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F. Dominick & Mary (Suhling) Mader Family

Dominick Mader Jr. 1886 – 1956

Dominick Mader Jr.
1886 – 1956

Dominick Jr. was the son of Dominick and Mary born on November 26, 1886. When he was young he helped his father in the brick yard and later on the farm.

Dominick Jr. was joined in marriage to Edith Moss. They were the parents of three children; Margaret, William, and Frank.

Frank remembers living in La Crosse first, where his father worked at People’s Ice and Fuel Co.. He was about eight years old when the family moved to the farm.

Having taken the farm back from Hyde and Funk, Dominick Jr. and his brother Arthur returned to farm it for their father, later purchasing it. One of the large tobacco sheds built by Hyde and Funk was converted into a barn,. the other was torn down. (Andy North and others on Losey Blvd. built their homes from this wood.) Dominick Jr. dairy farmed and sold dirt in town. The dirt was from the area where the race track used to be.

“Dad wasn’t used to driving a tractor. Once he came to the creek bank and hollered ‘Whoa’ to the tractor and it wouldn’t stop!” recalls Bill. “My dad was so easy going. He always smoked a corn cob pipe.”

To the south, just below the house, the Maders had a picnic area. (Where Hass Park is now.) Further away from the house on Dominick Jr.’s farm there was another small park where the downtown business men came every Thursday night for a party. Erickson Bakery, Bodega, and others belonged to the club and they always catered the food. The businessmen enjoyed it so much, eventually they ran power lines down to it for lights and played horseshoes until midnight.

This one particular night they said, “Come on down, Dom!” They had beer and shots until finally they had to carry Dominick home. His wife was so disgusted she told Bill to stay with his father because he was moaning and groaning so much he was going to die. The next morning he probably wished he had because his wife Edith lit into him! This was the only time Bill could remember his father drinking too much.

In ca. 1936, the family moved to 1406 Johnson St. in La Crosse. Dominick’s brother Arthur still remained on the farm.

Bill told this story:

“My mother went over to visit Angeline on 13th St. On the way back in the middle of the street on 15th and Farnam was a present all wrapped up. Ma picked it up, brought it home and opened it. She was surprised to find that it was chicken guts! The butcher shop had put it in the street as a joke to see who would pick it up. Ma wrapped the chicken guts back up and put the present back in the middle of the street. Then she stood behind a tree to see who would pick it up next!”

Dominick Jr. had a disagreement with Fr. Riesterer at Holy Trinity and the family quit going to church. Later, Fr. Plecity tried to get him to come back to the church.Bill recalled, “Dad would be laying on the porch after work and Mom would say, ‘Here comes that young priest again!’ My dad would duck out the back door and visit friends on the next block.”

They never owned a touring car. Earlier, Dominick Jr. drove the ice truck back and forth to work and in later years drove a pick-up.

At the age of 69, Dominick Jr. passed away in his home at 1923 S. 30th St. on Nov. 5, 1956. His wife Edith survived him.

Edith was a cook at Hillview Co. Hospital for many years. When she became old and needed care, she wanted to go to Hillview so that she could look out the window and see the family farm. She couldn’t go there because she had too much money so she went to Gunn Nursing Home instead. Edith was unhappy there and died three months later.

F. Dominick & Mary (Suhling) Mader Family

Henry Mader 1885 – 1954

Henry Mader
1885 – 1954

On February 8, 1885, Henry was born at home to Dominick and Mary Mader. When he was old enough, Henry and his younger brother Dominick, helped on the brick yard by carrying the mold from the molding table to the drying yard.

Henry married a girl whose surname was Grossbach. They had only one daughter, Rose. For some time, they lived at 1406 Johnson St. to care for his widowed mother in her old age.

“I never paid much attention to him. He was the kid of guy you didn’t really notice – like Uncle Arthur.” his nephew Bill Mader said. “He worked at the brewery.”

Henry was living at 1304 Vine St. when after a short illness he passed away April 30, 1954 at age 75.

Mader Family Stories

People’s Ice and Fuel Company, Grosch and Mader

People’s Ice and Fuel Company, Grosch and Mader

Grosch and Mader were partners in People’s Ice and Fuel Co.. All winter long, they harvested ice on the river and stored it in warehouses, packed in sawdust, where it stayed frozen until it was needed during the summer. The delivery of ice was primarily a summer business. The iceman would deliver blocks of ice to home iceboxes several times a week. In winter, they delivered fuel.

At first, the ice and fuel were delivered by horse and wagon. In 1914, Grosch and Mader bought one of the first trucks in La Crosse at a cost of $4,000.00. This would be about $85,000.00 today. The truck had an H.E. Wilcox motor, an all wood steering wheel, and wooden wheels with hard rubber tires. It was white with “Grosch and Mader” painted in bold lettering on the sides. (This truck still runs and is owned by Frank Mader.)

Later it became more practical to make ice artificially. This plant was located near the West Channel Bridge between La Crosse and La Crescent. The coming of electric refrigeration put an end to the ice block business.

F. Dominick & Mary (Suhling) Mader Family

August Mader 1884 – 1963

August Mader
1884 – 1963

August was born on the brick yard January 20, 1884 to Dominick and Mary Mader. As a boy his job in the brick yard was to drive the team on the mud wheel.

August was married to a girl named Mary who was a sister of Florence Riek. August and Mary did not have children.

“Gus must have been a real businessman.” Steve Mader said. (Frank’s son.) Gus owned a half interest in People’s Ice and Fuel Co. Originally the ice came from the river. Later, they opened an artificial plant. (Located on the Holiday Inn site between La Crescent and La Crosse.) When the ice business gave way to electric refrigeration, the company switched to the manufacturing of concrete block building units. They kept the same location.

Frank Mader worker on the river cutting ice for his uncle Gus when he was 17. After the service he worked for Gus again making concrete blocks.

Bill Mader remembers Uncle Gus coming out every Christmas to give them each a $2.00 bill. This stopped when they turned 18.

Gus and Mary belonged to a church that held seances and they were not allowed to eat meat. The church didn’t have many members. Gus bought the organ and put a lot of money into the church to keep it going.

Gus had an antique Studebaker. One night he came over to his nephew Frank and gave him the title in an envelope and said, “Someone stole the hubcaps so you may as well have the car before they steal it all?” It had 5,000 miles on it. He was too old to drive it anymore. (The car is still is possession of Frank Mader.) At the same time Gus sold him his old ice truck with the names “Grosch and Mader” on the side.

They lived on 16th and Jackson where Gus kept horses in a barn in the alley. In later years they moved across the street in the big white house on the NE corner where at age 79 Gus died December 23, 1963. He was survived by his wife Mary.

F. Dominick & Mary (Suhling) Mader Family

Arthur Mader 1880 – 1950

Arthur Mader
1880 – 1950

The first son of Dominick and Mary, Arthur was born April 24, 1880 on State Road Coulee. Growing up on the brick yard, his job as a boy was to build the fires in the kilns. When his father sold the brick yard, Arthur was 26 years old.

Arthur never married. The ten years the family lived on the farm he helped his father run it. Later he and his younger brother Dominick became partners and bought the farm.

“Uncle Arthur was a loner. He would work with Dad and not say a word.” Bill Mader said. “He was the kind of guy you didn’t pay much attention to.”

“Art used to come over to visit uninvited. The family dreaded to see him come because he would just sit and not talk but maybe that’s kind of a Mader trait.” reflects Ben Mader.

Bill recalls:

“No matter how much snow or how cold the weather, Uncle Arthur would walk from the farm (Arrow Head Village) to Holy Trinity for Sunday Mass. He always wore his big heavy overcoat and cap with earflaps on his head. After Mass he’d go over to Strasser’s Tavern and have three shots and then walk home.”

In a local hospital on May 31, 1950, Arthur passed away at age 70.

La Crosse Stories

The Stone Quarry on Grandad’s Bluff

The Stone Quarry on Grandad’s Bluff

A hundred feet or so to the left of the flag, the indentation of the tramway track now covered with shrubs and trees is still visible. The tramway was built in 1869.

The stone to be quarried was first stripped of its top soil, then dynamite was placed in holes made by a well drill to break the stone loose. Large chunks of stone were broken up by dynamite placed into holes made by an air drill. The stone was hauled down to the bottom by the unique tramway which consisted of two cars connected by a long cable. When the loaded car left the top the empty car at the bottom was pulled up. At the bottom the stone was dumped into a crusher and then carried on a belt to a rotation screen. The screen had different sections with openings of various sizes through which the crushed rock fell into bins. The finished product was transported by a railroad spur track. Andy North also worked at the quarry for eight years until it closed due to state regulations and the local objection to the destruction of the face of the bluff.

E. Caroline & Jacob Boma Family

Mary (Boma) North 1885 – 1938

Mary (Boma) North
1885 – 1938

Mary was the youngest child of Caroline and Jacob born in December of 1885. She was married to Emil North who was born in 1880.

Emil managed the stone quarry on grandad’s Bluff. They mined and broke the rocks on top of the bluff and lowered the rocks down on cable cars. Mary and Emil lived on 28th St. under Grand Dad’s Bluff. At that time there were only three houses there and a tavern. One was a boarding house for the workers. The tram track ran by the side of North’s house, which is where they crushed the rock. (The tavern is still there. The third house from the tavern was Emil and Mary’s, and the fifth house was the boarding house.)

Three children were born to the North’s; Andy in 1909, Marie in 1911, and Gladys in 1913.

“In those days, every Sunday families got together.’ Andy said. Ben Mader remembers going to North’s with the Boma’s in a horse drawn wagon.

Andy’s mother and dad told the following story:

“They were going up to Bliss Road to a party up the hill in horse and wagon. It was just a wagon road in those days and every so often a ditch ran across the road to drain the water. Theodore Mader sat on the tail of the wagon and in the back was a keg of beer. When they bound over the ditch the keg of beer rolled, knocking Theodore off with it, unknown to Emil and Mary until some distance further.”

Emil had a horse and buggy with a fringe on top. Andy said you had to be careful because when the last person stepped on the step of the buggy, the horse would take off!

At a homemaker meeting in 1938 at Sand Lake Coulee, Mary had just finished eating and sat down to play the organ or piano when she said, “My arm feels funny.” She died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 52. Emil passed away seven years later.

Julia & John Schnell Family, Mader Family Stories

The Schnell Brick Yard

The Schnell Brick Yard

The brick yard owned and operated by the Schnell brothers was opened ca. 1890 and had three sheds. They first learned the brick business by working in Weimer’s and later Dominick’s brick yard, located only a half a mile away. Eventually the Schnell yard was taken over by John Schnell, Julia’s husband, and his brother Charles. (It was located at the present sit of the trailer park on Highway 33, on the right side going East.)

As a boy, John Mader can remember kids in the neighborhood working at the brick yard for 17 cents a day which was the going rate at that time. John didn’t know then that the Mader family had been in the brick business.

Andy North recalled working for John, Charlie, and old Schnell. He stayed up nights firing the kilns to keep the brick at a certain temperature. “Those old timers were sharp!” Andy said, “If you missed a firing, John knew it in the morning by the feel of the brick. They really knew their business. Boy, you kept up with the machinery or you got so far behind!”

Helen remembered:

“Dad and Grandfather worked till they were real old because they were the only ones who knew the mixture of the clay – no one else could do it. The consistency of the mud had to be just firm enough and the firing of the kilns at just the right temperature or the brick would crack.”

The brothers John and Charlie stopped making brick during World War II. There was no building going on and all the young men were off to war so they could not get help.

E. Caroline & Jacob Boma Family

Julia (Boma) Schnell 1884 – 1972

Julia (Boma) Schnell
1884 – 1972

In July of 1884, Julia was born at the Boma home. She attended public school in Shelby township and the Catholic school at La Crosse. When she was 21 years of age, Julia married John Schnell November 21, 1905.

The Schnells were neighbors of the Boma’s. John was born in 1883 the son of Phillip and Helena Schnell who founded the Schnell Bros. Brick Co. with his brother.

In the wedding was Julia’s first cousin, Frank Mader Jr., who gave them an ornamental black and gold shelf clock for a wedding present. (This clock is proudly displayed in the home of Bill Schnell.) After the marriage, John and Julia lived with his father and two unmarried brothers on 15th and Market St. in La Crosse.

John was good looking and Julia was very attractive, a jolly, happy-go-lucky person. Frank Jr. always said, “The Boma girls were the prettiest girls he ever saw in his life!”

Later they moved into the Schnell brick house below the road in State Road Coulee. (Site of the trailer park today.) Two houses belonged to the Schnell Brick Yard. When John’s brother Charles married he lived in the lower house and John and Julia moved into the older brick house above the road. When the boys moved to the brick yard their father moved with them renting out his house in town. John and his brothers worked in the brick yard, eventually taking over when their father got too old.

Julia and John Schnell were the parents of four children; Edwin born in 1910, Helen 1911, Florence 1913, and William 1916. Keeping busy with her own family, Julia also had to keep house for the boarded workers in the brick yard, cooking the meals and doing up the bedding.

The children went to school in the red school house on State Road. Then they had two years at Trinity High School for religious training. “We’d run out to the road and catch a ride to school.” Bill recalls, “The janitor would let us in the boiler room until Mass started. After school we walked home.” John Mader can remember going to a school with a boy called “Brick” Schnell. “Brick” was a name for Edwin.

The boys worked in the brick yard. When John bought Jacob Boma’s 380 acre farm, he sent William who was only 15 years old to run it.

The Mader family all came to Julia and John’s Golden Wedding Anniversary in 1955.

Julia was going to be 88 years old when she died in May of 1972. Her husband John lived only six and a half months longer before he passed away at age 89.

E. Caroline & Jacob Boma Family

John Boma 1882 – 1908

John Boma
1882 – 1908

John was born on June 20, 1882 only five months after Jacob and Caroline lost three of their children to diphtheria.

John lived at home with his parents and older brother Frank until he purchased the brick yard from his uncle Dominick in 1906. That same month on April 23 he was married to Emma Stahl, daughter of Joseph Stahl of La Crosse. They moved into the two story brick house at the end of Boma Road. The following two years they became the parents of John Jr. and Bernetta.

On Labor Day of 1908, John and his brother-in-law Emil North left early to go duck hunting on Rice Lake, near French Island. They spent most of the morning hunting when Emil elected to walk along the shore of the lake to scare up ducks and John was going to wait in the hunting skiff. John stepped into the boat, pulling his shot gun with him when the hammer caught on the edge of the boat and the gun went off – hitting him in the chest. Emil heard the shot and could hear him groaning. By the time he reached John, he was in pretty bad shape. John died soon after at age 26. Following service at Holy Trinity Church his funeral cortege was more than six blocks long.

John left a young wife, a son not yet two years old and a six week old baby. Before his death, John had dismantled the brick works and Emma sold the property in 1910 to Louis J. Prucha.

Emma, too, was to live a short life. She died at the age of 30 only ten years after her husband.

Orphaned, the children went to live in Minnesota with the Stahl relation. (Outside of the fact John Jr. is deceased, the family has lost track of this branch of the Boma family.)

JOHN BOMA SHOT WHILE HUNTING
________
SHOT GUN DISCHARGE AS HE STEPS INTO BOAT
_______
CHARGE ENTERED NEAR HEART
________
Injured Man Was Dying When Companions Reached Him, and Body is Conveyed to the City

John Boma, aged 28, proprietor of the brick yard on the State Road Coulee, while stepping into a hunting skiff at Rick Lake Sunday morning, was shot and killed by his own gun. The exact details of the accident are lacking but it is thought probable that Boma was entering the skiff and in pulling his gun towards him the hammer caught on the edge of the boat and in this way was discharged. The charge of shot entered just below the heart and when others who had been attracted by the explosion and seeing him fall, had reached the place, they found him dead.

In company with his brother-in-law Emil North, a resident of this city, Mr. Boma had gone to Rice Lake early in the morning for a day of duck shooting and had spend the greater portion of the forenoon hunting. Just before the accident the two separated, Mr. North going up the shore of the lake and Mr. Boma stepping into a hunting skiff. Several hunters were in the vicinity and say Mr. Boma fell following the discharge of the gun. They ran to him only to find him lying in the boat with blood oozing from a fearful would just below the heart. That death was instantaneous was evident. The weapon was a repeating Winchester shotgun.

The body was conveyed to the lower end of the lake and Miler brothers, undertakers were summoned. The body was brought to this city. A widow and two children survive Mr. Boma and they are heartbroken over his untimely and horrible death.
Funeral arrangements will be announced later.