Friday, March 7, 2025

Time Machine Trip to March 1905

Kaukauna Times

By Lyle Hansen

 

March 3, 1905

The city jail has been a very busy place this past weekend. A Kaukauna man was locked up for fighting with a saloon keeper yesterday evening; when he was brought to the jail he had exhibited bad temper in the presence of Sheriff Koch. He is now on bread and water and by next Saturday it is believed he will have learned proper jail courtesy.

 

Charles Johnson’s tin shop and hardware store on Beaulieu Hill, was destroyed by fire Monday night. The fire department made a lively run as soon as the alarm was turned in and succeeded in extinguishing the blaze before it spread to the adjoining residence.

 

March 10, 1905

 

The picture here shows a perspective view of the Carnegie Public Library Building which is to be built this year on the site donated by the Green Bay and Mississippi Canal Co. The picture shows the front of the proposed structure.

 

By a vote of 76 to 1, the state legislature passed a bill Tuesday which absolutely prohibits the sale or manufacture of cigarettes or cigarette paper in the state.

 

Within the week orders have been issued for the recall of all the men who were laid off in the machine shops last summer. With the request to return is also a promise of steady and permanent employment.

 

March 17, 1905

A new cement industry is the making of shingles out of cement. It is said that they cost about as much as slate roofing but are superior in that they are made with ridges and grooves which fit together and prevent water backing in between them.



Theodore Roosevelt has been duly inaugurated President of the United States. He pronounced the oath of office as he stood before the white-haired Chief Justice on the Capital plaza Saturday afternoon.

 

Joseph Dalley, a young man aged 23 years, who but recently entered the service of the Chicago and Northwestern road as a fireman on the Ashland division, met with an accident last week Wednesday near Hortonville which necessitated the amputation of one leg just below the knee.

 

 

Little Nancy, aged four, had a doll to which she was devotedly attached. Nancy took it to bed with her, carefully closing its eyes before the light was turned out. One day the doll met with an accident which broke the eye closing mechanism. At bedtime her mother noticed she did not have her doll with her. Have you forgotten your doll? “Oh, what’s the use? She can’t sleep anyway with her eyes open.

 

 

March 24, 1905

 

Word has been received by the railroad shops that the Chicago and Northwestern line will soon add sixty monster locomotives to its motive power. The new engines are expected to run as much as $1,000,000.

 

 

The fact that women of Wisconsin may vote this spring for candidates. Every woman in Kaukauna over 21 years of age can vote. It is hoped they will do their full duty.

 

March 31, 1905

Farmers who were in here Saturday from Askeaton say that the wolves beyond there in Cooperstown have killed quite a number of sheep the past winter, and that an organized hunting party will be formed to see if they can get rid of them.

 

Another new enterprise was launched here this week by Cornell & Ward, a paper supply firm in New York, wherein the manufacture of toilet paper rolls will be the exclusive product at present. The plant is now operating and employs ten hands under Harry Scholl as manager.

 

“Jack the Hugger” is also a Kaukauna man, so say a couple of south side ladies who had an encounter with him early Friday evening. In a dimly lit part of a street he tried the embracing act, on each of the ladies as they were on the way home. Their screams brought to their rescue some nearby boys. The police say they have an idea who the person is and are awaiting a chance to get the evidence needed.


 

17 ½ x 23   1886 Kaukauna Print

Available at Party & Print, Little Chute suitable for framing.

$5.00. Proceeds to the Kaukauna Historical Society.   


Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Time Machine Trip to March 1895

 

Kaukauna Times

By Lyle Hansen


March 1, 1895

The fire bell announced another fire Tuesday evening. This time it was the store of Morrison & Dougherty, directly opposite St. Mary’s Catholic church. It is suspected a lamp exploded after Mr. Morrison left the store.

 

THE TIMES office has been moved this week to the new Smith Bros. brick block on East Second Street. The new facility is larger, better lit, and a better room for our purposes in all ways. Don't think for a moment that because The Times was moved this week, we are not ready for business. Our job presses stopped but three hours during the transfer, and everything is running now better than ever. 

 

The Little Chute and Hollandtown two days dance attracted the usual number from Kaukauna this week.

 

Madison, Wis., - Prof. Alexander Graham Bell of telephone fame arrived to work on the passage of the bill to provide day schools for deaf mutes. He will deliver a lecture to state committees on the education of the deaf.

 

Cincinnati, Ohio – Minnie Meyer, colored, has sued the Louisville and Nashville railroad for $25,000 damages under the civil rights law. Last June she bought a first-class ticket from Cincinnati to Lexington, Kentucky. When the station over the River in Covington, Kentucky was reached, she was removed from the lady’s car to the one partitioned off for colored people.

 

March 8, 1895

Several of the mills in this city instructed their firemen to give their whistles an extra toot, and hold them a while longer, last Monday noon, to celebrate the out going of the democratic congress which died that day, never to be resurrected. The day should have been made a national holiday, so that everybody could have had an opportunity of celebrating one of the most important events in history.

 

The effect of the adjournment of the Democratic Congress has already been felt in Kaukauna. Last week orders were received from Chicago to start the shops up on the old schedule six days a week nine hours a day and on Monday when the Democratic Congress breathed its last, new orders went into effect as a fitting celebration event. A number of new men have been added to the machine shop.

 

Green Bay bicyclists are discussing the feasibility of having a relay race from that city to Milwaukee during the coming summer. Of course, a number of Kaukauna riders will be included among the group.

 

March 15, 1895

After spending several months talking over hook and ladder trucks, the common council finally purchased one last Tuesday evening. They ordered Style No. 11 from Gleason & Bailey Manufacturing Company of New York, the price being $875.00.

 

Spike McDermott, an ex-saloon keeper, ex-jail bird and ex-proprietor of the Golden Spike, a resort at Superior, Wis., famous for its toughness, has joined the Salvation Army. They expect great things of him, as he is a man of marked ability.   

 

March 22, 1895

Logging for the season is practically at an end in the pines and many of the boys are returning home. The season was shortened by about three weeks this year by the soft weather.

 

At 2:30 this afternoon just as the last forms of the times was being placed on the press, the starting news was brought in that Fred Wurster, Sr. of the south side had been run over by a switch engine in the yard here and instantly killed. The accident occurred near the Main Avenue crossing. Mr. Wurster had been a resident of Kaukauna for years and is a prominent member of the Odd Fellows Lodge.

 

March 29, 1895

All mill owners here have received notice from the government to the effect that the water in the river must be allowed to rise to the crest of the dam and maintained there; even if the mills are compelled to shut down to accomplish it. This is to prepare for the opening of navigation.

 

Fred Wurster came to his death on the 22d of March. He was accidently killed in the yards of the C. & N. W. Ry. Co. at Kaukauna by engine 941, which backed over him.

 

Chicago, Ill., March 26 – Maggie Titter was today condemned to be hanged for the murder of Charles Miller. She is colored and if the sentence is carried out, she will be the first execution of a woman which ever occurred in Chicago. 




Victoria, B.C., March 25 – The police have decided that bloomers are not suitable for lady’s street wear. Last week Miss Ethel Delmont a wheel woman, pretty and graceful made her appearance in her bloomer costume and could not have been greater excitement than Lady Godiva’s famous ride on the street. The people came forth to gaze at her and for a moment the policeman was petrified with amazement. She received an official visitor who informed her that her appearance in her objectionable costume earned a court summons for creating a disturbance on a public street. The police confiscated her bloomers and destroyed them. 


 

Hon. George W. Lawe and wife reached the sixtieth anniversary of their marriage on Monday last. The greater part of this time has been spent in Kaukauna.  





Oshkosh, Wis., - Women reported to have been terrorized by “Jack the Hugger”. Several complaints have been made lately. The fellow attacked Mrs. George Rose last evening but was frightened away by her screams. In every case so far, the fellow has offered no further motives than to embrace his victim and then run away.








 


 

Sunday, March 2, 2025

Time Machine Trip to March 1885

 

Kaukauna Times 

By Lyle Hansen

March 6, 1885

Local politicians are now talking and thinking about filling some city offices this spring. Let the best men be chosen, and don't try to pick them all from one side of the river. When anyone tries to play hog he generally "gets left."

 

The United Sates fish commission has succeeded in the introduction of carp. At least 25,000 people have assisted in the planting of carp in this country. This fish should soon become plenty in our markets.

 

A man was lately refused admission to a skating rink at Stamford, Conn., because he didn’t wear a collar.

 

Minnie Hanson, the little Racine girl who was so terribly burned while fighting a fire to save the life of her infant sister, will have to suffer the amputation of both of her hands.

 

An Indian girl by the name “Lily-walk-in-the water-same-shape-all-the-way-down-foot-just-like-a-board” lives in Dane County.

 

March 13, 1885

Wm. Brierman, a saloon keeper from Forest Junction, came to Ledyard this week, seemingly for the purpose of having a little fun, and proceeded to fill up with intoxicants as the first step in this direction. His next step was taken in another direction, and brought him into Justice Albers' office, where it required the sum of $5.00 in hard cash to pay for his little drunk, to say nothing of lodging overnight in the "little brown jug."

 

A minister forgot to take his sermon with him to church and his wife discovering the mistake sent a small boy to deliver it to him. When the boy returned for payment she asked him. “Did you deliver the sermon?” “No mum,” he replied “I jus giv it to him, he’s a deliverin it himself.”

 

During the execution of Dr. Goerson, at Philadelphia on the 5th Joseph Barrett confined in a cell near the gallows was overcome by fright and was found dead after the hanging. 

 

An agent of the Apache Indian Right Association has recently published a report of the outrages practiced upon the wards by the interior department. Inflated prices have been charged the Indians by contractors employed by the government.

 

A council of physicians are of the opinion that General Grant will not die suddenly but that he will remain out of bed will be impossible. Nothing can be done for his cancerous trouble but the use of cocaine to ease the pain.

 

March 20, 1885

On March 25th, the Act of Legislature which consolidated the two villages becomes a law and Kaukauna and Ledyard, thus bound together, will never more be parted. The first city election will take place two weeks later.

 

Connecticut set a good example in sentencing 3 bank officers to hard labor in the state prison for 4 to 5 years for embezzlement.  The young bank employees must learn that dishonesty never pays.

 

March 27, 1885

 

The employees of the N.W. depot complain with just cause of the men who come to that station and occupy the ladies' waiting room. Gentlemen should remember that there is a room for them at the depot, and unless they are accompanied by a lady, it would look better for them to wait there.

 

Western Washer


Charleston, W. Va., - People are in bad condition and on the verge of starvation. They are asking for bread. Animals are starving to death. The condition of the farmers is distressing. For months there has not been any rise in mountain streams that are used to bring timbers down. The winter was severe, and the people are poor and with no work.


 

 

 

Friday, February 28, 2025

Time Machine Trip to February 1975

 

Kaukauna Times

By Lyle Hansen

February 5, 1975

A theft of about $45 from Van Zeeland Implement was discovered by patrolling police officers Sunday morning. Later that day another breaking was discovered down the same road at the Hyland House Supper Club. The break in of the juke box was not successful. An apple pie was taken, and that evidence was destroyed by being eaten in a nearby field.

 

Proudly displaying their winning entries in the Pinewood Derby are three Cub Scouts from Pack 27. First place went to Tim Huss, center, Ken Vander Steen, at left was awarded third place and Todd Henricks, right, came in second. 

 

February 7, 1975

 

Sgt. Fran Wedan is preparing a report in the main office of the new Kaukauna Police Station Offices.

 

A counterfeit $20 bill has turned up in Kaukauna according to James Brogan, vice president of the Bank of Kaukauna.

 

February 12, 1975

 

Dr. John C. Whitman, formerly of Kaukauna, examines a patient in the emergency room at Lock Haven Hospital, Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Dr. Whitman is a new staff member of the hospital’s emergency room.

 

 

Diane Rott, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Rott, Kaukauna, graduated from Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She will be taking M.P. training at Fort Gordon, Georgia.  

 

February 19, 1975

 

Fred Haas, the Ghosts 167 pounder, is the only wrestler to carry the orange and black into the WIAA Sectional tournament this weekend at New London. Haas will take a 22-4-0 mark into the competition the best by far for the Ghost squad.  

 

February 26, 1975

 

Four newly promoted firemen in Kaukauna are driver engineer Wayne Vanevenhoven, Assistant Chief Thomas Roberts, Capt. Thomas Jansen and driver engineer Jerald Kobussen watched as new firemen Robert Nack and Leon Van Toll study emergency textbooks. 

 

Four KHS girls were selected as basketball princesses to reign over Color Day activities on January 31. Kaye Kroll, senior, Karen Desotell, junior, Carol Schmidt, sophomore and Carol Kerkhof, freshman.

 

Currently showing their artwork at the Bank of Kaukauna Community Center are three Kaukauna residents, Mrs. Betty Van Dyke Driessen, Hank Drechsler and Tom McGinnis.

 

 

Peter Hatchell, a member of St. Aloysius church Boy Scout troop recently received the highest rank in Boy Scouts the Eagle award at the court of honor breakfast. 

“Look what my Mommy caught” Joel Karls of Stockbridge, left, tells his cousin Jim Hansen of Kaukauna, as they look over the 63-pound sturgeon Janet Karls speared Wednesday on Lake Winnebago.


Darrel Wittmann of Boy Scout Troop 27 was presented with the Eagle Scout badge. Pictured left to right Roland Wittmann, Wally Mooney, Darrel, Mrs. Roland Wittmann and Scoutmaster George Hibbard.

More than 800 spectators flooded the Holy Cross gym to witness the Kaukauna Boxing Club’s first home boxing card of the season Wednesday evening. 



Clayton Vandenbroek speared a 97-pound sturgeon, one of the largest taken this season on Lake Winnebago.