Casco Cheese and a State-of-the-Art Plant

Casco Cheese Company, 1941

In early April 1948 the Casco Cheese Company invited the public to tour its new addition. The company was among the scores of cheese companies known to have operated in Kewaunee County, however with its new 52 x 118’ addition it was state-of-the-art. The brick and concrete block exterior housed an interior built with tile walls and floors. That was in addition to new equipment including stainless steel vats, filters and presses. There was a new can washer, pasteurizer, scales and more. Conveyors took the manufactured cheese to cutting, to storage and then to the railroad cars. The building’s basement held storage, space for processing natural cheese, and packing cheese into consumer-sized packaging. Casco had everything.

Fred Plinke was making cheese in Rankin in 1898

Wisconsin cheese was becoming popular in the first part of the 1900s and the Casco cheese was known far beyond Casco. Sold by First National, the New England grocery chain was affiliated with Evangeline Milk which was also connected to Casco Cheese. Though the cheese was shipped east, the cheese from Casco was popular in Wisconsin markets as well, a fact not lost on the approximately 60 cheese factories operating in the county in the years surrounding 1910.

Cheese making was important to Kewaunee County and quality cheese making even more so. Cheese
makers knew quality increased demand and demands caused prices to increase, something pointed out in 1907 by state inspector E.L. Aderhold. Aderhold said that the average consumption was 4 pounds per person annually while European countries averaged between 11 and 26 pounds yearly. Aderhold felt Wisconsin’s problem was under-consumption. He said creating an appeal to the palette would make the difference. Aderhold was back in 1926 pleading with farmers to cooperate with cheese makers. He advocated testing milk and said low grades of cheese were frequently caused by excess water. It was only a few years earlier when Casco’s manager John Fameree discussed the company’s new well. Good flowing water was found at 41’. Cheese makers surely listened to Aderhold because Wisconsin cheese is legendary.

During 1941, a few years before Casco’s upgrades, Kewaunee Co. cheese makers sponsored a dance as part of the campaign to increase cheese consumption. Profits from the dance at the Rondezvous in Neuren went to advertising the county’s most famous product. By then cheese makers knew they had to popularize their product at home before they could reach other markets. Cheese was a healthful product for the public. The economy offered by sales was good for both the cheese factories and the stores that sold it.

Founded 1876 and closed 1965, the Casco cheese factory had an impressive 90 year story. Albert Dworzak/Dworak was its first cheese maker. By 1882, a Mr. Filz owned the place.  As early as the 1860s, Joe Filz was engaged in cheese making at Frieman’s Corners, now South Luxemburg. Joe Filz had a store, was the postmaster and involved of numerous endeavors, but it is unclear if Joe was the “Mr.” at Casco.

Herman Sibilsky on his way to Swamp Creek cheese factory     H. Nell photo

Ten years after Filz’ ownership, John Carl built a new factory and hired Herman Witte of Ahnapee as the cheese maker. If the Witte name sounds familiar, it could be because Emil Witte was making brick with Frederick Storm in Ahnapee.  At the time of Frank Haack’s marriage to Mathilda Radue in October 1907, Frank owned the cheese factory and creamery. The paper seemed to opine that Mathilda was marrying well when it said Frank was honest and industrious. Frank doesn’t appear to have kept the factory for long because in April 1909 it was announced that the Casco factory opened with M.J. Koss as cheese maker. Although Joseph Koss and M. Burke owned the factory, Burke was renting his share to Koss at the time. Koss had attended dairy school in Madison and it was known he’d do a first rate job. During 1914, when John Koss married Mollie Kutzra, the wedding article said he was proprietor of the company.

Casco Cheese Co. had a long history. It frequently made the newspapers and it was very big news when the factory shut down for three weeks during August 1922. It is hard to imagine an idle cheese factory during the summer, but it happened when a lack of coal shut down the factory. While the time was used equipment repairs before wood became the fuel source, at least one truck load of milk was sent to the Sturgeon Bay condensery each day.

Over the years, the factory was relocated before it sat on its longtime location on the river, and on the southwest corner of the Highway 54 Bridge as one entered Casco from the east. The plant became one of the nine Van Camp’s operated in the Midwest in 1927 and a Lake-to-Lake cheddar producing facility in 1964 until it was repurposed in 1975 as a cold-storage building only. That lasted until 1983 when Bill Hanmann began using the factory for milling animal food.

Nearly 70 years after its open house, the building remains. If walls could talk, they would have much to say.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin Vol 2, c. 2012; Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010; H. Nell interview.