Surveying Wolf River......

City of Algoma, About 1960

Wolf River's most eligible bachelor had to be civil engineer and surveyor George Washington Elliott. The intelligent, politically connected widower arrived in the fledgling hamlet in 1857. After a few weeks he moved his family* north from the Chilton area and stayed. Kewaunee County had been in existence for 5 years. An influx of settlers meant there was land to be surveyed and money to be made. Elliot was the man to do it, though  making Wolf River his home had not been his original intent.

Elliot's experience included bigger things. In 1836 he assisted in surveying the land on which Wisconsin's state capitol stands. Later James Duane Doty appointed Elliot to look after his Kewaunee holdings, land Doty bought in the big Kewaunee gold rush two years earlier. Elliot's association with Doty included farming and dairying at Tay-che-dah before entering the mill business in Calumet County.

Elliot became a justice of the peace and presided over weddings and litigations while continuing to survey, draw maps and dig up government corner posts. The Plat of Ahnepee** and the first map of Kewaunee County, with the streams outlined, were drawn by Mr. Elliot, or Squire as he was called.

Looking at Algoma's main intersections today, one wonders why there are slight jogs in Steele, Navarino and State at their 4th Street crossings when other streets have no problems. Though jogs are minimal today, just before 1900 a few buildings actually protruded into the right-of-ways. Portions of buildings found on the wrong lots prompted lawsuits and eventually parts of Algoma were resurveyed. Block 5 most recently. The issues date to Elliott's original1850's surveys.

It was Squire Elliot who surveyed the original plat of the present city of Algoma, the SW 1/4 of Section 26, Town 25 North, Range 25 East. A portion of the city, known as Youngs and Steele Plat, was full 40' x 70' lots. Streets were 66' wide and 16' north-south alleys ran through the blocks. David Youngs, George Steele, Solomon M. Kicham and William Clark were sealed as the original owners in the documents signed by Elliot on August 1, 1858, attesting to true and correct accounts, "to true variations of the needle."

The adjacent Eveland Plat was laid out somewhat differently than Youngs and Steele's. Streets were 66' wide running north and south at right angles except those on the "East, North and West which are 30' on half street. Blocks East and West 264' with alleys of 16' running North and South through the centers, leaving lots 124' x 40' except one tier of lots fronting on Navarino Street and lying North and South. Those numbered 1 and 2 and 13 and 14 being 40' x 120'. Those numbered 3 and 12 being 120'; one tier of lots on the south side of the said 40 acres numbered 6 and 7 being 124', and the point from which to make future surveys incompliance with the Statutes in such cases provided being a lime stone 6 inches by 18 inches and 21 inches long marked 1/4 section and planted at the North East corner of said Plat." County supervisor J.A. Defaut and Justice of the Peace Orin Warner signed the survey.

Elliot was an experienced surveyor. How did he survey adjacent plats so that three streets meet in irregular intersections? How did it happen that only property owners within a small area were affected? Why did he change the size of several lots? The two plats meet at 4th Street. Youngs and Steele Plat has the Ahnapee River as its north boundary. Tiny Fiebrantz Plat, only a couple hundred feet, comes between Eveland's Navarino Street boundary and the Ahnapee River.

More than 150 years later, there are still a few inquiring minds that want to know how it happened.
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*A widower, Elliot was joined by his sons David and Irving, daughters Frances, who married DeWayne Stebbins, and Ella, his son-in-law Rufus Wing and brother Thomas. Two other sons, Charles and Park, lived in Wolf River for a short time. Both died in the Civil War.

**Ahnepee was the original spelling. It was an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" thing when the Village of Ahnapee was chartered in 1873. Ahnepee was consistently misspelled, even by the state.

Zavis: Saved From Oblivion.....

 

Vying for the title of Kewaunee County's most obscuue community is the once thriving West Kewaunee hamlet of Zavis. In its heyday, Joseph Horak ran both grist and saw mills. The place also included a store and post office, however all that remains today are a few remnants of the old mill on the east side of the water's flow, noted as the Mishicott River on the federal postal site document. And, were it not for the postal history, Zavis might have well sunk into oblivion.

Zavis post office came into existence on January 3, 1878 but was discontinued a little less than 18 months later on June 11, 1879. When Viet Rudolph applied to the U.S. Department of Post Office, he said that the office would serve 300 folks. His post office served area residents from its location along the road in the SW 1/4 of Section 32 in the Town of West Kewaunee.

A postal site document dated December 26, 1877 indicates that Zavis was on Route 25365, the route from Casco to Mishicott in Manitowoc County. Montpelier, 4 1/2 miles west, was the nearest post office on the same route. To the east, the nearest post office was Norman, 4 1/2 miles in a southeasterly direction.

The flow of the river, noted as the Mishicott on the U.S. Topographer's map below, was instrumental in the development of the grist mill. A Kewaunee County map from the same period illustrates the flow of the East Twin River through Section 6 and Section 31 of West Kewaunee. Both the gristmill and store were built along the road which was roughly parallel to the river. Early enthusiasm for the mill waned rapidly as the river never reached original expectations. It happened while Zavis was quickly faded into the annals of a history just as obscure as the community.

 

After its 18 months of operation, Postmaster Compensation Records tell us, "1879, Compensation not listed." Patricia Sharp's 2007 photo above shows today's buildings in the area called once called Zavis. More about Zavis is found in Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010.