Reflections

75 Years Ago
February 12, 1930

Harpers Ferry
Loy Johnston arrived Saturday and will remain here until work in his
line gets better. He is a lineman for the Bell Telephone Co.

D. F. Wolfe of Lansing sold his motion picture machine, which he
installed here recently, to Wm. Frank, who will run a good line of
pictures and solicits your patronage.

Waterville
Albert Jacobson, L. Slattery, O. J. Moe, C. H. Hagen, Leonard Hagen,
Earl Hermanson and Clifton Tysland drove to Decorah Friday night to see
Luther and the state Teachers College play basket ball.

The Male Chorus met at Anfin Larson's Wednesday evening and enjoyed a
social evening. At midnight a big feed was served and all present voted
Mr. and Mrs. Larson royal entertainers.

Herman Iverson is the latest purchaser of a new Chevrolet Sedan. It was
delivered to him Saturday by our salesman, O. J. Moe.

Irene Hermanson's little house dog and pet was shot and killed last
week by some unprincipled person in the neighborhood. We would gladly give a ten dollar bill to know who did it. Anyone dirty enough to kill a
child's pet that was absolutely harmless is not fit to be recognized
among decent people, and are so little that they would have to climb a
stepladder to knock the dust off a louse.

Cherry Mound
Mr. and Mrs. Will Slattery were entertained at supper at the C. H.
Hagen
home Sunday evening, after which they all motored to Decorah to a show.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank McCormick and the Clarence Stanton family are living
in the vicinity of Little Paint, and the men will work with the Potter
logging crew.

English Bench
Cliff Sadler hauled hay last week for J. H. Beardmore.

Raymond Mauss sawed a year's supply of wood for Tom Waters Saturday.

If in need of a good horse for spring work, call on Fred Wimerslage.
Anything from buckskin to a dapple gray.

Assessor Kruse was closing up his work in this vicinity Monday, and
took
dinner at the home of Mrs. Wm. Beardmore, Sr.

E. Schulte lost one of his best work horses, Saturday, the animal
dropping dead while on his way to Eitzen. Mr. Schulte informs us his
loss is over a hundred dollars but as he has a young animal to put in
place of the one lost for spring work, he will not have to buy.

Charles Hartley and hired man, John Howes, had a runaway last week.
They were hauling wood and while going down a steep hill some part of the
harness broke and the team ran away, going clear home, a distance of
two miles. Both boys escaped with a few scratches and are on the job again.

Bridge Contractors Keep Busy Day And Night
Another busy week has been passed in bridge construction by the
Minneapolis concern having the contract for the four piers for the
Lansing high bridge, three in the river and one in the Thomas lot,
where work was commenced in a small way nearly a year ago by the old
Iowa-Wisconsin Bridge Company.

Five more carloads of materials and construction machinery arrived
yesterday and are being unloaded today. All of the sheet piling for the
coffer-dam at Pier No. 4 is here and will be driven into place at once.

The temporary pile bridge has now been extended from Pier No. 3 (the
high pier on the east side of the river, to Pier No. 4, about 200 feet
farther east, which makes the total distance now covered by this
temporary bridge about 900 feet from the Iowa shore. On this bridge a
miniature railroad track has been laid and engine and cars are in
readiness to transport the crushed rock and concrete for the two
eastern piers, which must be completed in time for the removal of most of the temporary structure when navigation opens about April 1st.

All day and all night, without letup, the work goes on. At all hours of
the night one can hear the noise of the steam pile driver and other
machinery at work, and when the cement mixing machines get going and
the railroad crossing the river starts up, there will be plenty of action, as we predicted a few weeks ago.

The side track on Front street is having the finishing touches put to
it today, a crew of about twenty men being engaged on it most of the week. With its completion everything is set for the unloading of crushed rock and other materials needed for the concrete work, right at the site of the bridge, and pouring of cement on the big piers will begin within a
few days.

Hundreds from far and near viewed the work again last Sunday, many
going out on the ice to get a close-up of things, and doubtless this will be so every Sunday during the construction, or at least on fine days.

Lansing
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Hurm returned here last Tuesday after a several
months' stay with relatives in California. They returned in their Ford sedan, making the 3000 mile trip in six days.

The Sherm Smith home near the N. E. L. church is quarantined for
scarlet fever, one of the little girls having the disease.

The James Revoir family of Wisconsin, have returned to Lansing to
reside, and have secured rooms in the Farmers Home building.

The local way freight business is suffering considerably from the
inroads of the truck business. One day last week the train had but two
cars, and certainly must be a losing venture that day.

Wm. Gaunitz of Lafayette and Nick Schach, the New Albin stock buyer,
were in the vicinity of Caledonia, Minn., Saturday, looking for feeders
for the former, and got stuck in the snow several times.

New Albin
118 numbers were sold at the hard time dance at Kelly's Hall last
Friday evening. Ellingson's orchestra of Spring Grove furnished the music.

A practically new Whippet sedan owned by P. L. Pohlman of this place
was completely destroyed by fire on the Lansing-New Albin road last
Wednesday evening.

D. D. Hartley sold a Majestic electric radio last Friday to Mrs. C. M.
Steele and not having the right model in stock one was ordered from Des
Moines, and arrived and was set up Saturday afternoon. Some service,
that.

Fire of unknown origin broke out last Tuesday evening at the farm of
William Gordon, two miles south-west of town. A barn, team of horses,
about 45 tons of hay, set of harness and a Ford touring car were
destroyed. With the assistance of neighbors and friends and the local
fire department, the other buildings were saved. Fred Gordon was
severely burned about the face and arms when he entered the burning
barn to try and save the horses, but the fire was such that his efforts
failed. Mr. G. estimates his loss at about $700.00.


60 Years Ago
February 14, 1945

Washington, Feb. 12, (CH-A) - The "Big Three" in a joint announcement
today declared that "Nazi Germany is doomed" and must pay reparations,
invited France to join in occupation of the Reich, proclaimed Atlantic
Charter principles for liberated countries and called a united nations
meeting for April 25 in San Francisco to shape postwar security. The
communiqué of President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and Marshal
Stalin, issued simultaneously in Washington, London and Moscow -
signaling an end to their conference in the Crimea - called upon
Germany for "unconditional surrender," telling the German people that further resistance is "hopeless."

London, Feb. 13, (AP) - Budapest, Hungarian capital and former "jewel
of the Danube" fell today to two Russian armies which took 110,000
captives and killed 49,000 Nazis in a month and a half of bitter house-to-house fighting.

Pvt. Reuben (Frank) Hager Wounded
Waukon relatives received word that Pvt. Reuben (Frank) Hager had been
wounded while serving in action in India Jan. 25. While a patient in
the General hospital on Burma Road he wrote his wife in Chicago that he had been hit by a Jap mortar or grenade and schrapnel had pierced both legs above his knees. Previous to that he had spent a month on the march in the mountains where he said the going was "really tough."

Frank is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Hager of Ludlow township and with
his wife were the owners of the Soda Grill for several years prior to
his induction into service.

Cpl. Howard S. Johnson Seriously Ill
Mrs. Anna B. Johnson of Waukon was notified by the War Department last
week that her only son, Cpl. Howard S. Johnson was seriously ill in a
hospital on Leyte Island. The young man, who has been serving overseas
for a couple of years had been seriously wounded while serving in
action on two different occasions. He is a son of the late Lars Johnson,
retired farmer of Waukon.

Lansing H. S. Girls Win Sectional Basket Ball Tournament At Monona
On Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, February 7,8.9 and 10, one
of the Northeast Sectional Girls Basketball Tournaments was held at
Monona. After three nights of stiff competition and hard fought games,
the Lansing High School girls, coached by Miss Rose Mary Sager, showed
their championship abilities and playing skill when they won the
tournament.

The closest and hardest fought game of the tournament was the final
game which saw Lansing playing Monona, who had come through the lower
bracket after defeating Farmersburg and Harpers Ferry. The lead, throughout the entire game, was first with one team and then the other, never varying more than four points. Monona came out with top scoring honors in the first quarter with 11 points while Lansing hit the net for 8. At the half it was 17-17. The end of the third quarter found Lansing with the weak lead of 27-26. During the last eight minutes of play the Lansing girls accounted for 9 points while Monona tallied 5, bringing the final score to 36-31.

Harpers Ferry
Mrs. Mel Wiedner and Mrs. B. A. Houlihan were delighted the past week
to have news of their brother Richard, a prisoner of war in Germany. His
wife, Mrs. Richard Cassidy, has received a personal letter from him.

Cletus Valley, son of Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Valley, is confined here
seriously ill with pneumonia with which he was stricken while with home
folks enjoying his first leave after completing his "boot" training at
the Great Lakes Naval Training station north of Chicago. He is under
constant care of Dr. Jeffries of Waukon and we are glad to report
somewhat improved at present.

GM1-c George Rooney arrived Sunday on a 5 days leave for a visit with
relatives and friends after completing a course at the Naval Mine
Warfare School at Yorktown, Va.

George Schellhammer who is employed in the Rath Packing Plant at
Waterloo, visited his family here at the Mrs. Leslie Meyer home over
the weekend, coming down on the midnight bus Saturday.

Pfc. and Mrs. "Chet" Gibbs, the newlyweds, arrived back in this city
Friday of last week, the former leaving Sunday via La Crosse for the
west coast and expects to leave for overseas duty shortly; Mrs. Gibbs
has resumed work in her beauty shop.

Leo Heffern, accompanied by Cyril Garin and Wm. Monserud, motored to a
purebred Duroc Jersey hog sale at Iowa Falls Saturday, where the latter
purchased some fine purebred gilts to add to his fine herd of purebred
hogs, he having been in the hog business for the past twenty seven
years.

As reported last week several cases of scarlet fever have appeared
through out the county. Among Lansing families reported quarantined are
those of Dorf Halvorson, whose son Bobby has it and Walter Beck whose
daughter Carolyn has the disease in a mild form.

New Albin
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Sires and family of Waukon, Mr. and Mrs. Joe Crowley
of Lansing, Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Middendorf of Caledonia spent Sunday at the Mrs. Kate Sires home. The former family have moved their household
goods from Waukon here and are residing in the Mrs. Henry Krueger, Sr., home. Mr. S. having been called into the armed forces. His family will remain here for the duration.

By conducting a house to house canvass in this community the solicitors
for the "March of Dimes" drive collected $78.21. The high school girls
joined in the work.

Looking Backward 35 Years Ago
February 16, 1910

Rural carriers will be given $1,000 yearly pay for a 24-mile route in
the near future. The Bradley house on North 3rd street was purchased by
Wm. Wendel for $1,750. Lansing city council granted Dunlevy & Wolfe a
license to run a picture show for $25 per year. Ernest Wiedner, Dave
Martelle and Floyd Robinson of Harpers made a 12,000 lb. haul of fish
at Clayton. Joseph, Chicago buyer, bought two cars, 40 head of horses in a week around Waukon, paying $6,000 for them. Ben Decker and wife of
Church welcome girl No. 3; Edna Decker and two of George Wendel's
children have pneumonia; George Zoll is laid up with quinsy. Gus
Englehorn bought the Nactwey farm on the hill for $4,000; Lena
Schobert's basket social at Ferring school had receipts of $54.70.