Waupaca Potato District01

 

Waupaca Post

September 5, 1907

 

A WIDE-AWAKE TOWN – CENTER OF POTATO DISTRICT

The Times’ Correspondent Visits Waupaca and Writes About Potatoes,

The Veterans Home and Other Things

(Chilton Times)

 

Waupaca Record

September 12, 1907

 

            Waupaca, the county seat of Waupaca County, is noted for potatoes and progressive people.  Other towns have ‘spuds’ and public spirited men, but this gem of Wisconsin towns has these commodities in abundance, shipping the former and keeping at home the latter.  The latter are a bunch that do not belong to the tribe of Gad whose members generally live in the past and ‘kick’ in the present, but they are of the active voice, the masculine gender, potential mood and possessive case in contract to the Gadites, who only have a passive voice, though much in evidence on street corners and public places, living in the objective case.  If the Waupaca citizen is found sitting on settees or standing on street corners it is because he is waiting for the street car, for Waupaca with its 3,000 inhabitants is the only town of its size in the state that owns and operates an electric line of five and four-tenths miles and all with local capital.

            If there are worn down street corners it is where men have congregated to exchange notes, for every fifth man in this city wakes up with a new business idea in his head; every fourth an – and there are 128 members of the businessmen’s advancement association which was reorganized last December – has something to offer for the good of the town; every third man would invest three times the capital in the place if he had it; every second man is altruistic, enough to invest something for the benefit of others, while nearly every man who goes to bed at night and gives his town any thought will set it down as being as good a city as any town between Unity and Rugby.  Yes, and the women belong to the progressive tribe, for besides being good home makers, insisting on fine lawns and a coat of paint for the house, aside from their social activities in church and various other societies, they have two women’s clubs, one being the oldest club in the state.  Now these clubs have furnished such for ethical and intellectual culture but better than that they have done as the good housewife does, who lets the man do the driving while she shows him where to drive.  And this the progressive ladies have done and are continuing to do, and they even have an editor among their ranks, Mrs. Carpenter, who with her strong personality wields a generous and benevolent influence through the columns of the weekly “Record”.  It goes without saying, too, that the editor of The Post, a staunch Republican, prominent member of the advancement association and leader in various other activities, has not been behind his contemporary and with the Republican, another weekly – there is nothing weakly in the town as far as newspaperdom is concerned.

                                                                        Potato Growing

            But we began at the wrong end of the exposition of our text for the potato crop interests Waupaca first of all, because no city can turn its eyes to art, to culture, to education until she has thrived commercially and when you think that last season the city alone marketed 850,000 bushels of potatoes you will understand to a degree why the subject of this sketch should engage our attention.  You may know that the potato belt of Wisconsin embraces the counties of Waushara, Portage and Waupaca and because of its sandy soil is indigenous to the tuber that most of us enjoy.  The state agricultural experiment station has done much to teach the farmers of the habits of the potato and has rented a farm of thirty acres two miles and a half from the city, where they are making experiments just now with a new potato that hails from Germany, is of coarse fibre and yields 400 bushels in an acre, not very palatable but excellent in producing alcohol.

            The regular Irish potato is the faithful standby but the yield has varied, for some years a million bushels have gone out of Waupaca.  The average yield in the U.S. in ten years was 84.4; in Wisconsin in the same period 92 bushels; but in 1904 it went up as high as 126 bushels.  It so then comes to pass that the potato crop is not always the most profitable but the foresight of Waupaca people is only a commentary on what has already been said, for two factories are all ready to work up the potatoes when they fall below 25 cents a bushel.  They always work up the cull and the damaged ones and have taken the starch out of 100,000 bushels a season and shipped most of it east, where it is re-sold and finally lands in some of our shirt and collars, much to our distress. 

            It is an interesting sight to be in Waupaca during the buying season.  The streets are broad, ten miles of them are macadamized, which is a great boon in a sandy country.  There are five miles of cement sidewalks and on these you will find the buyers, salaried men, waiting for the farmers to come in, and there are men who do nothing else but waylay the farmers by laying out the cash for the “spuds”.  The greatest buyers are the A.M. Penney Company and it is no penny affair, for they have their sacks in all the neighboring towns and their bill for potato agents alone last year was $51,000.  Nearly 90 per cent, of the potatoes, goes south and east and twenty car loads went to San Francisco during their time of distress and discomfort.  The season lasts from September to July while the other two months are spent by many worrying as to what the harvest will be, though the outlook is good this year, better than last year, when thousands of bushels rotted.

            Naturally a good deal of money is in circulation because of this industry and the deposits at the two banks last year were $780,000.

                                                                        Waupaca & Green Bay Railroad

            The businessmen, however, do not hoard their surplus, for I have it from reliable authority that all the dividend the Waupaca Electric Light and Railway Company declares is put right back into improvements.  Their cars are up-to-date; it is true they have youthful but courteous conductors, but their line which runs from the depot to the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home and beyond, is well kept up, with a service every half hour and oftener as occasion demands.  More than this – the local businessmen have gone into the steam railroad business and have incorporated the Waupaca Green Bay R.R., with A.G. nelson as president, and are going to operate a ten mile road past a quarry, four miles from the city, to Scandinavia and have over three-fourths of the track graded already.  With a capital of $150,000 they are pushing matters right along and will connect with the Green Bay and Western R.R. and thus have access to the Northwestern line, thus giving them the advantage of two more roads.

            Nor is this all.  They saw that the beauty of the Crystal and Waupaca rivers, though scenic and restful, should pay its way, and having 65 feet of fall in four miles, the engineers dammed up the energy some five hundred horse power force out of the thousand that could be utilized so that they run two planning mills, a flour mill, the city a pumping station and a stone crusher, also a felt factor, a unique institution the second of its kind in America, where they make foundations for ladies’ felt hats and employ 56 people.  Another landmark of thrift is the Waupaca business college recently started through the influence of the advancement association.

                                                                        Her Churches

            You would enjoy the city, for it is much like a New England town, has substantial business house, has a fine city hall made in part of Waupaca granite, large council rooms for the eight aldermen; the county court house stands on a conspicuous square, some of the streets have no sidewalks in the residence section of the town, but delightful gravel walks where you can wheel without fear of the policeman’s club.  They have a high school that is colonial in appearance and they are just advocating a new building.  The churches are represented, Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal and Lutheran, some of them being Danish, as 25 per cent of the people are Danes and Norwegians.  The secret societies, about a dozen in number, are well represented, they have Y.M.C.A. headquarters, a library and only eleven saloons that pay $500 license a year and are all closed on Sunday.  When the people get tired of business every once in a while, the Waupaca band appears on summer nights and inspires the citizens with new life, courage, patience and peace.  The town is conservative in her business methods, yet she demands things and get them and then gets everybody to rejoice over it. 

                                                                        Veterans’ Home

This she did when the Wisconsin Veterans’ Home was talked of, for they knew the worth of the Chain o’ Lakes near by, the aquatic advantage of such a location, the great object lesson it would be on patriotic lines and without waiting for other cities to lay the game she bought up the land and deeded it over to that cause.

            Dr. F.A. Marden, of Milwaukee, was the originator of the plan of making the place a home for soldiers’ wives and widows and the first street you strike at the home is named for him.

            Very few people realize what an elaborate institution this home is and we were all surprised to find so many buildings on the grounds, which with the farm, covers some eighty acres.  The management of the house is in the hands of the board of trustees elected for three years by the G.A.R. at the annual state encampment and the state board of control and the government sends an inspector from time to time.  The state pays three dollars a week for keeping each inmate of the home, while Uncle Sam is real generous too and donates $100 a year for each individual. Commandant J.H. Woodnorth and Adjutant T.L. Jeffers have charge of affairs and there are subordinates who manage the various phases of the institution.  They have a number of dormitories, then there are dining halls, there is a fine post office, a neat chapel, laundry, a baker, a large power house, a gymnasium and then various cottages built by the different Women’s Relief Corps and individuals where families can have the home life. No more ideal spot could be found.  There is a fine park, speaker’s stand, there are pretty driveways and at the lakes there is a cement terrace where the veterans can while away the hours watching the boats glide over the placid water and hear, as well as see, the restless summer tourist who inhabits those regions.  The home has over 600 inmates now and has housed about a thousand different ones since its establishment, proving a great blessing to the boys in blue who fought for Old Glory and its principles.

                                                                        Camp Cleghorn

            Naturally when you visit at the Veterans’ Hoe you want a boat ride and in summer there are a dozen steam and gasoline launches that ply the waters of these Chain o’ Lakes, making regular trips to Grand View hotel and Camp Cleghorn.  The latter is the noted Good Templar camp where they have had chautauquas for ten years.  The grand lodge possesses the grounds and holds its annual session there, followed by a varied program in which men of repute participate.  Camping is very inexpensive, tents can be procured, there is a commodious dining hall, a store, a large tabernacle where the meetings are held, a bell to call you to meeting and which warns you to quit talking at 10:30 at night, with lights out at that hour.  With a 10 cent fare on the electric car that takes you right from the Wisconsin Central depot, with a 10 cent fare on the boat, you have very cheap transportation to Camp Cleghorn, which is some seven miles from the station of the railway.  Mr. H.A. Larson has charge of affairs at the grounds and is a man of executive ability and it took the college boys the other night during the thunderstorm, to tell of the offices the chief templar of I.O.G.T. of this state holds, for he is president of the state Epworth League, is manager of the Badger Lyceum Bureau, president of a benefit association, and therefore a characteristic representative of one of Waupaca’s citizens.

            The Chain o’ Lakes are a remarkable group of fresh water bodies, some sixteen in number, and are practically all connected with rivers or narrow channels and most of them are named with such names as Rainbow, George, Taylor, Hicks, Nessling, Limekiln, Beasley, Columbain, etc.  With hardwood trees, beautiful fields, with rocky bluffs, with sand beaches, with limpid streams, with the catbirds chirping, with bobolink and robins singing, one is loathe to tear himself away, but at a distance the local poet’s words come to you with delight when he says:

                        A beauty spot of nature’s own,

                        One such is seldom seen

                        With its sky blue lakes like jewels

                        Set mid the hills of green.

                                                S.G. Ruegg.