Shoemaking in Slovan.........

Harold Heidmann snapped this photo of Slovan cobbler Anton Sisel in the late 1930's. The picture can be found in the collections at Algoma Public Library.

Tell people that Kewaunee County had a number of shoe manufactories in years gone by and you’ll see some raised eyebrows. Many remember Reinhart’s shoe store in Algoma. It had its beginning as Reinhart and Melchior’s manufactory and appears on fire maps as a shoe factory. Ballering's three-story building still stands on the southeast corner of Milwaukee and Harrison Streets in Kewaunee but Pavlik’s huge building in Stangelville is long gone. The four Pavlik brothers took their shoemaking skills to other Wisconsin communities when the Stangelville business failed to provide a living. Anton Sisel’s Slovan shoemaking shop was moved in 1983 to Old World Wisconsin where an interpreter demonstrates the art of shoe making while reflecting on the county’s Bohemian heritage.

Anton Sisel’s was born on the ocean in 1857 when his father Frank and mother came to America. The family eventually got to the Slovan area, known then as Ripley’s Corners.  Anton apprenticed in Kewaunee with John Bangert, whose wife was Theodora Ballering. Following the apprenticeship, Sisel returned to his tiny community and began making and repairing shoes. It was a time when the area was experiencing the heyday of its commercial growth.

What is now Slovan had little identify before the coming of a post office in 1878. The post office gave the place its name. In the late 1870’s Joseph Ouradnik was running monthly cattle fairs that brought crowds of people from as far as Green Bay. Ouradnik operated the village’s only general store and was the postmaster. Albert Dworzak was the cheese maker. There was a hotel, church, school and saloon. After Sisel set up his shop, he married Ouradnik’s daughter, however by 1910, the market for custom made shoes was disappearing and Sisel turned to harness work, selling ready-made shoes and shoe repair.

Though Sisel retired in 1938, the Kewaunee County Bohemian shoemaker and his craft live on in the park which also reflects county Norwegians. A fence from the Merlin Knutson farm near Bolt surrounds a Norwegian cabin. Not to be outdone, Green Bay’s Heritage Hill showcases the Ryan cheese factory and the Massart farm, formerly of Rosiere. Even closer is the Ag Heritage Resources farm just south of Kewaunee. It will not be long before they are all open.


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