THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

December 12, 1991

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

           

            The Waupaca Historical Society taped the memoirs of Mrs. Robert (Florence) Ewald in August of 1981.  Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society taping committee were:  the Rev. George Warren, George Jeffers, Ken Poulton and John Holzman.

            Mrs. Ewald talked freely about some early business places and Waupaca in its potato heydays.

            Florence Ethel Peterson Ewald was born March 31, 1894, in the Town of Saxeville (Waushara County) to Christian and Mary (Jensen) Peterson, who started out their married life on a farm near Saxe-ville.  During the years that followed they became the parents of nine children.  The first two were twins who died in infancy, but the remaining seven grew to adulthood.

            It was on Florence’s sixth birthday that the Peterson family moved to Waupaca. 

            In Waupaca, Christian Peterson, her father, went into business with his brother, James Peterson, and together they ran the Peterson Cash Grocery on South Main Street.  This building, in 1991, is the present location of Knutson & Sons Inc., at 210 South Main.  Florence Ewald described the location as being located between Dutton’s Bakery and John F. Breitenstien’s Jewelry Store on the north and the U.S. Post Office and Gordon’s Meat Market on the south side.  Continuing to the south, there was a large empty lot, and the next building was a large store.  This was Knaap’s Variety Store, now the present location of Simpson’s Indian Room Restaurant, at 222 South Main.  The empty lot that Mrs. Ewald mentioned became Webb’s Bratwurst and the Rosa Theatre properties.

            The Christian Peterson family remained in Waupaca for a year and a half, then moved back to Saxeville, as the income from the store did not support two large families.  Back in Saxeville, her father purchased stock in a general store.  For the next six years they lived in Saxeville.  It was in the store there that Florence learned to clerk and meet people.

            Florence was about nine years old at the time and was paid 25 cents a week.  Mrs. Ewald went on to tell the taping committee that when they ran the store in Saxeville, tobacco came in pails. Fine-cut tobacco, like Brother Jonathon, was sticky and awful to handle, she said.

            At the end of six years, the Petersons moved to Waupaca once more, where her father had been selling potatoes for the A.M. Penney Company, while still a partner in the grocery store with his brother, Jim Peterson.

            In the Peterson Cash Grocery on South Main Street, a glass showcase was on the right hand side as you came into the store.  In it was displayed cigars, five cents or two for ten cents; also on display were small sacks of Bull Durham from which cigarettes could be rolled.  There were no factory rolled cigar-ettes in those early days.

            Grocery stores were quite different in those days.  You gave the clerk the list of groceries that you wanted, then you waited for the clerk to pick up the items.  The clerk would make out the bill, and you paid at the cashier.  Some stores had stools where a customer could rest while waiting.

            Most grocery stores took eggs and butter in exchange for groceries.  The quality of butter varied from each patron.  Each lot of butter was kept in separate jars.  When a customer wanted some butter, the clerk would take a small chip from a jar of butter for tasting.  If the customer was not satisfied, they would try another.

            Very few articles came in packages in those days.  Sugar, coffee and the cheaper candy came in bulk.  Some candy came in trays for showcase display. Bar soaps, like Fels Naptha and P&G, were popular, as was the Gold Dust Twins for a cleaning powder.

            The Fourth of July was a very exciting day at the Peterson Grocery.  They had a booth outside and sold ice cream, oranges and so forth.  Florence Ewald’s father had a nephew, Will Olson, who manufactured ice cream from his own special recipe, and had a good business around town.  Peterson’s sold ice cream only on holidays, as they had only one eight-foot by ten-foot refrigerator.  This was cooled by ice delivered by the Larson Ice Company, harvested from Mirror Lake.

            Mrs. Ewald remarked that as she looked back on her childhood, it was fun to hear the hustle and bustle in the mornings, as the wheels started turning, such as the horse-drawn sprinkling wagon coming down Main Street, settling the dust.

            Florence Ewald’s mother always had to keep busy. It got so that she kept busy in baby care. A baby case usually meant working with the baby in the home from ten days to two weeks, this usually included cooking for the family, cleaning the house, and the other daily duties.

            It was in 1910 that a new doctor, Fred C. Wood, came to Waupaca, looking for a place to open a cottage hospital.  He asked Florence’s mother to run it for him.  It was decided to use the upstairs of their home for this hospital.  She ran the hospital for 12 years.  It was located on Ware Street, two doors from their potato warehouse.

            The Peterson Cash Grocery existed from 1898 to 1921.

            In about 1910, Christian Peterson, with his brother William, who also had been working for A.M. Penney, and Florence’s brother, formed the Peterson Produce Company.  Their main warehouse was located on the corner of Oborn and Ware streets, which several years ago was the location of the Badger Building Company.  Jesse’s Seed Market is now in the rear of this location.  The Peterson Produce Company also had a smaller warehouse nearby. They shipped about 1,000 carloads of potatoes a month during the fall harvest season.  Each car held 600 bushels of potatoes.  This would amount to 360, 100-pound bags by today’s standards.  Some days as many as 35 to 40 loads of potatoes would come into Waupaca in a single day.  All of the potatoes were being hauled by team and wagon, or sleigh in the winter months.

            Many buyers met the loads of potatoes on the outskirts of town, where they would dicker over the price.  If the buyer came to an agreement with the farmer, he would generally ride back to town to make sure the load was delivered to the proper warehouse and that no other buyer could intercept the load by paying more.

            The Peterson Produce Company ran 14 buying stations in the small towns around Waupaca and Waupaca County.  These were rented and all sales business was conducted from the Waupaca headquart-ers.

            It was during these years that Waupaca was known as the Potato Capital of the world.  There were about 14 dealers and buyers, some from Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati, who had their main office here.

            In the early years the standard measurement was in bushels, and shipped in 150-pound bags, which would be two and a half bushels.  There were too heavy and cumbersome to handle.  Mrs. Ewald said that her brother and Mr. Nelson of Christensen and Nelson went to Washington when they standard-ized and changed the size to 100-pound sacks.

            This is only a small bit about the potato business in the early years.  IN a later article, I will write about the many changes that have taken place in the potato operations since those days, such as growing, varieties, harvesting, storage, marketing, shipping and potatoes in their many uses as food from fresh market to processing.

            Florence Ethel Peterson was married in Waupaca on March 26, 1921, to Robert Ewald, who died May 21, 1960.  She passed away September 5, 1991.  They were the parents of two children.  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ewald are buried in the Waupaca Lakeside Memorial Park cemetery.