Welcome to the New Glarus Swiss Historical Village and Museum

A Good Deal on Land l 160 Years of Celebrations l Legend of the Swiss who disappeared into a fox hole l One of the Last of the Swiss pioneers tells his story l Those big floppy hats at the Kilby dance l The Old Guard roars again l Party On! It's a pioneer wedding day l The beginning of 'Green County Gold' l One beer too many in 1887

How would you like to purchase Wisconsin land today for $1.25 a acre?

Those days are long gone, but that was the price that the Swiss colonists who settled New Glarus in 1845 were able to pay when the Emigration Society sold the 1,200 acres it had purchased for their community. That was the same per-acre price that the Society had paid to the federal government at the land office at Mineral Point.

The land had been divided into 20-acre plots for use as farm fields. However, of the 30 heads of families who were assigned plots at the beginning of the settlement, only five kept their land for the long term (John Kaspar Legler, George Legler, Matheus Hösli, Heinrich Hösli, and Balthasar Dürst -- they all purchased adjacent land and developed larger farms).

The initial farmland, known as the schoenengrund, was all south of today's 6th Ave. (Highway 39, once known as the Mineral Point Rd.)

Twelve families left the colony in the first several years and lost their rights to the land. Six of the men who had drawn plots died before the land sales and only three of those families obtained the land for the longer term ( the families of Matheus Schmid, Abraham Schindler and Fridolin Hösli -- Schmid and Schindler died during the 1854 cholera epidemic that saw 20 of the colony's adults die).

In the area where the village developed (Plot 26 and part of Plot 25), land was set aside for school, church, and cemetery purposes. There was a village well in the lot where the New Glarus Bakery and Ruef's Meat Market are today. The area to the east of the old railroad depot was originally set aside for a mill, but use of the Little Suger River there proved to be inappropriate and a sawmill and later grist mill were located slightly upstream.

Although the Emigration Society continued to own and control the land until 1855, some colonists sold their rights to the land as early as 1848, causing consternation back in Switzerland. There was a major dispute with the Emigration Society as to whether the colonists had to pay for their land or it was a gift of their home community. In many cases it ended up being a gift. Before things were settled, however, there was strong animosity towards the managers of the colony and a window and door on the home of one of the colony managers was damaged during the dispute. The remaining plots were used by and sold to later immigrants. A number of settlers made handsome profits on land sales after the Emigration Society's role ended.

Seven and a half plots were initially used as woodlots, where logs were harvested for the community's first homes. Additional land was soon purchased for more woodlots, south of the village along today's Green County Highway NN. The easternmost parcel includes most of the eastern half of today's New Glarus Woods state park.

Based on New Glarus Historical Society research by Duane H. Freitag

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The celebrations go on and on

Over the years there have been many anniversary celebrations marking the arrival here in August of 1845 of 135 colonists from Canton Glarus in Switzerland.

The first recorded celebration was in 1870, when the pioneers were honored with speeches and historical papers. Again in 1885, the Swiss gathered to mark 40 years of colony growth.

The golden jubilee events in 1895 drew press coverage in Wisconsin and Switzerland. Small brochures had announced that the gathering would include speeches, music and a historical exhibit. A special excursion train, bringing visitors from the expanding Swiss community, was met at the depot and a procession went to the nearby pioneer cemetery site for speeches and then on to a grove northwest of the village for music and refreshments. Original colonist Balz Durst carried the American flag, flanked by the widow of Fridolin Streiff and J.J. Tschudy and his wife. Streiff and Tschudy managed the colony in the early years. Historian John Luchsinger, who wrote some of the early histories of the community and was the first from the Swiss colony to serve in the Wisconsin Legislature, gave the main speech. (Click here to read the Milwaukee Sentinel report of the celebration)

In 1905, the Swiss Colony paid tribute to the Glarus tradition of the Landesgemeinde, the ancient annual public meeting of all of the canton's voters. Among resolutions approved at the New Glarus Landesgemeinde was one making "limburger cheese be declared legal tender for the payment of all debts."

The large monument to the original colonists that watches over downtown New Glarus today, was dedicated at the celebration in 1915. Emmanuel Phillips, then governor of Wisconsin, was of Swiss descent and addressed the crowd. Eight original colonists, all children at the time of the 1845 immigration, attended.

The advent of the automobile caused celebration planners in 1925 to scale back activities a bit out of fear that a crowd too large to handle would descend on the town by car. In 1935, the community put on the first performance of an immigration pageant written by Dr. John Schindler -- a native son who later authored the best-selling book "How to Live 365 Days a Year." Gov. Phillip LaFollette was the main speaker.

World War II was still underway when the actual 100th anniversary of the founding of New Glarus occurred, so events were muted. One year later the Centennial was fittingly celebrated and included the publication of the history "New Glarus' First 100 Years," by Miriam Theiler, then editor of the local newspaper.

The 125th anniversary brought about another significant publication, "New Glarus 1845-1970," which focused on the immigration diary kept by tinsmith Mathias Dürst.

The community's Sesquicentennial was celebrated in grand style in 1995, with a parade, many displays including one on family history, and the dedication of the beautiful sculpture of Fridolin's Walking Stick, a gift from old Glarus to New Glarus.

In 2005 the 160th anniversary passed quietly. A translation of a recently rediscovered notebook of community founder Judge Niklaus Dürst, and related stories, was published by the Swiss American Historical Society. The research was done under the auspices of the New Glarus Historical Society. Copies are available at our museum store.

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Many years ago a farm lad disappeared from the New Glarus area. He was missing for 32 years and an amazing legend grew out of his absence.

Fabian (pronounced fah-bee-ahn) Streiff was a shy young man who worked as a hired man on a farm about two miles from his home. Each weekend he would walk home to spend Sunday with his family. On one of those weekends, while carrying a very old hunting gun with him, he stopped in New Glarus where some practical jokers apparently threatened him. Later, as he plodded on, he became afraid and decided to hide in the woods, clutching his gun close to him. The next day he kept walking westward, never returning. After he was missed, a large search party was formed but it could find no trace of him.

From that a tale grew with the re-telling: Fabian had supposedly crawled into a foxhole while hunting one of those animals. Unable to get out, he wandered through a labyrinth of caves. Days later he came out on the hills overlooking the Wisconsin River near its confluence with the Mississippi. Dazed, he was unable to find his way home.

Actually, he wandered into Illinois and obtained a job as a hired man on a farm near Savanna. He worked there for 32 years, receiving no salary and only tobacco and the simplest wearing apparel. In 1915 he stole away, still carrying his old gun, and wandered farther south. Another farmer assisted him and wrote to the New Glarus postmaster in hopes of finding a relative. Fabian was finally reunited with family in New Glarus. Through legal action, he later obtained back wages from the Savanna farmer.

Based on a news article in the Jan. 13, 1938, Monticello Messenger

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Oswald Babler was 9 years old in 1845 when he and his parents took part in the epic trip from Glarus, Switzerland, to help found a new Swiss community in Green County in the Territory of Wisconsin.

When he grew older he became a farmer like his father and also learned the cabinetmaker trade. He was a Civil War veteran and went on to be a town assessor and treasurer, a census enumerator and father of 12 children.

Oswald was the last male survivor of those original Swiss pioneers - and even to his last years he shunned the automobile in favor of walking from one town to another.

A newspaper interview with him is among items available online in the Wisconsin State Historical Society's digital library. The first page recounts the history of New Glarus, the second tells more of Oswald's story, and the third includes a German language story of his 91st birthday. Follow this link:

Oswald Babler Article - July 7, 1926

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A dance on Kilby weekend was an event not to be missed in New Glarus. The church holiday is on the last weekend of September and still is celebrated here as a sort of "homecoming/thanksgiving/church rededication" event. Years ago the weekend included sermons, speeches, processions, shooting matches and -- on Monday -- the Kilby Dance.

Hotels and bars would provide free horse and carriage transportation to the dance for young ladies. Those places with the prettiest girls got the biggest crowds of men. A reporter for Century Magazine stopped at one of those events in 1900 while researching ethnic dances in Wisconsin, and later wrote:

"At a Swiss ball it is the correct thing for a man to wear his hat. The Norse, French, and the Yankees, who together make up perhaps a fourth of the male dancers, do not follow the custom; but the Switzers sped around in tall, funereal felt hats, the crowns truncated cones, the brims wide and flapping….

"The Swiss girls are pretty. They are rustic, but dress with fairly good taste, though the ethnologists say that Alpine people are dowdy. Well, the Swiss girls look well at their parties, anyway. And you may talk to them, though their men do not. The Yankees and the Norse, who come without girls of their own race, talk to the Swiss girls between dances, while the Swiss men retire to the bar-room and pour things into themselves….

"The ball begins at half-past seven, and they are all there at the last dance, which ends at half-past five in the morning. Ten hours of dancing, and such dancing!"

--Based on a Century Magazine article reprinted in
Tales of the Great Lakes by Castle Publishers in 1986

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For many years, a Civil War cannon was mounted in front of the schoolhouse in New Glarus. At first the cannon was on the east side of the building, which had been built in 1896 with an addition in 1915. When a high school wing was added in 1939, the cannon stood guard at the main entrance on the north side of the building.

The school newspaper took its name from that cannon and is still known as the "Old Guard," with a motto of "As the Cannon Roars the Press Will Roll."

The cannon was actually one of two surplus weapons that were obtained long after the Civil War by New Glarus area veterans. It was mounted and filled with cement in the early 1900s after it's mate exploded while being fired during a 4th of July celebration.

The weapon, known as a 20 pound Parrott Rifle, was once a ship's cannon aboard the USS Katahdin, which took part in the Union blockade of Confederate ports.

In the early 1990s, the cannon was restored to working status by a Chicago-area civil war re-enactment group - Battery G of the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery. Meanwhile the schoolhouse that served the community for so many years was turned into an apartment building.

When not being used by Battery G for encampments, the gun is housed in the Hall of History at the Swiss Historical Village, giving quiet testimony to the service of the roughly 100 Civil War veterans from the Swiss colony.

In July of 1995, the roar of the cannon was heard here again during a Civil War encampment that was held as part of New Glarus' 150th anniversary celebration.

--Based on Swiss Historical Village archives and displays

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Tradition in New Glarus once said that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the luckiest days for weddings - and Wednesday's the unluckiest. Few pay any attention to that idea anymore, but weddings naturally continue to be a part of life as they were in the earliest days of the Swiss colony.

We can take a quick peak at an 1852 through the writings of Elizabeth Moore Wallace, who emigrated from Ireland in 1851 with her parents and settled in "Irish Hollow" southwest of New Glarus. Here's what she recalled about the wedding day of Melchior Stuessy and Katharina Legler:

"Mother needed tubs for the butter she made, so father went over the [Little Sugar] river in search of a cooper. He found Melcher [sic] Stuessy putting finishing touches on his new log cabin, while one of the Legler girls, who was to become his bride the next day, was inside baking her wedding dinner. Her father's cabin was well filled with younger children, so why should she not do the baking over the fireplace in the new cabin that was so soon to be her home?

"Father…came home to tell us about the approaching nuptials. How thrilling it was to my young ears, and how I wished I were over there with those Swiss young people the next night, when I heard them yodeling and calling to one another; their voices echoing and re-echoing from the hills."

"A wedding in the Swiss settlement was an occasion for much merry-making. If the contracting parties belong to the most influential families, the festivities would sometimes last for several days. There was always a wedding dinner with a dance and free beer."

--Based on "This Side of the Gulley," recollections of Elizabeth
Moore Wallace and Lillian Wallace Maynard, published in 1926

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Visitors to the cheese factory at the Swiss Historical Village learn not only how cheese is made but also how New Glarus became the birthplace of the "foreign type" cheese industry in Wisconsin.

Limburger, American (cheddar), and Swiss cheese production all had their beginnings around New Glarus thanks to the efforts of pioneer cheesemaker Nicholas Gerber. Cheesemaking eventually brought so much income to the farming community that Swiss cheese got the nickname of "Green County gold."

Gerber's first Swiss cheese factory was on the Nick Freitag farm -- a site that is now along Highway 69 between New Glarus and Monticello. An interesting account from a 1930's Hoard's Dairyman magazine is included among items available online in the Wisconsin State Historical Society's digital library. The second page contains a picture of the old building. The story is at:

Green County Gold Article - May 25, 1930

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The spring of 1887 was a busy time in the Little Sugar River valley southeast of New Glarus.

Two rail lines were being completed. Many Norwegian immigrants were working on a new Milwaukee Road branch line that would end at New Glarus. Italian and Irish immigrants were working on a parallel line that the Illinois Central was building to connect Freeport, Ill., with Madison.

The biggest attraction was the digging of a tunnel to carry the Illinois Central line through the hills to the Sugar River Valley and on to Belleville and Madison. Workers lived in a tent city on the hill atop the tunnel site and many people would pack a picnic lunch on Sunday and go there to view the excavation.

One of the more interesting news accounts about the site appeared in an area newspaper in May of that year:

"There was a shooting fracas at the tunnel on Sunday. The beer man from Monroe unloaded some of his cargo there on Saturday, which was undoubtedly the cause of the trouble. An Irishman was fired on by an Italian, the bullet striking him on the side of his head and glanced upward, without serious injury. Reports state that the Irishman was the aggressor."

No trains run on either right-of-way today and the tunnel stands in mute testimony to days long past. The Milwaukee Road right-of-way is now the popular Little Sugar River Trail, with headquarters in the old depot in New Glarus. The Illinois Central line has also been preserved and may also eventually be a bicycle/hiking trail.

--Based on an item in the May 11, 1887, Monroe Sentinel

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