This file portion of www.watertownhistory.org website
Bad roads and "Latin"
farmers:
Watertown in 1848
Originally published in Der
Weltbuerger, 09 26 1868.
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While every effort has been made to retain as much of the flavor of this history as it was originally written, translators Charles J. Wallman and Susan Holzner made no attempt for this to be a verbatim representation, as the author relied heavily on legalistic phrasing and complicated sentence structure. A caution to the reader: The author has on occasion inserted pertinent comments in his narrative in parentheses (like this) while the translators have interjected explanatory notes in brackets [like this]. This
article is part of a continuing series commemorating Watertown's
sesquicentennial. |
In
that year the trade from north-northwest and west of Watertown went through
this locality to and from Milwaukee. The farmers of Portage, Baraboo, Sun
Prairie, Sauk City and the like brought their grain and other products through
Watertown to Milwaukee, to bring back farm necessities from there. The way,
however, was so bad and the ground of some places so bottomless, that even in
the then village of Watertown a certain Morris kept a pair of oxen to help the
farmers through the village from Van Alstine's Exchange to Enos' house. In the
middle of
For
farmers, those times were not golden, just as in recent years. John Luber
tells of an example, when in the fall of this year, he brought a wagon full of
water- and sugar- melons as well as turnips from his farm to Watertown. After
he had had his wares for sale for hours, he had taken in 35 cents. The rest he
had to throw to his hogs as fodder.
The
year 1848, with its revolutionary movements in Europe, increased the emigration
to America, especially in Germany, to a large extent as compared to earlier
years. Watertown also received its share of new arrivals from the old homeland.
Many so-called Latin farmers particularly came in that year. Intelligent
men such as civil servants, pastors, professors, etc., who, because of their
ignorance of the English language could not make use of their intelligence,
bought farmland with the money they had saved from the German chaos, built a
house on it and worked the farm without any practical knowledge of farming,
sometimes in a rather laughable manner, which earned them the title "Latin
farmers." There were also such farms near Watertown, however not to such
an extent as further east. Later the farms were usually sold to real
farmers, and the so-called Latin farmers came, after acquiring the English
language and proper understanding of American conditions, into their proper
environment where they could better utilize the knowledge they had acquired
from German schools. But those circumstances are to be regarded more as an
interjection brought about by the memory of the year 1848, and have little to
do with the history of Watertown.
In
the spring of 1848, there came Dr. Fischer, John C. Halliger, Hohrmann
and Ernst Achilles together with families, then the first Baptist Fried.
Schielemann with wife, Nottorf, Grossmann and Lorenz Fribert, Wilhelm Wiggenhorn with family, among whom
were his sons Constanz, Alexis, Eugen and August; Adolf Beurhaus and
Adolph Lange, both married, Henry Maldaner, Fritz Herrmann, Chas. M.
Ducasse, Gustav Schnasse, Martin Hopf, George Schempf
and family, Schmidt Toelle, Henry and Louis
Mulberger, Carl Roedel, Georg Koenig, Louis Stallmann, Leonard Meth
with wife and several others.
Wilhelm
Wiggenhorn
arrived here with his family in the month of October, after he had been on the
farm with Averbeck for several weeks, and bought the Buena Vista House
and the opposite lot from Henry Boegel for the sum of $1680. The house
[hotel] at that time, however, was in only a half-finished condition, and only
plastered one time, but it was furnished comfortably as an inn and the upper
story was even used for divine services of the Ev.[angelical] Prot[estant]
parish, which, in the absence of a regular preacher, was presided over by Mr. Senator
Meyer. In his absence, Louis W. Ranis led the parish, and special
religious functions such as weddings, christenings, etc. were performed by
Pastor Dietrichsen from Milwaukee who came here from time to time. In the
vicinity of the Buena Vista House, a German lathe operator had erected a
windmill on a stump, in order to operate his turning shop with it. His name,
not accurately determined, was declared by some as Schiess, by others as
Spiess. He did not however achieve his wish with his windmill, and for a
long time afterward its rudder stood there, without being used until finally
this and other buildings had to make way for the German Cath.[olic] church. Dr.
Fischer went to Hustisford and practised there with an American doctor by
the name of Eggerston, but he came back to Watertown again in 1849, to take
over the practice of Louis Meyer, who went to California. Hoeffner
and Frohne started a distillery in this year, and that was at the site of
the former Hoeffner's brewery which later passed over to Joseph Bursinger [north side of Cady,
east of bridge]. Beef cattle and hogs were fattened with "swill' and
Frohne shot the hogs dead for his own use, and for shipment, because he was an
old hunter, and was heartily supported in his shipping efforts by Jacob
Hoeffner. In fall Frohne parted from Jacob
Hoeffner and built a distillery with Fritz Herrmann where his
summer-garden is presently located [south of
Lorenz
Fribert
managed a clothing and book store on the corner of Main and Third Streets,
where the grocery of Widow Duffy is presently (southwest corner). At the
end of the year he took over the German Store with Peterson, whereupon Henry
Maldaner also joined the firm. Several years later, Lorenz Fribert, after
he had established a dry goods business in Schimpf's block, opened an abstract
office in Juneau, in which place he later died; his brother L. Fribert now
carries it on. Mr. L. Fribert and his brother now living in Juneau were
excellent well-informed lawyers from Denmark and the elder had held a high
government post in that country. Adolph Beurhaus and Lange bought
the later "Wedemeier's Farm," Chas. M. Ducasse the farm
of Averbeck, Leonhard Mertz a farm back of Richwood, which later
passed over to August van Trott and then to Ihk.
Martin
Hopf
founded the first tannery near John Becker, where Rickert brothers now
have their tannery [southeast corner, North Water and O'Connell].
