Mewhorter Family
First home in Rusk County on the Range Line.

Wisconsin, on June 12, 1892. We moved to your
father's farm near Grandma Mewhorter. It was
called the Josh Hill Farm. We lived there six years
and Will and George were born there. Also a third
son was born prematurely. From there we moved
to Elmwood where Ben and Winnie were born.
Your father hauled veneer to Spring Valley for two
and one half years.
We moved to Glen Flora when Winnie was
seven weeks old. We chartered a freight car for our
team, cow, pig, chickens, a bird, dog, and
household goods. This was November 28, 1900.
The car cost $56.00 but after we bought land we
received a rebate of $12.00. 1 also moved 300
quarts of fruit. Never broke a jar. Your father had
been up before, rented a house, and found work.
We lived in the village of Glen Flora until
February 15. When we moved to the range line we
bought our first 40 acres and bought an additonal
80 later on to the West. A little girl was born dead
and later Forrest, Alice, and Harry were born.
Harry was an eight months baby and was born
without eye lashes or fingernails. Your father kept
hot irons packed around Harry day and night and
saved his life. On May 9, 1908, your father was
killed digging a well at the Methodist parsonage at
Glen Flora. They had just finished digging and
your father came up and threw down some small
stones. Then he went down to place them when the
other men let down a bucket. The bucket was left
unlocked or unlocked going down and three large
stones rolled down striking your father on the head
and shoulders, killing him instantly.
Written by Lillie Dell Howard Mewhorter
Williams, July 27, 1933. Copied by Alice
Mewhorter Neubauer, August 18, 1948, and by
Janice A. Jipson, January 30, 1982. By: Janice
Jipson Greenstein, Joyce Jipson Lawnicki, Jill
Jipson Fasching, Jack Jipson
THE FRANK MIKULA FAMILY
Frank Mikula came to Pennsylvania from
Austria in 1906. One year later my mother Louise
Fietko arrived from Poland and they were married
soon thereafter.
My father worked in a coal mine in Penn-
sylvania until 1911. At that time, they journeyed
to Wisconsin and settled on land in the town of
Grant in Rusk County. They acquired an ox and
borrowed another ox from my uncle, Albert
Mikula, to make a team. They proceeded to break
and clear the land and to build buildings out of the
logs.
There were eight children born to this marriage:
John, Joseph, Anna, Walter, Stephanie (Stella),

Henry, Bert, and Lucille. Lucille died in infancy,
Walter was killed in a tractor accident in 1953,
and Anna died of cancer in 1979.
We attended the Cloverleaf School. We walked
to and from school daily because there was no
other transportation at that time. During incle-
ment weather, my father took us to school with the
sleigh and horses. When the snow drifts were too
deep, we traveled through the neighbors' fields.
Myrtle Bovie taught me through the sixth grade.
My teachers in the last two years were Faye and
Connie Cameron.
I remember when my father took wheat to be
ground into flour to Bloomer with a team of horses.
The round trip took a few days. He also worked in
a logging camp near Jump River and Gilman in
the winter. The chores at home were tended to by
the rest of my family.
Louise Mikula passed away in 1945 and Frank
in 1951. By: Stella R. (Mikula) Krosovic

Weyerhaeuser Garage - 1922
Theodore Miller prop. of garage
EDNA BENNETT MILLER
FAMILY
My mother, Edna Bennett, was born in Beaver
Dam, Wis. on Feb. 5, 1892 to Henry W. Bennett
and Margaret Anger Bennett. Grandfather was
nearly a full-blooded American Indian. Grand-
mother was of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe
which was a remnant of the Mohicans, but she was
also 2 English as her father, John Anger was a
full-blooded Englishman coming to America
directly from England.
Edna was second in a family of 15 children.
Death was not uncommon to this household. She
used to tell sad tales of how her 3 little brothers,
Peter 3 weeks, Mark 3 months, and Henry II
months, died while living on the Redsprings reser-

vation near Gresham. Later while residing in Rusk
County she lost 2 sisters, 10 year old Victoria and
15 year old Isabelle.
In 1905 while the family was still in Redsprings,
mother entered St. Joseph's Academy, a Catholic
Boarding School in Green Bay completing her
freshman-sophomore high school years before go-
ing to Oshkosh to live. About 1909 they moved to
Rusk County settling in the Rush Farm area.
Edna enrolled in the Rusk County Normal
School in the fall of 1910 but was forced to leave
after a few months to help out at home due to the
illness of her mother following the birth of her
youngest child, Genevieve, in Dec. The next fall
she resumed her teacher-training graduating in
June, 1912. While at Ladysmith, she lived with the
R.B. McDonald family.
Theodore Miller, from the town of Washington
and Edna Bennett were united in marriage in
1914. Their first home built by my father was
located near our Miller grandparents; my brother
and I were born here. When I was less than a year
we moved to a drier climate for mother's health,
returning from our Montana home in 1919.
Father established  a  garage business in
Weyerhaeuser in August, 1920 and Mother ac-
cepted a teaching contract at Oakland School
@$125.00 per month plus the Apker Residence in
which to live. (She had received $40.00 per month
at this same school 8 years previously.) My brother
and I accompanied her to school daily with father
joining us weekends; I often wondered how she
managed with 72 pupils enrolled that year!
We liked to hear mother tell of her heritage. My
great-grandmother, Elsie Anger compiled   a
history and handed down stories to us. "The Old
King" and "The Ramance of Wa-Be-No-Kiew
Morning Star," were 2 of my favorites. Princess
Morning Star was the great-grandmother of Elsie
Anger who died in 1936 at the age of 84.
In 1928 my parents moved into their new home
on Highway 8 adjoining the old Creamery which
my father had purchased and remodeled for his
garage business which he continued to operate un-
til his death in 1960. Mother died in 1946 follow-
ing surgery. Their five children were: Donald,
Della Koehler (myself), and Judy Schwellenbach
of Durand. By: Della Miller Koehler
THE FRED H. MILLER FAMILY
Fred Miller was born in Toronto, Canada in
1903. Later he came to Cedar Rapids, Iowa where
he worked for a newspaper. We met there where I
had my first job. We were married in 1927 and
went to Waterloo, Iowa.
The depression left us without jobs and we lost
our home, so Fred and a friend decided to go to
Wisconsin. They ended up in Rusk County in the
Bear Lake area where they met the Gillett family.
Wendal and Fayette Gillett suggested that Fred
start a store in Bear Lake. The two men cut logs on
their land and with Fred's help, built a small log
store.
Fred came back for me, after the building was
partly finished, in fall of 1933. Fred was 30 and I
was 28. We stayed at "Grandma" Gillett's until
the building was completed. The store was in the
front and we had a small room in back. We
thought we were pioneering as we had no water or
electricity. Neither of us had lived in the country
before. Can you imagine, we started the store with
an inventory of one hundred dollars!
The floor of the store was made of green wood
and by January it dried out so much that Fred put
lath in the cracks, then heavy building paper to
keep the cold out. We vowed we wouldn't stay
another year if we didn't have the building
warmer. However, we did have another floor and
some improvements before the next winter.
We added to the store and living quarters during
the next four years and in August 1937 our
daughter, Marilyn, was born. That was a busy year
as we had extra customers from the many resorters
who vacationed at the lakes. We also had the
pickle station that year.
The store became a gathering place for the
neighbors and we had many good times chatting
and of course had a few beers with cheese and