How New Glarus Helped Make “Uncle Sol”
Before Wisconsin knew him as “Uncle Sol,” Solomon Levitan walked Green County’s farm roads with merchandise on his back, built a New Glarus store and forged the relationships that carried him into statewide office. His rise began here.
More than 40 years after he first arrived in New Glarus as a young immigrant carrying merchandise from farm to farm, Solomon “Sol” Levitan returned to the village as Wisconsin’s state treasurer.
Speaking during New Glarus’ 80th anniversary celebration in August 1925, Levitan looked back on the community that had given him his first real opportunity in America.
“I shall never forget the kindly welcome which these good people gave me when I came among them,” he told those gathered for the celebration. “I always felt at home among them.”
Levitan had traveled far from the young peddler who once walked Green County’s rural roads with a pack strapped to his back. He had become a successful merchant and banker, a leader in Wisconsin’s Progressive movement and one of the state’s most recognizable political figures.
But when Levitan told the story of his rise, he repeatedly returned to New Glarus — to its Swiss farm families, its merchants and the relationships he formed while trying to establish himself in a new country.
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