Full audio file. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 1 - Introduction. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 2 - Location of older barns, one was directly north of the present barn, plus another one further west. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 3 - Location of granary: was first to the west of the driveway, then moved to the present site, torn down and rebuilt, again. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 4 - Location of brickyard: closer to the county road on the north of the property. Ponds were next to the drive, where the clay was extracted, then hauled on a trolley track to frames for bricks. Then, clay was mixed with sand. Sheds were also there for the drying of the formed bricks. Process of racking off the "mud". Dried in air till hard. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 5 - Then, the bricks were restacked in pyramids, hollow in the middle so that there was a space for a wood fire. They used hard wood for a 40 acres near Champion on high ground. Bricks were hardest closest to the fire. As you moved furthest from the fire they became softer. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 6 - Hired help for firing the bricks, one was an alcoholic who caused quite a few lost bricks, but generally had 8-10 men. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 7 - Feeding and housing the men. Five meals a day: beer, green onions and cottage cheese in spring. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 8 - House addition - 1872, 1867 the first half was completed. The first house was in the northwest corner. The present house is located so far back from the road because it was up on a sandy hill. Then the buildings were arranged European style. Once the gate was closed no neighbors could see in. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 9 - Relatives' support of Napoleon resulted in a great loss because of his defeat. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 10 - Money was in the Bank of Venice. The organization of European banks - all countries' banks were arranged around one square. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 11 - Grandma Ausloos' bitterness with Europe resulted from this loss, which encouraged her to come to America. She was born in 1847, and arrived in U.S. in 1855. Grandpa Ausloos was born in 1839, so was 17 when he left Europe, one year later than his future wife. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 12 - The location of some original buildings. A butternut tree grew right next to the original log house, with asparagus, and hops along the fence for the beer. They made beer regularly every three weeks. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 13 - Location of other asparagus beds around the house, some under the present granary. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 14 - Moving the granary, 1907, about the same time their father died. Never had a foundation built, so it rotted away. Frank then rebuilt it on a solid foundation. He used the same planks for the present building - virgin white pine. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 15 - Beams in the basement. Story about Frank's worst experience in carpentry work in Green Bay. White oak beams meant really wide spacing, built in 1866. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 16 - The first house was probably hewn logs. Technique for building log structures: chinking between cracks - lime and sand. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 17 - Seemed like every farmer had their own specialty. Dupont's, in the house where Pigeons live today, had a lumber mill, stallion, store, photography, farm, apple orchard, assemblyman, town chairman, etc. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 18 - Brunners, Lamar's fiddler, threshing machine, he had one of the first radios. Story about Bastens from New Franken playing over the radio from the Aragon ballroom in Chicago. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 19 - Fred Van Driese, of Van Driese motors, bought De Champ's farm. Three brothers have all been trying to find farms in the area. They're all educated, etc., and yet desire the farm - for it's their happiest time. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 20 - Location of ponds and track for brickyard in northwest corner. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 21 - Transplanting the cottonwood which stands next to the house now - about six feet in diameter. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 22 - Strong wind storm bent that big cottonwood to the ground, but bounced back. Sleet storm with ice coated branches crashing down. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 23 - Three ponds, filled from roadway drainage. Tape 1, Side 1, Part 24 - End. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 1 - Introduction. [never recorded] Tape 1, Side 2, Part 2 - Location of clay deposits in the ponds, took off black topsoil. Process of hauling the clay out of the ponds. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 3 - Special sand from Degrandgagnage in Dyckesville was hauled down for mixing with the clay. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 4 - Amounts of water in the ponds and winter snow melt. Had risen into the basement twice in Anna's life there. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 5 - Frank's grandmother died in the year after the Peshtigo fire. Since the new addition had just been built on the house and it wasn't finished, her body was kept there for a week because they were locked in by a blizzard. When they did take her it was in a sleigh, and they could go directly across the fields since all the fences were covered. Her body was buried off away from the rest because none of the gravestones could be found in the snow. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 6 - Grandma was pregnant at the time of the Peshtigo fire, so they planned on putting her in the cistern if the rest had to make a run for it. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 7 - The fire never made it to Ausloos farm. Only as far as the Robinsonville Chapel. Cleared fields slowed the fires' progress. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 8 - This fire on the east side of the Bay was thought to have originated in a Green Bay or Cedar Creek saw mill near Green Bay. It was the same time as the Peshtigo fire, but wasn't actually a connection directly. Many other fires scattered through the peninsula. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 9 - Old wardrobe upstairs in the house came from Green Bay at the the time of the fire. It was so big it had to be broken apart to bring it into the house. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 10 - Many clothes were sent over from Europe to help the fire survivors. Since Grandma was pregnant she went into Green Bay to pick up the wardrobe because they required proof to pick up baby clothes. Arranged by a relief committee. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 11 - Location of outhouse at different times. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 12 - Never had any doors on the back of the house, south side. The addition was built on for making beer, not as a summer kitchen. It was built when their uncles were only 15 and 16, so the south side wall was built so high because Grandma was worried about the boys nailing rafters up at the peak. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 13 - Location of other sheds. The pump house, machine shed, garage, etc. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 14 - Use of the two different barns. Older barn was used as a thresh floor, young stock barn. Later the thresh floor was bricked up on either end and used for a chicken coop. Floor in the chicken coop was made of cedar blocks with the end grain up, making it long lasting, but hard to clean. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 15 - Spent $250 for the original 40 acres, bought from a Landwehr, who was a land agent, who had purchased it from the government. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 16 - Grandpa hung around the courthouse a lot. He spoke nine languages and could read seven, so could mix with everyone. Therefore, he found out he could get an additional twenty acres of tax delinquent land for twenty dollars. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 17 - Location of other gardens around the house. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 18 - Since Frank was born on the farm some of the land hadn't been cleared, yet, and he was even the first to plow 7-8 acres after blasting out the pine stumps. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 19 - Grandpa Ausloos was married twice. Tape 1, Side 2, Part 20 - End. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 1 - Introduction. [never recorded] Tape 2, Side 1, Part 2 - Discussion of several relations. Henry Servais' mother was the only child from Grandpa Ausloos' first marriage. She was five when her father remarried a Vincent girl who lived where Vanden Plas live on Co. T now. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 3 - They had ten children, one of which died of appendicitis. When the doctor came out from Green Bay he talked about real estate because there was no hope for the child. Couldn't operate, but could give a handful of lead buckshot to unknot the intestines. Going to the hospital was considered certain death. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 4 - Ages of children (Frank's aunts and uncles): Sedoni 1862-1935, Winnie 1867-1930, Rosie 1868-1939, Lambert 1872-1961, David 1874-1945, Pa 1877-1907, Victor 1879-1946, Annie 1882-1898, Minnie 1884-1972, Julia Lillie died at only one or two, Mary Alice 1888- (Mac DeKaine's mother). Several other relations mentioned. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 5 - Pigs on the farm stayed around the straw stack and just ran with cows in their winter exercise yard. Little provision was ever made for them. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 6 - The present barn was built in 1906, one of the first in the area built with a tin roof. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 7 - Other brick buildings were not present except for another smoke house. The present home is brick veneer over logs. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 8 - There was also an outdoor oven which was freestanding. Could bake eighteen loaves of bread at once. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 9 - Description of baking process. Used broken-up pine stumps for fuel. Bread had a special flavor. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 10 - Frank was working at the shipyard in Sturgeon Bay during the war. Fifty years earlier his present foreman had happened by the Ausloos farm to watch them make bricks and had been invited to lunch. Thereafter Frank was assured of the best carpentry jobs available. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 11 - They didn't have enough land for sugar beets, because they'd have to buy the other necessary crops. Had to haul the beets to New Franken, and then waited hours and sometimes had to make a second trip. The Menomonie Sugar Beet Company paid $20 a ton the first year. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 12 - They never had many eggs to sell. But they did take them to Champion, or had people come to the farm and buy them, and even had some shipped to Milwaukee, usually brought about 15-20 cents a dozen, but during the 1920s it was 12 cents - a penny apiece. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 13 - The town of Champion had four bars and now has three, two dance halls and now none, but there's always been a grocery store and a creamery at two separate times. They used a dog tread mill to churn butter. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 14 - Horses ran on tread mills for threshing machines and pressing hay, too. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 15 - Fruit trees on the farm: apple varieties, cherry and pear. Now their plantings have all been cut down. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 16 - Varieties of pear tree: Bartlett - canning pear - and Flemish Beauty - dessert pear. Tape 2, Side 1, Part 17 - End. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 1 - Introduction. [never recorded] Tape 2, Side 2, Part 2 - Pear plantings and varieties. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 3 - How to tell when a pear is ripe: green on the outside but ripe inside, one quarter turn. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 4 - Grapes on the farm. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 5 - Display of arrowheads from the farm. Location of flake site. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 6 - Reason for lack of rock piles on the farm, they were used to fill the ponds and then raised the drive up. Also made a holding pond for liquid manure. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 7 - Location of manure piles in Belgium today. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 8 - Stones were used to widen the drive and fill behind the barn. This farm did have less stones than some further north. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 9 - Found two arrowheads right on the corner of the house. Frank's description of chipping stones by use of heat and cold water. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 10 - Location of crops grown on the farm: corn, oats, wheat or barley, pasture, hay (alfalfa, clover and timothy mixed). Tape 2, Side 2, Part 11 - Anna left ten years back when she got married, but then her husband died, so she now lives with relatives. Tape 2, Side 2, Part 12 - End.
Material owned by University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. No reproduction without permission from the Special Collections Department Cofrin Library, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive, Green Bay WI 54311