Skip to main content

And the Medal(s) for the Best Brick Cheese Goes To........


I shared in a previous post about how one of my great-grandfather's was an award-winning cheese maker.  Well, now I have physical proof - actual medals awarded to him for his brick cheese at National Dairy Shows that occurred over 100 years ago.

National Dairy Show Medals, 1900's
National Dairy Show Awards for Brick Cheesemaking between 1913-1917

My Uncle Bud very recently shared that somewhere inside what used to be the summer kitchen at the tavern were his grandfather, Anton Sutter's cheese medals.

There was an old cupboard inside that room that I was clearing out and having received this recent intel about the medals possibly being somewhere in this room, I was on the lookout!

Good thing, because I'm not sure I would've paid that close attention to the small box I discovered buried in the back of this cupboard. If it hadn't been addressed to Anton Sutter, I may have overlooked it.  So glad I didn't. What an amazing discovery!

Shipping Box Full of Cheese Medals


It looks like most of these were awarded to him while they were still living and making cheese in  Cambria, WI - before eventually settling in East Bristol, WI.  He had several cheese factories in the Bristol/Sun Prairie area, one of which, I was able to confirm through my Uncle Bud, was indeed located in what came to be known as Patches Bar, just down the street from where I currently live.

Unfortunately, he lost all but one of his cheese factories during the depression.

Anton was my grandma's father.  He never actually resided at the tavern, so it was obviously my grandmother that acquired and held on to these medals all those years.

Considering they are over 100 years old, they are in amazing condition.  Plus, I take great pride in knowing that one of my relatives played a small part in making cheese during a time that built Wisconsin as the cheese state.  Thanks for helping build the cheesehead empire!




Brick Cheese Award
2nd Highest Scoring, Brick Cheese for Anton Sutter of Cambria, WI


National Dairy Show, Chicago, 1913
National Dairy Show, Chicago, IL 1913

Brick Cheese Medal
Highest Scoring Entry - Brick Cheese - Awarded to Anton Sutter - 1913

National Dairy Show Award Chicago 1914
National Dairy Show, Chicago, IL, 1914

Brick Cheese Award
2nd Highest Scoring Entry for Brick Cheese Awarded to Anton Sutter - 1914



National Dairy Show Springfield 1916
National Dairy Show, Springfield, 1916

Brick Cheese Medal
Highest Scoring Entry - Brick Cheese - Awarded to Anton Sutter - 1916



National Dairy Show Medal Columbus OH
National Dairy Show, Columbus, OH, 1917

Anton Sutter Cheese Medal
2nd Highest Scoring Entry, Wisconsin, Brick Cheese, Awarded to Anton Sutter




Comments

  1. Hi there! It's Sharon Chastain out here in NM. I chatted with my brother Joe recently and was reminded that there were a couple new posts on this blog since I last read it. I thought I would get alerts in my email when a new post was written but not getting them. Anyway, how fun to read about and see these medals. What a wonderful thing for you to discover and how proud you must be! I also have this thought; since your grandma was named Antonia, I'm wondering if she was named after her father, Anton Sutter?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sharon, I will have to look into how one subscribes to the blog to get an email notification when new posts are up. The cheese medals were such a great find and I'm so glad Uncle Bud alerted us to them otherwise I'm not sure we would've known to carefully look through every thing. Yes, I do believe that my grandma was named after her father. Her only brother was also named after him, Anton, Jr. Thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sharon, I added a Subscribe to portion to the site now that should work 'hopefully' to get notification of new posts via email. Check it out, add your email, and then you should get an email to verify your email address to get updates going forward.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Staci. I have subscribed so hopefully it will work from now on. Blessings to you!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vintage Soda Bottles

Vintage, Retro Soda Bottles They just don't make them like this anymore.  Although they are heavy and fragile to transport, they are a more environmentally friendly option than the plastic soda bottles of today. And they just look so much cooler!! Buried in a box in the side garage were a pile of empty soda bottles of various brands.  I find the bygone days of regional soda, before Pepsi and Coke took over everything, fascinating.  I grabbed a few of some of these more interesting looking bottles, most of brands I had never heard of, and found a way to use them as vintage decor in my office. Most of these are from the 1950s. It was fun to do a little retro soda research. We do love our soda pop! Pile of 60+ year old empty soda bottles Vintage Soda Bottle Decor in My Office Howel's Root Beer Bottle is Circa late 1940s The origins of Howel's Beverage Company out of Chicago, IL started with the sale of an orange-julep syrup (this would eventually bec...

Let's Start with Englebert Mautz (formerly Mauz)

I'm going to start my blog with what little I do know about my great-grandfather, Engelbert Mautz, since he was the family member that first settled in East Bristol, WI. Nothing says classy biography like a bullet point list, but for your easy reading pleasure, here are some high level 'facts' that I found on the Internet and through information that my aunt had in the form of historical documentation, anecdotes, and photos. He was born in 1858 in Burladingen, Germany He was a cabinet maker According to my aunt, he was a tall and husky German (see photo below) He came to America in 1890 first to somewhere on the East coast. He settled in East Bristol, WI in 1893 His last name was actually Mauz. His first wife's name was Anna Heim. They had three daughters, Regina, Kate and Johanna. Anna died after giving birth to Johanna. His second wife's name was also Anna. Her maiden name was also Mauz. Were they related?  At some point and for a reason I'm not s...

Kurth's Brewing, Columbus, WI

Kurth's Beer from Columbus, WI Well, the online auction of items from the tavern has been over now for a few months and at times I find myself still reflecting on how valuable some of those items were to people.  Our signature piece was the Kurth's Beer sign that had been sitting in the garage for upwards of 70 years.  It's that sign that has inspired this blog post, which focuses on all the vintage Kurth Brewing items that were found inside. Kurth's Beer Sign If you want to know more about Kurth Brewery, I encourage you to check out this July 2016 article by Lisa Cestkowski for the Columbus Journal https://www.wiscnews.com/columbusjournal/news/local/kurth-brewery-was-barreling-full-steam-ahead-until-flames-altered-the-course-of-history/article_a5cd6ef0-4a02-5501-bd40-1084d25fe168.html I'm sure it makes sense that there was an abundance of Kurth's Beer served at the tavern. Since the brewery was located in Columbus, WI it was likely the closest bre...