The Beginnings of It All

​​

The art of cheese making was introduced to Wisconsin when the first immigrants settled in the southeastern portion of Wisconsin, coming from out east in the 1830’s and 1840’s. The new residents of the area came by way of the Erie Canal-Great Lakes waterway  from New England and upstate New York [Durand 109]. With them they brought the art of cheese making, and though it was at first less of an agricultural product to wheat, it was still an important part of the dairy industry from the beginning. The first co-op cheese factory ever created was in 1848 or 1849 in Koshkonong, Wisconsin. Multiple farmers made cheese at this factory, trading off providing the milk and making the cheese. This was actually prior to the first cheese factory in 1851 in Oneida County, New York [Durand 111]. The first declared cheese factory in Wisconsin was erected in 1864 in Ladoga, Wisconsin, in Fond du Lac County. Since this first cheese factory, the art of crafting cheese has shaped Wisconsin into the “Dairy State” today, and is producing 2.6 billion pounds of cheese every year [“History of Wisconsin Cheese”].