Wisconsin and Madison County History!

With the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this week I remembered another piece of Eaton History! The young man who lived in the Eaton - Munnsvill-Pratts Hollow area with his family and became one of the most remembered men of Wisconsin....William Dempster Hoard.

So.... when traveling on Route 46 from Oneida to Hamilton you might pass a beautiful, now deserted stone building on the side of the road. Missing windows and doors… it sits as reminder of Eaton & Munnsville’s past, a past that included many famous people and famous products. One such man was born in the building and passed his childhood there observing the area and interested in its development, his name was William Dempster Hoard.

Hoard spent many hours observing the growing of hops that was a mainstay crop during his formative years; a crop that depleted the already thin soil of this hilly Madison County, NY area. The farmers who lost their fortunes and farms to this fickle crop, wiped out by blight and the commodity market, changed to milk production and Holstein–Friesian cattle that were imported from Holland.

The cows were a needed agricultural addition that was - with its bi-product of manure - an enhancement of the soil and a new way of life for this Madison county, NY area. Hoard as a young man moved to Wisconsin in the westward exodus of the 1800’s and landed in an area that also had agricultural problems much like his former home. One day siting on a hillside noting the farmers going out of business or struggling, he came up with the idea of making the same change to cows, an idea that made Wisconsin the “Dairy State” for many years.

Hoard also started Hoard’s Dairyman’s Journal that gave information to farmers on dairy practices. He is considered the father of the refrigerated railcar that was needed to ship milk to markets at a great distance and today his drawings of the perfect barn have been copied by Cornell University. His motto was that happy cows produced more milk and that entering his dairy you were to treat his cows like “mothers” with kindness and respect.

In his lifetime he became the Governor of Wisconsin and helped bring abolition to the state, staunchly supporting legislation to accompany his beliefs.Today Madison County, NY is still an agricultural county and much of what was learned by our founding dairy farmer’s came out of Hoard’s Journal! 

I Have at the museum a wonderful letter he wrote about attending school at Eaton's Pine Woods School.  Charming remembrance of the one room school.

William Dempster Hoard & Madison County History you never hear of...the Wisconsin Dairy Business started here...

I was going through the Syracuse Newspaper and found an article  on Hellava Good Cheese moving to Wisconsin.  Many people would pass that information up but... being that little history genie that I am, I was very amused since it was a man from right here in Central New York who made Wisconsin “The Dairy State”…his name is William Dempster Hoard.  Yes the dairyman…from Munnsville.

So when traveling on Route 46 from Oneida to Hamilton you might pass a beautiful, now deserted stone building on the side of the road. Missing windows and doors… it sits as reminder of Munnsville’s past, a past that included many famous people and famous products. One such man was born in the building and passed his childhood there observing the area and interested in its development, his name was William Dempster Hoard.

Hoard spent many hours observing the growing of hops that was a mainstay crop during his formative years; a crop that depleted the already thin soil of this hilly Madison County, NY area. The farmers who lost their fortunes and farms to this fickle crop, wiped out by blight and the commodity market, changed to milk production and Holstein–Friesian cattle that were imported from Holland.

The cows were a needed agricultural addition that was - with its bi-product of manure - an enhancement of the soil and a new way of life for this Madison county, NY area. Hoard as a young man moved to Wisconsin in the westward exodus of the 1800’s and landed in an area that also had agricultural problems much like his former home. One day siting on a hillside noting the farmers going out of business or struggling, he came up with the idea of making the same change to cows, an idea that made Wisconsin the “Dairy State” for many years.

Hoard also started Hoard’s Dairyman’s Journal that gave information to farmers on dairy practices. He is considered the father of the refrigerated railcar that was needed to ship milk to markets at a great distance and today his drawings of the perfect barn have been copied by Cornell University. His motto was that happy cows produced more milk and that entering his dairy you were to treat his cows like “mothers” with kindness and respect.

In his lifetime he became the Governor of Wisconsin and helped bring abolition to the state, staunchly supporting legislation to accompany his beliefs.

Today Madison County, NY is still an agricultural county and much of what was learned by our founding dairy farmer’s came out of Hoard’s Journal! 

It is a great pity that riding on today’s Route 46 one cannot be made aware of this piece of Madison County history, instead we are beaten to death with Gerrit Smith, Oz and pass real history right by.  And of yes those are “Hop” plants coming back to Munnsville…everything old is new again or as I always say…”History always repeats itself”!

(http://www.syracuse.com/food/index.ssf/2015/04/heluva_good_closes_cheese_plant_in_wayner_county.html)

The NYS Agricultural Society, Holsteins, Pecksport, and the Chenango Breeders Association

This year marks the 180^th anniversary of the NYS agricultural Society a group that has helped forward agricultural education over its long history, a history that also includes its promotion of all of our county fairs. (Below a link to a great article on the society done by Debra Groom.)

An important part of that history of course, is the Holstein-Friesian breed of cattle that have become the staple of the milk producers in our rural NYS area.  The Holsteins always seem to be associated with Gerrit Miller of Peterboro, who helped forge the registering of that breed…but the breed has been in NYS in small numbers since the times of the Dutch and the Holland Land Company.

Alonzo Peck son of Josiah Peck owner of Pecksport
who ran the warehouse and was a teacher at
Madison University..today's Colgate.

In the 1870’s a group of businessmen called the Chenango Breeders Association, set off for Holland with the main purpose of bringing back a “breeding herd” of cattle. The trip was successful and this group of men managed to bring over 270 head back.  What is interesting is that not one was lost on an arduous voyage across the ocean and up (the then going defunct) Chenango Canal to Pecksport. 

Pecksport has always been a sort of mystery to some people… as today it is just a spot on the map located in the Town of Eaton…but in its day it had the first actual modern dairy in Madison County run by the Burchard family …a cheese factory...and warehouse company.  One of the Burchard sons, Sylvester Jr. was one of the Chenango Breeders Association members.  Burchard with other members...Charles Payne of Eaton….Alva Cole of Eaton… are actually credited with writing the points by which we judge the breed today.  Sylvester Burchard Jr. himself became a noted judge at the New York State Fair for many years.

These men actually lived and breathed cows, and I have many of the pictures of this early herd in the Eaton Museum with artifacts belonging to this noted family.  It is of course, Holsteins and milk production that helped replace the fading Hop industry in Madison County… as a matter of fact Burchard often referred to the hops plant as “the Devil’s weed”.

PS… Pecksport was also the busiest port on the Chenango Canal located at the end of Leland's Pond and the birthplace of famous baseball player Hooks Wiltse.  Also of interest is that just a few miles below Pecksport on route 46 near Munnsville, is the birthplace of another famous dairyman…William Dempster Hoard founder of Hoard’s Journal for Dairymen.

Enjoy a trip to the area......

Link to Debra Groom's article..

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/new_york_state_agricultural_so_1.html