The Ahnapee Record..........

Though high school newspaper editors are 16 or 17 years old, one would be hard pressed to find someone so young editing a community's newspaper. Two such young men are even more surprising. But, it did happen and the newspaper in question was published for more than the next 100 years.

In June 1873, 16 year old George Wing and 17 year old Charles Borgmann put out the first edition of the Ahnapee Record. Their elders provided the backing and the rest is history. It was Harry Heidmann who bought the Algoma Record at the advent of World War l, merging it with Algoma Herald. Harold Heidmann sold Algoma Record Herald to Frank Wood who eventually merged the paper with the Kewaunee Enterprise and the Luxemburg News  creating a new paper called Kewaunee County News. Gannett Corp. purchased the News and eventually Kewaunee County Star News was born. By then, the Kewaunee Star was included.

As the story goes, one 1873 May day Squire Walker and Joseph Knipfer were on the street between the Ahnapee House and the McDonald building at Steele and 2nd discussing the need for a newspaper in Ahnapee and wondering who could possibly run it. Young George Wing overheard the conversation and said he would do it if the men would help raise the necessary funds. Apparently Walker and Knipfer never asked Wing about his credentials at 16 years old, however they did ask Wing what his paper's politics would be. Wing said there would be none,  but he went on to say, "I'll just hew straight to the line and let the chips fall where they may." The paper became a reality and the line was on the paper's masthead for a little over 100 years.

Wing and Borgman were young men ahead of their time. They called it agitating when their editorials provoked action among the citizenry. They agitated for such things as ridding the city of briars and stumps and replanting with trees providing shade and beauty. They felt the city had much going for it, however felt that beauty and good schools were necessary to attract new residents who would provide capital for business ventures.

The young men surely were unfamiliar with words such as pollution and environment, but they knew what it was when they saw it. They railed against the mill owners who dumped sawdust and slabs into the river. All that debris came downriver and necessitated dredging. They agitated about Eveland Swamp, a jewel called Perry Field today. They agitated for crosswalks and good streets and the need for lighting in town at night when strangers were abroad. They praised business owners for improving their boardwalks and painting their buildings, or even just painting their signs. Residential owners often got a nod for improvements to their property. City cleanup? It’s been going on for at least as long as there has been a city newspaper.

If Wing, later founder of Kewaunee County Historical Society, and Borgmann could look back, they’d be glad to know their agitating continues. In their brief tenure as editors, they made a mark. The young men had their dreams though Borgman did not live to see his come to fruition. He was in his early 20's when he died of consumption in 1878. Wing, who went on to read law, edited his family newsletter, The Owl, and kept the history of Kewaunee County alive.