St. Augustine Church & 1st Street

St. Augustine Church & School

Dominican Sisters

S. Bernadette Marie Kolvek,    S  Mary Margaret Christ          S. Mary Maurice DeGroot       S. Avita Helen DeGroot 

Front Row L to Right:            S. Lucy Eleanor Edelbeck       S. Eleanor Lucy Edelbeck       S. Pascal Josephine Benish

     St. Augustine Church is the only structure still standing in the  photo on left looking west. The Rev Charles Hoogstoel served as the first parish priest from the beginning until August of 1889. The Rt. Rev Monsignor John Augustine Selbach constructed the church in September 12, 1889 for $208. Eighteen priests have been assigned to the parish from 1889 until 2009. Just right of the church is the church school. Over 100 nun's from the Sisters of   St. Dominic, Racine, have been assigned to the church school as teachers during its history.  The church established a convent in 1906 adjacent to the old Catholic school and rebuilt a new Ranch style building completed Feb of 1961 to house its nuns. The Catholic school was in operation from 1906 thru 1970. Rev John F McLaughlin was parish priest for the longest period of time, from Sept 1966 until June 1999.

60 page document created for the 1989 Centennial: 100th Anniversary Celebration Of St. Augustine Parish - PDF Download

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1890 View

2009 View

100th Anniversary Phamphlet

     The Wausaukee Presbyterian Church was organized June 14, 1889 and the first services were held in the school until a church could be built. The first church was built in 1890 and a parsonage was constructed in 1895 on land purchased by the church. The congregation outgrew the church building and a new church was constructed and dedicated in 1925. See PDF article written about the church in our 1987 Wausaukee Centennial Issue.

View and save the 100th Anniversary Directory created in 1989 for the centennial of the Wausaukee Presbyterian Church.

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Main Street approximately 1900

Location of Silver Slipper, Now currently the We Store

Silver Slipper Saloon's Interior

1910 View of Main Street Looking South East

Same View in 2009 looking South East

The main street view shows Laun Brothers Store on the left and in the distance to the rear right, you can see the smoke stacks of the Bird and Wells saw mill.

Site of the Silver Slipper Saloon is currently the Wausaukee Thrift Shop which is the retail outlet for Wausaukee Enterprises. This building was the former 2nd home of Smith's Grocery Store for one year and was rented for $25 month until the sale of the building to Frank Pozniak forced Smith's to move to another building and the Silver Slipper Bar was born.

"While there are at least a dozen people in town who do not drink beer, still we will count them and estimate  the population at 1,700 inhabitant. These figures are authentic and do not lie." Wausaukee Independent News

The view of the main street as seen looking from the south east in 1910 shows the sparce roadway leading up to the Hotel Wausaukee in the far background, the silver Slipper Saloon in front of the hotel on the left and another store as yet unidentified in the immediate front left. The Northwoods Traditions building  on the right has gone thru a succession of businesses over the last century. It was originally Wilgus Grocery /General Merchandise store,  Halstead's Grocery & General Merchandise, then became a shoe store, then Perry's auto parts supply store, a liquor store, then a silver smith called Desert Rose and she created her own jewelry and sold tourist gifts and  finally to the current owner running Northwood's Traditions offering fudge, furniture, antiques and artistic gifts.

Christ & Smith Original Store on Monroe and First St.

View Looking South West

Christ & Smith Original store from South looking North West

Smith's Second Store Location on Hwy 141

Smith's third store Location on main street.  2009 Image

Smith's Highway 141 Grocery's current location 2009 Image

Amos Christ and George B Smith owners of Christ & Smith General Merchandise. The former grocery building was located on the corner of Monroe and 1st Street which is west of Hwy 141. The original store also had one of only two gas pumps for 10 miles. The main grocery building has a large coal burning stove in the basement to heat the two buildings. The ware house on the right was used for merchandise storage on the upper floor and coal storage and refrigeration on the bottom floor. George bought out Amos and his son Norm went into business together in 1931 as Smith's. Norm took over from his father in 1936.

Expansion forced a move to the building location where the WE Store now resides. The photo shows the The building had been vacant for 8 years and Norm Smith was  able to rent it for $25 per month. Smith's was open at that location for one year and the building was purchased by Frank Pozniak of Crivitz.  Pozniak turned  it into the Silver Slipper Bar forcing Smith to find another building for the grocery.

Smith's grocery then moved across the street (North-later known as Pete's Sports Shop and Marcusen's  Wausaukee Saw Shop) for a rental of $10 per month. The building was owned by a Mrs. Sody who was an in-law of Norm's barber in the area. She was a resident of Amberg. Norm Smith  called her one day and said "the roof leaks in our building and she replied my roof leaks in Amberg too so go ahead and fix it yourself."

The Sody building was later sold to Pete Grochowski who ran a sports shop and it was sold to Loren Marcusen in 1969 and he ran a sport shop and The Wausaukee Saw & Sales until moving his operation to a new building just east of the old one on Van Buren.

Norm Smith later purchased the property's where the current North Country Reality Bldg and adjacent Radtke home are located with the intent of building a grocery store. Norm Smith was approached by Roy Gustaveson about potentially purchasing Roy's building rather than building on the new land because Roy had mental health problems (Alzheimers) and it was a better site for Smith's store. Norm and Roy met for about 2 hours and Norm agreed to pay $35,000 moved his store in 1956. He sold the two lots he had purchased to Ernie Wise for the same $7,000 that he paid for them.

Roy Gustaveson's new International Harvester dealership replaced the Monroe Log Cabin. After WWII farmers bought many implements to replace those that had worn out during the war. However, business soon dropped off and Roy closed it down and sold the property to Norm  (Boisey) Smith. Smith turned the implement dealership into a a self service supermarket. The store prospered and greatly affected the grocery business at Launs, Payants, Weilgus, Ledvina and Tarltons.

The former Gustaveson store location has gone thru two renovations. There was a home originally built by George E. Bogrand Sr. located on the lot that the newest addition was added. That home had been the residence of Fred Naud up until the acquistion of the property. The building lumber was sold for $1.00 and was demolished to make room for the second addition.

Seasonal Porcelain Plate Sold at HP Christ Store

Close up of Text Printed on Plate

An artifact souvenir plate from the original HP Christ store was placed into Ebay Auction on 1/2010 from a seller in Oregon. The photos indicate that it was sold thru the HP Christ Store in Wausaukee WI for a holiday season promotion. 

Groceries in the 40's to 50's

At one time in the late 40's to early 50's there were six grocery/meat markets within the downtown area. Laun's, Payant's, Ledvina's, Smith's, Wilgus and Tarlton's. All were competing for the same food markets.

Laun Bros is now Gocht's Hardware, Payants is Stumbris Plumbing, Ledvina is currently going under renovation, Smiths Hwy 141 Grocery , Wilgus is Northwoods Traditions, and Tarlton's is Jerry's Venison Processing.

Charlie Payant's (Catholic Grocery Store)  was about the size of today's typical convenience store. When Charlie died, his oldest son, Bud, took over the store and sold it when he retired in the late 70's to Steve Stumbris who used it for a plumbing shop. The store is still occupied by Stumbris Plumbing. Bud was stationed in Australia during WWII and brought home an Australian bride.

"Ledvina's market was brick with two big bay windows in front. George Ledvina was a portly, friendly person who had his wife, Mary, and son, Butch, help in the market. The market had a bakery of sorts. The market got its meat from Ledvina's farm south of town, across from the Laun farm." Hank Laun

"Weilgus store had groceries, work clothes and work shoes. The Weilgus were Polish, attracted many of the Polish community and spoke in fluent Polish when talking to customers. Their motto was "We've got it, we'll get it, or it isn't made." Weilgus sold the business to Halstead when they moved to Pulaski." Hank Laun

"The lot next to the town hall was empty until the mid 1940's when Marion Tarlton built a new brick meat market together with Nots Kadunc. Before that it was used as a Town Square. There was a large open well topped with a wooden cover that was used by the fire department. The village Christmas Tree was put up here every year and the town folks gathered while Adam Pleckinger, dressed as Santa, gave hard candy and peanuts to the kids. Then everyone sang Christmas carols--Catholics and Protestants together." Hank Laun

Jerry's Venison Processing building was built by Marion Tarlton and sold to  Nots Kadunc, then to Phil Orlando & Rudy Messar (17 to 18 years) and finally to Gerry Wojcik in 1966. All operated a grocery and a meat market within the building.