Fox River View

Let's end the week with this undated "real photo" postcard image, giving us an ethereal summertime view of the Fox River. 

photo courtesy, Menasha Public Library

Temporary Home

 

This was the temporary home for Tuchscherer's Shoe Store at 356 Chute Street after the disastrous fire of January 18, 1940.   The boxes in front of the store held rubbers and boots.  We talked about the fire at this post: http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2014/07/mill-and-main-streets.html and in the Menasha book.  But the Tuchscherer shoe store was rebuilt later that year at Mill and Main Streets and remained in business for another forty plus years, selling shoes in its Art Moderne style building.

photo courtesy, Menasha Public Library

Surgical Pioneer

from History of the Fox River Valley, Lake Winnebago & the Green Bay Region, Hon. Wm. A. Titus, Editor, Volume I-III, Chicago, S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1930

June 14, 1968, Neenah-Menasha Northwestern

 

Sometimes neglected in the list of Menasha notable citizens is this man, Dr. John B. Murphy.  Though in some sources, he is credited as hailing from Appleton, Menashans can take heart that one of her favorite sons did some real good in the world, despite the geographical slight that we're too often prone to experience.

Quaker Oats

1902 grocery near Manitowoc and Second Streets.  A.J. Seithamer is in the door and Henry Lux is on the extreme right.  A grocery store was maintained at this location for the next sixty-plus years until the early 1960's and run by the Seithamer family.

photo courtesy, Menasha Public Library

Hiatus

I'm taking a short break from the blog.  I'll be back next week, July 28th.

Bridge to Neenah

Editorial from Neenah or Menasha local newspaper (probably 1850s) decrying the sad state of affairs regarding a decent route from the Neenah-Menasha area to points north and east.  With the advent of the railroads along the western shore of Lake Winnebago and LLBDM during the 1860s, this became more of a non-issue.  But for this early period, when water travel was THE way to go due to the wretched condition of overland routes, a bridge connecting Neenah and Menasha was surely a necessity.

Delivery Truck

Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of the back room at Trilling Hardware.  Today, we have a 1917 photo of their delivery truck. 

photo courtesy of Menasha Public Library

Busy in the Workshop

Elsworth Knagg looks up from his work in the back of Trilling Hardware.

We first met Henry Trilling in May of this year:  http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2015/05/henry-e-trilling.html.  Trilling Hardware was at 212-214 Main Street.

Photograph courtesy of the Menasha Public Library

Brighton Beach Map

In our never-ending search for obscure maps, comes this effort from the 1939 Neenah-Menasha City Directory.  In a previous post, we'd already seen the Butte des Morts Beach area mapped out from 1931; now comes a map of the Brighton Beach area at the end of Third Street.  As covered in previous posts, a hotel had been built in 1899 and the area then became even more popular for picnics, band concerts, and other outdoor activities.  But in spite of two renovations, the property was sold off around 1927 and the hotel torn down after years of trying to compete with Waverly Beach.  

Posing Proudly

Otto Beaton (extreme right, front row) posed proudly in June of 1926 when he became the foreman of the pail factory at the Menasha Wooden Ware.  He had joined the firm 16 years earlier as a lathe operator.  The smaller photo is that of a barrel factory crew, date undetermined.

 

In October 1964, when the Menasha Corporation broke ground in the Town of Neenah for its new plant and headquarters after the devastating fire of that summer, the then-88 year old Otto Beaton, the oldest pensioner of the firm at the time, helped turn the first shovel of dirt that day.

All Makes of Radios Repaired

1945 N-M Telephone Directory (inside back cover)

Back in the day when radios were worth repairing, we had the Hopkins Radio Service, just down the street in the Brin Building.

La Fontaine Revisited

The passage below about the formation of Brown County in 1840 further elaborates on the La Fontaine railroad story as explained in this blog back in April:
http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2015/04/la-fontaine-railroad-and-winnebago-city.html . 

As you might recall, Governor Doty's plan was to bypass the Fox River's rapids by a railroad from the village of La Fontaine near present-day Kaukauna to an envisioned "Winnebago CIty" on the northern shore of Lake Winnebago between present-day Menasha and the town of Cliffton (High Cliff). 

But in this case, several years later, a canal was now the prescribed means to avoid the Fox River problem. Of course, as we now know, this was eventually solved by a series of locks. 
 ---------------------------------
Brown County 1840

The " town system" is adopted, and the county is divided into four towns — Green Bay, Depere, Kakalin and Howard.

The town of Kakalin is on the Neenah (Fox) River, in the south part of the county. The Grand Kakalin rapids, from which this town derives its name, is near the middle of the town. It is the principal and most noted rapids of the Neenah. In a space of eight thousand six hundred feet, according to the survey of Capt. Cram, there is a descent, over horizontal strata of limestone rock, of forty-four feet.

The river is here divided, by about thirty small islands, into numerous small channels. On approaching, and upon leaving these rapids, it has a direction nearly northeast, but upon the rapids it is deflected to a due east course. The Konkapot creek enters the river from the south, at these rapids; and a town, called La Fontaine, has been laid out near their foot. Stone, of excellent quality for building, may be quarried here in abundance. A company has been incorporated to construct a railroad from this point to Lake Winnebago. Bridgeport, or Waupakun, is situated at the mouth of Plum Creek, in this town, about two miles below Rapide de Croche. From this place a survey has been made for a canal to Cliffton (High Cliff), on Lake Winnebago. The length of the route is fourteen miles and five hundred and eighty feet: a feeder from the north branch of the Manitowoc river, nearly two miles in length, would be necessary.

The summit is eighty-five feet and fifty-one hundredths above Lake Winnebago, and the Manitowoc, at the head of the proposed feeder, is sixty-eight feet above that lake. By the construction of this canal the rapids of the Neenah would be avoided. The population of the town of Kakalin, in 1842, was 251.

from: Wisconsin: Its Geography, and Topography, History, Geology, and Mineralogy, Increase Allen Lapham; Milwaukee: I.A. Hopkins, pub (1846)
map courtesy of Wisconsin Historical Society, viewed online at http://www.wisconsinhistory.org on 9 Jul 15

Wooden Ware 1870

Grainy photo from circa 1870 shows the Wooden Ware along the Fox.  Interesting bell tower-like structure at the top of that one building, reminiscent of a church or school. 

Jefferson Park

Here's a nice "real photo" postcard of Jefferson Park on what looks to be an idyllic summer's day.  You can just imagine the breeze rustling through the trees as it wafts over the confluence of Lake Winnebago and the Fox River.

Happy Independence Day!

I'm reposting a photo today that I first used for Independence Day three years ago.  It's a favorite because it shows a side of downtown that wasn't regularly photographed.  Needless to say, a lot has changed since this 1943 parade in downtown Menasha.
 

Here's wishing you a great and glorious Fourth of July weekend!  I'll be back next Tuesday, July 7th. Keep safe!

The Wooden Ware Log

 

How fitting is it that the house journal for the old Wooden Ware was named the "Log?"

The Oshkosh Northwestern of February 21, 1921 reports:

                       The "Wooden Ware Log" is the title of a publication which is being issued by-
                       monthly by the employees of the Menasha Wooden Ware Company. The
                       paper is devoted to social and industrial questions. Miss Catherine Hickey is
                       editor-in-chief and other members of the staff are taken from the various
                       departments of the mill and office.

I'm not sure if I should groan or applaud the pun.   

Driving Park's First Day...and Eventual Demise

 Neenah City Times, September 13, 1879

 

It must have been a glorious day for the community, to have had such a fine facility in its stead, the envy of all in the state, if one could believe the publicity. 

 

Neenah Daily Times, April 18, 1890

 

But as reported here on Monday, the driving park met its demise around 1889/1890, as the crowds dwindled and the potential (perceived or otherwise) for vice and ruinous behavior permeated the area around the track.  And in a Victorian age of modesty and decorum, such temptations were not welcome around God-fearing communities like Menasha or Neenah, not to mention that they likely kept some well-heeled patrons from the park because of its "reputation."