THE WAUPACA POST

March 12, 1992

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            Do you remember the date that Radio Station WDUX first went on the air?

            WDUX began broadcasting at 800 kilocycles and 500 watts of power from their studios in Waupaca and New London.  The resident manager in Waupaca was Tom Karavakes and Noel Franzin handled the duties at New London, and Allen Embury was the general manager of station WDUZ at Green Bay.

            The station went on the air each weekday at 5:30 a.m.  It seems as if they went off the air at sun-down.  They broadcasted the news, music programs and sports, including the Milwaukee Braves baseball games.

            The station personnel in Waupaca included Don Richards, Stewert Olson and John Olson as announcers, Helen Webb as secretary and receptionist; Robert F. Stange as newsman and continuity writer, and Garth Bowker was the chief engineer.

            You are right if you guessed that WDUX began broadcasting at 7 a.m., Sunday, April 29, 1956, from their studio above the Waupaca Abstract and Title Co., on South Main Street.

            On December 11, 1930, the Central Wisconsin Gas Company, Waupaca’s newest public utility, turned gas into the mains, and that evening some 20-odd homes were using gas to cook their evening meal.  A number of gas ranges and other appliances were being installed in other homes that week.

            The Central Wisconsin Gas Company started erecting their plant and laying the gas mains earlier in the fall.  The plant where the gas was manufactured was located north of Elm Street and just south of the Green Bay and Western railroad tracks.

            This was a small brick building of excellent construction according to the Waupaca County Post.  It housed the automatic machinery which turned the high grade distillate oil into gas.  When frist converted into gas the mixture was too rich for use as a fuel, so before it entered the gas mains it was mixed with air until the correct mixture was obtained.  The mixing process was done in a series of mixing tanks, all automatically controlled.  Five and one-half gallons of liquid gas were used to make 1,000 cubic feet of gas as it entered the mains.

            Just east of the building were three large tanks.  One tank had the capacity of 17,000 gallons of the liquid butane gas as it was delivered her by rail.  From this tank the gas was piped into a second tank where it was heated. This, in turn, was followed by more heat and air mixing.  Two motor-driven pumps located in the plant proper were used in the air mixing.  A third pump would start up automatically whenever the load became too heavy for the two pumps.

            Another 17,000 gallon tank contained a supply of prepared gas.  This was a 24-hour supply for emergency use, if trouble should develop at the plant.

            The plant was in the charge of James Ogletree, a young man who had the technical training and knowledge of the operation of automatic gas making machinery.  He had been with the company for several years, coming from Sparta.  The sales room and business office was located in the Lord building on North Main Street.  They are located today, 1992, at the same location at 211 North Main Street.

            Edwin Chandler was the local manager and was assisted with the clerical work by Miss Lota Wied.  The Central Wisconsin Gas Company had expectations that nearly 100 homes would be using gas for cooking and water heating before the summer months.

            Dan Carlson told me where to find the original brick building.  The tanks are gone and the brick building with some metal additions is boarded up.  Death due to natural gas.

            I apologize for omitting the name of Aileen Beth Christoph in the “When Then Was Now” that appeared in the Waupaca County Post, dated February 2, 1992.

            Many times I turn to obituaries for some of my information, and I realize that sometimes they are not complete.  I obtained the names of the two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Ted Christoph from their obituaries, but for some unknown reason, the obituaries for Mr. and Mrs. Ira Christoph stated that they had one daughter, Doris, and there was no mention of a deceased daughter.

            Now, since that article appeared, I have been asked by several people what happened to the other daughter, Aileen, who married Dr. Lawerence G. Patterson?  This prompted me to do some research to learn more about her.

            I first went through our records of the tombstones in the Waupaca cemetery, but found no Patterson names.  I knew that the Pattersons lived at one time in Arizona after leaving Waupaca, so I checked the obituaries from that state.  Here I found an obituary for Dr. Lawerence Patterson, but it showed Jeanette B. Whale as the surviving wife, and that they had moved to Arizona from Florida in 1971.

            So I turned to the obituaries from Florida.  Yes, here was Aileen Christoph Patterson.  Her obituary shows that she died November 14, 1956 at her home in Largo, FL, and she was buried in that city.

            Survivors were her husband, Dr. L.G. Patterson, a son Larry, her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ira Christoph, and a sister, Mrs. Ray (Doris) Sherrill of Decatur, GA.  The former Aileen B. Christoph was born in Neenah on November 11, 1918, and came to Waupaca with her parents when only a child.

            Her obituary did not mention when she was married to Dr. L.G. Patterson, so I went to the marriage record collection. In these records I found that Aileen Beth Christoph was united in marriage to Dr. Lawerence G. Patterson at the Neil Hotel in Waupaca on March 26, 1946.

            Rev. A.E. Tink of the Methodist church officiated, as the couple stood in front of the fireplace, in which a fire was burning.  Candles and pictures of the bride and groom reflected in the mirror above the fireplace.

            Today she lies buried in the southern city of Largo, FL, many miles from the place of her birth and the graves of her parents, who are buried in Waupaca Lakeside Cemetery.

            Another correction that I would like to make at this time are the names of the children of Asa W. and Phoebe B. Hollenbeck that appeared in the story about the Crystal Springs Bottling Works on February 2, 1992.

            I had found no record of where Asa Hollenbeck went after he sold his Crystal Springs Bottling Works in 1901 until I asked Mrs. Warren (Pat) Hollenbeck at the Waupaca Public Library a few days ago if her husband was by any chance related to Asa W. Hollenbeck.  It was at this point that I realized that I had not completed my homework, because she told me that Asa was a grandfather to her husband.  She went on to say that Mr. Hollenbeck moved to Neenah where he found employment in the foundry there.  From Neenah he moved to New Holstein.

            I searched farther, and found his obituary, which told me that he died on April 29, 1921, at his home at New Holstein, where he had lived for the past 10 years since leaving Neenah.  His body was brought back to Waupaca for burial.  A burial permit that was issued for Phoebe B. Hollenbeck showed that she died October 29, 1937, at Appleton, at the home of her daughter, Lynda, who never married.  She, too, is buried in the family plot here in Waupaca.