Mishicot Dairy Products Co.

One postcard and one photo view of the Mishicot Dairy Products Co., which was located at the south end of River Dr. in Mishicot, Wisconsin.

A history of the plant was provided by Paul Princl:

Mishicot Dairy Products was built in 1939 by George Princl and Ed Princl, who felt a need for a larger cheese factory in the Mishicot area. Ed was from Wausau, but was a former cheesemaker in the Saxonburg farmers’ factory on Saxonburg Hill years before. The plant was built on land formerly owned by Joe Brouchoud, Mark Brouchoud’s father. The remainder of the Brouchouds’ farm is now the high school and elementary school grounds. The factory was started with only a few farmers. Some of the first patrons were Joe Brouchoud, Joe Dvorak, and Arthur Redeker. All were small producers with farm buildings located in the present village limits, which of course would not be allowed today. Additional patrons soon came from farther out, and expanded to over 250 farmers. Plant capacity was about 60,000 pounds of milk daily, but two shifts had to be run in the early summer months when farmers turned their cows out on early spring grass. The plant turned out mostly cheddar cheese, which was sold to cheese buyers as far away as Chicago. Butter was also made and was sold mainly to grocery stores in Manitowoc, Two Rivers, and surrounding villages. Whey, a by-product of cheese, was delivered to farmers as hog feed, but the greater majority was sold to the Western Condensing Company, which soon after built their plant in the old Scheuer brewery which is now closed, and owned by Tony Pietroske as a fabricating and battery salvage shop. They employed about 15 men and also had about 15 trucks hauling milk. Some of the original truckers were Arnold Princl, the Seidl Brothers (Alvin and Richard), Henry Lehrmann, Francis VanderLogt, Cyril Skarvan, Bill Valitchka and Jim Chavala. After about ten years of operation the plant was sold to a banker from St. Nazianz, Mike Filtz, who made Italian cheese for a while. Mr. Filtz had a man come in from VanDyne, Wisconsin to be his head cheesemaker, Ray Schuler. Ray later bought the facility, and it was operated by him until he again sold it to Don Pauly of Manitowoc; and it is presently closed—as time changes and moves on.