Last Tuesday, Mom, Dad, and I took our first trip to Old
World Wisconsin. It was my second birthday adventure. Terry had to stay home and water his trees before they died.
We started with lunch at the Clausing Barn Café. I highly recommend
the fried cheese curds. They were squeaky fresh!
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| Lunch outside the Clausing Barn Cafe |
The tram system worked efficiently. Each tram had a storage
area for walkers and strollers. They ran every 10-15 minutes, so we never had
to wait very long.
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| Tram with walker/stroller storage at the front of the car |
We took the tram back to the German area. The tram driver
explained that these oxen have recently figured out that they can lift the
rails on the split rail fences with their horns and walk to freedom. The staff
is trying to figure out how to secure them better.
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| Oxen by the split rail fences that they have outsmarted |
We got off the tram at the Schulz Family 1860 German
Immigrant Farm. Here is a picture of Mom and Dad walking into the garden. Many
of the gardens were done in raised beds. I never thought to ask if that was
authentic to the period. I found it hard to imagine that people working so hard
to scrape together a living would bother to lay out lovely symmetrical raised
beds. If it were me, I wouldn’t bother with flowers either, but I can imagine
that they would remind one of the old country and make one feel that all
vestiges of civilization were not lost.
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| Schulz Family Farm house and garden |
We arrived in the middle of a weaving demonstration. The
docent was explaining how the warp threads were put on a huge loom. Usually
there were 12 threads to the inch. She did a sample calculation of 10 threads
to the inch and ended up with hundreds of feet of thread that would be needed
for a piece of fabric wide and long enough for a pair of pants. The thread
would be measured on a frame that had two rows of pegs on posts that were two
yards apart. It took two days to put the warp threads on the loom, threading
the odd threads (1, 3, 5…) through one set of strings to lift the threads and
the even threads through a second set of strings. The docent demonstrated how
the foot pedals switched the threads as she passed the “boat” that held the
weft between the alternating warp threads. Mrs. Schutz wove all the cloth for
all her family’s clothes, flax for summer, wool for winter. How could she have
gotten anything else done?
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| Loom--pegs that can be removed for disassembly on upper right |
The docent pointed to pegs at the top of the loom,
explaining that the loom could be taken apart during the summer, when Mrs.
Schulz would be too busy with the harvest to do any weaving.
We went around back to see the pig barn. This pig was very
pregnant, although her distended belly does not show up well in the photo. She
was a small pig by modern standards. All of the animals at Old World Wisconsin
are heritage breeds that were actually used on historic farms. This particular pig is good for lard, which
was very important in 1860.
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| This breed of pig is good for lard |
The balcony on the pig barn gave access to the upper floor,
which was used for lodging of farm hands or storage.
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| Pig barn with balcony |
These black hens were running all over.
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| Schultz Family chicken |
The big barn held hay, rye, and flax. The flax had to be
beaten in this beater to break up the outer covering and get at the softer
fibers inside. Next, the docent held the fibers against a vertical piece of
wood, hit the fibers with a slender bat and slid the bat down to pull the chaff
away from the fibers. After that, the fibers had to be pulled through nails to
straight then fibers, which were then spun and woven to make linen. I cannot
imagine how much time this all would take.
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| Flax beater in front (the middle piece comes up). The docent is holding the bat that she will use to hit the flax against the vertical board on the right |
Our next stop was the Koepsell Family 1880 German Immigrant
Farm. There was a beautiful flower garden out front.
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| Koepsell Family house and flower garden |
The apple trees in the orchard had been pruned and trained
for easy picking.
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| Pruned and trained apple tree |
Hops grew on upright poles. The docent explained that the
hops was used not only in beer making but also as a source for yeast.
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| Hopps |
The Koepsell farm had white chickens.
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| White chickens on the Koepsell farm |
On our way to the Finns, we saw a team of Percheron horses
headed off to pick up a hay wagon.
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| Percheron were commonly used as draft horses in the 19th century |
We went to the Ketola Family 1910 Finnish Immigrant Farm next.
The Finns were among the last European immigrants to Wisconsin. The only places
left for them to settle were marginal lands up by Lake Superior. It worked out
because the climate was about the same as what they’d left behind.
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| The Ketola Family house. The ladder on the roof is for putting out sparks that land on the wooden shingles |
The Ketola farm included dairy cows. These cows are quite
different from Holsteins, the udder being noticeably smaller.
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| Heritage dairy cows |
The house had a cream separator in the kitchen. It reminded
Hilda of her childhood.
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| Cream separator |
The Ketolas had a sauna. Finns took one sauna a week in the
winter, one a day in summer, and twice a week the rest of the time.
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| Sauna bench |
The stone are on top of a piece of metal. The edge of the
metal is visible in this photo to the right of the kettle. My best guess is that the fire was
built under that piece of metal to heat the stones.
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| Sauna hearth |
We rode the tram around the Norwegian and Danish areas and
got off again at the Sanford Family 1860 Yankee Farm.
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| Sanford Famly house |
The Sanfords moved to Wisconsin from the East Coast, which is
why they were called Yankees. They were pretty well off, compared to the farms
we’d seen.
They still had to grow all their own food. The garden was
large.
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| Sanford garden |
This is the storage room off of the kitchen with dried herbs
hanging from the ceiling.
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| Hilda looks at a basket in the pantry |
I thought this was a primordial food processor. The docent
explained that it was a bean slicer and showed me two small chutes in the back
for holding two beans vertically. “It didn’t even work well when it was new,”
she added.
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| Bean slicer |
We walked through the 1880’s village. It was a hot day, and I
was beginning to fade. We skipped the residences, although I took a picture of
the Mary Hafford Irish Immigrant Home. She was widowed young and supported her
numerous children and saved enough money to build this house by taking in
washing.
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| Hafford House |
We watched a blacksmith make a pot hook.
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| Blacksmith makes a pot hook |
And visited the Thomas General Store.
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| General Store |
This wheelbarrow was in front of the General Store. You
would have to be careful that stuff didn’t fall off the sides.
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| Wheelbarrow |
We finished our day at St. Peter’s Church, the first Roman
Catholic Church in Milwaukee, built in 1839. This is the altar.
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| St. Peter's Church altar |
The stove was in the middle of the room with a long pipe to
the side. The heat from the pipe probably helps warm the room.
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| Stove in St. Peter's |
The docent demonstrated that the back seat of the pews was
open to accommodate ladies’ bustles.
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| The backs of the pews were open to allow room for a bustle |
The aisle was several inches below the floor on either side.
The docent said there were two possible explanations. First, elevating the
floor on either side may have made the floor warmer. Second, the middle may
have been filled with straw to try to contain the mud and other stuff that
people brought in on their shoes.
There was way more to see at Old World Wisconsin, but we
were tired and melted after three hours. Perhaps we’ll go back another day
