105 Years Ago – November 1, 1919

Harry Spaulding has been here this week assisting getting the bowling alleys in the theatre building installed.

A meeting has been called for Monday evening to organize a post of the American Legion.

95 Years Ago – October 31, 1929

Contractor Ed. Acker has a crew of men busy erecting a 17x27 foot addition to the Dr. A.L. LeGault residence, recently purchased from J.C. Andrews. Several rooms in the residence will also be remodeled.

Chas. Schmocher has purchased two corner lots from Otto Wagner and plans are now being drawn for a new oil station which will be erected on the ground across from Cleveland Sturgeon’s place. The building will be 16x16 feet with a covered driveway.

Miss Freda Mortenson, representing the state industrial commission was in Owen Monday and Tuesday checking up in observance of the child labor law.

85 Years Ago – November 2, 1939

The annual open house for pranksters known as Halloween when the youth of today gets chummy with the witches and goblins was nothing more than a good time for the funsters of this city. The greatest damage done was undoubtedly caused by the nighthawk that thought the rest of the early retirers of the community should still be up and around with him and set off the fire siren by ringing the alarm at the fire station. The siren shrieked up to a high pitch where it remained for a period of several minutes before Chief of Police Henry Reigel could shut it off.

Fire which broke out at a large switch control at about 6:15 p.m. Wednesday evening caused a temporary shutdown and lay-off of the night crew at the box factory Wednesday night.

75 Years Ago – November 3, 1949

W.K. Doonan and Myron Fritsch will head the sale of 1949 Christmas Seals in Owen and Withee respectively.

65 Years Ago – October 29, 1959

The Public Service Commission has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, November 24, to consider the application of the Wisconsin Central Railroad and the Railway Express Agency, Inc. to withdraw their agency service to Withee. In their application they note that the agencies have a serviceable station at Owen, less than two miles away.

55 Years Ago – October 30, 1969

A young Clark County boy apparently hanged himself accidentally while playing in the hayloft at his farm home Saturday afternoon. The body of Duran Barts, nine-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Barts, rural Curtiss, was found in the barn about 3:30 p.m. by his father and a neighbor.

45 Years Ago – October 31, 1979

The original Owen Fire bell has been placed on a brick and cement monument in front of the present O-W Fire Hall on County X. The original fire bell is as old as the city itself, and used to be in the old fire hall and jail which once stood on the Mid-States Equipment parking lot on Fifth Street. Later the fire bell was removed to the water tower, and was just removed when the tower was relocated to the hill in the First Ward.

Houdini’s world famous water torture chamber trick has never been performed by someone as young as 17 years of age—at least as far as the records show. However, this fact may have been changed on Thursday night, October 18, 1979, when 17-year-old Kurt Pawlak, son of the late William Pawlak of Thorp and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Al Prock of Owen, successfully performed the water torture trick before a large audience at his magic show presented at Memorial High School in Eau Claire.

35 Years Ago – November 2, 1989

The Withee Lions have been busy, helping to make life a little less stressful for others. The Withee Lions, along with several A.A.L. members, worked several evenings to install a heating system, scrape paint and repaint the Withee gymnasium. The project has been completed and the gym is now ready for use by various groups.

25 Years Ago – November 3, 1999

Thanks to the generosity of many people who donated funds in the name of faithful library patron John Whittemore, who passed away earlier this year, the Withee Library has been able to buy a listening center, with the capacity of allowing up to six people to listen to the same story as the same time through headphones, and still keep the library quiet.

15 Years Ago – November 4, 2009

An Owen young lady, Mindy Wagner, completed her 2nd Ironman competition in Madison on Sunday, September 13. Mindy was one of the 2,176 triathletes that finished the Ironman. Wagner’s time was 14 hours, 35 minutes. Seventeen hours is allowed for the Ironman.