Wing and Eveland: Forces to be Reckoned With

Most 1850s era women knew their place. However, for more than 25 years there were those women making the proverbial waves, chipping away at those places. It was not only the injustices and inequalities directed at the women themselves; scores of women put themselves in harm’s way directing their efforts toward injustices and inequalities suffered by those of color.

It was the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that created the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and, lastly, Wisconsin. Coming about two years before George Washington’s election in 1889, the Ordinance prohibited slavery in the states to be carved from the area represented by the Ordinance. That should have been it, but the Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 and that said anybody caught assisting slaves escape or failing to assist “the law” could meet/or be met with severe consequences. No doubt Christian principles entered in when some considered keeping others in bondage as unjust. What about the laws of the land? Were keeping such laws also unjust?

Assisting the slaves in the effort to runaway and escape to Canada was held in utmost secrecy. A simple indiscretion could easily mean the burning of one's house and barn. It could mean jail. It could also mean death. WHS has collected stories of Janesville’s Tallman House, the Milton House in Milton and the Underground Railway in Wisconsin. There are the histories of the notable Joshua Glover and of Caroline Quarlis, and there are stories of those unnamed. The Stockbridge-Mohican history indicates the underground railroad came up the western shore of Lake Michigan to at least as far as Green Bay. It is known boats on Lake Michigan and boats on the Fox River were instrumental in getting some of the so-called fugitives to safety in Canada. There is an historic home along the Fox in DePere where older city residents point out the roof-top captain’s walk while describing how the home’s residents watched the river for a boat carrying one on the way to freedom. What happened then?

Cargo ships

There are stories of escaping slaves coming through Chilton and Stockbridge before hiding in Green Bay’s Congregational Church, by day in the belfry and in the church proper at night. The Congregational Church was founded on September 21, 1935 as First Presbyterian. Its first services were held the following January in the surgeon’s quarters at Fort Howard Hospital. During the underground railroad era, the church was a safe haven.

A most interesting Green Bay resident is Rev. Jeremiah Porter. In 1840, Porter and his wife Eliza came to Green Bay where he conducted the Presbyterian Church for 18 years. In the years before his arrival he was known to be a staunch abolitionist in Illinois and by the time he was in Green Bay, his abolitionist sermons were so blistering that he needed a body guard! The Porters were passionate in doing God’s work.

Most runaway slaves came through Kenosha or Southport to Lake Michigan ports that were "junction points." Such ports offered chances for passage as a stowaway in the cargo hold of a vessel filled with wheat or other produce on its way to Buffalo. Once at Buffalo, Canada was only a short distance away.

Rufus Wing's burial site

What do runaways have to do with Wolf River? Perhaps nothing, but perhaps a great deal. Rufus Wing was an early resident, coming from Chilton where he was known to have assisted runaways. Wing was a cousin and Chilton law partner of B.J. Sweet, later the man Gov. Solomon put in charge of District 4, one of Wisconsin’s 5 sections for Civil War recruiting. Section 4 included Kewaunee County where Rufus Wing, who with other members of his family, rose to prominence. Wing continued his law practice in Wolf River.* 

Sweet was called honorable, well-qualified and high-minded, a good man with whom to enlist, but only 14 Ahnepee men did. Wing also received a recruiting commission to build a regiment and in 1862, part of his company was raised at Ahnepee. He also recruited at Sheboygan under Judge David Taylor, recruiting till summer of 1864. Wing himself served. He had access, knew others of prominence and knew what was going on. If he had underground railroad connections after he moved to Wolf River, they were never acknowledged.

Eveland tombstone

Another early resident was Almira Eveland whose family moved north from Kenosha in 1854. Her role in Kenosha is unclear, but the outspoken Mrs. Eveland was an abolitionist. In her June 6, 1888 obituary, it was noted that Mrs. Eveland was “greatly esteemed” as a woman of “generous impulses, intense feeling and unswerving Christian belief.” While much can be read into her obituary, the same words could be written about others. 

Wing and Eveland were among a handful of people living in Wolf River. It isn’t hard to imagine two with such fervent convictions working together. Mrs. Eveland’s foster son and son-in-law were sailors owning their own schooners. As they zig-zagged the lake picking up cargo and dropping it off, would some of the cargo have been human?

Rufus Wing and Almira Eveland are prominent characters in the history of the city now known as Algoma. It doesn’t seem as if both families would relocate to a place that was wilderness and live a life that was a little more normal for the time. Would their convictions have gone by the wayside just because they relocated? One would think they continued to follow their beliefs in the out-of-the-way, sparsely populated place. One would also think the proximity of the hamlet to Canada and communication that existed via schooner traffic could have easily provided the necessary cover and secrecy.

Did the underground railroad ever run through Kewaunee County? It is anybody’s guess, but with Eveland and Wing in such close proximity, there is a good chance that it did.

Notes: Wolf River became Ahnepee in 1859 and Ahnapee in 1873. In 1897 the name was again changed, that time to Algoma. The Town of Ahnapee remains. Further information on the Underground Railroad and its historical sites in Wisconsin can be found online at Wisconsin Historical Society..

Source: Ahnapee Record; An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?; WHS.org;  tombstone photo by T. Duescher; handbill photo taken at Fort Sumter museum and ship photo by blogger.