HISTORICAL MUSEUM RECEIVES GRANT

The Sawyer County Historical Society is the recipient of the Consolidated Papers Foundation History Grant in the amount of $5,000. The grant is to be used for capital improvements to the Museum building. The Society applied for the grant last summer. Consolidated Papers Foundation is located in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin.

The Board voted at the regular meeting to use the money for a new ceiling and new windows in the research room, a new second floor outside emergency landing, and lighting in the Prehistory exhibit in the basement. This grant will begin some of the needed changes in the building that were reviewed in the five year plan last month.

The goals of the Society are to find a way to heat the building economically so that we can use it all year. At this time we can only be open for twelve weeks in the summer. As of this month we will have to drain everything and remove everything that is damaged by cold. We can't use our office machines and it is very uncomfortable if we have to do research during the winter.

This grant will let us do some of the needed insulating upstairs and plan for heating in the future. We hope to be able to do some work upstairs yet this fall but the early cold snap is making it difficult to plan.

This last week I had an opportunity to go out to Jim and Becky Boyle's ranch on highway 77 to go on a horseback ride. Jim guided us out through the woods on a relatively short ride near the south side of Spider Lake on an old logging road. As we rode I watched the sun go down and felt the chill settle into my bones, numbing my hands and feet. I thought about the past when this was the normal mode of transportation about one hundred years ago. I think that people were more tolerant of the cold in those days, not keeping their homes as warm as we do and spending more time outdoors but a trip to town must have been an ordeal for families.

My dad used to tell me that he and his dad would rarely go to town and when they did it was an overnight trip. It took several hours to get to Hayward to pick up supplies. This didn't refer to going to one store, it entailed a trip to the general store for any clothes or mercantile items and then to another store for flour, sugar, spices, rice, salt and other staple cooking items. I don't know where they purchased lampoil. Another stop might be for grain for the animals.

I am wondering how you got your mail and newspapers a hundred years ago. Were there back issues? Did families in Sawyer County travel far to church on Sundays or did they plan to only go in the temperate months? Did women ride horses or did they customarily ride in wagons or buckboards? If men lived alone, did they bake their own bread? My dad used to talk about a woman down the road who gave him bread and sugar and that is why he enjoyed bread in milk with sugar as a meal. He never had sweets as a youngster because he lived alone with his father on the farm.

I have read many stories about living in the cities in that time period around the turn of the century, but how about some stories about homelife in the 1920's through the 1950's. Was there running water on your farm? Did you brush your teeth each morning? Did you have electric lights? How many pieces of clothing did you have? Did you ever feel deprived? What were your favorite things to do? Did your family hunt for meat? Did they grow their own animals for slaughter? Did your mom can food? How did the family store food in the wintertime?

I would really appreciate your help in making this lifestyle more understandable to young people. I am not just curious; this historical thinking helps people in times of crisis. Isn't it important to know that ice will last a really long time when it is packed in sawdust? How do you preserve food without a freezer or a nearby grocery store? Could you share your memories?