Creamery, Randecker Creamery    

Stoughton Courier Hub, May 16, 1991 by Lorraine Hawkinson 
“Rutland township farmers formed a creamery in 1873.  

Known as the Rutland Farmers Co-operative, the creamery produced butter.  Farmers for miles round hauled their cream, which they had separated from the milk with their own separators, to the creamery, located on old Claire Sperle farm on Highway A.  

For 33 years the farmers operated this business.  In the year 1905, 188,000 pounds of butter were produced by the farmers of Rutland. 

In 1906 the business was put up for sale.  It was purchased by Charles Randecker, a buttermaker from Platteville.  Randecker also purchased a home across the road from the creamery. 

Butter from this plant was hauled by horse-drawn sleighs and wagons to the train depot in Stoughton and shipped to Chicago. 

During the winter months, area farmers helped Randecker harvest blocks of ice from nearby Bass Lake.  Ice was needed all year round for the butter-making business. 

Large blocks of ice were cut and hauled by horses and sleighs to the creamery ice house.  This house was a double-walled structure, its walls filled with sawdust.  During the ice harvest, farmers were supplied with ample amounts of alcoholic beverages, which probably accounted for their willingness to help with the work.  

Buttermakers were hired to help make the butter.  For many years Thorwald Christensen was one of those men.  A Mr. Long was also a buttermaker there. 

Whey, the by-product of butter, was hauled away by the farmers to be mixed with grain and fed to their hogs.  Butter and buttermilk were sold at the creamery.  When farmers wanted butter, they would bring their crocks to be filled. 

The Randecker Creamery was closed in 1915 and the operation was moved to the new Randecker Creamery in Stoughton.  The new plant was located on Water Street, north of Main St.  When trucks came in (into use), it became easier to transport the dairy products to town and the decision was made to close.”

“Machinery from the old plant was sold to a creamery in Babcock, Wisconsin.  Mr. Long also went to Babcock where he was associated with that creamery.” 

“The passing of the creameries marked the end of an era of processing milk and making butter the old-fashioned way.  The industry, now modernized, continues to provide an income to Wisconsin dairy farmers, just as it did early days in Rutland.” 

Stoughton Courier Hub, May 16, 1991, by Lorraine Hawkinson