Bio: Scharf, Emma
Transcriber: Stan

Surnames: SCHARF

----Source: Town of Fremont History - 1973

Scharf, Emma

Fremont, Clark County, Wis. was 30 years old when I came to live here in 1903.

My husband (William), in company with a brother and brother-in-law, purchased our land in 1900. They had started harvesting the wood before we bought the land.

I came to our farm in a wagon and team that followed a trail through the wood, as there was no established road.

Our community had settlers before us. C. C. Berg, Ferdinand Johnson, Ara Lee, and Frank Gardner had already made their start. There was a schoolhouse, later named the Franklin School.

We lived the first year in a log shanty that woodcutters had used earlier. We sheltered our team of horses and two cows in a log barn. We built a new house the following year and a new barn in 1906.

All the people made a living, mainly cutting and selling wood, either for fuel or railroad ties. It was sold to people in Granton or sold to buyers who shipped it out by way of the railroad that ran through Fremont. After trees were cut the farmers scratched up small patches of ground and seeded between the stumps. Each year they dug and pulled or blasted out the sumps in small areas and gradually the fields began to take shape. Most settlers kept a few cows and as their farming land increased, they increased their herds.

The wives used the surplus cream to make butter which they sold at local stores in Granton. Eggs from a small flock of hens were traded for groceries. Women made their own soap, spun wool, knitted socks and mittens, and sewed most of the clothing for their families.

Aside from hand tools, our farm machinery for our first years consisted of a walking plow and a wooden framed drag, a wagon and a sleigh.

During this first decade in Fremont, things changed rapidly. Fields and herds grew bigger, a turnpike was built up to our farm, a cheese factory was built on the cross road, more settler came and our three children were born.

These were busy, happy, challenging years. Lots of hard work, but neighborhood bees, parties, and barn raisings gave us entertainment and many cherished memories.