Clyde Station: A Moment in Time

1912 Plat Map showing Clyde Station and the railroad

Clyde Station is another of the Kewaunee County places that has found its way into the more forgotten annals of history. It was the only stop on the Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western Railroad between Kewaunee and Casco Junction. It was a place where passengers could catch the train and, between 1891 and the beginning of RFD in Kewaunee County  on November 30, 1904, mail for Ryan and Slovan was dropped off and picked up there.

The mail was the big thing and in May 1892, the Ahnapee Record told readership that mail from the south and west arrived daily in Ahnapee by about 1 PM, thanks to Ted Richmond and his white mule. The morning mail came via train to Clyde and was carried to Casco where Ted picked it up. The paper felt Ted would keep up his exceptional speed until the iron horse replaced his mule. It was only weeks before the railroad entered Ahnapee, but until then the community was served by Ted.

Clyde Station often made news, but not the kind one would think. In late July 1892 Charles Kinstetter’s cow was run over and killed by a Kewaunee, Green Bay and Western train nearing the station. Just about a year later, another cow was killed near the station, but then the paper said the cow was hit by a “wild train.” When Judge C.G. Boalt was making a business trip to Green Bay in August 1894, he missed the train at Ahnapee. Hiring a livery team, Boalt made it to Clyde Station in time to make connections with the west bound Kewaunee train.

It wasn’t only cows the train collided with. During February 1894, it collided with its own equipment. Workmen were on the track using hand cars near the station as suddenly a west bound train was barreling down the track. The workers escaped serious injuries – or perhaps death - by jumping off the hand cars which were badly wrecked in the incident. However, the only damage to the locomotive was to its headlight.

Clyde Station finally got a depot building in 1900. Plans were announced in January that the railroad had determined a site and that erection of a depot similar to the one at Casco Junction would begin soon.

By late March 1904, spring rains were playing havoc with the place when the train from Green Bay was forced to turn around at Casco Junction. Three miles of track were under water following a huge washout and conditions were decidedly unsafe. Kewaunee’s mail did go through, however, as the A & W brought it to Algoma where it was then transported to Kewaunee. As it was, Conductor Walker felt that although conditions were fine near Kewaunee, the outlook was poor beyond. He further felt that when the frost started coming out of the ground, there was going to be trouble at the cranberry marsh. Interestingly, it was another cranberry marsh  between Algoma and Sturgeon Bay that caused the Ahnapee & Western problems.

Just before Christmas 1911, a County Board special committee made up of Frank Kott and John Baumeister met with Casco’s town board for the purposes of supervising contracts for a new bridge to be built across the Kewaunee River at the new Clyde Station in that town.  After receiving bids for the project, they let the contract to Worden Allen Co.* of Milwaukee for $1078.00 and awarded the abutments contract to Wenzel Opicka for $475.00. Casco Town and the County were to furnish the material at a cost of $259.93. Kott and Baumeister recommended that as Chairman and Clerk of the committee, they be authorized to draw and sign an order in favor of the Town of Casco for $906.46. Other towns were also liable for bridge costs.

The train from Kewaunee ran into more washout problems in September 1912 and could not get to its destination. Mr. Hollister, the engineer, had to travel slowly and after passing Clyde Station found the track undermined where, in some places, 3 or 4’ of gravel was washed out. Section crews and Conductor Lake tried making temporary repairs, but eventually, the train needed to return to Kewaunee.

The big news on Christmas Eve 1915 was the man who took “French Leave” of the Kewaunee train near Clyde Station. As it was, former Slovan resident William Bouschek feared the train would not stop at the station when it was urgent that he reach his destination. Bouschek risked death and caused significant problems for the crew. Conductor William Lake was aware of Bouschek’s destination and when he went to tell his passenger, he was unable to find him on the train, which had not stopped between Casco Junction and Clyde Station.  Jerry Robillard, the car inspector on board, noticed the passenger had gone out on the platform in front of the car. That led the crew to think he had fallen from the train. After depositing the other passengers and mail at Kewaunee, the train returned to Clyde to investigate.  Near the station called “Old Clyde,” Bouschek’s footprints were found in the snow. He had apparently jumped off the train, fallen and rolled down the embankment, but he was not found. Because there was no evidence Bouschek had been killed, the train returned to Kewaunee. The conductor said there was no trace of the man. A year earlier there were jokes about the Italian immigrants who were en-route to Kewaunee for work at the Nast Lime Kilns. When the train arrived at Clyde Station, the men were certain the place was the City of Kewaunee and were about to leave the train when the conductor explained. They did get off at Casco Junction though – and had some walking to do.

Then there was a fire, but it was Michael Smithwick’s barn just east of the station.  The barn he was using for storage and a house were deserted that October 1916 day. It was uncertain what caused the barn’s destruction but it was believed the conflagration started with a spark from a train engine.

An ice floe damaged the bridge over the Kewaunee River near the old Clyde Station during flooding the following March. As the southerly approach to the bridge washed away, the bridge fell into the river. Repairs were made to the bridge, and train service was quickly restored.

February 1919 saw those around Clyde signing a petition to keep the depot. There were rumors of closure but the neighbors felt it was a busy place and wanted it to remain. Again in 1923 there were discussions about closing Clyde Station when the railroad applied to the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin for authority to discontinue stopping there. Again the citizens protested as closure would be inconvenient to those who would need to travel to Casco or Kewaunee for train service. The railroad withdrew its request, however the Railroad Commission required that Clyde depot would be cleaned and maintained in the future.

Clyde Station continued to serve until the early 1930s. Eventually the station stood idle and deteriorated, although trains continued to pass by. Late in 1942 Frank Opicka bought an old station car which he used as a shed on his farm. Today most memories of Clyde are those of the pupils at Rosebud School. Clyde Station faded into the past.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? c. 2001; Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010;  History of Commercial Development in Algoma, Wisconsin Vols. 1 & 2, c. 2006 and 2012; Algoma Record Herald files.

Photos: 1912 Plat Map of Kewaunee County and Blogger's postcard collection. 
*Worden-Allen was a Milwaukee company that built other bridges in Kewaunee Co., most notably in the Town of Franklin.