Pelt Processing

 

The original part of the warehouse was constructed in 1924, and expanded

several times in a period of 17 years. Additional expansions included

refrigeration rooms to house frozen meat, feed rooms where fox and mink meals

were prepared, a food processing room which housed the meat grinder,

slaughtering area with overhead tracks to transport the meat quarters, and fur

and ginseng storage. A major expansion occurred in 1936, the year the first fur

auction was held in the boarding house.

Warehouse

 The new 160' x 40' three story addition was added at a cost of $75,000,

an unheard of undertaking during the Great Depression. They now had

a pelting area to process the fox, the second floor was devoted to pelt

viewing, and the third floor was used for the auctions. John Fromm,

the only bachelor, had his living quarters on the second floor.

Working with Fox Furs

traps

chages

killing tube

A Working Day at Fromm Bros. In 1949

By Bob Czech

I'm 16 years old. My dad, my brothers Jerry and Dick and I get to work at 6:30

A.M. We leave the car at the garage near the gate and Dad talks to Erwin

Roeder about servicing it during the day. The garage is just a few years old.

We proceed to the boarding house and sit in the waiting room, waiting for the

bell to ring signaling that breakfast is ready. Richard Thurs is there. You can

tell that he's the horse barn boss by the smell. I hear Bill Cole coming down

the hall. Due to a medical problem, you can hear the flop, flop of his feet on

the hardwood floor. Henry Koehler is there and he looks at my shoes and asks

why I tie my shoes like I do. My bows are vertical instead of horizontal. I see

Lester Borchardt on the porch cutting meat in preparation for dinner.

The bell rings and everyone rushes to their regular place at the table. I'm one

of the newer workers so I hang back and Eleanor Krenz shows me an empty

place. Ray Riemer's place between the two posts is empty as he is sick that

day. But, Hattie Riemer is there as I can see her working in the kitchen, right

next to Alice Borchardt. There's very little talking, so breakfast is finished in

record time and we're on our way to the warehouse.

On the way we notice that an addition is being added to the bowling alley as

they need more office space. Bill Cole work's part-time as an architect for

Fromm Bros. We hear that there are problems with the log building that need

to be solved.

I've been working in Lawrence Schult's crew with seven other young guys.

We're vaccinating foxes, cutting cords, grading, spraying ears and pilling. Most

of us are catching foxes out of the high pens on the Langhoff farm. Each fox is

caught by the tail and handed to one of the workers. He, then, grabs the tail

and hind legs and swings the fox so he can grab the neck.. Another worker

helps him as his hand moves over the jaws. His other hand now holds the

front and hind feet. At times the mink feeders would help us out in the fox

yard. They were older guys and didn't like the idea of swinging the fox and

grabbing the neck so they would use the "school-mom". I'm not sure who

named it but it was a U shaped bar with a handle. The front end of the fox

would be laid on a crate and someone would hold the neck down with the

"school-mom" while the catcher would grab the neck. John Fromm thought

this was more stressful for the fox. John Fromm does the grading. Lawrence

cuts the cords on the front paws. This is done so they can't dig out of the

breeding pens or dig holes in the fox range. Someone has a spray can and

sprays the ears for mites and another person puts the worm pills down the

fox's throat.

As we arrive at the warehouse Lawrence informs me that I will be working

there today. My dad, Henry Czech, who is the warehouse manager, is short

one man in his crew.

As I go to the grinding and mixing room Herman Hahn and Kleinschmidt are

pushing the butchered horses out of the cooler. There are about twenty-five,

in halves. I'm told that my job

the Silver Fox

will be to cut the jaws from the heads, so I put the head on the wooden block

table and chop off the jaws. Other than the lower legs and hooves, the jaws are

the only part not used for feed.

The horses are quartered as they are put on the conveyor going up to the

hogger. The hogger is a drum with knives going at a high rate of speed and is

especially noisy. Sometimes we can hear it at home, which is three miles away.

As each quarter is dropped in, the conveyor is stopped until the hogger is up to

speed . From there the meat goes into two 8" Audio grinders. Reno Mootz and

Arno Wiese feed the grinders when I am done with the heads. I use a two wheel

cart and move the 200# tubs away from the grinder. After the horse meat is

ground, the frozen tripe and fish are ground.

Before the mixing starts, our whole crew of eight guys goes out to the horse

pasture. Herman hands out the bull whips and we are to take about thirty

horses from the herd of three hundred and chase them in the corral. As I looked

at all the horses I could tell which ones had been used as a team. They always

stayed together.

After the round-up, Herman Hahn and Mr. Kleinschmidt started their day of

butchering. The meat was hung on tracks and put into the cooler for the next

day's feed. In the afternoon Mr. Jopke came from Tannery Town in Merrill and

picked up the horse hides.

Before the grinding my dad had calculated the total amount of the ingredients

needed for the day. All the ingredients are lined up in front of the 2000# mixer.

As the 200# tubs are dumped in the mixer my dad is upstairs putting the

fortified cereal in a hopper located above the mixer. As the horse meat, tripe,

fish and cereal are mixing, water is added until the mixture reaches the right

consistency. The mixer is emptied into 200# tubs. This procedure is repeated

over and over until there is enough feed for the 60,000 plus mouths to feed.

The mink and fox feeders will soon be coming with their one horse wagons to

load up the feed tubs. Two men work together in their section of the mink or

fox yard. In the north yard: Ervin Kriehn and Riemer, Billy Frank and Art

Wetterau. In the east yard: Ed Giese and Robert Uttech, Ray Riemer and

Rhinhard Buch, Roland Duwe and Walter Zuellsdorf. The fox feeders are: Reno

Mootz and Charlie Framke, Harvey Oehlke and Arno Wiese. The mink feeding is

done with a large spoon and a bucket strapped around the feeder's shoulders.

When fall comes, Paul Woller will haul the feed up to the mink yard by the fire

tower and to the fox ranges where the foxes are kept while they are furring out.

The tubs are loaded on the truck with a winch on the second floor. It's made

from a Model T transmission. It is used for various things like loading boxes of

ginseng and bringing materials up or down from the second and third floors of

the warehouse. ^

August Kudick is busy oiling and greasing the mixer and grinders. He has

already checked the two compressors that cool the coolers and freezers, as he

does each morning. They are low pressure ammonia compressors. A spare unit

is housed in a building to the west. In another room there is a spare 50HP

motor for the hogger.

warehouse

gate entrance