Kemmeters

John Kemmeter and Anne Nussbaum Kemmeter, owners of a grocery store at 318 Ahnaip Street (1900 Menasha City Directory).  In later years, their son, Peter, ran a similar grocery at 303 Ahnaip (1924 Street Guide).

photo courtesy, Menasha Public Library

Mill and Main Streets

 

Spring 1940; this is after the Tuchscherer shoe store fire and before it was rebuilt.  Here we get a view of the seldom seen north face of the library building and the John Marx tailor shop which was wedged in between the shoe store and library.  Now, with the demolition of the hotel, nothing architectural remains from this vantage point.

photo courtesy Menasha Public Library

316 Racine Street

 

This concrete block electric and water utilities building for the city used to grace the west side of Racine Street, just before the railroad tracks between Third and Fourth Streets.

Hiatus

I'm taking a break from the blog.  Look for me to return next week, July 29th.

Fire Coverage

The Oshkosh Northwestern of July 18, 1964 provided the above press coverage of the fire.  Days later, estimates of damage were revised downward to $1 million by the Menasha fire chief.

Fifty Years Ago Today...The Wooden Ware Fire

The Menasha Wooden Ware fire of July 17,1964 brought an era to a close. A railroad employee, using an acetylene torch to repair a track on a wooden trestle next to the box plant, set fire to the trestle. Although the fire was quickly controlled, burning embers were still carried by a swift breeze and engulfed the building, destroying it and three boxcars. Two weeks after the fire, the company’s board of directors announced that a new 185,000 square foot corrugated box plant would be constructed in an industrial park three miles south of Neenah. New corporate offices, to be adjacent to the new plant, were planned as well and the office staff left Menasha the next year.

309 DePere Street

Still serving the industrial, institutional, health care, food service, manufacturing, professional, municipality and school markets, United Paper is a wholesale distributor and has been locally owned and operated since 1921 in Menasha.  The photo above is their old location; I grew up in the shadow of this building, which is just north of the old Coonen's gas station at Third and DePere Streets and just before the railroad tracks. 

Twenty-Five Year Club

 

I came across the above materials the other day while going through some old papers of my Mom's.  It's from a 1965 edition of The Nightmare, the Banta Publishing Company's in-house newspaper.  You can see why my Mom retained this; I doubt my father ever got such good press until the day he died and his obituary then, if I recall, didn't have as much good anecdotal stuff as this did.   

My father went on to register 41 years at the company before he retired and I know they had a dinner for him then when he left, but that was for his career.   With the way people are employed nowadays and go from job to job, do companies even do such things anymore...that is, have banquets for longevity?

Creamery Journal

 Creamery Journal, June 15, 1922

Testimonial letter testifying to the greatness of the Menasha Wooden Ware product!

Having a Taste

Patrons sample the wares from the Walter Bros. Brewing truck, presumably Gold Label beer.  And it looks to be a generous sample.

courtesy Neenah History site at Flickr web site and Creative Commons License

Elisha D. Smith

 July 8, 1899 Oshkosh Northwestern

 

Elisha D. Smith needs no introduction to readers of this blog- namesake to the library, donator of Smith Park, founder and head of the Menasha Woodenware, and generally just all around biggest supporter for Menasha.  A personality that big surely deserved the tribute given him in this newspaper, complete with a likeness at a time when newspaper photography was virtually nonexistent and iillustrations were few.  No history of the city would be complete without his accomplishments in evidence.  The gratitude of Menasha's citizenry was evident; many businesses closed up shop to allow their employees to attend his services and his funeral procession was reportedly more than a mile long. 

(Such a sense of timing I have...I'd had this item just waiting to post on the 115th anniversary date of his death and then I forgot somehow.)

Here Comes Railroad Week

June 30, 1936 Oshkosh Northwestern

 

July 1, 1936 Oshkosh Northwestern

July 13, 1936 Oshkosh Northwestern

 

Beginning in the early 1930s, the railroads began to reinvent themselves with a program of modernizing passenger trains using railroad cars of lighter materials like aluminum or stainless steel.  The streamlined train came to represent the newest and finest in rail travel as the railroads sought to reinvent themselves as they competed with the public's newfound fascination with automobiles.  In time, when the 1950s rolled around, the influx of faster and safer airline service and the introduction of the interstate highway system proved to be even more worthy adversaries to the nation's railroads as a dependable means of transportation.  

Behind the Old Fire Station

Not so historical looking from the back end but still a proud old structure, this 1988 photo shows the rear of the old fire house/city hall before it was demolished. To the left is the former Twin City Savings drive through and to the right is the-then seniors center. 

Happy Independence Day!

I'm taking a few days away from the blog.  I'll be back on Tuesday, July 8th.  Until then, have a safe and enjoyable (and extended) weekend! 

Schultz Drug Store

An interior view from 1923 of Schultz's Drug Store at 180 Main Street. The clerk on the left is Walter Adrian, and the man on the right is pharmacist Helmer Haugh.  The store occupied the storefront at Main and Milwaukee for many years until the 1940s. 
Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library
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I'm taking a few days away from the blog. I'll be back on Tuesday, July 8th.  Happy Independence Day!

John Strange's Birthday Party

from the Paper Trade Journal, 1912

 

Lest we forget, John Strange, despite his business successes in Menasha, was also elected as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin in 1908, and served one term, from 1909 until 1911.

 

After his term ended, he continued his career in business.  When he died in 1923, he was president of the John Strange Paper Company, the John Strange Pail Company and the Stevens Point Pulp and Paper Company, as well as the director of R. McMillian Company. 

The Honorable S. A. Cook, mentioned here as toastmaster, was, of course, the namesake for the familiar armory that graced the border of the two towns for many years on Washington/Commercial Streets.

Fritse Park Quarry

This undated photograph shows a quarry that operated on the site of what is now Fritse Park on the west edge of Little Lake Butte des Morts. The railroad bridge seen in the background is now the Fox Cities Trestle Trail.

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library