BACKGROUND OF PERCY S. HARDIMAN
Scope and Content Note: Born on June 7, 1909 in town of Lincoln, south of Sussex (Waukesha County). Half of 100-acre farm was marsh when father bought in 1908. Father Walter H. Hardiman had been foreman at Lannon quarry; purchased farm when concrete beginning to replace limestone for streets and curbing. Constructed new barn and several outbuildings about 1918. Percy Hardiman remembers swimming and fishing in nearby limestone quarry.

DISCUSSION OF WILEDEN FAMILY IN SUSSEX AREA
Scope and Content Note: Percy Hardiman a first cousin of Arthur Wileden, retired emeritus professor of rural sociology, University of Wisconsin, interviewed earlier by DET for Wisconsin Agriculturalists oral history project.

DESCRIPTION OF HOME AND BUILDINGS ON WALTER HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: Unpainted, 30 x 40 slant-roofed barn; grout house pigpen; large corn- crib. Cream city brick house with hard coal living room stove; also a wood range. Relief station under bed froze on winter nights.

EARLY DAIRY OPERATION ON HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: First skimmed cream by hand, later got cream separator. About 1913 shipped whole milk to Gridley Dairy Co. in Milwaukee by way of train from Sussex. Father and older brother later began to haul milk directly to Milwaukee with Model T Ford truck.

FOUNDING AND OPERATION OF GOLDEN GUERNSEY COOPERATIVE
Scope and Content Note: Walter Hardiman and Gavin McKerrow among twenty-three farmers who founded in early-1930's Golden Guernsey at Waukesha to get better price for milk. Hardimans dropped Gridleys; began to deliver to Golden Guernsey receiving plant at Wales for cooling and shipment to a Chicago dairy. Golden Guernsey later built own plant for fluid collecting and distribution.

MORE DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION ON WALTER HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: Diversified farm with dairy cows, wheat, barley, and potatoes. Sheep and chickens “always bought the groceries.” Traded eggs for groceries in Sussex; sold potatoes in Milwaukee.

SHOPPING IN MILWAUKEE
Scope and Content Note: Bought apples, coal, yard goods and, later, clothing.

HARVESTING AND SELLING BARLEY
Scope and Content Note: Sold to miller in Menomonee Falls or Merton, or directly to breweries at Milwaukee. Cutting and shocking “always a mean job” because of barley beards.

GROWING WHEAT FOR HOME USE
Scope and Content Note: Three to five acres of wheat usually grown, milled at Menomonee Falls or Merton for home use.

TYPICAL CROP ACREAGE
Scope and Content Note: About 25-30 acres of hay; 15 acres of corn, 10 of potatoes; 15 of barley, 4 of wheat. Marshy acreage used for pasture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAINING SWAMP ABOUT
Scope and Content Note: Walter Hardiman contracted with a Mr. Roache of Janesville to dig ditch. Two neighboring farmers refused permission for ditching on their property, so town of Lincoln took on project and won court suit to get easements. Horses hitched to heavy V-shaped plow attached to cables which were wound around tree. Took all summer and forty-eight horses to dig two and one-half mile ditch.

CONTINUATION OF DESCRIPTION OF DRAINING SWAMP
Scope and Content Note: Horsemaster drove 48 horses “with nothing but a black snake whip and Gee and Haw.” Farmers repaid township for ditch dug on their property. Farmers then dug trenches and laid tile; drained swamp land became the most productive. Project improved thirty-seven acres on Walter Hardiman farm.

IMPACT OF WORLD WAR I AND POSTWAR DEPRESSION ON LAND VALUES AND FARMING
Scope and Content Note: Before World War I land cost about $90-$100 per acre; rose to $350- $400 by end of war. Wartime demand for wheat, potatoes, and cheese caused many farmers to rent additional land and increase volume of production. Farmers who bought land during war left with high mortgage payments and couldn't repay loans when prices fell. All but four of eleven farms in Hardiman's neighborhood foreclosed. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company “got a real bad name” for recalling many loans and auctioning off farms.

INFLUENCE OF McKERROWS ON LIVESTOCK RAISING IN HARDIMAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD
Scope and Content Note: George McKerrow visited Guernsey Islands every three years and brought back Guernsey cows and a half-dozen Shropshire sheep. Led to exceptionally early introduction of pure-bred livestock in Hardiman's neighborhood. Testing of cows by itinerant tester improved volume of production.

DESCRIPTION OF DAIRY OPERATION ON WALTER HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: Size of herd ranged from twenty-four to thirty-five cows during World War I. Decision to purchase bull important because of cost and blood line. Getting cows bred not taboo for children on Hardiman farm, although it was on neighboring farms.

ROLE OF COUNTY AGENT IN HARDIMAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD
Scope and Content Note: J. F. Thomas, Waukesha county agent, supervised calf club, a predecessor of 4-H Club. County agents visited Hardiman farm regularly, introduced such things as milk testers, new strains of oats, hybrid corn, and alfalfa, and commercial fertilizer. Hardimans one of first in neighborhood to own grain drill (a Buckeye), and fertilizer attachment on corn planter.

GROWING ALFALFA
Scope and Content Note: In early 1920's alfalfa began to replace red clover (cow hay) and timothy hay (horse hay). Describes growing and harvesting alfalfa, high in protein content; improved milk production.

EARLY TRACTORS
Scope and Content Note: About 1920 bought International 816 iron-wheeled chain driven tractor with angle lugs. Next a McCormick-Deering 120 with spade lugs in early-1920's.; in early 1930's purchased rubber-tired International Farmall.

DAIRY EQUIPMENT
Scope and Content Note: By 1923 had purchased Universal milking machine with four units. Milk house had water-cooled milk tank.

SILOS
Scope and Content Note: Two stone mortar silos, one 30 x 14 for corn silage, the other 12 x 10 for brewer's grain, a protein supplement used in winter. Most farms in area had only one silo.

MORE ON SILOS
Scope and Content Note: Stone mortar silos built about 1900 had round holes and doors about four feet apart instead of continuous opening. Built concrete tops on original bases sometime later.

BUYING FEED SUPPLIES AND SEEDS
Scope and Content Note: Farmer-owned elevator at Sussex sold feed supplies and seed, and purchased grain. Elevator later privately owned after poor management ended farmer-owned operation.

SAVING SEEDS FOR PLANTING NEXT YEAR'S CROPS
Scope and Content Note: In fall, best ears of corn hung on corn tree to dry. In spring, sample of seed from dried ears put in burlap or paper and left to germinate to determine germination percentage. Same process used for oats and wheat.

PETROLEUM ROUTE TRUCKS IN
Scope and Content Note: Route trucks delivered kerosene to farms for home and barn lanterns. Gasoline lanterns also used before electrification.

IMPROVEMENTS IN ENERGY SOURCES ON THE FARM
Scope and Content Note: In 1925 after much negotiation, Wisconsin Electric Power Company installed power lines when guaranteed $4.80 a month per customer for seven years. Before electrification, Hardimans had gasoline engine to run vacuum pump for milking machine. Windmill supplemented gasoline power source.

PERCY HARDIMAN'S FARM CHORES DURING HIGH SCHOOL YEARS
Scope and Content Note: Fed western lambs and pigs, pumped water by hand. In early-1920's before leaving for high school hauled pea vines from nearby canning factory.

MORE ON FARM AND HOME IMPROVEMENTS
Scope and Content Note: Got running water in barn and home about 1928-1929. Installed bathroom about 1929. Installed coal-fired furnace for central heating about 1918-1919.

FEEDING OUT WESTERN LAMBS
Scope and Content Note: Walter Hardiman had “three boys at home that he wanted to keep busy” so he purchased and fed out 500 lambs. Fattened them from 52 pounds to 88 and sold in spring for over 18 cents per pound. Shipped them by train to Chicago.

GROWING AND CANNING PEAS IN THE
Scope and Content Note: Kramer brothers built Mammoth Springs Canning Company at Sussex. Walter Hardiman bought stock; rented 160 acres to grow and harvest peas, sold vines or used them for feed. Quit raising peas early-1930's because of serious drought and inability to get crop failure protection. Peas only processed at Sussex cannery until World War II; then carrots and beets also.

FARM FAMILIES SUPPLEMENT INCOME BY WORKING IN CANNERIES
Scope and Content Note: Many farm women worked in canneries picking thistles and labeling cans, later cutting and packing beets. Often farm boys or farmers with sons old enough to manage farm worked in canneries. Estimates 85 percent of cannery labor made up of farm people. No Jamaican labor until after World War II.

EARLY EDUCATION OF PERCY HARDIMAN
Scope and Content Note: Attended four-room, state-graded school at Sussex. By early 1920's grades one through ten were taught there.

DRIVING TO HIGH SCHOOL AT WAUKESHA
Scope and Content Note: Most children in Hardiman's neighborhood attended high school. Eight students paid Percy Hardiman fifty cents each for each ride to Waukesha, ten miles, over a bumpy, graveled road in 1922 Buick with “California top.”

BUS TRANSPORTATION TO HIGH SCHOOL
Scope and Content Note: Friend of Percy Hardiman's from North Prairie drove twenty-two students to Waukesha in Model-T bus.

PERCY HARDIMAN ATTENDS UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN AT MADISON
Scope and Content Note: Parents influenced him in attending UW; graduated in 1932. Aspired to teach high school agriculture but began working at Sussex cannery for 22 and 1/2 cents per hour because few other jobs available.

BEGINS TO DELIVER PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
Scope and Content Note: Bought tank for truck in 1932 and began delivering gasoline and oil.

BUYS FIRST FARM IN
Scope and Content Note: Bought first farm in 1940, then another in 1944.

HARDIMAN OIL COMPANY
Scope and Content Note: Begun as Cozden Oil Company. Hardiman with father bought fuel business and renamed Hardiman Oil Company. Partnership dissolved in 1940 and Percy Hardiman bought farm.

ORGANIZATION MEMBERSHIP OF WALTER HARDIMAN
Scope and Content Note: Founding member of Golden Guernsey Cooperative; belonged to cow testing association; director of cannery at Sussex and of farmer- owned elevator; Sussex town clerk for 23 years; member of Sussex school board for 20 years. Politically a conservative Republican, active in local politics.

BEGINNING OF FARM BUREAU MOVEMENT IN WAUKESHA COUNTY
Scope and Content Note: Farm Bureau got started in Waukesha about 1921; about 2,600 members by end of first year. Supply center established at Waukesha but advantages not shared equally among farmer-patrons. By 1940, Waukesha County Farm Bureau membership down to 150; supply center financially troubled. Began to recover in early-1940's after Percy Hardiman and others signed bank notes to support.

WALTER HARDIMAN PIONEER MEMBER OF WAUKESHA COUNTY FARM BUREAU
Scope and Content Note: Walter Hardiman a member of Waukesha County Farm Bureau from its beginning, although always critical of farm supply operation.

ADVANTAGES OF FARM BUREAU MEMBERSHIP
Scope and Content Note: Philosophically a “more-or-less” conservative organization; closely allied with county extension services; more aware of farmers' problems than commodity cooperatives.

CLOSE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EQUITY COOPERATIVE LIVESTOCK SALES ASSOCIATION AND FARM BUREAU LOCAL SHIPPING ASSOCIATIONS
Scope and Content Note: Four existing Equity shipping associations began as Farm Bureau shipping organizations.

CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN TRADITION IN HARDIMAN FAMILY
Scope and Content Note: Walter Hardiman a “staunch conservative Republican”; Percy Hardiman characterizes himself as being “pretty conservative.”

FARM BUREAU ORGANIZERS
Scope and Content Note: Emphasized that farmers must cooperate. Walter Hardiman felt that general organizations should be affiliated with cooperatives in the state. Cooperatives working together on a federated basis with the Farm Bureau would have resulted in a stronger organized agriculture in Wisconsin.

RECOLLECTION OF HENRY AHLGREN'S OBSERVATION ABOUT ORGANIZED AGRICULTURE IN WISCONSIN
Scope and Content Note: Recalls that Ahlgren, an old fraternity brother, used to say, “Wisconsin is the most over-organized cooperative agriculture in the United States.” Believes his father, Walter Hardiman, had same idea--vehicle needed to tie together at least loosely the many cooperatives in the state.

FOUNDING OF WISCONSIN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE,
Scope and Content Note: Milo Swanton and Gavin McKerrow frequently visited Walter Hardiman farm to discuss need for farmers lobbying group in Wisconsin.

WISCONSIN FARMERS UNION SEVERS TIE WITH WISCONSIN COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE,
Scope and Content Note: Wisconsin Farmers Union left Council in anger and later, with others, formed Wisconsin Association of Cooperatives. Remembers father returning from Council annual meeting in 1933, angry with Kenneth Hones, who had “ranted and raved.”

COMMENTS ON AARON SAPIRO
Scope and Content Note: Very forceful and effective speaker who “had some friends, and an awful lot of enemies.” Hardiman felt in 1920's that Sapiro a bit “on the rabble-rousing side.”^[1]

WISCONSIN COOPERATIVE MILK POOL MILK STRIKES IN EARLY
Scope and Content Note: Hardiman feels National Milk Pool good approach, but faulty methods used to implement it. Remembers armed National Guardsmen accompanying milk trucks in Waukesha County, especially in Durham Hill area and streets of Sussex. Strikes violent, guardsmen controlled with tear gas, bludgeoned strikers. Strikes divided families and neighbors; often never reconciled.

HARDIMAN'S FEELING ON METHODS
Scope and Content Note: Strongly opposed to coercion. Necessity for peaceful approach through education, talking out problems. Cites recent state tax reduction revision legislation, from which all farmers benefited.

RECOLLECTION OF STATEMENT BY HENRY AHLGREN, UW EXTENSION
Scope and Content Note: Remembers Wisconsin overorganized with more than 2,700 cooperatives.

MEMBERSHIP IN GOLDEN GUERNSEY COOPERATIVE HELPS LESSEN EFFECTS OF LOW MILK PRICES DURING EARLY
Scope and Content Note: Hardiman's father as member of GGC continued to receive “thirteenth check” during period of low milk prices. Most members satisfied with milk checks; not interested in withholding milk. GGC began to hold Christmas party to distribute money to members to provide Christmas presents for children.

COMMENTS ON A. H. CHRISTMAN, MENOMONEE FALLS
Scope and Content Note: Board member of Milwaukee Milk Producers. A “little on the radical side,” his frustration as a loner contributed to his leaving the Milwaukee Milk Producers and joining the Milk Pool.

RECALLS CHRISTMAN VISIT TO HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: Tried to persuade Walter Hardiman to join Milk Pool.

COMMENT ON WALTER SINGLER, PRESIDENT OF WISCONSIN COOPERATIVE MILK POOL
Scope and Content Note: Remembers Singler speech at raucous meeting near Menomonee Falls. “Lot of screaming and hollering.” Milk Pool ideas similar to those of National Farmers Organization (NFO) meat withholding actions in later years.

MORE ON MILK STRIKES
Scope and Content Note: Percy Hardiman drove milk trucks for Golden Guernsey during Milk Pool strikes. Recalls accompanied to Milwaukee County line by sheriff and National Guard in convoy. “Kind of left-wing group” behind strike, not unlike that in NFO meat withholding action years later. Hardiman denied right of Milk Pool to dictate to non-members and disrupt commerce.

LEVEL OF PARTICIPATION IN STRIKE IN HARDIMAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD
Scope and Content Note: Estimates 35-45 percent withheld milk 3-4 days. During first strike some farmers who had sold their milk tried to prevent others from doing so. Farmers stopped by telephone poles laid across roads and kerosene poured in milk cans. Strikers included unemployed Milwaukee union people, particularly Teamsters. Rumored Singler allied with Teamsters, and labor money behind Milk Pool strike.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MILK POOL MEMBERSHIP IN HARDIMAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD
Scope and Content Note: Generally, Milk Pool drew more cordial response from smaller, hard pressed farmers.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MILK POOL MEMBERSHIP IN HARDIMAN'S NEIGHBORHOOD, CONTINUED
Scope and Content Note: Anti-Singler farmers were the “better, probably the most prosperous farmers.” Astute farmers, generally closer to and accepting of county extension agents and new techniques, were against Milk Pool. Those farmers who rejected improvements and didn't “run a good operation” inclined to support the Milk Pool.

FORECLOSURE ACTIONS DURING THE DEPRESSION YEARS
Scope and Content Note: Recalls no penny auctions in neighborhood. About 50 percent of farmers in his neighborhood were foreclosed. Some were helped by various federal farm programs. Hardiman served on Farmers Home Administration (FHA) loan board for six years; helped to judge loan applications for Waukesha, Walworth, and Racine counties.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GOLDEN GUERNSEY COOPERATIVE AND MILWAUKEE MILK PRODUCERS
Scope and Content Note: Although organizational structures differed, generally cordial relations over the years, except for early 1940's when Ed Rush, MMP executive secretary, attempted to enlist every farmer shipping milk to Milwaukee. Rush claimed farmers couldn't owe allegiance to two cooperatives simultaneously, but Golden Guernsey members adamantly refused to join MMP. Hardiman recalls no conflict when Charles Dineen was executive secretary of MMP, and feels questionable methods were used to oust Dineen and elect Rush. Hardiman feels there is no competition between Golden Guernsey and MMP at present, which may be due to falling membership despite steady volume.

SUPPORT FOR MILK POOL BY THOSE ACTIVE IN EQUITY AND FB IN
Scope and Content Note: Roots of radicalism in FB and other farm organizations founded in Sapiroism. Elements of radicalism in any farmers organization.

SHEEP-RAISING ON HARDIMAN FARM
Scope and Content Note: Hardimans not members of Wool Growers Cooperative since they raised few sheep and had wool made into blankets at Grafton woolen mill.

PMR COOPERATIVE
Scope and Content Note: Hardiman member of PMR, hog-improvement program set up by FB in Belmont, Wisconsin. Believes now defunct, but originally very useful.