Treasures from the Past

 

 

 

Information compiled by Jayne Fox-Ballwahn, 2002

Dedication of Book

 

I want to thank everyone who shared their photos, articles and memoirs of Victory. I know it was very difficult for these people to part with their valuable documents so that I could make copies; it was very much appreciated. I just wish that I had started this project about 15 years ago when there were a lot of the original townspeople still alive. Some of the oldest descendents that are still remaining in Victory are Roland Fox,

Bob Wetterlin, the Webb family, and Pat Fisko.

 

The information in this book is printed exactly as it was in the original documents. I apologize in advance for any typos or misspelling of names.

 

Thanks to the following people for contributing photos, articles or memoirs

 

            Sis Landis & Kathleen Lampman

            Bob and Ona Wetterlin

            Melvin Johnson

            Pat Fisko

            Mae Oliver

            Pauline Ballwahn

            Roland and Barbara Fox

            Melvin Fox

            Joyce DeFlorian

            Joe Paggie

            Vernon County Historical Museum

            Murphy Library in LaCrosse

 

I hope you get half as much enjoyment out of the book as what I did in putting it together.

Thank you

                                                                       

For copies please contact: Jayne Fox-Ballwahn

                                    E746 Maple Drive

                                    Genoa, WI 54632

Printed in 2002

 

 

VILLAGE OF VICTORY

                                   

From: Census Book 19 - Page 734

 

            This village was laid out in 1852, by Henry W. McAuley, William F. Terhune, Ira Stevens and Hiram Rice. It was named Victory, by Judge William F. Terhune, on account of the victory over Black Hawk, which occurred near this place. There were three houses on the site of the village when it was laid out, one of which was built by Timothy Piper; the second by Hiram Rice, and the third by the French traders, who had occupied the place. The first building after the laying out of the village was built by Hiram Rice as a warehouse. This was a cheap building, 16 x 24 feet. The first structure of much importance was erected by John Cavinee, who kept is as a hotel for some time. He came here from Ohio, and finally moved from this point (to) California, where he died.

            H.W. McAuley opened the first store in the building which the French traders had erected. Soon after the laying out of the town, John Cavinee became an equal partner with Mr. McAuley in the ownership of the north part of the plat. In the laying out of the village, the place was surveyed by H.W. McAuley and Samuel McMichael.

            The second store in the place was opened by John C. Berry, who kept a general stock.

            The first wagon shop was started by John Bartholomew, in a building belonging to Ira Stevens.

            R. Lobdell was the pioneer blacksmith.

            A post office was established at Victory in 1854. John C. Berry was the first postmaster. Among others who have held this office was R. McAuley. Mrs. August Mueller was post-mistress in 1884, having succeeded her husband.

            Victory has always been an important point for the buying and shipment of grain. It has three warehouses, one of which is built of stone, through which, in years gone by, has passed 100,000 bushels of wheat per annum, besides other grains. It was built by the farmers, and called the "Farmers Stock Warehouse." The two other warehouses were built respectively by John C. Berry and Spencer & Co. There is quite an amount of grain bought here now, but not so much as in earlier times.

            In 1884 this village had two general stores and a harness shop.

            Nancy Berry taught the first term of school in the village, which was also the first in the town of Wheatland in 1854. The place now has a good two-story frame schoolhouse, which cost $1,200.

            The first death in the place was that of a man named Enfield. He died early in the history of the village and was buried on the land afterward occupied as a cemetery.

            This point on the Mississippi river was first known as "Stevens' Landing", from Ira Stevens the first settler. He made the original entry of fifty-four acres on which the town site was laid out. His patent bears date, Nov. 1, 1849, and was signed by President Zachary Taylor. At the time this entry was made it had been occupied by French traders for many years, who came here for the purpose of trading with the Indians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PERSONAL HISTORIES

 

 

From: Page 735

 

            Ira Stevens, of the village of Victory, has been a resident of the county since January 1850. He was born near Toronto, Canada, in 1819. He passed the winter of 1839-40 in Chicago, and went to Galena the following spring; located at Prairie du Chein, in 1844, and came to Bad Ax County, as stated, in 1850. He married Eliza Decker, a daughter of Moses Decker, who was the earliest settler of Viroqua.

           

 

MISSISSIPPI RIVER TRANSPORTATION

IN EARLY DAYS

 

From: Page 126 - Vernon County Heritage Book                                                                 

Information furnished by William Paggi.

Submitted by Esther Stokke.

 

            Up north at St. Croix they built rafts on which they rolled logs down the Mississippi River when the waters opened up in the spring. Alexander Tullock owned a sawmill which was located near the river in DeSoto. As these logs came down the river, Mr. Tullock would unload some and saw them up for sale and use in the area. William Paggi says he has some of his lumber in his basement. The logs had a special identification. The logs had holes made in the ends of them, and they were all tied together.

            In 1910 and before, barges would come through the river, at that time it was very narrow. In the 1930's the dam was built widening the river, and this increased the river traffic.

            The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy had a one-track railroad at first. In 1913 it added a second track.

            A small boat owned and operated by Raymond Umberger. This was in the 1915's. Its route was a twice a week trip from Stoddard to Victory.

 

 

 

RIDING THE EXCURSION BOATS

                                                                       

Page 148 - Vernon County Heritage Book

Submitted by Helen Johnson Stearns

 

            My first experience with excursion boats was a disappointment because we never made it to our destination. Even though I was very young, my older brother and sisters agreed to take me along. We boarded at Victory and were on our way to LaCrosse when the boat got stuck on a sad bar at Brownsville, Minnesota. As towboat came and took us back to Victory. We were pretty hungry when we got home. (We hadn't eaten on board the boat because the food was too expensive.)

            There were three different boats that came north, but the only name I remember is the Capitol. It was a beautiful boat. When I was older, I would go with my mother and sisters. We got on the boat about 9:00 a.m. at Victory. Sometimes my girlfriend Eldorado Beffa went along. The two of us had no problem getting dancing partners. There were plenty of boys from Lansing, IA. On the boat. They were real good dancers. A dance hall took up the second deck. There was a big orchestra that played all day.

            At night, my girlfriend and I would go back on the boat for the moonlight excursion. What a thrill it was to hear the calliope playing as the boat came around the bend. Once we saw a couple dancing to the music on the riverbank near Genoa.

            Several of our friends from Victory would be on the boat. Our mothers would have a basket of food along and we would eat together. The dining area was on the lower deck.

            I remember a boat called the Cataugua docked at De Soto, Wisconsin, bringing a vaudeville show with it. The performers sure did put on a good show.

            The round trip from Victory to La Crosse cost only fifty cents. They would let us off in La Crosse for about two hours. We would all rush up to Doerflingers to shop. When we heard the whistle blow, we knew it was time to go back.

 

 

 

 

EARLY PEOPLE OF VICTORY

 

Page 168-Vernon County Heritage Book

 

            In 1846, Ira Stevens was located in Victory.                                                   

            The only regular physician was a Dr. A.J. Wiard who left for Nebraska in 1878.

            Frenchmen at DeSoto 1847-53, (#) who had families and one who had none. Two [Frenchmen] lived in Bad Axe [Vernon] County; the others in Crawford County. They had comfortable log cabins and carried on trade with the Indians. Two of them had Indian wives; they were brothers by the name of Godfrey. They left Victory not long after the Winnebagoes went away.

            There was one Frenchman named Potwell (Patwell), a trader. He was married to a(n Indian Woman)squaw and had a family of children.

 

Page 740          

            William A. Hodge, of Victory, is proprietor of the Victoria Nursery and is extensively engaged in fruit growing. In 1866 he entered eighty acres of land on section 27, which he at once began to improve. In 1868 he began the nursery business and has been successfully engaged in that business until the present time. He makes a specialty of small fruits; has a large experience in the business and follows his occupation with a perseverance and ardor which indicate both his love for the business and his determination to succeed. Marked success has attended his labors. His stock includes all kinds of apples, which his experience has taught him are adapted to this climate. He has a great variety of plums, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, etc. The business is carried on in a most systematic manner, Mr. Hodge himself performing a large part of the labor required. The satisfaction that is expressed with the stock he produces is well attested by his large patronage. His business is constantly increasing; within the last few years he has purchased forty lots in the village of Victory, which he is devoting to nursery stock and small fruit. He is also engaged in the raising of sorghum, manufacturing from 1,500 to 2,000 gallons annually. Among his industries may also be mentioned bee keeping and market gardening, supplying the steamboats with vegetables and shipping also to LaCrosse and Lansing. Recently he established a mill of four-horse power, suitable for all kinds of grinding, except flour. Mr. Hodge is one of the most active businessmen in Vernon County. He was born in Yates County, New York in 1832; there he also received his education. He enlisted in the war of Rebellion in the 46^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served nine months; being badly wounded at the battle of Harrisonburg, Virginia. He was discharged for disability. In 1864 he came to Wisconsin. His wife, Jane Williams was born in Rockford, Illinois. She came to Vernon County with her mother, Permelia Williams, who died in this town in 1862. Her father died in Rockford, Illinois. Mr. And Mrs. Hodge have two children—Olive Jane and Clara L.

 

Page 741-742

                  One of the earliest settlers of Vernon County is Alexander Latshaw. Perhaps, with the exception of Lee Grant Sterling, there is no older resident of the county. In 1847 he made an entry in the town of Sterling, on Sections 3 and 4, Town[ship] 11, Range 6 West. At the time of his arrival there were but two families in the town---those of L.G. Sterling and George Nichols. In 1867 he removed from Sterling to Victory where he has since resided. His son James, born June 18, 1847 was the first male white child born in Vernon County. Mr. Latshaw is a native of Sullivan County, Indiana, where he was born in 1824. His father, Joseph Latshaw, was a native of Pennsylvania, from which State he removed to Indiana, where he lived until his death, in September 1845. He settled in Indiana in the year 1814. Mr. Latshaw has generally been engaged in farming; he is at present in the wood trade. He married Mary Clark, daughter of William Clark, a native of Indiana. Mr. And Mrs. Latsaw have seven children---James, Albert, Belle, Edward, Kate, Nellie and Clare---four sons and three daughters all of whom are born in the town of Sterling except Clare, the youngest, who is a native of Victory.

            George C. Clark, of the village of Victory is one of the oldest residents now living in the county. He was born in Knox Co. IN. Nov. 13, 1833 and came to the town of Sterling in the spring of 1847 with Alexander Latshaw. At the same time came J.L.Tewalt and Lewis Trainer, the former of whom settled in the town of Sterling. The latter settled at Dodgeville, Iowa County, but afterward removed to Muscoda, where he died. He came to Vernon County with his mother's family, consisting of eight children, his father, William Clark, having died when he was a boy. His mother, Matilda Clark, settled at Walnut Mound, now called Retreat, in the town of Sterling. She now lives in Victory. Mr. Clark came to Victory in 1881 and engaged in merchandising. He married Sarah Wilcox, a native of Indiana. They have three children---Lola L., Effice and Russell. The children of Mrs. Matilda Clark are as follows - Mrs. Martha Chandler (deceased), Mrs. Elizabeth Bailey, James A., who went to California in 1852 and still lives there; Mrs. Mary Latshaw, William P., at Tomah; Mrs. Jane Messersmith; George C. and Franklin.

 

[Editor’s] note:

            Mrs. Matilda Clark would be my Great-Great-Great Grandmother. Her daughter Elizabeth married James N. Bailey and had a daughter named Jennie. Jennie married Alonzo Fox who in turn had a child name Roy Fox who married Hattie Pennel. Roy and Hattie's youngest child Roland Fox would be my father.

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Aerial View, early 1900’s

 

 

Victory, WI      Aerial View, early 1900’s

 

 

 

 

 

VICTORY SCHOOL DIST. # 2

 

Page 726

 

            The town of Wheatland has always been fully up with the other towns of Vernon County in its school and other education advantages. The first school was taught in the fall of 1853, by Nancy Berry, daughter of John C. Berry, at a point near where the village of Victory now stands.

            District No. 2 is located in the little village of Victory, on the banks of the Mississippi river. This district has a good school building, and always a fair attendance.

 

Page 108 Vernon County Heritage Book

 

            In 1853, Miss Nancy Berry, whose father was Victory's first post master and second merchant, cleaned out a corner of her father's log barn, contracted parents of local children, and offered to teach each child for twenty-five cents. It is believed that this amount covered the charge for one of the three terms, fall, winter, or spring.

            Mrs. Almeda Stevens Wise, daughter of Victory's first permanent white settlers was one of Miss Berry's students. After completing her education at Victory, she attended the

"Select School" at Viroqua, took her exam under County Superintendent of Schools, Hartwick Allen, and received a certificate to teach in county schools.

            As a small child, Amos Schistler, who died in 1940 watched the men haul the hand hew logs across the Mississippi River and make the clay plaster to hold them together, for the new log schoolhouse. Village men made the desks. A long box stove burning local firewood provided the heat.

            A $1,200.00 frame building replaced the log building after decay took its toll. The ringing of the new school bell was a special event for the students’ residents. The upper story of this building served a s a gathering place for special events. On Sunday June 7, 1854, following a warm, calm morning, by noon a tornado developed, lifting the schoolhouse, leaving the ground floor on top, a ripped apart. Books and all the building's contents were destroyed in the torrential rains that followed.

            Another frame building was erected. No restrictions on age for attendance resulting in enrollment soaring to sixty pupils. In the spring of 1912, the teacher at that time, Ernest Amann detected a fire had broken out in the attic; he asked the children to file out. He and the older boys returned to retrieve whatever possible before the fire reached the classroom. Ernest Amann taught intermittently for 23 years at Victory.

            The red brick building, owned by Lenwid Sandvick, Jr. Which still stands in 1994, was built in 1913-13. Until its completion, classes were held in the local church.

            In 1966, Victory became the last of Wheatland Township's schools to close and bus their students to Prairie View School.

            Teachers know to have taught at Victory are: Nancy Berry, Belle Latshaw, Louise Bartholomew, Felton Brown, Mary Rutter, C.J. Furguson, David Adams, Elmer Miller, Harry Tulloch, Howard Brown, Hattie Conklin, Clara Guist, Mabel Guist, Ernest Amann, Jessie Favor, Merle Worman, Opan Pulham, George Didrick, Kenneth Kroll, Dora Hastings, Beulah Brush, Laverna Stoda, Gertrude Oliver, Edith Olson, Mabel Graham, Virginia Timm, Edith Cole, Richard Hayden, Norman Sime, Eva Sandvick, Rose Lowe, Betty Ross and Artis Aasen.

 

Submitted by Edit[h] Cole. Much of this was written by Geda Henderson in 1953 at the event of the school's centennial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VICTORY GOT NAME FROM WAR

                                                      BY: Robert C. Gehl- (LaCrosse Tribune Staff writer)

 

 

Coulee Region Profile III - dated 1963

 

            Laden with History---The Victory area is rich in history. The marker at the left is a tragic memento of the days when Indians predominated this land. Twenty-three Sac Indians were killed by white men firing from the river steamer Warrior on Aug 1, 1832. The one in the center marks the site of Red Bird's village, where the first Battle of the Bad Axe was fought June 28, 1826. At the right another battle of those perilous times is memorialized, relating the "hard fighting" in which 300 Sacs battled 1,200 white soldiers.

 

 

            Victory, Wis.—This is only a sleepy little community of 140 inhabitants, but its very name is symbolic of the history which surrounds it.

            The community was named in memory of the last battle of the Black Hawk War which occurred nearby 131 years ago.

            It is a river town built into the steep hillside just off Highway 35 overlooking the main channel of the Mississippi River.

            Its streets—actually mostly roads—lead past its scattered houses in a bewildering pattern.

            The focal point in the community is the old country store and post office on the main road just off the highway.

            The store is the only business place remaining in the entire community, and the same building also contains the post office.

            The store has been operated by Mr. and Mrs. William Page (Paggi) since 1947 and Page has bee postmaster since 1940. Page's grocery is a general store with two gasoline pumps out front.

            Harland Yttri runs the H.W. Electric Shop from his home here.

            Leonard Johnson drives the one rural mail route out of the community.

            Many of the buildings are old and one of the them was constructed from parts of an old river steam-boat the "Northern Light."

            One of the roads leads upward through Pond Hollow to Scenic Point.

            Breakneck Hill is just to the east and was thus named when Henry Roberts was killed from a broken neck when he was knocked off a ledge by a large rock being quarried above him.

            William A. Podawitz operated a store here from 1919 until 1957, when he retired and closed it down. Podawitz came here in 1896 at the age of four from the Town of Genoa, where he was born.

            Guss Podawitz, at 91, is the community's oldest resident. He helped out in the store some 31 years.

            The community is still unincorporated and so is governed by the board of the Town of Wheatland, in which it is located.

            Present town officers are Percy Sandvick, chairman, and Ellsworth Inman and Virgil Phillips, trustees.

            The elementary school had approximately 20 pupils in six grades last year, but high school students go to De Soto.

            The Methodist Church here is in the De Soto Charge, with Rev. James Clinton as pastor. The church is used only for funerals now as services were discontinued when the congregation became too small.

            Younger workmen who make their homes in Victory are mostly employed either in La Crosse or on the river's locks and dams.

            The community was a melting pot and there is no predominant nationality.

            The main highway and also the railroad tracks once ran through the community, but both were later relocated along the river. The tiny Victory depot stands abandoned beside the busy Burlington tracks.

            There is a public boat landing here.

            Travel Highway 35 a short distance southward from here and the air becomes filled with history. Along here are the historical markers for Red Bird Village and the "First Battle of the Bad Axe" in 1827. "Battle Bluff," "Battle Hollow", " Battle Island" and " Battle of Bad Axe."

 

 

 

 

DEAR OLD SCENIC VICTORY

 

19__ Census Book

 

            "With a first rate leading, a pleasant location, and situated opposite the mouth of the Upper Iowa River, and right opposite the boundary line between the state of Iowa and the Territory of Minnesota, Victory is in a natural point of business. But for some cause it has made little progress up to the present time. A change is now coming over the spirit of their dreams, and H.H. Ferguson is making preparation to build a new warehouse, and J.C. Berry has sent for a horse ferry boat to ply between Victory and the mouth of the Upper Iowa river. Several new dwelling houses are also to e put up this season. The Victorians will also give a site for a steam mill to any man who will establish such a much needed plant. The location is a first rate one, and in addition to its conveniences for obtaining fine logs, there is some very good timber near Victory, that can easily be made available. In this forest a portion of a battle took place, known in history as the " Battle of the Bad-Ax", and many a dusky warrior was stretched upon the sod beneath those old oaks by the vengeful rifles of American marksmen, or drowned while attempting to swim the old Mississippi and make their escape to the soil of Iowa.

            John Cavenee, the pioneer caterer seems to be doing a good business in his Victory hotel.

            Since the very earliest settlement in Badax County, Victory was a landing point for river steamboats to land emigrants to this section of the state. From foreign lands, the New England states, the middle west and the south, people and freight were discharged from steamers for settlements in the interior. "

 

 

 

                                                HISTORIC OLD VICTORY

 

The Pioneer, Dec 5, 1857

 

            On the Father of Waters

The following article was written by Editor Somerby for his Western Times, Bad Ax county's first newspaper, in 1857, more than three-fourths of a century ago. "Pickings" much doubts if there is now a resident of the old village who lived there at that time, December 5, 1857. The pioneer editor commented as follows:

            "It is not of the late democratic Victory we would speak , but of the embryo city of Victory, which we had occasion to visit the other day, which pleased us with its pleasant position and hospitable inhabitants. Victory is situated on the Mississippi river, forty-eight miles from Prairie due Chien in Bad Ax County, Wisconsin. It is celebrated for being the spot where Black Hawk and his large party of Indians fought their last battle of the Black Hawk war in 1832- hence its name. Victory has all the advantages of a river town, a splendid steamboat landing, good wagon roads extending back into a wide territory of excellent farming county, well settled by a thriving class of farmers, the trade there from forming no small item of the business done at Victory. With such a country tributary to it, its support is ample. The inhabitants of the village are a set of enterprising eastern people, and lace not energy to make Victory the first town of the river. The place already boasts of several stores, one of two warehouses, a post office, schoolhouse, two good hotels—the Victory Hotel and the Eagle Hotel. The Eagle Hotel kept by O. Eddy, and we can recommend the Eagle to persons who have business at Victory. The town offers fair offerings for professional men for though possessed of a justice of the peace, they have neither physician nor lawyer. There is abundance of building material near the town, inexhaustible quarries of limestone, and beds of clay that would make the best quality of brick. Owing to the fact that the route of Prairie du Chien and La Crosse Railroad has been surveyed through the main street of the town, and also to numerous improvements, real estate has increased in value very much during the past year. The citizens says they are willing to donate a portion of the town space to railroad purposes, thus exhibiting the right kind of spirit that has built up all western towns and cities. Some of the citizens of Prairie du Chien have invested in real estate at Victory, and the fair inducements held out by liberal land holders, will doubtless induce others to follow their example.

            We hold that the advantageous location, and ample resources of Victory and the atmosphere of its inhabitants, will make it a large and prosperous city. "Victory is on the side of the Lord."

 

 

 

DE SOTO SCRIBE WRITES INTERESTINGLY

OF EARLY LIFE AROUND VILLAGE OF VICTORY.

 

Broadcaster-Censor, Viroqua, Wis. Thursday, July 24, 1958

 

            Nestled about five miles north of DeSoto, in one of the most delightfully scenic spots in this beautiful upper Mississippi River valley, the little village of Victory has as much of interesting history connected with it as any other small town within this historical section of the state.

            As near as the writer can learn, the real pioneer of what is now Victory village was Ira Stevens, a native of Toronto, Canada, who came into Vernon county ( then known as Bad Ax county) as early as 1849. He married a daughter of Moses Decker, who was the first settler in what is now the city of Viroqua

            This point of the Mississippi River was first known as "Stevens' Landing" honoring the man above mentioned. Mr. Stevens made the original entry of the fifty four acres on which the town site was planned. His patent was dated November 1, 1849, and was signed by President Zachary Taylor. Many years before this entry was made this land had been occupied by French traders who came to buy furs from the native red men.

            The village of Victory was laid out originally in 1852. The fathers of the new town were pioneers Ira Stevens, Henry W. McAuley, William F. Terhune and Hiram Rice.

            Mr. McAuley was a native of North Carolina. He was a lawyer and remarkably deep thinker along the subjects of political economy, science, history and religion. He was something of an inventor too, having patented several mechanical devices, and in the early eighties it is recorded he prognosticated the practical navigation of the air, which we are today seeing realized in full. He came to the state of Wisconsin in 1835, but did not settle here permanently until three years later, and then, in what is now the city of Lancaster, Grant county, in which he had the honor of building the first house. He came to Victory in 1852.

            William F. Terhune was also a remarkable man. He was a native of New York state. Like Mr. McAuley, Mr. Terhune was a lawyer of brilliant intellect and excellent education. He came of liberty-loving strain and during his long residence in Vernon county was chose to serve the people in many offices of honor and trust, among which were district attorney, member of assembly and county judge.

            As to the fourth man in this group of founders of the village, history has failed to preserve a record, although, in the early history of Liberty Pole this paragraph is found Hiram Rice, one of the founders of Victory, with his brother Samuel, moved to Bad Ax village or what is now known as Liberty Pole, where Samuel was the first postmaster and Hiram was first merchant; and who bought his merchandise in wagons from Prairie du CHIEN."

            Judge Terhune gave the village the name of Victory honoring the fact that near the town site the whites had claimed a signal victory over the followers of Blackhawk some years before

            History tells us there were three houses standing on the original site of the village when it was laid out in 1852. One of these had been built by a man named Timothy Piper; the second by Hiram Rice, one of the founders of the village, and the third, by French traders who came here to barter with the Indians. The first building erected after the village was laid out and christened, was a cheap structure 16 x 14 feet used by a warehouse by Mr. Rice. John Cavinee was the name of the pioneer who built the first structure of much importance in the town. He operated a hotel in this building for a time. A native of Ohio, he moved from Victory to California, where he died.

            One of the earliest settlers of Vernon county was Alexander Latshaw. At the time of his arrival in 1847, there were but two families in the township---those of L.G. Sterling and George Nichols. In 1867 Mr. Latshaw re-moved to Victory where he resided the remainder of his life. In a history of Vernon County, dated 1884, Mr. Latshaw states: "Where the village of Victory now is, there was one Frenchman, name Potswell, a trader. He was married to a squaw and had a family of children. Just above the mouth of the Bad Ax there was another Frenchman but he had no family. He too was a trader. They had comfortable log houses and carried on trade with the Indians. They left not long after the Winnebagoes went away. They would chop a little wood for steamers sometimes."

            H.W. McAuley succeeded the French traders, as the first merchant in the village. He put in a stock of merchandise and opened a store in the building originally occupied by the Frenchmen.

            John C. Berry opened the second store in Victory. Robert Lodell was the pioneer blacksmith and Clark Smith was the man who established the first steam sawmill in the place. The first death was that of a man named Enfield who was buried on the land afterward occupied as a cemetery. Victory became a United State post-office in 1854 with John C. Berry as its master.

            The first school was taught in the fall of 1853 by Nancy Berry, daughter of John C. Berry, at a point where the village of Victory now stands. The first school houses were built in most instances of logs; the desks were placed around the wall, and basswood logs, split in halves formed the seats upon which pupils of all ages spent six hours a day. Wood was furnished by the patrons in proportion to the number of children sent. Often it was drawn to the schoolhouse by the parents in the log and cut up by the pupils. Most of the pupils found their way thru the woods to the schoolhouses; roads being comparatively unknown.

            Early settlers were subject to all the inconveniences and privations attending establishment of new communities in remote sections of the county. They had first to go to Prairie du Chein for all provisions and supplies. History has recorded one tale of a settler's arrival at his home after the long trek for food supplies to find a barrel of sugar had been loaded by mistake on his wagon, instead of the much needed barrel of flour.

            The state of society then, although not fashionable and sometimes uncultured was far from being rude or unpleasant. A cordial feelings pervaded the little settlements and the settlers were always ready to assist each other and extend the hand of welcome to the new arrivals. The "latchstring" was always outside the cabin door and hospitality was characteristic of all.

            Thomas J. DeFrees, a licensed Viroqua attorney moved to Victory in 1856 where he was engaged in merchandising for a short time. Later he moved back to Viroqua and continued to practice law, becoming the first county judge of the county. It is claimed Mr. DeFrees gave first name to the county---Bad Ax—which was later changed to Vernon.

            William A. Hodge, who was wounded in the Harrisonberg Virginia and discharged because of incapacity that same year of 1862, came to Victory from Lansing in 1864. He homesteaded 40 acres and thereafter kept acquiring additional land by purchase until, it is said, at one time he was the owner of nearly all the land on which the village of Victory now stands. Mr. Hodge became famous throughout the state for his splendid orchard, berries of all kinds, poultry and aviary. He built and operated for many years a cane mill, and later a grist and feed mill. Both Mr. And Mrs. Hodge were ardent Methodists.

            Mr. and Mrs. George H. Battles, grandparents of the writer whose son, Charles A. Battles was the 3^rd white child born in Lansing, IA., moved from Lansing to Victory in 1872, where they became proprietors of the village hotel, which they maintained a number of years. Mr. Battles class leader in the Methodist church, was skilled carpenter, building several homes, which still stand in the village of Victory.

            The early founders of Victory village doubtless had great hopes for the towns future and as the years went on and the country back of the village was opened up to farming by the early settlers, she prospered. The great wheat boom struck this section and Victory's greatness seemed assured. There was a high spirit of rivalry between her and her close rival, De Soto. Each fully expected to become the metropolis of the upper Mississippi valley.

            According to history it would appear that for a time Victory was in the lead until the citizens of DeSoto pulled off their clever little stunt of wing-damaging the river channel, to change its current so as to give DeSoto a steamboat landing, as has been fully covered in a past feature story in this paper.

            At the forks of the road at Red Mound the Victory and De Soto wheat merchants took their stand and bid for the grain as the farmers drove up with it. The distance to market from this parting of ways was about equal. The roads were equally passable. The only thing that could decide the market-bound wheat grower was the price. And so the DeSoto buyers bid and the Victory buyers bid and for a time the Victory buyers go their share, maybe. History doesn't say definitely as to this point. We do know, however, that the wheat buyers at Victory did some business in those days.

            There were three big warehouse, one of which was built of stone, and through which annually there passed 100,000 bushels or more of wheat, besides other grain. This stone warehouse was built by the farmers and was known as the Farmers Stock Warehouse. Lansing capital was increased in Victory in those days and prosperity was at high tide.

            Frank Woodbury, grain buyer at Victory built one of the large warehouses; he also owned and operated the lumber yard at that time. If space in this article permitted, many pioneer names deserved more than casual mention; The church at Victory was built in about 1896 by residents of the village and rural area of Adventist faith; Among these were the names of Wakefield, Fox, Griffin, Brown, Wallar, Shisler, Oliver, Clark, Spearback, Chambers and Henderson.

            Nancy Berry has been mentioned as teacher in the school of 54. Some years later a good two story frame building was erected with an original cost of $1,200.00, which was destroyed by fire in 1912. A new school was built, of which Ernest Amann was teacher.

            Around the turn of the century the moving spirit in the town's commercial life was Alex Tulloch, who operated a sawmill, manufacturing, lumber, boom plugs and grub pins; thus furnishing steady employment to thirty or forty men. He served as president of the Genoa State Bank and held the position of Town Chairman for a long series of terms. Mr. Tulloch was postmaster and village merchant for many years and erected a new modern store building in 1912.

            David Adams, at this time was rural mail carrier for Victory , serving Uncle Sam thru rain and shine for some fifteen years; moving to DeSoto in 1914 where he became storekeeper and stock buyer. He also conducted a ferry line to Lane to Lansing.

            Postmaster, William Page at the present time conducts the only mercantile business in Victory village; Wm. Podawitz having retired in the spring of 1958 after 49 years of store-keeping. Leonard Johnson is the present rural mail carrier.

 

 

 

Newspaper Article - 1857

 

"At Victory, Mr. John Sellers has opened a new public house, called "The Victory House", which house is doing a thriving business under the energetic management of its wide awake landlord. The house is commodious and was built last fall by the present proprietors Messrs, Ferguson and Sellers.

Thomas McShane keeps the Eagle Hotel, and will exert himself to satisfy the wants of his customers in good shape. Eddy and Wetherbee have opened a store in the building formerly occupied by H.H. Ferguson and are doing a fair share of business. The birthday of Washington is to be celebrated by a ball at the Victory House on the 23^rd "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo Descriptions ­ Identified Locations

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPH

VICTORY, WISCONSIN

 

# 1       This is the location where the J.S. Steam caught fire and sunk in June 1910

 

# 2       This little island is what everyone referred to as "The Point"

           

# 3       Boat landing and what used to be the location for the sawmill

 

# 4       Bill Pagge home

 

# 5       Elvie Wetterlin home

 

# 6       Podawitz store- currently owned by Gerald and Cheryl Torgerson

 

# 7       The original Victory Store

 

# 8       Mae & Pete Oliver’s home

 

# 9       The old lumber yard

 

# 10     "Old Highway 35"

 

# 11     Tulloch's house

 

# 12     Tulloch's barns that held the " wild horses" he brought back from out west

 

# 13     Elmer Paggi farm- now currently owned by Esther Stokke

 

# 14     Hannah Phillips home- now currently owned by David and Dana Fox

 

# 15     Roland and Barabara Fox home

           

# 16     Kathryn & Charlie Paggi's home. Currently owned by Joe Paggi

 

# 17     Leonard Johnson first home—currently owned by Bob & Ona Wetterlein

 

# 18     The Spaulding home - This home was torn down and Tom & Pat Fisko built a new home here.

 

# 19     The "Pearl Hotel"

 

****Note: The School, Methodist church and a house that sits behind Tulloch's house

(currently owned by Alan & Pauline Ballwahn ) are obstructed from view by the trees.

 

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY PHOTOGRAPH

VICTORY, WISCONSIN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper Article - date unknown

 

Bees Kill Two Horses On Farm Near Victory

 

            Two horses belonging to Elmer Page are dead as the result of bee stings.

            The young team became frightened while Page was plowing and ran away

            with the plow. They were forced to stop when the plow became entangled with

            a tree, and, unfortunately for the horses, three swarms of bees. The bees stung

            them so badly that both animals died.

            Another of Page's horses was killed this spring when it fell into a cistern.

 

 

Newspaper Article - July 3, year unknown

 

Burglars Rob Victory Store, Post Office- July 3

 

Burglars broke into the W.J. Page combination grocery store and U.S. Post Office in Victory late Friday night or early Saturday morning and carted away a 500 pound safe.

                        W. J. Page estimate that he was missing $500 or more.

                        Postal authorities have already been called in and are working on the case.

            Tuesday, Sheriff Bernard Ammerman reported that he had taken three suspects into custody and had them take a lie detector test with negative results. All three have been released.

Entry to the store was gained through a rear window. The men then dragged the safe over to the widow and carted it away in a truck or car. The safe was later found at the bottom of a 70 foot embankment near Battle Hollow. The bottom of the safe had been knocked out, and the burglars had tried to burn the money orders and checks.

            There were about $1,400. In checks, the sheriff said.

                        All the money orders and part of the checks were recovered.

                        Other items stolen included a pair of hip boots, 50 cartons of cigarettes, a

            considerable amount of meat and some fishing tackle.

 

 

 

Newspaper Article - June 1947

 

Page Buys Tulloch Store in Victory

 

                        William J. Page recently rented the A. Tulloch store building and purchased his stock. Tulloch has been in business here more than 50 years.

                        Page has been with the Tulloch store for the past 21 years. He will continue to run the post office and store.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper Article - date unknown

 

                                                Investigate Area Breakins

 

            The Page store in Victory and Stellick's general store at Stoddard were robbed Sunday night. Both robberies were committed by the same parties, it is believed.

            Two men were observed in Victory at about 8:00 p.m. Sunday on the premises of the Page store. They took a five-gallon can of gasoline but were unable to make entry into the building.

            At about 10:00 p.m. the Stellick store in Stoddard was broken into through the front door. The robbers took three guns, a box of shells, five pairs of overalls, a box containing 500 pennies, tobacco and a quantity of food.

            A description of the men was obtained by persons who observed the men in Victory and Stoddard. One of the men is about six feet tall with a prominent nose. The other was described as being shorter and having a broad forehead. Both men are dark and both are wearing sport clothes.

 

 

Newspaper Article - November 1940

 

            The post office has been moved back to the A.Tulloch store building under the supervision of Will Page as postmaster.

 

Newspaper Article—1928

 

Fire Destroys Tulloch Store at Victory Early Today; Loss is $30,000

 

            Fire of unknown origin totally destroyed the A. Tulloch general store and a nearby elevator at victory this morning at 6:25, causing an estimate property and stock loss of nearly $30,000. Insurance covered part of the loss, it was learned late Saturday morning.

            A man giving his name as William Collins, was asleep in the building at the time it was discovered on fire. He was rescued from the burning structure. He knew nothing of a possible cause of the blaze.

            Shortly after the fire was discovered, a call was sent in for assistance to the La Crosse fire department. A hose wagon from No. 5 station was rushed to the scene at 6:40 arriving at Victory at 7:30.

            The fire was under control upon the arrival of the La Crosse department, the truck returning to La Crosse at 8:50.

            When the fire was at its height a lumber shed and two dwellings also started on fire from flying sparks and bits of wood, but all were saved without much damage. The lumber shed and one of the dwellings were owned by Mr. Tulloch, as well as the store and elevator, while the other dwelling was owned by a Mrs. Hindenberger according to reports here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper Article ­ 1952

 

            Mr. and Mrs. Guy McDowell, Victory, Wis[consin] are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary Sunday, July 6, with open house and a mock wedding. Hours are 1 to 6 p.m. with the mock wedding at two. No invitations have been sent.

            The couple was married by Justice Ed Johnson in Vernon County in 1902, the bride the former Nancy Kast. Nellie Miller and John Lenox attended. The couple has resided in Vernon County throughout the 50 years. They ran a confectionary and grocery store at Riverside between Stoddard and Genoa for 17 years, and since that time have conducted a foster home. Of the 26 children they have cared for, three are still with them. They reside on a 60 acre farm north of Victory. Both of their own children die in infancy.

            McDowell, native of Richland County, will be 76 July 20, and his wife born in Crawford County will be 67 Aug 18.

 

 

 

 

Newspaper Article—date unknown

 

Close Chairman Race At Victory

 

            The returns of Tuesday's election are as follows: A. Tulloch, chairman, defeated Jacob Podawitz by a margin of nine votes. The supervisors. Ernest Phillips and Russel Oliver, were re-elected. Treasurer Kenneth Adams had no opposition. Ray Henry, clerk, won over Baisel Worman. Assessor John Beams won over John Shisler and Henry Missel. Constable Owen Sutherland and C. C. Johnson justice of peace had no opposition.

            It was voted to raise $1,000 to re-gravel the roads and $500 was voted for town expenses, with about $1,900 on hand. The largest number of voters turned out at the polls that has been out for several years.

 

 

Newspaper Article- date unknown

 

Tulloch Wins

 

            Victory, Wis.A. Tulloch defeated Jacob Podawitz for town of Wheatland Chairman by 11.

 

 

Newspaper Article ­ 1963

 

Victory Celebrants

 

            Mr. And Mrs. Elmer Phillips, Victory, are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary with open house at the farm home of his son Carl Sunday, September 29. Hours are 2 to 5 p.m.

            Hannah Veglahn and Elmer Phillips were born in Genoa Township and were married at the Veglahn home by Rev. William Rader, Prairie du Chien. Attending them were Lena Podwitz and Acy Suitor.

            They are the parents of six children—Walter, Kasson, Minnesota; Mrs. Hans (Mildred) Kolden, LaCrosse: Mrs. Milton (Florence) Fox, Victory: Russell, Genoa; Carl, Victory: and Delmon, Cashton. They have 18 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

            Mr. Philips was born Jan 18, 1886, and his wife April 4, 1888---

 

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Phillips

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper Article - date unknown

 

            Mr. And Mrs. David Pulham, Victory, Wis[consin] celebrated their golden wedding anniversary May 29, when 200 friends and relatives honored them. The Rev. J.H. Meier, La Crosse, gave a talk on "The Sacredness of Marriage”. Miss Ruth Ann Lawson, granddaughter, sang "I Love You Truly" and “Always" accompanied by Miss Trudie Sedamire, Bagley, Wis[consin]. Mrs. R. J. Helgeson gave several readings. Sharon Copper, La Crosse, sang "Jesus Loves Me".

            Mr. And Mrs. Pulham have one daughter, Mrs. Opal Lawson, who was present with her husband and daughter. Mrs. Myrtle Helgeson, sister and bridesmaid, was among the guests. Also present were four other couples who have celebrated their golden weddings, Mr. and Mrs. Willard Sutherland, the latter Mrs. Pulham's sister; Mr and Mrs. Jacob Potewitz, Mr. and Mrs. William Jacobus, Victory; Mr. and Mrs. David Adams, LaCrosse. A purse was among the gifts from the guests.

 

                        Mr. and Mrs. David Pulham

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newspaper article ­ January 17, 1902

                       

                        At Victory, on his premises, 65 feet above the Mississippi, W.A. Hodge

                        has recently completed an artesian well at a depth of 400 feet. The flow

                        is fifteen feet above the surface.

 

Newspaper article - January 29, 1902

 

                        Thomas Waters died January 15 at Victory, after a long illness of

                        consumption.

 

 

 

 

 

POPULATION OF VERNON COUNTY,

FOR 1880 BY TOWNS AND VILLAGES

 

Census book of 19___ page 776 & 777

 

Listed are just a few of the towns & villages. I did not type in all of them

 

                        VICTORY                                114

                        Wheatland Village                    301

                        Bergen                         1,014

                        Genoa Village                           150     

                        Chaseburg                                 125

                        Newton Village                         41

                        Liberty                                     543

                        Viroqua Village             62

 

 

 

 

 

LIFE PRESERVER IS GRIM REMINDER

OF RIVERBOAT'S FIERY DEMISE

 

Vernon County Broadcaster 1992, by Terry Noble

 

            The story of the J.S. Steamer is one Mark Twain could have written.

            It takes place on the Mississippi River near Victory (Just north of DeSoto) in June of 1910. The story involves 1,500 passengers on a paddle wheel riverboat, and one drunken passenger in particular with a nearly dead cigar butt.

            That summer, the J.S. (John Storeckfus) was returning from a excursion trip to La Crosse and traveling south of the Mississippi, headed for Lansing, Iowa.

            Newspaper accounts at the time say the ship's crew arrested the man with the cigar for drunken and disorderly behavior. The crew took the man to the ship's hold and handcuffed him to a pillar with the supposedly burnt-out cigar still in his mouth.

            According to Bert Mellum, a ten-year old passenger of the J.S., the crew announced that a fire had started in the lower portion of the boat, but that none of the passengers were in danger. A short time later, the ropes to the rudder burned and the rapidly spreading fire forced the captain to make an emergency landing on Bad Axe Island across from the mouth of the Bad Axe river.

            Accounts at the time say the J.S. went up like a "tinder box" causing one of the "most magnificent spectacles in the history of navigation." Mellum, now 93, claims the blaze could be seen from as far away as Sparta.

            About a third of the passengers jumped over the sides into the shallow water and swam ashore or were rescued. At least a score of babies were thrown from the decks by their parents. Amazingly, only two of the 1,500 passengers perished. One, Mrs. Emma Randall of New Albin, who was recently married and traveling with her husband, panicked and jumped from the top deck with a heavy handbag. The other casualty was John Pleen or Plein, of Lansing, the man in the hold most believe started the fire.

            The story comes up again now because the only know relic of the J.S. has been donated to the Vernon County Historical Society. That relic is a torn and tattered life preserver Bert Mellum wore that day which has hung in his garage for many decades.

            Mellum said he did not know the value of the preserver until he read a recent article on the burning. He decided then to donate it to the museum.

            The Viroqua resident still recalls the end of his first riverboat excursion. "We headed towards the Island across from Victory where they fastened onto a tree and lowered the gang plan," Mellum said. "Of course, everyone wanted off first. That's only natural. Some women, kids and "dunce men" tried to climb over the gang plank"

            Shortly after the evacuation, local boat owners began arriving to ferry the passengers off the island. Mellum remembers sleeping under a tree that night on the island still wearing the preserver. He wore it home the next day when a boat finally arrived for him and his uncle.

            One of the boats which worked through the night ferrying passengers from the riverboat belonged to the father of Don Arneson, an 87 year old former mayor of Viroqua and virtual encyclopedia of local lore.

            According to Arneson, some mystery still shrouds the cause of the fire. Initial accounts by the boat crew claim the arrested man was not handcuffed in the hold. They stated that he must have started the fire by lighting matches to see his way around the darkened hold.

            The crew also claimed the man was let out of the hold during the evacuation. However, a scuba diver later found the man's body in the hold and Arneson said the man's hands had to be pulled off to release him from the handcuffs and the pillar.

            The handcuffs were never recovered, and Arneson doubts that any other relics of the J.S. will ever be found. Arneson was present when the wreckage, having become a navigational hazard, was detonated. He said recent scuba divers have found nothing except a hole from the blast.

            "I can darn near vouch that there are no more relics," Arneson said. "That preserver is the last of the Mohicans."

 

 

 

THE J.S. STEAMER

 

            John Storeckfus ( J.S. Steamer). Local residents claim that the J.S. was one of the finest boats to paddle the Mississippi River.

            The summer of 1910 in June, the excursion trip was returning to Lansing, Iowa after spending the day going to LaCrosse, WI. Tragedy struck near Victory, WI. When the steamer caught fire and burned. Only two people perished of the 1,500 passengers on board.

           

The following is from the Vernon County Broadcaster- date unknown:

 

            ".… of a gust from the northeast, the fire shot upward over the whole massive frame as if illuminated by the touch of an electric button, and wreathed in one immense sheet of flame she stood out against the blackness of a background of hills, a pyrotechnic pyramid in whose glory was outlined five immense American flags that streamed shimmering in the breeze from the tops of as many gilded flagstaffs.

            The wind swept the burning craft back to Bad Axe Island. She struck stern first at a point about a hundred yards below her former landing place. At this time the fight to save her had consumed three quarters of an hour, but the end was at hand. No more could be done and within a few moments the big ship had burned to the water line and went down in about twenty feet of water.

            The one known victim of the wreck, Mrs. Emma Randall of New Albin, Iowa, sacrificed her life in a frenzy of fear. When the alarm was given she attempted to plunge over the railing of the upper deck. Her husband attempted to quiet her fears, and thought he had succeeded in doing so. A moment after he had released her she had gone to her death. With a wild cry she sprang over the boat's side, in her hand a heavily laden handbag which no doubt was the handicap that made futile the attempt of her young husband to save her. Both were young people, having been married last winter. Randall says that in leaping after his wife he was handicapped by a satchel which in his excitement he had neglected to drop until he had struck the waters. No sign of her was visible"

 

 

 

 

 

Found in the La Crosse Tribune article dated July 1927. It has been retyped for clarity and easier reading. The actual article can be found following along with a photo of Mrs. Almeda Stevens-Wise

 

MRS. ALMEDA WISE, 78,

IS FIRST CHILD BORN IN VERNON COUNTY

 

         Born in 1849 in a little log cabin at Victory, Vernon County, Wisconsin, Mrs. Almeda Wise, 414 Winnebago street had the honor of being the first white baby to be born in Vernon County.

            Mrs. Wise, in telling a Tribune reporter of her early life near Victory, said that for several years from the time she was old enough to be above her only playmates were the Winnebago Indian children and Indian papooses of the nearby Indians. Not a white family was at Victory when her father first settled there. Viroqua was 25 miles away and it was a long 25 miles in those days.

            Father a Canadian Her father, whose name was Ira Stevens, said Mrs. Wise, was but a young lad when he himself came to Wisconsin. He came from Canada and first went to Prairie Due Chien, where he worked at Jefferson Barracks. After a year or two there he settled for a short time near where Viroqua is now. There he met and married his future wife, a daughter of Dr. Decker. Dr. Decker was a large landowner and later gave land for the courthouse and for the cemetery at Viroqua.

            Mr. Stevens (her father) did not stay long at Viroqua; instead he moved to where Victory is now located and took up a large tract of government land. Just how large the tract was Mrs. Wise could not remember but it extended for some distance on each side of the road leading through the valley. There her father built his home of logs and there Mrs. Wise was born, Almeda Stevens.

            At this time the country was crowded with Winnebago Indians who were very friendly and never caused the least bit of worry. A little later another white family moved into the region and a boy was born, and in the next few years others moved in and settled this practically virgin land. Pioneers coming into this country, and Mrs. Wise's father was no exception, had to cut down the trees and grub the land before building and opening farms.

            Opens First Store When only a few families had settled at Victory a man by the name of John C. Berry came and started a store, the first as far as Mrs. Wise knew, in Vernon County. He had only a few goods in his store, but it was a God-send to these people, who ordinarily had to go many miles to purchase the necessities of life.

            Mr. Berry had a daughter who taught the first school there. The school was naturally far from being what schools are today, or what was usually found in other communities. She contracted with the parents of the children to teach for twenty-five cents a child. To do this she cleared out a portion of her father's barn and held school there. Mrs. Wise attended school there and received her first education from the hands of the storekeeper's daughter. A few years later a log schoolhouse was built at Victory.

            Father Was A Butcher Mrs. Wise's father, Ira Stevens, was by trade a cooper and a butcher, and during these years of her girlhood he carried on both of his trades. He had his tables built out of doors where he did all of his butchering. Farmers came from miles around to buy meat from him. He also cradled grain for farmers in his vicinity.

            Dr. Decker, Mrs. Wise's grandfather, lived at Viroqua all during these years, and Mrs. Wise, with her parents occasionally drove the twenty-five miles to visit him. In the summer time horse and buggy would be their means of going and in winter Mrs. Wise said her father equipped the sleigh with a feather bed for comfort in travel.

            Many were the steamboats she used to see on the Mississippi in those days. It was the chief means of traffic, especially for freight.

            When she was in her early teens a "select" school, as she termed it, was started in Viroqua. Here the people from this part of the country by paying tuition could send their children to be taught. This was the next and last step in Mrs. Wise's education. Graduating from this school she started immediately to teach in the district schools. To teach in those days one had to pass an examination under Hartwell Allen and received her certificate to teach from him.

            Marries Emanual Wise After teaching through three terms, one summer session and through two winters, Mrs. Wise left the teaching profession to marry Emanual Wise, a merchant in Viroqua at the time.

            Mr. Wise was born in Ohio and had served three years with the Union army in the civil war. At the end of the war he came west to Viroqua and settled there. Mrs. Wise said she met her future husband while she was attending this "select" school in Viroqua and had gone with him during the time she was teaching. It was in 1868 that the two were married and they moved soon after to Victory, where there was a splendid opening for Mr. Wise. He remained in business there for many years, but was forced to retire in the early '90's when he became an invalid. He remained an invalid until his death in 1911.

            Does Her Own Work They moved to La Crosse about eight or nine years before his death and have been in this city ever since.

            Mrs. Wise has three children, all girls, none of who live in the city. One daughter lives in Florida, another in Minneapolis, and the other in St. Paul. She has one relative in this city, a granddaughter, the wife of Dr. Leslie N. Lehrbach. At the present time Mrs. Wise, though nearly 80 years old, lives alone on the second floor of the residence at 414 Winnebago Street, and does all of her own housework.

 

 

 

VICTORY SCHOOL

 

 

First School Opened In Victory 100 Years Ago

                                                                                    by Geda Henderson--1953

 

            It is one hundred years since the first school term was conducted in the Town of Wheatland, in the small, peaceful, unincorporated village of Victory.

            Victory, so named for the victory of the whites over the Indians in the Black Hawk War of 1832, was settled by families from Canada, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and North Carolina. The first permanent settler, Ira Stevens a Canadian, settled her in 1849.

            The village was laid out in 1852, by 1853 a Miss Nancy Berry had contracted with the parents of the pupils to teach for twenty five cents per pupil. Miss Berry was the daughter of John Berry, who was the village's first postmaster, and second merchant.

            The storekeeper's daughter not only taught the first school, but she had to provide the school room in which to teach. She cleaned out a portion of her father's log barn and with her meager equipment, taught the settler's children in this log barn until the log schoolhouse was built.

            Mrs. Almeda Stevens Wise, daughter of the first permanent settler, was one of Miss Berry's pupils. After finishing her education here, she attended the "Select School" at Viroqua, took an examination under County Superintendent Hartwell Allen, and received her certificate to teach in the county schools.

                       

            Log School Mrs. Florence Ferguson Griffin has lived in Victory practically all her life. As a very young child she attended the log school for a very short term. Mr. Amos Shisler, and old pioneer of Victory, who died in 1940, watched the men haul the hand hewed logs which built this school. They were hauled across the frozen river. Clay was plastered between the logs to make the school house warmer. Its small windows were close to the ground. It contained home made desks, make by men in the village. A long box stove provided the heat.

            Her first teacher was a Miss Belle Latshaw, a daughter of Alexander and Mary Latshaw, who were one of the pioneer families of Vernon County. She taught in the Vernon County schools for fifteen years. It is hard to establish when the log school was built or how long is was in operation, but two lads who attended it later served in the Civil War, they were John and Robert Ferguson, who were on the muster roll of Co. A, 25^th Wisconsin Infantry, organized in Viroqua in August 1862.

            Some of Mrs. Griffin's classmates were Mary Smith, a daughter of Clark Smith who built the first steam saw mill at Victory; Jennie and Hulda Mueller, whose father was a grocer and postmaster in the village in 1884; Lizzie and Clara Lawrence; and Isaac Asbury, who now lives at Portland , Ore.

                       

Second School Building The second school was a two story frame building which cost $1200. The Vernon County history states that this was a "good and commodius building" This building had a belfry, and the ringing of the bell was a great event in the lives of the pupils. Mrs. Griffin attended this school and her teachers were Belle Latshaw, Louise Bartholmew, Fenton Brown and Cy Sterling.

            In a teacher's Association program of January 12, 1889, conducted by County Superintendent Daniel Mahoney, both Miss Bartholmew and Cy Sterling were on the program.

            Mrs. Griffin witnessed the tornado which destroyed this school. The morning of June 7, 1885, had been a warm still forenoon. At noon a wind was developing speed so she went to close the windows. Wile gazing out the window she saw the local grocer, Cal Clark run after some barrels which he had just unloaded from a steamboat. Mr. Clark, his long beard and the barrels were engaged in rolling, tumbling formations. Watching him she laughed, but her laughter turned into fear, for she heard mutterings, clashes, and clatters, and then saw the shattered wood flying in all directions. The school building was lifted up completely and carried for some distance. Books and boards were found later many miles away.

            Mr. Clarence Ferguson, a pupil in the two story school, gives his recollections of this school, and also of the year in which he taught.

            Recollections "The recollections of one's early childhood are scattered and unrelated incidents which, for some reason not usually indicated by their importance, impressed themselves on that curious thing called memory.

            Apparently no such incident impressed on my memory a very definite picture of the two story school house at Victory which was destroyed by the tornado of June 1885. I know it was a frame structure facing the east, with a bell tower on the east or front end. I think the one story frame house which was built to replace it was erected on the same stone foundation. This would make it considerably larger than the present Victory School house, but I hesitate to guess at its exact size.

            While it had two stories, only the lower room was used for school purposes; the upper story apparently being considered the town hall. I have no recollection of ever entering the upper room while at school, but recall attending some sort of political rally there, and also a stereopticon entertainment. "

            Old Building Visible These two successive school houses were situated on the south west corner of the school yard, which was not enclosed, and which then included territory which is now occupied by the driveways along the southern and western borders of the yard. Just south of them was the fossil foundation of the original log school house. Its outline was plainly discernible as most of the lower rocks were still visible at ground level or above, and there was decided depression within its limits. I remember ( it particularly because it was a favorite location for many of the childish games we played)

            I have a much more definite and vivid recollection of its appearance after the tornado. Apparently the house was lifted bodily from the foundation , taken up into the air and turned upside down and dropped with sufficient force to pancake the entire building, leaving the ground floor on top and the roof on the ground.

            It was dropped a short distance from its original location, just south of the present school house. The school term was still uncompleted, but the storm occurred on Sunday which doubtless averted a tragedy. The contents of the building books, etc., were scattered far and wide over the countryside. As the wind was followed by a torrential downpour, everything was ruined.

            No Minimum Age Apparently there was no minimum legal age for school attendance at that time, as I know I started considerably younger than the six years now required. I do not recall exactly when I first went to school, but am sure it was not later than the spring of 1883.

            The school year then was divided into three terms—Spring, Winter and Fall. Teachers were more often hired by the term than by the year. Pupils in the one room school were classified into primary, intermediate, and advanced forms, instead of the eight grades now used. I am also some what hazy as to my school mates in the old building. If those of my own age group started as early as I did, or within a year of it, they would include Arthur Quinn, now living at Davenport, IA; and Floyd Sterling and Mabel Latshaw who were still living the last I heard of them. Among the older pupils I recall Adolph and Hulda Mueller, Russie Clark, Walter and Chester Roberts, Irene Quinn, Flora Blanchard, Bertha Griffin, John, Mary, Josie, Ella and Anna Brennan, Roscoe Coleman and Clare Latshaw.

            Early Teachers I am equally hazy about my early teachers. Lola Clark was one of the first, if not the first. Then there were C.M. Sterling, Fenton J. Brown, Mrs. Fenton J (Belle) Brown, and I seem to have a vague recollection of a Wilcox girl, although I am not sure of this. the above mentioned taught several terms or years each, not necessarily consecutively. I graduated in the school year of 1890-91. Mary Rutter was then teacher. Shortly afterwards she became Mrs. Lowe. I believe she taught three years here. She is still living in Ferryville, or vicinity.

            It has been so long since I have given the matter any thought that I have forgotten most of the old textbooks used. I know my first introduction to mathematics was from Ray's Arithmetic. We also had at that time a separate subject called Mental Arithmetic, and a special text book covering. I do not remember its author. In this as the name implies, all computations were done orally in class, without help or paper, slate or pencil. I think this subject was dropped before I left school, but I know it was of great benefit to me.

            We had Barnes' Readers, but whether these were adopted before or after the tornado I do not recall. Probably after as all school books were destroyed at that time, and it would be an appropriate time to change. My earliest Grammar was Reed and Kellogg. It was a text stressing the diagramming of sentences, and was a store house of quotations used for that purpose. I remember far more quotations from this book, than I do of its rules. I do not recall the authors of texts used for the other studies—Spelling, Civil Government ( State and National), Orthoepy, Geography, History and Physiology and Hygiene. Some of them were Barnes possibly all of them.

            Supt. Mahoney "D.O. Mahoney was the first County Superintendent of whom I have any recollection. He made a practice of visiting the school at least once a year.

            "I taught the Victory school the winter and spring of 1899-1900. Howard Miller was then County Superintendent. I recall planting three trees on Arbor Day 1900. One of these, a cedar, has withstood the vicissitudes of over fifty years of mistreatment and is still living.

            I realize this is rather a rambling and prolix memorandum, but hope it will answer your purpose,"

                                                                                    C.J. Ferguson

                                                                        Victory, Wis., April 30, 1953

            The Third Frame School In 1898 Dave Adams taught school. In 1899-1900 Clarence Ferguson taught the Winter and spring terms. He had forty-five pupils. The following now living in Victory attended the Winter Term: Elmer Miller, William Podawitz, and Mrs. Clarence Hastings. Harry Tulloch of Chicago, son of Alex Tulloch who was Victory's postmaster for 48 years, was also one of his pupils. Howard Brown, son of Fenton and Belle Brown, was another pupil. He is now Rev. Howard Brown of Potosi. Both Harry Tulloch and Howard Brown were teachers later in the Victory School.

            In this same school in 1903, Mrs. Hattie Conklin taught, having an enrollment of 61 pupils. She was also the village's Sunday school and music teacher.

            The teacher who taught for the longest period of time in Victory was Ernest Amann. He began teaching in 1907, and taught intermittently for twenty three years, until his death in 1948. All of his former pupils, their parents and friends are ready to attest that he was a gifted teacher and a man of keen intellect. His amiable disposition won him friends where ever he went. He was the teacher in attendance when the fire broke out in the spring of 1912, which destroyed the third school building. When learning of the fire which started in the attic, he calmly asked the children to pass quietly out doors, but returning with the older boys to help salvage what they could before the fire reached the main room. Desks, books, records and equipment, were saved. Mr. Amann finished the school term in the village hall.

            The Fourth School—Brick     The red brick building which now stands, was built in 1912-1913. Pupils began the 1912 term in the church, and then later moved in to the new building. From 1916 to 1934 the enrollment was so high that the services of two teachers were required. Misses Clara and Mabel Guist taught until 1936. Kenneth Kroll taught 1938-40. While he was teaching he also conducted an harmonica band plus accordion and drum, which played for various programs, and also broadcasted over WKBH. The picture of the band appeared on the music sheet of a song which Mr. Kroll had composed and published. The members of this band were Donald Wetterlin, Myron and Gaylord Stalsberg, Joyce Page, Mary Munyon, Lillian Williams, Norma Page, Melvin Johnson, Alvida Henderson, Marie Wetterlin, Ona Stallsberg, Carol Mae Dennison, Roy, Dorin and Betty Lu Torgeson, Donald DeLap, Kathleen Henderson.

            Other teachers who have taught in Victory are: Mrs. Dora Hastings, Buelah Brush, LaVerne Stoda, Gertrude Oliver, Edith Olson, Mabel Graham, and Virginia Timm. The present teacher is Richard Haiden, who has an enrollment of 21.

           

Time erased Miss Berry's log barn school

                        Decay claimed the log school

                        The tornado played havoc with the two-story school.

                        Fire ravaged the frame school

                        But---the red brick stands.

 

                                    Victory, WI      School Paper, page1

 

 

Victory, WI      School Paper, page 2

 

 

Victory, WI        School Class, 19ll

 

 

Victory, WI      1914 ­ 8^th Grade Graduation:

Back Row: Ina Pulver, Susie Stoda, Edna Paggi, Opal Pulham, Miranda Johnson, Audrey Arneson, Elva Adams.

Front Row: Bert Spaudling, Harry Woodhouse, Ernest Amann (teacher), and Lloyd Henderson.

 

 

 

Victory, WI      School class (l to r): Howard Angel, Celia Allen,

Teacher: Ernest Amann, Owen Harold, Leonard Johnson.

Date unknown; circa 1914.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Class of 1937 ­ 1938

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Victory School, 1943-1944

 

 

 

Victory, WI      8^th Grade, 1944, Graduating Class.

Teacher: Mrs. Gertrude Oliver

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      School Class 1951 and 1952

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Band, date unknown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Class Will, Class of 1944.

 

 

Victory, WI      Class Prophecy, page 1, Class of 1944?

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI   Class Prophecy, page 2, Class of 1944?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      8^th Grade, 1944, Graduating Class.

Teacher: Mrs. Gertrude Oliver

 

The Pearl Hotel

 

Below is a photo of the Pearl Hotel in about 1902. The people sitting on the porch of the hotel are (from left) hotel owner Benjamin F. Roberts, Elsie Roberts Conrad, Louisa Roberts and Elmer Conrad. The rooms were rented out to the "Dandy men" who worked on the railroad, along with people passing through town. The building is still standing although it is no longer used as a hotel. The front porch was removed years ago and a small entrance room is in its place.

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI      Pearl Hotel

 

 

Victory, WI      Scene ­ Pearl Hotel

                                    The original train tracks that ran through Victory.

Photo is taken standing down by the tracks looking towards the hills.

                                    Building on the left is the Pearl Hotel. Home on the hill with all the

steps is the Spaulding home.

The Pearl Hotel was converted into apartments and then a single family home. My Parents, Roland and Barb Fox rented the upstairs of the apartment and Clarice Spalding- Hastings rented the lower. My grandparents Roy and Hattie Fox also owned the home at one time and eventually sold it to Clarice Hastings. Clarice was in the home all through my childhood years. She died when she was 101 years old.

                                                                                                                      

Here is a photo of Clarice in her younger years and one of when she turned 100.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory Store and Post Office

 

 

William (Bill) Page was the storekeeper and postmaster in town until 1971. He rented the building from the Tulloch estate. Bill started working as clerk in the store in 1926 and was postmaster since 1940. Emma his wife helped run the store and post office (see accompanying photos). The LaCrosse Tribune interview Bill and the article was printed on Sunday February 8, 1970. It read:

              

Victory, Wis—It used to be in grandfather's time that post offices were commonly located in the general stores in the tiny hamlets and at lonely country crossroads.

It isn't so anymore, however, for it is almost impossible to find this once practical combination in our age of easy and rapid travel when country stores are vanishing establishments. Most post offices are now situated in buildings fitted solely for that purpose.

So, the old country store and post office combination at Victory is unique as it has existed since John C. Berry became first postmaster in 1854 and handed out the mail from his own store.

It was customary in those days, too, for the proprietor of the store to be also the postmaster.

So it is here where William J. (Bill) Page, 67, runs the store and is also postmaster. His wife, Emma, 66, is his partner in the store and is assistant postmaster.

Page became assistant postmaster in 1926—when he started as a clerk in the store and has served as postmaster since 1940.

The old country store and post office is still the focal point in this sleepy little river town, of perhaps 70 inhabitants, built into the steep hillside just off Highway 35 overlooking the main channel of the Mississippi River between Genoa and DeSoto.

Page will retire in a year or so and also will leave the store and says he would "like to get out and run around a bit", but he hates to get out entirely, though.

He says the Victory Post office had a rural route until about 1965, when it was discontinued, and he now rents 33 mailboxes—purchased in 1928—to patrons.

William J. (Bill) Page was born to John and Ida Page, May 8, 1902, "one mile downriver from here".           

The name Page had been derived from the original "Paggi"

Bill followed in his father's footsteps as a young fellow and worked in sawmills and in the harvest fields.

The first big step he took was to marry Emma Hass Nov. 24, 1925 in Stoddard.

Emma was born to William and Dorothy Hass Feb 8, 1903, in Bangor but moved with her family to the Town of Harmony near Genoa when she was three years old.

The second big step he took was to start clerking in the Tulloch Store at Victory in 1926.

Alex Tulloch, by the way, was a pretty big man in a small town and was the community's moving spirit around the turn of the century when he employed 30 or 40 men in his sawmill, manufacturing lumber, boom plugs, and grub pins.

Tulloch was also president of Genoa State Bank, Town of Wheatland chairman many years, Victory postmaster 47 years and longtime local merchant.

Tulloch was born in 1863 and died in 1950 and is buried in the local cemetery.

In any case, Bill Page describes Tulloch as having been a fine man and good man to work for.

Bill was also named assistant postmaster in May 1926 and combined this new duty with that of store clerk.

The store and post office were located within, the same building just up the street until it was destroyed by fire in 1928, when the business and office were moved to their present site.

Bill believes the present store and post office building is well over 100 years old, although Tulloch enlarged it.

Bill became the local postmaster in November 1940 and has held the post all 29 years since then.

Bill and Emma then purchased the store business from Tulloch in 1947.

They have one daughter, Mrs. Bernard (Joyce) DeFlorian of LaCrosse and five grandchildren.

Joyce was assistant postmaster here from 1940 to 1952 and Emma has held the position from that date.

An old friend, LeRoy (Pete) Oliver and his wife, Mabel crossed the road from their house opposite the store on a recent wintery date to visit and reminisce about the place.

Inside the dimly lit interior, with its old wooden floor and green tar-papered ceiling, are some of the original wall shelves, display counters and showcases. A battered old wooden meat block stands in one corner. An old-fashioned glass kerosene lamp stands on one shelf.

Granddad would recognize several clocks on the wall. And then, of course, there are the tarnished metal postal boxes and service window grill above the letter drop for the post office over in another corner.

They relate that the store is quite a gathering place around 4:15 p.m. when village residents wait for delivery of their newspapers.

"I think so", Page said, when asked if he will miss the place. "Suppose so…..you know, after almost 44 years.

 

 

 

[See photos on next page.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following photos are of Bill Page and the store:

 

Victory, WI      Victory Store: Bill Page handing Pete Oliver the mail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory Store ­ Alan Ballwahn

                                    Victory Store and Post Office   

                                                                                    La Crosse Tribune- date unknown

 

Victory, Wi----

                        When the residents of Victory need a gallon of milk, a few fishing lures or a quart of motor oil, they go to the post office.

                        In fact, they can get almost everything they need in the little building that is a combination grocery store, service station, gift shop and post office.

                        The official postmaster is Pauline Ballwahn, who has operated the business with her husband, Alan, since 1970. He takes care of the operation in the afternoons. He estimates the population of Victory to be about 80. "We're unincorporated, you know," he says. He has 81 post office boxes available for rent; 36 are in use.

                        Mrs. Ballwahn makes ceramic figurines, and displays and sells them in the building. But some of the space is being used by the couple's 21 years old son, Tim, who is working on his motorcycle there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                    Victory, WI      Alan in store

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Victory, WI      Victory Store

 

 

 

 

 

 

HEROINE

 

NORA SPAULDING STORY

Heroine Saved Train

October 1904

 

           

            In October 1904, Nora Spalding was wakened by a crackling sound. She thought the cow had gotten into the fodder and called for her son to go after her. He went outside and came running back in hollering for his mother that the bridge was on fire.

            The Milwaukee newspaper even wrote an article on the event. (See copy of article attached.)

            This is her story:

 

"I was living a mile down the track with my three little children. My husband was away at that time. About 2 o'clock in the morning, I was wakened by a crackling sound. I thought our cow had gotten into the fodder and I called to my oldest boy to get up and go after her. He went out in his nightgown and came running back crying,"

                        "Oh, mother, the bridge is on fire"

            "I jumped up and looked out the window and there it was, all in flames."

            "My God !" I cried. " It's time for the Limited. I was so terrified I couldn't think for a minute what to do. Then I grabbed the lantern from the wall, and lit it---my hand shook so I could hardly hold the match. I gave the lantern to my oldest boy and girl, and pushed them out the door and told them to run as fast as they could down the track and wave it all the time"                                 

"I threw a kimono on over my night dress and barefooted, my hair hanging, I ran to the stable where I had a horse I had bought a couple a weeks before out of a carload of western horses. I was brought up in Kentucky and all my life had been crazy about horses. I like to break colts. I had been breaking this bronc, but had not tried to ride him. He was lying down when I ran into the stable. Before he had time to know what I was doing, I had a bridle on him and was leading him out. I got onto his back. "

                        "He bucked and bucked, but …… started running wildly up the road. At Victory I got him reined in so I could get off his back and run to the section boss' house. I pounded on the door and yelled until he put his head out the window, then I cried:

                        "The bridge is on fire and it's time for the Limited."

                        "The Limited has gone by," he called back. "But there's a freight due from the north. He grabbed torpedoes and the two of us raced down to the tracks and set them. While we were doing it we heard the train coming."

                        "The torpedoes went off and the train was stopped. We told the engineer and fireman what had happened and then all of us went back to the bridge. The children and I helped carry water, and the men got the fire out.

                        "The engineer caught hold of me and cried, “Thank God for you. If it hadn't been for you I'd be lying dead under that locomotive now."

                        "He didn't forget. For several years after, I always knew when Engineer Snyder's train was going by. He never failed to whistle as he passed the house."

                        "The next day the superintendent came to my house to thank me, but I was off at a neighbor's digging potatoes and didn't see him. He wrote me a letter thanking me in the name of the Burlington Railroad."

                        "A couple of days after the fire I came down with a cold I caught getting so chilled that night, and was sick in bed for a month. While I was in bed, my husband, without saying a word to me, wrote the railroad company and asked for a pass to go to St. Louis. I guess he wanted to go himself. The first I knew of his letter was when the pass came."

                        "I sent it back and thanked them and told them I had not written the letter and had not asked them to reward me."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another newspaper article (date & name unknown - see attached) had this to say:

Information on Nora Spaulding-Mellem

was provided by Sis Landis and Kathleen Lampman,

great-nieces of Nora Spaulding.

 

1904 Heroism Is Repaid Now

 

                        A feature story appearing in a state daily last Tuesday brings to light the heroism of Mrs. Nora Spaulding-Mellem, Victory, who has just been rewarded for bravery 32 years ago with the receipt of a $100 check from Ralph Budd, president of the Burlington road.

                        Mrs. Mellem, relating the story, stated that she was home alone with her three small children a mile down the track from Victory when she was aroused at 2 p.m. by a crackling sound.

                        "I jumped out of bed and looked out of the window, " Mrs. Mellem said, "There was the railroad bridge in flames. "My God," I cried, "It's time for the Limited."

                        Relating how she rode a bronco for help at the section boss's house, Mrs. Mellem learned that the Limited had gone by, but that a freight was due shortly. The section boss grabbed some torpedoes, and the freight train was stopped in time.

                        When Mr. Budd, the Burlington road president, learned of the deed recently, he ordered a check be drawn in belated payment. Mrs. Mellem, who is facing blindness and want, accepted the check as a godsend.

 

Information on Nora Spaulding-Mellem

was provided by Sis Landis and Kathleen Lampman,

great-nieces of Nora Spaulding.

 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memoirs of ALEX TULLOCK by Jayne Ballwahn

 

ALEX TULLOCK

 

During my research it was noted that there wasn't a lot of information about Alex Tulloch. Alex Tulloch was the one that everyone always talked about when I was a kid. He owned a large quantity of land in Victory and on the ridge from Victory. Even to this day, his descendants still own the original Tulloch farm behind the cemetery and several acres of land on Victory ridge.

Alex Tullock owned and operated a sawmill, manufacturing lumber, boom plugs and grub pins. He had several shipments of horses brought in from out west that he hired someone to break and then he would sell them. My grandfather Roy Fox use to work for Alex breaking some of the broncs that were brought in from out west. The corrals used to house these horses were located, on what is now county highway UU going up through the main part of town. There are several mobile homes located there now.

            Tullock also owned the Victory store.

 

 

                                    Alexander Tullock

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The above Newspaper Obituary reads as follows:]

 

Alexander Tullock, 86, a resident of Victory, Wis. Died suddenly at a local hospital Wednesday evening. He was born in Hamilton, Canada, April 12, 1863. For many years Tullock owned and operated a general merchandising store at Victory.

                        He is survived by one son, Harry A. Tullock of Chicago, ILL.; two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth Laird and Miss Jessie Tullock of La Crosse; one grandchild; and two great-grandchildren.

                        Funeral services will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the south side chapel of the Sletten McKee Co. The Rev. Mark Andrews will officiate and burial will be in the Victory, Wis. Cemetery. Friends may call at the chapel Friday evening from 7 to 9.

                        Friends may call at the funeral home Friday night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The photos below show the original store and in 1912 he [Tullock] built a very large store across the street and up a ways from the old one. The upper portion of the store was used as a dance hall and meeting place.

 

[Photo not included in materials.]

 

[Substituted photo of Tullock Store ­ store is second building from left.]

 

This store burnt down in and during the reconstruction the old store was opened back up. The reconstruction was completed and in 1928, the store again burnt down. I have heard tell that cause of one of the fires was lightning. This store was never rebuilt. I guess he figured the good Lord was against him building on that site.

 

 

 

 

Alex Tulloch had one of the fanciest houses in town. His home was located a few hundred feet north of the "old store" and across the street from the "new store" that burnt. When we were children no one ever lived in the home, I hear tell it was very hard to heat. Beanie Mellem use to tell my dad that he kept warm by running back and forth between the wood stoves in the home.

            When I was younger I had an opportunity to go into the home. What a house. All the closets were cedar lined, and the attic was larger than some people’s living room. The attic even had windows.

            Outside of the home there was an area where it was like a culvert. I was told that Tulloch would use this in poor weather to get in and out of the house. It entered into the basement of the home. In the basement was a spring they used for water.

            Between the old store and Tulloch house runs an artesian (well). Many people used this throughout the years for their water supply. You can taste the iron in the water. We still use this water for our cattle and horses up on our farm on Victory Ridge.

            When I was a child the hillsides didn't have very many trees on them. For the most part they were pretty bare. But it hadn't been that long ago that people still ran cattle all over the hills which kept them clean. During deer hunting time, I use to be able to look out my bedroom window across to the hillside and see my dad, brothers, uncles and cousins in their bright orange clothing. Now the hills are covered in pines.

            When my dad was younger he use to have the milk route in town. He would pull a cart with the milk bottles and deliver to the residents of Victory. Below is a picture of him and his father Roy Fox. Up on the hill behind them is where (they) ended up living and where I grew up.

Below is a photo of him and his father on their route. [Photo not included in materials.]

 

           

PODAWITZ GENERAL STORE

 

William (Bill) Podawitz also had a hotel & store in Victory. This store is located directly across from the boat landing entrance. The hotel-store was built sometime between 1910 and 1913. The building was originally a hotel and was operated by Andy Gees. Later a grocery store was added. When Andy Gees decided to move to LaCrosse about 1917, he sold the hotel and store to William Podawitz, who operated it until he closed the store in the early sixties. In 1934 Geneva Henderson married William Podawitz. Geneva was born in 1901 to Edward and Olivia Henderson. Bill and Geneva didn't run the place as a hotel but lived in the back half and upper portion. In the front half of the building is where they ran the store. (See photo below)

 

The home is now owned by Gerald and Cheryl Torgerson. Cheryl would be Geneva Podawitz's niece. Geneva was featured in the Allamakee Journal on February 26, 1992 for celebrating her 91^st birthday. (See article below.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below is a photo of Bill and Ruby Waller (Clarice's sister), Geda Henderson and Clarice Hastings sitting on the front porch of their home (store/hotel) (photo taken Aug 1965).

Also is a current photo of the home. [Photos not included in materials.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Depot

 

                                                            THE DEPOT

 

 

 

The depot which was originally built near the saw mill (what is now known as the "boat landing in Victory" is where the original depot was located. When the double tracks went in, the depot was moved slightly further south.

 

 

               

 

 

 

 

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

           

 

 

 

 

                                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VICTORY, WISCONSIN PHOTOS

 

 

                                    Victory, WI     Photo #17, taken by Jayne Ballwahn, 2002

 

 

 

Victory, WI     Photo #12, taken by Jayne Ballwahn, 2002

 

 

Victory, WI     Photo #13, taken by Jayne Ballwahn, 2002

 

 

                                    Victory, WI     Photo #9, taken by Jayne Ballwahn, 2002

                                    Main road going through Victory, Co. Rd. UU.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI     Photo #13, taken by Jayne Ballwahn, 2002

Building with awning over front door was known as the Pearl Hotel.

 

 

 

 

                

 

                        Victory, WI Hwy. 35 coming                 Victory, WI Hwy. 35, south of Victory,    

around the corner into Victory,                 facing northbound. 1959.

facing south. 1969.

 

 

                                               

 

                                               

 

 

 

 

Jayne’s Fox-Ballwahn Memoirs

 

MEMOIRS OF JAYNE FOX-BALLWAHN

 

I was born and raised in Victory. It was the best place to live and even today the laid back feeling is still to be treasured. My parents have one of the oldest homes in Victory. They purchased the house from Elmer Miller in 1957. Jack and Rose McIntire, (Rose's maiden name was Bailey), and Myron Diedrich owned the house before them. I swear to this day the place is haunted. Nothing bad ever happened but just strange unexplainable things. When I was growing up, we were able to haunt the entire town and stop in and visit all the neighbors. George and Ruth Suiter lived below our home and I can remember George sitting out in his front yard in the lawn chair. We were up in our yard one day and my sister and I were tossing pebbles over the bank. George hollered up and said, " I bet you can't reach me". Of course my sister and I had to prove him wrong so we commenced throwing rocks at him. We kept this up until my mother found out what we were doing. Later on we manage to get the best of George, (that's what we thought anyway) when one day George was out sitting in the yard, my sister and I went down to visit with him, which we often did. George had his cane next to his chair; my sister distracted him while I took his cane. He just sat there looking at us like we were getting the best of him, darned if mom didn't catch us in the act again. That time we did get our behinds chewed out, of course George just sat there laughing. So who actually got the best of who? George Suiter passed away and my sister and I continued to visit with Ruth. She moved in to a two story big white house on the back hill next to Paggi's. We never picked on Ruth the way we did George but we always played cards or a game of marbles with her. I like to think that we helped pass the days for her. I don't remember what happened to Ruth after I got older.

Elmer and Hannah Phillips lived right next door to us. They bought the house from Fred Jacobus, who bought it from Willard Priest. Hannah was like a grandmother to us. My mom relied on her often for some of her home remedies. Pauline and Alan Ballwahn lived in the next house over; they had two boys, Randy and Tim. Their son Tim became "the boy next door" to my family, and a very close friend of my brother. They moved into town when I was about 6 years old. Doc Ender lived there before them, and the Hinderbergers also owned that same house.

            The Victory store was the "hang out" place for the old and the young. The young, who was mainly my brother Mark and his friend & neighbor, Tim Ballwahn, use to hang out in the store visiting with Pete and Gene Oliver and Beanie Mellem. I think if you asked them what there favorite memory of the store was, they would have to say the time they scared the heck out of Kathryn Paggi. My brother got a rubber bat up at the fair which hung from an elastic string, when Kathryn walked into the store, they flung the bat at her. She screamed and when they started laughing she cussed them up one side and down the other.

Halloween time in Victory was different than most towns. We always celebrated the event the night before on October 30^th. When I was little I asked my dad why this was done and he said that the tradition is, if the people didn't treat them on the 30^th they made sure they came back on the 31^st and tricked them. There aren't many children in town anymore, and this tradition has faded away. Although I do try and take my own children down there just to keep up the tradition, there are to many new people in town that don't know why this is done or look at us a little strange for being there the night before. This year will probably be our last.

I remember a time when there was an auto accident below town that took out our power. I can't remember what year it was but I was pretty young. We had no water for quite a long time at our house, but Dad went down to the artesian well down by the store (across from Olivers home) and filled up the milk cans. It's strange to think that to us that was a "big deal" but turn back the clock even 50 years or so and that was what a lot of people did. This artesian has been running for as long as I've been around.

Some of the older people that stand out in my mind when I was growing up would be Leonard Johnson, who owned the house up behind the store; Clarice Hastings who owned the house which use to be the Pearl Hotel; Geneva Podawitz; Mae White, who always seemed to be moving around. She owned the house just north across the street from Geneva Podawitz and she had it fixed up so cute, then she sold that, moved into a trailer house directly below my parents house (where Tulloch use to have his horse corrals & barns) and then she sold that and moved into what was known as "The Sugar Shack". This was originally two box cars put together with a gable roof over it. She eventually moved from there down into Illinois with her son Ronald Fox. But wherever she lived she always made it a home. " Wimpy" who was an old Indian that lived up on Tulloch's old farm behind the cemetery. I'm not sure why they called him that, but my family was always kind to him. One time he was driving his very old truck, and for some reason he had an open can of gas in the floorboards. Of course he smoked and the cigarette dropped down into the gas and what a mess. He sure looked funny without any eyebrows or hair, but other than that he wasn't hurt too bad. My very favorite person that I remember would be Kathryn Page or " Katie". She always reminded me of Calamity Jane. When you met her she left know doubt in your mind that she could definitely take care of herself. She had skin of leather and eyes of chocolate brown. She always wore these little gold post earrings. Its funny what a person remembers when they think of the past.

In August 1971 Pauline and Alan Ballwahn purchased the business of the Victory Store from William Paggi. They purchased the inventory and equipment from Bill and rented the building from the Tulloch estate, later they bought the property from the estate. William Paggi was Postmaster of Victory until Aug 1971, wherein Pauline Ballwahn became Postmaster. In January 1972 Victory post office became a subsidiary of DeSoto branch. The mail was still delivered to Victory Store and we kept our mailing address of Victory with a zip code of 54663. Pauline continued to put the mail into the boxes. Shortly after Pauline and Alan took over, they put new mailboxes in. When I was little mom would send me down to the post office to get the mail. I wasn't old enough to work the combination so Pauline would hand it to me over the counter in a plastic bag so I wouldn't loose any of it. Pauline would sometimes treat us to a bottle of pop from the Coke machine. We got to grab whatever we wanted out of the cold water. This cola machine was donated to the New Hope Methodist Church for a fundraiser. Pauline always let my sister and me bring our buckeyes down to the store to sell them for a penny each. People passing through town bought a lot of them. We were the only family in town that had a "buckeye" tree. According to dad all the others died out yeas ago from some disease. We didn't make a lot of money but we sure had fun and thought we were rich.

In 1982 Pauline and Alan Ballwahn sold the store and I married that " boy next door". Twenty years later I'm trying to back track and write down all the information I can get a hold of about my little hometown of Victory. A place where everyone knew your name and who you belonged to. A place where your neighbors are always there for you in time of need, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. A place where I'll always call home. 

There were sad times too in my little hometown. I was 5 years old when my brother got sent to Viet Nam. The only thing that I can remember was the morning he left, he came in to give my sister and me a kiss and hug good-bye and the times when he came home on leave. I didn't know what "war" meant then, but there was a sadness in my family that nothing could break. We thank God to this day that my brother was returned to us safe and sound.

I would have to say the biggest disaster of my lifetime to date (2002) would be

September 11, 2001. I was sitting at my desk working, when my father called and asked if I had seen the news report on TV. Apparently an airplane hit one of the twin towers in New York. I got up and turned the TV on and as my dad and I was sitting there talking over the phone about the terrible "accident", when my father yells, " my God there's another one, we're under attack." I wanted to go get my kids out of school and get my entire family around me. Over 3000 people were killed in the Twin Towers attack, wives lost husbands, children lost mothers and fathers, and hundreds of volunteers and fire fighters lost their lives trying to help others. For the next several hours the entire world was glued to the TV. United States declared war on terrorism. We went into battle over in Afghanistan and went searching for a terrorist name Usama Bin Laden. As of this date, March 11, 2002, we have been unsuccessful in apprehending him. The country has changed drastically since September 11, 2001. Airports shut down for several days after the attack and the security at all national buildings is extremely tight. Some days we don't know if we will wake up to another attack. It certainly gives me a greater understanding of what people went through in the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the War in Vietnam. Before September 11, I had only read about other wars, now I have first hand knowledge of the fear a person feels at a time like this. I can only sit and pray for all those in the military that are fighting at this time to keep me and my family and loved ones safe.

 

 

Introduction to Transcript

 

The following transcript was located in the Murphy Library in La Crosse, WI. This is an interview being done by one of the professors at the school in 1972. He is interviewing Mr. Charles Conrad who was originally from Victory. The interview does carry over to when he moved to LaCrosse, but I only copied the pages of when he was living in Victory.

[Materials not located. Please contact the Murphy Library at the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, WI campus for this transcript.]

Jayne Fox- Ballwahn

March 2002

 

 

MEMOIRS OF JOYCE PAGGI-DE FLORIAN

(Daughter of Bill and Emma Paggi)

 

 

I was born at the Myron Diederick home on December 25, 1930 in Victory, Wisconsin to Bill and Emma Paggi. At the time my parents were renting the home now owned by Roland and Barb Fox.

My first remembrance of Victory was when we lived in the Angel home, a hotel in earlier days, owned by Harry Angel (a railroad employee) at the time. It was later purchased by Clarice Hastings. The Podawitz store, (a hotel in the earlier years) was across the ditch, (as it was called at that time) from our home. I would be outside and watch people and call to them to see me standing on the porch. Later we moved down the street (or highway 35 then) living between the Jacobson's and Wetterlins, my parents purchased the home I remember for $600.00 in the 1930's. My dad had built a playhouse for me and the neighbors to play in. In about 1938 we had electric lights. What a treat after using the kerosene lamps. I was always reminded to turn off the lights when leaving a room. We had pull chains. I still have that habit.

I went eight years to the Victory school. My teachers: Beulah Brush, LaVerna Stoda, Kenneth Kroll, Mabel Graham, and Gertrude (Carl) Oliver. I attended one year of high school at Lansing, Iowa. The bridge collapsed on the Wisconsin side from an ice jam and we finished the year getting to school on a small excursion boat named the Donna Mae. What fun we had, playing cards, dancing and etc. When we rode the bus we were charged 10 cents a day for the toll bridge at Lansing.

I remember the day President Franklin Roosevelt passed away, we were on the boat to school and someone noticed a flag waving at the DeSoto landing to return, no school that day. I was transferred to Viroqua for the remainder of my high school years. I graduated in 1948. We were charged $16.00 every nine weeks to ride the bus to school, leaving at 6:45 a.m. and returning home at 6: 00 p.m.

My father Wm. (Bill) Paggi started working for Alex Tulloch the Postmaster and a general store owner in 1926. Mr. Tulloch retired as Postmaster in 1940 and my dad (who had been acting Postmaster) became Postmaster and retired Aug 31, 1971. He purchased the store merchandise in 1947. At that time I became involved helping at the store and was acting Postmaster until 1952 and moved to La Crosse and became married later to Bernard De Florian.

The store had almost any item needed to survive during those years. We took in eggs from farmers in exchange for groceries and whatever they wanted to purchase. There was an ice storage building at the rear of the store. In the winter months ice was cut in blocks and stored in sawdust. We used this for refrigeration for meats and dairy products, later an electric cooler was purchased. We used coal in a heater for heating the building, later an oil burner was purchased.

Around 1940-41 November 11, Armistice Day the weather turned really cold in a short period of time, with high winds and freezing temperatures. Chickens feet were frozen to the ground. A man duck hunting was drowned when his boat capsized on the Mississippi at Victory.

There was an artesian well next to the store that was used by several families for their source of water supply. The store was a place where people came to find out the news from surrounding areas. My father would call them "the loafers", they also came to pick up their mail and the daily LaCrosse Tribune.

The mail came by train #52 going southbound and train #45 going northbound. Levi Webb picked up and delivered the mail pouch to and from the post office to the depot. Later mail also was thrown from the Empire Builder, a fast traveling passenger train that never stopped. Mail was also picked off a pole with a catchers arm; a pouch was hung high on a pole.

Our sources of entertainment were fishing, rowing a boat across the Mississippi to Ferry slough with a bucket of worms for fishing, using a cane pole or a branch taken from a tree, ball playing, ice skating, sleigh riding on the back hill, listening to the radio especially The Hit Parade on Saturday evenings. Mr. Tulloch had a building across the street from his house, having wedding dances, school plays, basket socials and Christmas programs. He had built two buildings at the same location and both were destroyed by fire. Every year we had a picnic on the last day of grade school, potluck, playing games and etc. In the summer we would take the southbound train around 1:00 p.m. to DeSoto and hang out at the café and return on the northbound train around 5:00 for 10 cents. We had free movies outside in the evenings sponsored by the store, once a week.

I can remember Sherm Hastings hunted rattlesnakes. They were paid a bounty on them, and he was also a fisherman.

Clarice Hastings had a son who somehow drowned near Victory. I can remember my parents talking about it.

            Alva Wetterlin was a depot agent at Victory, later moving to La Crosse.

            Leonard Johnson was a mail carrier for the Victory rural route for several years, retiring in 1965.

During World War II, sugar and gasoline were rationed. You needed stamps to purchase these items.

            Casson Dennison was a CB & Q railroad employee. His daughter Carol lives at Waterloo WI. She married Gerald Pankow.

            Victor and Alma Jacobson had 5 sons in World War II; Alvin (died on duty), Ernest, Earl, Albert and Victor Jr.

            My dad received several envelopes from different states to stamp on Veterans Day, May 8, 1945 as the end of World War II in Europe (as a Victory). May 8, 1902 was also my father’s birth date.

            Clara and Mabel Guist (Lawton) from Viroqua were teachers at Victory I think from 1934-1935. They both taught at the same time. Beulah (Brush) Deninger 1936- 1937; LaVerna Stoda Copper from 1937 to 1938; Gertrude Oliver from 1940-44 and 1956 to 1958; Edith Cole in 1948; Richard Hoyden from 1951 to 1953; Eva (Sandvick) Spalla from 1953-1955; and LaVina (Smith) Worman interned in 1934.

            I can remember a story Bennie Henderson use to tell. He use to have land over on the islands, and he would have his cows over there and go over and milk them. One time Federal Agents hired him to take them over to the islands because they knew people were making moonshine. He kept circling the islands like he was lost, giving the moonshiners time to hide the stills.

            The following are photos that have been collected of some of the families that have lived in Victory throughout the years.

 

 

 

 

         

Victory, WI The “Fox Boys” in               Victory, WI Roy and Hattie Fox

their younger years. Roy and

Hattie Fox’s boys.

 

 

Memoirs of Mel Fox

Interviewed by Jayne Fox- Ballwahn

February 1, 2002

 

MEMOIRS OF MEL FOX

                                                            (Son of Roy and Hattie Fox)

 

I was born March 17, 1917 and we lived on the old Tulloch farm, across from the cemetery back up in the valley. From there we went out to the "Morgan place" I must have been about 3 or 4 years old and we were there for 5 years. Then we moved back to the Tulloch place and we were there for 5 years. While we lived there, guys by the names of Chris Carpenter and Clifford Silly built the new barn. Dad rented the farm, and Tulloch got half of what we made. Then in about 1929 we moved up on the Brandon farm, and dad rented that on shares too. In I think 1930 is when dad had his sale and we moved below Victory. Dad never farmed after that, he worked at Genoa Dam all the while they were building that. He was down in what they called the "hole" pouring concrete, and if they ever let go…..he was a good swimmer though. It was really hot in the "hole". But he worked there until that was completed. I went to work for Dave Joseph for two summers. He lived at the bottom of Brandon Hill. (I) farmed land in the valley and up on the hill. I made $10.00 a month and in the winter they didn't pay me nothing just my room and board. I slept upstairs. After that I went up to Fred Quizers place making $16.00 a month. I worked for him until I went to work in the sawmill in DeSoto for Jack Gillespie and George Elliot. They had a sawmill right where the Realtor’s office is now. I walked everyday to and from work.

Every Easter Mom would have to go up and pick Easter flowers on the hill. The hill used to be covered with them. They weren't lilies, and looked kind of like a tulip, but they weren't tulips. The hill was just blue with flowers.

I know where both of the Victory stores were and had been in them both. When the new store, right across (from) the Tulloch house burnt down, Tulloch built it back up and it burnt down a second time. Hard to tell what caused the fires. The lumberyard was behind the Tulloch store that burnt down near what is now Hwy. 35. Tulloch owned them both. I don't remember the jailhouse although one night Claude Griffin was going to arrest Dad and (Dad) told him "you ain't big enough to arrest me". I don't know what (the arrest was) for, but probably Dad was dancing and drinking. Dad and Sherm Hastings were two guys nobody moneyed with cause they knew they would get the shit kicked out of 'em if they did. That Sherm was a little guy but boy was he terrible. Claude Griffin was the constable. He told Dad that he'd be out to get him in the morning, and Dad thought maybe he just might be, so (Dad) told us to keep our eye out for him if he comes he'd hide out. He never did come.

Back then there was the Tulloch store and lumberyard, Podawitz store and the Pearl Hotel, but that wasn't used for a hotel then. Dad owned that at one time. Tulloch's house had a spring in the basement of it. It was quite a spring. When I grew up the house and the church were always there. Alonzo Fox had his service there in the church. He was a Seventh Day Adventist.

When I was younger, there were always two tracks going through town, but the main road, you had to go past (the) Tulloch store and then wind through town past Podawitz’s store and out onto "old Hwy. 35”. The boats also docked in Victory and picked people up. That was some of the worst rides I ever took in my life. Mother took me and Del on the boat clear to LaCrosse. We probably were in LaCrosse for 2 to 3 hours and then we went back. Slowest ride I ever had in my life. The boat had a paddle wheel in the back. The boat wasn't the JS… that went down when I was a young kid. Norm (Fox) was on the boat on the way up to LaCrosse, but they wouldn't let him come back, because he was drunk. The guy that was in the "hole" was the one that died. Dad drowned a team (of horses) just south of there, pretty close to where the JS went down. Tulloch wanted a load of hay; Dad went over somewhere in Iowa. He just took a wagon because there was no snow on the ground. Coming back across the ice, the wagon broke through and took that team down. Dad jumped and tried to pull the pin for the team and he just about went with them too. He got out of there but the team drowned. They were a pretty team; Dad thought the world of that team. Anyway they went back and raised them and took the harnesses off. I was about 2 or 3 years old at that the time.

Tulloch used to order horses from out west. He didn't go out after them, just ordered two or three (railroad) carloads. The last horse out (of the railcar) Dad was always sitting on its back, almost every time. Tulloch never done much with them; Dad broke a lot of them for him. Tulloch had a couple barns and corrals in town. Use to be where you come around that corner, that second turn into Victory (directly below Roland Fox's house now). One time I was supposed to go up to Romance to pick up a horse for Tulloch (that) he dealt for. Dad told me to watch out for that horse; he use to be in a Rodeo. You want to watch out when you first get on him; that's when (the horse) takes off. Sure enough, when I got on him away we went for a few jumps. But after that he was all right. That horse came off the boxcars from out west. But it got so he wouldn't buck enough for a Rodeo so they got rid of him. They called that horse " Old Snake". It took me seven or eight hours to go up and back from Romance.

I went to School first in Redmound because we lived on the Horner place. That was about a three-mile hike. Boy, there were times I tell you, snow…. I started in Victory maybe (in the) third grade. Erv Hammond taught all the way through my school years. I (I) went to school with Del (Fox), Lawrence Pennel, Beulah Brush, Laverna Stoda; I think there was one more but I can't remember. Seems like there were seven of us when we graduated

I married Mae (Paggi) in 1936, but we were going together in ‘35. We were just a hop, skip, and a jump from their farm. John Paggi use to have a sawmill down on the farm and then up in Genoa, New Albin and Ferryville. He had a steam engine to saw with. He was a good sawyer that boy. We use to go to Archie and Helen Sterns; they had a house about half way between us. We use to go and play cards.

We use to go out on Halloween, but there was no treating, but we sure done a lot of tricks. We tipped old Dave Pulham's toilet over … and he was in there. There was me, Del (Fox) and I imagine Del Web was one of them too.

There were a lot of snakes above the hill behind where (we all) lived. Not rattlesnakes, but big black snakes. We use to see lots of rattlesnakes on the highway especially if it was dry; they moved to the river.

Sherm Hasting use to go out and light the buoys and then Gussie did after Sherm. They didn't have to check them every day, I think it was once a week. Gussie use to work at Heilmans and get enough time in so he would be able to run them lights. Then he retired from Heilmans and he moved back to Victory.

(The year) 1965 is the biggest flood we've had. The water was over the rails on the railroad tracks.

There use to be a lot of Indian artifacts, arrowheads. Johnny (Paggi) use to find them every once in a while.

We use to play ball with a lot of the guys. We played up in the woodhouse and in the pasture. Then we played over on the Island (Black Hawk Park). Back then it wasn't a park; cattle use to run on the island then. I only missed one game; I was sick then and couldn't make it. Bill Podawitz never missed a game. He came to every one of them.

 

 

 

Ronald Fox Memoirs

 

MEMOIRS OF ROLAND FOX

(Son of Roy & Hattie Fox)

 

 

I was born on January 12^th, 1930 and I remember my Dad telling me it was 25 below the day I was born. I was the eighth son of Roy and Hattie Fox and also the youngest. I was born at the top of Victory Hill at the Lewey (Louie?, Louis?) Brannen Farm. As I grew older I always told my brothers that I was the reason Mom and Dad didn't have any more children; they took one look at me and said "that's perfection, we can't improve on that".

The roads going through town were nothing but dirt roads and sand burrs growing right out in the middle of them. There were a lot of bull snakes and blue racers; but rattlesnakes, I never seen any of them.

We moved down below Victory March 1, 1930; I was only three months old. Most of the stuff I can tell you is what I remember from my brothers telling me when I was growing up. There was only one house between ours and Victory and that was William's house; they lived up on the hill above the depot. Below our home was Tony Johnson and Paggi's (house).

I went to school in Victory in 1937. My first teacher, from 1937-38, was my cousin, Beulah Brush; I was 7 years old. She taught one year and then from ‘38-’39, LaVerna Stoda (Chet and Rhoda Stoda's daughter) taught, and then after that I had a Mrs. Gram out of LaCrosse. She taught only until that Christmas time of ’40; I don't know what her name was other than Mrs. Gram. After that I had Mrs. Oliver the rest of the years in school. She was a good teacher.

I went through 8^th grade here in Victory. In 1945 I went to Lansing for my 9^th grade. I suppose our school here paid for our expenses to Lansing. A school bus would pick us up here in Victory and take us clear to Lansing. But in the spring of 1945 the first bridge (Winisiek) you come to going over to Lansing was wipe out in high waters. The water came up really fast and the ice moving through took out the pilings. We were off school for about 3 weeks before they could get hold of a guy up by St. Paul to come down with his boat. He couldn't get down right away because the ice hadn't (gone) out of Lake Pepin. Then he came down and we had to ride that damn little boat. We could get to Lansing in about, I guess, maybe a half hour from DeSoto, but coming back it took us 2 ½ hours. The water was so high that there were times you could look down at the water and could hardly tell if you were moving. There were about 25-30 students at least on the boat. Everyone that went to high school went over to Lansing, even DeSoto only had up to grade 9. Before the bridge went out, they never allowed more than 2 buses on it at a time. Even the bigger trucks were only allowed one at a time. It was a wooden bridge; you went over it and the planks jumped up in front of you. The last day we crossed the bridge on the bus, before it was taken out, the bus driver, who was George Lintz, when we come across the bridge that day, both of the buses come up on her (there were two busses that hauled kids from over here to Lansing) George looked in his mirror and said, "He knows better than that, there's not suppose to be two of us on the bridge at one time". We got up on there and George said, " there's something wrong" but he thought maybe it was because they were both on the bridge at the same time. He stopped once he got over onto highway 35 and looked back, and we could see the bridge was being taken out then. There was 72 passengers on them two busses, and if it would have went down when we were on it, they would have lost us all.

In 1945 we moved into a house just before you get to the cemetery. My brother Lloyd owned that and was moving out west for his health. I went to school at Viroqua High school. It was the longest ride I'd ever had, must (ha)ve been about an hour and a half. I only went for eight weeks and quit. The teacher and I got into it and he accused me of throwing a pencil at a kid in the front. He blamed me, which I didn't do, and sent me to the principle office. The principle started on me and I kept telling him it wasn't me and I told him not to worry anymore about it, because I wasn't coming back.

It was my job to get a "set in the woods" stored up for the winter. I use to go out and cut the trees down, haul them up next to the house and then would use the buzz saw to cut them up. When I was 13 I worked three weeks for my brother Milt up on the Ernest Horner farm above Victory. We cut wood for about a week and a half, and I drove his team of horses and drug every stick of wood that we cut out down to the pile. People said we had 80 cords of wood. There was 200 acres on the Ernest Horner farm and he wanted to sell that to Milt for $1,600.00 but he couldn't come up with the money back then. Now that place is worth over $500,000.

When I was very young, every spring my Mom and I would have to climb up the hill to gather "Easter flowers". These weren't the same as Easter lilies and they covered a huge area of the bluff side. Back then the hillside was pretty much bare and there were very few trees. These flowers grew in really sandy soil. People use to come from all over to climb that hill and pick those flowers. You don't see them around here anymore.

When we lived below town, we use to own (land) across the road onto the islands. We had our cow down there and use to go down and milk her. When I was about 5 to 6 years old, we drilled the well; (before that) we had to carry (water) from the spring down by the river. We had a sunken barrel and that's where we'd get our water. You could see frogs, snakes and everything else in there, but we'd bail out the water and take it back up to the house. That was our drinking water and we used it for everything. But when the river got high, it would go over that spring and then we had to go clear down to Gantenbeins place and use their artesian (well). Then if the river went over that we'd go down to Tony Johnson's place and use his spring; that was a good half-mile. We raised strawberries down there on the island, along with other things, but we would get $1.00 for a 16-quart crate, and we picked them. One year my Uncle Norm planted an awful bunch of potatoes and we dug 'em all up. We had so many potatoes that we didn't know what to do with them. Then Norm went and dug a big hole and buried them, covered them all up with a big mound of dirt. Next spring we went down and dug them back up and they were just as crisp as could be.

One time, Don and Roy came down with their families and we went over on what is now Black Hawk Park, fishing. We were catching fish all day long there - bluegills, crappies, and everything else and Mother was frying them up. My Dad never fished but he was along with us. We asked him when he was going to fish and he said " yeah, I will, when you boys are done, I'll show you how to catch the fish". We wondered what he was going to do. It was getting about 5:00 (pm) and we were packing up to go home when Dad said, " Now I'll show you how to get some fish to take home." So he came out with a stick of dynamite. He tied it off with a rock, lit it and threw it in the water - boom! It went off and only one fish came up. Mother cooked the fish in a great big round griddle.

Old Tulloch always had a bunch of horses in town. He usually wintered about 18-20 head down in the corral by the barn. The barn and corral was just below our house. The year I quit school I worked on November 24 haying down on the Pennel farm, for Tulloch; he owned that farm then. It was such a beautiful fall and we were able to hay in November. On Thanksgiving Day, Levy Webb (that was Tulloch's step son), came up to me and said that the old man wants us to go down and get all the horses and equipment down off the Pennel farm. We went down and rounded up the horses on the ridge and drove them to the corral on the farm. From there they were loaded into a truck and brought to Victory. It was snowing then and snowed us in for the rest of the winter.

You bet I can remember when Elmer Page's horses got stung (by bees). I was going to Victory school then and was about 12 years old, about 1940. I can remember that well, hearing those poor horses squeal. One of them died on the spot, got stung to death, the other didn't die until that night. We could hear that horse down in the barnyard, he was stung so bad he was just squealing. Old Levy Web went in amongst them horses, all tangled up in the apple trees, and he went in and cut 'em loose. But Levy, he never got stung once, and after that Levy raised bees.

There use to be an old icehouse back behind the Victory store. I can remember putting the ice in there. We use to get it out in the eddies but after the dams went in, there wasn't enough water so we had to go to DeSoto Bay and cut ice. I never seen them loading it, but my brother Mel said they would get a rope around the ice, bring it up to the shoot and the horses would bring up 6 to 8 cakes (of ice) at a time. That was probably in 1936 because I can remember Tulloch hauling them up in that brand new 1936 Dodge truck he had. We put them in the icehouse and buried them in sawdust. The ice would keep all summer long. People would buy ice for their iceboxes.

There was one church in Victory. Tulloch give them the land. My grandfather Alonzo Fox was a Seventh Day Adventist and he use to preach up there. Later on I purchased the church but it was no longer being used for services. It was later torn down.

I had the milk route in Victory in about 1945. People use to buy from Guy McDowell, but then we started bringing milk to some of our friends we knew in town, and then they seen all the cream on the milk bottles we had, because we had Guernsey's cows, so pretty soon we had everybody buying from us; ten cents a quart and I had about forty quarts towards the end, and I had a horse and buggy I hauled with. That horse knew every house I stopped at; I never had to tell him anything; his name was Bob.

One Halloween we went down and got one of Tulloch's buckboards and we put it on top of the schoolhouse. We use the flagpole rope and drug it up there. The next morning the teacher made us take it down and told us to be real careful and we did and took it back down to Tulloch. There was me, Junior Munyon and Sander Jacobson and I think maybe Peanuts (Billy Paggi). The next morning after we took it back, somebody else took that same wagon and pushed it over the hill by the school. Just destroyed it. One other time we were going to tip Pulhams outhouse over, but the joke was on us, he had moved the outhouse over that day and we stepped right in the old hole.

What did I do for fun? Well, when I was a kid, we could hear the steamboats coming up the river. I had a big long chain on our rowboat and I'd push it clear out there, on the river, and when that steamboat went by, I'd sit out there and ride the waves. In the spring of the year, when the water was high, just after it fell, down on the islands it was nothing but mud, and me and my cousin use to go down and get clear at the top of those elm trees and we'd get them swaying and pretty soon they would start going down and we'd hang on the end of them, and take them right out by the roots. We'd thought that was a hell of a good time.

I was always busy doing something. One year there was a brush pile up in the wood and I took my sled up there and broke up the brush piles up into little branches, loaded them onto my sled and hauled them in to the wood shed for kindling for the winter. Anyway, I was hauling a load down to the shed and my sled tipped over and they all fell off. I swore about something and Uncle Norm was there and he heard me. I don't know why it cared to him, because he was a regular pirate, but boy did he give me heck because I was out there swearing. It was my job to keep the wood box full of wood.

           I got a BB gun when I was 11 years old, I can remember it so well. Uncle Norm bought it for me and it was an all nickel-plated barrel, beautiful BB gun. (The) reason I can remember it was because I guess that was the year I found out there was no Santa Claus. That Christmas Eve my Aunt Laureena (Lewey Pennels’ wife), was having a baby and she died having that baby. They took her to St. Francis but she died there. Doc Gornstein stopped and picked up Mother, they thought she was going to have it at home, because the roads were nothing but a glare of ice and they didn't know if they could make it in. The baby lived, his name was Robert, and he was adopted by Thelma and Joe Morris. Joe was Laureena's brother. That's how I remember that Christmas and getting that BB gun from Uncle Norm. I don't know what happened to that gun but I had it for years and years. I was also the hoop champion of Victory. We rolled hoops all over town.

I remember my mother telling me about an Indian by the name of Jim Brown, (who) died and was buried up in the Bad Axe somewhere. Well the Indians below DeSoto decided to go up and get him and bury him down on the reservation. So they went and dug him up and was hauling him down past here. Mother said she never smelled anything that stunk so bad in all her life as that body. When I was older I use to work with a Jim Brown on the railroad and I believe that he was a grandson to this Jim Brown who they took down through here. Young Jim Brown lived below DeSoto on the reservation. One time, I can't remember the year, but they always threw the mail off at DeSoto in a mail sack. One morning they threw it off there and it busted. They were sending a big shipment of money down to DeSoto Bank from LaCrosse and that money was blown all over, out in the river and everywhere. But this young Jim Brown that I worked with use to walk the railroad, and every morning he'd come up with a big smile, said "Well I found a $10.00 today boys, it was in the trees". But that went on for quite a while he was picking up money every day. We were working in DeSoto then.

My brother Don lived up on the farm above Victory, and he use to get snowed in for weeks at a time, but he always had a bob sled to get out with.

I can remember when the Ida Wilde steamboat went up through (the river). One time it pulled in to Victory and was going to pick everyone up. It had gambling on the boat, but anyway, there was a pretty good crowd here at Victory waiting to get on. We were suppose to board at 8:00 and all at once the damn thing back up off the shore and went on up the river. The President (steamboat) made her maiden voyage up through here; I was about 6 years old at the time. My mother and I rode it up to LaCrosse, did our shopping and rode back that night. That was a big beautiful boat. They said it was over a block long and three stories high. They say now it’s a gambling boat down in Davenport, Iowa.

My dad worked on the dams when they were being built. He was working in Lynxville where he broke his shoulder; one of the pilings broke, he was in the hospital quite a while. Then after he healed up, by that time they were working on the Genoa Dam, and he went up to Genoa until they finished that.

No, the water tower was already gone when I was born. I do remember the stockyards in Victory, but I don't remember any stock being taken in there.

There were still the (train) steam engines going up and down and the steamboats. There was a water tower in Ferryville where they filled up.

No, I don't remember the first (train) depot either, just the new one that was built below town.

I don't remember the first big store that Tulloch built; that burnt down but then later he built another one that I can remember. This was rented out and run by Harold Hinkle who set up a store in there. That burnt down after 1957 because we lived here in this house (then).

The oldest person in town when I was growing up was probably Bennie Henderson, and Tulloch was awfully old then too.

I can remember being told of the (alcohol) stills over on the islands. Lyle Crowley had a shanty with a still on the island, and then there was another one going across the dike over in Lansing; (and) his name was Ole Paulson (who) owned that one. He lived in Victory where Butch Web lives now.

Most people in town worked at the sawmills. The one in Victory was gone when I was a kid, but DeSoto had one

When the Victory store was robbed, and the safe was stolen, I was all grown up then. I can remember that real well. There's only one guy that I knew of that was strong enough to pick up that safe and carry it out of the store, but I'm not going to say who it was. They found the safe down in Battle Hollow somewhere.

Along time before I was born, my Dad was crossing the ice with his two horses. Both horses fell through the ice. My brothers told me that Dad had the longest face they ever saw when he came walking back home. He was carrying the harness, the only thing that he was able to save. The entire town took up a collection for Dad and he bought two more horses from Harry Tulloch. He (Tulloch) used to buy and sell horses. But he never got over losing those two horses; they were his favorite ones.

In the spring of 1947 we had a terrible snow and ice storm. Trees were all leafed out, and they busted right off. Tobacco beds were all planted but ours made it OK.

Barb and I got married December 18^th, 1948 and we lived in the old Pearl Hotel but my Dad owned it then. It wasn't a motel then. He sold it to Clarice Hastings later. There wasn't a bridge by the house like there is now, although the culvert was there. There was a big dip in the road that you had to cross. They put the bridge in probably in the 60's. Below us Bob and Kathleen Lampman (lived) on one side and Gladys Helke lived on the other. She was divorced and had 3 girls. Yes, we shared a bathroom all right; it was the outhouse. We didn't have any indoor plumbing or running water. We had to carry all our water from the spring.

When our oldest son was born, Danny in 1950, we moved below town in my old home place. At that time, Florence Fox lived in the Ye Old Men Hall. Her and Milt was divorced then. Flora Arneson lived in the house directly behind the old Pearl Hotel (closer to the highway). George and Blanche Podawitz lived in the house directly north of Arneson's.

Most of the houses that are here now, were here when I was a kid, with the exception of Tom & Pat Fisko's new home and they also tore the old Podawitz house down and built a new one. There use to be a boxcar located right out from where the restaurant is now, Marion Sandvick lived in it then. There was another boxcar located back from Elmer Paggi's farm and I remember Charlie and Kathryn Paggi living there. This was before they moved in to the big house on the back of the hill.

Ida Miller use to live in a doublewide boxcar which was located below our house now. My Aunt Mae White moved into it in the later years and called it the "old sugar shack". The railroad owns that property now and the boxcars are all gone. I often wonder how Ida Miller made a go of it; she had a big family and her husband died young, and she raised all those kids. To this day, I don't know what on. I remember when Danny was little, Ida was walking by and your Mom caught him hollering out something mean to her. She made him go down right then and there to apologize to her. He came back madder than a hornet, said she hadn't even heard him.

One time Danny and I were out hunting deer and we seen a bunch of cars stopped on highway 35 up about where Keith Quist lived then, just north of the town. We looked up on the hill and we could see this deer coming down off that bald hill up there and to me it looked like a jersey cow. I said to Dan, "That deer is never going to come down on to the road, he'll turn around and go right back up that draw. Lets get in and head back up on the ridge, and we'll get a shot at him as he comes back up through there". Well we got up there on the ridge and we could see somebody going out in a boat. Leon Crum shot that deer clear across the river. The deer had crossed the road and swam the river. There was a bunch of guys there and a lot of them were going to shoot at it, but they didn't have enough gun to reach him. Leon had a 270 and he dropped him right there. Paggi's took the boat and got him, but Leon got caught by the (game) warden. They took the deer from him. But it was the biggest deer I'd ever seen. Leon had a 1950 Ford and it hung off over both sides on the trunk of that car. The warden was going to take his car away and everything, but he got smart and heard about it and signed it over in his Dad’s name. He got fined for it, but the only fine he got was for shooting the deer over in Iowa, (an) out-of-state deer.

            We bought this house in 1957 from Elmer Miller. I don't know to this day why we ever bought it, because we couldn't live in it at the time. Water was running in to every room in the house. But I don't know, we came up here and liked the place and Mom she loved it. She looked out over the river and said, "We're going to buy this place". So I went over to Elmer Miller, told him I wanted to buy it, and he asked what we wanted it for, as it was ready to fall down. I told him that I was a carpenter and thought I could build it back up. I got hold of Uncle Joe White to help me and he was a real good carpenter. He helped me build the place back up; I couldn't have done it without him. We paid Elmer $400 of this place, he told me that if I really wanted it, “You can have it for $50.00 a month.” There were times when I couldn't even make that, but Elmer told me not to worry about it. I think I paid him 3% interest. On unemployment I only made $18.00 a week, that wasn't even enough to make the payments. A loaf a bread back then cost around 12-13 cents. Mom tried to bake bread one time, and the crust was so hard you could have knocked a bull down, but the inside wasn't even cooked. That was (because of) those old wood stoves you (used to) cook on. Now she make the best bread and pies of anyone I know.

            The Podawitz store was there and run by Bill Podawitz. If it wasn't for Bill in the year of 1950 we would have starved to death. I got laid off and couldn't get any work and Bill carried me (my store expenses) all winter. In the spring I went back to work for Northern Engraving in LaCrosse. That was the times that they call now "recession"; there was no work around. We lived below town in my home place then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memoirs of Bob Wetterlin

Interview by Jayne Fox- Ballwahn, 2002.

 

MEMOIRS OF BOB WETTERLIN

 

I was born in DeSoto in 1924. Mrs. Cowell, she was the midwife. My parents were Miranda (Johnson) and Alvie Wetterlin. We lived in the yellow house just below here, until I went in the service in December 3^rd 1942 to February 7, 1946. I was in the Air Force in WWII and served over in India. I was in the 1533^rd air transport command and was the clerk most of the time. I was the clerk out in California for 15 months and then over in India for 15 months loading airplanes.

            In 1947 my parents moved to La Crosse.

            I went to the Victory School in 1928 and had the teachers Ernest Amman, George Taylor, Diettrick, Clara Quist and Mable and Beulah Brush. We had to go to Chaseburg to write our test. I went to school with Lucille Dennison, Leda Williams (she lived below town), Ona Delap, Ralph Adams, Orbin Johnson, Alberta Jacobson ( I think they had a Jacobson in every grade). I graduated in 8^th grade in 1937 and went to 9^th grade in DeSoto and in 1939, 1940, and 1941 went to Lansing. I graduated May 23, 1941.

The newer Tulloch store burnt down about 1929. That store was two-story and had a dance hall upstairs. When the store burnt, he rebuilt around 1938 and Hinkel rented it out when Tulloch retired.

Tulloch was a big man; he must have been nice because he took care of Chris Carpenter, Albert Hollingstad, George Pennel, Olie Nassett, he gave them all jobs.

Chris Carpenter…..I don’t think “Carpenter” was his real name, he was a big giant, Norwegian; good carpenter, that’s why they called him “Chris Carpenter”. He lived in the harness shop, there was a room behind the shop. The harness shop was located then down by where Gloria Warmuth lives now, by the old lumberyard. There was a lumberyard next to the bank, a harness shop, and on the other end of it there was a one-room cabin where Chris Carpenter and Albert Hollingstad took turns staying.

The old jailhouse was right across from the store; then they made a cement shed out of the jail and they’d sell bags of cement out of it.

Roberts used to own what’s now called the “Horner Farm”; I don’t remember when they quarried up on Breakneck, but one of the Robert’s boys was killed on Breakneck. That’s pretty rock up there, nice shape.

I started working on the railroad on April 23, 1942. There was no depot in Victory then. The Depot in Victory went out I think in 1930 or 31. My dad worked there until they laid him off. He was a caretaker from 1931 to 1936, then he got back as a depot agent operator. The caretaker was there to meet the train. Passengers could still get on and off here in Victory, but they didn’t sell any tickets at the Victory Depot, you bought them on the train. The #45 & #52 train were the ones that went through here, they usually had 2 cars, a gas engine and then there was the mail car and baggage car and the passenger cars. The #45 & #52 were local trains that went from Minneapolis to Chicago, but they stopped at every little place along the way. The #52 would stop southbound at 1 p.m. and the #45 westbound at 5 p.m. The Victory Station use to be a “Flag Stop”, if you had a passenger you’d flag them down to stop.

Boats quit stopping in Victory when I was a kid. I didn’t go to LaCrosse; Victory was good enough for me. My world was between here (Victory), La Crosse, Viroqua and Prairie Due Chien and it didn’t bother me a bit; it’s still that way.

In 1912 my father told me that the single track went through. The main railroad track was what’s now highway 35, the road was up further and wound through the town. Same as up by the Bad Axe, where you crossed the river now was the old railroad tracks. The road up in that area went up into the valley farther, up by the church. That was a hell of a road then, used to be gumbo clay. The old Model T’s in the spring of the year always had to be pulled out.

Dad had a Model T during the Depression, sat in the garage all the time because he didn’t have the money for gas. Times were tough back then.

What did I do for fun? Well I learned to swim; I swam the river back and forth several times, use to shovel a place off in the winter to skate. We use to go sliding down by where Bill Paggi’s house was

(Up by the cemetery) there was a road there. “Wood Chuck Miller” (Richard Miller) was called that because he had a pet woodchuck. Millers use to live in two boxcars that were stuck together down by the tracks, that belonged to the railroad. Charlie Paggi’s moved into one over by Elmer Paggi’s place and then there was another boxcar down by the big cottonwood.

I remember the big barns that were just down the road from where you lived. I don’t recall when they tore them down.

Seventh Day Adventists had the church in town. Percy Sandvick offered to buy it and give it to the community and Geneva Podawitz wanted to have a Methodist church there. There weren’t enough people to go there. Your dad, Roland Fox later bought it and tore it down. My mother sang for (the funeral) when your dad’s grandfather (Alonzo Fox) died.

Leonard Johnson always had the mail route when I lived here. He use to deliver mail with one of those Irish style carts, one horse, then he used a Model A when they came out with them. He hired Archie Sterns with a team of horses to take him around one time. It was so muddy that he couldn’t get through; cars just wouldn’t go. It was a regular old sinkhole up by the cemetery. Archie had a team of greys he used with a rubber tire trailer.

Paggi’s use to live in the boxcar over behind Russel Delaps. There were some other people, I can’t remember their names, he was kind of different, he lived up in what's the Paggie house now and then there were Chet and Rhoda Stoda (who) lived there and that was in 1936, and Velva Stoda damn near died when he had scarlet fever, that year it was all over, and he had mastitis, he was sicker than a dog. He lived up there until after he was out of high school, then they moved and put a road through here.

Elmer Miller had a house by Alan Jacobson’s in Tulloch’s lawn, put it over there across from the big cottonwood and that burnt down. Chet Stoda lived there; when I came back, he was gone.

Elmer Paggi owned the farm where Esther Stokke now lives. Ernest Amman first had that house. Dad stayed with him when he came down in this country in 1918. Elmer Paggi then lived way over there where Elmer Phillips did, on the top of the hill, there was a farm beyond there where they lived when they first got married.

Ernest Amman was a bachelor, lived in that great big house by himself and then when summer came he moved to the house just below here, where your grandpa Fox lived. When Ernest Amman passed away, he left William Podawitz $35,000.00; that was a lot of money back then.

Oh, sure we had the hobo's that would come through town. Mom always fed them a sandwich. They were to be pitied.

In the 1930's Arthur Kerrigan was promoting a pavilion (dance hall) down between the two lakes to try and build up the road. He wanted the thing down there to have parties and he was going to charge people for fishing. Hell, no body had any money back then. But one time he went up to Black River Falls and brought back a whole bunch of Indians. He stopped at Mom's and asked her to feed them. Mom opened up some cans of beans and fed them bread, beans and potatoes. They went down to the pavilion to celebrate with Arthur. I remember Arthur had a great big white stud horse, and one of those card board microphones, that was in Tony's shed until it burnt down, and he use to strut around like an old bantam rooster. He was a character. I told him that he was crazy and he said " I know it, I even got a paper to show it". I guess he did get a section 8 from the military. Arthur Kerrigan killed himself in a shack along the river.

            Tony Johnson use to farm Battle Island; I used to work for him. Where all the cabins are now, that use to be a nice seven acre field, and where the concession stand is now, there used to be a nice big field there, and down below where the Corps of Engineers are, that use to be ten or 15 acres. Tony would put up hay or corn, usually corn, but it got flooded a lot.

They never loaded up any crops in the area when I was a kid but I do remember cutting a whole barge load of brush on this side of Ferry slough. I think Wayne Bailey, Del and Levy Web, and Arch Bailey and probably Marvin Petee cut brush and loaded that barge for wing dams.

There use to be, across from DeSoto Bay, (a place where) Tulloch would put up hay and then in the winter time, they'd bring it across. I’d see a big team of horses with a big load of hay come up the river.

Tulloch's original house used to be small and he kept adding on and up till he had a large two story house. I can remember when he built that room on facing the south; I think that was in the 40's. He used to have a nice big water fountain down by the steps to water the horses, up from where the artesian (well) is now.

The Yeomen Hall use to have oyster suppers in the fall and ice cream in the summer and when people got married they would have a chivary; they would get so much money to do this. Beulah Brush she married a Delinger, I think they got around $35.00. The hall also had Sunday school in there once in a while. Mrs. Conklin taught Sunday School. Clara Sutherland lived there after the Depression, Joe Longbyrd and Seacords lived there for a while.

Claude Griffin use to be the grader (road maintainer, to scrape smooth the roads, take the ruts out) in town. Your dad had a grader for a long time sitting at the end of his driveway. Anyway, Claude had a horse that kicked at him one time, and he took the horse down to Battle Island and shot him; said he wasn't having a horse that kicked.

McDowells lived above town here, they raised a bunch of foster kids. He used to have a store up by Spring Coulee before moving to Victory. He farmed when he moved here; I suppose he had to keep all those kids busy.

 

 

 

Leonard Johnson History

 

LEONARD JOHNSON HISTORY

                                                            By Melvin Johnson, 2002

 

Leonard was born in La Crosse May 18, 1896 and died July 18, 1991. He moved down from La Crosse in 1909 to a small farm south of Victory. Black Hawk Park was part of that farm. They raised tobacco on what we called the "island" just west of the railroad tracks. On a dry year the crops were great but heavy rains wiped them out a few times when the river flooded. Dad picked up Indian arrowheads after the rains on the plowed fields east of the tracks. I still have some of his collection. Times were tough in those days but they got lucky. The CB&O railroad bought right of way from Grandfather to expand to a double track. The payment from this was enough to pay off the farm. Incidentally that island property was not sold to the government when the dams went in so it stayed with the farm. My uncle Melford (Tony) Johnson sold off lots and it eventually became Black Hawk Park.

Dad was pretty young when his father died so he had to go to work at some hard jobs. His first one was with the railroad driving mules on a scraper when they double tracked. The next job with the railroad was pouring the concrete bases for the signals from Prairie Due Chien to East Winona, after that he became a Brakeman.

In October 1917 he joined the Army, had basic at Camp Grant, IL and shipped out from Camp Upton, N.Y., in a 14-ship convoy to avoid subs to Liverpool England. From there they crossed the channel to France and took a three-day trip to Southern France and the front. Fortunately the war ended on Nov 11^th before they got there.

His next job was with Alex Tulloch clerking in the Victory store for $50.00 a month. When he married he got a raise to $60.00. A Civil Service exam was given for the job of mail carrier in May 1926 and he got the job and began carrying in November 1926. He had one horse and rented one from Fred Jocobus every other day. Mail was delivered with a two wheel horse cart and a cutter in the winter. To keep warm in the winter he had a charcoal burner under a bearskin blanket and a sheep skin coat. Half way around the route he would stop at Ericksons to feed his horse and have lunch by a warm stove that he really appreciated. Graveled roads and snowplows were non-existent. The first car used was a Model T Ford, weather permitting. The succession of cars were Model A Fords, a surplus Army Jeep and the last one was a four-wheel drive Scout. When the Victory post office closed Dad transferred to the DeSoto post office and a route there. He always kept a tight schedule and people on his route said they could set their watches by him. He retired after 39 years of service.

 

 

[More photos of Victory residents:]

 

 

 

 

                                                Victory, WI Lloyd & Geneva Henderson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                Victory, WI Hattie Fox and Pearl

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI Mae (Pennel) Fox-White;

Florence (Phillips) Fox and Roy Fox.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI Ida Page and Family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI Elmer Page Family

 

 

Victory, WI Hannah Phillips &

Ida Page, July 12, 1953.

 

 

 

 

                                    Victory, WI Tony Johnson in wagon

Helen Johnson-Stearns on horse.

 

 

 

 

The Pontoon Bridge Between Marquette, Iowa

and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin opening for

Mississippi Steamer “President”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mississippi Steamer “President”

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI Front Row: Geneva Henderson,

Ray Jacobus, Oliver Josephy, Paul Arneson,

Opal Pullham, Flora Arneson, Jim Conklin,

Cara Tullock. Second Row: Miranda Johnson,

Man in Uniform, Lloyd Henderson.

 

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI Mr. & Mrs. Henry Conklin

 

 

 

 

Victory, WI The Paddle Wheels still roll over the Mississippi River,

although today they are used strictly for pleasure trips.

Steamer “Mississippi Queen”, 2002.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chief Black Hawk

 

CHIEF BLACKHAWK AND THE BLACK HAWK WAR

 

            The following pages are dedicated to the memory of Chief Black Hawk. I have put in here Chief Black Hawk's account of what happened and also that of the military's.

            On Thanksgiving Day, November 1988, 40 people gathered near Victory to remember the massacre that ended the Black Hawk War. Participants, most of them white, passed a ceremonial tobacco pipe and a braid of burning sweet grass. Tobacco represented the trees, the wind and creatures.

            May he rest in peace.

 

 

 

 

[The following is taken from http://www.riverroads.com/grr/blackhawk.html

at: http://www.riverroads.com - your online guide to the Great River Road and Mississippi River.]

 

Chief Blackhawk and the Blackhawk War

 

Black hawk, who’s full name was Black Sparrow Hawk, was born in 1767, at Saukenauk an area three to five miles north of where the Rock River in Illinois meets the Mississippi River located near present day Rock Island, Illinois. This location is near present-day Rock Island, Illinois. In his native tongue, his name was Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak. Contrary to popular belief, Black Hawk was never a chief. He was warrior and a recognized leader among the Sauk and Mesquakie (Fox) nations, but he never achieved the rank of chief. Black Hawk was married to a woman named Singing Bird. Together they had two daughters and three sons. Among Black Hawk’s descendents was legendary athlete Jim Thorpe. Thorpe was Black Hawk’s great-grandson.

In the early 1800s the Sauk and Fox Indians lived along the Mississippi River from northwestern Illinois to southwestern Wisconsin. Black Hawk fought on the side of the British in the War of 1812. He and his followers, known as the British Band, were responsible for the victories at Campbell’s Island and Credit Island. Black Hawk had done his best to force American settlers off the western frontier.

In 1830, seeking to make way for settlers moving into Illinois, the United States required the Sauk to move and accept new lands in present-day Iowa. There they struggled to prepare enough acreage for their crops. The winter of 1831-1832 was extremely difficult. In April 1832, Black Hawk led about one thousand Sauk and Fox people back to northern Illinois. Black Hawk hoped to forge a military alliance with the Winnebago and other tribes. They intended to plant corn on their ancestral farmland were they had been forcibly removed to the year before. Fearing the Sauk, Illinois settlers promptly organized a militia.

Observing the military forces organizing against him, Black Hawk reconsidered his actions and decided to surrender. Yet an undisciplined militia ignored a peace flag and attacked the Sauk. The Indian warriors promptly returned fire. The militia retreated in a panic, many forgetting their firearms. The Sauk collected the weapons and retreated northward along the Rock River into Wisconsin. The Black Hawk War had just begun. General Henry Atkinson was in charge of US Army forces, assisted by four thousand militiamen led by Henry Dodge and James Henry.

Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and Zachary Taylor all served in the war as young army officers. Traveling with small children and elderly members of the tribe, the Sauk and Fox were unable to move as rapidly as the soldiers. In an effort to distract the American, Sauk warriors raided frontier farms and villages. On July 21, 1832, soldiers led by Henry Black Hawk’s band near the Wisconsin River, outside of present-day Sauk City. Although greatly outnumbered, Sauk warriors turned the attack on American troops, allowing the Indian women and children to flee across the Wisconsin River. The next morning, the American troops discovered that the Sauk warriors had vanished, having quietly forded the river in darkness. Dodge subsequently fell back, journeying north to Fort Winnebago (near present-day Portage) to obtain supplies. At Fort Winnebago, Dodge joined forces with Atkinson and set out in pursuit of the Sauk and Fox. Most members of the starving band had fled west, hoping to find sanctuary among tribes beyond the Mississippi River.

On August 2, US soldiers attacked the Sauk and Fox as they attempted to ford the Mississippi River, near what is now Victory in Vernon County. Ignoring a truce flag, the troops aboard a river steamboat fired cannons and rifles, killing hundreds, including many children. For the next eight hours the volunteer militias used axes, guns, cannon, and clubs to cut down the Indian warriors while women and children who succeeded in swimming the river were slaughtered on the other side. Around 90% of Black Hawk’s people were slaughtered and the Mississippi ran red with their blood. Many of those who made it across the river were slain by the Eastern Sioux, allies of the Americans in 1832. Only 150 of the one thousand members of Black Hawk’s band survived the events of the summer of 1832. Survivors rejoined the Sauk and Fox who had remained in Iowa.

The war lasted just 15 weeks, ending on August 1, 1832, at the Battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin. Black Hawk surrendered to officials at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien. The defeated warrior was imprisoned and sent east to meet with President Andrew Jackson and other government officials. Eventually the US government sent him t live with surviving members of the Sauk and Fox nation.

 

Black Hawk himself, captured and imprisoned, was paraded around the US in chain; after he died his skeleton was displayed in the governor’s mansion in Iowa, like a trophy. Black Hawk died on October 3, 1838, of a respiratory illness. He was buried sitting up inside a small mausoleum of logs but his grave was robbed soon afterward. His remains were later deposited in a museum in Burlington, Iowa. The museum and its contents were destroyed by fire in 1855.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following is taken from: The Wisconsin Historical Society, http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/

on their School Services page: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/oss/lessons/secondary/bh%5Fbadaxe.htm

 

The Massacre at Bad Axe: Black Hawk’s Account

 

We had been [at the Mississippi] but a little while, before we saw a steam boat (the “Warrior,”) coming. I told my braves not to shoot, as I intended going on board, so that we might save our women and children. I know the caption, [Throckmorton,] and was determined to give myself up to him. I then sent for my white flag. While the messenger was gone, I took a small piece of white cotton, and put it on a pole, and called to the captain of the boat, and told him to send his little canoe ashore, and let me come on board. The people on the boat asked whether we were Sacs or Winnebagoes. I told a Winnebago to tell them that we were Sacs, and wanted to give ourselves up! A Winnebago on the boat called to us “to run and hide, that the whites were going to shoot!” About this time one of my braves had jumped into the river, bearing a white flag to the boat ­ when another sprang in after him and brought him to shore. The firing then commenced from the boat, which was returned by my braves, and continued for some time. Very few of my people were hurt after the first fire, having succeeded in getting behind old logs and trees, which shielded them from the enemy’s fire.

The Winnebago, on the steam boat, must have either misunderstood what was told, or did not tell it to the captain correctly; because I am confident that he would not have fired upon us, if he had known my wishes. I have always considered him a good man, and too great a brave to fire upon an enemy when sueing for quarters.

After the boat left us, I told my people to cross, if they could, and wished: that I intended going into the Chippewa country. Some commenced crossing, and such as had determined to follow them, remained--only three lodges going with me. Next morning, at daybreak, a young man overtook me, and said that all my party had determined to cross the Mississippi--that a number had already got over safe, and that he had heard the white army last night within a few miles of them. I now began to fear that the whites would come up with my people, and kill them, before they could get across. I had determined to go and join the Chippewas; but reflecting that by this I could only save myself, I concluded to return, and die with my people, if the Great Spirit would not give us another victory! During our stay in the thicket, a party of whites came close by us, but passed on without discovering us! 

Early in the morning a party of whites, being in advance of the army, came upon our people, who were attempting to cross the Mississippi. They tried to give themselves up--the whites paid no attention to their entreaties--but commenced slaughtering them! In a little while the whole army arrived. Our braves, but few in number, finding that the enemy paid no regard to age or sex, and seeing that they were murdering helpless women and little children, determined to fight until they were killed! As many women as could, commenced swimming the Mississippi, with their children on their backs. A number of them were drowned, and some shot, before they could reach the opposite shore. 

One of my braves, who gave me this information, piled up some saddles before him, (when the fight commenced,) to shield himself from the enemy's fire, and killed three white men! But seeing that the whites were coming too close to him, he crawled to the bank of the river, without being perceived, and hid himself under it, until the enemy retired. He then came to me and told me what had been done. After hearing this sorrowful news, I started, with my little party, to the Winnebago village at Prairie La Cross. On my arrival there, I entered the lodge of one of the chiefs, and told him that I wished him to go with me to his father--that I intended to give myself up to the American war chief, and die, if the Great Spirit saw proper! He said he would go with me. I them took my medicine bag, and addressed the chief. I told him that it was "the soul of the Sac nation - that it never had been dishonored in any battle--take it, it is my life--dearer than life--and give it to the American chief!" He said he would keep it, and take care of it, and if I was suffered to live, he would send it to me. 

During my stay at the village, the squaws made me a white dress of deerskin. I then started, with several Winnebagoes, and went to their agent, at Prairie du Chien, and gave myself up. 

On my arrival there, I found to my sorrow, that a large body of Sioux had pursued, and killed, a number of our women and children, who had got safely across the Mississippi. The whites ought not to have permitted such conduct--and none but cowards would ever have been guilty of such cruelty--which has always been practiced on our nation by the Sioux. 

The massacre, which terminated the war, lasted about two hours. Our loss in killed, was about sixty, besides a number that were drowned. The loss of the enemy could not be ascertained by my braves, exactly; but they think that they killed about sixteen, during the action.

 

[Additional Memoirs]

 

Helen Johnson Stearns Memoirs

Page 148 - Vernon County Heritage Book

Submitted by Helen Johnson Stearns

 

RIDING THE EXCURSION BOATS

 

            My first experience with excursion boats was a disappointment because we never made it to our destination. Even though I was very young, my older brother and sisters agreed to take me along. We boarded at Victory and were on our way to La Crosse when the boat got stuck on a sad bar at Brownsville, Minnesota. A towboat came and took us back to Victory. We were pretty hungry when we got home. (We hadn't eaten on board the boat because the food was too expensive.)

            There were three different boats that came north, but the only name I remember is the Capitol. It was a beautiful boat. When I was older, I would go with my mother and sisters. We got on the boat about 9:00 a.m. at Victory. Sometimes my girlfriend Eldorado Beffa went along. The two of us had no problem getting dancing partners. There were plenty of boys from Lansing, Iowa on the boat. They were real good dancers. A dance hall took up the second deck. There was a big orchestra that played all day.

            At night, my girlfriend and I would go back on the boat for the moonlight excursion. What a thrill it was to hear the calliope playing as the boat came around the bend. Once we saw a couple dancing to the music on the riverbank near Genoa.

            Several of our friends from Victory would be on the boat. Our mothers would have a basket of food along and we would eat together. The dining area was on the lower deck.

            I remember a boat called the Cataugua docked at DeSoto, Wisconsin, bringing a vaudeville show with it. The performers sure did put on a good show.

            The round trip from Victory to La Crosse cost only fifty cents. They would let us off in La Crosse for about two hours. We would all rush up to Doerflingers to shop. When we heard the whistle blow, we knew it was time to go back.

J.S. Steamer

 

THE J.S. STEAMER

 

 

            John Storeckfus ( J.S. Steamer). Local residents claim that the J.S. was one of the finest boats to paddle the Mississippi River.

            The summer of 1910 in June, the excursion trip was returning to Lansing, Iowa after spending the day going to LaCrosse, WI. Tragedy struck near Victory, WI. When the steamer caught fire and burned. Only two people perished of the 1,500 passengers on board.

 

 

[Additional Historical Information]

 

The following is from the Vernon County Broadcaster- date unknown:

 

            ".… of a gust from the northeast, the fire shot upward over the whole massive frame as if illuminated by the touch of an electric button, and wreathed in one immense sheet of flame she stood out against the blackness of a background of hills, a pyrotechnic pyramid in whose glory was outlined five immense American flags that streamed shimmering in the breeze from the tops of as many gilded flagstaffs.

            The wind swept the burning craft back to Bad Axe Island. She struck stern first at a point about a hundred yards below her former landing place. At this time the fight to save her had consumed three quarters of an hour, but the end was at hand. No more could be done and within a few moments the big ship had burned to the water line and went down in about twenty feet of water.

            The one known victim of the wreck, Mrs. Emma Randall of New Albin, Iowa, sacrificed her life in a frenzy of fear. When the alarm was given she attempted to plunge over the railing of the upper deck. Her husband attempted to quiet her fears, and thought he had succeeded in doing so. A moment after he had released her she had gone to her death. With a wild cry she sprang over the boat's side, in her hand a heavily laden handbag which no doubt was the handicap that made futile the attempt of her young husband to save her. Both were young people, having been married last winter. Randall says that in leaping after his wife he was handicapped by a satchel which in his excitement he had neglected to drop until he had struck the waters. No sign of her was visible"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John L. Johnson

Submitted by Helen Johnson Stearns;

Vernon County Heritage Book, 1994

Page 402

 

John L. Johnson

 

            My father, John L. Johnson, was born in Nordfjord Eidet Norway in 1873, He was the youngest of seven sons. In 1875, his parents, John Benson Hjelle and Lucretia Ellingsd Hjelle, brought the family to American and settled in Purdy in Vernon County.

            My mother, Antonette Nelson Johnson, was born in La Crosse, WI, in 1875. Her parents came from Norway, but were married in La Crosse.

            While living in La Crosse, my parents had four children: Leonard, Miranda, Melford " Tony" and Jennie. They moved to Victory in 1909. The money that my parents received for selling land to the railroad almost paid for the farm.

            The rest of the children in the family were born in Vernon County. Muriel was born in 1908 and died in 1910; I was born in 1911; and Irene was born and died in 1914.

            My father also died in 1914, of painter's consumption (known today as tuberculosis). I wasn't quite four years old then, so I have few memories of him. But I know my mother was very sad from losing her husband and two of her daughters in such a short time.

            My brother Leonard had to go to war in 1917, leaving Tony with the farm work. My mother, my sisters, and I would help him with the corn and hay. The husking of corn was all done by hand.

            Leonard, Miranda, Tony, and Jennie went to school in Victory. They could only talk Norwegian, but they learned English fast. When I was five, the Battle Hollow School was built, so I went there. Mae Paggi and I would play in a big sawdust pile behind her father's sawmill and slide almost to the highway.

            The little island across from Blackhawk Park was called Stearne's Island after my husband's grandparents because they lived there at the time.

            The gypsies used to come through in their covered wagons. They would stop and beg for food from our parents. When the trains stopped, the hobos would come and ask for food; my mother always obliged.

            When the J.S. excursion boat picked up people at Victory, my husband's grandmother, Belle (Whitney) Hayden got on with her mother, Just a few miles north of Victory, the boat caught fire and burned, but everyone got off safely.

            After that, the beautiful Capitol stopped in Victory about three times a year and took us to La Crosse and back for fifty cents.

            In 1930, I married Archie Stearns. In our early years, we lived near Victory.

            I am the last surviving sibling in my family. Miranda (married name Wetterlin) died in 1964, Tony died in 1984, Leonard died in 1991, and Jennie (married name Johnson) died in 1992.

           

 

 

 

 

Vernon County Heritage Book 1994

Page 403

Submitted by: Marilyn R. Johnson

[Note: Marilyn Johnson's grandfather

was Helen Johnson Stearns' brother.]

           

My grandfather, Leonard Elmer Johnson was born May 18, 1896, in La Crosse, WI. He was the eldest of seven children born to John and Antonette Johnson.

            John, a painter and wallpaper hanger, worked at one time with his brother Bernt. Describing his father, Leonard said, " He was a kind of daredevil". Apparently not afraid of heights, John painted church steeples and other tall buildings.

            In 1909, the family moved to a small farm below Victory. John's mother, Lucretia Hjelle, lived upstairs. Leonard remembered the stockings, mittens and clothes that she would make for them. "She had a spinning wheel, and I would help her roll up the yarn."

            According to Leonard, his mother was a "wonderful cook." He said, "She could make a good meal out of anything." Butter, cottage cheese, buttermilk, and traditional Norwegian foods were some of her specialties.

            As a boy, Leonard milked cows, delivered milt to customers, cleaned out the barn, and hauled to manure away as part of his daily chores. But he and his brother "Tony" also had fun playing out doors. "We had a swing on a big tree up o the hillside. We'd swing 50 feet above the ground and perform tricks."

            Leonard and Tony swam, built tree houses, and hiked. "I didn't wear shoes much until I was 17 or 18 yeas old. I'd go barefoot all summer."

            Leonard played the fiddle, drums, and bones. He said, "I always liked to play with the drums, and even when I was a kid. I'd march around playing on a tin can.” As an adult, he became a drummer in the Bad Axe Ramblers Orchestra. The group played at local dances and weddings for many years.

            Leonard's father died of "painter's consumption" in 1914 at the age of 41. Three years later, Leonard joined the U.S. Army and served until 1919, when World War I ended.

            Among the jobs he held were: working at a saw mill, laying rock on the river wing dams near Genoa, tending spud on the dredge Vesuvius, making cement foundations for the railroad signals, and clerking at Tulloch Store.

            Leonard married Gertrude " Gertie" Jacobus in 1922. Their two children, Norma Louise and Melvin Leonard, were born in Victory. When asked in later years what was the best decision he had ever made, he replied, "getting married."

            In 1926, Leonard started carrying mail on a rural route by horse and carriage. Leonard had a reputation for delivering mail on time. People along the route claimed they could set their watches by him. He retired in 1965

            Up until a few years before his death, he kept a diary to record the many happenings in his family, his life, and Victory.

                       

 

 

Newspaper Article

Vernon County Censor

January 29, 1902

 

            Thomas Waters died January 15, at Victory, after a long illness of consumption.

 

 

Newspaper Article - Date and paper unknown

 

            Ira Stevens died at his home in Victory on June first at the age of 81 years. He came to Prairie Due Chien in 1814. He married Eliza, daughter of Moses Decker, the first settler of Viroqua, who with three children survive. Victory was first known as "Steven's landing" named after Ira, its first white settler, who made the original entry of 54 acres on which Victory is located. The patent to his land bears the signature of President Zachary Taylor

 

 

 

Victory Cemetery

 

Victory Cemetery

 

            "We, the undersigned, do herby certify that on the 12^th day of June, 1939, at the Victory Cemetery in the Town of Wheatland, Vernon County, Wisconsin, Roy Fox, David Pulham, Lloyd Henderson, Arch Bailey, Darrell Stoda, Charles Inman, Fred Hinderberger, Lena Sutherland, Dora Hastings, Geeva Podowitz and other residing in said county, met to form a cemetery association, for the purpose of securing and holding [land] to be exclusively used for a cemetery, pursuant to Chapter 157 of the Wisconsin Statues.

            Whereupon, by the vote of the majority of said person, they, the undersigned Lena Sutherland was duly elected chairman, and Dora Hastings, Secretary of said meeting, and the above named persons did then and there determine that the said association shall be called the Victory Cemetery Association, that the annual meeting of said association shall be held on the first Monday of May each year, that the number of trustees to manage the affairs of the same shall be seven, and the above named persons did then and there elect Darrell Stoda, Roy Fox, Charles Inman, Lloyd Henderson, Arch Bailey, David Pulham and Fred Hinderberger, as such trustees, and the said trustees were classified by the undersigned in to three classes, by law, as follows: said Darrell Stoda, Roy Fox and Charles Inman to hold office of such trustees for one year, Lloyd Henderson and Arch Bailey for two years, and David Pulham and Fred Hinderberger for three years.

            Witness our hand this 19^th day of June, 1939, signed Lena Sutherland Chairman with Dora Hastings, Secretary."

 

 

 

 

            As of January 1, 2002 the following people are on the Victory Cemetery Association.

President: Harry Fox                Secretary: Carol Swancutt

Treasurer: Ona Wetterlin         Trustee: John Paggi & Ramona Spears

People who are buried or have plots in the Victory Cemetery or have lots there are:

 

Dick and Vesta Brush

Bonnie and Patricia Roloff                                Boardman, Charles and Laurie

Armoto, James, Iva M. and Nicholas                 Wetterlin, Infant

Used - unmarked grave                                                Sterns, Infant of Archie and Helen

Shisler, Sylvia and John                                               Johnson, Infant of Muriel

Used - unmarked grave                                                Grave

Long, Hazel; Denzil: Phyllis and Cletus             Nordstrom, Sharon

Oliver, Roy; Arden and Ronald                         Erma Brush

Gilbertson, Beula and Arnie                             Billy ---1926

Norstrum, Beulah and baby                              Fox, Norman; Verlan: Lottie: Jennie: Alonzo

Delap Nathan, Berlie, Russell and Lizzie                      White, Joseph and Mary

Sandvick, Percy and Hope and baby Maynard Fox, Roy and Thelma

McDonald                                                         Fox, Laverna

Sandvick, Marion and Corrine                           Fox, Roy and Hattie

Steele, Joan                                                    Nordstrom, Oscor and Gerald

Cooper, Loren and Charles                              Henderson, Edyth: Winnifred: and Charles

Bates, William; Kathryn and Annetta                Mossholder, Dan

Grave                                                               Eber, Randal ??

Grave                                                               Collins, Grace: Richard; and Bill

Stoda, Rhoda and Chester                              Tulloch, Clara: Alex and Harry

Williams, Earl, James: Susan; Ralph                 Arneson, Ole and Paul

Used - unmarked grave                                                Sill, Francis and Julius

Stoda, Dareld and Helen                                  Hinderbergers, Andrew: John: Minnie: and Fred

Stoda, Baby and Bonnie Jean                         Brown, Fentor and Belle

Stoda, Lila and George                                                Wakefield, Harriet and C.A.

Patridge, Matilda and Charles                          Paggi, Charles and Kathryn

Alfonsil, Eva Marie: Mildred: Walter:

Ruth Marxin, grandaughter- Sutherland

Paggi, Evert                                                     Walle, Listin

Used- unmarked grave                                     Swancutt, Brusel and Carol

Bailey, Wayne, Violet & infant                          Henderson, Infant

Strong, Elbert and Myrle                                               Henderson, Manmie and Fred

Rose, Victor and Ruth                                      Besitha ????????

Munyon, Howard and Rose                              Deininger, Infant

Brush, Bert and Blanche                                  Deninger, Vivian

Johnson, Annabelle Hastings-                          Paggi, Denise

Bailey, Ed and Nancy                                       Huston, Richard

Jacobus, Elizabeth and Archie                         Bailey, Archie and Addie

Bailey, Wanda                                                  Bailey, Marvin and Ruby

Bailey, Chuck and Nancy                                 Lawson, Opal and Ken

Pulham, Cora                                                   Pulham, David

Unmarked grave 40'                                         Stevens, Adeliza and Isaac

Unmarked grave 56'                                         Baby

Unmarked grave 12'                                         Lampman, K

Unmarked grave 36'                                         Stearns, Gyril

Bond, William: wife M. and son Frank               Pulham, Dora: Frank and Leonard

Unmarked grave 12'                                         Pennel, Infant

Henderson, Geda: Lloyd: Olive:

Edward & Infant                                          Prather, Samuel

Spears & Pulham, William: Mary:

Nellie: Massie Wm George                           Hartley, Richard: Mary & James

Spalding, Walter                                               Mellem, Nora

Unmarked grave 35'                                         Cory, Polly

Norris, Stilvas Baby                                          Davis, B.L. (Buck)

Jaynes, Emma and Casper                              Roberts, Nellie: Lotus and Glenn

Taylor, Clarence                                               Banen, Bessie

Roberts, Lovina: Benjamin and Henry              Henderson, Jacob: Sarah and Infant

Chambers, Stephan                                         Hollenger, V.R.

Morrison, Loretta                                              Miller, William, R.J.: Ida: Francis and Infant

Mueller, Infant                                                  Used- markers broken

Hodge, W.A.                                                    Blanchard, Andy and Emery

Stoda, Fredrick

 

 

 

For some unknown reason the original records on the cemetery were destroyed, it is unlikely the "unmarked graves" will ever be known.

 

 

 

 

Wisconsin

WISCONSIN

 

 

            The derivation of the word is uncertain. Polish settlers have claimed the honor as partly theirs, since a certain Tadeucz Wiscont was an influential and prominent man in the southern part of the state.

            The name was first given to the river by the Indians. Father Marquette, the first white man to travel it in 1673 wrote the name as Meskousing, meaning "red stone" which was characteristic of the banks of the river. Father Hennepin in 1683 called it Misconsin with an initial "M" instead of "W" and claimed it meant "strong current" or “wild rushing channel.” Early French maps spelled it Oui-scon-sin to convey phonetically the Indian pronunciation. The work has had other spellings and is also claimed to mean " holes in the bank of a stream in which birds nest", "muscrat lodge", and "a good place to live". The territory took the name of the river, and when the state was formed in 1848 the legislature adopted the name with its present spelling. Most accounts say the word came form the Chippewa Indians as Wees-kon-san meaning “gathering of the waters”. Judge James Duane Doty claimed it was Winnebago work meaning "river of the flowering banks", Wis-koos-er-ah.