MENU100 Years Ago
Life in Viroqua from the Vernon County Censor:
SEPT. 30, 1925
The Censor editor dropped in at the Levi Eckhardt home on Friday on a business matter and found that Mr. Eckhardt had just returned from his fall tour of state fairs, going as far east as the New York State Fair with his fine bunch of eighteen horses. It was not at all necessary to ask Mr. Eckhardt where he had been, for the dining table was completely covered with a profusion of beautiful ribbons, mostly blue, at least a bushel of them, eloquent testimony to the quality of the Eckhardt horses. Mr. Eckhardt in replay to our question, said there were about a hundred ribbons in the pile – but we think his answer reflected his usual becoming modesty. He just wouldn’t let us count them and give the correct total.
Sterley May has purchased from Albert Sorum the “Noon Tide Café,” and is now in possession of the same... He tells the Censor that he wants to satisfy his customers so well that they just can’t leave him, and we believe he will succeed.
Readstown, Sept. 28 – The community fair which was to be held at the Spring Valley school last Saturday, struck by very bad weather and was held the next day. Regardless of the muddy roads and the threatening, a fair sized attendance was registered.
It would seem it is no longer a necessity for Viroqua housewives to wash by hand judging from the number of One-Minute electric washers put out by the Sauer Hardware in the past five weeks. 21 of these beautiful efficient washers have been shipped to Sam from the factory in a little over a month.
SEPT. 23, 1925
Gene Pennell has added a new piece of furniture to his restaurant whic [sic] he calls a soda fountain, but in truth it seems like a whole restaurant in itself. The front and top is of beautiful marble, it is nearly twenty feet long, is iceless, and automatically cooled by electricity with a circulation of forty gallons of alcohol. Sad to relate the nearest you can get to the alcohol without wrecking the fountain is the smell.
The Dr. G.W. Minshall family are mourning the loss of Earl Oneida, Dr. Minshall’s grand old race and family horse. The old veteran was thirteen years... He was a most [valuable] animal having the remarkable record of never having broken in four consecutive years of racing. In his last four races he has been in the money each time, and won first in two of them. At the Weyewega last week he raced five heats, winning three of them, and getting first money – but the exertion proved too much for his horse, and he passed away in the evening.
107th Engineer Note
The annual rifle tournament at Camp Perry, Ohio, closed Saturday, September 19. The Wisconsin team finished in 17th place. There were over one hundred and twenty teams entered from all branches of the U.S. service... Sgt. Jackson was man on the team shooting about twenty points above the next man on the Wisconsin team.
The wonderful weather with which nature has blessed us during most all of the year, still continues. Today is the 23rd of September – and no frost has arrived as yet. Ninety-nine per cent of the tobacco crop is safely in the shed... Corn planted for silage by so many farmers is going to mature a real hard-ear crop.
SEPT. 16, 1925
BIG FAIR SOON!
The time slips along pretty rapidly, and it seems hardly possible that the big annual county event – the Vernon Fair – is so close, yet in two weeks from today our fair will be on in full blast...
Nature has wonderfully helped us this year in insuring the success of the fair. The early and long growing season has brought all crops to maturity without damage – and such a wonderful harvest it is. Surely the Vernon fair will have a showing of farm products this year that will out strip anything we have seen in the past in this time.
One of the big attractions at fair time is good racing...more race entry blanks have been called for up to this date than in any like period in any previous year. This means that we will have the largest and best race program ever held here... The free attractions always play an important part... The prospect for lots of concessions is never quite so good as this year... In all aspects it’s going to be a boomer of a fair.
The ladies’ furnishing goods store of Mrs. Manley at Readstown was entered by burglars sometime during Tuesday night. The thieves gained an entrance through the basement and carried off between twelve and fourteen hundred dollars worth of coats and suits. No clew [sic] to the guilty parties has been found yet.
The United Brethren church in Lower Weister will be dedicated on Sunday, Sept. 26. There will be services at 10:30, 2:30 and 8:00.
LOW EXCURSION RATES on LCASE Ry. To La Crosse Interstate Fair... Round trip fare from Viroqua $2.50. Good returning until Sept. 28th.
SEPT. 9, 1925
The severe drought of the past few weeks came to a blessed close on Saturday with copious showers and a general drizzle that soaked up the turf in wonderful style. It has been several years since this section has seen so much water fall as during Saturday night and of course some damage to roads and low-lying crops resulted, but the beneficent showers were a veritable godsend to pastures and late tobacco, and even late corn.
107th ENGINEER NOTES
The National Rifle match is now in progress at Camp Perry Ohio, and we are fortunate in having a representative at the camp in First Sgt. S. Jackson. Stanley is one of twelve best rifle experts in the National Guard of the State and is now in competition with the best that the regular Army, Navy, Marine Cops and National Guard Units of various states, or Canada, can muster. He received his training at the local armory and at Camp Douglas which shows that it is not impossible for anyone to become an expert even with limited opportunity.
Victory – Last Saturday’s rain surely caused quite a delay in traffic on the road between Heck Point and the Alvin Powell home. During the day there were more than a dozen cars stalled, four or five at a time. It was not so bad during the day as each was glad to help the other out. Several cars slipped over the bank, and the large bus running between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien tipped over. One car was completely demolished. It is reported that a truck driver hearing of the trouble went up to make a fortune, and some paid as high as $25 to be pulled out... The town of Genoa should see the necessity of fixing the old railroad track into a good road between Heck Point and the Ron Koskee farm.
SEPT. 2, 1925
Ordinarily, a bank robbery is considerably a catastrophe or tragedy or both, but the attempted robbery of the Stoddard in the early hours of Saturday morning had much of the element of mirth in it. At least it was a huge joke on the yegge. They tackled a safe in the lobby of the bank, using enough nitroglycerine so that the safe was demolished and two plate glass windows in the bank were blown out. The joke was that the safe had not been used for years, contained not a single penny, and the door was unlocked. The real bank safe was contained in the vault, and the Stoddard bank vault is protected by a very modern burglar alarm system which the burglars apparently feared to tackle.
Before the attempted bank robbery, the till at the Burlington depot was riffled and a couple of dollars obtained. Some tools were also stolen from the Burlington tool house.
Lem Stevling has traded his farm near Westby for Chris Sather’s building just south of the Censor office. Mr. Sather will continue to run his meat market as in the past and Lem is occupying the front part of the room with a nice stock of groceries.
Viroqua will have a hospital for the cure of all kinds of Band Instruments on Friday and Saturday of this week. Expert operations on clarinets, saxophones and all similar musical instruments. Leave your troubles at Brown Music Store.
Readstown, Aug. 31 – Quite a number from this vicinity attended the Viola fair last week...
Ferryville, August 31 – School opened in the village Monday and we will now hear the dancing and prancing of school children again although it is rather early.