Douglas County Past: Young members of '21st street gang' caught; Poplar OKs school auditorium

Apr. 16—April 12, 1924

Declares parent-teacher dances not objectionable

Dances sponsored by parent-teacher associations in Douglas County are not the worst in the county and have no objectionable features so far as he knows, declared N.A. Thompson, county supervisor from the town of Dairyland, Friday.

Mr. Thompson declared that he had no reference to the parent-teacher associations at the County Board meeting last Wednesday when he deplored conditions at certain dances held in the county.

The Dairyland board member referred to dances which were in no way connected with parent-teacher groups, he said. In fact, he added, there is no parent-teacher association in my town and I know comparatively little about the activities of those in outer towns of the county.

Superior news in brief

Down to 130 feet — Well diggers of the E. Gustafson company, local well digging concern which has been drilling for a well for the Russell Creamery company, were forced to suspend operations Thursday when a drill became stuck at the bottom of the pipe. The drillers went to Poplar yesterday to put down a well for the Lange Pea canning factory there and when a special drill arrives here will continue the boring of the Russell well. When they were forced to stop they had gone down more than 130 feet.

April 12, 1934

Junior high schoolers show advertising skills

Keen competition developed at the McCaskill training school this week when students in the ninth grade, taught by Miss Elizabeth Munger, took part in an advertising layout contest, sponsored by Roth Brothers company.

Miss Gita Siegel was named first prize winner. She will get a $4 credit slip from the Roth store. The other five winners will each get a pair of tickets to the People's theater, according to Neil Smith, Roth store manager.

The five winners aside from Miss Siegel are Robert Banks, Lois Barton, Marie Kellogg, Shirley Kremba and Leonard Welch.

East high student wins poster prize

Milton Esselstrom, East high school, Thursday was awarded first place in a safety poster contest sponsored by the Junior Safety Council, it is announced by Thomas Allen, traffic officer.

Judges of the contest were A.E. Buchanan, Thorpe Langley and Mrs. W.H. Whitsitt.

Second prize went to June Bingham, Central high, and third to Dorothy Latscher, East high.

The following won honorable mention: Arthur Olson, Edna Beil, James Jewett, Don Martinson, Laura Gross, Dolores Hanson, all of Central, and Arnold Clark, Gertrude Yiehle and Frances Cieslieki, East high.

April 13, 1934 Telegram

Auditorium at Poplar OK'd

Poplar, Wis., will have a new $10,000 auditorium as the result of a special referendum voted on at the April 3 election, according to C.O. Lindquist, supervisor. The referendum carried 3 to 1.

The new structure will be of brick, 40x60 feet wide and will adjoin the school on the north side. There will be a stage in the auditorium and it will be equipped for athletic doings. Work is expected to start in about a month. The old village hall, which proved inadequate for social gatherings, will be wrecked and what material can be salvaged will be used in the new building.

Smelt in Lake Superior? Fishermen await outcome

Smelt — the bullet-nosed invader from the sea that has caught on strongly in Lake Michigan — will have a harder time making a go of it in Lake Superior waters, says Ward A. Cook, Duluth, superintendent of the United States hatchery there.

The less-than-a-foot-long smelt, not unlike herring in appearance which got their inland start when planted in a lake tributary to Lake Michigan in 1912, are reported now in Whitefish Bay, at the eastern end of Lake Superior.

The fish may be another transplanting mistake. In the opinion of many they are. They were put in the Michigan lake to provide food for plantings of landlocked salmon. The salmon perished but the smelt thrived.

Missing man found drowned in creek

Robert Dodd Sead, 52, 2450 E. Eighth St., who was reported missing Sunday, was found dead in a small creek near East Eighth Street and Stinson Avenue Thursday afternoon by boys playing in the vicinity.

Death, according to William Downs, assistant coroner, resulted from drowning. Mr. Downs believes that Sead was returning home late in the evening from a visit with friends and slipped off a railroad embankment, striking his head on a culvert and falling unconscious into a creek.

Hundreds send guesses as boat contest closes

With The Evening Telegram Marine guessing contest closing Friday night, the mailman finds himself burdened with the final load of guesses. Some of the many guessers are listed below:

Brule: Matt jr., Toivo, Esther, Helen Capp, Dan L. and Edward M. Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. John Kukkonen, Walter, Helen, Elsie, Ruth, Esther, Martha, Miriam Kukkonen, Edward, Oscar, Ernest, Matt Ulvila, Charles Johnson.

Maple: Mr. and Mrs. John P. Maki, Ludwig, Nick jr., Eli, Martha Maki, Ernest Ahola, Eino, Onni, Anne Hietala, Mrs. John E., Edward, Lawrence, Chester, Jane Estness, Eugene Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. Nestor Johnson, Wayno, Eino, Reino Maki, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Haukkala, Elsie Mae, Harold, Marvin, Alvin Haukkala, John Mary, Victor, Lillian, Ellen, Elmer, Edwin Levanga.

Poplar: John, Raymond, Arnold, Robert Hofstedt, Martin Isaacson, Elna and Ano Erickson, Stanley, Olive, George, Andrew, Constance, Robert Renquist, Myrtle Soderlund, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Johnson, Martin, Elsie, Joyce, Raymond, Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Johnson.

Wentworth: Mr. and Mrs. Albert Pederson, Mable, Walter, Lilly, Elizabeth Pederson, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Esselstrom, Nancy, Inez, Enoch, Melvin, Gideon Esselstrom.

Solon Springs: E.M., Richard, Wayne, Emma Johnson.

April 14, 1924

See relief in arrest today of seven boys

A wave of vandalism and petty thefts, which started a month ago and has been held in abeyance only by vigilance on the part of the police, took a fresh lease on life over the weekend with the result that many minor thefts were reported.

At the same time, police succeeded in rounding up seven local youths, alleged members of a "Twenty-first street gang" who, it is believed, have been responsible for dozens of petty offenses in the Seventh ward.

Since the latter part of January petty thefts have been staged by youths of this neighborhood, said police this morning, and on two occasions boy bandits with masked faces brandished revolvers before storekeepers and made away with small amounts of loot.

April 14, 1934

Superior news in brief

New Tower store — A new grocery store on Tower Avenue will be opened soon at 1015 Tower by Henry and Leonard Cohen, formerly with the Mix store. The store will be the City Market. The building is being redecorated and modernized. The proprietors expect to open within a week or so.

April 15, 1924

Superior visited by a 'jazz storm'

With thunder, lightning, snow, rain and sleet, Superior last night experienced its first "jazz storm."

At least it is the first in the memory of many oldtimers who today could not recall the novelty of falling snow during an electrical storm.

Youths confess 11 robberies

An amazing story of youthful depredation was told yesterday afternoon by six youths, ranging in age from 16 to 20, when they were closeted with Chief of Police A.E. Buchanan and confessed to burglarizing 11 Superior stores and to other petty offenses. The boys' names and ages are as follows:

Andrew Brown, age 20; Eddie Olson, age 16; Clarence Rehl, age 19; Lon Stigney, age 14; Harold Tracey, age 17 and Burt Bingham.

Articles and pictures courtesy of retired librarian Judy Aunet with Superior Public Library.