Algoma & the Generals MacArthur

Kewaunee County played a significant role in World War ll, though as that generation passes away few realize how the Lake Michigan counties of Northeast Wisconsin were so wrapped up in defense.  Manitowoc, Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay all built large vessels and by Mother’s Day 1944, Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering had launched its 69^th ship, a 176’ cargo and transport vessel built for the Army. Algoma’s role was a bit different.  That role connects to General Douglas MacArthur, one of five World War ll generals to achieve the rank of 5-Star General.

During the war Algoma Plywood and Veneer was manufacturing plywood and building plywood hulls, airplane wings and noses that went elsewhere for finishing.  Some of that plywood is associated with General Douglas MacArthur’s 1942 escape from Bataan. It was Algoma plywood that was used in the PT motor torpedo boat that rescued MacArthur, his wife, their son Arthur and his Chinese nurse, and other military personnel, taking them to Mindanao. From there they went to Australia. Ironically, MacArthur’s father, General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., was also on Luzon, but that was in August 1899, more than 40 years before  when President McKinley sent him there as field commander.

In his 1942 They Were Expendable,* author-historian William L. White described the plywood boats saying,  “An MTB is a plywood speedboat about 70’ long and 30 wide, powered by three Packard marine motors which can send her roaring over the water about as fast as an auto can go over land. So fast, in fact, that the motors should be changed every few hundred hours.”

White continues, “Each boat is armed with four torpedo tubes and four 50-caliber machine guns. There isn’t an ounce of protective armor on them. They’re little eggshells, designed to roar in, let fly a Sunday punch, then speed out, zigzagging to dodge the shells.” Men on PT boats were cited for bravery in the rescue of MacArthur who said, upon landing at Mindanao, that he was giving Silver Stars of Gallantry to every officer and man there.

MacArthur’s first connection with Algoma came over 40 years earlier when he was a student at West Point where he assisted in the design of Algoma’s north pier. The pier has been rebuilt in the last 100 years, but if anyone with MacArthur’s prominence was associated with it, it has been forgotten.

World War l Camp MacArthur at Waco, Texas was named for General Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the General’s father and the man for whom the General’s son was named. Algoma men were among the 1,200 from Wisconsin who trained there, but little did they know that they would have a connection to the name in years that followed. Carl (Josh) Lidral wrote home about the 16 weeks of training the men would have at Camp MacArthur before going off to lick the Kaiser. Ernest Haucke, the first Algoma man killed in action on August 20, 1918 trained at the camp. So did Ralph Perry who later died of wounds suffered in the Argonne Forest. Algoma’s  VFW Post was named for Haucke, and Perry’s family memorialized Ralph in the presentation of Perry Field to the city. John Culligan, Jerry Jerabek and Augie Wasserbach also were at the camp. The men were well-respected leaders just as the MacArthurs were, however the MacArthurs were on a world stage.

History tells us the Generals MacArthur were the country’s only father-son combination awarded Medals of Honor. MacArthur, Jr.’s father was Arthur, Sr. who has the distinction of being Wisconsin’s shortest serving governor due to an election scandal. His 4 or 5 day term as the state’s 4^th governor started and ended in March 1856. Arthur, Jr. entered the Civil War at age 17 and served with the 24^th Wisconsin. So many Kewaunee County men fought in units with his at Chicamaugua, Stones River, Missionary Ridge and Chattanooga. He is credited with planting the flag and shouting “On Wisconsin.” It is likely that some of the men in the Texas camp were sons of those who were in those same Tennessee campaigns.  Whether or not any Algoma connection can be made with Douglas MacArthur’s son Arthur, it is up for grabs. To escape the limelight, it is said he changed his name.

Though the MacArthur connection hardly makes Algoma prominent, the shipbuilding and defense work among the lake shore communities played a part in World War ll. History gets lost as the days turn into years and years turn into decades.

Note: William L. White’s 1942 book was a best seller that is available on Amazon. A few years after publication, it was made into a movie starring John Wayne as Lt. Rusty Ryan. It also starred Robert Montgomery and Donna Reed. The movie ran on cable's TNT and was possibly shown at the Majestic sometime after its 1945 release.  It was essential personnel who were to be evacuated by the torpedo boats. So many men were left. It was that evacuation when MacArthur said, I will return,” a quote that has lived on.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, c. 2001 Johnson; The Commercial History of Development in Youngs and Steele Plat and Other Selected Properties, c. 2006 Johnson, Nell, Wolske; They Were Expendable, c. 1942 White; Women of the Plywood: The War Years, c. 1998 Johnson. The Plywood postcard is in the blogger's collection. The photo was taken from the bend in the Ahnapee River where the South Branch leaves the main channel. The view is of the lumber piles behind the plant and along the river. Buildings, roof tops and stacks are in the background. A copy is available for purchase from Algoma Public Library.

 Information about Arthur MacArthur, Jr. & Sr. is online, where there is much more available.