Wisconsin 101

Wisconsin’s Migrant Housing Laws

Before World War II, most of the migrant workers in Wisconsin’s pickle fields were single young men, and pickle companies provided housing for workers in large dormitories. After World War II, however, farmers began to hire more families to harvest pickles in…

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September 1, 2017

Read more about the article The Fromm Fur Farm

Captive foxes on a pelting range. Date unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society.

Marathon County / Region 2 - North East / Related Stories / Hamburg / Fromm Fox Fur Coat / Manufacturing & Trade / Clothing & Fashion / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / 1960-1980

The Fromm Fur Farm

The land that became the Fromm Fur Farm was first settled by Joachim Nieman, a forester who came to Wisconsin as part of the mass immigration from Germany after 1848. He gave his daughter Alwina a quarter section of undeveloped wilderness near…

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January 1, 2017

An advertisement for Fromm furs using their “bright with silver” slogan and printed on metallic silver paper, Women’s Wear Daily, March 11, 1936.

Marathon County / Region 2 - North East / Related Stories / Hamburg / Fromm Fox Fur Coat / Manufacturing & Trade / Clothing & Fashion / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / Global Connections

The Fromm Brand and the Hamburg Fur Auction

Probably the biggest reason for the success of the Fromm Brothers’ fur farm was the particular color of fur that they bred. As fashions shifted to favor the trademark Fromm “bright with silver” color, the Fromms were in a position to capitalize on their control of…

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January 1, 2017

Read more about the article Canine Distemper and the Fromm Vaccine

After the Fromm’s successfully supported development of a distemper vaccine in foxes, they started Fromm Laboratories as a commercial venture on their second property between Grafton and Thiensville, c. 1940s. Photograph courtesy of the Oazaukee County Historical Society.

Marathon County / Region 2 - North East / Related Stories / Hamburg / Fromm Fox Fur Coat / Manufacturing & Trade / Science & Medicine / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940

Canine Distemper and the Fromm Vaccine

One of the most formidable problems that fur farmers faced in in the early twentieth century were the epidemic diseases that would strike their herds each year. Many fur farmers had come to see losses to distemper and other diseases as a…

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January 1, 2017

Read more about the article The Lumber Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Lumber rafts on the Wisconsin River near the Wisconsin Dells, c. 1886. Photograph by H.H. Bennett, courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID 6314.

Langlade County / 2000-2020 / 2020-2040 / Bark Spud / Related Stories / Home Furnishings / Manufacturing & Trade / Clothing & Fashion / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / 1960-1980 / 1980-2000

The Lumber Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Prior to the Civil War, most of northern Wisconsin was inhabited by the Menominee and Ojibwe Indians and transient fur traders of European origin. Demand for wood in Chicago and Milwaukee after the Civil War brought lumbermen to the north woods. Initially,…

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February 1, 2016

Read more about the article Bowling in Japan

Bowling featured on this 1964 cover of a special issue of Life Magazine devoted to Japan. Click to enlarge.

Langlade County / Antigo / Vulcan Bowling Pin / Related Stories / Manufacturing & Trade / Art, Sport & Entertainment / 1960-1980 / Global Connections

Bowling in Japan

In 1964, a representative of Japanese company Sanko Trading visited the Vulcan Corporation, a bowling-pin manufacturer based in Antigo, Wisconsin. Sanko was seeking a deal for exclusive rights to import bowling pins to Japan. At the time, Vulcan didn’t think much of the…

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February 1, 2016