August 18, 2005

News from the Past

75 Years Ago

August 21, 1930

The Prescott school band is not to play at the Pierce County Fair this fall. This was decided this week as a committee from the band association met with the fair association.

According to the committee the fair association offered the band a price that was hardly sufficient to pay their expenses for the trip. The band committee did not consider by this offer that the band was wanted over there for the fair.

The band is an important institution to this community and a number had intended going over on the day that the band would play. The local school would no doubt have closed school on that day, permitting all who wished to attend the fair. However, it is not known what the board will do about this at this time.

The band members had a great deal of enthusiasm over their prospect of playing at the county fair but this deal has caused an amount of disappointment not only to the members of the band but to the parents and friends of the band. But in their disappointment they will find consolation from the old Prescott baseball players.

50 Years Ago

August 18, 1955

FBI agents are holding a 20-year-old man who admitted robbing a Menomonie tavern of $50 with another 20-year-old last Sunday afternoon. The men, Darrell Schmidt and Berry Bujstad, escapees of the YCC camp at Willow River, Minn., came through Prescott and split up here in making their getaway.

The pair drove through here on Sunday only a short while after the crime. Bujstad got out and hitchhiked out of town. Schmidt proceeded on by car to Red Wing, Minn., where he was apprehended. Bujstad is still at large.

Schmidt said he and Bujstad had committed a series of car thefts, robberies and holdups since their escape July 31. They had been in several states and as far away as Florida.

25 Years Ago

August 14, 1980

On Aug. 9, police received a call at 1:35 a.m. that five males in the Front Street area were cutting loose boats. The persons were loud and disorderly, the caller added. Three of the boats were eventually returned by the Coast Guard and police are continuing an investigation.

10 Years Ago

August 17, 1995

Jim Harsdorf, dairy farmer and chair of the Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumers Protection Board, announced to the board members during their August meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 8 at the Milwaukee State Fair, that he is exploring a run for the open Third Congressional seat in Western Wisconsin.

"I have been encouraged by the outpouring of support from citizens throughout the third district to seek the vacated congressional seat in '96," Harsdorf stated. "For 15 years Wisconsin has had a strong voice for agriculture in Washington. Now, more than ever, we need someone to promote and protect our rural communities and family farms.

"At a time when Washington is reshaping and downsizing our federal government we need someone who understands the importance of rural communities and the agriculture industry to our country's future. With Steve's departure, there would be no one from Wisconsin's delegation serving on the Agriculture Committee."

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