Artist, Poet, Collector

Carl Marty, Sr. Dies: (1873-1960) Cheese, Swiss Leader
reprinted from
The Monroe Evening Times
Monroe, Wisconsin

Carl Marty, Sr., 86, one of the last of the native Swiss who pioneered in the area's cheese industry and the grand old man of Monroe's Swiss-American community, died at St. Clare hospital yesterday at 1:20 p. m.

Mr. Marty had been hospitalized since Dec. 23 with a serious heart condition.  He underwent an operation Wednesday to relieve a bladder condition.  Another heart attack yesterday is believed to have been the cause of death.  He had been treated at St. Clare earlier in December and then returned to his home.

In recent years, Mr. Marty had been in declining physical condition, largely because of arthritis which affected his legs.

Mr. Marty, successful retired cheese firm operator, onetime editor and in his long retirement an accomplished painter in oils and a poet, contributed greatly to preservation of interest in traditions and art of his native land, Switzerland.

He had one of the most extensive collections of Swiss art and artifacts, as well as other items of Germanic origin, and he had virtually turned his spacious home into a museum.

His paintings ranged from a primitive type of portrayal of scenes in early cheese factories to more delicate and subtle color studies of landscapes and people of old Switzerland. He developed his talent at an early age through his sketching while in school in Switzerland.

Mr. Marty told The Monroe Evening Times a few years ago that he had completed more than 600 oil paintings.  Four of his paintings have been used for large color calendars distributed by a nationally-known dairy chemical firm.

His poetry was of the narrative and ballad type but he also was deft in turning out simple and beautiful short verses of sentimental nature. His best known poem is a 45-verse work entitled "The Founding of New Glarus."

Mr. Marty was one of the incorporators of the Green County Historical Society in 1937 and was one of the first presidents.

He also collected pewter, steins and unusual bottles, of which he had several thousand items.

Mr. Marty was born April 3, 1873, in the village of Gachnang, Canton Thurgau.  His father, Jacob, and an older brother, Jacob, Jr., came to this country upon the death of the mother, Katherine Burkhalter Marty, and spent two years in Ohio before deciding on settling in Wisconsin.

The elder Mr. Marty returned to Switzerland in 1886 to bring other children of the family to Green County.  Carl and two sisters remained in Switzerland for another year.

In March. 1887, Carl came to Wisconsin and helped make Swiss cheese at the Tom Carey factory, Adams Township.  Two years later, at the age of 15, he was making cheese himself at the Bill Carey factory a few miles away.

Much to his family's surprise, Carl decided to spend a year as a farmhand so he could learn at first hand the problems of the dairy farmer.  With his savings, he then entered a Milwaukee business school in the fall of 1890 to learn bookkeeping.  His funds ran out in three months but he had "graduated" and went to work for Steinmeyer's, a wholesale grocery.

Economic conditions were getting rough and he left Milwaukee to go back overseas, working two years as a bookkeeper at his brother-in-law's bank in Bucharest, Romania.

Dissatisfied with the "class system" abroad, Carl returned to Green County.  He was planning to go West in 1896 when he was offered a job by the editor of the Green County Herold, Robert Kohli.  That job virtually amounted to becoming editor, minus the title.

It was during this stay at the Herold that Mr. Marty married Mrs. Verena Isely Jones, a widow with three children.  Her husband. Charles B. Jones, who had been a widower with three children, had died in Sheldon, Ia., in March, 1894.

The Martys were married Dec. 16. 1897, at St. John's church by Rev. P. A. Schuh.  Carl found his newly-acquired family meant that more income would be needed to meet his responsibilities.  So, after five years at the Herold, he went to Brodhead in 1901 as bookkeeper for the Charles Zuercher Cheese Co.

His rapid progress in the cheese business caused him to consider a local partnership.  About that time, in 1907, the Glauser-Ladrick wholesale cheese firm in Chicago offered him a job involving selling and supervising production in the many factories with which that firm dealt.

In a few years, Carl bought out one partner and then became sole owner of the firm In 1912 when it was located on West Ohio street in Chicago.  He expanded the enterprise during the war and built a second Chicago structure in 1918.

Three years earlier, Mr. Marty erected the cheese storage plant now housing the Stuart Cheese Co. and operated it as a factory branch.

When he retired here in 1923, that branch became the first major local Marty enterprise.  His son, Carl O. Marty, was active in the business and later bought out the Borden plant, being joined by another son, Robert F.

In 1939, the expanded Carl Marty, plant, owned by his sons, was sold back to Borden.  Carl O. became interested in other activities and was joined by his brother, Robert, in ownership of the former Blumer Brewing Co. building, the Capital Cheese Co., Monroe Cold Storage Co. and their major interest in the Swiss Cheese Corp. of America, all in Monroe.

In 1946, Carl O. and Robert Marty started building the luxury resort hotel near Three Lakes, the Northernaire. The area had been a favorite vacation spot for Carl Marty, Sr. and his family for more than 40 years.  Carl O. Marty actively manages the Northernaire while Robert supervises the Monroe business operations.

Mr. Marty served several years as a member of the Wisconsin Board of Agriculture, under appointment by Gov. Philip LaFollette, and also was an honorary life member of the National Cheese Institute.

Carl, Sr. was proud of the success of his sons in the cheese business and he encouraged their interest throughout his life in the Old World aspects of that activity.  He and Mrs. Marty also enjoyed the close relationship the various branches of their extensive family have maintained.

The last such gathering was at Christmas when Mrs. Marty observed her 98th birthday, in good health and good spirits.  Mr. Marty, however, was unable to participate since he had been returned to St. Clare hospital two days before.

In addition to his sons and widow, Carl Marty is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Paul FitzGibbon of Cleveland, 0., and three step daughters, Mrs. Edna Leiser, who resides in the Marty family home; Mrs. Grace Frazer, Miami Beach, and Mrs. Bessie Germann, Decorah, Ia.

He also leaves three sisters, Miss Frieda Marty and Mrs. E. B. Rosa, Monroe, and Mrs. Elizabeth Schmidt, Kankakee.

He was preceded in death by five brothers, Gottlieb, Madison; Fred of Monroe, leading figure in Swiss cheese factory improvements; Jacob, Jr., State of Washington, and two brothers named Ernst, each of whom died early in life.

He also was preceded in death by three sisters: Mrs. Rosa Gempeler of Monroe, in 1927; Mrs. Marie Gfeller of Columbus, 0., in 1947, and Mrs. Emma Dietrich, Milwaukee, in 1956.

There are ten grandchildren: Katherine and Margaret Germann, Decorah; Paul FitzGibbon, El Segundo, Calif.; William, Carol, Susan and Jane FitzGibbon, Cleveland; Robert Marty, Mexico, Mo.; Walter Marty, Madison, and Michael Marty, Three Lakes.  The great grandchildren are Bruce and Margaret Updegraff, Bellefontaine, 0., and Lynn and Jane Walker, Decorah.


The following is an
Editorial
from
The Monroe Evening Times

A PERSONALITY DEPARTS: A LEGEND REMAINS

Any attempt to attempt in this column to eulogize the late Carl Marty, Sr. would be the height of presumption.  He wrote his own eulogy by the simple but rare method of living a full and busy life of many, many facets.

We can, however, try to pass along a few observations and comments which might serve to inform those who knew him only as a legend, as well as to open up new vistas of recollection for those with whom he had been acquainted or associated in his long lifetime.

It will be a long time before the Monroe community again pays tribute to a man with as many talents, as many interests and as many completely genuine feelings about the experiences he wanted his family, his friends and his fellowmen to perpetuate.

We are happy to be able to cherish some fine memories of all too brief encounters with Carl Marty.

It also happens he penned a few notes to us, about this and that, which revealed him to be a gentleman of sensitive and charming characteristics which you might not expect of one of his stalwart physical appearance.

Unfortunately, we did not save those notes.  They would have been wonderful reminders in future years of a fine old fellow who was modestly forceful in his written expressions, a trait brought over from the Old World and not very common in our modern times.

His frequent verses on current topics were delightful, barbed at times but in a polite, subtle way which did not and could not offend.

It was our misfortune, as it was that of other newcomers and the younger generation, that in recent years his physical difficulties prevented closer contact with the people of the community he loved.  As we said, Carl Marty was pretty much a legend to a great many in this city, a striking figure with his beard and full shock of hair.