Remembering Our Rural Roots

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Making butter remained a farm-kitchen activity for many years; a woman churns butter in 1905 in Alma in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. -- Gerhard Gesell photographs

Wisconsin Historical Society, Image# 25064

During Wisconsin’s pioneer days, women cared for the cows.

Wisconsin Historical Society

Men with horses and wagons gather in 1909 outside the Faville Grove Farmers' Co-Operative Cheese Factory in Lake Mills in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. A poster advertising the State Fair is pasted to the wall of the building.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Image #76304

A man sits on a stool and milks a cow outdoors

A man sits on a stool to milk a cow outdoors in 1895 in Green Bay in Brown County, Wisconsin, while another cow investigates the camera lens. -- Frederick L.G. Straubel photograph

Wisconsin Historical Society, Image #60973

A posed scene in 1889 shows a woman milking a cow as two other women stand waiting at an open barn door. On the left a man at a hand-pump is behind a half wall, maybe partially hidden from the three women. He's smiling and appears to be adding water through a funnel into the woman's milk pail. Printed caption at the bottom of the photo reads, "Waiting for Pure Fresh Milk. Copyright 1889, by Littleton View Co." On the reverse "Waiting for Pure Fresh Milk" is printed in six languages. "Chris Bing, Practical Painter" is stamped on the back.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Image #4772

Jerry Apps

Jerry Apps For Agri-View

Many pioneer farmers who arrived in Wisconsin from the East brought with them – or soon acquired – a milk cow or two to provide milk, butter and cheese for the family. The cows generally didn’t produce milk during the winter months. Instead they huddled behind a straw stack or in a primitive shelter out of the cold winds. Busy planting and harvesting their vast wheat crops, the men left the care of cows to their wives and daughters. The idea of a creamery or cheese factory located off the farm had not yet arrived in Wisconsin, except for a few isolated examples.

Jerry Apps, born and raised on a central-Wisconsin farm, is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of more than 40 books – most on rural history and country life. Visit www.jerryapps.com for more information.