Wolf River's first lawyer, John A. Daniels, arrived one day in 1854 aboard the Goodrich steamer Cleveland. With Daniels that day was Dr. Levi Parsons, the fledgling hamlet's first doctor. The doctor found business, but as there were few lawsuits in the small settlement, Daniels left a year later. He should have stayed.
As Wolf River - and Ahnapee after the renaming - continued to grow, so did its problems. Not everybody was law-abiding, and by the 1860s the justices and lawyers were enjoying a brisk business, primarily because of property disputes. Criminal cases were few at first but that didn't last.
Deputy Sheriff William VanDoozer recognized a stranger in Ahnapee from a picture in an 1860 Chicago newspaper. The man, Jacob Haas, was wanted for murder and a substantial reward was said to be offered for his capture. After fleeing Chicago, Haas felt he had made it to the "uttermost parts of the earth." VanDoozer made the capture and on June 11, 1860 as he was taking his prisoner to Manitowoc via a steamer, Haas jumped overboard in an attempt to escape. VanDoozer followed. VanDoozer was a good swimmer and caught Haas. Though Hass tried to "crown" him, the deputy held on until the boat could get to them. VanDoozer eventually claimed the reward that wasn't enough to allow him to quit his job.
It was not long after when the county had its first murder trial. The murder occurred on May 7, 1861, though it was 140 years later before all the facts came out.
Widow Bevintha Ashby was one of the county's first white women. In 1852, she and her young son Joel arrived in Wolf River to keep the boarding house at Hall's Mill, in the approximate area of what was later known as the Plumbers Woodwork. Mrs. Ashby married Englishman Thomas Bacon in 1859. Two years later Bacon was stabbed to death by German merchant and saloon keeper* Christopher Weidner. Depending on whose ears heard whose mouth, he was also called Christopher Wagner. On the positive side, Weidner was described as one who was skillful in treating pain within the community. But he was also described as being erratic, eccentric and having an uncontrollable bad temper.
It was said Weidner was angry regarding the non-payment of Bacon's tab and on Tuesday afternoon, May 7, 1861, Weidner attacked Bacon as he was loading a boat on David Youngs' bridge pier.* Although Weidner immediately gave himself up, sailors witnessing the murder wanted to hang him from the yardarm of the boat. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed.
Sheriff Arndt took Weidner into custody and put him in the county's first jail on Ellis St. in Kewaunee where he shared a cell with William Jacobs who was serving a term for bastardy. In an effort to escape, Weidner and Jacobs made a sketch of the key and then carved one out of charred wood. In a nutshell, that describes security at the jail! On July 6 Jacobs made his escape, but for some reason Weidner chose to remain.
Weidner was convicted of first-degree murder in Kewaunee County's first murder trial. Sentenced to life at Waupun, Sheriff Arndt took him to Milwaukee aboard the Comet and then by rail to Waupun. History tells us Weidner did not serve the life sentence but was returned to Ahnapee to die after contracting consumption.
That was not the end of the story. Over 100 years later Weidner's descendents' curiosity provoked research. What they learned was that while Weidner could have been ill, he was pardoned by the governor due to extenuating circumstances. Weidner did indeed stab Bacon but there was much more to the story. In Weidner's case, the story stopped with newspaper articles at the time and the rest of the facts never came out. Kewaunee County cemetery records do not point to Weidner's grave, but oral history maintains that the county's first alleged murderer was buried in the Ahnapee cemetery in what is now Highway 54 and often called Bultman's hill.
Bacon's murder made history, but what was written was not the entire story.
Note: *At Weidner's store, as many of the early stores, the counter over which customers were served when they were buying provisions was the same counter over which the same customers bought their spirits.
*Youngs' bridge pier was at the north side of the Wolf, now Ahnapee, River. However, the river's mouth was north of where it today.
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