“Organization Artikler”

I. Vi Undertagnede Nelson Lawson, Jorgen P. Skow, Hans P. Christensen, Jorgen Jensen, Martin Chr. Jensen, Paul Nielsen, og Peter Larson, alle af Polk County, Wisconsin, herved forener os selv I det Oimed at operette en Korporation I henhold til de-Reviderede Love af States Wisconsin, I den Hensigt at bygee eie og drive et Creamery (Mereri) med nodvendige Tilbeboro I Town of Luck, I Polk County, Wisconsin.

II. Korporationens Navn skal vaere “Luck Creamery Company.” Det Skal vaeregeliggende I Luck, Polk County, Wisconsin hvor dens Hovedkontor skal vaere.”

And so read the first two paragraphs of the articles of incorporation of the first cooperative creamery in Wisconsin. Presided over by the Justice of the Peace J.P. Peterson and recorded at the Register of Deeds office on April 14, 1885, these two paragraphs were printed in the Polk County Press on November 18, 1885. On December 12, the articles were again published, this time in English.

The first Directors were listed as: Nelson Lawson, Jorgen P. Skow, H.P. Christensen, Jorgen Jensen, Martin C. Jensen, Paul Nielsen, and Peter Larson. From this first board of Directors, Jorgen P. Skow was elected president, Nelson Lawson, secretary, and H.P. Christensen the vice president. All the incorporators were Danish, who, true to their tradition, believed that in union there is strength. The creamery was built on the north shore of Little Butternut Lake but was later moved, inch by inch, to a second location a half mile north of what is now the village of Luck.

Sign marking the site of the original creamery building

A little more information about the work of the creamery: Mrs. Andrew Ravnholt was the first butter maker and Hans Hjort was the second. Each farmer in the cooperative owned a share and the cream was purchased from the members. Cream in those days was not paid for by test but by the inch and neither was it picked up and delivered in trucks. The farmer put the milk in cans, which had glass tubes or gages on the side which were marked down to one-eighth inches. The cream as shown by the gage was measured and paid for accordingly. The cream was then skimmed off and the farmer kept the skimmed milk.

And thus, in Luck, was born a cooperative organization that has continued to the present day, and its example was adopted by many groups of dairymen throughout the County.

In 1965, a letter was written to the Wisconsin State Historical Society by Frank Werner, the Chairmen of the Polk County Historical Site Committee. The committee asked for a marker to be placed on the site of the first cooperative creamery in Wisconsin. The committee worked for years and in 1970 their dream was realized when the Wisconsin Historical Society erected a marker at the site.