Remember When

By Waupaca County Post Staff | July 29, 2010 | 0 comments

On a leap year, Feb. 29, 1920, Doctor Monstad delivered a baby boy in a Pearl Street apartment and hurried out to deliver a second baby. The first baby, Donald Quaintance, is able to recall a New London most of us don't know about. Here are some recollections from Don:

Doc Monstad had gone to the Zrenner home to deliver the second baby. The Zrenner's (sp?) family owned the brickyard at the time. It was located on what is now Hwy. 45 north, near the Hwy. 54 interchange. The ponds that you see today on the northwest side of the interchange are the location of where they dug clay for the brick making process. Don recalls working there for the Hocker's, who owned the brick yard years later.

As a boy, Don recalls the Freeman family lived on Spring Street, across from the Borden's plant (now Saputo) and Gordon and Tony Freeman were neighborhood friends of his. Their father (can't recall his name) was a plumber and he was in with the Zrenner (sp) family, who Don says ran a whiskey operation during the prohibition. Mr. Freeman would be called on when needed to take apart the Zrenner's illegal whiskey still and reassemble it in a different location, getting back to business the very next day.

In the 1970's, Don contributed some of his stories to Leona Mech for her history columns that were so popular with readers.

Don recalls the depression well. "We had fish traps under the Pearl Street Bridge when I was a young boy, and Percy Halverson used to fish off the bridge and sometimes get his hook caught on those traps. It was against the law to be using those traps, but in those days people tended to look the other way, knowing people had to eat." He said the Wolf River was their life line, and they ate catfish every day of the week in the summertime. "My uncle Charlie would pickle any suckers we caught. We'd eat sheep head too. It was a meal."

"Uncle Charlie and my dad and oldest brother worked at Hatten's saw mill." Don would sit on the bank of the Wolf for hours, watching logs getting plucked from the river and hoisted up to a wash and rinsing stage before entering the saw mill. While the men worked, the young boys would check fish traps set at the mouth of the Embarrass, so the men had fish to take home for dinner.

My friend Milt Schroeder was a wrestler at carnivals and one day he caught a catfish so big he could wrap it around his waist. He walked through the saw mill to show it off."

That friendship took Don to a boxing ring and punching bags situated above Manske's Tavern (Bree's In now?) There was a stove upstairs to heat the second story. Herb Thompson from Northport and Windy Thomas were boxers in town. (Windy's brother Ted has a toy factory in the 5th ward.)

"We'd box in Shiocton and Appleton. Our team had Jess Thomas as our manager. (Jess had a machine shop on Wolf River Avenue. A blacksmith worked in the building next to him, and Don recalls watching him shoe horses when Don was a very young boy.)

The boxing came in handy when Don enlisted in the military. "You had to play a sport; on Saturdays while in training camp, leisure time was spent playing ball or some sort, or boxing." Don would box anyone who would crawl in the ring with him. At 118 pounds he was the smallest man in the unit, and won the featherweight championship of the 59th Division. World Champion boxer Joe Lewis was a staff sergeant at the time, and presented Don with the featherweight trophy. He put on an exhibition and entertained the troops.

"After 72 days stationed in Holland with the British, I joined a boxing club and if I won I could end up in Madison Square Gardens. I was ready to box my way home when our unit was called into the Battle of the Bulge."