Midway Plant

In 1943, a 27 acre parcel of land one mile north of the Menasha city limits was purchased to expand operations of the Banta company.  The plant was eventually named "Midway" by George Banta, Jr. as it was considered halfway between Appleton and Menasha.  (In reality though, he may have finally tired of it being referred to as "Bantaville" by his employees!)  This view looks northeast from the Milwaukee Road tracks. 

Looking south in late 1945/early 1946, this aerial shot shows the progress of the building effort.  Featured prominently is the warehouse area, known as Unit A.  The printing presses were to be installed in the Unit B floor space adjacent to Unit A.  The walls are not yet constructed.  This plant added 42,000 square feet of work space.

Artist's 1964 rendering of Midway plant to showcase the latest improvements to the facility. 

What to Do About New Year's

Appleton Post-Crescent December 30, 1966

 

Gearing up for New Year's Eve, a review of the local paper from 47 years ago provides a number of entertainment choices across the Fox Valley to bring in the New Year.  And who couldn't resist the sonic stylings of Speedy and the Alka Seltzers?! 

Merry Christmas!

I'm taking this blog on hiatus for the next week but I'll be back on 30 December to help bring in the New Year. Until then, I thank you for your support and interest in my little endeavor.  I wish you the Merriest of Christmases. (I wonder what ever happened to this kid?!)   

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas from several Neenah-Menasha businesses in 1973.  Many of these merchants are lojng gone now, but ads like this were mainstays in the local papers' business sections for many years.  

Charles R. Smith

 

 

Charles R. Smith was Elisha Smith's son and greatly improved the Menasha Wooden Ware's fortunes. A Princeton University graduate of 1876, he took a broom handle and barrel factory he had formed by himself in Menasha and merged it with his father's existing Wooden Ware business. This made Menasha Wooden Ware the world's largest manufacturer of turned woodenware. Additionally, he became president of the First National Bank and remained in that position until his death in 1916. He was also superintendent of the Menasha school system.

 

When he died, Charles Smith was eulogized in the local papers as it said, "All Menasha has taken personal pride in his ascent to a position in the business world where he has come to be known as a man among men."

 

A bit of trivia- the village of Warner, Wisconsin was renamed as Ladysmith in 1900 in honor of his wife when the Menasha Wooden Ware bought up the power site in the Flambeau River, about a mile east of the village, and all the land between it and the village north of the railroad. When the company's plans to dam the river and build a stave mill became known, the information got into the newspapers and people began to flock into the village. Within a year, the population rose from 100 to 1,000. However, Mrs. Smith never honored her namesake with a visit.

First Butte des Morts Bridge?

This hand-drawn map reflects some interesting facts about our fair city.  It not only shows the location of the first house as described a few weeks back in our look at former school board members, but it also shows the first bridge over Little Lake Butte des Morts.  “In 1853, the first bridge across Lake Butte des Morts was built, giving direct communication with the farming country to the west. This bridge was replaced by a float bridge with a draw, in 1856, and in 1861, a pile bridge was constructed, which is still standing but for the past two or three years has been impassable." -Harney's History of Winnebago County p. 219.

 

This bridge was the impetus for initial retail development at Main and Tayco Streets.  Its demise helped quell development in that area and it never really recovered the way the city's founders had hoped.  A national municipal engineering journal in 1911 gave hope to a new bridge.  It reported that "Plans are being made for reconstruction of a foot bridge across Little lake Butte des Morts, connecting Menasha with farming country.  It is planned to procure state and county aid in construction of the bridge."  But to my knowledge, this never went beyond the planning stage as reported, and no new bridge was in the offing until the 441 span was completed in 1975. 

 

map courtesy of Prairie, Pines, and People: Winnebago County in a New Perspective, edited by James I. Metz, 1976, Oshkosh Northwestern press.

Solved!

 

December 16, 1958 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

From our coverage last week of that bomb scare at St. Mary's. No word on what the boys' punishment was and I wonder if they even did graduate with their other classmates in the class of 1960. 

Gem Bock Beer

 

The style of beer known as bock was a dark, malty, lightly hopped ale first brewed in the 14th century by German brewers in the town of Einbeck. The style from Einbeck was later adopted by Munich brewers in the 17th century and adapted to the new lager style of brewing. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced "Einbeck" as "ein Bock" ("a billy goat"), and thus the beer became known as "bock.' To this day, as a visual pun, a goat often appears on bock labels.

School Happenings

December 12, 1959 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

Continuing our journey through the local papers, we find these two photos from a couple of our parochial schools dated 54 years ago today.  Unfortunately, I don't remember my own science classes as being as inspiring as what's reflected here! 

Bomb Threat

December 11, 1958 N-M Northwestern

 

My hope is that this had nothing to do with the upcoming Christmas Pageant as highlighted in yesterday's blog entry.

Christmas Pageant

A look back to the newspaper 55 years ago reveals this photo, featuring two women who became my own teachers in the 1960s- my first grade teacher, Sister Marietta, and my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Larsen.  (I'm sure Gary made a very nice angel.) 

Valley Fair Coupon Days

November 16, 1959 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

 Just in time for your pre-holiday shopping; let's visit Valley Fair. 

Early School Board Members

In older blog posts, we've spoken individually of many of these city fathers.  Many politicians, yes, but also some captains of industry, merchants, and businessmen who, at various times, all contributed towards Menasha's quest for educational excellence as members of the School Board.  

This 1925 Nicolet photo montage of past school board members is a who's who of Menasha's history:  P.V. Lawson, mayor, author, attorney, orator; Silas Bullard,  mayor, city attorney, county judge, and vice-president of the First National Bank; John Schreibeis, policeman, grocer, alderman, postmaster; William Bublitz, real estate agent; John Marx, clothing merchant, alderman, president of John Strange Paper Company; Corydon P. Northrup,  insurance agent, city clerk, and the builder of the first house in Menasha in 1848 in what is now the middle of the intersection of Sixth and Milwaukee Streets; and John Rosch (sp), mayor and pharmacist, who introduced the first soda fountain to Menasha. 

Time Tables

An example of published railroad timetables in the local newspapers.  As we all know, Menasha was served by three major railroads in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Late Thanksgiving Addition

Discovered too late to be our Thanksgiving Day offering, this ad from around 1950 is typical seasonal fare to spin up a product's involvement in the latest holiday.  By tying in the beer's relevance to Thanksgiving in this case, Gem may increase their sales volume.   Reminding the public that holidays are a great time for imbibing their product is one way to increase sales and perhaps generate interest that will carry into the Christmas season and beyond.  Infrequent buyers of their beer might be persuaded to buy a case or two to keep on hand. 

Menasha Carton

 

Pictured at the left is the Menasha Carton Company.  It later merged with the Menasha Printing Company at the right, and became, logically, the Menasha Printing and Carton Company.  This was the forerunner for the Menasha Products Company, which became Marathon Corporation, then American Can, and then James River Corporation.  Before the plant closed in July of 1998, it had become Fort James Corporation, formed through the merger of Fort Howard Corporation, Green Bay, and James River Corporation, Richmond, Va. This photo dates from about 1905. 

Tranquil Scene

 

After the hubbub of the Thanksgiving holiday, let's start the week on a quiet note.  This 1908 postcard reveals the peacefulness of the canal as viewed from the Washington Street Bridge.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

November 28, 1970 NM Northwestern

 

While the photo quality might not be that great, I still hope the message gets across here- that it's holiday time once again and what better way to ring in the season than by going back in time 43 years and getting a taste of both Thanksgiving and Christmas, courtesy of the local newspaper. 

 

I'm taking some time off to enjoy the holiday.  Enjoy Thanksgiving and your time with your families.  I'll be back on Monday with more memories.  Have a great weekend!

MHS Band 1929

The 1929 edition of the Menasha High School Marching Band stands downtown.  In two short years, the band will take state honors as the best high school marching band in the state.  As we've seen in prior photos, notice the confusing parking near the circle.  And what does the "63" written on the photo signify?  The number of band members? 

Library

Pictured above is the Menasha Public Library around 1974, the replacement for the old library downtown on Mill Street that served the city until 1969.  This facility at First and Racine Streets was renovated, beginning in 2003, adding an additional 18,000 square feet, per the library's web site. 

Down the Boulevard

This 1925 postcard shows Nicolet Boulevard, the dividing line between the Twin Cities on Doty Island.  Once known as  "The Avenue," the street was renamed to honor explorer Jean Nicolet.   

Caboose

Despite appearances, this caboose is an older Soo Line wood caboose with cupola, donated by the railroad to the Menasha Historical Society in 1972, in recognition of the city being the birthplace of the Wisconsin Central. The car, #104, is painted in red and yellow and lettered as an early Wisconsin Central car.  Debate arose long before it reached its final resting place; should it reside in Jefferson Park or Smith Park?  Even an area behind the library on Racine Street was considered as well as the Railroad Museum in Green Bay.  The protective shelter was provided by George Banta, Jr.

 June 10, 1972 NW Northwestern

Bridge Construction

In the last few weeks, in this blog, we've discussed plans dating back to the early 1960's for construction of this bridge over Little Lake Butte des Morts.  But it wasn't until the early '70s, that actual concrete was poured and efforts begun in earnest.  This particular photo was featured in the 1975 MHS yearbook, The Nicolet.  

Bindery

This was the early 20th century bindery department in the "new" Banta facility on the island after leaving downtown.  So this dates the photo to about 1910 or 1915.  Everything was folded and bound by hand.  Eventually, this function would become automated with binding machines and the department would gain my father as a future 40+ year employee beginning in the early 1940s.  

Fourth Ward School

In 1891, a new school was built in the 700 block of First Street at a cost of $10,000.  At the time, local newspapers touted it as a "noble monument to the city's bounty and broad public spirit towards the cause of popular education."  It was known as the Fourth Ward School. The school had four classrooms and a large playground.  With eventual redistricting of the city, it then became known as the Fifth Ward School around 1924.  By the late 1920's it was known as the Jefferson School.  But overcrowding made a new school a necessity, so the present Jefferson School was constructed in 1933 on Ice Street near what became Jefferson Park.

John Chapman Insurance

1920 Menasha City Directory

In the early to mid 1920s, John Chapman was also the local Justice of the Peace and the president of the Menasha Club, as well an insurance man.  He worked in Room 5 of the Bank of Menasha building, 148 Main Street, per the city directory.  Later he became secretary-treasurer of the United Paper Corporation before passing away in the early 1930s 

Milwaukee Road

Another in our series of departed Menasha landmarks, this time on Racine Street, just north of Third. 

More Bridge News

November 13, 1963 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

With all the focus on President Kennedy and 1963 this month, I decided to look back fifty years and see what was going on in the area.  I found the above article about the Little Lake Butte des Morts bridge progress.  We'd touched upon it back on November 1st when I featured an article citing the formation of a committee in the summer of 1962 to promote the idea of a bridge. 

 

This story indicates that Menasha had been waiting for such a bridge since 1928 or so.  Interesting.  Guess my research isn't finished yet. 

Early Papermakers

 

Gilbert employees at the turn of the century

 

Heavy machinery run by barefoot workers amid exposed belts with no safety guards, yikes!  When we think of safety, we usually think of OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which regulates workplace safety and health.  But although OSHA wasn"t formed until 1970, safety measures were already brewing in the early 20th century. 

 

In May 1911 Wisconsin became the first state to establish a workmen's compensation system. Nine other states passed compensation laws that year, three in 1912, and eight more in 1913. By 1921, 46 jurisdictions had workmen's compensation laws in force.

 

Additionally, the Wisconsin Safe Place Statute of 1911 required employers to furnish employment and a place of employment, in which workers' lives, limbs, health and comfort would, within reasonable limits, be protected. Two years later, in 1913, Congress created the Department of Labor and one of its main purposes was "to improve working conditions."

As most things go, safety was on an evolutionary track and the wheels of change turn slowly.  But these legislation efforts were some of the first steps in ending the days when sensationalistic newspaper reporting of horrendous workplace accidents was a daily occurrence. 

City Directory

Let's finish the week with a sampling of ads from the back of the 1979 Neenah-Menasha City Directory. 

Bundler

This employee is using a bundling machine to tie a stack of corrugated boxes at the Menasha Wooden Ware around 1940.   While considerably more labor-intensive than today, the papermaking industry nevertheless evolved over time to bring laborsaving automation to the workplace.  

Gilbert Supercalendering

 

Gilbert workers around 1910.  Pictured is the supercalendering crew of, from left to right, Art Gazer, Henry Elinger, Ed Arft, and Bert Schomer.  By essentially buffing the paper, this  generates an additional luster and enamel-like surface.  The result is paper with a high-gloss finish. 

City Garage Dedicated

November 3, 1963 Appleton Post-Crescent

Bottoms Shop

 

Two workers in the "bottoms shop" at the Menasha Wooden Ware in 1915, where bottoms were made for tubs, pails, and barrels.

Bridge Committee Formed

July 2, 1962  Appleton Post-Crescent

 

On the same day the Post-Crescent reported the formation of the Riverside Clinic, comes this news of a committee formed to promote the building of a bridge over Little Lake Butte des Morts.  I wonder what happened to THAT idea? 

Broad Street Changes - 1962

February 18, 1962 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

We have seen recent blog entries highlight the construction of a new Germania Hall in 1963, the historic grocery of John Schriebeis from the 1880's and the building of the Riverside Clinic in 1957, all on Broad Street.  Here is yet another entry about Broad Street. 

 

This article showcases efforts to transform Broad Street into a business and commercial zone, one of the many efforts over the years to stimulate business in the downtown area.  As with the article, research supports the idea that at one time in the 1800's, the intersection of Appleton and Broad Streets was the nucleus of what could have become a third commercial district, after Main Street and the Tayco Street Bridge area, perhaps even becoming the dominant area.  The two taverns and former grocery remaining at that intersection bear witness to that effort.  And, to add even more emphasis to this contention, remember that the US Government Land Office had been relocated from Green Bay in the 1850s to a location on Broad Street to regulate the sale of public land bought from the Indians. 

Today, the remnants of this 1962 effort to bolster Broad Street seem to be the absent homes that once bordered the rear of Main Street businesses, sacrificed for parking. 

Riverside Clinic

The clinic building to the left opened in late 1957 as Medical Associates with office space for ten doctors.  Later it became known as Riverside Clinic.   The building on the right was completed in 1968 as an addition to the clinic and had office space for nine more physicians.  In 1974, the McClone Insurance Agency took over the original building when Riverside Clinic and Twin City Clinic in Neenah merged to form the Nicolet Clinic.  This was the forerunner of today's Affinity Medical Group.  

Ah...!

Appleton Post-Crescent, April 1953

 

 

Wisconsin Rapids Tribune March 13, 1953

 

Featured today, a couple of Gem Beer ads from 1953.  The brewery in Menasha would last another three years, closing in 1956, while other Walter Brothers breweries in the state, and one in Colorado, would continue into the '70s and beyond. 

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica Entry

Menasha

MENASHA (an Indian word meaning "thorn" or "island"), a city of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, U.S.A., 88 m. N. of Milwaukee, and 14 m. N. of Oshkosh, attractively situated at the N. extremity of Lake Winnebago at its outlet into the Fox River. Pop. (1890), 4581; (1900), 5589 (1535 foreign-born); (1905, state census), 5960; (1910), 6061. Menasha is served by the Minneapolis, St Paul & Sault Ste Marie, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, and the Chicago & North Western Railways, and by an inter-urban electric railway system. Several bridges across the Fox River connect Menasha with Neenah, with which it really forms one community industrially. Doty Island, at the mouth of the river and divided about equally between the cities, is a picturesque and popular summer resort.

Menasha had good water power and among its manufactures are paper and sulphite pulp, lumber, wooden-ware and cooperage products, woollen and knit goods, leather, boats and bricks. The first white man to visit the site of Menasha was probably Jean Nicolet, who seems to have come in the winter of 1634-1635 and to have found here villages of Fox and Winnebago Indians. Subsequently there were French and English trading posts here. The city was settled permanently in 1848, and was chartered in 1874.
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I find the statement interesting, about how "... the bridges connect Menasha with Neenah, with which it really forms one community industrially."   That statement is (was) true in more ways than just industrially, though many citizens of both towns would argue against it.  Also, I find the Doty Island reference curious, as if it was simply a vacation spot.  Yes, Roberts' Resort was a big attraction on the island, but much of the island by 1911 was already residential and had industrial sections and was a part of both cities.   

Interurban Rates

Interurban rates for 1918

 

 

 

 

From about 1898 to 1927, when the electric trolleys were abandoned in favor of buses, you could travel around the Fox Valley for pocket change.  At a time when mailing a letter cost 3 cents, a nickel trolley ride in 1918 was affordable.  That nickel is worth about $1.20 in today's money.  There was even an extended inter-urban railway that travelled between Neenah and Oshkosh (see map below), though I expect the rates were higher, of course.