William D. Hoard
William Dempster Hoard was an American politician, newspaper publisher, and agriculture advocate who was the 16th governor of Wisconsin from 1889 to 1891. Called the "father of modern dairying", Hoard's advocacy for scientific agriculture and the expansion of dairy farming has been credited with changing Wisconsin's agricultural economy. He promoted the use of silos and alfalfa for cattle feed, testing for bovine tuberculosis, and raising particular breeds of cattle for milk or meat in his magazine Hoard's Dairyman. His work with the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association led to the export of Wisconsin dairy products to the East Coast, and they earned national renown.
As editor of his newspaper, the Jefferson County Union, Hoard defied trends of the time for small newspapers by expanding the coverage area of the paper and including a strongly voiced editorial page, which he used to advocate for improved farming practices and dairy farming. As governor of Wisconsin, Hoard established the Dairy and Food Commission—one of the first food inspection agencies in the United States—and signed a controversial, short-lived compulsory education law that required all students in the state to be taught in English as part of the Americanization process for immigrants.
Early life and education
William D. Hoard was born on October 10, 1836, in Munnsville, New York, to William Bradford Hoard and Sarah Katherine White Hoard. He was the eldest of four children. His father was a blacksmith and itinerant Methodist minister who preached to the Oneida people. Hoard was educated in a one-room log schoolhouse built by his grandfather, Enos, who also maintained a library. The library and encouragement from Hoard's mother led to a passion for reading. Enos brought Hoard while purchasing dairy cattle and educated him on dairy farming as a child. When he was 16, Hoard left school to work as a farmhand for Waterman Simons, a neighboring dairy farmer from whom Hoard learned how to make cheese and butter. While working as a farmhand, Hoard witnessed the depletion of New York soil by the growing of wheat and other crops, which led to the adoption of dairy farming in the state. During this time, he managed a 50-cow herd and read technical journals on farming.In 1857, Hoard moved to Oak Grove, Wisconsin, and studied to become a Methodist minister. Ideological conflict with church leadership led him to cease his studies. For the next three years, Hoard found employment chopping wood and giving singing lessons. In 1860, he married Agnes Elizabeth Bragg and moved in with her parents in Lake Mills, Wisconsin. The couple had three children: Halbert Louis, Arthur Ralph, and Frank Ward.
After the outbreak of the American Civil War, Hoard—an admirer of Abraham Lincoln—enlisted in the Union Army. He was assigned to the 4th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment as a fife player and participated in the capture of New Orleans. Hoard became ill while pursuing Confederate soldiers and was discharged. He returned to his parents' farm in New York; after fully recovering, he re-enlisted in the Union Army and was assigned to Battery A of the 1st New York Light Artillery Battalion, serving until the end of the war in 1865. After the war, Hoard moved to Columbus, Wisconsin, and attempted to grow hops. The price of the crop collapsed, and Hoard gave up hop farming.
Career
Publishing and advocacy
''Jefferson County Union'' and ''Hoard's Dairyman''
Hoard founded a weekly newspaper, the Jefferson County Union, in Lake Mills in 1870. Against the trends of the time, Hoard expanded his paper's coverage to include surrounding areas. Early editions of the Union were printed under contract with the Watertown Republican, for which Hoard had written before founding his own newspaper. Hoard moved the Union to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, in 1873 and by 1883 he had constructed a new building that included a printing press.Hoard included an editorial page in the Union, a rarity for small newspapers of the time. He used these columns to write about a variety of topics, most prominently the promotion of scientific agricultural practices, and started a dairy farming-specific column in 1872. Readers received these editorials with skepticism due to Hoard's lack of experience in Wisconsin agriculture, and referred to him as a theorist and a "book farmer". Hoard continued to write agriculture columns and, after encouragement from his son Arthur and Whitewater Register publisher Ed E. Coe, founded Hoard's Dairyman in 1885 as a folio supplement to the Union.
The Dairyman was initially financially supported by its parent newspaper. By 1889, it had become a separate magazine that focused primarily on dairy farming. As was commonplace with dairy trade publications at the time, Hoard mixed reporting and advertising in the Dairyman, juxtaposing advertisements with articles promoting the advertised technique or technology. Hoard used the publication to advocate for agricultural and dairy manufacturing practices. These included the testing of herds for bovine tuberculosis, slaughtering infected animals, and providing recompense for farmers who culled their herds; the growth and use of alfalfa as cattle feed, the use of particular breeds of cattle for milking or meat, the use of the Babcock test to analyze the butterfat content of milk, sanitization of milk bottles used in city delivery, the humane treatment of cattle, the formation of agricultural cooperatives to compete with corporations, and the adoption of silos to store cattle feed. Hoard purchased Hoard's Dairyman Farm in 1899, using it to test agricultural theories. By 1924, Hoard's Dairyman had a print circulation of 75,000 and readers in Japan, Australia, and England. It is considered the first agriculture publication to have a nationwide readership in the United States.
Trade associations and lobbying
Hoard founded the Jefferson County Dairymen's Association in 1871 and cofounded the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association with Chester Hazen, Stephen Favill, Walter S. Greene, H.C. Drake, J.G. Hull, M.S. Barrett, D.E. Smith, and H.F. Dousman in 1872. At its founding, Hazen declared the WDA had three goals: to openly discuss dairy problems, eliminate a surplus of cheese and reduce freight rates for rail transport of dairy products, and market to dealers from the East Coast. The WDA sent Hoard to Chicago in 1874 to barter with railroads to secure better prices and refrigerated railcars for the transport of cheese from Wisconsin to the East Coast. His efforts were successful; rates were reduced to one cent per pound. Cheese production in Wisconsin increased rapidly following the rate reduction. In 1876, the American Dairymen's Association invited the WDA to show its products at the Centennial Exhibition. Hoard felt slighted by the group that had ignored him for three years and advocated against going under the auspices of the national association; the other members agreed, rejecting the proposal and ultimately setting up exhibits themselves. Wisconsin dairy products won 20 awards and earned national renown.Through the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association, Hoard and other founders successfully lobbied for the creation of agriculture-related regulations and educational institutions, including legislation to ban skim and filled cheese, the establishment of farmers' institutes and the College of Agriculture at the University of Wisconsin. In 1890, the group successfully campaigned for the establishment of the first dairy school in the U.S., which taught students to make butter and cheese.
Hoard opposed the sale of adulterated dairy products and oleomargarine, which became popular in the late 1800s. Oleomargarine, made by emulsifying lard with milk and water, was often dyed yellow to give it the appearance of butter and was sold as such. The cost of producing oleomargarine was much lower than that of butter and dairy farmers viewed it as a threat to their livelihoods. In 1894, Hoard founded the National Dairy Union and campaigned for an additional tax to be placed on the sale of dyed oleomargarine, which he viewed as a fraudulent product. Hoard often testified before Congress about the fraudulent nature of oleomargarine between 1898 and 1902, and helped secure the passage of the Oleomargarine Act of 1902, which added an additional 10-cent tax on the sale of colored oleomargarine and briefly caused a decline in its production.