Hotel, Newspaper, 3 Grocery Stores Once Located in Virgil
by Roger Kasa
The town of Virgil was platted in 1884 and incorporated in 1916, according
to information supplied by John and Dorothy Clouser of Wolsey.
The information states that the Latin poet's name was chosen by landowner
Charles Prior of Chicago, Ill. Originally most businesses were located west
of the Milwaukee tracks, but later land east of the tracks was plotted.
A large hotel west of the Milwaukee Depot was owned and operated by Mr. and
Mrs. John Krutzfeldt. Mary Tillery and George and Mary Cook provided rooms
and meals in their homes.
| August Krutzfeldt owned and operates a
garage and dealership for automobiles and farm machinery. His son,
Merle, and family owned and operated a garage, gas station and cafe. A weekly newspaper was published by B. L. Maunders. William Smith was a local painter and paper-hanger. Virgil had a busy stockyard, three elevators and three
lumberyards. Elevator managers included John VanDerAarde, William
Heckenliable, E. B. Kast, James Morgan, H. Johnson, W. Weyking, W.
C. Denison, Jr., and L. E. LeGrand.
Bar and pool hall owner included Elmer Peterson, George Warder, Charles Oberst, William Holtey, Pete Shier, Ed Guthmiller, Archie Denison, Gene and Erma Hoy, L. E. LeGrand, Leonard Tarrello, Hazel Krell, Owen West and Joyce Rogers. |
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Charles Long and Charles McGruder owned and operated drug stores. Wesley
Rickord managed a Standard Oil bulk station and William Orth built a large
building on the south side of Main Street and operated a garage, gas and
service station there for many years.
The Virgil Co-op Association built a large building on the west side to
provide gas and oil products, repairs, seeds and feed. Managers were W. C.
Denison Jr. and L. E. LeGrand.
Many cafes were operated. Some of the owners were B. L. Maunders, Alvina
Krutzfeldt, Henry Rogers, Laura McCart, Jerry Costello, James McCreery and
P. C. VanDerAarde.
There were three churches in Virgil -- Methodist, Luthern and German
Reformed.
A beauty shop was operated by Charlotte Milliken Dennison and barber shop
owners were Elmer Peteron, George Warder, Ed Koerner, Ashby, William Noonan
and Archie Denison.
Ed and Albena Fuerhrer Koerner's daughter, Berdyen is married to accordion
player Myron Floren of Lawrence Welk fame.
Cream stations were in demand and their products were shipped to creameries
by railroad. Station operators included Mary Thomas, Tony LeClair, Holteys,
Blacky Eisenbraun, G. Schmidtgall and Wayne Morris.
*Marvin??
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Huron Man Recalls Early Days of the Town of Virgil
by Roger Kasa
Raised on a farm in the Virgil area, Robert Weikum of Huron has some vivid
memories of the town in its early days.
Weikum, who started his education at the Virgil school in 1916, wrote that
the town of Virgil, like so many other small towns, went by the wayside when
good roads and modern transportation came along.
"In the early years," he wrote, "Part of the town was on the west side of
the railroad tracks. There was a lumber yard, a blacksmith shop, an
implement store, garage, livery barn, clothing store, stockyards and four
elevators along the tracks."
He writes that the town also had a car dealer who sold Durant cars. "I don't
remember if he sold any or not," he writes. "At least there wasn't many
around."
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Weikum says the town had two churches
in town, although one was moved to the east side of town and
converted to a pool hall. It later burned down. He said "at one time there were three grocery stores, a hardware store, two lumber yards, post office and a couple of cream stations, a saloon, bowling alley with one lane, two gas stations." Later, the town had three churches in the west part of town where the school also was located. He said the first school house that he attended was torn down and a new one built around 1920. The current school is still there. Weikum said a large hotel was located on the west side and there were two filling stations. A bank was located there for a while, but went out of business in 1927. A post office and telephone office was part of the town's business scene, he said, and two garages were located on the west side, along with a shoe store, harness shop and shoe repair shop. |
A dray line, "which was a must in the early days," were located in Virgil,
he said. "The first gas pump that I remember was a one-gallon pump in front
of VanDerAarde's Hardware Store."
He said Virgil usually had a baseball team, of which he was a member, and a
couple of barbershops.
"Virgil had a big fire, I don't know what year for sure, either 1921 or
1922," he said. "I think it burned the whole north side of the street. Some
of it was rebuilt but it never was the same again."
He said the cause of the fire was never determined. "There were a lot of
rumors," he said. "I will never know how they got the fire out because there
wasn't any water that I remember."
He said Virgil didn't have a doctor, but two were located at Alpena and they
took care of local residents.
He said a drugstore sold ice cream cones for a nickel. "I often wondered
where they got it from," he said.
Weikum said about all that is left in Virgil now is the American Legion
Hall, the post office and a few residents who call it home.
