Chippewa County WI Genealogical Society

09/04/2026

We've all been there!

Have a great weekend!

09/02/2026

DB’s 2026 Bluelight Special #35
120 Were Greenville Street

We have a rather short business history this week, but still part of our heritage none the less. This lot was a private residence until Dayton and Raymond Shafer opened Shafer Bros. Market in 1940. Although named Market it was strictly a meat market- not offering groceries. It continued so until being renamed Chippewa Sausage in 1945.

In 1969 the City Directory records Chippewa Sausage as being Shafer & Sommerfeld meats, owned and operated by Dayton Shafer and Ronald Sommerfeld.

Two years later in 1971 it was again named Chippewa Sausage, owned by Ronald Sommerfeld and Robert Reider

In 1972 Chippewa Sausage built a new building at 430 Palmer Street and in November the building at 120 West Greenville Street became home to Sue’s Pet Shop, owned by Sue Nowak

In 1983 the business was purchased by Sue and John Shea and underwent a slight name change to Sue’s Dog Grooming. It continued as such until approximately 2015, when it reverted to a private residence once again.

Many thanks for following along and I welcome additions or corrections I can verify.

Respectfully, Dennis Brain
Chippewa County WI Genealogical Society and Old Chippewa Falls Facebook site

09/01/2026

Did you start your genealogy early enough to have older relatives living?

Don't forget to interview them!! Even if it's just your parents, aunts, or uncles. They often share stories and information that other resources can't provide. Just remember, they can provide information that could help you later down the road.

09/01/2026

08/29/2026

I posted this article 4 years ago, but it’s too interesting not to re-post💚💛

08/26/2026

DB’s 2026 Bluelight Special #34
24 West Spring Street

The earliest history I can find for this lot is from 1874, when it is already the Anderson & Caesar harness making business. This building would likely have been destroyed in the Great Fire of 1869 and replaced shortly thereafter.

Mr. Anderson left the business in 1885 and Charles J. Caesar assumed ownership, expanding the business to include saddles and “ horse clothing”. Would this mean riding gear?

Charles passed in 1915 and his son Oscar R. Caesar took over the venture. An interesting article from the October 21, 1921 Wisconsin Daily Press states the safe being used by Caesar’s Harnessmakers was 70 years old at that time, made by Burke & Barnes Co. of Pittsburgh, PA. The story relates that John Rumsey operated a fleet of steamboats on the Mississippi River and he supplied each one with a safe. When he discontinued his business he brought this particular safe back to Chippewa Falls and it found its way into Caesar’s store.

As vehicles became more common the harness and saddle making business began to wane, eventually driving Mr. Caesar out of operation. In July of 1928 Carl Mason and Peter Jasper opened the Mason-Jasper Funeral Home here and operated until July of 1929, when they moved to 23 East Cedar Street. The building then housed the first of at least 13 taverns on this site-the Oscar Hanson Tavern.

Mr. Hanson remained in business until July 1942 when he entered the U. S. Army during WW2. He sold out to a Riedinger & Riedinger, neither of whom I could locate a first name for.

In December of 1944 Christian Wikan was issued a tavern operator’s license by the Chippewa Falls City Council and opened Chris’s Bar. He went into partnership with William Welch in June 1948 and soon sold the business to Mr. Welch, who renamed it The Sportsman’s Bar.

Al and Carolyn Blum purchased the tavern in December 1952, maintaining the name Sportsman’s Bar and advertising “ Where Sportsmen meet for tall tales and friendly conversation “.

The next change of ownership was in October of 1960, when Cletus D. Howard bought out the Blum’s and opened The Colonial Inn. I often wonder what the decor of these old taverns would have looked like. The Sportsman’s no doubt featured stuffed animals and the like, but what would the Colonial look like? A plantation theme? Or the Revolutionary War? Maybe an old English setting.

At any rate, it wasn’t active for long. William Wedemeyer opened The Cocktail Lounge( often referred to as just The Lounge) just 14 months later in February 1962, with Robert Johnson as manager.

The name remained the same but the ownership changed several times over the next 20 years. Thomas Anibas in 1969. Kenneth Nispel in 1971. Dennis Gray in 1975. Dennis Gray and William Helling in 1974. And then Betty Johnson from 1979 thru 1982.

At this point I can’t verify if it remained in business or was a rental/residence until 1989. In August of that year Mark Hoke opened a tavern with one of the coolest names ever in Chippewa bar history- Apehangers. Apehangers are tall motorcycle handlebars and this was considered a “ biker tavern”. Most often used by The Seventh Sons.

Cool name or not, it gave way to Zoey’s Tavern in July of 1990, the owner of which I couldn’t locate. It became the Spring Street Tavern in October 1991 and ran thru a succession of owners until finally being closed due to licensing violations and an assault incident.

In September 1994 Kathleen Altman and LeRoy McNamara were issued a Class B Malt Beverage and Intoxicating Liquor license as well as a Class A Annual Dance license and opened The Office. If you’ve ever been in this building you know how narrow it is; I just can’t picture the dance scene.

In December 1997 it is advertised as The Box Tavern, but I couldn’t find any further information on it. In September of 2000 it opened as Angel’s On Spring and again, no information.

Leroy Johnson purchased the building in January 2005 and opened the LeRoy’s On Spring tavern. In 2010 the City of Chippewa Falls Common Coumcil granted him approval to build a b**r garden and he continued in operation until 2020. At that time Darrel Hazelton purchased the business and renamed it Huckleberry’s ( “ I’m your Huckleberry “
from the movie Tombstone) and it remains so today.

As always, thanks for tuning in and be sure to contact me if you have any additions or corrections.

Respectfully, Dennis Brain
Chippewa County WI Genealogical Society and Old Chippewa Falls Facebook site.

08/19/2026

DB’s 2026 Bluelight Special #33
302 Bay Street

This lot has been home to a large number of businesses and owners.
The first building at 302 Bay Street was the Adolph Bigler Bakery, which was newly constructed in 1884, and soon became known as the City Bakery. At this time, upper Bay Street was just beginning to be developed, so the City Bakery would have been one of the earliest businesses there.

In August of 1887 the building caught fire “from the ovens” and was completely destroyed. According to the 8-3-1887 Chippewa County Independent, “ The fire department promptly had two streams of water playing on the flames. However, the building was wrecked and the stock destroyed . There was an insurance of $1,000 on the building and about the same on the stock and fixtures”.

Mr. Bigler rebuilt and continued to operate the business until 1905, at which time he sold it to John E. Dunn. Interestingly, Mr. Bigler was elected mayor of Chippewa Falls in 1904, and after selling his bakery business he opened a saloon at 124 Bay Street- just two blocks south.

Mr. Dunn is a rather sad case. He was forced to sell his bakery business when he was hit by an Omaha train in the township of Anson and then yielded to the next owner- Peter Hansen in February of 1907.

In August of 1909 Mr. Hansen sold out to the next set of owners, the Hopner Brothers - John, Jr. and Peter. They continued ownership for approximately 3 1/2 years until January of 1913, at which time George Nein purchased the business. Mr. Nein had just recently retired from the barber vocation and he remodeled and refitted the building into a more modern bakery, opening Nein’s Home Bakery in March of that year.

The final change of bakery-ownership occurred just 1 1/2 years later when Mr. Nein sold out to John Thielke (who had previously operated a bakery in Thorp, WI) in November of 1914.

Mr. Thielke became the sixth and final baker to operate out of this structure. In August of 1916 “a wooden hood used in carrying away gases from the oven caught fire”. A wooden hood above a stove? Apparently this was before OSHA came into existence. The Evening Independent newspaper article wasn’t clear, but it appears the building was not destroyed by fire. It was again remodeled and opened in February 1920 as The Chippewa Battery and Service Station, performing basic automobile maintenance. The company was owned by Harry Monk, John Monk, and W. F. Frellsen.

The next business here was named The Automotive Battery & Electric Company, owned by H. A. Nussle, which opened in January 1921. They stayed in business until December 1926 when Charles Hunter purchased the building and opened The Battery and Service Station, soon renamed Hunter’s Battery Shop.

Not to be outdone by the bakery businesses, the battery folks had another ownership entry when Frank Hollen bought out Charles Hunter in January 1929 and started the Independent Electric Company, with B. N. Bylund serving as manager. The title is a little misleading as this too was an automotive ( and I assume truck) battery dealership.

The final entry in battery-businesses here was the Holmes Battery Service. This was a strange one that appears to have operated for only February and March of 1930 before moving to 26 West Central Street. To further compound the mystery, I couldn’t locate the owners name either.

So the final ownership score….
Bakers:6
Battery guys:5

Fred Simpson next opened Oldsmobile Sales & Service for a short time before W. K. Mackie opened Mackie’s Tire Service in February 1931, with Nate DeLong becoming proprietor in 1934. It seems no one can run a business here for very long , as the Gilbertson Tire Service opened in 1935, owned by Harold Gilbertson. Mr. Gilbertson ran the business until passing away in November of 1946, becoming the longest running business out of this structure.

Use of the building took another turn when Mike Flynn opened Chippewa Catering Service in May 1947. He was joined by the Chippewa Upholstery Company, operated by Vernon Marten, for one year- 1948. Chippewa Catering was then purchased by James Vicker and remained in business here until moving to 3 East Canal Street in January 1950. The building was then razed and it became a city parking lot.

In November 1956 Leo Hamilton purchased the vacant lot and operated it as a used-car lot for his Hamilton Chevrolet-Buick dealership which was located directly east across the street at 26 West Grand Avenue. In November of 1958 Ideal Chevrolet- Buick bought the business and continued the used car lot here with Ray Santineau as manager.

B & D Motors became the next owners as they opened a small shop in January 1967 and sold vehicles here. Owners Bob Loiselle and Doug Gullickson eventually moved in October 1969 to Hwy. 53 between Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire and established Car City.

This brings us to our final businesses on this lot- financial institutions. Chippewa Savings & Loan held an open house for their new building in June of 1975, with Henry J. Geissler serving as president. They were purchased by Anchor Savings & Loan in May 1982, which became Anchor Bank in September 1992.

Old National Bancorp of Evansville, IN purchased Anchor Bank in January 2016. They were in turn purchased by the current occupant - Marine Credit Union.

Thanks for hanging in there with this one; definitely my longest thus far. If you have any additions or corrections feel free to contact me.

Respectfully, Dennis Brain
Chippewa County WI Genealogical Society and Old Chippewa Falls Facebook site.

08/12/2026

DB’s 2026 Bluelight Special #32
502 Woodward Avenue

The story here begins in September 1921, when Louis Varsho opened his meat market in a new building and shortly thereafter added a grocery business as well. He rented 5 upstairs rooms also and I can’t help but think how appreciative the tenants were of the smells eminating from the meat stand.

In 1926 Mr. Varsho advertises his business for sale “ due to ill health”. One year later , in October of 1927, White’s Grocery opened here. Unfortunately, I couldn’t determine the owners names. They remained in business for just over 1 1/2 years before selling out to Chester and Irene Bischel, who operated Bischel’s Meats and Groceries beginning in June of 1929. This venture was even more short - lived.

Day S. and Almeda Michaels moved their grocery store from 419 South Main Street ( which many of us remember as Gordy’s and then Lindy’s) to 502 Woodward Avenue and opened in January 1930 as Michael’s Meats & Groceries. This is still when the owners of these businesses did their own butchering and preparation of the various cuts of meat. That is what you call guaranteed freshness.

The Michael’s remained in business until May of 1938, when they sold their remaining stock and fixtures. It’s interesting to note that they then owned and operated a potato chip factory until 1942. This is the first ( and thus far only) such business I’ve come across in Chippewa’s history and I’d love to see a box or bag advertising their product( if they did indeed package it themselves).

Since that time the building has served as a rental or private residence.

Thanks for coming along on another trip down Chippewa Falls’ history lane and I encourage you to contact me with any additions or corrections you may have as I strive for accuracy in all of my posts.

Respectfully, Dennis Brain
Chippewa County WI Genealogical Society and Old Chippewa Falls Facebook site.

08/07/2026

Have a great weekend!