Old World Wisconsin

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!

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Pig barn with balcony

These black hens were running all over.

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.

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.

Koepsell Family house and flower garden

The apple trees in the orchard had been pruned and trained for easy picking.

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.

Hopps

The Koepsell farm had white chickens.

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.

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.

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.

Heritage dairy cows

The house had a cream separator in the kitchen. It reminded Hilda of her childhood.

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.

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.

Sauna hearth

We rode the tram around the Norwegian and Danish areas and got off again at the Sanford Family 1860 Yankee Farm.

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.

Sanford garden

This is the storage room off of the kitchen with dried herbs hanging from the ceiling.

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.

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.

Hafford House

We watched a blacksmith make a pot hook.

Blacksmith makes a pot hook

And visited the Thomas General Store.

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.

Wheelbarrow

We finished our day at St. Peter’s Church, the first Roman Catholic Church in Milwaukee, built in 1839. This is the altar.

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.

Stove in St. Peter's

The docent demonstrated that the back seat of the pews was open to accommodate ladies’ bustles.

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