Flagstaff01

 

Waupaca Republican Post

July 22, 1926

 

Flagstaff Removed >From Court House; Was Erected In 1882

 

            Peter Brozil of this city and his son-in-law, Jack Bennett, of Oshkosh, were employed to cut down the flagstaff from Waupaca court house, Tuesday.  The cedar staff, thirty-six feet long and eight inches square at the base and tipped with a hollow copper globe twenty inches in diameter, had stood in place since the completion of the court house in 1882.

            The staff was in good state of preservation except at the base where woodpeckers had cut out pieces of the wood and swallows had taken possession of these excavations.  Mr. Fredricksen, caretaker of the court house, was first to notice that the top of the staff swayed in the wind and he advised that it be examined as it might do very serious damage if permitted to fall to the ground.  The pole was sawed into four parts, the first cut being thirty feet from the base.  The upper portion was tied to the portion just below so that the top portion was held until it could be taken down safely.  Two more cuts were made in like manner and the job was completed, all for a stipulated price of $60.

            In looking up county records it was found that the job of erecting the building was taken by A.M. Melcher of New London, his bid of $14,425 being the lowest of several offers to furnish all material and build the main portion of the building.  It is quite likely that furnishing and erecting the staff did not net Mr. Melcher as many dollars as it did the gentlemen who performed the necessary task of removing this extension of the tower that had weathered the blasts of forty-five winters.