Historically Speaking - By Andi Marple Wittwer

ALL ROADS LEAD TO HAYWARD

Coincidence or is it destiny? Today I pulled out my dad’s old swivel chair that he sat in for hours doing his articles and genealogy. I sat down in it thinking about his life and the old times.

My dad owned a landscaping business in Illinois in the 50’s and his goal was to run away back home as often as possible while mom, my two sisters and I spent much of the summers in Hayward to avoid the awful heat in Illinois. In 1957 he retired to Hayward.

Today I got a call from a man in Mundelein, Il. because I was the daughter of that historian, Mr. Marple. He contacted a man in Hayward who had the same name as someone in his past who remembered that one of the Marple girls still lived around here and kinda stepped into her dad’s shoes.

Steve Kovac is looking for his aunt, Margery Snell Kosterec who would be about 80 years old now. Margery was raised in Hayward by her parents whose name is Snell. She married Steve’s uncle Bill Kosterec who was a WWII veteran, and they moved to Illinois. Their teenaged daughter was killed in an accident there in 1957 and they were divorced shortly thereafter. The family lost contact with Margery after she apparently moved to Milwaukee but she may have come back to Hayward.

The only clues to finding the family is that Margery’s parents lived in Hayward and raised 4 children of their other daughter’s who would now be in their fifties. Grampa Snell was a dam-keeper and fishing guide. Bill Kosterec passed away but the family remembers that a close friend of his was named Jim Banks and that he owned a hardware store in Hayward. Young Jimmie Banks went to school with my older brothers and sisters and grew up just two forties down from our farm.

Steve Kovac wants to reunite his family and hopefully find his aunt. If you can help you can contact me at our website www.sawyercountyhist.org or call 634-3075 and I will contact Steve. (Under Stanger than real I wrote back to Steve to get approval on my story and come to find out, he raced cars in the racetrack next to the trailer court where we lived in Waukegan and remembers it! All roads lead to Hayward!)

The following is one of those terrific webhits that I love to get and I will store this one at the Society for the future.

Re: A Wonderful Evening by Tony Welch

To Mrs. Wittwer and Mr. Dettloff: Thank you for the great evening read (as in "reed") vis-a-vis the Hayward web page. Your wonderful stories put me atop a barstool in Herman's Landing, a boy of l2 again. Living away from Wisconsin for 45 years now, I began returning in the late l970's and never failed to depart for home (Oregon) with a couple copies of Trail Blazer tucked in my suitcase. One of Eldon's stories about Lost Land Lake (in that magazine) inspired me to do more research, resulting in a piece for Wisconsin Sportsmen magazine titled: "The Legend of Lost Land Lake." Our family members (Eau Claire) were habitues of Ross' Teal Lake Resort, but all of the Hayward area was fair game and fair play. In l952 my dad landed a 38# muskie out of Hermanns and Tony Burmek (sp?) was the guide. They went to the Hayward paper, hustled a photographer outside, and had their picture taken together with the fish. Later, Burmek started a muskie lure company (which I understand still exists) and the lure's packaging graphics show Tony holding the fish -- but with my pop cut out of the picture! And just this summer, July 6, at age 65, I caught my first legal muskie on Lake Namekagon -- not with the bucktail I'd been throwing all day (Bengay to the rescue) but with a l2-inch walleye that the muskie wanted while I was reeling it in on an ultra-lite and 8-lb test line. And as for being in good company: the Welch males (father, son, and grandson, all with the same names) are inscribed together on the wall of the stairwell leading to the Muskie's Mouth (Fishing Hall of Fame)-- immediately following none other than the illustrious Louis Spray. I guess some of his luck must have rubbed off on me that July day. Again, thank you both for a touchy-feely evening; it was almost like being there. With kindest regards. Tony Welch

Re: A Wonderful Evening by Tony Welch

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