Collecting Voices: Oral History Interviewing Workshop

Saturday, May 18th, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon, Sequoya Branch Library, 4340 Tokay Blvd. Free!

Troy Reeves, head of the Oral History Program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives will teach the essential steps for conducting a successful oral history interview.

“Collecting Voices” is part of a volunteer oral history project underway in Westmorland. The public is welcome to attend; we hope to stimulate similar activities across Madison. This project is supported by Dane Arts with additional funds from The Evjue Foundation, Inc., charitable arm of The Capital Times.

Madison’s first library branch, 1249 Williamson Street, 1913

In 1913, Madison’s first branch library opened at 1249 Williamson Street.  This library would eventually become the Hawthorne Branch, now located at 2707 East Washington. The Sixth Ward Library was the first of Madison’s branch libraries, and the oldest surviving library building in Madison. Before its opening, the Madison Free Library served east side factory workers and their families by placing shelves of books in neighborhood groceries. The new library provided a larger variety of reading material, a branch librarian, and space for educational lectures, continuing education courses, and club meetings.

Hawthorne Branch Library 1957-1973, 2041 Atwood Avenue

Hawthorne Branch, 2817 East Washington Avenue, when it first moved to Madison East Shopping Center in 1973, 

Today’s Hawthorne Branch Library, 2707 East Washington Avenue, after it moved in 2000 into larger space west of the shopping center.

A century later, Madison’s libraries continue the tradition of free public educational opportunities envisioned by Andrew Carnegie.

Burr Angle describing industrial development along the East Side rail corridor.

Burr Angle presented a very interesting program on why the east side of Madison became the factory side of town, with information on the men and their companies that located here.

Much of his information came from studies done by UW Geography Prof. John W. Alexander titled: Geography of Manufacturing in the Rock River Valley (1949) and Economic Base Study of Madison (1953).

Why the east side?  There was an abundance of cheap, level, dry land served by two railroads. Lots suitable for factories were located within walking distance of inexpensive building lots for housing for workers (Elmside, Hudson Park, Fair Oaks, Eken Park, North Lawn, etc.) and upscale areas (Maple Bluff and Lake Monona shoreline) for  more expensive homes for the factories’ owners and managers.

Entrepreneurs made it happen: Morris and Edward Fuller and John A. Johnson (Fuller & Johnson and Gisholt); Conrad Conradson (Northern Electrical Manufacturing Co.); Jackson Reuter (Madison Plow Co.); the Coleman family (Madison-Kipp); George Steinle (Steinle Turret Machine Co.); Theodore Kupfer (Kupfer Iron Works); Henry & Harry Vogts and Edward Schwenn (Madison Brass Works); Magnus Swenson (U.S. Sugar Beet Co.); Ray Trusler and Clyde Woody (Madison Cement Stave Silo Co.); and Ben Anderson who made Clean-Easy Milking Machines.

The companies were successful because they made high-value, low-bulk specialized products (farm implements, electric motors, machine tools, brass fittings) with clean, centrally-generated power (electricity from coal) and imported metals (iron, steel & brass).  The products were of such high quality that they could be sold in distant markets in direct competition with other similar manufacturers.

Both the owners and workers were hardworking, well-educated Yankees or immigrants who wanted to locate in an attractive, well-run city and have the opportunity to participate in its civic life.

Burr Angle and Dolores Kester are co-authors of a Walking and Biking Tours notebook, a compilation  of background information on these and many other companies whose factories are or were located along Madison’s railroads, most of which have been turned into bicycle paths.  This makes it easy to travel through the isthmus and imagine what it was like to work in one of the factories between ca. 1880 and 1970.  Some are still producing today.

In 1930 six of the nine industrial area on the east side were used by metal fabricating firms.

The notebook titled: Walking and Biking Tours in Several Industrial Areas of Madison Wisconsin, 1880-1970 is available in Madison libraries and on the Historic Madison, Inc. website.

-Ann Waidelich

Iron Works Building ca. 2001 Photo courtesy of John Martens.

Early last century Madison’s “movers and shakers” decided factories should be located on the east side of town. Soon eight factories were built along the rail corridor between Baldwin Street and Olbrich Gardens.

Using maps and photos from his tour book on historic Madison industries, Burr Angle will share info on the men and factories that grew up along the East Madison rail corridor/bike path. Bring your industrial memorabilia to share!

Dorothy Browne Haines when she first joined the firm in 1952.

Marshall Browne Sr.

When Marshall Browne retired from publishing the East Side News he gave an interview to the Wisconsin State Journal that was published on Autg 5, 1962.  The following is an excerpt:

Marshall Browne Sr. started the East Side News because he felt a community publication with the personal touch of the old hometown newspaper could help the East side which felt a little left out of city affairs.

Browne felt the East Side News contributed to community consciousness in covering East side news usually neglected by the daily newspapers. The East Side News emphasized news of local businesses, schools, churches, youth organizations and local government when it directly affected East-siders.  Browne is proud of the fact that in its 38 years the East Side News never published news of murders, crimes, divorces and scandals.

His goal in fostering the East side spirit was not to isolate the area but rather to emphasize that the East side is an important part of Madison.

His son Marshall Browne Jr. joined the firm right out of college and became an accomplished printer.

His daughter Dorothy Browne Haines joined the firm in 1952 as a reporter and photographer and became the business manager.

When Browne Sr. retired Marshall Jr and Dorothy renamed the business Impressions and continued to do printing until they sold the business in 1982 and retired themselves.

The East Side News and Print Shops stood at the corner of Second Street and Winnebago Street.

Royal Eklof at a press purchased in the 1950s.

East Side Print Shop composing room with linotype machine and operators.

In February the East Side History Club learned about two ceramic artists who worked in Madison in the middle of the last century. Ann Waidelich drew out the  comparisons and contrasts between the two in her informative program.

Consider the following….

Special guest Mary Lamm Feltman of Rockford, president of the Ceramic Arts Studio Collectors, heard about our meeting and traveled to Madison to attend, along with several members of her group.

Mary Lamm Feltman shares tips for identifying true Ceramic Arts Studio figurines.

Ceramic Arts Studio founder Betty Harrington lived on Waubesa Street near Madison Brass Works. Kathy Seifert, whose grandfather Edward Schwenn founded Madison Brass Works with Henry Vogts in 1909, grew up nearby and played in Harrington’s back yard, occasionally receiving figurine “seconds” as gifts.

Kathy Siefert displays her Ceramic Arts Studio figurines known as “Rebecca and Isaac”.

Madison Ceramic Arts personalized figurine from Catherine Tripalin Murray’s collection

Century House plate is from the collection of Ann Waidelich.

In the middle of the last century, Madison boasted two commercial potteries:  Madison Ceramic Arts Studio and Century House Pottery. Ann Waidelich will speak about their history and connections to Madison’s East Side. Bring your local pottery paraphernalia for show and tell!

If you are on the East Side History Club’s postal mailing list, look for your meeting announcement to come in a new cost-saving postcard format.

If you’d like to save the Goodman Community Center even more money and receive your meeting announcements by email, please  send your email address to: eshc@goodmancenter.org.

Poling harvested ice toward the hoist

Ice was harvested out of Madison lakes commercially for local use as early as 1856 by Albert Warren, whose business was at the intersection of North Hamilton and North Pinckney Streets. In the 1870s Henry Allen and John Pyncheon cut and sold Lake Monona ice from their ice house on Rutledge Street. The Kurtz and Huegle Ice Co. was located on Lake Mendota in what is now Maple Bluff. That’s a lot of industry built on local ice!

After the railroads came to Madison, the prospect of shipping ice to consumers in cities to the south became feasible. Also, the large breweries and meat packing plants both locally and in Chicago and Saint Louis created a demand for lake ice.

Several Illinois firms built ice harvesting businesses around the Madison lakes including Knickerbocker on Lake Wingra and Lake Monona, and the Jefferson Ice Co. and Esch Bros. and Rabe Ice Co. at the east end of Lake Monona at the foot of what used to be called “Ice House Hill” and is now called the Olbrich Sledding Hill.

The local ice scene was dominated by Conklin & Sons, who had a very large ice house on Lake Mendota in what is now James Madison Park. For a long time the park was informally called Conklin Park. They delivered Madison lake ice to other cities well into the 1930s.

Conklin Ice House located where James Madison Park is today.

Cutting ice from Madison’s lakes was cold, hard labor that took place during a 4 to 6 week period in January & February. Unemployed construction laborers and farm hands worked 10 hour days for 50 cents a day. One house piece of ice (average 20 lbs) per day sold for 50 cents per week or $2 per month in 1882.

The Conklins sold their ice business to the Oscar Mayer company, which had been making and delivering “mechanical” ice since the 1920s. Oscar Mayer stopped making ice in 1968 and has relied on mechanical refrigeration since then.

Oscar Mayer Ice delivery ca. 1940

Ice boxes in private homes were popular from about the 1840s through the 1940s.

Mechanical refrigerators were invented by GE in 1911. They gradually replaced ice boxes, which required the constant cost and delivery of ice (often inconsistent in quality), messy disposal of melted ice water, and making do without a “freezer” to keep food really cold.

As with other modern appliances, the quality of refrigerators keep going up while the cost kept coming down and when the supply increased after World War II the end of the ice box era was at hand.

Thanks to Charles “Chuck” Steele, we now have this fantastic photo of the toboggan run and ski jump  at “Ice House Hill” circa 1949.

For those who missed growing up with memories of ice houses still in our collective past, “Ice House Hill” is the sledding hill at Olbrich Park. An ice house was located here until beet juice waste discharged into Lake Monona via Starkweather Creek from the U.S. Sugar Company factory made the ice unsaleable and the operation went out of business. The ice house was torn down; the building providing lodging for its workers was moved to the corner of Garrison and Buena Vista and turned into a private home; the hill became the site of this city-sponsored winter entertainment.

According to Chuck Steele, city road-crew workers who would otherwise have no employment in winter were given jobs assembling and operating these recreational structures in city parks. Madison’s East Side was lucky to have such fun provided by the city.

]]> http://eastsidehistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/toboggan-run-at-ice-house-hill/feed/ 1 eastsidehistorymadison Steele_Chuck_Toboggan_ca1949 http://eastsidehistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/what-makes-a-brick-happy-garver-feedmill-presentation-february-7/ http://eastsidehistory.wordpress.com/2013/01/19/what-makes-a-brick-happy-garver-feedmill-presentation-february-7/#comments Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:47:40 +0000 eastsidehistorymadison http://eastsidehistory.wordpress.com/?p=867 ]]> On February 7th, the public is invited to attend a community meeting to understand the Garver Feed Mill’s late 19th century/early 20th century masonry construction and the study methods being employed by Facility Engineering, Inc. to evaluate the condition of the bricks and the efforts required to stabilize the Mill.

Charles Quagliana, of Preservation Architect and Facility Engineering, Inc., will speak on the history of masonry, the characteristics of the specific brick used to construct Garver Feed Mill, the materials used for brick-making and repair, and the difference between historic and contemporary bricks and masonry. In addition, types of distress and proper and improper brick repairs will be explained. The meeting will end with a review of the methods the consultants are going through to gather information about Garver Feed Mill’s condition.

Charles Quagliana is a local preservation architect with more than 30 years of experience and expertise focused on rehabilitation and restoration work on significant buildings throughout Wisconsin. Facility Engineering provides professional, licensed, and insured analysis and design services to provide solutions to building envelope alteration and improvement needs and has a contract with the City of Madison to evaluate the Feed Mill.

Please attend to show the City of Madison and the Olbrich Botanical Society how deeply we care about the preservation of this unique local landmark!