Peggy Prilaman Marxen

press release:  Middleton Public Library welcomes author Peggy Prilaman Marxen to discuss her new memoir, The Farm on Badger Creek: Memories of a Midwest Girlhood

Sign-up is required for this free event. To register online, click here. Books will be available for purchase and signing.

Peggy Prilaman Marxen grew up near the town of Meteor in northwestern Wisconsin’s Sawyer County, isolated by geography yet surrounded by close-knit extended family. They supplemented their subsistence herd of dairy cows by hunting, fishing, and selling timber and maple syrup. For many years, her home, like those of her neighbors, lacked indoor plumbing, electricity, and a telephone. As a young child, Peggy attended a one-room schoolhouse and walked, biked, or sledded the three miles to school and back, no matter the weather.

With a lyrical style that mixes nostalgia with humorous anecdotes, Marxen traces her family’s story through the best and worst of times. The Farm on Badger Creek is a fitting tribute to her settler ancestors and a way of life now gone— and a celebration of the hardy people who carve out a life in our nation’s rural communities.

Peggy Prilaman Marxen taught fourth grade for thirty-three years. She lives in Middleton, Wisconsin where she continues to enjoy walking, hiking, and gardening.