Sterling Willett Cottrell
Sterling, born 29 Oct 1909, was the fourth child of Carl C. and Myrtle I. Cottrell. Sterling married Dorothy A. Henke of Oxford, WI in 1935. Sterling and Dorothy had four children.

Sterling's father, Carl, was 60 years old (late 20's) before automobiles were affordable for a small farm owner. When Carl's sons, Forrest and Sterling were old enough to drive and when Carl could afford it, he bought a Model-T Ford. He did it so his sons could drive him places. The day Carl brought the car, Sterling asked if he could drive it.  A short while later Sterling came walking back to the house looking very somber.  He said "Pa, I wrecked your car".  Carl said it was like George Washington and the cherry tree; he was so sad and honest with no excuses that Carl said he could not bring himself to punish him.  Sterling had turned a corner a little too fast and the Model "T" rolled over on its side in a ditch.

Sterling was active in the Poy Sippi Seventh-Day Adventist church. He was leader of the Young People's Missionary Volunteer Society, now called the Pathfinders. He often played his Trumpet for special music and sometimes did this with his brother Forrest who played a Saxophone. Forrest and Sterling learned to play while attending an Adventist boarding high school (Bethel Academy) at Arpin, WI. Both Forrest and Sterling went to Bethel but neither completed all four years and graduated.
Forrest had married Margaret Summerton from Oxford, WI. Sterling drove to Oxford in the Fall of 1934 to visit Forrest and Margaret. While there he attended a church song fest with Forrest and Margaret and met Dorothy Henke. They were married in April of 1935 in the Henke farm house near Oxford.

After Sterling and Dorothy married they moved into the original part of Carl's house.  A couple of different summers Sterling worked on his brother-in-law's farm (Freeman Lunz) near Clintonville. The summer of  1937 Sterling rented a farm near Oxford. After that Sterling & Dorothy moved back to Carl's farm and Carl rented the land to Sterling and Sterling assumed all of the farm activities including the asparagus business.

When Carl and Myrtle were operating the asparagus business they did the asparagus cooking and canning in their kitchen. As the business grew more space was needed so a new basement was built under the newest part of the house. Sterling and Dorothy expanded the business and it thrived until chain grocery stores came to the area and they would not buy from small independent producers. Below is the can label that was used.

Sterling also sometimes worked at other jobs until he became a full time partner with his older brother, Forrest, in the dehorning and whitewashing business. In the winter they would dehorn cattle and in the summer they would whitewash barns. For more information on the dehorning and whitewashing business click here for the Forrest Cottrell story.

At the right is a picture of Forrest (left) and Sterling with a team of horses and sleigh by the barn.

Sterling had always been interested in airplanes and when a boy he had made model airplanes and even made an airplane weather vane and mounted it on top of the barn. In July of 1945 Sterling started taking flying lessons. On 8 July 1946 Sterling crashed and died while flying alone near Green Lake. Click here for more information and the newspaper report of the crash.
At the right is a picture of one of the model airplanes Sterling built as a boy. In the previous picture of Forrest and Sterling you can see the airplane weather vane he built at the peak of the barn roof.

In the fall of 1951 Dorothy and her children moved to Oxford to live with her widowed mother. Sterling's father Carl died in 1952.
In the late 1940's the barn burned to the ground after a grandson put the coals from the kitchen stove on the wrong side of the manure pile. The whitewashing rig (left side of picture) was parked in the barn and neighbors pulled it out before it burned with the barn.

Sterling & Dorothy about 1942