Allamakee co. IAGenWeb Project
updated 06/18/2020


Photos & other memorabilia from
New Albin, Iowa twp.

Page 2

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Unless otherwise credited, the photos on this page were all contributed by Errin Wilker from the source included with the photo.
You can click on many of these images to enlarge them. The larger photos will open in a new window.

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Meyer's Meat Market - aka City Meat Market / New Albin Meat Market



Meyer's Market, New Albin
Photographer: Robertson

~The photo was contributed by Mark Lanning. The white sun-shade across the front says Meat Market. The darker window shades say F.C. Meyer Meat Market. The sun-shade on the smaller building reads H. Rippe. The people are not identified. The photo likely dates ca1906-1910.

Meyer's Market, now known as City Meat Market.  F.C. Meyer moved the market to this location in 1906.  Known for its homemade meats, the City Meat Market is currently (as of 2006) operated by the fifth generation of the Meyer family.
~Text is from 1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar ~contributed by Errin Wilker

 

100 Years of Service and Then Some…New Albin Meat Market Changes with Times

L-R: Kelley, Alan, Shirley and Edgar Wuennecke
Kelley, Alan, Shirley and Edgar Wuennecke (left to right) pose in City Meat Market in New Albin

A meat market that opened about 1880 and has been in the same family since 1882 still draws customers from miles around. But like this community of 535 people, City Meat Market has changed with the times. It has carried some grocery products since the late 1950s,and the jerky and other meat snack products it has added in the last 20 years have become some of the biggest sellers. Edgar and Shirley Wuennecke, 71 and 70, have owned the business since 1958. Edgar still occasionally works at the store, but it’s mostly run by their son Alan Wuennecke, 39, and his wife, Kelley, 37. Alan and Kelley eventually will become the fifth generation of their family to own the meat market.

August Peters started the meat market about 1880, said Shirley, who is the family historian. Her great-grandfather, Christopher Meyer, bought it in 1882. His son, Fredrick Meyer, bought it in 1886 and built the current two-story brick building in 1906. Then came Fredrick’s sons, Albert (Shirley’s father), Paul and Sigurd Meyer, and then Edgar and Shirley Wuennecke.

“We get customers from everywhere from Minneapolis to Chicago to Cedar Rapids, Iowa,” Kelley Wuennecke said. “A lot of them make a special trip here, and say they can’t find meat as good as we have.” Some of their out-of-town customers own summer cabins along the Mississippi River, Shirley said. And some have discovered the meat market during a leisurely drive up the Iowa and Minnesota side of the river, and then down the Wisconsin side. “I’d say 75 to 85 percent of our customers are from out of town,” Alan said. “Quite a few” are from La Crosse, which is 30 miles to the north. New Albin is on Hwy. 26, just south of the Iowa-Minnesota border. “Their summer sausage is some of the best,” James Barry of North Hills, Calif., said last week when he and his wife, Kay, stopped at City Meat Market. The Winona, Minn., native and his wife, who grew up in Harpers Ferry, Iowa, stop at the store when they return to the area to visit relatives. “We come here every chance we get,” James said. “It’s a nice little store.”

The meat market’s biggest sellers include bologna, jerky and pepperoni sticks, Alan said. “We sell about 500 pounds of bologna a week,” he said. “We’ve kind of had to change with the times” over the years, Alan said. “The younger clientele is more into the jerky and (pepperoni) snack sticks as opposed to older people eating liver sausage. It’s pretty hard to sell liver sausage to people under 50.” Some of the meat market’s homemade products are sausage, summer sausage, kopfwurst, dried beef, tongue loaf, bratwurst and several kinds of jerky. The store’s three main jerky varieties are beef, hot beef and pork. City Meat Market also sells two popular types of specialty jerky: turkey tenders, a smoked turkey tenderloin that’s eaten as a snack food, and chicken jerky. The Wuenneckes do their own smoking in the smoke-house just behind the meat market. They use hickory wood. The Wuenneckes buy boxed fresh meat and cut their own steaks. Other meats include pork steak, pork chops, beef roast, picnic ham and luncheon meats. The market buys premium products. “When people come here, they want the good beef,” Alan said. “They can buy lesser-grade beef elsewhere. We try to keep with the higher quality.”

Many other businesses have vanished from New Albin during the meat market’s 120-year history. When Edgar and Shirley took over the business in 1958, Edgar said, “We had four grocery stores and five taverns. Now we’re down to two of each,” including the meat market and the Main Street Market grocery store. The community also had two hardware stores and a lumber yard when Edgar and Shirley took over, but those, too, are gone. New Albin’s population has stayed about the same, but fewer people live on farms and more people are shopping at large stores in La Crosse and other cities. “In this town, you’re either retired or you work in La Crosse,” Alan said. “Although some people work in Lansing.” Still, the meat market has survived for 120 years. “It’s not hard (to survive) if you’re willing to work,” Kelley said. “We have always done all right,” Shirley said. “We haven’t become millionaires. “We’re still here," she said. “So many people stop by and say ‘We heard you went out of business 10 years ago,’” she said, laughing.

~La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, WI, May 15, 2000
~contributed by Errin Wilker

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New Albin Savings Bank


New Albin Savings Bank lobby.

Photo taken in the original New Albin Savings Bank lobby.  Pictured from left to right are Frank Weymiller, Sr., Albert Fruechte and Earl Welsh.  Albert and Earl were both active in the bank for over 60 years. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar


New Albin Savings Bank

Turn-of-the-century photo of original bank building and list of original bank officers, H. Martin, W.O. Bock, L.H. Gaardner and A.H. Freiberg. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar



New Albin Savings bank, 1998

The current (as of 2006) New Albin Savings Bank taken in 1998. The car must have been a 'prop', note the digital clock. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar




New Albin Savings Bank folder, early 1900's - contributed by Erin Wilker
New Albin Savings Bank folder, early 1900's

~personal collection of Erin Wilker

More about the New Albin Savings Bank

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Farmers Savings Bank, New Albin

Letters signed by A.H. Freiberg, cashier, Farmers Savings Bank, undated

Letters signed by A.H. Freiberg, cashier
Farmers Savings Bank, New Albin, undated
~original bank brochure, personal collection of Erin Wilker

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Hopperstod Tavern, New Albin, 1948

Hopperstod Tavern, New Albin, 1948 - Click to enlarge

The second man from the front lineup of men is Frederick Carleton Price, but the others are not identified.
(Click photo for larger image)
~photo from the personal collection of Laura Stadelman, granddaughter of Fred C. Price (born 2/25/1885)


close-up of the men on the left -Hopperstod Tavern,  1948

close-up of the people on the right -Hopperstod Tavern,  1948

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Welper's Tavern, New Albin

Welper's Tavern, New Albin ca mid1930's - early 1940's

Welper's Tavern, New Albin ca mid1930's - early 1940's

front L-R: Leo Crowley, Gerhard "George" Middendorf (with cane), Nick Thimmesch (hand on bar), Jim Woods (leaning on bar) & Gustave "Gus" Welper (bartender/owner)  
rear L-R: Simon Medicus & John Schultz
(Click the photos for larger images)
~photo from the personal collection of Erin Wilker

Errin's notes: "Although the Welper's Tavern photo is undated, Gerhard "George" Middendorf died in 1941.  He was my 2nd great-grandfather."

 

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Miscellaneous New Albin Photos

 

Nicholas Rouster's carpentry shop, undated

Nicholas Rouster's shop, undated
L-R: Nick Rouster, unidentied child, John Rouster Sr. & Nick Colsch Sr.
~contributed by Diana Henry
Biography & another photo of Nicholas 'Nick' Rouster

 


Passenger train at the New Albin depot

Passenger train at the New Albin depot prepares to head south. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar


Farmer's Elevator.

The yards and Farmer's Elevator.  A freight train heads north from the New Albin depot. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar



New Albin view

View of Highway 26 looking south with Stone Quarry Hill in the background. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar


New Albin view

View of Highway 26 looking north. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar


New Albin street scene ca1910

Main Street as seen from the railroad track.  Circa about 1910. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar

Minnesota Bluff just north of New Albin.

Minnesota Bluff just north of New Albin.  Note the Indian burial grave on the top right of the bluff. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar


Early Catch and Release Program

Early Catch and Release Program.  George May, center, instructs his fellow workers to "give this one a little libation and release it to grow up."
(Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar

Iowa welcome sign near the Iowa-Minnesota state line

Iowa welcome sign near the Iowa-Minnesota state line on the old road entering New Albin.  The historical iron post state line marker is at right.
(Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar

New Albin from the top of Stone Quarry Hill ca1910

View of New Albin from the top of Stone Quarry Hill.  Circa about 1910. (Click photo for larger image)
~1998 New Albin Savings Bank 100 Year Anniversary Calendar

photo by Errin Wilker, 2007.  Click to view a large version 188kb

View of New Albin from the top of Stone Quarry Hill in April 2007. The photographer was Erin Wilker. (Click photo for larger image)


H. Martin, Dry Goods, Groceries - Advertising card
H. Martin, Dry Goods, Groceries
Advertising postcard, ca1870's/1880's *
~original postcard, personal collection of Erin Wilker

Note from the Allamakee co. IAGenWeb coordinator: The H. Martin advertising card (left) is likely Herman Martin, a merchant living in New Albin. H. Martin is enumerated on the 1870 U.S. census, living in New Albin. The census indicates he is age 24, born in Prussia, a newly-wed in September 1869, and occupation Grocer. His wife is Ellen, age 19, born in PA. Herman Martin is enumerated on the 1880 U.S. census, living in New Albin, age 35 and born in Prussia. His wife and children: Elmira (age 29, b. PA), Hulda (age 9), Lewis H. (age 7), Charlie E. (age 5), Edward (age 3) and Elenora (age 9 mo.). All of the children were born in Iowa. The Merrick Thread Co. dates from about 1865.


1939 New Albin Day Flier
1939 New Albin Day Flier

~original flier, personal collection of Erin Wilker

Wild Hardware advertising postcard, undated
Wild Hardware
Advertising postcard, undated
The name Earl Riser is written on the back
~original postcard, personal collection of Erin Wilker

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