Dairy production records sought for 60th Recognition Banquet Preparations for the 60th Pierce County Dairy Recognition Banquet are underway. For the past 59 years, dairy farmers in Pierce County have been recognized for outstanding producing herds. The 60th celebration sponsored by the Pierce County Dairy Promotion Committee will be Thursday, October 7 at 7:00 p.m. at the Elmwood Auditorium in Elmwood.

Dairy farmers who utilize Ag Source dairy management and testing services do not need to send in their records to be considered. AgSource handles that step for herd owners. Any other dairy farmers who are on official testing programs with other dairy management and testing services will need to send their records to the Pierce County UW-Extension Office to be considered for their recognition banquet. Dairy farmers who are not customers of Ag Source and wish to be considered, need to have their herd records ending June 30, 2010 to the UW-Extension by Friday August 27th.

25 Years Ago THE PIERCE COUNTY HERALD August 3, 1995

Cartoonist proposes to EHS graduate in his comic strip By Bill Kirk John Kovalic wanted to spend his life with Judith Heise.

So Kovalic, a cartoonist for the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison, decided to propose to the 1983 Ellsworth Senior High School graduate in an unusual way. He had one of the characters in the comic strip “Wild Life” he draws for the newspaper pop the question.

And the couple’s lives have been a wild ride ever since.

“I was more than a little surprised…it was wonderful, very sweet,” Heise said last Friday about the very public proposal. “People have had many nice things to say.”

The four-panel strip opens with a character named “Carson the Muskrat” reading the following from a piece of paper: “My love for you is ever true, and greater, far, than any sea, you are my joy, my light, my life..Judith will you marry me?—John.”

After looking quickly in both directions, “Carson” wonders, “What’s the punchline?” The muskrat’s answered by a mouslike character poking his head into the last panel: “Him (referring to John) trying to buy a ring on a Wisconsin State Journal salary.”

The method he used was especially unexpected by Heise because Kovalic is “usually a very private person,” she said.

The husband-to-be needn’t have worried that she’d find out, however. Disc jockeys from a Madison radio station read the comic on the air that morning and she not only heard it immediately, but realized the message was for her.

“I went right down to John’s office as soon as I called my workplace to let them know I was going to be late,” Heise said. “They already knew why—three of my co-workers had read the comic by that time.”

When she found Kovalic working at his computer, she asked if it was indeed a proposal and he replied yes.

55 Years Ago THE PIERCE COUNTY HERALD July 29, 1965

HARTLAND Locals James Huber, son of the late Leonard Hubers, passed away last week and was buried in the E & R cemetery east of Ellsworth. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Mrs. Vincent Huber and children are here are Denver Colo., visiting at the home of relatives.

BELDENVILLE Locals O. H. Sipes’ of Eau Claire were week end visitors at the Floyd Sipes.

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Korthof of Hayward were week end visitors at the Art Peterson home.

NORTH PLUM CITY Locals Harian Lundgrens and family attended a family picnic at River Falls Sunday in honor of Gary Lundgren.

Miss Sandra McDonough is working at the Plum City Feed Mill.

HAGER CITY Locals Everett Snows and Mrs. James Weberg and children of R. Wing were dinner guests at Maurice Johnson’s Friday evening.

Donald Regelmans of R. Wings spent Sun. eve. at the Mary Mischke home.

GRANGE HALL Locals Mdmes. Frank Martin and Bena Watkins were dinner guests at Van Swanson’s in Mondovi Sunday.

Tom Martins and baby visited friends at Medford, Wis. the past week.

NW TRIMBELLE Locals John Kleckers called on A. B. Johnsons one day recently.

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Kirchner came on Sat. from Milwaukee to visit for a week with his relatives.

MAIDEN ROCK Locals We had some of the warmest days of the summer this past week and with several good rains vegetation in general benefitted materially.

Paul Swandby, Dean Campbell, Fran and Norbert Daleiden, are employed on the clean-up following the flood. They have been working in the village. It is a government project.

Pastor Installed at Plum City (photo headshot) PLUM CITY – The Rev. Duane J. Lundberg was installed as pastor of Plum City Evangelical Free Church and Pepin Hill Evangelical Free Church last Sunday.

Rev. Lundberg was graduated in 1957 from high school at Milaca, Minn., and then attended Northwestern College in Minneapolis, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.

In the fall of 1962 Rev. Lundberg enrolled in Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Ill., where he received his Bachelor of Divinity degree June 4. Rev. Lundberg is married to the former Marian Moritz, also of Milaca.

85 Years Ago THE ELLSWORTH RECORD August 2, 1935

Hones Talks Here to Union Locals Kenneth S. Hones, state president of the Farmer’s Equity Union, addressed a gathering of members of the various Pierce county locals at the H. C. Stebnitz lawn in this village last Thursday evening. The speaker was late in making his appearance at the Stebnitz home as inquiry down town failed to result in information as to where the meeting was to be held. Mr. Hones finally got in touch with someone who know and reached the Stebnitz place.

Mr. Hones stressed the need of junior leadership development and urged farmers to send their children to the Farmers Union training camp at Chetek this summer.

RED WING MAN, WELL KNOWN HERE, SUICIDES Lief Hanson, 48, salesman for the Friedrich and Kempe company at Red Wing, took his own life about 10:15 o’clock Friday morning in the basement of his home…He was born in Norway July 24, 1887. He came to this country at the age of 19, settling in Minneapolis.

Besides his wife, he is survived by two sons and a daughter. He also leaves a sister in Norway.

Funeral services were held at Red Wing Monday afternoon.

115 Years Ago RIVER FALLS JOURNAL August 4, 1905

River Falls as a Summer Resort.

Beautiful Scenery. Fine Climate. Healthful Situation.

It is assumed that an ideal summer resort would contemplate such pleasing conditions as a comfortable climate; a healthful situation, including good water; agreeable social relations, and beauty of environment. In all the essential of such a test this city fulfills the demand.

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF RIVER FALLS Ad It’s a Question—and often a very puzzling one—what to do with your money while you are looking for an investment. Rather risky keeping it at home—pity to have it earning nothing. Certificates of deposit solve the problem—ask the First National Bank of River Falls about them.

Geo. Theo. Smith, President; J. W. Allard, Vice-President; W. G. Spence, Cashier.

PIERCE COUNTY PLAINDEALER July 27, 1875

The Pioneer Press has received a copy of the New York Herald in forty-eight hours after it left New York.

PRESCOTT CARDS Mrs. J. A. Abbot.

Millinery and Dress Making. Ladies’ Furnishing Goods. Next door to Post Office, Prescott, Wis.

Carlos McCray Chemist and Druggist. Physicians’ Prescription carefully compounded at all hours—day and night.

Sam. C. Williams, PLAIN, Fancy and Ornamental Painter, Grainer, Paper Hanger, & c. All orders will receive prompt attention.

Early Air Balloon Experiments No Tangible Evidence of the Fate of Donaldson and Grimwood.

[Chicago Times, 21st.] Five days have elapsed with no tidings yet from Donaldson and Grimwood. The last spark of hope is dying now in the breasts of their most sanguine friends; and the only wish they dare to entertain is that some breeze might float the bodies of the ill-fates aeronauts to the path of some ship, that the inanimate clay may be given to the bereaved friends, for the performance of the last, sad, funeral rites.

There is not a vessel that is sailing this inland sea, nor a hamlet on the eastern coast of the lake that is not keeping a sharp lookout for any signs of the lost air-ship and its hapless occupants.

What the Captain of a Lake Schooner Saw That Stormy Sunday Night.

[Chicago Tribune, 22d] At about one ‘o clock Thursday night, when the gale was at its height, the captain of the schooner Annie O. Hansen, who was on his way from Green Bay to this city , saw about midway between here and Grand Haven what he believed to be a square rigged vessel running with the wind at a furious speed. The night was pitch dark, and the captain could therefore see nor hear but very little, and besides had to do all he could to look out for the safety of his own frail craft…It finally passed him, and was soon out of sight, running towards the city…At the time he met the monster speeding across the waves he knew nothing of the balloon , and hence could not imagine what it was…There can be but little doubt that, if the Captain saw the balloon skipping across the water, it must have encountered the gale some 40 or 50 miles off Grand Haven.

160 Years Ago THE PRESCOTT DEMOCRAT August 8, 1860

Historical views: What “non-intervention” with slavery meant to advocates The Opposing Principles of Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln SUPREME COURT DECISIONS Although the Constitution has established the Supreme Court as the highest judicial authority, from whose decisions there can be no appeal, yet Mr. Lincoln is unwilling to sustain the court when it comes in conflict with his opinions. Mr. Lincoln holds that the Court, in the Dred Scott case decided that slavery exists within the Territories by virtue of the Constitution, and, therefore cannot be prohibited. Whether it is so decided or not is immaterial, so he believes such to be the case. His belief should control his actions. Yet he is willing to oppose what he believes to be a regular decision. In his Chicago speech, in 1858, he said: If I were in Congress, and a vote should come up on the question whether slavery would be prohibited in a new territory, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, I would vote that it should.”

Let us compare the position of Mr. Clay on this point, with the implacable Abolitionism of Mr. Lincoln. Clay says: “Now what ought to be done more satisfactory to both sides of the question, to the free States, and to the slaveholding States, than to apply the principle of non-intervention to the state of the law in New Mexico, and to leave the question of slavery or no slavery to be decided by the only competent authority that can definitively settle it forever, the authority of the Supreme Court of the United States.”—Globe, vol. 24, part 24, page 1154.

He is willing to acquiesce in the decision of the Supreme Court on the question of slavery in the Territories under the Constitution. He says: “I am willing, whether there be a local law establishing or prohibiting slaver, or whether the Constitution of the United States does or does not carry along with it the right to transport slaves into that country, [the territories of New Mexico and Utah] I am willing to leave it to the Judiciary of the United States itself; but I am not willing to abolish the local laws before that decision is given, not only because I think it would be a violation of the course which the Senate has hitherto pursued, especially in adopting the provisions in the tenth section, but because it is wholly unnecessary, if the Constitution does not entitle any man to carry any description of property into these Territories.”—[Globe Appx., vol. 22, part 1, page 916].

The only justification which can be given by Lincoln, Seward, and the Republican party generally, for opposing the decisions of the Supreme Court, is the doctrine of a HIGHER LAW. (Abraham Lincoln is elected, and the South Carolina Legislature votes to secede on December 20, 1860, publishing its reasons Christmas Eve. Over four months then pass.)

PRESCOTT JOURNAL May 8, 1861 Volume V. No. 1

Editor Lute A. Taylor From the Atlantic Monthly. Brother Jonathan’s Lament for Sister Caroline-She has gone,–she has left us in passion and pride.— Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side! She has torn her own star from our firmament’s glow, And turned on her brother the face of a foe!

Compiled by Joseph Back