Cross Plains - Berry Historical Society

The drive from Madison to Cross Plains, Wisconsin is a very scenic route, Highway 14, through farms and plains into the beginning of the glacial bluffs, created during the last ice age. The Cross Plains-Berry Historical Museum is housed in the St. Martin’s EV. Lutheran Church, built in 1886.

My meeting with Joan Kerl, the historical society’s archives curator, began outside the church pictured here, we chatted about the museum and headed through the little door on the right into the basement where the historical society's museum is located. The church has no running water or plumbing, so the local library has given Joan space there to conduct her work.

The museum was filled with displays of handmade wooden toys, military uniforms, an authentic hair wreath - all unique local treasures. Joan presented a collection of postcards she had remembered seeing in one of the museum drawers in the holdings area. The collection belonged to a woman named Anna Witt, born in the late 1800’s, who was a local resident of Cross Plains. Her postcards were part of a larger collection, the Mathew Alexander Witt collection. Mathew Witt, Anna’s brother was the town photographer during his time. She worked for him as a photo colorist, never married, and lived in the same house her entire life with her brother. A large portion of Mr. Witt’s photography collection was donated upon his death to the historical society.

The postcard collection consisted of 111 postcards received by Anna Witt, between the years of 1908-1914. The majority of the postcards were greeting or holiday cards, lovely to see but I was hoping to find some interesting photo postcards that reflected images of the character of local towns during the early 1900s. And I got lucky.

The collection contained many photograph postcards from scenes of Cross Plains and the surrounding area during the early 1900s. The farm scene in the above postcard is still a good representation of what driving into Cross Plains from Madison is like today.

The photo postcard above is inscribed: Valecir Condensed Milk-CO. ~6013~ Middleton, WI. Middleton was a railway stop from the Mississippi River to Madison to Prairie Du Chien and brought prosperity to the town during the turn of the century. In the bottom right corner of the postcard you can see the railroad tracks.

The above photo postcard is inscribed: St. Scene Springfield Corners, Wis. No4, 1908. The sign on the building in the back reads: GROCERIES. There was no indication of the original creator of the images but are great records showing what the towns once were.



Images courtesy of the: Cross Plains - Berry Historical Society

Entry complied by: Elizabeth Fox-Corbett