Blown the Town

 

October 19, 1903, Oshkosh Northwestern

The notorious Welch gang, introduced in yesterday's blog post, merit another mention in the newspaper some eight years later.  By this time, some notable members of the gang had already been tried, convicted, and sentenced, among them gang leader, Jack Welch who was serving his time in Michigan.  Of special note is the location of their hideout, in the vicinity of Brighton Beach and the use of the slang expression signifying that the gang had "blown" the town.   

Chicken Thieves

 

 November 30, 1895, Oshkosh Northwestern

Menasha was a hot bed of criminal activity in its early years.  This article mentions Officer Schrebeis, from yesterday's robbery attempt story as one of the officers helping to apprehend the Welch brothers.  As we shall see in later installments, this gang was no one term number...indeed, in a span of almost twenty years, the brothers' gang was still doing damage to the area.

Long Hard Fight

October 15, 1903, Oshkosh Northwestern

Menasha has been known for some criminal activity but this harrowing account of the attempted robber of the grocery gives one pause at how it could have easily become tragic.  Mr. Schreibeis' training as a policeman from years before obviously kicked in and helped him to seize the day and quell the robbers.  We at the blog are grateful he survived, as he became a valued alderman of the fourth ward in later years and contributed mightily to the civic well-being of the city, sitting on the school board and serving as postmaster.

We first encountered Mr. Schreibeis in 2013:  http://menashabook.blogspot.com/2013/10/schreibeis-groceries.html

That Seven Yard Rule

October 7, 1898, Oshkosh Northwestern

Everybody knows that the game of football is based on the team with the ball getting four downs in which to make ten yards before another four downs are granted.  But back when the game was new, downs were originally limited to three and five yards was the required yardage to gain before a new set of downs was given.  For their 1898 season, the Oshkosh team decided seven downs was a better distance, but obviously Menasha did not agree and the game did not occur.  

A few days later, the following article appeared and it becomes apparent that Oshkosh felt Menasha had a "ringer' on its team and objected to that issue, even more than the five yard rule. It would be a while before football rules resembled what we know today and the idea of negotiation between teams as to what rules were permissible is a rather foreign concept to the current fan.  In fact, it wasn't until 1912 that the point value of a touchdown was standardized at 6 points and a field goal at 3 points.  Before that, touchdowns ranged from 2 to 5 points and field goals were, in varying years, either 5 or 4 points.  As with everything, football evolved over time.  Likely, the football fan of today would be hard pressed to recognize the game of 1898 when it looked more like rugby and forward passes were nonexistent.

October 10, 1898, Oshkosh Northwestern

Special Dinner

January 5, 1912, Menasha Record

Nothing like repeating the actions of a world leader.  After all, isn't that how the 7th inning stretch started, because President Taft stood up at that time in the baseball game he attended and everyone in attendance thought they needed to follow out of respect?  Anyway, I was unable to find any follow-up articles on the great possum dinner, so who knows how well that turned out?

Special Party

October 23, 1964, Appleton Post-Crescent

Contests, prizes, and fun.  Movie theatres sure don't do this much anymore, do they?  But back in the heyday of entertaining the kids at the movies, this type of thing happened all the time.  Movie theaters were, in many cases, de facto babysitters, allowing busy Moms and Dads to have a few hours available to themselves to do other things.  And the Brin, our local movie palace, was just the ticket. I wonder how many actually showed up in costume to get that free ticket....

When Things Go Wrong, They Go Wrong

October 24, 1959, Oshkosh Northwestern

Not to make fun of misfortunate, but when things go wrong, they rapidly go wrong.  This poor woman's insurance agent must have had his day made when this report came in.  It almost sounds like a humorous scene from a movie comedy.  The only thing missing is the funny music they'd play when the car was performing all these acrobatics.  Thankfully, Mrs. Schultz was uninjured, playing human pinball.  Just another unusual day in Menasha.