This Month in History
July
The following material was compiled by Gerald Neath for the Oregon Area Historical Society from material published in the Oregon Observer.
1915 (100 years ago)

The Village of Oregon was accepting bids for the construction of a concrete bridge across the ditch on Spring Street. Plans for the project could be viewed at W. R. Bentley’s Garage.Dr. F. C. Meloy, who had been practicing dentistry in Milwaukee has now moved to Oregon and has opened an office in the J. P. Connor building.

Owners of automobiles were warned about leaving their vehicles running while filling their tanks with gasoline. A quote from the paper states: “As a result of filling auto tanks while the motor was running several cars have been destroyed by fire all over the country. Circulars have been sent out by the Standard Oil Co., not to deliver gasoline to cars unless the owner stops the motor.”

Road work. Wm. Kelley and his crew of road builders moved their machinery from Cambridge to Oregon and are getting ready to macadamize Main, Janesville, and West streets in the village. Their crusher was installed in Morton Peterson’s gravel pit. The material will be hauled from there. Road improvement costs will be about $4,500.

Oscar W. Johnson, a Buick dealer in Brooklyn, advertised that he had a 1913, five passenger Studebaker touring car for sale. It had been recently repainted and was equipped with a Prestolite tank, a speedometer, electric horn and tail light and had been driven about 7500 miles.

The tenant house on the Wesley Custer farm, NE of the village, occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Hanson, burned to the ground. The fire was caused by the explosion of a gasoline stove. It burned so rapidly that only two chairs and a library table was saved.

About 25 electors attended the annual school district meeting. J. S. Cusick was reelected district treasurer. Nine months of school for the coming year was approved along with $4000 school taxes to be levied for expenses. The clerk was voted a salary of $50.00 and it was unanimously voted to discontinue the agricultural course. The clerk reported that there were 213 children of school age in the district and of that number 193 were in the village and 20 in that part of the district outside the village.

The Bank of Oregon encouraged people to use checking accounts to pay their bills.; describing it as “The Modern Method”. Quoted:. “Place your account with our bank and whenever bills need attention affix your signature to a check and put it in the mail and the operation is complete.”

1965 (50 years ago)

An Air Force F-102 fighter jet from Truax Field in Madison crashed into an open field near the Ray Outhouse salvage yard east of the Village. The pilot was able to safely parachute from the plane.

The facilities of the former W. J. Lumber Company has been over by a new corporation. The secretary of the new corporation and new manger of the lumber company is Lester Crotty of Oregon. The name of the business will be The Oregon Lumber Company.

F. E. “Steve” Madsen sold his interest in the Waterfall Restaurant to Mr. and Mrs. David Brown. Mr. and Mrs. Oren Otteson, partners of Madsen and the parents of Mrs. Brown, will continue as partners in the business.

The girls’ softball league’s season is in full swing. Members of Oregon’s Team #2 were Judy Smith, Fran Noyce, Sherry Navis, Merna Brown, Betty Hoffland, Gwenn Champion, Pat Pasell, Bonnie Wegger, Chris Baumgartner, and Linda Woodward. Their sponsor was Richard Noyce Oil Co. and their manager,Stan Wegger.

Oregon’s outdoor municipal swimming pool is open for the season. The life guards for the season are Andy Anderson, John Churchill, Jan Kingery, Corky Hansen, and head lifeguard, Ann Nason.

Approximately 120 elementary students and 35 high school students attended summer classes. The district expressed hopes of expanding the programs next year.

The Chamber of Commerce sponsored “Carnival Days”. A Maxwell Street Day, held in the business district of the village, started the three day event. That day “The Traveling Auctioneers”, Harry Mullikin and Wayne Albertson and their crews, conducted activities throughout the business district. One of the specials Lappley Chevrolet advertised was a 1957 Ford 4-door, 8-cylinder Automatic for the low price of $29.95. The ad ended with the comment, “and it Runs!” The Sammy Eggum Band played for the community dance Saturday night. One of the features of the Sunday parade was the St. Matthias Drum and Bugle Corps of Milwaukee.

“The Fugitives”, a local rock ‘n roll group, win the right to audition for the famous Ted Mack Amateur Hour after winning several preliminary contests and the talent contest at the Stoughton Fair. Members of the group were Bill Pierce, John Rhyner, Diane Lien, George Wallace, Nancy Lien, Dave Hallett, Jim Bossingham, and Dick Garvoille.

Hubert Schroeder of the village and Leo Buchner of the Town of Fitchburg are newly elected to the Oregon School District Board. They join the other five members of the board; Ruth T. Ames (Oregon); Cletus Byrne (Brooklyn), Tom Grady, (Town of Oregon) John Black (Village of Oregon), and Milo Schneider (Town of Dunn).

1990 (25 years ago)

Thirty-five students were enrolled in the Classroom/Behind the Wheel Driver Educations Classes. Mrs. Sonja Olstad teaches the class with Tim Marshall assisting in the driving phase of the course.

Matt Marshall and Blayne Outhouse are recipients of the State FFA Degree. They were presented with their awards at the FFA State Convention in Green Lake.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the future site of the new Hillcrest Bible Church on East Netherwod Road. Those participating in the ceremony were James Buckley (deacon); Don Bartelt (deacon); Ron Anderson (deacon); Erling Linnerud (deacon) and Pastor Scott Ziegler.

New playground equipment is installed at the Oregon Middle School, replacing the wooden structures that had been there for the past 15 years. The equipment from the Gerber Co. cost $17,000. Some of the PTO members and volunteers that helped install the equipment were Dan Schanke, Debbie Schanke, John Heenan, Jim Jordan, Bill Ryan, Sue Ryan, Dan Sweaney, ,Cheryl Sweaney, and Dr. Ed Guziewski.

Oregon’s Home Talent Baseball team wins over Deerfield 21-0. The game was called after 5 innings. The team manager, Denny Johnson, noted that the team had 15 hits including six home runs during the 5 innings. Contributing to the lopsided victory were Steve Zach, Paul Speth, Bruce Ricker, Curt Leitzen, Mike Kissing, and Jeff Breitbach. The team continues thru the month with 5 wins and no losses.

Tucker’s Inn (a restaurant formally located at the site of Cross Plains Bank) was purchased by Mary Haas and renamed DiMaggio’s. It will be featuring Italian specialties.

The Annual School District Meeting authorized the purchase of property for two new school sites; 24 acres of land west of Co. Hwy. MM, adjacent to the Autumn woods subdivision and 15 acres on the Riese homestead located of the future connector between Burr Oak and Perry Parkway.

2005 (10 years ago

Lindsay Bingham was chosen as a State Finalist in the National American Miss Wisconsin Pageant.

The 3,000 acres of the Brooklyn State Wildlife Area has been made possible by hours of volunteer work. There were over 2,000 volunteer hours of work during the past year. The area includes five miles of the Ice Age Trail. Regular volunteers were Dan Wallace, volunteer organizer, John Wallace, John and Anne Helsley, Gretle Dentine, Jon Bishop, Mark Jeffries, and Mike and Nancy Dorl.

Members of the Oregon FFA Agronomy Career Development Event; Brad Shotliff, Brian Shotliff, Chris Uphoff and Alan Hady,, won the team event at the state convention.

The Oregon Village Board granted a conditional user permit for Milligan’s Pub and Restaurant to be located at 830 Oregon Center Drive.

Oregon and Fitchburg signed an agreement to develop a land use plan that would hopefully lead in the future to a joint business park.

Six OHS Seniors received their child care teacher certificates from the Wis. Dept. of Instruction. The recipients were Emily LaVoy, Heidi Riese, Sara Bradley, Danielle Grace, Claire Fenner and Ashlie Gara.

Maggie Schmelzer, president of the Oregon Youth Center’s board of directors, put out a plea for more volunteers in order to continue the center’s operations.

The U-19 Oregon Crush Soccer Team win the 2005 U-19 Youth Soccer Badger State Games Championship. Members of the team were Kory Raisbeck, Matt Gehn, Nick Frautschy, Aksel Johannessen,Adam VerKuilen, Andrew Krenz, Steve Halford, Will Frain, Jamies Hagstrom, Kevin Krenz, Pat Swailes, John Gasner, Derek Breidenbach, Jordan Tway, Kyle Stephens, Jake Kneebone, Jason Howards, Drew Thompson and Pat Mixdorf. Kevin Gasner was their coach and Dave Gasner the manager.

The Oregon 15-year-old Teener 1 baseball team win the championship at the Waterloo Tournament. Members of the team were Brock Fritz, Logan Potter, Lyle Mulvihill, Jeff Lund, Drew Nelson, Matt Webber, Alex Johnson, Alex Weber, Danny Gratz, Mike Caruso, Jake Hustad, Sky Debilzen, Brad Riss, Aaron Nelson and Colin Crim. The coaches were Chris Fahey and Kerry Steinagel.


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