Railroads, Edward Decker & the Horse That Changed History

On May 10, 1869 the Golden Spike was driven in Utah Territory at Promontory Summit. The railroad tied the United States together and history was made. Had a horse not turned vicious, nearly chewing off the arm of Kewaunee County’s Edward Decker, railroad history might have had a few other twists and turns with Decker in the thick of the transcontinental railroad.

Edward Decker came to Kewaunee County from Menasha in 1855, purchasing large tracts of land. As a speculator, he settled on what was called Decker Creek before it was renamed Casco after Casco, Maine, the area in which Mr. Decker was born.  At the county’s organization, Decker became Deputy County Clerk, Deputy Register of Deeds and Deputy Treasurer. His years in office affected the settlement of Wolf River, as well as the entire county, more than any other elected official in the county’s history. The picture Decker presented when he arrived in Kewaunee was neither one of influence nor affluence. It was said he had come in patched clothing, carrying his lunch in a handkerchief, hoping to be named coroner.

Assuming so much responsibility for the county, Mr. Decker moved from Casco to Kewaunee, erecting a small one-story frame building, with living quarters, on Ellis Street. There he conducted Kewaunee County business for the next 16 years. Recognizing the need for a newspaper, in 1859 he began publication of Kewaunee Enterprize,* adding space in the building for that. Decker’s in-county newspaper insured that legal notices - and the associated publishing fees - would go to his paper, not to the Green Bay Advocate which had been publishing them. The first edition of the newspaper was not only praising him when it described him as, “shrewd, of excellent character and a good businessman.” His newspaper served to further his goals.

Mr. Decker was related to those of prominence. Joanna Curtin Decker, his 3^rd wife, was the niece of Andrew Curtin, governor of Pennsylvania and a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. Joanna’s brother Jeremiah, who was said to know 70 languages. served as Secretary and Acting Counsel in the U.S. legation in St. Petersburg, Russia. Decker manipulated the Kewaunee County Democratic party and manipulated the county beyond. A man of wealth, he was one of 10 residents with a taxable income in 1869.

Edward Decker dealt with legal battles for years. Some dealt with county finances and others dealt with his own. Some dealt with the deaths of his wives. Being prominent, wealthy and in a position of power meant his actions, right or wrong, were closely examined. Especially in the bad times.



Casco, 1910 postmark; Decker home left

With one exception, Decker always seemed to bounce back from life’s greatest challenges. On May 22, 1869 he lost the use of his left arm while trying to control the spirited horse he was driving. The horse seized Decker’s arm in its teeth and mangled it, chewing the hand and arm to a pulp while almost trampling the man to death. Decker was near death for several weeks and it was August before he regained the strength to even sit for a bit. A month later, a Green Bay physician said Decker’s health was poorer than any time since the accident and a few days later, the arm was amputated. It was a year before Decker was well enough to be seen on the street.

As early as November1860, Edward Decker gave notice of applying to secure a railroad and a state road from Kewaunee to Green Bay and from Ahnapee to Green Bay. While the Democrat Decker was serving in the State Senate in 1861, his relative Republican W.S. Finley was a member of the Assembly. Finley introduced a bill to incorporate the Kewaunee and the Green Bay railroads, but the Civil War interrupted the plans.

Years later, in 1868, Mr. Decker was about to proceed with an idea which could have been the first railroad from the Northeast to the Pacific. With his business associate C. B. Robinson, editor of the Green Bay Advocate, Decker and lumberman Anton Klaus obtained a charter and were organizing a railroad line from Green Bay to St. Paul. This time it was the accident that put the railroad on hold. When health forced his withdrawal and resignation as railroad president, the railroad was instead built to Winona. It was years before Mr. Decker completed a freight and passenger line, but this time it was from Casco Junction – where it connected with the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad - to Sturgeon Bay. Though the accident left him physically crippled, Edward Decker remained a business force who still executed thousands of acres of land transactions. 

 

Ahnapee and Western Railroad was incorporated on August 18, 1890 and began service in 1892. Financed largely by Decker, it serviced his business interests while serving Kewaunee and Door Counties as well. Built without federal subsidies, the company did secure about $76,000 in financial assistance from the county and the communities on its route. The Village of Ahnapee voted to contribute $23,000 in support of the bond issue, and to provide $10,000 in depot and dock privileges. Edward Decker, who provided the most capital and who eventually acquired most of the railroad's stock, was the railroad's first president. His company was short-lived however. When the Decker family fortune collapsed in 1906, the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western purchased the controlling interest in the Ahnapee and Western but kept the name.

Kewaunee's New Era  complained almost weekly that the railroad was bringing all kinds of tramps, vagrants and bums. The drummers, who sold everything from corsets to non-existent gold mine stocks, were not much more respected. At night they would sit on the hotel porches and whistle at women who were foolish enough to walk past without a male escort. No doubt there were other complaints, however with the coming of the railroad, residents had the speed, the economy and better access for marketing their products, travel and acquiring things they wanted. Real estate values increased. Where it had previously taken three days to get to Green Bay by horse drawn vehicle, a trip by train was as short as a few hours most of the time. A new era had arrived.

Just under 100 years later, Door County Advocate columnist Doug Larson commented on the railroad, but much differently. Larson observed in the Advocate that it was only because of the ship canal that the railroad reached Sturgeon Bay. Without it, Algoma (Ahnapee), because of its location on the lake shore and easier access to railroad service, could have been the commercial center of the entire region. 

King William lll, in Shakespeare’s play of the same name, lamented, “My kingdom for a horse…..” Edward Decker was a self-educated man whose collection included a vast library of rare books. No doubt he thought of William lll more than a few times!

 *The paper was Enterprize until 1865 when it became Enterprise.

Kewaunee New Era was discontinued in December 1894 after 3 1/2 years of publication.  Its publishers planned to give additional attention to the Kewaunee County Banner, a German newspaper owned by the  company.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?; Decker files at the Area Research Center, UW-Green Bay; Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County. Doug Larson Advocate, 9/18/1998; Kewaunee New Era. Photos are in the blogger's collection.