Kewaunee County History: Algoma and Nearly 175 Years of Dolls

Financially strapped as so many were during the Depression and going into the rationing of World War ll, there were plenty of long faces when there were no dolls, trucks, roller skates, BB guns and sleds under the Christmas tree. Beach’s Dime Store – and Beach’s Basement Toyland in 1945 - had toys and if Santa read his mail, he could pick them up in Algoma without making the long journey to the freezing North Pole. Everybody had fresh carrots in the basement bin and a farming community, such as Algoma, had plenty of hay. The reindeer wouldn’t go hungry.

But how did parents explain when Santa forgot, or why a friend got a gift their child desperately wanted? Nobody wanted a pair of socks or underwear unless it was for a dress-up doll. The little ones never knew when second-hand gifts appeared under some trees. Metal toys and old toboggans were cleaned up and painted. If there was a scape or two, it was bound to happen if a toy fell off the overcrowded sleigh or rubbed the side of a chimney. Dolls were washed, clothing was refreshed or new clothing was made. Little girls were ecstatic when a new dress matched the dress on the refurbished doll. Seldom do the moms and dads of today work secretly worked into the night to sew, refurbish and build. Today requests are electronic, mostly phones, which average kids already have. They need the latest model. Video games and subscriptions to gaming sites are desired. Some things are factory refurbished although are not “second hand.” While it seems that everything runs on batteries, it was flashlights that required batteries in 1950, and any kid playing with a flashlight was chastised for using up a battery.

Since the settlement of Wolf River, (one of Algoma’s early names) little girls have played with dolls, however not today’s dolls. Perhaps the area Pottawatomie children did as well. The Oneida populated areas west of Wolf River in what has been Brown County since 1818 when today’s Wisconsin was part of the Michigan Territory. The Oneida children had faceless, corn husk dolls.

The only little girl in Wolf River in 1851 was 9-year-old Harriet Warner. If Harriet had a doll, no doubt it was one made of fabric scraps – a rag doll - rather than a China doll made mostly (or even entirely) of porcelain. By 1859, Harriet’s cousin Lucy Warner lived on the lake shore road about 3 miles south of (then) Ahnapee. Lucy had a China doll, 11” tall with black hair and blue eyes. The doll was in an exhibit at Algoma Library in December 1953, just under 100 years later. Librarian Dorothy Ackerman hosted the display at the library then at the northwest corner of Third and Steele St., above City Hall. Also in the display was a wax doll from 1869. It belonged to Mrs. George Hyde (Sabina Emily Flower Hyde, 1870-1958) and who brought her doll with her at immigration to America. Sabine was the mother of Myrtle Hyde Perry, who became  Mrs. Rufus Runke, the mother of Ralph and Melvin Perry.

National Gallery of Art online tells us dolls go back much farther than the settlement of Wolf River and that since ancient times, dolls were used in magic and religious rituals, and used to represent deities. But they have also been toys for children.

Mattel’s Barbie dolls were introduced in 1959. The full-figured adult dolls that reflected cultural changes and the dreams of little girls were by far the most popular doll of the 20^th century. There were others.

When a 21-year-old art student rediscovered an old German art called “needle molding,” soft sculpture dolls were born. Originally called the Little People, they were renamed Cabbage Patch dolls, marketed as a doll that “looks like you.” They even came with adoption papers.

Cabbage Patch dolls were such a phenomena that adults fought over them. News carried reports about law enforcement called to stores to break up adults fighting over the dolls. Some adults developed strategies to work with another, throwing dolls over the display into the next aisle where another could grab as many dolls as possible. When dolls sold for $25, there were reports of selling on the black market for as much as $2,000, and an online search reports that in the 1980s, 30 million Cabbage Patch dolls were sold.

Kenner introduced its scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls in 1979. Lower elementary teachers of the era remember the scents of strawberry, blueberry, and more when the kids brought the overpowering scented doll necklaces. Now-retired teachers well remember the headaches from all that “perfume” in the classroom.

Girls of the late 1930s and into the 1950s had dolls whose faces were a composite of the famous Dionne quintuplets. The quints were real, and dolls were named for them – Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie.

The quints' clothing was copied by well-dressed children throughout the world. Their baby clothing was the inspiration for child models and the colors they wore became the colors in children’s clothing.

By July 1936, the quint dolls were being made with curly dark hair and the dolls were wearing silk frocks and bonnets like the those worn by the girls.

The identical quintuplet girls were born in Corbeil, Ontario, during the Depression and their marketing and exploitation -they  were wards of the provincial Crown - brought profit to the Canadian province. People flocked to “Quintland” to gaze and gawk at the little girls who were taken from their parents and siblings, exhibited like monkeys and even used in scientific experiments. As the world’s most photographed children, the girls were forced to dress alike for photo shoots. Their pictures were in magazines, on postcards, used in advertising and souvenirs, and their images were used to sell products, such as dolls. Dolls with the quints’ likeness outsold the child film star Shirley Temple dolls.

Shirley Temple, America’s child star sweetheart, was an irresistible, curly topped little girl who was always seen as  cheerful, cute, loving, and even courageous on the silver screen. The 1930s saw the depths of the Depression and in the decade, Shirley made 20 feature films. Wikipedia, photo left) says each of her films included emotional healing.

Popular as Shirly Temple and the Dionne quintuplets were, if there was downright fighting over dolls in stores, the newspapers didn’t mention it. However, during the same era, there were reports of women fighting over the fabric stamped flour bags. No doubt some little girl’s dress came from one of those flour bags while her doll’s dress came from the scraps.

Just as the Barbie dolls, the Cabbage Patch dolls are sold as collectors’ items so are the older Shirley Temple and quintuplet dolls. The metal toys of the 1930s often found their way into the World War ll metal drives, but the dolls had nothing to offer in defense of the country and thus exist today.

With tears like a real baby, Tiny Tears made its debut in the 1950s. Betsy Wetsy was even more like a real baby. Entering the market in 1937, the “drink and wet” Betsy grew in popularity.

Algoma was the place for dolls. The late historian Pearl Foshion’s hobby was re-doing dolls from the body to the clothing. She was regarded as an expert who collected and repaired dolls to the point of being known as the doll doctor. Her husband Herb was a city physician. When the Record Herald reported on Pearl’s dolls, it said she had been collecting for years and the oldest was 82 years old.

When the dolls were exhibited in December 1953, the oldest doll was a golden-haired China doll, owned by an Indiana resident, that dated to 1890. Mrs. John Thiard’s bisque doll with auburn hair was on display as was a 1900 doll that came from Mrs. Frank Jirtle’s store. Ruth Henry Evans’ 1903 doll even had its own swing to sit in.

 Mrs. Lorraine Gray, whose husband, Harold,  was the local Methodist minister, had a huge doll collection and in late 1969, she had 2,200 dolls in her home. Ten years later, Mrs. Gray’s museum was a major tourist attraction in northeaster Wisconsin, drawing over 11,000 visitors in 1980.

By spring 1980, Mrs. Gray’s Doll Museum featured 5,433 dolls on the east end of  Living Lake’s Expo on Church St. The museum had Shirley Temple dolls and boasted of having Norwegian, Olympic skater Sonja Heine wearing skates. Her oldest doll, Frozen Charlotte,* dated to 1860. Topsey Turvey** (left) dated to 1884.

One of Mrs. Gray’s most unusual dolls (left) was a replica of a paddle doll*** of Egypt of 3,000 years ago. The doll lacked arms, legs and a head and was not much more than beads on a piece of wood.

She had dolls from porcelain, wax and wood to plastic, and dolls from around the world, including a Belgian lacemaker brought on a tour of Belgians who came to the area in 1978. There were George and Marth Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, the Kennedy family, Queen Elizabeth, Ike and Maimi Eisenhower, Will Rogers, Laurel & Hardy, Elvis Presley, Emmett Kelly, the Muppets and so many more.

Annual doll shows brought hundreds and hundreds to Algoma and in July 1982, the 18^th annual Doll Show ans Sale at Knutson Hall and Dug-Out was the largest ever with dealers and exhibitors coming from 20 states.

 One hundred sixty-nine years after the first documented doll in what is now Algoma, there are a lot of dolls, collectibles and otherwise, in town.

Notes:

* Frozen Charlotte was a china or bisque doll made in one piece between 1850 and 1920. There were no moveable parts, which, Wikipedia says, made them look as if they were frozen. Wikipedia further says as the dolls increased in popularity, its name was inspired by a ballad about Charlotte who froze to death riding in a carriage to a winter ball.

** https://dclu.langston.edu.eflewiscollection history says the dolls were sewn by African-American women who were employed as domestics in European-American households.

Research indicates that the dolls originated during slavery and that there appears to be no single reason for such dolls, the dual doll might reflect the mixed race children who were part of the plantation world.

*** https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544216 says Egyptian Paddle Dolls dated to the Middle Kingdom and were not toys but were necklaces which when shaken made sounds to appease gods or goddesses. They were made of wood although had thick hair.

Cousins in the Blogger's family had quintuplet dolls. Our family shares the quints' ancestry.

Sources: Algoma Record Hearld and websites mentioned above. The corn husk doll is from an Oneida doll-making workshop.

An Algoma Christmas 1944: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

 When poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem “Christmas Bells,” it was Christmas Day 1863 and followed the 1861 death of his wife, Fanny. She had died from burns when her clothing caught fire. By the time Longfellow wrote the poem, his son had been wounded in the War Between the States, now known as the Civil War. Longfellow’s poem stemmed from his deep mourning as he heard hope in the chiming bells that Christmas morning.  That the right prevails with peace on earth and goodwill to men is echoed in the Christas carol that originated in the pealing Boston church bells.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day was set to music by John Baptiste Calkin and has been arranged many times over. Bells reflect good news. Bells reflect the beginning and the end, but it is the Christmas bells that herald the hope and joy of Christians in the birth of Jesus.

Eighty years ago – 1944 – Christmas bells brought hope in Algoma when the war-weary world prayed for peace. In some ways, 1944 was not so different from 2024. Most things change in such times but, sometimes, not so much.

If Algoma residents were thinking of the joy in the bells and music, maybe they stopped at Yahnke’s service station to purchase music from the new shipment of records.

John Byrnes was running for 8^th District Congressmen in 1944 when told Algoma’s U.S. Plywood employees that the Washington administration failed to bring jobs and create prosperous economic conditions while being responsible for the largest drawn-out depression in history. Byrnes said it was the war not FDR’s New Deal that brought the uptick in jobs. He said while Algoma employers and employees agreed to wage increases, they were stuck for months and months as there were 19,000 cases before the Washington, D.C. board that had to approve of any such raises. Byrnes said the country needed to “return to the freedom of workers and freedom of enterprise.” He said the way it was, folks were being misled to believe Washington grants the benefits. He further said that when the war was over and the boys came home, they’d want real jobs, “not the dole and leaf-raking dependency on Washington.”

While Brynes was campaigning, Algoma resident Garritt VanDam talked about the two letters he received concerning relatives still residing in his native Holland. Gerritt’s father was a baker in Eerde, in southern Netherlands, but Garritt followed milling. It was Father VandenElzen, the pastor at Fairland (now Namur), originally from VanDam’s home area, who encouraged Garritt to locate in Algoma to work for Algoma baker, James Knaapen. VanDam eventually bought the Rio Creek mill and elevator.

A Minnesota woman wrote to VanDam telling him her son met Gerritt’s brother Bernard and his family who treated her son with great kindness. The woman’s son was in England after being wounded and hoped he could write to Gerritt about his family.

The other letter was about Bernhardt Van Dam, Garritt’s nephew, and the bare bakery Bernhardt owned. Supplies were short, if they could be had at all. Restrictions meant the writer could not say where he was nor where he had been so only mentioned the church in “your nephew’s village,” which the family knew was at Eerde. It was still standing but had suffered in the bombings.

While Bernhardt VanDam’s village faced food shortages, Katch’s and Red Owl’s Cashway were advertising food bargains, although Cashway let it be known that the store had the right to limit quantities. Katch’s bulk candy shipment ad was sure to bring in shoppers. Arndt’s Super Food Market suggested food gifts and would make up any size of fruit basket.

Local merchants were doing “Christmas good dollars and cents business” but said Christmas items were scarce although there were plenty of substitutes. The Record Herald said there wasn’t any candy and few cigarettes. Sugar was the first and last thing rationed during the war. It was needed for military food rations. Cigarettes were given to soldiers with their overseas rations at a time when civilian smoking was increasing due to wartime stress. One businessman was realistic when he said they sell what they had because that was all there was. It even made the news when scarce women’s hosiery became available and seemed to be of unusually good quality.

Though residents missed candy and cigarettes, everybody knew the “boys” in tents, foxholes, on bases or in ships needed it more. Besides that, spending less at Christmas meant more money was available for war bonds.

William Saroyan’s Christmas was dramatized when Algoma Women’s Club met for their December meeting. Christmas smells were represented in the cedar boutonnieres given to each attendee. Christmas tastes were brought out the in cookies, while Christmas sights included gift wrapping and decorations. The women learned cutting strips of flannel with pinking shears made appropriate ribbon for babies’ gifts. Just being together was the Christmas highlight.

But this was 1944, the fourth Christmas when the country was at war. The dramatization stressed that the being together was a “spirit” with so many absent. Suggestions included inviting a serviceman to dinner to see the tree lights and gifts, getting cards and letters to those one had been meaning to write, or to have a ‘round robin account of the day’s events to send to others. It was pointed out that “a gift is anything one can give another and the greatest is those we hold in our hearts, rather than in our hands.” Far away were those both known and unknown who didn’t hear the hope and joy of the Christmas bells while they fought for the right to believe in all that Christmas means.

During this fourth year of war, businessmen and homeowners alike skipped the outdoor decorations and 10 days before Christmas the post office said it had sold 15,000 1 ½ cent stamps, down from the 35,000 the year before, although the Record Herald felt that folks were just late as card sales in the city had mushroomed.  Both the paper and the post office neglected to say that the cost of mailing had increased during the year.

Christmas doesn’t seem like a time for paper drives, however in 1944, Kewaunee County had just completed the December paper collection which fell considerably short of the 10# per person in September. Collections were made at the various churches where St. Paul’s, Algoma, led the way with about 1,000 pounds. That fell far short of the over four ton the same church brought in a few months earlier.

Beach’s Toy Store at 304 Steele and Beach’s main store at 514 4^th advertised gifts, including jewelry which seemed a little pricey for the time. Pyrex came into being in 1915 and in 1944, a Pyrex casserole dish had a distinctive advantage: the cover doubled as a pie plate. At 75 cents, the practical man could gift his wife, mother, sisters, aunts and neighbors a Pyrex casserole for the price of a single lapel pin.

Seventy-five cents could buy a new hairdo at Flora Lee. Permanent waves began at $3.95. Anew “do” was certain to put a woman in the Christmas spirit.

Algoma churches announced Christmas Eve and day services, some of which saw youth taking the largest part. St. Mary’s celebrated with midnight mass and 5 masses on Christmas Day. St Paul’s had a song service on Christmas Eve. The choir, Sunday school, day school and congregation were all part of the service. Christmas Day services were at the regular times.

The Methodist church presented a Christmas pageant with children of the congregation taking multiple parts.

St. Agnes-By-the-Lake Episcopal church did not have Christmas Eve services in 1944 but did have a communion service on Christmas Day. St. John’s, Rankin, opened with a children’s program on Christmas Eve. The congregation’s 66 Sunday school children presented recitations and songs at night. Services in both German and English followed on Christmas Day.

Just before Christmas, the paper informed readership about the school Christmas programs. Students at San Sauveur school joined the kids at Duvall Graded as they were treated to an educational movie. Any kind of a movie was a treat in those days when the county owned projector was scheduled for use at the various rural schools. Casco High School announced its Christmas concert on December 22 as the three other high schools were performing their own band and choral concerts. Other musical news was Luxemburg’s Phyllis Rueckl who made her operatic debut in the Chicago Opera Company. Phyllis studied with Theodore Harrison at the American Conservatory. The really big news was in food production, and Lincoln cheese factory got a new cheese vat big enough to hold 15,000 pounds of milk.

When the Christmas bells rang in 1944, Algoma residents were praying for relatives and friends in the military and the war’s end. The war did end, and 1945 saw a different kind of Christmas. There were still shortages and hardships, however fathers, sons and daughters were returning. In some cases, it took years for a body to come home.

Eighty years later, there are similarities. The older set remembers; the younger people have no clue. What seems to have changed the most is business. Algoma was a hub where one could find just about anything in 1944.

The bells have changed too. They are automated, electronic and digital, but they were heard "on Christmas Day in the morning."

+++++++++++++++

Algoma businesses – 15 of which were alcohol-related - wished residents Christmas greetings in the pre-Christmas Record Herald.  The Hotel Stebbins and the Flora Lee Shoppe remain.

Mollie’s West Side Tavern, Mura’s Rustic Resort, Worachek’s Tavern, Dick DeGuelle’s Bar, Perry’s 4^th Street Coffee Shop, Thora Wheeler’s Club Tavern and Restaurant, Kulhanek’s North Side Tavern, Marquardt’s Electric Service, Arno Graf’s Hotel Stebbins, Louis Hassberg’s Majestic Theater, Maedke Produce, P.C. Gerhart & Son, Heinie Damman Schlitz’ Bar, Henry Wiese Clothing Store. Red Zastrow’s Tavern, Blahnik Chevrolet Sales, Ebert Barber Shop, Stangel’s Tavern, Clarence Haucke’s Funeral and Ambulance Service and Furniture Store, Empey Monument Co., Schuch’s Market, Norb Hucek’s Victory Club, John Maedke’s Lakeview Lumber Co., Tom Stodola’s Owls’ Club, Rufus Entringer’s West Side Barber Shop, Otto Krohn’s O-K Barber Shop, Builders Veneer & Woodwork Co. of Rio Creek, Clarence Vandertie’s Sky Club, Rein Ponath’s Rein’s Tavern, Algoma Creamery, Timble Barber Shop, Rivers’ Bakery, Hubbard Welding and Body Shop, Reinhart’s Footwear, John Bero Insurance Agency, Paul Hoppe Perlewitz Paint Shop, William Mullen Insurance Agent, Groessl’s Drug Store, Algoma Oil Co., Sedivy’s Market, Nell’s West Side Grocery, Fellows’ Garage, A.S. Woles’ Melchior Jewelry Store, Muench Service Station. Earl’s IGA Store, Beaches, Pearley’s Standard Service Station, Gamble Stores, Fluck’s City Drug Store, Yahnke Wadham’s Service Station, Allen Schwedler Appliance Co., Ropson’s Motor Sales, Flora Lee Shoppe, Holtz Beer and Locker Service, Louis Sibilsky Insurance, Carl Fabry Cashier at the Bank of Rio Creek, Algoma Fuel Company and Horak’s Market.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Commercial History of Algoma, WI, Vol. 1

 

   

Veterans' Day, 2024: A Reminder That Freedom Isn't Free

“Freedom is never free,” said President Ronald Reagen. He was quoting from James Grengs’ Freedom is Never Free, or maybe he was quoting from Kelly Strong’s poem Freedom is Not Free. Trey Parker wrote the song Freedom Isn’t Free. The phrase seems to be identified with many, however Googling susgests its origin is credited to Col. Walter Hitchcock of the New Mexico Military Institute. Whatever its origins, it's true.

Irvine Health Foundation, ihf.org/veterans/ is one of many that says, “A veteran is someone who, at one point in their life wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America,” for an amount up to and including their life.” The person who first said that appears to be unknown, but the quote rings loud and clear on Veterans’ Day, November 11.

The words were echoed once again by emcee D. L. as he spoke to hundreds of vets who were recognized at the Green Bay Yacht Club. In its 20^th year, the club honors all vets who enter the grounds under the fire department’s huge flag arch. As they meet and greet, they enjoy coffee, pastries, hors d’oeuvres, and a scrumptious lunch for which there is no charge. It was and is a day of remembering and comradery. Veterans know each other even though they’ve never met.

Solemn 2024 ceremonies included an invocation, a speaker – this year a Lt. Col. who talked about being under fire when a severely wounded man kept it up, putting his life in even greater jeopardy thus surely saving the lives of others. The story of such bravery brought tears from those who knew how many times it was repeated in the 250 years of U.S. history. The bagpipers from the Green Bay fire department added to the emotion. The flag ceremonies, the Sullivan-Wallin Post 11 salute and taps, and the Coast Guard dropping the wreath into the water to honor those lost at sea had an effect on all present.

There were sobs. Some were men still dealing with the demons of Vietnam. They had a special honor though when musician/songwriter Mickey Grasso introduced his new song, “Welcome Home.” Vietnam vets came home to be degraded and even spit upon for being drafted into service, and Mickey sang just for them. Veterans’ services vans were there with staff offering information and assistance.

The future was represented by elementary school scouts who led the Pledge of Allegiance and then went on to be of service carrying food and coffee for those with mobility issues, or just helping around the dining room.

The men who originated the event, and all those who have helped to grow it, know Col. Hitchcock was right: Freedom isn’t free. From the Revolutionary War to present day, it is ordinary men and women who have written the blank check. For far too many, the check has been cashed!

 Photo from https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/navy-sailor-salute

Kewaunee County, Abraham Lincoln & the Nomination of 1860

 

Kewaunee Enterprize was the first newspaper on Wisconsin’s Peninsula when it published its first edition on Wednesday, June 22, 1859. Door County Advocate followed on March 22, 1862. What started as the Ahnapee Record in June 1873 became Algoma Record Herald in 1918. There were other Peninsula papers within those years, however they came and went, or merged with the big three.

Of the papers, it was only the Enterprize that saw the nomination and the election of Abraham Lincoln. It was only the Enterprize that witnessed the start of the War Between the States, later being mostly known as the Civil War.

The presidential election of 1860 was 164 years ago. One hundred sixty years certainly brings change, but then again……not so much.

In today’s world, news travels electronically in seconds, however in 1860 telegraphs had not yet made it to the Peninsula. Travel was primarily by horse or boat, and while railroads were making inroads, it was over 30 years before trains were a reality on the Peninsula. News came to the lake port communities via the ship captains and any newspapers they brought with them. Door County was set off from Brown County in 1851 and Kewaunee County was set off from Door a year later. The Peninsula is no longer the “backwater” it was in 1860 when often news was hearsay, although many would say today's rumor-spreader is social media.

When the Enterprize published on Wednesday, May 30, 1860, it told readers the Republican nomination of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago “astonished everybody, and none more than that party.” The paper went on to say there was no use in “disguising the fact than that the nomination is a wet blanket” on the party’s election chances. It said the charming, gregarious William H. Seward was really the enthusiastic choice and looked forward to by the rank and file as the preeminent choice.

It said that Lincoln, Pennsylvania’s Simon Cameron, Missouri’s Edwin Bates and others were fair enough as candidates but that Seward was a champion of the issues, a man of extraordinary talent and more. Lincoln was identified as a man of good reputation with a “sort of coarse popularity.” He was called a country stump speaker. His sense was sound, but his talent was “medium.” The Enterprize did not say that at the Chicago convention, Mr. Lincoln was on his own turf. Called the Chicago Wigwam,** the building was specifically erected for the convention in the young city that would after play an important part in U.S. politics.

In a reprint from the Green Bay Advocate, found in the Enterprize, the Advocate said it could probably find 20 Wisconsin farmers within a day’s drive who would be at least equal to Lincoln in “all valuable respects.”

The Advocate thought Lincoln’s nomination was brought about by those hostile to Seward, those who would rather have the party defeated than have Seward succeed. It thought the Democrats who were about to meet at Baltimore might have learned a lesson from the Republicans: “Chicanery is fatal to party success.” Men who were faithful, prominent and demanded by the people were those the Enterprize felt must be nominated even though it did not suit the political managers. Had Seward been nominated, the paper felt, the Democrats would have had a horrible time defeating him. Green Bay Advocate said the Democrats only needed to be marshalled on election day to march “over the field to certain and rapid victory” with a candidate like Stephen A. Douglas.

Enterprise Editor Garland said that from boyhood forward men were raised to see talents and abilities in looking for a presidential nominee. It carried correspondence from the Free Democrat which said there was excitement in the city (Chicago) and issued a statement “of ground of the fitness and capacity of ‘Old Abe’ for the high office for which he was nominated.” It was also written that “the Press & Tribune office was illuminated from the top to bottom, and on each side of the counting room stood a rail taken out of 3,000 split by Old Abe on the Sagamom River bottom some 30 years ago, and on the inside were two more rails hung with tapers.”  “Old Abe” was a mere 52 years old.

The Free Democrat said it learned early of Lincoln’s “peculiar fitness” for office. Mockingly, the Enterprize said if rail splitting was a qualification for office, Kewaunee County would have no problem finding several hundred men who qualified as timber candidates. It went on to say stalworth farmers “who are sound on the rail” should be selected to bear aloft the Republican banner.”

Boston Chronicle of the same date said Friday, May 18, would be remembered by the men of Massachusetts as the day the Republican party executed itself. Since the death of Daniel Webster, the paper had not seen men “so sober and so sad.” The Chronicle thought if the capital sunk into the earth, if the courthouse turned around, if city hall and the old state house moved to the customs house..….all those unnatural things could not have produced such profound a sensation as the announcement of Lincoln’s nomination. It said the intense sadness of the Republicans was so bad that Democrats “could not find it in their hearts to make light of their affliction.” But they did.

When a Boston merchant asked what possessed Republicans to nominate such a man, a “shabby man said it was availability.” As the merchant walked off, he was said to be muttering, “And are the great interests of this great nation to be given over to a man we do not know, because someone says he is “available?” It was said men stood in groups on the street discussing the “blunder.” Mr. Seward had the hearts of New England masses. He spoke well, he was educated and had a familiar name. How could such a man be thrust aside with the likes of Abraham Lincoln? The Illinois rail splitter was nominated in the morning and in the afternoon, Massachusetts’ sister state, Maine, won the “second prize” in Hannibal Hamlin. Such candidates could not be more unfortunate for Massachusetts and even women and children were laughing, said the Chronicle. Still, there was a 100-gun salute, however nobody knew if it signaled the life or death of the six-year old party.

The New York Tribune felt Seward’s election chances were so strong that his nomination was a foregone conclusion, so when news of Lincoln’s nomination came, it was considered a hoax. It was said in 1856 that John C. Fremont was nominated to be defeated until the Republican party got stronger.* The Tribune opined “Lincoln was set up to be knocked down to save the credit of some other man.” Then the New York Times of a few days earlier suggested Lincoln’s nomination was so bad that the chances of  any candidate nominated at Baltimore were greatly improved.

Then the Boston Courier, an old line Whig journal, believed it was the same influences that overthrew Daniel Webster in Baltimore in 1852 secured the defeat of Mr. Seward in Chicago. The Courier said Seward was a first class statesman and anybody who knew the “rail splitter” would be the first to admit he was not. It said that nomination was the “meanest specimen of availability.” The Courier asked what Republican editors had to say about such “impudence.”

Editor Thurlow Weed of the Albany Journal was Seward’s political manager, and Weed came “ungracefully” to the support of Lincoln, doing so under protest and writing that it was only “an idle attempt to disguise the disappointment of the people of New York” in regard to the failure of the Chicago convention. Kewaunee Enterprize pointed out that Republicans of Wisconsin were of the same spirit. On the 21^st of June, the New York Tribune suggested that some prominent members of the Albany lobby were goning to bolt the Chicago nominations. The Albany lobby was made up of its favorite son’s supporters.

On May 23,1860, just days before Kewaunee received the news that the Hon. Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President on the third ballot, Capt. Smith of the schooner Racine brought a newspaper, the Racine Daily Journal, which gave the account of the Republican convention held the previous Friday, May 18.

The Journal said the third formal ballot gave Mr. Lincoln 235 votes. The first ballot gave Seward 193 ½, Lincoln 102, Bates, 48, Cameron 50 ½ and Samuel Chase 49. On the second, Seward received 184 ½ , Lincoln 181, Bates 45, Chase 42 ½ with the balance scattered among others. Then came the third ballot. When Hannibal Hamlin was nominated as vice president that afternoon, it was said the nominations were confirmed with such enthusiasm that it was almost beyond conception. But, as history tells us, that was not quite factual, but, of course, politics is politics.

News from Chicago was that an hour before Mr. Green opened the Republican convention with a prayer, the facility was densly crowded. First, it was moved by Blair of Missouri, to admit 5 more delegates to give them a vote equal to the electorial vote.

According to news received, it was Everett of New York nominating William Seward. Abraham Lincoln’s campaign manager Norman B. Judd of Illinois nominated him. No surprise that others from the candidates' home states did the nominating, but it was Caleb B. Smith of Indiana who seconded Lincoln’s nomination. It was said all candidates received great applause, but the most was reserved for Lincoln and Seward.

Surprising as it was, Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. Before he could take office in March 1861, the February 13, 1861, issue of the Enterprise reported Madison Patriot of the 4th said it felt “irrepressible” Republicans got themselves into “bad order” with the president elect, which they would find out in due time. It did say Mr. Lincoln was considered to be a man of sense who knew he could never be president of the whole country. The Enterprize pointed out that Seward and Cameron (by then in support of Lincoln) spoke for themselves and the President-elect.

The paper said if Mr. Lincoln redeemed the “hope warmed into life, he could rely on the confidence and support of every Northern Democrat.” If they backed him, he had nothing to fear. The paper suggested a wait and see approach. It hoped he could restore government to its “original stability and safety.”

With unprecedented security arrangements to that time, Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. On March 13, the Enterprize told readership that  Mr. Lincoln made one of his characteristic speeches that was either ignorance of the widespread effects of national division or a woeful misrepresentation of the true state of trade and business when he said there was “no cause for this and nobody is hurt.” The paper said thousands were unemployed in the North – reported to be 30% in Philadelphia alone - because of secession brought about by “intense love for the Negro,” in preference to citizens "means somebody is hurt and pretty badly too.”

The March 20 Enterprize carried an article from the March 9 Patriot about winning back the seceding states. Thus, it said, Mr. Lincoln was trying to steer the “old, shattered ship of State between the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis,” and if he got the Union through, he would be the greatest of all great men. If he failed, he would go down with the sinking of the Union to be known no more.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

-------------------

*March 20, 1854, is the date given for the establishment of the Republican Party in Ripon, Wisconsin. Those founding it were against the expansion of slavery.

**Although Chicago's 1860 population was nearing 110,000, the city did not have a large enough facility to house the presidential convention. Call "the Wigwam," meaning "temporary shelter, the wooden building was constructed in under a month to serve the convention. It was destroyed by fire in 1869. 

Note: Men who ran against Mr. Lincoln were part of his first cabinet. Most positions changed with Lincoln’s short second term. In 1861, William H. Seward became President Lincoln’s Secretary of State. Edward Bates was Attorney General, Caleb Smith was Secretary of the Interior, Simon Cameron the Secretary of War and Solomon P. Chase Secretary of the Treasury.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Kewaunee Enterprize (became Kewaunee Enterprise in 1865), Wikipedia.

Ahnapee: When Leerie Lit the Lamps at Night....and Tended the Bridge and the Harbor

     Today - 2024 - harbor communities maintain the offices of a harbor master whose duty it is to warn vessels of hazards and to ensure that regulations are followed. They see to the safety of marine traffic. Generally, today’s harbor masters and dock tenders have different jobs.

Ahnepee/Ahnapee, now the City of Algoma, employed a bridge tender since the 2^nd Street bridge was built. Before that, the log bridge near the mouth of the river needed to be taken down to allow ships such as The Ahnapee, built for Chicago businessmen J.P. and Titus Horton by Martin Larkin & Co., to get into the lake. Built upriver in the southwest part of Section 9 in the Town of Ahnapee, it was necessary to dismantle the log bridge that ran from approximately the foot of Church St. to what is now the east side of Von Stiehl Winery. 

On  September 14, 1875, the Record told readers the town board advertised for sealed bids for the construction of a new bridge to be opened on October 3. Board members visited Two Rivers to see its draw bridge and decided to build such a style. The board decided to move the bridge to 2^nd Street as it was the "center of town." When the bridge was constructed, the town needed a bridge tender to raise the bridge when necessary. His job was spotty thus enabling him to also serve as harbor master.

It was Chapter 140 of the laws of Wisconsin, published March 13, 1877, that enabled Ahnapee to go ahead with either a new drawbridge or turnbridge at 2nd Street.The bridge was to be erected with a draw or swing that could acommodate large class vessels with ease. Chapter 140 charged Ahnapee with the care and maintenance that allowed passage of vessels as quickly as possible in all types of weather. All funds were to come from collection of taxes within the town.

The community built a drawbridge and it seemed as if there were always issues with it. They began when the first vessel used it. On May 10, 1877, the loaded scow Charley Ross came down river under sail and carried away telegraph wires.

After the 2nd Street wooden draw bridge was condemned in 1895, the iron swing bridge was built in its place in 1899. The old wooden bridge needed work, however it was the blasting for harbor development that brought push to shove.

The September 1, 1899, the Record  informed readership that within three months a $6,700 iron and steel bridge would span the river at 2^nd Street to “supply a long-felt want.” Fred Wulf had the contract and was getting things in readiness for the cribs and approaches.

Wulf was paid $1,602 for the work that included two 32' wide abutments, 6’ at the base and 4’ at the top with wings of 16’ long, and a center crib, about 20’ in diameter, for the swing to sit on. Plans were for Milwaukee’s Wagner company to construct the bridge which would take about two months.

Before the days of gas - and then electric lighting, - most communities installed oil burning streetlights. The lights needed to be lit at dusk and extinguished at dawn. Lamps required cleaning and wicks needed trimming. Later, when gas arc lights came into being, the often temperamental lamps still needed cleaning and more maintenance. The lighter/maintainer was called a gas lighter and it was the job of the Ahnapee lamplighter/gas lighter to also serve as bridge tender and harbor master.

   

Lamplighters were hard workers whose work meant carrying ladders and equipment for servicing the lights to ensure safety for those on the streets at night, whether the safety was physical or personal. Even small towns had “footpads.” Except for some historic villages, lamplighters have faded into history and about the only time anybody thinks about streetlights is during a power outage.

Robert Louis Stevenson's poem The Lamplighter (published in 1885 in his Child's Garden of Verses) was one of the poems included in our grade school "memory work." There was a lamplighter in Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, which was also a movie, but it was the movie Mary Poppins that brought lamplighters and chimney sweeps back to life. In the 2018 version, Mary Poppins Returns, Lin.Manuel Miranda played Jack, a cockney lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert, played by Dick VanDycke in the original film.

Stevenson called his lamplighter “Leerie,” a Scottish word meaning lamplighters. Wikipedia says the word also refers to the light of a lamp, a candle, or the lamp itself. As far as can be determined, Ahnapee’s lamplighters were never referred to as leerie nor were they ever the romantic, dancing figures the movies suggested. While lamplighters in larger cities were more no-account, or just “there,” Ahnapee’s lamplighters were respected members of the community. They were reliable and trustworthy, serving somewhat like  night watchmen.

At first, the Ahnapee streetlights were lit with oil. Ahnapee's lamplighters worked in the same manner as those in other U.S. cities and across the world. He had a ladder which he carried from lamp to lamp to climb and reach the wicks. He cleaned the chimneys, trimmed the wicks, and filled the lamps with oil. He? Men only? It would have been unthinkable for a woman to hold such a job in 1875, or ever, in Ahnapee. When gas lights were introduced, they replaced the oil-lit lamps, and men continued doing the work. Gas lighting was originally used in London in 1807 and soon after, in 1820, in Fredonia, New York. Some said the gas lighting era was a period of gracious living that would never be forgotten.

When a ship neared the harbor, the lamplighter became harbor master and had to find a berth for the boat. Then, as bridge tender, he opened and closed the bridge when boats went up or down river. For that he was paid about $50 a year. https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday says $50 in 1875 has the 2024 purchasing power of about $1,430.89. Salaries in March 1873 were set at $50 for the bridge tender, lamplighter $20, and harbor master $25, which would be just under $3,000 in 2024 dollars. In its first action, the new village* council appointed Joseph Pauly to the three positions.

Some businesses had their own streetlights and often maintained them. When a streetlamp was put in front of the post office in December 1873, the Record said it would be convenient for a small expense. In February 1874, hotel owner John Weilep, on the northwest corner of 2nd and Steele, was praised for putting up a large streetlight to throw light on the evening’s proceedings. That light caused some comment. Weilep surely had the light for safety as he wasn’t showing the rest of the city who frequented his establishment. There were Temperance societies and the hotel had a taproom! When Bill Boedecker raised a large streetlight in front of his hotel at 4^th and Steele in March 1874, he joined Weilep and Charles Hanneman, who was located on the southwest corner of 3rd and Steele. The paper said some of the businessmen “go home with the girls o’ nights and don’t like them ‘ere streetlamps.” Hmmmm.

By mid-October 1878, several groups and public-spirited citizens provided lamps for street corners. “Let the good work go on,” opined the Record.

Halloween 1878 brought word from Moses Teweles who was going to put a streetlamp in front of his saloon just west of 2nd and South Water. Teweles was having tinman Leopold Meyer manufacture it for him and said he would not ask the city fathers to pay for it.

As George Warner was about to walk home from Fax’s bar at the corner of Steele and 1st on the night of November 21, 1878, he noticed a suspicious character, thus prompting his return to Fax’s. There he left his money and watch with Capt. Laurie before starting for home again. He was accosted by two heavily built men who searched his pockets to only find 25 cents. They demanded his watch and not finding it when they searched him, they took his overcoat. The editor said if the neighborhood was possessed of such characters, something needed to be done about it and that meant streetlamps.

On May 5. 1881,the council appointed John Cooper, Sr. to serve all three positions. Cooper was appointed at the same meeting that gave the street commissioner’s job to George Bohman. Less than a year later, City Marshall Joseph Pauly was appointed bridge tender, lamplighter, and harbor master.

Before Pauly's appointment, John Cooper was paid $36.00 in salary as a bridgetender, harbor master, and lamplighter, and for buying a dog in early July 1882. In April 1883, the motion was made and seconded that John Cooper be appointed lamplighter for the coming year. He was also appointed as harbor master. Who was the bridgetender?

George Bohman was appointed in April 1885 and again in April 1888 to all three positions.

In 1889, the village board bought 18 oil lamps for street lighting and mounted them on cedar posts in strategic places. They were lit from dark to daylight except on moonlit nights when they were not needed. The lamplighter had his work cut out for him.

At the board’s September 4, 1890, meeting, it was moved and carried that George Bohman be dismissed and the offices of lamplighter, bridgetender and harbor master be declared vacant. What happened? Earlier that year, on April 10, 1890, George Bohman received 5 votes in the council’s informal vote for bridge tender. In the vote for harbor master, he received 5 of the 6 votes cast. When the vote was taken for lamplighter, Bohman received two where Simon Pies received 3. When a formal vote was taken, results were the same. When a second formal vote was taken, Bohman received 3 votes and was declared lamplighter, but that changed by meeting’s end.

When Fred Wolfgram submitted his resignation as city marshal to the council on September 4, later that same evening he was appointed to the offices of harbormaster, bridge tender, and lamplighter, the positions previously held by George Bohman and for even a few minutes on September 4. Since Wolfgram’s resignation left the city without a police officer, the mayor appointed E.C. Cameron to the position as a special policeman. Cameron had served as the city marshal, a job he held admirably. It was felt the council would approve the appointment.

When the council was paying its bills in January 1893, Emil Schubich’s salary as bridge tender and lamplighter for 7 months was $49.00. The harbor master was set as a separate job, however the year’s salary was fixed at the same rate. One year earlier William Koch served as lamplighter for just one month and was paid $20.00. How did that happen?

Ahnapee’s lighting watershed came about in 1883 when Adolph Hamacek was working on electricity while Adolph Bastar was operating a blacksmith shop on the northeast corner of 6^th and Fremont Streets. Bastar formed a partnership with Adolph, and his brother Anton, Hamacek to open a foundry and machine shop called A. Hamacek & Co. As with anything new, there were things to work out, and when the dynamo in the electrical equipment was disabled by some burning wires, it was called one of the “unavoidable occurrences” that happened to any business. Street lighting did not happen overnight. 

The 1883 dynamo Edison-Hopkinson graphic comes from https://www.fineartstorehouse.com/legends-icons/famous-inventors-thomas-edison-1847-1931/dynamo-machine-edison-hopkinson-1883

In 1885, Wodsedalek’s foundry and light plant were burned in a most destructive fire, plunging the city into darkness. Wodsedalek rebuilt less than six months later. At first, only the streetlights were operated, but a few days later, the plant was running regularly to include inside lighting. Three new streetlights were put up and all lights were kept burning from dusk till daylight.

The Record felt the first carbon arc electric lamp on the Peninsula was lit when Adolph Hamacek received a 2000 candle power arc lamp and put it in front of their foundry on July 4, 1890. 

https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html says "the carbon electric lamp was the first widely-used type of electric light and the first commercially successful for of electric lamp."

What is a carbon arc electric lamp? Wikipedia tells us English physicist Sir Humphrey Davy invented arc lamps, the first type of electric lights, in the early 1800s. They were used for streetlights and lighthouses. The arc lamp, known as an arc light, is a device that produces light by passing a high current through a gap between two conductors, usually carbon rods. The light comes from the heated ends of the conductors and the arc itself. Britanica explains the workings of another kind of arc lamp, saying that the arc lamps are gas discharge lamps that produce light by passing an electric current through a pressurized gas between two metal electrodes. 

The graphic at the right comes from https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html. The site is a go-to for electric light history.

Carbon arc lights were brighter and cheaper streelights than gas or oil. Still, the carbon rods didn't last long and had to be replaced often, thus a full time job. Carbon lights were fire hazards in places like theaters Carbon monoxide was bad indoors, however buildings were poorly insulated that fresh air did enter the building.

In August, about 300 Invitations were issued for an Electric Light Hop at the Music Hall. Hamacek and Co. was sponsoring the dance in the hall lighted by an electric arc lamp. How much light one lamp provided is curious.

Because of its geographical position, Ahnapee followed Kewaunee with installation of telephones and natural gas, but when electric lamps illuminated Ahnapee on March 11, 1891, the city was the first on the peninsula to be so lighted.

Things changed in April 1892 when Anton Hamacek took over lighting for the city. Aided by Ordinance 9, Hamacek furnished three lights of 2000 candle power, two placed in the original part of the city - the Youngs and Steele Plat - and one in the Third Ward, the northside of the river. The cost was $300 per year and since the Third Ward was outside the original part of the city, Hamacek was compensated for erecting, operating and maintaining lights there.

June 1893 saw Hamacek’s – by then called Ahnapee Foundry and Machine Shop – form a partnership with Joseph Wodsedalek and August Ziemer – called Joseph Wodsedalek and Co. Having experience in several businesses, the men felt the new company would meet all expectations.

When Hamachek’s Foundry, in 1894, added a dynamo to its equipment to furnish electric arc lamps for street lighting, the company had 60 patrons in addition to the city. Electricity did not totally end the lamplighter's job as carbon rods in the 1890s needed replacing after about 75 hours. By 1910, the rods lasted twice as long.

Joseph Wodsedalek had just been paid $110.35 in February 1898 for city lighting when he received a new arc lamp to be used in a streetlamp trial. However, the lamp was broken in transit and could not be used. Martin Bretl was the first in the city to try a gas arc lamp in April 1899 and felt it was impressive. The gaslight had a small chamber holding a quart of gasoline which was warmed with a generator and ready to go. Cheap and efficient. Electricity was less work.

Once again, on May 14, 1898, Ahnapee Record said the city had the distinction of being the first city on the peninsula with electric  streetlights. Results were positive and traveling men said the lamps equaled the brilliant lights of larger cities.

The arc lamps were of 2,000 candle power each. Though some of the needed materials – lamps, wire and regulators - were purchased outside of Ahnapee, Adolph Hamacek and company designed nearly all the machinery in the plant. Not long after the street lighting was introduced, business owners and industries were interested. So were homeowners.

Adolph Hamacek was living in Sturgeon Bay in October 1898 when the U.S. Patent Office awarded him a patent for his electric arc lamp. By then, Algoma** was enjoying its light.

Residents were reminded of the old days when the main shaft at the lighting plant broke in July 1907. The issue necessitated bringing out the stored old oil lamps and cleaning up the chimneys. All electric lighting was cut off and finding sidewalks was hard. Once again, the city needed lamplighters. Inside lighting was back online days before the streetlights were back in operation.

Well over 50 years after oil lights were last used in the city, in May 1950 Door-Kewaunee Normal School students held the spring formal themed “The Old Lamplighter.” Decorations and slow, modern music, furnished by the Polka Dots, harkened back to a day that was.

The lamplighters were not forgotten when lamplighter ceremonies were held marking the event when Gerhart Leischow threw the switch at Algoma’s utility plant. Mayor Malcom Empey offered the dedication when two magnesium bombs (fireworks) exploded over Perry Field. It took 18 months to get to a point where Algoma’s new system of mercury-vapor lights were a reality. Hundreds lined the street and the stores featured lamplighter specials. Algoma High School band paraded down the street and all were invited to a free dance at the Dug-Out given by the Ernest Haucke Legion Post.

The stationary 2^nd and 4^th Street bridges eliminated the need for bridge tending, the marina takes care of docking, and Algoma Utilities is serviced by WPPI Electricity.

To read the Record is to wonder about the checkered history of the three jobs. What was going on? Politics? Lamplighters, bridge tenders and harbor masters – the days of yore.

NOTE: *Ahnepee became the Village of Ahnapee in 1873. The village became the City of Ahnapee in 1879.

**The City of Ahnapee was renamed the City of Algoma in 1897.

SOURCES: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record Herald, An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol. 1, 

Disney Wiki; https://disney.fandom.com › wiki › Lamplighters    

https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html. The site is a go-to for electric light history.

https://www.fineartstorehouse.com/legends-icons/famous-inventors-thomas-edison-1847-1931/dynamo-machine-edison-hopkinson-1883

https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday  

https://en.wikipedia.org>wiki>Arc_lamp

PICTURES: The 2nd Street bridge picture is from the 1883 Birdseye Map of Ahnapee. The 1911 bridge postcard is in the blogger's collection.

Kewaunee County & D-Day

 

 https://exploringrworld.com/a-visit-to-the-d-day-beaches-gold-juno-and-sword/

June 6 was the 80^th anniversary of D-Day. Under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to gain the European foothold in Europe that led to the defeat of Germany a year later. History tells us that more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the invasion. Of the landed troops, more than 9,000 were killed or wounded. Some died jumping from the Higgins boats into the rough surf. Cousin Cal said the heavy packs pulled some under, and if it helped if one could swim, Cal said it is debatable.

D-Day – or any other war or invasion – just didn’t happen “over there.” Kewaunee County has been touched by all the wars. Even the War of 1812. Then British sloops Felicity and Archangel were patrolling Lake Michigan to keep an eye on the French and alliances they might be forming with Native Americans. Joseph McCormick, who first visited the area in 1834, came out of that war with the rank of Major. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Civil War veterans were buried in Ahnepee/Ahnapee/Algoma before McCormick, but his military service was the earliest. Ahnepee/Ahnapee/Algoma men were among the Kewaunee County men who served in the Civil War and in those after. Algoma men were among the Kewaunee County men at Normandy too.

During late summer 1944, Algoma Record Herald carried a reprint from Canton Repository. The article looked back at D-Day saying that America was not then fighting with money and material, but with thousands of lives. The Repository said that until war struck home, it was not understood. It was happening daily with telegrams from the Secretary of War saying he “regrets to announce…..” or “he died heroically.” The article went on to say that survivors paid in sorrow for the sacrifice of the dead and only survivors were qualified to speak of the war.

This anniversary probably marks the last time World War ll veterans will be in attendance for the anniversary event. Few who lived through World War ll are alive now. Who will begin to understand the sacrifices made at Normandy and all over the world in a few years?

The National World War ll Museum at New Orleans says that of the 160,000 allied troops storming a 50-mile stretch of the Normandy coast, there were 8,230 U.S. men who were killed in action, wounded in action, or reported missing. Thousands more allied troops were wounded or were missing. Algoma men were among those in the ships, landing craft and planes, or in the 50,000 vehicles striking beaches with code names such as Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold, and Sword. Omaha Beach saw the greatest number of casualties. Second Lt.William Murphy was born in Oconto but located in Kewaunee in 1945. He was known to be at the Omaha Beach landing with the 35th Division. Kewaunee's Sgt. Marvin Zimmermann was there with the 3rd Division.

By June 11, when the beachheads were secured, over 326,000 men had crossed with over 100,000 tons of equipment. Eleven months later, on May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.

The Nevada was the only ship present at both Pearl Harbor and Normandy, and Gunner’s Mate Ray Gerhart was aboard. Gerhart manned the big guns. Another on board was Pharmacist’s Mate 3c Melvin Nessinger who was kept busy in sick bay. Being launched in 1914 and serving in World War l, the old battleship was the flagship at the Utah Beach landing. Hit by 7 bombs and 2 torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, the ship lost 120 men.

U.S. Navy Seaman Melvin F. Lessmiller was one who took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima and in the invasion of the Philippine Islands. He also took part in D-Day though aboard the Texas, the sister ship of the Nevada.

When Pfc. Thomas Kaye returned to Algoma, the Record Herald noted his certificate from his commanding general, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, who recognized the unusual fighting toughness of his 29^th Infantry Division at Normandy. All participants of Normandy were entitled to one star on their theater ribbons. Kaye was wounded at Normandy in July and returned to the front six weeks later.

Seaman Melvin Nessinger wrote to his parents from the Nevada, telling them D-Day was something Hollywood could never reproduce. He said several hours before H-hour, the sky was lit with dropping shells, but the men didn’t know whose shells they were. He said their minds were torn by what they’d find and the mines that lined roads. Nessinger contrasted the tracers’ beautiful patterns across the sky as the ship vibrated in the drone of over 800 bombers and shells hitting an 8-mile stretch of beach.

Although the Germans knew Normandy was going to happen, their intelligence didn’t have the exact timing. Weather made the difference. Shore batteries were firing on the invasion fleet when just after dawn Messerschmitts came out of a cloud bank to meet tracer fire. For Nessinger, hours melted into days and nights, and during the days one could see Allied transports from horizon to horizon as bombers and fighters worked to find enemy positions. Mel thanked folks for their letters and the prayers which he said were being heard. He was proud to be serving on the ship and glad his parents had heard how well the men on the Nevada accounted for themselves. The Nevada set new records for accuracy that day.

Though Lessmiller was in the Navy at Iwo Jima and Normandy, he credited the Marines when he told his parents that the Marines have “what it takes, and they take what they land on, no matter what.” Both Nessinger and Gerhart went on to remind Algoma residents to keep buying war bonds because on D-Day alone the Nevada presented “the Germans with a gift of a million and a half dollars in ammunition alone.” To put that into perspective, that amount would be about $26,000,000.00 in 2024.

When Judge Donald Gleason spoke at Algoma High School’s 1944 commencement, he offered graduates advice and encouragement. He referenced the war and D-Day saying the graduates would never forget their “graduation and D-Day – the day of the European invasion.” It is doubtful that any ever did.

A week or two later, the Record Herald editorialized about the thousands and thousands of “American boys” giving their lives to “erase Nazi tyranny from the face of this globe.” The paper pointed out that such tragedy stirred others and that a steady flow of war materials was necessary. The paper went on to say that maybe production wasn’t as dramatic as men struggling against machine guns but production was imperative. The paper opined that one day Algoma residents might learn that Algoma-made airplane and glider parts played a role in the invasion of Europe. Residents did indeed learn the role of Algoma Plywood in its production of boat hulls, airplane wings, nose cones and the plywood being shipped to other places for further manufacturing.

And the U.S.S. Nevada? Wikipedia tells us that Nessinger and Gerhart served aboard the 2^nd U.S. Navy ship to be named for the 36^th state. Launched in 1914, it was the lead ship of two Nevada-class battleships and the first of the “standard-type” battleships. Trapped at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, it was the only battleship to get underway during the attack. The damaged ship was salvaged and modernized to serve in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. In addition to the invasion of Normandy, the U.S.S. Nevada took part in the bombing of Cherbourg and the invasion of southern France. When the war was over, the old battleship was used for atomic bomb practice. It was decommissioned in August 1946 and later sunk for naval gunfire practice.

Nessinger, Gerhart, and Lessmiller told some of their D-Day stories. Stangelville’s James Steinberger never did. He was one of the thousands killed at D-Day. The Record Herald said that “up and down the quiet streets of this country and along rural highways, the homes of America were paying the price for D-Day.” Casualty lists were beginning to catch up.

Twenty-two-year-old Pvt. Steinberger, of Co. M, 16^th U.S. Infantry, served a little over a year before he was killed in action. He was buried at a military cemetery in France until remains were brought home in April 1948. He was posthumously awarded Bronze Star. There were memorial rites for Staff Sergeant Sylvan Seidl who was missing in action on November 20. Seidl took part in the D-Day invasion with the 28^th Infantry and saw action in Luxembourg where he was wounded. On December 15, 1944, Kewaunee Enterprise told readership that Casco’s Sgt. Sylvan Seidl, 29, was missing in action in Luxembourg on the German frontier, according to messages from the Red Cross and from the War Department. He enlisted in July 1941 and was awarded a Purple Heart.

The July 28, 1944, paper brought news of another death. Town of Luxemburg Army Paratrooper Cpl. Joseph Treml was another killed in action at Normandy on June 21. He was a veteran of North African campaigns and Sicily before being transferred to Ireland. From there he took part in the Normandy invasion. A memorial requiem mass was held at Casco.

Gerhart said four days before the ship was sealed with no outside contact permitted. When they got underway, the invasion was called off so they spent 12 hours at sea while mine sweepers were busy cleaning the channel. When the invasion started, they could hear the bombardment 100 miles from the Normandy coast. He said when they got to their objective, they found it was a complete surprise to the Germans but at “6:00 all hell tore loose.” Their first job was breaking down the German wall on the shoreline, blowing it up to that the landing forces and tanks could get through. He said it was a giant structure of concrete and steel, 12’ thick and 8’ thick wide, constructed all along the Normandy coast except where there were natural cliffs. Blowing up that wall consisted of 10 rapid salvos into the structure. After that, they switched to beach targets. Gerhart described the marshes along the Normandy coast that were flooded by the Germans to protect against invasion.

Raymond Julius Gerhart was born in Algoma on September 4, 1921, and died on October 15, 1979, in San Diego, California. He is buried in El Camino Memorial Park

The Nevada was at her station for 79 hours and when the ammunition ran out, the ship returned to an English port, reloaded, and went right back out. All in all, the Nevada was at Normandy a week. Every night, he said, they were under attack by the German’s new radio-controlled bomb, but with a new secret defense installed on the ship, the bombs dropped harmlessly out of the way. Lessmiller and Nessinger were proud of their work and said that on D-Day the Nevada set new records for accuracy in fire.

During July 1981, Record Herald ran an article about Larry Zirbel, the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Zirbel, who spent D-Day aboard ship. Zirbel, who no longer lived in the area, served in the Navy and spent 38 months on a troop transport, making 13 round trips taking 6,000 men across the Atlantic and bringing German prisoners to the U.S. on the return trip. After D-Day, passengers were wounded Americans.

Coast Guardsman Darwin J. Paul was a member of the Naval crew in the American Assault Force on the D-Day invasion and Lt. Adrian O’Konski was with the 8^th Air Force when he was awarded the Air Medal for exceptionally meritorious achievement. He was a navigator on a Flying Fortress and took part in what he called “the greatest show ever staged -the D-Day invasion of June 6.”

Pfc. John R. Liebl of Luxemburg was a member of the glider troops of the 82^nd Airborne Infantry Div. that had landed hours before American, Canadian, and English troops were wading to the beaches of France on D-Day. Liebl’s division held off two full German divisions that were trying to stop the landings. They captured two towns and fought for and held four bridges. Lt. Ted Burmeister of Kewaunee received a Presidential citation leading an assault at Normandy. Otto W. Marek, Jr., formerly of Kewaunee was wounded at Normandy.

Also at Normandy was the U.S. Corps of Engineers' tug Ludington, now in Kewaunee's harbor and open to being toured. The tug belonged to the Army in 1944. It eventually was taken to Charleston where four Kewaunee area men were sent to get it. Renamed, the Ludinton was the workhorse of the Great Lakes and worked on Lake Michogan's harbors and piers and well beyond.

Note: A list of Kewaunee County men known to be at Normandy will be included in this post soon. Given the county's population and the number of men and women in service, the list is substantial.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; World War ll Museum, New Orleans, visit.

Map: https://exploringrworld.com/a-visit-to-the-d-day-beaches-gold-juno-and-sword/

Paintings: NLJ Art