Breezy Knoll: Kewaunee County's First Golf Course

Golf was something for the rich and for big cities. Few folks in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin were familiar with the sport 100 years ago, but when there were rumors of interest, the Record Herald was there with an opinion. The editor was no doubt honest when he said what he knew about golf could be put in a small container, but the paper did opine anyone could play. It wasn’t violent. Age was not a factor, and women could play. In the 1920s, golf was touted as a way to walk and a way to keep the populace away from its fascination with wheels. At the time, it was felt golf would empty the grandstands to fill the playing fields or, in other words, get moving.

Where did golf come from? A Google search takes one back to the Chinese. Sources date U.S. golf to the late 1700s, but the sport really began catching on in the late 1880s. Golf was associated with leisure time in an era where the word “leisure” was virtually unknown. In an agrarian place such as Kewaunee County, if one had that much time, there was obviously work being neglected by one who’d never be accused of hard work! Golf was associated with being “citified,” and “why on earth would anybody chase a little white ball around?” Golf did, however, come to Kewaunee County.

Golf on the Peninsula made news by 1914 when Peninsula Park Superintendent Doolittle was charged with laying out two golf links of 60 acres each, one near Fish Creek and the other near Ephraim. During the late 1920s Baileys Harbor was chosen for a golf course by a Chicago fellow, Peter Collins, who was in the community visiting relatives. The place he chose offered views of both Lake Michigan and Kangaroo Lake. That golf course remains and is Maxwelton Braes. In May 1930, it was announced that 8 holes of the new golf course would open and be available in addition to the original 9 holes, making it Door County’s largest golf course. By then new roads in Peninsula Park offered added convenience to the course there.

In September, Kewaunee jumped on the golf bandwagon, but it was with miniature golf. After being open only a week, the Enterprise told readership that after A.J. Westerbeck completed his course along Highway 17 (now Highway 42) a week earlier, the course was drawing patronage and proving to be a popular pastime. During November the Record Herald wrote that commercial fisherman Frank Chapek started work on his miniature golf course, adjacent to his tourist court along the lake at the bottom of the Lake Street hill. A Clintonville firm was laying out an 18 hole course.

By 1923, papers were encouraging a golf course in Algoma saying many of the “bugs” went to Sturgeon Bay each week, thus Algoma had the nucleus for a golfing organization. The paper said a course would cost a lot of money as did the hospitals to which many contributed weekly. A strange comparison. A few months earlier the paper said Algoma’s cool breezes offered paradise to a fat man golfer. Fat men were congenial, the paper opined, they spent money, did not rush from place to place and, in short, Algoma had much to offer fat golfers. It was another strange comment. E.W. Anderegg, R.P. Birdsall and W. Perry made news in fall 1923 when they went to the Appleton Country Club to spend the day playing golf as guests of Neenah’s Nathan Bergstrom. The paper also noted that of the 1,806 women enrolled in UW winter sports, 30 chose indoor golf.

As area golfing news was being made in 1930, it came from Algoma too. In August Joseph Weber leased 75 acres of his farm at the northern edge of the city. The greens keeper and golf pro at Green Bay’s Oneida Golf Course laid out the new place. The hills, valleys and waterways on the farm made the place perfect. The work went forward in haste and in late September it was announced that 9 holes were seeded and more than a mile and a half of water pipe had been laid. Tees were being built and fairway construction would begin in a week. A power pump located on the river bank provided liberal sprinkling. At the rate the course was being built, the Weber farm no longer looked like a farm. Remodeling the barn as a clubhouse and using the silo as a lookout over the course were in the plans. A circular stairway built into the silo would offer views of the Ahnapee River, Lake Michigan and beauty in every direction. Prospective golfers to the area felt Algoma was going to be a mecca.

Algoma’s Breezy Knoll golf course was the site of Kewaunee County’s first golf tournament. Entries were expected to pass 50 before all the qualifying rounds were played. It was September 1931 and Green Bay pro James Coffeen was in Algoma to bracket players. Prizes included a leather duffel bag, sweater and hose set, wood golf club, golf balls, and a golf bag which was the blind bogey prize. It

wasn’t only the tournament that brought golfers. Thursdays from 8 – 4:00 were designated as Ladies Day. There would be no charge for using the links and arrangements for balls and clubs could be made at the club house. A women’s tournament was also being planned. Algoma’s first tournament showed just how much interest there was in Kewaunee County.

In mid-February 1932 golfers around Algoma were already looking forward to a new season at Breezy Knoll, likely beginning on May 1, or even maybe before. It was a cold May Sunday morning at Breezy Knoll when 30 golfers were out on the course. Executive secretary R.P. Birdsall said the cold weather that year was responsible for a lag of interest but still season ticket sales were progressing. Breezy Knoll was sure to be a popular place.

1930 Kohlbeck's ad
Algoma Record Herald

Improvements accomplished over the 1931 late fall and winter were indications that the course would be one of Northeastern Wisconsin’s finest.  Grounds equipment such as a power mower would keep newly seeded grounds in outstanding condition.  There were new fairway signs and traps. Caddy service was offered. And, rates went down. Yet another fee schedule appeared in the paper the following week. Weekdays and Saturdays remained at 50 cents but Sundays and holidays were reduced to 75 cents. A week later, there was a change in ticket rules. Non-stockholders were charged $10 more seasonally than stockholders and “family” was defined to mean head of house and those under his roof. Stockholders had perks others did not – clubhouse privileges, a bath and locker area.

Ed Anderegg made the paper in July by leading Cowboy Wheeler in a 36 hole match, with 9 left to be played. When the 4-man matches were finished, both Anderegg and Wheeler’s groups tied at 203. Then the 4-man Southpaws led the right-handers. Another Kewaunee County Championship tournament was planned for August.

Breezy Knoll continued to grow and by August 1933, over 1,550 had registered at the club house. It was expected that by the time the season closed, the season would see at least 2,200 golfers. Many were sure to play in the tournament, an event won by Ed Anderegg for the first two years. In order to generate more golf enthusiasm, the 1935 season opened with a “Get Acquainted” tournament that was open to all. Good golfers wouldn’t have advantages over beginners, and anybody could win the prizes. There were twosomes, threesomes and foursomes and the entry fees were just 10 cents for each of the ten weeks of tournament play.

Late in 1936 it was announced that Ed Kabot, pro at the Alpine, had moved his family to Algoma. Ed was the new Kewaunee County Golf course manager. The Weber farm was still being leased with an eye toward its purchase, but a year later a press release told about the Weber farm course being abandoned. Algoma and Kewaunee folks joined those in other parts of the county who were calling for a new course at Alaska on a farm that was part of the Janda property, once owned by John Meyer of Algoma. The location was ideal and the terrain was positive. As early as January 1937, the new course was named Alaska Golf Club.

In June 1938, the Record Herald commended those with the foresight in moving the course to Alaska, a much more centrally located place. The paper felt that over the years, the course would develop into one of the best in “this part of the state, another tangible asset will have been added to the county’s list for citizens to refer to with pride.” By May 1939, Stony Janda, who had engineered many of the changes, was in charge. Pro Don Nelson had joined the Coast Guard. Janda’s changes must have worked as the paper reported that golfers were having a rollicking good time.

If Coast Guardsman Nelson made golf news during the war, it didn’t seem to be reported in the paper, however Yeoman 3-c Richard Cmeyla made some news in August 1942 when he placed second at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, golf course. Cmeyla’s prize was $2 worth of golf balls, a win that some thought was ensured when his folks sent him the golf shoes he used to trek around the Alaska course.

As for the course at Alaska – it is just over 80 years old and remains a popular spot.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, c. 2001; Commercial Development of Algoma, Wisconsin, c. 2010 ; Cox-Nell House Histories, c. 2012; Algoma Record Herald. Postcard from the blogger's collection; ads from Algoma Record Herald.

Casco Junction: Created by the Railroad

Ahnapee & Western and Green Bay, Kewaunee & Western trains 

meeting at the Casco Junction Depot

When the Ahnapee and Western rails were laid to meet the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western railroad at Casco Junction on Saturday, August 20, 1892, it was the completion of a dream that started with Casco’s Edward Decker before the Civil War. Trains began running on the day that track was completed, two years after the project started.

Edward Decker was given credit for the railroad, and he served as president. As early as 1860 Mr. Decker was applying to secure a railroad from both Ahnapee and Kewaunee to Green Bay. While Decker was serving in the State Senate in 1861, his relative W.S. Finley was a member of the Assembly. Finley introduced a bill to incorporate the Kewaunee and Green Bay railroads, a plan interrupted by the Civil War.

Years later – 1868 – Edward Decker was about to go forward with an idea that 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 when the unthinkable happened. On May 22, 1869 Decker was trying to control the horse he was driving when the horse seized Decker’s arm, chewing it and the hand almost to a pulp while nearly trampling the man to death. Decker’s arm was amputated and his life was in jeopardy. It was a year before he was again seen on the streets. In an ironic twist of fate, U.S. railroad history was made 12 days prior to Decker’s accident. The Golden Spike was driven at Promontory Summit in the Utah Territory on May 10, 1869.

After Decker’s health forced his withdrawal and resignation as railroad president, the railroad was built instead to Winona, Minnesota. It was years before Decker completed a freight and passenger line, but this time it was from Casco Junction where it connected with the Ahnapee & Western – and Sturgeon Bay from Ahnapee- and the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western lines.

Ahnapee & Western Railroad was incorporated on August 18, 1890 and began service in 1892. Financed largely by Decker, it serviced his business interests while serving both Kewaunee and Door Counties. Built without federal subsidizies, the company did secure about $76,000 in 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. Providing most of the capital, Decker eventually acquired most of the railroad’s stock and was its first president. His company was short-lived however as when his family fortune collapsed in 1906, Green Bay & Western purchased controlling interest in the Ahnapee & Western, although kept its name.

Location of Casco Junction, 1912 Plat Map

It was the railroad that put a place called Casco Junction into the annals of Kewaunee County history. Surprisingly there was no big celebration the day the track was extended to Ahnapee, in part because of possible delays. There was a special train made up of the construction engine and a caboose, and when it came into Ahnapee factories blew steam whistles and flags were flown from hotels, buildings and boats. Even though it was stipulated that the track would be laid within two years, few believed it would happen. When the Ahnapee Record editorialized on the new line in August 1892, it said the success that would follow was in the hands of the city. Edward Decker, George Wilbur, Maynard Parker and Frank McDonald were on the train and attested to that.

By May 1885, Casco Junction was touted as a meeting spot for trains and for passengers. The place really was a junction and not much else. Both morning and afternoon trains met there, offering a convenience for the traveling public that wished to visit for a few hours with those along the line and yet return home the same day. Checking the schedules in the county papers meant folks didn’t have to plan in far in advance and could make plans as opportunities arose.

During May 1899, the Record told readership about the wild ride that passengers to Green Bay had. Coming from Sturgeon Bay, the train had an accident thus was delayed in leaving Ahnapee. The delay prevented the connection at Casco Junction prompting orders given to Conductor Decker to take the train through to Green Bay. Engineer White opened No. 2’s throttle, thus making the distance of 35 miles – including 3 stops – in 50 minutes. A stop at Casco let a passenger off. A switch was turned at Casco Junction and orders were gotten at Luxemburg. It was the fastest trip ever made between Ahnapee and Green Bay with running time about a mile a minute.

Taken at the Pony Express Museum

News was made again in August 1900 when 275 passengers were aboard at Casco Junction, all going to Green Bay for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. The train opened a new world, and Casco Junction was the portal to Green Bay and the world beyond. Buffalo Bill drew the whopping 274 on the train, however as early as 1893, the railroad was announcing excursions to Green Bay for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Maybe it was because Casco Junction was out of the way that theft seemed easy. A young man brought before Casco’s Justice of the Peace Bohman was charged with stealing potatoes. Fifteen bags of potatoes being taken from Sturgeon Bay to Kewaunee were left on the Casco Junction platform to await the next train. The young man standing before Bohman was a section hand who took two of the bags and hid them under the platform. He returned at night to get them, but the potatoes were missing and others felt the man’s actions were suspicious. The railroad had enough of the thievery at the Junction and announced the place would be closely watched in an effort to stop it. Who knows if the survelience stopped it?

Perhaps the 1904 telephone installation at the Junction’s depot helped. Kewaunee’s William Rooney was working for Ahnapee & Western stringing telephone wire from Casco to the Junction in order to connect both depots. The railroad felt the service would be invaluable and would be used by the traveling public as well. A story about a traveling man using the depot phone was most likely what happened to others. While waiting at the Junction, he decided to make a call. He noticed the train moving but felt it was backing up. It wasn’t and the fellow walked to Casco a few miles north.

Door and Kewaunee folks got used to the world at their beckoning, but by November 1917, Casco Junction meant delays. Chicago and Northwestern Railway made changes to its schedule, changes that affected both the A & W and the Green Bay, Kewaunee and Western. Passengers were forced to wait at Casco Junction for two hours, in essence because the line was “small potatoes.” As the paper pointed out, patrons of the C & NW would not desire to have their Green Bay connections broken. There were, however, positive things happening at the same time.

Algoma Record sketch

In late November, also in 1917, the paper reported on the new “Y” being built at Casco Junction to replace the turntable that would be removed and taken to Maplewood where some trains had to run backward. It wasn’t the only turntable moved. During July 1893 a turntable was built near the veneer plant in Ahnapee. A year later it was moved to Sturgeon Bay.

The Casco Junction turntable saved a life during a 1912 train collision when a Kewaunee train was switching tracks. What was called a catastrophe with nobody at fault, wrecked the Algoma train, damaged the Kewaunee train and badly shook up passengers. A brakeman on the Algoma train was in the baggage car when he spotted a signal from the Kewaunee train’s conductor. Knowing what it meant, he jumped from the train into turntable pit thus saving himself from being crushed to death as the baggage would have all gone forward.

It was the railroad that created Casco Junction and gave it much of its history. The trains are long gone, but mention Casco Junction and most people know where it was.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? C. 2001; Decker files at the Area Research Center, UW-Green Bay; Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010;  Doug Larson Door County Advocate, 9/18/1998; Kewaunee New Era. 

Kewaunee County and the GAR

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain planned on going to the 50^th reunion in Gettsyburg, but was ill. Ironically, he died on February 21, 1914, almost on the eve of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the battles that would follow. In the 1860s and beyond, it was called the Great War. Who would have believed there would be another “Great War” engulfing so many countries? History eventually called that one World War 1, which separates it from World War ll. Chamberlain, who was with Robert E. Lee, saw horrific death and destruction. That did not change in the wars that followed, but in the Civil War, that death and destruction was visited on families, friends and countrymen.

Pickett's Charge, July 3, 1863; Gettysburg

Eventually called the Civil War, battlefields of the Great War of Rebellion became places of reverence. Fallen comrades – North and South - were, and are, remembered. It was in February 1896 that Gettsyburg Association turned its holdings over to the U.S. to preserve the battlefield. By September 1908, preparations were being made to build a magnificent highway from Washington D.C. to Gettsyburg, a hard place to reach at the time. Civil War battlefields are places to learn U.S. history from exceptional National Park Service staff and volunteers, however the solemnity found at Gettysburg 40 years ago has been replaced with a more of a Disneyland atmosphere today.

Little Round Top at Gettysburg

At the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln said, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” After Lincoln's assassination, Senator Charles Sumner said Mr. Lincoln was mistaken saying, "The world at once noted what he said, and will never cease to remember it.” Even in today’s carnival atmosphere, we do not forget.

Our Kewaunee County ancestors kept the battlefield memories alive in their G.A.R. posts and encampments. As the August 1885 G.A.R. celebration at Milwaukee drew near, the Record mused about the old stories while facetiously mentioning the joy in eating hard-tack and talking about battles which killed or maimed so many. And, the rampant disease.

Men of Co. E, Kewaunee County

A big event at the Milwaukee encampment was a panorama of the opening siege at Vicksburg on May 2, 1863. It commemorated a charge that was one of the war’s fiercest. Chicago followed with a panorama of a Gettysburg scene. The panoramas must have taken on a competitive nature as it was said the “fighting” in Milwaukee’s presentation was more realistic and that the dead, dying and wounded were exact representations.

When the GAR’s National Encampment was held in Milwaukee in 1889, nothing was left to chance for a crowd expected to exceed anything Milwaukee had seen to that date. Thirty-five hundred tents were being provided and bands joined to form a 1,000 piece ensemble for a concert at Schlitz Park. There were competitions and cash prizes for drill units and bands. Fireworks displays were the crowing event.

Following the glowing news reports from the Milwaukee event, there was planning for a reunion the following year. A November 13, 1890 article told readership that relic sellers at Gettysburg were said to be importing wagon loads of junk from southern battlefields and selling them for Gettysburg relics.

Railroads and steam boats were advertising low rates of $3, a point not lost on the 70 Ahnapee residents who planned to go to the 1889 gathering. The list of attendees read like an Ahnapee Who’s Who, most of whom were members of the Joseph Anderegg Post. They were joined by large numbers from Sturgeon Bay and Forestville posts, and, of course, countless others from Kewaunee County. Kewaunee County men served and died in the Civil War’s most well-known battles.

It was in 1923 that Haney Ihlenfeld shared articles with a G.A.R. Convention. The articles came from a Confederate newspaper purchased by his grandfather Sgt. John Ihlenfeld before the siege at Vicksburg. In it, General Grant was quoted as saying he’d eat Sunday dinner in Vicksburg, but the paper opined that he’d have to catch the rabbit first.

Ahnapee’s David Elliott was at Vicksburg and in a letter to a friend he mentioned the battle at Corinth and went on to say how sick many of the men were and that only 1/3 of them were fit for duty. David was waiting for action.

Civil War veterans, Frank Gregor, I.W. Elliott, Gene Heald
1937, Record Herald photo

Seventy-five years after Gettysburg, I.W. Elliott attended a veterans’ reunion held there. When he gathered with family in August that year – 1938 – he proudly displayed momentos gotten there.

At a 1944 Memorial Day commemoration, the names of deceased Ahnapee Civil War veterans were read. Irving W. Elliott was both Kewaunee County and Wisconsin’s last surviving veteran. The list fails to include others identified with Ahnapee, however there are vets such as Henry Baumann/Bowman and Magnus Haucke who relocated following the war. To check Wisconsin Volunteers, one must sometimes spell an ancestor’s name as it might sound to another. Typesetting of the era was accomplished by setting pieces of type upside down and backward, prompting one to search for other letters when the name includes a lower case “n” or “u.”

The GAR - Grand Army of the Republic - was made up of Civil War veterans, including the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service. Founded in Decatur, IL in 1866, the GAR grew to include hundreds of posts across the country. Although posts were mostly in the North, there were also posts in the South. The group lived on until the last member died in 1956. The men of the GAR made up a political advocacy group, which among other platforms, supported voting rights for black veterans.

A section of the battlefield at Vicksburg

Note: To learn about the Belgians in the Civil War, read John Henry Mertens'  The Second Battle : A Story of Our Belgian Ancestors in the American Civil War, 1861-1865.




Sources: Algoma Record Herald, battlefield visits; Wikipedia. Photos were taken at the sites except where noted..

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