Reminiscences and Anecdotes of early Taylor County

              According to records furnished by Fr. Renter, the first priest to serve the local Catholic church here, was Fr. Theodore Schuellel- hofer, in 1877. He baptized Josephine Forst, December 25, of that year Fr. Schaller followed, in 1884, Fr. Ignatius Lager; Fr. Ritz, in 1885; Fr. Wihllms, in 1890; Fr. August Birsner, in 1892; Fr. Alfes, in 1893; Fr. Steven Duren, in 1894; Fr. C. B. Siekmann, in 1895; Fr. Michael Schoelch, in 1898; and Fr. Peter Dickoff, in 1905. Among the earliest officers of the congregation were Nick Stetter, Vincent Hirsch, A. A. Gearhart, Paul McCourt, Matt Kraemer, Ed Rabbideau, Frank Blahnik, Paul Feddick, F. Lohner, Simon Erickson, J. Zarnecki, and Peter W^uest. The first school was started in May 1 899. Peter Doyle, Isaac Biscornet, John Herbst, Peter Scheff, John Franz, John Raths, Henry Kriplean, John Riedl, Philip Wimmer, Paul May and P. F. Kaeting should be added to the above list of early members.
The first new church was built in 1890. The present church was built in 1895. The first parochial school was opened in 1889, and the present fine new building w^as erected in 192 7.
Peter Schafer, of Ely, Minnesota, son of Nicholas Schafer who came to Medford in the fall of 1874, recently told this interesting Christmas story. It was only a few days before Christmas, either the year of ' 74, or the following one, that the two or three Medford mer¬ chants who had very limited stocks of even the common necessities of life, seemed to have entirely forgotten to order some of the toys, candies and other things that children usually expect at that season of the year. Anyway, nothing of the sort had arrived five days before, and many of the children of the settlement went to meet each train to see if any of those precious things came in. Of course, they all believed in Santa Claus, but some of the older ones had a suspicion that if these things were not in the stores, Santa would have a pretty hard time filling their stockings, so they and many of the older people, went to meet the train. When nothing arrived on the train from the south on the 23rd, it was a very dejected bunch of kids who went back to their homes from the depot. Christmas looked pretty uninviting with nothing but the usual pork and beans, or maybe flapjacks and black molasses for most of them; but they just couldn't give up, — they were back at the depot the next day. At first it looked as if they were again doomed to disappointment. Finally, the trainmen unloaded a barrel for Charley LeClaire who kept a saloon, dance hall and a few groceries, near where the Harley Stimm barber shop is now located. LeClaire was there, and knowing what was in the barrel, broke in the head and gave the whole barrel of popcorn balls to the children and everybody in the crowd. While that was about the only treat that most of them had that Christ¬ mas, it made quite a change in the spirit of the bunch, and they all expressed their thanks to LeClaire for playing Santa Claus.
Mr. Schafer also stated that the first school that he attended
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