reached such a state of advancement that a free high school was de-manded and a new and more commodious school building was necessary. The teachers, who taught in the lower room after I left, are re-membered better by the younger alumni than those I have mentioned. I know them all well, but as teachers knew very little about them.
My sister, Dora, taught for many years in this department and I know she still lives in the memory of the boys and girls who attended her school. Mrs. Hummiston, I hear spoken of frequently by those who knew and loved her as a teacher. Mrs. Anna Carter Fleming is still with us as well as all of those who taught in the annex which was built later.
The alumni of the old Red and White Schools should be grateful to the school boards for securing the services of the class of teachers they engaged. For the time in which they served they were the best that could be procured. They were nearly all the product of the country school and were denied the advantages of the state normal and county training schools.
The library of the school consisted of a dilapidated Webster’s dictionary, no supplementary reading, no historical reference books, nothing but the few text books in the hands of the pupils. It is a wonder that they accomplished as much as they did.
I have no recollection of a single teacher but that did his or her very best. Give them some of the roses now and don’t wait until they are dead. We owe them a debt of thanks for what they did for us and whenever you meet any of your old teachers don’t be backward about taking them by the hand and telling them of your appreciation for the help they gave you in the past.
Where are the boys and girls who went from their Alma Mater with high hopes, buoyant steps and faces turned toward the future? A few are here tonight, many are dead, but a greater number are out in the world fighting life’s battles. They may be found within the borders of a majority of the states in this Grand Union. Perhaps none of them will ever be great - as men call greatness - but if they are true men and women - loyal American citizens, who are willing to squarely meet the many economic questions of the day which confront them and aid in their solution - then their old school teachers will not have labored in vain and the Red and White Schools of Amherst will have accomplished that for which they were built.
Paper Bead at the Red and White School Association Banquet, 1906 by Miss Della Blodgett
Mr. Toastmaster, Ladies and Gentlemen
In these strenuous days, when an 8th grade teacher must at-tempt to teach virtue with the zeal of a preacher, music with the melody of a nightingale, drawing with the technique of an artist, physical culture with the grace of a danseuse, history with the learn - big of a seer, mathematics with the precision and rapidity of an expert, civics with the skill of a lawyer, reading with the art of an elocutionist - in fact, impart information regarding all things in the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth - it is no easy thing to go back to the time of the Old White School, when we did a few simple things.
In the long ago, too many years to mention, many of the men and women present tonight were my pupils.
The schoolroom was heated with the customary stove used in school buildings those days. You will remember those near it were too hot, and those farthest away too cold. The boys looked after the fires; the girls the sweeping and dusting.
The walls were adorned with mottoes such as “Lost opportunities never return,” ”Time and tide wait for no man,” “Be diligent” and the like. These were the magnificent gift of the teacher. They were pasteboard and cost five cents apiece.
My brain is befogged when I try to recall what in the world I taught those boys and girls. I remember they had frequent spelling contests. They parsed, diagramed and conjugated the verb, “to love.” They wrote the Spencerian hand and stuck to it, instead of first Spencerian, then vertical, the Spencerian and finally not much of anything.
I am certain Hime and Charley can say Maine, Augusta on the Kennebec, Delaware, Dover near Jones Creek, etc. They stayed after stool enough to learn them for keeps. They got down to work and thought out things for themselves. Alas! I fear the teacher does too much of the thinking for the girls and boys these days, because of the multiplicity of the things that are taught.
Some were mischievous; none were bad. They were earnest, hard working, obedient girls and boys. Is it any wonder that they have become good lawyers, doctors, preachers, teachers, merchants, millers, farmers, and home-loving wives and mothers? How true it is that only the good boys and girls make honored men and women.
May the pupils of the Old White School live long and prosper.
Paper Read at First Reunion Banquet, July 26, 1906 by Geo. H. Welton
In behalf of the pupils of the old white schoolhouse. They have served their country well, not perhaps on bloody battle field, but none the less a battle field. For all life that may be worthy, the name of living is a great struggle. They have been found in every division of this great army. Some have fallen in the strife, we miss their faces tonight, their genial smiles and pleasant words are not to be ours again upon this earth.
Those of us who have been spared stand tonight in deep thankfulness to God who has cared for us in our days of battle, and permitted us to stand again tonight, so near the spot so sacred to the memories of many. We make but one claim for these survivors of the conflict of life, and that claim is not the claim of perfection. But simply that we have striven to do our duties of the commonwealth, and come only to ask for ourselves a share in the joy and happiness which victories won entitle us to expect.
As already suggested we have furnished members for every division of the great army we call life. From our unpretentious halls have gone forth the statesman, the legislator, the doctor, the lawyer, the farmer, the merchant, the housewife and the nurse.
Some of our struggles have been fierce. We have had our Bunker Hills, our Lexingtons, and our seven days strife, but we have won, and come to you tonight to present our compliments. And like the Greek of old, we feel that we stand In the midst of sacred associations and, as we look over the battle fields of life upon which we have fought, these brave soldiers were products of the old white school house, surrounded by memories such as these, surrounded by men and women such as these, we feel that we have just reason to point with pride back to our first camping ground.
At this time, great is the joy and pleasure at meeting and re-newing so many old acquaintances. No joy can be so great to cause us to forget our missing ones, our comrades who have fallen while nobly fighting the battles of the world. Our lament is only that some voices which cheered us in the gloom of past days while In the midst of dark nights of toil and strife, that stood by and put new courage Into us, are not here. Their voices are not heard tonight, but memory of their achievements shall be fresh in our memories forever.
We are thus reminded that this meeting is not only a reception for those who return, but a commemoration of those who shall not be able to come to us, but to whom we may go, after a few more battles are fought, and a few more victories won.
For those of us who return today, whatever the danger of the peril through which we may in the past have come, we can but feel that we have scarcely done enough to merit this great pleasure. But for those whose work of life is over, and yet who live forever, for being dead they yet speak, no honor seems too great for them. Your patience would fall me were I to speak of each and all of our fallen comrades, as thoughts of them might arise. What I say of the w, might be well and justly said of the many.
And in conclusion let us remember one and all, it seems to me, we renew the record of the pupils of the Old White School House, that it has been one of unselfish service and, in nearly every case, one unbounded success. That we cannot do less than renew it with much pride and no little gratitude, wherever service has been honorable and useful they have been willing to render it. Not only have cheering words gone forth from their lips but, like many of our great commanders, they have laid down their lives while hosts were coming.
Memories of Amherst Old White School by W. F. Owen
Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Association
My knowledge of, and acquaintance with the historical red and white school houses of Amherst is of such a recent date as to render my recollections of no value from a traditional or historical viewpoint. Every member of this association knows as much of them as I do.
You have been entertained by very interesting accounts of the times when as a part of the struggle to locate a village at the present site of Amherst, the old red school house was built. The idea of the Wisconsin pioneer seems ever to have been that wherever a settlement or center of settlement is to be made, there must be established the school house, and around this temple of learning, however humble, would naturally radiate the lines of settlement.
The stories of these early days as I have heard them are interesting and entertaining, and make any remarks of the days within the recollection of the youngest member of the Association seem commonplace.
From the date of the building of the old red school house until the date of my coming to Amherst only twenty-seven short years had intervened, yet the immutable effects of time and change were such, that the old red school house had served its day and given way to the two story white school house which was constructed on such an ample scale that its builders were certain that they had provided school facilities for all future pupils of Amherst; this large new school, the source of so much satisfaction and pride to Its builders, had in turn become old and out of date, and an additional building had been erected near the Methodist church to care for the ever increasing school population.
The number of pupils had increased from the dozen or so that gathered around the first teachers in the old red school house in 1858, to about one-hundred and fifty in the schools during the year of 1885.
The efforts of those who endeavored to build up a town here in preference to the lower town had been rewarded by a beautiful village of about 500 souls. In fact, it was the Amherst as we all knew it in 1885, not as it is today and not as it will be twenty years hence, for time has wrought changes so slowly that we have not realized it, but when we cast up accounts for ten years we find they have been many.
I was told that I would be called upon to say something of my memories of Amherst or school experiences at Amherst. One subject will naturally include much of the other, so I have not determined upon which, if either, of the subjects I am talking. I shall leave it for you to determine. If I undertook to give you some of my school experiences you would expect to hear something novel, exciting or unusual, and I should disappoint you in talking about Amherst. If, on the other hand, I should attempt to give the memories of Am-herst that crowd themselves upon me, I should sound such a personal note as would be painful to me and not interesting to you. The hand of fate, or whatever force it was, that directed my steps to Amherst, certainly shaped the course of my after life. The reasons I need not give.
I first came to Amherst In 1885. I was looking for a job. I had heard from Mr. Suhs, my predecessor here, that there would be a change in principals.
The first man I met or spoke to in Amherst was Isaac Simcox and the first woman I met was Mrs. Simcox. They were old friends of my aunt who lived in Waupaca. So for a starting point I found them. I told Mr. Simcox my business, and he left his work and went with me to visit the various members of the board. The school board at that time consisted of P. N. Peterson, clerk; Chas. Couch, director and J. O. Foxen, treasurer. We found Mr. Peterson hitch-lug up his horse at the barn in the rear of his present residence. He gave me a hearing and advised me to call upon the other members of the board we found Mr. Foxen at the store of Foxen & Murat in the building now occupied by the International Bank. Mr. Couch was more elusive and if we caught him at all that day, It was late in the afternoon. Mr. Simcox entertained me royally, and introduced me, I think, to all the businessmen. Of course, I could not afterward remember them all, but coming here to live, I always assumed that he didn’t miss any, and as fast as I learned their faces, proceeded to talk to them as the spirit moved me, without waiting for further introduction.
My application was apparently looked upon favorably from the first visit, but the board couldn’t seem to get together that day, and I was asked to come up at a later date. I made two visits after the first, before I finally moved and came to stay.
On one of these, I struck the town in the morning just as the news had come in of a bear that was ravaging Herb Ward’s cornfield. The excitement was intense and everyone who had a gun was going for a shot at that bear, most of those who didn’t have guns went to see how it was done. I, with a few others, stayed in town all day; it was lonesome until about 3 P. M. Then as the hunters and their retainers returned it was lively enough. They did not get the bear.
On the other occasion I had been to Stevens Point and stopped off over night, to ascertain about the time of commencing school or something of that nature. During the night the old wagon shop that stood north of the hotel barn, and I should judge about where Luce’s livery barn now stands, burned.
There were two wooden hotel buildings and the hotel barn between the building and the corner, and the way the men fought fire that night to save the other buildings was something to remember. Nobody went to bed again that night - and the effect of the fire, or something else, upon some people was about the same as that of the bear hunt. I had left my hat in the office of Salscheider’s hotel when I went to bed, and when I turned out at the cry of fire, the office was locked, so I was forced to spend the remainder of the night in the crowd bareheaded.
I think every man and boy in the crowd asked me where and how I lost my hat. I was much embarrassed at first, but afterwards consoled myself with the thought that none of them would remember it, even if they knew me.
I was two years at Amherst and as I have already intimated my experience as a teacher was very pleasant; my relations with pupils, parents and school board were of the most satisfactory nature.
Of course, in the daily conduct of school life, there were some petty annoyances, but in the light of after events they were so trivial as to be lost to sight and memory. During my second year A. S. Smith succeeded Mr. Couch as director of the board. There were changes in the personal of the pupils during that time, and although I believe I remember every one of them, yet when I recall the old white school house, I always get the impression of it during the first term, nay rather the first day.
I can see the steep and crooked stairs, I can almost feel again the diffidence and embarrassment I felt on that first Monday morning in September, 1885, as I faced the room full of curious young people. I felt very much alone. I can see that old school room with the larger desks back between the stairways with the box stove with elevated drum partially shutting oft the view in front of them. And hen the smaller desks to the front - and with few exceptions I can recall the faces above those desks. I can, further, tell the ages of the pupils as they were given to me at that time. I am not going to tell that however.
The division of the school had been made on the lines of a scheme gotten up in the State Superintendent’s office for use in cornmmon schools - dividing the common branches into a primary, middle upper form. During the first year we undertook to subdivide forms into classes, preparing for a more systematic grading. A work as actually accomplished, while crude, was of great advantage and would have worked out all right. Our greatest difficulty the fact, that at the beginning of the spring term of each the older and larger pupils dropped out to teach, or work, as the might be and the primary room received a fresh supply of beginners, so that we had to move a class up from one room to the other and the teacher above had to complete the work of the teacher in the form below. In my room I had everything in the upper form all above that including the second grade branches. I had also, during the first term, one pupil who was taking plane geometry, reciting after school.
The pupils covering this scope of work were in, and present themselves to my recollection, in three general divisions. Though not in the first division were pursuing the same studies. In the first division and occupying seats back of the stove were Lottie and Minnie Gasmann, Ethel and Ida Rice, Allie Guernsey, Grace Fryar, two Misses Starks, Mina Childs, Marcelli Courtright, Annie Nelson, Henry I. Nelson, Bert Nelson, Ernest Smith, Ollie Lysne, Mary Smith, and one or two others.
The second division contained such pupils as Pearl Fryar, Bessie Nelson. Blanche Bigler. Edna Smith, Allie Boss. Charley Weller. Gustave Hansen, Lloyd Sands, Antone Bakke, Lewis Nelson, Chester Moberg. and to this division naturally belonged most of those who came to school during the late fall and winter only. Sometimes pupils who thus came in pursued studies in this and in one of the other divisions. In the third or lower division in my first year were girls and boys like Myra Fryar, Mary Bakke, Nellie Nelson, Pauline Bobbe, Mathilda Otto, Anna Rollefson, Ivy Peterson, Hattie Moberg, Grace and May VanSkiver, Willie Simcox, Willie Weller, Walter Pearson, George Couch and many others. In point of numbers this was the largest class.
As I recall these names and reflect that they are all, either men or women hearing the burdens of life, or else have been promoted to a higher class beyond, I am more than ever impressed with the havoc old Father Time is making in the roll of the old white school.
The school board in my day was economical and the appara-tus was not. The supplies were limited to a box of crayons or a new dipper, occasionally. I think Mr. Peterson and Mr. Foxen would have been and were inclined to furnish apparatus and appliances really necessary, but Mr. Couch usually settled the discussion by declaring that “We can’t do it because the people won’t stand it.”
I soon found that I got the needed articles the easiest by going or sending to Foxen’s and Murat’s store - I always got the goods and I suppose they got their pay.
There is one little instance that occurs to me and I cite it to show how the teacher’s influence is manifested in unexpected ways and sometimes follows very trivial acts. This impresses me because I have had the same experience at two different times. During my first year here, a girl named Helen Werachowski living at the Junction, came to school for a time. She entered sometime after the first of the term and instead of having her name and age as was my usual practice, I asked the question and put down the answer myself. She told me her name was Helen Veryhusky. I was innocent of all foreign names except a few Irish ones and after several repetitions, I put down the result as V-e-r-y-h-u-s-k-y, and in this way her name went onto the rolls and into the reports.
In looking up a question of title lately, I found where the same girl had signed a deed to property in 1896, 11 years after I had thus rechristened her, and had followed my version to the letter.
Family traditions were overthrown and parental teaching set at naught. This was the way the teacher spelled it and it was therefore right. The real name is W-e-r-a-c-h-o-w-s-k-i. Phonetically, I am inclined to think I was pretty near right. This one unintentional act had its result. The influence of that misspelled name I have been able to see. I hope that any other mistakes I may have made have not left such telltale marks.
The old school house has passed away, but the influence of those sheltered within its walls is an active, potent force which will be felt in an ever widening circle for all time to come. We are happy in the belief that that influence is everywhere and always tending for the enlightenment of mankind and aiding in the building up of a better and stronger race of men and women. The old school house with its lack of modern improvements, its dearth of apparatus and facilities, has sent forth a strong column into life’s great army. If the modern schools of today can do work proportionately as good, they will do well indeed.
In conclusion I may be permitted to say, that I count my life in Amherst, as a teacher, and as a citizen, as one of the bright spots my life. My recollections are nearly all pleasant and the painful part is not of something that happened, but the fact that such times must pass and bring us to the dark places of life.
Early Amherst and Present Amherst
The present village of Amherst is not the same as it was sixty-seven or sixty-eight years ago.
Perhaps this question will arise in your mind: Why was this valley chosen as a site for our village? No one thought much of the country’s possibilities. One of the early settlers was Wm. V. Fleming, who was born in Trenton, N. J., August 22d, 1819. He was married to Caroline Wylie, who was also born in the east. Together they made the journey to Illinois, but Mr. Fleming, who was a shingle weaver by trade, was not satisfied with the Prairie State, and in 1845, he left his wife and child in Illinois and started out on foot for Portage county. He made a brief stop at Stevens Point, which at that time contained but one log cabin which was occupied by Mr. Stevens. Mr. Fleming had no definite plans laid for his future and his finances were exhausted. He however decided to leave matters to chance. Picking up a stick and letting it fall, he went in the direction the stick pointed, and accordingly continued his journey and located in the woods of Eau Pleine Township, which is now the town of Dewey. There he lived and made shingles for two years and in the following fall was joined by his wife and child, and Mrs. Fleming was the only white woman between Wausau and Stevens Point. Mr. Fleming moved his family to Amherst Township in 1855, where he had previously made a squatter’s claim on a large tract of land south of this present village. This tract he sub-divided with his sisters and brothers, who came from the east and settled on productive farms around the present site of Amherst. They were: his brother, Benj. Fleming, and the sisters were Mrs. A. Rierson, Mrs. Wm. Rice, Mrs. Reuben Thompson, Mrs. Wm. Wilson and Mrs. Robert Wilson and families. Their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Fleming, also came west with them.
These good people, who assisted so nobly in subduing the wilderness and developing this fertile section into a land of plenty and prosperity have all passed into the Great Beyond, but all have lived a career that entitles them to a place of honor amongst the early settlers of our town.
Mr. Fleming and his relatives were satisfied with this new location, so remained: Others saw their satisfaction and followed them.
The immigrants to this village were from other states and other counties from our own state. The Germans came from New York and Pennsylvania and from Watertown, Jefferson county, and the Nor-wegians from Dodge and Waukesha counties. Their aim in coming here was to secure cheaper land. These people did not come here by train, automobile, steamship or aeroplane. They came by a “slow but sure” means of travel; generally by oxen, sometimes with horses, and often by foot.
In moving here Godfrey C. Gasmann traveled the road from twenty miles this side of Milwaukee to this town, eleven times, on foot.
The first homes built in Amherst were those of Peter Grover and Wm. Fleming. Mr. Grover built his home in 1854. It is the H. Indestad home today. Mr. Fleming built a little earlier. His home was that now known as the Fleming Farm at Lower Amherst and was sold to Ed Hansen, who is the present owner.
The first store was owned by John Eudlich. It stood north of Marion Fleming’s buildings. He sold to Cornwell Bros., and they sold to Nels Gasmann. Mr. Utgard now uses that building for his warehouse
A. H. Bancroft and Peter Grover built the first gristmill in town in 1858. Previous to this Shannon and Seth Thompson built a gristmill at Fleming’s. It was a great eye-sore to the mill owners farther up the river, and Bancroft and Grover started a lawsuit, claiming that the Shannon mill dam backed water up against their mill and reduced their power. Shannon was defeated, and injunction was to he served on him on Saturday, but before Saturday arrived, all the machinery had disappeared and was safely landed in Wau-paca County.
A store and residence combined was built where our new bank now stands in ‘58 by Mr. Gordon from Waupaca. Mahanna’s now use that building for their home. Abe Gordon had intended to build at Lower Amherst but he was unable to procure the location he desired and when Robert Wilson, who owned much of the land up here, offered him as many lots as he wished to build on, he at once accep-ted the offer and built on the present site of the village.
Between 1858 and 1860 Nels Gasmann moved his store and other buildings, including a granary up town. The granary was very useful as the “merchants” bought grain and stored it here for a time. Later it was hauled to Gill’s Landing or Berlin by team. Mr. Gasmann’s home was that in which the Utgards now reside, just west of the post office. Teaming to Gill’s Landing and Berlin for the merch-ants was a part of the regular business of those who owned or could procure a good team, hauling down produce that the merchants had purchased from the surrounding country, and bringing back goods that had come that far by boat. This extensive teaming came to an end when the old Wisconsin Central Railroad run its first train through here on November 20th, 1872. The Green Bay road was put through the next year.
John Peikert and brother built a blacksmith shop where the C. J. Iverson store building stands. They also built a house back of C. P. Somer’s store. That house has been moved and remodeled and now is the property of Wm. Betlach on North Main street. Lee Guyant’s residence and a blacksmith shop that stood where the hotel now stands, were built by John Robb in the early sixties.
The Czeskleba families moved to town, purchased the Peikert Shop and moved it to the north side of Mill street. It was then used for a cooper shop where barrels were made.
On the site where the cooper shop first stood, Mr. Morgan of Plover built a store building. Frank Hjertberg now uses that building for his restaurant. A lean-to was built on the north side of it, which was used as a wheat room.
Mr. Moyers, Mrs. P. N. Peterson’s father, built the first hotel here. He lived about one mile up the river on the east side, on the farm now owned by A. J. Everson. The little lake close by (Lake Myers) derived its name from Mr. Moyers’ first ownership of the farm. During the winter they put the building onto skids and oxen drew it across the river, down into town. It stood where P. N. Peterson’s warehouse and office now stands. For the accommodation of teamsters and stage horses, Mr. Moyers built two barns. One is used as a warehouse at the Junction, and the other Mr. Peterson uses for a barn.
The mail did not reach people then as often as it now does. When a neighbor happened to go to Waupaca (not every day) he would bring the mail home for the neighbors. The main newspapers were the Saturday Blade and Milwaukee Weekly Sentinel. Later, Robert Wilson went to Waupaca three times a week after the mail. The first post office was on the Louis Larson farm, which was then owned by Wm. Loing. The office was later moved into town with Mr. Gordon as first postmaster; then Nels Gasmann, followed by Guernsey, Starks and then Enoch Webster.
The first regular mail carriers were the Folger Brothers, then the Pipe Brothers, Jack and Tom. They carried man until the stage coach started.
The four horse stage brought passengers and mail. It came from the east in the evening and from the west in the morning. The Moyer’s Hotel was their stopping place. During the summer months the coach would be followed by many men who had gone down the river on lumber fleets. Some went as far as New Orleans, but others only to the Mississippi river.
Across the road from the Fleming schoolhouse, stood a small log building. It was the first school house in Amherst. Then the Fleming school of today was built. The school district was divided. The Amherst district built a rude building on Oliver Heath’s farm, with Elisa Lowing as the first teacher. It was during the second term that the building burned down. About ‘60 or ‘61 the Red School House was built. It stood just north of our high school.
The Red School House became so crowded that the children had to sit three in a seat. About this time people were considering a new two-story structure. It took a long time to decide. Some thought it a too extravagant proposition, but It was finally built. Mr. J. Hosmer Felch was the first teacher.
The first physician here was Dr. A. H. Guernsey, who came here as a young man from Berlin, Wis. He entered the Civil War and returned here to practice. He passed away at his home in Glendale, Cal., April 22, 1922.
The M. B. church was the first church here. It was built by all the people in the community. Some helped with labor and some gave material. Very few gave money. Mr. Warren, the preacher, sold his cow to help build it. Godfrey C. Gasmann hewed and gave the sleepers that the floor lies on. Robt. Wilson donated the land.
There wasn’t a wall under it for a number of years. During the hottest part of the day sheep would lie under it. As the roads and woods were every man’s pasture.
These people had their good times with their hard work. The Een home near Lime Lake was a popular place to gather for a good time. The orchestra that played for the dances was of one piece - the fiddle - which was ably played by the late John Een. The Aldrich home was another place to gather for a good time.
The older people of today will remember when the mothers, after the days’ work was over, would take her family of little ones, father carrying the youngest, and spend the evening with a neighbor some miles distant. They thought nothing of the walk, and the interchange of homely ideas brought people close together. We realize, with a start, that today we have no time to neighbor. Life is passing, it is hurry, hurry, and what are we gaining?
During the winter of ‘56 the snow fell four feet deep and people had to use snowshoes. That winter the young people made frequent trips to Waupaca and Stevens Point on snowshoes. One of the girls from here was teaching school near Stevens Point. She was taken seriously ill with scarlet fever. Word was seat to her father and he, procuring scarlet fever medicine, went on snowshoes to her assistance. When he arrived with the medicine, little hopes were given for her recovery, but the medicine did its work and she recovered.
Most of those early settlers lie on the hill west of us. Very few remain here. To an old timer a visit to this spot brings back old memories, both pleasant and sad. If these people gone before us could return, they would look with astonishment on the world today. If we carry on our lives as nobly and as in as plucky a manner as they did, we may become as noble men and women as they were.
A. J. Smith was born April 20th, 1841, at Spafford, Onandaga County, New York. He attended the common school until the age of 14, when he started out for himself. At the age of 17 he was employed in the quartermaster’s department of the United States army as teamster. In ‘59 and ‘60 he was in Texas and New Mexico. He made a forced march to San Antonio with a part of the Third U. S. Infantry and was almost immediately made first sergeant of the company. Mr. Smith was in the War Department drawing second lieutenant pay until October 1864, when he took his final discharge and came to Amherst In August, 1865, where he resided until his death. In 1880 he was admitted to the bar; in 1898 he was elected the first president of the village of Amherst, and also served the people faithfully in other positions. His wife survived him but a few years. His three children reside within the state, E. W., a druggist at Tomahawk; Mrs. Edna McCorkle at Richmond Center and Lloyd D., a lawyer at Waupaca, in partnership with Edward E. Brown. Mr. Smith is remembered for many things and in many ways, but perhaps the thing which will last longest and has its foun-dation the most secure, was his interest in the young people of the village which was his home for so many years. His work among, and for young people, was original and unique and many years ahead of his time. He was a boy with the boys and a counselor and guide for us all. He took time to erect a toboggan slide from his barn loft, where we spent many pleasant evenings and the memory of funny happenings brings a happy smile to the faces of the now middle aged boys and girls. The little parties given in his home, with the able assistance of Mrs. Smith; the amazed face of the “teacher”, in the spelling class in one of the Social Evenings of the Social Temple, when A. J. had put the big boys up to mischief; his unselfish work for the cause of temperance; these and other things no numerous to mention, are all solid blocks in the foundation which he built and which shall last as long as life itself. All honor to the memory of A. J. Smith.
Isaac Simcox was the first hardware dealer in town, coming at an early date. He served for a number of years in the Civil War, and was a prisoner in Libby Prison. The suffering he bore in that prison left marks which he bore to the end of life. His faithful wife went there and brought him home, more dead than alive. Both have since passed away leaving two sons, Hiram of Marinette and William of Eau Claire, both active members of this organization.
P. N. Peterson is the oldest potato shipper in Wisconsin, having been in the business since 1875. Mr. Peterson kept a general store in the building now occupied by C. P. Sommers. The farmers of that time raised small patches of potatoes for family use. What surplus they had they brought to Mr. Peterson in exchange for groceries. He stored the potatoes in a shed hack of his store until he had a carload, which he sold to a man in Green Bay. They were hauled by wagon to Amherst Junction and shipped from there. Here was the first carload, of potatoes shipped from this section of the state. The general freight agent of the old Wisconsin Central R. R., hearing of this shipment, offered Mr. Peterson a small reward if he would ship fifty cars from this station in one season. Mr. Peterson worked among the farmers, encouraging them to increase their acreage. He succeeded in shipping forty-five cars and laughingly says that while he didn’t get much reward, his efforts earned him the foundation of a successful business. Mr. Peterson is still, at this writing, 1922, in the potato business and the small beginning has grown to, on an average, of 700 cars by all our dealers, from the local station.
James J. Nelson has been a prominent citizen of our village for many years and is at present one of the young-old men of the community. He was born April 8th, 1840, in Porsgund, Bratsbergs, Amt. Norway. The family came to this country in 1857, coming to Wisconsin by way of Buffalo and Milwaukee, up to Oshkosh, up the Wolf River to Northport and then on foot to Scandinavia. Mr. Nelson received his early educational training in the common schools of Scandinavia and assisted his father on the farm in the summers. When he was 16 years of age he left the old homestead and found employment at Waupaca. When the Civil War broke out Mr. Nelson enlisted in Company A, Forty-second Wis. Volunteers and the regiment was soon afterward ordered to Madison, where the companies were drilled for about ten weeks and then sent to Cairo, Ill., where the colonel of the regiment soon promoted Private Nelson to the position of his Orderly. After a few months he was taken sick and remained in the hospital for about three months and later received his discharge. In 1866 he and his brother, Andrew M., now of Stevens Point, embarked in the merchandise business at Amherst later Mr. Nelson conducted the business on his own account in the building now occupied by S. C. Swendson, and where he still has his office. On October 14, 1867, Mr. Nelson was married to Miss Juniata Patton Andrews, who passed away Jan. 5, 1920. Mr. Nelson has three children, Herbert S. of Chicago; George B., a lawyer of Stevens Point, and Mrs. Laura Nelson Kellogg of Milwaukee. Mr. Nelson is one of the most hospitable of men. He has always taken a great delight in entertaining at his beautiful home, friends from far and near, and all parts of the world, He has traveled extensively, both in this and in other countries and in telling of incidents connected with his travels, he makes his listeners enjoy them with him. Mr. Nelson has had some very sick spells, but at present is, to use his own words, “100 per cent perfect in health.” May he long continue so, and may his life of usefulness in Amherst extend for many years to come. His deeds of kindness have been many and still continue. Long live Mr. Nelson.
List of Members of Red and White School Association and Their Addresses (This list was compiled in 1922. Addresses are only good for genealogy references.)
Adsmond, Mrs. Edna Washburn, Goldendale, Wash. Alger, Mrs. Emma Hotz, 309 Chute street, Menasha, Wis. Allen, Miss Edna, 5624 Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois. Allen, Fred, Amherst, Wis. Allen, Miss Grace, Amherst, Wis. Allen, Mrs. Jessie Rowbotham, R. F. D., Pulaski, Wis. Allen, Mrs. Wm., Amherst, Wis. Allington. Mrs Frank, 524 E. 35th St., Tacoma, Washington. Aldrich, Mrs. Cora Allen, Amherst, Wis. Alm, Edward, Amherst Junction, Wis. Alm, Ole, Amherst, Wis. Amundson, Mrs. Goodman, lola, Wis. Anderson, Miss Jane, Amherst, Wis. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. Chr., Waupaca, Wis. Anderson, Arthur G., Clatskanie, Oregon. Anthony, Mrs. Effie Yorton, Amherst, Wis. Atwell; Mrs. Relief Grover, 1048 Clark St., Stevens Point, Wis. Atwell, William, Edgerton, Wis. Bakke, Antone, Wilmar, Minnesota. Bakke, Miss Permelia. Baldwin, Mrs. W. A., Plover, Wis. Bangle, Ed., Cavalier, North Dakota. Bangle, Mrs. Lizzie Fryar, 3020 Hennepin, Minneapolis, Minn. Barton, Dan, E. Irving street, Oshkosh, Wis. Berto, Elmer, Des Moines, Washington. Berto, Thomas J., Watertown, Wis. Berto, James, Amherst, Wis. Berg, Wm., San Francisco, California. Berg, Martin, Galena, Illinois. Bergen, Mrs. Edna Moss, Concord Apt., 655-11th St., Minneapolis. Beers, Wm., Rhinelander, Wis. Benson, Carl, Ladysmith, Wis. Bigler, Wm., Palo Alto, California. Bigler, Miss Blanche, Room 125, 620 S. Flower St., Los Angeles, Cal. Bibbins, Mrs. Della Maybe, 2833 14th Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn. Blaire, Mrs. Emma Nelson, Plainfleld Wis. Blair, Mrs. Ellen Jeffers, Priest River, Idaho. Blanc, Mrs. Lettie Jensen, 30th and Euclid, Des Moines, Iowa. Blodgett, Miss Della, Stevens Point, Wis. Bobbe, Gustave, Dorchester, Wis. Bobbe, Mrs. Wm., Stevens Point, Wis. Borchert, August, Amherst, Wis. Bolter, Mrs. Louisa, Buena Vista, Wis. Boss, Wm. E., 613 71st Ave., West Allis, Wis. Borgen, Ole, Amherst, Wis. Buchanan, Mrs. Edith Jensen, 1013 N. Central Ave., Chicago, Ill. Bumpus, Mrs. Harriet Moberg, The Bluebird, Tomahawk Lake, Wis. Bullock, Wm. L., Valier, Montana. Bullock, Mrs. Nellie Nelson, Valier, Montana. Bullock, Mrs. Eliza Anderson, Waupaca, Wis. Bullock, John, Manawa, Wis. Burns, Mrs. Hannah Tobin, Almond, Wis. ate A G. Phoenix, Arizona. Cate, Lynn, Wausau, Wis. Cate, Mrs Hattie, Rochester, Wis. Carey, Morris, Amherst, Wis. Carey, Mr. and Mrs. L. J., Amherst, Wis. Carpenter Mrs. Ruby Knight, Waupaca, Wis. Campbell Mrs. Maria Kent, Three Lakes, Wis. Chady, Mrs. Gussie Grover, 27 Hazel St., Oshkosh, Wis. Childs, Charles F., Abbotsford, Wis. Childs, Mrs. Ellen Worden, Abbotsford, Wis. Childs, Clarence E., Sherman Apts., San Diego, California. Childs, Mrs. Minnie Bigler, Sherman Apts., San Diego, California. Childs, Benj., Pacific Grove, California Clark, Mrs. Geraldine Bliss, Stevens Point, Wis. Coach, Mrs. Annie Williams, Amherst, Wis. Courtright, Miss Stella, Henrietta Apts., Minneapolis. Cook, Mrs. Edith Rollefson, 4422 Wesley Ave., Los Angeles, Cal. Cronyn. Mrs. Carrie Cate, 131 14th St., Milwaukee, Wis. Czeskleba, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Czeskleba, Amherst, Wis. Czeskleba, Ernest W., Waupaca, Wis. Czeskleba, Edward, Montello, Wis. Czeskleba, Phillip, Montello, Wis Czeskieba, Victor, Shawano. Wis Czeskleba, Ferdinand. Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Czeskleba, Wm., Sylvan Grove, Kansas. Danforth, William, Plover, Wis. Danielson. Mrs. Ella McFall, 174 N. Humphrey, Oak Park, Ill. Delaney, Mrs. Grace Fryar, Amherst, Wis. Deming, Mrs. Alice Guernsey, 5509 Rice St., Austin, Chicago. Drake, Mrs. Martha Childs, Hazelton, Idaho. Dwinell, Mrs. Dollie Een, Amherst, Wis. Dusenbury, Dr. O. E., Amherst, Wis. Dietrich, Mrs. Reka Oatball, Randolph St., St. Paul, Minn. Ebert, Mrs. Maude Hathaway, Amherst, Wis. Edminister, Wm., Waupaca, R. F. D., Wis. Eldredge. Ed. Clark, Port Washington, Wis Erdman. Mrs. Tillie Bobbe. Park Falls. Wis. Emerson. Mrs. Mary Bakke, Amery, Wis. Fenton. Mr. and Mrs. C. N., Amherst, Wis. Feustel. Mrs. Ada Price. Amherst. Wis. Fischer, Mrs. Lottie Olson, 7322 La Fayette Ave., Chicago, Ill. Fleming, Mrs. Annie Carter; Amherst, Wis. Fleming, Marion A., Amherst, Wis. Fowlie, Wm.. Stevens Point, Wis. Fowler, Mrs. Nettie. Amherst. Wis. Fowler. Robert, Frost, Madison, Wild Rose, Wis. Frost, Mrs. Ella Guernsey, Almond, Wis. Fulton, Effie Snyder, Rice Lake. Wis. Fryar, R. R., Amherst, W'is. Gasmann. A. C., Amherst, Wis. Gasmann. Mrs. Maria Johnson, Amherst, Wis. Gilbertson, Miss Anna, Amherst, Wis. Gilbertson, Julius, Amherst, Wis. Glenn, Mrs. Ellen Boss, 5202 Branch Ave., Tarmpa, Fla. Gordon, Ed., Waupaca, Wis. Gaffin, Mrs. Ida Rice, 519 Kimhark St., Longmont, Cob. Grieves, Mrs. Pauline Bobbe. Park Falls, Wis. Griffith, Mrs. Carrie Sherwin. South Kaukauna, Wis Griffith, Mrs. Ina Sherwin, Eagle Grove, Iowa. Grover, Mrs. Phoebe Payne, Waupaca, Wis. Grover, George, Athens, Wis. Grover, Martin, Ladysmith. Wis. Grover, Newel, Amherst Junction, Wis. Grover, Mrs. Betsy Hopkins, Amherst Junction, Wis. Guernsey, Mrs. Permelia Orcutt, 214 No. Jackson St., Glendale, Cal. Guernsey. Frank, 214 No. Jackson St., Glendale, California. Guyant, Bert, Lola, Wis. Guyant, Lee, Amherst, Wis. Gullickson, Mrs. Lillian Johnson, Route 1, Iola, Wis. Harvey, Herbert. Comstock, Minnesota. Harvey, Mrs. Libbie Hummiston, Y. W. C. A., Alton, Ill. Harvey, Burton, Amherst, Wis. Harvey, Mrs. Sophia Smith, Amherst, Wis. Harvey. Mrs. Eliza Loring, Claire, Ill. Harvey, Verne M., Amherst, Wis. Haskin, Mrs. Marie Empey, Wausau, Wis. Harmon, Mrs. Grace VanSkiver, Menomonee Falls, Wis. Harmon, Mrs. Grace Moberg, Snohomish, Washington. Haertel, Mrs. Edith Wilson. 311 1/2 Clark St., Stevens Point. Hauff, Mrs. Bessie Nelson, 4269 Linden St., Seattle, Wash. Hagen, Mrs. Anna Hermanson, Lola, Wis. Hathaway, Mrs. Susie Wilson. Amherst, Wis. Hathaway. William. Amherst, Wis. Hanson, Gustave. 3109 5th Ave. S., Los Angeles, Cal. Halverson. Carl, Minneapolis, Minn. Heagle, Mrs. Pearl McKee. Thorpe, Wis. Heyer, Mrs. Annie Gasmann. White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Hewitt, Mrs. Frankie Jordan, Waupaca. Wis. Hewitt, Mrs. Julia Kemp, Wausau. Wis. Hettinger, John C., 912 27th St., Milwaukee, Wis. Hicks. Mrs. Effie Bangle. 1251 Lincoln St.. Eugene, Oregon. Hjertberg, Chas., Neenah. Wis Hjertberg, Anton, Amherst, Wis. Hjertberg, Frank, Amherst, Wis. Hjertberg, Mrs., Amherst, Wis. Hjelvik, Mrs. Clara Johnson, 49th and Humbolt Ave. N., Minneapolis. Holly, Wm. C., Holly, Mrs. W. C., Holman, Mrs. Libbie Palmer, Parfreyville, Wis. Holman, Mrs. Nellie Palmer, Parfreyville, Wis. Hogan, Mrs.. Jessie Mallison, 2212 Colfax Ave., S. Minneapolis, Minn. Howen, Andrew, 908 W. Nora Ave., Spokane, Wash. Howen, Mrs. Laura Johnson, Iola, R. 1, Wis. Hutte, Mrs. Lucy Moberg, 1123 Marion St., Seattle, Washington. Hutton, Andrew. J., Waukesha, Wis. Heath, O. K., Amherst. Wis. Jensen, Thorwald, Lock Bx. 119, Wausau, Wis. Jensen, Edward, 420 10th St, S., Virginia, Minnesota. Jensen, Alfred, Richland, Oregon. Jacobson, Miss Anna, Amherst, Wis. Johnson, Mrs. Iver, Amherst, Wis. Johnson, Mrs. Lottie Gasmann, Amherst, Wis. Johnson, Mrs. Linna Day, Amherst, Wis. Johnson, Oscar, Scandinavia, Wis. Jones, Mrs. Lillie Gasmann, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Jensen, Mollie Stoy, Cheyenne, Wyoming. Kelley, Mrs. Ella Davis, Royalton, Wis. Krueger, Mrs. Emma Kischel, 8817 5. Honore St., Chicago, Ill. Kussmann, Mrs Edith Otto, Arnott, Wis. Kovell, H. J., Amherst, Wis, Larson, Mrs. Anna Hjertberg, Amherst, Wis. Larson, Louis, Amherst, Wis. La Moria, Robert, 948 20 Ave. N. E., Minneapolis, Minn. La Pointe, Mrs. Mae Weller, Wausau, Wis. Lawton, Albert, Pacific Grove, California. Lea, Mrs. Bertha VanCott, 210 Franklin Ave., Oshkosh, Wis. Lea, Mrs. Elsie Van Skiver, Amherst, R. 1., Wis. Lea, Mrs. Lillie Worden, Amherst, R. 1, Wis. Loing, Mrs. Eliza, Belvidere, Ill. Loberg, Mrs. Flora Nelson, Nelsonville. Wis. Lombard, Mrs. Belle Young, Amherst, H. 1, WIs. Luce, Mrs. Celia Grover, 2511 Brantwood Rd., Washington, D. C. Lucas, Mrs. Amanda VanSkiver, Gray, South Dakota. Lunde, Mrs. Millie Anderson, 572 Grove St., Milwaukee, Wis. Lynch, Mrs. Frankie Kent, Orr, N. D. Lyons, Mrs. Anna Williams Clark, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Ludlow, Mrs. Ada Rice, Eagle Rock, Cal. Madson, Peter, Almond, Wis. Madson, John, Almond, Wis Mason, Mrs. Lena Anderson, Amherst, Wis. Mason, Mrs. Alma Washburn, Goldendale, Wash. Maxwell. Mrs. Jessie Wiltse. Robinson. Kansas. Maxwell, Minnie Clinton, Amherst, Wis. Mallison, Peter, Amherst, Wis. Mallison, Vernon. Amherst, Wis. |
Meachem, Oscar, Glenwood, Wis. Melkild, Mrs. Inga Severtson Week, R. 1. Box 39A, Northport, Mich. McKee, M. S., Polley, Wis. McKee, Clarence E., Pittsville, Wis. McKee, Oliver P., 299 E. 2nd Street, Fond du Lac, Wis. MeCallum, Mrs. Sarah Ball, 324 W. Forest Ave.. Neenah, Wis. Mccorkle, Mrs. Edna Smith, Richland Center, Wis. McGowen, Mrs. Corn Danford, Stevens Point, Wis. McKellips, Mrs. Gusta Sheppard, Minocqun, Wis. McGee, Mrs. Annie Nelson, 210 1st Street North, Virginia, Minn. McPherson, Mrs. Mia Blakefield, 1069 Thurman St., Portland, Ore. MeNeely, Ed., Lawrenceburg, Tenn. Mjelde, Mrs. Regna Swenson, Northland, Wis. Moberg, Andrew, Amherst, Wis. Moberg, Mrs. Emily Buck, Amherst, Wis. Moberg, Lorenzo P., Amherst, Wis. Moberg, S. Leonard, Amherst, V/is. Moberg, Adelbert K, Amherst, Wis. Moberg, George, Tomahawk Lake, Wis. Moe, Mrs. Anna Olson, Amherst, Wis. Morgan, Mrs. Emma Madson, R. 1, Almond, Wis. Moss, Elisha, Amherst, Wis. Melang,,Mr. and Mrs. Richard, Minocqua, Wis. Myers, Mrs. Julia Hanson, R. 1, Amherst, Wis. Murat, Mr. and Mrs. M. S., Amherst. Wis. Munchow, Mrs, Bessie Wilson, Amherst, Mis. Moss, Clifford, Golden, Colo. Nelson, George B., Stevens Point, Wis. Nelson, Gustave, Galloway, Wis. Nelson, Nels, 343 3d St., Milwaukee, Wis. Nelson, Lambert, 406 S. 4th Ave., Virginia, Minnesota Nelson, Timon, Amherst, Wis. Nelson, Mrs. Mary, Amherst, Wis. Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Louis, Amherst. Wis. Nelson, James J., Amherst, Wis. Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. A. M., 912 Clark St.. Stevens Point. Wis. Nelson, Louis L., Amherst Junction, Wis. Nelson, Henry N., Amherst Junction, Wis. Nelson, Cornelius, Chippewa Falls, Wis. Nelson, E. A., 48 Prospect Ave., Oshkosh. Wh. Niven, Will, Dunbar, Wisconsin. Niven, John, Crawfordsville. Indiana. Newton. Mrs. Mabel Wilson. Morse, Wis. Neul, Mrs. Ida Ristrow, 223 N. 10th St.. Brainard. Miun. O'Keefe, Mrs. Lucy Leonard. Stevens Point. Wis. Olson, Charles, Tioga. Colorado. Olson, Mrs. Ella Anderson. Waupaca, Wis. Olson, Mrs. Effie Anderson, Waupaca, Wit Olson, Mrs. Gusta Alm, Amherst Junction, Wis. Olson, Mrs. Emma Alm, Amherst Junction, U. 2, Wis. Olson, Otto, Amherst, Wis. Olson, Miss Clara, Amherst, Wis. Olson, Isaac, Amherst, Wis. Olson, Royal, Pueblo, Cob. Olson, Mrs. Lena Wold, Amherst, Wis. Olson, Thos., Amherst, Wis. Orcutt, Milton, Turtle Lake, Wis. Orcutt, Mrs. Bessie Nelson, Turtle Lake, Wit Otto, Mrs. Wm., Amherst, Wis. Otto, Rinehart, Amherst, Wit Otto, Mrs. Minnie Ristow, Amherst, Wis. Otto, Herman, Amherst, Wis. Owen, W. F., Stevens Point, Wis. Pearson, Walter, Nevis, Minn. Perkins, Mrs. Ida Guyant, Amherst, Wis. Peterson, P. N., Amherst, Wis. Peterson, Mrs. Annice Moyers, Amherst, Wis. Peterson, John P., Amherst, Wis. Peterson, Raymond L., Amherst, Wis. Peterson, Mr. and Mrs. Claus, Amherst, Wis. Peterson, Charles, Scandinavia, Wis. Peterson, Mrs. Laura Anderson, Waupaca, Wis. Peterson, Mrs. Rachel Boss, Amherst, Wis. Peterson, Lawrence, Iola, Wis. Peterson, Fred, Belllngham, Wash. Penney, Miss Mary, Amherst, Wis. Phillips, Miss Lillian G., Tennessee City, Tennessee. Phillips, Mrs. M. H., Amherst, Wis. Phillips, Cyrus, Grass Valley, Oregon. Pike, Mrs. Agnes Peterson, 1204 Michigan Ave., Stevens Point, Wis. Pidde, Mrs. Anna Price, Amherst, Wis. Porter, Mrs. Nettie Jensen, 509 Indiana Ave., North Fond du Lac. Porter, Mrs. Martha Maddy, Aitken, Minn. Prochnow, Mrs. Lou Berto, 291 N. Park, Fond du Lac, Wit Price, Mrs. Carl, Amherst, Wis. Price, Mr. and Mrs. Gust, Amherst, Wit Price, August, Amherst, Wis. Price, Mrs. Custa Czeskleba, Amherst, Wis. Price, Mr. and Mrs. Fred, Amherst, Wis. Price, Charles G., 419 Oak St., Stevens Point, Wis. Price, Chas. D., Stevens Point, Wit Price, George W., 632 Wis. Are., Stevens Point, Wit Price, Gustave E., La Seur, Minnesota. Purple, Mrs. Mabel Barton, Chicago, Ill. Putz, Mrs. Minnie Worden, 178 6th St., Fond du Lac. Ptolemy, Mrs. Celia Bobbe, Mancos, Colorado. Ristow, Mr. and Mrs. R., Amherst, Wis. Rice, Mrs. Carrie Guernsey, R. I. Burbie Station, Virginia. Rice, Mrs. Mina Childs. Marshfield, Wis. Rice, C. D, Northfield, Minn Rice, Merritt, Rice, Milo. 519 4th Ave., Longmont, Col. Roader, Mrs. Clara Salscheider, R. 9, Sta. A, Green Bay, Wis. Rosholt, Mrs. Dorothy Bestul, Rosholt, Wis. Roe, Mrs. Addie Richmond, Stevens Point. Wis. Roe, Mrs. Hattie Estey, Staples, Minn. Russell, John, Hibbing. Minnesota. Ryals, Mrs. Maude Howen, 908 W. Nora. Spokane, Wash. Ryan. Miss Maggie, 1613 Piedmont Ave., Duluth, Minn. Sands, Lloyd, Sands, Thomas, 717 Sandusky Ave., Pittshurg, Pa. Salscheider, Wm., Green Bay, Wis., Sta. A, R. 9. Salscheider, George, Green Bay, Wis., Sta. A, R. 9. Severtson, George. Amherst, Wis. Shellhammer. Mrs. Mollie Williams, Port Edwards, Wis. Shoemaker, Mrs. Myra Fryar. H. 4, 809A Tacoma, Wash. Sheppard, Stephen, Neenah, Wis., R. 10. Simcox, Hiram, Marinette, Wisconsin. Simeox, Wm., Lock Box 297. Eau Claire, Wis. Sherwin, Frank, Sherwin. George, Skinner, Mrs. Lottie Phillips, Slavin. Mrs. Edith Czeskleha MeCudden, Montello, Wis. Smith, Ernest W., Tomahawk, Wis. Smith, Lloyd D., Waupaca, Wis. Smith, John G., Hilbert, Wis. Smith, DeForest D. 319 N. Park, Fond du Lac. Smith, Geo. W., Amherst, Wis. Smith, Mrs. Sarah Wilson, Amherst, Wis. Smith, Alfred, Amherst, Wis. Smith, Casper A., Amherst, Wis. Smith, Mrs. Alice Boss. Amherst, Wis. Sheppard. Mrs. Myrtle VanSkiver Peterson, Stevens Point, Wis. Sommers, C. P., Amherst, Wis. Stabe, Mrs. Norn Starks, 295 23rd St., Milwaukee, Wis. Stephenson, Mrs. Anna Olson, Scandinavia, Wis. St. Claire, Mrs. Julia Harvey, Wausau, Wis. St. John, Dr. Hugh, St. John, Elizabeth. 912 Ann Ave., Kansas City. Mo. St. John, Anna, Stradoff, Mrs. Nellie Barton. 458 Jackson, Oshkosh, Wis. Starks, Mrs. Edgar, Amherst, Wis. Starks. Frank, Amherst, Wis. Starks. Miss Carrie Myrtle, Amherst, Wis. Stockard, John, Storing. Mrs. Chester, Zinibro St., Rochester, MInn. Stone, Mrs. Emma Bobbe, Park Falls, Wis. Suhs, Mrs. H. M., Waupaca. Wisconsin. Swenson, John, Amherst. Wis. Swendson, John, 151 Frederick Ave., Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Swendson, Mr. and Mrs. S. C., Amherst, Wisconsin. Stock, Mrs. Arlie Cass, 420 Lincoln St., Eau Claire, Wis. Smith, George Clark, McEwen, Tenn. Shanklin, Susie Severtson, Sheridan, Wis. Timian, LeRoy, Walker St., Fond du Lac, Wi.3. Timian, Elizabeth, 630 Forest St., Eau Claire, Wis. Torkelson, K. G., 4508 Nevada St., Cragin Sta., Chicago, Ill. Torkelson, Gustave, Merrill, Wisconsin. Torkelson, Mrs. G., Amherst, Wis. Torgrimson, Mrs. Olga Torkelson, Amherst, Wis. Tommervik, Mrs. Ella Bakke, Ellington, S. D. Tronson, Mrs. Emma Otto, Sheridan, Wis. Turner, Henry C. Turner, Miss Cora R., Amherst, Wis. Turnell, Mrs. Nellie Phillips, Yakima, Wash. VnnCott, Leonard, Lock Box 830, Milwaukee, Wis. VunSkiver, Mr. and Mrs. .John, Amherst, Wis. Virum, Mrs. Marie Torkelson Amundson, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis. Warren, F., E. Fulton St., Waupaca, Wis. Wamsley, Mrs. Ella Bangle, Clarksville, Iowa. Webster, Preston E., 812 E. Ave., Stevens Point, Wis. Webster, James C., Dorchester, Wis. Webster, Mrs. Esther Peterson, Dorchester, Wis. Webster, Mrs. Katherine Wilson, 291 N. Park, Fond du Lac, Wis. Webster, Dr. F. E., Amherst, Wis. Welty, O. K., Tomahawk, Wis. Welty, Mrs. Addle Turner, Tomahawk, Wis. Welty, Jesse, Drummond, Wis. Weller, Charles, Rural, Wis. Weller, Wm., Amherst, Wis. - Weller, Mrs. Stella Starks, Amherst, Wis. Wenberg, Mrs. Edna Grover, White Eagle, Okla, Weston, Mrs. Lucy Childs, Whisnant, Mrs. Lallie Lysne, Crandon, Wis. Wilson, Robert, 931 Ellis St., Stevens Point, Wis. Wilson, Thomas, Brooklyn, Wis. Wilson, Estel, 1468 9th Ave. W., Ashland, Wis. Wilson, Arthur C., Amherst, Wis. Wilson, Mrs. Zelle Fryar, Amherst, Wis. Wilson, Henry A., Amherst, Wis. Wilson, Mrs. Mollie Nelson, Amherst, Wis. Wilson, Asa J., Amherst Wis. Wilson, Maurice. Kenosha WIs. Wilson, Richard, Amherst, Wis. Wilson, Delbert, California. Wilson, Albert, Spooner, Wis. Williamson, Sever, Amherst, Wis. Williamson, Nels, Amherst, Wis. Williamson, Billie Buck, Nelsonville, Wis. Williams, Louis, Amherst, Wis. Wilmott, Douglas, R. F. D., Wan Wilmott, Mrs. Bessie Pinkerton, Starks, Wis. Wilmott, Mr. and Mrs. Arthnr, Amherst Wis. Wold, Enoch N., Amherst, Wis. Worden, Mrs. G. H., Amherst. W Welton, Mrs. Geo. H., Wausau, Wentworth, Mrs. Margaret Gasmann, R.F.D., Plover, Wis. |