President’s Message
As our summer season winds down, we enter another phase
of our ever-changing Wisconsin scenery. The fall harvest is
starting or just around the corner and the experts say it should
be one of the best in quite some time.
Speaking of corners, adjacent to the popular Coffee
House at the corner of Chestnut & Pine is a building that has a
rich history of its own. It was built by Dr. Frederick Kords in
1864 for his drug store, but I call it the Schwaller Building.
Frank A. Schwaller bought and moved into the 3 story building in
1888 and the Schwaller family owned it into the 1960s. Some of
the many uses over the past 100+ years include a music store,
barber shop, shoe store, five and dime store, ice cream parlor,
women’s clothing store, and the real estate and insurance
offices of Mr. Schwaller who, over the years, developed and sold
many lots throughout the city and the Bohners Lake area. That
building, whose north wall is shared with the corner Coffee
House, is being converted to include a bakery.
The diverse history of the historic buildings in our
downtown area is a fascinating read and we encourage all history
buffs or other interested folks to go to our website
(burlingtonhistory.org) and in the section "On-line Records" you
will find searchable databases, including “Burlington Events
1835-2006.” Just type in the name of a person, business, or
building and you will see results that will keep your interest
for hours.
We wish you all a pleasant and enjoyable late summer
and encourage all to get out and explore our great state and the
many seasonal festivities that our area is known for.
Dennis Tully
Thanks for Help on Ice Cream Social
Thanks to all those who helped with the Society’s
annual Ice Cream Social on Saturday, July 25. Special kudos to
Stephanie Rummler, who headed the event; Katie Rummler and
Hailey Hotvedt who helped with the ice cream and soda sales; Pat
Tully and the Tully boys who helped with the heavy lifting; and
Gooseberries for supplying the cooler-freezer.
Thanks also to Jackie Heiligenthal and Deborah Schlitz
for hosting visitors to the Pioneer Log Cabin during the event,
and other Society members and friends who volunteered their time
and effort.
Society Participates in Honoring
Beaumont
The Society was a principal catalyst and participant in
having a monument memorializing baseball great, Clarence
“Ginger” Beaumont, placed at Burlington’s Beaumont Field in July
2015.
Beaumont, a native of Rochester, played major league
baseball from 1899 through 1910. He compiled a lifetime batting
average of .311, won a National League batting title in 1902,
was in the National League’s top 10 in batting average in 7 of
his 12 seasons, and was the first batter in the very first World
Series in 1903. He was in the first group of inductees into the
Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame in 1951. Beaumont lived with his
daughter, Janet, in Burlington toward the end of his life and
died at Memorial Hospital in 1956.
Receiving an e-mail from baseball historian David
Stalker of Watertown, who had been instrumental in getting about
15 baseball-related monuments installed in and around Wisconsin,
the Society contacted Burlington baseball booster Bill Milatz
about Stalker’s noticing the lack of any indication at Beaumont
Field of what the name “Beaumont” meant.
Milatz, Dennis Busch, and other baseball boosters took
it from there, spreading the word and raising money for a
monument. The monument was dedicated on July 19 with Beaumont’s
granddaughter, Jean Cognato, and great grandaughter, Julie
Roden, in attendance.
 
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Julie Roden (left) and Jean Cognato, descendants of
Clarence “Ginger” Beaumont, stand near the monument
honoring Beaumont at Burlingon’s Beaumont Field.
History of Whitman School
Formal education started in Foxville, now Burlington,
in 1838 when Miss Sarah Bacon taught classes in a 16-foot square
log cabin on the west side of what is now N. Pine Street between
Milwaukee Avenue and Mill Street. In 1840, just over 4 years
after the first settlers arrived in what is now Burlington, a
little brick schoolhouse, 22 x 26 feet, was built “down on the
flat.” It was the first building in Burlington to be constructed
specifically as a school. (The 1840 school building is shown
in its original location near Dodge and Madison streets in the
lower left corner of the 1868 photo below.)
The building stood near the middle of the block now
bounded by Dodge, Madison, Pine, and Jefferson streets. The lot
– lot 5, block 47, Original Plat – was deeded by Silas Peck to
Burlington School District No. 1 in 1841 for the consideration
of $20.
William Penn Lyon, later a Justice and Chief Justice of the
Wisconsin Supreme Court, was one of the early teachers, as were
Lorenzo Eastman, Amos Eastman, Aniplias Chamberlain, Mr.
Beveridge, and Charles J. Jones. While some of the teachers
“used justice tempered with mercy,” it has been noted that some
used the discipline of the hickory switch.
In 1915, William Meadows, who had come to Burlington as
a teenager with his parents and brothers in 1850, described his
experience at the schoolhouse to a group of high school
students. He said
My first few months of schooling,
after moving to Burlington, were spent in a little brick
schoolhouse which is yet standing . . . the first Burlington
schoolhouse that I have any recollection of.
About the year 1851 the attendance at this school was
from fifteen to twenty pupils – the number at no time exceeding
twenty. The furniture, as in many others I have attended both
before and since that time, consisted of three continuous seats
running the length of the room on both sides – these seats being
merely a common board with a board back, a board shelf for a
desk, and a second shelf under the desk to hold books and other
materials. These rows of desks faced the center of the room,
leaving a space of from six to eight feet in width, which was
occupied by the stove and the teacher’s platform and desk at one
end. . . .
The teacher . . . was Warren Johnson, who, like all
other teachers of those early days, received from eight to
twelve dollars per month for his services, and was obliged to do
his own janitor work, including cutting wood, building fires,
etc.
When teachers of that date secured a position in a
country school, they were obliged to board at the homes of the
scholars in rotation, from week to week. Their board, in this
way, was included in the contract besides the salary paid in
cash. . . .
The studies were reading, writing, spelling and
arithmetic – grammar being considered an unimportant subject in
those days.
The writing was done with goose quill pens, sharpened
and prepared by the teacher as needed. Our spelling contests
took place with the class standing in a circle about the stove,
the best speller working his way to the head of the class and
being obliged to start in at the foot next day.
The old school building . . . named “The Lincoln
School” has been regarded by some as the old Burlington school,
but you can readily see that the little brick schoolhouse to
which I have drawn your attention is a much more ancient
building. It is still standing and in use in spite of its age,
being now occupied by the carpet loom of Mrs. Miller of this
city. Go and see it!
As Mr. Meadows indicated, the little brick schoolhouse
was not being used as a school at the time of his 1915 talk. In
fact, it had ceased being used as a school about the time the
school building at the corner of Kane and State streets –
sometimes called Lincoln School and now housing the Burlington
Area School District offices – was opened in 1858.
The school board sold the old school and property to
William Johnson who, in turn, sold them in 1866 to Lucius Otis
Whitman and his son, Chester Whitman. Members of the Whitman
family, which built a house on the Madison Street side of the
property, kept the property until 1919. For a time, they used
the old school building as a kitchen and storeroom before
renting it out as a residence and for other purposes.
Fred and Sophie Stoehr bought the property from the
Whitman descendants in 1919 and moved into the main house. After
Fred’s death in 1942 (Sophie had died in 1932), the property was
purchased by Roman and Lorraine Uhen. For a time, Roman’s
mother, Mrs. Dora Uhen, lived in the former school building.
In 1983 the Uhens offered the 1840 school building to
the Burlington Historical Society provided it was moved off the
property. The Uhens wanted a garage on the site and, while
preferring a new garage, planned to convert the school building
if it was not taken by the Society.
An inability to find an appropriate site – the Lincoln
School grounds, the Waller school grounds, and Echo Park were
among the sites suggested – almost brought an end to the idea of
preserving the school building. Finally, the Burlington Water
Commission, under chairman Richard Vande Sande, invited the
Society to bring the schoolhouse to Schmaling Park at Sheldon
and Beloit streets, where the water commission had its
headquarters.
Newspaper articles kept the community aware of the
progress and the need for help. And individuals, families, and
groups responded with money, labor, and materials. A moving
company prepared the building for the move, which was done in
July 1986.
At Schmaling Park, the building was placed on a new
foundation and conversion of the building back into a
schoolhouse was begun. A new cedar shake roof was put on, along
with wooden gutters and downspouts; a new floor was installed;
the interior was restored to its original one-room status; and
the building was wired for electricity. (Later, a restroom
addition was built and a heating unit was installed.)
Furnishings included six old kerosene lamps that had
been electrified; ten two-pupil desks made by Ron Kaul and his
woodworking class at Burlington High School using as a pattern
an old desk that had been used in the former Catholic grade
school in the 1860s; a pot-bellied stove; and blackboards from
the old Cooper School.
The school was given the name “Whitman School” after
the family that had owned the building for over 50 years, and a
re-dedication program was held in August 1988. During the next
few years, 1840s-style classes were taught to children whose
parents wanted them to have that experience. Mrs. Alice
Petracchi organized the program, and she and teachers she
selected taught the classes.
Over the past 15 years, the building has rarely been
used, but has remained available for visits by individuals and
groups, including at one point a reunion of Mrs. Dora Uhen’s
descendants. During the renovation of the Museum building from
2007 to 2010, Whitman School was used to store a number of
artifacts and acquisitions.
Life – Embrace, Enjoy, Live
Contributed by Priscilla Crowley
Now that I have reached the ripe old age of 67, I feel
qualified to be able to look back and comment on life. The facts
tell me I am 67 but my heart says “A number is just a number; in
reality I am just a sweet young thing.” Even when I look in the
mirror and I see an aging woman with graying hair and wrinkles,
if I look really close what I see is a young girl with her whole
life ahead of her who has adventures to experience and life to
live. Being young at heart is a state of mind. It’s not always
easy to accomplish but it is so worth the effort. Wouldn’t you
much rather be the older person who views life with a sense of
humor and common sense when the alternative is to be a grump who
pushes people away with a sour outlook on life, viewing their
glass as always half empty rather than half full?
We all live in such a fast-paced world these days that
I am afraid we have forgotten what it was like to live at a
slower pace, enjoying people for who and what they were rather
than what we thought they should be. We always look back fondly
on the “good old days.” Even at family get-togethers really pay
attention to how long people actually sit around and visit with
each other these days. Everyone is on a time schedule – it’s not
like it used to be – come for Sunday dinner and spend the
afternoon. Now everyone is always in a hurry, eat, help clean
up, visit for an hour and away we go. We have forgotten the art
of just enjoying life – that is something we need to recycle
back into our lives.
Thinking back, I remember long, lazy summer days and
evenings. Evenings when you would be outside till dark, sitting
on the porch or in the yard, just enjoying the balmy breezes,
the summer sounds of children laughing, the crack of a bat, the
sound of roller skates on the sidewalk, dogs barking in the
distance, children on bikes riding through the neighborhood, the
call of one neighbor to another, the sound of evening chores, or
maybe a lawn mower in the distance. It was a pleasure to be just
sitting there quietly and absorbing the sounds of ordinary lives
going on around you. As the twilight deepened gradually, the
sounds would diminish. Now you would hear parents calling to
their children, the sounds of households winding down for the
day, children being shooed off to bed, last minute chores being
completed, and preparations for the next day started.
Sleepy-voiced children calling out their goodnights or maybe
arguing a bit about why they have to go to bed, they aren’t even
tired? Soon all is quiet and all you hear are the sounds of the
crickets chirping, maybe a night bird or two cooing in the dark
or the whine of mosquitoes looking for their next victim, maybe
the sound of a car or two traveling through the village. The
peacefulness surrounds you like a protective mantle and you find
the cares and frustrations of the day are giving way and the
day’s burdens have slipped from your shoulders. Doesn’t that
sound wonderful? There were truly evenings like that and I
treasure those memories, but many times days/evenings didn’t
quite go like that. There is always a flip side to the coin.
I also remember some days when chaos ruled supreme!
Everyone started out cranky and they just stayed that way right
through bedtime. I can remember Mom asking, “What is the matter
with you kids, did you all get out of the “wrong side of bed
this morning?” Such was a day that started out with everyone
oversleeping – that just causes a domino effect all the way down
the line for the whole day. Getting up late means Dad’s
breakfast is late and almost non-existent – his lunch box
doesn’t get much packed in it – I am late getting up and dressed
for school, the twins are very unhappy because they are not
getting breakfast on time and they are hungry and no one is
paying any attention to them and they need help getting dressed.
You just knew nothing would go right the whole darn day.
We were late getting to school, I forgot my homework,
the twins were mad and fighting with each other. Sister Everista
called on me to solve a math problem on the blackboard and I
hadn’t a clue as to what she was talking about. You talk about
brain freeze – wow – I had to stay in at lunch and stand at the
board until I figured it out. The twins got into a snowball
fight with some of their classmates at recess and all the little
kids got told they had to write a thousand times, “I must not
throw snowballs at school.” They were only in 2nd grade – they
had no idea how much a thousand was much less be able to write
it that many times. All the 2nd graders had to do that and turn
it in the next day.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many scared and crying
kids all in one place. I can only imagine what happened when
most of them got home. I know what happened when the twins got
home. First Mom got mad and when Dad came home he got mad. They
stewed about it all through supper. After supper out came the
notepaper and pencils as the twins started on their task. Dad
watched the twins as they struggled to write their punishment,
then he disappeared out into the shed and came in and told Mom,
“I have an idea. At the rate they’re going they’ll be writing
all night.”
Mom and Dad decided that this was one time the kids
didn’t need to be punished that hard. They had the kids write a
page and then dad figured out a sure fire way to help out. He
took a piece of window glass, taped their written page to the
underside of the glass, written side up, put a lamp underneath
the glass, took a new piece of paper and put it over their
written page and he traced what they had written. Now the twins
didn’t get out of writing their sentences, they had to keep
writing but he and Mom helped them out by tracing some of the
pages so they didn’t need to write the sentence 1000 times over
and over again. I can still see Mom and Dad sitting in the
kitchen, bent over their pieces of glass and painstakingly
tracing over what the twins had written.
We all had to raise our right hands and solemnly swear
that we would not tell anyone what they had done. It was to be
our secret. Can’t you just see the three of us standing there
with our right arms raised and repeating after Mom, “I swear
that I will never, ever tell that Mom and Dad helped us with our
punishment?” It turns out that the other parents were just as
angry and Sister had to back down on her punishment – the next
morning there was a long line of parents personally delivering
their children to their classrooms and asking Sister if “we
could have a word with you.”
But whether our days were peaceful and full of
contentment or whether they were chaotic and full of challenges,
there really is nothing like the “good old days” to bring a
smile to your face or to make you sigh in regret for what used
to be. The “good old days” are alive and well; you just have to
reach back into the archives and bring them back to life. Life
is what we make of it. Sure, sometimes it throws us a curve
ball, but that’s part of what makes it so great.
Remember to embrace, enjoy, and live!
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Burlington Historical Society
Last modified: 9/30/2015
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