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| HISTORY OF ABLEMAN/ROCK SPRINGS AND SOUTH Forward This document was written by my uncle, Erwin Dreifke, shortly before he passed away a few years ago. Erwin was an ardent historian and was very active in the Reedsburg Area Historical Society from its beginning. While he had a special passion for history, Erv also had a boundless interest in all manner of things. He would recount tales of his experiences and travels with a wonderful sense of humor. Erwin grew up on a small farm south of What is written here is a very detailed and sometimes humorous look at the past 100 year or so history of the Ableman/Rock Springs area. Enjoy. Fred Behn HISTORY OF ABLEMAN/ROCK SPRINGS AND SOUTH I was born in 1901 to Herman and Elfreida (Eickert) Dreifke across the street from the Gus Schranke feed and log sawing mill on Bender St. The first sidewalks that I can remember were wooden planks. How wonderful, no more walking in the mud! Cement sidewalks came about 1905. There were hitching posts, some made of wood and some of iron. The horses would paw in the water and mud and splash the people on the sidewalk, getting them all wet and muddy. Kerosene lamps were put on posts lighting the way, to prevent people from getting mugged. Brick streets were put in about _______. Before that there was some gravel on the streets, but mostly they were mud. How nice the brick was. Slowly the hitching posts were taken out. In 1920, the first electric line came to Ableman. How wonderful that was. People could see where they were going. A TOUR OF ABLEMAN /ROCK SPRINGS Now let's visit some of the stores. Coffee came in large bags and sat on the floor. People would take out a handful, look at it and put it back. They would do that with all the coffee until they found some they liked. Coffee sold for 18 cents, 21 cents and 25 cents a pound. Brown sugar was in large barrels on the floor. The storekeeper would dig it out and put some in a bag for the shopper. They did not worry about germs then. The only kind of bread you could buy was rye. It was delivered by train, and not wrapped in plastic, either. Again, they did not worry about germs. Bananas were on a rope hung from the ceiling, and were cut for you. Vinegar was sold from large barrels. Kreger Brothers had a team and wagon to take the eggs that the stores bought from farmers, to the train. They'd bring back other items to the stores on the return trip. That was nice service. Going east from our place was Across the street lived Grandma Dreifke. Wm Dreifke was next to the east. Fred Dreifke lived down the street in a small house. Charles Dreifke resided in a large white house. Mr. Pyferon was a master carpenter, but he could not read or write. But he built lots of barns. The railroad, at one time, planned a tunnel through the big hill, but it was never done. Six railroad workers were on a hand car when an engine on the wrong track hit them. Five men jumped, but the sixth did not make it. Herman Dreifke was one of the men who jumped. On the west side of the track was the Stewert and Alexander Lumber Company. They sold coal, lumber and dairy feed, and bought potatoes. South of the tracks, my grandparents Fred Eickert lived. His neighbor saw his smokehouse door open one evening, so he closed it. The next morning he found a man locked inside, he had been trying to steal the meat. That was embarrassing. There was a covered bridge over the Across the river was the hardware store. They sold everything from BB shot to Sampson and Alice Chalmers tractors. I owned a Sampson tractor once. The store had a platform outside piled high with wire and other things. The back shed door was always open; however, no one ever took anything. People were more honest back then. Years later, Henry Janzen and Lewis Dreifke bought the store. There were other owners too. Paul Brittrick had it too for a time. After that, it slowly went out of business. Henry Janzen had a Rumley engine threshing machine. When he went over the bridge, 3 inch planks were put on the bridge for the engine to run on. One man would start the engine across, get off, and someone on the other side would stop it. Another time, as they were going up the street, a pin came out and the machine started backwards down the hill. Bill Smith sat on the pole so it would run straight and not hit any stores. There were two ice houses in town, and a horse barn. The barn burned around 1912. A new barn was put up and Emil Herritz used it to repair cars. There were also two little outdoor houses called rest rooms. A wooden water tank sat on Mr. Muller had a saloon on the corner, later owned by Julus Gall. He always provided rye bread and cheese with a 5 cent glass of beer. One time a man came in and helped himself to rye bread and cheese. He told Mr. Gall, “You sure have a good business here," and left. No sale! Mr. Cooper had a store where the post office now sits. I tasted my first grapefruit from that store. It was something new then. Rin Pape had the store later. Every Saturday night the band played. People came to town to buy groceries and drink lots of beer. They tooted their car horns and made a lot of noise. In 1930, free movies were shown on the street. People sat in chairs and again, drank lots of beer. Frank Kleeb had the general store next, around 1903. August Dorow's Saloon also had a barn for horses. In 1920 the Lardien Brothers built a garage where the horse barn was. One time during prohibition, revenue agents came in and looked for moonshine. But Dorow was an old man, so they looked around and left. Dorow thought he had put one over on them and laughed out loud. They returned and found what they were looking' for. They put him in jail for a year. Later, Ed Krey bought the place and used it as a butcher shop. We used to eat kopfwurst sandwiches in there. The Farmer's Before Baumgarten's Barber shop, it was a furniture store and an undertaking parlor. Wm. Kumke was a very short man. He sold and repaired shoes. He was a very good singer. Jack Geiser, a small man too, had a blacksmith shop. August Schoenbeck had a wood working shop in the same building. Where the church now stands, there was once a large hall, store and horse barn. Mr. Keefer has a saloon downstairs. Upstairs was a dance hall where they showed movies and roller skated. They also had medicine shows there, and on crisp winter evenings we walked to town to see it. They sold Qualax which cured what ailed you. To cure corns on your foot, you'd put it on the outside of your shoe! H. Carlin had a tavern downstairs and we used to stand behind the bar and shoot at a playing card with a shotgun. The air would get very blue with smoke. The The land for the old church was donated by Mr. Waserman. The hill was so steep that his cows needed shorter legs on one side to keep from falling off. To get up to the old church, there were 75 steps from the sidewalk. It burned in 1935. No one knows how it started. When people went around to collect money, one man said he would not give a damn cent. The pastor said we do not want any damn money. Pastor Pope was the first person to be buried from the new church. Upon the hill was the school. There were 10 grades. Good old Henry Schneider was the janitor. Dr. Hummel, on the corner, was a good old family doctor. He pulled teeth and took out appendix. Around 1900, a family by the name of Perck, or-something like that, got Diphtheria. Seven of their children died. They did not call a doctor. The children were buried at night. One son beat the odds and 1ived. We now cross the street to Maske's blacksmith shop. He was a very good blacksmith. Next was Otto Meyer's saloon. There was a dance hall upstairs. A Jewish man had a little store and that is where we got our Yankee Prince talking machine. That was wonderful entertainment. The Finder sisters had an ice cream parlor and made their own ice cream. Mr. Finder and his son, Art, had a pool hall, where we played pool and cards. Fred Peters had a meat market, then, called a butcher shop. When the folks would come in to buy meat, the kids always got a slice of bologna. He took care of all the meat himself. He had his own ice house. He would buy hogs and steers. He said I buy steers from Art Manthey, but Manthey never had any steers, how do you like that? Fey and Goedoke had a general store built about 1908. They sold groceries, shoes, yard goods, flour, and kerosene and bought eggs. One time we bought a 50 pound bag of flour that got too close to the kerosene pump. Mother baked a pink cake. It tasted yuck! I still do not like pink cake. Pierce's store and post office was later Uerfecker, then, Stackman and Clara Mente. She had three different stores. The H. Carlin tavern was called the Ringling Bar? The Farmer.s State Bank was built about 1912 by the Zarske boys. Frank Masse was the first cashier, some other people Hans Schuette had a big car. He was there when the bank went broke. Then B. Pultz, Clarence Dreifke worked there until he was called into the Air Force. Ladies used the upstairs for sewing circle meetings. The village jail was on the corner. It was moved across the creek and Paul Schuette built the drug store. If you look closely you can see that it is still not straight like the There were times when the high water came into town. I have seen people use a boat on On the north side was the Ableman Creamery. Wilber Douglas was the butter maker. People hauled the cream with horse and wagon. Others would go there with stone jars to get butter. Buttermilk was free. It tasted good. Farmers would get barrels of whey for pig feed. Yum yum. Wm Gall Sr. had a sandstone quarry next. Lots of the stones were used in basements in Reedsburg. Next came Stackman’s stone quarry with a railroad bridge over the river to it. It was very hard stone and lots of men worked there. One time a large stone from a blast fell through a freight car roof and killed a man. The quarried stone was shipped east and made into fire brick. The dynamite was stored in a large hole under a rock ledge. The iron door can still be seen today (1991). That was a bad corner. Henry Dreifke took the corner too fast one time, ran in the ditch, wrecked his car and broke his arm. Two boys, Stackman and Manthy, also ran over a large stone and that fixed their car. Otto Schmidt ran into the river with his gas truck there too. John Dettman lived on the edge of town and was a good farmer. He pumped water to a tank in his barn for the cow's drinking water. He had a model T Ford with a door only on one side. He would crank the engine to get it started, then he would get in. The Mrs. would get in too. The engine would give a few jumps and stop. After doing the same thing several times, they would finally get going. East of the river was a monkey bridge where people had picnics. That was about 1904. I had my first taste of ice cream there and was it cold, but very good. Wow! On the east side also, was the crusher quarry. The boxcars would back under the crusher and load full. Fred Dettman used a horse to haul the dump cars back and forth for the workers to fill with stone. One time the horse fell into the river. Lots of men came and helped get it out again. It was a poor, wet and muddy horse. Next, going south was the white rock quarry. The pure white stone was cut by hand for paving blocks. One time around 1942, Gall and Voltz put in too much dynamite. It did not go as it should have. The blast broke the railroad tracks and closed the road. Rocks as large as bushel baskets landed on the next hill. COVERED BRIDGES I do not know how they got the timbers over the river during construction of the bridges; because they were free standing, anchored only on each end. Possibly they were put up during the winter months when the river was frozen. I also do not know when they were built. There was a covered bridge over the river in Ableman, south of the current cement bridge. I think it was the first one in the village. I think it was replaced around 1904. The one over the creek was probably wooden, but I'm not sure. There was another covered bridge west of town near the Beth farm. It was replaced around 1930. Another stood north of Ableman over the Another bridge was located on 139, on the SOUTH OF ABLEMAN Now let's take a walk south of Ableman. First we come to the village dump. It is near here that Art Uieth dug clams out of the river and put them into a large pail. What he did with them, I do not know. Peter's slaughter house was in a field to the left. The first farm on the right was August Menthy's. He rented the farm to Mr. Klitzman. One time as we were threshing, old Klitzman and Emil Hinz were in a shed taking care of the straw, and the shed got full. Hinz called out to have them stop the thresher, as he could not find Klitzman. Some men went to help look for him. He had slid down inside, not telling Hinz, and they found him sitting on the porch. Henry Manthy had a 240 acre farm. He had a woven wire fence around the farm. There were also 4 stacking sheds, about 16 feet square, and they could be put up or taken down as needed. There was a crooked ditch on his farm which was hard to farm around, so they straightened it out a few years later. They had to plant willows to keep the farm from washing away. That ditch was 12 feet deep! The next place belonged to Charles Manty. He only had a thumb and little finger on one hand due to a sawing accident. He liked the taste of spirits and would get a little out of sorts at times. That was the former Gus Pyferon farm. To the right was the Albert Schanke Sr. 160 acre farm. Later it belonged to Charles Schanke. He had sheep power to run his cream separator. Mr. Schanke had a team of fast horses, Bay and Chestnut. He was a good horse man, and knew the history of every horse in The next place belonged to Charles Mattice. Later Henry Kopf bought it. We went to their silver wedding anniversary. There was a big tent, people danced and drank lots of beer. Now on to the John Schmidt farm. He had a black swayback horse. His two boys had a motorcycle that went very fast. Henry Rehr lived on the next farm. The Art Meyer farm used to be called Penny or Sorgum Neyer. I helped thresh grain at that place. They had about 500 bushels of barley and when the bin got full, we had to carry it upstairs and dump the grain through a hole in the floor. That was hard as he was always short of help. The Now we will go to the Ed Feming farm of 200 acres. Later it belonged to Cleon Fleming. When Mr. Fleming would get a bad case of hay fever, his face would turn black and blue. He had to sit in a chair to sleep. We could hear him sneeze at our place, a half mile away! The Fleming kids had to drive their cows to the back 40 twice, every day. Mr. Fleming had a Dodge car with a catch-me-quick clutch. When he let out the clutch, the car would give a leap forward and his hat would fly into the back seat. In the middle 1920's, Fleming sold 80 acres east of the road to Fred Kopf, and built a new house west of the road. I hauled a wagon load of cement block from F. Dreifke's farm to Fleming's place. The mud was so bad the wheels would not turn. So I had to get some sticks and loosen the mud so that they would turn again. That was what you call real mud. Fred Kopf had an 80 acre farm. I helped him cut wood. He had a sawing rig and one time as we were sawing in Stinke's woods, the flywheel came off in back of me as I was throwing away the blocks. It rolled a long way into the brush. That was not very funny. He had a white horse that would chase people out of the pasture if it did not want to come home. One time the Kopf boys came home from school with a stray dog and the horse tried to chase the dog. The dog bit the horse on the nose and it came home in a hurry that day. On February 22, 1922, a very bad ice storm occurred. Telephone lines came down. The road was closed with broken trees. When the trees broke down, it sounded like cannon shots. The next day, farmers took axes and saws to clear the roads. Mr. Ederer was a good telephone repairman. He and other men hooked lines together with any kind of wire they could find, so people could talk again. The office in North Freedom was not working for two weeks. That ice storm will be long remembered. In 1924, the road was graded and graveled. No more mud. How wonderful. I worked on the road when it was graded. I did a lot of the dynamite blasting for the road. I got got good pay, $18 a week for 60 hours of work. I was a rich man. Herman Dreifke bought the farm in 1907 from Henry Sandmeyer. The original owner was Mr. Zartz, a very short man with a large beard. The buildings were very poor. The first year a machine shed was put up with tamarack logs and poles. The second year, the house was raised 18 inches with jacks. This work was done by, August Dumke, August Dreifke and August Lange. The kitchen part which was only one story, was made into two. In 1916, the barn was put up. The west end of the basement was blasted out of solid rock. About 100 men came for the barn raising. They worked hard and drank lots of beer. Many ladies came too, and helped get dinner. They ate a lot too. The barn had no door sills and house windows, that is what the carpenters called them. Also in 1916, Kowalke's had a log sawing machine on our place. Many people brought logs to be sawed into lumber. Around 1912, The big hill-had water breaks. We used to slide down very fast when we went over them. We would leap 20 or 30 feet in the air. Lots of fun, but dangerous. One Sunday we could hear Mr. Egerer calling his dog and also calling for help. Dad said to our dog, "Let's go and see what it is." He found Mr. Egerer up in a tree and the bull at the bottom. Dad said, "Jack, take him!" The bull is still running. The land was low and marshy with willows and tamarack trees. When the brush was cut off, it was very good land. The trees on the Egerer farm took care of the water, but after he cut off all the trees, our land and his got too wet for crops. Conifers once grew in the low land. There was a place on the Egerer farm, and also on ours, where a fire once burned a large hole in the peat soil. We had a 1919 Chevrolet from the Kohlmeyer's in Loganville. When we butchered hogs and beef, grandma Eickert always wanted to help. Then she would either fall downstairs or get her fingers caught in the wurst machine. That hurt! Yip, ow, ow. I remember when the farmers raised many acres of potatoes. In the fall we had a week off from school to pick up potatoes. In the afternoon, farmers hauled them to town, one farmer after another. They would not all be unloaded until 8 or 9 PM. One time a man came to the warehouse with a load of potatoes. He sat on the wagon and got weighed with the potatoes. After it was unloaded, he got off and wanted to get paid for his own weight too. He asked the man what are you waiting for? I want to get going. The man said get back on the wagon, and I will take care of you. Now we will go south of our farm and turn right. A short way up the road there was a house with a family by the name of Dwars living in it. The house is now long gone. John Alexander had a 300 acres farm. He had the only telephone around in 1900. Later he sold the farm to Herman Kopf. It had lots of very low land and side hills. Next is the Philip Grub place. He had a large apple and fruit orchard. They had a root cellar under the barn driveway. They had the first water works in the area too. The water was pumped across the road into a cistern, and then into the house and barn. That was really something at that time. On to the John Dreifke farm. There was a large hill and lots of land. He went to town one day to buy groceries for himself and for a neighbor. When he came back, the lady came to the road to pick up her stuff. The horses got scared of her white apron and ran away. The wagon hit a stump and he fell off the wagon. His neck was broken, and when he was found, he was dead. That was in 1895. One time we had a party at our house. That is when I got a little iron bank. Nice little bank. I still have it after 82 years. On the southwest corner, the mining company drilled a test hole 800 feet deep to look for iron ore. We lived on the farm for 3 years. It was a nice house, but the other buildings were very poor. The barn was made of logs. Mother and I were in the log barn when a rattlesnake showed up at the door. We had to crawl out of the hole where the manure was pitched. Another time, Albert Domke was upstairs in the granary when a rattlesnake rested at the top of the steps. He jumped down, got his shotgun and killed the snake. The next place belonged to Albert Fick. He and the Grubs were always at each other. One time Grubs stopped Fick's horses and held them. The other two hit him with a shovel. Very bad. They had a lawsuit. Mother was a witness for Grubs, and Dad for Mr. Fick. One of the Grubs had to sit in jail for a year. After that Fick would get to one of the Grubs at a time and beat him up to get even. Fred Grub drowned in their pond while swimming. Christ Schmidt lived on the south side of the road. He moved to Ableman and Walter was alone on the farm. One time he got very sick and he called his folks to come out and take care of him. But they would not come. Schmidts and Fick never talked, they were always mad. But Mr. Fick went over and took care of Walter, that was very good of Mr. Fick. Henry and John Verthine were always mad at each other too, but they would still talk a little at times. On the north, lived Sam Waddell and his two sons. They were very short people, about 5 feet tall. Up the valley lived Elsie Bordes. I do not know if it was Ed Sanders who later lived there or if there was another farm there. About 10 neighbors used to get together where we lived for threshing. They started out at Art Meyer's and ended up at our place. Wood sawing was also a neighborhood project. Five or six people would get together and help. Gus Bender did lots of the work with a one cylinder engine: chuck, chuck and away we go. The Marenie boys made a saw rig out of a Model T Ford. August Harman had a We will now go to the August Dumke farm, west of the four corners. The house is part logs. Domke had a Democrat wagon. He also had a black beard. Next, were two Hinz farms of August and Julius, later owned by Richard and Ed Hinz. One morning Richard (I think it was him) found a little baby in the barn. About 1930, Chester Hinz got killed when a tractor fell on him. I think that it was on that same farm where Butch Hueffe was sawing wood. He was taking some sticks from under the saw after they had stopped sawing. His right arm was badly hurt and it had to be amputated. Now we shall go to the George Schwartz farm on the hill. Emil Herritz got shot in the right arm while hunting there. Mr. Schwartz took him to Ableman with horse and buggy. Dr. Hummel took him to the Reedsburg hospital, but it was to late to save the arm. Charlie Gall lived on a farm but I do not know which place. On the Roble farm is a human footprint in stone. We will now go over the big hill to the Gottlich Rohde farm where the world is nailed shut with boards. To get there you had to open two gates on the Frank Kosen farm. There was a house in the field somewhere. Frank Engej lived in it when he worked the mines. That house is long gone. Where the road comes to a "T” near Green Valley school, there is a mine testing hole with watcr still running out of it after 80 years. The Frank Kosen farm was over 300 acres. The mining company wanted to dig a shaft on the farm and offered him lots of money. But the neighbors talked him out of selling it. He ended up a poor man. There was a very large elm tree on his farm. The lightning hit it and it was scattered over several acres. West from Ed Hinz, lived Rinhold Kowalke in a stone house. Next, a Mr. Zimmerman lived. One time when he was catching the geese, one hit him in the face with its wings. He was blinded for the rest of his life. That was very bad. East of the four corners lived a Hr. Keen all alone. He used to walk over to our farm and fish bullheads from the One time he gave my dad a large string of fish, yum, yum. Across from Hr Keen lived a family by the name of Herrity, I think. I do not know why the road was called the four corners. North from the four corners lived George Black and his neighbor, John Quant. Where Sealy Creek park is today, there was a dam. The Scram Brothers had a mill there to grind oats and corn for the farms. It's long gone. Another (?) the Ed and Oliver Heyers chicken farm. They had many miles of tile in the land. Wm Rohde had the farm later. He always farmed with mules. He piped water about 1200 feet through a field to the buildings from the mine shaft test hole which was about 800 feet deep. A VISIT TO LARUE Now on to the LaRue area. The The LaRue had 2 saloons, one grocery store and a rooming house. The innkeeper was accused of cheating some of the men and one evening someone shot through the ceiling into his bed, but he was not in it at the time. The mines are all closed and sealed. A little east of the mine, the Oliver mining company drilled a shaft down at an angle so a cart could go up and down better. They took out lots of slate rock, but very little ore, too much water. The men had to wear raincoats and hats as the water dripped down constantly. Frank Engel and Renhold Kowalke worked there. At the bottom of the north side of the stone ledge is a hole where the water was pumped out, it was all red. The smoke stacks on the old mine were the same type of metal but on the Oliver stacks they were made of brick and very high. The Oliver Company abandoned the mines. It was too expensive to work. They moved to The Another company was going to sink a shaft on the Wm Dickie place, but never got to it. The Haberson and Walker Company had a stone quarry at LaRue and a crusher. I do not know how long it was there or what they did with the rock. One time a deaf and dumb man by the name of Blackman, got hurt by a dynamite blast. Dr. Hummel was called and as his horse was tired, he asked Mr. Egerer to take him. Mr. Egerer let his horse trot. Dr. Hummel took the lines and with the whip he hit the horse so it would gallop. Mr. Egerer said you will kill my horse. Hummel said don't worry, I will buy you another horse, just like that. One time Gall and Voltz put a crusher at LaRue and hauled the gravel north of Reedsburg on Hwy H. At the same time DuBoic hauled from north of Ableman to PF, south of LaRue. That was a waste of time and wore out two roads. How dumb can people get? Ha. ON TO NORTH FREEDOM We now will go to North Freedom. It was first called Bloomer, then Bessimer, and later, North Freedom. It was to be the largest city between On the north side of the hill is a depression which no one knows about. Ken Lange, the naturalist from Devil's There used to be 3 Hacket farms west of North Freedom, but they aren't there any more. We used to go raccoon hunting in the large woods. There were lots of 'coon in the big trees. Conrad Egerer had a large farm west of North Freedom. Later his son, Ed, took over the farm. He hit his head on a low bridge. I think one time he planted a small patch of alfalfa on the back 40. The neighbors said he was nuts and would not speak to him. Later, other people got something wrong with their heads too, as they began planting some on their back 40's (so others wouldn't see it.) Now look at all the alfalfa. |