THE GREAT WAR

This year America is commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the United States entering The Great War.  That catastrophic conflict had been raging in Europe since the summer of 1914, starting shortly after the assassination of Austria - Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo.  The Central Powers in the conflict included Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Turkish Empire.  The Allies were comprised of Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, several Balkan nations, Russia, and Great Britain.

            For three years, the United States tried to remain neutral and stay out of The Great War.  President Woodrow Wilson even ran for re-election in 1916 on a campaign theme of “He Kept Us Out of War!”  In that 1916 election, Wilson was returned to the White House by the narrowest of margins, winning over New York Governor Charles Evans Hughes by a tally of 277-254 in the Electoral College.

            However, within a month after his inauguration, President Wilson went before Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany.  Wilson said, “The world must be made safe for democracy”.  April 6, 1917 was the date when America joined in the conflict.  America soon undertook preparations to join the Allies in what we now know as World War I.  The country called for men to join the American military and that call soon reached the Kickapoo Valley and La Farge.

            In researching through copies of La Farge’s newspaper from that time, the La Farge Enterprise, I was startled by how many young men went into the various branches of military service.  Of course, Congress passed a Selective Service Act in May 1917. A month later, nearly three-quarter of a million names of men were selected in a draft to serve in the military.  Many men had already volunteered for service, including dozens from La Farge.  Women joined the Nurses Corps of the Army and Navy as well as taking administrative jobs with the government.  Many young ladies from La Farge left town to help with the war effort.

            By May 1918, the men of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) were fighting on the front lines in France.  The influx of American soldiers into the bloody trench warfare of the Western Front during that summer of 1918 saved the day for the Allies.  Young men from La Farge were there in France during the summer and fall of that year as the tide turned against Germany.

            The La Farge Enterprise published letters from local lads who were in military service in every weekly issue during that time.  Some of the letters were from men stationed at various military training bases in the United States.  But other letters sent back home by local lads were from the front lines and are astonishing in their stark descriptions of the horrors of war.

            George Steinmetz, a 1917 graduate of La Farge High School, wrote of his experiences in the war in a letter published in the Enterprise in early October 1918.  George wrote:

            Somewhere in France – July 28, 1918

            Dearest of Folks at home: - I don’t know just when I wrote you last, but think it was less than a week ago.  I have a hard time keeping track of time any more.  We are so busy trying to keep up with the Dutchmen that we have no time for much else.

            I am tired and sleepy, but otherwise I am feeling fine.

            There are four of us in a little dugout about six feet square and the roof high enough for me to bump my head when I sit up.  We usually fix a place like this to sleep in and to duck into when we are not firing, but are being fired at.  This happens occasionally.  We all despised digging until after our first hard battle, and after that we were all perfectly willing to dig in.  Not because it is more comfortable but a great deal safer.  Whenever we get a chance to fire though every one of us are out and working for one doesn’t notice being fired at when he can fire back.  If we keep them running like they are now the war will soon be over.

            Gee, how I should like to eat at home Christmas.

            George Steinmetz then goes on in his letter to boast how his battery unit is one of the best in the AEF as determined by their combat experiences.  He writes that both French and American “high authorities” had praised his unit’s fighting skills.  Steinmetz concludes his letter to his family by writing, “I will close today.  Do write often.  I know you do but I don’t get them regular.  With lots of love to all at home every one of you.  Your own boy, George”

            Another letter sent home and published in the same issue of the Enterprise was from Glenn Blakley, who had been wounded in fighting on the Western Front.  Blakley wrote two letters home, one to his parents and another to his brother, Delbert Blakley, letting them know about his battle wounds and reassuring them about his health.  Glenn Blakley wrote,

            France, August 7, 1918

Dear Folks at Home:  Am stopping on my way back to the base hospital for a day or so, so will write a few lines to let you know that I am o.k. and as you can tell by the writing haven’t lost all of my arms, legs and my head.

            I got it Monday morning in the left hand with a piece of shrapnel and a very small piece of it in my right knee, but that one will be well in a week at least.  My hand will get o.k. too as I have had my operation on it and still have all my fingers.  Guess there is a couple of little bones broken but as you know my broken bones always heal o.k.

            I will be sent on down to some base hospital within a day or two and can then tell you what hospital I am at and give you my new address so I can get mail again.  Guess it will be sent on to me anyway but of course there will be some delay.

            I will try to tell you somewhere near where I was if the censor does not cut it out.  I was on the front that was between Soissions and Chateau-Thierry but of course it was back of both of these towns at that time for, as you will remember we had captured both of those towns long before that date.

            Am going to close for today but will write when I get where I can give you my address.  Love to all and drop Kampfs and Aunt Francis a line and tell them.

 I am, your son, Glenn.

            At the end of Glenn Blakley’s letter to his parents, mention is also made of another letter written to his brother Delbert and dated August 12, 1918.  In that letter, Glenn wrote, “that the center was shot out of his left hand and that the two center fingers would probably be left stiff.  He says that the wound to his knee is slight but that it would be two or three months before his hand would be well”.   

            Both of the letters from George Steinmetz and Glenn Blakley written from the Western Front were published on the front page of the La Farge Enterprise.  Further back in an October issue of the La Farge weekly was an ominous item located in the “Local News” column.  It read: “A report has been circulated that Glenn Jones had been killed in France.  At this writing confirmation of this report has not been received.”

Memories of the "New" Old 1936 Gym at LHS

With the recent reincarnation of the 1936 gymnasium at La Farge Schools back into a usable gym, the memories of times in that place have been flooding back for many of us.  Under the guidance of Al Oaklief, I learned the basics of basketball in that old gym.  When my time to play basketball for La Farge came, it was in that old gym where those first junior high school games were played.  Moving on to my high school years at LHS, I played two seasons in the old gym.

            Oddly, I have few actual memories of the games that I participated in (perhaps caused from my very modest skills at the sport), but I have lots of distant recollections of watching games in that old gym.  As a little kid, our seats for basketball games were in the northwest corner of the 1936 gym on seats made by piling up the sections of the disassembled stage. That stage was rarely used, mainly for student plays, concerts and graduation ceremonies, but when disassembled and stacked in the corner, it was the place for youngsters to view the games.  

            I think I went to some LHS basketball games during the 1955-56 season when my brother Dick played on the Wildcat team in his senior year.  That Wildcat team of 1955-56 arguably had the finest season in school history.  They won every game in their home gym that year, won the Kickapoo Valley Conference title with a 13-1 mark and advanced to sub-sectionals in WIAA post-season play.  That LHS team compiled a 22-2 season mark.  Perhaps being an eight year old at the time, I don’t seem to have any specific recollections about the gym from that season.

            But the next season was a whole different story.  There is one game in that 1956-57 season that stands out for me yet to this day.  My brother Kent played on that team, but my memory is about a shooting exhibition put on by LHS Senior Rod Kennedy.  Rod Kennedy was a prolific scorer for the Wildcats that season.  He scored 30 or more points in fourteen games that season with a high of 42 against Soldiers Grove!  La Farge had a good team that finished second in the KVC and had a season record of 18-4.  The game that I remember was the last home game of the season played against Readstown.  It was a hard fought 67-61 victory for the Wildcats and Rod Kennedy scored 37 points.  I remember that Rod kept shooting fade-away jumpers from the corner right near where we were sitting.  It seemed that we could look right down on Rod as he fell out of bounds just as he released his shot.  And it seemed that they all went in!

            There is another game like that one stuck in my memory from the 1960-61 season.  It was again from the last game of that season in the old gym and the conference champion Soldiers Grove Cardinals had come to La Farge.  Grove had beaten the Wildcats earlier in the season by a score of 89-74, but they had no chance on this night as they ran into a buzz saw named Dean Hamilton.  “Hambone” poured in 37 points and dominated the boards with 27 rebounds in one of the more impressive performances ever played by a Purple & White clad player in that old gym.  LHS won by a score of 80-64.  (I remember that there was a record hop after the game and the scoreboard was left on with that score gleaming through to the dancers below.)  La Farge would finish that season with a 13-6 record.

              Those memories of Wildcat players scoring nearly forty points in a game in the 1936 gym are understandable for the wide-eyed youngster who usually didn’t score forty points in a season.  But perhaps my favorite memory from that old gym are of a shot made by a player who rarely even played in most games.

            It was the 1961-62 season and La Farge did not have a good basketball team.  The Wildcats A-team struggled offensively for most of the year in compiling a season record of 4-14.  I played on the B-team as a freshman that year and that team had a 5-10 mark, so there wasn’t much great happening in the old 1936 gym during that season.  But for one wonderful Friday night on December 1, 1961, the stars in the heavens aligned and the Wildcats were victorious over their downriver foes, the dreaded Viola Bluejackets!

            Up to that point in the young season, La Farge had not won a game at either the B-team or A-team level.  Viola traveled to La Farge with a good team, one that would challenge for the league title before eventually finishing third in the KVC.  The Bluejacket A-team was undefeated for the season, but things would change after that evening.

            To begin, the Wildcat B-team won their first game by defeating Viola by a score of 21-16.  I’m sure that I had nothing to do with the win as I generally played very little, but I do remember the euphoria of that victory.  As the La Farge B-team players poured out of their new locker room, it was all smiles.  We took up seats in the southwest corner bleachers (after all, that’s where the cool high school students sat) to watch the A-Team game.

            La Farge got off to a good start and led 14-8 after the first quarter.  It was still the Wildcats in the lead 22-16 at halftime, but the Bluejackets caught fire in the third quarter.  Viola outscored La Farge 18-10 to take a 34-32 lead heading into the final quarter.  It remained tight for all of that last quarter and Viola was nursing a 42-41 lead as the old round score clock hanging high on the east end of the gym turned red to signal that the end of the game was near.  La Farge had time for one hurried shot and it would come from a very unlikely source.

            Sources vary as to when that fateful last shot was taken.  The account in the story of the game written for “The Windjammer”, the LHS section of the La Farge Enterprise newspaper, said that there was less than thirty seconds left in the game.  In the account of the game written for the 1962 “Memories” yearbook, the time is listed as seven seconds left.  I thought the shot was taken as the game ended, but then I remembered that the Viola team did have an unsuccessful try at a last shot of its own, so that seven seconds is probably right.  Who would take that last shot for La Farge surprised everyone in the old gym that night.

            Floyd Waddell was a nice guy.  Personable, friendly, and good-looking, Floyd was liked by most everyone who ever met him.  However, he was not a good basketball player.  Floyd was a junior on the Wildcat team that season, but he seldom played.  He was forced into action that night against Viola after senior guards Butch Donaldson and Leonard Nottestad fouled out of the game earlier in that last quarter.  As the final seconds to the game ticked away, Floyd was the last person most people expected to shoot.  But as fate would have it, somehow the ball was in Floyd’s hands at the end.  Standing some twenty feet from the basket, he was unguarded so Floyd let fly from the right wing. 

            That shot was not a thing of beauty as Floyd’s shots seldom were, but at this time in the history of the 1936 gym it would shine!  As Floyd’s high arching shot descended, the basketball hit high on the backboard’s right side then caromed straight down through the basket!  To the astonishment of everyone, including Floyd, the bank shot had found its mark to give La Farge a 43-42 win!  The place went nuts – the first win of the season had been accomplished over our biggest rival!  The Viola bluejackets were undefeated no more!  Floyd Waddell was the hero of the night!

            I think that there was a record hop held after the game that night.  I seem to remember sitting up in those bleachers in the southwest corner of the old gym looking down at the dancing couples below.  I think that I can recollect Floyd dancing with his girlfriend (and future wife), Karen Miller, basking in the sweet aura of victory.

            Ironically, that basket in the old gym to beat Viola that night was the only basket that Floyd Waddell scored all season.  It was a rare shot indeed, but it has lasted in my memory to this day.

Lost & Found

Once again, I would like everyone to attend the Wisconsin Book Festival to be held in Madison from November 7-11.  I will be making a presentation on my book, "That Dam History - The Story of The La Farge Dam Project", on Saturday, November 10 at 4 PM in the Rotunda Studio at the Overture Center located on State Street.  The topic of the session is "Loss & Discovery on Wisconsin's Waterways" and I will share the event with Milton Bates, author of "The Bark River Chronicles - Stories From A Wisconsin Watershed".  Please join me on that Saturday afternoon if you are in the area.  I will also have my books for sale that weekend in Madison.  Check the book festival website at wisconsinbookfestival.org for more details.

For the past couple of days I have been working on what I will say for my presentation in Madison.  I will start with a brief history of the dam project and then give one point of discovery and one aspect of loss from the story.

 For the discovery portion I will be talking about the research that was conducted on the lands purchased for the dam project that were going to eventually be under the waters of Lake La Farge.  Starting in 1960 and continuing for almost forty years, various studies were conducted on the archeological significance, the cultural and historic importance, and the unique geology and land formations of this portion of the northern Kickapoo Valley.  Of particular interest to me was the fact that the extensive studies were able to continue because of the delays and controversy associated with the dam project.  Because of this prolonged battle over what would happen with those dam project lands, the  importance of the archeology, cultural history and geology of this part of the Driftless Area has been saved for us to savor and enjoy.

For the loss portion of my talk I will focus on the amount of money that was spent on this project and how much NOT finishing the project cost everyone in the Kickapoo Valley.  One of the biggest losses, almost mind-boggling to me when you look at how much money was spent, was that not one bit of flood-control was ever derived from the project.  As I have said before, an unfinished dam holds back no floodwaters.

In October, my Local History Notebook columns, published in the La Farge Episcope newspaper, have tried to tell the story of the 2000 girls volleyball season at La Farge High School.  That was the fall that the girls put it all together, won the conference championship, and proceeded to win their way to the WIAA state tournament!  I was athletic director at the school that fall, so was very involved in some of the details of that magical season.  It was really fun to remember that time.

I am getting ready to begin writing volume 2 of my history of La Farge.  I have been very busy with several other non-writing projects this year and have not had much time to think about starting that local history project.  In May, Carolyn and I were in Cable to hear Mary Mamminga talk about writing her book, "Return To Wake Robin".  She mentioned that she had "to find her voice" to tell the story and that struck me as a problem with writing volume 2 of the La Farge history.  Six months later, we were in Viroqua to listen to Michael Perry talk about his new book, "Visiting Tom".  (Perry will also be at the book festival talking about his book.)  At the end of his talk, he discussed the process that he uses to get his writing done.  That got me to thinking about the process I need to get back to so I can write this book.  On Thursday, November 1, I will start to put fingers to keyboard and begin that process in my found voice to finish the story of the little Kickapoo River town.  Wish me luck.

"Pearlie"

So, did you know that a lad from La Farge once coached his high school boys’ basketball team to a state championship? Well, neither did I, and I have been going to every WIAA boy’s basketball state tournament for over fifty years. But if you get out your state tournament program and open it to the front where the state championship games are listed (that’s page nine in this years program) and go to the year 1944, you will see that Waukesha defeated Eau Claire by a score of 23-18 in the championship game that year. Lee Saubert, who was a La Farge boy, graduate of La Farge High School, Class of 1912, coached the Waukesha Blackshirts.

The only reason that I found out about this basketball revelation was because Virginia Evans sent me a newspaper clipping that she received from an old friend who lived in Waukesha. The clipping from the Waukesha Freeman was in reference to Coach Lee Saubert being one of the initial inductees into the Waukesha South High School Coach’s Wall of Fame in ceremonies held on February 7. The Freeman article written by Daniel Mike went on to include many quotes from former players of Coach Saubert and listed many of the coach’s achievements. Those included over 900 victories by Saubert-coached teams at Waukesha in football, basketball, swimming, golf and track. Saubert’s teams won six football conference championships and four basketball titles as well as a state championship in both sports. He coached at Waukesha from 1920 until 1953 and then served as the school’s athletic director until his retirement in 1963. In his article, Daniel Mike added, “Saubert was a three-sport athlete during high school at La Farge, earning eight varsity letters in football, basketball and baseball. He received a teaching degree from La Crosse State Normal School in 1920.”

I wanted to know more about Coach Saubert. Having attended every WIAA boy’s state basketball tournament for the past fifty-two years and been a basketball coach at LHS for a number of years, my interest was naturally piqued. So I started to do some research on the man.

Lee Pearl Saubert was born on January 17, 1893 on the family farm in the area known as Tunnelville located south of La Farge. His parents were John and Sarah Saubert and he had an older brother, John. Growing up in the Kickapoo Valley he went by the name of “Pearlie” and all references to him in the local newspapers were always as Pearlie and never as Lee.

Pearlie went to grade school at Tunnelville, where his first teacher was Grace Tuttle. Eventually, his folks rented out their farm and moved to La Farge. In the 1910 La Farge census (conducted by Ray Calhoon of local baseball fame), the Saubert family was living on State Street in the village. At LHS, Pearlie was in a small class, which only graduated five students in May of 1912. His classmates included Anna and Howard McLin, Eber Houston, and Emory Thayer. In my research, I focused on that senior school year of Pearlie’s to see what he had been doing in his final year at LHS.

In September of 1911, Pearlie was playing on the La Farge High School baseball team. The school did not field a football team that fall, but did have earlier teams that Pearlie probably played on as an underclassman. In that fall baseball season of Pearlie’s senior year, he enjoyed success for the LHS nine. In a win over Viroqua, Pearlie pitched a one-hitter for La Farge. Although that LHS team lost more games than it won, Pearlie was one of the leading players on the team. He was also elected secretary of his school class that fall. In November, he read an essay at the LHS Literary Society Program held at the Opera House.

The boys at LHS were all ready to begin the basketball season in December when the principal (who would become immensely unpopular by the end of his tenure at LHS by the following May – but that’s a whole other story to tell at a different time) discontinued the sport at the school “for several reasons”. There was a town basketball team of sorts organized that same month and I imagine Pearlie played on that team.

Principal Schroeder left the spring baseball season at LHS alone and Pearlie was back on the diamond. In a game against Hillsboro, Pearlie was the winning pitcher, went three for five at the plate and scored three runs. He also was busy in other activities at school and participated in the choral reading for the LHS German Circle in April. Pearlie had a lead role in the Senior Play, “A Daughter of The Desert”, performed before a large crowd at the Opera House in May. After graduating from high school later that month, Pearlie played baseball for the La Farge town team, which was no mean accomplishment.

In 1912, La Farge’s town baseball team, managed as a corporate entity by the businessmen of the village, was loaded with talent from near and far. Some of the players on La Farge’s town team were paid for their services. Pearlie was on the team for most of the summer and pitched the team to many wins. One game of interest that season occurred in their opener played in early June when the La Crosse Normal team, where Pearlie would be headed to attend in the fall, came to La Farge to play an exhibition game. Playing on the La Crosse Normal team were former LHS grads Jean Rolfe, Chester Newlun, Hallie Roberts and Carson Hatfield. The Normal team prevailed by a score of 5-3. The La Farge town team went on to a superb season that culminated in the claim of a state title (but that’s another one of those other stories to be told later).

In September, Pearlie joined five others from La Farge to attend La Crosse Normal School. He was soon playing for the Normal teams there and played on the La Crosse baseball team each season. He was a crafty college player, but being small in stature - he only weighed 135 pounds, he was described as, “Short on size, but long on desire”. World War I interrupted Pearlie’s college days and he spent several years in the country’s military service. After the war was over, Pearlie returned to La Crosse and graduated from the Normal School in 1919. He taught one year in West Salem before taking the physical instructor and coaching job at Waukesha High School in the fall of 1920.

Coach Saubert soon had success at his new school as the 1923 Blackshirt football team went undefeated and beat a strong La Crosse team by a score of 14-13 to claim a mythical state championship. It’s somewhat ironic that Saubert won a state title while coaching basketball. Waukesha did not participate in the WIAA post-season state tourney series from 1928 through 1942, mainly because Coach Saubert felt the WIAA tourney series was too strenuous, playing games on back to back to back nights, and took away from school time. Perhaps because the WIAA’s basketball tournament was greatly scaled back during the years of World War II, Waukesha was back in the tourney series in 1943, when the state tournament was only a one-day affair. The Blackshirts didn’t qualify for state that year, but did make it to Madison in 1944.

In the run-up games to state in 1944, Waukesha disposed of 1942 state champ and Milwaukee Suburban Conference rival Shorewood and then beat 1943 state champ Racine Park by a score of 30-27 in the sectional finals. In the two-day 1944 state tourney played at the UW Field House, Waukesha beat Tomah by a score of 28-13 in the opening semi-final game played before a crowd of 2,976. Using Coach Saubert’s trademark zone defense, the Blackshirts limited Tomah to 3 for 23 shooting from the field for the game. In the other semi-final game, the Ole Abes from Eau Claire defeated New London 36-23. Coach Saubert’s zone defense again dominated in the championship game played the next day. Despite making only 2 of 31 shots in the first half of the championship game, Waukesha only trailed the Old Abes by a score of 6-5 at half. The Blackshirts tight zone continued to thwart Eau Claire in the second half and when the Old Abes all-state center fouled out of the game in the third quarter, the tide turned to Waukesha. Coach Saubert’s all senior team increased their lead in the last quarter to win by five.

Although the Waukesha coach enjoyed the state title, he held other team qualities in high regard as well. In an interview with the Milwaukee Sentinel conducted before the WIAA tournament play started that year, Coach Saubert, when asked about Waukesha’s chances, said, “I don’t know what we’ll do, but I’ll tell you what they have done. Nine of the first ten are either A or B students and two of them have straight-A averages. That’s playing in a pretty fast league, too.”

Waukesha had another fine basketball team in 1945 and returned to Madison for an expanded eight-team, three-day state tourney. The Blackshirts won their opening game at state that year, but then lost to tiny Lena in the semi-final game before capturing the consolation game trophy on the last day of the tourney.

When Lee Saubert retired in 1960, after forty years of coaching, Milwaukee Sentinel sports writer Lloyd Larson wrote a long tribute column to the Waukesha coach. He mentioned that Saubert had been a founding member of the group of coaches that created the Suburban Conference in 1924. Later he helped plan and design the Waukesha Field House, then one of the finest athletic facilities in the Milwaukee area. Larson thought Saubert’s greatest achievement might have been the creation and leadership in running the Waukesha Relays, started by Saubert in 1934, which was considered the premier high school track meet in southeast Wisconsin.

Coach Saubert was not without his flaws. He was known in the Milwaukee Suburban Conference as, “The man who never smiles”. Larson said of the long-time Blackshirts coach, “He called a spade a spade, with no double talk designed to play both sides of the fence. Everyone with whom he came in contact with knew exactly where he stood and what Lee meant”. Another article said of Saubert, “If he has an opinion to express, he will not pull any punches”. Saubert was notorious for berating basketball referees, to the point that conference rivals thought the Waukesha coach intimidated basketball officials to favor his Blackshirt teams. The Shorewood-Waukesha games were particularly acrimonious and for several years the Shorewood fans led a “Let’s Kick Waukesha Out of The League Crusade” aimed specifically at Coach Saubert.

But Coach Saubert’s players saw a different side of the man. One player said of Saubert, “He was a no-nonsense guy, but he had a heart of gold. Away from school he smiled. He was definitely a different guy away from coaching”. Another player said, “He had a terrific sense of humor, he kept us laughing, and he was a very good coach, very likeable”. Another of his former players described Coach Saubert by saying, “I really respected the man. He was quite a guy and a great coach.”

Lee Saubert passed away in 1969, six years after he retired from Waukesha High School, where he worked for forty-three years. The lad from the Kickapoo Valley known as “Pearlie” lies in St. Joseph Cemetery in Waukesha next to his wife Esther and their infant daughter Madeline.