10 years ago

PRESCOTT JOURNAL July 12, 2012 Mom: There aren’t enough words to say ‘thanks’ Webster’s Dictionary is going to add a new definition for the word “community.” It will be simple: Prescott, Wisconsin. The community banded together to help a family in need last week. Word spread like wildfire Tuesday afternoon when 5-year- old Scott Meyer went missing (and was lat er found safe by a man and his Golden retriever). “There are not enough words in the English language – or any language – to say ‘thank you,'” Mom Barbara said.

Young Scott Meyer was later released from the hospital where he was treated for bug bites and dehydration.

Current News Yes, it was hot enough in Prescott! It was a tough week to beat the heat.

According to weather data compiled by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the temperature broke the 100-degree mark on Friday.

The whole week, however, was a scorcher throughout the area and Wisconsin. The high Wednesday was 99 degrees. Thursday, officially was a not-so-cool 94, and it hit 101 on Thursday.

Hot enough for you? “It’s too hot to do anything,” Bill Majkowski was quoted as saying, finding a walk-in beverage cooler to cool off in at a local business. “We planned to spend the day at the beach, and I’m on my second beverage and ice run already.”

25 years ago PRESCOTT JOURNAL “Where the St. Croix Meets the Mississippi” June 26, 1997 Realizing that her baby “was choosing to come into the world,” a woman called her husband at work at 4 a.m., with the husband choosing to complete some paperwork, which added 15 minutes to his departure time. Arriving home at 4:45 a.m., it was soon decided that help would be needed, and the local ambulance was called.

The child, which turned out to be a girl, was born in the ambulance June 2 despite not being due for 19 more days. “It was a textbook delivery,” EMT Teresa Hei said of the unplanned arrival, with the family thanking those involved. Ambulance historian Mike Ptacek said it was the second such birth in city history, the other taking place at a home.

June 19, 1997

Quote of the Week “We have to do something to prevent all Lake Street property (city owned) from being adversely possessed.” Mayor Jim Richman on why the city is pushing for parks along Lake Street Ellen Street “park” draws a crowd In an article by R. E. Herman, the report is made that “about a dozen” residents of Lake Street had shown up to the Monday parks committee meeting with concerns over city plans for a piece of land 66 feet wide and 120 feet deep, extending Ellen Street from Lake Street to the river.

The city responded that if nothing was done, the possibility of adverse possession, in which other property owners could lay claim to land they had use of or possession of for at least 40 years, meant that things might not go the way Lake Street residents wanted.

The city action was a guard against this, the mayor said. In the meantime, two property owners separated by the land in question agreed that immediate action was needed to prevent erosion and damage to their own properties along the St. Croix River, with a storm sewer that hadn’t functioned properly “for years” thrown in the mix. Meanwhile, in what was deemed a “daring car downtown theft,” a young man in his early twenties with “blond hair, a white tee shirt, and shorts” had recently made off with a black 1994 Grand Am after telling someone sleeping in the car that their friend was in a fight and to go help. They then absconded with the vehicle, later found abandoned and with its license plates removed and the keys missing in the alley behind the No Name Sa loon.

The return was thought to potentially have come as the thief realized the brazen reality of what he had done, with no suspects arrested at press time.

40 years ago PRESCOTT JOURNAL June 17, 1982 The DNR recommends purchase of the remaining Pierce Wildlife area at the head of Lake Pepin.

“To acquire the remaining acres and improve the management would produce or increase recreational and educational opportunities,” an official report by DNR agent

Bruce Moss states.

55 years ago PIERCE COUNTY JOURNAL June 29, 1967 Two New NSP Nuclear Plants at Prairie Island Costing some $300 million with transmission lines, two nuclear plants are reportedly planned seven miles north of Red Wing, with the first online by May 1972 and the second by 1974. Plant output is predicted at 1.1 million kilowatts versus 23,000 kilowatts for the steam plant.

June 22, 1967

Observation by ‘The Old Timer’ “The wheel was man’s greatest invention until he got behind it.” 70 years ago RIVER FALLS JOURNAL June 26, 1952 Obituary

William J. Morrow of South Main Street passes away suddenly of a heart attack.

Born March 30, 1885 to William Morrow and March McClure in River Falls, he grew “to manhood” as one of 10 children. Married to Annie Kohl on February 9, 1910, with three children. A lifelong confirmed member of the Lutheran faith. Interment in Greenwood Cemetery.

June 19, 1952

Writing some 70 years ago, Mrs. A. D. Hurtgen shared notes on the beginning of Pierce County, including the following: Over 100 settlers in Rock Elm “by the beginning of 1867.” A former soldier named David Rice looking for land who heard of Rock Elm told his wife there was “no need for further investigation” based on unanimous good reports, then packing and coming from Northport in Waupaca County.

Traveling to La Crosse by rail and Red Wing by steamboat, Rice and his family were brought to Esdaile by a guide for $12 and met John P. Whipp as well as Lawrence O’ Connor. The two men filled in the Rice family on where to cross the Rush River and find a cow trail up Brush Creek which by following would lead them to Rock Elm. The Rice family took this advice and reached the home of one E. R. Condit “in Section 20 on October 5, 1867.

This appears confirmed by an 1895 plat map, which shows E. R. Condit owning the top half of the NW ¼ and NE ¼ of Section 20, while just east of Rock Elm Center one “D. Rice” owns the bottom ½ of the NW ¼ of Section 15, , with S. Rice, C. Rice, and J. B. Rice nearby.

Section 15 is bordered on the east by 90th Avenue, the north by Highway 72, and the south in part by 530th Avenue.

The Rice family is listed on Find A Grave. com. 140 years ago PIERCE COUNTY PLAINDEALER July 14, 1882 Take a Holiday. There are many farmers who will in this season of rainy days, more than ever, think that a holiday when the whole family can lay aside the daily routine of farm life, in door and out, “hitch up” the horses and take a picnic or fishing excursion, cannot be afforded. But it is a fact that a little recreation and pleasant social interaction pays far better than constant labor by men, women, and children.

July 21, 1882

Congress still talks of adjourning.

A New York physician condemns the use of dotted veils ladies are wearing and reports several cases of permanently injured eyes that have been caused by this fashionable nonsense.

The contract for the labor of the state prison convicts, of Waupun, for the next five years, has been relet to M. D. Wells & Co., shoemakers, at 50 cents per day. This is ten cents each per day more than was received the last five years (This is equivalent to $14.03 today, per the site www.in2013dollars.com).

Alexander H. Stevens is well known as a friend of the young, and his name is associated with the education of many a boy struggling in the world. But the extent of his good work in this direction is perhaps known to few. There are now no less than fourteen young men and women dependent on his big heart for education. For some of these he pays merely the tuition and for others all expenses. – Atlanta Constitution.

Capt. Payne, of Oklahoma notoriety, reports at St. Louis that he will start for Indian Territory July 29, with the largest band of colonists that has yet gone into the Territory (Payne, a Union soldier during the war, is re membered as the “Father of Oklahoma”).