When I began researching “The Big Cheese” in 1998, scrolling microfilm was the only way to do a newspaper search. You then printed from the reader, sometimes printing in sections to later piece together. As the internet grew I was able to add a few additional articles to the story, but one detail eluded me – WHERE in Appleton, Outagamie, Wisconsin was this massive cheese built?
This past weekend, a comment on my post, The Largest Cheese in the World! prompted me to take another look. And much to my dismay, the answer was right there all along. To be fair, the new articles I was finding repeated the location over and over, hitting me in the head with the fact.
I now know that the cheese was manufactured at the Charles Clack warehouse. The warehouse located at 715 Clark Street (pre-1925 address number change), was “a brick and concrete cabbage store house” built in 1910 and measured “30 by 80 feet, one and one-half stories high. The walls are of concrete, brick-lined, and the floor of cement.”1
Clark Street
January 1911 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map detail of p. 16. The ware house is shown in blue.The same section, October 2024. Google Map
The Sanborn map tells us that there were six buildings on this block of Clark Street, four dwellings, and an office with a lumber shed behind it. The cabbage warehouse was right at the railroad sidetrack, making it the perfect place to create, store and then load a massive cheese.
In the upper left corner of the photograph is a home with a very distinctive roofline, while the home visible in the upper right-hand corner has a more traditional roofline. The home visible on Division Street is the home that Charles Clack, his wife Anna, and their daughter Edith were living in when the 1920 U.S. Federal Census was enumerated on 3 Jan 1920. This home, now numbered 414 North Division Street, still stands, and while the treeline has changed over the past 100+ years, the house is still visible from the warehouse site. According to the Property Search Report at appleton.org, the home was built in 1900 and has a total living area of 2,234 sq. ft. It does look as though a dormer has been added to the south side of the attic as it is not visible in the 1911 photograph.
In the map, you can clearly see what was once four lots moving south down Clark from Packard. The southernmost house was built in 1870. The house next to it was built in 1879. Then a vacant lot just before the home fronting on West Packard, which was built in 1885. The home has a wrapped porch as shown in the Sanborn map.
One item has now been removed from my to-do list! The question remaining is, how many times did I park at the Post Office or drive through to drop a letter in the mailboxes visible below? So many days as I wondered where the cheese had been built, I was right across the street.
Google Earth view, October 2024
SOURCES:
“Two New Buildings Nearing Completion,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 11 Oct 1910, Tuesday Evening, p. 1, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Oct 2024). ↩︎
Last night, I prepared for dinner a turkey breast with homemade stuffing – or, in this case, dressing. The meal choice sparked memories, and the conversation turned to 2001.
I came down with pneumonia as Gary was preparing to spend the week of October 8th at the Fluno Center in Madison, Wisconsin, where he was taking a continuing education management course. He had no choice but to pack his bags and head to Madison for the week.
It was a rough week. I have vivid memories of sitting in the family room, alternately dealing with the heat as I spiked a high fever and, when it broke, freezing to death. I had a follow-up visit with the doctor, that I was somehow able to drag myself into the car to go to. I learned that my lungs were full, and I was still sick.
28 Mar 2011. In the breakfast room. Marie’s birthday at our home.
Thankfully, we were on the bus route, and the kids were old enough to get themselves breakfast and down to the bus for school.
By Thursday, we were eating the last of the food that I had in the house, with it looking dire that I could get to the store to fill the fridge. Dinner was looking pretty lean. Thankfully, Gary was scheduled to return home the next night following the last class session. We could do this!
The kids were home from school, and at 4:30 (or so my memory tells me), we heard a car drive up the driveway, and then the doorbell rang. Looking out, I could see my mother-in-law’s car and Marie standing on the step at the side door. Opening the door to speak to her, she quickly backed off the step. Today, we would say that she was practicing social distancing. Then she said something that was music to my ears: she had brought us dinner. BUT!!! She would not come in, and I was only to open the door wide enough for her to pass the dishes through.
Standing there in my nightgown, I cracked open the screen door just enough to grab a dish and put it on the counter next to the door. First to enter was a turkey breast, warm and smelling delicious. Next was a container of stuffing. We cannot remember if it was her homemade or if she had run up to Van Abel’s for a container. Most likely, the latter. None of us remember a veg, but if she had gone to Van Abel’s, she might have added an order of corn to the order for dressing. Last but not least was a pineapple upside-down cake, fresh from the oven.
Closing the door, the three of us yelled our thanks. Waving goodbye as she drove down the driveway. She was heading a few blocks south to Rennes Health Center to visit her husband, Butch. Her daily visits were the reason that she would take no chance in catching whatever I might want to spread. Butch had had a massive stroke on December 30, 1998, and moved to Rennes in early 1999. Daily visits were the lifeline for both of them.
Marie had spent the better part of the day preparing a meal for her family. And we were grateful. All three of us have vivid memories of how good the food tasted; we can still remember how thankful we were that Grandma Marie had taken the time and effort to feed us.
Gary returned home the next day. He filled the pantry, stocked the fridge, and life returned to normal. I could not shake the pneumonia and did not have clear lungs until after Halloween.
But the warmth of the memory of sitting down to eat that night will never leave us. A meal prepared with love. And for our family that night, a life-saving dinner delivery.
I first posted this piece on 13 Jan 2024 but soon realized that I had not dug deep enough. So this is the original post, plus the additional research.
The original 1934 label. Click to view a color image of this label.
Tuesday was a good day. It was a day when I had confirmation that my writing was reaching people, informing them, and encouraging questions.
Carol from the Stoneware Museum of Monmouth contacted me asking what I might know about the relationship between Hubert Fassbender and the Western Stoneware Pottery company. The Museum is dedicated to preserving the past of the Monmouth, Illinois community and sharing knowledge of stoneware. (Visit them at their website https://monmouthstonewaremuseum.com/ )
What DID I know? Well, Kaukauna Klub cheese has always been packed in crocks. Not the answer she was looking for. I knew I could collect bits and pieces from my research, but what did I know, and what was I missing? Challenge accepted. I created a timeline with accompanying documents, but I now feel compelled to flesh out the facts and take another look.
Kaukauna Klub Cheese is a spreadable natural cheese product, and as Hubert Fassbender, “the originator,” would say, “It is not processed cheese.” I believe it is a variation of the product that he first produced in 1915 for the Anona Cheese Co. in Appleton, Wisconsin. When Anona dissolved in 1931, selling its assets to the Borden company, I believe that Hubert began tinkering with the recipes he had produced many years ago. However, there is also the thought that he never STOPPED tinkering with the product. This idea is supported by comments that state: “Called Kaukauna Klub cheese, it represents the results of 15 years of experiments and development of special equipment.”1 1933 minus 15 equals 1918, which is the year that Hubert started the South Kaukauna Dairy Company and one year after Anona moved their production facility to Chicago, Illinois.
Company lore states that in the winter of 1933, “the lowest point of the depression,” Hubert mixed a small batch of cheese in a mixing bowl in the office of South Kaukauna Dairy. ‘He called in the help and asked people to taste it.’ Everyone liked it. Taking it home, ‘the folks at home liked it too.’2
Appleton Post-Crescent 8 Sep 1933
1918 to 1933. It was in 1918 that Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages, passing into law 17 Jan 1920. But now, at the end of 1933 (5 Dec 1933), Prohibition was ending, and Americans could once again legally sell and consume alcohol. A means of distribution was needed.
South Kaukauna Dairy had the refrigeration equipment needed, and so Hubert added a beer depot to his list of offerings, proudly distributing at least two products, Gettelman’s, a Milwaukee beer produced by the A. Gettelman Brewing Co.3 and Knapstein’s, produced by the Knapstein Brewing Company of New London, a beer “more perfect in every way than you’ve ever tasted. It’s the result of a great combination — Purity, Skill, and Proper Aging.”4
In a letter circa 1935, Hubert stated: “KAUKAUNA KLUB was perfected about the time when beer returned with the only object in mind for local taverns. The originator [Hubert] had not thought of nation wide distribution.” “The Conway Hotel in Appleton, Wisc. was the first account. They served it on their bar [as part of what was called their “free lunch]. Traveling men began to buy it and carried it home with them. They in turn showed it to their friends. It soon happened that they began to form clubs of six and sent to the plant for it to be shipped them. From there it spread all over the United States.”5
One of the drivers for this beer distribution route was Hubert’s nephew Arthur Ellenbecker, whom I interviewed when he was 98 years old, and he well remembered the excitement of the club cheese. He was also quick to state that these routes were not his favorite, as with each delivery, he was expected to sit down and enjoy a glass of beer. This not only delayed his deliveries but was too many beers throughout the day.
1934, the Conway Hotel
The first deliveries of the new cheese product to the Conway Hotel Tavern were packed in paper cottage cheese containers, which Hubert labeled simply: Club Cheese, Manufactured by the South Kaukauna Dairy.6
His daughter, Mabel, reported in 1947 that he had not been satisfied with this simple packaging, which “proved unsatisfactory for keeping the cheese,” she went on to say that “Dad wrote to the stoneware company at Monmouth, Ill., and asked about a stone container. They sent us a three-pound jar they had on hand. He liked it and since then has made a number of patented changes in design to make it right for Kaukauna Klub.
‘When we used up what crocks they had on hand, we could not understand why they were not able to give immediate delivery on more. It was the depression, and they were not even in operation,’ she says.
At first only the three pound size was used. A small crock was made up for samples. Now [1947] there are four sizes.”7
In 1934, the company was ready to label its new product, and the time had come to decide upon a name. After much discussion, Hubert is reported as saying: “‘Why don’t we name it after the place where it is made and call it Kaukauna Club.’ Then it was decided to change the ‘C’ of Club to ‘K’ for copyrighting reasons.”8
The 1935 label. Notice the bail style and embossed lid, which is not domed like the 1934 crock.
On February 24, 1934, a label for Kaukauna Klub was submitted to obtain a Wisconsin trademark. The full-color label can be viewed at the Wisconsin Historical Society website – to view, follow the link: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM91275. This label was not used very long as a second label was designed in 1935, and if you visit Kaukauna’s website, Our Story page at: https://www.kaukaunacheese.com/our-story/, you will see yet another old label (in addition to a collection of crocks).
If there is one common denominator that we can attribute to how a Fassbender does business, it is this: They view a good business relationship as a partnership and expect the same from the people they do business with. The crock contract with the Western Stoneware Company was no different. Each Labor Day, the company hosted a weekend event, advertising for visitors to stop at the Monmouth Pottery Show Room and Gardens, where, starting in 1935, “…the Kaukauna Klub Cheese organization…will demonstrate their Cheese Products on both days. Their Cheese is fine and you should get acquainted with it.”9 The last year that Kaukauna participated in the event (or at least was advertised to have been in attendance) was 1939, when “The Kaukauna Club Cheese will be here again demonstrating their products and purchases can be made.”10
A 1937 Advertisement showcasing the 1935 label.
As the sturdy crocks that held the Kaukauna Klub Cheese could be reused, a program was set up so that they could be returned for credit. The Kuebler Grocery Company in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, included the return value for each size in an ad they placed in The Oshkosh Northwestern on 2 Mar 1934. The ad tells us that In 1934,11 a 3-lb jar cost 95 cents, with a return value of 15 cents. The 24-oz jar cost 65 cents, and the 13-oz jar 45 cents. Both sizes had a return value of 10 cents.
I got curious and turned to the Inflation Calculator12 to see what the price would be today. The 13-oz crock of Kaukauna Klub cheese would cost $10.23, with a crock return value of $2.27. I looked at walmart.com to see what a tub of Kaukauna would cost today and learned that to purchase two 6.5 oz tubs, equalling 13 oz. of cheese I would pay $12.47.
The Kuebler ad also reported the sale price of two pounds of peanut butter was 21 cents ($4.78), you would pay 26 cents for a pound of butter ($5.91), and a dozen eggs cost 17 cents ($3.87).
Earl Mollet, an “employe” of South Kaukauna Dairy, was invited to speak at a Kaukauna Rotary luncheon. In his talk, he shared that only 2% of the crocks were returned. He went on to say about the crocks that were returned, “It seems that people get the jars confused in their homes and return the wrong ones. When they do, the boys at the plant have a little treat.” He stated, “…once we got one back full of mince meat, another full of salted fish, and some with pickles or candy in them.”13
The fact that only 2% of the crocks were returned indicates to me that Kaukauna Klub was prized not only for what came inside the crock but also for the crock itself. Young’s Market Company ad told readers that the cheese “…comes in cunning stone jars which may be returned for credit if you wish…but you’ll want to keep yours…”14 In 1939, the R. C. Wallace Co. of Helena, Montana, Kaukauna Klub advertisement even stated that the product was “Packed in Oven-Tested Earthen Jars!”15
While Hubert continued to expand the size and shape of Kaukauna Klub, the product continued to be packaged in stone jars for many more years. In 1954, a plastic lid was introduced. “This new lid makes it easier to store in your refrigerator or to stack the jars for display purposes.”16
Braniff International Airways crockThe reverse sideA plastic lid with the KK Logo
In the 1960s, the company partnered with Braniff International Airways to create a small crock of cheese to be served to the airline’s first-class passengers. While I have yet to find any written confirmation as to this partnership, examples of this small crock still exist.
By 1963, a brown crock had been added.17 In 1969, the cheese food caught the attention of a restaurant owner in Anaheim, California. The Aladdin Restaurant began serving the cheese as part of their appetizer offerings. “When each person is seated for dinner a wooden tray with an unusual cheese and crackers is brought to the table. The cheese is a good sharp soft (for easy spreading) Kaukauna Klub. It comes in an attractive brown crock–and it is a good appetizer with cocktails.”18
A crock with an early font, but the newer style of bailcirca 1959 – 1962circa 1975
The plastic tub was introduced following the sale of the company to International Multi-Foods in 1971.19 In 1975, recognizing the continued popularity of the original crock, International Multi-foods began to offer crock refills to their mix of products.20
International Multi-foods label
More research will need to be done to determine who manufactured these later crocks, including taking a hard look at the shape of the lid and the style of the bail. Not to mention what the bottom looks like, as this, too, is indicative of the manufacturer. SHUCKS, more parts to study.
To honor Hubert Fassbender’s achievement, in December 1947, the Kaukauna Common Council approved the appropriation of $1,301.50 for the purchase of a stone monument, a replica of the crock that is now synonymous with Kaukauna Klub. They granted Appleton Marble and Granite Works of Appleton the contract to create the monument of “polished granite with a stainless steel handle and clamp, and rough-cut granite base.”21 The Kaukauna Rotary donated the bronze plaque that reads: ‘Dedicated to the memory of Hubert Fassbender (1875-1947), the originator of the Kaukauna Klub, a dairy product which has made the city of Kaukauna known throughout the country.”22 The monument was dedicated on 8 Nov 1948 by his daughter, Mabel, along with L. C. Smith, master of ceremonies, Mayor Joseph Bayorgeon, and Kaukauna Rotary Club president, James Bamberry.
2023 – Fassbender Park, Kaukauna
If you visit Kaukauna today, you can head to Fassbender Park, next to the Associated Bank building, which sits on the site of the original South Kaukauna Dairy plant. Here, at the triangle of Crooks Avenue, Quinney Avenue, and E 4th Street, you will find a replica of the Western Stoneware crock that made both the product and the city famous.
I would like to end with one last crock story. In 2015 I received an email sharing details of a very large Kaukauna Klub crock. According to the story, Hubert had a large replica crock made for his daughters. His daughters, Mabel and Gertrude, did not want the crock, so it was given to an employee. Later the crock, standing about waist high, made its way back to Kaukauna Klub and was used in the cheese store as a sample table. The factory cheese store is now closed, and the location of the crock is not known.
An oversized replica
SOURCES
“Get New Pleasure From Cheese Made By Kaukauna Firm” Appleton Post-Crescent, 21 Apr 1934, Saturday, p. 18, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Sep 2018). ↩︎
Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 18 Jun 1947 (guesstimate); South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “Hubert Fassbender and New Cheese Product Made Kaukauna Famous.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
“H. Fassbender for Gettelman’s Beer,” Advertisement, Appleton Post-Crescent, 12 Jul 1933, Wednesday Evening, p. 3, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 6 Sep 2018). ↩︎
“H. Fassbender for Knapstein’s Beer,” Advertisement, Appleton Post-Crescent, 6 Oct 1933, Friday, p. 14, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 6 Sep 2018). ↩︎
Letter, written by Hubert Fassbender on South Kaukauna Dairy Company letterhead, ca 1935; South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C. Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. ↩︎
Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 18 Jun 1947 (guesstimate); South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C. Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “Hubert Fassbender and New Cheese Product Made Kaukauna Famous.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
“Visit the Monmouth Pottery Show Room and Gardens” Advertisement, The Rock Island Argus, 29 Aug 1935, Thursday, p. 5, col. 6; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Monmouth Pottery” Advertisement, The Rock Island Argus, 1 Sep 1939, Friday, p. 22, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 10 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Kuebler Grocery Co. Look! At This,” Advertisement, The Oshkosh Northwestern, 2 Nov 1934, Friday, p. 16, col. 5; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Cheese Jars Sometimes Come Back With Pickles,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 5 Aug 1937, Thursday Evening, p. 18, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 4 Feb 2018). ↩︎
“Young’s Market Company,” Advertisement, Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar 1938, Tuesday Morning, Part II, p. 5, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Kaukauna Klub,” Advertisement, The Helena Daily Independent, 24 Jun 1939, Saturday, p. 3, col. 7; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Has New Plastic Lid. Kaukauna Klub Begins New Advertising Campaign” The Appleton Post-Crescent, 16 Oct 1954, Saturday, p. 9, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Beechners,” Advertisement, The Lincoln Star, 13 Dec 1963, Friday, p. 10, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Food and Fun,” The Santa Ana Register, 19 Sep 1969, Friday, p. D, col. 6: digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024); Marilyn Nelson. ↩︎
“Firm Buys Kaukauna Dairy Co.,” The Post-Crescent, 2 Mar 1971, Tuesday, p. B12, col. 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Kaukauna Klub” Advertisement, The Chicago Tribune, 20 Nov 1975, Thursday, Section 6, Food Guide, p. 4, col. 4; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Jan 2024). ↩︎
“Memorial to Be Erected For Fassbender,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 17 Dec 1947, Wednesday, p. 10, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Sep 2018). ↩︎
Newspaper Clipping, The Kaukauna Times, 19 Dec 1947; South Kaukauna Dairy Company History; privately held by Susan C. Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. “$1,301.50 Appropriated for Hubert Fassbender Memorial.” Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
I have turned off Comments for this post as it was getting hit hard with Spam. If you would like to comment, please reach out through my Contact Me page.
A favorite part of holiday decorating is setting up my Snow Village houses. I received my first house the Christmas of 1986. That year, we purchased both a house, and I also received a tree. Over the years, we added another house, a church, and a ski lodge (plus a park gazebo that I broke, purchased a second, and, while it was years later, broke again). The collection has spent Christmas on top of a TV cabinet, below a window in our basement, over 20 years on a fireplace mantel, and now here in its third house in my Lincoln Cupboard.
Christmas of 1986 was also the year that my mother-in-law started her own village. She was ready to make a change in how she decorated her mantel, and these wonderful light-up houses were just what she was looking for. That first year, she purchased a sweet little white house. Her collection began to grow, and in 1992, she purchased “Grandma’s Cottage.”
Sometime later, I am guessing about 1996, I was in Hollandtown to help decorate for Christmas; I was down in the basement setting up the, well, basement tree. I remember her coming to the top of the stairs and calling me to come up, “he was going to break it!” I headed up the stairs, where she met me in the kitchen, telling me that the lightbulb end of the plug for one of the houses had pushed into the house, a not uncommon occurrence if you do not put them in just so, and Butch was attempting to get it back out with a letter opener.
Entering the living room, I found my father-in-law standing at the mantel, “Grandma’s Cottage” in one hand and his letter opener in the other. Now this was just not any letter opener; it was a letter opener improved by Butch. He liked his letter openers sharp! A tool that would easily and cleanly slip open an envelope. So, he sharpened them on the lathe to a knife edge point. And it was with this that he was digging around in the small opening on the back of the house, trying to get the clamps caught so he could pull out the bulb.
Not THE letter opener, but the exact same style.
As Marie peeked fearfully around the corner at us, I asked Butch if I could try, as I had smaller fingers than he did. He reluctantly let me have the house, and I was able to stick my fingers in, press the clamp enough to pull the bulb out, and properly insert it into the opening. The crisis was diverted, but not without some lasting minor damage. Damage that makes me smile each year as I get “Grandma’s Cottage” out of its box and settled into place next to what we affectionately call “The Rectory.”
In January of 1915, Hubert Fassbender’s cheese factories in the Town of Ellington, Outagamie County, Wisconsin, were running at full capacity. His wife Anna was about four months pregnant with their fourth child, their first-born, a son they named Clemens, was born on August 10, 1904, but sadly passed away just eight days later, and was buried in the St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Cemetery in Greenville. Living at home were eight-year-old Mabel, born May 24, 1906, and five-year-old Gertrude, born July 28, 1909.
Bluhill Cheese Package
It was around this time that Hubert was approached with a business proposition. He met with Appleton resident John L. Jacquot whom he had known for several years. Jacquot who had moved to Appleton in 1903,1 owned and operated a cold storage and distribution depot on College Avenue, which moved local cheese all over the country. At the Jacquot facility in 1910, the first “Big Cheese,” a 4,000-pound American cheese, was constructed for the National Dairy Show, held in Chicago, from October 20th through the 29th.2
Hubert was invited to join Jacquot, who had partnered with the Ingersoll Packing Company of Ottawa, Canada, and the Martin Brothers and Company of Denver, Colorado in a new business venture, the business to be called The Bluhill Cheese Company would manufacture Anona Cheese for distribution west of the Mississippi.
410 W. Prospect Ave.
In preparation for this new phase in life, on March 20, 1915, Hubert purchased a home in Appleton on Prospect Street from Flank Slattery.3 The home which was located at 930 Prospect Street, was renumbered in 1925 to its current address, 410 West Prospect Avenue. Hubert would live in this home until his death in 1947, and it was here that he and Anna welcomed their son, Hubert Peter, on July 27, 1915.
Six days before to the birth of his son, on July 21st, Hubert joined John Jacquot and Fred V. Heinemann in the office of George T. Richard at the Outagamie Loan and Title Co. to execute the new firm’s Articles of Organization.4
Two days later on July 29th, The BluHill Cheese Company, was incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000, three stockholders, and three hundred shares valued at one hundred dollars each. The stated purpose of the company was to “Manufacture, Buy, Sell, Store, Ship and deal in Cheese, Dairy Products and Food Products and to conduct such business incident thereto.”
The new company planned on opening on October 1st on West College Avenue next to John Jacquot’s cold storage facility at 1102 College Avenue.5 The building was just across Locust Street “where the Ruhsam Grocery store” was located. The address was 1086 College Avenue,6 and the building was situated on the west side of the block with College on the south, Richmond Street on the east, North Locust Street on the west, and West Washington Street on the north. Walgreens is currently (May 2023) the only building on this block, numbered 700 West College Avenue. The Ruhsam grocery building was to be the temporary location for the new company, as plans were being made for a new “factory, modern in every respect” which they planned to build in 1916.7
O. J. Ruhsam announced on August 18 that he had secured a new location, and Monday, August 23rd he would be open for business in the “old Maurer brick store at the corner of College avenue and Cherry street, near the C. & N. W. tracks.”8
While the newspaper does not announce the opening of the Bluhill plant, we can assume that it occurred on schedule as on December 10th an amendment to the articles of incorporation was filed, changing the name to the Anona Cheese Co., with C. C. L. Wilson of Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada as president, and J. L. Jacquot, secretary and treasurer.9
1917 Appleton Map overlay onto Google Earth. Star on the right is the location of the current plant, the Square is the location for the proposed building, and the Star is Godfirnon Grocery Store.
By January 1916 the factory was in full operation, and there was a curiosity about this new product that “looks like a cross between cheese and butter,” which “can be spread over bread the same as butter” with one “brand” containing green chili. “It is very appetizing, and from an economical standpoint is a good product. Butter at present is worth about thirty-eight cents, while [a pound of] Anona Cheese sell for ten and fifteen cents.” “One package of the Anona cheese would go as far as one pound of butter.”
The Appleton Evening Crescent reported that “Hobart [sic] Fassbender, Maker is Closely Guarded During the Mixing Process—Cream Cheese and Other Ingredients Unknown to Public Used in Manufacturing.” “…he is closely guarded, because be it known, he alone knows the process by which Anona Cheese is made, and his employers are very desirous that this knowledge remain where it belongs, in the factory on the west end of College avenue.”10
Hubert was “enclosed by a big cage of wood, within which he is again caged in a steel enclosure, where he does the mixing that produces the Anona cheese, made from the best cream cheese and other ingredients unknown to the public in general…the secret of the process remains with him alone. Day after day he enters the cage, works all alone and emerges after the day’s work, conversing with no one except at meal time and evenings. Lonely work, but important.”11
The cheese used in Anona cheese was all made in Outagamie County from “summer made cheese.” While there was no retail outlet for the cheese, a “number of local concerns” were selling the product which was first placed on the market the last week in December 1915.12
It must have been heartbreaking to see the error on his headstone.
Wednesday, January 12, 1916, may have dawned bright but soon darkened. While working in the plant Hubert “suffered a broken arm when he was caught in a belt.”13 Arriving home after his arm had been set, he learned that his five-month-old son who had the flu, was not getting better.14 Hubert Peter Fassbender passed away that evening at 6:00 p.m., “after a severe attack of convulsions.” He was buried two days later on Friday in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery.15
In May plans to build a state-of-the-art facility were well underway, with the Appleton architectural firm DeLong and Son in charge of the design. The location chosen for the new building was on “the north side of the ravine, near the Maurer tailor shop, but across the ravine from it”16 and “opposite the Godfirnon Grocery store, adjoining the Haussmann property on the north side of the avenue.”17 The location? Where the Viking Theater would be built in 1941.
The building was to be eight stories tall, and the three below ground would be used as a cold storage facility, principally for Anona Cheese, and the Simon Cheese company, with room for other industries. The Appleton Ford Company would occupy the ground floor, and other industries and offices utilizing the rest of the space. Estimated to cost $100,000, the building would be “the most imposing structure on College avenue, the front to be of enameled terra cotta…[with a] frontage of 100 feet, and a depth of 150 feet.”18 The building will be of heavy construction, reinforced concrete, suitable for manufacturing purposes. Two elevators will afford transit accommodations for the building tenants.19
In 1942, at the time the Bahcall Building’s Viking Theater was built, the Appleton Post-Crescent described the ravine property this way: the property was “once a deep ravine in which rubbish and snow removed from city streets was dumped…Residents of Appleton who have forgotten the depth of the ravine, and since the filling in have lost their conception of the building’s [the Bahcall Building] depth under the ground level, will be amazed at the floor space in the basement and sub-basement. Not only are they tremendous in size, but both are 16 feet in height with the exception of the portion under the theater which varies from 10 to 16 feet because of the auditorium’s sloping floor…”20 The perfect space to house cold storage.
The proposed building designed by DeLong & Son
On June 21st for $2,500, the Appleton Ford Company purchased two tracts of land adjoining the land for the new building. This T-shaped piece of property would presumably have been a car lot, with the showroom located on the ground floor of the new building.21
The location of the building was chosen not only for the benefit of the ravine but theproximity to the railway lines. Surveys were run “for the trackage, which will reach the building on the north and west sides,” and the company now awaited “sanction of the city council before going ahead with the actual construction” of the building.22 The plan was to have two Chicago & Northwestern railway tracks “one running along the north side of the building, the other on the west side. Besides these, there will be team tracks on the west side. If the tracks are laid as outlined, one of the cement sheds near the market on Walnut street will have to be removed.” “Mayor Knuppel said…that no decision would be given relative to running the track through the stock fair grounds until an engineer has shown them just what was desired.”23
It is not known whether the city did not approve the petition for a new sidetrack from the C. & N.W. Railway, or the fact that the Chicago and Northwestern Railway failed to build a “much heralded” new freight depot. The new depot had been promised by the railroad for more than two years and was to have been constructed in 1916.24
Whatever the reason, the Anona stockholders decided not to go ahead with the proposed building on College Avenue. Instead, they reversed course and made the decision to move the company to Chicago citing “poor shipping facilities” as the reason for the move and they “expected that better shipping facilities will greatly aid business.”25 Interestingly enough, the Appleton Evening Crescent published an article directly above the Anona announcement titled: “New Freight Depot Now A Certainty” which reported that the plans for the new freight depot were ready, and work would start in the spring.
His young family was settling into life in Appleton, and Hubert decided not to move with the company to Chicago, sending a letter on February 10, 1917, to C. C. Martin in Denver stating his decision and inquiring about disposing of his stock. Martin responded on February 17th, stating that he had forwarded Hubert’s request and decision to the Ingersoll Packing Co. in Canada. He went on to say that the company would prefer the stock be held by the original incorporators, but if not, at the “proper time” it would be “absorbed by those remaining in the company.” Hubert agreed to stay with the company to assist with preparing for the move, which Martin expected to occur “about the last week in March.”26
By the middle of March the new facilities near the Fulton markets, were ready, and the packing of the machinery was completed, ready for the three-day journey to Chicago. Work had already begun in tearing down the plant on West College Avenue.27
On April 18, 1917, following a special meeting of the stockholders, “the articles of said corporation be so amended so as to increase the capital stock of said Anona Cheese Co. from three hundred (300) shares of one hundred ($100) dollars each, to five hundred (500) shares at one hundred ($100) dollars each, so that the authorized capital stock of the corporation shall be fifty thousand ($50,000) dollars; and that the said articles be further amended empowering the said corporation to do business both within and without the state of Wisconsin.” The change was signed by C. C. L. Wilson, President, and J. L. Jacquot, Secretary and Treasurer.28
April 1935 Advertisement
With Anona leaving Appleton for Chicago, Hubert was left without a job. His whole life having been spent in the dairy industry, it is no surprise that 10 months later, in early February 1918, Hubert, his wife, Anna, and Peter Ulmen signed incorporation documents for the South Kaukauna Dairy. The new factory was located in South Kaukauna, Outagamie, Wisconsin, and was incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000.29
Hubert never forgot his short time with Anona. He loved to talk about his years in the milk and creamery business, and area Rotary Clubs were eager to invite him to speak. In April 1929, speaking at the Kaukauna Rotary business meeting, he had this to say: “At [sic] the honor of making the first Anona cheese. This still is being made by that company in Chicago.”30
Two years later on March 2, 1931, Borden Company acquired “the entire assets and business of the Anona Cheese Company of Chicago…”31 The dissolution of the company occurred at a stockholder meeting held in Madison, Dane, Wisconsin. “The firm had 1,000 shares of stock and all voted in favor of the dissolution. Officers of the company were: C. C. Martin, president; and J. F. Tines, secretary.”3233
And two years after the dissolution of the Anona Cheese Co., Hubert introduced a natural cheese product that “Spreads Like Butter.” He created four flavors: Plain, Chili, Pimento, and Limburger. Coincidence? I personally don’t think so. But that is a story for another day.
Sources
Thomas H. Ryan, Editor-in-Chief, History of Outagamie County Wisconsin: Being a General Survey of Outagamie County History including a History of the Cities, Towns and Villages throughout the County, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time (Chicago, Illinois: Goodspeed Historical Association, 1911), p. 946-947. ↩︎
“To Make 4,000 Pound Cheese,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 9 Sep 1910, Friday, p. 1, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 13 Jun 2023). ↩︎
“Real Estate,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 20 Mar 1915, Saturday, p. 5, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 Sep 2018). ↩︎
Anona Cheese Company, Corporation Documents, 1915-1931; File no. A 001286, Box no. 0022; Domestic Corporation; Outagamie County, Corporations Index; Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Dane, Wisconsin, United States. ↩︎
Anona Cheese is Now Being Made in City,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 5 Jan 1916, Wednesday, p. 1, col. 7; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 Sep 2018). ↩︎
“$30,000 Cheese Industry Is To Be Opened Here,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 31 Jul 1915, Saturday, p. 1, col. 6; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 Sep 2018). ↩︎
“Ruhsam to Occupy New Grocery Quarters,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 18 Aug 1915, Wednesday, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 28 May 2023). ↩︎
”Bluhill Cheese Company Has Changed Its Name,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 16 Dec 1915, Thursday, p. 3, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 20 Jan 2020). ↩︎
“Looking Backward. 10 Years Ago,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 13 Jan 1926, Wednesday, p. 4, col. 3; digital images, NewspaperARCHIVE (www.newspaperarchive.com : accessed 2 Feb 2005). ↩︎
Wisconsin, “Deaths,” 1916, vol. 12, p. 76, Hubert Fassbender, 12 Jan 1916; Register of Deeds, Outagamie County Courthouse, Appleton, Wisconsin, United States. ↩︎
“Hubert Fossbender Dies of Convulsions Last Night,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 13 Jan 1916, Thursday, p. 1, col. 3. ↩︎
“Eight Story Building in Ravine a Go,” EXTRA, Appleton Evening Crescent, 5 May 1916, Friday, p. 1, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 May 2023). ↩︎
“Start Survey of the Track For New Building,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 6 May 1916, Saturday, p. 1, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 7 Sep 2018). ↩︎
“Proposed $100,000 Eight Story Building For College Avenue,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 11 May 1916, Thursday, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 May 2023). ↩︎
“Start Survey of Track for New Building,” Saturday, p. 1, col. 5. ↩︎
“1 2-3 Acres of Space on 4 Floors of Bahcall Building,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 28 Jan 1942, Wednesday, p. 21; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 27 May 2023). ↩︎
Ford Company Buys Ravine Property,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 21 Jun 1916, Wednesday, p. 4, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 May 2023). ↩︎
“Proposed $100,000 Eight Story Building For College Avenue,” Thursday, p. 1, col. 4. ↩︎
“Start Survey of Track for New Building,” Saturday, p. 1, col. 5. ↩︎
“City Impatient at Long Delay,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 19 Jul 1916, Wednesday, p. 1, col. 4; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 1 Jul 2023). ↩︎
“Anona Cheese Co. Moves to Chicago,” Appleton Evening Crescent, 16 Mar 1917, Friday, p. 5, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 Sep 2018). ↩︎
Letter, Fassbender Memorabilia; privately held by Susan Sternitzky Fassbender, 2012. C. C. Martin to Mr. H. F. Fassbender, 17 Feb 1917. Bernard and Marie Fassbender Family Archives. ↩︎
“Anona Cheese Co. Moves to Chicago,” Friday, p. 5, col. 5. ↩︎
“Cheese Men Incorporate,” The Sheboygan Press, 8 Feb 1918, Friday, p. 8, col. 2; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 26 Nov 2017). ↩︎
“Rotary Club Hears Talk on Creamy Business,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 18 Apr 1929, Thursday Evening, p. 19, col. 2. ↩︎
“Borden Company Lists Capital Stock Increase,” Poughkeepsie Eagle News, 13 Mar 1931, Friday, p. 9, col. 5; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 3 Sep 2018). ↩︎
“Anona Cheese Co. Quits Business,” Appleton Post-Crescent, 18 Mar 1931, Wednesday Evening, p. 2, col. 1; digital images, NewspaperARCHIVE (www.newspaperarchive.com : accessed 9 Dec 2006). ↩︎
It was a warm July day 117 years ago this month, when an Appleton Evening Crescent reporter strolled through City Park accompanied by a staff photographer, Le Roy.
2330-Appelton Park, Appelton, Wis
They were looking for the men who, for the past ten years [1895], had been spending lazy afternoons in the park. The men, ranging in age from 58 to 85 lived within walking distance and on “sunshiny afternoon[s]” “when the park trees made oasis of shade, and the lawn mower hummed busily away over in some distant corner of the green square,” they would gather. The men were known as Appleton’s “Uncommon Council.”
It started simply. The retired men would “take long rambling walks about the city, and one after the other formed the habit of stopping for a moment at the city park.” Peter Fassbender was one of these men who after his move to Appleton in 1901, found his way to the park, to the northwest corner where there were high-backed red benches, “more comfortable than the usual family of park bench.” “One can’t imagine how comfortable and homelike three plain park benches can be made to look until one has seen those three benches occupied by a group of white-bearded, snow-haired old men, leaning on the cane that rests between their knees, their hats in the hands, their pipe, perhaps, held comfortably in the hollow of the left palm, and their faces full of the look of comfort, and companionship, and now and then wreathed in a smile that is followed by a chuckle, as one of their numbers breaks into a witticism.”
Park Ave. looking toward City Park, Appleton, Wis.
There was a green bandstand in the center of the park. In those days it contained four tables, shiny from years of coat sleeves and card paying, games such as seven-up or Schafskopf. The perfect spot to spend a rainy afternoon.
When they were not playing cards, you might hear them speak of the past. Of their days serving our country during the Civil War, or as they swatted a mosquito, recalling the pests of times past…”’Why, back in Oconto county we used to wear gloves on our hands and veils on our faces when we ploughed…’”
The reporter states that “old age means loneliness, sometimes” as wives pass away, and children marry and move away. But these men found friendship, companionship, and a way to spend a hot summer afternoon in the cool and shady park.1
Peter Fassbender is standing, far left.
Sources
“Appleton’s Uncommon Council.”’ Appleton Evening Crescent, 1 Jul 1905, Saturday, p. 1, col. 2; digital imges, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 31 Aug 2018). ↩︎
