Stropone Inc. Razor Sharpener

Rebekah Schoos

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Catalog Number: 2017.074.01

Pictured here is a circa 1937 Stropone razor sharpener.

The company’s name, Stropone Inc., is a play on the word strop, or stropper, which was a strip of leather used for sharpening straight razors. Strops were extremely popular before the invention of disposable and safety razors, when straight razors were the main shaving tool.

In 1900, King C. Gillette invented the first safety razor. It was very different from the previously popular straight razors, which consisted of one long blade hinged to a handle.

The safety razor was more like the disposable razors of today, the only difference being that only the blades would be replaced, not the entire razor.

Because of this new invention, many believed that sharpening methods were no longer necessary. However, many companies invented hand-held stroppers that could be used to sharpen the safety razor’s blades to make them last longer.

The Stropone Inc. stroppers were occasionally advertised in the La Crosse Tribune. Their rival company, Twinplex, had both mechanical stroppers and safer hand stroppers that were specifically made to be used with the more popular Gillette razor blades.

In a 1920s paper advertisement for Christmas shopping, three different stropper companies advertised because of their uses with different blades: Twinplex strops specifically for Gillette blades, Warner Jones for safety razors’ blades, and Zig Zag for all types of razors, including Gillette and safety blades.

The stroppers from Stropone Inc. were invented by Herbert C. Wilkinson to use with all disposable safety blades, not just Gillette. Wilkinson describes the invention in the patent: “The present invention relates to blade-sharpening devices and the primary object of the invention is to provide an improved honer and stropper for use in sharpening safety razor blades of various types.”

Instructions for use of the Stropone Inc. stropper are located on the back of the box.

Some of the instructions are unreadable because of the condition of the box, but the main idea of the Stropone stropper was to place the blade inside the holder and use the side handles to move the blade up and down the stropper to sharpen the blade.

This stropper was about $2 when bought in 1937 and therefore a more accessible and affordable stropping device compared to others.

One of the most intriguing things about this sharpener is that the engraving on the tool’s handle says STROPONE, La Crosse, Wis., and the front of the box also identifies this as having come from La Crosse, making it yet another example of the myriad items once manufactured here.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 11, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

The Key and the Fire Truck

Peggy Derrick

Catalog Numbers: 2017.fic.361 & 1962.002.01

This key and this fire truck are both in the artifact collection of La Crosse County Historical Society.

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

While small, the key is certainly not the smallest item in the collection, but the fire truck is one of the biggest. Probably Historic Hixon House itself is the only thing that could be considered bigger.

A relatively large key, 5.5 inches long, it folds in half for convenience — not a feature we often see on keys these days. But handy for keeping it safely in a pocket.

It’s been in the collection for a very long time: so long, the documentation about who donated it has been lost.

But we know it was a key to the old La Crosse Courthouse because it still has its original tag, with very old writing in script that has turned sepia with age, reading “key to court house square, please return to Central Police Station.”

We presume this refers to the La Crosse County Courthouse, which opened in 1904 and was torn down in 1965.

The fire truck is a chain-driven 1922 American La France pumper ladder truck, used by the La Crosse Fire Department.

This truck was actually maintained and used as a back-up until 1962, when the Southside Businessmen’s Club bought it for $250 and donated it to the Historical Society.

A few years ago, it was on display in our exhibit “All Fired Up: The History of Firefighting in La Crosse.”

At that time a retired firefighter told me he remembered riding in the open back of this truck and bouncing down city streets “like the keystone cops.” He was the last of a generation of firefighters who rode on the outside of their vehicles. I’m sure it’s safer this way, but possibly not as much fun.

In terms of size, the key and the fire truck represent two extremes of the roughly 10,000 local historic artifacts that LCHS preserves and shares with the people of this region.

Proper storage and cataloging are priorities, and we share our treasures as best we can: at our house museum, Historic Hixon House; at our small local history museum in Riverside Park, Riverside Museum; in our online database; and every Saturday through this newspaper column.

Despite our name, LCHS is not a part of any branch of government: we are a private non-profit corporation and have been 1898.

We are very grateful for the $18,100 grant we receive every year from the La Crosse County commissioners, but as you can imagine, it doesn’t begin to cover our costs.

From year to year we are dependent on our members and donors to fill in the gaps left by grants and museum admissions, and “do more with less.” Our computers are second hand, our staff of 2.5 receive no benefits, and there are no stipends for devoted volunteers who give guided tours or make Silent City possible year after year.

So why am I telling you all this in a Things That Matter column?

Because people keep asking me what we are raising money for. It is to keep our doors open, and to keep people caring for our artifacts. La Crosse County Historical Society is a public trust: we collect, preserve and share these artifacts on behalf of you, the people of La Crosse County.

We pay for core mission support through memberships, appeals and events. I cannot overemphasize the importance of membership. Members receive free admission to Hixon House and they stay abreast of LCHS events through an excellent quarterly newsletter that also publishes well-researched articles on local history. We are a member-governed organization, with the membership electing our board of directors.

LCHS members are engaged with our goal of creating a new local history and cultural center for the region, where we will have the opportunity to display many more of our historic treasures and share stories with more people. We are eager to be able to display more cool things, such as fire trucks and memorabilia from the old Courthouse.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 4, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Ray Bluske's Accordion

Ken Brekke

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Catalog Number: 2010.009.01

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

The accordion sits quietly now, but it doesn’t take much of an imagination to hear the lively tunes that spilled out of it when it was being played by the late Ray Bluske.

It’s a fancy instrument, featuring mother-of-pearl, gold-colored plastic and a scrolled design on the grill that displays an eagle and two American flags decorated with red and white rhinestones.

Red and green floral sprigs are engraved on the plastic, and there are ornamental inlays around most of the edges. The musician’s name, "R. Bluske," is prominently displayed in blue rhinestones on the front of the accordion, which was donated by Bluske’s family to the La Crosse County Historical Society.

Bluske, who was born on April 20, 1914, grew up on his family’s farm near Chaseburg.

His father died when Ray was 12, which meant he had to drop out of school and work on the farm.

Ray displayed musical talent at a young age, and he and his brother, Willard, plus some of their youthful friends, formed a band and played at barn dances and weddings in the Chaseburg area.

Despite being busy with farm work, Ray always found time for music, and that talent really blossomed after he and his wife, Lil, were married in 1935 and moved to La Crosse.

Bluske, who began working in Wittenberg’s Cigar Store on La Crosse’s North Side, formed "Ray’s Royals" in the 1930s. The band was sponsored by the Old Style Lager label of G. Heileman Brewing Co., and played for festivals, weddings, Saturday night dances and parades in La Crosse, the Twin Cities, Milwaukee and many other cities.

Besides his own band, Bluske was also a member of Tom Tronic’s band in La Crosse, which is where Lil and Ray had two children — Monte and Lana.

The family next moved to Gilmanton, where Ray accepted a job as a creamery accountant. In the late 1940s, the Bluskes relocated to Blair, where the family operated Bluske’s Grocery Store. The couple’s youngest daughter, Marcia, was born in 1948. Ray retired in 1976, which is when he and Lil moved to Eau Claire.

Their daughter, Lana, has many fond memories of her father’s accordion, which was made by the Traficante company of Minneapolis. That accordion, and her father’s nimble fingers, were at the heart of many "family jam sessions," she recalls.

Ray continued to play his accordion for the family and at church gatherings until he was in his early 80s. He died in Chippewa Falls on July 10, 1997, at age 83. Lil died in November 2000.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on April 27, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.