1979 March 22

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)