Verbrick's Gas Station

Daily News Times,January 31st, 1936

From a simpler time when spending a whole buck at the gas station could give you perks, this ad reflects the grand opening of Verbrick's gas station near the corner of Washington Street and Garfield Avenue. Adjacent to the Washington Street Bridge, this business was a part of that English-themed commercial district put forth by the Menasha Wooden Ware to emulate the Brin building that was completed in 1928.  We first encountered Verbrick's in 2012: 
http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2012/09/verbricks-service-station.html .

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And an announcement:  I am partnering with my friend Steve Krueger to author a sequel volume to the Menasha book that was published in 2012. This book will feature color photography and update the history of Menasha from the 1960's to the present.  We hope to have it published sometime next year.  Look for more details to follow in the coming months!

A Complete Success!

 

June 2, 1877 Neenah Gazette

 

Hearkening back to our blog post of August 28th when we spoke of John Robert's career in the hotel business in Menasha and Neenah.   Once again, Don Nussbaum was nice enough to provide the details of Roberts Resort's opening in 1877. 

 

I found it interesting that the festivities didn't begin until after "the company" began arriving at 9 pm in "the house."  Was this so the guests could enjoy walking the grounds before nightfall?  They then fed the 300 or so guests within the hour so dancing could begin around 10 pm in the same dining room.  Quite efficient, I'd say.

Samuel Lombard "Lum" Hart

 

 

Samuel Lombard "Lum" Hart is just one of 37 businessmen shown in a photograph composite of prominent Menasha businessmen of 1871.  It hangs in the Menasha Public Library and he is listed simply as Lum Hart of Hart & Co Machine Works.  Most who view this photo montage do not know that he had a larger, more famous role to play in later years. As if his life wasn't interesting enough, having had two separate tours of duty with Union forces in the Civil War under his belt, he would later witness one of the old West's greatest gun battles and forever associate his name with such legendary figures as Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

Samuel Lombard Hart was born in 1830 in Solon, Ohio. At a young age he apprenticed to a local gunsmith and later opened his own shop with his father in Menasha. He continued in the trade until July 1861 when he joined Company C, Wisconsin 10th Infantry. He was discharged as a Second Lieutenant on Sept. 14, 1862 due to disability,  He then rejoined on June 9, 1864 in Company D, 41st Wisconsin Infantry and was mustered out as a Captain in September,1864. The record shows that he also served as an Assistant Signal Officer for the 4th Division of the Army of the Tennessee seeing action in several battles including Pittsburgh Landing, the Siege of Corinth and Forest's Raid into Memphis. Upon leaving the Army, Mr. Hart resumed his gunsmith trade, first in Menasha and continuing later, when he and his brothers moved west.  He set up a gunsmithing business in Tombstone, Arizona Territory.

One cold October afternoon in 1881 Hart heard gun shots from outside his gun shop. He looked out his door and saw men a block away to his west in the middle of Freemont Street shooting at each other. Hart had become an eye witness to what would become known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Over his ten years in Tombstone, S.L. Hart became one of the town's leading citizens and businessmen. His daughter Minnie taught school in Tombstone's first school house.

Hart's was not the only gun store in Tombstone. Firearms and ammunition could be purchased at several places, including one run by G.F. Spangenberg where the Clantons and McLaurys loaded up before the O.K. Corral gunfight. But if gun repairs were needed, Hart's on Freemont Street was the place to go. Guns that were re-worked or repaired by Hart were often stamped with his logo, which was the letters S and L over a "heart,"  an artistic yet compact and simple way of saying "S.L. Hart."

Later in 1890, Hart and his family moved to Tucson, probably to be nearer better medical facilities. Hart had been diagnosed with cancer. On July 14, 1893 the Tucson Star  reported: "S.L. Hart, formerly of Tombstone, but a resident of Tucson for the past six months (actually Hart had been living in Tucson for almost three years), had died at his residence at 7 o'clock last evening. Mr. Hart had been suffering from cancer for some time and died from the effects of an operation performed on him." Hart was later exhumed from his original burial location in Tucson and then re-interred to Tucson's Evergreen Cemetery on August 11, 1910.

It has been said that the legacy of S.L. Hart as gunsmith to the cowboys, gamblers, lawmen, and gunfighters of Tombstone cannot be over estimated. Today a firearm with the "S.L. Hart" stamp is almost priceless.

From his seemingly humble origins in Menasha, Lum Hart led quite the amazing life.  That photograph back at the Menasha Library gives no clue as to what was to come. 

second Hart photo and gravestone courtesy of Find-a-grave.com:http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=pv&GRid=17918984&PIpi=5251006 as well as much of the Tombstone, AZ information

example of Hart's markings

courtesy of James D. Julia, Inc., auctioneer: http://jamesdjulia.com/item/lot-2071-extremely-rare-samuel-lombard-hart-colt-single-action-army-revolver-with-tombstone-arizona-history-42246/

School Safety

September 4, 1964, Appleton Post-Crescent

 

From 51 years ago today...with the new school year fresh on our minds, a plea from concerned business concerns about driving safely with all those students about.  The illustrations may be a bit dated but it's a message that still resonates, be it 1964, or today. 

 

Have a great Labor Day weekend.  I'll be back next Tuesday.

The Castle

Dating from 1895, this is one of Menasha's older buildings left downtown, set in what is known as the Romanesque Revival style. I've heard this building referred to as "the castle."  Looking at it with its turrets at the top, it makes sense.  This ediface used to house Beck's Meat market long ago.  Today it is the home of the Weathervane restaurant. 

 

top photo courtesy Menasha Public Library, bottom photo courtesy Appleton Post-Crescent

A Very Fine Building on the River Bank

from the Tourists' Guide to the Health and Pleasure Resorts of the Golden Northwest, 1879

This guide, similar to the one published by the C & NW Railway and shown yesterday, was put out by the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railway, also known later as "The Milwaukee Road."  In this guide, Menasha got "credit" for Roberts' Resort, even though it was situated on the Neenah side of Doty Island.  In the woodcut above, the National Hotel didn't look exactly as illustrated, but like most illustrations of that era, it certainly has a nice Currier and Ives feel.

"...All the Pleasant North-western Summer Resorts of the Northwest."

from The Northwest Illustrated for Tourists of 1875

 

I can never get enough of the old railroad posters and this guide book, put out by the Chicago & North Western Railway  in 1875 is full of them.  Interesting too, is that the text later in the book for the entry on Menasha and Neenah was taken verbatim from John B. Bachelder's  Popular Resorts, and How to Reach Them: Combining a Brief Description of the Principal Summer Retreats in the United States, and the Routes of Travel Leading to Them, also published in 1875.  

I first mentioned that book in a blog entry from 2013:
http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-climate-is-salubrious.html

 

Hearkening back to last week's entry on John Roberts' tenure at the National Hotel, this book doesn't fail to mention his service to the community.