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ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Watertown Squab Co.
Watertown Pigeon Club
Walter
H. Kressin, 45, is the proprietor.
Oscar
Maerzke formed the company in 1896.
In
1920 he went into partnership with the late Charles Lutovsky, former
mayor.
In
1920 Lutovsky bought out his partner.
Kressin
and his associates took over the company in 1929.
1861
05 30 PIGEONS ARE NOW
PLENTY
Pigeons are now plenty in the woods; large flocks are constantly flying
in all directions. Sportsmen are getting
their full share of fun and game out of their visit to this region. Those who go hunting cannot be too cautious
in order to prevent serious if not fatal accidents to themselves or
others. Hardly a season passes during
shooting time in which we do not hear of some casualty caused by carelessness
in the handling of guns. WD
1895
05 29 PIGEONS FREED AT
MAIN ST. BRIDGE
Shortly after 7 o'clock this morning H. Fulkerson liberated from Main
Street bridge 150 homing pigeons belonging to the Fox River Homing club of
Green Bay. After circling about for
several minutes the birds started for their home in a flock. The flight was quite interesting. WR
06 05 MORE HOMING PIGEONS
FREED
Sunday morning H. Fulkerson liberated another flock of fifty homing
pigeons belonging to the Fox River Homing club, of Green Bay. They made the distance, 100 miles, in about
two hours. Those sent out last Wednesday
morning reached home in several sets, the first set arriving shortly after
nine, and the balance at intervals during the following hour. WR
c.1895
-- -- 101 WEST CADY, ADJACENT
TO WIENS BRUSH FACTORY
apparent
pigeon coop at rear of building
1899
05 23 JOHN ROBINSON / Leased portion of Sprague brickyard
John Robinson has arranged to engage extensively in the business of
hatching and raising doves, having leased from the H. Mulberger
estate a portion of the old Sprague brickyard property in the Seventh ward and
will erect a large hatchery thereon. Mr.
Robinson expects to have accommodations for 2,000 birds. Dressed squabs, which find a ready market in
the East at fancy prices, will be handled principally. WR
1900
09 28 FAMOUS
PIGEON POST at
Jefferson County Fair
A very interesting attraction at the Jefferson County Fair, which will
be held in Jefferson October 2-5, will be one of the Milwaukee Journal’s famous pigeon posts. The Journal
will be represented at the fair by a staff correspondent and he will send the
news of the fair to his paper by means of homing pigeons, which will make the
trip to Milwaukee within an hour. The
establishment of this pigeon post at the fair was requested by Secretary O. S.
Roessler of the Jefferson County Agricultural Association. The Journal’s
homing pigeons, according to President McKerrow and Secretary True of the state
board of agriculture, were one of the chief sites at the state fair recently
held in Milwaukee. The state fair
grounds are outside of Milwaukee and each day the pigeons carried to the Journal office from 10,000 to 12,000
words written by reporters stationed at the fair. WG
1901
01 09 ARTICLE ABOUT THE PIGEON
(QUAIL) BUSINESS IN WATERTOWN
Reprint of Sunday Sentinel
article
WATERTOWN’S BIRD INDUSTRIES
Watertown’s “bird” industries are again brought into prominence through
an article printed in The Sunday Sentinel descriptive of pigeon raising. Accompanying the article are two pictures
showing Alderman Albert Wegemann’s famous dove farm —
an interior and an exterior view. The
Sentinel article is no doubt of general interest, so we herewith reproduce it:
When the Western packer who wanted to enter the four hundred offered
Ward McAllister [1] $1,000 to teach him the society way of eating quail on
toast, he did not know the chances were dollars to doughnuts that the meat he
was to experiment on was Wisconsin pigeon, instead of Nebraska quail. That the shipment of these “quail” is an
industry peculiar to Watertown of all Wisconsin towns would be a surprise to
even most Milwaukeeans, who as a rule are unaware that about 30,000 pigeons are
kept in cotes in that city to breed and sell to game dealers.
[1] Popular arbiter of social taste
As a matter of fact, Watertown’s “quail” industry is one which would
astonish the average Wisconsin person by its magnitude. Thousands of birds are killed there and
shipped to Chicago and the East annually, but in Milwaukee, only a few miles
away, there is almost no market for the birds.
This is probably because the game laws in this state forbid the sale or
killing of the real bird, so any placing of the substitute delicacy on a menu
card would bring the game wardens around in conveys. The occasional pigeon pie however, may be a
Watertown exportation.
In and near that city there are no less than five dove cotes, in one of
which alone over 14,000 pigeons are housed.
The four smaller cotes are all within a radius of five miles from the
city and all do a large business. The
largest of the cotes is owned and conducted by Albert Wegemann. It is located on the bank of the Rock river
[2] and consists of a court surrounded on three sides by low brick buildings,
like the old California monasteries, while in one corner is the frame granary,
and in another a remodeled dwelling house.
[2] Assumed location is 101 West Cady
One dove alone can make a small bit of a noise with its cooing, but when
thousands of the birds are gurgling at once, the sound is audible for a block
or more, like the whirl of thousands of skates on a frozen pond. The entrance of an intruder varies the sound
as the millions of feathers beat the air.
Inside the court which forms the big cote, there were found on a recent
visit a few birds flying about unconfined, but the majority were under a wire
screen which allowed plenty of flying room, without making the place a nuisance
for the surrounding neighborhood. It was
almost feeding time, and the doves were flying about aimlessly, those inside
the brick buildings peeping out from the cave-dweller like holes which spotted
the walls between the windows, as if anxious for dinner to be served. There were pigeons of all kinds and
colors. The cropper, with his
copper-colored body, stood out in marked contrast to the pure white birds
mingled among those of more mixed blood, while the ruffle-necks perched on the
clothes-hanger racks inside the wire cage, and the blowers puffed out their
throats, as if trying to imagine that their crops were full.
Black and yellow “tumblers,” homers and “letter-carriers” lived in the
same happy family with the mongrel, most of the birds being those with the
changeable cerise and green feathers which formed a collar about their necks.
Down in the basement of the lofts, bags of crushed corn were warming and
then it was time to feed the quails.
Three bags of crushed corn were for lunch, and three bags more of broken
barley from the breweries were to form the breakfast in the morning. In the enclosure there were watering troughs,
fed by a continuous stream of water from a pipe line, and on the ground near
the troughs the bags full of grain were dumped.
While the pigeons flocked out from the lofts by the thousands, carpeting
the ground with their feathered bodies, the common English sparrows gathered
about the wire netting, shivering, and ruffling up their feathers in the cold,
looking hungrily down upon the doves below which were being fatted for the
killing. The sparrows could get through
the netting, but a dash among the pigeons for a bit of corn would be but to be
beaten to the ground under the wings of the larger birds which were continually
moving from one part of the cage to the other.
Now is about the dullest period of the year in the pigeon business, but
even at this time the shipment of dressed squabs, and other birds as well, will
run to about 400 a week, largely to Chicago and New York. The birds are taken from the lofts which are
ranged along the interior of the cote like shelves, their necks slit and their
bodies plucked, and then they are ready for the market. Some are sold in the East as quail, where
much of the supposed game at fashionable restaurants is pigeon from Watertown lofts. There is no choice in the species of birds,
any strangers that are offered to the owners of the cotes being accepted,
homers and swallow doves alike.
It is the young that sells best, the squabs which are killed before they
are fully feathered out. The prices paid
range from 25 and 35 cents a pair to 25 cents each, dressed. The Watertown Republican, 09 Jan
1901
04 04 SQUABS FOR THE PRESIDENT
A consignment of 600 squabs was sent to Milwaukee this afternoon and will be used at
the banquet given President Roosevelt at Milwaukee tomorrow evening. The birds were selected with especial care
and netted the shipper a handsome return.
The fame of Watertown squabs, like Watertown stuffed geese, is becoming
national.
1937
08 03 NATIONWIDE
REPUTATION
A business
with a nationwide reputation for producing some of the finest squabs in the
United States is located in this city, the Watertown Squab Company, 1107 North
Fourth Street. Entering its 40th year of
raising the delicate fowl, the farm enjoys a high place among the leading
producers of squabs in the county. Last year 84,000 squabs were handled by a
local company, reports Walter H. Kressin, general manager. He explains that the
large squab markets are in the East.
Although more than half of the birds are sold in New York City, many are
purchased in Wisconsin.
1942
08 23 WATERTOWN SQUAB
FARM IS HAVING BUSY SEASON
65,000 Young
Pigeons to Be Packed for Market in 1942,
Many Going to
Milwaukee
One of the largest concerns of its kind in the Midwest, the Watertown Squab
Co. is in the middle of its production season now and is headed for a probable
output this year of 65,000 young pigeons.
The company – it’s really a small farm — operates on a four acre layout
on the north side of the city. Of its
average annual output, 30,000 of the young birds are marketed in Milwaukee, at
least another 30,000 go to the Chicago and eastern markets and the rest to
miscellaneous customers over the country.
The company, founded in 1896, is the largest of its kind in
Wisconsin. Other production centers are
in the east, south and in California.
Walter H. Kressin, 45, is the proprietor. Oscar Maerzke
formed the company in 1896. In 1920 he went into partnership with the late
Charles Lutovsky, former mayor. In 1920
Lutovsky bought out his partner. Kressin and his associates took over the
company in 1929.
To supply 65,000 squabs a year means turning out about 200 butchered
birds daily, Kressin explained.
Squabs are raised until they are about a month old. Then they are butchered, the feathers picked
and the birds placed in ice water. After
another washing and immersing in a second tank of ice water, the squab is given
a final cleansing, packed in ice and sent to market.
They are graded according to color and weight. The squabs are kept in small coops and not
allowed to use their wings. This makes the meat more tender, Kressin said.
Squabs, if kept over four and a half weeks, are classified as
pigeons. Those that are raised to be
pigeons on this farm are principally the White Kings and Silver Kings, with
some Homers interspersed. The pigeons
are mated selectively; that is, the types of pigeons that have been found to be
producing the best squabs are used for breeding purposes. About 4,000 pairs of pigeons are kept here
for breeding. Each pair produces an
average of 14 squabs a year.
The mother pigeon lays one or two eggs, and with the help of the male,
hatches them in 17 days. When the young
are three weeks old, the parent pigeons build a new nest for the next eggs. Tobacco stems are kept in the pigeon coops so the birds can build nests with
them. The sterna discourage insect pests
and make a soft, clean padding for the young.
After the parent birds have fed their young for seven to nine days, the
squabs are fed a wet mash daily until prepared for market.
“The pigeon is an unusually clean bird.” said Kressin. "It takes a bath often and keeps itself
scrupulously clean all the time."
Both Kressin and his assistant, John Heiden, work long hours to keep
pace with orders. They haven’t had a
Sunday off in months. One reason is the
difficulty in getting help Kressin said.
They have one helper, Thader Wille.
This farm a decade ago did a business of 100,000 squabs a year, but
sales fell off during the depression and haven't approached the 100,000 figure
since.
The best sales period of the year for squabs is from October to March,
according to Kressin. In those months,
however, there aren't as many squabs born as during, other months of the year. Milw Jour
1954
04 14 WALTER KRESSIN
Walter H. Kressin, 1012 Labaree Street, last night was approved by the Board of Police and Fire Commission to be the
city’s new park policeman. He succeeds
the late Glenn O’Brien. He was recommended
for the position by Chief of Police Theodore C. Voigt from a list of men who
were under consideration. Mr. Kressin
will begin his duties on May 1, the board reported this morning. Mr. Kressin is a driver for the Wisconsin
Transit Lines, Inc., operator of the Watertown bus service. At one time he was associated with the Watertown Squab Company.
1959
11 28 ART KEHL NUDGES THE
FANCY BREEDS
Arthur W. Kehl, 1400 North Second Street, today was named to serve as
one of the judges for the Wisconsin State Pigeon Club’s first annual show' to
be held at Kohler, Wis., Dec. 4,5 and 6.
He will judge the fancy breeds. The state show will have between 1,750
and 2,000 entries.
1969
12 01 ART KEHL, Jr. AND
HIS WINNING PIGEONS
4th Annual Watertown Pigeon Club Show. Over 1,100 pigeons were displayed at the
Watertown Pigeon Club show held at Turner Hall.
Art Kehl, Jr., president of the local pigeon group, shows one of his
winning pigeons.
1971
07 04 WATERTOWN PIGEON
CLUB FLOAT, FOURTH OF JULY
< click to enlarge
Evelyn Rose, 1981 article
WATERTOWN SQUAB CO
In addition to its reputation for
stuffed geese, Watertown was famous as a
national market for squab. In the 1930s more than 100,000 top quality squab were
supplied annually to eastern and local markets by the Watertown Squab Company
which a operated for more than 50 years with a national reputation. The company grew out of a concern founded by
Oscar Maerzke in 1897. In 1910 Maerzke took in a partner, Charles Lutovsky.
Ten years later Lutovsky bought
the business. He had arrangements with area farmers to pick up the squab (young
pigeons) on regular routes. On Mondays he would set forth with a crate in his
buggy to pick up squab in the Clyman area, on Wednesday he went to Lebanon and
on Fridays he collected squab from Concord and Johnson Creek farmers. The squab
received a grain formula at regular intervals to prepare them for market.
When Lutovsky was elected mayor
of Watertown in 1930 he sold his business to his partners, John Heiden and
Walter Kressin. They formed the Watertown Squab Co. Walter Kressin, was the
last owner and manager of the company.
The Watertown Squab Co. had the
reputation of producing some of the finest squab in the United States. The
company had four 120 foot barns in the 1100 block on
Between 5,000 and 6,000 squab were
sold annually in Watertown. Many persons will remember the popular squab
dinners at the Buena Vista House and at the Oconomowoc Lake Club.
Kressin kept 3,000 pigeons (White
and Silver Kings) for breeding purposes. Their feed was a grain mixture of
corn, wheat, hemp, buckwheat, sorghum, and peas, with about a ton and a half of
grain used each week. After 50 years of popularity in eastern and local markets
the demand began to drop off in the late thirties and early forties and the
business was gradually phased out.
An article in a Watertown Republican edition of the
1850s noted that "pigeons are now plentiful in the woods, large flocks are
continually flying all directions. Sportsmen are getting their fair share of
fun and games.” Sportsmen got more than their fair share.
These were the now extinct
Passenger pigeons of history. No danger of that now for pigeons, are treated
with respect by members of the Watertown Pigeon club, organized in 1936 by
Arthur Kehl, Howard Kramp, Dr. A. W Breithaupt, Walter Schwenkner, Thomas Nack
and Paul Wiley. After 45 years, Kehl, Nack and Schwenkner are still active in
the club. Cross
reference article on passenger pigeons.
Watertown Pigeon Club
The organization of the Watertown
Pigeon Club was held in the men's reading room of the public library,
exhibitions were planned for that same year. The first pigeon show was held at
the Wertheimer building, Main and
The sport of pigeons is a very
old and ancient sport. Kehl informed us that in Belgium it is the dominant
sport, rivaling that of baseball in America. Pigeon shows are held twice a year
by the Watertown Pigeon Club, on the Sunday after Labor Day in the park and
again near Thanksgiving, at Turner Hall. "In the early shows at the
park," Kehl related, "we had bingo tables and a cavalry band for
entertainment. That seemed the popular thing to do at that time.”
Kehl was named to the United
States Pigeon Hall of Fame in 1949, and has served as show secretary for many
years for both the local club and national association shows.
WALTER KRESSIN OBIT
06 14 1979
Walter H. Kressin, 82,
Funeral services will be held at
the Schmutzler Funeral Home with the Rev. Orlo G. Espeland of Immanuel Lutheran
Church officiating. Burial will be in
Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery.
Kressin was born
On Sept. 19, 1921, he married the
former Eleanora Wille in Watertown who preceded him
Surviving are one son, Roger of
Watertown, and one sister, Mrs. Ida Saum of Watertown.
He was also preceded in death by six
brothers, four sisters and one daughter.
Cross Reference:
William “Bill” K. Kaercher,
member
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin