A Crowd Gathers

This 1940-ish photo shows a crowd at the Neenah-Menasha Depot.  Though I cannot, with surety, vouch that this photograph is of the following event, I imagine similar assemblies looking like this:

On October 22, 1940, Company I, 127th Infantry Regiment, and the Headquarters Companies of both the 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 127th Infantry Regiment, departed the Twin Cities bound for Camp Beauregard, Louisiana. 

A newspaper article in the Menasha Record on October 20, 1943, commemorating the 3rd anniversary of their mobilization for WWII, recalled that:

    “The boys were given a rousing sendoff by the cities of Menasha and Neenah,  
      whose people gathered upon the streets to see them on parade as they marched
      to the depot for entrainment to the southern camp.”

A better judge of vintage automobiles could undoubtedly deduce the time frame of the above photo. 

First Congregationalist Church

The first public religious services in Menasha were conducted by Congregationalist missionary, the Reverend O.P. Clinton in 1848. The church pictured above at Broad and Milwaukee Streets was built in 1866, largely sheparded by Elisha D. Smith, himself not a church-goer but who raised funds for it nevertheless to better the community.  In later years, after having had a religious awakening, he became so active that it was said he was "the man who built the church and then ran it." 

Special note:  You can see this church in the Menasha skyline in the stave yards photo featured in this blog on June 6th. 

This church was built on the same grounds in the 1920s to replace the original one.   The building to the right housed the clergy. 

Tayco Street Swing Bridge

This swing bridge over the Fox River at Tayco Street precedes the familar 1928 version with the four towers that we all grew up with.  It's an interesting view.  You can see the Carl Koch building at the corner of Tayco and Water Streets in the backgound to the left.  Built in 1882, it had a grocery and general store in the lower left half of the building with a lunch room and a sample room located in the other half. The building contained apartments on the second floor. By 1882 standards, it was as impressive a building as you'd find in the Fox Valley area. 

Stave Yards

This view of the Menasha Wooden Ware stave yards dates itself by the downtown details on the opposite shore. In the top center is the National Hotel and to the right is the Elisha D. Smith library.

The National, with its distinctive square shape and rooftop cupola, burned in 1901 and the Hotel Menasha was not built on the site until four years later. With the library having been built in 1898, that leaves a three year window for dating this photograph...1898-1901.

Tyke Toys

As the wood products industry changed in the 1930s due to packaging innovations, such as corregated cardboard boxes, the Menasha Wooden Ware changed with the times.  This 1934 brochure highlighted the toys and juvenile furniture that the company began to make and market.  This introduction of dollhouses, dollhouse furniture, tables and chairs helped to bolster the company's survival and the security of many jobs for its craftsmen. 

This lamp at the right was a Tyke Toys product.  It is 1 1/2" scale.  .

photo courtesy of My Vintage Dollhouses blog
http://my-vintage-dollhouses.blogspot.com/2012_10_01_archive.html

Smith Park

This 1928 view of Smith Park shows what eventually would be designated as the Isle of Valor and the Fox River beyond.  Notice the logs piled high, a testament to the city's wood working and paper industries.  At this time, the river was still utilized as a viable means to get raw materials to the factories and mills.

Early Arrival

This oil painting by Richard Barrett depicts the arrival of Menasha Wooden Ware founder Elisha D. Smith and his wife, Julia to Menasha in 1850.  Smith was all set to move to Atlanta, Georgia and open a dry goods business until he received a letter from an acquaintance who had seen the village of Menasha and urged him to reconsider his plans.  Smith travelled all the way to Menasha from his home in Woonsocket, Rhode Island to check it out before returning to marry Julia and begin his life here.  Reportedly, Julia's father never forgave Elisha for taking his daughter so far away.