Outagamie County, WI - "Area Cheese Factory Honored as Historic Site"
        
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 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives
 Subject: newspaper article "Area Cheese Factory Honored as Historic Site"
 Submitted by: county coordinator 
 EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com
 Date Submitted: 15 March 2000
        
 Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated.
 
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          Area Cheese Factory Honored as Historic Site
      The Philip H. Kasper Cheese Factory in Waupaca County near Bear Creek has become Wisconsin's 238th
 entry on the National Register of Historic Places, according to James Morton Smith, director of the State Historical
 Society and the state historic preservation officer.
      The building was judged worthy of preservation because of its association with Kasper, whose internationally
 acclaimed cheese won him more than 200 awards, gold medals, and other prizes and the title of "Greatest Cheesemaker
 in the World" in 1912.
      The National Register of Historic Places lists buildings, sites, objects, and districts important because of their
 historic, cultural, architectural or archeological value.
      Kasper, a native of Sheboygan county, was a leader in the development of the state's cheese and dairy
 industries at the turn-of-the century.
      From the time he bought the old Nicholson Cheese Factory in 1891, he was quick to embrace new methods
 and ideas.  He attended the dairy school at the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1894 and immediately adopted
 the policy of pricing milk according to its butterfat content using the Babcock test, an innovation at the time.
      He worked with William Dempster Hoard in establishing the need for selectively bred dairy cattle and was one
 of the organizers of the Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association, serving as president for several years.
      Kasper won more prizes for his products than any other cheesemaker, a fact duly noted in Robert Ripley's
 "Believe It Or Not" feature.  He was officially recognized for his leadership in the cheese industry by the University of
 Wisconsin College of Agriculture in 1927 and by a joint resolution of the Wisconsin Legislature in 1941.  He died in
 1942.
      The building, on State Highway 22, is maintained by the Kasper family, though it is now unoccupied.
      State sites on the National Register are nominated by the Wisconsin Historic Preservation Review Board to
 the National Park Service in Washington, D.C., which administers the program.