- Bookwood Historical Collection, Star Lake
- UW Madison/Wis Hist Soc
LAND O' LAKES. Barefoot Charlie Festival will take place this Saturday, Aug. 16, at the Land O' Lakes Memorial park town pavilion. .............. About Barefoot
Barefoot Charlie (Charles Haase) was born in 1891 in Appleton. He was married to Olive Butler and they had four children--Margaret, Maria, Lorenzo and Charlie Jr.
One incident which shaped his entire live, according to his son, is that at the age of 16, while living in Appleton, Charlie contracted blood poisoning in both of his feet. Charlie went to the doctor, who was not hopeful about his condition.
The doctor told him that the best thing he could do would be to go out in the cow pasture, follow the cows around and, whenever a cow made a pile of manure, to step in it with both feet and squish around in it to pull the poison out of the blood
Charlie not only followed the doctor's suggestion, but attributed the unusual practice to his cure. [sic]
His son said that may be what inspired the barefoot trend for Charlie; however, the fact is that Charlie did not develop the reputation for walking around barefoot until 1929 when he move to Land O' Lakes.
Although Charlie only had a second-grade education, he did very well in life using common sense, hard work and a lot of good old-fashioned humor, according to those who knew him.
For more information on the Barefoot Charlie Festival, call ....