La Farge's Commercial Club

A meeting of professional men was held at the Masonic Temple on Friday evening, September 3, for the purpose of organizing a Commercial Club.

            Thus began an article in the September 9, 1937 issue of the La Farge Enterprise newspaper about the establishment of an organization of village businessmen.  The article went on to tell what the new club was going to be all about: The purpose of the organization is to bring together the business and professional men of La Farge for the purpose of bringing about uniform business practices, better harmony and to aid in the development of this Community.  It is hoped that through the efforts of the Community Club that La Farge will be selected as the Headquarters for the Kickapoo River Flood Control Survey, and later headquarters for this project.

            At a later meeting held on September 7^th of that year, the new Commercial Club elected Ralph Freeze, an attorney in the village as its first President.  Other officers elected in that 1937 organizational meeting were Secretary – Gene Calhoun, who ran a funeral home in the village and Treasurer – Mac Marshall, who owned a Main Street hotel.  The four Directors elected to fill out the Executive Committee of the club were Bernard Brokaw, William Adams, who ran a hardware store in La Farge, Harry Lounsbury, who ran the village’s drug store and Emory Thayer, the manager of Nuzum’s Lumber. 

            At the time that the new Commercial Club was formed, La Farge and the entire Kickapoo Valley were undergoing some dynamic times. As was mentioned earlier regarding the flood control survey, Congress had approved a federal study of the Kickapoo Valley in August of 1937.  The study would be held over the next few years and La Farge’s business community wanted the village to be the center of that project.  Besides the federal flood control study, an impending event of another nature loomed in the immediate future – the abandonment of the Kickapoo Valley’s railroad.

            In August of 1937 a protest meeting was held in La Farge regarding the proposed abandonment of the Valley’s railroad.  At that meeting, the Kickapoo Valley Defense Association (KVDA) was formed with La Farge Village President Arch Davidson serving as president of the new organization.  Davidson had been a leader in the Valley to get the flood control study (In January of 1937, Davidson and Ralph Nuzum, who owned the lumberyard in town, had spearheaded a petition drive to be sent to Congress in favor of the flood control study. The petitions sent to Congress had been gathered by the Kickapoo Flood Control Association, another organization that Davidson served as president.), and now he would lead the fight to save the railroad.

            One of the first things that the new Commercial Club did was to sponsor a Harvest Festival & Fair to be held in La Farge in mid-October of 1937.  The new festival, which featured a parade and a variety of activities was a success and was held under the sponsorship of the new businessmen’s club for several more years. In 1939, all of the businesses in La Farge closed from noon to 6 pm on the day of the festival.

            Later in 1939, members of the La Farge Commercial Club went to Hillsboro to celebrate the opening of the new state highway between the two communities.  The last section of the new Highway 82 had been completed that fall.  With the Kickapoo Valley’s railroad gone by this time, the development of state highways to La Farge was a main concern for village leaders.  With the completion of Hwy 82, La Farge had the first state road to the village. While at the meeting in Hillsboro, the community leaders from both towns also celebrated the re-opening of the Hillsboro Brewery and sampled some of the “Hillsboro Pale” that was again being made.

            The opening of the new state highway between La Farge and Hillsboro was the result of strong lobbying by village leaders, led by Davidson.  When the railroad abandonment became a certainty earlier in the year, the KVDA switched its emphasis to getting new and improved state roads to the Kickapoo Valley.  Because the railroad had been used extensively by many Kickapoo Valley businesses, especially for the receiving of goods to sell, a new and reliable highway system was needed as a replacement.  Davidson and other La Farge businessmen continued to have the state improve and gravel Highway 82 to Viroqua and to have the state designate the old “River Road” (then County Hwy M) as a state highway.

            Having good roads to La Farge had always been a priority for its business community.  In 1915, La Farge businesses had donated money to have the Otter Creek Road dragged and graded.  At the same time, June of 1915, three La Farge businesses – Chase’s, DeJean’s and Householder’s – had placed a notice in the local newspaper announcing that their stores would be closing at 8 pm except for Wednesday and Saturday. Operating hours for local businesses could be a point of contention in a small town like La Farge.  Probably because the stores actually competed for people’s business when they came to town to shop, establishing a mutual time for hours of operation was difficult to achieve at times.  But later that month the community came together to promote La Farge’s 4^th of July Celebration.

            A call was made to all the automobile owners in the La Farge area, estimated to be about 75 at the time, for a Booster Club Trip to promote the 4^th of July.  Eventually 36 automobiles and around 150 people went on the booster trip that included stops in West Lima, Bloom City, Woodstock, Rock Bridge, Hub City and Yuba in the morning of that last Saturday of June in 1915.  When the booster caravan reached Hillsboro, everyone stopped for lunch before continuing on to Dilly, Valley and Rockton in the afternoon to conclude the trip.  La Farge’s 4^th of July Celebration was well attended and successful that year thanks to the efforts of the business community.

            In 1920, the La Farge businessmen united once again to sponsor the La Farge baseball team.  The “town team” was the pride of the village and always seemed to play for a championship each year.  Over the years, the sponsorship by La Farge’s businesses for the ball team was a given.

            During World War II, the La Farge Commercial Club ceased to function as the village turned its attention to various drives to support the war effort.  After the war was over, there were calls for the Commercial Club to again unite La Farge’s business community.  In 1947, the La Farge Development Association was formed and Casey Sanford was chosen as its first president.  Sanford, who owned a men’s clothing store on La Farge’s Main Street, led the new organization in helping with the village’s annual 4^thof July Celebration. The new business organization sponsored a raffle for that year’s Independence Day.  The following year, the development association co-sponsored the 4^thof July with the newly formed VFW Post.

            In 1949, a Lions Club was formed in La Farge and it seemed to take the place of the previous business organizations.  The president of that first Lions Club in La Farge was Ed Deibig, who owned the Chevy-Buick garage in town.  The new Lions Club sponsored a “Wild West Rodeo” that was held on Labor Day.  The rodeo was held at Calhoon Park, but crowds that first year were small because of rainy weather. 

             That Christmas season, the Lions Club sponsored a “Clock Stops Contest” fundraiser. People would pay to make a guess on how long a hand-wound clock would run. The clock was on display in the front window of one of the Main Street stores.  The clock ran for 92 hours before stopping and a winner was announced with much Yuletide fanfare.

            One of the main projects that the La Farge Lions Club undertook was to build new tennis courts in town.  Using proceeds from several more successful rodeos, the courts were constructed beyond the left field fence at Calhoon Park.  John Ferris, who ran a funeral parlor and furniture store in the village, was key in making the rodeos successful.  Finn Johannesen, who ran a grocery store in town and also served as the village’s president for several years, led the Lions club in getting the tennis courts completed.

            Over the years several different business organizations were formed in La Farge to provide some type of order in the commercial sector of the village.  Some times the individual businesses had to act upon their own.  

            In May of 1947, a notice appeared in the Enterprise that the four grocery stores in town – the Cash Store, Clover Farm Store, Andrews Market and Kennedy’s Grocery – would all be closed during the summer on Thursday afternoons.  The reason given for the new closing hours were due to the late Wednesday nights when the free movies were held on Main Street during the summer.  At a time when those La Farge grocery stores were sometimes open for 15 hours a day, a break was needed for the workers in the store to catch some rest.

            Different times; different needs for this little Kickapoo River town.

1968 - A YEAR TO REMEMBER

1968 was a tumultuous year in America’s history.  It is now the 50^thanniversary of that chaotic year and many of the events from that year are being retold in newspaper articles and television broadcasts. The Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy were both assassinated that year.  Reverend King’s death led to race riots in many American cities and Senator Kennedy’s loss profoundly affected the presidential election of that year.  

            The war in Vietnam continued to escalate in 1968 (the Tet Offensive was launched by North Vietnam at the end of January that year) and the resistance to the American involvement in that conflict also grew. Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy won the New Hampshire presidential primary election in March as an anti-war candidate and soon after and just days before the Wisconsin primary (also won by McCarthy) President Lyndon Johnson announced that he would not seek another term for the office.

            I thought it would be interesting to look at what was happening locally in La Farge during 1968.  In this installment and the next, we will look at some of the happenings of that year in this little Kickapoo Valley town.  Much of the information for this local history was gleaned from the 1968 copies of the La Farge Enterprise newspaper.  The La Farge Enterprise began its 70^thyear of continual publication in January of 1968 and Arnie Widstrand was the editor of the paper.

            As the year began, some major changes were occurring in the businesses along La Farge’s Main Street.  After 27 years in business, Jennie Adams sold her variety store to Muriel Burnard in December of 1967.  The first Enterprise issue of 1968 featured a farewell advertisement from Jennie Adams, thanking all of her customers for their patronage over the years.  Muriel’s Variety Store continued to sell the same popular lines of merchandise as the previous owner.  

            In the next week’s newspaper, there was an announcement that Carson Lawrence was leaving his Sinclair gas station on the corner across Mill Street from the cheese factory and relocating to the Texaco station on the other end of La Farge’s Main Street.  Carson had been operating a gas station at the “Nuzum’s Corner” since 1937 and for many years had also sold sporting goods and guns from the station. Virgil Nixon owned and had previously operated the Texaco gas station where Carson moved his business and also ran a bulk oil and gas truck for farm deliveries out of the same location.

            Two weeks after Carson Lawrence’s move, an ad ran in the Enterprise announcing the Grand Opening of “Glenn’s Pure Oil & Used Cars” at the former Sinclair gas station kitty-corner from Nuzum’s.  Glenn Alderman was the new owner of the business there.  In early March, Virgil Nixon completed his retirement moves when he sold his bulk oil/gas truck business to Teddy Olson.  By the end of the year, the Texaco brand had switched places in town and another grand opening ad appeared in the mid-December issue of the Enterprise for “Glenn’s Texaco & Used Cars”.  

            In July, Harvey’s Market & Locker Plant (one of four grocery stores in La Farge at the time) changed hands when Bill and Irma Gilman bought the south State Street business from Harvey and Evelyn Ernst, who had operated the locker plant business for nearly eighteen years.  “Harvey’s Bologna”, produced at the store, was a regional favorite and sold all over western Wisconsin.  Bill Gilman had worked at the Ernst locker plant/store for over seven years before buying the business and continued to make the famous “Harvey’s Bologna”.

            A longtime business in La Farge ceased operations in the fall of 1968 under tragic circumstances.  In October Orville Casey Sanford had a stroke while working in his men’s clothing store on a Saturday night and died a few days later at age 77. Casey Sanford had been selling men’s and boy’s clothing and shoes in LF for fifty years.  He had worked for Charles DeJean in his men’s clothing store at the location for years before buying the business in 1929.  With Casey’s passing, Sanford’s Clothing Store, which was the last men’s clothing store in La Farge, closed.  A dispersal sale of all merchandise and fixtures was held.  Delos Glick bought all of the shoes and boots from Casey’s store to sell in his shoe shop located on south State Street.  The store that had housed Casey’s Clothing Store was torn down in the fall of 1972 and the lot has sat empty to this day.

            Several other deaths affected the business community in La Farge in 1968.  In August, Ben Rastall, the manager of La Farge’s Nuzum’s Lumber Yard, died suddenly of a heart attack at his home of a heart attack.  The popular lumberyard manager was 56 years old.  Three weeks after the death, Orville Jensen was named the new manager of the La Farge Nuzum’s.

            In March, Ed Muller, former leader of the Muller Construction Company based in La Farge had died at the age of 81.  Ed Muller, a former La Farge village president, had been a formidable leader in making the family ‘s La Farge construction company one of the largest in western Wisconsin.  After he retired and turned over the company to other family members, Ed Muller tinkered around in the company shop on west Main Street and built a steam engine.  He would fire up the steam engine on occasions to give his grandchildren and other kids in the village a ride up and down Main Street.

            In September, Dick Ekern, another former businessman in La Farge and owner of a large mink ranch in the Town of Webster, passed away.  Ekern was a former tavern owner in La Farge, where three drinking establishments operated successfully in 1968.  The newest of the taverns, the Raven Bar was located in the old theater building and featured area bands on stage every Saturday night.  Otis Williams & Country Caravan was one of the area’s favorite musical groups to play the Raven.  Another local group was Mel Williams & The Stranger that played at Ray Merwin’s Bar in February.  La Farge’s other bar was Boot’s & Ina’s, also known as Kellogg’s Bar, owned and operated by John and Ina Kellogg.

            At the end of each year during the time of the 1960s, most La Farge businesses would place an ad in the Enterprise during the Christmas – New Year issues that wished everyone happy holidays and thanked people for their patronage during the year. Looking at a list of those ads gives one a sense of what the business community was like in 1968.

            There were late December ads for Mick’s IGA, the Cash Store, Dick’s Grocery and Gilman’s Harvey’s Market – La Farge’s four grocery stores at that time.  The La Farge Barber Shop featured the names of barbers Eston Major and Everett Parr. On the women’s side of hair care, there were holiday ads for Jan’s Beauty Salon and Lois’ Beauty Shop.

            Mac’s Pool Hall, which had been closed for part of 1968, had an ad placed by manager Theron Phillips.  Bob & Maxine Kennedy had an ad for the Band Box Café, while La Farge’s newest restaurant venture, Kathy’s Rec & Luncheon that had opened in November, also had a Yule time ad.

            Other end of year ads in the 1968 issues of the Enterprise included Johnson’s Funeral Home, Jeffers Truck Sales, Rockton Tavern, Glick’s Shoe Shop, Wheeler Feed Store, Muriel’s Variety, Glenn’s Texaco & Used Cars, Raven Bar, La Farge Creamery, C&S Motors, Carson Lawrence Station, Vosen Insurance, Sandmire’s Mobil Station, H&D Lumber Co., Caucutt Plumbing & Electric, Rose Hardware Store, Muller’s Radio & TV, La Farge State Bank, Nuzum’s, La Farge Co-op Oil, Lounsbury Drug Store, Miller’s Store, Ray’s Bar, Kellogg’s Bar, Major’s TV & Appliance, Qwik Sales & Service and Markee Soft Water.

            Next time, we will continue this “golden anniversary” look back at La Farge.  We will view the local impact of the war in Vietnam and on a happier note; look at the successes of the students attending La Farge’s school. If you would like to share some memories of this time in La Farge’s history, contact me at bcstein@mwt.netor send me a note at P.O. Box 202, La Farge, WI 54639.

            Working together, we can tell the stories of this little Kickapoo River town.

Memorial Day in La Farge - 1929

It must have been a nice day on Thursday, May 30, 1929.  It was Memorial Day in La Farge and as it was reported, “With attending pleasant weather and perfect roads, the Memorial Day ceremonies in the village were carried out with a complete and nicely executed program.”  That assessment of the day’s activities was the lead sentence in the front-page article that started with the headline, “Memorial Program Was Great Event”, in the June 6, 1929 La Farge Enterprise.  So let’s take a look at how this little Kickapoo River town celebrated on that day nearly three-quarters of a century ago.

            The Memorial Day activities began at nine in the morning with a caravan of cars leaving the K.P. Hall, which is where the local American Legion post met at that time.  The cars drove out to the “Baptist Cemetery on Bear Creek” (today the Bear Creek Cemetery) where the Fife & Drum Corps played patriotic songs and the graves of veterans were properly decorated.  The “perfect roads” that were mentioned earlier were a must for this trip out to the Bear Creek Cemetery as the stretch of road between there and the village was often a boggy quagmire and nearly impassable if it had been a wet spring season.

            At ten o’clock, the Memorial Day Parade began on the east end of La Farge’s Main Street business district near O.B. Kennedy’s Store (today the Episcope office).  Leading the procession was the La Farge Brass Band followed by the World War veterans marching with the colors.  These were the men from La Farge who had served in the 1914-18 conflict known then as the Great War or the World War.  Today we know of that conflict as World War I, but the Second World War hadn’t been fought yet in 1929, so there was no need to tag the World War with a number. 

            Following the color guard of the World War veterans were cars carrying the few remaining local veterans of the Civil War.  These men had probably been members of the local GAR post, originally started in Seelyburg then later moved to La Farge.  When most of the Civil War vets passed on, the GAR post in town was discontinued.  However, the auxiliary of the GAR was still active in town and those ladies as well as the Women’s Relief Corp were the next part of the parade.  Bringing up the rear were all of the school children from La Farge Schools – “from kindergarten through the Senior Class” as the article mentioned.  The parade proceeded west down Main Street and then north to the Chapel Hill and Star Cemeteries.

At those two cemeteries located on either end of old Seelyburg, veterans’ graves were decorated, the band and the Fife & Drum Corps played more patriotic music and a salute by the Legion rifle squad was fired.  The rifle salute held at Chapel Hill Cemetery turned out badly according to an accompanying article titled, “Gets Shot In Eye At Grave Volley”.

   According to the article, an accidental discharge from a shotgun as the rifle squad was preparing to shoot a volley over a veteran’s grave hit a grave monument and splattered shot into the faces of four members of the rifle squad.  Dick Trappe, Emory Thayer, Orville (Casey) Sanford and Ivan Major were hit with the discharged shot, “all of whom had their faces more or less stippled with the deflected shot”.  A lead pellet pierced the eye of Ivan Major and he was immediately taken to one of the local doctors to have it removed.  From there, Major was taken to Viroqua for x-rays and later saw an eye specialist in LaCrosse.  Fortunately, Major received no permanent injury to the eye.  The other three “stippled” members of the squad were also taken to the doctor’s office in the village to have the pellets removed from their faces.  The newspaper account said those three with the flesh wounds were completely recovered.  The Memorial Day procession continued on to Star Cemetery on the north side of the Kickapoo River, perhaps without a rifle squad for the rest of the ceremonies.

 There was also a ceremony held at the Seelyburg Bridge over the Kickapoo.  The ladies of the Women’s Relief Corps honored those lost in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War and threw garlands of flowers into the river water.  Usually a rifle volley was fired from the Star Cemetery above during this riverside ceremony, but I’m not sure if it was that day after the earlier accident with the rifle squad.  After all the ceremonies were concluded at Seelyburg, the veterans of the three wars and their families were treated to a dinner held at the K.P. Hall.

In the afternoon of that Memorial Day from La Farge’s past, a track and field meet was held on the school grounds.  It was called the “Free For All Track and Field Meet” and La Farge athlete Cy Yeomans stole the show that day by winning three events.  Yeomans won the pole vault by soaring to a top height of 10 feet, captured the discus title with a throw of 109 feet and took the top spot in the shot put at 43 feet.  Dick Husker won both the sprint races at 100 and 220 yards while Theron Green took first place in the half-mile run.  Rounding out the track and field meet events, Bob Lawton won the broad jump and Paul Harris took first in the high jump.

 Later a baseball game was played on the field south of town before a “fair-sized crowd”.  The La Farge and Viola “city teams” met on the baseball diamond for an exhibition game, with the downriver visitors securing a 7-5 win.  According to the newspaper account of the game, “Due to the tardiness in getting the game going, it was decided to call the game at the end of the seventh.  The score might have been different if the game had went over the ninth hole.”  The La Farge-Viola baseball rivalry would heat up even more, later in the season. 

But, all in all, Memorial Day in 1929 turned out to be quite a nice day in La Farge.  Times were good in the little river town, but they were soon to turn.  The 20’s would continue to roar for several more months until October, when Black Tuesday and the stock market crash would plunge the nation into the Great Depression and hard times would follow.