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Container
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Title
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994A/1
Tape/Side
1/1
Time
0:00
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Introduction
: First part of interview recorded April 25, 1980.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
0:50
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What was Portage like in your day around the year 1900?
: Log rafts tied up at Portage. Portage had athletic teams. One football player named Rogers in Hall of Fame. Streets in city not paved. Harman Family owned a livery stable. Indians came to town to sell their furs.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
5:20
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Visit to Indian camp with a chief named Dixon
: They were good people.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
10:30
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School athletics and games
: Portage had national championship basketball team. Summer swimming.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
11:25
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Treacherous currents in Wisconsin River; swimming
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
12:00
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Harman family lived on Portage Canal
: Everyone had a boat; gasoline launches.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
12:58
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Excursions on big steamers to Fond du Lac on Fox River
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
13:55
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Dredging the canal
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
14:55
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First auto ride, circa 1913-1914
: Harman family lived in Caledonia at that time. First car Harman ever saw had “handlebar steering.”
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
16:10
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No pavement on roads
: Started paving about 1908-1912, with gravel surfaces only.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
16:50
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Harman was a cook for road construction camp
: Located in Town of Caledonia about four miles out of Portage on present County Trunk Highway U in winter. Men lived in tents; worked nine hours a day.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
19:35
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Horses used on road construction were rented from Harman Livery Stable
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
20:35
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Livery stable also rented buggy and saddle horses for many uses
: Author Zona Gale rented livery horses and buggies.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
21:20
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Zona Gale was poor before she hit “pay dirt”
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
21:50
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Zona Gale “catered to the poor people”
: Harman recites poem.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
23:10
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Harman's uncle raised a family of six children on nine dollars a week
: Most people had a garden and most had a cow right in the city. Central pasture across the Wisconsin River in summer.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
24:40
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Old wooden covered bridge
: Destroyed by cyclone in 1906. Replaced by steel bridge. Ferry used during interim between destruction of old bridge and building of new one. Cows swam the river to pasture.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
28:20
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Tells how cows were made to swim the river
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
28:40
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Harmans sold hay to feed cattle
: Disposal of manure in city. Women made butter and cheese. Some people also kept pigs in town.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
30:00
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People did not have meat every day
: They butchered their own pork and salted it down.
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Tape/Side
1/1
Time
32:00
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Housewives did not have far to walk for their meat and grocery shopping
: There were four grocery stores in one block in Portage.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
0:0
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Market Square in Portage always to be a market place
: Parking meters illegal. Farmers brought cordwood to sell for fuel.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
1:50
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Goodyear Park
: Must always be used as a park. No playground equipment.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
3:25
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1821 British cannon found in market square when grading for pavement
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
4:05
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Harman's Grandfather in Civil War
: Had thumb shot off. Name was Roberts.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
5:19
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Trip with Doctor C.W. Henney to Packwaukee
: Went with doctor and nurse in winter to perform kitchen table surgery on 80-year-old man with strangulated hernia. Nurse's hands frozen, 1915 or 1916.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
10:20
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Operation at Mayo Brothers Clinic
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
11:40
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Description of Dr. Henney's character
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
12:10
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Drove for Dr. Kellog for seven days and nights in Town of Caledonia area
: Mostly confinement cases. Harman slept while doctor worked and Kellog slept while Harman drove. Kellog never refused a call.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
14:10
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Confinement case at Briggsville
: Roads glare ice. Baby born five or six hours before Doctor's arrival. Cord not cut. Doctor slapped baby on bottom and it began to cry.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
16:05
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Harman exempt from military service in World War I due to crippled hand
: Volunteered in place of draftee by trading draft numbers, 1917. Battery C, 332 Light Field Artillery. Was given choice of service; chose Infantry; put in Artillery.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
19:12
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Harman was stationed at Camp Grant
: Was given a vicious horse to ride. Describes a march from Camp Grant to Sparta.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
25:40
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Influenza
: Harman's battery was to be sent to Kansas for training, but through an error was sent to Camp Grant. The second day at Camp Grant the battery lost ninety of its 360 men to influenza.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
26:50
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Harman went AWOL (absent without leave) with friend
: Very ill when he arrived in Janesville. Girl bought him a pint of whiskey, which he claimed saved his life; He returned to camp in 8 days.
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
28:40
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Reported to Colonel and was promoted to grade of corporal
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Tape/Side
1/2
Time
33:00
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Corpses of flu victims stacked in garage like cordwood while coffins were made
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994A/2
Tape/Side
2/1
Time
0:29
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Influenza and casket shortage
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
1:09
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Wife of local banker drove truck to pick up corpses in daytime and drove a taxicab at night
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
1:37
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Description of first flu case Harman saw
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
2:00
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Not much was done, or could be done, for flu victims except to prescribe whiskey
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
2:18
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Harman learned the man with whom he had gone AWOL died as he entered his mother's kitchen
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
3:20
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Harman tells of street cars in Portage
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
4:00
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Soo Line Railroad service from Stevens Point to Portage
: Harman describes location of Soo Depot. Good taxi fares for his taxi and bus service.
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
4:40
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Traveling salesmen hired buggies from Harman's livery stable to reach nearby small towns
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
5:40
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Street cars couldn't cross the canal to Soo Line depot
: Half mile walk to street car. The fare was five cents. The line operated for two or three years. The car barn is at present site of Ray-O-Vac Company (1980).
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
8:20
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Power for street railway was furnished by local power company, I.W. York & Co.
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
9:35
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Man working at power plant fell on exposed wires, 60,000 volts
: When friend attempted to grab him a third man hit him over the head with a piece of two by four, to save him. Victim's foot prints burned in concrete, but he lived with a plate in his skull for many years. Name was “Monk” Stoeckel [This spelling may be wrong].
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
11:25
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Harman tells of Zona Gale “The Unknown”
: He describes her as like an early-century magazine cover girl.
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
13:00
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There was a girl in Portage named Lulu Bett
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
13:50
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Zona Gale's aversion to appearing in public in Portage and signing autographs
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
15:32
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Incident of opening trunk before transporting it to depot
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
16:50
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Zona Gale's personal appearance as Harman remembers it
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
17:30
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Tells of Zona Gale's father, a good-looking man
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
17:50
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Gale's father had a farm across the Wisconsin River from Portage in Caledonia
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
21:20
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One of Zone Gale's suitors was State Senator Staudenmeier, but she married Bill Breeze. He had adopted a little girl
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
22:10
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Breeze was president of Portage Hosiery Company and the City Bank
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
23:00
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Permissive attitude toward children; Zona Gale adopted a little girl, too
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
24:20
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Zona Gale's last illness
: She called Harman to take her to Dr. Lohr, a chiropractor. She died two days later.
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Tape/Side
2/1 (continued)
Time
25:50
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Reconstruction of the Portage Levee System
: Interview continued on June 11, 1981.
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Tape/Side
2/1
Time
27:00
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Building the grade for proposed interurban railway line
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
0:00
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Introduction
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
0:18
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Construction of Portage Levee System
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
1:10
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Floods in Town of Caledonia; took row-boat to Portage
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
2:50
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Public Works Administration (PWA) Project, 1936
: Raised all levees in the system by four feet. Work was done in the winter time.
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
5:15
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Iron foundry in Portage
: Custom casting, cast iron store fronts, manhole covers, engine parts, etc. Had a machine shop, pattern makers, and molders.
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
9:35
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Boiler shop in Portage
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
10:50
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Boiler blew up at Portage Hotel
: Building heated with a steamroller.
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
12:10
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Portage Hotel fire
: Originally the Planters Hotel, built by George and Charlie Bremner. Placed at this location for benefit of river and canal traffic. Bremner also built hotel at Pardeeville occupied in 1981 by Columbia County Historical Museum.
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
14:50
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Model T Ford cars repair and welding, circa 1912 and 1913
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
16:15
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Blacksmith welding
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
17:50
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Repairs by blacksmith weld
: Welding car springs in World War II by blacksmith welding.
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
18:50
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Horse shoeing
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
20:45
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Harman tells of being ordered to clean hooves of unmanageable artillery horse in WW I
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
23:55
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Portage Boat and Engine Company
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
24:35
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Nehls Boat Company
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
24:50
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Two cylinder gas engines built in Portage for use in boats
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Tape/Side
2/2
Time
27:30
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Discussion of Harman's book about Harman's mother and her poetry. Story of German neighbor with a bad temper.
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994A/3
Tape/Side
3/1
Time
0:00
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Introduction
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Tape/Side
3/1
Time
0:30
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Harman continues to tell story of the bad-tempered German neighbor and his family
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Tape/Side
3/1
Time
8:10
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Harman tells of experience in Artillery at Madison in WW I when his unit was ordered to parade in their underwear when taking their horses to be washed in the lake
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