Longtime Resident

 

 

The stoic image shown above is of Catherine Antony, born 1832, died 1906.  Born in Bayern, Germany as Catherine Lemmel, she was a longtime resident of Menasha, first appearing in the 1860 census.  A mother to three children,  she was the wife of John (or Johann)  Antony, a native of Prussia and a merchant who ran the store, pictured above at the left in the 200 block of Third Street.  To the right is the family home. 

top photo courtesy of Menasha Public Library

Valley Plumbing & Heating Supply

A freight engine belching smoke, makes its way down River Street, between Tayco and Little Lake Butte des Morts.  Some of the other businesses along River Street were Marathon Paper, George Whiting Paper, and the Whitmore Machine and Foundry
Company.   

Fire Company

Yesterday, we saw the early City Hall and the evolution ot the other City Halls over the years.  Pictured above, the Menasha fire company stands in front of the combined City Hall and fire department around 1892.  The building on the right is the horse stable.

photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library

City Hall

 

 

 

Almost 130 years ago, City Hall was located a few doors west of this location on Main Street, housed in the same familiar building as the old fire house.  As government grew, the offices moved to the old First National Bank property across the street before settling in this, the former Twin City Savings and Loan. 

Isle of Valor

The Isle of Valor was constructed in 2007 to honor Menasha's two Medal of Honor recipients, Kenneth Stumpf and the late Elmer J. Burr, and the other Menasha residents who exhibited bravery or valor in military or civilian circumstances.  The centerpiece of the isle is this 10-foot monument flanked by plaques detailing the brave deeds of Stumpf and Burr. 

During this long, recreational weekend, please take a moment to pause and reflect on what the few have given, so the many of us can enjoy our freedoms.

I'll be back on Tuesday. 

photo courtesy of geocaching.com

WNAM's Anniversary

May 22, 1972 NM Northwestern

 

66 years ago today, the Big 1280, WNAM hit the airwaves.  Let's hearken back to its 25th anniversary to learn a little history of the radio station we all grew up with. 

WNAM's 5000 watts of broadcasting power cover a wide swath of Northeastern Wisconsin

Jefferson Park Idyll

How many of us climbed all over that cannon over the years?  At the height of my "GI Joe" years in the mid-1960s, I must have defended Menasha from coastal invaders thousands of times each summer!   

Smith Park Marina

Another aerial view of the area, this time we gaze down on the vacinity of Smith Park.  The old George Banta Company is at the top right of the photo.  You can see the Memorial Building in the center with the Isle of Valor directly behind it. Until 2007 when the memorial was completed, the small island had been referred to as "Picnic Island" in some news accounts, though that is the only place I'd ever heard that name. This photo seems to pre-date the construction of the memorial. 

photo courtesy of Marinas.com

Letter Writing Campaign

May 17, 1962 NM Northwestern

 

Here's a unique news item from the ol' hometown, coinciding with the World's Fair in Seattle that year.  What I find so surprising isn't so much that Catholic schools could (and would) join together collectively nationwide to combat "indecency" in the pre-Vatican II era but that such a show would even get a permit in the first place.  And at the World's Fair?   We think of that era today in terms of "Leave It to Beaver" innocence but we forget there was always a sordid side, too. 

 

The Seattle Times reported that "About 20 models will pose in space-age costumes on a revolving stage as fairgoers take 'pin-up' photos with their own cameras or rented ones." (November 11, 1961) 

 

Of course times have certainly changed but I still cannot imagine that with such an emphasis on political correctness that such a show would even be considered today or be mentioned in the same breath as a world's fair                                             .   

A. J. Webster Residence

From: History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and Early History of the Northwest by Richard J. Harney (1880)

Mr. A.J. Webster founded the Hub and Spoke factory in Menasha in 1856 along with P.V. Lawson, Sr.  This fine residence was located on the present site of St. Thomas Episcopal Church.

 

Mr. Webster was also mayor of Menasha from 1879 to 1881 and again from 1883 to 1884. 

 

 

Another Press Ad

We first met the original Banta press last week in the blog.  This ad from the 1929 Menasha High yearbook, The Nicolet, features the press and gives the reader a real feel for how important this press was to the Bantas and their future in printing. 

Concordia Hall

Concordia Hall was built to headquarter a German social club, the Concordia Society, which was begun in 1856 to help the sick and bury the departed.  In 1888, it combined with the rival Germania Society, which had and still does have its hall on Chute Street.  

 

Concordia was located at 310 Broad Street, and as the caption says, was the largest dance hall for a time in the twin cities.  Home to many a wedding reception or church fair, Concordia was partially destroyed by fire August 11, 1903 and never rebuilt. 

Andy's Handy Station

 

 

 

 

Andy's Handy Station was located across the street from the Brin Theater at 10-12 Main Street and run by Andy Borenz.  He had another location across from the Hotel Lenz at Third and Racine.  Notice the slogan in the 1929 ad above from the Menasha High School Nicolet yearbook and on the envelope.  Before this, I hadn't heard of this section of town ever being referred to as "the Loop."

 

Be it due to the Depression or from other economic factors, by 1939, according to the city directory, both stations were under new management. 

Tranquility

 

Let's start the week with something serene.  This picture postcard evokes a peaceful tranquility along the Fox River. 

Happy Mother's Day

 

May 4, 1967 NM Northwestern



With Mother's Day this weekend, I felt it right to feature this full page ad for the Mother's Day "Queen Contest" in Menasha from 1967 and all the suggested gift ideas, courtesy of the contest sponsors. 

Not to keep you in suspense but the winning mother was...Mrs. Bud Wanty. 

A Happy Mother's Day to all!

Banta Press

 

A page culled from The George Banta Company Story,published in 1965 by Cyril Arthur Peerenboom, former president of the company. 

 

The printing press pictured above was the original press used by Mr. Banta, when printing was still a hobby that supplemented his insurance business in the early 1900s. 

Gilbert Employees

This photograph was featured in Paper With a Presence, A Gilbert Century, published in 1987 to commemorate the centennial of the Gilbert Paper Company.  At the time of this photograph, Gilbert Paper was just 3 years old.   William Gilbert had been in business with George A. Whiting since 1881, but sold his interests in 1886 to found his own company a year later.

Bindery Addition

Successes in production capacity led the George Banta Company to enlarge their Ahnaip Street plant in 1962.  Pictured above is the two story addition to the bindery which provided another 18,000 square feet of space.  The bottom photo shows the additions to the original building.  The smokestack belongs to the Gilbert Paper Company. 

Personal note:  My father worked in the bindery for 42 years, so I was very familiar with these grounds. 

The Finish That Begins

In the 1930s and 40s, Gilbert Paper ran a series of quite classy ads in national business magazines to sell their bond papers.  Many of these were reminiscent of Norman Rockwell's illustrations - office or schoolroom scenes, for example.  Then, when World War II began, the themes changed more to freedom and the fight we were undertaking.  This early ad from a 1939 Fortune magazine was somewhat more unusual in that it gave the public a glimpse of how the paper was processed. 

Gilbert Paper Company

The Gilbert Paper Company was established in 1887 by William Gilbert Sr. and his sons William Jr., Albert, Theodore and George.  Gilbert Jr. had previously been in business with George A.Whiting, who operated the George Whiting Co. paper mill on River Street in Menasha. The Gilbert concern was built on the Lawson Canal the year of the canal’s completion and was the third paper manufacturing operation in the city. Designed by the Chicago firm of Childs & Smith, the front portion of the office was completed in 1919 and the rear by no later than 1926. The gatehouse to the northeast was also completed by 1926. In 1960, the firm was purchased by the Mead Corporation and, in 2001, by the Fox River Paper Company but ceased production later that year. Throughout its history, the company produced “higher quality, cotton-fiber content papers including bond, ledger, index and onion skin papers."  The former paper company office currently serves as the law offices for a number of attorneys.

Early Tayco Street

This early photograph shows the Tayco Street bridge area between 1871 and 1882.  The building at the left is the Landgraf Hotel which was built in 1871.  It was supplanted by the Brin Theater around 1928. 

The building to its right with the bell tower is the original fire station.  This was replaced by the Main Street fire station and city hall which was constructed in 1885. 

The A-frame device in the center is a part of the wooden swing bridge, which operated on the site from 1859 through 1886.  That year, it collapsed as a large herd of cattle was crossing.  A new iron swing bridge was then built which lasted until 1928 when the well-known bascule bridge with a stone tower at each of its four corners was built. 

Menasha Products Company

 

This postcard depicts the Menasha Products Company, a division of the Marathon Paper Mills Company that manufactured paper and paperboard products for packaging and distribution of food.    On the reverse, this postcard touted its employment force of over 1000 people and the twenty or more carloads of products leaving daily from the facility. 

  

This postcard is pre-1957, as American Can Company purchased Marathon in that year.

 

Highway 15 Opening

September 22, 1922 Milwaukee Sentinel

 

The Milwaukee Sentinel had a big promotional section within its paper that day to celebrate the opening of Highway 15, which stretched from the Wisconsin-Illinois border all the way to Marinette.  it was the precursor to major highways like US 41.  As such, each community along the way had its own civic minded ads and news stories were included to tell a bit about the communities featured.  This is Menasha's above. 

The original iteration of State Highway 15 in Wisconsin, essentially ran along the present-day US-41 corridor from Milwaukee via Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Appleton and Green Bay to the Michigan state line (and a connection with Michigan 15) at Marinette/Menominee. Of course, where US 41 was later been upgraded onto new alignment, the original State Highway 15 would have followed the older alignment of US 41, such as along State Highway 175 between Milwaukee and Oshkosh, for example. By the early 1920s, though, State Highway 15 was extended southerly from downtown Milwaukee concurrently with State Highway 17.   

In 1926 with the debut of the U.S. Highway system, all of State Highway 15 north of Milwaukee was supplanted by the new US 41 designation all the way into Michigan's Upper Peninsula. However, since the portion of State Highway 17 between Milwaukee and Manitowoc was assumed into the new US 141 routing (leaving State Highway 17 intact from Manitowoc to Sister Bay), State Highway 15 continued to occupy the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha-Illinois line route until 1931 when it was replaced by State Highway 42 (now part of State Highway 32). In 1933, all of State Highway 14, which ran from Beloit via Delavan, Elkhorn and Mukwonago to downtown Milwaukee, was redesignated as State Highway 15 to accommodate the brand new US 14 designation in the state. The Beloit-Milwaukee route remained State Highway 15 from 1933 until November 1987 when I-43 was extended from Milwaukee to Beloit, completely replacing the second iteration of State Highway 15. It would be another ten years before the third and current iteration of State Highway 15 would debut.

The current State Highway 15 exists entirely within Outagamie County and runs east–west between Appleton and New London.

thanks to wisconsinhighways.org