Wisconsin School for the Deaf - Tattler Yearbook (Delavan, WI)

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CAMP FIRE GIRLS OLD ABE, THE WAR EAGLE OF WISCONSIN By Lind Prill The eairle ha been honored by almost all civilized nations, ami has been used by most of them an an emblem of war. Columbus found the uncivilized Indians wearing war-bonnet made of feather from the fierce, black eagle of this country. This king of birds” is our national emblem and represents the freedom, fear-Imnes and power of the nation. During the war of the Rebellion a live eagle was carried into many battle by a Wisconsin regiment. He wu called “Old Abe by the soldier . The story of his life is rather interesting. Old Abe was horn in a large tub-like nest of mud and sticks in a tall pine tree, in 1861. A Chippewa Indian, named Chief Sky, captured this bird near Ashland, Wisconsin and sold him to Daniel McCann of Eagle Point for a bushel of corn. Then Mr. McCann sold him to a company of soldiers at Eau Claire and at once he was enlisted as a soldier. At this time Old Abe weighed ten and a half pounds. His feathers were brown with a golden tinge. The hark part of his large head was snowy white and so was his tail. Ill beak was over two inches long. Hi wings measured six and a half feet from tip to tip. A handsome perch wus made for him, where he sat in a dignified manner, when the soldiers were marching; but during a battle he was always excited and would scream and fly around. He was present at twenty-five battles of the Civil War but was never wounded. The soldiers felt that he brought them good luck. When the war was over Old Abe was presented to the state of Wisconsin by Victor Wolf o! Company C of the 8th Regiment, which was also knowtl A the Eagle Regiment, ('apt. Wolf -aid that Old Abe had been u good soldier und never flinched in battle. A comfortable room in the capitol at Madison was given to this soldier bird, and o man was appointed to take good care of him. One day in February, 1881, a fire broke out near Old Abe’s room and he was overcome by dense smoke and gas. He lived for about one month; then, on the twenty-sixth duy of March, 1881, he died. Major C. G. Meyers, who hud been an officer of the Eleventh Wisconsin, mounted his skin and it was placed in u fine glass case and was kept in Memorial Hall in the capitol building at Madison. where visitors could see It- Twenty-three years later. Memorial Hall caught fire and Old Abe’s stuffed body was destroyed by the flames. Today we have nothing left in Wisconsin to remind us of this bird but two fine paintings. One was made from life by n famous artist; the other was painted by a Madison woman. These paintings now hung in the Memorial Hall in our capitol at Madison. Not far away are the old buttle flags of the Eagle Regiment besides which the bird was carried to battle. A few of his feathers are also framed and hang near by. In 11 12 at Chippewa Falls, a monument was erected to his memory.

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WISCONSIN CHER RIMS By Boyce William As one progresses northward into the Peninsular region he wonder where all those cherries, he h:s heard so much about, are. And. as he acmes into Door County, he hogim to think maybe Cherry Blossom Land has been a bit exaggerated. Kven as he approaches the world's leading cherry town, Sturgeon Bay, he secs nothing to make any great ado about. It is true that there are many fine orchards south of Sturgeon Bay. but the real cherry center is from the town limits northward for thirty miles. It is there that one appreciates the magnitude of the world's most concentrated cherry producing center. It is located between the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan on the little point of land, north of Sturgeon Bay, which terminates the north-eastern Wisconsin peninsula. It is heie that the world’s largest cherry orchard is located, namely, the Martin Orchards. It has 10,000 trees in one continuous block and comprises 1,300 acres. Other famous orchards are: the Reynold Orchards, which are unique in that they have their own canning factory, the Sturgeon Bay Fruit Co. and the Peninsula Fruit Farm. The larger orchards, os a rule, are not as well cared for as the smaller orchards. The trees must be sprayed each spring and fall and the ground cultivated to kill the weeds and quack grass. On many of the farms a cover crop is planted to utilize the space between the trees and to keep the ground moist and warm. The orchards are the most beautiful in the latter part of May when the trees are in blossom. It is then that thousands of people visit Door County for a week-end to breathe the fragrant air and enjoy the beauty of nature. The cherry harvest is the busiest time of the year in Sturgeon Bay. Pickers, or cherry -snappers,’’ as they are popularly called, come from near and far to enjoy u vacation while earning their way picking. The usual picking camp is a regular camping ground with many home conveniences. The length of the picking season varies with the size of the crop. Small farms have two to three week seasons while the latge orchards pick four to six weeks. The average “cherry-snapper” picks about 100 to 125 quarts a day at the rote of 2% cents per quart, stripped, and 3 cents per quart on the stem. The record for pickers is 1178 quarts in one dny. It was made by a boy from Michigun who was working in the Martin Orchards. The cherries to be canned arc stripped leaving the stem on the tree, while those to be sold as fresh fruit are picked with the stem attached to the cherry so thut they will keep longer. The smaller farms furnish all the cherries sold as fresh fruit. Hundreds of carloads of fresh cherries are shipped out of Door County every year. The most interesting part of the cherry business is the canning. All of the large orchards and many of the smaller hnul their fruit to the fuctory to be canned. The factory is a home institution, being owned by the Door County Fruit Growers Union. This is also an object of interest to tourists. When the cherries reach the factory they are weighed and then dumped into huge tubs partly tilled with cold water. The cold water chills the fruit meat so that it will be of a firmer quality for later handling. The cherries are put in water as soon as possible because, being an acid fruit, they quickly Assume some degree of fermentation if they are allowed to stand. From the tanks the fruit is run thru a nozzle, located at the bottom, into a series of escalators which lift them onto a moving belt from which the defective fruit is picked. From this belt the fruit enters the pitters and then another belt carries it through its last inspection before it is put into cans. From the filler it passes to the cooker, the capper, the cooler, and then to the warehouse to await labels and shipment. As the supply does not meet the demand, it appears that the future will bring u great development of this industry.

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GOVERNOR'S GUARDS THE EARLY HISTORY OF WISCONSIN By Reuben Rosenficld In the northern part of Wisconsin there is the oldest land formation in the slate, as well as one of the oldest in the world. The land in the northern part of our state came above the surface of the sea before that of surrounding states. So Wisconsin was up and doing while its neighboring states were still slumbering beneath the gen. Later the great continental glacier that eiept down from the north did not touch the southwestern part of the state and so the soil and laud formation there is considerably different from that where the glaciers left their drift. We have splendid roads in Wisconsin and they are made possible because of what these glaciers did many thousands of years ago. The glaciers brought and left gravel and sand and today we use it to make gravel and concrete roads. The scenic beauty of Wisconsin which is becoming famous throughout our nution, also owes much to the work of these glaciers because they dammed up the beds of creeks making lakes and leaving deposits that now form our rounded hills and peaceful valleys. Who the first dwellers within the borders of Wisconsin were and whence they came, history dees not tell. We know that there were two or three different tribes of Indians in Wisconsin because of the various mound that cun be seen today. A young French man named Jean Nicolet, who was exploring the country adjacent to the Great Lakes was the first white man to set foot on Wisconsin soil. Nicolet came to Green Buy with his men and they thought they had discovered a town in China. On account of his belief that he had reached Asia; he did not go on but returned to Champlain’s settlement in Canada. In the spring of 1061 the wandering Black Gowns, Father Marquette and Joliet paddled through the Great Lakes and up the Fox River to Portage. Here they made a portage, carried their canoe overland a mile to the Wisconsin River, and so the city got it name. Father Marquette and Joliet mude notes describing what they had seen hut later their canoes overturned and they lost their note hooks. The travels of Nicolet, Father Marquette and La Salle brought other French men here, who established fur trading posts along the rivers. The rivers were the chief highways ns it was easier to travel in boats than on horseback or on foot through the wilderness. During the French and Indian War. English soldiers came to the Northwest Territory, to which Wisconsin then belonged, and drove the French out. In 1783 English buxine - men established the Northwest Fur Co. in Milwaukee, because it was on Lake Michigan. They carried fur in canoes to the Straits of Mackinac and then through the other lakes. John Jacoh As tor, an American, founded u great fur company. The fur trade lasted as a business of prime importance to Wisconsin until about 1835. It wus at its greatest height in 1820, at which time Green Buy wo the chief settlement in Wisconsin. During the Revolutionary War there was not much trouble in Wisconsin except that the Indians from Wisconsin enlisted in the British army. They marched with Langlade and Gautier to capture Clark und his men. but they were beaten and surrendered. In 1783 a treaty of peace wa made and England gave up the Northwest Territory to the United States.