‘Years Ago’ is a compilation of newsy tidbits as published in the Crawford County Independent & Kickapoo Scout on this week ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or sixty years ago.
TEN YEARS AGO
JANUARY 6, 2011 – Sheri Schwert dances with the angles during a performance of “Anything Goes’ at North Crawford Schools… Bids by the Fischl Construction Corporation to build new public works and EMS buildings in Gays Mills were approved by the village board at their regular meeting… North Crawford-Seneca’s wrestler Zach Miller finished 2-2 at the annual Bi-State Classic hosted by Holmen High School.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
JANUARY 4, 2001 – Joyce Haggerty, a resident at Sannes Skogdalen Nursing Home was a judge in the Peace Poster Contest. Joyce is famous for her many paintings of the old mill that was located on the Kickapoo River at Gays Mills… Donations of any type of wild meat are needed for a wild game feed to be held at the American Legion Post 220 in Soldiers Grove. The Legion currently has only one turkey and needs more for the supper… Trent Mills of Gays Mills, a UW-Platteville student, helps write and edit an alternative literary magazine entitled “Alt. Lit.” The magazine is a forum for poetry, short stories and prose by students and is a group project in UWP’s magazine writing and editing class.
THIRTY YEARS AGO
JANUARY 3, 1990 – North Crawford wrestlers who placed in the Bi-State Wrestling Tournament held at La Crosse Center last Friday and Saturday were Trevor Olson (130 lb.) eighth; Rich Mason (189) 12th; Jami Nutter (171) ninth; Luke Thorson (103) seventh… In the early morning hours last Monday a photo was taken that shows vapor rising from open water near the Gays Mills dam in -18 degree temperature.
FORTY YEARS AGO
JANUARY 8, 1981 – While demolished buildings are being cleared away in the Main Street district of Soldiers Grove, a pile of rubble is growing behind the old Pine Grove Nursing Home. But it’s only temporary. Riverland Sanitation is hauling the debris to a site where it is to be used to fill in banks of a deep ditch on the Robert Sorum property and will serve to eliminate an erosion problem there… An estimated $100,000 worth of damage was caused by fire Saturday night to the three-story frame building which houses Johnston’s Store in Ferryville.
FIFTY YEARS AGO
JANUARY 7, 1971 – The heaviest snowstorm in 11 years hit southern Wisconsin and other portions of the middle west Sunday dumping 17 inches of new snow... Sunday’s big snowstorm caused inconveniences to many persons and one of them was Hubert Freeman, who lives on a town road in Utica township. Hubert ran out of fuel oil at the height of the storm and had to plow through drifts on foot with a can to borrow some from a neighbor.
SIXTY YEARS AGO
JANUARY 5, 1961 – President Eisenhower is calling on all Americans to participate in the Civil War Centennial Commission, a four-year commemoration. As a symbol that the centennial observance has officially begun, hope is that every church bell in America will ring at 11 o’clock next Sunday morning… Scott Township claims a distinction that few other such rural townships could approach. From this area have come eleven doctors of medicine, one of whom was elected president of the State Medical Society. This information was provided by Mrs. R. A. Bannen, the mother of the youngest of the eleven physicians, who credits the excellent rural school system for this success.
