Issue 2 - Winter 2018-2019
Dave Gruber with Walter Mink
Letter From the President
by Bear Wheeler
In the short time of our existence as a historical society, we have seen some changes. I suppose you could call it "growing pains." We have made tremendous growth that has been an extreme blessing to future generations who will call this area home. We have had a couple changes in our leadership structure this past year. Our very first treasurer, Marie Schuh, had stepped down from her position. With that said I would like to publicly thank her for her help in getting this society started. Marie covered my many weak spots, especially in legal subject matter. She had spent countless hours going through addresses to send out calls for membership to anybody we could. All the time invested in writing and typing various documents and all the unseen "stuff' that went along with the job. We sincerely appreciate her and her efforts.
In the large void that was created, Greg Mejak stepped into the role as treasurer. Thanks Greg and look forward to working with you more. Richard Schuh had moved over from vice president to a director and Sue Mackowski took his place. I look forward to working with Sue in her new role. When I carried my dream of a historical society, I went first to Dick and Marie. They were with me 100% from the very beginning and I needed that encouragement. They supplied me with a plethora of historical information that helped kindle a fire that was already started. Also with that, a thank you goes to Jim Lambert, John Jacobs, Dave Visser, Todd Visser, and Gary Johnson for starting me out with historical "information" and guidance. I also want to thank Paul Richenbacher for serving as a director of the Society for the time he was able. Thanks Paul! Thank you to everyone who helps with the newsletters and other various tasks we do as a society. Everyone is appreciated!
As with any organization we are always in need of volunteers; either short-term or long-term, it doesn't matter to us. We are always happy to have you. With this being said, it was a few weeks ago, I was thinking about sitting in school as a kid and learning about history. You know how it goes, from ancient history, to world history, then to U.S. history, and a little state history to boot. That history is untouchable, it is from a far-away place. We are removed from it, and it is hard to relate to. But by involving yourself in a historical society and taking an active part in it, you have a hand in the preservation of local history firsthand. Without you, some of this history will be forgotten, never to be found again. Along with the history, the people who made it are always attached to it, and they become forgotten too. How terrible is that! Everybody desires to be remembered by somebody, this is a part of us. All of us put together, from Benjamin Dorr and Anton Follstad of the 1880's to the little kid walking down the street to the Elcho school today, make up our community. We all work and make of life what we put into it. It is through these efforts that make Elcho a great community with a rich historic past and a bright future. It is up to you. All of us to make this happen.
Lastly a thank you goes to all of our members, for putting tools in our hands to work with, to preserve the history of this area and our wonderful town, Elcho.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE ELCHO SCHOOL STRIKE?
By: Sue Mackowski
On Monday, February 11, 1946, 75 high school students at the Elcho High School went on strike. The high school population at that time was 80. The reason for the strike was to protest the actions of then principal Lester V. Sutton. The strike lasted four days.
Elcho School
Sutton had been the principal at the Elcho school for 1 ½ years, and tension between him and the students had been mounting over that time. The students were now asking for his immediate dismissal. Fifty-seven students signed a petition asking for his removal citing punishing them without reason and "taking discipline points off their academic grades."
Monday morning the high school students were gathered outside the school, demonstrating and carrying signs that read "Out with Sutton" and "Down with Sutton and his rough stuff."
Some of the allegations against Sutton included his lowering student scholastic grades if more than one person left the assembly hall at the same time, girls not wearing long stockings in winter, acting up at basketball games, slamming doors, dropping pencils, and walking across the school lawn. The students also reported that Sutton had abolished their student council group and prohibited them from holding school dances. More serious allegations came to light as the strike went on. Those included Sutton striking some students, used abusive language with them, and taking it upon himself to give a talk on sex hygiene to the high school girls, much to their embarrassment. According to the students, all of this was resulting in lower grades and a decrease in morale.
Monday evening a meeting of students, parents, school board members and interested town people was held. A majority of Elcho's adult population (650 at the time) attended the three-hour meeting. Taverns and local businesses closed at 8 p.m. so people were free to attend. The spokesperson for the students was James Honzik, a 1941 Elcho alumnus, who had recently been discharged from the armed service. The students were still asking for the immediate dismissal of Sutton.
Sutton said he would resign if the board paid his salary until the end of the school year in June. The board declined his request and instead suggested a 30-day trial period for him, during which he would be prohibited from physically punishing students. Sutton agreed to this plan, but the students didn't. Only 14 students returned to class the next day.
During the discussion at the Monday evening meeting, Sutton admitted to "slapping" or "cuffing" some students. He denied excessive punishment, but did say he marked down some students' grades for disciplinary reasons. He defended himself by saying he used corporal punishment only after the students had been warned several times. He further said that the Elcho High School had a bad discipline problem and that it had a poor reputation statewide. According to excerpts from reports from the Department of Public Instruction, read by Frank Nimitz, Langlade County Superintendent of Schools, the attitude of students toward teachers in the Elcho High School was unsatisfactory. This caused considerable discussion at the meeting by townspeople who were unaware of the negative report.
With no resolution from the Monday meeting, a second one was scheduled for Tuesday with eight elected students, their parents, and the school board attending. The students had also sent a telegram to State Superintendent John Callahan in Madison, asking for an investigation into the situation.
After four days into the strike, Sutton and members of the school board signed a compromise agreement, stating that he would remain as principal of the school until the end of the school year in June with the understanding he would not be retained beyond that time. The agreement was made after a meeting with about 80 students, parents, and townspeople were present. Attorney James Durfee, who represented the students and their parents, presented a list of conditions demanded by the high school students and their parents before they agreed to return to class. Those conditions were:
1) No corporal punishment or physical force of any kind is to be used by the principal or teacher upon or toward any student without the express consent of the parents of the individual student involved;
2) No male teacher is to discuss matters of sex with female students, individually or in class;
3) No reprisals or disciplinary measures are to be adopted toward any student because of his/her participation in the school strike;
4) Neither the principal or any teacher is to interview any student behind locked doors;
5) Principal Sutton is not to be re-employed for the next year.
Classes at the Elcho High School returned to normal on Friday, February 15, 1946.
WELCOME NEW MEMBERS
Olive DuBey
Arne Follstad
Marjorie Bussert
Mary & Terry Maves
Deborah Robbins
Walter Rugland
Judy Rustick
Dorothy Summers
Dean Tveten
RECENT DONATIONS
Monetary donations
Connie & Jim Hubatch in memory of Mavis Kakes
Artifact donation
Robert and Jean Hess- clothing articles, letters, and pictures
THANK YOU!
ELCHO BOAT SHOP / NORTHWOODS SERVICE AND SUPPLY COMPANY
By: Bear Wheeler
Highlighted in this article is a business that has been lost to history. At the time it was in operation, it served as a place for tourists, summer residents and for local workers. This repository of boats, motors, chainsaws, power mowers, and snowmobiles was located on the corner of the northwest block of Rummel St. and Hwy 45. It is where the professional building is now.
In the years after World War II, people were looking for recreation, and they found it with the area lakes, boating and fishing. Big city life wasn't the thing for a lot of people either. Chicago residents Carll Emery and Walter Mink had moved their families to the Northwoods. They got jobs working at Lakecraft Boats on the shore of Otter Lake for a couple years. Emery and Mink decided to service the area by opening the Elcho Boat Shop/Northwoods Service and Supply Company and they rented the Handeyside building, the old Ford dealership.
With the assistance of the Mink and Emery families, this article is written to record and preserve the history of the Elcho Boat Shop. Brian Mink gave an account of the boat shop:
"When walking into the front door of the boat shop, one walked not into the showroom but into the fishing tackle and accessories section of the business and a small office in the rear. The showroom was to the right of the front door and frankly the showroom inventory was always sparse. At the most we might have had on display one or two Lawn Boy lawn mowers and one Shell Lake boat with a Johnson outboard. Typically we also had 9 and 25 HP Johnson outboard motors on display as they were the most
popular sale. Then hanging from the ceiling would have been an Ouachita canoe. Most of what we sold was ordered based on customer's desires. During the winter, we may have had one Johnson or Rupp snowmobile in one of the two front showroom windows. Over time we built an office in the back of the showroom and discontinued the small office in the tackle sales space. Mary Elliott worked in high school as our bookkeeper, front-end cashier, and she did the ordering and stocking of the front-end sales items.
Directly behind the tackle section of the Boat Shop was our service and parts storage areas. Behind the showroom was a large open warehouse area where we seasonally stored boats and motors. There was also an area where we assembled boat trailers or moved in larger boats with inboard/outboard motors for service out of the elements.
The inner wall of the showroom had a small showcase that held Carll Emery's cut and polished rocks personally collected from Arizona and the southwest. Carll was an avid rockhound and he and his wife, Jeanne, sold custom crafted polished rock and some jewelry with their custom rocks and gems.
Mary Elliot with Walter Mink
In general, the business was a profitable, family supporting venture. Day to day we repaired virtually any piece of power equipment with a service area of about 50 square miles. We repaired lawnmowers, chainsaws, snowmobiles, mini bikes, outboards, inboards, boats, and canoes, virtually anything and everything that had a two or four cycle motor. We also repaired hulls for wooden, fiberglass, and aluminum watercraft. We sold and repaired fishing reels, rods, lures, and every accessory used for fishing and recreational boating.
Now back in the repair room we had a dedicated outboard motor test tank specifically designed for the purpose of running motors of less than 50 hp. Then above the tank was an I-beam with a rolling hoist to lift larger outboards and easily place them over the tank to be lowered into place. The tank had a transom, like a boat, for clamping outboards to the tank and it also had its own cold water supply, drain, and exhaust vent. Larger motors (50-75 hp) or inboard outboards arrived on their respective boats and once repaired we often tested the motor and boat by launching it close by in Otter Lake. We also did lots of service calls to repair motors, especially for recreational dedicated water ski boats or larger boats that were not easily transported by their owners."
Walter Mink
Carll's son, John Emery, remembered his dad and Walt's largest demographic of Boat Shop customers were the "summer residents." John had also said, "We had dozens of cottage owners we serviced year after year and they were like family to us. We loved to greet them every year when they arrived for the summer and strived to keep them on the water all summer long as much as possible. Seventy hour work weeks in the summer were typical for us, then people went back to the city for the school year. My dad said you could roll a bowling ball down Hwy 45 the day after Labor Day."
Homelite Model 17
Back in that day the chainsaw business was growing very rapidly. The loggers quickly dropped the crosscut saws their fathers used and went with a mechanized saw. Emery and Mink sold Homelite Chainsaws from about 1953 to the early 60's. I have had conversations with loggers who used to buy from the Northwoods Service and Supply store. One of them bought the saw pictured in 1955, it was a Homelite Mode 17 for $365, with an additional $43 for bar and chain. The cost of setting down the crosscut saw was quite high, especially over $400 in 1955! But it was this way everywhere. The saws were the new thing and all the loggers had to have one or two. For these two guys it was a perfect opportunity for a business venture. As recalled by Walt's grandson, Brian Mink, he says "We sold chainsaws in the 1950's until about 1962 as I recall. At some point in the early 60's it was clear that Jacob's Equipment was doing most of the sales and service for chainsaws, so Walt and Carll decided to relinquish that work. We continued to repair chainsaws for long-time customers to the mid 60's but it was not a focus of the business. For many years we had an impressive collection of antique chainsaws and outboard motors, but my grandfather Walt donated most of that to a museum before he sold the business."
Along with Brian, Carll's son, John, also worked for the shared family venture. John had worked there for nine summers from 1964-1972. John recalls that Walt did primarily the mechanical work and that his dad did the boat work, service calls, as well as the bookkeeping. Both Carll and Walt enjoyed selling and interacting with the customers. John had mentioned that many members of the Mink and Emery families worked at the Boat Shop over the years, as well as many people from the community, like Dee Radtke.
Business was cruising along just fine until one fateful day in the summer of 1968. At the Boat Shop on July 4th of that year Walt's friend, Pelican Lake neighbor, and business partner, Carll Emery, passed away from a heart attack at the age of 52. This day had a defining impact on son, John, and all those close to Carll. Things now were different around the shop and Walt Mink had all the responsibilities of running the business he had once shared with Carll. Mink pressed on for a few years, then an opportunity came when Jerry Rego and Mickey Earnst of Merton, WI, bought the business from Walt in the winter of 1971-1972. They had also rented the building from the Handeysides. John Emery had said he worked one summer for the new owners to help them with the transition. Tides turned against them and the building was vacant by 1978. Ruth Handeyside sold the building to Chuck Handeyside and Chuck had the lot cleared and the professional building was built in its place.
As with every good story there's always more to talk about, things about Walt's locksmith business, Carll's fiberglass expertise, and fun water ski shows on Otter Lake that the Boat Shop supported in the late 50's to early 60's. One more thing, did you know there was a boat on Otter Lake that could pull up sixteen teenage water skiers out of the water from a dead start?