Carl Clarence & Myrtle Ida (Cady) Cottrell Story
This story is based on remembrances of surviving relatives.
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Carl C. Cottrell was born in Rushford Township, Wisconsin on 21 Feb 1867. Rushford Township is an area just to the SW of Omro, WI in Winnebago County. Rushford Township is about 20 miles SE of the farm in Poy Sippi Township where he lived most of his life and where he died on 6 Jul 1952. It is not known exactly where in Rushford Township he was born. His parents moved there from NY before moving to the Poy Sippi area. The following was written for Carl C Cottrell by his wife Myrtle.

    My parents, George Gardner and Lydia Ann Cottrell, came from Cherry Creek, New York state to Wisconsin in 1860, and like many others were looking for a favorable place to make a home for themselves.
    At that time in the eastern part of Waushara County there was a large tract of well-watered land covered with trees (soft maple, black and white oak, ash, white birch, hickory, and elm), many kinds of wild berries, and plenty of open marsh where wild hay could be cut for feeding stock in winter. Also free open pasture where stock could run for pasture, and higher soil for raising crops as soon as it could be cleared. This land was then called the Indian Land, and when my parents came to Wisconsin it could be bought for $1.25 per acre, but was looked upon as almost worthless soil until a few years later, when a few brave white families, paying a few dollars per acre, really bought pieces of land, rolled up log houses, and really pioneered. My parents bought 120 acres of land in that vicinity in 1870 when I was three years old.
The star shows the location of Carl's farm
Waushara County is just to the NW and borders Winnebago County. A grandson remembers Carl saying "if you go till you get to the end of the world where there is nothing you will be in Borth". He was probably talking about where he lived as a child and where the 120 acres was that George Gardner Cottrell purchased. Borth was not a town but a farming community SE of Poy Sippi.  When he lived there as a young boy in the 1870's there were only a few settlers living in log houses. The farm that Carl C Cottrell later lived on was only 10 acres and was three miles south of Poy Sippi on the east side of highway 49 (at the star on the above map). The 10 acres was originally part of the B. A. Cady homestead (his wife's fathers). Click here to see how Myrtle Cady was related to President Coolidge.

Carl told stories about working on a threshing crew in North Dakota when he was 21.
Where Carl and his Siblings Attended Elementary School (sketch is from Neighbor o' Mine book)

When Carl was 23 he married the 14 year old Myrtle Cady. The family story is that Myrtle's father, a judge, and mother had an unstable marriage and separated. Carl felt sorry for Myrtle and married her to give her a stable home. It was a scandal that she was so young but he promised not have a sexual relationship with her until she was old enough. Their first child, Alta Fern, was not born until four years after the marriage when Myrtle was 18.

About the only open land area then was swamp and marsh land which were not suitable for farming so trees had to be cut to clear land for farming. Sometime after Carl and Myrtle married they both got jobs working for a logging company. With Myrtle as the cook and Carl as her helper they prepared and served three large meals a day for the logging crews. All her life Myrtle was known for her excellent cooking.
Lumber camp where Myrtle Cottrell was the cook and her husband Carl was her helper. They lived there one winter (about 1900) with their daughters Fern and Ruth. Carl, Myrtle, and daughters are in the front center of the picture.

The frame house that Carl and Myrtle lived in after they married was the Cady house that Myrtle's parents had built. It was one of the first frame houses built in that area of Wisconsin. The left portion shown in the below picture was built first and later a new addition was added on the south side of the original house. The new addition had a kitchen, dining room, and large parlor/living room on the first floor and two upstairs bedrooms, a small one and large one. The woodwork in all of the rooms of the new addition was painted different colors and the rooms were named for the colored woodwork - green room, blue room, etc. After Benjamin and Julia Cady divorced, Myrtle's mother Julia continued to live with Carl and Myrtle. At some point the house and 10 acres of the Cady farm were given to Carl and Myrtle.
Carl's farm was three miles north of Auroraville and three miles south of Poy Sippi in an area called Cadyville. Myrtie's maiden name was Cady and the Cady's were a very influential family there. At that time their address was Auroraville, WI. That area would later become known as Fountain Valley and the address was changed to Poy Sippi, WI. A stream/creek ran west-to-east about 1/4 miles north of the farm. Poy Sippi is a small town on the banks of Pine River. Pine River was called "Poygan Sippi" by the Potawatomie Indians, because it flowed into Poygan Lake. The white settlers named the new town on the banks of the river "Poy Sippi".

There was a barn on the farm and the land was used to raise the usual farm crops. A few cows were milked but the income from such a small farm was not enough to support a family so Carl did other things to earn money. In the early 1900's he set up a sorghum mill on the farm. Sorghum grows like corn and the stalks were run between big rollers that squeezed the juice out of the sorghum stalks. This juice was later boiled down to create sorghum. In his 40's Carl was hooking up a team of horses, one of the horses was startled for some reason and kicked Carl in the face.
Carl's Sorghum Mill
The bones in his face on the left side were severely crushed and it was not known if he would survive. They did not do reconstruction surgery then so the right side of his face drooped badly. He always tried to turn his head when having a picture taken so only the right side would show. You can see from this picture of Carl and Myrtle how badly the right side of his face was damaged.

It took Carl a long time to recover and he was not able to work for several years. To provide some income they took in borders and foster children. The following ad appeared in a the 18 May 1930 Chicago Sunday Tribune.

Sometimes unwed mothers who did not want, or could not take care of a child, would come to Carl and Myrtle to have the child and then they would keep and care for the child. Carl was especially fond of one child and adopted her (Iva).

Carl, and his family, were active members of the Poy Sippi Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Click here for the church history.
Myrtie & Carl in their later years

Myrtle's business card
When Carl was a boy his family was visiting friends and Carl saw a violin sitting in the corner. He held the violin against his stomach and tried to play it. The man of the house said "Carl, if you will learn to play that violin properly, I will give it to you". He did and the man gave him the violin. Carl never learned to read music but he became a good fiddle player and enjoyed playing it at home and for church services for the rest of his live. He had a close friend named Burt who played a bass fiddle and his daughter Fern played the piano. Sometimes they would get together at Carl's place and provide great entertainment for friends and neighbors. It has been described as "music to die for".

Carl sometimes worked as a carpenter. He had built a nice shop SE of the house where he could build things for customers, his church, and his family. A nice forge was built into the shop so he could also do iron work. His grandchildren loved it when he would get the forge going and let them pump the bellows and watch him work the white hot metal. Carl also worked dehorning cattle for area farmers.
Carl's son, Sterling, and his family moved into the original part of the house about 1937. Carl enjoyed having Sterling's children near by and was very saddened when they moved away about 1952. The farm was sold after Carl died and his wife Myrtle moved in with her oldest daughter Fern who lived near the small town of Pine River. The farm was purchased by a nearby farmer who still, as of 2009, farms the land and rents the house. It has been redone inside so it is now arranged for just one family.

In the 1940's Carl had little to do but help care for his grandchildren and putter in his shop. During that time he wrote a wonderful little book of poems called Neighbor o' Mine. He had it printed in 1944 and sold copies for 50 cents. Click here to view a copy of the book.
At the end of every day Myrtle wrote a detailed diary of the days events. For many years she was the Fountain Valley social reporter for the local newspaper and provided inputs that recorded who got engaged, who was visiting, etc.
House, Garage, and Shop (at right) - Picture taken after Carl died
There used to be a barn on the other side of the garage but it burned about 1946.
There also used to be a chicken coop and ice house behind the garage.
All of the area between the house, garage and the shop used to be a huge garden that provided most of the food for Carl and Myrtle and his son Sterling's family when they lived there.
When Carl was about 70 he slowly started going blind. That did not stop him from working in his shop. He would have one of his grand kids measure for him and put the saw or drill in the right place. He could then drill a straight hole or saw a board perfectly square. He never used power tools even when they were available as he thought them to be too dangerous and unnecessary. There was a specific place on the wall and in his bench drawers for every tool. If a grandchild used his tools and did not put them back in the right place they were locked out of the shop for a period of time.

The Fountain Valley grade school was at the SW corner of his farm. The school continued to operate into the 1950's. The school house is now being used as a residence.

Both Forrest and Sterling had three boys and the sons of Forrest frequently spent time at their grandfather's place playing with their cousins. Some years before his death he decided it would be nice to have his six grandsons be honorary pallbearers for his funeral. Several times when all six grandsons were there he would line them up in two columns of three each and have them march across the yard as if they were walking in front of his casket. After he died at home in 1952 the six grandsons walked in front of his casket at the funeral exactly as they had been trained.


Carl's wife Myrtle continued to live in the Fountain Valley house until she died in 1959. She had hired a woman to live with her and care for her after Carl died.