Foscoro: A Village that Was

More than 150 years ago it was known as Foscoro. Today it is Stony Creek, and nothing is the same. The once important creek is really nothing to write home about, and the bluffs high above the lakeshore are worn down much as the lakeshore in the rest of Kewaunee County. There was a time when residents didn't know in which county they lived, as the exact county line was somewhat obscure. After 1878 when Capt. Charlie Fellows secured a post office, the office jumped around from Kewaunee County to Door and back while only moving a few yards in the process.

Fellows' post office site request included a map indicating that the settlement was less than a few hundred feet to the north of Stony Creek. Wisconsin Underwater Archeology feels the Foscoro Pier which saw the shipment of thousands and thousands of posts and ties was almost directly off the end of today's Kennedy Road. Door Co. Historian D. Weimer, who grew up in the area, remembers being a kid and climbing around the wooden dam crib that was about 100 yards west of the existing bridge. He feels by then - the 1950s - the main channel had washed away all the evidence with the exception of a smaller channel just to the north that still had the cribbing in place.

Stories of the logging describes the amount of business there was for Wolf River/Ahnapee's Dr. Levi Parsons. In a newly settled, young and healthy area, the doctor's business depended on fingers sawn off - or worse. There were times when a Foscoro saloon brawl meant more business. Logging in the hamlet named for the owners Foster, Coe and Rowe was so good that an October 1866 Enterprise mentioned a steamer and six schooners that had cleared the pier on the 14th. All that remains of yesteryear's prosperity is the old photo (above) of the deteriorating mill and that of the Fellow's Eagle Hotel, surely named because it was high on the bluff.

The Fellows family was a Stony Creek fixture and one or another served the post office for at least 75 years. Nobody would have dreamed that the old Foscoro would come back to life while family members gathered at the Stony Creek cottage one July 1923 Sunday. There was a spot on the cottage whitewashed walls. The spot resembled an eagle in flight. As mailman Will reached up to brush it off, the whitewash fell away to reveal eagles in flight. Will, with others at the gathering, began to brush away the whitewash and were stunned to find a scene coming to life. Trees appeared. There was a fence. And then there was something resembling a castle at an opening between two bluffs in the center of the picture. A bay appeared in the foreground. Bluffs cut it off from a larger body of water. As those in attendance worked, an oil painting of a village emerged from the plaster.

When the group finished its work, the painting showed a man rowing a boat in a sheltered bay at the foot of the castle on the hill. Fellows felt the painting that was under at least 20 coats of whitewash was suggestive of Lake Michigan.

Fellows' cottage had belonged to the family for at least 20 years on that July day. Originally it was part of the Foscoro saloon built by Hugh Acker about 1878. The painting presented a flourishing village with a dance hall, a huge hotel, store, saloon and several residences. By the time the painting was found in the Fellows' cottage, the cottage was about all that remained of the village. Other buildings had burned or had just fallen down, buried under surrounding vegetation.

When the painting was found, there were evidences of a trail of two ruts running from the highway that twisted and wound its way down through the woods to the sawmill town at the lakeshore level. In an earlier day, stage coaches carrying passengers and mail followed the road, which was for some time the road from Ahnapee to Sturgeon Bay.

Foscoro has faded into history as have such Kewaunee County communities as Zavis, Darbellay, Sandy Bay and Forest Hill. The tiny village died not long after 1892 when the railroad came to Ahnapee. Just before the advent of Rural Free Delivery in Kewaunee County, the Foscoro/Stony Creek post office was moved to Woodside, a few miles to the southwest and just a few yards to the north of  Silver Creek. Today there are a few homes on either side of Stony Creek, a name that well describes the area. Lake Michigan continues its erosion at a place once deemed by the U.S. Department of Post Office to be important enough to have its own office.

Note: Stoney or Stony Creek? The picture of the old mill and today's Door Co. highway signs reflect the first spelling. D.Weimer reports that the 1990 plat book and other maps and the Door County Soil and Water Conservation Department use the second spelling.
Sources: An-An-api-sebe, Where is the River? c. 2001; Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010; D. Kleist interview, 1999, D.Weimer interviews and correspondence, on-going; Algoma Record Herald, Kewaunee Enterprise. Pictures from the blogger's collection.

Algoma Dowel Co. and Aluminum Christmas Trees

Thoughts of artificial Christmas trees never entered the mind of at least 99% of Algoma’s 1950 population. The rest of northeast Wisconsin was not far behind. Fragrant snow covered evergreen Christmas trees came from a farm woods or from the vendor on a corner lot in town. Christmas trees were generally put up on Christmas Eve, though some might have beaten the rush on the 23^rd. Trees were real and trees were green. Some raised an eyebrow at the flocked trees here and there, but they started out as real green trees.

Ten years later things were changing. By then there were those in Algoma whose income, in part, depended on artificial aluminum Christmas trees. They worked at Algoma Dowel Co., the factory that stood at 80 S. Church Street on the southeast corner of Michigan and Church Streets. The Dowel Co. was founded by commercial fisherman Melvin Keller years before as a box company that manufactured and repaired fish boxes for Algoma’s booming commercial fishing industry. It became known as the Box and Dowel Co. and then Algoma Dowel Co.

By the time Maynard Feld bought the company in 1959, boxes were nearly a thing of the past and dowels were going strong. Bed slats were a side product. Birch bolts bought from Warren Halstad  – though hard rock maple, elm and other woods were used – were sawn into lumber in the sawmill behind the plant. Wood strips separated the sawn birch which was dried in the company’s huge kiln. From the drying, the lumber went to the planer where Feld or his brother LeRoy fed it so fast that it took two tailers to keep up. From there the boards went to the saws where Butch or Stanley Haegele, Jerry Vandertie, or perhaps the part timers on the night crew, would saw them to the appropriate width. Then it was on to the rod machines run by Frank Weisner, Joe Schmidt and Wally Engelbert. The long dowel rods were sawn into specific sizes by Aggie Langer, Elsie Schmidt, Viola Serrahn and Mary Kustka. Some dowels were tumbled to ensure smoothness and some were chamfered.

Spiral grooved glue pins were used in the manufacture of fine furniture and in sash and door products. Algoma Net Co. used longer dowels – 36” or longer – in the manufacture of hammocks. Used as spreaders, the supporting lines from the hammock went to the spreader and then converged to the ring, or rings, which attached the hammock itself to the stand. Dowels were used as barrel spigots, in looms, chairs and hundreds of other places where nobody recognized them. Then came the artificial Christmas trees.

Jerry Waak of Aluminum Specialty Co., known as AlSpecCo to those at the Dowel Co., was married to the cousin of the Feld brothers. It was AlSpecCo that introduced aluminum Christmas trees to a mass market and thus to Algoma. How AlSpecCo, maker of house wares and toys, got into the aluminum Christmas tree business is a story in itself. More about that can be found in past issues of Voyageur, in the website of Wisconsin Historical at www.whs.org or by simply Googling.

And what happened at Algoma Dowel Co.?  After the long dowels came from the rod machine, they were cut to specific lengths.  An employee laid the shorter sections in a cradle and, when held firmly with both hands, the ends were simultaneously drilled by a machine custom developed by Maynard and Leroy and constructed by the Beitling brothers. Steel pins inserted into the drilled holes held the sections together to form the tree trunk. The tree trunk sections enabled efficient packaging when the time came. Algoma Dowel’s work was finished and the tree sections were shipped to Manitowoc.

For a time the wooden trunks were covered with aluminum foil. Later they were painted. Holes were drilled for 100 or so aluminum branches, each of which had its own sleeve in the packing box. Trees were originally silver, but eventually there were some gold and even pink trees. Possibly there were other colors. Living rooms looked somewhat commercial when the revolving stands came about. That was kicked up a notch with revolving lights that worked something like a strobe light.

Algoma and Manitowoc enjoyed the economic heydays of the aluminum Christmas trees, which faded from popularity by the early 1970s. The trees that seemed so garish fit a 1960s culture. Inexpensive in their day, the trees now are highly prized collectibles. When in the late 1970s teachers could no longer have real Christmas trees in their classrooms, some brought the aluminum trees. Primary kids oohed and aahed over the trees which they thought were so “beauty-tee-ful,” which just goes to show beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Beautiful or not, the aluminum Christmas trees are fun to look at. For those who worked at Algoma Dowel Co. during that time, Christmas came on payday. Fifty years later, the trees bring memories of people in a time that was. Nobody knew then that aluminum Christmas trees were on the cusp of the consumerism that we know today, a half century later.

Note: The tree is from a picture taken by the blogger while the Box and Dowel Co. is from a section of a postcard in the blogger's collection.

Rosiere, Misiere, Crud, Leccia and the Belgian Church

Rosiere straddles the Kewaunee-Door County line. Misiere is in Door County, a stone's throw to the northwest. Both were small Belgian Catholic communities that had churches and, eventually,  post offices. To name their community Misiere - a loosely translated French word suggesting misery and poverty - reflects the plight of the Flemish Belgians who settled there. A translation of Rosiere, a Walloon Belgian community, is just the opposite, suggesting promising, optimistic, or even smelling like a rose.

Throughout the history of the world, religion has been the root of hatred and wars. For the Catholic Belgians along the county line, it was a war of words. While hatred may indeed be a strong word, records suggest it was not so far off. While the accounts of the rift do not always agree chronologically, they all point to discord within the Belgian church. A history of the Green Bay Diocese indicates Father Wilkins was the first resident pastor at Robinsonville in 1862 and thus served all the Belgian settlements, most of which were strong enough to support their own priests by 1875.

Jennifer Neinas wrote in her student paper Ghost Parishes, presented at UW-Green Bay on April 28, 1994, that what is St. Hubert today was built in 1866 as St. John the Baptist, the first church built in the Rosiere-Misiere area about 1/2 mile to the northeast of the present church. An undated interview of Father Becker indicates St. John's was built in 1864. Disagreements began after it was destroyed in the horrendous Peshtigo fire of 1871. Those who wanted Rosiere as a church site heard rumors of a post office there and felt they could pick up mail on church days. The small business community included both a blacksmith shop and a wagon shop, and there were rumors of a county line highway in the offing. Misiere folks, however, felt the distance was too great for travel in winter. Father Becker also said that if a visiting priest didn't arrive on time at the "schismatic church," - St. Michael's in Misiere - a lay trustee conducted mass.

A few years following the destruction of the Rosiere church, Father Phillip Crud built a new edifice on the same site. Emanuel Wynkers won the contract, dated June 13, 1874, to build that church. Francois Barbiaux was a manual laborer and a mason's helper who was contracted to work at 81 1/2 cents per day to be paid by January 1, 1876. His contract stipulated that if he quit before the church was completed, the trustees would owe him nothing. On November 1, 1875 a list was drawn up of articles from the debris of the burned and torn down church that were sold by Pierre Charles. Items also included materials left over from masonry when the new church was finished.

Not long after, in 1878, Jesuit priest Father Erasmus Leccia built St. Michael's in Misiere, however Bishop Krautbauer felt the new church was too close to Rosiere and did not approve construction.  Before 1878, Misiere was supposed to be a mission of Rosiere, however a deed regarding the first Misiere church was dated in 1864, the year in which the first Rosiere church was built. PenBel tells us that St. Michael’s was the first Catholic church built in the Town of Brussels at Misiere about 1865 on land donated by Adrian Francois. PenBel also says that the church was destroyed in the Peshtigo fire and a new one built in 1878. The society says that sometime later, fire destroyed the Misiere rectory and because the congregation was unable to build a new one, the church became a mission of St. Hubert of Rosiere.

Both of the early churches were built before the Green Bay Diocese was organized in Spring 1868. When the Misiere church wardens, or trustees, wrote to Bishop Krautbauer on November 7, 1877, they asked for blessings and then informed the bishop of "neighborhood gossip" and the doings of Father Crud. Keeping silent until then, the trustees felt they "must speak up about his antics." They went on to say that since his arrival he had not stopped stirring up trouble, going around the Rosiere congregation counseling people "get rid of the present priest" so he (Crud) can take his place. The trustees said Father Leccia was a worthy man although when he arrived nobody knew him and at first they didn't want him. Crud said that both Leccia and (Edouard) Daems were "troublesome, meddlesome priests of the diocese." The trustees said they liked Leccia who taught religion and the word of God while Crud just told stories. "We have become two families, " said the trustees, "the family of the servant girl Crud married" who is his housekeeper. "They make trouble for the priest and for the congregation who loves and respects their priest." The trustees wanted Crud sent away because there was no peace among the Belgians. Leccia denounced the Rosiere faction as being blackhearted while those from Misiere were as white as snow. The "black people" and the "white people" kept the feud going.

Krautbauer received another petition, this time from those who said that the trustees' letter was false. Bishop Krautbauer was petitioned by the members of the Rosiere parish who asked him to "Please send back our good Father Crud." The petition suggests that Crud had gone to France at the time. Included in the petition was the fact that "he works here with great zeal in a land without roads" to establish Belgian congregations. It further said he visited the sick in winter and traveled through swamps and snowstorms to go 30 miles to visit the feeble and dying. The petition pointed out that the saintly Crud lived there for 13 years and wanted to die there. He saw the dissolution of the congregation with the worst possible leader and felt the flock was scattered by a large wolf. It went on to report that the "wolf has blood dripping" and asked the bishop how he could wish "people don't revolt against Leccia" as Leccia caused suffering for the humble sisters at the chapel.*

According to the trustees, that petition came from the housekeeper and her husband whom, the trustees said, collected signatures by handing out whiskey. Some of the signatures belonged to those not of the congregation. If the bishop needed further information, the trustees were prepared to send it. J.J. Gilson, Prosper Naze and J.B. Denis were three of the five trustees whose signatures were decipherable.

Found in the archives at St. Peter, Lincoln, was somewhat of a history that Father Crud wrote on July 12, 1878. In it he recalled his appointment as pastor at Robinsonville in November 1864, at which time he was "in charge of all the Belgian colony and the Irish Congregation at Casco." He told of serving 10 missions every month for six years and building churches at Casco, Walhain, Thiry Daems, Delwiche, Little Sturgeon, Dyckesville and Marchand as well as a convent at Robinsonville. When Crud said he built those churches, he no doubt meant that he assisted in a physical sense: Crud was a mason. Crud talked about Bishop Melchers appointing Father Vermare as Rosiere's first resident pastor in 1869. Vermare left the following year. Crud said he came to Rosiere in 1876 when he built the replacement church. An addendum by one unidentified said there appeared to be no resident priest at Rosiere in the intervening years, but that Father Smett of Dyckesville took care of Rosiere in 1872. The addendum indicates that Father Leccia came in 1878 and in 1879 Rosiere became a mission of Lincoln. Father LePage came in 1880. Father Vaillent came right after and stayed until 1883.

Crud's 1878 St. Peter's history reported that the "great majority of Belgian people remain faithful to the Catholic faith and proved always very devoted to their beloved pastors," but goes on to say that among the immigrant families were "two or three apostate, calling themselves evangelist protestants." He continued saying they requested services of the protestant minister at Robinsonville, and with the assistance of a French lawyer, tried by all means, including money, to "seduce" the faithful of Grandlez.* Fourteen Catholic families "fell into protestant heresay (sic), calling themselves sometimes Presbyterians, sometimes Baptists or Millenarians."

A letter from Bishop Krautbauer on February 13, 1880 said that if the schismatic Belgians - those at Misiere - returned and were obedient and penitent, they would be treated mildly. He said they must be absolved from excommunication according to Roman Ritual and then admitted to the sacraments. As for Father Leccia, the Bishop demanded submission. He wanted Leccia to submit to a theology exam as Leccia said he studied in Rome. Leccia made two requests to see Krautbauer but Krautbauer refused, saying he had no patience with" maliciousness and mendaciousness." He said Leccia was without humility and was shameful. In April, Father Katzer* was apparently writing for the bishop when he said Leccia refused to accept the bishop's conditions and had 8 days to retract and renounce his falsehoods. Katzer also  complained about the Jesuits.

Father Francis Valliant (or Vaillant) wrote on November 21, 1882 that he was the pastor of St. Hubert, Rosiere, having been delegated by Bishop Krautbauer. He said he had blessed St. Michael's Church at Misiere which had been built by a schismatic priest. A few years later, on October 5, 1886, Krautbauer was invited by Rosiere pastor Father Rogers to confirm the children of St. Hubert, St. Michael, St., Francis Xavier, St. John Baptist* and St. Joseph. He did at what was called a simple, elegant event where the Rosiere band played beautiful sacred music as the children processed and the people knelt for a blessing. Luxemburg's pastor Father Drews said a high mass. Father Sellbach, a Green Bay pastor, gave a simple but excellent instruction* in French and Bishop Krautbauer gave a "learned and solid talk."*

A Diocesan letter dated December 15, 1887 (could be 1889) indicated Bishop Joseph Fox was another who did not approve St. Michael's as it was too close to St. Hubert's, and that he did not want a "saloon next to every church." Fox maintained that an old proverb said, "Wherever God builds a church, the devil builds a chapel. But in America, it is surely apparent that it must be said that wherever there is a saloon, people want a church."

Fox's letter went on to say that the oldest church - St. Hubert - is the mother church and if farmers can go 10 or 17 miles from Cooperstown to Green Bay, they can go 2 1/2 miles to Rosiere. It was said that if the people of St. Michael join St. Hubert and submit to ecclesiastical authority and "take either a pew or pay $5 for one" toward the priest's salary at St. Hubert, St. Michael would be recognized as a chapel and mass for the dead would be said several times a week. Again the parish failed to be approved.

A letter on February 10, 1888 was addressed "To Our Brothers, the Catholics of our diocese residing in the woods of the Peninsula." It addressed the issue of a "declared irregular" (lay person) saying "Holy Mass" and required attendance at mass on Sundays and Holy Days under "the pain of mortal sin." The letter continued about the many  who have the "fervor and piety and faith enough to go 5, 6, 7, even 10 miles to Church and assist at the Holy Sacrifice and hear the word of God." Continuing, "We regret to have to say there are too many negligent ones who believe they have done their duty when they has assisted at a Mass sung by a lay clerk. This is a false mass." The letter said only properly ordained priests were successors to the apostles and that, "a fake Mass done by a clerk has less value than one rosary."

Fox apparently was following precedents set by Krautbauer years earlier. In an undated letter signed by Bishop Krautbauer, the people were told that if they were too poor to support a priest, they should go to the church nearest to them even if it was as much as 10 miles away. He seemed to indicate that the father the travel, the greater the merit. He meant lay-said masses when he said the "evil custom" was detrimental to religion and needed to be done away with. He closed in saying,  "In place of it, say a rosary with the litany and sing hymns in your own language when no priest is present." Krautbauer also said any priest who might happen to see "your way of having mass" couldn't help but laugh at its silliness and would say he had never seen the likes of it. "Brothers, we hope you will obey this order and that our dear priests will insist upon it being carried out with all their power."

By the time Father C. Mickers arrived in Rosiere on April 15, 1896, it appeared that Belgian Catholics of Rosiere and Misiere were much less at odds. Mickers wrote telling of his trip from Hoboken to Rosiere, a trip that started with meeting Father Wilkens, Robinsonville's first appointed resident pastor in 1862. From Hoboken Mickers took a 28 hour train ride to Chicago where he was met by Prior Pennings and others. He told about the trip to Green Bay and then starting off by buggy for Martinville (Duvall) where they'd intended to be by noon. Weather was bad and the buggy and all clothing was full of mud, prompting the comment that buggies would not be on such roads in the old country.

Mickers told of arriving in Dyckesville where he had beer while the others had coffee. Then it was off to Delwiche where they arrived toward evening and covered with more mud that didn't seem to bother anybody other than Mickers. They were met at Delwiche by one from Rosiere who wanted to know when they would arrive so he could alert the Rosiere band. When Mickers arrived in Rosiere, church bells rang, trustees came to the house and a housekeeper brought in food. Mickers told of St. Michael's sacristan coming to call. He courteously rang the bell while the other just walked in. Father Mickers felt those who walked in the back door without any formality was suggestive of American liberty or equality.

Mickers said a list of parishioners hung in the back of the church. Ninety-four families were Belgian while 12 were either German or Bohemian. Twenty-five more families were from St. Michael's where Father Mickers had mass every two weeks and on special occasions.

Jim Hale's Going for the Mail tells us the post offices at Leccia and Minor were a result of religious unrest among the Belgians from the 1870s to the 1890s which gave rise to both a Spiritualist and an Old Catholic movement. Hale says the Leccia office was named for Father Erasmus Leccia who started an "Independent Catholic Society based on rejection of papal authority." He says Leccia built the church in 1860. He continues saying that when Leccia reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church, some of his "indignant parishioners" applied for a new post office to be named Minor as a protest. There were proposals in 1880 to name the post office Misiere or Masse but postal records indicate such proposals were turned down in favor of Leccia. When Minor was approved, the post office was moved about a half mile east of the Leccia office on the northeast corner of what is now Misiere Road and Door County Highway J.

Krautbauer's notes indicate when he arrived in 1878, there was a petition to build in Section 21 or 23 in the Town of Brussels. Fathers Crud and Daems were against it, and the church was built without consent. The bishop said no to the naming of St. Michael's and said it was too close to St. Hubert and that he would not allow a church next to every saloon. In November 1864, the bishop appointed the pastor at Robinsonville to be in charge of all the Belgians. This is indeed confusing as Krautbauer served from 1875-1885, so he had arrived prior to 1878. Fox was quite specific about his feelings on saloons, but perhaps he knew Krautbauer's feelings. The 1864 appointment seems confusing as the Green Bay Diocese was not formed until 1868. Northeast Wisconsin was then a part of the Diocese of Milwaukee.

Additional Notes:
  *Champion was the original Robinsonville. Sr. Adele Brise suggested the name of Champion because of the Belgian convent she wanted to enter before her family immigrated. It was today's Champion to which Wilkens was appointed.
  *St. John Baptist was the name of the first church on the site that became St. Hubert in Rosiere. The church was called St. John Baptist in 1886  was sometimes called Robin's Church, and was destroyed by fire in 1894. Its cemetery remains.
  *Grandlez is is known as Lincoln, in Kewaunee County, today. Dictionary.com defines Millenarium as an adjective meaning "of or pertaining to a thousand, especially the thousand years of the prophesied millennium or pertaining to the millennium, especially of Christian prophecy, or millennialism: millenarian zeal." As a noun, the word means "a believer in the coming of the millennium."
  *Ferdinand Katzer served as 3rd Bishop of the Green Bay Diocese from 1886-1891.
  *The letter is dated, however the website for the Green Bay Diocese indicates Krautbauer served as the Diocese's 2nd bishop from 1875-1885.

Sources: Jim Hale, Going for the Mail c. 1996; Jennifer Neinas, Ghost Parishes c. 1994;Knnerwurf, Sharp & Johnson Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County c. 2010; St. Joseph Catholic Parish, Champion, Wisconsin, 1862-2012; letters in the ARC at UW-Green Bay; website for PenBel (Peninsular Belgian Society); website for the Diocese of Green Bay. The postcard and undated picture of St. Michael's from Door County Advocate are in the blogger's collection.

Kewaunee County and the First Elections

At  the creation of Kewaunee County in the spring of 1852, the entire county was made up of one town, the Town of Kewaunee. Hugh Ritter, John Volk and Abraham Hall got the county underway when they called for and signed for an election to be held on May 22, 1852. Ritter was later to be associated with Carlton and Hall with Ahnapee, though all three men were connected with the lumbering along the Kewaunee River, overseen at the time by Volk.

George Rosier, Edwin Shaw and John Volk were judges of the election and with that responsibility came signing affidavits saying they would support Wisconsin's constitution and would endeavor to prevent abuse and deceit. John Lee signed a similar document as he was clerk. Lee appears to have been an itinerant – possibly a fisherman – as he does not appear in county records beyond the beginning.

On Election Day polls were open from 10 – 12 AM and again from 2 – 4 PM. Voters included Rosier, Shaw, Lee, two Volks – John and John L. – Orrin Warner, John Hughes, Rufus Andrews, John McNally, Francis Trewdell, Nathanial Wickham, Charles Nutt, Levick F. Meirick, Charles Nelson, John Kelly and William P. Dutton. Abraham Hall was selected as Superintendent of Schools, but it was several years before the county had a public school. Hall and Lee were elected as clerks.  John Volk served as treasurer, supervisor and inspector. Two other inspector positions were held by Shaw and Rosier. Early town minutes do not clarify the work of an inspector but later minutes indicate that such a position was connected to road building. Hughes, Ritter and Shaw were voted in as justices of the peace while Lee, Wickham and Hiram Ritter served as constables. Hiram Ritter, however, did not appear on the list of registered voters. Hugh Ritter was elected assessor. There were barely enough electors to fill the required offices and some men held more than one office.*

Set off from Door County, Kewaunee County was judicially attached to Manitowoc, and on May 31, 1852 in the Town of Two Rivers in the County of Manitowoc, Hugh Ritter was sworn in as Justice of the Peace before Charles Kuehn. On June 2, in the presence of Orrin Warner, Ritter, Volk and Hall were paid for assessing expenses. Though Kewaunee County was a wilderness, the men also swore to do the best of their ability while upholding the U.S. Constitution, that of the State of Wisconsin, and more.

On June 5, the witnesses to the election of May 22 levied a county tax of $400. Fifty dollars went toward common schools  and another 50 to Manitowoc County “for the privilege of being attached to that great county for judicial purposes.” The balance went to surveying and building roads.

Voters were notified on October 2 that polls would be open for the Presidential Election on the first Monday of November at the home of G.W. Rosier in T25, R25, the coordinates for what would become the Town of Ahnapee. Rosier lived in the area that is now approximately the southwest corner of Lake and Jefferson Streets. Rosier, Hughes and Warner were all residents of the area then being called Wolf River.

Electors voted for President, Vice-president, a representative for the 3^rd Congressional District and a member of the Wisconsin Assembly. Franklin Pierce carried Kewaunee County with 23 votes to opponent Winfield Scott's 5. Included in the election were the offices of county treasurer and register of deeds. Voters also had to decide if the assessor could be scheduled for 10 more days of work. The names of the electorate follow this article.

A week following the election, bills were paid. Volk received $6, McNally’s $8 was for 3 days and included travel expenses, Warner was paid $6 for 2 days, and Hughes was paid $3 for sitting as a judge. Abraham Hall got $25 for serving as  clerk of the Town of Kewaunee for a year, a position including traveling. 

Although he was paid to be a supervisor, John Volk resigned on February 12, 1853. Still, Volk shows up numerous times in succeeding records. Supervisors continued to pay Manitowoc Co., and also to survey from the county line to “Woolf River.” Naham Pancels (or Powels) did the work.

Abraham Hall notified the electorate on March 21, 1853 that the county annual meeting would be held on April 5. A list of electors included J.C.S. Mathan, Benjamin Burleigh, Andrew Scott, S.E. Tiler, Nathanial Emery, Aaron Cory, W.T. Jones, John Zebo and A.E. York. It also included Edwin Tweedale, who arrived in Wolf River on June 28, 1851. Where was Tweedale during the first election? He was one of the county's three first permanent settlers. Surprising too is that Bradford White was elected constable: he does not appear on the poll list.

As the county gained residents, there was more business to transact and much more to deal with. There were questions of land sales for taxes that were delinquent for a year and about providing each district $50 for roads. Most meetings began with paying for road surveying and chaining.

The year 1853 culminated on December 12 when the county was divided into three towns along the lake shore road. Town 22 and north for 7 miles in Town 23 was called Sandy Bay District. From that line in Town 23 to 2 miles north in Town 24 was named the Kewaunee District.  Two miles north of the south line of Town 24 to the mouth of Woolf River was Woolf River District, but then what had been known  as Woolf/Wolf River District was renamed named Wolf Town, with River being crossed off in the minutes. Land north of the river was not mentioned in the original records, however it became a part of Wolf Town and is now the northern part of the Town of Ahnapee.

On November 2, 1852 Kewaunee County registered these voters: Mr. Anderson, Francis Brisso, Samuel Burbeck, Aaron Cory, Nathan Emerer, George Finch, Abraham Hall, Gunder Hanson, Francis Kelly,  Francis Luchor, E.J. Merick, Levey Merrick, John H. Nathan, Ethel Penny, Peter Rando, Joseph Secver, John Smenroe,  John Snider, John Tebo (Zebo), S. Tiler,  Francis Trudell, Ed Tweedale, John Volk,  A.E. York, John C. Volk and Thanuel Wickham.

Several of these men went on to make a significant impact on Kewaunee County while the others faded from history.

*It was about 70 years later before women got the right to vote. Women in elected positions came later.

Note: Spellings of proper names were taken from minutes at the Area Research Center at UW-Green Bay and are not always the commonly accepted spelling of 2013.

 

 

Thanksgiving 1862: A Riot in Kewaunee County

Thanksgiving in Kewaunee County today was much different than it was in 1862 when Kewaunee was dealing with thoughts of a draft riot. In the beginning, most felt the war between the North and the South would be over in a few months. Enlistments were for three months but things changed fast. President Lincoln called for 100,000 men and Wisconsin answered the call. Then came the drafts – and the riots. Kewaunee wasn’t the only place that had one.

At the beginning of the war, the Belgians of Lincoln, Red River and areas that today are in Luxemburg Town, had been in Kewaunee County for only two of three years. They were not assimilated and it was not their war. Few spoke English. They were mostly impoverished. The Belgians believed they were unfairly treated in the drafts, a charge history validates as Belgian names often sounded alike and some who thought they were drafted actually served under a name that belonged to someone else. In the early drafts, lists of those eligible were not posted; names were drawn and announced. Everybody knew money brought medical disabilities and therefore exemptions. Yankees and Germans had money with which to purchase a substitute, but for the Belgians, that was just about impossible.

Just before Thanksgiving Day 1862, Draft Commissioner W.S. Finley announced a draft to meet the county’s quota. By then the Belgians had had it and descended on Kewaunee armed with tree branches and pitchforks. They didn’t sneak up on anybody and must have been an angry mob because Draft Commissioner Finley, who was in his store on the corner of today’s Main and Ellis Streets, heard them coming. He must have known what the noise was and obviously thought the men meant business because he escaped from the store and ran the block to the harbor where he jumped on the steamer Comet which was about to cast off. When Finley ran, he left Mrs. Finley to deal with the angry men! She knew the men had to be hungry and opened barrels of crackers, cheese and other stores to feed them. Her kindnesses settled the men, whose issue was with her husband and not with her. The “riot” was broken up and the men went home.

Meanwhile, Finley was sailing to Milwaukee. He returned to Kewaunee with the town’s own Capt. Cunningham and Co. A, which was still in Milwaukee, preparing to go south into battle. Co. A paraded in the streets and Kewaunee was quiet. Rioters didn’t show up for the next draft which proceeded without incident. As for the men of Co. A, they were home for Thanksgiving dinner and dancing.

Slab Town and the South Branch of the Ahnapee River

South Branch of the Ahnapee about 1915

Over 130 years ago, the area along the South Branch of the Ahnapee was referred to as Slab Town. Hall’s Mill on the South Branch began operation in the 1850s and eventually the chair factory, the broom factory and other short-lived businesses operated in the same area. It was said that as far as one could see up and down the river were piles of logs or lumber awaiting shipping. Mill owners as far upriver as Forestville pitched slabs, sawdust and waste into the river, a situation addressed as early as the first editions of the Ahnapee Record in 1873. The paper's editors were 16 year old George Wing and 17 year old Charles Borgman, boys ahead of their time. They’d surely never heard of pollution, but they recognized it when they saw it!

Plumbers on left bank - Plywood on right bank

By 1892 Mel Perry returned to town and, with money from community stockholders, organized the veneer factory. Known locally as The Veneer and Seating Plant, The Panel, The Plywood and now as Algoma Hardwoods, the facility has had a storied history and has always been a major city employer. About the same time that Perry went into business, Sam Newman opened his toilet seat factory across the South Branch. For most of 100 years, the factories operated in the shadow of the other.

In the early days, the Ahnapee River was deep enough to allow schooner traffic, and Newman's lumber came via his own vessel. At one point, the Veneer plant was allowed to dam a portion of the river. Whatever happened is unclear, but the damming prompted vandalism to the dam, which was built in such a fashion that neither fish nor smaller boats were prevented from going upriver.

Before 1940, most employees of both plants were men, though clerical positions were often filled by unmarried women. With the advent of World War ll, things changed dramatically. Women had worked alongside their husbands on farms, in grocery stores and other family businesses. Women had been employed in the textile factories of the northeast well before the turn of the century and in the breweries of Milwaukee following the heavy German immigration to Wisconsin, but women in manufacturing positions in Algoma, Wisconsin, were largely unknown.

A 1912 Veneer and Seating Plant 20th anniversary photo shows the 108 employees, who were given white canes and hats for the picture. Lydia Overbeck, the only woman in the picture, was sitting in a carriage with Edgar Parker. Another picture, dated 1915, shows 75 employees, all men. Just three female office employees were the women on a photo as late as 1937. Then, on May 9, 1941, Esther Rosengren was recognized. She was the only woman of the 38 employees who had served 20 years. By then, the winds of war were blowing and the employment of women in Algoma’s U.S. Plywood manufacturing positions was about to change.

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the drafting and enlistment of Algoma's men, and defense contracts, women were hired in manufacturing positions for the first time in the Plywood's history. Area women were thrust into positions they would not have accepted in normal times. Married women, especially those with children, did not work outside the home and few single women desired employment in a "plan." However, this was war. Seventy years later, young people would find it difficult to understand words such as "duty," "commitment" and "pull together" as they applied to the early 1940s.

An August 28, 1942 Record Herald editorial encouraged those seeking employment to take positions in Algoma to help the war effort rather than going to the shipyards. The article pointed out that Algoma's industries could return to peacetime work, thus offering some job security. An editorial on October 10, 1942 pointed out that all four of Algoma's manufacturing plants were engaged in either "war work or work vital to the prosecution of the war" and "not a single plant was working on non-essentials." The editorial continued saying that while Selective Service had taken many of the area's men and would take many more, women were responding and filling the men's places. The editorial view was that the city was "going to have to pay" in directing every effort to doing its part to win the war. 

 

Women in the office usually worked an eight-hour day, putting in overtime for quarterly inventories. Normal production hours were 7:00 - 5:00, five days a week, plus 7:00 to noon on Saturdays. Sometimes those working in the boat works put in additional hours. Working married women were still responsible for the all the household chores they would have been doing during peacetime. Women whose husbands had not been drafted did not expect them to help with the household work.  Farm women had additional chores before and after work. Millie Nimmer was among those who would schedule her week of vacation during haying.


Most of the women at the Plywood worked in the "boat works." Boat hulls manufactured during the war were light landing craft for water that was not too deep.  Few realized the Army boat hulls were among the largest and most complicated pieces of plywood being made in the U.S. The PT boat carrying General Douglas MacArthur from the Bataan Peninsula to Australia was constructed using materials manufactured at Algoma Plywood. Molded plywood shells were converted into hulls for Coast Guard patrol boats. One such hull built for the Army was hung from the ceiling for a display at the 15th anniversary of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In August 1943 the Algoma Record Herald reported that five Japanese planes had been shot out of the air over Guadalcanal by Lt. Murray Shubin flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightening plane for which Algoma Plywood supplied parts. The article pointed out that not only was it a red-letter day for Lt. Shubin, but also for the Algoma Plywood. The workers received a pat on the back in a telegram from the assistant chief of the Army's Air Force staff, Major General Giles. In his telegram, he praised those on the production line who "had done your work exceedingly well and I thought you would like to know it." 

A September 1944 Weldwood News article mentioned the July production rally. Eight-hundred Algoma Plywood employees attended the rally "to rededicate ourselves as free citizens to an all-out effort to produce war material so vitally needed by our Armed forces."  Lt. Com. J.F. McEndry, the Naval officer in charge of the program, emphasized not letting down and keeping up an all-out effort. He said the employees were working for the Navy just as "we are” and their efforts were needed to insure victory.

A Century of Quality Woodworking; 1892-1992 Algoma Hardwoods indicates that before the women came into the plant, it was stripped of its "calendars and other pictures," but according to the women interviewed for Women of the Plywood: The World War ll Years, they were accepted. They felt that sexual harassment, as it was known in the mid-1990s, did not exist until after the war when the men started coming home. As the men returned, most of the women who had taken their jobs were laid off. A few women remained until the boat works was sold to Wagemaker of Michigan, quitting at that point rather than relocating.

Women responding to the war employment call helped pave the way for women of the future. The October 2, 1942, Record Herald editorial was ahead of its time when writing that Algoma citizens thought about the future of industrial and employment opportunities in order that there be a continued "diversity and balance in industry when the war is over and the peace treaty is signed.”

There is much, much more to the mills, shipping, pollution, women in the workforce and the two companies that put Algoma on the map over 100 years ago. It all began in a small area nicknamed "Slab Town."


Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Women of the Plywood: The World War ll Years, A Century of Quality Woodworking; 1892-1992 Algoma Hardwoods, Commercial History of Algoma, WI, and the microfilmed files of Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald, all of which can be found at Algoma Public Library. Weldwood News and postcards are in the blogger's files.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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November 11: Kewaunee County Veterans

Today we pay tribute to our country's veterans. Kewaunee County's first veteran was Major Joseph McCormick, a veteran of the War of 1812. McCormick is buried at Algoma's Evergreen Cemetery.

Stories told by Indians aroused the curiosity of  Manitowoc resident McCormick who in 1834 visited what is now Algoma to observe the area and locate lands. He and his companions sailed up the, now Ahnapee River - so much wider and deeper in those days - to present day Forestville. They were impressed by the thick cedar and hemlock along the slow moving river and by the hardwood and pines on higher ground. Although the men told stories of fertile soil and abundant game in the beautifully timbered area, it too 17 years for the first settlers to arrive.

Scots-Irish Joseph McCormick was born in Pennsylvania in 1787. He was an expert river pilot who ran lumber from New York to the Chesapeake Bay. After serving in the War of 1812, he went to Indiana and then Manitowoc. At 84, he was the oldest (at that time) person ever elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 1870. When he was 87, the Enterprise said he was "just as fresh and vigorous on public matters as he was 50 years ago." McCormick died in 1875.

Nine years after Kewaunee became a county, the Civil War broke out. When the war was over, of the 408 Kewaunee County men who served, 65 (13%) died. Almost twice as many died of disease than were killed in battle. Many were buried where they fell. Most of the Civil War veterans in Kewaunee County cemeteries are identified by the Civil War marker on the grave site or attached to the stone. Following the Civil War, county residents planned a memorial in honor of those who served. By the time the memorial was erected in front of the courthouse, the U.S. had fought a new war and the monument was also dedicated to those who had served in the Spanish-American War

Looking at the draft lists, it appears that about 1,200 county men were eligible for duty in World War l. A little more than half that number served in “the war to end all wars,” but then came World War ll. Just as the Civil War and World War l before it, just about every family in the county was affected. It wasn't long before Korea, and then Vietnam. There were actions in Somalia, Grenada and wars in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan. Kewaunee County residents have always served.

 

 

Last year Wisconsin Public Radio joined the effort to find a photo for each of the 1,244 Wisconsinites listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.  This blogger was asked to join one of the "A Face for Every Name" project workshops. WPR's Jeffrey Potter just emailed the group saying, "As of September, more than 700 photos have been found, including more than 115 in the past year!  While we're proud of that progress, there are more than 400 photos remaining to be found in locations throughout the state.  Some communities, like Milwaukee, are missing more than 100 photos.  But others, like Racine, Eau Claire and Appleton are just missing a handful of images." Jeffery went on to say, "We need your help.  We're hoping that you will help us spread the word and sign up to search for photos in your community and around the state.  This summer, we worked with our partners to develop a strategy that would minimize confusion and anxiety for families and friends who lost loved ones in the war.

Coordinating efforts statewide.  We have a master list from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF) in Washington D.C. and our regional manager in Green Bay, Ellen Clark, is coordinating efforts statewide.  She can help you find names and details for those who still need a photo associated with their name.  We are also coordinating our efforts with Don Jones, a Vietnam War veteran who is working on the project through Wisconsin Public Television.  Don is well networked with veterans organizations statewide."

WPR updated their webpage: wpr.org/veterans.  

As Potter said, "We are committed to finding a photo for every single Wisconsinite listed on the Wall.  We can't do this without your help and you won't have to do it without ours.  Wisconsin Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Television, WUWM and Milwaukee Public Television are working together to support this effort."

If you'd like to see the "virtual wall" or find out what's going on, check the web links. There are ways to help and to be informed.

All photos were taken at the Evergreen Cemetery in Algoma and are courtesy of T. Duescher.

Information on McCormick comes from An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? Note: Door County historian Hjalmar Holand wrote in his History of Door Co., the County Beautiful, that McCormick was given the rank of Major in the war with Mexico. If McCormick was just under 90 when he died, he would have been about 60 when the Mexican War began in 1846, which seems impossible.

Kewaunee County Men: Co. E, 14th Wisconsin and Vicksburg

Control of the Mississippi River was vital to the federal government from the very beginnings of the Civil War. Control ensured transportation of men and supplies. Control also meant isolating sections of the Confederacy, which had fortifications along the river to make sure it didn't happen. One such fortification was at Vicksburg, a city high on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. Bayous and swamps offered more protection. If the Civil War had started 15 years later, outcomes might have been different. During the 1870s the course of the river changed somewhat, moving away from the city.

That Vicksburg would fall was unlikely in the eyes of its residents whose food supply was eventually so reduced that many ate rats. It would later be written that residents missed dogs and mules. It wasn't hard to imagine what happened to them. President Abraham Lincoln felt a victory at Vicksburg would end the war, and General U.S. Grant expected to open the river.

For most of five months, in one battle after another - at places such as Port Gibson, Jackson, Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge - Grant was squeezing General John Pemberton's Confederate army at Vicksburg. The first two attacks on Vicksburg itself were repelled and the loss of men was staggering. Finally Grant laid siege, trenching into the hills around and under the city. Pemberton's soldiers could hear, and even feel, Grant's men under them, but it was hard to know exactly where they were. On July 4, 1863, Pemberton surrendered the city. That followed General Robert E. Lee's defeat at Gettysburg a day or two earlier.

Co. E., 14th Wisconsin saw plenty of action in the campaign. Sergeant Major John M. Read of Kewaunee appears to have been the county's highest ranking officer.  Also ranking was Commissary Sergeant Hanford Smith, who had received the promotion following the Battle of Shiloh.

Banners waved and handkerchiefs fluttered as the Kewaunee County boys of Co. E boarded the Comet  on October 12, 1861. In the group was William I. Henry who rose in the ranks. Oliver Rouse was chosen sergeant and Julius  Wintermeyer as corporal by the men before they left that day. Matt Perry, who fifed The Girl I Left Behind Me as the Ahnapee band led the send-off for the men, continued playing as the 14th's musician.

By war's end, Read was serving as Adjutant, but to whom is unclear. Read served as an officer in Kewaunee's G.A.R. Post which was later renamed in his honor as John M. Read Post. Wintermeyer was recruited in Ahnapee by Manitowoc's Lt. Waldo who was killed at Shiloh. Rouse was known to be in Kewaunee County as early as 1859 when he witnessed Benoni Boutin's Naturalization. Rouse became an officer for a company of colored troops, something of a distinction at the time. He returned to farming after the war.

Smith, known to friends as Hamp, had originally come to Wolf River from New York to take charge of Abraham Hall's store, later purchasing an interest in it. When Hamp took the news about the firing on Fort Sumter to Hall's Mill that April day, he surely could not have foreseen that by mid-October he would be one of the 36 Ahnapee and Kewaunee men to join the Manitowoc and Kewaunee Rifles, later known as Co. E.

As many others, Smith carried with him a gilt-edged pocket bible that was printed in 1853. When he mustered out on August 5, 1865, he did not have his bible. Feeling it was either lost or stolen during the Battle of Nashville, Smith knew he would never see it again. But something strange happened. Nearly 50 years later Hamp's bible and other things were given to a Kentucky woman following the death of her uncle. Hamp's name was on the flyleaf and when a newspaper article appeared in 1913, his relatives saw it. The bible made its way back to Smith, who was by then living in Nebraska.

Perry was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1836 and arrived at Wolf River in the 1850s, going almost immediately to what would become Forestville. He enlisted for a three month stint right after Fort Sumter and then reenlisted and served till the end of the war when he participated in the Grand Review at Washington, D.C. Perry, who was with Grant at Vicksburg, was with Sherman in the march-to-the-sea.

William I. Henry was 41 years old when he enlisted as a private and was one of the Ahnapee men who marched with Sherman on the famous march to the sea. It was said the 14th did such a fine job at Shiloh "due to the grizzled old fisherman from Wolf River." It was also said Henry was a dour Scotsman who knew what had to be done and did it. Apparently Henry did not realize that his advances and retreats were silently directing his comrades in battle. His leadership was recognized. Henry was the county's most distinguished soldier, advancing to the rank of Major. Henry and his men served with distinction not only at Shiloh, but also at Corinth and Vicksburg.

The men of Co. E were in Camp Wood at Fond du Lac until leaving for Chicago in March 1862.  There they were met at the depot by Ellsworth's Zouaves and a regiment of U.S. regulars for a parade through the streets. Then they left for St. Louis and the front. George A. Hartman wrote the Enterprize telling about the parade and the 14th, which he felt was superior to anything he had seen in Chicago. He went on to say he saw such familiar faces as Andreas and Tucker Eveland, John and Michael Lovel, teacher Charles Brown, Andrew Sloggy, Julius Laviuski, Smith and others. Sloggy and Smith superintended the cooking for Co. E prompting another letter to the Enterprize saying the men had the requisites for running a hotel.

Of the original men, Sam Stone was sent home to recruit only to return and be shot at Vicksburg. He survived but was called a physical wreck. Ahnapee's Maurice VanDoozer was wounded and later shot in the head and killed while taking a chew of tobacco. Samuel Gokie survived Vicksburg and Shiloh where he was wounded. Two years later, he died in a tragic fire while in the Kewaunee jail, apparently being locked up for what was called insanity. Gokie set the fire that killed him. Another time, such a mental state was called "shell shock." William Herring and Christian Haugens were wounded at Vicksburg. Neither Herring, Haugens nor Sloggy seem to appear in county histories after mustering out in 1865. Herring was in Wolf River as early as 1856 when he appears on a poll list. As for Charles Brown, there were those who felt he showed a "white feather" while laying behind a log at Shiloh. Sandy Bay resident James Flynn became a part of Co. D, 6th Wisconsin. Then he was transferred to Porter's mortar fleet on the Mississippi and fired the only shot at the rebel ram Tennessee when it ran the Union batteries at Vicksburg. Flynn never recovered from injuries received while raising the gun.

The Civil War was not over and the men of Co. E went on to more battles. Wisconsin's mascot, the eagle called Old Abe, is perched atop the Wisconsin obelisk at Vicksburg Military Park, paying tribute to the men of the state who fought there. This inscription is found on the monument dedicated in 1911.

There were many other Kewaunee County men at Vicksburg and all of them appear on the monument. Following are only the men of Co. E, 14th Wisconsin and spellings of names are not always the most widely accepted spelling.

John Barnard, Nick Bregger, Burrell Day, Oresmus Dill, Myron Dill, Nelson Dill, Daniel Eveland, William Fagg, George Flannagen, William Flinn, Samuel Gokie, John Gurdane, Christian Haugens, William Herring, Patrick Hogan, Thomas Laulaa, Jack Lee, Robert Lee, John Looze, Charles McAllister, Michael McDonald, Anthony, McNulty, Henry Meverdan, Henry Meikel, George Monroe, Amon Moore, Joseph Moore, James Murphy, William Nelson, William Poranto, George Preston, Andrew Sloggy, Peter Stadler, Andrew Tufts, Martin Tyler, Chas Van Gott, Peter Walker, Joel Whitcomb, Jacob Williams.

Note: Elmer Ellsworth formed Ellsworth Zouaves, a nationally famous Civil War unit, modeled on French colonial troops. Ellsworth studied law with Abraham Lincon in Springfield and campaigned for him in 1860. Following the outbreak of the Civil War, Ellsworth formed the unit but didn't live to see what would happen with it. Ellsworth was shot in May 1861 in Virginia, across the river from Washington, D.C., and was brought to lie in state in the East Room of the White House.

Information comes from An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, www.militaryindexes.com/civilwar, Ahnapee Record and Kewaunee Enterprise. All photos were taken by the author. Kewaunee Enterprise originated as Kewaunee Enterprize.