March 21, 1979 Interview

Introduction

Interviewer's Preface and Interviewee's Rejoinder
Scope and Content Note: Roy Meier prepared Town of Spirit section in 1876-1976 Centennial, Ogema-Spirit Hill, July 2nd to 4th, Historical Album

Roy R. Meier Born in Father's New House Near Course of New Road.
Scope and Content Note: Born on December 26, 1902. Describes family picture taken in spring of 1903 (copy in SHSW Archives).

Family Composition
Scope and Content Note: Thirteen surviving children; one child died at birth. Roy Meier the seventh son. Describes picture of father Karl Albert Meier (later Albert C. Meier) at age twenty-one.

Origins of Meier Family
Scope and Content Note: Migrated first from Germany, then from Wind Lake (Muskego), Wisconsin. Grandfather Siegfried Meier served in Civil War, went to Texas, then migrated to town of Brannan to locate homesteads for German relatives. Filed claim in section 26 on tote road from Jenny (Merrill).

Locates Meier Homestead on Post-1881 Plat Map (copy in SHSW Archives)
Scope and Content Note: Father's 160-acre farm adjacent to grandfather's. Albert Meier probably homesteaded in 1881 at age twenty-one; record found of taxes paid in 1883.

Town of Brannan Renamed Town of Spirit in 1923
Scope and Content Note: Adopted from Indian name for Great Spirit. Cites names of Germans who settled in town of Spirit; explains how railroads owned every other section.

Comments on German Settlement in Swedish Area
Scope and Content Note: Baptist pastor Ostergren brought in Swedish settlers about the same time Wisconsin Central Railroad being constructed. Ogema area possibly first Swedish settlement in Wisconsin.

Describes Photograph of Albert C. Meier Farm, circa 1902
Scope and Content Note: Locates milk house, machine shed, barn from old homestead by Spirit River.

Explains Term “Tote Road”
Scope and Content Note: Route for bringing supplies to headwaters for logging camps. Believes route followed road between Green Bay and Washburn at times when St. Mary's River frozen.

Religious Background of Mother's Family
Scope and Content Note: Marheine family had belonged to state church in Germany; children sent to Methodist Sunday School in Oshkosh. Recalls children carried dime to buy a pail of beer, not to donate to church. Mother joined Zion Lutheran Church in German settlement after Roy's birth.

Religious Background of Father's Family
Scope and Content Note: Grandfather met and married Eva Falikowski while in German army. Never joined a church. Father also joined Zion Lutheran Church in 1904.

Zion Lutheran Church in Town of Spirit Affiliated with Missouri or Wisconsin Synod

German Settlement Demonstrates Americanism as European War Spreads
Scope and Content Note: Zion Lutheran Church discontinued German-language services in 1915; Meier family stopped speaking German. Roy's eldest brother, Edward, enlisted in army; wounded at Cantigny.

Coercion against Germans in Area
Scope and Content Note: Recalls incident where Kraft house in Tomahawk painted yellow.

Absence of German Teachers in Settlement
Scope and Content Note: German school board members consciously hired teachers without foreign accent.

Origin of Roy Meier's “By-You Country” Nickname for German Settlement
Scope and Content Note: German greeting “How goes it by-you?”

End of Tape 1, Side 1

Introduction

German Settlement School Located in Section 26
Scope and Content Note: Swedes later built Stone Lake school after which former school building moved one mile east. New German Settlement school built in 1919.

Comments on Father's Intelligence
Scope and Content Note: Wrote well; served on county board for several years.

Improved and Unimproved Acreage on Meier Farm, 1906-1917
Scope and Content Note: Father initially cleared four acres; gradually cleared stumpage with horses.

Recalls Seeing First Auto, 1906 or 1907
Scope and Content Note: Owned by Dr. Pierson.

Father Builds New Barn in 1906-1907
Scope and Content Note: 86' by 45' with large loft.

More on Clearing Land
Scope and Content Note: Twenty-five acres cleared by 1915. Observations about homesteaders' preference for sites along streams.

Father Begins to Sell Butter in Tomahawk, circa 1890
Scope and Content Note: Replaced oxen with team of horses to market butter in Tomahawk, twenty-five miles away, once every two weeks. Describes routes to Tomahawk. Father unique since most area farmers produced enough milk and butter for own consumption only. No local market for butter at first since lumber camps preferred cheaper lard.

Father Sells Butter to William Bradley, Owner of Standard Mercantile Company
Scope and Content Note: Tomahawk a growing logging and sawmill town. William Bradley a “very progressive person” who once spoofed New York financiers into believing Tomahawk a great wheat-growing area. Bradley built Marinette, Tomahawk, and Western Railroad; built Farmers Trading Company stores in Spirit Falls and Spirit; kept pure-bred bull at Spirit Falls for use by Albert Meier and others.

Father Delivers Butter to Booming Spirit Falls
Scope and Content Note: Sold butter in stone crocks, prints, and tubs under label of “Spring Brook Dairy.”

Spirit Falls Grows as Logging Town
Scope and Content Note: Had seven saloons, two hotels, but no church. Meier's uncle was blacksmith and constable.

More Comments on Father's Foresightedness

Crops on Albert Meier Farm
Scope and Content Note: Two acres of oats, one acre of corn, one acre of wheat and hay. Recalls brothers using scythes to cut hay. One of first in area to raise corn, red flint variety.

Planting Corn by Hand as Child
Scope and Content Note

Planted four kernels:

“One for the blackbird,

One for the crow,

One for the cutworm,

And one to grow.”

Father began to use hand-planter about 1914.

Family Members' Chores
Scope and Content Note: Girls worked in garden and field, but not in barn. Mother liked to milk cows; father not good at it.

Father Sells Potatoes, Rutabagas, and Cabbage
Scope and Content Note: Sold in Spirit Falls and Tomahawk.

End of Tape 1, Side 2

March 22, 1979 Interview

Introduction

Origin of Roy Meier's Interest in History
Scope and Content Note: Began in elementary school. He and mother milked together and talked about older days; he wrote down much of what she said.

Meier's German Settlement History
Scope and Content Note: Revised several times because of new evidence.

Why Siegfried Meier Brought Germans to Area
Scope and Content Note: Wisconsin Central Railroad Company probably subsidized Meier's efforts. Pastor Ostergren a member of state board of immigration.

More about Garden
Scope and Content Note: Cabbage and potatoes grown in half-acre garden east of house; rutabaga raised in field.

Cousin's Husband Carl Sawales Builds Creamery, circa 1910.
Scope and Content Note: Father had expanded market which included cream as well as butter; bought Empire cream separator. Reduced reliance on marketing vegetables.

Animals on Farm
Scope and Content Note: Included hogs and chickens. Raised no geese, although neighbors did. Father replaced oxen with team of horses in early 1890s. Recalls father leading brood sow to Spirit Falls to be bred. Father raised sheep to produce wool for home consumption; family later sold wool locally as few continued to raise sheep.

Meier Belongs to Wool Pool
Scope and Content Note: Statewide farmers' organization to obtain better price for wool, circa 1912-1920. Pool shipped wool by rail to Rib Lake. Roy Meier continued to raise sheep to provide wool for mother's knitting, despite problems containing them.

Shearing Sheep
Scope and Content Note: Learned how to shear from mother; laid sheep on old door across sawhorses. Always bought pure-bred rams to reduce effects of in-breeding.

Description of Farmhouse in 1915
Scope and Content Note: Recalls cream separator bolted to floor in kitchen; points out marks from brothers' cork shoes on floor. Two bedrooms upstairs held boys and girls, respectively. Small pantry adjoined kitchen. Front (north) room was sitting room; west room was parents' bedroom.

Illumination in House and Barn
Scope and Content Note: Used kerosene lamps until borrowed on life insurance policy to buy Delco plant in 1939. Installed lights in house and barn; bought iron and washing machine. Little reading done before advent of Reo lamps. Used kerosene lantern in barn until 1939.

Heating
Scope and Content Note: Wood cookstove in kitchen and heating stove in south room; upstairs unheated.

Water
Scope and Content Note: Father foresaw expansion of house, dug well near location of present kitchen door.

Addition and Changes to House
Scope and Content Note: Addition built in 1914; describes structural changes made over the years. Roy Meier family shared house for many years with his mother.

Water First Piped into House in 1941
Scope and Content Note: First installed faucets; later built bathroom by walling off part of kitchen.

Water in Barn
Scope and Content Note: Well dug near barn about 1920; water handpumped into tank.

Electrification in 1941
Scope and Content Note: Lake Superior Light and Power Company surveyed and offered service for five dollars per month. Price County Rural Electrification Cooperative organized; charged $2.50 per month. Nob-and-tube wiring in Meier house sufficient to pass inspection. Traded Delco plant to implement dealer for first tractor, a Model B Allis-Chalmers, in 1941.

End of Tape 2, Side 1

Telephone First Installed in Meier Home, 1913
Scope and Content Note: William Bradley brought first telephone line into Spirit; Ogema Telephone Company organized in 1912 or 1913. Father and neighbors called to exchange temperature readings on cold mornings. Dial system installed after Ogema and Brantwood companies consolidated.

Radio
Scope and Content Note: Brother owned six-volt battery radio recharged by wind charger, miniature windmill mounted on house roof. Recalls brother-in-law built own radio set in early-1920s; listened to Chicago stations.

Phonograph
Scope and Content Note: After two family deaths, boys in 1920s convinced mother to buy Sears Roebuck phonograph to alleviate household loneliness, paid for by trapping weasels and muskrats.

More about Radio
Scope and Content Note: Family listened mostly to news and weather.

Improvements to Road That Is Now County Trunk YY
Scope and Content Note: Grass-covered center track between dusty ruts. Townspeople did road work to pay poll tax. Father hauled gravel from river bottom to fill worst spots. County neglected township roads in sparsely populated towns. Meier proposed blacktopping during first year on county board in 1961 after all vehicles immobilized for six weeks in 1960; no opposition because he introduced the issue “in a proper way. I explained it to 'em.”

Local Impact of Railroad
Scope and Content Note: Meier farm closer to railroad than to Merrill. Lumber and cattle shipped from Spirit Falls as late as 1943.

Cooperative Livestock Shipping Associations Fail Because Farmers Mistrust Them
Scope and Content Note: Meier's father belonged to cooperative packing company at Wausau; Farmers, mistrusting cooperatives, often sent better stock to such buyers as Oscar Mayer Company. Roy Meier belonged to Price County Shipping Association, Ogema Cooperative Livestock Association (1920), and Equity Association of Price County (1940s).

Meier Trucks Cattle, 1947-1952
Scope and Content Note: Hauled cattle from farms to Oscar Mayer buying station in Abbotsford; farmers frequently got 25-30 dollars more per cow from Meier than from other buyers, yet Meier often made 25 dollars per cow. Business “grew out of my hands” and sold when oldest son went to Korean War. Present trucker hauls to cooperative at Stratford. Includes anecdotes about farmer suspicion of cattle-buyers.

Other Cattle-Buyers
Scope and Content Note: Names other local cattle-buyers.

Competition Leads to Price-Fixing
Scope and Content Note: Buyers once approached Meier to join price-fixing scheme for buying young pigs.

Father Buys 86 Model Overland Touring Car in 1916
Scope and Content Note: Bought green Overland instead of Maxwell or Ford; may have reached 30 miles per hour.

End of Tape 2, Side 2

Mail-Order Purchases
Scope and Content Note: Parents ordered groceries from Steinmeyer, hardware from Shadbolt and Boyd; both shipped from Milwaukee.

Meier Farm Declines During World War I Years
Scope and Content Note: Good income in 1917, but brother and sister overspent and by 1920 family sold hay for cash. Meier decided to reverse trend by rebuilding herd.

Roy Meier's Education, Employment, and Early Farming Years
Scope and Content Note: One of few in neighborhood to finish eighth grade. Father raised older brother Ed to take over farm; Ed attended farm short-course run by first county agent, Griffith Richards, and joined potato club, then a calf club, forerunners of 4-H. Roy physically small, expected to learn trade, but began to manage farm in 1917 because father ill and another brother in army in France; others at home had no interest.

Meier Supplements Farm Income
Scope and Content Note: Worked on town road-grading crew at age 15; later in logging camp during winter as soon as younger brother able to handle farm chores. Earned 100 dollars during first logging season; bought a second horse for 125 dollars Shows photograph of lumber camp dug into bank, where he learned how to whittle, tell lies, but not to chew tobacco. Use of team in father's time doubled logging wages; Roy Meier also earned money as tie cutter to purchase farm machinery.

Farm Machinery Purchases
Scope and Content Note: Replaced Deering horse mower with McCormick; purchased another springtooth drag; bought hand corn-planter.

County Agent Encourages Meier and Neighbors to Put Up Silos, 1924
Scope and Content Note: Dan Nelson, Ed Pierson and Meier purchased doors and hardware from A.C. Tectonius, Milwaukee; staves shipped directly from West Coast. Describes silo construction.

Silage Improves Milk Production
Scope and Content Note: Improved feed resulted in year-round milk checks. Farmers together bought Ross silo filler and cut corn, although at first didn't know how much corn needed to fill silo. Cooperative work “happiest time of the life for farming,” although created extra work for women.

Farm Building Improvements
Scope and Content Note: Buildings in good repair. Widened barn walk, replaced wood stalls with stanchions just after 1924, and added water cups for cows.

Meier Rebuilds Dairy Herd
Scope and Content Note: Raised all own heifers and often traded bull for heifer calves. Rebuilt Jersey herd, then joined Nelson and Pierson in switching to Guernseys in mid-1920s, with county agent's encouragement. Guernseys increased milk production; culls brought better price. Increased herd size from 12 to 16 about 1940.

Soil Acidity Limits Choice of Forage Crop
Scope and Content Note: Raised clover rather than alfalfa because soil very acid until lime available by truckload. As much as ten tons of lime per acre needed.

End of Tape 3, Side 1

Introduction

Cash Income During Early Farming Years
Scope and Content Note: Logging enabled family to purchase necessary machinery, especially during the 1920s, the hardest years; no two-week milk check exceeded 74 dollars by early 1940s.

Roy Meier Logs Farm Timber for Income
Scope and Content Note: Logged own land for hemlock and some hardwood after marriage in 1927. Followed father's pattern of cutting only mature timber rather than clear-cutting. Hired boy helped with farm chores. Marketed only veneer until Tomahawk Craft Paper Company began to buy hardwood for pulping in 1940s.

Meier Supervises Work Program Road Crews in 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Already Brannan Cooperative Creamery director. As county sideboard member, set up county, later federal government work projects for local unemployed men. Farmers also paid off federal feed loans by working on highway and fire-lane crews.

Meier Becomes Town of Brannan Raod Superintendent in 1941
Scope and Content Note: Supervised and hired crews during World War II years; earned forty-five cents an hour but paid own expenses.

Drought Helps to Depress Farm Income in Late 1920s
Scope and Content Note: Sold animals for as little as 7 dollars per head to pay property taxes and telephone bill; clover dried up, so cut meadow hay to keep horses and two or three other animals alive. Milk production declined.

Brannan Creamery Cooperative Waits Out Wisconsin Cooperative Milk Pool 1933 Strikes
Scope and Content Note: 100 percent local membership in Milk Pool; hoped Pool program would boost milk price. Walter Singler organized strike; creamery held butter rather than join. No violence or property destruction in neighborhood except for one incident of kerosene added to milk. Meier believes butter shipments would have been stopped had they been attempted.

Brannan Cooperative Creamery Sold after 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Milk Pool dissolved when strikes failed. Brannan Cooperative sold to Laabs Company when regulations during World War II restricted truck runs and cooperative could not pay its way. Stockholders paid over 100 percent.

Meier Active on Cooperative Boards
Scope and Content Note: Elected Brannan director in 1923 at age 21. Later area director for Pure Milk Products Cooperative; met other cooperators outside own area, including Paul Affeldt of Sparta.

Meier's Acquaintances through 4-H Leaders Conference
Scope and Content Note: Recalls Mrs. Milo Singler, Vern Varney, Agnes Hansen.

Farmers' Union Has Little Local Impact during 1930s

Few Local Foreclosures during 1930s
Scope and Content Note: Meier's brother one of the few, but “I think that we were the type of people that were used to doing without and we accepted it, so perhaps this helped us.”

End of Tape 3, Side 2

Introduction

Meiers Increase Production during World War II
Scope and Content Note: Prices rose and government subsidized production increases. Children old enough to help while Meier worked more on roads. No vacant land nearby to rent so cleared hill that “should never be cleared” to increase cultivated land. Worked nine acres of farm across the road on half-shares, so Meier's total cultivated acreage reached forty acres, largest ever. “We farmed wherever we could get a plow into the ground.”

Meier Returns Tilled Acreage to Pasture as Sons Enter Farming
Scope and Content Note: Income needs changed when Meier began drawing Social Security before age 65 to help youngest son through college. Son Gene began to take over dairy herd in 1969 and pastured hillier ground. Younger son bought forty-acre farm for 6000 dollars before entering Peace Corps; family set aside nine acres in federal government's Soil Bank program. Later son added 4000 dollar farm with house and barn to bring tillable land to 55 acres.

Neighbors and County Agents as Sources of Information
Scope and Content Note: Cites older people in community, county agents, forester Adrian DeVriend, farmers Ed Pierson and Dan Nelson. Did not attend farmers' institutes or short courses.

Wisconsin Agriculturist as the Most Useful Farm Publication
Scope and Content Note: Successful Farmer and Hoard's Dairyman geared toward larger farmers.

Why Meier Never Joined General Farmers' Organizations
Scope and Content Note: Farmers' Union “didn't conflict with us,” but Meier did not join township group. Found National Farmers Organization too militant; “I felt I was doing more for the farmers in our community [while hauling cattle] than NFO promised to do.” Likes Farm Bureau but no local group. Recalls Grange organizing activity in 1920s; “nearsighted” pastor discouraged Meier from joining a “secret organization.” Grange lapsed through lack of membership. Liked Grange emphasis on cooperation and family farming. Greed of nearby farmers, not corporations, endangers small farmers.

Meiers Support La Follettes
Scope and Content Note: Father voted for Democrats after Republican party split, later leaned towards Progressive Republicans. Meier stayed with Republicans after neighbor Arvid Blomberg elected to state assembly, and after Robert La Follette, Jr. returned to Republican party in 1946.

Meier Slips Out of Assembly Race, 1962
Scope and Content Note: Meier asked to run for assembly about time town of Spirit and Hill supervisory districts consolidated. Meier deferred to his nephew Alan Blomberg as supervisor from newly created district.

“New” Democratic Party Not Active in Town of Spirit

Meier's Public Offices
Scope and Content Note: Town board in 1931 until became highway superintendent in 1941. Chosen town chairman and county supervisor in 1958 when Art Johnson wanted to retire. Became town treasurer in 1962 for six years, then withdrew from politics.

Finnish Population in Town of Knox
Scope and Content Note: Atheist majority, a group of drinkers and fighters, pushed “communistic thinking into the area;” voted for Eugene Debs in 1920.

Objections to Present Property Tax Formula
Scope and Content Note: Local people blamed present Democrats for diverting property tax credit after 1974; at the same time state surplus accumulated because of property tax increases. Meier always favored sales tax; “the people that spent the most money would pay the most tax.”

Daylight Savings Time
Scope and Content Note: Didn't like daylight savings time but felt “we could plan our work as we pleased” regardless.

End of Tape 4, Side 1 (there is no Tape 4, Side 2)

March 23, 1979 Interview

Introduction

Ropp's Calculator
Scope and Content Note: Purchased about 1919 through agricultural newspaper; used to calculate height of tree, size of haystack, weights and measures, interest rates, and so on.

Purchases Farm Equipment Locally
Scope and Content Note: Liked Ogema and Tomahawk dealers because they “didn't try to sell us something that we couldn't pay for.” Few breakdowns; farmers usually serviced own machinery. Nearest Allis-Chalmers dealer now fifty miles away in Stetsonville.

Early Farm Machinery
Scope and Content Note: Hauled water for Nicholas-Shepherd steam engine and Red River Valley threshing rig about 1915.

Early Milking Machines
Scope and Content Note: Most farmers had Surge milkers.

Laabs Creamery Subsidizes Improvements to Farm Milk-Cooling Systems
Scope and Content Note: First cooled ten-gallon milk cans in water tank. Recalls how Brannan Creamery quality milk program emphasized milk storage hygiene on the farm. Meier bought can cooler in 1947 or 1948 when Laabs offered one cent premium to farmers purchasing them. In 1960s local creamery subsidized farmers' switch to bulk tanks for Grade A milk.

Seed for Oats and Corn
Scope and Content Note: No seed dealers in neighborhood; raised own until hybrids came into use. Bought garden seed and clover seed from store or Northrup-King.

Home Medical Care and Childbirth When Meier Was Young
Scope and Content Note: Midwife attended birth; later midwife assisted doctor. Roy Meier's children all born at home. Doctors practiced in Ogema and Prentice until 1950s. Recalls fifteen-mile trip to doctor in 1918, first experience with sulfa drugs circa 1950. Meiers now travel to clinic in Tomahawk.

Barn Construction as Occasion for Neighborhood Gatherings
Scope and Content Note: Barn-raising and shingling might draw fifty men.

Herman Jahn Owns First Threshing Rig in Nieghborhood
Scope and Content Note: Kerosene-powered Vance-Rumley thresher eventually replaced Jahn's early steam-powered machine.

Basket Socials and Dances
Scope and Content Note: Functioned as fund-raisers.

Traveling Threshing Crews Replace Neighborly Cooperation
Scope and Content Note: Carelessness of crew influenced Meeiers' decision to buy combin about 1950.

Herman Jahn Family Keeps Bees

Quilting Bees

Weddings
Scope and Content Note: Albert Meier added dance hall and kitchen to house for first child's wedding in 1909. Wedding dances with shivaree for refreshment money replaced home wedding parties in 1920s.

End of Tape 5, Side 1

Introduction

Meier Neighborhood Disregards Prohibition
Scope and Content Note: Meier and brother-in-law made home brew. Moonshine easy to buy, especially at dances; enforcement ineffective. Recalls violence, neighbor's death. Log cabin now on Meier property once used for moonshining. “I suppose Prohibition was a mistake... this is when our country first started to disregard laws.”

Funerals and Suicides
Scope and Content Note: Father's body embalmed at home, taken to church after wake. Suicides not taken to church; lifted over fence into cemetery. Tells story of local suicide in 1920.

1913 Telephone Lines Follow Settlement Language Divisions
Scope and Content Note: Tells Norwegian friend's story of switching around telephone lines to German and Swedish settlements.

Meiers Begin 4-H Groups for Own Children
Scope and Content Note: Son Ron at age nine recruited father as club leader and four schoolmates as members for first, male group. Daughter's subsequent interest brought Helen Meier into 4-H as girls' group leader. Meier often meets children of former members of Busy Beavers 4-H Club at fairs.

4-H Important Medium for Meeting and Understanding People
Scope and Content Note: Provides something “to work together at home” and a means to an education “that continues through your life.”

4-H Experience Helps Niece Gain Confidence to Succeed as Nurse
Scope and Content Note: Niece Marie grew up with Meiers, who encouraged her to become a nurse; “we wanted each one of our children to have a career.” Meier sees 4-H program as “a medium we don't have otherwise.”

No Opposition to Meier's Efforts on Town or County Board
Scope and Content Note: Fairgrounds committee work as example of cooperation on boards.

Establishes Park on Stone Lake while Town Chairman
Scope and Content Note: Describes construction of boat landing and bathing beach planned to protect lake's natural features. Natural springwater available to public despite violation of state regulation. Town received financial aid from state and from forester Adrian DeVriend.

School Consolidation Splits Town of Spirit Residents between Rib Lake and Prentice
Scope and Content Note: High school students boarded in Rib Lake until Meier began busing them circa 1935. Town of Spirit unsuccessfully resisted redistricting plans as communities grabbed territory to raise school district valuation. Consolidation closed German Settlement school, which already had declining number of students.

Spirit Lake Dam Causes Local Dissention
Scope and Content Note: Original dam built for logging in 1916; Rib Lake Fish and Game Club later rebuilt dam despite some residents' opposition. State Conservation Commission suggested compromise to control water level, then dropped issue in face of town chairman Meier's rebuff.

End of Tape 5, Side 2.

Introduction
Note: Tape 6 was made during an automobile trip near Meier's farm. The tape provides information on farms and buildings that may be located on Price County plat map T. 34N.-R. 3E (Town of Spirit), Lincoln County plat map T. 34N.-R. 4E (Town of Tomahawk), and Price County plat map T. 34N.-R. 2E (Town of Hill). Interviewer and interviewee began by traveling east from Roy Meier's Spring Brook Farm on County Trunk YY.

Spirit, Section 23: First Residence on Left after Meier Farm
Scope and Content Note: Urban owners moved building to property. Woman is airline stewardess based at O'Hare International Airport.

Interviewer Identifies Route

Spirit, Section 26: Meier Timber
Scope and Content Note: Pine selectively cut; 350-year-old oak still stands.

Spirit, Section 24: Albert Meier Clears New Right-of-Way to Spirit Falls
Scope and Content Note: Meier Road to right (south) follows Spirit River; later-built road to left (northeast) shortened distance from German Settlement to Spirit Falls and Tomahawk. Road posted against heavy timber trucks in early spring until frost heaves settle.

Spirit, Section 24: Edward L. Thomas Farm
Scope and Content Note: About ten tillable acres on a place no longer farmed.

Spirit, Section 24: Emil Wallgren Farm (Near Intersection of County YY and Strucker Road)
Scope and Content Note: Wallgren engineer for mill.

Spirit, Section 24: R.H. Waterman Place
Scope and Content Note: Present owner built second house with money from sale of land in Illinois.

Swedish Settlement along Price-Lincoln County Boundary
Scope and Content Note: Swedish families came down Wisconsin River from Michigan about same time as German settlement. No communication between area Swedish and German settlements until new road built.

Spirit, Section 24: Peter Johnson Farm Site of First Sawmill
Scope and Content Note: Johnson also was Graywood postmaster. Mill employed twenty men; boarding house and basket factory on site. Millyard formerly connected to railroad. Mill has operated continuously since 1895.

Tomahawk, Section 19: Gene Meier Farm
Scope and Content Note: Sugar maples for tapping on right. Anderson, then Bert Bergling families formerly owned farm.

Spirit, Section 13: Spirit Youth Forest
Scope and Content Note: Baseball diamond with grandstand and scoreboard in woods.

Comments on Severe Winter of 1979

Spirit, Section 13: Gary Failing Property
Scope and Content Note: City people who moved building to property; owner commutes to work in Wausau.

Tomahawk, Section 18: Old German Settlement Road Passes through Here

Spirit, Section 13: Frescura Property Owned by Chicago People.

Tomahawk, Section 18: Amandus Johnson Farm
Scope and Content Note: Johnson a log-house builder who ran logging and milling operation, then farmed. Discussion of farm structures and functions. Several grandsons built houses on farm; one owns Denny's Restaurant in Tomahawk. Johnson and three other farms comprise this Swedish settlement.

Spirit, Section 12: Another Farm Part of Old Swedish Settlement (Presently Mayda Olson)

Spirit, Section 12: Farm for Sale

Tomahawk, Section 7: Swedish Settlement's School House and Free Lutheran Church

Spirit, Section 12: “Pretty Herman” Johnson's Farm on Left (Corner of County YY and State Highway 86)

Grocery Store and Burned-Down Tavern at Intersection of Routes YY and 86

Spirit, Section 1: Isaac Stone's Middle Farm (NW Corner of YY and 86 Intersection)
Scope and Content Note: Stone also had farms at Spirit Falls and Stone Lake.

Spirit, Section 12: “Pretty Herman”Johnson's Old Farm
Scope and Content Note: Schoolteacher tried dairy farming, sold herd recently. Carl Johnson farm on plat map.

Preacher Wolfstran Leads Free Lutheran Congregation in Swedish Settlement.

Bradley's Telephone Line
Scope and Content Note: Followed Swedish Settlement Road (now State Highway 86) to Spirit Falls. Was tote road for Bradley's Farmers' Trading Company.

Spirit, Section 12: Hilmar Olson Road.

Spirit, Section 1: Harry Evans Farm (First Farm on Right Since YY and 86 Intersection)
Scope and Content Note: Present owner served on town board and cleared land with Meier. Comments on steel silo.

Spirit, Section 11: Beginning of Old Norwegian Settlements
Scope and Content Note: Harold Arneson farm currently owned by Roger Nyberg.

Spirit, Section 2: Ron Meier Farm
Scope and Content Note: Ron is preserving old schoolhouse.

End of Tape 6, Side 1

Introduction

Isaac Stone “Home” a Formality that Allowed Him to Log Property

Spirit, Section 3: German Settlement Cemetery and Norwegian Lutheran Church
Scope and Content Note: Meier's parents buried here. Tells story of parents' first meeting.

Spirit, Section 3: Schoolhouse Enlarged Once, But Now Closed
Scope and Content Note: Children now go to Prentice school.

Spirit, Section 10: Marheine Farm Has Log House
Scope and Content Note: Meier's cousin, Rhinehart Marheine, current owner of farm occupied since 1879. Logs floated down Marheine Creek to Wausau.

Spirit, Section 3: Green Lantern Roadhouse at Intersection of 86 and County Trunk D

Spirit, Section 10: Old Andreae Farm Now Belongs to Ron Meier

Spirit, Section 3: Machine Shop Constructed by Chicagoans

Spirit, Section 10: Wilson Farm
Scope and Content Note: Swedish settlement area no longer recognizable by Swedish names.

Spirit, Section 4: “Crick” Johnson Farm

Village of Spirit: First Town Hall Site of First School; Now Machine Shed

Village of Spirit: Brannan Creamery
Scope and Content Note: First building, which burned, housed factory and family. Second building now used as a garage.

Township Fair Started during World War II
Scope and Content Note: 4-H leaders began fair when county fair was cancelled; town erected cattle shed for second year. Township fair still held.

Beginning of Drive to Highest Point in State

Spirit, Section 9: Tilson Residence

Spirit, Section 9: Methodists Start First Church in Spirit
Scope and Content Note: Lutheran church began in 1900.

Spirit, Section 4: Pederson Farm Now Belongs to Road Boss

Spirit, Section 9: Post Office
Scope and Content Note: C.B. Nelson was postmaster and store owner.

Spirit, Section 4: Blacksmith Shop

Spirit, Section 9: Bradley's Farmes Trading Store Now Divided into Apartments

Spirit, Section 4: Ed Pierson Farm
Scope and Content Note: Silo that Pierson purchased with Meier and Nelson has since burned.

Spirit, Section 9: Spirit Baptist Church Is Pastor Ostergren's Congregation

Spirit, Section 4: Twin Silos; One Is Mate to Meier's

Spirit,Section 4: Kardell Farm Part of Swedish Settlement

Spirit, Section 8: Fred Anderson School, Once Enlarged, Is Now Residence

Spirit, Section 8: Andrew Swan Farm Also Part of Swedish Settlement

Spirit, below Route 86: Headwaters of North Branch of Spirit River
Scope and Content Note: Logs floated to Wausau.

Spirit, Section 8: Vacant Property

Spirit, Section 5: Summer Place for City Residents

Spirit, Section 6: Jacobson Road Intersects Route 86
Scope and Content Note: Store and St. Peter's Mill at corner.

Town of Hill, State Watershed Area
Scope and Content Note: Meier owns letter verifying that logs were floated from Pearson Lake to Wausau.

Hill, Section 1: Swanson Stand of Sugar Maples Part of Helen Meier's Home Farm
Scope and Content Note: Television booster tower now there.

Hill, Section 12: Virgin Timber on Pearson Homestead
Scope and Content Note: Highway relocated to preserve area.

Hill, Section 12: Pearson's Lake Flows into Wisconsin River

Hill, Section 2: Town Road through Watershed
Scope and Content Note: Other side drains into Chippewa River.

Hill, Section 11: Highest Point in Wisconsin

Hill, Section 11: Former Dairy Farm Now Tree Farm
Scope and Content Note: Ginseng raised there.

Hill, Section 2 or 11: Ring's Hill

Hill, Section 11: Tim's Hill and Lake Named (Misnamed) after Logger Tim Gallahan
Scope and Content Note: Pastor Ostergren's garden once there, as was school Helen Meier attended.

Hill, Section 10: Cemetery Where Helen Meier's Parents Buried

Hill, Section 10: County Trunk C Connects State Highways 86 and 102

Hill, Section 10: Christofferson Farm
Scope and Content Note: Skilled Norwegian masons.

Hill, Section 3: Intersection of Old and New Routes 86
Scope and Content Note: Filling station and tavern formerly at junction built about 1920.

Spirit, Section 9: Route 102 Passes through Ostergren's Swedish Baptist Settlement
Scope and Content Note: Nelson, Olson families part of Swedish Baptist settlement. Olson grandsons built up “wonderful” Guernsey herd.

Spirit, Section 16: Swedish Road Ended
Scope and Content Note: German Settlement teacher Missy McDonald walked two miles to reach school.

Spirit, Section 16: Town Road Extended to A. Johnson Farm

Cheese Factory Road Borders Sections 9 and 16
Scope and Content Note: Graywood basket factory owner Wahlstrand built factory that never produced any cheese.

End of Tape 6, Side 2

Introduction

Remainder of Drive Postponed

Sense of Community Weaker Now Than In Past
Scope and Content Note: Farm consolidation has reduced population. People tend to work more independently of each other.

Ron Meier's Meadows Farm (Town of Spirit, Section 2) an Example That Small Family Farm Is Still Feasible
Scope and Content Note: Limited herd to eighteen cows; bought home and tractor outright rather than on credit. Ron's acreage would once have supported two families. Timber has given Price County farmers another crop; cut-over land is now producing harvestable trees.

Participation in Community Affairs, 4-H Work, and Church Characterizes the Successful Farmer
Scope and Content Note: Milk check does not indicate success. “Happiness in life is not doing what you like to do, but like what you're doing, and this is success.”

Man's Relation to the Land
Scope and Content Note: “We never own any land....; we are stewards of this land.”

Changing Family Life in Price County
Scope and Content Note: Poor quality of soil will slow agricultural changes in Price County. Family farms but fewer of them.

Land Values Will Affect Size of Local Population
Scope and Content Note: Retirees, rather than young people, will continue to move into the area.

Property Tax Increase Over 100 Percent between 1974 and 1979
Scope and Content Note: State legislation altered tax-sharing formula with town; state tax credit to individual farmers dropped by over 50 percent.

Inadequate Communication Leaves Legislature and Consumer Unaware of Rural Problems and Needs
Scope and Content Note: Urban interests control legislature. “There will be no need of us trying to take a militant stand on this. It's a case of, again, information; information and lack of information.”

Conclusion
Scope and Content Note: Exchange of hopes that interview will be useful to future researchers.

End of Interview Session