With
travel in the land-locked areas of Kewaunee County – areas away from Lake Michigan
– limited to horse and buggy or foot
power, crossroad settlements sprang up to meet the need for essential services. Rostok, located in Pierce Town south of Alaska on
Highway 42 between Algoma and Kewaunee, was one of these. Rostok’s early
residents named it for the city in their German homeland.
Generally,
such strategically placed settlements offered overnight accommodations for the
traveling public. Most often here was a tavern, dance hall and the store, which usually held the post
office, a livery barn, a cheese factory, often a school and sometimes a blacksmith
shop.
As
early as 1876, Rostok had most of these services. The tavern-dance hall in the
photo was originally named the Pierce House as this early 1900 postcard illustrates. The young woman in the photo could be Ida Ousten Skala, wife of Joseph
Skala who is possibly the young man on the right. Their wedding photo was taken in front of the Pierce House within the same time period. It was the Skalas who owned the establishment, though a closer look at the bench reveals the name W.J. Marek. Skala's place is still remembered by Kewaunee County residents
as Butch Van’s, site of hundreds of wedding receptions, anniversaries, banquets
and political meetings.
More well known as the Vans, the Vanderbloemen family remodeled and updated the above building many times over the years. Eventually Vans bought the cheese factory and cheese maker’s home, tearing down the
buildings to use the property as a parking lot. The north end of the
building above housed the dance hall. That section was torn down in 1992. Though remodeled, the lines of the original structure are visible to those traveling 42 who see a sign indicating Rostok and wonder what it is. Pots R Us occupies the Pierce House today.
The
once bustling hamlet has disappeared from Kewaunee County’s landscape just as
other places known as Pleasant View, Footbridge, Foscoro, Darbellay, Peot and more.
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