Outagamie County, WI - "Dale and Medina Grew From Good Farmland" ************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************* Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives Subject: newspaper article "Dale and Medina Grew From Good Farmland" Submitted by: county coordinator EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com Date Submitted: 15 March 2000 Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dale and Medina Grew From Good Farmland The villages of Dale and Medina grew up in the midst of good Wisconsin farm country. Zebediah and Lewis Hyde followed Indian trails from Oshkosh to Dale Township. They built a hut where Medina is now located. In 1852 30 sections of land were taken from the town of Hortonia and Dale became a township. President Polk signed the first deed of land, giving the right to homestead to area settlers. The Young, Rhoades, Doty and McCreary families were some of the first to settle in and around Dale. The Medina post office was established about this time. Cornelius Kuntz was the first postmaster. Mail was carried on foot by a man named Houghton between Oshkosh and Hortonville. Other early settlers were Stephen Balliet, David Zehner, Virgil Prentice, Benjamin Williams, and Enos Otis. Every year brought new settlers. The McHughs, Carneys and Mulroys located in the northwest part of the Town of Dale. Several early pioneers became well known in the area. John Leppla was a Dale merchant. Leppla came to America from Germany when he was 19 years old. In May 1868 he traded his Appleton property for a Dale farm. In 1885 he built a store in Dale, and took his nephew S.R. Wason as a partner in 1891. Leppla belonged to the German Reformed church. He served as Dale town chairman three times and served a term each as town assessor and town treasurer. Henry Leppla was a well-to-do Dale farmer. At age 21 he served in the German-Franco war. When the war ended he and his fiancee Julie Shoemaker returned to Dale to his brother's John's farm. Henry was disappointed with the land at first, but he and John improved it and paid off their indebtedness. Henry later bought out John's share of the land and gave him 190 acres. John Degal came to Dale from Medina County, Ohio with his family. Degal started a farm on which only to acres were cleared. Degal began clearing and improving the land and erecting buildings. In 1866 he married Mary Ann Prentice. Degal belonged to the Lutheran church and his bride was a member of the Free-Will Baptist congregation. Degal died in October of 1885. He was only 47 years old. His widow sold all the land they owned because she felt the farm had cost her husband his life and held a curse. John Kaufman was born in 1839 in County Argue, Switzerland. He came to America after the Civil War in 1869. A year later he married Susan Stocker. The couple lived in Oshkosh for seven years then moved to Dale to farm. The Kaufmans lost four of their 12 children to diptheria within three weeks in 1894. In 1904 the Kaufmans built a house in Dale and retired from farming. V.B. Prentice was one of the first settlers in the town of Dale in 1853. Prentice had previously farmed in New York state. Mary Young was the town's first school teacher, but Sarah Jane Littlefield was the first to teach in the new log schoolhouse. The school building had only one window and plank seats. In the early days religious meetings as well as school classes were held in the schoolhouse. Then around 1859 area Lutherans and Reformed congregations built a church between Dale and Medina. The church was moved to Dale in 1899 by Reformed members and the Lutherans built a new church in 1908. A Baptist church built around the same time is no longer in use. The Catholic church was built in 1910. Commercial buildings were added more slowly than homesteads. Dunbar Wroe was the first merchant at Medina. Stephen Balliet built a sawmill, John Strange a store and Halpin a blacksmith and wagon shop in 1897. A highpoint of Dale history occurred in 1869. J.E. Austin's son struck copper while plowing the Austin farm. The 430 pound mass was almost pure copper ore. It was dug out and exhibited at the county fair. Once the excitement over the discovery settled, the Austins agreed there would be more money in farming than in prospecting for copper. In 1872 the iron horse came to Dale. The Wisconsin Central Railroad, now the Soo Line, built a depot at Medina and laid tracks through the area. The depot was moved to Dale in 1876 and set on land donated by Stephen Balliet and David Zehner. The first cheese factory was built in the area in 1878. The First State Bank was organized in 1900 and later became the First National Bank, then the Appleton State Bank, Dale Branch. The Modern Woodmen America organized in 1895 with 19 charter members. They built a large building for general public meetings and entertainment. The present hall was built after the original building burned. Dale was once the potato raising center of the area. Long lines of wagons loaded with potatoes in front of the potato warehouses was a familiar scene. Stockyards were also prominent in Dale once. Carloads of livestock were shipped to market every week. Shipping day was a celebration for the village. Albert Kaufman was one prosperous buyer in the area. An unusual death befell one of the town's founders in 1850. Elias Balliet shot a deer while hunting. When he approached the animal to skin it, it reared up and ran its antlers through Balliet's body, killing him. Balliet was buried near the scene of the accident. The place later became Pine Grove Cemetery. Dale had its own weekly newspaper in 1899. The Dale Recorder was first published Aug. 3 of that year. Joseph Senftenberg was editor. The printe shop was located across from the Central Hotel. A year's subscription to the Recorder and Farm Journal cost $1.25. The Recorder reported news of the 1902 fire that destroyed the general store building and Louis Kaplan's stock. The loss was estimated at about $3,500. Kaplan's building was only a month old. He had started the business in less than a year before the fire. Picture caption: Dale Feed Mill - 1800's. The Dale Feed Mill was built on leased railroad property and operated by Ed Rieman in the 1800's. John Steffens, Sr. took over in the early 1900's until 1941. At that time Myron and John Jr. became partners in the business. John operated it alone from 1967 to 1972. It was sold to Joseph Schmidt at that time. The present owner, Howell Lane purchased it July 1, 1974.