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Cranberry Industry

Cranberry Growing in 1857

Notes from J. H. Lang that will be of Interest to the Old Settlers Club

From the Wood County Reporter, Thursday February 23, 1899, Page 1

In the fall of 1857, while I was living at French Town, there was in our employ a German by the name of Louis SAVALL. He took a day off and went out exploring for cranberries, of which there was a great crop that year. He returned and reported the finding of a fine show of berries a few miles west of the river. Thinking to add a little to my income I hired him to go out and pick the berries for me, fitted him out with provisions and camp outfit and sent a team to carry him to the marsh. The first day he reported to have picked thirty bushels. The marshes were very dry and the following night fire was discovered approaching his camp and my man and many others had to flee for their lives. Louis came in dirty and smoke begrimed and just about played out. Everything we had on the marsh was lost and that was the end to my cranberry speculation that time.

A few years later, after I had settled in Grand Rapids, there was another good crop and a company was organized, consisting of John COMPTON, Levi POWERS, Fred CASE and some others whose names I now forget, with the writer as surveyor to locate the productive lands when found, as our plan was to pre-empt and thus secure the exclusive right to the crop. Our first point of attack was the marshes lying west of French Town and Nekoosa. Not being satisfied with what we found there we pushed on farther west. We camped one Saturday night on a dry island under a large spreading pine, cooked and ate our supper and laid down to the sleep of the just and to our pleasant dreams.

But the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee. A cold, drizzling rain came on and we found that our explorations were at an end for that time. The worst of the case was, our provisions ran short or at least, we were nearly out of meat. Quails were not exactly sent to supply the deficiency, but one of our party sighted a flock of sand hill cranes laboring through the tall grass, so wet they could not rise and fly. This was our opportunity and we decided to run them down. One was to start in the run until he was tired and then the next one take it and so on till the birds were overtaken. I remember that POWERS came in last and after the rest of us had tired the birds out he came up and caught one and we let the rest go. We felt a little sore that we should do all the running and POWERS have the credit of the catching, but the sequel showed that all the fun was not his. He triumphantly wrung his bird's neck and throwing it over his shoulder marched at the head of the bedraggled procession to the camp. We soon had our catch dressed and in the camp kettle cooking with the little piece of pork we had left. When we began to warm up at the fire we discovered something was the matter with POWERS. He commenced wriggling and twisting, rubbing his back against the tree and making sundry demonstrations as if he was on fire. On stripping off his shirts we discovered that his back was literally covered with vermin resembling chicken lice. While he was so proudly carrying his crane on his back the mites had deftly transferred their quarters from one back to the other, evidently reasoning that the back of a live lawyer was better than a dead crane. It is in evidence that POWERS for once in his life wore a boiled shirt, for after our goose was cooked we cooked his by boiling his shirts in the same kettle until we were satisfied that life was extinct. But after all the boiling it was hard to tell which was the best cooked the shirts or the bird for the proverbial boiled owl was nothing to our meat. Our extreme hunger would not allow us to be too fastidious and with the help of our axe we got our meat in pieces small enough to swallow. It is presumed that good digestion waited upon appetite, for we did not discover any of us were worse off for our tough and unsavory meal, though so far as I now recollect I never have since hankered after sand hill cranes.

One more cranberry experience wound up my seeking after wealth by investing in the fruit and I decided like the fox in the fable, that they are poor sour things anyway.

In the fall of 1861 I think it was, at all events it was soon after the breaking out of the rebellion, there was a good crop of the wild fruit and the firm of Lang & Co., consisting of PIERSON, HOWELL, POWERS and LANG, purchased about a thousand bushels of berries, barreled or boxed them and sent them to a commission house in Milwaukee for sale. The war had so effected the price of sugar that such sour fruit would not sell in the market at all. We stored them in a cellar and let them remain until spring and so far as I know they are there yet for we never received a dollar for our investment and if the commission man got enough out of them to pay freight he did better than we did.

I hope your readers who are engaged in the modern methods of cultivating cranberries will be more successful in the venture than I was in my various trials.

Transcriber's Notes:

Levi POWERS was an attorney, Daniel HOWELL and J. H. LANG were merchants, all enumerated as residing in Grand Rapids in the 1860 Federal Census of Wood County WI.

Port Edwards was formerly known as French Town; presumably so named because of a small settlement of French Canadians in the vicinity employed by John Jacob Astor's fur company before the era of fur trading gave way to sawmills and papermills.