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PAGE SIXTHE BELMONT !THE BELMONT SUCCESSEntered at the Belmont Post Office as second class mail matter.DONALD BENEDICT, P«MfcfcerSubscription $1.50 the year in advance.RESUME OF OUR VILLAGE HISTORY(Continued from Page 1).and cows and other livestock which had roamed the village commons heretofore were ordered kept off the streets.in 1902 the population of the village had increased to such an extent that the frame school house could no longer conveniently hold them and so a new, larger brick school was built to accomoate them-—the same building is in use today.Two thousand five hundred dol-' lars worth of . cement sidewalks were laid m 1VU?. C. H, Heheie was the contractor. The following year the village.park, which had previously been fenced in, was opened up and the fence sold at auction. A new village jail arid engine house were erected in 1909, In this year the Farmers State Bank was organized,1909 was marked by an early snowstorm on October 11, which ushered in an unusually long winter. Snow iell early and heavily and lasted for 100 days os sleighing. The storm was reported as being the worst since 1857.Two great fires marked the year of 1910, In February fire laid waste to a great portion of the west side ul main street. The demon fire consumed'five building south of and up the hill from the brick building which is now Sweet’ Store. From north to south they were the Stein Store, Buckmann s Millinery sxore (in which the fire started), the John Huntington building occupied ac the time by Webb Stain's meat market and the George Halsey flat; Minors Drncr and Notions Stcre, and Mrs. Elizabeth Bartel's home, which during her husband John s life was a tailor shop. The Allen building, occupied by the H. W .Messier Furniture and Undertaking Store, further south, was saved became it was set apart a few yards from the Bartcis building. The loss, as can be estimated, wa$ great.The authorities, after this second disastrous conft gration visited the village, took steps to improve the water system. To this end a large steel water tower was constructed to replace the former wooden ode. Fnally the new tower was in readiness for use but before it couid be filled with water the second bad fire for the year of 1910 started on the east side of main street on December 20th. Two buildings between the present Mrs. Dora Glasson property and the H. W. Nessler home were burne3. The Hemphdl build.ng, occupied on the second floor by a dentist named Thomas, the Collins Jewelry store, established on the first floor and Minor’s Drug store, which had been moved in with, the Collins store after the February fire earlier in the same year, was ravaged. South of the Hemphill build-.ng was August Krashe’s Shoe store which was also destroyed. The roof of the H. W. Nessler home alsocaught fire but was soon gotten un- Fder control by firemen.Scars of these fires mar our village today.The Chesterfield building on Commerce street burned down after this time but since then the village h s had no major catastrophies by fire.The village seemed to have a resi-lent spirit and business continued to thrive. In fact it was so good tlut ten trains daily puffed into Belmont.Many townspeople recall a dramatic railroad accident that occurred at Leslie in 19j2 when a t.ain carrying the “101 Ranch Wild Wes. Shrow' wrecked. Many of .the show animals were ki'hed—one of the cars crashed onto the depot it -self. Spreading of rails due to excessive rains was blamed for the wreck.the years previous lo United States’ entrance into the World War and after were years of great activity, patriotism and prosperity. Prices of real estate and commodities were sky high.The soldier boy was king and Belmont has her quota of veterans and gold stars to commemorate that dreadful time of war. Red Cross — Liberty Bonds—save on food—casualty lists— those were some of the terms uppermost in the min'ds of th.j citizenry until the Armist.ee of November' II, 191Gradually Belmont, with the rest of America, fought her way back toward normalcy. An objective which has not. yet been achieved fo; today she si ill staggers from the blow dealt her by the post-war depression which struck full force in •} 1929.Mother nature has also taken a:;h hand in the chastisement of Bel- j v mont together with the rest of the : nation. The summer of 19d4 was j F ’narked by the worst drougth in his-1 t! torv, although the community fared I v; much better th u other parts of trie j J j country. We a;st were vis.ivu in an i •• extended period of extreme cobs the past winter. The village was m..-h;roorted for days aj a time by h.wl-ing blizzards, deeply drifted snow with the. thermometer regi tering an extreme of 33 degrees below zero.The epic story oi Belmont goes goes on and un. One is prune to r-e-calT the unhappy events and forget the many pleas, nt features of liie but the latter actually exceeded the former by far and Belmont has en_ joyed her full $h re of blessing, for which we are grateful, since the year of her birth in 1868 to this year of our Lord 1936.CMrs. Emma Pegg Edwards was born in the Old Capitol building at Old Belmont.. Abr. ham Lincoln and Daniel Webster' once owned the land where Belmont village now stinds.
Newspaper Details
Belmont Success
Belmont, Wisconsin, US
Fri, Oct 23, 1936
Page 3
Full Page
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WI, USA 20 Jan 2025
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