100 YEARS AGO (1921)
C.A. Hanan, W. J. Bossingham, and W. L. Ames attended a trustee meeting Tuesday of the County Fair Board. They report creditable improvements for the coming fair, August 23-26, including 100 feet more grandstand, a new building for swine, much new fencing, better gate facilities, and other improvements. All indications point to a record-breaking exposition.
Rev. and Mrs. Frank Nelson’s household goods have arrived here from Canada. Rev. and Mrs. Nelson went to Maine to visit before taking up their residence here.
Recipe of the week: Sardine Hors d’ Oeuvre: Cut Boston brown bread into rounds. Cut out a thin round one eight of an inch from the edge. Fill this open space between the two with sardines, skinned and boned. Season with lemon juice, salt and paprika, and Worcestershire sauce mixed together. Salt a slice of hard-cooked egg at the center and a row of capers around the edge.
Mr. and Mrs. George Dreher, Mr. and Mrs. Will Kelley, Ray Williamson, Clyde Powers, and Frankie Powers spent Sunday at Lake Waubesa at the Fincher cottage.
Big Double Circus has Vast Program – The announcement that at the far-famed Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows are to exhibit at Madison Tuesday, August 16, has aroused no end of interest. It would seem as though practically all the youngsters and grown-ups in this section were planning to attend!
Step into the Cornelia De Jean Millinery Shop Friday, August 26, and see the latest things in headwear. All the latest models for fall wear. Miss De Jean has just returned from the city where she did purchasing and will gladly show you all the latest styles in hats.
At the Scout meeting last Wednesday evening Joseph Campion was elected patrol leader of the Eagle patrol.
Mrs. Blanche Wackman is at the Waukesha sanitarium resting and receiving help for rheumatic trouble. Miss Mabel Alsop is caring for her son Kenneth during her absence.
TIMELINE 50 YEARS AGO (1971)
Acting Police chief Dick Sorenson met with the Village Board and reported on a study made of necessary stop signs in the village. He showed that the study reveals that 20 new stop signs are needed in the village, on all necessary open streets, plus 19 yield signs. Village attorney Tom Brown was instructed to prepare, for the record, an ordinance to cover the new stop signs in the village as well as all the present ones.
Also from the Village Board: A letter from the library board was read which commended Syl Farris for the valuable assistance given in the remodeling of the new library.
Field Biology at Summer School. A preserved plants book was the major group project of the Field Biology Workshop, and an insect collection of 30 different species of insects was the primary individual project during the Oregon Summer School. Highlights of the workshop were field trips to the University of Wisconsin greenhouses to observe plant variety and plant research, and trips to the Poynette Game Farm and the Madison Trout Fish Hatchery to observe management principles. The tree farm owned by Donald Griffith provided the group with an area for plant and insect collection.
Edward Guziewski is named new Middle School Principal – He will assume his duties as of August 16. He is presently the acting principal of the Union Grove Middle School, Union Grove, WI.
Shirley Annette Anderson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Anderson became the bride of Dennis D Erfurth, Oregon, in a double ring, candlelight ceremony at the Community United Methodist Church in Brooklyn on August 7, 1971. This was the second time in a month Mr. Anderson accompanied a daughter down the aisle!
Drs. Dennis and Lynda Farrar entered into the practice of Optometry with Dr. M. J. Wischhoff Jr. in Oregon. The Drs. Farrar lived in Chicago before moving here.
The House of Home Fashion furniture store in Oregon (where Sonny’s is now) fell victim to high winds Sunday. Howard Zink of the firm says that only the prompt action by the Oregon Fire Department saved much of the valuable furniture from being damaged. The fire department arrived on the scene and threw up tarpaulin protection.
German Quintero from Pereira, Columbia will be Oregon’s AFS student this year. While in Oregon, German is making his home with the Gordon Bentley family.
The first JC Bed Race will be held on September 5th. The course will run from Oregon to Brooklyn and various checkpoints and booths will be set up along the way. A full meal will be set up at the end of the race.
Douglas Strander, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Strander is now in his new position as head supply clerk at Cam Rahn Bay, South Viet Nam.
TIMELINE 25 YEARS AGO (1996)
The Oregon Straw Hat Players will continue its run this weekend at the Oregon High School. The authentic costumes, beautiful set, exciting lighting, and truly musical orchestra bring the sights and sounds of Scotland to life.
Oregon School board is expected to appoint village resident David Hansey as the panel’s newest member after Todd Bavery resigned last week to take a job out of state.
Two Oregonians get county appointments: Arlen Kay has been appointed to a three-year term on the Dane County Board of Adjustments. Also joining the halls of county government – although not yet confirmed by the Board at this time – is Dave Gochberg as a member of the Dane County Regional Planning Commission. Gochberg’s rise to the DCRPC doesn’t come as an appointment but rather through a race among three candidates chosen by the 19 villages within the county.
The Grand Opening of the Main Moon Chinese Restaurant will be on August 1st. Main Moon will be located in the Oregon Shopping Plaza. (now known as Moonstar and located across Main Street from the Shopping Plaza.)
Notable Obituary – Charles Cell, age 55 died on July 29th from Cancer. Chuck was one of the founders of Oregon’s Senior Living project, Rolling Meadows Homes, Inc. Also during the past 15 years he was president of Genesis Housing, secretary-treasurer of Oregon Rotary Foundation, president of Oregon’s Summer Fest, coach and judge for the Oregon High School mock trial team, received the Paul Harris Fellow award from the Oregon Rotary Club in 1995 and was the Oregon Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business Person of the Year in 1994.
Danny Stone of Oregon participated in his first state-wide archery tournament on July 13-14 and took home top honors. The event was held in LaCrosse. Danny participated in the 11 and under age group.
“Say it ain’t so Tom” – The anchor of the Panther football defensive program, coordinator Tom Mueller has decided to call it quits. After being involved in the program for some 30 years, Mr. Mueller is handing down the baton to a new line of coaches. Tom coached through four decades and three head coaches. (Erv Kissling, Cal Calloway, and Bob Prahl).
Badger State Champs – Jared Faust, Jared Weidner, Phillip Hanson, and Casey Mapes won first place at Badger State Games for their squirt roller hockey action. All four are Oregon elementary students.
Lance Reisen has been selected as the 1995-96 MAYSA Youth Referee of the Year. (MAYSA is Madison Youth Soccer Association. Lance has played soccer for 11 years and has played high school soccer for 2 years. In the summer he is a member of the Lombardino’s select team and donates his referee time for Special Olympics soccer in Oregon every year.
TIMELINE 10 YEARS AGO (2011)
Residents of Oregon earned new bragging rights this week when the village cracked a list of America’s 100 best small towns for families. Oregon was ranked 99th among communities with 8,500 – 50,000 people in this year’s CNN/Money Magazine 2011 “Best Places to Live” report.
Organizers of the development converted Rolling Meadows Homes, Inc. to a cooperative, ending a financial crisis by dissolving the nonprofit corporation that established the 66-unit housing neighborhood on Oregon’s south side in the early 1990s and replacing it with the co-op.
After extended discussion, the Village Board unanimously accepted its $250,000 county grant for building a bicycle trail that will connect the village to the Capital City Trail in Fitchburg. it is a matching grant, dependent on the total cost of the proposal, which is expected to be about $600,000 and a completion date of December 2013.
The Village Board voted unanimously to apply for a Dane County grant to begin fixing up the old water tower and pump house.
The Chamber of Commerce will be moving its offices from Oregon Community Bank and Trust on North Main Street to the Village Hall later this year.
‘Local Control” wins out in radio tower denial. Last Thursday, despite pleas from area mayors, superintendents, and emergency officials, the Dane County Board of Supervisors voted 28-3 to block Tomah-based Magnum Communications Inc.’s efforts to build a communication tower on 15 acres in rural Rutland.