Kewaunee County and the Civil War, 4

Harriet Warner was a 9 year old child when she arrived in Wolf River, now Algoma, on July 4, 1851. Her family was one of the first three settling families and first permanent residents of Kewaunee County. At times during her life, Harriet visited her Grandmother Bennett in Waukegan. During one of those visits – her wedding trip following her marriage to Abraham Hall – Harriet heard Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas speak. Douglas was running for president against Abraham Lincoln, whom Harriet said she would also liked to have heard. Lincoln’s nomination was not without controversy.

A May 1860 Enterprize article contained a reprint from one found in the Green Bay Advocate saying Abraham Lincoln’s nomination at the Chicago convention astonished everyone, even the party. The Enterprize editorialized that Lincoln’s nomination was a wet blanket on Republican hopes, and it felt that within a day’s drive at least 20 Wisconsin farmers could be found who would be equal to Lincoln.

Lines were drawn between Kewaunee County Republicans and Democrats before the 1860 election, but it was said those lines were shaken by the election of Lincoln. Edward Decker, owner of the Enterprize, supported Lincoln’s challenger Stephen A. Douglas.  Comments from the Enterprize, reprinted in the Green Bay Advocate,  said that “no nomination for the presidency was hailed with as much enthusiasm as Douglas.”

Wisconsin was still a semi-frontier at the beginning of the Civil War. It was a little more than 12 years old. Kewaunee County was 8. The state was largely controlled by Yankees although Germans were beginning to have an impact. Pine forests were intact but there was little dairying or manufacturing. Fishing was minimal and lead and zinc mining were on the decline.

Looking back, it would seem that Wisconsin had little to offer the war effort. However, as historian Rueben Gold Thwaites wrote in 1905, “No northern state had as credible a record in the Civil War as Wisconsin.

Kewaunee County’s remaining Civil War veterans I.W. Elliott, Frank Gregor and Gene Heald were at a Memorial Day observance when this photo was snapped in 1930. It appeared in the March 12, 1937 Record Herald following Gregor’s death. Elliott was both Kewaunee County and Wisconsin’s last Civil War veteran when he died in 1941.

Note: The Enterprise was the Enterprize until 1865.