Casper’s Swiss Traditions Find a New Home
Casper Jaggi was born in Europe on August 13, 1893, in Nessenthal, Canton Bern, Switzerland. Back then, Canton Bern was well known for its cheese, especially Swiss cheese. Even today, Swiss cheese making is common in Canton Bern.
Switzerland’s cantons in 1893. Casper came from Canton Bern.
A scene from the Swiss Alps. Casper used milk from his family’s cows when he first made cheese in the mountains.
Casper was just 6 years old when his father started teaching him the many steps involved in making cheese. Each spring, when the snow melted in the highlands of the Swiss Alps, young Casper and his father drove their cattle into the mountains to graze on the lush pastures. They spent summers up there, caring for their cows and making cheese from the milk. They had no electricity and worked by the light of a lantern or candlelight in the evenings. The water they needed came from streams and waterfalls. The Jaggis burned wood or coal to heat the kettles used to make their Swiss cheese. When Casper was little, he had to stand on a tree stump so he could look into the kettle!
In early fall, winter winds and snow began threatening. That’s when the Jaggis drove their cattle back down to the valley where they spent the long winter. Casper and his father patiently waited for spring and the green grass. Then they could once more return their cattle to the high country.
Casper’s mother died when he was very young, leaving his father to raise him. Casper helped his father with the cows and with cheese making for several years. His father taught him that Swiss cheese should taste like a green nut when it’s in the kettle. Later, when it was aged, it should taste like a ripe nut. As Casper grew older, he sharpened his skills as a cheese maker. But Casper learned about cheese making one skill at a time.
First, he was taught how important it was to have clean equipment. If his father thought he hadn’t cleaned one thing properly, he’d make Casper start over and wash everything again. “If you can’t do a job right, don’t do it at all,” his father told him. Casper would never forget those words of advice.
Casper (center) and his brothers Andrew and John at Andrew’s farm near New Glarus, Wisconsin
Casper was the youngest of 4 boys. His older brothers, Andrew and John, left Switzerland for the United States when Casper was a teenager. Andrew and John lived on farms in Green County, Wisconsin, near New Glarus. This community is located about 20 miles southwest of Madison. It had been established in 1845 by Nicholas Durst and Fridolin Steiff (free do lin stife) from Canton Glarus in Switzerland.
Durst and Steiff had come to southern Wisconsin in search of land for themselves and for other people from Switzerland. At the time, people living in Canton Glarus were very poor and were looking for a place where they could make a better life. Durst and Steiff bought 1,280 acres near present-day New Glarus. This land would be shared by more than 100 other Swiss immigrants from their canton who would soon arrive. Then more people from other parts of Switzerland followed. Casper’s brothers moved to New Glarus because Swiss settlers from their home in Canton Bern had already immigrated there. Andrew and John knew they would be comfortable among people from their homeland. They all spoke the same language and shared many of the same traditions.
By the time he was in his late teens, Casper wanted to follow his brothers to the United States. In 1913, when he was 20, he joined them in New Glarus.
The first Swiss immigrants came to Wisconsin in the mid-1820s, before Wisconsin had even become a state. They settled in southwestern Wisconsin, near the villages of Shullsburg and Gratiot (gra shut). By 1890, people of Swiss heritage were found in nearly every Wisconsin county. By 1900, about 12,000 Swiss had settled in Wisconsin.
The Midwestern United States was appealing to Swiss immigrants because the land was inexpensive.
The first Swiss saw southern Wisconsin’s rich soils. Even though they found no mountains, the gentle hills reminded them a bit of Switzerland. Farming became the main occupation for these immigrants. Like other pioneers in the area, they plowed the rolling land. They then planted fields of wheat. But planting wheat in the same ground year after year soon used up the soil’s nutrients. It became harder to grow wheat on this land. Cows and dairy farming replaced many of these wheat fields.
Many of the first Swiss to immigrate to Wisconsin settled in the southwestern part of the state.
Several of the Swiss settlers who made their farms in Green County, Wisconsin, eventually started to use the cheese-making skills they brought from Switzerland. People thought that the cheese they made in Wisconsin tasted good enough to be compared with cheese from Switzerland. According to a local newspaper article from 1915, “[P]eople in the large cities became aware that cheese made in Green county was nearly, if not wholly, as good as the imported article.”
Today, the city of Monroe in Green County calls itself the Swiss Cheese Capital of the U.S.A. Every other September, they host Cheese Days. People can sample different cheeses, watch cheese-making demonstrations, and tour a cheese factory. Everyone is encouraged to wear traditional Swiss clothing. New Glarus also continues to celebrate its Swiss heritage at festivals each year.
“Honey Belle,” a painted cow in front of the Historic Cheesemaking Center in Monroe, Wisconsin. Some Green County residents wear traditional Swiss clothing at festivals celebrating their heritage.
