THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

May 21, 1992

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            The Larsen name is one that is well remembered and respected in the Waupaca area. I’ll start back a few generations in Denmark, with Ole Larsen, who was a farmer there, and had spent some time in the Danish Army during the campaign in the West Indies.  Ole Larsen had a family of seven children, four of whom – Peter, Andrew, Maggie and Lars S. – lived to immigrate with their parents to America in 1860.

            Lars S. Larsen was born near the City of Holbeck, Island of Sjeland, Denmark, November 14, 1857.

            Upon their arrival in the Town of Waupaca, the Larsens were only the second Danish family to settle there. They remained in the Town of Waupaca only for five years before moving to the Town of Lind, where for the following 15 years Ole Larsen supervised the farm of his son-in-law.  Ole Larsen then moved into Waupaca, where this pioneer died on November 26, 1885.  His wife, Ane Marie Larsen, died April 6, 1882. They are buried in the Waupaca Cemetery.

            Lars S. Larsen, the youngest son of Ole and Ane Larsen, attended the district schools of Lind Township until the age of 14.  Young Lars then hired out as a farm laborer for the next two years.  He saved his money and it went towards the purchase of a home for his parents, in Waupaca.  When 17 years of age he began working in the woods in the wintertime and worked in the sawmills during the summer.  He followed this life for three years.  It was during this time that he severely injured a hand on a saw.  He was very athletic as a young man; weighing only 175 pounds, he was strongest in the gang of 17 lumbermen.

            Lars S. Larsen was married in December 1876 to Nicalena Andersen, also a native of Denmark.  After the marriage, he rented a farm in the Town of Lind, and worked it for three years.

            It was by mere accident that he was directed to the butchering business.  He had five head of cattle for sale, and could not find a buyer.  It was in sheer desperation that he killed the animals and sold the meat, and made a nice profit.  He then bought more cattle and disposed of them in the same way.

            The following spring he bought four 40s of unimproved land.  This he cleared in the summer months and did his butchering in the winter.  After four years he sold the farm and moved to Waupaca, and worked in a butcher shop for a year; then in 1884, he went into business for himself.  He was the senior member of the firm of Larsen and Yosham.  It became Larsen and Pope, and Larsen then sold out to John Gordon, the business becoming Gordon and Pope.  A picture from 1900 shows the sign in the window, “City Market Gordon and Pope.”  This is the same location that later became Behnke’s, the Homstor, Erv Nicolaisen and Clair Matson’s, City Food Market and Fredrickson’s Red Owl Agency, and lastly – Team Outfitters, at 214 South Main Street.

            Lars S. Larsen and his wife, Nicalene, had the following children:  Carrie M., Charles, Fred, Oscar, Emma, Marie, Eva and Jessie.  Lars had been ward policeman for several years, and was Chief of Police for seven terms.  He died in 1914 and his wife, who was called Lena, died in 1910.  They are buried in the Waupaca Cemetery.

            From there, I will branch out, only to the three sons, Charles, Fred and Oscar, not that the sisters were not important, but because the men were more closely involved with the ice business in Waupaca.

            The Larson Ice Company was first started by Hans Benlick, who had married Margaret (Maggie) Larsen, who was a sister to Lars S. Larsen.  About 1898, after operating the ice business for a few months, Mr. Benlick sold out to his brother-in-law, Lars S. Larsen.  I would presume that when Mr. Larsen took over the ice business, his three young sons worked for him until his death in 1914, at which time Oscar and Fred took over the ice business, with Oscar as the senior partner, and Charlie followed the butchering business, working for McLean’s Meat Market for many years.

            I found an ad in a 1908 Waupaca newspaper for Larson and Son listing ice prices for the season from May 1 to October 15, 1908:  family refrigerator per season, dropped $5; family refrigerators, per season boxed $7; family refrigerator per month, dropped $1.25; family refrigerators per month, boxed $1.50; family refrigerators 3 or 4 times a week, boxed $1.25, and meat markets, hotels, restaurants and saloons, special contract.

            A newspaper ad for January 15, 1931 called it the Oscar Larson, Mirror Lake Ice Company.  From April 23, 1932:  “Oscar Larson purchased a new pair of greys, one of ht prettiest teams that you ever saw, to deliver ice with.  They weigh 4040 pounds, one was 20 pounds lighter than the other.  They were matched both for color and gait.”

            By now you will notice that the spelling of Larsen changed to Larson since the sons had taken over.

            Charles (Charlie) Larson was born in the Town of Lind, June 15, 1878, and was married to Jessie Carolyn Hansen, on December 29, 1921.  They had two children, Kenneth and Bernice.  Charlie Larson died January 20, 1947.  Mr. Larson was always actively interested in outdoor sports, particularly in trap and sharp shooting, and was an enthusiastic bicyclist.

            On July 25, 1918, the Waupaca area trap shooters carried away the top honors at the trap shooter’s tourney at Wausau, Charles Larson winning the state championship by breaking 99 out of a possible 100 birds, and the Waupaca team of Dr. P.C. Ware, H.E. Gordon, Charles Larson, Fred Larson and Oscar Larson won the state five-man championship.  The Waupaca men came home loaded down with silver trophies, medals and cash prizes.

            Charles Larson represented the state at the National Tourney at Chicago, August 21 to 28, 1918.  The Grand American Handicap was the premier shooting event of the world, and it was won by our Charles Larson, of Waupaca, over 798 competitors from all over the country.  Many records were set that were said to stand for years at the South Shore Country Club Traps at Chicago.  Charles Larson had to beat Mark Arie of Thomasboro, Ill., in a shoot-off for first place.  Mr. Larson won by a score of 135 to 133.

            The last day’s shoot-off was held under poor conditions.  It was breezy and a light drizzle fell.  Larson was then 38 years of age, being the youngest man in the competition.  He won $782.40 cash in addition to a beautiful set of sterling silver.

            Fred J. Larson was born September 1, 1881, and married Kate Burgoyne of the Town of Belmont, Portage County, September 4, 1922. They had one child, Doris Irene.  Fred J. Larson died October 10, 1941.  Fred J. Larson was a noted hunter and fisherman, and loved his guns.  Here is a memorial written by Erle Whipple, called “The Fisherman’s Guide.”

He was not a humble fishing guide, but a noble man,

who spoke with properly modest pride, of his

descendants on his father’s side, from the Danish clan.

The forest was his home, his church and his all.

The birds, the leaves, a waterfall performed at his will in his music hall.

He had garnered prodigious stores of knowledge in days

ago, as he thrilled to the rhythm of swishing oars,

and smelled the pancakes cooking outdoors at the early crack of dawn.

O, may there be lakes and morning dew, and all

of the beloved woods creatures, wild skies of blue.

Arbutus and pines, yes, and fishing too,

where Fred has gone.

            Oscar Larson was born April 11, 1882, and died April 13, 1944.  He was married to Mary Elizabeth Gibbons on October 23, 1907.  They were the parents of four children:  Gordon, Harriette, Marjorie and Arlene, who died at the age of two years.  All of the previously mentioned Larson familes are buried in the Waupaca Cemetery.

            The Larson Ice Company, that was owned and operated by members of the Larson families for nearly 60 years, was sold to William E. Feathers, who operated it for some time. It was during this period of time that Joe Naylor was Mr. Feather’s key man in his feed, seed, potato and coal operations.  The Marion Olson coal yard was then operated by Mr. Feathers.  Joe Naylor told me that they used to wash the sawdust from the ice at the coal yard before delivery.  By now, home delivery of ice was a thing of the past, and ice was used primarily to ice railroad cars in the summertime and early fall potato shipments.

            On January 2, 1946 Tom Gunderson and his wife Marjorie purchased the ice business from Mr. Feathers, and operated the business until December 13, 1955, when Tom Gunderson was killed in a car-truck accident.  He had been born September 12, 1911, in the Town of Farmington, to Gunder and Bessie Salverson Gunderson.  It was on February 2, 1934, that Tom Gunderson was married to Marjorie L. Pope, and to them two sons, Jack and Larry, were born.

            After the death of his father, Jack took over the ice business.  A year or so later, Jack dismantled the old Larson ice house on the north shores of Mirror Lake, and moved one half of it to Manawa, where he put up ice to ice railroad cars for the Sturm Company.

            This ended in about 1959, and the old ice house was burnt down, so all that remains of the old Larson ice house are its memories, except that there stands a plaque near the original ice house location that reads:  “This land has been donated by Marjorie Gunderson, in Memory of Tom Gunderson, September 1973,” and on the ice house site stands an abandoned city well.

            Marjorie L. Gunderson was a nurse at the Wisconsin Veterans Home when she passed away on June 21, 1982.  Mr. and Mrs. Gunderson are both buried in the Waupaca Memorial Park.