This circa mid-1930s images shows four unidentified individuals with the Adams Poultry Company truck that was used to take the Garyton-raised ducks to the Chicago market. Image credit to Barbara Borg-Jenkins
In the 1930s, many local boys and men found employment at the Adams Poultry Company duck farm. The entire operation was located in Portage Township near the Garyton area off of Duck Farm Road, now known today as Evergreen Road.
Incorporators of the farm were Albert M. Adams and Anna L. Adams, of Chicago, Illinois, and resident agent, Hugo Lindner.
The farm’s manager was Hugo Lindner, and his son, Hugo Jr., helped run it. Both were graduates in animal husbandry, with the son taking care of the incubators.
Employees earned 25 cents an hour for their work (which is equivalent to approximately $5.53 an hour in 2022 dollars). These wages helped the workers support themselves and their families during the Great Depression.
Tage Borg, and his brother Tore, worked at the farm for three years on the weekends, summer, and during holidays. They were required to feed the ducks and clean the pens. Chopping down trees for firewood was also part of the job. Tage remembers throwing 100-pound feed bags up in the loft of the barn.
Tage described the farm as covering approximately 40 acres. The pond was formed by damming up the nearby creek. At one time, Tage estimated there were up to 35,000 ducks at the farm. Since Tage and Tore were old enough to drive, they would drive a flatbed truck loaded with caged ducks (about 20 ducks to a cage) to Chicago to sell them at the Fulton Market.
Alton Goin (who is the namesake of the Portage Community Historical Society’s museum in Countryside Park) remember working on the duck farm as hard work, but something he really enjoyed.
Al described the eggs as going onto a carousel after they came out of the incubator. The ducklings went upstairs into a two-story barn and careful records were kept of egg and duck placement. Ducklings were released into the general population only when they were grown enough.
Both Tage Borg and Al Goin said that it was the best job a young man could have back in those days.
This article was written by Barbara Borg-Jenkins and edited by Kevin Matthew Pazour.
This story originally appeared on page ten of The Vidette-Messenger on September 1, 1937.