Gilbert Ad

Let's finish the week with this vintage Gilbert Paper Company ad from the back of the 1917 Nicolet.  The signature smokestack, recently departed from the city skyline, is front and center in this illustration. 

Doty Float

July 5, 1920 saw the Doty centennial celebration in the Twin Cities.  Menasha Wooden Ware constructed this float in the shape of the Doty cabin. 

And what was the Doty centennial?  In 1818 James Duane Doty, the future governor of the Wisconsin Territory, had moved from New York to Detroit, the capital of Michigan Territory, where he became an apprentice to Charles Larned, the attorney general. In 1818, he was admitted to the bar in Wayne County and Michigan Territory and he practiced law until September 29, 1819, when he was appointed clerk of court for Michigan Territory.  In June of 1820 Doty resigned his clerkship in order to serve as secretary to the Lewis Cass expedition, a summer-long exploration of the part of Michigan Territory lying west of Lake Michigan as far as the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  This journey was undertaken at the suggestion of Secretary of War John Calhoun and sought to survey and map the topography and natural resources, and learn about the various Indian nations of the northern Great Lakes region.

James Doty first saw Doty Island during this expedition. He moved to the island in 1845 after serving as governor.  Soon after, the Reed brothers would arrive in the area and the stage was then set for the intense development to follow. 

July 2, 1920 Oshkosh Northwestern

July 7, 1920 Oshkosh Northwestern

 

Clarence Loescher

 

Clarence Loescher stands outside the family business - Loescher Hardware.    Clarence grew up to graduate from Menasha High in 1913 and the University of Wisconsin in 1917.  He returned to Menasha to work in the family business.  In 1930 he became the postmaster for the city of Menasha and was head of the local draft board on the eve of World War II. In the 1920s, he was president of the Rotary Club.   He died in 1941 at the young age of 45.

 

Clarence sits in the Loescher Hardware delivery wagon.

The Harris Six

 

 

August 4, 1923 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

The Harris Six is probably unique in American automotive motordom as being the only automobile produced under court order to help defray bankruptcy proceedings. The car was named after G.D. Harris, vice president of the US Tractor Company who was instrumental in adding a line of passengers cars to the existing output of tractors. Plans for this production were outlined late in 1922 when patterns for the design of the recently discontinued Winther car were purchased from the car's parent company, the Winther Motor Truck Company of Kenosha.

The announcement of the Harris Six appeared in the 30 April issue of the Menasha Record, in an advertisement including a sketch of the projected Touring Phaeton and a listing of the various models to be built and their corresponding prices. The Harris Six design called for
a rather good looking car with disc wheels and matching side-mounts. Its wheelbase measured 120 inches (3046 mm), and power was by a 6 cylinder Herschell-Spillman Model 40 L-head engine. Prices were set at $1275 to $1675.

Its delay in getting into production killed the venture and the US Tractor Company was reorganized, becoming the Wisconsin Automotive Corporation, with bankruptcy proceedings immediately following. The court decided that production of the intended cars was impracticable and decreed that the corporation complete as many cars as possible from existing parts. An estimated 9 cars- all disc-wheeled sport phaetons- were thereby completed and sold for what they could bring to local purchasers, the proceeds being used to pay court costs. Thus ended the Harris Six and the US Tractor Company. G.D. Harris moved to Appleton and became more successful in the manufacture of snowplows.

info courtesy of gclayton at http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/roaringtwenties/info

K.M. Hutchinson

The K.M. Hutchinson sternwheeler is shown here at the Menasha dock.  Racine Street is just behind the boat.  The tall building to the right of the ship's smokestacks is Loescher Hardware at Main and Racine.  In about 70 years or so, the Racine Street bridge will join mainland Menasha at this point.

The boat was built in Oshkosh in 1886 from the hull of a two masted schooner. It was first owned by a Captain Emelious P. Bangs who ran the boat from Oshkosh to Green Bay although it was reportedly top-heavy and capsized several times. He later sold it to Joe Smick, who ran it on the Wolf River. It burned on a sand bar between Lakes Poygan and Winneconne in 1895.

Menasha's First!

April 8, 1960 Appleton Post-Crescent

While I personally do not recall this laundromat, I do have distinct memories of the laundromats on Racine Street near the Schumacher Hotel and on Old Plank Road near Third Street, just before the railroad tracks.   (This one wasn't exactly on Main Street, either.) 

It might seem silly to celebrate the opening of such a business, but it nevertheless met a need in the community and was a product of its times.  And in celebrating all things Menasha, it's just another bit of whimsy in our shared history. 

Gilbert's Duck Pond

July 17, 1964 NM Northwestern

 

(This snapshot obviously doesn't do justice to the duck pond in its former glory.) 

Oct 15, 1966 NM Northwestern

 

When completed in 1886 the Lawson Canal stretched nearly all the way from the end of River Way to the intersection of Ahnaip and Walnut Streets. The canal ran parallel to Ahnaip, with only enough space for an occasional frame boathouse at its western extremity. Clipped by a Chicago & Northwestern spur line after the turn of the century, the canal was further reduced by the construction of the Gilbert Paper Company offices and machine shop in 1919. What remained became known as the Gilbert Pond. In 1920 the Gilbert Pond was landscaped and at some point in time improved by a fountain. The pond became a year round home of wild and domestic ducks and geese and surrounded by various conifers and deciduous trees.

 

synopsis courtesy of Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, Division of Historic Preservation-Public History, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin

 

Typesetting at Banta's

This photograph from about 1905 shows the George Banta Printing Company in the Masonic Building, downtown Menasha.  Located at 165-167 Main Street, the company moved to Ahnaip Street in 1911.  Started as a hobby, the business later became the printer for Banta’s insurance business- calendars, notepads, desk blotters, and the like were produced as promotional and advertising premiums for his insurance customers. The George Banta Company was incorporated in September 1901 and, in time, became a major printer of fraternity and sorority magazines as well as university catalogs, yearbooks, and textbooks and, by 1930, it was printing some 130 periodicals.

Wheeling Without Work

This ad for Loescher's Hardware is from The Nicolet in 1917, Menasha High School's yearbook.  Cycling was all the rage around this time, and the forerunners of many motorcycle companies combined their engine know-how with the two wheeled conveyance.  Inventions like the Cyclemotor were the result. 

The premier hardware store of Menasha goes back to horse and buggy and dirt street days.  Loescher's Hardware was located at Main and Racine Streets.  Below, you can see the Loescher's name on the awning at the far right in this old photograph. 

Across the River

 

A view across the river as seen from the south end of the dam in 1887.  The old National Hotel can be seen across the river to the left in the photo.  This view predates the original Menasha Library which was built in 1898 at the end of the Mill Street bridge..

Post Office

The post office in the 1950s?

 

In the 1930s, the Federal government built over 1,100 post offices, and many of them are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, to include this one.  During the first ten years of President Franklin Roosevelt's administration,  the government built three times the number of post offices it had built in the previous 50 years.  Many of these post offices were built by the Public Works Administration, and while there was a strong desire to complete projects quickly, "the PWA also stressed the importance of high quality in order to ensure 'public works of an ensuring character and lasting benefits'," according to its 1939 report.

The Menasha post office was dedicated in July of 1933 and its facade still looks remarkably the same today. A handicap accessible ramp and an addition to the north side towards First Street are some of the outside improvements. 

The post office in November, 2009. 

Top photo courtesy of Appleton Post-Crescent, historical file.
Bottom photo is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Cherry Sparkle

The Whiting Airport Office, Airport Road, Menasha
 

This office can also be seen at the center of the bottom photo, showing its relation to the rest of the airport. That Cherry Sparkle sign intrigued me so I did a Google search and learned it was a soft drink bottled by the Pulaski Soda Works of Pulaski, Wisconsin.  What was even more intriguing was other examples of the company's signage , which merited a MAD magazine Alfred E. Neuman lookalike, so prevalent in early advertising. 

As I've described before, the airport opened for use in March 1928 and lasted only until 1930, when it was closed due to its losing money. In later years, the telltale shape of the hangar was still evident as it became a Goodwill store and later a hardware store.

 

bottom photo courtesy of Menasha Public Library
top photo courtesy of NeenahHistory via Flickr, under Creative Commons license

Richard Chauncey Russell

 

Massachusetts born and bred, Richard C. Russell moved west in the mid 1850s due to ill health.  Settling in Oshkosh, he began his financial career as the owner of a grain warehouse and was successful in shipping grain to New York via the Great Lakes and the canal system.  In the late 1860's he entered banking and organized the Union National Bank in Oshkosh where he was general manager and cashier for 18 years.  In 1887, he entered business with Charles R. Smith, George Whiting and Andrew Webster to form the First National Bank of Menasha.  Russell was elected its president and served from 1887 to 1890. 

 

While not a Menashan by birth or residency, Richard C. Russell nevertheless made his imprint upon the community and was recognized as a "far-seeing financier of the state of Wisconsin."  

A. J. Webster

Born in 1829, in Cabot, Vermont, Andrew J. Webster grew up as a farm boy and became a machinist at age 21, moving around several manufacturing cities in Vermont and New Hampshire. Following his marriage to Helen Vance in 1855 the couple moved to Racine and came to Menasha in 1856.   He was described by his friend, P. V. Lawson, as a proud young man with merely an ordinary education and no wealth, his whole capital of $500 being furnished by his wife. He was one of the many who came out west with lots of energy and dreams of making a fortune.  

 

Shortly after his arrival in Menasha, Webster purchased a small spoke factory and became the sole owner and employee. When the factory became stabilized, Lawson became his partner. The demands of the Civil War for wagon parts caused the partners to aggressively expand, becoming the second largest manufacturer in the area.   Sitting on the same land today that we find the marina (and where the former First National Bank resided), the Webster Manufacturing Company by 1879 occupied ten acres of land and employed 175 men full time.   The company turned out the material for 150 wagons and 100 cultivators each day.

 

As Webster prospered so did his involvement with other businesses and social activities. In 1870 he served on the first library board. He was elected as a popular mayor for three terms between 1879 and 1884. It was while he served that the arrangement for payment of Milwaukee and Northern Railroad bonds was made. However, his efforts to have the saloons closed on Sundays failed.

 

In 1880 the Webster-Lawson partnership dissolved. Lawson believed the needed raw materials were declining, as the company required six million feet of lumber each year. Webster's other activities included assisting in the organization of the Bank of Menasha.

 

Webster was widowed in 1876 and later married Mary Fratt of Racine, a cousin of Francis Kimberly. The Webster home on Washington Street was a show place near the Neenah border where St. Thomas Episcopal Church now stands.  Residents of Menasha were shocked when Webster, without any notice, moved his chair operation to Superior, Wisconsin, leaving 200 individuals unemployed.

 

Webster died in 1903 in Redlands, California. 

George A. Whiting

George A. Whiting moved west to Wisconsin with his parents from New York at the age of five in 1854.  Reportedly, he came to Menasha in 1865 with ten cents in his pocket.  By the time of his death in 1930, his paper mill was exceeding $3 million in production annually.  In the interim, he, of course, made a name for himself with the paper mill he owned in Menasha as well as one in Plover, Wisconsin.  He was mayor of Neenah twice, and was a benefactor to that city as well as Lawrence University in Appleton. 

...For Particular People

January 10, 1965 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

The holidays might have been over, but the special buffet at the Hotel Menasha was a reality every Sunday. 

Firemen

 

Menasha city firemen pose in front of the combination city hall and fire station in this undated photograph.  As most of us already know, the building was constructed in 1885 and was located on Main Street. The fire department occupied the lower level and the city offices were on the second floor. This building was torn down in the 1980s. Originally, horses were stabled to the right of the building before motorized fire trucks became commonplace.

 

Since 2003, the Twin Cities have been served by the Neenah-Menasha Fire Rescue, formed by the merger of the Neenah and the Menasha Fire Departments. 

Never Too Late

January 8, 1965 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

Your own mother probably had a Christmas Club account at the Bank of Menasha or the First National Bank. Faithfully depositing $5 or $10 a week all year long to save up money for the holidays was a great way to avoid using those pesky charge accounts.  And if that didn't suit your fancy, there was always layaway! 

Gilbert Smokestack

 

 

In light of the demolition of the Gilbert smokestack on Sunday, let's have one last look at it, in more prosperous days.  As the most visible reminder of the now shuttered mill that had been a mainstay in Menasha since 1887, the smokestack coming down helps inaugurate the development of the riverfront to a trail and recreation area.

Recreation on the Locks

As a respite from the doldrums of winter and the deep freeze we're in, let's enjoy this postcard featuring the Menasha Lock.  Looks like a great day to be out on Little Lake Butte des Morts.  How long until summer? 

Valley Fair...State of the Art

February 14, 1958 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

Large ad from the PC touting the shopping center's continued upgrades, this after being in business for just three years.  Store expansions, expanded office space, and a new satellite broadcasting studio for WNAM spell a bright future for Valley Fair!

Whiting Group Shot

Employees of the George A. Whiting Paper Company pose in the 1880's.  The Milwaukee Road cattle car in the rear of the assembled group is state of the art for the era for transporting livestock, debatable for shipping paper. 

Happy New Year!

 December 31, 1962 NM Northwestern

 

From my blog to you, wishing you the Happiest of New Years in 2014.