Denzer
by Bill Schuette, Loganville, Wis.

Located in Honey Creek Township northwest of Prairie du Sac, Wis., Denzer derives its name from the village's first postmaster, William Denzer. In 1861 he donated land for a school, the Zion Church (built of logs) and a cemetery.

The Schoeporster family owned the Denzer Store, in the background of the photograph. Later, George Zick operated the store and did so until he was 90, serving homemade ice cream several times a week in a small ice cream parlor in one corner of the store.

The Free Thinkers Society had a hall near the village where it held dances on Sunday evenings after a church service. Free outdoor shows were held in the summers of the 1940s, shown on a screen hung from the side of the town hall.

In a 1990 interview by the Sauk Prairie Star, Elmer Denzer, then 94, recalled what life was like in the small town around the early 1900s. "The school was a community center," Elmer remembered. "The students presented evening programs for the community. When they had basket socials, they auctioned boxed dinners. The women would bring them and the men would buy them.

They would be decorated with crepe paper and flowers. Eight or ten dollars would be high for a box. The usual box lunch would go for a dollar, a dollar and a quarter. This was a fund raiser, usually for a special project."

Robert Zick, another elderly resident of Denzer in 1990, recalled the old Denzer Store. "The wooden framed store with the big, glass windows was also a gathering place for citizens of the little community and the farmers in the outlying area," Robert said. "People would sit around in the store evenings and visit. There were wooden benches and there was a pot-bellied wood-burning stove. There was always this tobacco box where they could fill their pipes, gratis." Robert remembered one fellow who would fill his pipe, then shake it into his pocket for his home supply and fill it again several more times.

He also remembered the old cracker barrel that sat inside the store. "The clerk would weigh out how many crackers the customer wanted. I have an idea they cost about ten cents a pound."

He recalled that cheese came in a 60-pound block that was placed under a large glass cover on a weight. If a customer wanted a chunk, the store clerk would cut it off and wrap it. Few canned or prepackaged goods were available in those days.

"Most of our dishes came in oatmeal boxes," noted Robert. "The design of the dishes changed over the years, but for a long time it would be the same so we could accumulate a set of dishes when we bought oatmeal."

Denzer also sported a blacksmith shop, as most small country towns did. The smithy would apply steel rims to wagon wheels and shoe horses in the wintertime. There was a saw and lumber mill located in the village where six to eight men would spend the day cutting logs. The finished lumber was shipped out by rail.

This winter scene outside the Denzer store was taken around 1900. Note the two gentlemen standing precariously on the backs of horses and the man in the center tipping a jug of his favorite beverage. The photograph is from the Allen Klotz collection.