USA > Wisconsin > Sauk County > A standard history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, Volume I > Part 8
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223,448
Rye (bu.)
10,401
260,025
347,434
Potatoes (bu.)
7,028
407,624
558,445
Hay (tons)
59,990
95,984
1,361,053
The number and value of the live stock on the farmns of Sauk County, January 1, 1917:
Varieties
Number
Value
Horses
18,591
$1,951,497
Milch cows
40,956
2,744,052
Other cattle
40,503
1,504,281
Sheep
11,222
36,110
Swine
77,968
849,951
THE GINSENG INDUSTRY
There are a number of special products which have given Sauk County considerable fame, and their cultivation covers nearly the entire period of its agricultural history. The first of these to come into notice as a source of profit to home farmers was the ginseng root, which the pioneers found growing wild in the western part of the county. It has long been greatly esteemed and honored by the Chinese from the fact that one of their emperors was cured of the colie or other intestinal trouble, through its virtues; and, although quite common in Central Wisconsin and other sections of the near Northwest, the Orient knows it not as a natural product. Fortunately, the Chinese early determined that the root was at its best when found in a state of nature. In some localities in the western townships of Sauk County ginseng was very plentiful, and for several years the people of that section devoted much of their time to digging the root and shipping it to market, receiving as high as $1 a pound. Quantities of the raw product were shipped to California, Australia, the Hawaiian Islands and the Orient. Before being used by the Chinese for most anything which ailed them, it under-
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
went a native process which so increased its curative properties that thirty years ago it could be sold to those who had the most faith in it- and a long purse-at thirty dollars an ounce. It is said that a widow in the Town of Washington, when the ginseng fever was at its height, earned enough money from the sale of her pickings in the woods to lift a con- siderable mortgage on her farm which the previous hard times had compelled her to place. Most of the wild lands which formerly grew the ginseng root have been plowed over, although it is still found in many localities on the hills in the southwestern part of the county. Of late years its cultivation has also been successfully undertaken. In this connection is the following from the Baraboo News of October 14, 1915: "The largest ginseng garden in Sauk county is located near the foot of the big hill between Black Hawk and Spring Green, not far from Wilson Creek. The garden is owned by J. W. and M. J. Schwartz, two brothers who began the growing of the plants in a sinall way a number of years ago. Now they have two acres under artificial shade and one acre on a hillside in the woods. It requires three or four years or longer to obtain a crop. Before the war came on the dry roots were worth about $6.00 a pound; now the price has dropped to about $4.25. Early in the season they sold roots valued at about $2,500 and the digging this fall will bring a lot more.
"Schwartz brothers sent this office a few days ago a root just dug from the ground which weighed an even pound. It is a very large specimen and shows the growers know how to care for the plants. The older the plants the better they are and the more they bring. Cultivated plants are not worth so much as those which grow in the woods.
"When the firm began growing ginseng they purchased plants at fifty cents each. They are now worth much less and seed is worth about $5.00 a pound, there being about 7,000 seeds in a pound. The plant bears bright red berries in a cluster. When gathered the berries are buried in fine sand and after a year are obtained by sifting. The seed do not germinate the first year so there is no danger in keeping them buried in a box of damp sand for several months until the pulp has entirely decayed. Some growers mash the pulp and wash it away, leav- ing the seed. There are about 125 seeds on a stalk. Among the first plants obtained by the brothers were several growing in the wild state at Blue mounds.
"On account of the low price of ginseng the firm has begun the grow- ing of golden seal and other drug plants which have merited medicinal value. Ginseng is of no value but the Chinese think it is. They pur- chase practically all that is grown in the country.
"The worst difficulty encountered in growing the plant in the woods were the mice. The little animals are very fond of the roots and made sad havoc with the Spring Green garden in the woods one winter. A few traps exterminated the most of them."
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY HOP CRAZE IN SAUK COUNTY
Hops did not prove to be a permanent crop, although while the stimulus of high prices lasted they were feverishly cultivated in every part of the county. The cultivation of wheat was on the decline toward the close of the Civil war and the eastern hop fields were devastated by their louse enemies. Prices went soaring, and the few hop growers in Wisconsin who had been cultivating fields for several previous years put all their acreage into the vine. Hundreds new to the industry tumbled along after them, in a headlong rush to supply the demands of the lager beer industry, which, with the heavy war taxes on whiskey and the growth of the typical German taste, further assisted to create an insistent and an enormous demand almost at the doors of the hop growers. The Wisconsin breweries took all they could raise and, like Oliver Twist, "cried for more." The product which, in the New York market in 1861 sold at from 15 to 25 cents per pound, four years later brought from 50 to 65 cents. In 1865 numbers of growers in Sauk County were said to have realized from $800 to $1,200 per aere, and one farmer was reported to have sold the product of fifteen-sixteenths of an acre for $1,600. Two years later hops were bringing from 55 to 70 cents per pound in the open market. On the authority of such reliable state papers as the "Wisconsin State Journal" and the "Milwaukee Sen- tinel," one farmer raised 3,100 pounds on a single acre which he sold at over 58 cents per pound, and all the hop growers of Sauk County received $2,000,000 for their crop, of which $1,500,000 was clear profit. During that year 2,548 acres of land in the county were devoted to hops, and the yield was approximately 4,000,000 pounds, or one-fifth of all the hops raised in the United States, and the next year upon a more than double acreage, its product was even greater. Kil- bourn, in Columbia County, was the chief shipping center of the Wis- consin hop district, and, according to the Wisconsin Mirror of that city, ranked as the greatest primary hop depot in the United States, perhaps in the world.
The newspapers and books issued in those times are alive with lively pictures of the hop fields, the hop-picking girls and boys, the got-rich- quick hop farmers driving around with their wives and daughters in fancy phaetons, the occupants decked like lilies or peonies, as the case might be; the farmer boys blossoming into city sports; the residences of the hop-growers bursting with pianos and other new furnishings; unre- strained expansion and often unlimited eredit, based on the permanent prosperity of this wild tumult of production, expansion and discount of the future.
The outcome of this unnatural condition was inevitable and is well told by Frederick Merk in his "Economic History of Wisconsin During
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
the Civil War Decade," to which the author is indebted for much of the matter relating to the hop craze which precedes this extract:
"The change came sooner and more disastrously than even the worst fears anticipated. In 1868, owing to an unfavorable growing scason and the inroads of the recently arrived louse, the average yield of Wis- consin yards sank from 1,400 to 800 or 900 pounds per acre, while the quality of much of the erop was inferior. Yet even this was but the beginning of the misfortune. No sooner did the new hops begin to move than it became evident that the bottom had dropped out of the market. The eastern growers, having snecessfully banished the louse, had again produced a normal crop. The necessity for the Wisconsin product had disappeared at just the time when the output had increased, in spite
OLD HOP HOUSE
of the small yield per acre, to almost 11,000,000 pounds. The blackest predictions were fulfilled; the New York market was hopelessly glutted.
"Prices swiftly declined. The growers who first sent their erop to market were fortunate to receive from 25 to 35 cents per pound for it, though they bitterly protested at the time that they were being robbed. As the season advanced, priees sank lower and lower, until at length hops became practically unsalable. It is probable that the average price realized by the growers did not exceed 10 cents per pound, or a trifle over half the cost of production. A large part of the crop was held over until the next year in the hope that the situation might improve, but ultimately it had to be sold at from 3 to 5 cents per pound.
"Some growers courageously attempted, in 1870, to retrieve their lost fortunes, and a fair yield was secured, but prices continued to range between 10 and 20 cents, and the net result of the effort was only to
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
increase the general distress. Hundreds of farmers were ruined, other hundreds lost the savings of a lifetime. Depression succeeded feverish enthusiasm. The hop bubble had burst !
"The depression in the hop market continued unrelieved until 1871, when owing to the failure of the eastern crop, prices again became normal. A large proportion of Wisconsin growers had in the mean- time plowed up their yards. After 1871 the industry became com- paratively steady."
Harvey Canfield, Benjamin Colton and Jesse Cottington are believed to be the pioneer hop farmers in Sauk County, and when they com- meneed to market their produce, after hauling it to Beaver Dam, they thought themselves fortunate if they obtained 7 cents per pound. When the boom came they made money and lost some with the slump of prices. A typical hop house was that built by Mr. Canfield just west of Baraboo.
Notwithstanding the collapse of 1868, permanent, good resulted to the farmers as a result of the large amounts of money invested in large and well arranged hop houses, which were afterward used as barns; the vast improvement in the farmers' homes and the purchese of a superior grade of live stock. And as many of the farmers continued to raise hops and realized steady, although not exorbitant profits, for years after the epidemic had subsided, the advantages were, on the whole, a permanent gain.
RISE OF THE SUGAR BEET
The cultivation of the sugar beet, which also made Wisconsin famous as an experimental state in matters agricultural, is also traced to the influence and initiative of the German element. Central Europe had long cultivated them and refined sugar from them, but it was not until the collapse of the hop bubble in 1868 that any real experiments were made in Wisconsin or the United States. Says Merk :
"In the spring of that year (1868), two enterprising German im- migrants, one of whom had been employed in the Fatherland for many years as foreman in a beet-sugar refinery, rented a traet of land near the city of Fond du Lac and planted it to sugar beets. Such time as they could spare during the summer was devoted to the erection of a primitive, though complete sugar refinery. By 1869 they were manu- facturing sugar at the rate of 1,000 pounds per day, a feat which enabled the 'Milwaukee Sentinel' to boast early in 1870 that Wisconsin was producing more beet-sugar than all the other states of the Union combined. It was one of the earliest attempts at beet-sugar manu- facture in the United States and, as such, received wide notice through- out the Northwest. Other companies were induced to follow the example thus set, and between the years 1869 and 1871 approximately a dozen
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
beet-sugar companies were organized in the southern and castern counties of the State. The most successful of these, the First Sauk County Farmers' Association for the Fabrication of Beet Sugar, an interesting company of some fifty German farmers which had secured the services of a German expert, manufactured in 1871 as much as 134,400 pounds of beet sugar and 72,350 pounds of molasses.
"In spite of every effort, however, it was impossible to compete successfully with the cheaper and better southern product, and after one or two years of discouragement all these pioneer companies dis- appeared. Yet they served a useful purpose, for they demonstrated that the soil and climate of Wisconsin was well adapted to the growth of the root. A quarter of a century later Wisconsin made a second attempt, this time to persevere, until today she ranks well up among the great beet-sugar states of the Union."
Black Hawk was the center of the industry, and Sauk County has not maintained its supremacy in the industry. It has, in fact, almost disappeared from the list of the county's industries, and the returns made to the state commissioner of agriculture in 1916 showed that only 59 acres in the entire county were devoted to the cultivation of the sugar beet; that but 472 tons of sugar were produced, and the total. value of the output was $2,832.
THE SAUK COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
Sauk County has had an agricultural society for more than sixty years and there has never been a time during that period when its mem- bership has not been representative of the most substantial farming element within its borders. Nearly twenty years afterward those who had made a specialty of importing and raising improved live stock for breeding, meat and dairy purposes, also formed an organization known as the Stock Breeders' Association. As a rule, those who have been most prominent in the founding and progress of these societies have been the leaders in the practical work of improving the yield and quality of the standard crops and raising the breeds of neat and dairy cattle, horses and swine. Upon such very practical matters rests what is best in the development of Sauk County; for they spell comfort and prosperity and the means and sturdy spirit which support the schools, churches and higher things of life.
The Sauk County Agricultural Society was organized on Washing- ton's birthday of 1855, at Taylor's Hall, in the Village of Baraboo. The attendance was large. Alexander Crawford was called to the chair and James S. Moseley was appointed secretary. The objects of the society, as declared in the first article of its constitution, were the "promotion and improvement of the condition of agriculture, horticul- ture, mechanical, manufacturing and household arts." The election of
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
officers for the ensuing year resulted as follows: James M. Clarke, president; Daniel Pound, vice president; James S. Moseley, secretary ; R. H. Davis, treasurer. The original membership consisted of James M. Clarke, William J. Huntington, R. R. Remington, Benjamin L. Brier, Isaac W. Morley, Charles L. Clarke, B. B. Brier, William Stees, Francis K. Jenkins, John B. Walbridge, B. F. Mills, Rufus N. Flint, Alexander Crawford, John B. Crawford, S. V. R. Ableman, Charles H. Williams, Moses M. . Chaplin, Ebenezer Martin, Stephen M. Burdick, Samuel Northrop, Oliver W. Thomas, James S. Moseley, Daniel Pound and John Acker. A premium list was arranged and, although October 16, 1855, was the date set for holding the first fair, there is no record of the event either in the columns of the "Democrat" or "Republic," or in the ar- chives of the society itself. In September Mr. Clarke resigned as presi- dent and R. G. Camp was appointed to fill the vacancy.
At the following meeting, March 15, 1856, Mr. Camp was elected president; I. W. Morley, vice president; R. H. Davis, treasurer, and M. C. Waite, secretary. An executive committee was also chosen com- posed of one representative from each of the seventeen townships of the county. A premium list amounting to $249.50 for the next fair, to be held in Baraboo, October 1-2, 1856, was passed. The names of eighty-six members appear on the roll.
There is some discussion about the location of the first exhibit but it is generally believed that it was in the old court house, which stood at or near 120 Fourth Avenue. A letter from I. W. Morley, of Ableman, says that he attended the first fair and that it was in the old court house. The first court house built in the park had not been completed by that time. Dr. B. F. Mills, George B. Gibbons, Charles Hirschinger and others who resided at Baraboo at that time, are of the opinion that the first fair was in the old eourt house north of the park. Afterwards exhibits were made in Taylor's building at the corner of Third and Broadway where P. II. Keyser was located so many years. The fair was also held in the court house park about that time.
When the fair was held in one of the buildings in the heart of the village the cattle were tied in the street. There were not many fast horses in those days, as the prevailing animal for driving was the ox.
The fair was afterwards held on the Crawford place just north of the western extremity of Eighth Avenue, about where the Jerry Dodd place is located. Some years ago the present place on Eighth Street in the eastern part of the city was chosen and purchased.
Dr. Mills says that when he went to the first fair he found so few exhibits in grain and seeds that he returned to his store, procured several varieties and carried off the premiums.
In the fall of 1856 the society was reorganized with R. H. Davis as president ; J. B. Crawford, vice president; I. W. Morley, treasurer; E. Martin, secretary. Among the seventeen directors appear many
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
new names. This fact, with the record of October 1st that "the funds of the old society were passed over to the present organization," indi- cates a general "shake-up" of the old body.
Before the reassembling of the society in September, 1857, President Wilson resigned and John W. Powell was appointed to succeed him, but at the annual meeting on the 24th of that month John B. Crawford was elected president; R. R. Remington, vice president; John W. Powell, treasurer, and James M. Clarke, secretary. At the close of the 1858 fair, held at Reedsburg, on October 14th, the annual election resulted as follows: President, J. B. Walbridge; vice president, A. W. Starks; treasurer, William H. Thompson ; secretary, H. H. Peek.
At the meeting of August 12, 1859, A. M. Starks was elected president, and A. B. Bradley, vice president, and it was decided that the next fair and cattle show should be held at Baraboo on the 21st and 22d of September. Henry Getchell and R. Jones, who had been appointed to consider permanent grounds, reported in favor of accepting the site offered by John B. Crawford. The society instructed them to make a written agreement for the lease of the same and to mature plans for a suitable building. The grounds were fenced and a small building erected in the following spring and summer and the fair was held there (in Baraboo) September 19-21, 1860. Premiums were awarded to the extent of $277.50; receipts, $398; 801 entries, divided among 150 exhibitors. At the elose of the fair A. W. Starks was elected president; F. K. Jenkins, vice president, John B. Crawford, treasurer, and M. C. Waite, secretary. The board of directors was increased to twenty members to correspond to the number of townships, and the membership of the society had reached 140.
At the annual fair held at Baraboo, September 16-18, 1861, the highest premium was awarded to F. G. Stanley for the best-conducted farm. Harvey Canfield was elected president; R. R. Remington, trea- surer, and H. H. Potter, secretary. In January, 1862, Peter Cooper was chosen president in place of Mr. Canfield, deceased. Mr. Stanley was elected vice president. In 1863 the old board of officers was re- elected; the war so disorganized the affairs of the society in 1864 that no record of its proceedings exists; and in January, 1865, Charles H. Williams was chosen president; F. Walbridge, vice president; R. R. Remington, treasurer; J. J. Gattiger, secretary. Two attempts were made to hold business meetings in June, but failed for lack of a quorum. With the close of the war, normal conditions soon prevailed, and the society resumed its regular meetings, but, for several years, its affairs languished, although the first fair after the war-that of October 10-11, 1866-was a great success. The results of the 1867 fair are unrecorded, and no fairs were held in 1868 and 1869. The lease on the Crawford grounds had expired in the latter year, the building had been taken down, and no place for the society's home seemed available except
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
Emery's race grounds. These could be only leased; therefore, the officers of the society thought it to the advantage of all concerned to obtain a permanent site. Consequently, forty acres of land were pur- chased from Adam Nixon, during the spring of 1870, for $1,540. Of these grounds, located just east of Baraboo, twenty aeres were afterward sold for $600. At the close of the fair held October 6-7, 1870, the society was in debt nearly $800.
The fair of 1871 was held in the society's new building on September 20-23, 1871. In the different departments were ninety exhibitors and 326 entries. Since that year the fair and administrative headquarters of the society have been in Baraboo.
In 1871, after the fair had been held, the society was $1,155 in debt, owing to the erection of the buildings and inclosing fence. For several years the fairs were excellent, but they carried a debt. In the early '80s the debt of $1,200 was cleared by subscriptions made by the business men of Baraboo and the leading farmers of the vicinity. Since that time large additions have been made to the exhibition building on the grounds, neat and substantial stables erected for the various kinds of stock exhibited, and the entire property inclosed by a sub- stantial fence. There are few fair grounds in the state more attractive, commodious and convenient than those which represent the Sauk County Agricultural Society.
Since the Civil war the presidents and secretaries of the society have been as follows:
Presidents : Charles H. Williams, 1866-67; H. H. Potter, 1867-74 ; John M. True, 1874-75; H. H. Potter, 1875-77; Charles H. Williams, 1877-78; John M. True, 1878-86; A. D. MeGilvra, 1886-90; John M. True, 1890-99; Henry Marriott, 1899-1902; Charles Wild, 1902-09; George C. Astle, 1909-18.
Secretaries : J. J. Gattiger, 1866-72; John M. True, 1872-74; Philip Cheek, Jr., 1874-75; John M. True, 1875-77; G. A. Pabodie, 1877-80; Franeis N. Peck, 1880-83; A. D. McGilvra, 1883-86; R. B. Griggs, 1886-88; G. C. Grism, 1888-90; A. D. McGilvra, 1890-91; John S. Hall. 1891-99; George A. Pabodie, 1899-1900; S. A. Pelton, 1900-17; W. E. Baringer, 1917-18.
Since 1899 the Sank County Agricultural Society has been a stock company. At a special meeting held at the court house, August 6, 1898, the proposition was made to that effect, and John M. True, H. Marriott, J. S. Hall, N. H. Smith and G. A. Pabodie were appointed a committee to investigate the advisability of the matter. On the 25th of February, 1899, they reported at the same place in favor of the proposition, and presented the articles of association which were adopted by the society as a whole. The property of the society, amounting to $8.000, was divided into 800 shares, and all its life members, as well as widows of deceased members residing in Sauk County at the time, were
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HISTORY OF SAUK COUNTY
constituted stockholders therein. Two shares were issued to each life member and one share to each widow, the balance of the stock being offered to the public for sale at its face value. Each share of stock carried a vote, but no stockholder could cast more than two votes.
The society has about 340 stockholders, of whom thirty are widows.
BREEDERS OF FINE CATTLE
The rearing of blood cattle for the prime purpose of improving the breed of milch cows, and thus developing the dairy industries of the county, is said to have had its origin in this section of the state in the efforts and enterprises of Maj. Charles H. Williams, for a number
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A DAIRY HERD
of years after the war president of the County Agricultural Society, and during that period one of the ablest and bravest of the officers who represented Sauk County. In early manhood he was a civil engineer, and afterward pursued mercantile lines in Cincinnati and Toledo. He located in Milwaukee in 1846 and during the seven years of his residence in that city served as receiver of the United States Land Office and was prominent in municipal affairs also. In 1853 he settled on a farm in the town of Freedom, now Excelsior, this county, where he resided for many years. After reaching the grade of major in command of a regi- ment, Colonel Williams was obliged to resign from the Union service on .account of ill health, and returned to his farm to continue his work begun about ten years previously in the building up of his imported herd of shorthorns and the general encouragement of the movement among the farmers of Sauk County. For many years the Major led
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