NEWSLETTER: OCTOBER 2004
New Exhibit to Feature Recent Museum Acquisitions:
Michelle Benson has prepared a new exhibit for the Entrance Room of Pickard House featuring recent additions to our collection. Of particular interest is a large collection of Reichmuth family memorabilia including several items used in Carl “Tubby” Reichmuth’s “confectionary” restaurant (started by his father and located on the east side of Ripon’s Square from 1865 to 1944). In the parlor a mannequin is clothed in a suit owned by long-time Society member Margaret nee Wilk Senn (b. 1904 d. 2003). A photograph with the mannequin shows Mrs. Senn wearing the suit while sitting with her husband, Dr. Christian Senn in the 1940s.
Annual Meeting Scheduled for November.
The Annual Meeting for the Society will be held at Pickard House on Thursday evening, November 17th, 2004. As in past years, the meeting will be preceded by a potluck dinner starting at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will start after the potluck, but not before 6:45. The program will feature reminiscences about the history of our Society by Frank Farvour, George Miller, and Mary Brandt.
October Meeting to Focus on the American Presidency
With national elections being held at the beginning of November, your Society is presenting an extremely timely program in October on “The Culture of American Presidential Elections.” The speaker will be Dr. Barbara McGowan from Ripon College. Dr. McGowan specializes in American history with particular interests in the history of American film, the family, and the political history of the 20th Century. In regard to the latter, she has become recognized as an authority on the Presidency. The meeting will take place at Pickard House at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday October 28th
Please note that this meeting will be held on the fourth Thursday in the month rather than on the third as is traditional.
Christmas Open House Scheduled for December 4th
The Society’s Annual Christmas Open House will be held at Pickard House, 508 Watson St., Saturday afternoon, December 4th, between 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. in conjunction with Ripon’s celebration of Dickens of a Christmas. The decorations in the House will be based on the all-family theme of “The Night Before Christmas” with an emphasis on children. Michelle Benson, who joined the Society recently, will prepare a Christmas exhibit using her collection of Christmas decorations. Of special interest will be her Christmas Village. The Archives will feature stories of past family Christmases in Ripon.There will also be music and refreshments. We hope that this will be an event which will attract your entire family.
Society Library Being Catalogued
At long last we are organizing and cataloguing our library collections. They are not large, being made up, for the most part, of gifts to the Society over a period of 100 years. But they provide useful background information for our archives and also make very interesting reading.
The work of organization and cataloguing is being done, largely, by two of our members who also happen to be professional librarians: Charlotte Burr and Diane Christianson. Charlotte, with help from archivists George Miller and Nedra Martz, is in charge of the organization; Diane is putting it all into a computer. It will not be done in a hurry but it will be done—finally. When it is completed researchers can easily access our holdings by topic, author, or title.
Some of the strengths of our collections are in reference materials, genealogy, directories and telephone books, historic preservation, state, county, and regional histories, 19th and early 20th century books on etiquette, child training, how-to-do-it, children’s literature and school books. We will not be operating a lending library because many of the books are quite rare, but we will make our collections available for use in the society’s reading room (which doubles as our meeting room).
Museum News Items:
Member Roberta Comfort is helping the Society sort and repack for easier use its collection of antique Christmas tree ornaments. Many are different from today’s ornaments and are used each year on the Christmas tree at our December Open House.
Member Joyce Schenke has reset the Pickard House Museum dining room table with part of a recent gift from Ripon College. The setting includes four different collector’s teacups with saucers and matching dinner plates from Germany; four matching crystal stemmed sherbet dishes; and four matching goblets. The gift is particularly welcome as it adds to the variety of appropriate table settings we can display.
The College received these items from Vergene Graham (b. 1945-d. June 2004) of Aurora, Colorado. Although she did not live in Ripon as an adult, her parents were Ripon natives. She was the only child of Eugene and Verna Graham who went to high school in Ripon and attended Ripon College from which Eugene graduated in 1927. Verna Graham was the daughter of Alfred Zick of Ripon. Vergene, who never married, kept strong ties to her father’s college throughout her life. Some of the Grahams are buried in Ripon’s Hillside Cemetery.
Endowment Fund Campaign Nearing Its Goal
Your Society’s year long fundraising campaign to increase our endowment will come to an end in December. So far, over $70,000 has been contributed to the campaign. In addition, this year marked a significant improvement in the investment performance of our endowment portfolio so that we will end this year in far better financial health than we enjoyed a year ago. Nevertheless, we have not yet reached our goal and appeal to members who have not yet made their contributions to do so as soon as possible. Contributions should be mailed to, Treasurer, Ripon Historical Society, P. O. Box 274, Ripon, WI 54971.
Officers Nominated for 2005
The following four people have been nominated to serve as the officers of the Society for 2005:
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President |
Bill Woolley |
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Vice President |
Todd Berens |
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Secretary |
Shirley Williams |
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Treasurer |
Harry Heileman |
The election will be held at our Annual Meeting at Pickard House on Thursday, November 17th, 2004.
Current officers:
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RIPON HISTORICAL SOCIETY |
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President |
Bill Woolley |
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Vice President |
Todd Berens |
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Secretary |
Nedra Martz |
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Treasurer |
Harry Heileman |
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Newsletter Editor |
Shirley Williams |
New Members
The following people have joined our society since publication of our last newsletter:
Jane Frederick
Phyllis A. Kielisch
Norman and Sue Loomer
Natalie A. Tinkham
The Society gladly accepts recommendations for membership. If you would like to propose anyone for membership, please contact President Bill Woolley at 748-2260 or at 611 Hillside Terrace, Ripon, WI 54971, woolleyw@charter.net.
THE WAY IT WAS
Our most recent contributor to stories of past life in Ripon is Harry Washkoske, now of Madison, Wisconsin. Harry lived in Ripon from 1913 to 1941 and graduated from Ripon College. He spent four years in the army and played saxophone in an Army band for two of those years. Two more years were spent in the occupation of Japan, as well as in New Guinea and the Philippines. Harry moved to Madison in 1946, worked for the Wisconsin Power and Light Company as buyer for thirty one years, and has been retired for twenty seven years! He also moonlighted as a musician and still plays once a week with a local band. Harry also served in the Army Reserves for fifteen years after his army discharge. Harry’s address is 7707 N. Brookline Drive, Apt. 116, Madison WI 53719-3530.s He would enjoy hearing from Ripon friends. We thank him for the delightful stories he has submitted for this publication.
The year was 1923. I was a nine year old boy with a four year old brother. Our family transportation was a 1918 model Briscoe automobile. We lived in Ripon and my mother’s sister, husband, and nine year old daughter, lived in Montello. Our two families made plans to visit another sister who lived with her family in La Crescent, MN, which is just across the river from La Crosse, and stay for several days. This meant we would have seven people, plus luggage, plus a big lunch basket in our five passenger car. No trunk or roof top racks in those days! It was quite cozy. Now we are ready to start the big trip. I should mention that the route taken was much different than it would be now due to highway changes over the years. We left Ripon one afternoon and slept over at Montello, and left Montello the following day at 5 A. M. Our progress was uneventful until we reached Wisconsin Dells (I believe it had the name of Kilbourn in that time). At that point our car hit a patch of soft sand and our front wheels were buried up to the axle. We were towed out and again on our way. Our next little incident occurred fortunately when we were right in the little city of Mauston. The fan belt broke and we were again delayed until a new belt was located and installed. Once again we resumed our travel. It was time to have our picnic lunch and my father spotted a nice shade tree with a stile over the fence nearby. Over the fence we went and were just about to eat when my uncle noticed a bull in the far corner of the field we were in. This bull was starting to take notice of our presence. I believe we set the world speed record getting back across that fence. Lunch was served in a more congenial area sometime later. After lunch we are back on the road and see a very high hill ahead. One of the very few road signs informed us that this is “Wildcat Mountain”. The road went right straight up over the hill rather than around it. When we were about two thirds of the way up, our under- powered car gave up the ghost and could not go further. We all got out of the car and my uncle and I pushed while my father drove. In this manner we managed to reach the top of the hill (mountain!). The ladies and the other two children walked to the top where we all again loaded ourselves back in to the car. We finally arrived at our destination at 5:00 P. M. and we were so beat up and bedraggled that my aunt came running up, looked into the car and said, “Oh, excuse me, you are not the people I was expecting”. So, that’s how it was in 1923!!!!
Harry C. Washkoske
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RIPON HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD MEMBERS |
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Mary Brandt |
Curator of Collections: Artifacts |
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Bonnie Brooks |
Program Chair |
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Frank Farvour |
Coordinator of Archeological Collections |
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Kent Gallaway |
Coordinator for Special Projects |
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Mary Brandt |
Curator of
Collections: Artifacts |
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George Miller |
Curator of Collections: Library and Archives |
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Nedra Martz |
Associate Archivist |
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Harry Heileman |
Society Historian |
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Ralph Quinney |
Buildings Maintenance Supervisor |
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Barbara Scott |
Membership Secretary |
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Shirley Williams |
Newsletter Editor and Publicity Chair |
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Jean Woolley |
Coordinator of
K-12 Educational Programming |