Interview
I [interviewer Dale Treleven of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin] first approached Professor Wileden in the winter of 1975 about the possibility of holding a series of tape recorded interviews. While my chief objective was to tape Wileden about his early life in rural Waukesha County and about his many years of direct contact with rural community leaders and farmers' organizations in Wisconsin, the scope of the interviews was expanded to include many of his general reflections and remembrances about his career at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Wileden was, after all, the heir to a tradition of applied sociology established by Charles J. Galpin (the “father of rural sociology” in the United States), and continued by John H. Kolb, who fought successfully to establish an autonomous department of rural sociology. Interestingly, agricultural economist Henry C. Taylor (whose influence had led to Galpin's being added to the Madison staff to examine rural social life, conditions, and problems) several decades earlier than Kolb had been successful in establishing an agricultural economics department separate from the Department of Economics.
Professor Wileden and I began taping on February 5. We concluded on May 7, 1975, after holding nine individual sessions and recording approximately fifteen hours of interview. Typically I arrived at Wileden's Nakoma home at 9:30 A.M. and we usually began taping about fifteen or twenty minutes later after Arthur and Harriet Wileden and I had discussed current national and local affairs of mutual interest and concern. Each individual session was from ninety to 120 minutes in length. During each session, Harriet Wileden crocheted while seated in a nearby rocking chair, and occasionally contributed to the discussion or to make a slight correction to a statement made by her husband. Professor Wileden and I faced one another, the microphone placed on the foot stool that separated us. The bespectacled Wileden typically wore a checked, flannel shirt to complement everyday trousers and slippers. On his lap lay a sheaf of reference notes, compiled before each session on the basis of a listing of subject areas we had agreed upon at the end of a previous meeting. At the same time, I did not prepare any advance listing of specific questions before any of the interview sessions.
Researchers with wide-ranging interests will benefit by listening to the remembrances of one who has observed the process as keenly as he has measured a product. Those interested in the prosperous rolling farmlands in Waukesha County during the century's first two decades will learn much from Wileden's detailed descriptions of individual farm units and rural community life; others will wish to hear his comments about a short, but eye-opening period as an Army drill instructor from 1918-1919; still others will be greatly interested in Wileden's description of the emergence of rural sociology as an independent discipline at the University of Wisconsin, and how the discipline began to change in the post-World War II period. Wileden discusses in detail the underpinnings of applied sociology and describes how he and others organized and developed extension programs for state citizens in such areas as drama, music, and public speaking. Researchers will share his chagrin at the almost totally disorganized efforts to mobilize rural Wisconsin for defense during World War II, and will share his pride over the successful development of French Island, an old settlement near the city of La Crosse.
Wileden speaks freely of many with whom he was closely associated, both within and outside of the university community, including college of agriculture deans, rural sociology department chairmen, rural community leaders, and farmers. He reflects at length upon the changing role of the university, the college of agriculture, and the rural sociology department, and often expresses distinct satisfaction or profound displeasure with the turn of events over the past several decades.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks; a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “COMMENTS ON HENRY G. BROCK, TEACHER AT THE NORTH LISBON SCHOOL” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 12:05 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “twelve minutes, five seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on HENRY G. BROCK continues until approximately 13:10 at which point discussion of the next topic (“ANECDOTE ABOUT POOR GRADE ON COUNTY EXAM”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example, the sentences underneath “COMMENTS ON HENRY G. BROCK, TEACHER. . . .” give further details on what appears on the tape between 12:05 and 13:10.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However the abstract when used with the index will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
Index to the Interview
The index, which is keyed to the same time announcement track (second track) as the abstract, gives a single alphabetical listing of all proper nouns (names of persons, places, groups, organizations, books, periodicals), and distinct historical phenomena (Depression, World War II), which appear in the abstract. Each entry is followed by one or more three- or four-part citations specifying the location(s) where the entry appears. For instance, Henry G. Brock is followed by the citation 1:1, 06;40. This indicates that a reference to Henry G. Brock appears on Tape 1, Side 1 within the time-marking beginning at six minutes, forty seconds of the time announcement.
