By anyone's standards, Ethel Lerum of Ferryville has earned the right to sit back, put her feet up and be waited on, but 91-year old Ethel, a historian, musician and poet, doesn't have time for that.

For years, Lerum has collected information on the Ferryville area, filling shelves of her "history room" with books and notebooks and boxes, all carefully sorted and labeled. That project came to fruition this year with the publication of a 178-page history of Ferryville, titled Yesterday and Today, History of Ferryville Wis.

Lerum is quick to say that the book isn't entirely her work. Sheila Champlin, who lives on a farm in the Sugar Creek area, organized the material into book form, and it is now available for purchase at Ferryville River Bank.

Lerum is eminently qualified to be the area historian. She has lived in the area all her life, and her family ties go back to her grandfather, Mons Gald, who came from Norway and settled on Buttrick Ridge (the first turn off Hwy. 35 north of Hwy 171). "It was all wilderness then," said Lerum. "Grandpa worked and worked to clear the land. I remember their house so well, and now there's nothing left to show they lived there."

Mons married his first wife, who came on the same boat from Norway, at Southwest Prairie Church. They had eight children, but only four reached adulthood. She died, and Mons' second wife, Gustava or Gusta, came from Norway to work for him when she was 18 years old. They married, and she and Mons had another eight children, six of whom lived.

One of those children, Christina Gald, grew up to marry Fay Bert Allen, with whom she had three children: Ethel, Morris and Bernard. Ethel was born June 4, 1916.

"I woke up listening to music," she says of her childhood. Her father played fiddle and mandolin and her mother played an old-fashioned pump organ. Her parents were living in the Copper Creek valley then, about a third of a mile off Hwy. 35 and 171. The family lived in Eastman for a while, where her father worked at the blacksmith shop, before returning to Ferryville.

Her parents played music for house parties, and she and her brothers went along. Her father would tie the old organ on the running board and off they'd go. As the children got older, they too played. Ethel's older brother played banjo and accordion, and Ethel started playing for parties when she was about 12. "The first song I could play was 'Golden Slippers,'" she remembers.

Ethel, who plays accordion, piano and organ, played for wedding dances and other events, and met her future husband, Edward Lerum, at the Sugar Creek hall, where he was playing an accordion.

After their marriage, Ethel stopped playing at such events, and they raised three children: Harlan and twins Connie and Conrad. They lived in the Kickapoo Development at Gays Mills for several years; then moved back to Ferryville and in 1950 built the house she now lives in (her husband died in 1977). She entertained at rest homes in Prairie du Chien and Soldiers Grove, and was musician at Freeman Church for 13 years. She retired and "had a retirement party on Sunday," she remembers, "and then 9/11 happened. We had a prayer meeting at church and I went back and played for that."

Although 'retired,' she still plays privately and occasionally publicly. Her living room holds two organs, a piano, a keyboard and an accordion. Most days, she has a 'jam session' with Donny Anderson from Rush Creek and Sharon Alverson, a new organist for the church. Last July 4, she played for a multi-church gathering at Blackhawk Park, and recently was dining at the Freight House in La Crosse when Anderson, playing with the Fat Cats, invited her up to the stage where she played piano with the band accompanying her.

Music isn't Lerum's only talent, however. She writes local news for the Independent and Vernon County Broadcaster.

She has fond memories of her grandmother Gusta, who was killed crossing the train tracks in Ferryville in 1937, and has just started writing a piece titled "If I Could Talk to My Grandmother, This is What I Would Say." She also writes poetry and songs. She has a whole notebook filled with her material, some of it traditional, some of it wryly humorous commentary on modern problems such as the chads in the last presidential election or computer problems. One of her computer poems is as follows:

Bill Lynch, a retired Prairie du Chien businessman, says that there are several reasons why he chose to run for mayor in the upcoming election.

"I'm not happy with taxes for one thing," said Lynch. "I would like to reduce taxes for Prairie du Chien residents."

Lynch also said that he would like to attract new business to the city. "We need to give new business a tax break in order to get them here," he said.

Lynch, who owned and operated a trucking business in Prairie du Chien, said that he is a champion of the small business owner. "We have way too many people leaving town to buy things, myself included," he said. "If I become mayor, I would like to sit down with small business owners and try to find a way to help. My wife and I ran a small business that was very competitive for quite a few years, and we understand some of the obstacles." Lynch said that it is very hard for small businesses to compete with the giant stores. "Small business people will need to find out what their bottom line is," he said. "What does it cost for them to operate?"

Another major concern for Lynch is how the city government operates. "We have too many yes people," he said. "They say yes to just about everything. I would like to make things better for the majority of the people of Prairie du Chien, rather than the minority like the way it's been. The minority in our churches, schools and government seems to be getting everything. Why are we worried about them? The majority should rule. That's the democratic process, that (the democratic process) we don't use." Lynch also said that he would like to see the city fill city positions by hiring people who already work for the city. "Whenever possible, I feel we need to hire from within," he said. "These people have been working for the city. They live here and they are qualified, or they can get qualified." Lynch said that city employees already know Prairie du Chien's system and would be able to begin their new duties without having to get acclimated to new surroundings and people. If an employee needed to "go to school" in order to obtain all of the qualifications for the open position, Lynch said that the city should help pay for some of those expenses. Also, once the employee moves into a new position, he or she should get the appropriate raise.

Lynch said that he likes Prairie du Chien's downtown renovation project, but that there may be a few minor problems to be looked into. "I support the downtown," he said. "I just wish we would have started this downtown program 15 years earlier." One small problem Lynch noticed in the plans was the brick sidewalks. "These brick sidewalks, are they going to be easy to keep clean?" he asked. "Are they going to be easy to shovel in the winter for the business owners?"

Prairie du Chien has had a relatively heavy snowfall this winter and the budget for snow removal has long since been used up. Lynch said that the city employees have done a good job plowing and keeping the streets clear under the circumstances. He also noted, however, that the city should do a better job of budgeting for the possibility of having an occasional "heavy" winter. "We need to have a cushion in the budget," said Lynch.