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50TH ANNIVERSARYGrew Up in Own WorldBoys of Farmers Street Enjoyed'Exclusive' LifeThis is the storv of Farmers street, east end. Years ago it was the shabby end of town. Later elite homes were built there by people who became wealthy trading with farmers. They renamed the street Greenwood Drive.But this is the story of Farmers street. In its middle, late as 50 years ago, stood a maple tree. In back of it was a swimming hole, a brickyard, the railroad tracks and * the patch. At one end was the Smoky Row neighborhood and at the other end the road leading to thegraveyard.A bov who lived anvwhere else•W ^ w w w ■- -WT! rin town generally did not associate with the boys of Farmers street. Thev had Wolcott’s pond to themselves.Lucius Wolcott dumped broken glass and thorn apple brush into the pond He also stalkedthe neighboring woo is to keepthe bovs out. The% left their clothes in a corn field and dashed naked across the tracks to splash in the icy spring-fed water. When they saw Wolcott,white bearded and stormy, rushing out of the woods they dashed back, often cutting themselves painfully on the sharp edges of corn blades.A gravel pit, dug near the pond, filled with water. One day a Farmers street boy named Groff drowned. The story that quicksand sucked him to his death spread to thisday.When Wolcott died his daughter inherited the property. Herhusband, S. S. Hyde, directed a dance orchestra and owned Monroe’s first famous race horse, Old Daubeen. Hyde liked boys and encouraged swimming. But to reach Hyde s pond, as it was then named, boys from distant parts ot town had to cross either Farmers street or the patch. Thus, it remained an exclusive swimming hole.Patsy Padden ruled the patch. It lay back of Farmers street over the tracks Young men from uptown liked to dance with girls from the south side but hesitated to escort them home across the track. They feared Patsy and his gang were lying in wait.The uptown boys’ caution became so extreme that Patsy felt obliged to lead his lads on forays into Turner hall public dancesFarmers street boys had no reason to invade the patch. Besides the pond they had a fishing hole just belowr the railroad trestle. For variety theycould watch bricks being made at the lligley and Niles yard. In winter time the pond froze over and they skated on shoe leather.Farmers street was busiest during the ice harvest with 50 men employed. Bob sleds slid along the snow-covered frozen dirt hauling huge quantities of ice to the brewery aid elsewhere.The new owner, Hyde, foundhis business scarcely worthwhile. He had, however, built a pavilion for picnics and dances. Its quick popularity gave him the idea of offering the entire tract to the city for a park.He asked $10,000 When thecouncil reacted only with indifference he felled the largest trees for lumber and sold home-site lots east of the Edward Lanz home.Farmers from the rich Jefferson township countryside used the street for their principal thoroughfare into town, arriving on the Beloit road and turning off onto East streetBut. unless a ride could be hitched, all Farmers street families walked except the Sick-ingers. Louis Sickinger operated a dray line, driving spirited horses whose gaudy harnesses had polished brass trimmings. The goods wagon furnished transportation for Fred G. Sickinger and younger brothers, one of them Bert, and any others that happened to he around,Walks through Hyde's woods were popular, and when a combination boardwalk and cinder path was laid between Farmers 1thatlov-street and the cemetery strip became known as a ers* lane.Hero of the street was Frank Matthews. Once when fire broke out m Carroll Brothers’ store Frank leaped on the counter and urged the grownups to walk out calmly.He told the kids he was a snake charmer. They collectedsnakes, frogs and turtles for him; he put them in jars together just to see what they’d doFrank was a favored kid on the street, being allowed to go downtown alone. He collected broken pop bottles, knocked the bottoms out of them and showf-ed his pals how to burn their skin by letting the sun shinethrough the glass.Like everyone else on thestreet, Frank had to saw wood for the cook stove every day, but he exchanged pop bottle bottoms and tobacco tags for the chore. The metal tags from plug of tobacco were highly prized because of their great variety.When Frank graduated from high school at 17 with top honors he delivered an oration which remained town talk for years. It was his greatestachievement and won him a bid to make the Fourth of July address on the square.Farmers street grew up fast. The maple tree was rooted out when the first macadam pavement was laid. Hyde’s pond became a mud hole but less clannish. Bloodsuckers continued to infest it. The brickyard disappeared and the patch lost its terror, but the railroad tracks remained. The boys’ cornfield hideaway became No 4 fairw’ay• mof the Monroe Country club.Hyde’s vast tract was virtually de-wooded and its frontage on Farmers street quickly built up. Eventually, even as Hyde had visualized, a small section of it was purchased by the city for a recreational park.The fishing hole below the pond dried up. Hyde’s pavilion gave way to an enormous, ugly ice house. Ice harvests continued but the kids who slid around on the ice wore gleaming storeskates.The street experienced a rush of traffic when the motor car arrived, as motorists took Sunday afternoon drives to Twin Grove and hack. The automobile cast the cemeterylovers’ lane into disuse. The new Juda road, highway 11-81, took away much of the Beloit road traffic. Farmers streat became quieter.Frank Matthews left town to become moderately successful in the hotel and later the nursery business in Iowa.Farmers street lost its track-side atmosphere altogether whenSummit street was laid as a homey extension of Smoky Row. Fine homes were built along both, as well as East street and the Beloit road One of the first in 1882, was owned bv Helen M. Wedge, wife of a Milwaukee lumberman, and was constructed elaborately of choicest timber. It passed to B. L. Wood and later J. L. Roderick whose society daughters. Elizabeth andNora, were elegantly married there in October, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Fred E. Mevthaler are the present occupants.The new residents of Farmers street successfully petitioned to have it renamed GreenwoodDrive.Today, as 16th street. Farmers street is still more changed Hyde's pond is Lake Francis and promises to become atony neighborhood. There are more people dead in Greewood cemetery than are living on Farmers street, but the artificial swimming hole and night hall games liven the latter.Visionaries, moving about in cramped Recreation park, look out across Hyde’s pond and the Carl Martv estate and think what a fine playground they would have made.Fred G. Sickinger who grew up on Farmers street, livesabout a block from it at 1716 17th avenue, near the corners of Summit and East streets. He s 81. His younger brother, Fire
Newspaper Details
Monroe Evening Times
Monroe, Wisconsin, US
Wed, Oct 13, 1948
Page 27
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
WI, USA 20 Aug 2022
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