2009 September 30 | Kelly Lake, Oconto County Wisconsin

“A Gas From the Past” by Roger Birr

(Writer’s note: The following article was written on the previous kellylake.net format a few years ago. Bob and Pat Broetzman now reside across the street in what had been their second home; a beautiful setting, set back in the woods. D & B Implement, owned by Dennis Broetzman, is now Yancy’s Powersports. Dennis moved his operation north of Lena on 43.)

Bob Broetzman poses with nozzle in hand as his
wife, Pat, sidles-up to their ’31 Ford Model A

One must discipline one’s self to slowdown from 55 mph to the required 35 mph when passing through Hickory Corners, Wisconsin, home of Pat and Bob Broetzman. The old saying, “don’t blink, you might miss it”, is apropos. However, Bob has given new meaning to the cliche because you WON’T want to blink and miss it.

Standing in the early morning fall sunlight, breathing in the cool, fresh northwoods’ air as the sun warmed my neck, I could feel the quiet and quaintness of a small, pristine northern Wisconsin community. I sensed a lesson in history was around the corner.

Hickory Corners (located about a mile-and-a-half west-southwest of Kelly Lake) is just
that—four corners. On one corner is Pat and Bob’s house, now about 100 years old, purchased by them in 1950. They labored at remodeling it to the point where it looks like it was built yesterday.

Staged behind their house are rolls of backhoes, end loaders, tractors and other construction equipment along with a modern office and shop owned by D & B Implement, a business that Dennis (Bob’s son) and Dennis’ son, Bret have two decades.

Bob and Pat’s home. D & B Implement behind and to the left

Across the road is the old one-room elementary schoolhouse where Bob and Pat met and begun what became, unknowingly at the time, a lifelong relationship. They grew up on farms in the area, in a time reminiscent of an age seemingly much simpler for a child. A number of years ago, Pat bought the old schoolhouse and transformed it into a unique antique shop. Recently, to Pat’s regret, she sold it, now missing what was more than a hobby/business…it was a passion.

Old schoolhouse became Pat’s antique shop

Next door is the Hickory United Methodist Church where they are parishioners. Established and built 126 years ago, the church is the community center and a monument to Hickory Corners that harbored so many area worshipers from the farm community since 1875 who prayed for rain, or less rain, generous crops and/or a generous market.

United Methodist Church of Hickory

Across the road and immediately to the south of Pat and Bob’s home, once stood the general store. A fire destroyed decades ago the place where, as youngsters, Bob, Pat and area kids frequented to buy penny, nickel and dime candies. After lengthy, agonizing pains over which candy to pick to satisfy their sweet-tooth cravings, they reached above the counter, removing the lids from the wide-mouthed slanted glass containers to grab their final choice, sometimes with parents prodding them to hurry-up!

The fourth and final corner hosts a restored old-time filling station complete with a black ’31 Ford Model A with a rumble seat. It purred when Bob started it up in the 30-degree weather. Quaint? One would expect Gomer Pyle to step out of the station at anytime with a greeting like: “Gaaally! Fill ‘er up?” Mayberry has nothing over Hickory Corners. Bob and Pat own this corner and have preserved an age(long-gone-by, restoring, preserving, and adding to a collection from that era including old-time gas pumps, signs and memorabilia. Bob and Pat were gracious enough to give my wife, Shirley, and I a tour of his showcase from the past (something he doesn’t make a habit of).

Bob, Pat and ’31 Ford. Bob unlocks station as Pat and Shirley look on.
Bob’s front license plate on his Model A reads, “I started out with nothing, and ended up with some of it!”

Remember the sequential Burma Shave roadside signs? Just west of the filling station, Bob has included some old-time telephone poles that he specially erected to get the nostalgic affect of the old-time Burma Shave advertisements we all read as we road along with our parents back in the ‘old days’. Bob’s signs read:

“Your eyes will burn
your heart will throb
your blood pressure will rise
Why?
You just seen Hickory!
Burma Shave

Coming back from the other direction, the signs read:

Four years of Bush
Eat dimples—eat chads
Eat Bush Beans
Drink Bush beer
Burma Shave

Beneath the poles rests what Bob thinks might be the only gas pump graveyard in the world, or at least the U.S. A headstone forefronts the now decrepit pumps that have outlived their mechanical usefulness. It reads: “Rust In Peace”!

Replicated Burma Shave Ads/Gas pump graveyard

Making our way back to Bob and Pat’s home, Bob pointed out a 3-foot Hickory tree he planted a while back. It was the sole-survivor of 30 he had tried to nurse. They’re tough to start, Bob explains, as the taproot is very long and needs to be planted with a post-hole digger. Once established, they’re a hardy tree. Most of the Hickory trees were cut down while making room for housing and farmland a century ago. Bob wants to bring Hickory trees back to Hickory Corners. He hasn’t given up…

Once back in the house warming our chilled bones, Pat went through her files and archives for articles, stories and newspaper clipping for this writer. Bob wasn’t short on stories and the history of Hickory Corners, as Pat thumbed through folders and pictures somewhere in a back room. Perusing the material, I’ve extrapolated a brief accounting from a long and unique history of a cozy and comfortable community. Although from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, I married a farm girl (Shirley Stewart) who grew up near the Broetzmans and Hickory Corners. In fact, we were married in the Hickory Methodist Church. It’s a small world…

Being intrigued with Bob’s old-time filling station, which prompted me to write “A Gas From the Past”, I untapped from Bob and Pat’s archives another history lesson about Kelly Lake where my wife and I now reside. I wish to share word-for-word an article given to me by Pat (author unknown). It links Hickory and Kelly Lake together.

“Hickory is rich in the legend of Pat Kelly, who came from Ireland in 1855 to become the first white settler before the land was surveyed. His closest neighbor lived in Stiles, some miles distant, in a day when it was a necessary to go to Oconto for provisions by foot or by ox team. It is told that Mr. Kelly hitched up the oxen to go to Oconto for a doctor when his baby was ill with the croup, and when he returned the child was dead and buried.

“The story is told that as a Justice of the Peace, Mr. Kelly was not perturbed by the lack of two witnesses to a marriage ceremony. Joining the hands of the bride and groom, he took them to a large elm tree which was a witness tree on a section corner and intoned: “Under this witness tree what Pat Kelly and God Almighty has joined together, let no man put asunder. ” Kelly Lake and Kelly Brook are named after this colorful pioneer.

“In 1870 Joe McMahon came from Canada and purchase 160 acres of farm land in Hickory and was closely followed by Lorenzo Lord and George Trecartin. Mr. Trecartin built his home on a hill with a number of hickory trees around it. As postmaster he submitted “Hickory Hill” to Washington as the name of the post office, but due to duplication of names it was necessary to shorten it to Hickory.

“In the same year of 1870 Tom Trecartin, Tom Smith and Tom McMahan established themselves in the community. Then came Joe Gilland and Al Johnson in 1871. The barn Mr. Johnson erected at that time is probably the oldest building still standing in Hickory.

“By 1876 the community was becoming more heavily inhabited. Some of the earlier settlers were the Sarius Martins, the Cooleys, the Steve Ways, the Posts, and the Fred Christensens, the McKennys, Cheffings, Mills, Sanders, Clapps, Mathewsons, Hansons, Tharios and Sylvesters.

“The first sawmill, owned and operated by the Mills Brothers, burned but was later rebuilt and operated by Jay Dunham. In 1887 a store was erected by L. S. Lord, followed by a hardware store operated by Burt Butler and the P. Buchburger blacksmith shop.

“Farming and stock-raising have been the principle means of livelihood in Hickory, although veral logging camps were in operation north of Hickory. Many a young
man unaccustomed to camp life was taken to “Callahan’s dance” and much to his dismay ended up in an Indian camp where war whoops and shooting could by heard for some distance.

“The first school house, erected in 1871, was a small scoop-roofed building where the few children who came were taught by Mrs. L. S. Lord, who received no pay so far as is known. In the fall of 1871 the school district was formed and Miss Hawthorne became the teacher.

“Calvin Sanford, first minister in Hickory, preached in the school house. Services were held in the school house until 1894, when the Methodist and Christian churches were built.”

My personal thanks to Bob and Pat Broetzman for a walk back into history, not only for
“A Gas From the Past”, but also for the serendipity of learning the history and connection of Hickory and Kelly Lake.