Millions of Murphies

 

Waupaca Republican

March 13, 1885

 

Millions of “Murphies”

The Potato is King in this Section of Wisconsin

A Good Exhibit

 

While Waupaca soil will raise most everything as good as any other place in the country, the great staple that commands the most attention and furnishes the most railroad business at this point is the potato.

We noticed a Michigan paper a few days ago, an advertisement saying:  “As soon as the weather moderates we want to handle all the potatoes that may be for sale, etc.”  And March 5, that same paper said: “Messrs. --- shipped one car load of 640 bushels of potatoes last week.”  It would do the writer of this local good to see that advertiser, (who is known to us) and tell him how they do it in Waupaca.  We could tell him that over two hundred thousand bushels of potatoes are put in the warehouses and cellars in Waupaca every fall and there is not a day hardly passes from October to May, but many cars loaded with the beauties are shipped from this city and other points on the line of the Wisconsin Central, and the Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul railroads in this county.  Of course we would have to tell our friend that the cars are lined with boards and building paper, and provided with sheet iron stoves made on purpose.  And the quantity above noted isn’t all the potatoes bought at this market, because there isn’t a week passes during the winter, but from 5,000 to 15,000 bushels are marketed by farmers at Waupaca.  They are always put in sacks when handled in the winter.  A farmer told us the other day that potatoes put in sacks and kept on the move there was no danger of freezing while drawing to be stored in the warehouse and cars.  Even with the mercury down 20 below, cars are loaded and started on their destination southward, one man generally going with two or three cars to “fire them up” properly, and attend to the delivery in Chicago or elsewhere.

            The varieties that command the best prices seem to be the best Early Rose, Burbank’s and Early Ohio’s.  It is unnecessary to tell our readers how they raise them, but it is safe to say lots of them are raised and it enables the farmers in this section to raise some money.  Over $100,000 in cash is put in circulation in this section of the “sandy deserts” of Wisconsin, as a result of the potato business annually and it is fast increasing.

There are five general buyers here and the estimated amount of potatoes handled since Oct. last, shipped and contracted for to date, is as follows:

            Jeffers & Penney                      bushels 125,000

            K.T. Chandler                          “                       75,000

            Hale & Hay                              “                       50,000

            Pinkerton & Co.                       “                       30,000

            Oyen & Fagerholt                     “                       30,000

            Louis Stern                               “                          5,000

            Richard Lea                              “                          5,000

            Ed Bailey                                  “                          5,000

            Geo. White                               “                          3,000

            A.D. Smith                               “                          2,000                       

            Total number of bushels                                    330,000

            Added to the above, 30,000 bushels are used here for food and seed.  The above figures go to show the reason why the name of “Waupaca County Potatoes” is synonymous with a boom.  Allowing 500 bushels to car it will have required 325 cars to transport them from this station alone.  And even up to the Sheridan station we presume that Hans Olfson’s figures would be a surprise to many, while Amherst and Scandinavia, and perhaps other towns near by, would help swell the grand total of Waupaca County potatoes to enormous proportions.