In the selection of a historian for the above period, your relator believes a fatal mistake was made. First, that he was an entire stranger at the commencement, and second, he does not hold in memory that which is of the past, unless there is something in it for the future, and third, although holding a liar's license issued by authority of Annanias and his successors, he is not a first class story teller and in all history, where the main facts are supposed to be true, the good right area is exercised in conjunction with the brain in drawing the long bow.

We have been informed by my collaborator, that the old red school house was built about the year 1858, and that he left it in good working order in 1865, when the township had a population of about four hundred, and there were two stores in the village, one blacksmith shop, one shoe shop, one hotel, one saloon, one church, one doctor and only ten dwelling houses within the limits of the village. This as your relator understands it at this day, and the mail was received twice a week from Waupaca, the carriers being the Folger brothers. One of them stuttered so badly that, should you ask him a question, he would have the answer ready on the next trip tip.

This was the condition of the village when your relator first saw it one August evening in 1805. It was not until October of the same year that he became a resident of the village and never having had much acquaintance with schools and less with school ma’ams, it was probably a year or two before he knew that there was such a thing as the school house in the place. But in those early days the school house was used as the polling place and the business of the town was transacted therein and other public meetings held, so he became acquainted with the fact that there was a building in which school was taught from five to seven months in the year; three months winter and possibly four, and two or three months summer school, at which time sheep and pigs occupied the ground floor and children just above them. While the records of those early days are totally gone from the school files, we believe that Julia A. Kemp followed Samuel D. Alban, whose term closed March 18th, 1865. Miss Kemp commenced May 1st, 1865 and taught four months. The enrollment was thirty-six girls and twenty-two boys.

She was succeeded by Martha C. Coburn, who taught two years, J. H. Felch teaching the winter term of 1867 and 1868. Hattie Gasmann taught the spring term of 1868, being the last school taught in the little red school house. The great white school house was built by W. C. Holly & Co., at a cost of $1563, which did not include the finishing of the upper room. That was finished in 1870, Gunder Wemme doing the plastering and C. E. Buck the carpenter work. J. H. Feich taught the winter term of 1868-9, W. F. Atwell teaching the summer term of 1869 for four months. G. W. Holland taught the winter term of 1870-71 and Lucinda Gordon the summer term.

In the fall of 1871 the school was divided for the winter term. Hepsy Bean taught the upper department and Hattie Thompson the lower. Miss Geraldine Bliss taught the summer school of 1871.  H. A. Havenor and Hattie Thompson taught the winter term of 1872, and Miss Parmelia Orcutt the summer term. Then came L. H. Brainard and Dora Webster, who taught the winter term of 1873. Miss Libbie Swan wielded the birch during this summer term. The enrollment for the winter of 1873 was upper department, thirty-six; lower, forty-two; total, seventy-eight. An increase of twenty in eight years. Miss Swan had during the summer, thirty-four enrolled. Then came Phoebe Buck Teal, who with Dora Webster taught the winter term of 1874 and Mrs. Teal continued in the summer term of 1874.

The winter term of 1874-5 was taught by the Rev. Henry Orcutt and Dora Webster, and Miss Della Blodgett took charge of the summer term. Miss Blodgett and Mrs. Teal taught the winter term of 1875-6 and the two departments were first continued through the summer of 1876, Libbie Hummiston taking the lower department. Miss Blodgett and Miss Hummiston continued to teach until the spring of 1878, when Geo. H. Welton taught the consolidated school for four months with an enrollment of eighty scholars and an average attendance of fifty-one. Geo. H. Welton and Miss Annie Carter taught the winter term of 1878-9, Augusta A. Een and Annie Carter teaching the summer term of 1879. Geo. H. Welton again took the school and with Miss Ella Wilmot taught the winter term, continuing the summer term with Miss Martha Maddy. They continued in the school until the fall of 1882, when H. H. Suhs and Mrs. Dora Webster Keith taught until the end of the school year of 1885. In the fall of said year we leave W. F. Owen and Mrs. Keith in charge, with no record extant of the enrollment.

We are unable to name the school officers in the period allotted to me except the treasurers, who were: Enoch Webster, Wm. Loing, James Thompson, Wm. Wilson, Edgar Starks, A. H. Guernsey and J. O. Foxen who continued in office from July 1878 to the end of my record in 1885 and until July 1891.

Your relator was clerk in 1879, and was the first clerk to draw compensation. In 1884 he was succeeded by Edwin Grover.

The wages of teachers increased from $352 in 1868 to $820 when we had three departments in 1885. The little school house was built in the year 1885, Miss Carrie Guernsey being the first teacher therein. The lowest price paid for fuel was in 1879, when A. M. Nelson furnished ten cords of wood for $9.90. The cost of fuel in 1885 was $62.70, furnished by P. N. Peterson.

Of the annual meetings and proceedings of the boards we have no record. When the organization was first talked of, we had in the office a book of records going back to 1863, but some one kindly bor-rowed it and we have been unable to discover it since. In the light of these meetings and more especially this one, that book is almost priceless. If anyone has it we would be pleased to have it returned. The records except the registers are intact from 1887, which will make the task of the other collaborator comparatively easy.

The total paid for wages from 1868 to 1885 inclusive was $9,323, and for school buildings was $2,328. To warm the scholars only $523.20 was paid, a small sum in comparison with the sum now expended. We are not able to figure the cost per child for teachers from the fact we have not the enrollment. At the commencement of my history the students attending school under S. C. Alban were: William Phillips, Hollis Wilson, Harshall Holly, Estel Wilson, Alva Darling, Ferdando Czeskleba, August Gasmaun, John Gasmann, Fredie Gasmann, Edwin Grover, Edsil Gordon, Hans Gasmann, James Gasmann, Joseph Ellis, Clarence Phillips, Albert Cate, Nels Nelson, Charter Meeks, Thos. Wilson, John Hanson, John Wilson, Andrew Brown, Lynn Cate, Margaret Rob, Ida Cate, Alice Gordon, Maggie Gasmann, Annie Williamson, Sarah A. McLawlis, Sarah Wilson, Relief Grover, Libbie Palmer, Catharin Wilson, Annice Moyers, Anna Gasmann, Emma Wilson, Dora Webster, Susan Wilson, Melissa Collier, Nettie Collier, Nettle Palmer, Lucinda Gordon, Emily Webster, Phoebe Buck, Emily Buck, Adelia Rob, Amanda Ball, Effie M. Phillips, Emma Post, Elida Post, Emma Wright, Helen Holly, Ellen Childs, Eliza Hopkins, Augusta Czeskleba, Mahalla Post, Martha Chulds, Lizzette Czeskleba, Amanda VanSkiver, Ellen Warren, Sarah Rob, Mary Wilson, Lucy Childs, Merce Morrison. Total 66.

Of our village we can say but little during that period. It was identified with the Town and the public records are mostly destroyed. It had a steady growth and if we have it right we had as business places in 1885, two hotels, seven stores, two drug stores, two physicians, two blacksmith shops, one livery barn, one saloon, harness shop, meat market, tailor shop, two church buildings, cheese factory, and a population in the village proper of about 500.

When we first saw the village in the fall of 1865 we can remember those living on the north were: A. H. Bancroft, Peter Grover, and G. W. Cate; on the east, Harmon Ellis, Wm. Morrison, C. E. Buck and the Darlings. Hartman, Bobbe and Tom Olson were further away; on the south, James and William Wilson, Wm. Loing, Reuben Thompson, Ben Fleming, W. V. Fleming, David Allen, Orrin Maybee, Bangle, Dodds, and the Wilmots; on the west Robert Wilson, Stoys, Gasmanns - Nels, Chas., Godfrey, and some others.

The first cheese factory was built by Mitchell & Smith in 1874 or ‘75, which ran until 1878 when it suspended operations mainly for the reason that our oak cheese made from milk of the wild cow could not compete in the markets with cheese made from good milk. But that enterprise was worth thousands of dollars to the town and county, as it taught them a lesson that the farmers remembered, and within a few years another factory was started and which eventually led up to the present splendid factory or creamery we now have.

The Cooper Shop was built in the spring of 1863, a little north where Dwinell’s livery barn now stands, by Julius Czeskleba. This building burned down and Mr. Czesklba rebuilt near the present location of the Anderson shoe shop building, and was conducted by himself and his brother, T. W. Czesklba, for a number of years.

The Morgan stage line and the Nelsons - A. M. and J. J. - coming here in 1867 gave an upward push to business. Then Morgan of Plover built a store here in 1878 which further added to the greatness of our village, and when the Wisconsin Central railroad came our cup was nearly full. In 1874, the G. B. and Lake Pepin road was built and by going past and crossing the Wisconsin Central at what is now the Junction was our first and only drawback or jolt, which threatened the future of our village.

The first corporation in the town was the Amherst Dramatic Club. While the club as an institution had been in existence for a number of years, not until 1876 was it incorporated under the laws of the state, with A. H. Guernsey, A. J. Smith and M. A. Fleming as incorporators. The whole town was proud of the club and its plays. While no stars were added to the dramatic world, its work was highly commendable. It painted the Methodist church twice, not red, but in the conventional white. The inside of the hail at times took on a lurid hue, but nevertheless the club was a very enjoyable affair and filled its place well.

No great disaster occurred during my period. The Moyers hotel burned in 1869 or about that time. We dated events from the time of the floods taking out the Bancroft mill dam. The nearest the town ever came to a division was when the vote was taken to keep the hogs, sheep and cattle off the streets in 1880 or possibly later. In 1870, L. P. Harvey built the store so long occupied by our honored townsman, J. J. Nelson.

I desire to say that these items have been jotted down from memory alone and if not correct, please do not expose my ignorance here and now. If any one knows or remembers the history better, they can write it for preservation in the files of the association. These remarks may be within a mile of the facts, or they may not, but you can look the records over and you will find that the history of our village has been a progressive one. No halt or backward step has been taken. We did things when they were needed and in consequence, we had at the close of 1885 a thriving, promising village in which we all believed and were satisfied to live in.