Rosa Kuse Oehlert in Her Garden in Summer
(Photo from the Oehlert Family Collection)
Be a Historian in Summer
Think like a historian as you walk the trails.
Natural History Changes
Find things in nature that have changed in the same way over the years. (Seasonal changes, growth of trees, ecological succession, etc.)
Effects of Hunters, Gatherers and Settlers
Find pictures of people in their gardens. What was planted in gardens 100 years ago? What are people planting in their gardens today? Where were gardens located? Where are they located now?
Think of how early settlers farmed. How and where did they pasture their cows? How did they make hay on this land? How many cows did they have? Those who had only a few cows gave each one a name. Some of the cows that lived on this land were Maggie, Cherry, Daisy, Maude, Fanny, Novie, April, and others.
People made butter from the cream in the milk. Why might there have been more cream in the milk in summer than in winter? Farmers sold their cream to the Medford Cooperative Creamery. At one time, it was the largest patron-hauling creamery in the world. That means that the patrons or farmers brought their cream to the creamery themselves. People at the creamery made butter that was sent to faraway places.
Why might early farmers have had only a few chickens, a few sheep or one pig?
Berry picking and canning were important summer jobs. Food needed to be preserved for long winters. Crops needed to be grown and harvested for food for animals. Fishing added to the family food supply as well as being fun. People on this land walked to the nearby Black River to fish. What might your jobs have been if you grew up on this land?
Summer was a time for repairing machinery that was being used. What machines did early farmers use? (Scythes, rakes, shovels, grub hoes, and later machines pulled by animals or tractors)
Look at gardens both wild and tame. Examine the material about gardening in these PowerPoint presentations.
Plants in the Garden
Plants in the Garden in PowerPoint format
Helping and Protecting Plants in the Garden
Helping and Protecting Plants in the Garden in PowerPoint format
Eating Wild Foods
Eating Wild Foods in PowerPoint format
Find plants or animals that would have been useful to hunters and gatherers who came through this area.
Find things that have changed because people made choices. (Railroads, roads, buildings, land use, etc.)
How did the building of the railroad affect land use in the area? Look at early plat books that show land owned by railroads. Look at a map called "Lumbering Epoch - Railroads of Taylor County Wisconsin" produced by R. P. Rusch. Where and why were early railroads built?
Who were early land agents that advertised the land and brought European settlers to the area? Learn about Joseph Brucker.
What languages were spoken by the hunters and gatherers and early settlers? How did the differences in languages and cultures affect what happened through the years? What languages were spoken by the people who settled the land in Section 28?
What means of communication were used among early people in the area?
Stop at Bench U under the big Red Oak. That tree was quite small a hundred years ago. How has it changed? What is still the same about it? Look at Allman Street. Is the street where school buses drive today like the road that went past the tree a century ago? Pretend you are seeing a movie in your mind about what has happened in that spot over many years. When was it an Indian trail? What did it look like to the surveyors who were measuring the land? What happened when it was a logging road? What did the Hemlock, White Pine, and Yellow Birch growing here look like?
All of the land on which the schools and the Kuse farm and some neighbors' property are located was once part of two 80-acre homesteads. Think about the changes that took place and why they happened. Imagine that it is 1874. You are Lawrence or Christine Johnson or one of their children, Carrie, age 4; Peter, age 2; and tiny baby Tom living on this land. Your one room log cabin stood in a forest clearing on the hill just east of Bench Q. Imagine living there in summer of that year. What would it have been like? How can you find out?
How and when were stumps and rocks cleared from this land so that it could be farmed? What kind of farm machinery was used? What crops were grown?
What did the road look like when farmers hauled their cream to the "World's Largest Patron Hauling Creamery" in Medford? What vehicles were used?
Who used the road when there was a large fox fur farm on the northwest end?
When did the first cars travel along the road? What did they look like? How did the road need to be changed?
How did school children travel along this road before there were school buses?
What happened in the places where the schools are today?
Sources to Use
Be a historian. Find ways to learn about the changes that have happened here, and why and how they happened. Why would you no longer see some of the things that once were here? How did those changes affect the way you live here today?
Read about events that happened in Wisconsin or Taylor County history before you go. Then walk to places along the trails where things like those in the history books you read took place. Use the QR codes at some of the benches to read documents or look at pictures on the website that will help you see what was here. How will you decide which sources will be most useful or accurate?
If you could walk these trails with someone who had lived long ago, what questions would you want to ask him or her?
Talk to older people in your family to learn what they or your ancestors were doing many years ago when some of the events in Wisconsin or local history happened. How did those events change their lives? What happened on the land where you live?
Read back issues of Medford newspapers to find more information.
Centennial books written when towns or businesses were a hundred years old can tell about the people and places that were here. Learn about the Billings, Johnson, Harris, Danielson, and Kuse families who were early settlers.
Books and Articles
Latton, A. 1947. Reminiscences and anecdotes of early Taylor County. Medford, Wisconsin: Self published.
Ruesch, G., (2011). Taylor County Logging and Lumbering, Section II. In Kalmon S. Our Home Taylor County, Wisconsin. Medford, WI: (Privately printed).