GLCC 75th Anniversary

Improbable Endurance: Celebrating the ha nd of God through 75 years of ministry at Green Lake Conference Center

This European style farm was created by Victor and Jessie Lawson between 1888 and 1914. Together, the Lawsons and their architect William Merigold created a remarkable legacy. However, after Victor Lawson followed his wife in death in 1925, the chances of keeping the estate in tact seemed remarkably low. Kathleen Kleinpaste, in her history book “Just Do It Jessie’s Way,” records: “Buyers were in short supply as the farm operation was a money-losing proposition, and the maintenance required on the vast acreage, with so many buildings, almost precluded purchase by an individual.” (p.102) The trust company for the estate reluctantly accepted an offer of $500,000 from H.O. Stone Company on an $8,000,000 investment by the Lawsons to create the estate. After constructing

Speech delivered at the 75th Anniversary Banquet by Ben Mott, President and CEO on August 9, 2019 Thank you to Tom Jones for your wonderful speech and to Brad Bauer for your kind words in introducing me. My Master’s Degree dissertation was an economic history study on the Somerset Coalfield titled, “Improbable Endurance: How did the Somerset Coalfield Survive Until 1973?” Coal was the energy source behind the Industrial Revolution and behind Great Britain becoming the world’s first industrial nation. However, within that story the Somerset Coalfield is a tiny player never accounting for more than 2% of national output. Somerset, like Wisconsin, is a county with rolling green hills and dairy cows, the home of cheddar cheese,

an agricultural and tourist destination that moves at a sleepier pace than other counties. It simply is missing the ice age winters such that come to Wisconsin each year. Somerset is my home county. The Somerset Coalfield has lower grade coal deposits in relatively small quantities on cragged fault lines that are hard to mine. A local market served by horse and wagon makes economic

what is now called Roger Williams Inn, Lawsonia Links Golf Course and house treasures such as Delmar Miller, Christian Writing Center and Stambaugh, the probable economic outcome came to fruition. The Stone Company ownership era lasted seven years until bankruptcy in 1932 when the Continental Illinois Bank of Chicago foreclosed on the property. It did not endure as a for profit estate, limping along until 1943 under bank ownership. Luther Wesley Smith was the driving force behind God’s miracle of the purchase of these sacred

sense for a small operation. However, this does not answer how on earth the coalfield survived until 1973! The arrival of canals, followed by the railway revolution, followed by automobiles and roads should each have wiped out the mining operations as South Wales with its rich coalfields is not far away. The survival of the Somerset Coalfield is an economic and human history story of improbable endurance. If you want to know how they pulled it off, ask me later. When economic historians study the 75-year history of Green Lake Conference Center they might title their dissertation, “Highly Improbable Endurance.”

grounds. Laura and Harriet, Luther’s daughters (pictured left), are here tonight. Luther

worked with J.L. Kraft, founder and President of Kraft Foods. The story is told of the negotiation with the bank

in 1943:

Right after he left the bank, Luther phoned J.L. Kraft. “We got it! We got it!” he almost shouted. “How much?” J.L. Kraft asked. “Three hundred thousand dollars!” “You couldn’t have. You and I agreed on an offer of $325,000.”

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