Portage County Historical Society

Scott McCormick Remembers his father and uncles

One of my uncles, F. E. McCormick, arrived in Portage County in September 1899 to run the Hetzel creamery near Almond. In 1902 he was married to Minnie Hetzel and they erected a house on the opposite side of the road. The house is now the property of a Mrs. Swanson, Dan Hetzel’s daughter. Uncle ran the Hetzel creamery for ten years. He also ran the Arnott creamery for eight years.

My father arrived in Portage County in April 1902 and started the Eau Pleine creamery for the farmers. This was two miles south of Dancy. He stayed there for six weeks and then in May of 1902 went to run the Buena Vista creamery. My father was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin and raised near Soldiers Grove. My mother was from the Buena Vista area. She was born at the first farm west of the D. F. Gates farm. William O’Keefe was the last owner of the place. My grandmother Adams died when ma was a baby and she was brought up by her grandparents, Scott and Sylvia Clark.

My uncle, O. R .McCormick, arrived in Portage County in the Spring of 1903. He drove a team of horses from near Soldiers Grove to Hetzel. That summer he learned the creamery trade from F. E. McCormick. In the Spring of 1904 he went to Bancroft to operate the creamery. While there he was married to Rose Hetzel in 1908. He ran this plant until 1912 and then went to Stockton. He afterwards ran plants at Buena Vista and Plover. He made butter for Mr. Schmidt at the Stevens Point Dairy Products Co. He sent some butter to the State Fair in 1907 and received Sweepstakes prize. This was a score of 98.

You have heard of different businesses at Maynard’s Corners. Edward Myers and Sanford Topping started a feed mill there. This was run by a traction engine. Sanford Topping built a house there. The business didn’t last long and Sanford Topping sold the house to Thomas Footit. My father bought the house from Mr. Footit about 1903. In 1905 he moved the house and attached it to the Sylvia Clark residence. All of us boys were born in that house.

My uncles and my father are gone. Aunt Minnie lives with her oldest daughter in Red Granite, Aunt Rose is dead but one of the girls is Mrs. Ed. Rossier who lives in Plover. My mother is living and the oldest three of us boys are bachelors. The youngest is married and lives in Horicon. He has a family of three girls and a home of his own. He has worked in the John Deere plant for over twenty years.

When the Centennial issue of the Stevens Point Journal was printed, I noticed a picture of the car that was owned by E. H. Joy. My father traded a motor cycle to A. J. Clements for that car. The last man I knew that had the car was Byron S. Ward.

The first time I was in Stevens Point was by train. My folks took three of us from Arnott to Stevens Point. This was in 1910 and I wasn’t quite four years old. I didn’t appreciate a train ride then. The next time I got to Stevens Point was by auto. My folks took two of us to the Fair in 1911. This auto was a 1910 two cylinder Reo. When we were about to leave the Fair the whistles had started to blow in the city. I heard Soo Line No. 5 whistle in and out of town.

We lived in Stevens Point from November 1920 until April 1923. I wish I had taken an interest in historical things while we lived in Stevens Point. I had just started to take an interest in them when we moved out. At that time the grade teachers started us to make books called Pioneer History. When those teachers started us digging into the past I started to look for old catalogs on threshing machinery, autos and dairy machinery.

In 1933 I looked through my grandfather’s house and found two piles of old farm papers. I kept all ads and pictures on threshing machinery. All news about dairy plants at that time was pasted into books. I have quite a few pictures of the old creameries in Portage County. I also have a file of books called “Wisconsin Farmer’s Institutes” from 1889 through 1915.