The History of Silo Building in Pulaski Calendar of Events

Spring 2013
The History of Silo Building in Pulaski
Robaidek employee Harry Jaworski showing off.
Note, the metal silo forms used in construction.
By Chris Jaworski
Passing through the local countryside one can’t fail
to notice the great number of
barns that have played a role
in making Wisconsin the nation’s dairy state. Old dairy
barns are magnificent structures that rightfully generate
a lot of architectural attention.
Often overlooked are the similar numbers of silos that accompany these barns.
Silos are nearly airtight
receptacles for silage, usually
corn, chopped and placed inside. Air particles in the corn
cause fermentation until all
the air is expended. Because
the silage is contained within
a semi-airtight container, further fermentation is prevented
thus preserving the silage.
This is an especially important
feature when Wisconsin’s notoriously long winters are taken into consideration. Therefore, silos give the ability for a
dairy farmer to carry a herd of
cattle through the winter and
allow the storage of feed at an
economical price. Without the
silo, Wisconsin would have
never attained its prominence
in the dairy industry.
The history of the silo
goes back to the 1850’s when
French farmers began experimenting with the storage of
corn fodder in earthen trenches.This novel idea made its
way to the United States in the
1870’s, and Wisconsin’s first
trench silo was built by Levi
Gilbert of Fort Atkinson in
1877. These early horizontal
trench silos fell out of favor
because it was hard to compact the feed which hindered
the fermentation process.
In 1880, Dr. L.W. Weeks
of Oconomowoc built the
state’s first above ground silo.
This silo was constructed out
of stone and cement and measured 12’ x 30’ in width and
was 20’ high.The silo was located inside Dr. Week’s barn.
A number of local farmers
copied this rectangular, upright design but noticed feed
spoilage problems, especially
in the corners. In the early
1890’s Professor F.H. King
of the Wisconsin Agricultural
Experiment Station, introduced the upright round silo.
This design solved the problems of both proper compaction and unwanted spoilage of
the ensilaged feed.
With the advent of the upright circular silo the number
of farms adapting this new
form of feed storage increased
dramatically. In 1904, the first
year a silo census was conducted, Wisconsin reportedly
had 706 silos state wide. As
with any new technology there
were doubters. Some fearful
farmers claimed fermented
corn silage would cause cow’s
teeth to fall out or that the carbonic acid would make the
cattle get drunk. Other skeptical farmers insisted that ensilaged feed would burn holes
in the cows stomachs. These
claims were proven false, and
it was found that silage actually helped increase milk pro-
continued on page 2
Calendar of Events
April 29, 2013.......................Board Meeting @ Museum
May 2................................. Spring Cleaning @ Museum
.............................................................9:00 a.m. to noon
June 24......... 7PM - Board Mt @ PACE Community Rm
July 20 & 21.....................................Polka Day Weekend
August 26......7PM - Board Mt @ PACE Community Rm
Sept.23...........7PM - Board Mt @ PACE Community Rm
October 23, 2013...................Annual Meeting & Dinner
................................................................. @ Legion Hall
November 25, 2013...................... “Election of Officers”
PACE Community Rm............ @ 7 PM - Board Meeting
Visit our website for more information
www.pulaskiwihistory.com
Like us on facebook too!
Silo Building/
Continued from front
duction. By 1915 there were
over 55,992 silos in Wisconsin.
The benefits of silos
caught on with Pulaski area
dairy farmers as well. The first
local silos were constructed
of field stone, wooden staves,
or glazed ceramic tile. Some
of these early unique silos are
still standing today. However,
they were time consuming and
very costly to build. Walter Jaworski, a local resident from
the Town of Chase, noticed
the growing popularity of silos
in the Pulaski vicinity. After
serving in World War I, Walter
attended a trade school in Two
Rivers, WI and shortly thereafter commenced building
poured concrete silos with his
younger brother John throughout northeast Wisconsin.
These monolithic concrete silos were less costly
and quicker to build versus
earlier methods, thus being
more affordable to the farmer.
Unfortunately, in 1924, Walter Jaworski lost his life in a
tragic gasoline engine fire and
his brother John inherited the
silo building business solely in
his name. A prize example of
a silo built by these brothers
can be found next to the Chase
Stone barn. This style of silo
with its characteristic concrete
silo shoot and top, serves to
identify the local Jaworski
type of construction.
John Jaworski ran this silo
building enterprise in conjunction with his Tri County Sand
and Gravel business. As both
operations grew in size, John
decided to focus on his gravel business and sold the silo
forms and scaffolding to Julius Robaidek in 1936. Julius
headquartered the business out
of his farmstead in the Town
of Angelica.
Silos were constructed using 2 foot x 2 foot metal silo
forms that had a slight circular curve to them. These
forms were held together with
latches and in a given day 6 to
8 feet were poured. The following day these forms were
removed and then reset on the
previous days work to start
the next course. This process
was repeated until the silo
reached its contracted height.
During the 1940’s, 50’s,
and 60’s common silo diameters were 12, 14, and 16 feet.
Silo heights averaged about
40 feet. As farms became bigger, the decades of the 1970’s,
80’s, and 90’s saw diameters
go up to 30 feet and silo
heights reaching 80 to 90 feet.
Throughout time the thickness of the silo walls stayed
the same at 6 inches.
The success of the Robaidek silo building business ebbed and flowed with
the farming economy.During
the agricultural surge of the
1960’s the company added
the Jamesway line of mechanical silo unloaders. This
eliminated the labor intensive
job of hand unloading a silo
with a pitch fork. The 1960’s
also saw the discontinuation
of cement silo roofs. These
were replaced with metal
hemispherical caps. The silo
building business was also
inherently dangerous. In 1968
Julius’ son, Ron Robaidek,
fell 62 feet after the scaffolding he was working on gave
way. Miraculously, Ron survived but spent the next year
recovering from a broken leg.
Julius Robaidek typically
ran two silo building crews
simultaneously. Each crew
consisted of three to four men
depending on the silo size.
During exceptionally busy
periods three crews worked
at once.Some long term employees included: Joe Neklewicz, Joe Piaro, Eddie Szymanski, Harry Jaworski, Max
Dombrowski, Richie Kaczrowski, Daniel Przybylski,
Richie Lepak, Bill Przybylski, Clarence Christopherson,
Stanley Schumal, & Frank
Gawrylewski.
Even though the Robaidek’s were known as quality
silo builders, competition was
fierce. New ideas and technologies were always coming
about. Stave silos came on the
scene in the 1950’s and were
made from 2 ½ inch brick that
interlocked together. These
Possibly one of the oldest silos in Pulaski area. This 12
foot diameter by 12 foot high field stone silo is located on
the David and Donna Watermolen farm off of Gohr road.
Robaidek silo crew putting the finishing touches on a concrete silo roof.
silos have a characteristic
checkerboard pattern on their
top course. Also, the cobalt
blue A.O. Smith Harvestor
silos made their appearance
at the 1948 state fair. These
unique silos were made with
glass fused to steel and unloaded from the bottom. This
bottom unloading feature
meant a Harvestor silo could
be filled and unloaded at the
same time which saved the
farmer a lot of time and work
In 1976 Julius Robaidek
sold his silo business to the
Tilkens Silo Company. The
next year, his son Ron purchased his own silo building
equipment and continued on
the family business of building concrete silos. The early
1990’s saw a severe down turn
in the farm economy and the
cost of insuring the silo building
crews became cost prohibitive.
In 1993 Ron Robaidek discontinued the business.
After 57 years the Robaidek family estimates they built
somewhere between 2,000 –
3,000 silos throughout Wisconsin. Almost all of these were
of the poured concrete variety.
The most silos built in one year
equaled 59, which was accomplished in 1968. The biggest
silo ever built was 24 foot in
diameter by 104 foot tall silo in
Wittenberg for Gene Ostrowski.
The farthest distance ever traveled by the Robaidek’s to build
a silo was out in the Dakotas.
The record for the most silos
ever ordered by one customer
belonged to the Kroll brothers
Continued on next page
Message
from the
President
Continued from page 2
in DePere who had over 20
constructed. Another good
customer was the Bear Creek
Canning Company. Considering all the risk involved
with building silos the family
is grateful only one worker
died while on the job.
As dairy farms are becoming bigger today, the
use of upright tower silos
has waned. Most large dairies use bunker silos to store
their feed. These horizontal
silos are made with precast
concrete forms to create their
sides. Large tractors with
dual tires are used to compact the silage within the silo
walls.Bunker silos eliminate
the need for mechanical unloaders and compliment the
large loafing dairy barns that
are becoming more common
at present time. It is a bit ironic that the first silos built in
Wisconsin during the 1870’s
were of the horizontal design.
It seems the silo has come
“full circle”.
Resources:
Fish, N.S. History of the silo in
Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Magazine
of History. 8:2 (December 1924):
160-170.
McVarish, D.C. Silos, from
trenches to Harvestors. http://www.
farmbuildingguide.org/silos.html
Robaidek, Ronald. Personal interview 04/09/2013.
Jaworski, Eugene. Personal interview 10/07/2012.
Dear Members,
As your new president, I
am excited for 2013 and
all that it will bring.
I would like to update you
on current projects and
happenings at the museum and with the organization. I have categorized
them for you.
Silo next to Chase Stone
Barn constructed by Walter Jaworski (circa 1920)
Please Note:
The PAHS minutes
from the last
annual banquet
will be available at
the museum and
are on line for
your convenience.
Thank you to everyone
who helped clean the
museum this spring.
If you would like a
special tour of the museum
please feel free to call
920-822-5856 or 920-822-2609.
Building
New Furnace installation
Insulating the museum both will help in our preservation of documents
and items we receive and
also will help with climate control.
Membership
For current members to
help us build membership, if you refer someone
to join the organization,
the PAHS will purchase
a ticket for you at the annual meeting in October.
So...we would like to
double our membership,
and everyone can help!
Archives/Cataloging
On-going student project
of cataloging and organizing items/donations at the
museum.
Fundraising
The “BRICK” project
headed by member Mike
Blohowiak is a fundraiser
to assist in the preservation of the Pulaski Museum Building and the
preservation what is in the
building.
Sincerely,
Larry Puzen
PAHS President
PAHS
2013 Officers/Directors
President
Larry Puzen
Vice-President
Chris Jaworski
Secretary
Norine Heuser
Treasurer
Larry Szymanski
Directors
Sharon Bauer
Mike Blohowiak
Karen Szczepanski
Tammy Brzeczkowski
John Mihalko
Pam Mannigel
Jim Zajac
Rock Mannigel
Ray Mroczynski
Curator
Marian Schroeder
(newest board members bolded)
See the Polka
Day Parade from
a different
perspective
Join us on the float this year
at Polka Days. Any PAHS
member is invited, as we
will have two Belgian horses
pulling a passenger wagon
again this year. We have
room for 20 participants.
Children and grandchildren
are welcome as guests of
members. Call Chris Jaworski at 920-822-3961 to
reserve your spot. Space
is limited to 20 people.
Do you know of
someone that
would be an
asset to the
PAHS? Let’s get
them to join! We
are in need of volunteers and new
members. Help the
PAHS grow!
Heartfelt
Sympathy
Archaeological
Investigation
at Chase Stone
Barn
Completed
By Chris Jaworski
Bob Fay of Old Northwest
Research has completed his archaeological investigation of the
Chase Stone Barn Park site. The
existing stone barn was once the
center of an intensive farming
operation begun by the Krause
family. The Krause’s immigrated
from Germany and purchased the
Town of Chase property in 1870.
Items recovered included
decorated porcelain shards,
buttons, bottles, smoking pipe
fragments marked “Germany”,
threshing machine parts, a variety of square nails and many
other items too numerous to
mention. The date range for most
of the artifacts encompasses the
Krause family’s occupation of
the property from 1870 – 1920.
Over 8,300 items were recovered, itemized, and cataloged.
In the future selected items from
this investigation will be displayed, which will help interpret
the history of this farmstead. A
111 page report summarizing the
archaeological investigation will
be available at the museum.
Museum
open during
Farmer
Market
Tuesdays
The Pulaski Area Historical
Society Museum will be open
again during the Farmers Market. We will also have members
have a table or booth at the market to help get the word out that
we are open.
If you are interested in helping us with this project, we would
appreciate it. Let us know; call
any board member, or contact us
through our website.
The Pulaski Area Historical
Society extends its sympathy
to the families of
Rock Mannigel talking about Casimir Pulaski at the
Museum on Monday, March 4, 2013.
Museum participates in
Casimir Pulaski Day
This year, a member of the Pulaski Area Historical Society, and co-owner of Dynamic Designs of Pulaski, Tammy
Brzeczkowski had the desire to begin something special in
Pulaski - Casimir Pulaski Day.
So it began...First of all by creating a website, www.casimirpulaskiday.org. After creation of the website, businesses
were contacted, news releases were sent, and Casimir Pulaski
Day festivities were in full force.
Many local businesses participated in the event,: Dynamic Designs gave away Casimir Pulaski Day t-shirts and
offered treats for visitors, Doug Prentice at State Farm Insurance invited everyone in for some polish food, Country
Pride Realty, Furnitureland, Sound Check, Carrot Tree Coffee Shop and Super Rons and our own Pulaski Museum were
participants in the event.
Thanks to Rock and Pam Mannigel for opening the museum up to area visitors, and creating a Casimir Pulaski display, everyone was greeted and given a little Pulaski History.
Did you know?
Are you aware that the Pulaski Area Historical
Society has a facebook group?
Check it out on facebook page:
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/groups/pulaskihistory/
For information for the newsletter contact
Tammy ~ [email protected]
January
Pat Pamperin
March 2013
Leon Czech
Frank Bialozynski
Don Marnocha
New Logo,
New Look!
The Pulaski Area Historical Society recently
changed its logo. Take
a look at the new look.
Congrats to our Pulaski High School 2013 Graduates!
Puzen wins Historic Preservation
Award at Annual Banquet
Photo of the renovated home on Front Street in Pulaski.
Larry Puzen received the Historic Preservation Award for his restoration work on his current 1910 home located at 211 Front Street in
Pulaski.
Puzen purchased the home in 1998, and began renovations, and still
has projects that he would like to complete. “It’s a work in progress.”
said Puzen. This project was actually on Puzen’s bucket list.
Puzen was always involved in construction, and it was his dream to
renovate a home. The home he chose actually has ties back to his grandmother whom was a Humecki. He purchased the residence from the estate of Stanley Przybylski whom Stanley’s mother Sophie was Agnes
Gryes sister, who was Puzen’s great great grandmother.
According to Puzen, the home was well crafted. “They didn’t skimp
on lumber.” said Puzen. The building has a stone foundation. At one time,
there was a barn in the back, a pathway led to the building in the back.
Puzen donated an article of clothing to the museum that was found in
the home when he purchased it.
If you have any history or information about the home or can add to
the information we have, please contact any board member of the Pulaski
Area Historical Society.
Photo taken in the 1920’s of the Melzer’s children that lived there. The family was gone in
the 1930’s. Photo is courtesy of Irene Cooney.
Become a PAHS Member today!
Name________________________________
Address______________________________
____________________________________
City, State & Zip_______________________
Renewal or New (Please circle one)
Individual $10_________________________
Family $20_ __________________________
Business $25__________________________
Sustaining $100+
A birds eye view of where the home is located.
Interested in tour of the museum or PAHS?
Call Marian 920-822-5856 or Larry at 920-822-2609.
E-mail: [email protected]
www.pulaskiwihistory.com
Total AMOUNT ENCLOSED:____________
Please make checks payable to Pulaski Area
Historical Society: Mail to PAHS, 129 West
Pulaski Street, P.O. Box 944, Pulaski, WI
54162
Do you know someone
that is deserving of
the Historic Preservation
Award?
Every year at our annual banquet we award someone that has
helped to preserve history in Pulaski or the surrounding areas.
This person(s) may be in the process of renovating an old building, or house, or even a business. Or maybe they have assisted in keeping a part of history in some way. We are currently
looking for nominations for this prestigious award. Go to our
website and fill out the nomination form on who you think
would be a great candidate. Self nominations are welcome!
Trip to Poland Scheduled
Now at the museum - Szymanski Family
“NEW” at the museum
family history displays
The PAHS museum has a
new display to showcase area
families. There are many
families in this area that were
instrumental in the development and growth of the entire
Pulaski area. This included
farming, businesses, churches, and education. This is
YOUR opportunity to showcase your family. The space
is 6 feet wide by 6 feet high
and has 4 adjustable shelves
and room on top of the cabinet. You can include special
artifacts, stories, pictures and
whatever you feel would tell
a story highlighting your family name and descendants.
How long we will
keep the display available to
visitors has not been finalized. The construction on
W. Pulaski St. may affect the
number of visitors so we may
keep a display up longer during this initial period of time.
We will provide the name of
the family to the Pulaski News
and in our newsletters. If you
are interested in doing this project, please contact Larry Puzen
at 822-2609 or Pam and Rock
Mannigel at 822-3997. Your
name will be put on a list in
the order received and you will
be notified in advance of when
your turn will be. Also if during the time of your display,
your family is having some special gathering, you can contact
a board member and we can
arrange to meet you at the museum after hours so your other
family members can see it.
Norine Heuser has put up
the first display for the Szymanski family. It will probably
be available to see at least thru
the end of June and possibly
into July. The board members
have some ideas of families we
would like to see in the showcase, so if you haven’t called to
put your name on a list, we may
call you.
Mark your calendar for
our Annual Dinner Meeting
October 23, 2013
Have you ever wanted to see Poland, or maybe St. Mary’s
Cathedral (that the ABVM church was replicated after), or
maybe just to visit the land where your ancestors came from?
Now is your once in a lifetime chance. Dynamic Designs is
co-sponsoring the trip with First Class Travel of Shawano,
WI. The special “POLAND TRIP” is scheduled for August
8th - 17th. For more information call Julie at First Class
Travel at 715-526-4585.
Do You Know?
How did the Player Piano get to
our PAHS Museum?
To our knowledge, the player piano was donated
by the American Legion. No one really knows if
the player piano was donated to the Legion by a
member or if the Legion purchased it. This remains
a mystery.
Pulaski Area Historical
Society Brick Order Form
PAHS “Brick
Fundraiser”underway
Display your heritage on the
front of the museum with a brick.
What a better place than the Pulaski
museum to display your family’s ancestry. Now you can do just that.
The brick fundraiser was launched
in October of 2012. The idea came from
member, Mike Blohowiak.
You can now purchase a brick for
$100 and have up to 13 characters engraved with the names of your parents,
grandparents and great-grandparents for
permanent display on the outer front wall
of the museum.
Displaying your family-name heritage
in chronological order helps people in this
community connect with your past, and
commemorates the names of your loved
ones.
So share your heritage with everyone
in the Pulaski area by purchasing a brick
in honor of your family, your heritage.
Space on the building is limited, so
hurry and order your brick today. To date,
20 bricks have been purchased. All proceeds from the brick fundraiser will go
towards the preservation of the Pulaski
Area Historical Museum and the contents
inside the museum.
For more information call Mike
Blohowiak at 920-822-5042. If you are
interested, cut out the form on the right
and purchase your brick today.
Forms are also available at Dynamic
Designs, 220A South St. Augustine and
on-line; go to www.pulaskiwihistory.com.
You can print off the form, or fill out an
on-line form and the PAHS will invoice
you prior to your brick being engraved.
For more information and examples on
how you can display your ancestry, go to
the website as well.
One brick at a time, we can help the
museum in its efforts of preserving our
heritage. Join us today!
Name____________________________
Address__________________________
________________________________
City, State & Zip___________________
I would like to purchase ______brick(s)
@ $100 each to support the Pulaski Museum. Each brick may contain up to 3
lines of type, 13 characters per line, including the spaces between the words.
The & symbol will be used in place of
and. Please print the name(s) and information you would like on your brick.
Brick #1
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Brick #2
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Brick #3
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
Total AMOUNT ENCLOSED:________
Please make checks payable to Pulaski
Area Historical Society: Mail to PAHS,
129 West Pulaski Street, P.O. Box 944,
Pulaski, WI 54162
Pulaski Area Historical Society
129 West Pulaski Street
P.O. Box 944
Pulaski, WI 54162
Address Correction Requested
PAHS Museum
Summer Hours
Open Tuesdays during
the Farmers Market 4-7pm
Open some Sundays too!
May 19th, June 2nd & 23rd,
July 7th, 20th & 21st,
August 4 & 18th.
Old Advertisement from the
Pulaski News - 1965
PRSTD STD
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PULASKI, WI
PERMIT NO. 8