We’re zooming over to the other side of the state to Platteville, Wisconsin the largest city in Grant County.
Originally home to the Ho-Chunk, Kickapoo, Sauk, Fox and Miami Indigenous people, Platteville is located in the gorgeous rolling hills and bluffs of Wisconsin’s Driftless Area. Present day Platteville was settled in 1829 by John Rountree and quickly became a mining town due to its proximity to Mississippi river towns Dubuque, IA and Galena, IL.
Schools for specialized education were founded in Platteville; the Normal School (a college for teachers) was 1866 and a miner’s school opened in 1908. The two campuses became the Wisconsin State College and Institute of Technology in 1959, then became the University of Wisconsin Platteville in 1971.
Setting the first REA pole in Grant County, Platteville, 1938. A group of four men shown setting the first pole in the Grant County Rural Electric project on January 14, 1938 in Platteville, Wisconsin. Set on land belonging to Neil Clements, town chairman of the town of Platteville. County Agent Ben H. Walker shoveled the dirt for the setting of the first pole. Grant County Historical Society.
First Platteville Academy building, 1936. This was the Platteville Academy’s first building. Constructed in 1842, it was used by the academy until the fall of 1853. UW Digital Collections.
Stone Crusher, Platteville, 1905-1920 Men working with stone crusher. A man in a suit holding hands with a small child is visible to the far right. The stone crusher was probably part of the Enterprise Mine complex at Platteville, Wisconsin. This is a lantern slide from the collection of Reverend Herman J. Loemker, pastor for the German Methodist Episcopal Church.
Rev. Loemker was born in Germany in 1868 and died in 1937. He is buried in Zion Cemetery, Delaware County, Iowa. The Reverend married Sophia Maria Lena Bergman on September 7, 1893 in Colesburg, Delaware County, Iowa. Rev. Loemker studied Theology at The German-English College at Galena, Illinois, and served 40 years as a pastor for 18 churches in Freeport, Illinois, Iowa and Southwest Wisconsin. He utilized his lantern slides in giving Temperance Lectures. [Sources: 1) Herman Loemker grave record (2009) Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=32765794, 2) (1915, May 26). Telegraph-Herald, p. 12]. Grant County Historical Society.
Platteville Normal School classroom ca. 1895. Professor John W. Matthews’ classroom in the Platteville Normal School building. Matthews taught biology and chemistry from the fall of 1894 to the spring of 1897. UW Digital Collections.
Homecoming float for Platteville Normal School, 1925. Homecoming parade on Main Street featuring floats from Platteville Normal school. The second car has a sign that reads “PNS Mascot.” Dated by license plate. UW Digital Collections.
Agriculture class at Platteville Normal School, 1910. Students observe chicken hens walking about on lawn. UW Digital Collections.
“Camp 49 Pair” sitting on a fence on east lawn of the Wisconsin Mining School, 1921. Two young ladies identified in the 1921 Mining Yearbook as the “Camp 49 Pair”, who, along with other girls, were said in an article to have “danced the nickles out of the boys’ pockets.” The Camp 49 Dance was part of the annual Miners’ Explosion, which was an athletic fundraiser for the Mining School. UW Digital Collections.
Memorial Day (Decoration Day) Procession, ca. 1920 – 1928
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