Kewaunee County: A Home for Amelia

Amelia had just turned three when her parents married. She was born out of wedlock. In the area of Saxonia in which she was born – as in other areas of Germany – fully 50% of the children born about that time period were to parents not yet married. Economic conditions were such that marriage was not sanctioned unless the couple had a place to live and see to their own livelihood, or were immigrating. Amelia’s parents were married just months before they left their homeland.

Arriving in New York in October 1853,* Amelia and her parents proceeded to Sheboygan where there were relatives and fellow countrymen. Not long after, Amelia’s father walked to the federal land office in Menasha to purchase land, sight unseen, in 2 year old Kewaunee County, on its line with Door Co. just north of the fledgling community of Wolf River. After spending weeks and weeks on an ocean-going vessel, then a canal boat, and then a schooner through the Great Lakes, in Spring 1854 the family was again on a schooner, this time from Sheboygan to Wolf River where they boarded yet another boat that would take them up the Wolf River to the county line. It was a time before the wide, deep Wolf was nearly denuded by logging, baking in the hot dry sun, no longer kept within its banks. To disembark and to follow the land cruiser to the purchased property over a mile from the river was no small feat. The cedars near the river were so tightly packed that one could barely push oneself through. Cedar branches slapping exposed skin left welts as itchy as the mosquito bites. To finally reach an area of hardwoods was to see no sun. Tree canopies formed a roof that left in little sunlight.

Alone in the wilderness, Amelia's parents began the arduous clearing the huge virgin timber. All they had was a saw and ax. Just as soon as there was a tiny patch of sunlight, her mother planted what she could. Amelia's family ate beets and potatoes in Germany, but it wasn't until they arrived in Sheboygan that they learned about squash and other vegetables that would keep well. They had to think of winter. Always winter. Birds were snared for meat. Finding pigeon eggs was like finding gold. There were deer, rabbits and squirrels, but what if traps failed or if deer were elusive? There were fish in the river, but that meant going through the thick woods.

Survival meant 24-7 work. Winter would come and Amelia's family would depend only on itself for subsistence. Never ending chopping down mammoth trees provided a sun-reached plot of land to, hopefully, ensure food crops. There were so many trees that building a shelter was no problem, but then where to go with all the branches when the trees were cut? Those trees offered enough wood to cover all their purposes over a lifetime. Or so they thought. By 1860 things were a little better. Land had been cleared and during the winter snow cover allowed the constant burning of the branches. There were times that the huge fires provided more warmth outdoors than the fireplace inside did. But then there were new worries.

Abraham Lincoln had been elected. Amelia’s father heard disturbing things the few times he walked to Marcus, now Forestville, or the community renamed Ahnepee from Wolf River. And when William Fagg brought the news about the firing at Fort Sumter and war between two parts of their new country, Amelia’s father knew it would not affect them. They were so far away in the wilds of Wisconsin. They were Germans. What did they have to do with it? From what he heard, he knew the liberty of people he did not understand was part of it. He did understand liberty though. Wasn’t that part of the reason he immigrated? He was 39 years old and too old to soldier. Conscription existed in Germany, not the United States. Not to worry.

Amelia’s father was wrong. On September 4, 1864, he was drafted.  He was placed on the roll of Co. E, 17th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry with the remark that he was a conscript, temporarily assigned to the command from the 14th Wisconsin Volunteers.  His brother, younger by 7 years, was drafted at the same time.

Thousands of histories are written about the Civil War and its men. What of a family who’d eked out a living in the wilderness? What of the farm with no man? Taxes had to be paid. Women who did more than their share to settle the country could not vote. They stepped in for the men who left.  Fourteen year old Amelia was able to be of much help to her mother, who by then had a toddler. They made it through the 10 months that her father served. He got sick a few weeks after being drafted and before being mustered out in June 1865, much of his service time was spent in the hospital. Continued ill health forced the sale of the farm in 1868. Moving to Ahnepee in 1870, Amelia’s father opened a butcher shop. He had some experience as his father was a butcher in Saxony. Amelia married in 1871 and a few years later, her father and new husband began making soda pop, the first such business venture in the community. How much her father did physically is questionable because everything written about him from then until his death in 1889 indicates he was unfit for any kind of manual labor.

With her father's death, her mother owned the Steele Street butcher shop, however the estate was put in the hands of Amelia's husband. It was said her mother was incompetent. She wasn't incompetent by today's standards. She was a widow in her 60s and, of course, old ladies were indeed incompetent. How could a mere woman handle money or take care of herself? Amelia's husband sold the property to the Melchiors who in 1896 built a shoe, boot and gentleman's furnishings store on the southeast corner of 3rd and Steele. Another Melchior built a jewelry store across 3rd St. The shoe store is now Algoma Sew 'n Vac while the jewelry store is Steele Street Florists and time continues to march on.

Amelia was born in Germany and died in Algoma, Wisconsin. The circumstances of Amelia's birth, and indeed her entire life, provides a reflection on social mores. Eleven years following her husband's death, hastened by Civil War injuries, the 19th Amendment was passed. Amelia voted. The Progressive Era brought some awareness. Nobody called Amelia incompetent just because she was a woman.


Amelia is the blogger's great-grandmother. There are discrepancies. Civil War Pension Files indicate Amelia's parents were married in December 1853 in their native land, while her father's Declaration of Intent indicates he arrived in October 1853. It is most probable that her parents were married in 1852 and an error was made in the pension records.