A Day to Give Thanks: Thanksgiving in Ahnapee/Algoma

Thanksgiving is synonymous with turkey and pumpkin pie, although history tells us those at the first Thanksgiving feasted on shellfish, roasted venison and corn among other things. But, probably not pumpkin pie. Recorded history says the settlers sent out a fowling party. Whether they brought back turkeys that were in abundance or some other fowl, who knows for sure?  Holiday cards and stickers reflecting smiling turkeys are sent to those who smile as the oven door is opened on Thanksgiving Day.  In 1891 the Ahnapee Record agreed with that, saying it was a day of sore distress to the turkey, but one of happiness to mankind. Some kick it up a notch dressing as the Pilgrims wearing dark clothing, and shoes and hats with buckles – the way they are depicted in books.  While the clothing description is not entirely factual, it adds to the fun on a special day.  

According to The National Park Service, the Pilgrims were actually continuing a tradition brought from Europe, a tradition Americans have kept. George Washington was in his first term when he called for a national day of thanksgiving and prayer. What sounded like a good idea didn’t catch on. Thomas Jefferson felt such a day didn’t fit with a separation of church and state, and apparently other presidents felt the same way. What we know today started coming about in the 1840s when the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, Sarah Hale, started lobbying for a national thanksgiving. However, it was Abraham Lincoln who declared the first official such a day in November 1863. The country was in the midst of the Civil War and Lincoln called for giving thanks for blessings. It was the 2^nd Thanksgiving that year. In August, Mr. Lincoln gave thanks for a Union victory at Gettysburg, the bloodbath that took somewhere around 50,000 men.

Today many celebrate while watching the clock. Some to make sure they won’t miss the Packer kick-off and others to snap up the deals at the stores opening at 6 or earlier. Maybe that’s what Franklin Roosevelt had in mind when he moved Thanksgiving to the 3^rd Thursday of November thinking that a few more days would make an impact on Christmas shopping. The country was coming out of the Depression and the economy was still hurting. Thanksgiving 1941 - days before Pearl Harbor - was back to being celebrated on the 4^th Thursday of November. And, that’s where it stayed.

It’s uncertain when Ahnapee saw its first Thanksgiving observance, or how it was celebrated, though observed it was in one way or the other. Lake Michigan captains weren’t giving thanks in the violent lake storms in November 1874. The Milwaukee weather station said winds were 48mph, 12 miles greater than the station had ever recorded. At the same time residents of Foscoro weren’t focused on turkey. They were out trying to capture a bear that was near the hamlet. Four years later the Record seemed to apologize for a paper containing less reading material because of Thanksgiving "work." The paper’s editor was not a woman! The paper did mention its accomplishments though and gave thanks for more subscribers, a new press and 15 different kinds of type.

Oysters used in turkey stuffing were in even bigger supply in 1891 when the Ahnapee Ladies Union Society gave a Thanksgiving oyster supper in James Dudley’s drugstore building. A day earlier Math Strutz  hosted a chicken and turkey shoot. City residents were urged to test their marksmanship skills at the event held along the lakeshore near the cheese box factory, today near the foot of Clark.

It was not frivolity when the Methodist Episcopal Church announced its evening services in 1898 saying there would be recitations, special music and the address, or sermon. Such an evening service was anticipated to draw large crowds because everyone would be free to attend at that time of day. The congregation invited others to “enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.”

Scholars were given the day off a year later when Algoma schools were closed the day following the holiday granting "students a day off to overcome the effects of overeating turkey, cranberry sauce and plum pudding." The Record went on to say that some of the elders needed to recover from over-doses of “brandy sauce.”  An observation is that the traditional pudding wouldn’t be the same without a dollop of the sauce, although there were always those who feel it is better with a few more dollops.

While much of the county enjoyed Thanksgiving, Rosiere didn’t. That part of the county celebrated kermis but not Thanksgiving, at least up to 1900 when the paper noted the quiet day because most people of the area didn’t observe the holiday. In 1901, Wisconsin’s Gov. Robert Lafollette issued a Thanksgiving proclamation in grateful observance of the blessings of liberty, peace, health and prosperity. The peace followed wars in Cuba and in the Philippines.

Perhaps Lafollette’s admonition caught on because a year later the Record said feasters needed a day to recover.

Wilbur and Kwapil Drug Store ran an ad for Kodaly, a product apparently curing indigestion by “sweetening and cleansing the glands of the stomach.” Their ad said heavy eating was the cause of such indigestion and that its repeated attacks inflamed mucous membranes leading eventually to catarrh of the stomach. A Google search indicates catarrh has more to do with the sinuses. As for indigestion, it was in 1928 when St. Louis pharmacist Jim Howe developed Tums while treating his wife’s indigestion. “Tums for the Tummy” came much later, but by then Wilbur and Wail had faded from Algoma’s list of drugstores.

Bottkol's, right

Dances were the places to celebrate in some years. Those giving thanks at Albert Gaulke’s Rio Creek hall in 1907 did so with Algoma Star Band. The Transit House in Luxemburg held a Grand Thanksgiving Jubilee the same year. The Record opined that Transit house landlords, Mr. and Mrs. Duquaine, offered entertainments not to be missed. Casco residents reported celebrating Thanksgiving “gloriously” in 1908. A huge audience crowded into the grade school for a program topped off with feasting on Casco women’s finest recipes before villagers filled Defnet’s hall for the best dance in years. Defnet expected large crowds when he advertised that Junion’s band would play for the event on November 30, 1911. The popular Junion band had also been engaged to play at Bottkols in Euren the night before. Euren isn’t far from Rosiere so perhaps Bottkol attracted the young who were beginning to celebrate the day, or perhaps just enjoyed the dancing. November 30 was a popular night for dances. Maybe it was because it was a year for bright spots. Alaska Band played at Alaska’s Lawrence Meunier’s hall while the Carnot Brass Band played at Joseph Neville’s hall in Maplewood also on the 30^th. In a time of horse transport, the populace got around.

When President Woodrow Wilson issued his Thanksgiving proclamation in 1914 he said he was dwelling on the peace in the United States while much of the rest of the world was at war. For those who thought Wilson was keeping them out of war, it would be a little more than two years before the U.S. was enmeshed in the war "over there." On April 6, 1917 the U.S. entered what became World War l and Thanksgiving that year was a day for weddings, including that of Ruth Pautz and Emmanuel Holt who were married at Immanuel Lutheran in Kewaunee. Residents were able to forget the war for a few hours during the two Algoma-Mishicot basketball games. Afternoon and evening games were played in Algoma. Mishicot creamed Algoma 31-7 in the afternoon, but the Algoma team came back to save its image in the evening.

As Algoma residents blissfully celebrated Thanksgiving 1941, they had no way of knowing that little more than a week later  FDR would be declaring war following the December 7 attack on Pearl Harbor.  Geraldine Detjen and Jeanette Melchior were students home from Milwaukee State Teachers College. George Ackerman, Frank Knipfer, Jim Kohlbeck, Stanley Fulwiler and Betty Jerabek were part of the contingent home from the university at Madison. As they enjoyed the company of family and friends, they had no idea how next year’s Thanksgiving would be part of a world turned upside down.

The Thanksgiving that began in 1621, or 1624 depending whose history one accepts, is still going strong nearly 400 years later. While all is not good, there is still much for which to to be thankful. Some menu items remain the same, but preparation hasn’t. History tells us there were games at the first Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. History remembers William Bradford, William Brewster and Myles Standish, and Wisconsin honors the legendary Bart Starr and Brett Favre. Favre finally joins Starr in the Packers Hall of Fame.

Recent prompts to “Buy Local” harkens back to 1914 when the Record proposed a Kewaunee County menu that would be patriotic while demonstrating to the world that the county could depend on itself by supplying its own needs. The paper advocated Kewaunee County made flour. The Bruemmer mill at Bruemmerville could have supplied it. Sugar from county sugar beets was to provide the sweet. The paper wanted Badenzer cheese – made only in Algoma by the Schwendermanns - and fresh butter. Peas would come from Algoma’s Van Camp’s cannery. Commercial fishermen would supply the trout and turkey would come from one of the farms. Potatoes, squash, cucumbers, dill, pumpkin and more were grown in gardens all around the county. Baumeister in Kewaunee, the Algoma pop shop, and Garot Brothers in Luxemburg were there to provide the soda, and the county’s dairy cows were able to provide all the milk and cream anybody wanted.

Today, as then, women all over are preparing sumptuous feasts that will include Belgian pies and kolaches. Here and there men are deep frying turkeys in the backyard. Others have it all packed for their tailgate at Lambeau. Others will be out deer hunting, glad that it's a late game so they can get it all in. Still others will be kicking back with a blackberry brandy to soothe the stomach while others search for the Tums. 

Thanksgiving – 400 years ago it was a time for giving thanks while celebrating with turkey and games. That part hasn’t changed.

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Google, National Park Service website.
Ad and menu from the Record; pictures and the postcard are from the blogger's collection.

Sunday Afternoons at the Majestic: How the Other Half Lived

Sunday afternoon movies at the Majestic taught us how the other half lived. On Sunday mornings in church Father Heimann and Pastor Toepel tried to teach us to stay in our own half  on the straight and narrow, which probably wasn’t what the other half was doing.

Postmarked 1919

There were no “B” grade movies on Sunday afternoon, but there were Broadway musicals and movies with night clubs, gangsters, singers, dancers, tuxedos and whatever made the east coast the other half and important in our small-town-kid minds. The “coast” to the savvy among us meant New York. Maybe California if it was a Bing Crosby movie. All that singing and all that dancing went on in night clubs where patrons sat at small round tables with light provided by the tiny lamps in the center. We always wondered where the electricity came from, but even more astounding was that the telephone could be brought right over to one who was important. Our telephones were on the wall. New York was so important that they even figured out how to get a telephone way across a room. It was a time when we heard ladies say, “Well, I never……” but we never heard the what. Maybe it was something they never heard of, like telephones that could stretch.

Kewaunee County didn’t have anything close to a night club with palm trees unless we counted those in the bier garten at the Dug-Out. We learned from Bing Crosby in Holiday Inn that show dancers were “kids” who were “hoofers.” Any Kewaunee County kid knew where to find a hoof and lots of kids saw far too many! The hoofing Jane, Ann, Jan, Nancy, Sandy and I did was around a Maypole when we danced for the Women’s Club. We didn’t have a band but we had Annette at the piano. She was blond and beautiful.

The folks, Norb and Lorraine, and no doubt others, would go to Milwaukee where the aunts and uncles lived. If we kids went along, we were put to bed before the adults went out. To a night club. We learned from the Majestic just how ritzy our parents really were. They even saw hat check girls and bought cigarettes from girls in satin shorts and shirts with little satin caps perched on their blond curls. Everybody who was anybody was blond. A tray of cigarettes was suspended by cords looped around that gorgeous, curvy, blond’s neck. Smiling, she walked through the night club selling packs of Lucky Strikes, Camels and more. Smoking in a night club meant the cigarettes came with a book of matches with the logo and address on the cover.

People in the movies always had stemmed glasses. We never knew if our folks got to drink out of such stemware, but they did bring home little paper umbrellas that actually opened. We could never understand what doll umbrellas did in a night club, but we knew we were playing with something special

Going to a night club meant suits, ties, dresses, spike high heels and hats. The men checked theirs but the women kept their hats on. A man’s hat didn’t mess up his hair while women in the movies didn’t dance wearing hats unless they were hoofers in costume. Night clubs had other beautiful blond women walking around with cameras taking photos of patrons. They were sold so one could tell friends they were snapped at such and such, a prominent Milwaukee place in which to be seen. One could also prove he was there by off-handedly using the logo matches to light another’s cigarette. Unspoken one-up-manship. There were lots of pictures taken at the Dug-Out, however they were for the Record Herald and all the subscribers – well over 5,000 when the Heidmanns wrapped it up in the 1980s – knew who was dancing at the Dug-Out. And, wearing a hat.

The movies had big bands on stage. Bob Crosby, Jose Iturbo, Desi Arnez, Guy Lombardo and the list goes on. That’s where Algoma caught up to New York. Algoma was no backwoods Wisconsin place. The Dug-Out with its dark paneling and palm trees in the softly-lit bier garten saw the likes of Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians, the Bob Crosby Orchestra, Lawrence Welk’s Orchestra conducted by Myron Floren and more that were touring the country. Germans, Bohemians and Belgians who made up the county love to dance and Kewaunee County had its own superb polka dance bands that were not exactly like the big bands. Alice Faye and Rosemary Clooney sang with the big names, but the beautiful blond Eileen sang with Russ Zimmerman and it didn’t get much better than that.

It was about that time that some kids started tap dancing. When Sharon came to visit her aunt and uncle, who were our neighbors, she always got on the picnic table and put on a show. We were impressed in a jealous sort of way. Her Aunt Pearl made costumes that were satin just like those in the movies. Her costumes even rustled. Then another Sharon and Ramona took tap and twirl and that was even more impressive. But, they had the same kind of satin costumes. We got batons for Christmas and tried hard to be like Carol, the high school majorette. We knew we couldn’t twirl because we didn’t have the satin shorts and top, but Carol had long pants and a matching jacket and she could do it. Something was wrong.

Years later there were musicals such as Beach Blanket Bingo with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. Frankie Avalon was one of the major heart throbs who came to the Dug-Out. Macy’s Thanksgiving parade was broadcast on TV. Drum majors strutted their stuff though not wearing satin shorts and tops.Even though they were men, their outfits were like Carol’s.

Nobody snapped photos of those trying to be seen at Mousy’s, Red’s, Pine Lodge or anyplace else, but Mr. Heidmann was chronicling history all around the county. Nobody was selling cigarettes from a tray and everybody in town knows more than a few who died of lung cancer. But, some of those were asbestos related. If anybody made it hoofing on Broadway or filled in for Ruby Keeler, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire, it wasn’t in the paper. Busby Berkley and Debbie Gibson aren’t calling the shots however there are plenty of county kids hoofing today in the top quality  area high schools’ theatrical productions. Polyester means you won’t hear rustling satin. If a night club scene required a telephone being brought to a table for a high school musical, would anybody ever be able to figure it out? And if it was figured out, how would it be staged? Telephone? Cords?

Kewaunee County still doesn’t have night clubs, but there are sports’ bars and just plain bars. If the county ever had a cigarette girl, her unemployment compensation would have run out years ago because few smoke. Cigarette smoke and liquid manure fumes are both the smell of money, but these days manure fumes are more acceptable. There are no little tables with the linen tablecloths and table lamps but there are high tables and stools that aren’t quite so easy to jump up on.  Big bands have been replaced with jukeboxes with choices from country western to rap. Here and there a big band sound can be reproduced with the right computer programs and mixing. A budding Bing Crosby or Rosemary Clooney might have a chance at Karaoke night while an aspiring Cyd Charisse, Ginger Rogers, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire would be in some dancing with the stars contest.

Some of us still bask in the glow of having parents who did what the real people on the coast in the movies did. The post World War ll era led to changes in almost everything and almost unparalleled progress. Nearly 70 years later the lights on the nightclub tables are battery-operated. Everybody carries a cell phone. The world is not like Sunday afternoons at the Majestic.

Postcards and photos are in the blogger's collection.

Halloween: When Kodan School Board "Got 'Em Good"

Kodan's Postal Map, 1893

Trick of Treating is pretty big in most places but lots of Algoma kids – now of a certain age – never had a trick or treat experience. Somewhere back around 1950 the city exchanged a Halloween party for the promise not to wax windows and vandalize. The event began at Perry Field where costumes were judged while kids lined up for the Hobo Parade. Marching down Steele, the kids were given candy as they passed Meyers Deep Rock at the corner of 4^th and Steele. Spectators lining 4^th enjoyed the dressed up kids who continued south to Fremont where they turned west to Algoma Public School grounds. On the way into the auditorium for movies and magic shows, the revelers got other treats followed by take-home bags of popcorn balls, peanuts and comic books on the way out. Teenagers had a dance and their own fun at the Dug-Out.  A few years ago the lack of trick or treat memories prompted a five foot, 70 year old grandma to dress up as a witch and go out with her grandkids. She wore gloves on her hands to cover the age spots but felt her face would look made up enough.  

Perry Opera House on 3rd Street

Over the years Halloween activities were recorded in the Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Herald and Algoma Record Herald, but it was really TV that made it big news. To read the old papers and descriptions of Halloween, vandalism seems to have been a boys’ thing while the girls planned parties and the tamer events. In 1895 the Girls’ Friendly Society engaged music and charged a 25 cent admission for a Halloween dance at Perry’s Opera House. 

The paper told its readership that Halloween was the season when maidens walked downstairs backward with a mirror held in front of them, or walked around the block barefoot with a cabbage stalk in their hands. What for? They were trying to discover the identity of their future husbands. The mirror reflected the face of a man walking toward the girl, and in the walk around the block, the girl would meet him face to face. It seemed that by 1889 that custom went by the wayside and girls got into the practical joke action, though never appearing to get into the mischief that boys did.

1898 found boys and girls playing pranks, some of which were not funny. It was a year when the citizenry was warned to watch their gates as the boys would surely make raids on gates and fences. But they got into other things. Hitching posts were torn up and horse blocks were upturned. One family had its doors barricaded with shingles, lumber and junk. The following day a beer keg was found on top the flagpole at the Temple of Honor building, the home of the Temperance group in the city.

Temperance groups would have had plenty to say 50 years later when 12 and 13 year old boys went trick or treating on bachelors living in homes that were not kept like those with a woman in the house. The boys knew while there were no cookies and candy to be had, they were sure they’d get a treat. Most often it was hard cider. The boys went off with a buzz and looked forward to next year, knowing the men enjoyed the socialization as much as they enjoyed their buzz.

Around the turn of 1900, Mary Danek invited 36 young people to her family’s home for a Halloween celebration including games, singing and dancing. Coffee, cake and fruit were served in a “prettily decorated front room.” (Living room today.) A  Japanese lantern was hung in the center of the room and from there vegetables were hung on wires that were strung to all four corners. When the Record reported on Mrs. August Boedecker’s Eppworth League party at Algoma Hotel, it said the refreshment table was in the shape of a cross and that the waiters were dressed as ghosts. The paper said it was all very odd. Eppworth League was a fellowship group at Algoma’s German Methodist Episcopal Church and the symbolism of a cross on All Hallows’ Eve, which is followed by All Souls and All Saints Days, doesn’t appear as odd today as does a ceiling hung with vegetables.

If windows were soaped or waxed in the Silver Creek neighborhood early in 1900, it is hard to say, because the” school society” made news with its program. Model students with such names as Pflughoeft, Holub, Post, Raether, Wessel, Griese, Blaha and Entringer sang songs and recited pieces about Jack o’ lanterns, pumpkins and even October. Carl Post presented the History of Halloween.

Casco was a small village that didn’t escape Halloween. In 1903 the locations of all the village signs were moved to other spots, supposedly to make sport of travelers. A few years later the paper said “Hurrah for Halloween” when it reported on Rosiere’s activities at Rubens’ Hall.  Everybody was invited to the hamlet’s moving picture show which was advertised to include pictures of the war that had just begun in Europe. By 1917 the U.S. entered the war that became known as World War l.

Halloween was big in Kewaunee in 1915 when church bells and school bells were tolling, but it wasn’t those in charge ringing the bells that night. While the police tried hard to follow clues, windows were being soaped and vehicles were disappearing. Algoma's officer patrolled swinging his billy club but the tricksters weren't worried. They just did their work in another part of town.

Joseph Koss of Casco was the county supervising teacher in 1916 when the title of the article announcing his presentation read “Plan Halloween Program.”  It looked as if Supt. Koss himself was the Halloween program when the article pointed out that he was secured as a speaker for the Advancement Association of School District #2. But then the article went on to say that a Halloween program was arranged and that Mr. R.H. Wunsch would conduct the Babcock test for butter fat. The school had been rigged with a stage and light fixtures for the evening entertainment. One wonders about the size of the audience at such Halloween frivolity.

Halloween seemed to be tamer in Forestville in 1923 when Frieda Steuber entertained 20 friends in a room decorated with orange and black. The guests spent the evening playing games before they enjoyed a midnight lunch.A few miles away in Kolberg, Frank Pavlik didn’t have quite so much fun. He met a cruel prank when he walked into his barn the next morning to find two of his calves tied together by their tails. Another was tied to the door by his tail.

Holidays were a time ripe for crimes and scams just as they are today. A man up to no good used Halloween 1893 for his advantage. As it happened, a Veneer and Seating employee was on his way home from the factory about midnight on Halloween when he was commanded to halt by one described as being heavily built and wearing a black mask. The employee didn’t stop but ran a few blocks for assistance. When such assistance returned there was no sign of the highway man even though there was a search. Some felt the masked man was out for Halloween revelry but others wondered why anyone would halt people on the streets at midnight and risk getting shot just for the fun in scaring others.

Soaping and waxing windows was an old Halloween prank that resulted in more than a little work for home owners and businessmen. Some experienced true vandalism when vehicles were stolen and tires were punctured. Tipping outhouses was a biggie all over until it wasn't so much fun. 

For one reason or another, Kodan was known for its deviltry and that's where the outhouse tippers finally got theirs. After so many years of dealing with the outhouse, Kodan school board members pushed theirs forward just a little. When the jokesters came that wet evening and pushed from the back, they slipped!  Kodan school board “got ‘em good” and from then on outhouse tipping wasn’t quite so popular. That was about the same time the country kids bragged about Halloween cow tipping to gullible city kids who actually believed it, but no doubt they were the same kids who were told chocolate milk came from pumping the tail of a brown cow. 

Halloween customs have changed and costumed adults are found working in stores, banks and other places. Neighborhoods are decorated with all kinds of ghoulish displays and everybody gets hyped up. Kids trick or treat and adults are known to take a wine glass or beer mug and trick or treat in the neighborhood. Where most Halloween activities are soon forgotten, Kodan's school board continues to be remembered. By those who heard about it, and especially those who slipped!

Sources: The newspapers mentioned.

Post Office map and postcard are in the blogger's collection.