by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: 9/26/1924 In 1921 a young Bavarian immigrant named Carl Ebner purchased the Spaeth brewery on South Water Street in Fort Atkinson. Since prohibition was then in force, Ebner changed the name to the Fort Atkinson Beverage Company and bided his time...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: 1917-1919 The local temperance movement flexed its muscle in 1917 when Fort Atkinson voted to become a dry town, joining 40 other communities statewide. Eleven towns, including Jefferson, voted to keep the taverns open. “Jefferson saloonkeepers...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: 1955 Fifty years ago, in 1955, the Salk vaccine for polio was given to school children for the very first time. Despite the vaccine, the disease still threatened young people throughout the nation. Fort Atkinson reported its first case of the season...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: 1945 The 1945 Plowing Contest was held at the Hetts Farm on the west edge of Fort Atkinson on a fine Friday in October. At 10 a.m. the husking and plowing contests began with both senior and junior divisions being contested. The plowing was judged not...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: c. 1900 In 1883 Pauline Jacobus [jukO’bus] founded the Pauline Pottery Company, the first art pottery company to open in Chicago. Just five years later Jacobus moved her studio to Edgerton, Wisconsin where a high quality white clay was...
by Steve Tesmer | Apr 22, 2012 | Historic Events
Date in History: Late 1800’s. Just five hundred years ago, passenger pigeons comprised about 40% of all birds in North America. Literally billions of these birds lived throughout the eastern half of North America. The name “passenger pigeon” comes...
