Tioga Feed Store and Post Office
Tioga, Clark Co., Wisconsin
Tioga Feed Store and Post Office in 1909
(Click to photo to enlarge it)
We lived in Seif Township, but much closer to Tioga than Globe. Our actual address was Rural Route 1, Willard. Tioga had a General Store. I do remember it looked more like a house than a store, and of course the owners did actually live there. I don't remember if Tioga had a gas pump or not. It was a country store and all the people that worked there were country people. One day a farmer came in and asked the clerk if she had any calf wieners. Without really thinking what he was asking for, she replied, "No, but we have some good bologna." Since she was a farm girl she was teased many years about that. I really don't think they ever made anything that specified what kind of wieners you were getting. They were just called wieners. You see, a calf weaner was a metal piece with sharp prongs which farmers fastened to a calf's nose to keep it from nursing when the calf was put in the pasture with the rest of the cattle. These prongs would hurt the cow and she wouldn't allow the calf to nurse. It got it's name because it was used to wean the calf from the mother and teach it to eat and drink on it's own.
Many times we would get mail addressed to us at Tioga Post Office which was in the store. I don't know if it was just a sorting station for the mail, but I know we could mail both letters and packages there. We would also get our baby chicks via mail and pick them up in a 3 ft. square box which was about 8 inches deep. Each cardboard crate held a batch of 100. There were little round holes all around the box to give the chickens air. We kids always snatched up any of the punched circles which were sometimes laying in the box and pretended they were coins and that we were rich!
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Was that ever a peeping choir when you walked into the store, as everybody's chick would arrive on the same day and we'd all get notices to come pick up the chicks which were sent 100 to a box. We usually had 100 percent survival of the chicks but once in a while one or two would die enroute. The boxes of chicks were stacked one on top of another at the store. I think they still ship chicks today, but they certainly aren't delivered to the post office! I have no idea how many boxes there were, it seemed like a lot to me, but then; that was when I was much younger.
(These memories were shared by Elaine (Wood) Greene/Jenson.) |
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The Living Quarters of the Tioga Store Today.
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Interior of the Riplinger Store (A similar business of the same timeframe).
