ONLY 15 YEARS OLD WHEN HE INVENTED THE HAMBURGER
 

On a sultry August afternoon at the Seymour Fair in 1885, over the music and noise of the midway, the lowing, bleating and whinnying of the livestock, this call could be heard:

“Hamburger, hamburger, hamburger hot, with an onion in the middle and a pickle on top. Makes your lips go flippity flop. Come on over, try an order, fried in butter, listen to it sputter!”

Those words from a 15-year-old Hortonville lad named Charlie Nagreen changed the world as we know it, as the hamburger was born, and yes, in no other place than Seymour, Wisconsin.

Charlie had loaded up his ox cart with meatballs and made the 20-mile trek to Seymour. While watching people walk around the fair, the young entrepreneur knew the meatballs were going to roll off the bread. So he took a meatball and flattened it between two pieces of bread so it would be a portable meal.

With that, Charlie Nagreen became “Hamburger Charlie.” He named the sandwich after the German city of Hamburg and its familiar chopped beef that was part of dinner fare for the many German families in Outagamie County. Charlie would return to the Seymour Fair for the next 65 years, selling his ever-increasingly popular sandwich, but he also sold hamburgers at events in Shawano, Green Bay, Weyauwega, Oshkosh and New London.

In an interview published on the Home of the Hamburger webpage, one of Charlie’s early assistants, Emil Wurm, recounts his days with Charlie. Emil was only 12 when he started to work in Charlie’s Appleton ice cream store in 1917.

“In late summer, Charlie started getting ready for fairs,” Wurm recalled. “This included the hamburger stand, benches, stoves and numerous other pieces of equipment. Seymour was always first on the list, then Brown County.”

The pair traveled by horse for three years; then Charlie modernized with a truck in 1920. Wurm recalled as many as eight people working in the stand, especially on “Appleton Day” when throngs from the larger city to the south would make their way to Seymour for a day at the fair.

So was Charlie a good man to work for? “He was a fine man,” Wurm said. “He was very sympathetic to his fellow man and he had many friends.” Few thought much about how important this historical fact about Seymour was until the 1980s when then- Outagamie County Economic Development Director David Muench chaired a meeting in the city.

Tom Duffey recalled that the hamburger was mentioned and Muench recommended the idea in his report to the city. As the idea bounced around several meetings, it was decided to hold the first Burger Fest in 1989 and attempt to cook the World’s Largest Hamburger for the Guinness Book of World Records. The 5,520-pound burger was created on a special grill created by local craftsmen.

Burger Fest still features a 250-pound burger cooked to perfection each year, and attendees are treated to a slice of juicy burger. The Seymour record stood for years, but now Guinness reports a larger burger was created on July 9, 2017, in Pilsen, Germany. It should be noted, however, that this burger, and many would say pretender to the throne, consists of three meat patties, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, onions, hamburger sauce and a bun.

The young entrepreneur knew the meatballs were going to roll off the bread. So he took a meatball and flattened it between two pieces of bread so it would be a portable meal.

Another innovation at the first Burger Fest, which remains a top attraction to the festival 31 years later, is the Ketchup Slide. Yes, you read right, a Ketchup Slide. A long plastic slide is covered in a mixture of water and ketchup, and contestants take a running belly flop to see who can slide the farthest. Collin Worm of Menasha, with a slide of 225 feet, holds the current world record slide for men, and the female record holder is Seymour native Alyssa Skiba with 162-foot,10-inch effort.

Bill Collar was tabbed to portray Hamburger Charlie since he fits Nagreen’s image. A former Seymour Community High School history teacher and football coach, Collar has the personality and the lung power to command a crowd. As he delivers Charlie’s chant, it is easy to go back to the fair of 1885 in one’s mind.

“I was coaching football, which always started in early August, and Burger Fest is in early August, so I would go right from being Hamburger Charlie back to football,” he said. “Usually, the day of Burger Fest was about 90 degrees and 95 percent humidity and I had to wear those long pants and a long-sleeved shirt to be in character. What I remember most is we ordered thousands of hamburger gummies candy and as I did the parade route we’d hand them out to kids and I’d ham it up a bit.”

After taking a few years’ break, Collar returned to being Hamburger Charlie until another high school teacher, John Steltz, filled the suspenders of Hamburger Charlie.

“What attracted me was the idea of giving back to the community which has welcomed our family with open arms for the past 15 years,” Stelz said. “The pride in the history of the burger in Seymour is something that I feel I can represent.”

Steltz was no stranger to Burger Fest, having volunteered grilling burgers and performing other jobs. When Steltz dons the white “soda jerk” style server cap and pulls up his suspenders, he becomes Hamburger Charlie in the flesh.

“You have to take up the role and represent the best of the city,” he said. “A lot of visitors come to Burger Fest and they want to know who Hamburger Charlie was, giving the account of the hamburger and welcoming visitors to our city.”

Steve Kemp has served as president of Home of the Hamburger for three years and has been involved with the organization for a decade, and though he is stepping down as president, he is thrilled with the festival’s future.

“We have a full, new, energetic board, and it’s going to fly,” Kemp said.

“When you see all of the people who are here and they’re happy to be in Seymour,” is what gives Kemp the most satisfaction of being involved with Burger Fest. “That will bring a tear to my eye.”

A balloon rally was introduced in 2001 and draws throngs of people to watch ascents and colorful balloon glows.

This year’s event will begin with the Balloon Rally on Friday, Aug. 9. Saturday’s events begin with the 5k Bun Run at 8 a.m. The World’s Largest Hamburger Parade is at 11 a.m., followed by games and activities on Depot Street, a hamburger- eating contest with the grand finale of the day, the Dairy Queen Ketchup Slide bringing the day to a glorious, if very messy, close. Balloon rallies are also held about 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday.

A full schedule and more information about how Seymour is the birthplace of arguably the world’s most popular sandwich can be found at homeofthehamburger.org.

Joe Sauer seasons the World Record Hamburger created during the first Burger Fest in 1988.
Photo courtesy Home of the Hamburger

OTHER COMMUNITIES HAVE LAID CLAIM TO TITLE

While Seymour has the best documentation of being the Home of the Hamburger, three other spots around the country claim the feat for their own.

The following is how Seymour documents its claim:

• There are several pictures showing Charlie in his stand at the fairgrounds with the sign “Since 1885” displayed.
• Charlie’s daughter recalled that her father was often referred to as the “Inventor of the hamburger.”
• A poem written by one of Charlie’s coworkers states he was selling hamburgers at the fair in 1885.

Hamburg, NY: Charles and Frank Menches claimed they were selling sausage sandwiches at the Erie County Fair in 1885 when they ran out of sausage. They then bought 10 pounds of chopped beef, but they also added brown sugar, coffee and other ingredients to combat the weak flavor.

New Haven, CT: The claim says Louis Lassen sold steak sandwiches from his lunch wagon then switched to chopped beef and put it in a bun in 1895. Louis’ Lunch is a New Haven restaurant still selling sandwiches grilled vertically in antique gas grills and served between two slices of toast.

Athens, TX: Fletcher “Old Dave” Davis reportedly created the hamburger when his pottery business crumbled in the small town southeast of Dallas. The first report said he marketed the sandwich at the 1904 St. Louis Fair.