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Langlade County Historical Society Newsletter - Fall 2023

Annual Meeting

The annual meeting of the Langlade County Historical Society will take place on Thursday Nov. 2 at the Hoffman House at 1015 Fifth Ave. We will begin at 4:00 pm for a social gathering. At 5:00 we will be seated and served a dinner (see newsletter insert) followed by a business meeting and program During the business meeting we will elect new officers and consider a change in bylaws (details are in a separate article).There will be a brief summary of our financial status and an update on some of our programs. This will be followed by followed by a presentation by Dean Blazek, entitled “They Delivered”. Between 1880 and 1945 roads were poor or nonexistent and almost all of the products coming into Antigo came by rail, then distributed to various locations within the city, also by rail. He will describe the role that the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad played in moving freight into and out and around Antigo.

A locomotive crossing a trestle in downtown Antigo at Kellogg’s Pond.

Hoffman House will offer a choice of baked hadPond dock or honey butter chicken, accompanied by either house salad or mushroom wild rice soup. The cost is $25 per person. Details and a reservation form are contained in a separate insert in this newsletter. Please respond by Friday Oct. 27 if you would like to attend and indicate your menu choices so that we may plan accordingly.

Business Meeting

At the meeting we will propose a change in the bylaws. Currently bylaws require holding the annual meeting in November. We will ask the general membership in attendance to approve a change to hold the annual meeting in October when the weather is more likely to be favorable and evenings still have some daylight.

The other order of business involves election of three of our nine directors. Terms of Dean Blazek, Glenn Bugni, and Lisa Haefs are expiring. Elections to reappoint these or appoint replacements will occur at the meeting. The board is considering candidates. Nominations from the floor will be accepted.

At the meeting there will also be a brief update on the society’s activities and financial status.

A New Museum Display

Thanks to a grant from the Optimist Club of Antigo, the museum has a new display that will enable visitors to learn more about the background behind some of our museum’s content and the county’s history. Museum visitors are welcome to spend some time at our new touch screen display. Select from one of nine topics on themes about Langlade County’s history that are currently available. Each topic contains a collection of several pictures with explanatory text. This type of interactive display is something we have long wanted to include in the museum and, thanks to a grant from the Antigo Optimists, we are now able to do so. It provides an entertaining way to be introduced to history. The display station is currently set up in the archives room but may be moved. If it proves popular and space permits, we may set up a second interactive station as a feature in the museum. This is a new venture for us and we welcome suggestions for topics that should be covered in displays at this station.

Museum staff and volunteers will be happy to introduce you to our new setup. It should be especially attractive to youngsters, but adults are welcome to also give it a try.

Curator Mary Kay Wolf accepts a donation from the Antigo Optimists Club for the purchase of a touch screen display, currently housed in the Archives room.

Touch Screen Displays Currently Available

CCC Camp 657 in Summit Lake/Elcho
Fifth Avenue’s Evolution Over the Years
Postcard Photographer of the Northwoods: A.J. Kingsbury
Antigo’s Historic Landmarks
The Museum’s Native American Beadwork Collection
The Deleglise Family: Antigo’s founders
Indigenous People of the Northwoods
FDR’s New Deal Projects in Langlade County
The Railroad’s Importance in Antigo’s History

Our New Web Site

In this electronic age, when so much work and entertainment is done online, it is important to have to have an attractive and informative web site; and also one that is easy to navigate. More and more, people rely on the internet to get their information and in deciding how to spend their leisure time. Residents and visitors to Langlade County may prefer learning about the region’s history from the comfort of their homes or while sitting in a coffee shop and sipping a cappuccino while staring at a laptop or smart phone.

Our web site, unfortunately, has long been neglected and fallen into disarray. The problem had been a lack of volunteers with the time, skills, and the willingness required to tackle its maintenance. But someone has come to the rescue. Thanks to Michael Clay, our web site has undergone a much-needed makeover. It has been made more user friendly, contains more useful information, and is visually more attractive and easier to navigate. It will be easier to be kept updated. Look for it at www.langladehistory.org. Some content has not yet been organized and posted so watch for updates in the weeks to come. One very useful future addition to the site for researchers is a searchable listing of the contents of our Archives Room. We trust that the site is now a more useful and entertaining way to learning about our history and our historical society’s activities.

We welcome feedback on what you think of our new web site and what additional features you might find useful. If possible, we will try to accommodate suggestions.

In addition to becoming our new web master, Michael Clay has taken charge of much of our social media presence. While others contribute to our Facebook page from time to time, Michael has increased our visibility on Facebook and Instagram. The Langlade County Historical Society is moving into the modern age.

Our new webmaster Michael J. Clay revising our web site.

A Special Thanks to Mike Clay for the hours spent reviving our web site.

Grounds Improvements

While we have been busy improving our online presence, we have not been neglecting our museum campus and buildings. Landscaping on the museum grounds has recently been done by Fisher Maintenance. Repairs to the locomotive cab interior by George Fleischman have also been completed. The list of needed repairs and building updates to our almost 120-year-old museum continues to grow but we are also crossing some items off the list.

Repairs to the basement walls and cosmetic improvements to the 440 Locomotive are scheduled. Plans for reorganization of our storage space are in the works. This should better enable us to have rotating exhibits. Sometimes you have to keep moving just to stay in place. Fischer Maintenance installing mulch on the museum grounds main facade.

Fischer Maintenance installing mulch on the museum grounds main facade.

An Antigo Contribution to the War Effort

During World War II, the Antigo Flats proved to be an ideal location for a vital part of the war effort. Large flat areas and favorable prevailing winds proved ideal for training glider pilots.

The CG-4A was the mainstay of the army’s glider arsenal. C stood for Cargo and G for Glider, although pilots claimed it stood for Guts. A total of 13,909 gliders were constructed between 1942 and 1945, most by the Ford Motor Company, one of 15 contractors in total. It was not a thing of beauty. The aircraft was a strut-braced high-wing monoplane, with a body of plywood and wings covered in doped cotton fabric. They became airborne by a tow plane flying just above ground level with a hook trailing behind from a cable. The hook snagged a glider towrope sweeping it airborne from a dead standstill to 120 mph in a matter of 7 seconds. It could be quite a jolt to the glider pilot’s system.

A glider could carry a jeep, or a jeep trailer fully loaded with combat equipment, or a 75 mm howitzer, or a 37 mm anti-tank gun, or construction equipment including small graders and bulldozers. Loading was done through a door in the nose of the plane.

On July 9, 1943, gliders were put into action for the first time, taking off from Tunisia and transporting British troops to Sicily. They were later used to transport men and equipment into various sites in Europe behind enemy lines after D-Day and at some sites in the Pacific.

But before any of these missions could be undertaken, pilots had to be trained and Antigo ended up being one such site, among only a few. For about 8 months, beginning th the summer of 1942, over 900 trainees, between the ages of 18 and 26, some with no flight experience, were housed at the National Youth Administration barracks at the north end of Elm Street and learned to fly at the Antigo airport. Some classroom training was conducted at the Vocational School (where the Middle School is now).

After the war, in 1946, several graduates of the glider training school held a reunion in Antigo. Many arrived in their own planes. Major events and socializing took place at Powell’s Supper Club at the north end of Antigo, not far from the airport (near where the Fleet Farm is now). The city warmly welcomed the returning pilots. Plans were made for regular reunions and to create a museum of glider school memorabilia but, sadly, these plans did not materialize- a regrettable lost opportunity to preserve an interesting and important historical period.

An aerial view of the Antigo airport showing gliders on the field, taken by Clarence Toburen.

Scenes from the Third annual Cemetery Tour at Elmwood Cemetery conducted by the Historical Society, Antigo Community Theater, with help from the 4H Tree Toppers

Top row: Some of the crew. | 4H Tree Toppers provided treats. | Golf carts & drivers for those needing assistance.
Bottom row: Peg Benes as a nurse tending to victims of the 1918 flu pandemic. | Bob Lomprey as gunsmith Ullrich Vosmek. | Judge John Rhode as Judge Parsons.