Poage Park dedication shovel

Ivy King

Catalog Number: 2015.021.01

The first African American to win a medal in the modern Olympics came from La Crosse. George Coleman Poage completed this feat on Aug. 31, 1904. While his legacy was largely forgotten, La Crosse has recently started to recognize this man and his accomplishments.

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

This shovel commemorates the renaming of Hood Park to Poage Park, which is a step in recognizing and remembering this nearly forgotten history.

Poage was born in 1880 in Hannibal, Mo., but he moved to La Crosse at the age of 4. It was here he began his academic and athletic careers. He and his sister were among the first African Americans to attend La Crosse High School, which later became Central High School. Poage also was one of the most accomplished athletes during his education. His preferred sport was track, and he frequently won many of the races.

After high school, Poage continued his education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he was the first African American on the track team. Similar to his high school career, Poage won countless competitions.

In 1904, Poage participated in the Olympic Games at St. Louis. The games correlated with the World’s Fair, and these were the first Olympics held in the U.S. Unfortunately, these games had heavy racial segregation, and many African Americans boycotted the fair and the Olympics, but not Poage. He competed in four events and won bronze medals in the 200-meter and the 400-meter low hurdles.

After competing in the Olympics, Poage taught and coached high school students in St. Louis for 10 years. He then purchased a plot of land in Minnesota and farmed until relocating to Chicago. In Chicago, Poage worked for the U.S. Postal Service until his retirement, and he remained there until his death in 1962.

For many years, Poage and his accomplishments were ignored and nearly forgotten by the La Crosse community, but in recent years the community has begun to recognize Poage. The Poage Park Commemorative Shovel was used on June 19, 2015, at the groundbreaking ceremony in renaming Hood Park. The park was renamed to George C. Poage Park in order to honor his memory and his many achievements.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on June 10, 2017.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

World War II greeting card to Kermit Brekke

Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 2009.015.001

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower referred to the operation as a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.”

More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft were involved in the D-Day invasion, and more than 9,000 soldiers were killed or wounded. Their service was not in vain, as more than 100,000 soldiers were able to advance across Europe to eventually defeat the Axis powers.

Trempealeau County resident Kermit Brekke enlisted in the Army in 1942, shortly after the United States entered World War II. Throughout the war, Kermit saved correspondence he received from back home. After Kermit’s return, his wife made him a scrapbook containing the cards he received during the war, along with telegrams and other documents about his service. His wife also added newspaper clippings mentioning the war.

The card pictured here is from Kermit’s wife, Evelyn. Evelyn and Kermit were married at an Army training base in 1943. Shortly after their marriage, Kermit was sent to Northern Africa and then to Italy for the duration of his service. Through the Italian campaign, Kermit’s division marched north and drove the Germans out of Italy.

This card is unique because it’s not solely a card from his sweetheart — it’s also a good luck charm. The outside of the card has a four-leaf clover tied with a red, white and blue ribbon onto the front. The card states that the clover was grown in Balboa Heights, Canal Zone.

The inside of the card says: “I think about you all the while and you should know I do because you know the love Sweetheart I cherish just for you. And while you’re serving Uncle Sam I hope the CLOVER here will help to bring you Luck each day till your returning dear!”

The card is then signed “Your sweetheart Evelyn 11/2/42”

This card predates D-Day by a few years, but it still is reminiscent of this memorable period of U.S. history. Although Kermit was not directly involved on the Normandy beaches, his service as a rifleman, radio operator and repairman were critical to the Allies’ efforts.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on June 3, 2017.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Ellen Hixon’s soup tureen

Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Peggy Derrick

There was a time when I really wanted a soup tureen. I imagined how beautiful it would look in the place of honor on the table. A soup tureen is very evocative of hospitality. Even though now I think more about where I would store it, and wonder whether the soup didn’t just get cold before it was eaten, I still love a beautiful soup tureen.

This is one of two soup tureens in Gideon and Ellen Hixon’s house, and one of eight covered serving dishes of all kinds. They range in size from a platter that my 1-year-old granddaughter could fit on to a pint-size dish that might hold the cranberry sauce. This middling-size tureen holds about a gallon of soup.

There are two sets of china in our historic house museum, one Limoge and the other Spode. Here at the Historical Society we refer to them as the “good” china and the “everyday” china. This is the “everyday,” and by that we obviously do not mean to compare this to a set of ironstone dishes bought at Target or your mother’s Corelle. It is an older set of china that Mrs. Hixon replaced at some point with the newer and more fashionable Limoge. By the end of the 19th century these bright colors and busy patterns were being replaced with more delicate designs and paler, a more modern palette.

From the beginning of the 19th century the English ceramic manufacturer Spode was producing beautiful reproductions of Japanese Imari ware, which were often in primarily iron red and cobalt blue, like this tureen. The journey of a design influence can be fascinating and complex. Japanese Imari patterns were heavily influenced by contemporary textile patterns, and the most common natural dyes in the era were red and blue.

The large, imaginative floral design also reflects Indian textile designs. The Chinese were the first to admire and imitate Imari ware, and their imitations flooded the European market at a time when Japan had shut itself off from the rest of the world and was not trading. European china was a prestigious home furnishing in the United States, and so we have Ellen Pennell Hixon acquiring this lovely set sometime after her marriage to Gideon Hixon in 1861. I doubt very much that she was thinking about global trade routes or the history of the European ceramic industry when she set her table, yet her dishes made her a part of world history.

This tureen has a secret, which is right out there in the open but which I did not notice for some time. Last winter I gave a presentation to the Hixon House docents, or guides, on the Japanese ceramics in the house, and I used this tureen as an example of Japanese influence on European manufacturers. I handled the tureen to photograph it, put the image in a PowerPoint presentation, and then I talked at length while showing it on the screen during my talk. It was only after several minutes that I suddenly focused on the large cracks and the stitches running across them. I was amazed to realize that we were actually looking at an item that been broken into at least three pieces and repaired — and no one had noticed! The mending staples, or stitches, of wire are clearly visible across the front, and a slight discoloration from glue can also be seen along the crack line.

There’s no telling now when this occurred, or whether it happened during Mrs. Hixon’s lifetime or after her death. It may have been broken and mended during the first decades of the Historical Society’s tenure. Or maybe it was one of those college girls who lived in the house when it was a women’s dormitory in the 1940s. It’s a secret we may never know the truth about, but I am grateful the tureen was mended with such expertise and that it is still here for us to enjoy.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on May 27, 2017.