155th Year - Vol. 29 - Thursday, May 25, 2017 “Serving the Iowa County, Wisconsin, area since 1862” Single Copy $1.00
What’s Inside SPOTLIGHT: Brokish family plays host to this year’s dairy breakfast - page 16
TheDodgevilleChronicleTheDodgevilleChronicle
AreaDeaths Finnley James Watkins, infant, Montgomery, IL Paul F. Hildreth, 56, Mineral Point Elizabeth (Mae) James, 93, Mineral Point
One WWII soldier’s story toldby Brooke Bechen
Dodgeville resident Boyd Geerwas at the Iowa County HistoricalSociety museum in 2009 with col-league Neil Giffey when the Honor-able Judge Bill Dyke walked in witha suitcase. The contents of the suit-case revealed a plethora of memora-bilia from First Lieutenant Robert C.Nancolas - a 1937 Rewey HighSchool graduate and World War IIveteran. Saved by Nancolas’ mother,Ella May (Cutler) Nancolas, Geernever got to ask Judge Dyke how hecame into possession of the interest-ing collection.
“There are still lots of unknowns,”Geer admitted. “And when [JudgeDyke] died, I made it my project toprepare the display for the IowaCounty Historical Society.”
For Geer, the collection and thesoldier’s story held a special interest.Geer had been stationed at Clark AirForce Base and had spent leave timeat Camp John Hay, a U.S. ArmedForces recreation center near Baguio,Luzon, the Philippines. He was sta-tioned there just 10 years after Nan-colas perished in a plane crash in therugged terrain of that region.
Robert Nancolas was rememberedas a popular student and athlete atRewey High School, Geer said. Oncehe graduated, Nancolas studied at theUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison,however, did not finish as World WarII erupted in his senior year of stud-
ies as a civil engineer.Nancolas enlisted on March 25,
1942 and after initial training, grad-uated from Officer Candidate Schoolat Camp Davis, NC on September26, 1942 as a Second Lieutenant.
In January of 1944, Nancolas en-tered army intelligence service andwas trained at Camp Ritchie, MD.
He went overseas in July of 1944,Geer said, with the First Corps atHollandia, New Guinea. It was therethat he received the promotion toFirst Lieutenant. He later took part inthe invasion of Luzon in January of1945.
On May 6, 1945, Nancolas flewwith his fellow soldiers as an ob-server on a reconnaissance flightover enemy territory in the Baguioarea of northern Luzon. When theplane failed to return from the recon-naissance flight, he was reportedMissing In Action.
After the Japanese surrender, it waslearned that guerrillas had found thewrecked plane and the bodies of four
of the crew. With six crew membersunaccounted for, it was hoped thatNancolas and others were safe withnatives, but the final word that Lt.Nancolas was killed in the planecrash came on March 13, 1946.
The only son of Cread and EllaNancolas had died fighting for hiscountry, the commanding officer ofthe 2nd Enemy Order of BattleTeam, a unit attached to First CorpsHeadquarters.
The remains of the soldiers whodied in the plane crash were eventu-ally recovered and returned to theUnited States. On January 27, 1950,seven of those soliders, including Lt.Robert C. Nancolas, were buried ina common grave at Zachary TaylorNational Cemetery in Louisville, KY.
First Lt. Robert C. Nancolas wasawarded the Purple Heart posthu-mously following his death. Thissign of bravery and dedication can beviewed at the Iowa County HistoricalSociety museum as part of the dis-play, along with many other artifacts
belonging to the WWII soldier.Other items on display at the mu-
seum include Nancolas’ report cardsfrom grades 1-12, an autobiographywritten as an assignment for his sen-ior English class at Rewey High
Area Memorial Day servicesVeterans in Iowa County and sur-
rounding communities are makingplans for Memorial Day, Monday,May 29. Following are some of thelocal programs that were reportedto The Dodgeville Chronicle.
Arena: Memorial Day serviceswill be held at the Arena Commu-nity Elementary School beginningat 10:30 a.m. The program will beconducted by the Ewing OlsonVFW Post #9336. Following theprogram there will be an honoringof the fallen comrades at the ArenaCemetery.
Avoca: On Thursday, May 25,Avoca American Legion Post 335will meet at the school at 5:45 p.m.First stop will be at North OtterCreek Biglow Hill at 6:00 p.m., fol-lowed by a stop in the Clyde Town-ship at 6:15 p.m. The third stop willbe at Fairway at 6:30 p.m. and afourth stop will be at Pulaski at 7:00p.m.
Barneveld: The BarneveldAmerican Legion Post 433 willhave a program at 11:00 a.m. at theLegion Hall, followed by a potlucklunch on Memorial Day.
Dodgeville: Ahead of MemorialDay, the Dodgeville VFW andAmerican Legion will be holdingtheir annual Brat Sale at PigglyWiggly on Saturday, May 27 from9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. All proceedswill be donated to Meals onWheels.
This Sunday morning, May 28, aspecial service will be held atBloomfield Healthcare and Reha-bilitation Center at 10:30 a.m.
Then on Memorial Day, veteranswill be visiting East Side Cemeteryat 8:30 a.m.; providing a service atUpland Hills Nursing Home at 8:45a.m.; and then going to St. Joe’sCemetery for another service at9:00 a.m. Parade line up will be at9:30 a.m. with the parade at 10:00a.m. A program will follow the pa-rade at the Iowa County Court-house.
Highland: The Highland VFWPost #9440 and American LegionPost #422 will conduct a joint Me-morial Day Ceremony beginning at10:30 a.m. The ceremony will beconducted at the Highland VeteransMemorial (across from the post of-fice).
Linden: The Linden AmericanLegion will be flying the Avenue ofFlags at the Linden Cemetery tohonor all veterans.
The Linden American LegionPost 493 will meet at the LegionHall at 8:00 a.m. on Memorial Dayto go to Mifflin Cemetery by 8:30a.m.; to Cobb Cemetery by 9:00a.m. and to Edmund-BethlehemLutheran Cemetery by 9:30 a.m.Veterans will return to Linden forthe annual Memorial Day parade at10:00 a.m.
Lone Rock/Clyde: On Monday,May 29 at Lone Rock Battery Parkat 10 a.m., a Memorial Day Pro-gram will be presented by Ameri-can Legion Post 383 of Lone Rock.The Memorial Day Program will beat St. Malachy Cemetery in Clydeat 10:45 a.m. following the LoneRock Program. In case of rain, pro-grams will be held inside.
Montfort: Ritchie, Bowers, Ko-hout VFW Post 9298 will be goingto the following cemeteries on Me-morial Day: St. John Nepomuc,Castle Rock Ridge at 9:00 a.m.;Ralph Margan, Rock Cemetery inLivingston at 10:00 a.m.; WalterHannan, Montfort Cemetery at11:00 a.m.
The Village is also preparing forMontfort Big Days June 2, 3 and 4.A dedication ceremony to unveilthe new monument and changes atthe VFW shelter will begin at 7:00p.m. on Friday, June 2. Other activ-ities include a Walk/Run at 9:00p.m. Friday; the Red Bandana Rideat noon on Saturday; Rib Contestand Volleyball Tournaments; Livemusical entertainment; and theChicken BBQ and parade on Sun-day, June 4.
Mineral Point: The MineralPoint VFW 7629 and Auxiliary willbe displaying 290 veterans flagsover Memorial Day weekend at thecity’s three cemeteries. High schoolstudents will put the flags up onMay 26, but help is needed to takethem down starting at 3 p.m. May29 at Graceland, St. Paul’s and St.Mary’s cemeteries.
The Homer and Lee ParkinsonAmerican Legion and AuxiliaryPost 170 invites the public to Me-morial Day services and activities.Veterans will meet at the AmericanLegion Clubhouse at 7:30 a.m. toleave by bus to visit Mineral Point’scemeteries.
The annual Memorial Day paradedown High Street begins at 10:30a.m. and ends with a program at Li-brary Park. After the Memorial DayProgram, the public is invited backto American Legion Post 170 for achicken BBQ lunch at the club-house, 3669 9th St. BBQ will besold until it’s sold out; carryouts areavailable.
Ridgeway: The Ridgeway Amer-ican Legion and Auxiliary will beholding a Memorial Day Ceremonyon Monday, May 30 at 11:00 a.m.It will be held at the ball park.
Echoes of rural teachers heard
by researchers at UW-Madisonby Brooke Bechen
Out of the 424 school districts inWisconsin, 233 are considered“rural,” 95 are “town,” 79 are “sub-urban” and 17 are considered“urban.” Yet little information isknown about those “rural” schooldistricts by researchers at the Univer-sity of Wisconsin-Madison’s Wis-consin Center for EducationResearch (WCER) and School of Ed-ucation.
“What if?” Robert Mathieu, direc-tor of WCER told a large group ofstakeholders at the first TeacherSpeakout!, held on the UW campuslast Monday. “What if we had ruralteachers come and speak to us aboutwhat they do?”
“This is a big change for us,” headded. “WCER doesn’t have a strongportfolio in rural research. But that’sgoing to change.”
Jenny Seelig, a project assistant atWCER, explained how she and an-other colleague first reached out toUW-Madison alumni that work inrural school districts. Forty nine werecontacted and asked to participate infilling out a questionnaire to provideinsight on the challenges and excite-ment of working in a rural district.Out of those 49, 29 agreed to take thequestionnaire, and 19 expressed in-terest in attending the TeacherSpeakout!, Seelig said.
Nine of those 19 were present onMonday for the first ever TeacherSpeakout!, including Duane Draper,Barneveld School District; NickEhlinger, River Valley School Dis-trict; Carrie Russell, La Farge SchoolDistrict; Meaghan Gustafson, LaFarge School District; Barb Meyers,Phillips School District; Yvonne But-terfield, Mauston School District;Paul White, Markesan School Dis-trict; Marc Peterson, Phillips SchoolDistrict; and Sue Benzel, MercerSchool District.
The first task for the teachers onMonday was to answer questionsasked by Seelig during a panel, fol-lowed by a rigorous day of discus-sion and conversation withresearchers and state legislators.
The first question the teachers wereasked was what they found most en-joyable about working in a rural dis-trict, in which Barneveld’s Draperwas the first to respond.
“The community,” he said. “I feellike I’m part of a family and theytrust me as a professional.”
He added that there are very fewrestrictions on how he teaches andthat the students in the BarneveldSchool District seem to value educa-tion, even in a small rural district.
Gustafson of La Farge, a district
with less than 200 students, said shewears many hats, which allow for“opportunities to be involved in theworks of the school.”
“We’re really all involved in thefabric of what happens in theschool,” she said.
“It feels very connected,” her col-league Russell added. “That’s what Ienjoy about it.”
“You really do know everyone,”chimed River Valley’s Ehlinger.“And you automatically take onthose roles.”
Peterson shared that he graduatedfrom the Phillips School District andcould not imagine working anywhereelse. Many of the teachers whotaught him are still in the district, andhe feels it is certainly not a bad thingthat everyone knows everyone in asmall district.
The staff camaraderie is whatWhite of the Markesan School Dis-trict enjoys most.
“We do look out after each other,”he said. “We take the new ones in,and if someone needs help, we helpeach other.”
Meyers echoed the comments ofDraper.
“[Being in a rural district] defi-nitely has benefits for all,” she said.“The school is truly the hub of thecommunity and you need to take thatvery seriously.”
“When you have one grocery storeand one school, this is the placewhere people gather,” she added.
Seelig also asked the teachersabout challenges they see their stu-dents facing in a rural district.
“Simply not knowing,” Petersonsaid, adding that there are some stu-dents that do not truly know what isout there. “Just because they have theinternet, they don’t know every-
thing.”Butterfield commented that some-
times it is difficult for students to seepast how their parents and the gener-ations before them were taught. Tothat note, Meyers added that smalldistricts often lack experience withdiversity, and there is little opportu-nity to expand their knowledge of di-versity.
In La Farge, teachers see a “cycleof poverty,” with many high schoolstudents not seeing a future for them-selves past high school.
Draper said the biggest challengehe sees with his students at Barn-eveld is the lack of time. Students areinvolved with the yearbook, sports,drama and then go home and havechores on the family farm, he said.
“It’s pretty unrealistic for them butthey want to do it,” he added.
The rural teachers echoed manycomments when asked what they seeas challenges themselves as an edu-cator.
“Time is definitely an issue,”White said, explaining that state andfederal testing and pre-testing exer-cises take up a lot of time.
“These kids are tested to death.”Benzel answered with a similar re-
sponse, stating that April and Mayare primarily used for testing. Shealso shared concerns about how thedata is really being used.
Value used to be placed on testingresults, Peterson added.
“They just don’t mean as muchwhen they are too much,” he said.
Ehlinger spoke to how testing af-fects his area of education - music.When things keep changing, teacherscan often lose track of where theyare, he said.
Duane Draper, Barneveld School District, and Nick Ehlinger, RiverValley School District, spoke to UW-Madison researchers about their ex-periences in a rural school district last Monday.
See Speakout! pg. 2
Robert C. Nancolas
See WWII pg. 3
Patriots Tour travels through area SaturdayArea residents will be able to wit-
ness a moving tribute to veterans thisSaturday when The Patriot Tour trav-els through the area.
The Patriot Tour honors veteransand raises funds for wounded veter-ans at the same time. All of the fundsraised - 100% - are given back towounded veterans.
The Tour lasts from Memorial Daythrough Labor Day. It has its launchin Madison, the first leg of a 100 day,14,000 mile journey when the Amer-ican flag is transported on motorcy-cles throughout the continentalUnited States. Over 150,000 ridersare expected to participate.
Bill Sherer spent the summer of2009 riding through 33 states east ofthe Mississippi, transporting the flagon the back of his motorcycle tohonor friends who had served and torecognize all military personnel past,present and fallen. He raised a littlemoney along the way, all the while
realizing that if his message was tobe heard, he would need a nation ofpatriots to voice it.
The initial funds went to the VAHospital in Milwaukee and the ideakept growing. Soon it became whatit is known as today...
The Nation of Patriots.The flag and rider will be traveling
through Dodgeville on Highway 18
about 12:30 p.m. after departingMadison’s Harley Davidson at 11a.m. The public is invited to gatheralong the way to wave and salute themission.
The route follows 18/151 west, by-passing Mount Horeb, Barneveldand Ridgeway. Riders will turn onto18/151 near Dodgeville, travellingpast Walmart, Culvers, McDonald’s,Kwik Trip and the Iowa CountySheriff’s Department. It will travelfurther on 18/151 through Edmund,Cobb and Montfort, with a fuel stopscheduled in Fennimore at KwikTrip. The tour than resumes, travel-ling to Prairie du Chien then intoIowa.
“The public is invited to line theroute, wave flags, cheer and salute,”Sherer said. “We understand the sac-rifices and stand in awe of the con-tributions veterans have made and do
See Tour pg. 3
Congratulations Highland Class of 2017
Highland High School Class of2017 was the first of the five IowaCounty senior classes to graduatethis year on Saturday, May 20.Twenty students received diplo-mas, an honor witnessed by fam-ily, friends and communitymembers.
Pictured above, Olivia Greenesings an emotional rendition of“You Raise Me Up.” At right,Valedictorian Kyle Nankey ad-dresses his class.
The Dodgeville Chronicle - Thursday, May 25, 2017 -Section 1, Page 2
The Dodgeville
Chronicle, serving
Iowa County
since 1862.
One of southwest
Wisconsin’s largest
weeklies.
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Dairy BreakfastSaturday, June 3rd • 6:30-10:30 a.m.
RAIN OR SHINEGO-FOR-BROKE DAIRY FARM
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Garage Sale5090 Brennan Rd., Dodgeville
May 25-27
Thurs. & Fri. 7-4; Sat. 8-Noon
Gravely ZT42 lawn mower with bagger,Craftsman rotary lawn mower, Gehl 1500round baler, snowmobile, Yamaha Raptor660 ATV, furniture, TV Johann HavilandBavarian Germany Blue Garland 5 piecesetting x4 dinnerware, misc. householditems, linens, home decor, tools and lotsof other misc. items.
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Speakout!from front
Another challenge that the LaFarge School District faced recentlywas teacher turnover, Gustafsonsaid. Her district has seen a nearly85% turnover in the past five years- some positions have been turnedover more than once.
It is difficult to attract teachers,difficult to keep them and give themthe appropriate salary, she said.Gone are the days of having 180 ap-plicants for a teaching position,Ehlinger added.
Meyers suggested that universitiesstart preparing students and educat-ing them on the possibility of work-ing in a rural district. With moreinformation, students might be moreapt to give life in a small communitya try. Peterson agreed, saying itshould not be the high school’s jobto prepare students interested inteaching, but the university’s job.
Draper appeared to address the“elephant in the room,” stating thatAct 10 had a huge impact on stu-dents who were interested in becom-ing teachers.
“It divided the staff. It divided thecommunity,” he said. “Until we geta switch in how we see and trustteachers, kids will pick somethingelse, even though they’d make ter-rific teachers.”
This map shows approximately where each district represented by thenine teachers at the Speakout! is located across the state of Wisconsin.
by Pam Fingerson
On Friday evening, May 19th,Dodger Bowl became the site of avery special occasion. Dodgevilleschool board members, district ad-ministrators, retired teachers, currentteachers and family and friends cametogether to honor seven retiring
teachers.District administrator Jeff Jacobson
was Master of Ceremonies for theevening. One of the first bits of in-formation he shared was that be-tween these seven retiring teachers,there was 218 years of experience.
Jacobson then spent some timesharing memories of each of the re-tiring teachers. He brought smilesnot only to the faces the teachersbeing honored, but also to those inthe audience. Personally, I was
touched by the fact that each of theseteachers had spent a majority, if notall their career, here in the Dodge-ville district.
Finally the school board memberspresented modern lawn chairs to theretirees. On the back of the chair isthe word “Dodgers.” Each time theseremarkable people take a moment torelax in their chair they can think ofthe numerous students’ lives theytouched.
Teachers retiring from the Dodgeville School District are pictured above at their retirement party (frontrow l-r): Jane Erickson, Lisa Venden, Mary Nelson; (back row l-r): Vonee Carmody, Evy Thuli, Leta Willie,Janice Neil.
Celebrating years of dedication and talent
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