Jacobsville remembered 

Walworth County Diary ("The Week" Sunday July 27, 1997).

By Doris Reinke

Are you 75 years old? If so, then you might remember a busy little crossroads community called Jacobsville.

If you are younger, you will probably not remember it and you would not even be able to find Jacobsville because it has long since vanished from maps and even from the countryside. For the benefit of the young readers, Jacobsville was the center of a Norwegian settlement lying between Delavan and Elkhorn. The Norwegians who lived on farms in that part of Sugar Creek Township had a church which they attended, and about a mile south of the church was the hamlet called Jacobsville.

The Jacobson family was among the first settlers there, and it was from them that the corner received its name. It consisted of a store, milk plant and post office ‑ all very handy on the corner of Hazel Ridge and Cobblestone Roads.
Some idea of the number of people of Scandinavian descent (and particularly Norwegian), who clustered there can be gained from the names in the early voting book for the township. There one finds the following: Anderson, Canuteson (Knutsen), Johnson, Hanson, Jacobson, Nelson, Kittleson, Olson, Oleson, Peterson, Rasmussen and Robinson. The Scandinavians were definitely in the majority there.
For many years that particular area even had a separate column in the Elkhorn paper where events special to the Norwegian colony were noted.
"Services were held at the church Sunday morning and evening."
"The ice cream social at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ole Jacobson on Friday was well attended."
"Ole Larson is assisting L. P. Holgerson in the creamery."
"William Wolfe, merchant, has moved his family from Elkhorn and they occupy the rooms over the factory."
"M. Morrissey and Mr. Keefe of Elkhorn have been putting a new cement floor in the factory this past week."
"Mr. Nelson of Racine has been engaged to take charge of the creamery."
"George Newman will sell his entire stock of merchandise in the Jacobsville store at auction on Thursday evening, July 28, commencing at 8 o'clock. Auctioneer White will conduct the sale and everybody will have an opportunity to secure some great bargains."

The above items were all from 1904 issues of the "Elkhorn Independent".

In the years when the individual farmer placed his milk in cans and hauled it by horse and wagon to the milk plant, there were small plants (then called factories) scattered all over Walworth County. Without refrigeration, milk could not be carried any great distance without spoiling. Therefore the factories had to be nearby and within the range of the farmer's hauling ability. 

The milk plant at Jacobsville at one time was the destination for 60 farmers almost daily. Many farms then were small, some consisting of as little as 25 acres. Today no one would ever dream that the corner of Hazel Ridge and Cobblestone Road was once a bustling community with horsedrawn wagons creating much traffic.
One early resident of Jacobsville mourned the disappearance of the good Norwegian name from maps and memories. This was Ormal Nelson, whose large farm reaches over to that once busy corner. To remedy this, early in July, Nelson erected a tall cement marker approximately four feet high. It holds a metal plaque which relates the details of the vanished Jacobsville. (See photo below).

Since many of the farms there have given way to single house lots and others are no longer owned by the original Scandinavians, it is possible that the majority of the people who now live in Sugar Creek Township have no knowledge of how important that corner was at one time. Nelson's idea is that a permanent marker will keep the memory alive.

The beginning of the end for Jacobsville and small milk factories everywhere came when automobiles and trucks appeared. Once the farmer had a truck, he could take his milk right into town to the larger milk plants. Or the larger milk plants could send a truck to his farm to get the cans of milk. The larger milk companies hastened the demise of the small corner milk depots by buying them up and gradually closing them down.
Today modern refrigerated tank trucks go from farm to farm picking up the milk, and it is then hauled to much more distant processing plants than were ever once dreamed of. Local city milk plants once found in Whitewater, Elkhorn, etc., have gone the way of the earlier corner factories. Milk from here travels to Chicago and then returns in neat waxed paper cartons or plastic jugs.

The Wisconsin Butter and Cheese Co., owned by John Harris of Elkhorn, bought the plant at Jacobsville. For a time after that, the smaller place operated as what was called a skimming station. Milk was brought in by the farmers, the cream was taken off and the remainder of the milk was taken back to the farm as feed for pigs and other livestock. As Nelson stated on the plaque, the big plant soon closed down the rural one. Jacobsville quickly disappeared. 

Anyone driving in Sugar Creek Township would never know it had been there. Today there are only well‑kept fields of corn and oats to be seen. This has bothered many of the people of Norwegian stock who still make their homes nearby. This year one of them decided to do something about it. 

There wasn't a ceremony. No speeches were made. No bands played. Not even a photographer was present when Ormal Nelson and his son, Paul, put the marker in place.
What they did, though, will be of long lasting benefit to untold number of historians and genealogists.

THE PLAQUE ON THE MARKER STATES:  JACOBSVILLE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY A BUILDING WAS ERECTED ON THIS CORNER FOR THE PURPOSE OF A MILK PLANT. IT ALSO CONTAINED A GENERAL STORE AND LIVING QUARTERS ON THE SECOND FLOOR WHERE THE BUTTER MAKER LIVED. IT WAS CALLED THE SOUTH SUGAR CREEK CREAMERY. LOCAL FARMERS BROUGHT MILK TO BE PROCESSED‑FOR THE MOST PART INTO BUTTER. A POST OFFICE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1896 AND NAMED JACOBSVILLE. IN 1910 THE CREAMERY WAS BOUGHT BY JOHN HARRIS OF ELKHORN WHO HAD ESTABLISHED A SIMILAR OPERATION. A SHORT TIME LATER THE SOUTH SUGAR CREEK CREAMERY WAS TORN DOWN AND MILK WAS HAULED TO ELKHORN. A TWO‑STORY DWELLING ACROSS THE ROAD TO THE SOUTH WAS SOLD AND OCCUPIED BY VARIOUS TENANTS. IT WAS DESTROYED BY FIRE IN THE 1920’S. THERE WAS ANOTHER HOUSE EAST ON HAZEL RIDGE WHICH WAS MOVED AND REMODELED. IT IS POSSIBLY IN USE IN 1995. 8 - 1 ‑ 96 O. J. N.