Alta Fern (Cottrell) Nelson
Alta Fern (went by Fern), born 6 Feb 1894, was the first child of Carl C. and Myrtle I. Cottrell. Fern married Henry Nelson of Poy Sippi, WI in 1913. Fern and Henry had two children.
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 Henry & Fern Engagement Picture
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 Apple Fruit Farm barn
Fern and Henry had a large apple orchard
and sold apples
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 A paddle wheel steamboat made round trips between Tustin on Lake Poygan (near Poy Sippi) and Oshkosh, a distance of about 40 miles. Before Fern got married she rode the steamboat and attended "Normal" (Teachers) school in Oshkosh. Then she taught school for a while in Fairbrun, about 14 miles SW of her parents farm.
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 Fern and Henry, 1965
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After getting married, Fern and Henry lived just north of Pine River, WI on Apple Fruit Farm. In addition to operating a dairy farm, and managing a sizable apple orchard, they had a thriving cottage cheese business. They used a cream separator similar to the one in this picture to separate the cream from the milk so they could make cottage cheese. After they made the cottage cheese Henry drove a regular route to deliver the fresh cottage to their customers.
Henry was an Elder in the Poy Sippi Adventist church and Fern often played the piano. In addition to be an excellent piano player she gave piano lessons and loved to write music. She sometimes composed a special song and sent it as her Christmas card. Fern also self-published a book of her songs. The book is not dated.
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 Cream Separator
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Fern inherited/purchased her parent's 10 acre farm and it was later sold to a neighbor in Fountain Valley.
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65th Wedding Aniversery, 1978
Henry died at 90 in 1981 in a
Wild Rose, WI nursing home.
Fern died at 92 in 1986 in the Berrien General Hospital, in Berrien Center, MI. Prior to that she had been living nearby with a daughter and then in a nursing home next to the hospital.
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