Kewaunee County Soldiers' Relief Commission

Nearly 40 years after the close of the Civil War, Kewaunee County’s Soldiers’ Relief Commission was still meeting, providing benefits to those in need. By then, the U.S. had been engaged in another war – that which has come to be known as the Spanish - American War. Little did the average citizen know that another festering pot would boil over, eventually drawing the county into new fighting, this time in Europe.

By 1903 Civil War veterans Alfred Vibber, John Ihlenfeld and John Dishmaker made up the Soldiers’ Relief Commission committee. Dr. Churchill was the medical attendant. Vibber had initially enlisted in Oconto Co. but was rejected as too short, though he probably did not grow much in the few weeks before August 1862 when he enlisted in Kewaunee Co. Vibber joined Capt. Cunningham’s Co. A, 27^th Wisconsin, going on to serve for three years. Listed as Johann in Co. H, 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, Ihlenfeld served on the committee for over ten years. He owned the Hotel Ahnapee with John Weilep and served as Ahnapee's 1^st Ward councilman, always taking an active part in community and business affairs.  Dishmaker also served under Cunningham in Co. A, 27^th Wisconsin. He entered service as a musician on August 15, 1862, serving three years before mustering out on August 29, 1865. Dishmaker was born in Bavaria in 1838, arrived in New York in 1852 and filed his Declaration of Intent in Kewaunee County in 1859. He was Naturalized after the war in 1872.

For the years after 1900, minutes indicate the Soldiers' Relief Commission met as needed. They met in the courthouse and they met at the homes of those they assisted.  Expenditures were listed. Serving on the committee and earning mileage appear lucrative when compared with a soldier’s monthly assistance. At a time when such assistance averaged $12-$13.50 per month, committee members received $3.12 per diem. Vibber received $4.44, possibly because he served as chair. Financial information was reported to the County Board.

When George Barrand’s application was accepted in June 1903, he was approved for 12 months and called an “old indigent.” Barrand had served in the 1^st Wisconsin Cavalry and was in the march on Richmond in 1865. A November 1903 meeting began at the court house and ended with a visit to Henry Bregger in Luxemburg. Bregger mustered out of Co. G, 12th Wisconsin Infantry in July of 1865, having served about 15 months. Two months after the visit, Bregger applied for more money saying he had a large family of children.* During the summer of 1904, County Supervisor Nesemann requested funds for a widow, Elizabeth Machia, and West Kewaunee’s Chairman Seidl asked for help for Joseph Moore who had served with Co. E, 14th Wisconsin. Moore was placed on the list in April 1904 but then died. Seidl asked for an allowance for his widow until she got government assistance, at which point the board could decide what to do. Mrs. Moore was dropped from the list, but she was back on a few weeks later. Machia's application was filed in Wisconsin, although he served with a New York Infantry.

After the County Board raised $300 in June 1905, the Relief Commission investigated the finances of all the soldiers and widows. With two women and three men, the job could not have been too hard, but then another man was added to the roles. Curiously in February 1908 Max Jadin, Ed Carel and Henry Bregger are listed as "indigent" soldiers, but a few months later, Bregger is listed only as “soldier.” Within the next two years, the caseload went up. A number of veterans died and their widows began applying.

Algoma’s George W. Kelsey was an interesting case. Kelsey was the son of Martin Kelsey. The senior Kelsey was the originator the Ahnapee’s Brilliantine Factory, manufactured fly nets and was a merchant. Son George was managing his father’s Chicago business interests in 1894 but returned to Ahnapee the following year to open his Bargain Store in Froemming’s building. George Kelsey partnered with Voyta Kwapil in 1912 to begin a glove manufactory with the purchase of Constant LuMaye’s glove making equipment and moving it from Brussels to Algoma. LuMaye worked for the new firm, and for Kelsey, for two years.

On January 22, 1916, Vibber, Ihlenfeld and Dishmaker met in Algoma to discuss the case of George W. Kelsey being sent to the Soldiers’ Home in Milwaukee. Kelsey was said to be “laying sick” at the Kirchman Hotel in Algoma. Mr. Kirchman brought an account of $20 for Kelsey’s care, board and lodging. The committee refused to pay it because Kelsey** was drawing a U.S. pension and was not entitled to county money. At some point, Kelsey entered the Soldiers’ Home where he died on July 22, 1920. Kelsey’s son George W. Kelsey, Jr. died in a New Rochelle, New York, hotel in 1928. A second son, Louis, was living in Algoma.

Over the years, there were minutes of actions taken. Reasons for such actions were not.

*Bregger married in 1873 so that could explain the large number of children in 1903. **Kelsie in the minutes. The court house postcard was postmarked in 1910 and comes from the blogger's collection.