Pages from the Past
Posted: Sussex Sun, May 6, 2008
By Fred Keller, Sussex Village Historian
100 years ago – 1908
The aptly named Harry Bird of Colgate advertised his Barred Plymouth Rock eggs for 50 cents per setting (you hatch your own chicks).
The Menomonee Falls Beet Co. urged local farmers to plant sugar beets as a cash crop.
50 years ago – 1958
Airman 1st Class Glen Moody returned home to Sussex after nearly four years in U.S. Air Force.
Art Manke was elected president of the Sussex Main Street School District Board.
A new 1958 Chevy cost $1,898. The station wagon version cost $2,143.
25 years ago – 1983
Tombstone Pizza released plans to build a plant in Sussex Industrial Park.
Sussex Park Board members were upset with their Lisbon counterparts and considered plans to limit park program participation to Sussex residents or charge Lisbon residents a higher fee.
10 years ago – 1998
Melvin and Jean Mathiak celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Lannon.
Pam Gall and Lannon Village Trustees Dan Martin and Bob Winter competed for the support of the Lannon Village Board in their bids to replace Village President Shirley Ravnik, who had recently resigned.
5 years ago – 2003
Peter Sparrow, Norm Day, Dick Lutzke and others worked on renovation of the old North Western Railroad depot to turn it into the Sussex-Lisbon Area Historical Society Museum.
Lannon’s Land O’ Lakes baseball team, league co-champion the year before with a 15-3 record, was led by catcher Dean Haase and second baseman Scott Doffek.
Pages from the Past
Posted: Sussex Sun, May 14, 2008
By Fred Keller, Sussex Village Historian
100 years ago – 1908
As a promotion and sales incentive, tobacco companies began offering premiums that could be earned by saving the tags from chewing, pipe and roll-your-own cigarette tobacco bags. The tobacco customer could turn in 50 tags for a fine English razor.
50 years ago – 1958
The Sussex Main Street seventh- and eighth-graders took a field a trip to Chicago’s museums.
Clarence Golner was installed as the Sussex VFW commander and his wife as the ladies auxiliary commander.
The congregation of Lisbon Presbyterian Church redecorated the parsonage, which stood north of the church on Hillside Road.
25 years ago – 1983
A massive grass fire drew firefighters from both Lisbon and Sussex. Capt. Robert Patenaude was injured when he fell into some blazing tall grass, sustaining burns to his hands, wrists and legs.
Lisbon resident Leo Wolf questioned the pay raise voted for at the town meeting for Assessor Donna Zimmerman.
10 years ago – 1998
A disgruntled Sussex resident shot his next-door neighbor with a pellet gun over the neighbor spraying his lawn with weed poison. The pellet had to be surgically removed from the victim’s chest.
The Hamilton School District broke ground for the new Woodside Elementary School. Retired farmer Bob Butler, the land’s former owner, was an honored guest at the ceremony.
5 years ago – 2003
The Sussex Village Board cleared the way for Kohl’s to build a store on Main Street west of Highway 164.
The Friends of the Pauline Haass Public Library sponsored a talk by author Henry Goilde, who survived five years in concentration camps, to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 100 people.
Pages from the Past
Posted: Sussex Sun, May 20, 2008
By Fred Keller, Sussex Village Historian
100 years ago – 1908
The Frank Gumm family of Lannon welcomed a baby girl to its ranks April 30.
The nearly 4-year-old boy of Lannon’s Fred Leun family died of pneumonia.
Traveling clothes salesmen set up shop for a couple of days at Lannon’s Keifer Hotel.
50 years ago – 1958
Bud, Les and Mike Reimer all started for the Lannon Stonemen Land O’ Lakes baseball team.
Sussex passed an ordinance to require all houses and businesses to install three-digit address numbers.
The Village Board also approved a building permit for Gay Gilpin’s proposed filling station.
25 years ago – 1983
Hamilton’s Julie Schiellack, 16, won the Hamilton Junior Miss Pageant.
The historic Will Edwards home was moved from downtown Main Street to a new lot on Silver Spring Road as 250 people gathered at midnight to watch.
King and queen of the Hamilton junior prom were Pat Zawada and Wendy Schalow.
10 years ago – 1998
Ira Robins bought the closed-down Club Safari in Sussex.
A bolt of lightning struck an apartment on Clover Drive. Sussex Fire Chief Robert Schlei estimated the damage at $200.
David Burton of Sussex owned a collection of 160 license plates from near and far.
5 years ago – 2003
Longtime Hamilton School District Board President Gerry Schmitz stepped down, making way for Gabe Kolesari to take the post.
The Hamilton girls fast-pitch softball team recorded two no-hitters by pitchers Marcia Carberry and Megan Paterson, but lost one of them, 3-0.
Pages from the Past
Posted: Sussex Sun, May 27, 2008
By Fred Keller, Sussex Village Historian
100 years ago – 1908
The 23-day-old infant of the Wilt family in Lannon died.
The Citizens State Bank of Menomonee Falls paid 3 percent on one-year certificates of deposit and 2½ percent on less than one year.
W. D. McGill and the Lisbon Telephone Co. added phone lines in Sussex-Lisbon to provide better service.
50 years ago – 1958
Lisbon Presbyterian Church held a mortgage-burning party for the loan it took out to put a basement under the church.
All Sussex-Lisbon students participated in the Civil Defense program “Operation Alert.”
25 years ago – 1983
The Sussex Robinettes drum and baton corps performed at the Indy 500, the corps’ third appearance at that event.
Hamilton High School held its junior prom was held at Marchese’s Danceland.
A half-white mutant robin was seen nesting near Lannon’s Forest View Drive.
10 years ago – 1998
Daisy Rossman, 82, died. She had arrived in Lannon 61 years earlier and married Harvey Rossman a year later.
Halquist Stone Co. asked Lisbon for approval to build a 1,400-square-foot addition to its Lisbon Road headquarters.
Stan Grove coached the Hamilton golf team.
5 years ago – 2003
Lisbon made plans for a town center on Highway 164 north of Good Hope Road, which would be extended westward to connect with Highway 164.
Sandi Gettelman resigned after 15 years as the Lisbon Police Department’s administrative assistant, but stayed on as the town’s deputy clerk (a job she still holds today).
Tom Hoffman resigned after 34 years as a Hamilton High School teacher. He was the winner of the first Al’s Run in Milwaukee.