Road Trip 3 - Bus Tour

August 7, 2017

      Monday was the big day. My Dad rented a bus and organized 2 pick up locations in Green Bay. We went to the 2nd pick up location, a nearby park and ride, and anxiously awaited the buses arrival along with a few other carloads of family. We climbed aboard with a number of my dad's siblings and their kids, and their grandkids. The teenagers and cousins all funneled toward the back of the bus, and we took up just about every seat. With everyone aboard we started our Newald Trip.

    My Dad's brothers and sister had their family home movies transfered to disc so as we drove, they played home movies from the 40's and 50's, and narrated some of the events, and pointed people out for us. There were so many cowboy shirts and hats throughout, as well as impeccably dressed adults.

   Dad got on the microphone and pointed out a one room school house along the highway. And then we made a short stop in Wabeno, near the grandstand, and old train station. Dad shared some history and stories. When we got to Laona we went by the grounds of the old hospital, where Don shared his Christmas hospital story, Grampa Jauquet's broken leg story, where he received his draft papers for WWII and Great Grandfather John's crushed hip story. Laona was the "big" logging town in the area, run by the Connors family, and it was the closet town to Newald.  The bus then made a stop at Saint Lawrence Church in Laona and we went inside. St. Lawrence was the church where my Dad was confirmed and where they frequently attended Mass or other Catholic services, since Newald was too small for more than one Mass a week. We reloaded the bus and Dad narrated the rest of the town. He had printed off a number of pictures of the town as it was from the turn of the century to the 50's, and pointed the buildings out as we drove by.

  From Laona we continued north toward Newald. the highway was flanked by forest and we pulled in to see the historic marker for the Laona School Forest, which was a remediation effort to replant the area which had been logged off during the first part of the 20th century.

   Our bus pulled off the highway and into the original property of the Cleereman Jauquet Lumber company. This site was purchased in 1913 by my Dad's Great Grandfather Cleereman and Grandfather Jauquet. The father and son-in law built a house here and a business that became the major employer of the town. This is where my dad and his family lived. In 1945 the property became Jauquet Lumber Company, until the logging operations closed and the family moved to GreenBay in 1954. The property was purchased by cousin Francis Cleereman and became Cleereman Industries. My Dad and his siblings had coordinated with the Cleeremans for our visit.

    We were all pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by one of Cleereman Industries partners who gave us a behind the scene tour of their sawmill carriage business. His pride in his company was evident as he showed us the technical sophistication as well as long held skill that made them industry leaders. He took pride in being a skilled local employer with a nationwide market. None of the GreenBay family had been following Cleereman Industries and were clearly impressed.  The heavy machinery, fine precision electronics and welding kept our kids interested but having friendly dogs roaming the property was probably the highlight. They were painting a mill and I was fascinated by their custom Cleereman green paint which covers in one coat even over oil. At the end of the tour my dad and his siblings took a quick walk through the house that they grew up in.

After our tour we headed to the local park for a picnic. Uncle Don and Aunt Sue sponsored the lunch but were so pleased to have the local Cleeremans actually prepare and host the lunch. It was beautiful. they laid out white table clothes on the picnic tables in the pavilion and set up a serving table all accented by fresh flowers throughout. The Cleereman's also brought out their family photos and spread them on tables. I was excited to look through them to see if we could fill in any of the gaps in our pictorial history. Lunch was delicious and the setting was lovely. There was a playground along side the pavilion with a metal slide and see-saws. The kids enjoyed themselves. We couldn't have asked for a nicer afternoon.

Joe, Jim, John, Barb, Don, and Bill

From lunch we climbed back on the bus and took the short drive two blocks to St. Hubert's Catholic Church. We went in for a few minutes to hear stories of my dad and his siblings, singing, serving and worshiping here. I remember visiting here as a child. The big change from my childhood visit was in the lot next door, the site of the public elementary school. When we visited as a child around 1982, there was a large school building with a sidewalk that lead to stairs by the road. the school was torn down in 1997 and now 10 years later the lot was overgrown with trees and brush. We all walked to the lot and heard some of our favorite stories and picked raspberries from the bushes that now grew there.

We piled back onto the bus and drove south to Laona and the old Soo Line. We pulled up to the Lumberjack Steam Train station. My Dad's brother Jim had arranged for tickets for our whole bus load and after an invitation from the engineer to pull the rope to the whistle. An exhilarated group of kids and adults having just sounded the whistle, boarded the train. It had a series of train cars from different periods and 3 cabooses, because those are fun to ride in. Soon the train departed and and we were headed to Camp Five, it's Logging Camp Museum, and old lumber company farm. Jim brought the kids to the farm and sent me off with my dad and his siblings for some research in the museum. Our girls had fun holding baby chicks, bunnies, and kittens as well as feeding goats and laughing at some young hogs. Cousin and Aunt and Uncles enjoyed the interactive cook kitchen and logging bunk house and array of logging equipment. We took the train ride back and climbed on the bus for the trip back to Green Bay. We watched more home movies and continued with family memories along the ride.

I m so grateful for this experience and to have been able to do it with so much of our extended family was such a gift. It was well planned and well-executed and surpassed all of our expectations.