Flower Beds

Yet another early 20th century lovely postcard view of the flower beds in Smith Park.  Over the years, it's beautiful flower gardens have provided the background for countless wedding, graduation, and prom photos.  Needless to say, it's a photographer's dream.

Orville J. Hall

   

Orville J. Hall, a pioneer citizen of Menasha, was born in Vermont, March 14, 1818, son of Abner M. and Eunice Hall, the former born in Cornwall, Vermont, and the latter in Litchfield, Connecticut, both of English descent. When he was less than a year old his parents moved to St. Lawrence County, NY, where he grew up on a farm. He received a common school education, and at the age of seventeen he started out into the world.  After a year of farm work in Niagara County, NY, he came west as far as Indiana, and during one summer he helped to construct a dam across the Wabash River, near Delphi. He then returned to his home in New York, and for about seven years was connected with a stage company. In 1845, he learned daguerreotyping and for about four years, he pursued this art in New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois. Michigan, Wisconsin and Canada.

 

He was married September 20, 1849, to Delilah Pauline Danforth. She was born in Fort Covington, Franklin County, NY, April 25, 1829, the daughter of David and Pauline Richmond Danforth, both natives of Danville, Vermont, the former of English and the latter of Scotch descent. Immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hall came to Wisconsin, and during the winter which followed made their home in Plover in Portage County. In the spring of 1850, they settled in Menasha, where they lived out their lives. Menasha at that time was a mere hamlet, so they have been identified with Menasha throughout its entire history. He managed a grocery store for a short time and then turned his attention to the brewery business in partnership with A. K. Sperry. During the years 1860 and 1871, he and Frederick Loescher, who was then his partner, erected the Menasha brewery on Manitowoc Street, and his connection with it continued until the fall of 1872.  Later, it became the WInz Brewery. From November, 1872, to July, 1873, he was the partner of Samuel Roby in a general store. 

Concurrent with his business pursuits, Hall became active in politics.  In 1860, he served as chairman of the town board of supervisors in Menasha, and this made him a member of the county board. He served another term as a member of the county board of supervisors in 1873. That same year, he became village president in Menasha's last year before incorporation as a city.  In 1874, he was elected as the first mayor of the city of Menasha, and served one term, successfully bridging Menasha's governmental transformation.

 

Hall died on January 28, 1890 and his funeral was held in his home pictured below. His widow remained in the home until her death in June of 1916. Thereafter, the house was owned and occupied by their daughter and her husband, Mr. Harrison DeWolf, the cashier at the Bank of Menasha.

The Orville Hall house at 410 1st Street was originally built in 1870.

references:
Randall, Geo. A. / Illustrated Atlas of Winnebago County,
Historical & Architectural Resources Survey, City of Menasha, Winnebago County, August 31, 2009

Hypatia Boyd Reed

Hypatia Boyd was the daughter of George and Jean Boyd, immigrants from Scotland. Born in Milwaukee in 1874, she had scarlet fever at the age of six, and as a result, lost her hearing. She attended the Day School for the Deaf in Milwaukee and learned speech reading rather than sign language.
 

Both Hypatia and her husband were much involved in service to the deaf. Hypatia went on to regular high school and graduated. She then was accepted into the University of Wisconsin (the first deaf person to go to a college). She taught for a time at the School for the Deaf in Delavan, Wisconsin where she met Charles Reed, who later was the postmaster for Menasha. Charles was Curtis Reed's son and was born deaf and only did sign language. She married Reed on October 7, 1903. They lost a son, Charles Boyd Reed as an infant child in 1906, and they had one daughter, Lydia Jean Reed. Mr. Reed passed away in 1911 when their daughter was only two years old. But she continued her cause-writing many articles for the local newspaper, and the Milwaukee Sentinel, as well as the Silent Worker Magazine in keeping with her advocacy for deaf issues.

Soldiers' Monument

 

January 23, 1919 Grand Rapids Tribune

 

Let it never be said that the hearts of the city fathers weren't in the right place.  I always find it fascinating to muse on "what might have been."  But as so often happens, reality sets in and local tensions get compounded, especially when dealing with the rival town next door.  Was it the $30,000 cost, or some perceived infraction about the location...who knows? 

I never saw another mention of this idea again.  And judging from the way this headline was written, I suspect the writer of this piece wasn't surprised either. 

Two Years Ago Today

Two years ago today I began this blog by posting this postcard photo.  My intention at the time was to just drum up some attention for a simple picture book I was having published to benefit the Menasha Historical Society.  But it soon became apparent that this blog was something more than a vehicle for publicity.  Yes, it served its purpose, but even after the initial interest for the book had faded, you came back again and again. 

Considering that I administer this all from my home in South Carolina, it can be challenging at times.  But because of the internet and email and Facebook, I am able to do this. I truly believe that in no other era could I be as successful at this as I am today. 

Many of you have told me how much you gain from this blog, but in reality, I am the true winner. Your comments, emails, and Facebook posts have helped to fuel my imagination and contribute ideas while I add to this blog each week.  Thank you for your continued support, enthusiasm, and friendship.

City Hall

This postcard of the old city hall/fire station predates the expansion of city government and the necessity for more office space.  By 1917, the old city hall had become cramped and the city purchased the old First National Bank building.  This was not the stately columned ediface, but rather the original bank to the west.  The next year, the police department moved out of city hall to a property just west of the Menasha City hall.  After these moves, the old city hall was used by the Fire Department and the Common Council until 1963.  In that year, the First National Bank building constructed in 1917 (the columned one) was purchased by the city and merged with the older building next door, as the bank was building its new facility across Main Street from the Bank of Menasha.  Combined, the two buildings now housed city offices and the council chambers.  The old city hall remained in use by the Fire Department until the 1970s and eventually was demolished in the 1980s. 

US Tractor Company

February 26, 1919 Oshkosh Norhtwestern

 

 

Farm Implement News, December 25, 1919

 

Back in January, we discussed automobile manufacturing, something that happened only for a very short time in Menasha.  It came on the heels of the demise of the US Tractor Company in 1922-23.  Today, we read how the firm came to town, via Chicago, settling first at the old Woolen Mills offices on Tayco Street and later making its home on Sixth.  The ad above, is from that very first year the company moved to town.

St. Patrick's

 

This postcard dates from 1934.  This is shortly after the era when manufacturers of picture postcards began putting a white border around the illustrations to save ink.  That lasted roughly from 1915 to 1930. 

Safeguard Your Investment

 

From a 1943 trade journal devoted to ice cream products, once again we get the Menasha Products Company pitch.  Notice the oblique reference in the copy to the rationing and shortages Americans were feeling by now. 

 

Boxcars of Industry

 

A view of the Wooden Ware about 1927, looking west from the dam.

 

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library.

Tracks Receding

This photo postcard has seen better days but it's a great snapshot in time.  Is the walking man going to wait for the interurban?  Perhaps he has business at the First National Bank across the street.  Is he a guest at the Hotel Menasha?  

Dated between 1910 and 1927, this photo displays a prosperity that only a few decades before was marked by a dirt street and horsedrawn wagons. The modern age had arrived.

City Square

The Schultz Bros listed on this awning does not refer to the variety store (or 5 and 10, or dime store, as I knew it), but rather the Schultz Brothers Pharmacy, a mainstay on Main Street for many years until the 1940s.  Charles and Emil Schultz opened their pharmacy about 1910 next to Beck’s Meat Market, complete with a soda fountain. The brothers also maintained a store in Neenah.

Streetcar Stop

A colorized postcard of the downtown area between 1905 and 1910.  The building to the left is the Bank of Menasha.  The nearest streetcar stands in front of the recently built Hotel Menasha, completed in 1905. Notice the dirt street, which wasn't paved until 1910 and the lack of the flag circle which arrived shortly after this depiction was taken.  The building directly to the right of the hotel is the office of the Menasha Daily Press and unseen to the right is the original First National Bank, built in 1887.  In 1917, that newspaper building will be torn down and a new bank will rise on the site- the stately four-columned bank that served the city for the next 48 years.

Huband and Nash

September 3, 1913 edition of Paper
 

Mr. Huband was also the mill superintendent at Gilbert Paper Company for 30 years and completed a half century with the firm as director of production.  He later was a member of its board of directors.  As for Mr. Nash, he settled at Gilbert's for a 19 year career after working at paper concerns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and others in Wisconsin, to include George A. Whiting Paper. Nash would eventually hold 36 patents in papermaking, mastering the evolution of cotton-content paper, developing the original impression watermark and the first centrifugal device for removing dirt from paper pulp.  In 1911, he left Gilbert's to co-found Lakeside Paper Company in Neenah.    

I'll be the first to admit, I know little about paper and I had to look it up to learn what a "deckel" (or as it seems to be spelled today, "deckle") frame is. 

My friends at Wikipedia tell me that, in manual papermaking, a deckle is a removable wooden frame or "fence" placed into a mold to keep the paper slurry within bounds and to control the size of the sheet produced. After the mold is dipped into a vat of paper slurry, excess water is drained off and the deckle is removed and the mold shaken or "couched" to set the fibers of the paper. Some of the paper slurry passes under the deckle and forms an irregular, thin edge.  This accounts for the look of some books with irregular pages, instead of the flat "cut" edges that other books have.  To my surprise, I've learned that this is a very desirable trait for books to have, in that it espouses an elegance from a by-gone era and can command higher prices that flat cut pages. 

The Dawn of the Five Day Work Week?

From the June 23, 1913 issue of Paper, a Weekly Illustrated Journal of Technical and Industrial Information on the Manufacture, Sale and Use of Pulp and Paper

The prevailing notion is that it was Henry Ford who gave us the five day work week.  Others say it was the labor unions.  While Ford dabbled with this idea in the 'teens, he only made this concept permanent around 1926, so perhaps John Strange merits more credit than he gets. 

Woolen Mills Strike

 

April 18, 1887 Shelbyville (IN) Daily Democrat

 

April 22, 1887 Oshkosh Northwestern

 

In my research, I found this story mentioned in other papers, from Indiana to California, as if the wire services had picked it up and ran with it.  The only mention in the local papers I found was the above article from the Northwestern, attributing these comments to the New York Sun.  Perhaps I have too many Dickensian images in my mind, but I found it hard to believe that 19th century factory workers, and women besides, would "strike" over such an issue, much less get away with it.  Nevertheless, if this is to be believed, the alleged New York Sun writer above seems to have his tongue planted firmly in cheek, or was evidently wowed in some previous visit to our fair city by the feminine element!  I never did find out how the strike was settled and if the women won. 

 

(And if the New York Sun sounds familiar...ten years later, it would gain immortality for its editorial proclaiming "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus.")

Racine Street Park Shops?

A reader of the blog contacted me recently with a question regarding Racine Street Park, also known as Racine Playground.  He'd seen a recent mention of the park in the "Back in Time" section of the Twin City News-Record and wondered about its history after it had featured a news article regarding Menasha's mayor indicating an offer of over $100,000 had been made to purchase the land in favor of a shopping center.

As many of us already know, the land that used to house the playgound in summer and skating rink, in winter, is currently the home of the public library and the fire/police department.  In former years, up until 1936, it had been home to the old Menasha High School. After the devastating fire, the new high school was built on Seventh Street and the old high school land became the Racine Street Park for the next 30-odd years. 

 

January 7, 1964 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

 

April 9, 1964  Appleton Post-Crescent

 

 

September 8, 1965 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

 

June 22, 1966 Appleton Post-Crescent

 

As such matters often go, they have a way of being defeated, either over longevity or political infighting or change in administrations.  In the next seven or so years, the idea went from building a new city hall, to a shopping center, to tabling it and keeping the park as is, to utilizing the land for the eventual public library.

 

Thanks to Brad Morrison, for bringing this to my attention. 

Interurban

Courtesy of The History Museum at the Castle in Appleton, this photo of the interurban labelled Menasha was taken in 1900 by Wilmer D. Schlafer, possibly at the corner of Olde Oneida and South River in Appleton.  The interurban ran to Menasha until 1927.  The fare to Menasha from Appleton was 10 cents.

Power

The old utilities plant on Water Street.  All those wires and towers and the starkness of the black and white composition just screams "power!" at the viewer.

 

courtesy of Creative Common Use License via Flickr page of bigcityal, taken 22 June 200

Peepeek Lake?

from P.V. Lawson's History, Winnebago County, Wisconsin: Its Cities, Towns, Resources, People (1908):

"Little Lake Butte des Morts was named by Father Crespel in 1728 as Little Fox Lake. Very early in French occupation it became generally known by its present name, and the high prehistoric mound builder hill on its west shore near the tomahawk trail was associated with a tradition of the massacre of the Fox Indians, an event placed at about 160 years ago. An attempt was made by a modern map in 1856 to change it to Peepeek Lake. Big Lake Butte des Morts is said to derive its name from the same tradition in connection with the second massacre of the Fox Indians at that place on their fleeing from the first assault. There was no hill of the dead on this lake and no reason has been given for assigning the name to this lake. The village and town of Butte des Morts also derive their name from the same tradtion; but whether the village takes its name from the lake or the lake its name from the village would be difficult to determine."

In his book, Mr. Lawson refers to Father Crespel in a nonchalant manner, as if we should know him as well as Father Marquette, for example.  Personally, I didn't, so I researched and learned that Father Emmanuel Crespel was a Flemish missionary assigned in Canada who, as a military chaplain, accompanied French Canadian forces to fight the Fox Indians in Wisconsin from June to September 1728.   In 1742, Father Crespel published a book of his letters, to include describing a harrowing winter spent in a remote section of Canada after being shipwrecked.  Despite his humility and adherence to his vows as a cleric, this book made Father Crespel famous throughout Canada and Europe and he lived out his days as the administrator of his religious order.  He died in 1775 in Quebec.

As far as where the Peepeek designation came from, my best guess is that it was yet another Native American word for the lake or mistakenly taken as such.  Also, that Lake Street shown on the map never came to fruition either. 

Racine Street Bridge Begins

Appleton Post-Crescent January 28, 1950

Taken from Water Street, this photo shows Menasha's new bridge beginning to take shape. On Saturday, August 25, 1951, the new Racine Street lift bridge was dedicated in memory of Curtis Reed, and the old Mill Street swing bridge was demolished shortly afterward. Built at a cost of $585,000, the modern structure featured automatic warning lights and power driven lifts. 

Aerial Menasha 1976

This aerial photo from our Bicentennial Year shows the north channel of the Fox River from downtown all the way out to Little Lake Butte des Morts.  Gilbert's and Banta hug Ahnaip Street towards the bottom of the photo.   Other landmarks- James Island, Tayco Street Bridge, the water tower, John Strange. 

In the upper right corner you can see the recently completed Roland Kampo Bridge which linked US 41 to Menasha across the lake. Otherwise known locally as "The Polish Connection," it was the first link in what eventually became the Tri-County Expressway.