August 8, 1931 Malueg
Brothers threshed oats and charged $35.50. By 1947 Leslie Malueg charged
$72.95, plus a barrel of beer, 994 bushels of oats. A good year.
Cob corn from Eugene Rekitzke in March 1941 for $120.29. Otto
Niemuth in March 1932 for $10.50 probably seed oats. After this
notes comment 'traded oats binder for a combine'. No more threshing crews
and big meals.
Water cups and tanks
and plumbing for the barn in 1926. No more hand watering the cows.
By that time they must have had electricity. May 1, 1929 from the
Marion Motor Company, dealers in Automobiles, Tractors and Farm Machinery, a
disk harrow and plow for $32. A tractor with steel
wheels. April 1947 again from Ford Motor Company a Ferguson Mower
for $198. Forest Schafer, Leo Kautz and Alice Goodstorf signed as
witnesses.
1948 acquired two
more horses for $100, Nell and Bess. The old ones went to the fox farm
for mink feed. 1952 installed a barn cleaner for $1250. This
replaced the manure carrier with a steel wire rod that one pushed the manure
out the door and into the waiting ground-driven manure spreader hooked up to a
team of horses. This carrier was quite a contraption.
1952 same year a new three-stall garage with overhead doors for
$1550. Lester and Rudy Schoneck were carpenter helpers. 1949 second
cement silo, 12x40. Farmall 'H' tractor in 1941. Ford Ferguson
tractor.
First National Bank of
Clintonville and the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Marion for six month loans
at 6%. June 1950 sold four (castrated) hogs to Jim Nolan, Dealer in
Livestock of all kinds, telephone 4761 on Tuesday and Wednesday. 910
pounds at eighteen and a half cents a pound for $168.35. Butchered pigs
for the dinner table, besides frying out the lard and making soap.
Sausage made with casings (guts). Cinder block smoke house for hams and
bacon. Sawed cedar shingles and sold for a dollar a bundle. 1952
purchased baby chicks for $80.75, in turn sold $329.92 in eggs, and
$101.98 for roosters. Plus provided eggs for cooking and
eating. Poor old hens and young roosters made the ultimate sacrifice and
ended up on the dinner platter and dumpling soup. Diversified
farming. They did not put all their eggs in one basket as the saying
goes. But records show they budgeted and procurred for
a purebred heifer in January, 1952 for $85. and alas it died
in July. What a loss!
Monthly Statement December
1941 from the Quarter-Line Cheese Factory, Harvey Moericke, Secretary
and Harold and Elda Brown Cheesemakers. 201,177 pounds of milk was
received at the factory, money to be divided from the sale of cheese -
$2557.04. Like they say ten pounds of milk, makes one pound of
cheddar cheese. (Oh those good cheese curds.) The secretary fee
was $8.50, cheesemaker received $244.03 for a month's work. Out of this
he had to pay the milk haulers, who hoisted those 100 pound milk cans.
Duane Miller, Leland Polzin, Raymond Draeger. Whey hauled to
farms for swill to feed the swine. The Zillmer butterfat test
was 3.8. Big Holstein cows. 10,173 pounds of milk for the
month of December. Cheese and butter. 23 pounds of butter, (almost
a pound of butter each day.) 15 pounds of cheese. And the milk
check was $116.46. During the depression and the dry years, November
1933, little feed was available hence the cows only gave 3448 pounds of milk,
could not afford to buy any butter and the check was for $31.72. They
were poor, good years were to come, especially the war tragedy.
Federal Census list
from 1900 with Zillmer neighbors, Henry Remling, Herman Schoenick, William
Wilke, Jacob Hangartner and Simon Tischauser. Alfred Abraham was
Zillmer's boarder and hired man. And a step-mother Wilhelminia.
No written record, but legend
remembers an old small Ford pickup truck, circa 1931. Narrow
box, 4x6. Only vehicle on the farm and people had to ride in
the back, winter and summer for transportation. Running boards, wire
spoked wheels, sun shield. Three speed shifting gears on the floor.
In 1916 William Zillmer had invested in his first car, a Ford Model
'T' for $470. 1938 must have been a good year as a 1938 Tudor Ford,
V-8 for $793.33 from Marion Motor Company Lional Fuchs, Leo Kautz and Forest
Schafer signed the Conditional Sale Contract. '4 on the
floor' manual shifting. Where was reverse? Then a repair
order July 30, 1945 for a 1941 V-8 Mercury. No record of when it was
purchased but it was a 'lemon', vapor lock, align the front end and adjust the
carburetor. A 1948 Ford pick up truck repair December 30, 1949 with
10,516 miles. 6 months later it has 2000 more miles and the repair order
says lubricate the chassis and repack the front wheels. How could they
put that many miles on in six months? This truck was demolished in
a rollover and a 1951 Ford truck, cost $2497. Must have been all those
trips to the feed mill. Paid cash for all those purchases and when in
town left the keys in the vehicles. Even the trunk key was always in the
back.
After World War Two money
flowed in to the farm. New automobile, a 1949 Ford, grease job in June
1950, 10108 miles in less than a year. Where did they travel?
Upgraded to a 1953 Ford. These vehicles all were manual shift, three on a
tree. Slip the clutch, grind the gears. First (low) to third
(high) gear, never mind second gear. Chugged along, jumping like a
rabbit. A 1956, 8 cylinder with automatic shift, traded in for a
1961 Ford Fairlane, 6 cylinder. A slow turtle, leak in gas tank,
rusted muffler, cleaned the spark plugs. Then a 1963 8 cylinder
Ford for $2575.00 Charley Plopper. Sales tax of $75. Less
than a month later an oil change and over a thousand miles on the
speedometer. Many trips to visit relatives in Sheboygan, Neenah and
Milwaukee. Christmas time 1963 installed snow tires for $25.75.
Other automobiles in between
until Marion Motor Company dissolved with the death of Charley Plopper and
Forest Schafer going to Clintonville with the Urban Telephone Company.
Down the street was Maynes. A 1972 Dodge, upgrading to a 1976 car
complete with automatic transmission, air conditioning, and all the other bells
and whistles. 5 years later Bill Zillmer died, and his widow kept this
car until she died in 1993. By that time the bottom and sides and
frame were rusted from road salt. Sold for $600 to someone from
Missouri and it was the end of an era.
So now it is 2013.
After 130 years of keeping these incidentals, is it time to incinerate these
records and receipts? Or keep them for the next generation?
copyright 2014 by Delores and Russell Miller
