News: Loyal Area (North Star Cheese Factory - 1905)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Fitzgerald

----- Source: Loyal Tribune (Loyal, Clark Co., Wis.) 02/23/1905

That Clark County, Wis., and especially the portion near Loyal, has a great future before it in the dairy line is no longer a question but an established fact. Well watered, with abundant hay and an extensive growth of grass during the summer months suitable for cows, there is no reason why the county should not at no distant day take front rank with the big dairy counties in southern Wisconsin. Evidence is accumulating that within a very few years, the farmers of Clark County will be drawing large dividends from the cheese factories and creameries, which are no longer a possibility, but a probability in this section of the state. That the cheese factory is a paying investment, both for the farmers and the operator, is easily proved and one has but to look to the result of the past year in a brick cheese factory near Loyal. For an example, take the North Star Cheese Factory situated three miles southwest of here.

It has been in existence since June 1902, and was erected by the farmers. The operation of it was turned over to Mr. M. Fitzgerald of Watertown, who is an extensive handler and manufacturer in the southern part of the state. For the year from Jan. 1904 to Jan. 1905, the average price paid for mile was 95 1/2 cents per hundred pounds. During that period the patrons of the factory receive $8,644.12, which is probably as good a showing as can be made in any other brick cheese factory in the state, and considerable better than in many. Mr. Fitzgerald will continue the operation of the same for the next year, making the fourth term of its existence.

It is proposed to construct another brick cheese factory near Loyal, which it is asserted will have a patronage of about 4,000 lbs. of mile per day for a beginning, and it is safe to say that the promoters will not regret the stpe, as with the showing made at the North Star Factory, it is no more a venture, but a certainty of success.

Both the farmers and patron of the North Star, and the operator as well, are very well satisfied with the results obtained, and other farming communities in this section will do well to follow the example of the North Star Factory.