| Notes |
Married:
- Celebrate Wedding Anniversary
On Nov. 12, 1936, Mr. and Mrs. Eckart celebrated the 60th anniversary of their wedding. It was the same year, January 22, just 60 years before, that Mr. Eckart came to this section. He came to The Journal office that day with the story of his experiences, which was published in the Journal. It is such a vivid picture of the life of this pioneer and of the early days of Antigo that we are going to republish the story at this time, It follows:
On January 22, 1876 Mr. Deleglise and myself came to the wild woods, what the Indians called Antigo, but Mr. Deleglise called it Spring Brook. Later when it became a village, Mr. Deleglise gave it the name Antigo. That is 60 years ago today.
When we came to Wausau we hired a rig to take us to Ackley, but he had a hard time to get us to Hogarty. So the next day, Mr. Hogarty hitched a pair of Indian ponies to what was called a jumper. It was only winter road that Ackley had, being over logs and windfalls. We came to Ackley in the evening. The next day we moved into an empty shanty Ackley had. Then we started to survey and surveyed until spring. By that time John Doersch had a shanty fixed, so we cut a road and moved in. Then I started to clear my place and built a shanty. Deleglise went home to Appleton. I cleared about three-fourths of an acre and built a shanty 12x14.
After planting some potatoes and bagas I started for Wausau. Ten miles this side of Wausau I stopped at a farmer by the name of Noles and got a job for $15.00 a month. I worked through the summer. In the fall I dug my potatoes and bagas. They were fine and big. I dug a hole and stored them, covering them with leaves and they kept fine. Then I started for the old home in Gibson, Manitowoc. I was married in November, 1876. We planned moving here but the weather was so poor we had to stay until the second of January. We had a yoke of oxen and one cow. It took us 14 days and parts of nights. That was our honeymoon trip. We had a covered wagon and I had an old country yoke for each ox separate and farmers had never seen it before. They thought we were gypsies, so the farmers very seldom let us stay over night. Most of the time we had to go on till we came to a stopping place. We got there after midnight. It was the second of February and there was only about 2 inches of snow.
It was a good thing that John Doersch and I cut a new road from here to Hogarty, 12 miles, otherwise I couldn't have moved here when I did. When I moved here I had to build a little barn, so I could put in my oxen and cow. After I had that done I had to go to Wausau to get some stuff. I stopped at Noles farm and I promised him I would come to skid logs in his camp. So I had to leave my sweetheart here. We didn't have very much feed so she had to cut down trees for the cow to browse. That way we wintered our cow. I came to see my sweetheart most every Saturday after supper. That was a 23 mile trip to see how she was getting along. I stayed until Sunday afternoon, then went back to be on the job Monday. There was only one settler on the whole road. That was Mr. Hogarty. What would the young fellows nowadays do. They would have to use an automobile. In the spring of 1877 I got a letter from Deleglise to build a shanty for him. So I built the shanty for him that now stands on the Library lawn. I cleared a place where I built the shanty. Then I cleared one acre where the Home Theatre stands.
In those days it was harder times than now. Nowadays if a young couple gets married they would have to be furnished with all furniture. When we started here we didn't have any furniture. In place of a table we had a wash tub tipped over. For bed we had two poles bored into shanty logs. and poles across. For chairs we had blocks sawed from logs. That time we could not depend on relief like they do now. We had to depend on ourselves and get along as best we could. The first spring we were here, we got out of provisions. So John Doersch and I started to Wausau. We bought a sack of flour and some groceries and some tools that we needed. I carried that sack of flour and it was a warm day. By shaking that sack of flour on my back, I had a quarter of an inch of dough on my coat. I told Mrs. Doersch to scrape it off and bake pancakes right away.
In 1879, 16 of us, I think it was, was, started for Langlade to decide where the county seat would be. We waited until nearly closing time, then we rushed in and beat them by two votes. We had blankets and some food and stayed overnight by a creek. The next morning we started for home all happy. So it is our time to quit until some other time.
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Jindra and Chaloupka Families
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