Green County 2020 Guide

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Take a tour to discover why this original settler’s cabin is still in such great shape despite being built nearly 165 years ago.

Unfortunately the Swiss pioneers did not prosper. For 20 years, they attempted to raise wheat. But the soil was soon depleted. Cinch bugs in the 1860s ruined crop after crop – and depression again reached out to touch the colonists. They didn’t give up. Instead, they recalled the skills of their forefathers – and turned to dairying. The settlers bought cows at $12 a head, one for each family, and walked them in from Ohio. Cheesemaking was started immediately by the women. The soil not suited for wheat, was found to be perfect for pasture and hay. Trained cheesemakers from the valley of Emmen, Switzerland, were brought in. Small cheese factories appeared, and the co-operative factory plan was introduced by Nicholas Gerber. Descendants of the Swiss colonists now are found not only in New Glarus, but also throughout Green County. They are Americans and proud of it, but they are proud of their heritage, too. The sound of yodeling still can be heard, Swiss cowbells still ring across the fields and Swiss costumes still provide color at various festive times throughout the year. The New Glarus story may be 110 years old, but it’s a continuing story. And that’s as it should be.

From the Monroe Evening Times – 1955 Cheese Days Edition

The first Swiss settlers arrived here according to plan – a plan formulated five months earlier in Canton Glarus, an industrial county in Switzerland that was suffering from a general depression. It’s a story of hardship, determination, and perseverance. It’s the New Glarus story, and it began in 1844, with the formation of the Emigration Society of the Canton of New Glarus. Every family willing to leave Switzerland for America was to receive 20 acres of land. Approximately 200 agreed to make the move, so two scouts, Fridolin Streiff and Judge Nicholas Duerst, were dispatched March 16, 1845 with almost $2600 to buy a tract of land. They were urged to select a spot with climate and soil suitable for the raising of grain. One month after the messengers departed, with no word from them to indicate their whereabouts or the success of their mission, the impatient band of colonists started out. Had they known they faced a three-month journey by rocking ocean vessel, jostling train, creeping canal boat and on weary feet, perhaps the story would have a different ending. Theirs was a rugged experience that started the moment they began the trip. A blinding April snowstorm pelted them in an open boat sailing a canal to Zurich. At Zurich, the women and children transferred to covered wagons for an overland trip to Basle. The men continued by boat. The group traveled down the Rhine on a crowded vessel to New Dieppe, leading a gypsy life while waiting for a ship headed for America. Again taking to trains and canal boats, the hardy band made for St. Louis. Streiff and Durst, whom they expected to meet in St. Louis, failed to show up. So they selected two more scouts, Mathias Duerst and Jacob Grob, and sent them off in search of the missing men, who, of course held their money and their hopes.

Rumors that the original messengers had met death at the hands of Indians didn’t ease the situation, but the rumors soon proved unfounded when the searchers found the scouts laying the foundations for the New Glarus settlement. Claim for the 1200 acres had been filed by Streiff and Duerst on July 17, 1845. The colonists again become impatient. They had heard of the Sugar River site and had started for it. They had reached Galena when Judge Duerst finally located them. He picked 18 of the strongest men to go ahead with axes and building tools – a trip made on foot in three days – and helped the others obtain wagons and teams from lead miners to complete the trip. On August 15, 1845, they reached their goal. But New Glarus was only a name, not a community. Housing was completed by Christmas and communal laws drawn up with the aid of the judge, enabled the two dozen families to live together and decreed the manner in which land was to be divided.

A parade on August 16, 1915 marked the 70th Anniversary of the founding of New Glarus. The passenger is holding a sponsor flag from Citizens Bank - a building which still stands at the corner of 2nd Street and 5th Avenue (across from Tofflers Pub & Grill and Kristi's Bistro Restaurant & Bar).

For the last twenty or so years, Larry Klassy has led tours (and mowed the lawn) at the Swiss Historical Village. You might expect his given name to be Lawrence, but he really is just Larry. He was named after his great-great grandfather Hilarius Wild, who arrived here with the first settlers in 1845. Wild's wooden traveler’s trunk is on display at the village.

Larry’s favorite spot on the grounds is the collectibles building that was relocated from a rural corner to serve as the village’s old time general store. It just happens to be the one-room schoolhouse that Larry happily attended. "It was better to go to school than stay home", he says, "because if I stayed home my dad would find a job for me to do!"