Wisconsin State Journal from Madison, Wisconsin • 11

City Editor David Stoeffler, 252-6130- 0g(3K0K 3B Monday. June 27, 1994 Wisconsin State Journal ACROSS THE STATE Trolley service, as it used to be vintage cars ply the line 1 1 arvF 1 f'l 7. In East Troy, By Roger A. Gribble Wisconsin State Journal EAST TROY Motorman Andy Witkowski of Milwaukee blows the whistle of Trolley Car No. 253, then eases the 1912-vintage car out of the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum station.

Its bright yellow paint glistening in the Sunday afternoon sun, the trolley that once plied the streets of Minneapolis and, later, Duluth-Su-perior lurches as it gains speed on its 14-mile roundtrip run. Nearly all of the 44 woven wicker seats are occupied on this run, the second of the day. Conductor Milton Waldie, 82, of rural Burlington, who worked for 45 years on the Santa Fe Railroad, moves up and down the aisle, punching tickets and chatting amiably with passengers. The only sound the trolley makes is the clickety-clack of its wheels as it passes over sections of track and the piercing warning whistle Witkowski sounds as it nears crossings. The museum, about 65 miles southeast of Madison, has some 20 volunteers who offer a variety of tourist passenger services, including a dinner train.

The museum's collection of seven restored cars, (the work is done by museum volunteers) includes two built for the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad, an open car and a Chi- If you go What East Troy Electric Railroad Museum. Where: 2002 Church St. in East Troy. To get there: Highway 12 east from Madison to Highway 20 into East Troy. Watch for museum signs on Highway 20.

About a 90-minute drive from Madison. Passenger departures: Noon, 1:20 p.m., 2:40 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through late October; 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays through mid-August. Cost: $7 for adults, $3.50 for children 4 to 11. For more information: Call (414) 642-3263. cago elevated car. Two locomotives include one built in 1944 and used in Milwaukee.

LeRoy Stellpfflug of Milwaukee, who served as a docent Sunday but also doubles as motorman, said the yellow trolley car was retired from service in 1939 and converted to a summer home. The museum's staff later rescued it from the junk heap, then spent four years restoring it. Photo courtesy of the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum. This 1912-vintage trolley car is part of the East Troy Electric Railroad Museum's collection. group has first option.

We don't want it to become a bike path." Rudy Puerzer of West Allis, another volunteer who was selling tickets on Sunday, said the museum has launched a five-year, $3 million fund-raising campaign to save, restore and improve the railroad and museum. The initial phase involves raising $330,000 by Oct. 31 to purchase the railroad, he said. Puerzer said museum volunteers are contacting foundations and corporations, and although no commit 77 rr J- -'-r-- I Smoke-free policy suits restaurateur1 By Tom Giese Beaver Dam Daily Citizen JUNEAU One month before he opened P.J.'s Family Restaurant, John Fabisch threw away the pipe he'd been smoking for more than 25 years. Today, little more than a year later, he and his wife, Pat, are in select company as owners of one of two smoke-free restaurants in Dodge County.

Fabisch's idea, however, has greater support statewide. His diner is among over 500 eateries listed in the Smoke-Free Dining Guide 1994, the first such listing. The register lists restaurants, coffee shops, cafes and diners offering nonsmoking environments. The 32-page booklet was published by the American Lung Association, in cooperation with the Wisconsin Initiative on Smoking and Health. "My wife is happy that I don't smoke," said Fabisch, who quit the habit in January 1993.

"And my kids are happier, too." The change has also been good for business, he said. "I have a lot of people coming in because it's WISCONSIN RAPIDS Weather brings bigger berries Some central Wisconsin strawberry growers say recent hot, sunny weather has made for sweeter, bigger berries this year but may bring picking season to an abrupt end. "If we dont get them out of the field pretty quick, they are going to bake in the sun," said David Du-lske, who runs Cee-Dee Acres near Bancroft with his wife, Char. "The berries this year are running larger than they did last year, which is surprising to me, because of the heat," Dulske said. "But they are a large to extra-large berry." The sunshine has given the berries better flavor and sweetness than they had the past two years, he said.

Harold Altenburg, of Alten-burg's Country Gardens in Wisconsin Rapids, said he expected picking would last another week. It began June 11. I WHITEWATER Lightning starts fire, destroying home A fire sparked by a lightning strike destroyed a home in the Rock County town of Lima. No injuries were reported. The house owned by James Grabowski was bit by lightning during a thunderstorm Saturday night.

The lightning burned out the home's wiring and started fires in different areas of the home, Whitewater Fire Chief Thomas Coe said. The three people in the house escaped safely. The home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. No damage estimate was immediately available. RHINELANDER Coercion may be used as defense A man accused of setting fire to a burglarized church has a judge's permission to argue that threats by another defendant forced him to break the law.

Coercion is not ordinarily accepted in Wisconsin courts as justification for criminal activity among co-conspirators. However, Oneida County Circuit Judge Robert Kinney notified lawyers and prosecutors Thursday that he will not prevent the defense from using the argument when John E. Schwiesow's trial begins today. The trial is the latest development in a case that included recovery of $3 million in stolen goods at a northern Wisconsin hideout in 1991 described by the FBI as the largest single confiscation of loot in state history. Schwiesow was arrested with Daniel C.

Eesley of Ashland as investigators tracked down stolen firearms, collectors coins, tools, sports trading cards, construction equipment, boats, a bus, a lumber skidder, a house trailer, a dump truck, a dune buggy and other items. In Oneida County, Schwiesow was charged with burglary and arson concerning thievery and fire at a Mormon church in Rhine-lander in February 1991. The replacement value of the church was estimated at $1 million. Eesley was sentenced to five, 10-year prison terms to run concurrently. MILWAUKEE Toll-free numbers urged for centers Wisconsin's two remaining poison control centers are being urged to use state funding to add toll-free numbers to serve people whose local centers have closed.

1990, there were five information and referral centers statewide. Now, after a nationwide funding crunch, there are two in Milwaukee and Madison. Centers have closed in La Crosse, Eau Claire and Green Bay. The Milwaukee Poison Control Center handles 35,000 to 40,000 inquiries annually. The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics' Regional Poison Center gets about 16,000 calls a year.

For the past 20 years, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwa-tosa has underwritten the cost of Milwaukee's poison center. The UW Hospital and Clinics has paid operating expenses of Madison's center since 1962. The poison centers are to get public funding this year for the first time The state Legislature has allocated $375,000 in matching funds for the 1994-95 fiscal year to be split between the two centers. In return, the centers are being encouraged to add toll-free telephone numbers to better serve Wisconsin resident1 who live outside the two cities. SmmJoumUmmmnkm The wheels came from Memphis, the seats from a Chicago car and some other parts from a car in Belgium, he noted.

The track it follows is the original right-of-way of the Milwaukee Electric Railway Light he added. During its heydey, the company operated 202 miles of interurban track throughout southeastern Wisconsin, plus 130 miles of streetcar track in Milwaukee, according to a museum brochure. The East Troy line, one of five interurban lines operated by the company, was completed in 1907 and carried passengers and later freight between Milwaukee and communities, farms and resorts along the line. Interurban passenger service was abandoned in 1939, but the village of East Troy purchased the 7-mile segment between the village and the Wisconsin Central interchange in Mukwonago to keep freight service alive. The line was rehabilitated in 1979 and 1980, and in 1985, the museum agreed to take over all operations, including freight hauling, which has dwindled to fewer than 30 cars a year.

Because the railroad's prime function is now a historic tourist operation, the Village Board voted earlier this year to sell the line to the museum, Stellpfflug said. "Our 1 V. Associated Press WSJ Regardless, Roseline was suddenly a single mother on the frontier. Life wasn't easy. Not only did she have to raise her children alone; she had to continually defend herself from claim jumpers, including one drunk who broke into her house, smashed up many of her belongings and threw the rest out into the dirt.

But Roseline persevered and once again became the center of frontier social life. The court met in her home, which was also used for balls and public meetings. Eager for neighbors, she took in new settlers until they got their own places built. She also became known for her adept medical care in those early days when there were no doctors. She once traveled for five hours on horseback to set a child's broken leg.

She liked, Curry says, to tell people that nobody died in the Baraboo Valley until after the doctors came. Roseline died on October 20, 1899, and on the day she died, the flag atop Baraboo City Hall flew at half-staff. Today, there are streets in Baraboo named for Roseline and her children. Few people, however, are aware of the origin of the street names or of the energetic, adventurous woman behind them. Fortunately, there are people like Curry to keep her story alive.

"Of all the women of significance in Wisconsin history," Curry says, "Roseline should rank right at the fore" I l-U Baraboo ar 1 1 Sauk Co. I Madison mi ments have been given, "we've been very well received." The building that houses the ticket office, gift shop and museum was built in 1909 and was the original power station, Stellpfflug said. Stellpfflug became a volunteer eight years ago and worked in the depot for two years before finally getting a chance to be a motorman. "I love it. It puts bubbles in your blood," he said as he helped passengers off the trolley on the return trip Sunday.

smoke-free." Occasionally, diners either have been unaware of the arrangement or simply have forgotten, and have lit up, he said. In those cases, they've been asked to extinguish their cigarettes. "I haven't had any problems with the people," said Fabisch, the mayor of Juneau. "Nobody's back-talked me yet." The cold-turkey approach was the best for his business, he said. Simply setting aside a non-smoking area in the 65-seat restaurant wouldn't have shielded customers from the fumes.

The move, he said, has resulted in another benefit: The restaurant has stayed cleaner. The smoke-free setting isn't for every restaurateur, however. Fabisch has read of an Appleton restaurant that suffered business losses when the switch was made. For the one-time pipe smoker, the effort has paid dividends. This story is distributed through the Associated Press features exchange network.

scofflaws better get out their checkbooks. The Iowa County Board recently passed a resolution making it easier to seize property on which back taxes are owed. The county once had to wait four years before seizing property; now a new state law says taxes need only be 2Vi years late. The county will begin taking deeds to $180,000 worth of property delinquent since 1991. Iowa County Republican state Rep.

Steve Freese has moved to Dodgeville after he and his wife, Dawn, spent the better part of, a year restoring an 1878 Italianate-style home. The move puts Freese, formerly of Hazel Green, close to the center of his sprawling district. Hometown news is compiled by Wisconsin State Journal staff from area newspapers. Miss Oshkosh, was second runner-" up. Holly Henderson, Miss Southeastern Wisconsin, was picked third runner-up.

Kari Boldon, Miss Wisconsin Central, was fourth runner-up. Voss, the daughter of Jesse and Jean Voss of Green Bay, won the preliminary talent judging Thursday with a vocal solo of a West Side Story medley. Voss succeeds Tania Zeigler, a former Mis Fond du Lac who was one of the 10 finalists in trie 1993 Miss America Pageant. nnsinfiffl. I OFX- Pool or a pond? Barb Winrich shares the family pool in Eau Claire with a hen mallard and her six ducklings, who are nesting nearby.

To accommodate the ducks, Winrich and her husband, Doug, built wooden ramps. Supper clubs are hit by run of bad fortune Grant County It hasn't been a good year for Grant County supper clubs, as columnist Ralph Goldsmith noted in the Boscobel Dial. A fire severely damaged the Tafton House in Bloomington June 15, hot on the heels of fires at the Kaber Steak House near Lancaster and the Ridgeview Supper Club near Fennimore. The Blue Paradise Supper Club in Blue River (now Shooters) is still operating, but former owners Maria and Bob Knutsen have headed for Alaska aboard a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Vernon County Speaking of Harleys, Vernon County Sheriff Geoffrey Banta has arrested four suspects as part of an ongoing investigation of a Harley theft ring.

Police raided several Platteville locations recently and discovered stolen Harleys and Harley parts worth up to $100,000 and apparently stolen from Vernon and Lafayette counties and other areas. Iowa County Property tax was a tough and talented woman whose reputation soon spread. She had, Curry says, "a witty and caustic tongue, she was an excellent violin player, and a good enough dancer to give dancing lessons three times a week." Curry calls her "a touch of elegance in a rough frontier. "In addition," he writes, "she was a good cook, being noted for her turtle soup. The turtles were caught in Mud Lake and frozen solid and rattled around like stones when they were placed in the food cellar.

In the spring when someone went to get food from the cellar, they were surprised to see some of the turtles thawed out and crawling around." Roseline, Curry says, also enjoyed canoeing on Lake Mendota in a canoe that had once been the property of a Winnebago Indian chief. In 1837, she gave birth to the first white child born in Madison and named her Wisconsinia Victoria. In 1839, the Pecks again plunged into the wilderness, quitting Madison and heading north to the wild country that would become Sauk County. Eben staked out a claim on the Lower Oxbow Rapids in the Baraboo River. To get to the claim, they drove a carriage to the foot of the Baraboo bluffs and then followed a faint trail marked by blazed trees into Baraboo Valley.

Roseline again rode a pony, the men chopping brush out of the way in front of her. They reached the Baraboo River and found the water to be very high, but Roseline was so eager to see the new land that she swam across with the men. Roseline, barely out of her 20s, would remain in Baraboo the rest of her life. But her husband, after starting the first school in the area, left for Oregon and never returned. He was rumored to have been killed by Indians, Curry says, but word of him turned up in Texas a few years later.

History Continued from Page 1B try. Curry, sitting at his kitchen table and talking about Roseline Peck, has the uncanny ability to bring her to life after all these years. He speaks about her as if he just came from her front porch for a visit Her photo is on the table as Curry tells the story, and she glares forth as fiercely as she must have in life her square jaw set, her lips pursed, her eyes burning out of a face so hard and angular that it seems carved from stone. Roseline Peck was born Roseline Willard on February 24, 1808, to an old and distinguished family in Vermont near the Green Mountains; one grandfather had been a general in the Revolutionary War. In 1829, at the age of 21, she married a man named Eben Peck and in 1835, the couple moved to Wisconsin, where they ran a tavern and boarding house in Belmont, the territorial capital.

Two years later, the Pecks moved again, this time to the wilderness lake country that would become Madison, where they opened a public house to serve the officials and workers who would be building the new state's capital city. Roseline was pregnant and plagued by headaches. Still, she traveled on an Indian pony along the forest trails. Their first night in the Madison area, they camped in what is now Nakoma and awoke the next morning to howling wolves and a blizzard. The cabin that was supposed to be awaiting them was unfinished, and Roseline refused to move in.

She sat with her two young boys in a wagon under a tree with a quilt over her head until workers finished he home. Despite that nigged beginning, Roseline eventually settled in. She Miss Green Bay takes Wisconsin title OSHKOSH (AP) Laura Voss of Green Bay was crowned Miss Wisconsin at the conclusion of the annual pageant Saturday. Voss, Miss Green Bay Area, will be a senior Voss at UW-MadJson this falL Pamela Polk, Miss Berlin, was first runner-up. Anna Riedemann,.