Scenes of Yesteryear-Typing comes to town There was a time, but it was a long time ago, that I could actually read my own handwriting! Unfortunately that is not true today, because for some reason or another, my impatience in taking notes by hand results an undecipherable scramble of words! It would take a handwriting expert to determine what I have written. That should not have happened, because as a 7th grade student at Menomonie Central School, Mrs Lina Hellum spent an intolerable number of classes on the Palmer Method of handwriting. It was a method of writing that required “…muscle motion in which the more proximal muscles of the arm were used for movement, rather than allowing the fingers to move in writing.” I recall “hours” of pushing and pulling vertical lines and an equal amount of time inscribing ovals across the lined practice paper. I never understood the reason, but I must admit that my handwriting did improve, and even today I find me still using my arm when writing by hand, all due to my time spent in those classes! Problem now is…my distain for writing by hand has rendered my inability to read what I have written! I guess I am right, I’m just too impatient with the process. My father was a newspaperman, the Menomonie reporter for news of city and Dunn County for the Eau Claire Leader, and he insisted that I take the typing classes at MHS. I admit I was a little uncomfortable attending a class that was largely filled with giggly girls shooting for their future roles as secretaries. I guess there were other guys taking the class but I can’t remember any names, but I do remember Miss Hillier, the teacher who very likely was frustrated with my lack of progress. I “stuck it out” and finished the “beginner’s” class, and was told by Miss Hillier that I probably would not need to continue further training on the typewriter. I wish I knew then what I know now! Today, seventy-years later, I am so grateful for taking that typing class, and I am also pleased that it was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, editor, Christopher Latham Sholes, who invented the first successful typewriter in 1867. He was aided by an associate, Carlos Glidden, and depended on the practical machinist, Mr. Mathew Schwalbach, who constructed the various elements of the intricate machine designed by Sholes. Mark Twain, better known by his mother as Samuel Clemens, claimed that his book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, was the first book with a typewritten manuscript sent to a publisher. Historians say that Twain erred, his typewritten submission was indeed the first, but it was for Life on the Mississippi, seven years later in 1883. From that time on the typewriter gained popular acceptance with a number of companies going into the production of typewriters carrying the names of Remington, Oliver, Smith Corona, Underwood, Royal , Olivetti, IBM, etc. Most of the manufacturers of them adopted Sholes’ “QWERTY” keyboard layout, and soon schools dedicated to teaching people how to use a typewriter appeared throughout the country. One of the successful schools in Wisconsin was the Valentine School of Telegraphy, established in 1872 in Janesville by Richard Valentine with his brother, A. M. Valentine. I have limited knowledge of the school but a postcard stamped in the Janesville post office featured a photograph of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy that may originally been the school established by Valentine. A check with researchers,Kate and Sue, at the Hedberg Public Library in Janesville came up with a statement in their records saying that a School of Telegraphy was the only one of its kind in the nation. That tells me that the photograph is very likely the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy, also known at one time as the Valentine School of Telegraphy. I am content in stating that. Today the “typewriter” is a fossil found on display in many historical society museums, replaced in “real life” by the ubiquitous computer and keyboard of today. But now, after I have stated that “fact”, I can expect to hear from at least one reader that they still have a typewriter on their desk. I’m sure they are having a difficult time to find ribbons for it! I will ask them about that! I need one for my typewriter that has been gathering dust during the past fifteen years! I miss those “typewriter typos”! Cutline…. On October 3, 1905, an unnamed/unknown student of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy, sent this post card of the teachers and students of the Wisconsin School of Telegraphy. The card ended up in the archives of the Dunn County Historical Society which suggests that one or more students were native of the county. Very likely many of the students shown here were telegraphers, but the great number of typewriters shown here in the foreground indicated that learning to type was a high priority. Unfortunately we cannot be certain that there are any graduates of the students shown here were from Menomonie or its environs. Cutline… It appears that the offices where these young lady typists normally worked were too small for taking a picture, so the photographer suggested they move out into the hall, or an adjacent room that was larger, for this picture. Unfortunately the inscription on the doorway on the left makes it virtually impossible to read the reversed lettering on the door’s window. The top line appears to include the letters “H DOOK S T A D”, which make no sense to me, Maybe a reader can help on that, and the picture on the slim wall behind the young lady on the left appears to be of a local scene, but beyond that, unidentifiable. This is another picture from the archives of the Dunn County Historical Society. .