The Scandinavia area’s picturesque setting among lakes, streams, and fertile soil attracted its first white farmer, a Norwegian, in 1850. Thomas Knopf built a cabin in 1856 (it still exists) that soon formed the nucleus of the community, serving as a store, church, post office, tavern, and Civil War recruiting office. Scandinavia incorporated as a village in 1862, its name a compromise among the Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes that made up its small population. One of the other suggestions was “Danger,” in honor of Eidanger, Norway. After the railroad went through town in 1871, Scandinavia’s businesses prospered. For whatever reason, however, the population of the central Wisconsin village never made it far above the 300 mark.

Scandinavia was much like any small, Midwestern rural community during the early 1900s. McCormick-Deering mowers were sold at Hanson Bros. hardware store (its sign, painted on the brick wall of the building in the early 1900s, can still be seen along Main Street, also known as Hwy. 49), while J.L. Clark buggies and Weber wagons were sold across the street.

The Depression hit the Scandinavia area just as it did everywhere else as well, leading to the closing of Central Wisconsin College - its dormitory and classrooms located in a four-story brick structure that is still the tallest building in town - in 1932.

During this time Harold Bergman lived in Scandinavia while operating a welding shop in Iola, four miles to the north. Scandinavia village leaders’ were afraid Bergman’s business would cause a great village fire. During the early 1930s the village relaxed and he was allowed to move his welding operation to downtown Scandinavia. Bergman’s shop was built directly across Main Street from his house. Bergman operated Bergman Mfg. Co. out of this small building and in the garage behind his house up into the 1980s.

Harold Bergman, or Bergie, as he was known, died several years ago. He is remembered to have been a tinkerer who was always coming up with better ways to make things.

Sometime during the 1930s he saw a market for inexpensive tractors, and began building doodlebugs for area farmers. Locals estimate that Bergman made nearly 100 tractors from old car and truck parts in his little shop.

The businessman achieved a bit of national fame when Motor Age magazine ran a photo and a small article in its November 1938 issue. The photo shows a young Bergman and his daughter sitting on a homemade row-crop tractor. They are on a car seat mounted between two large Budd truck wheels. The steering column runs over the top of the Waukesha engine, through a vertically mounted Model A axle housing, and then down to a pair of Ford wheels complete with hubcaps. The tractor was equipped with electric start and lights.

Among doodlebugs, Bergman’s Motor Age tractor is unusual in that it has a narrow front end, as most farmers opted to at least use the car’s front axle. Motor Age reported that the tractor in the photo was, at that time, “one of 50 tractors built by Harold Bergman in his garage at Scandinavia, WI.”

When the last tractor rolled out of his shop, Bergman’s Scandinavia “factory” produced more professionally built homemade tractors than some heavily promoted tractor firms managed to complete. His products helped keep many area families solvent through the Depression.

In the boomtimes following World War II, doodlebugs were quickly abandoned in favor of factory-made machines. Harold Bergman then focused on building wooden forage, hay, and green feed racks for area dairy farmers, manufacturing them for custom orders or selling from his stock on hand.

“These [forage] racks are made so they can be knocked down for flat bed racks or for storage,” advertised a flyer from Bergman Mfg. Co. “Extensions can be made for them, so they may be used as high racks. . . . Most all of these racks have inch and three-quarter bottoms, so they can be used for hauling heavy machinery. Can be used for many purposes besides as a chopper rack.” Bergman also offered electric unloading units. Farmers supplied their own running gear.

Bergman offered general repairing and welding, while selling used factory-produced tractors along with his racks in a small lot behind his house. Jay Kobiske, of nearby Waupaca, remembers accompanying his dad to Bergman’s lot to buy a couple of forage racks in the late 1950s. Kobiske recalls that he saw his first General tractor on Bergman’s sales lot, parked among many finished wagon racks.

In the 1970s Bergman was advertising Anderson rock pickers, helping the farmers combat the rocky fields of the area. After Bergman’s death his tiny welding shop sat vacant. It recent years it has been converted into a seasonal ice cream and antique store appropriately called The Olde Welding Shop. The store’s name is a nod to its history, but few other clues remain. As yet, no one has arrived at Scandinavia’s annual Corn Roast parade driving a Bergman-built doodlebug.