later divorced and Dallas is now living in Perris,
California with wife Helen. Vivian married Paul
Parish after some successful years of teaching in
Wisconsin. They were divorced and she is now
married happily to Henry Motzkau and lives in
Olympia, Washington. Her husband and she had a
successful green house business in Whitewater for
many years, and developed many special strains of
azaleas. They sold and retired to Arkansas for a
while and later came west. Norma graduated from
Whitewater state normal, taught for a short time
in Wisconsin, came west and married Francis
Olson. She had one daughter who is married and
has two children. They all live presently on a 240
acre ranch near Shelton, Washington. Norma is
retired after 21 years of teaching in Washington.
Norma Olson, Vivian Motzkaw

Alfred Erickson Family- 1926

WILLIAM H. HAMM FAMILY
William Hamm and Clara Stadler were united
in marriage in 1910 and selected Ladysmith as
their home. Two notable events occurred a year
later: their first son Walter was born, and they
purchased a house at 521 West Miner Avenue
which remained the family home until the death of
Clara Hamm Juergens in April of 1970. The other
children were: Clarence, born in 1913, who was a
victim of the flu epidemic in 1918, Dorothy born in
1915 and Willard in 1917.
William's father and uncle, who had married
sisters, moved from Washington County to farms
in the Curtiss area, Clark County. His father,
Adam, emigrated from Prussia, Germany.
The Stadler family was originally from the Two
Rivers area but Peter Paul, being a railroad section
foreman for various railroads in the Wisconsin-
Upper Michigan area, had moved his family of
four boys and two girls all over the northern area
of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. His family
were long-time residents of the U.S. Several served
in the Union Army. He had several brothers and
sisters, but this writer saw and remembered just
one, Antoine, who visited my grandfather's farm
near Owen. He was a gregarious man who had
countless friends among the great and small. A
friend's name remembered is that of Chief Billy
Whitefish, whose gift of a pair of beaded moc-
casins to my grandfather is among my treasured
possessions.
His wife, Bertha Zemke Stadler, emigrated
from the Province of Pomerania in Germany in her
mid-twenties. An   intelligent, hard-working
woman, she taught herself to read and write
English from the schoolbooks her children brought
home. She'd sit in the evening and talk while knit-
ting woolen stockings, scarves - whatever her
children needed. The last years of her life she
stayed with her daughter, Clara, in Ladysmith and
upon her death in 1948, was laid to rest there in
the family plot.
William loved the forest and was an adept
hunter and fisherman, perhaps because his lineage
through his mother traced back to one of the
Wisconsin Indian tribes. Most every winter a buck
hung in the back porch, where it was as cold as
outside. He was only about 5'8" but one muskie he
carried home with its head over his shoulder and
its tail dragging the ground.
In 1916 while working in the woods for the
Great Northern Paper Company, I believe he
scratched his hand on a hemlock tree and blood

poisoning set in. He walked twenty miles to the
railroad and made it home. Nine years later com-
plications arising from this infection caused his
death. Since he was unable to work, Clara sup-
ported the family by doing housework.
A God-fearing woman, she worked ardently for
her church, putting her family and her God before
her own needs.
In 1935 after all her children graduated from
high school, she married Herman Juergens.
Walter now resides in Neenah, Dorothy Hamm
Engel at New Ulm, Minnesota and Willard
Hamm at Zepherhills, Florida. Submitted by
Willard A. Hamm
ELMER JOYNER
Elmer Joyner was born December 10, 1898 in a
log cabin, in the township of Atlanta, north of
Bruce in Rusk County. He was the third child of a
farm family, Dwayne and Jenny Joyner. His
parents sold their farm in 1899 and moved to
another farm near Windfall, north of Bruce. He
attended the Vreeland School and completed to the
8th grade.
At age sixteen he began his logging career, by
working in the woods close to his home. At age 24
on August 22, 1923 he married Effie Keeley. They
had six children, Dale 1924, Aria 1926, Norma
1929, Marvin 1933 (died at age I week), Verna
1937 and Adele 1943.
In 1927 Elmer was an independent logger and
hauled logs using only horses to the Flambeau
River Lumber Company in Ladysmith.
In 1928 Elmer sold his property and ventured to
California, where he worked in the California oil
fields for 1 year.
He returned to Rusk County in 1929. He
worked one year at the Standard Station in Bruce.
He had acquired enough money to start his own
logging business, by 1930. He logged out of the
Blue Hills using only a sleigh and a team of horses.
He also farmed during this time near the town of
Strickland. In 1940 Elmer expanded his logging
business. He purchased two trucks, and hired
many men from the area to work at the logging
camp located deep in the Blue Hills. For nearly
twenty years he cut and logged and sold to the
nearby lumber companies.
In 1958 Elmer sold his logging business and
went to work for the Department of Conservation
in Rusk County, where he worked until his retire-
ment in 1975.
His devoted wife Effie passed away March 15,
1977.
Elmer Joyner now resides in the town of Bruce.
His address is Route 1, Bruce, WI 54819.
This is the history of the Elmer Joyner family as
told to me by Elmer Joyner on August 3, 1983.
Geraldine Perkins
EDGAR KEITH FAMILY
Edgar's father, Perry Keith, came here from In-
diana. His mother, Lilly Grimm's family came
from  Ashland, Wisconsin    and  settled  at
Weyerhaeuser. They had seven children, Bess
Bagley, Margaret Meyer and Jean Makutz, all of
Milwaukee, John of Bruce, Dick of California and
my husband, Edgar. The oldest son and Edgar are
deceased. They lived at Ladysmith and later
moved to Bruce, ran a filling and bulk station for
Standard Oil. Both Perry and Lilly have passed
away.
My father, Sam Alvey, born in Minnesota, came
to Bruce at an early age. He and his father and
brothers ran a livery barn and drove teams of
horses to take Doctors and other people around.
He had eight sisters and brothers. My mother,
Clara Berg, was born in the United States but her
parents were from Norway. She had six sisters and
one brother. They had three children, Phyllis, Sam
and myself.
Edgar was born at Ladysmith November 21,
1909 and I was born at Murry September 21,
1909. We both attended Bruce school. I graduated
in 1929. We were married December 23, 1929. We
worked hard and raised seven children, five boys
and two girls: Vera, born in 1930, married Harold

Woods, has four children, Rodney married Alice
Manchester, has four children, lives at Bruce,
Phullis married  Robert Peterson, has three
children and lives in Connecticut; Larry married
Helen Forbes, works for DNR in Eau Claire, has
two children, Robert married Becky Stevens, lives
at Bruce and has two children; Jim married Bar-
bara Edahl, has one child and lives at Eau Claire;
Gary married Marilyn Foster, works at Kennedy
Space Center in Florida.
Our five boys and two sons-in-law all served in
the armed forces. The boys and their father were
and are great hunters and fishermen and love the
out of doors. The boys especially know the Chip-
pewa River very well having fished and guided on
it many times. Edgar also helped build many of the
Wisconsin and Minnesota hiways.
Our children are all married and doing well. We
have   16  grandchildren   and  six  great-
grandchildren. Our parents are gone and Edgar
passed away October 4, 1979. We had a good life
and we have and will enjoy Wisconsin. Two of our
children live in Florida and Connecticut. The rest
are in Wisconsin. We all belong to a church and
are all very ecumenically minded.
Our family has family camping every summer; it
is fun to be out in the beauty of Wisconsin for a
week-end outing in campers and tents. We have a
great time and there's more room for our big fami-
ly gatherings. One thing we missed - our 50th
Wedding Anniversary would have been December
23, 1979 had Edgar not passed away when he did.
Ardith Keith
RODNEY KEITH FAMILY
Rodney Allen Keith was born at Bruce, January
22, 1932, above what is now "The Villager Dress
Shop." He has been a life long resident of Bruce
except for 4 years in the Air Force. He is the
second child of Ardith Alvey and Edgar Keith,
who were also life long residents of the area.
Rodney is from a family of seven children, Vera,
the oldest, then Rod, Phyllis, Larry, Bob, Jim and
Gary. The Keith men have always been avid
sportsmen and conservationists.
In 1955 Rod married Alice Manchester who
came to the area from Eau Claire in 1953 as a
school teacher at Bruce and Weyerhaeuser. They
have four children, Kevin born in 1956, graduated
from Bruce, 1974 and UWRF in 1977 and taught
Agriculture at Flambeau. In 1978 he married
Carol Manor from Menomonie who was teaching
at the Bruce Grade School. They now live at Den-
mark, Wisconsin with their three children. Keith's
second child, Regina Sue, graduated from Bruce
High School in 1976 and Eau Claire City College
of Cosmetology in 1977. She has been employed at
Dairyland State Bank in Bruce for the past five
years. In 1979 she married Craig Tomasovich and
they live in the Town of Thornapple with their 2
daughters, Lindsay and Mallory. Regi sings at
many area funerals and weddings as her father
used to do.
The Keiths had twins in 1960, Thomas and
Tama, who graduated from Bruce High in 1978.
Thomas attended Technical School in Rice Lake
for two years and worked at Pope and Talbot in
Ladysmith for two years before returning to school
in Rice Lake in the fall of 1983. Tama is presently
attending UW Eau Claire and will study at King
Alfred's College, Winchester, England as an ex-
change student in the fall of 1983. Tama was Mar-
di Gras Queen in 1977. The Keith boys were very
active in many high school sports but especially
football and wrestling and the girls were both
Bruce High Cheerleaders and outstanding Foren-
sic students. They are both quite artistically
inclined.
The Rodney Keith family is affiliated with St.
Mary's Catholic Church and Mrs. Keith has been
active in the social and educational areas of the
church. Alice's hobbies are reading and cooking
and she used to make many fancy holiday and
wedding cakes for area people. She is the sister of
Jean Harvey, 2nd grade teacher at Bruce, wife of
the former postmaster, Bill Harvey. Their mother,
Marion Manchester, born in 1891, moved to Bruce
from Eau Claire in 1973 and lived here until 1983