Douglas County Past: WEBC announcer preps train set for kids; First WWII casualty laid to rest
Dec. 16—Dec. 16, 1890
Talk of the town
Captain C.S. Barker has taken the contract to raise the sunken catamaran and pipe cradle which now lie at the bottom of Superior bay. The catamaran is owned by the Superior, Water, Light & Power company and was used together with the pipe cradle for laying ball joint pipe across the bay. A large force of men under the direction of Captain Barker are now engaged in raising the craft.
Dec. 17, 1890
Talk of the town
Among many curiosities perhaps few are more noteworthy than the tame racoon of which A. Kolstad, of the Tremont house, is the happy possessor. This specimen of the tribe is a real beauty, and is a wonderful performer of tricks. He associates playfully with dogs, but has a decided aversion to horses.
Dec. 17, 1947
Superiorite on stricken Army ship
Roy W. Boya, 30-year-old Superiorite, is a member of the crew aboard a stricken army tanker, the El Caney, which is adrift in the north Pacific, south of the Aleutian islands, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Boya is assistant engineer aboard the El Caney, which is wallowing in heavy seas after losing its rudder and suffering damage to its propellor in a North Pacific storm. Boya is one of the 43 crew members aboard the tanker. Another Wisconsinite, Fred W. Huebner, fireman, of Watertown, is also on the ship.
Dec. 18, 1890
Talk of the town
The Hammond Avenue Whist club will not meet until after the holidays, owing to the fact that the young ladies of the club have their time entirely taken up in preparing Christmas presents for their "dear five hundred friends." Embroidering yellow dogs with green tails and blue eyes seems to be the favorite sport among the high art designers.
The Twohy Mercantile company has commenced the work of preparing the interior of the bonded warehouse on Tower slip for general wholesaling purposes.
The Descent Block, which will soon become a busy hive, is rapidly approaching completion, and office fixtures are already going into some of the as yet unfinished offices. Nearly all the rooms on the second floor are rented and many of those on the third floor are engaged. F.L Richmond, of the East Superior Improvement company, was first to get his office in readiness on the second floor, and J.R. Thayer's desk was first to be placed on the third floor.
Dec. 18, 1890
The sale of Central property
As early as 9 'clock the office of the South Superior Improvement company was comfortably filled with people this morning and at 10 o'clock the room was crowded to suffocation. At that hour Manager McIntyre addressed the people in reference to the Central division, which was about to be put upon the market.
He described the new industries which have lately been secured, explained the terms of the sale and gave other such information as is of interest to purchasers of property in South Superior.
He then stated that every person would be allowed to draw tickets for choice of position in the matter of buying the property: holder of No. 1 would have first choice, No. 2 second choice and so on upward. Most of the furniture had been removed in anticipation of the crush, and it is well that it had been, for it would have certainly been reduced to kindling wood had it been allowed to remain until today.
It was a good-natured crowd that commenced to move forward. Nobody could move independently. Everybody moved in concert. Sardines in a box could not be packed more closely. There were 300 tickets, but the people outnumbered them and there were many who did not get the coveted opportunity to draw.
Dec. 19, 1947
Full military honors
Full military honors were accorded Reginald W. McLellan, husband of Mrs. Louise W. McLellan, 1704 North 21st Street, the first of Superior's World War II dead to arrive home, at services Tuesday afternoon at soldier's circle in Greenwood cemetery.
T-5 McLellan was killed Dec. 5, 1944, in Germany while serving with the 104th Infantry Division.
Members of two American Legion posts participating in the services were Fred Stoner and George Munroe, commander of Post No. 65, representing the post; Joseph Christman, sergeant of the guard; Lester Ramsdill and Steve McCarthy, buglers; Earl Kammers, John Stehlin, E. Bardwell and Harold Baker, commander of Richard I. Bong post, color guard, and Gerald O'Connell, Eugene Olson, Robert Kammers, Fred Castle, Ed Whitacre, Robert Bardwell, R.J. Carpenter, Eugene E. Archambault, Adolph Esterholm Charles Kolanczyk and George Sallman, firing squad.
For his kids, says WEBC man — oh yeah?
Jack Lellman, veteran WEBC announcer, is shown here working in one of the station studios assembling an electric train set for his youngsters.
Between his regular announcing duties, Jack has been hard at work since early November assembling his two train set up and he says: "It will be ready by Christmas so we ... I mean ... they can have a wonderful surprise Christmas morning."
The WEBC announcer has three children, Lee Ann, 2, Jay, 4, and Jon, 6. Jack says Santa will bring a doll and other toys for Lee Ann while naturally the trains are for Jay, Jon and "Daddy."
While Jack's industrious work will mean an extra happy Christmas for the Lallman youngsters, the WEBC staff will be sorry to see the trains leave the studios. Since the day the trains had their first "test" runs, Jack has had more assistants than Santa Claus.
As the picture and news item goes to press, the entire staff is taking a final whirl at being "engineers."
Articles and pictures courtesy of retired librarian Judy Aunet with Superior Public Library.
