Gustave Neumann was born in 1859 in Bronberg, Germany. When he was about 25 years old, in 1884, he came to Stevens Point. He bought 86 acres of wild land in the town of Carson, east of Elm Drive and Dave’s Lane on the north, near Mill Creek. When he had saved some money, he sent for his girlfriend, Ida Fritz, whom he had left in West Preuson, Germany. She came to the United States with her mother and older sister. They were very disappointed to find a wild country and to live in a log house. They had left a much better home and city living in Germany.
They got married on Aug. 4, 1888. To this union 12 children were born; nine survived. One son, Henry Neumann, 82, is still living in Luck.
They cleared land and grew potatoes to sell to the potato dealers in Junction City. They also sold milk to the cheese factory and cream for butter. They made ice on Mill Creek to sell to the icehouses in Junction City. Then they borrowed money to build a new house and bigger barn from a lady in Milladore.
The seven growing children had to walk four miles to school in Junction City and six miles to catechism and church at the Lutheran Church on the corner of Highway 34 and Oak Road, town of Carson.
Ida Fritz was born on July 4, 1870. On coming to the U.S.A., she found it was a national holiday. The whole family would always get together to celebrate her birthday by making real ice cream as they had their own cream and ice. They also had a large apple orchard and big garden.
Then they built a school closer by, Cary School, for the younger children to go to. One of their sons, Paul, went to North Dakota when he was 23 to work in the wheat fields. He got spinal meningitis and died in 1924.
Then the Depression came in 1930. Gustave died at age 72. After working all these years, he still had debts and couldn’t pay this lady her money, so she foreclosed on Grandma and took her farm. So Ida and two sans moved to Wausau to start a new life. At 62, her legs were crippled and she could hardly walk. She died at the age of 79 in 1944.
Her mother lived with them on the farm for 26 years, dying in 1914. I was 4 years old. I can still remember her lying on her bed dead. She was 79.
Of 27 grandchildren, there are 20 living.
I am the oldest grandchild of the oldest daughter. I am 82 years old.
Submitted by
Irma (Buelow) Bulgrin
2787 Victory Road
Junction City
One of my great-great-grandfathers, Thomas Newby, born in England in 1794, found the system in England completely against his ideas. He knew under the system there that he would never make much progress. He migrated to America believing that was the answer.
Because it was easier to get into the ports in Canada than the United States, he landed in Nova Scotia as a young man. He married Deborrah West and had nine children. They traveled across Canada toward Toronto, always hoping to find a better life. Upon hearing about the Peace Treaty in Wisconsin between the Indians and the United States, they decided they probably could afford property in Wisconsin.
They entered the U.S. at Detroit and arrived in Wisconsin in 1849. Land was purchased in Buena Vista and they proceeded to “log it off” and clear land with oxen and whatever means available. No matter how desperate the times, they decided to make Wisconsin home.
Another great-great-grandfather, Peter Geemes, purchased property in 1853 in the town of Plover, near where the Boston School Forest now stands.
By this time, my great-grandfather William Newby purchased 500 acres in the same area, including property where the Boston School Forest is.
My Aunt Bertha Hodgden and Grandmother Katie lived when I was a child. I could always go to them for TLC as my mother had passed away when I was 3 years old.
All the original property is now owned by others - it grows great potatoes, I’m told. I do believe I’m the only relative who has any of the property that was originally owned by Nelson Newby or Peter Geemes.
Submitted by
Fern Newby Leavett
5320 Lincoln Ave.
Plover
Joseph Printz was born in April, 1835, in Czersk, Poland. He was married to Magdaline Glinski, who was born in May of 1840, also of Czersk, Poland. They came to America about the year 1880. They originally settled in Milwaukee where Joseph worked at a brewery.
It took them nine weeks to cross the ocean. After a time, they moved to a farm, nine miles north of Stevens Point. They had several children, some of whom were killed during the war in Poland. Two surviving children, Anton and Magdaline, came to America with their parents.
Anton was born May 10, 1878, in Czersk, Poland. After farming with his parents, he grew up and met and married Frances Miller, daughter of John Miller and Michaleana Libera on Nov. 17, 1902. Frances was born Sept. 16, 1885.
Anton and Frances raised a family of 10 children. They are: Peter (Mary Trzebiatowski), Steve (Verna Cekosh), Frank (Josephine Bialas), Gen (Al Bemowski), Gertrude died at a young age, Theodore died in 1948, Victor died in 1988, Victoria (Ted Prodzenski), Helen (Andrew Gollon) and Mary (Joseph Klopotek.)
Joseph died March 18, 1911, and Magdaline died Sept. 1912. They are buried at St. Casimir cemetery in the town of Hull. Anton died June 15, 1952, and Frances died Jan. 18, 1960. They are both buried in the cemetery at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church in Fancher.
Submitted by
Lucille (Printz) Poeschel
1900 Gilkay St.
Stevens Point
Martin Pendergast, from Kilkenny, Ireland, was born in 1820 and died in 1886. Catherine Halloran Pendergast, from County Clare, Ireland, was born in 1833 and died in 1909.
He studied for the priesthood in Ireland. He left because of his health. He was then trained for the shoemaker business; they made the whole shoe in those days. When first coming to thin country, the group of boys would go up and down to the towns on the Hudson River in the East making shoes.
Martin Pendergast remained in the shoemaker business in Stevens Point. During the Civil War, he made boots for Civil War soldiers.
The house on Water Street was their second home. The old house the Pendergasts lived in was at 2101 Water St.
Wisconsin became a state in 1848. The Pendergast family settled here in early 1856.
This information was compiled by Ruth Pendergast. She was born Aug. 3,1900. She resides in the old homestead in Ashland.
From the East, Martin Pendergast went to Ohio, working in Cincinnati as a shoemaker, then going to London, Ohio. He traveled with a young man named Halloran. Halloran and his sister came to America. She married Martin Pendergast in London, Ohio, soon after coming here.
In 1858, Martin Pendergast and wife, with two children, Pat, 2 years old, and Mary, 6 months old, went to Stevens Point to live.
They first settled on a farm near the Wisconsin River in Stevens Point. (A railroad now goes in front of the place. The location is now called Wood Street.) This was farmland when the Pendergasts bought it. Now a railroad track is in front of it and houses are arranged like on a city street. This was the location of the Pendergasts’ first home in Stevens Point in 1856.
Compiled by
Ruth Pendergast
Ashland