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Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County Wisconsin
THE POST Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
THE POST January 2013 VOLUME #15, ISSUE #1
apple.com/iwork
Thank you to Jay and Joyce Bergstrand for once
again hosting the annual potluck Holiday Event at their house. A good
time was had by all and the DNA discussion was very interesting.
Watch your emails for PCGS Board Meeting schedules and locations. For additions to the PCGS Board meeting agenda, please email Jay Bergstrand at:
Polk County Genealogy Society’s “Second Saturday” responsibilities at the
Archives - UWRF continue at 10:00a-2:00p on
Saturday 9 February 2013Please know that if you are unable
to contribute time for the entire day, for however many hours you
can spare, the Area Research Center (ARC) is happy for your
assistance. Assigned months for PCGS are Feb/Jun/Oct 2013.
TO:
A M E R I C A
MISSION STATEMENT The mission of the Polk County Genealogical Society is to assist in the exchange and dissemination of information for genealogical investigations.
VISION STATEMENT The vision of the Polk County Genealogical Society is to empower those interested in developing concise, accurate and comprehensive family histories.
PCGS Mailing Address
PCGSC/o Judy Wester
901-8th StreetCenturia, WI
54824
Winter Schedule 2013 Series of 3 -
General Genealogy Q and A Wed for the next 3 months!
30 January 2013 - Osceola 27 February 2013 - Amery 27 March 2013 - Clear Lake
(details on page 2)
The 2013 April - November PCGS schedule is needing attention.
If you have a suggestion for a program, PLEASE do not hesitate to share that idea with a board
member, OR if you wish to continue with Q & A sessions at the Luck Museum to meet the
needs of our membership, PLEASE also let a board member know that
is your wish. Thank you.
THE POST JANUARY 2013! PAGE2
THE POST, Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
Rhoncus tempor placerat.
2013 Tentative Schedule
NOTE: Winter program schedules (Nov-April) are in effect. In order to honor the PCGS commitment to
the Luck Hist Society for staffing the Luck Museum on Mondays, the PCGS will be holding the January,
February and March gatherings on WEDNESDAYS specifically in Osceola, Amery and Clear Lake for the
Jan/Feb/Mar meetings respectfully.
Winter Schedule 2013 Series of 3 -
General Genealogy Q and A Wednesdays for the next three months!
5th Wednesday 30 January 2013 - Riverside Room, Osceola Hospital 12:45p-3:30 p
Osceola, Wisconsin
4th Wednesday 27 February 2013 - Amery Public Library - Community Room
Amery, Wisconsin 1:00 p-3:30 p
4th Wednesday 27 Mar 2013 - Clear Lake Public Library 1:00-3:30 p
Clear Lake, Wisconsin
NOTE: If you have a suggestion for a program, PLEASE do not hesitate to share
that idea with a board member. Thank you.
Thank You to Nancy Hawkinson St. Croix Valley Genealogy Society and Polk County Genealogy Society member for two of the
pages that are printed in this January 2013 issue of THE POST. Nancy not only gave her
permission for me to reprint out of the SCVGS December 2012 newsletter but also,
more importantly, Nancy assisted me in getting those two pages safely and intact into this issue, pages 7 and 8. Original sources are cited on the bottom of each
page. Thanks again, Nancy/Editor
PCGS Websites
<www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wipolk/index2011a.html>
is the newly expanded Polk County Genealogy Website. Thank you:
Russ HansonPlease check out this website and email a thank
you and/or comments to the PCGS email address:
St. Croix Valley Genealogy Society2013 Schedule January-May
24 Jan - Annual Work Night at the ARC
21 Feb - Technology & Genealogy, Gizmos & Gadgets
21 March - DNA for Genealogists - John Rys
18 April - How to Research at the MN Historical Society
16 May - How to Develop a Research Plan
THE PIPOST, December 2012,
THE POST JANUARY 2013! PAGE3
THE POST, Polk County Genealogy Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
Polk County Normal School Grads Class of 1938
Fern Brace Anderson Lilly BraceDoris Bradley Aerola LaPage Setter
Jeanne Alling, AuthorI Heard the School Bells Ringing
Q and A: Any idea(s) of what event(s) happened in Polk County, Wisconsin, Wisconsin in general or across the entire USA so that in 1938 there were only 4 graduates, all ladies, while in 1937 The Polk County Normal School graduated 22 students; in 1939 the School graduated 24 students (some
single ladies, some married ladies and a couple of gentlemen each year)? The Great Depression?
The loss of young men in World War Ileading to a very small birthrate in 1919/1920? Even in
1945 and 1947 there were eight and six graduates respectfully. Perhaps a new school was being built or an
addition was under construction? The resources Ms. Alling used were incomplete? If you know, or think you know,
PLEASE email PCGS and share your expertise.
8th Grade EducationReproduced from The Muskingum Quarterly
Volume 36, Issue 3, Aug-Dec 2012Remember when our grandparents and great-grandparents
said that they only had an 8th grade education? Reproduced here is an 8th grade final exam from 1895 Selina, Kansas
Orthography (Time to complete - 1 hour)
1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology and syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How are they classified?3. What are the following & give examples of each: trigraph,
subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters and linguals? 4. Give four substitutes for caret ‘u’5. Give two rules for spelling words with final ‘e’. Name two
exceptions under each rule. 6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling & illustrate each. 7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a
word: bi, dis, miss, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono & sup.8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following and
name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare and last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by
syllabication.
Congratulations to PCGS ChairwomanKathy Clark
on her appointment as the Executive Director of
ENDEAVORS - Polk County Location.PCGS members wish Kathy well in her new
post and look forward to her joining with PCGS members for as many meetings as her
new schedule allows.
Swedish Rice Pudding 3/4 cup long grain rice1 and 1/2 cups water1/4 tsp saltCook for about 15 minutes Then stir in 4 cups whole milk1/2 cup sugarCook uncovered over medium heat 30 to 40 minutes - preferably in a double boiler Then, stir in 1/2 tsp vanilla Whisk 2 large eggs with a little sugar (optional for me) and stir carefully into the pudding on low heat. Do not allow to simmer. Refrigerate until cold. Add whipped cream folded into the cold pudding. I used a raspberry sauce - raspberries from the garden with a little powdered sugar (allow the sugar to spend some time with the raspberries). Top the individual servings with the sauce.
Thanks to: JoAnn HallquistPCGS member
THE POST JANUARY 2013! PAGE4
THE POST, Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
PCGS Surname Index 2012Member ID # Surname Surname Data
W 0009 Bach EnglishW 0009 Bartel EnglishS 0011 Beebe New YorkW 0009 Bille DanishS 0011 Boardman New YorkA 0003 BurressW 0009 Bush GermanS 0011 Cain Wisc/IrelandS 0011 Christiansen DenmarkW 0009 Clapp EnglishC 0013 Clark VermontW 0009 Day EnglishS 0011 Fay No Dakota/IrelandA 0003 GarskeA 0003 GreenbergS 0011 Hale PennsylvaniaW0009 Horn DanishP 0021 Hughes OhioA 0003 HowardW 0009 Jorgen DanishA 0003 KelleyA 0003 LubenskiC 0013 Lund NorwayC 0013 Lunde NorwayA 0003 LundeC 0013 McCourt New YorkC 0013 McLean VermontP 0021 Morgan OhioW 0009 Pattishall EnglishA 0003 PaulsonA 0003 Petersen DenmarkP 0021 Pfeifer Germany
P 0021 Poppe GermanyP 0021 Rockwell WisconsinA 0003 RumpelA 0003 SalmonP 0021 Showalter SwitzerlandW 0009 Skow DanishS 0011 Stoltz DenmarkA 0003 TheisS 0011 Thomas OhioW 0009 Tretsven DanishS 0011 Wakeling EnglandW 0009 Welling DanishS 0011 Wood Cornwall,Ont. CAC 0013 Young New York PCGS Contact Information
for the Surname IndexMembers ID # and Name/Email Address
*A 0003 Adams, Russ/Dorothy<[email protected]>
*C 0013 Clark, Kathy<[email protected]>
*P 0021 Pfeifer, Muriel Morgan<[email protected]>
*S 0011 Stoltz-Wood, Helen<[email protected]>
*W 0009 Wester, Judy<[email protected]>
Space saved for additional surnames
THE POST JANUARY 2013! PAGE5
THE POST Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
Old fashioned systems
For those persons in the very beginning of your genealogy journey searching for family and/or for those who do not have a computer, access to one, and/or the knowledge to use the newest
technology effectively YET with the new computer you do have, the following is a sample letter of a genealogy data request that may be hand
written, typewritten, or keyboarded and sent out-of-town,
out-of-county, out-of-state,
our-of-countryto family and/or to a Civil Registrar.
This is the way many of us “old-timers” got started with our investigations that turned into a passion for the
history of our people.
To the Civil Registrar’s Office (or) Family Member
AddressCOUNTRY
Greetings: In order to continue the search into the Family History of my (our mutual) ancestor, I am in need of data on the family of (surname). A sketch of the information I do have is as follows:
Complete Name:Known Dates (Birth/Marriage/Death)Names of Parents, their siblings/others
I am indeed grateful for your assistance with this project. Please let me know the price of any documents from a Civil Registrar’s Office before you incur this cost.
My postal address is: _______________________, My email address is: ________________________.
Thanking you in advance I remain,
Sincerely,
Your Name
Again for beginners before your genealogy files are in a computer, in a “cloud,” or within a software program these rules work. With a bit of rearranging, the rules will also work for you once you transfer your data to computer files/in a cloud/or within a software program:
HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR PAPER FILES by Mary E. V. Hill
<www.familyrootsorganizer.com> 1. Gather together items with genealogy data.2. Fill in a pedigree chart with as much data as you can3. Divide up the items found - by ancestor’s family
surnames and place in a container- label and sort4. Update pedigree charts, make family group sheets.
Needed: file boxes, different color manila folders/labels and ultra fine point felt tip, black permanent ink, lined paper and a large wall-sized pedigree chart to clearly
see defined family relationships.1. At the front of your file box, put all complete sets of
labeled family pedigree charts2. Study, until you know the 5-generation pedigree
chart by heart3. Separate the lines of your 4 grandparents by color.4. Put a highlighted copy of your 5-generation
pedigree chart in each of the four manila folders5. Within each manila folder, divide each set of data
for grandparents into 2 sections -1 g’ma/1 for g’pa
A family manila folder eventually holds the following genealogy items:
1. The family group sheet of the family and if there was more than one marriage make a separate folder
with a family group sheet for each marriage.2. All gathered documents belonging to this family3. A ‘to-do‘ List4. Research Log listing where you have already looked5. Timeline for the family being researched6. Maps at the time your people were in the area
of each particular search - very important7. Research notes, new documents found and in the
BEGINNING ,8. research only one family at a time!
THE POST JANUARY 2013! PAGE6
THE POST, Polk County Genealogical Society, Polk County, Wisconsin
Correction from the December issue of The Post Hi Helen, I read your post about Mocavo not being a free search engine anymore. Actually, it still is a free genealogy search engine, but Mocavo Plus is a subscription site. With the Plus version a lot more options are available to you, but the search engine is still free and will take you to many links that are
extremely helpful. Darcy Boock/St. Croix Valley Genealogy Society memberThank You, I stand corrected. Editor
Whisper in the Windby Muriel Morgan Pfeifer<[email protected]>Subject line: Whisper
History of small Polk County, Wisconsin villages and hamlets that are now ghost towns.
Clam Falls Clam Falls was organized on 15 November 1876. Dan Smith was the first settler, who built the first sawmill, raised the first crops and founded the village of Luck. Clam Falls is now a small and quiet hamlet in northern Polk County. Back before the Civi War, it was the scene of great excitement.
The unincorporated village was started around a sawmill industry. Dan Smith had a sawmill in 1872 and built a toll dam on Clam River, but the first big lumbering operations were started by
C. N. Nelson in 1882. Clam Falls and Clam River were named by the Chippewa [Ojibwa tribe of Native Americans] due to the
abundance of clams found there. The Chippewa word for Clam River was “Kiesca-Seba” meaning “There are clams.”
At this point the Clam River spills over a barrier of trap rock to create a waterfall. It was the rock, an ancient lava flow, that caused the excitement. Embedded [in the rock] was copper. The results was an
uproarious, if brief, “copper strike.” Claims were staked out on the trap rock heights, others in the lower area “with the depth limited only by imagination and hope. Fabulous sums were asked for some of the claims. Men spent sleepless nights worrying over their rights and studying safe investment for
the wealth that soon would be theirs.” (1) The rocky area was carefully explored, every hole prospected and “diggings” tested. Some
prospectors wrote on the doors of their crude cabins the “tests” of their findings and the assays were remarkable. One prospector climbed on a pinnacle and waving a blanket over his head shouted,
“These gulches are full of copper.” The prospector was full of baloney. The miners are said to have assumed the ways and dress of the California ‘49ers. “They had a fiddle and a fighting dog. Depressions in the earth were called gulches and given such names as ‘Red Dog’
and ‘Bob Tail’. The men subscribed to a New York paper, read the financial section and spoke of stocks and bonds with a fluency that would have humiliated a stock broker.”
Two of the adventurers, Dave Canaday and Oscar Roos built a large log house which was to be a stopping place on a supposed stage line from St. Croix Falls [Wisconsin] to Superior [Wisconsin]. They called their place the Kieska House and for a time the boom town was called Kieska. A barn was built
to stable forty horses. The horses, like the travelers, failed to arrive. Came spring and the copper excitement passed away. Some of the boomers joined the spring drive; the others just drifted away.
(1)(“Use as you see fit/MMP”)
(Article edited to fit the page-Editor)
(1) Chapin, Earle Tales of Wisconsin, University of Wisconsin, River Falls Press, 1973. Sluicing logs at Clam Falls 1907 photo on page 34 of Ms. Pfeifer’s book.
THE POST Polk County, Wisconsin Genealogy Society JANUARY 2013Pages 7 & 8
