Gibson Farmers’ Co-Operative Cheese Factory

The Krall family in front of the cheese factory circa 1940.

The Gibson Farmers’ Co-Operative Cheese Factory was located at the corner of Jambo Creek Road and TaPaWingo Road in the Town of Gibson. The cheese factory history below was provided by Bert Zipperer:

“My Mom’s parents, Joe and Lillian Krall, operated the cheese factory for the farmers’ co-operative from 1933 to 1942.

My Auntie Corkie (Corrine) was born in 1933, and my Mom (Geraldine) was born in 1938.  My Mom went on to be a licensed cheesemaker in her own adult life — making cheese with my Dad in School Hill and outside Brillion from 1959 to 1987.

The Krall family moved to the village of Manitowoc Rapids in 1942, and Grandpa worked for the Reedsville Farmers’ Co-Op for many years.  Later, in 1951, he bought the Texaco Service Station — next to the Bohemian Opera House — at the corner of 8th Street and Chicago Street in downtown Manitowoc.  They operated that business until November of 1966.” 

This historic photos on this page were likely taken by Lester C. Stueck (1904-1986) and his wife, Norma Foreman Stueck (1909-2002). On the back of one of the images is the inscription, “to the best cheesemaker” and “from Lester and Norma Stueck.”

The Gibson Farmers’ Co-Operative Cheese Factory circa 1940.

Long after the factory ceased making cheese, the building fell into a state of disrepair. The following photos were taken by Michael Steeber on November 20, 2013:

Tags: gibson, cheese factory, tapawingo, jambo creek, co-op, co-operative, zipperer, krall, krofta

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#cheeseFactory #coOp #coOperative #gibson #jamboCreek #krall #krofta #tapawingo #zipperer

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Miscellaneous newspaper articles, brochures, ads, and ephemera related to the Jambo Creek Bicentennial celebration, which was held from June 9– 11 at the Mishicot Sportsmen’s Club Jambo Creek road near Mishicot, Wisconsin.

This article was prepared for a 1994–1995 Mishicot brochure:

A special 200th-anniversary celebration has been planned for June 1995 at the Jambo Creek area near Mishicot.

In 1795, an agent of the Northwest Fur Company of Canada named Jacques Vieau came to the creek area two miles west of present-day Mishicot. Landing at Two Creeks, he backpacked overland to this location, where he erected a fur trading post. This trading post was the first white settlement of any kind in what is now Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. It operated for about two decades.

Jacques Vieau traded his goods for furs with the Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians in the area . But they found his name very hard to pronounce, usually making it sound more like “Jambo.” This was the origin of the name for the trading post and the creek.

A one-room frame schoolhouse was built in 1873 near the trading post site, replacing an older log building. In later years, a Jambo Creek Community Club was organized, and met at the school.

In 1922 this club determined to mark the location of the home of the first white inhabitant of Manitowoc County, by setting up a six-foot-high memorial boulder. This rock, of native granite, was hauled one mile to its present site using a stoneboat and a team of four horses.

It stands 60 rods (996 feet) north of the location of the original fur trading post, and has a bronze plaque placed on it in memory of Jacques Vieau. The cast plaque was donated by the Nic Kettenhofen shop, Manitowoc.

The stone and plaque were set in the front yard of the Jambo Creek School. Though the school now is gone, the stone remains in place across the road from the Mishicot Sportsmen’s Club building. It is two miles west of Mishicot —Highway 147 to Jambo Creek Road and then one mile north. The Wisconsin Ice Age Trail also runs near the club grounds.

To mark the 200th anniversary of Jacques Vieau’s founding of the far trading post, a special Jambo Creek Bicentennial Days celebration has been scheduled for the June 9-10-11, 1995, weekend at this site, to be sponsored by the Mishicot Sportsmen’s Club and by M.A.G.I.C. and the Fox Hills Resort, with the help and cooperation of landowners in the Gibson area.

Plans include an encampment and a re-enactment of the French fur trade era, and may feature several professional groups, with teepees and lodges, a big canoe, a small cannon, historic church services, mock battles, and much more. The

public is welcomed. For detailed information, phone (414) 755-2525, or write to Bicentennial, Village Hall, E. Main Street, Mishicot, Wisconsin 54228. The Mishicot Museum is also scheduling special Jambo Creek historical exhibits for summer 1994 and 1995.

Tags: 1995, bicentennial, dustin kronforst, travis kronforst, newspaper, mishicot sportsmen club, jambo creek

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#1995 #bicentennial #dustinKronforst #jamboCreek #mishicotSportsmenClub #newspaper #travisKronforst

Miscellaneous photos of the Norwegian Lutheran Jambo Creek Church, which was located on Jambo Creek Road near Mishicot, Wisconsin in the township of Gibson. One photo is dated 1949, the same year the church was disbanded.

Tags: jambo creek, jambo creek cemetery, jambo creek church

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Miscellaneous photos: A classroom full of students inside the Jambo Creek School on Jambo Creek Road near Mishicot, Wisconsin, a 1916 Jambo Creek School picnic with the handwritten caption, “Clara Jonas, Teacher — Mishicot Museum, from Elaine Larson,” and a photo with the handwritten caption, “Jambo Creek School Fair.”

From “Mishicot’s Meaningful Memories“:

The school got its name because it was located in the area where Jacques Vieu or Zhambo as the Indians called him set up one of the first trading posts in Manitowoc County along the small creek. The old Green Bay Trail passed the old trading post.

The first log schoolhouse was built about 1847. It was also used as a church by the residents. Later this building was sold for $19.00 and was used as a kitchen by the John Ploeckelmann family.

The second and last school was built in 1873 for the cost of $378.00. Homemade desks and seats were built and used until 1883 when new patented double desks were ordered by the voters. At the time of the building of the second school, a privy 9×5 feet, double-boarded, partitioned through the middle and having two doors, was voted for at the cost of $12.00. A woodshed was also erected for $11.50 which included lumber and labor.

The school housed all eight grades, enrollment being between 74 to 20 children for a school term.

The clerk’s record book shows this area was settled by Norwegians, Germans and French. Common names found in some of the old records are Brouchoud, Stueck, Olson, Eckhardt and Vertz. Mrs. Delores Kochrosky was the last teacher of the school when it was closed and the children were bussed to the Mishicot Grade School in the 1960’s.

Tags: 1916, clara jones, jambo creek, jambo creek school, picnic

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#1916 #claraJones #jamboCreek #jamboCreekSchool #picnic