Counties of Wisconsin; 73; Adams County

When the crows flew over this county they had to carry their lunches with them. That's what some used to say about today's featured county of Wisconsin. But things have changed for the better as we'll hear during the program. Adams County is visited in this edition of the counties of Wisconsin.

The conversations to be heard were recorded in late 976 at the University of Wisconsin Extension office in friendship. First some background on the early settlement of the county. The region now included within Adams County was undoubtedly visited by the early French explorers missionaries and fur traders. Since the Wisconsin River which borders the county on the West served as one of the main routes of travel the state lumbermen entered the county shortly after the close of the War of 1812 and a permanent white settlement began soon thereafter. It was the need to supply food to the lumbermen going to the Pineries of upper Wisconsin which induced white settlement in Adams County. As early as 1830 8 a supply post was established by an act of the Wisconsin territorial legislature. Adams County was created in 1848 and named in honor of either John Adams second president of the United States or his son John Quincy

Adams sixth president of the United States. Boundary changes occurred in 1850 1853 and 1857 and in the latter year the county assumed its present boundaries. Back when lumbering first began Adams County was the highway for lumberjacks going to the woods or traders hauling merchandise. The first trading post in Adams County was kept by Jared Wells worth. He located near Big Spring in 1838. He had settled there at least 15 years before the government acquired title to the land west of the river and above portage his log home was for years the only house between Fort Winnebago and Stevens Point in 1845 a Mr. Sylvester's settled at Grande Marsh and about the same time Mr. Strong located a trading post eight miles beyond what is now friendship in 1849. The treaty with the Menominee Indians permitted the taking up of claims that fall settlements were made west and north of Big Spring.

During 1850 in 1851 quite a number of families came from the southern part of the state principally from Walworth County and settled in what is now the town of Jackson. The settlers in that neighborhood soon had comfortable homes and growing crops. They travelled forty five miles to Grand Rapids. Now Wisconsin Rapids to market usually taking five days to make the trip. In general the early settlement of Adams County was in that part now known as the towns of New Haven Jackson Del prairie and a part of Springfield. New Haven was the original location on the river from the Dells to Germantown there were quite a number of settlers. Quincy having been the county seat from 1850 three to eight hundred fifty eight when it was moved to friendship. Around the turn of the century Adams County had some very fine farms about five miles from Kilburn. Now Wisconsin Dells after passing through canyons and plodding through some stretches of sand. The traveler north of the river road would come to a cluster of houses at the

intersection of another road. These houses were farm homes which were placed on converging corners. They made a farm village which was named Plainville. These were exceptionally fine farms. There were large barns and grain arrays and sheds with up to date farm machinery. The first men to settle on what was later to become Plainville was named Edson and he came from New York in 1848. He first had a sawmill on the Plainville creek near the river. The first settlers had to travel to Mineral Point to enter their land claims. Now for conversations with the University of Wisconsin Extension staff and their guests. First some information on the 4H program. This is Ivan morrow. Adams County for each new thing agent and I'm talking to Ruth and Fritz the president of the Adams County foreach Leaders Association Ruth and I know that you're concerned with the drilling in the Adams County area and I was wondering if you'd like to offer a few

comments on how the dairy in Adams County I know you've probably got one of the top roads in the county and maybe in the state. Well I think that the dairy project you know you know for it is in salmon rallies we have quite a few members and it seems like it's really yeah it's a great great strength at the present time. Would you want to comment a little bit about the Leaders Association we don't think this is unique I think every county has it a foreach Leaders Association but. Would you want to comment on how this functions and operates in the county. Well we are quite excited about our four age Leaders Association it's quite an active group. And we raise money by selling plat books in different things like this. And we send for each member software for each Congress in in our school leaders after the national leaders forum you're squirming. Yes do you want to comment on the exchange program that we had this summer. Who they're like I don't know if you're 100 percent familiar but maybe you could offer a few comments.

Well I know that several a couple years ago we had an exchange program where I know that my family was involved in. Two members came from that county in Iowa which I believe was Melbourne County Iowa and they spend four days at our place. And that we really enjoyed this very much. But this last year when the exchange came we were involved with the state regulates so so we ran in with a big part of this year's I'm not too familiar with just what happened this year. Yes this year we have a mix change program of the younger members this is 14 and under with it was an interstate exchange within the state of Wisconsin we exchanged with Manitowoc County and we had five young people came and they live with the families in Adams County and in these five young people from Adams County from the same families went over and stayed with families a man a trois County and this was quite

successfully find out about other programs in other parts of the state and other counties in the state and I think that they enjoyed it and they want to continue the next year and probably expand to an interest rate for the older members for next year again next the extension home economist and her guest. My name is Rene Ramsey the extension home economist in Adams County. And my guest today is Agnes Weingarten from the Adams County Memorial Hospital. We have been working somewhat on prenatal classes that have started up again in Adams County. Would you care to comment on how we started these classes again. The classes were started as a combined effort of the home chemist unified board and Adams County Morial hospital. These groups met and made an outline of what I wanted. They wanted to have cover during the sessions how many sessions

they should have. And who would be presenting programs each night. We came up with a series of five or six sessions I didn't wasn't involved in teaching the classes the nurse that has charge of obstetrics in the hospital willingly took over the job of presenting. That part of it. Dr. Janssen talked. To doctor the dentist. Lectured. There was also a session by Mike Schroeder on Mental Health and Dr. dmn. Do you think that our classes were really necessary as long as we hadn't had these classes for approximately five years in the area. Yes that's been our feeling for quite a while that prenatal classes were important. We don't have a large. Amount of babies born in

our hospital. But. We do feel it's necessary we have a lot of young mothers. Who. Need to know something about what's happening to them and what to expect after the baby arrives. Fathers too. This is showing up. We have felt the amount of babies that come into the hospital for medical care that maybe if this mother had been better informed before she had her baby she wouldn't have run into these problems with it after it was born. Do you hide it a great deal of the mothers that you feel we should be reaching are under the age of 25. Yes. Are many of these Also we're looking at possible girls just out of high school and maybe have not even want a chance to know how to get to know their husbands and they're going to be having starting their own family. Do you feel that bringing the mental health aspect and the approach of caring for the child

after how Daddy's relationship with the child not just a mother having to babysit with the child. Oh very definitely. Plays is an important part as the mother. In her knowledge. Caring for the baby is. Reflected by his interest and knowledge and caring for the baby too. And one of our sessions it was quite interesting when one of the fathers sons. Yes she go as often as I have to stay home and babysit but he forgets to think that it's part his child and she is babysitting all day and that's not really the truth of the matter. It's just as much Dad child as mothers. So I think the man has somewhat of a distorted impression of babysitting when mother goes out for the evening. Right or when mother goes to work and a father's home with the baby which him for there's an awful lot because of the soils in the county irrigation is of great importance especially during a dry summer such as was experienced in 1076.

This is the Richter county agricultural agent in Adams County and we're going to be visiting with Peter Wandel real grand marshal and Peter is involved in your kitchen agriculture and quick Nichols. Of rural Wisconsin Dells and Clayton is also involved in your good agriculture and of course irrigation is something that has come in too. Agriculture in Adams County will within the last 12 years. And I think perhaps we can talk about some of the historical developments of Agriculture as well as the present productivity of the lighter soils here in central Wisconsin. Of course Adams County is located. In south central Wisconsin and we are bordered by the Wisconsin River. On the Old West and Bay terminal Moraine on the east. The

soil types for the most part are relatively light. In geological history. Adams County was a part of the. Glaciated area perhaps known to many as Lake Wisconsin. And of course as the glacier restated and. Melted the water settled in this this area and eventually worked its way out through the rock formations at the southern end of Adams County which perhaps many people know as the Wisconsin Dells and of course this is one of the scenic. Probably most more scenic areas in the state. Pete you became involved in your good agriculture several years ago and perhaps you might just give us a little background as as to how you elected to be. Involved with with irrigation having come from my background to dry land for farming.

Well I became involved. I was going to school at the University of Wisconsin Madison and styles and this was in the nineteen fifty five six and seven. And we many people there had begun to see the opportunities of raising specialized crops in the sand area. I came here to live in 1956 purchased my first farm and started irrigating in 1957. We're now at over the years we've been raising so many specialized vegetable crops. OK Pete you indicated that you started in 57 and of course the years that you first started irrigating one of you made his comment as to what crops you raised that time and what the transition has been and the

crops that you are presently raising. Transition as far as numbers of farmers you're getting is been rather great to like to make a comparison in the last four or five years. Adams County and surrounding area has come of age as an irrigation area. Comparing this to areas of Texas or Arizona visited as far as crops we were raising snap beans and potatoes and cucumber and seed corn at that time and basically are raising the same crops now all only under a much more highly mechanized conditions. Cucumbers are picked by hand potatoes were big in the field handled by muscle and today they're highly mechanized.

All right Pete I think one of the things that perhaps we should have mentioned relative to Adams County and the perhaps the greatest resource that lends itself to irrigated agriculture is our water supply. And of course previously I mentioned that in geological history this was known as Lake Wisconsin and we do have the term has been used in limited water supply. I guess there's some question about whether a person can use that term especially in the dry years. But certainly we do have an adequate water supply which is readily available for the use of irrigated agriculture and the water depth in our county varies. From the northeastern corner of the county up toward the Plainfield area we have wells that perhaps are as shallow as 30 feet deep and yet have the capacity of producing thousands of twelve hundred gallons of water per minute. And then we go to the southern extreme of our irrigated region. And

that's probably the area Clayton that that you're presently farming in. And maybe I'm a little bit off on the deficit in these wells but I guess I've heard figures as deep as 200 feet. Would you comment about the depth of the wells that that you particular that your specific wells and your farm on the southern end of the irrigation belt in Adams County. Yes we had water at about one hundred twenty feet. And we've gone down to about 170 75 feet to ensure a good head of water. When one thing that it did. I recall as a relatively newcomer coming to Adams County some 12 years ago in. The county at that time was a state of. Depression in dry land farming of course was not very productive during those dry years and there was a statement that I heard many times that that the county was so poor culturally that the crawlers had to carry their lunch when they flew

across the Adams County. I'm sure both of you gentlemen have heard that. Comment. The particular situation that I encountered one day down in your farm Clayton was the. Story that you were telling about the corn crib that your father constructed when he was still actively engaged in farming and some comment that some other family member had. Maybe you could relate that story to show the transition here as far as cropping. Oh yes. First I'd like to get back to that Crowe story one of the extension agents some of those. One of the southern counties about 10 years ago remarked that I happen to be from this county where the crews carried their lunch and I told him that we had changed all that. The crew was dared to sit down now they ate so much they couldn't get off the ground. And this corn crib dad built in 1942 held seven hundred seventy five bushel. And my great uncle came along and poked

his head in and he said that's quite a crib Roy if you can ever read enough to fill it. Well now we feel that we don't have a good crop of corn unless we come in with 75 80 thousand bushel. That's really an interesting parallel. Clayton recently you put together one of your newer additions as far as your gated land is concerned and we hear a lot of talk now and there's a lot of publicity given to culture we think primarily of. Illinois when we think about corn belt farming and the cost of agricultural land in these areas and I see the figures quoted in some of the popular press that that land is selling for dollars and twelve hundred fifteen hundred dollars an acre. And their productive capabilities of course are limited to their soil types and environmental factors. And yet you recently developed some of this is this

land and made some comment relative to comparison of some of this land say in Iowa are Illinois. Maybe you could comment about that. Well in my association with members of the National Corn Growers board I have contact was with people in other areas of the Corn Belt. And a relative you spoke of water supply a good friend of mine that irrigates in Nebraska says their water table is dropping one foot a year. He feels it 25 30 years they will have exhausted their their water supply. And the price of real estate. Recently an 80 acres in Illinois in the Corn Belt sold for $4000 an acre. This was a new all time high for agricultural land. I feel that we in Adams County with our adequate water supply

girl is good at crops as they can in the Corn Belt. We can do it more consistently year after year. If we ever did get to that point we had three four inches of rain we'd be out there our misting the next day we wouldn't have to wait a week for the for the water to do and the heavier soils. And there are so many advantages of working in the soil of Adams County. It's easy to work it takes less herbicides it takes less insecticides. You get a true maturity when you put on water if you're growing one hundred five day corn you can depend on it maturing and that length a time if the corn doesn't have to go into stress period waiting for moisture. And last this past summer has awakened folks to the point that even southern Wisconsin is not immune to calling on Mother Nature and

depending on Mother Nature for moisture from agriculture. We turn to business in our concluding conversation. You Adams County Extension resource agent in my Gives with me this morning is Richard Murphy one of our local leading business men don't Tony Adams. Richard you have been. In business in atoms for approximately seven years. As we heard earlier. It seems that we had an agricultural revolution in Adams County about 12 years ago. Leading. Hams Connie out or depressed times along with this. We've had some industrial development. Is especially promoted by their MMS carny Development Corporation along with the Chamber of Commerce. Over the period of the last several years when you moved here.

And purchased the business what kind of changes have you seen take place in the business community. Particularly in the industrial end you've seen. Your box factory increase its great footage and production and one two three shifts. You know at this time they were. Discussing. Enlarging metal fab. Which is a longer business also in the. Federal prison as coming to the area and then of course if you look up and down Main Street you see the refacing of buildings and new buildings. Which encompasses of course new businesses. Break probably on the recreational line or service and the hospital. Has added or is adding presently as a second addition since I've been here. We've had a nursing home and from the medical and when we're

talking about a community of only twenty five hundred or ten thousand a county with the medical facilities that we have you know for a small town this is excellent. Over the last couple years we've seen retail sales increase crim approximately. 13 MILLION DOLLARS. Twenty seven million dollars. This affected. The prosperity of the local businesses in terms of. Expansions and things of this nature. Well that is that's a tough question. I think that we still that's one of our biggest problems. We have a 30 to 30 million expendable income. In Adams County and 12 means going out. Of the county. You're sure you've seen like my Bence's expansion your super markets

they seem to be doing well. But I still say we have this. This big problem of the dollars going out of town for the deal straight just in another way. That's all factual. You know my wife is a sub to a schoolteacher and she took a first grade class in a simulated shopping trip Christmas shopping trip you know out of twenty five students when Steven Tyler shopped. You stop and think about this is it right down to the first grade level. This is pretty hard to change. We're starting a program trying to educate people that for the most part they can buy locally what they're buying out of town. But it's difficult not to crack this concern with keeping more of the county's dollars within the county was expressed in several other counties by city. The for.

A hero. Adams County was featured in this edition of the counties of Wisconsin a series

produced at WHL radio a service of the University of Wisconsin Extension.