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The Langlade County Historical Society is governed by a board

of nine officers. Each year the terms of three officers expire and elections are held at the annual meeting for those positions. This year the terms of Fran Brown, Carol Gottard, and Chris Haedtke (currently the treasur-er) will be expiring. All three have expressed a willingness to continue and the board recommends that they be reelected for an additional three year term.at the annual meeting. At the meeting there will be an oppor-tunity to make nominations from the floor.

Antigo Visual Arts (AVA) is dedi-cated to promoting the work of

local artists through the managing of a gallery in the museum, workshops,

and field trips. Membership is open to all who are interested in the visual arts. Recently AVA held an auction of works by Frank Vavruska, an Antigo native who worked primarily in Chicago and Mexico in the decades after World War II. In-cluded in the auction were also a number of works by other local artists and AVA members. Fran Brown, AVA and museum board member, who organized the auction, presented curator Mary Kay Wolf with a check for about $7,280, which was half the auc-tion proceeds. The money is for

the museum’s “Let’s Make History” building remodeling campaign. The remaining funds will be used for AVA programs.

Langlade County Historical Society

Fall 2019

Curator:Mary Kay Morrissey Wolf

Directors: Dean Blazek Fran Brown Nancy Bugni Glenn Bugni

Carol Feller GottardChris Haedtke

Lisa Haefs Joe Hermolin Diane Zuelke

Elections of Board Officers

Let’s Make History Fundraising

Annual MeetingThe Langlade County Historical Society will hold its annual meeting this year on Thursday November 14 at 5:30 pm in the CoVantage Credit Union meeting room. We will be trying a different format this year. The meeting will be held in Antigo.Instead of a formal meal, we will serve some light refreshments, in-cluding our traditional 440 cookies.

The meeting will be open to all and, for society members there will be no fee, while nonmembers will be charged a nominal fee of $5.00. The business portion of the meeting will consist of election of three officers, a brief update on remodeling plans,

and a description of a new museum program for fourth grade students in the Antigo schools. This will be followed by a presentation on the history of the railroad in Antigo and its importance in the development of the local economy. The presentation will be given by Joe Hermolin and make extensive use of photographs from the museum’s archives.

We ask that you submit the form included in this newsletter so that we may be able to estimate how many people we should plan for.

Fran Brown, (left), AVA auction organizer presents a check to museum curator Mary Kay Wolf (right) from half the auction proceeds for the museum remodeling “Let’s Make History” campaign. The other half of the auction proceeds will go toward AVA programs.

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The Langlade County Histori-cal Society is affiliated with

the Wisconsin Historical Society through the Wisconsin Council for Local History, (WCLH) an affilia-tion of over 400 local historical societies throughout the state. One of the advantages of being part of the WCLH is to being able to participate in annual meetings in any of the 10 regions that the WCLH has subdivid-ed the state. This year’s Northwoods Regional meeting, of which we are a part, took place in mid-September in Florence. Attendees had an opportunity to connect with mem-bers of other societies, compare suc-cess stories, discuss needs and what can be done to improve programs, and hear from experts on how to manage various aspects of historic preservation and presentation.

This year the main topic of discus-sion was digital preservation and the roadblocks small museums face in undertaking such a project. The goal of digital preservation is the accurate rendering of authenticated content over time. Benefits include the fact that material is accessible by people who can work remotely and not require a trip to the museum every time they want to view a document or photographs for a class, research paper, or genealogy project. Digitiza-tion also minimizes the frequency

that originals are handled and so helps preserve originals.

Done properly it requires organiza-tion, resources, and technology. At the meeting in Florence museums were asked to describe hurdles they face such as time, hardware and soft-ware limitations, computer technol-ogy support and expertise, resources (human and financial).

The WCLH is working with Recol-lectionWisconsin to assist museums in organizing digitization projects. They have received a grant for this project. As a first step, through meet-ings such as the regional meeting in Florence, they hope to gain an understanding of the needs of local museums and then devise programs to help.

Our museum has worked with Recol-lectionWisconsin for many years to digitize, catalog, and make avail-able photographs and documents related to our history. The work has involved the participation of several volunteers who did small parts of the project but together added up to a substantial body of work. We hope to continue with this and to encourage members of the community to share material with the museum and help us expand our online content.

Thank you

Items Donated:

Brad Anderson: Logging pictures, journal book

Dennis Navy uniform Donahue:Kay Doran: Irons, 1940s football

programs, loggers boots, advertising items

Bev Findlay: Railroad spikes John Hefty: Books, 1932 mapBrenda Meyer: School composition booksCarol Pecore: Rocking chairs, clockMichael Piller: WWII memorabilia from

Richard Kakes

Memorial Donations: In memory of: Roland Bessey from

Georgia Battermann

Membership Renewal:Karen Stimac

New Membership:Georgia Battermann

Regional Meeting Update LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019

Volunteer Bailey Helms helped the museum’s digitization efforts by scan-ning our collection of William Wessa’s photographs of the 107th Trench Mortar Battery Company of World War I. The material is available online through RecollectionWisconsin.

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A Plan for Organized School Tours LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019

The end of the school year gener-ally brings a flurry of activity at

the museum with tours from Antigo and area classrooms. These tours may have been entertaining but they were often disorganized and not as useful as they might have been. A teacher would schedule a field trip to the museum with a group of as many as 40 students, mostly fourth and fifth graders. Students were divided into smaller groups and looked at displays under the guidance of teach-ers, teachers’ assistants, and museum volunteers. But we, at the museum, felt that this was an unsatisfactory situation, too chaotic to have edu-cational value. All we needed was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteer with a plan.

Enter Pat Kennedy: a person who, although only recently moved here, has extensive ties to the community and has been an elementary school teacher on the west coast. While there she developed a program for

a local museum in collaboration with fourth grade teachers. The goal was to make a museum tour more meaningful. Fourth grade is when students learn about their lo-cal history. By preparing packages of information about local history such as Native American history, the importance of logging, the railroad, and pioneer life as exemplified by the Deleglise family. Pat Kennedy, together with museum curator Mary Kay Wolf, has worked to make tours of the museum more meaningful and exciting for the fourth graders. Each unit consists of an introductory package to prepare the class, the tour itself, and a hands-on artifact follow-up. The work involves close collaboration with teachers.

With changes in the structure of the schools more fourth graders are now closer to the museum and should be able to

participate. This is an ambitious plan but the museum is too rich a com-munity resource not to collaborate with schools. We have reached out to the Antigo School District. All Saints, and Peace Lutheran with some ideas and the response has been positive. We have an enthusias-tic, experienced, and capable person in charge of the program. Thank you Pat Kennedy.

Curator Mary Kay Wolf (left) and volunteer Pat Kennedy (right) stand before a panel of photos tracing the logging history of the county.

Thank You to those donating to our Let’s Make History Remodeling Campaign (Donations up to Sept. 23) Foundations: Braun Woodlands Foundation in memory of Frederic and Virginia Braun, Listle Family Private Foundation, Elwyn Remington Foundation, Gerald and Dorothy Volm Foundation

Businesses:City Gas, Sheldons’ Inc., Johnson Electric Coil Company, Children from LeRoyer Child Care Center, Lakeside Market, Ouradas’ Dixie Lunch , Rusty Bucket—Jayme Hyer, Volm Companies Inc.

Organizations:Antigo Junior Woman’s Club in honor of Joe Hermolin, Antigo Lions Club, Antigo Visual Arts

Individuals: Dean and Polly Blazek, Don and JoAnn Belanger, Thomas Bradley, Tim and Terrie Brandt , Mary Brennecke, Betty and Kenneth Czubkowski, Jeanne Darling, Joe and Mary Jo Filbrandt, Joe Hermolin and Renate Bromberg, Judy Grimm, Jean Hubatch in honor of her mother’s [Elvera Frisch] birthday, Phyllis Hughes, Dick and Bette Lund, Michael Kafka, Ed and Geneva Kennedy, Dan and Dianne Kretz, Frank Krom, Family of Adrian and Barbara Leiterman , John and Elsa McKenna, Don and Mary Mollet, Family of Edward and Helen Morrissey, Earl Mortenson, Ron and Myra Nye, Bobbie Rosier, Donna Ruf, Nick and Jeanette Salm, Lynn Schimmels, Gerald and Joan Schunke, Joyce Sharon in memory of Bud and Robert Sharon, Owners of Sharon Motors, Families of Frank and Lena Simon, Stumble Stump Rendezvous and Antigo/Langlade Chamber of Commerce, Karen Trembath, Dr. Charles and Jan Wetzel, Beverly and Paul Wurtinger

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Dairy farming has long played arole in the local economy. In its

beginnings most of the commercial milk production was directed towards butter but by 1915 cheese production began to predominate. Numbers of family cheese factories varied from 16 to 33. Total production in the years around 1915 rose from 500,000 to 3,000,000 pounds annually.

In 1922 Kraft Cheese, based in the Chicago area, looked to expand and chose Antigo as the site for a plant. They bought the building that housed the Antigo Brewery, closed due to prohibition, and began cheese production. At the time there were 31 small cheese factories in the county. (The original Kraft plant is still producing cheese under the name Sartori.) Kraft began purchasing milk at prices slighter higher than what small local factories were offering. Within 2 years it is estimated that about half the milk produced in the county went to Kraft.

Langlade County also saw a case of agricultural economics in the 1930s that was unusual in its day. A group of local farmers had visited the Barron Creamery Cooperative and found it to be small but successful. It became a model for a coop in Langlade County. County agent John T. Omernik was instrumental inplanning and organizing meetingsof potential participants. In 1930 theAntigo Milk Products Cooperativewas formed. About 400 farmersagreed to contracts with the Coop.Since about 75% of the milkproduced in the county came fromwithin 10 mile of Antigo and Antigohad excellent rail connections, itmade sense to house the Coop inAntigo. A plant was organizedso that milk could be diverted towhatever products might benefitthe farmers most. But there wereunanticipated problems. Setbackscontinued into 1932 with droughtand lower production. By 1934 theCoop was beginning to show profitsand dividends were paid to stock

holders. About 200 new patrons joined those already under contract.

In 1935 a milk shortage in Chicago opened an opportunity for the Coop to ship milk to Chicago. Once the shortage eased the Coop was told to meet Chicago Board of Health standards to continue sales. It was a profitable venue and so the local farmers agreed to regulations involving brushing and clipping cattle, thorough cleaning and whitewashing of barns, lining barn floors, and improved washing and sterilizing of equipment for collecting and storing milk.

In 1970 the American Milk Producers Incorporation (AMPI), based in Kansas, organized many mid-west coops and the Antigo Milk Products Coop merged with it. In 1985 the building of the plant was donated to the Antigo Unified School District where it still serves as administrative headquarters.

LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019 LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019

Langlade County’s Dairy Industry

Phlox: A typical family run, local cheese factory prior to the Coop is this one in Phlox.

Antigo Coop: Part of the Coop building is now the Antigo School administrative building.

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LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019 LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019

The railroad played a long and varied role in Antigo’s history.

Top Row: The first railroad to enter Antigo was the Milwaukee Lakeshore and Western, arriving at the original depot in 1881. Middle Row: When the Chicago and Northwestern took over the railroad in 1893 they built a new depot (still standing) and moved the original depot up the tracks where it became a workshop.Bottom Row: Many logging companies established short, temporary spur lines to logging camps to haul out logs. The Crocker Lumber Company had its own engines bringing logs from the Crocker Hills into its mill in Antigo.

The Railroad in Antigo’s History

Item from the museum: Pete Rasmussen was for many years the C & NW stationmaster in Summit Lake. His portrait, in magazine ads and displays such as this were part of a national campaign to promote rail travel during World War II.

ADDRESS:404 Superior St., Antigo, WI 54409 Phone: (715) 627-4464Email: lchs@dwave.net web site: www.langladehistory.com

MUSEUM HOURS: October 1 to May 1,Thursday to Saturday

May 1 to October 1,Tuesday to Saturday

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

MEMBERSHIP DUESIndividual, 1 year: $25Individual, 3 years: $50Family, 1 year: $30Family, 3 years: $70Junior (18 or younger), 1 year: $3 Business, 1 year: $100Life Member: $250

LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY FALL 2019Langlade CountyHistorical Society404 Superior StreetAntigo WI, 54409

Annual Meeting: Thurs. November 14 at 5:00 p.m. CoVantage Credit Union in Antigo.(Details inside)

Upcoming Events:

Registration for the Fall Meeting Includes chilli, sandwiches, 440 cookies

Program: Updates on Museum Remodeling , School Tours Program

& The Role of the Railroad in Antigo’s History

Date: Thursday, November 14, 2019

Time: 5:30 p.m. conversation, 6 p.m. chili & sandwiches, 6:30 p.m. business

meeting and program

Place: CoVantage Credit Union meeting room (basement) at the southeast corner

of Clermont St. and Sixth Ave. Cost: $5 per person for nonmembers, no cost for members.

Cash Bar: Wine & Beer

Number Attending _____ Names __________________________________________

Amount enclosed @ $5 per person nonmembers only __________

Mail reservations and checks payable to: Langlade County Historical Society

404 Superior Street

Antigo WI 54409

Please mail reservations by: Thursday Nov. 7

Annual Meeting The meeting is open to non members as well as members.

There is no fee for members. Admittance fee for nonmembers is $5.00

Aerial view of the

north end of the

rail yards showing

the roundhouse

(1950s)

Please park in the CoVantage parking lot at the east end, near the locomotive,