A breaking plow and disc were purchased to
open up more land. Many farms in the town of
Grow and some neighboring townships benefited
from the custom plowing and discing.
In 1929 the barn burned and was replaced.
Lucille and Emmet attended Rusk County Nor-
mal. Lucille taught at Big Falls and Emmet taught
at Range Line and Walrath schools. Emmet
graduated from River Falls with a degree in
agriculture. He taught veterans who were farming.
Franklin attended a short course in agriculture and
also welding schools.
Theodore Kaul was active in church and com-
munity life. He sang in the Methodist choir at
Tony, was a church trustee, a town chairman, a
member of the schoolboard, and served on the
Federal Land Bank board. He died in 1935.
Recently, the Ladysmith News reported Mr.
Kaul's funeral to be the largest ever attended in
Rusk County. More than eight hundred people
attended.

land and bought 40 acres in the Kief district. In
the Winter months he worked in Belvidere, Illinois
for $30.00 a month to pay for it.
Around 1900 he went into the saloon business,
which he operated until 1919. Then he slowly
started the store business in the same building. In
1930 he tore down the old store and built a new
brick building, which John and Kate had until
1954 when they rented the business to daughter,
Harriet and her husband, Casey Blasczyk. Two
years later they bought a business place in Rice
Lake and Dad sold the store to another daughter,
Eleanore and her husband, Barney Szozda. The
original store is still in the family with Don and
Virginia Szozda taking over in November, 1981.
The original family home is still owned and lived
in by the son, Steve.
Early childhood days are remembered for the
walks to visit the Kief district on Sundays and
visiting with Grandma Czekalski, mother of
Katherine, who lived to be 102, and Aunt Mary
and Uncle Frank Joswiak, Dad's sister and
husband.
One of many remembered incidents of the early
days was when Steve was around 15 or 16 years of
age. Steve and Ed Simmons walked to Island
Lake, stopping at Henry Krolls around noon, then
walking up the river road, which is highway 40
now, and going on to Bruce. They stopped at Pete
La Blanc's to see if they could play a game of pool.
Pete asked, "Who are you?" Steve told him his
name and Pete said, "Any kid of 'Big John's' can
play pool at my place any time." Steve J. Kawa

Janet as an elementary teacher. Becky trained as
an x-ray technician at Luther Hospital in Eau
Claire where she is presently employed.
Linda is married and living in Montana -
working there in a small hospital. Her husband is
also a medical technologist working for the Public
Health Service.
Janet is teaching third grade in Cumberland,
Wis. She enjoys her job, sports and reading.
Since retirement, Richard keeps busy with cut-
ting wood, hunting and making repairs around the
place. We have always lived in Wisconsin and feel
that Ladysmith has been a good place to live, work
and raise a family. Submitted by: Phyllis J. Keehn

Frances and Theodore Kaul

JOHN KAWA FAMILY
Steve, born December, 1908; Anna Elwood,
born January 1917; Clara Jasicki, born January,
1918; Eleanore, born July, 1924; Florence, born
February 1912, is presently living in Milwaukee
and Dorothy, born May 1920, is living in Detroit.
Two are deceased, Albina Anderson and Harriet
Blasczyk.
Mother, Katherine Czekalski Kawa, who passed
away October 18, 1982 at 93 years, came to
Weyerhaeuser from Pennsylvania at the age of
four in 1893. She was born November 15, 1888, to
Valenty and Jadwiga Czekalski. She lived north of
Kief and attended the Kief school. She worked at
the Otis store at Appolonia at about age 13 and
walked the six miles to work through the woods
and along the railroad tracks, since there were no
roads. In the Summers she picked berries to sell to
earn money. She then went to work as second cook
at the newly built Maple Hotel in Weyerhaeuser
until she married John Kawa on September 26,
1905.

Steve Kava and his mother
Katherine W.W. II.

Dad, John Kawa, was born in German Poland
on December 13, 1873 and came to Calumet,
Michigan at the age of 18. After leaving Michigan,
Dad, his brothers, and sister, came here and settled
around Weyerhaeuser. He looked for a piece of

Lorenzo and Anna Wirth

Richard and Phyllis Keehn

THE RICHARD KEEHN FAMILY
It was in August of 1955 that we moved to Rusk
County. Richard had accepted a teaching position
in the Ladysmith School system as a social studies
teacher in the Junior High School. We bought a
house on Menasha Avenue and soon felt at home
there. Linda attended school in the Brooklyn
School just across the street, while Janet waited to
be old enough to go, too.
We joined Hope Lutheran Church and became
active members there teaching Sunday School,
singing in the choirs and holding other offices.
Richard joined the American Legion, and I was
busy as a substitute teacher for the area schools.
Soon both girls were in school, and I taught a
full year in the brand new Elementary School
across town. During the summer months, Richard
worked at various jobs - as a meat cutter, a fac-
tory worker and a salesman for World Book
Encyclopedia.
A third daughter was born into our family, and
when Becky was two years old we moved to our
present home just south of Ladysmith on County
G. We have 16 acres of beautiful woods, a brook
and fresh spring water.
I went back to full time teaching when the
Flanbeau Schools needed a teacher at Ingram.
After two years there, I was transferred to Conrath
and have taught there ever since. Richard trans-
ferred to a fifth grade position and taught at the
Elementary School until his retirement in the
spring of 1982. He served as assistant principal
and Safety Patrol advisor for many years.
The girls all graduated from LHS and went on
to prepare for three different careers. Linda and
Janet both graduated from the university at Eau
Claire - Linda as a medical technologist and

WILBUR J. KELLAR
Lorenzo L. Wirth married my mother in 1923,
while he was logging near Draper, Wisconsin.
We came from Shell Lake, Wisconsin and after
he completed a year with Hines White Pine
Lumber Co. as their Superintendent, in Loretta,
Wisconsin we moved with him onto his farm on the
banks of the Flambeau River, about four miles
upstream from Ladysmith. This was in 1925. Then
I worked out and my sisters got married after com-
pleting school.
Mr. Wirth lost that farm in 1931, during the
depression. Then he and my mother and my
brother Clyde lived on a farm 3 miles north of In-
gram. Then they moved into the village of Ingram,
after Clyde died. After they died I bought the
place and lived in Ingram for 5 years. My nieces,
having lived with them, got married.
I moved to Ladysmith in January, 1961; where I
have lived on Maple Hill ever since. Wilbur J.
Kellar
THE JACK KELLEY FAMILY
Corlas (Jack) Kelly came to Carrol, Iowa to
Rusk County in 1925. With him came his wife,
Carrie Fern (Arnold), and their son, Jonathan.
Several of Jack's sisters and their families also
moved to the county about then. Most bought or
rented small farms in Atlanta Twp.
With the depression they all either lost or sold
their farms and returned to Iowa. Jack moved back
and forth several times in the next few years, then
moved back to Rusk County with his family to stay
in 1932. By then there were four children,
Jonathan, Francis, Gene and Lyle Vern. After
renting several farms in Atlanta and Murry Twp.,
they finally purchased a farm in NEI/4 section 18
of Atlanta Twp., East. The year was 1941.
It was a small farm with mostly wet ground.
There were no buildings on the land so a house and
barn had to be built. The house was small, a three
bedroom. The barn had a ground level haymow
and room for about 15 cows.
The children walked to Edgewood County
School about a mile away.
In 1941 Jack's health was failing and Jonathan
had married, so Gene left school to stay home and
work on the farm. In 1943 Francis was married.
The next big change came in 1949. They sold