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Tom Brogden's Dogs 
  From the time his father 
bought him his first hunting dog, 
Thomas Brodgen always liked 
dogs. He fondly remembered his 
boyhood hunts at Preacher's 
Bend at Omro, near his Poygan 
home. 
  Brogden's activities with dogs 
were told in 1978 by his daughter, 
Dorothy (Mrs. Minor Harris). 
  "In his early years of marriage 
my father raised dachshunds and 
often told the story of the dach- 
shund he sold to a bomber crew in 
World War Two. The crew always 
kept in touch with him until they 
were sent overseas. He never 
heard from them again. 
  "Brogden      became     the 
originator of a newly registered 
breed of dogs when he purchased 
'Rush Lake Navigator' and his 
mate 'Brown Bear.' He sent the 
pair to a Mr. Wilson in the north- 
western part of the state to be 
trained and shown. 
  "This pair passed rigid tests 
and were finally registered by the 
American Kennel Club as 'Ameri- 
can Brown Spaniels.' Father said 
of his dogs with their curly brown 
hair and heavily boned frames, 
'Beauty is as beauty does.' He 
was called a practical hunting 
man and his dogs were classed as 
utility hunting dogs. 
  "Father never had less than 20 
breeding females and his cham- 
pion stud was 'Storm King.' 
  "His kennels were always 
scrubbed and sprayed and the 
dogs dipped. Eventually he 
placed an ultra-violet light in each 
kennel to kill germs and eliminate 
dust -- like an operating room. 
The place smelled clean. 
  "The American Browns were 
excellent waterbird dogs. They 
were sold all over the county and 
there were even orders from 
South America. 
  Dorothy Harris continued, 
"My folks were in the dog bus- 
iness from 1925 to 1958 when 
Mother died and Father could not 
carry on alone. Mother always 
worked right along with Father to 
tend the dogs. Sometimes she 
cared for 150 pupppies at one 
time. It was one of her jobs to 
wash the puppy dishes every day 
and to keep records and corres- 
pondence in a filing system. She 
started out all the pups on 
Pablum and cared for them like 
babies. 
  "When they sold a dog -- and 
they sold over 1,000 of them -- 
they always included a leaflet 
that explained how to care for and 
train the animal. 
"Alongwith the dogs they raised 
Angora goats, nine varieties of 
sheep, and a silver-black breed of 
rabbits. With Fred Alger, who 
showed chickens, rabbits, ducks, 
and honey, Brogden took in many 
a fair. The two men brought home 
a lot of blue ribbons. Mother sent 
along her prize apples and some 
corn from the field to collect a few 
ribbons herself." 
  The Brogdens lived on a 75- 
acre farm on the north shore of 
Rush Lake. They often told of 
times the Indians came there to 
shoot ducks, net fish, and then 
smoke the meat in the tops of 
their tepees for winter food. They 
also gathered wild rice by knock- 
ing it into their canoes. 
  When the wild rice was plenti- 
ful, the Brogden cows would go 
out into the lake as the waters 
dried up in summer, and eat wild 
rice till they couldn't hold any 
more. Wild rice is a thing of the 
past on Rush Lake. 
Thomas Brogden 
       Brogden and Navigator 
Thomas Brogden had his American 
Broum stud pose for his picture in 1937. 
The champion dog was named Rush Lake 
Navigator. 
[Courtesy of Dorothy Brogden Harris, 
                     Mrs. Minor] 
p __________ 
The Annual 
         Autumn Parties 
  When Granddad Charles Steele 
died in 1947, his daughter-in- 
law missed the open house parties 
she always held for him on his Oc- 
tober birthdays. He lived with his 
son Glen and Jennie in the home 
built by David R. Bean, next door 
to the Methodist Church on the 
south. 
  So Jennie Nelson Steele (Mrs. 
Glen) decided to invite all the 
women of the Waukau area who 
were over 60 years old to a gather- 
ing she named "The Autumn Par- 
ty." 
  These autumn affairs provided 
             -69- 
an opportunity for women of the 
vicinity to share mementoes and 
pictures of old times in Waukau. 
They always had a light lunch 
served by the hostess and reveled 
in the reviving of old memories. 
  In 1956 the group invited the 
students of Waukau       State 
Graded School who had formed a 
Junior Historians Club. The 
"Autumn Ladies" wanted to help 
the young people gather as much 
history of Waukau as possible.