As I was investigating the history of Gouverneur
Country Club, I learned that a current Hailesboro resident,
Mike Wranesh, was there when it first began in 1930. Mike
and his wife, Jane, sat down for coffee with Nancy and I
and reminisced about those early days – it was delightful.
During the conversation, Mike indicated that his brother
John had participated in a writing class and had written
an article about those early days.
What follows are excerpts
from my conversation with Mike and Jane and e-mails from
John. In addition, the article written
by John is presented in its entirety. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed
putting it together.
A Little Bit About The Wranesh Boys
The Wranesh boys were born and raised in Hailesboro during
the depression years. They were caddies (in the days
when members employed caddies). They "learned the
trade" at the country club and learned a whole lot about
people, golf etiquette, and even learned the game along with
the members.
Mike was born in 1918 and was 12 when he started working at
the course - initially picking weeds and then later as a caddie.
He then left Hailesboro in 1936 to work as a sheet metal worker
out of town for $1.00/hour which it those days was very good
money. He also recalled working on the first addition of the
Dolan Annex (part of the current high school) for a fellow
from Vermont who had the contract.
When the Army called, he dutifully served which
resulted in a cut in pay at $21. dollars a month. After the
Army, he returned to Gouverneur for a job at the Borden’s
milk plant where he remained for 28 years. He fondly remembers
working with Bob Dygert and together they “ran the place. ” Mike
claims Bob was the better golfer while he concentrated more
on business of the day.
John Wranesh who lives in Ann Arbor is 6 years younger then
Mike. Currently he spends some time volunteering at the Veterans
Administration Ann Arbor Healthcare Center and assisting with
some historical aspects of his old bomb group--The 457th Bomb Group
Association.
In 1999, he was a member of a “geriatric” writing
group associated with the University of Michigan that met every
Friday for a couple of hours. As his weekly "assignment” John
chose to write about the early day of Gouverneur Country Club
as his topic of choice. That writing can be read in its entirety
later in this article.
He commented that he had a lot of fun visualizing
the scene and the wonderful characters (and hopefully any of
the descendents of the characters will be understanding). Today
he still enjoys the game of golf while playing with lightweight flexible
graphite shaft clubs and once in a while gets a 225-yard
drive and occasionally sinks a long putt. Both Mike
and John remember older brother Joe from Richville as being
the “great golfer.” He and Ray Cassidy from Edwards
were always partners. The record shows that together they were
a formidable pair.
Gouverneur Country Club – A Little History
B. O. Kinney as a representative of the newly formed Gouverneur
Country Club finalized the purchase of the Manning farm at
Hailesboro on 6-25-30. He loaned the club $2,500 for the initial
purchase of the 100 acres located about 3 miles from downtown
Gouverneur. Sherrill Sherman, golf architect from Utica, was
immediately engaged “to get the grounds ready for golf
purposes. ” Although some play was noticed during the
fall of 1930, the club did not officially open until 1931.
Fred Manning had owned the farm and was part
of the first crew involved in the construction of the golf
course. His home stood where the ninth green is currently located.
With the absence of tractors, horses were used to pull a scoop
to move large amounts of dirt to build the greens and sand
traps (There is a picture of this in the restaurant). The whole
area was a meadow with ditches running through the low parts
of the course. Although still known for its rolling greens,
in their early years the greens had more and larger mounds – you
were doing a lot of “up and down putting.” Through
the years some of the mounds were removed.
Ken Price who lived across the street and George
Burge were the two men who initially worked the course. For
mowing the fairways, the “boys” found an old Chevrolet
chassis with a motor and built a seat on it to pull a five-gang
mower. After a while they also built a garage for their “ tractor.”
The greens were mowed by hand. It was very hard work because
of the heavy dew on the grass and the close mowing required.
It took both men all morning to mow the greens.
Mike Wranesh along with other young boys of Hailesboro was
employed for 15 cents an hour to weed the greens. This involved
using a knife to dig them out. These were long tough hours – one
or two hours was enough to tire a person, even a strong young
boy.
Originally the club had planned on building a new modern clubhouse
but changed plans due to the expense and the economic downturn
in the country. The current clubhouse, which is the original
farm barn, was remodeled and officially opened on June 22,
1932. At purchase, the cows were down stairs and the hay was
still in the haymow on the second floor. On the first floor,
they took the stanchions out and used it for storage until
they built the locker rooms, lounge and pro shop. The second
floor remained vacant but since has had two major renovations
which included building a restaurant, kitchen and dance floor.
It was traditional for the club to open on Memorial Day weekend
with a dinner dance and close the season on Labor Day weekend.
This was the typical season until World War II, when the club
closed down due to the rationing of gasoline which limited
the amount of optional automobile trips.
A Day In The Life Of Caddies
Although the first golfers didn't arrive
until 9AM when the dew was off the grass, the boys of Hailesboro
always wanted to be the first kid on the job. The fellow that
got up (usually about 4AM) and missed his breakfast usually
got the first bag and could look forward to earning 25 cents.
It was a job though and the earlier you started gave you a
better chance to carry another bag later in the day. You carried
one bag and watched the ball for the player. Those who were
fleet of foot, were quick to get to the ball and were known
to sometimes improve its lie – the quickest of foot usually
earned the largest tip.
After a while the older fellows who had cars
and were without jobs would drive up from Gouverneur and became
the competition for the Hailesboro boys. Rube Jones, a middle-aged
man, and Mel Lasher who lived around Yellow Lake had a car
and were two that would make the trip - all to earn 25 cents
a round. Two other fellows, Bill Lumley and Bob Lansing, had
a model “T” Ford
and with some of the money they earned went to the Worlds Fair
in Chicago. When a policeman saw their car, he advised the
boys not to drive it too far - but they did.
The caddies could play on certain days and evenings
when they weren't busy. They would also go out and
look for golf balls and come back and sell them for a quarter
to earn a little extra money. This wasn't’t very popular
with the pro who was selling new balls for a dollar. Those
caddies with golfing prowess especially enjoyed their home
and home golf match with the caddies from Carlowden.
The Golf Course Remains - The
Players Have Changed
by John Wranesh 3-5-99
The nine-hole golf course was developed from pastureland just
west of Hailesboro, New York by a small group of moneyed people
in Gouverneur, New York. They called it the Gouverneur Country
Club. The old cow barn on the property was cleared of stanchions
on the bottom floor, thoroughly cleaned and whitewashed and
became the members locker rooms, golf pro shop, game room and
bar, even housing a few one-armed bandits.
The upper portion of the barn, the haymow, was
later converted into a huge kitchen, dining room and dance
area. Many windows were added to provide a wonderful view of
the golf course and surrounding farmland and creek. A perfect
setting for a golf course and the founders are to be commended,
for it hasn't’t
changed much to this day.
A golf course requires untold amounts of water. Luckily, to
the north of the land an unlimited quantity of water was available
from Mattoon Creek. A two- inch water line was installed from
the pump house at the creek to the distribution system on the
course. This system was pretty well planned and virtually trouble
free.
The golfers and the caddies learned the game together on a
course maintained by workers who also had to learn how to develop
good greens and fairways and keep the whole course free of
weeds.
The first golf pro was Bill Graegle, a single young man and
sort of playboy who got things started and lasted a season
or so. This was in the very early thirties when a decent job
was hard to come by.
Bill was succeeded by Bill Burton, a family man who was a
bit more stable and knowledgeable about running a golf course.
He was a likeable trusting character even to the point of letting
the older caddies drive his car to take his children to a nearby
lake during the swimming season. Bill stayed on until the mid-thirties,
bringing the club along to a respectable status among the various
other country clubs in the North Country. He was a good organizer
and there were many golf matches in the Adirondack region.
He even organized caddy matches in the region. Bill left in
the mid thirties for a position at a golf club on the outskirts
of Syracuse, New York. It was like going home for him and afforded
a better opportunity.
Bill’s successor at the country club was
John Monahan, right out of New York City. He had an accent
right out of Brooklyn. He was a freckled face redhead, his
wife Maureen was redheaded, and the two little girls were redheaded.
John didn't
even have a car and couldn't drive. He maintained an
apartment near the main road and he depended upon the members
to give him a ride to and from the golf course.
His wooden shafted golf clubs right away made
one wonder “this
guy is a golf pro?" John turned out to be a better businessman
than a golf pro; the greatest portion of his income was derived
from the bar business in the back room. However, he had an
understanding of the game and was very thorough whenever giving
lessons to members.. He was quite strict with the caddies and
maintained an equitable caddy house system. Caddies were allowed
into the pro shop only for assigned work details or to buy
pop, candy bars or to play the candy punchboard. John was very “careful” with
money. On occasion the caddies would become a bit wild and
maybe throw and break an empty pop bottle. In his New York
accent he would say “yuzz guys are gonna break me up.
Cripe all mighty those pop bottelz cost two cents apiece and
here you are breaking them up, there goes my profit!"
John had sort of a stiff or clubfoot and had
an awkward walk and played very little golf - although he could
shoot a respectable game. Whenever he did play the caddies
would all watch as he started out and murmured "he is actually
going to play, wonder how he is going to do?"
John was quite efficient in handling the club handicap system,
organizing matches for intra and inter-club play, interpreting
the rules, supervising the grounds crew and generally maintaining
a good golf club. The caddy matches between surrounding clubs
became a thing of the past with John’s arrival.
During the winter months John served as manager of the “Citizens
Club” which in fact was a glorified name for a poker
club made up of many of the country club members. This was
a good source of income for him and in the current vernacular
a ”fringe benefit.” John stayed on for many years.
He eventually bought a car so his wife could drive him back
and forth to the club and he finally retired.
With the advent of the motorized golf carts, discount marketing
of golfing equipment, and changing lifestyles, a golf pro could
hardly exist in a rather small club. The pro position was reduced
to a managerial position, mainly one of maintaining the clubhouse
and keeping the course in shape. However, the golf course remains
much the same to this day and a beautiful challenge to all
who play her!
Some Stories Along The Way
The basic golf club has always had a club head, shaft and
grip area. There was a time when the woods were referred to
as the driver, brassie, and spoon - the difference being the
degree of loft and a very small difference in the length of
the club with the driver being the longest.
The nomenclature of irons was not standard among the various
manufacturers. The longer irons were labeled as driving irons,
midirons, numbered one, two, and three. The shorter range irons
were referred to as the mashies, ranging from the number four
iron on through the six iron. The six iron was often referred
to as the spade mashie. The deeper irons fell into the niblick
classification, ranging from the seven iron through the nine
iron. The transition to solely numbers only began in the thirties
and gradually the terms “brassie, spoon, mid-iron, mashie,
spade mashie, mashie niblick and niblick’ faded away.
An interesting twosome comes to mind. The owner of the town’s
sole movie theatre, the Graylyn, was a Greek person by the
name of Jim. He and his wife Delphinia were charter members
of the club and weather permitting played golf everyday. They
arrived at the club a little after nine and it was every caddy’s
desire to caddy for these people because there was a dime tip
and a free pass to the movies involved. The caddy master maintained
a list and the one on top of the list was “first out. ” Another
provision for this twosome was they wanted only one caddy to
carry double (carry two bags).
Del was a very small woman, almost five feet in height. She
always hit the ball straight, but not very far, so it was easy
to watch her ball. By contrast, Jim was a big man and a bit
erratic with his swing at times and required vigilance. The
interesting part of the game was the constant banter between
the two. He always praised her shots while she interjected
the more critical aspects such, as it should be a little more
left, or a little more right. It was always amusing to hear
Jim in his Greek accent such as “young man, give me the
brrrassie, or the sppuun, or the maashie, or the neeblick.
They were very polite people, thanking you at the end of the
game as you placed their clubs in the trunk of their brightly
colored Hudson automobile. It seems that all they owned was
brightly colored and well coordinated, their clothes, their
yellow house and the color keyed appointments in the theatre.
Doc Mills was a charter member of the club. He
was probably in his sixties, tall and slender and a chain smoker,
lighting one cigarette off another. He even swung with a cigarette
in his mouth. Doc was a bit shaky at times and one would wonder
how he could ever hit the ball. Nevertheless, he was club
champion on a few occasions. His clubs had limber buggy whip-like
shafts and he always took an exaggerated swing so the flexing
shaft gave him more power although sometimes causing a slice,
which was embarrassing to him.
Doc was a good tipper and he even allowed certain caddies
to use his clubs when caddies were allowed to play on Monday
morning and at twilight. Doc was a good-hearted and caring
individual, especially to the caddies. Whenever one was troubled
with poison ivy, cuts, bruises, or other ailments it was just
a matter of stopping in to his office and he would take care
of you at no charge. But in those days one seldom went to the
doctor unless there was a real serious health problem.
Doc Tremlett was a charter member of the club and a veterinarian
in his late forties or early fifties. He was a huge jovial
man with a belly laugh and most of the time was chewing on
a cigar. Many times he substituted for a member of the Casino
Gang. Doc had a huge heavy leather bag and carried a pint of
scotch whiskey in it at all times. Doc’s schedule was
less flexible than most members, because he might be out in
the farm country helping the cows and mares deliver their young
at any time of the day or night. He finally married a nurse
from the local hospital who was much the same in character,
but less inclined to alcohol. It was a pleasure to caddy for
Doc, because he was a good tipper and there were many laughs
all the way around.
Every once in a while he would dig into the bag and take a
snort out of the bottle. He would kid the other members of
the foursome and was ready to make a bet on any kind of shot
or putt. By the same token, the members knew his weaknesses
and would try to take advantage of him at opportune times.
On occasion he would get an urgent call on the golf course,
one of the caddies might bicycle out on the course to deliver
a message that his assistance was needed out in the country.
The trunk of his car contained the proper instruments and he
was on his way. Doc was truly a dedicated veterinarian.
There was a fine group of women golfers in the club; for the
most part they were the wives of merchants, bankers, and professional
men. There were always a few mid-morning foursomes and it was
a fun time watching them go through their antics as they set
up for a shot. They were easy to caddy for because they were
not long ball hitters and for the most part stayed on the fairways.
They played much slower than men and very seldom did they tip,
a nickel or a dime at most; however, a caddy soon realized
that you can’t expect a tip every time, and there are
a lot of different people in this world!
The “Edwards Gang” was made up of professional
people from the village about twelve miles from the golf club.
They played irregularly, but they were respectable golfers.
Ray Cassidy had been a caddy in early life and had a beautiful
golf swing and on a few occasions was a finalist for the club
championship. Heinz Brodauff was an engineer at the mines and
was addicted to golf in such a manner that to him every shot
must be as precise as he could make it. He practiced and practiced
and employed a caddy only during club matches. With all the
effort he put into the game he felt that he never realized
his full potential. Other members of the gang were “ordinary” golfers
and got a good deal of pleasure from the game. It was a pleasure
to caddy for them.. The Gouverneur Business Group was made
up of bankers, merchants, and professional people and were
fairly steady daily players. There was Nate “two Iron
Nate” who was formerly a farmer who then went into real
estate. He had a good eye, probably from hammering fence posts
or otherwise swinging a hammer. His game was respectable, but
he could never hit his woods. In addition, he enjoyed being
out in the air where he could comfortably chew his tobacco
and spit anywhere.
There was Dick Trerise, an executive of the small
Oswegatchie Power Company that supplied electrical power to
the area. Dick could strike the ball pretty well, but there
was fidgeting before every shot, especially when his hemorrhoids
were acting up. As a little side story on Dick, when electrical
distribution was being made to the rural area there was one
woman who lived alone. Dick introduced himself as Dick Trerise
and suggested that she might like to have electricity installed.
She replied, “I
don’t care if your name is Trerise, Christ, or Jesus
Christ, you ain't going to put any electric in here.
Bill Foster, an executive with the Borden Company was a steady
player, he could hit the ball a mile. It was amusing to watch
his setup for his drive; his facial expression was something
else. Andy Laidlaw, the Savings and Loan Banker had an unorthodox
swing, but he was steady and scored pretty well.
Of all the players, Joe MacAllister, the feed mill owner had
a swing that resembled no other; He could take practice swings
and look like a golfer but when it came time to take his shot
he chopped with the club and rotated his lower body and somehow
he struck the ball. We caddies tried to imitate the swing,
as we awaited assignments, but could not hit the ball squarely.
Adam Schuler was superintendent at the local
lace mill. He wore glasses fully a half inch thick. He didn't
hit the ball very far and was easy to caddy for. Many times
he played with J. O. Sheldon, the old bank president of the
Bank of Gouverneur. J.O. was left-handed and used only five
clubs, the spoon, mid-iron, mashie, niblick and putter, all
with wooden shafts. He couldn't
hit the ball far so it was easy to caddy for him. Besides the
small canvas bag was extremely light in comparison to other
bags.
Charley Ruderman owned Ruderman Machinery Exchange.
He had been in an accident in early life and had a hunched
back, but enjoyed the game. His swing was a lot like Joe McAllister's,
but this was out of necessity. When caddying for Charley he
expected that you would give him a “preferred lie.” (i.
e. indiscreetly move the ball with your foot to improve the
lie). There was always a good tip involved. Roy Randall was
a banker and could play the game either handed, but did best
right-handed. He practiced a lot like Heinz Broddaut but was
much less intense.
Bobby Caten was the son of a W. H.Loomis Talc Company Executive.
He was about the same age as some of the older caddies. During
and after college he developed into a real good golfer and
won the club championship several times. He could reach the
545-yard number five-hole in two shots with regularity. Mark
Graves the son of the local Chevrolet dealer was a slightly
built man. But he could really nail the ball, especially when
Wayne Ritchie caddied for him. Wayne had the reputation for
being able to disguise his actions to the extent that Mark
always had a beautiful lie, allowing him to get a good clean
shot every time.
The caddies at the club were made up of boys whose parents
couldn’t provide much of an allowance, if at all, during
the depression. This afforded an opportunity to see what the
real world was like as well as a small source of income. The
caddy master maintained a list and as a caddy was assigned
he was crossed out and placed at the bottom of the list. If
there was a “no show” the name went to the bottom
of the list. Whenever the golf pro gave lessons, the caddy
shagged balls at a set rate per bag and was paid by the golf
pro. This was the same as having a turn at caddying.
The caddies hung out in back of the equipment shed and most
of the time there was a penny ante poker game going on among
the older caddies. The younger ones just watched and learned
the game. The work force was quite stable with the older guys
leaving for a better paying job and younger guys coming along
with a desire to learn. There were cliques and a few fights
that required arbitration by the golf pro.
There were ways to earn extra golf time such as cleaning golf
clubs in the pro shop prior to storage for the next round,
cleaning the various areas such as the locker rooms and rest
rooms, weeding greens, and sometimes helping the maintenance
men.
The pro shop maintained a good inventory of candy bars, along
with a candy punchboard where the caddies always tried to beat
the board Many times several caddies would pool their resources
(which usually amounted to very little) figuring that they
could win a bunch, but usually the board was the winner.
