Leibl's La Crosse Plow Co. Cultivator

Image Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 2019.022.01

This La Crosse Plow Co. field cultivator was used on a farm in La Crosse County.

Louise Leibl, Image Courtesy of the family

Last winter, Louise Leibl called the La Crosse County Historical Society. She said that she had a wonderful piece of La Crosse history that needed a good home, and she was 100% correct.

Leibl donated this cultivator to the La Crosse County Historical Society along with other items used on her family’s farm.

Her family once owned and operated a farm in Smith Valley, La Crosse County.

In 1863, Louise Leibl’s great-grandfather Jacob Weimar, along with his two brothers, purchased 160 acres of what later became a 240-acre farm. Over the years, the family grew and added 16 buildings to their property, including an icehouse, machine shed and horse barn. Louise’s ancestors continued farming on the property. Louise grew up on the farm and spent her adult years working and caring for it.

The field cultivator has a wooden frame with residual red paint that would have once covered the wooden surfaces. The black stenciled lettering on the sides is still clearly visible. It reads “La Crosse Plow Co./La Crosse, Wis.,” and on the other side, “LA CROSSE.” The small metal piece protruding from the end of the plow next to the hitch is a wrench to loosen the square bolts on the blade to change it.

Leibl had fond memories of using this cultivator to plant potatoes. She said that her family used this plow for decades before she was born in 1930 and she continued to use it throughout her life on her farm.

Unfortunately, Louise Leibl passed away in June 2019. I am glad that I had the opportunity to visit with her and hear stories of her family’s life on the farm. La Crosse County Historical Society is happy to preserve and share her stories of farming in La Crosse.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on September 14, 2019.

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

The Home Bartender’s Guide and Songbook

Image Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Peggy Derrick

Catalog Number: 1989.066.06

Prohibition had been the law of the land for 10 years when this booklet was published in 1930. For all that time, the only way to legally purchase alcohol had been with a medical prescription. Therefore, this collection of cocktail recipes and drinking songs is full of nods and winks about bootleggers, Prohibition agents and the way things used to be.

Indeed, it claims to be “a history of the good old days,” and on the title page is a dedication: “Published in sacred memory of those good old days when bartending was an exact science, and you could forget your troubles on any corner.” Of course, that attitude also helps explain why temperance gained support in the first place.

Cocktails grew in popularity throughout the 1920s. It became acceptable for women to drink cocktails, as well as men. One theory for their popularity is that a lot of dubious bootleg liquor was simply more palatable in combination, and with mixers.

There are more than 200 recipes here, for concoctions with names like Snag-tooth Nell, the Charlie Horse and the Pom Pom.

The authors’ claim to have tested all the recipes, at great personal sacrifice, and the frontispiece has a charming illustration of them clinging to a lamppost after a hard night of sampling.

The lively black-and-white illustrations by Bob Dean are stylish and humorous, depicting men and women in fashions of the 1910s.

Unfortunately, although not unexpectedly, one illustration shows a racist African American caricature, and women are generally portrayed as hussies and fallen women. Meanwhile, the sophisticated bartender is always a white gentleman. This is an artifact of its time, and reflects those social norms and prejudices.

Sadly, the copy of this book in the collection of the La Crosse County Historical Society is missing its cover. We know it was originally received by someone as a gift, since there is a handwritten inscription of the frontispiece. It reads: “Mix any one you like and think of poor me.”

“Poor me” is not identified, but his/her note implied that not everyone was busy making, smuggling or purchasing bootleg liquor, all illegal activities in 1930.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on September 7, 2019.

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

Spence McCord Drug Co. Brandy

Image Copyright La Crosse County Historical Society

Abigail Wollam

Catalog Number: 2019.fic184

You might not believe it, but the image displayed here shows something that is both a medicine and an alcoholic beverage.

Throughout history, alcohol has been used to treat certain medical conditions. This fact was used as a loophole for people to access alcohol during the Prohibition Era.

After Congress enacted the Volstead Act in 1920, the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcoholic beverages was illegal in the United States. Prohibition was presented as a cure for societal ills to the public and was motivated by political factors and anti-German sentiment. However, this ban on alcoholic drinks does not mean that alcohol disappeared from society completely. Doctors and pharmacists were allowed to prescribe their patients alcohol to soothe some aliments.

During Prohibition the U.S Treasury Department allowed physicians to write prescriptions for alcohol using government issued prescription forms. Following this, the government also allowed for limited production of whiskey. ‘Medicinal whiskey’ became a popular ‘medicine’ that was prescribed to prevent and counter ailments such as cancer, indigestion and depression.

During Prohibition people figured out ways to access alcohol through bootleggers and speakeasies but the only legal way to get alcohol for personal use was this prescription loophole. Doctors used this loophole as a way to make a few extra dollars during the Prohibition Era. Those willing to pay for the prescription could legally obtain alcoholic beverages.

This jug is from the Spence-McCord Drug Company which operated in La Crosse from 1864 until 1973. Before and after prohibition, the drug company supplied its patients with liquor as medication. The jug’s label reads Stern’s California Brandy, Pure Grape.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on August 31, 2019.

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