Ahnapee/Algoma and the Village Blacksmith

Blacksmith at the William McKinley Museum, Canton, Ohio

“Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village blacksmith stands,” Longfellow wrote that in 1842, a time when communities all over the U.S. were dependent on horses and blacksmiths. Blacksmiths were essential, and highly esteemed members of the community. Their skills were not only important to thriving villages and fledgling hamlets that depended on the smiths to shoe horses, fashion hames and whipple trees, but, in just a few years, to Kewaunee County, which, as the rest of the country, needed all sorts of forged goods. Where blacksmiths and wagon-making businesses once dotted the landscape, we find gas stations, one-stops and hardware stores.

Longfellow wrote that the smithy was a mighty man with large, sinewy hands who had arm muscles as strong as iron bands. His description portraying blacksmiths as compassionate, spiritual and almost larger than life failed to tell of the dirt, grime, burns and injuries in a smithy. Blacksmiths were hard- working men.

John Roberts appeared in Ahnapee about 1860. His blacksmith shop was one of Ahnapee’s first. Roberts located in various places around town, including near the northwest corner of 4^th and Steele and, in July 1907, on 2^nd and South Water, now Navarino, Street. Storm and Bro. wagon and sleigh shop was operating in 1873 in what had been Roberts’ 4^th Street shop. Roberts made news during the blasting of the limestone ridge in the river during 1879, but not because he had anything to do with it. A stone weighing about 5# was blasted so high that when it came down, it made a sizable hole as it went through the roof of his 2^nd and South Water Street shop. Luckily, his was a two-story building, and that second floor prevented an employee from being severely injured by the stone.

Thain and Elliot were partners in 1874, however by November 13, 1884 J.H. Thain and J.R. Curie formed a blacksmith and wagon business on Fremont. John Johnson, another 4^th St. blacksmith, bought out Louey Mason, the wagon maker who was associated with him in 1879. The men had worked together for about a year. Earlier in the year, Johnson and Mason’s facility burned down in a fire appearing to be arson. When the Kewaunee Enterprise reported the fire, the paper opined that it was set by an enemy of Mr. Johnson who did more work than any blacksmith in town and that he had just paid for his new shop. Was the fire indeed arson? The building and tools were insured for $800, however insurance fell far short of the loss. Johnson moved equipment from his 3^rd Street shop on the northwest corner of 3^rd and Fremont and used his rebuilt shop as the wagon shop.

Mikkleson blacksmith site

Boeder Mikkleson was a west side smith. April 1893 saw Mikkleson building a new blacksmith and wagon shop just east of the northeast corner of Navarino and Mill on property purchased from Michael Melchior. Charles Bastar opened his blacksmith shop in 1880 on his premises in “Slab Town,” as the area around the mill on the South Branch was called.  The Ahnapee Record called Bastar’s blacksmith and wagon shop “first class. Bastar had been located in part of the

Bastar's shop

foundry building at 6^th and Fremont. It was there that Hamachek’s electric light plant had its start. Bastar later relocated to the northeast corner of Mill and Navarino, the site Boeder Mikkleson once owned. Mikkleson seemed to move around. He was renting Wenzel Blahnik’s blacksmith shop in 1898. Wenzel Blahnik sold his shop to his brother Frank in 1902.  John Teich bought it in 1906, but then leased it to William Bohne the same year.

Another early resident - Christian Knospe - opened a blacksmith shop in 1865 on the east side of 4^th on the approximate site of today’s LCL Printing Co. George Doerfler and Simon Pies were operating their shop in 1873 on 4^th on the site that several years later became Knospe’s, just north of the present Walters’ Hardware.

John Kumbalek and Simon Pies began their smithy on South Water, now Navarino Street, and relocated a year later to the Danek building on south side of Steele, today the site of Harmann’s Studio. Frank Jirtle married Kumbalek’s daughter and took over the business. Jirtle also leased the east portion of Henry Baumann’s building during the 1880’s.  By then Mr. Jirtle was in the harness business.

Former government employee John Utnehmer announced in August 1880 that he would do blacksmithing. His shop was located on the flats on the north side of the river, the area east of what was Sunrise Cove in 2018. For a time in 1884, Utnehmer ran a shop on the east side of South Water with Simon Pies. Utnehmer also worked for other village blacksmiths.

Welniak's 4th Street blacksmith shop

The Record found it newsworthy when Welniak & Son put in a new shoeing floor in 1897 and in 1904 when Walter Knospe began using a windmill. Perlewitz Blacksmith Shop installed electric blowers in the forge in 1916. That was a big labor saver. Perlewitz’ new drill was another newsworthy event that year.

On December 19, 1928 Algoma Record Herald carried an article about Perlewitz Wagon Works saying the company had just completed 50 years in business. Perlewitz shoed horses for 15 cents in 1878. By 1928, the price had increased to $2.00. First class wagons sold for $42 in 1878. If one could be found in 1928, the buyer paid $85. The civic minded Perlewitz Brothers’ best years were between 1890 and 1910 when two blacksmiths and several wagon makers were employed. The years 1927 and 1928 saw only one wagon sold each year. Perlewitz’s promoted the community, contributed to the dredging project, assisted in establishing the grain market, assisted in financing the merchants’ dock and much more.

Sam Noetzel and Henry Muench appear as neither wagon makers nor blacksmiths in Ahnapee’s history, yet, following his arrival in Ahnapee, Henry Perlewitz worked as a wagon maker for each. The Perlewitz brothers built a 16’ x 24’ facility on the site of Urbanek’s South Water Street barn in 1878, and then bought out Pies and Utnehmer. In mid-July 1922 Lorenz Perlewitz’ old barn, a “State Street landmark,” was removed when a new paint shop was under construction.  

Charles Zapetal operated his harness shop in the Schubich building on the northeast corner of 2^nd and Navarino near the 2^nd Street Bridge, and John Madden took charge of Welniak’s 4^th Street blacksmith shop in 1913. It was a time when Algoma was beginning to see autos on the road, although as most knew, such contraptions would never replace the horse. For awhile, they did not.

By 1923 as autos were becoming more prevalent, William Bohne announced his new blacksmithing location in Fred Braun’s State Street building. August Zimmermann, formerly at Rankin, relocated his blacksmith and horse shoeing equipment to Algoma in 1933 and opened a shop in the Empey building near the steam laundry. Autos and trucks were all over, but horses were still seen on the streets of Algoma.

Dependence on the horse finally came to an end in Algoma in late October 1941 when long-time drayman Louis Kammer ended his business. Draying thrived at the turn of the century but as vehicles replaced horses, it was no longer profitable. Kammer continued his career, however it was in trucking for the Ahnapee and Western Railroad. Kammer entered the draying business in 1913 and then bought out the Hilton Fuel and Transfer on March 27, 1916. In the early 1920s, Kammer had as many as 8 horses and 4 men in his employ. He noted that during the “last war,” (World War l) hay was $35/ton and oats cost $1.35/bushel. Now there was the cost of gasoline. Before Kammer entered the business, it was Henry Haucke who took over William Torge’s draying operation thus meeting the needs of residents.

When Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem about the village blacksmith, he wrote about an indispensable member of the community. The clang of the hammer on the anvil told about life as did the school and church bells. As the horse was replaced by the automobile and blacksmiths faded into existence, a generation or two of grade school kids memorized the poem, which by then was nostalgic. Even the nostalgia has faded away.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, c. 2001; Cox-Nell House Histories, found at Algoma Public Library; Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin. Vols. 1 & 2; Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County; The Village Blacksmith, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Photos from Algoma Record Herald, Kannerwurf, Sharpe, Johnson Collection, and blogger's collection.