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More than 150 area residents took advantage of sunshine on May 28 to join American Legion Post 378, the Fairwater Lions, and the Historical Society in observing Fairwater’s Memorial Day ceremonies. Area families lined Main Street to watch the village’s traditional parade and then gathered at the cemetery to remember Lawrence, Milton, Gordon, and Roy Born, sons of Hugo and Mary Born, for their service in the Armed Forces during World War II.
Having honored Civil War veteran Henry Pangburn a year ago, the Legion and Historical Society dedicated this year’s events to the Born family, one of a handful of Wisconsin families who contributed four sons to military service during the war. Lawrence Born was stationed in Hawaii and Alaska during the war and remained in the Army to earn a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart during the Korean War. Milton Born was stationed at Naval bases in California before seeing action in the Admiralties Islands in New Guinea. Gordon Born fought in Africa and Europe as a member of the Army’s 76th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop. Roy Born was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in July, 1944, while fighting in France. He was wounded again in France two months later and died of his injuries on September 30. With Harold Henslin and Ervin Link, he was one of three Fairwater servicemen killed in action during the war. The Born family assembled service scrapbooks for each of the Born brothers for an exhibit at Historical Society museum following the ceremony at the cemetery.
The event marked the first time the old schoolhouse was open to the public since the Society’s open house in October and gave visitors an opportunity to view the refinished ceilings in two of the classrooms. Also on display were the new flagpole donated by Gerald Sanders and the Society’s new sign, constructed by George Sanders and lettered by William Kuehn’s Markesan High School shop classes. A flower garden recently planted by the area 4-H around the base of the sign was also available for its first viewing. The garden is bordered by Fairwater red brick dating to 1890. In addition to the Born exhibit, museum displays included World War I documents, song books, and other materials donated by the Berndt family and a Civil War exhibit related to the seventeen Fairwater men recruited into the Third Wisconsin Cavalry by Fairwater area native James Pond. Joining the Markesan Middle School marching band, area veterans, and area scouts, Society members marched in the parade behind a float of white crosses created by Winton and Cirena Lenz, Larry Beuthin, and Arlene Leppin. The names of the three men lost during World War II marked three of the crosses. The ceremony at the cemetery included presentations by Legion member Jim Otto and the Legion Auxiliary President, Legion Post Commander Larry Beuthin, Cora Lawson, Lion’s Essay Contest winner Mark Abendroth, and Society President Bob Schuster. New memberships, donations, and a generous Memorial Day gift from Katherine Whitford added nearly $750 to the Society’s efforts to match the $5000 challenge from Caesar and Peggy Sweitzer.
Rev. Gordon Braun is a Lutheran pastor in Moscow, Idaho. He was raised in Fairwater, where his father operated the blacksmith shop on Washington Street during the 1930s. Rafts and Old Tires During WWII tires were hard to get. Recycling was in. One could get 1¢ a pound for an old tire. We, meaning the 3 Rs [Robert, Ralph, and Richard Damerau], Bobby Sweeney, the Dyer boys (Art, Alfred and Herbie), Jessie Link, Jim and Dennis Schultz, myself and perhaps others scoured the junky areas of Fairwater for old abandoned tires. Our best source was the mill pond. We also made the most money from those tires because they were soaked, thus making them heavy. To get them out of the pond we fashioned rafts from wrecked car gas tanks. Our source of supply was the junked cars behind the abandoned hemp mill just north of the pond, maybe a hundred yards from it, and a little west of down town (Jim Town, that is) on Highway 44 on the way to Little Green Lake. The junk yard belonged to Alex Laper, and he never told us we couldn’t have them. The gas tanks were ideal in size. It took four of them to make a raft. They were about four feet long and a foot wide and a foot high. After securing what we needed we wired them together. Bailing wire worked fine. A few boards--1"x4" or whatever we could find--were fastened on top for a more comfortable place to stand or sit. To go with the raft we needed a stick for poling. The pond wasn’t deep. It was deeper near the dam on the west end. The water wasn’t clear. Actually it was muddy and sometimes clouded by a discharge from the creamery. Occasionally we could see a tire lodged in the mud, but usually we just poked around. After finding one or more we would take them to Laper’s garage to get our pay. I remember getting 21¢ one time. From there we would go to Cozy’s or Erdman’s tavern or Frei’s grocery and get an ice cream cone. A great day in the life of a bunch of boys. Fairwater School Remembrances The clock on the wall in Miss McEssay’s room said IV:L, and I wasn’t done yet. This was not homework. It was “stay after school” work. Miss Vogel was my teacher for grades I-III, Miss McEssay for IV-VI, and Mr. Cudd for VII through VI weeks into VIIIth grade (when we moved to Brandon). I know my Roman numerals quite well. Writing them as far as D or farther to M was not an uncommon occasion. One can’t say I didn’t learn something. “Why use two when one wipes dry?” That was
a slogan printed clearly over the paper towel dispenser above the sink.
These were depression years. It was essential to be frugal. Softball games were common on this very limited playground. There was hardly a left field because after third base there were trees bordering the sidewalk. Anyone who played in that era will know why we tried not to hit it over the fence in the neighbor’s yard. Where my left ear is attached to my head there is a small scar. It came from a teeter totter experience. I was on the down end and don’t remember who was on the up end. I was about first or second grade at the time. A bigger boy grabbed the up end and forcefully pulled it down. I catapulted through the air, hitting my head on the edge of the teeter totter near the fulcrum. Thus the scar. Enough said. School picnics were held in Laper’s woods near the water wheel. The food was usually hot dogs and marshmallows roasted on a fire. There was plenty of dead wood for the fire. Some older boys would cut roasting sticks with their jack knives. I remember Jack Horn especially. There was an old skull of a cow lying there, and Jack dug out a couple of teeth from the jaw bone with his knife. The knife was then used to slice the buns and cut the wieners. Surprisingly no one got sick. Music was learned by radio. Professor Gordon from the University of Wisconsin in Madison was our teacher. The radio station was WISN. Part of a song I remember goes like this: “There’s bugs in the butter and sand in the meat. The food we get ain’t fit to eat.” Chorus: “Press along to the big corral.” School programs were held in Daehn’s Hall. There was a stage and a roll up curtain with advertising. It was heated with a huge stove in the left front corner that burned coal or wood. The Christmas programs always brought out the bathrobes to make one look like people from the Bible. There was a skating rink in the school yard. We played some hockey. Glen Schimmel had the only puck. When he didn’t play we used a tin can or a corn cob. He was hit in the forehead with the puck once and was knocked down and out. One day when school was out I walked across the ice, slipped, fell, and hit my head. I walked home, which was about two blocks. Bill Giles, who lived in his barber shop next to us, saw me coming and gave me a nickel to mail a letter for him. The 2¢ change was to be mine. I walked down town to the post office and mailed the letter. I came home, took a nap, and never knew that I had done all that. Some people still think I’m out of my head. I recently did a sermon without notes and overheard someone comment, “I like it when pastor talks out of his head.”
Photographs shared with the Historical Society recently by Lois Schmuhl and Kurt Kunert offer the best view yet of a Fairwater Public School classroom of the early 1930s and of he interior of the original Zion Lutheran church building as it appeared before remodeling in 1936. An “aerial” photo taken by Art Kunert from the top of the Stellmacher grain elevator in the early 1930s offers the only view of the Fairwater stockyard that the Society has had. A companion photo looking south on Main Street also answers one of the Society’s long-standing questions--where in Jimtown was the rooftop cupola shown in a photograph of the February, 1922, ice storm? The Kunert photo shows two pavilion-like structures on the roof f Dave Horn’s store. In providing rare glimpses of the village, the photographs have reinforced the Society’s commitment to locating and copying early photographs from the Fairwater area. In April, the Society submitted an application to the State Historical Society for funding to copy as many as fifty photographs not currently in its collections. While it waits for notification that the application has been approved, the Society is proceeding with plans for an invitational exhibit of historic area photos during Fairwater Heritage Days on August 4 and 5. The Society hopes that the project will uncover early photos that may be hiding in the area’s attics. In preparation for the exhibition, the Society has begun developing a list of photographs that it is hoping to locate. Among them are pictures of the Laper dance pavilion, the Jacob Carter homestead, the Fairwater school predating the current 1910 building, the Amend Brothers’ creamery that once stood on the site of the current Civic Center, the Fairwater flour mill constructed in 1847 and destroyed by fire in the 1890s, the “Mill House” that originally stood on the lot now occupied by the Montag house, and Washington Street businesses before 1900. Also on the Society’s list are early photographs of area families and farms. The Society is discussing the possibility of publishing a collection of the photographs submitted for the exhibition. Tom Montag and Barb Vande Brink recently completed an interview with Marie Hardesty as part of the Society’s ongoing oral history project. During the three-hour interview, Mrs. Hardesty described the Washington Street store owned and operated by her father, Phil Sommer, during the 1920s. She also discussed Jesse Laper’s Fairwater dance pavilion and early businesses run by her grandfather, John Laper, including the Fairwater flour mill. Kathy Schuster is searching for information on Robert Dwight Logan, the Milwaukee area artist behind the two mural-sized paintings that once hung in the lower level of the Fairwater Civic Center. Logan was born in Milwaukee in 1905 and studied at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee under Gerrit Sinclair and later at the Art Institute of Chicago. The two Fairwater paintings were donated by the Milwaukee
Public Museum when the Civic Center was competed in 1941. They were
removed a number of years ago after being vandalized and have since
been stored by Gerald Sanders pending repair. Sanders recently moved
the paintings to the Fairwater museum, where they can be viewed by arrangement. Lance Herdegen, Director of the Institute of Civil War Studies at Carroll College and author of In the Bloody Railroad Cut at Gettysburg, a history of the 6th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry at Gettysburg, will address the Fairwater Historical Society at its monthly meeting on September 1. Also scheduled to present at the meeting is Kevin Dier-Zimmel, a Beaver Dam historian of the Civil War era. The meeting will be devoted to abolition and Civil War activities in Dodge, Green Lake, and Fond du Lac counties during the 1850s and early 1860s. Dier-Zimmel will offer a presentation on James Pond and his family, early Fairwater area abolitionists who operated an underground railroad station on their farm just south of the village. James Pond later recruited seventeen men in Fairwater in forming Company C of the Third Wisconsin Cavalry. With his brother George, a Fairwater recruit, Pond earned a Medal of Honor for heroism during the war. Members of the area’s historical societies will be invited to join Fairwater members for the presentations. Preparations for the meeting are still being made, and a program will be distributed following Fairwater’s Heritage Days in August. The meeting will be free to the public. |
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NEWSLETTER
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