Merton News
LOL memorial
Through the efforts of the Land O’ Lakes Old Timers Association and the Weber family, a new memorial in memory of Martin C. Weber Sr. and Martin C. Weber Jr. has been erected at the entrance to the hardball field at Merton’s Firemen’s Park. The public is invited to a dedication at noon Saturday, Sept. 20.
Martin C. Weber Sr. was a lifelong resident of the Village of Merton and was the founder of Land O’ Lakes sports in 1922. He was the director until 1952. LOL Constitution and Bylaws
Martin C. Weber Jr. was also a lifelong resident and postmaster for many years. He was the co-founder of the Land O’ Lakes Old Timers Association and an officer of the association from 1954 to 1988. He played Land O’ Lakes ball for many years as the Merton Amvets catcher and was inducted into the LOL Hall of Fame in 1973.
Webers memorial dedication set
A dedication ceremony for the memorial in honor of two Land O' Lakes architects will take place at noon Saturday, Sept. 20, at Firemen's Park in the Village of Merton.
A dedication ceremony for the memorial in honor of two Land O’ Lakes architects will take place at noon Saturday, Sept. 20, at Firemen’s Park in the Village of Merton.
The memorial commemorates Martin C. Weber Sr., founder and director of Land O’ Lakes sports, and Martin C. Weber Jr., co-founder and officer of Land O’ Lakes Old Timers Association, as well as a former player.
The public is invited to the dedication.
Martin C. Weber 1897 - 1967
Source: Merton-Lake Keesus Area - A History in Story and Text, by the Lake Keesus Woman's Club, 1976
(From Weber records)
Seldom does history afford any community the memorable heritage of its citizens' unselfish efforts to serve his fellow man. Today, more than a half century later; recognized "home-talent" sports continue to flourish in many communities thanks to an idea and the man who instrumented it.
Merton has such a man; his name is Martin C. Weber, the younger of two sons born to Mathew and Katherine Weber on November 29, 1897. His parents were among the first German settlers in the small dairy farming community of Merton, located in southeastern Wisconsin.
Martin Weber was one of less than a dozen boys attending Hartland High School in 1914. His black stallion was his five mile transportation and could always be seen tied outside the school. The school coach thought his five foot seven inch frame was too small to play on their basketball team, so Weber organized his own squad of local farm boys from Merton. They won several games that year including a game with Hartland. The following year he returned to play, and captained Hartland's team to some impressive victories over schools such as Waukesha, West Allis, and Wauwatosa. His baseball efforts were equally good. Such schools as Marquette academy, Oconomowoc, Columbus, and Watertown all became victims of the Hartland squad which were well represented by those Merton farm boys.
It was with this growing atmosphere of sports activities, that Martin Weber got the idea that each community should have their own teams with their own local talent participating. Thus the Land O' Lakes League was born in 1922. The six original teams, Hartland, Sussex, Monches, Pewaukee, Lannon, and Menomonee Falls, grew into four leagues which blanketed three counties.
Before this outstanding growth of the Land O' Lakes League, however, there were some stormy early years which endangered the infant league. The Merton Farmer threatened to quit this new league unless the semi-pro influence was stopped. Players had been demanding money to perform and heavy betting was hurting local sponsors who could not afford to lose player support. Weber knew that his home-talent idea was in complete opposition to these semi-pro activities.
A few weeks after the Land O' Lakes had ended its first season a group of men from the neighboring towns met in Weber's kitchen. They persuaded the young dairy farmer to continue his battle against semi-pro influence. They knew that his shrewd understanding of the need for small town sports was the real asset in nurturing his home-talent dream. Further, they all agreed that most communities couldn't afford semi-pro fees for players or league entries.
The result was a new tough set of home-talent rules, which included a five-mile limit from which any community could use a player; this limit was later changed to 10 miles in some areas or definite boundaries were established so each player and team knew the exact rules of eligibility.
One of the main reasons that the home-talent league grew and successfully spread its organization over nearly one third of Wisconsin could be credited to Weber himself. He was constantly looking for new methods through which his league could become a better one. Martin Weber was a patient and understanding man and when teams or players decided to quit his league, he never held any grudges, but hoped they soon would return; many did, because the lure of semi-pro pay quickly died in many communities that could not afford this expensive way of playing the game.
Many towns enjoyed watching several members of the same family participate in both baseball and basketball. Among some of the most popular were the Stapletons and Klinks from North Lake, the Pfeifers from Hartland, the Reimers from Lannon, and, of course, the Webers from Merton. None of Weber's four sons were born when he started the Land O' Lakes , but as the years slipped by and the boys grew up, suddenly seven of them including three cousins thrilled Weber by winning Merton's first land O' Lakes championship in 1952.
Another highlight in the Land O' Lakes League started in the mid-thirties when Weber became associated with Russell G. Lynch who later became the sports editor of the Milwaukee Journal. Lynch immediately recognized the strong future possibilities of this young home-talent league and encouraged Weber by giving his teams lots of publicity in the paper.