MENU100 Years Ago
Life in Viroqua from the Vernon County Censor:
MAY 26, 1920
Censor Price Goes to $2 per Year
Forty years ago, eggs sold for 5¢ a dozen, pork for 27¢ a pound, a man’s wage was 50¢ per day – and the Censor was a dollar a year.
Today, eggs run from 30 to 75¢ a dozen, pork from 15 to 25¢ a pound, a man’s daily wage from $4 to $10 – and the Censor is $1.50 per year.
Last December, the price of the paper upon which the Censor is printed was almost doubled in price. We are now informed that about July 1st, another radical increase in price will be made. This is the last straw!
Saturday night’s storm was marked by the most terrific rainfall we have had in years in so short a time. An amazing volume of water fell and rolled away from the hill top to inflict serious damage upon crops and newly plowed and planted fields. The low lands were covered by a sheet of mud in many places.
The result of Viroqua’s special election on the sewer bond proposition was a delightful surprise even to the most optimistic exponent of the plan, only 25 votes were mustered against it; 290 in favor thereof. This clears the atmosphere and permits the council to go ahead with all possible speed in pushing the project.
Kickapoo papers complain bitterly of the poor train service they receive these days – one mixed train a day each way, taking seven hours to make the trip of 52 miles, with the prospect of the roadbed giving way at any time at that.
MAY 19, 1920
County Highway Commissioner Ristow and his patrolmen are having a man-size job in trying to get the roads near the city in shape. One peculiar type of heavy red clay soil, coupled with the abnormal amount of traffic on the roads entering this city, the quickness and hardness with which they dry and bake, and the need for tile draining in places, makes our road problem much more serious than that to the north or south of us where the presence of a little sand makes road work easier.
Miles Dawson has received word from the Adjutant General that he has qualified to enter the United States Military academy at West Point and is to report on July 1st for entrance into that institution.
BRING YOUR RAGS RUBBERS AND IRON to the Viroqua Hide & Fur Co. We have a contract for 25 tons of Rags, 100 tons of Iron and 15 tons of Rubbers to be delivered in 2 weeks. For Rags 3¢ a pound; for Rubbers 5¢ a lb.; for Iron $15 a ton. Also bring your poultry, eggs and dressed veal. SAM GROSS, North Main St. Viroqua.
Tailor Powell goes to Chicago Saturday to negotiate for the setting of some of his poems to music.
Viroqua experienced a siege of gypsies last week – gaudily bedecked, dirty, swarthy “queens” giving Main street the usual “once-over”. Did they get any of your small change?
George Groves hooked a four-pound 22-inch German brown trout Tuesday and brought him to gaff after a hard tussle with a six-ounce fly rod. And the selfish thing refuses to tell where he caught the beauty.
MAY 12, 1920
The extended feeding season has put hay up to the highest price ever paid in this locality. Some hay has sold for forty dollars a ton.
Ole Jackson & Son have voluntarily taken back the chemical fire truck, having found ready sale for the same at another place. The engine was not quite heavy enough to pass the test laid down by the state underwriter, and was to have been replaced with a more powerful motor. This leaves the city without a fire truck, and we hope the council will take prompt action on ordering another.
DeSoto creamery opened for business after a winter’s suspension.
Directors of Vernon County Fair met Thursday afternoon and took action on several very important matters. Purses aggregating $2500 were hung up for racing. $450 was appropriated for three ball games. About $1500 will be expended for free attractions. The roadways from the highway to the inside gate will be graded up and put in condition. The race track is now in very good condition.
James Fleming has about completed tearing down and carting away the old Butt building. The fine corner location, is not to be vacant long, we are glad to say, as Will Devlin is now considering plans for a fine two-story brick building to be erected this summer.
Women’s plain patent leather pumps, special at $6.00 at M.J. Felix’.
The cows of the county in 1919 were milking an average of 280 days each and their average daily yield was 159 pounds, for which an average price of $2.72 per cwt, was received. The total value of the milk product for the year was $4,922,120.
MAY 5, 1920
TAKES DECISIVE ACTION
At an adjourned meeting held last Thursday evening, the council took the sewage bull by the horns, opened all the bids and passed resolution designating those who should be awarded the contracts when they are let... had action been deferred until after the special election most of the contractors would have their summer’s work laid out and Viroqua’s system might experience a year’s delay.
L.A. Hanson of Franklin town board was in Friday and reported that the board had purchased a Rumley tractor and Austin grader of Martin Larson, and secured Wm. Crume to operate the same. Mr. Crume has put in the last two years in similar work for Viroqua town. He will retain his residence in Viroqua.
Larson Bros. did a big job of tobacco bed steaming Monday. They employed a tractor engine and especially made metal pan for the purpose, treating about 700 feet of bed with the live steam. This method destroys every vestage [sic] of animal and vegetable life for several inches into the soil and so worth all the trouble it requires and more.
If you are not using Roman’s special coffee, you are losing money, because you can buy it for 45¢ per lb. Every pound guaranteed. Roman’s Grocery.
About seventy years ago, pioneers blazed their way through the unbroken forests of western Wisconsin and established the Black River road, leveling the trees so that traffic by oxcart and prairie schooner might pass unobstructed.
Monday, in its leisurely ramble up Main street the mammoth trench digging machine pulled up fragments of a big stump which... laid just below the crest of Viroqua’s business artery.