The village of Suring will celebrate its centennial in 2015 equipped with a fresh reminder of its past, thanks to a town of How native who’s writing a book, due out in this fall.
“I just thought we needed to have the information for the future, for our kids and our grandkids,” author Rhoda Ebersole said.
Her book is yet to be titled—and finished, but Ebersole said it will include not only historical data and photographs, but also personal memories. She interviewed about a dozen people in the Suring area, beginning in 2011, asking them questions about their earliest memories, the changes they’ve witnessed over time, and great stories or legends they recall.
“The whole part of the dairy industry has been very revealing,” she said of her research. “That’s what I knew when I was growing up, and it was everywhere. There were just dairy farms all over, and now there’s maybe just four.”
Ebersole grew up on on the Bartz family farm in the town of How. She attended St. John School and graduated from Suring High School.
“I didn’t even get to town until I was about 6 years old,” she said. “I didn’t even know there was a town. That would be unheard of today.”
That’s not the only thing that’s changed over time, she learned.
“At one time Suring really had all the stores you’d need—clothing stores, shoe stores, three or four grocery stores,” she said.
Suring was also home to one of the largest industries in Oconto County, Memline/Nu-Line, which manufactured 98 percent of the baby safety gates used in the world, she said.
Ebersole’s book will chronicle the life and times of the village, incorporated in 1915, and the communities nearby.
Her initial endeavor was to hit upon the highlights of development in 10-year intervals, noting the changes of each decade. The story branched out from there.
“As I got into it, it sort of takes on a life of its own,” she said.
She plans to incorporate information from books already written about Suring’s history, including one about the history of cheese factories, and another, the 100-year history of Lasch’s Bar, which has burned down.
Ebersole said the logging industry drew men to Suring in the early 1900s.
“In 1915, people had no money, really, and still they set up the town and got permission to turn it into a village,” she said.
According to Ebersole, Hayes had a larger population than Suring in 1915, but that changed with the arrival of the railroad.
“Suring used to have the railroad coming right through town, and that’s what made the town,” she said.
Another element of her book will feature prominent Suring residents, such as Henry Johnson, an immigrant from Denmark who was Wisconsin state treasurer from 1913-1923.
“He moved to the top of Suring hill with his wife; there was just all trees on his property. They had no money and started their family,” she said.
The farmer and logger served in the state assembly before becoming state treasurer.
Another “famous” Suring resident is inventor George Lartz, who in 1950 was granted a patent for the photo corners used to mount photographs in scrapbooks. Ebersole interviewed his granddaughter, who remembered her grandfather’s old, ramshackle cabin where he worked on inventions.
“He was from Chicago and came up here during the Depression, when there were no jobs to be had in Chicago, and did what he could,” Ebersole said.
Also well-known one-time Suring residents were Smiley Burnette, an actor in cowboy movies, and Bruce Stengel, a famous baton twirler.
Ebersole, who worked in the field of medical technology, said her inexperience in research and writing hasn’t been an obstacle in creating her book.
“I never really thought about that when I started this,” she said.
She’s relying on others, like her friend, Adelaide Boettcher, of Suring, and author Kathleen Marsh, of Townsend, to help her with the process.
Ebersole plans to complete her book in August and have it available for sale in the fall. Once she meets her expenses, profits from the book’s sale will benefit the Suring Area Historical Society.
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