Algoma's Jahr Markt Fair

Lidral & Andre Hardware used this postcard of  Algoma's Jahr Markt Fair to place an order with William Frannfurth & Co. in 1907. The post card was sent via the Sturgeon Bay-Green Bay - also known as the Ahnapee & Western - Railway Post Office, indicated by the R.P.O. at the bottom of the postmark.

Celebrating German culture in Milwaukee with a Jahr Markt Fair was not unusual in the years surrounding the advent of the 20th century, but it was new to Algoma where at least 15,000 people attended the event on August 21, 22, and 23, 1901. When the fair closed on August 23rd, it was with a flourish and, by all accounts, was an immense success. Delegations came by train and ferry from Sturgeon Bay, Kewaunee, Green Bay, Manitowoc and Marinette,  and by road from the smaller towns in the area.

Most felt the daily balloon ascensions were the highlight of the three-day event while the Williams Circus and the Ferris wheel were right behind. Practical jokers ruled the day playing tricks and pranks on the unsuspecting and unwary. Midway festivities lasted well after midnight and when it was all over, everybody said it was the most successful fair in Northeast Wisconsin.

A Jahr Markt Fair  is an outdoor summer event with amusement rides and games for children and adults alike. Booths line the streets for the sale of ice cream, cigars, beer and more. Algoma's Jahr Markt Fair was not the annual thing  it was in other places. Jahr Markt Fairs continue to be held, though mostly in Europe. Kitzbuhel, Austria has had one yearly for nearly 100 years.

And railway mail? Although it didn't reach Kewaunee County until 1892, it was a boon to mail service from then on. It was in 1862 that a railroad clerk system was instituted in the U.S. By the mid-1890s, 500 railroad postal clerks were processing more than 700 million pieces of mail a year! Since mail was picked up and dropped off along the route, processing speed was essential. Postal clerks did not have time to spend deciphering handwriting thus hard-to-read pieces of mail were set aside.

Lidral & Andre Hardware, the Ahnapee & Western, R.P.O.s and a Jahr Markt fair have all faded into Algoma's history. A careful look at the postcard drawing of Steele Street reveals few changes in 100 years. The tent on the right is covering the space in which the Busch building was constructed a few years later. Today's Steele Street Florists' building was built as Melchior's jewelry a few years before the card was drawn. It is the building with the flag, on the right in the distance at 3rd and Steele. Buildings on the left are there today.

Lidral and Andre Hardware operated at the northwest corner of 4th and Steele in Algoma. The building remains and has been refurbished as the site of E-Z Computers.

Algoma's Depot is the subject of a postcard dated in 1910. The depot was at the foot of Steele, the site of today's marina. The depot was eventually moved to the foot of 6th Street and the building above was used for high school basketball games until the new school was constructed in the mid-1930s.