Algoma: Christmas and Pearl Harbor

In early December 1941, Algoma and all of Kewaunee County was preparing for Christmas. There were anxious days. There was more than Christmas in the air. There was talk of war. Preparations went forward though. City businessmen worked at the Dug-Out to wire together greens and stars to festoon city light poles. Red Cross workers were feverishly meeting their quotas while Kohlbeck’s, Wiese’s, Katch’s, Beach’s and the Flora Lee were advertising their suggested Christmas gifts. P.C. Gerhart was advertising oil heaters, wash machines and stoves in addition to roller skates, coaster wagons and bathroom scales. Rinehart’s Shoes suggested shoes and boots as practical gifts.
Marione’s Beauty Shop suggested a new “do” for the holidays. 

At Slovan, the ground was so soft that farmers could plow. There were those who were harvesting their potatoes. Stanley Smithwick had just been honorably discharged and Casco’s American Legion Auxiliary was making plans to pack food baskets for the needy. There were weddings, basketball games, dartball games and, unfortunately, deaths.

Life was going on until Sunday morning, December 7 when county residents began hearing about the attack at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Roosevelt said the attack on Pearl Harbor was a day that would live in infamy. That it did.

While the residents of Algoma, and Kewaunee County as a whole, felt they were headed for war, they never expected the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Algoma’s West Point graduate Capt. Richard Fellows, who was serving in the Philippines, had written home that Japan would never attack the U.S. He was wrong. Following the attack, the U.S. declared war on the Empire of Japan. Then came Germany and Italy. Five days following Pearl Harbor, Algoma Record Herald said the current hostilities would be a world war, surpassing World War l. Editor Harry Heidmann was right, and as history has shown, Mr. Heidmann was generally right.

When the news came, Kewaunee County knew many of its young men were serving in the military, but where were they? On December 7, Capt. Fellows and Capt. Oswald Lunde, once of Kewaunee, were stationed in the Philippines, a hotbed of activity since the attack. Lunde cabled to say he was “ok.” As for Fellows, the attack he believed would not happen, did happen, delaying  his return to the U.S.

Ray "Swamper: Gerhart

Uneasy families and friends wondered where their brothers, sons and friends were. Not all were sure. Navy veteran Louis Depas was thought to be in Hawaii while Gordon Hoppe and Richard Cmeyla were definitely in Hawaii. Yeoman 1^st C Cmeyla had been recently transferred from the west coast. Donald Gordon was known to be on the USS Wright, which was believed to be in Hawaii. Gordon had just been transferred after completing radio school in California. Ed Sell was another thought to be in Hawaii and it was known Swamper Gerhart had been transferred to Pearl Harbor. As it turned out, Swamper, or Raymond as he was christened, was on the Nevada at the time of the attack, taking a shower and preparing for shore leave. Hit by seven bombs and 2 torpedoes, the Nevada lost 201 of its men. Eighty were injured. Swamper escaped.

Quartermaster Clarence Diefenbach was last heard from at Midway Island, said to be occupied by the Japanese, but that was not confirmed by the U.S. He wrote that he was getting transferred to Honolulu, but nobody knew where he was. And, just where was Midway Island?

According to his folks, Joseph Ouradnik was in the Navy and reported to be with a patrol bombing plane stationed at Kodiak, Alaska. Pvt. Corky Corbisier was also in Alaska. Lt. Pat Cmeyla was thought to be with a medical detachment serving in the area of Nicholas Field in the Philippines. Milton Matzke was somewhere in the Pacific with the Army. Local men in the Atlantic came to the fore with the declaration of war with Germany. Spasz (Sylvester) Ullsperger was a Navy aerologist at Newfoundland while Stanley Rogers and Carl Rupp were stationed with the Army in Iceland.

When they heard about Pearl Harbor, county residents waited anxiously to learn if any of theirs had been killed in the attack. After war was declared, everybody wondered when they’d start hearing about men being killed in action. It took less than two weeks to find out.

Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Muhofski, Jr. knew Pearl Harbor would forever live with them.  Kewaunee County’s first war fatality was their son Joseph A. Muhofski, killed in action on December 7. Joseph was a crew member on a seaplane operating off one of the battleships at Pearl Harbor. The day after Joseph’s parents received the  notifying them of his death, they received a letter and Christmas package from him. The letter spoke of his enthusiasm for his work. He said the Navy had increased its watchfulness, fearing a surprise attack.

Writing for Gov. Julius P. Heil a week before Christmas 1941, Walter J. Wilde, state director of Selective Service, said that Selective Service boards all over the country were required to keep quotas and calls secret. The Record Herald had been highlighting men in service. At the same time Congress passed legislation calling for the registration of all men between 18 and 64 as a means to inventory manpower. The paper didn’t feel it revealed secrets when it mentioned a letter from a local Coast Guardsman on a ship that sank and enemy submarine a few months later. The Coastie described the sinking, saying it was a “good sight to see.”

In the days, weeks and years to come, Kewaunee County lost more of its men. Its women also served. Residents went on to celebrate Christmas, then Valentine’s Day, Easter, Decoration Day, 4^th of July, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving and then another Christmas. And so it continued - drafts, deaths, wounds and Christmas. The draft ceased to exist in 1973. Military service is volunteer. Families are apart at holidays and death and wounds remain.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald. Photos and the headline are from Algoma Record Herald. The picture of the poster was taken in a Missouri military museum.

Algoma: Thanksgiving 1920

It was November 1920. World War l was over, the Armistice was signed, some men were home while others were still coming home, and Algoma folks turned toward Thanksgiving. It wasn’t only Algoma that had much to be thankful for, the country and the world did as well.

Algoma lost several of its young men to the fighting. Others died with the disease that ran rampant throughout the world. Some died in Europe, though others died before they left camp in the U.S.  Ernest Haucke - Algoma’s first combat death - was initially buried in France, but his body was returned to the U.S. and buried in his family’s plot at the Evergreens.

George Washington declared the first Thanksgiving holiday in 1879, although the event was not an official federal holiday until November 1941 when Franklin Roosevelt established the 4^th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving.

Although the article was not attributed, the Record-Herald wrote, “There have been times in the history of the country when Thanksgiving Day was rather the occasion of expressions of hope and blessings to come than of gratitude for those being enjoyed, but even so the nation has not been unmindful of its peculiar position as the most fortunate of the countries of the earth. Much more, then, should there be thankfulness on every side today when not only are the people of the land enjoying peace while thousands mourn abroad, but with peace is plenty in contrast with the hunger that stalks elsewhere to carry out the horror that shot and shell did not complete.”

Eleven days after the Armistice on November 11, 1918, Algoma joined the rest of the country in a National Program of Praise and Thanksgiving for the “extraordinary victory that has been won for the freedom of mankind.” It was said there was never a time when the nation had cause for such rejoicing. Algoma’s program included prayer, readings and music. At 4 PM, the city joined millions of voices across the country singing the Star Spangled Banner.

That 1918 Thanksgiving week was also dubbed Victory Singing Week when, wherever possible, - in schools, churches, theaters and other gatherings – the Women’s Committee encouraged folks to celebrate the conclusion of the war in song. Peace was in the world’s grasp.

Edward Culligan, Owen McGowan and Irv Lohrey had been in the military a little over a year earlier. At Thanksgiving 1919, they were students at Green Bay Business College and celebrated in Algoma with their parents.

By 1920, two years after the Armistice, the city was back in its customary Thanksgiving mode, although while the rest of the city was  celebrating Thanksgiving, the Charles Guths were attending the funeral of their five-year-old son. Karl Guth died on Thanksgiving eve of smallpox that quickly developed into brain fever. It wasn’t the hoopla that kept folks from offering comfort to the grief-stricken family. The nature of the disease meant Karl was immediately buried following a private funeral.

Life went on in the community. Algoma firemen gave a ball the night before Thanksgiving. The well-attended party was a highlight of the season. There were Thanksgiving evening dances at Bruemmer’s and Nickolai’s halls, but, on the sports’ scene that night, the local basketball team was defeated by Mishicot 30-23. The boys were to replay Mishicot the following Saturday, however the weather stopped everything. Friday, the day in between, was not a school holiday and students were back at their desks. In a day before bussing and in a time when roads were still somewhat primitive, many teenaged students from rural areas sought high school opportunities by boarding with city relatives and friends. The paper noted how many of the students were able to spend their one-day Thanksgiving vacation with their families.

Kewaunee Opera House

Descendants of the County’s Slav immigrants joined at a 1920 Thanksgiving Jubilee at the Kewaunee Opera House. The celebration was a response to the happy outcome of the war, giving thanks for peace and liberty that came to the countries of their ancestors. For 300 years, the Hapsburg ruled the Bohemians, and, after the war, the Czecho-Slovak nation became an independent republic with an elected president. Poland was celebrating as a country that would live and prosper. The Jubilee featured prominent Polish, Bohemians and English speakers. Thousands came to hear bands play throughout the day, to take part in singing and other entertainments, to view several parades and to attend the evening’s featured dance.

Families continued to mourn the loss of family members and friends, those who had died in the military and those who died of the influenza spread by the war. But, the war was over, privations lessened and folks were coping. It was a new world that Algoma residents faced with optimism.

Following Thanksgiving 1920, the paper noted that Thanksgiving was over and next was Christmas. Could 1920 Algoma residents have dreamed that one hundred years later, Christmas preparations would start before Thanksgiving?

Sources: Algoma Record, Algoma Herald, Algoma Record Herald. Photos are from the blogger's postcard collection and the Thanksgiving graphic is an online free-source picture.

Kewaunee County's English Settlement: One Settlement Within Another

By the mid-1850s, a section of present-day Algoma was called “the English settlement.”  That settlement within a settlement would have a significant impact on the city and Kewaunee County.

Those of German ancestry make up much of the area around today’s Algoma, although it was Yankees who were the first residents of the place once called Wolf River or, sometimes, Wolf River Trading Post. It didn’t take long after first  settling by those of European extraction for newcomers to arrive. The English began coming within three years of the 1851 Yankees. On their heels were Germans, followed by Bohemians and Belgians. However, the largest groups of Bohemians settled in southern Kewaunee and northern Manitowoc Counties, while the larger Belgian settlements were to the west of Wolf River and into southern Door County.

French, Irish and Norwegians joined the others in the county that had been set off from Door in 1852, but it was the English who had their own distinctive settlement, just west of Wolf River, or Ahnepee as it became in 1859. Much  of the English Settlement is within the confines of Algoma today.

English arrivals sported names such as Richmond, Hilton, Loval, Barrand, Bacon, Goodwin, Fowles and Tweedale, and when George Barrand died in June 1915, it was said he was the last of the old English settlers. Not all  the so-called English came from the British Isles though. The Fowles, for instance, were New York-born Yankees. The area’s local designation held on for well over 50 years and as late as the winter of 1916, “The 500 Club of the English Settlement” was still meeting. One with German ancestry, A.J. Bruemmer, closed the school term in the English Settlement in April 1917. The settlement had a school by 1875, and certainly before that. Historian George Wing wrote about the settlement’s school burning to the ground during the drought of 1864. Fanny Gregor, the 1875 teacher, quit to take employment in Kewaunee. School was then conducted by Fanny’s brother, George. Losing Fanny was a blow to the community. When she was hired, her education at Oshkosh State Normal School and qualifications for the responsibilities at hand were touted.

Chapek's Creek about 1960

Where was the English Settlement? Before 1860, it could be described as the area west of Price’s Creek, a creek connecting to the South Branch of the Ahnapee River. But where was Price’s Creek? Today it is called Chapek’s Creek, although few Algoma residents could find it now even though they regularly see it. Chapek’s Creek is a conservancy at approximately Fremont and Buchanan Streets. Chapek’s store – the old cream-colored brick building two doors east of the creek – was built in 1866 by Alois T. Chapek as his store and residence. It was the small town’s second brick structure. The settlement spread, extending almost to Bruemmerville and then to the south along today’s Highway 54 where another Englishman, J.A. Defaut, built the first brick home in the community. That was just north of today’s Evergreen Cemetery, approximately the site of today’s Jehovah Witness center.

Price’s Creek was named for Englishman David Price who came to work at Hall’s Wolf River mill in the mid-1850s. Price was elected as Justice of the Peace in the first regular election in the Town of Wolf* on April 1, 1856. Price served with other Ahnepee men in Company E, 14^th Wisconsin in the Union Army during the Civil War. His home was built on the crest of the hill, which would eventually become Chapek’s. Today that hill is nothing more than a rise prompting little notice to those traveling west on Fremont Street. Following the Civil War, David Price and his family seemed to vanish.  They apparently moved on.

Seafarers James Defaut and Asa Fowles brought their families to Wolf River in 1854. Coming from New York with Asa were his father and brothers. When Asa bought lumber to build a home, George Wing said the old sailor also needed pitch and calcium to caulk the seams of his house, thus making it tight and seaworthy. Asa Fowles was held in high esteem, described as a quiet, industrious man whose actions with his neighbors were always just.

Mexican War veteran James Defaut was related to the Fowles, having married Susannah Fowles, the sister of Asa, Benjamin and George. Additionally, Asa’s wife Mary was a Defaut. George Wing would later remember the high qualities of James Defaut, saying he was a great man with an impressive character, a man of quiet demeanor and good judgement. Defaut took an active role in the formation of Kewaunee County and the community, serving in several elected offices, including Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and  first chairman of the Town of Wolf in 1857.

James Defaut built a store on Second Street in 1866 but soon returned to his farm. Wing remarked on the amount of sarsaparilla sold in Defaut’s store saying almost every bi-weekly account carried the “astonishing charge” of $1.00.  At the time, newspaper ads were touting Ayres Sarsaparilla as a blood purifier, an idea which seemed to have caught on in Ahnepee. There were those who felt the product kept them in good humor. That could have been due to the small amounts of alcohol used to preserve plant material in the product!

 Defaut and his family lived in approximately the area of today’s Highway 54 and Evergreen Road and it was a death in Defaut’s family that prompted what is now the Evergreen Cemetery. When James’ father Mitchell died in 1862, he was buried on the Defaut farm. As other community deaths occurred, Defaut allowed the burials on his farm, thus giving rise to Defaut Cemetery, now the northeast corner of the Evergreens. Earlier community burials took place in the Eveland Lot, approximately on the west side of what would become 4^th and State Streets. As Ahnepee was growing rapidly, the bodies were removed in 1874 to what was still called Defaut Cemetery. During 1873, the German M.E. Church society bought 2 acres from Defaut for use as their cemetery. Eventually that section became known as The Methodist Section.

Ted Richmond was another Englishman. Ted served as constable in late 1870s and in the days before railroad service to Ahnapee, it was Ted who made sure the mail went through. He carried the mail between Ahnapee and Casco for years before making his last trip in June 1892  A few weeks earlier the Ahnapee Record recognized Richmond’s efforts in bringing the mail from Casco while riding his white mule. The opening of the railroad in 1892 meant that mail came into Ahnapee via train. During construction, mail went by railroad as far as Clyde and carried to Casco where Ted picked it up. The paper noted his regular and rapid time, saying the community “will be under lasting obligations to him.” During the pioneer days, mail to Wolf River/Ahnapee came aboard schooners and steamers, and was also carried by another Englishman, L.M. Churchill, who was said to make the 40-mile trip on foot from Two Rivers in one day.

Thomas Richmond and his wife came from England in the 1850s, making their three-week trip aboard a sailing vessel. Their son James, born in Ahnapee, died of typhoid fever in 1923 at 58 years old. He was married to another with English ancestry, Anna Barrand.

Of the English settling in what became Algoma, it was the Barrands who claimed a connection to royalty. The Barrand brothers' sister Maria remained in England and married  architect Mr. Eldred on the St. Paul’s Londonbury estate where Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was born. Maria;s stepdaughter married William Eldred, the tutor of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, who became the wife of George Vl. They were the parents of Queen Elizabeth ll, present Queen of England. A descendant of the Eldred’s was still bookkeeper on the estate in 1939.

John Goodwin was born to English parents in the early days of the English Settlement.** His sister, Mrs. Joseph Bacon, was still there 50 years later when he came to visit her and his old friends. Goodwin had relocated to Chicago where he worked at plumbing and steam fitting while raising a family of five children. Daniel W. Goodwin was running a stagecoach line in the early 1890s when he decided to turn to meat cutting. For a time, he was the city’s street commissioner and it was Commissioner Goodwin who was credited with building the new Fremont Street bridge, near Chapek’s, in 1897.

Although it surprised some, the English enjoyed 4^th of July festivities. Irving McDonald remembered the time George Grimshaw, the old English bugler, came out of the woods in his vegetable cart one 4^th of July, intending to play his bugle in the streets. Some felt the day would also offer Englishmen Billy Barrand and Henry Hallam presenting some kind of English sparring. After all, the American Revolution was long past.

Rev. Hela Carpenter, an itinerant Methodist minister, was another of the settlement’s residents. It was said Rev. Carpenter preached hellfire and damnation to the extent that believers could feel themselves sizzling in hell. It was also said that the early community’s piety and goodness had roots in Carpenter’s sermons. Nearly 140 years later, Carpenter’s North Carolina descendants would learn his 18^th Wisconsin company bivouacked just beyond their back yard.

The paper carried articles about the English Settlement as if it was a village of a few miles distant. Baseball was the rage in the 1880s, The English Settlement had its own “nine” and Fowles farm was the scene of games between the Settlement and its immediate neighbor. A Sunday game in late May 1886 left viewers agog. Ahnapee beat the Settlement by a whopping 35-11. One can only guess what the game might have been like.

School districts were separate and in July 1892  taxpayers of the English Settlement District turned out to consider school matters. The District voted for a 10-month school term to be taught by a female teacher. There was no reason to raise additional taxes for school purposes: the district had money on hand and with the funds received from the state, money was sufficient.

When George Wing reminisced years later about English Settlement people, he said, “Each of them played a successful part in the early development of the neighborhood. Their strong hands and arms cleared the forests, made comfortable homes and brought up families to useful and good citizenship.” Their descendants continue to make-up the area.

*Ahnepee and Ahnapee have been used in this article. Ahnepee followed Wolf River, in 1859, as the small community’s designation. When the community was chartered as a village in 1873, its designation was changed to Ahnapee. The State had regularly misspelled the place’s name. Post office cancels changed from Ahnepee to Ahnapee.

**During May 1932, a Mr. Eggert presented his memories of the old Goodwin homestead along what is now Highway 54, west of Algoma. Otto Krueger had purchased the property and was having an office put on Goodwin's orginal home foundation. Krueger was also opening a gravel pit. Eggert remembered the old Goodwin barn built on what became the highway.

**  Sarsaparilla had its beginnings as a cherry cough medicine made by James Cook Ayer in 1843.

Sarsaparilla put Apothecary Ayer on the map and other medicines and cures followed. There was little Sarsaparilla didn’t cure while producing a huge fortune for the inventor.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? c. 2001;  Cox-Nell Algoma House Histories found at Algoma Public Library; George Wing histories; Wikipedia.

History is Made: Algoma and It's First Woman Council Member

There is no doubt millions of U.S. citizens felt it was a man’s world until passage of the 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Hundreds of thousands of men, and even women, felt ratification on August 18, 1920 was a mistake.

U.S. history is full of strong women who were unable to run for office or to vote. Presidential spouses Abigale Adams and Dolly Madison come to mind. Among others in the early days of the country was Margaret O’Neal Eaton, also called “Pot-house Peggy.” Her intelligence and forthright commentary offended the high-born women who were incensed that she rose above her station, that of an inn-keeper’s daughter. Since Peggy O’Neal/Margaret Eaton was reported to be a beauty, jealousy could have played a part in what became known as the “Petticoat Affair.” Of course, Mrs. Eaton never held office, but she affected presidential politics and President Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Eaton was far from the only woman to raise eyebrows before 1900.

About 20 years after Mrs. Eaton made headlines, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were making them. Stanton was the principal author of the declaration that came from the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1948, an event which was the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. At the time, women were expected to focus on housework, children and husbands. With the exception of extenuating circumstances, women  were unable to own property, nor did they have claim to money they earned. Women were denied the vote.

Almyra Chapel Eveland

Early Wolf River/Ahnapee* had its own women of strength, women who would not be subservient to the men around them.What would Kewaunee County life have been like if Almyra Eveland and Nancy Higgins had been elected to office? They were women who “spoke out.” Almyra Eveland came to Wolf River with her husband and family in the mid-1850s. She was truly outspoken on slavery and the plight of slaves. Although it is not a proven fact, this blogger feels there is history suggesting that Mrs. Eveland had a role in the Underground Railway.

Mrs. Nancy Higgins became well-known about 15 years later, but not because of slavery. Mrs. Higgins was a proponent of women’s rights. In June 1873 George Wing and Charles Borgman, both teen-agers, originated Ahnapee Record. The young men had a progressive record in advancing women’s rights, however Kewaunee Enterprise,* which began publication in September 1859, wasn’t so sure about such a stance. During March 1869, Mrs. Higgins wrote a letter to the editor of the Enterprize, her only newspaper option. At first, that paper denounced the letter saying that “old Higgins was a reliable subscriber” and might be upset enough to cancel his subscription. Mrs. Higgins insisted that such treatment was an “abridgement of her rights,” prompting the editor to finally say he would “cheerfully” give her space in the paper.

Mrs. Higgins wrote that “female men” in Chicago lectured about poor women being robbed of their rights and being slaves to the miserable men they called husbands. She felt that if women didn’t have rights, it was because they failed to fight for them. As for women voting, she felt that married women could get their husbands to vote the way the wives wished. She also wrote that she would like “to see Jeremiah Higgins vote for something I didn’t want him to.” It was Mrs. Higgins’ opinion that women should fight more and talk less so there wouldn’t be quite so much “babbling” about women’s rights. More than likely, there were those who thought Mr. Higgins was a weak man who couldn’t control his wife. Others certainly felt pity for the man married to a shrew who wore the pants in the family.

Mrs. Eveland and Mrs. Higgins were ahead of their time, as were many others in Kewaunee County and beyond. In the early days of the 1900s, women were beginning to show up on school boards, but not in elected public offices. When newspapers began carrying little digs directed toward women, perhaps it was because the “little woman” was gaining a voice.

In May 1915, the Record said, “Even with women in politics, it is doubtful the campaign cigar can be made any worse.” Five years later, the same paper said, “There is one good thing about the participation of women in politics. They won’t keep pulling off crooked deals because they couldn’t keep the secret.”

Just a year later, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, became the first female to be elected to federal office. Rankin, an advocate of women’s rights, served in the House of Representatives. The stage was set!

Mrs. Pauline Danek was Algoma’s first woman candidate for office in a race against William Perlewitz. The two faced off for city treasurer in the spring election on April 23, 1924, a year when !Calvin Coolidge and Robert LaFollette were on the primary ballot. The Record reported that Mrs. Danek’s lieutenants were out working to swing enough votes her way. Other candidates went around town asking for votes while still others asked for votes by using colored chalk to write messages on sidewalks.

As interesting as the election was, onlookers filled the vote counting room. When the votes were counted, 560 Algoma residents had cast ballots. One-third of the number was women, and they were relatively new voters. Hard as Mrs. Danek and her supporters worked, she lost the election to Perlewitz, 301 to 235. Not every city voter cast a ballot in the treasurer’s race, but Mrs. Danek won more than 1/3 of the total votes cast, suggesting that some men cast their first vote for a female candidate.

When Mrs. Huey Long was appointed in 1936 to fill the Senate vacancy created by the assassination of her husband the year before, the paper noted the women in politics. Of the seven woman serving in Congress, five were appointed to succeed their husbands. The paper pointed to a new book by John Erskin, author of The Private Life of Helen of Troy. It was claimed Erskin knew more about woman than most men and that Erskin said women had no business entering politics nor any other mass movement. Commenting somewhat tongue in cheek, the Record thought maybe Erskin knew what he was talking about because it would be easier to name male senators and “more masculine Congressmen who are worse fizzles in political life than are any of the women who now grace the halls of Congress.”

Kewaunee County’s first woman sheriff, Emma Lutien, was appointed in July 1925 by Gov. Blaine to fill a vacancy created by the death of her husband, however Mrs. Joseph (Jennie) Kassner was the

first woman sheriff ever elected in Kewaunee County or (said to be) the State of Wisconsin. She topped six Democrats in the primary before going on to win the 1932 race that included a Republican and two Independent candidates. Perhaps Mrs. Kassner was well-positioned: Democrats took every contest for county office, however she was succeeding her husband who was elected in 1928. Joseph Kassner served as his wife’s under-sheriff and her election placards noted that she would provide the service the county came to expect from him. Joseph Kassner ran again in 1938 and, according to the Record Herald, he won a “sizzling four-cornered race.” 

Newspaper articles indicate that Mrs. Lutien was Wisconsin’s first woman sheriff and that Mrs. Kassner was Wisconsin’s first elected woman sheriff, but online checks do not bear that out. That “first” seems to go to Langlade County.

Governor Warren Knowles was running for re-election in October 1958 when he predicted Mrs. Dena Besserdich Smith would be Wisconsin’s first elected woman in state office. Knowles was speaking at a Republican campaign event at Butch Van’s in Rostok, between Alaska and Kewaunee, when he said that the first woman would be Kewaunee County’s own Mrs. Smith who was honored in that testimonial dinner. Knowles said, “It is a tremendous job for a woman to campaign alone.” He went on to say Mrs. Smith was entitled to be elected treasurer of Wisconsin because of her long experience working with her husband in the office. Mrs. Smith assisted as deputy under her husband Treasurer Warren R. Smith, and, at his death, was appointed to replace him by Gov. Vernon Thompson.

Attorney Don Jirtle told the assembled group that “opportunity comes seldom to a small community as ours to welcome back a native resident.” He went on to say that for 20 years Wisconsin had a balanced budget at the end of every biennium and there was no debt. He said the principles of good government “made Wisconsin the blue ribbon government of the nation.” Assemblyman Frank Graass said Wisconsin was the first state to give women the right to vote and he would not understand it if women didn’t get out to vote for Dena Smith. Mrs. Smith won the election and served from 1957 to 1959 and again from 1961 until her death in 1968.

Kewaunee County saw a semi-political women’s first when Luxemburg’s Mrs. Henry Seidl was the first woman juror called in November 1936. When the paper noted the facts, it mentioned she was the first woman to see “actual service,” and that she was “drawn and accepted” in the Euclid case.

After over 100 years in existence, Kewaunee County Board made history with the swearing in of Martha Procter of Kewaunee. Mrs. Proctor was the first woman to serve, representing Kewaunee’s First Ward. However, Mrs. Proctor was appointed by Mayor Jerome Reinke who noted he was breaking tradition when he chose her to fill a vacancy created by the death of Wenzel Helbick. When Reinke discussed the appointment, he said he was “fully cognizant” of the departure from tradition and wanted to make it clear that “despite her sex,” she, and other women, had a place in politics. When a Record-Herald  reporter asked for her reaction to the appointment, she said it was “a very, very interesting thing to happen. I think they’re going to let me in – I hope.” She continued saying the world was half women and they “might as well have a little representation.”

The following spring Ione Van Price made history in Algoma when she became the first woman to be elected to the city council. That was April 1978. Van Price was called the representative from the Third Ward while the men were called aldermen. “Alderwoman” and “alderperson” were terms that came later.

When Proctor was appointed, Reinke said “departure from tradition” and “despite her sex,” words that said a lot. Lutien and Smith were appointed following the deaths of there husbands. It was well-known that should Mrs. Kassner win the election, she would be sheriff in name but her husband would continue calling the shots.

Ione Van Price was not appointed. She ran for election, won and made history in Algoma and in Kewaunee County.


*Ahnepee was renamed Ahnapee in 1873, and Enterprize became Enterprise in 1865.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; Google. 
Almyra Eveland's photo is from a private collection. Other graphics come from the papers mentioned.

Algoma: A Cross-Buring and the Ku Klux Klan

Hate is nothing new. It’s been around since Cain and Abel. Thousands of years after that, generations of Algoma school history classes learned about the Ku Klux Klan. There were those who thought Gone with the Wind told it like it was, although, little did they know that the Klan, in another era, operated in Wisconsin, or that it touched Kewaunee County. The 1920s’ Klan in Wisconsin was focused differently than it was in in the South in 1866, however.

Wisconsin Historical Society tells us the KKK had its start in 1866, the year following General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox and the end of the Civil War. It was Confederate veterans who originated the Klan as a means to resist Reconstruction. Civil Rights laws of 1871 were thought to destroy the Klan, but the laws did not, and about 50 years later, in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was alive and well in northern states. Indiana was a hotbed of activity, and Michigan was not far behind. It gained a toehold in Wisconsin but within ten years, the Klan disappeared within the Badger State, until by 2004 a few chapters were back.

There was , however, such earlier activity in Kewaunee County but incidents such as one appearing in a February 1894 Enterprise when a group of seven men – disguised by their white caps – went into a Carlton home when its young farmer was alone. The man was severely flogged by those who accused him treating his wife poorly, neglecting his animals and being a “nuisance.” The perpetrators undressed the man, bound his hands and feet, laid him on the bed and began lashing him with blows that cut his flesh. 

By 1915 another group had formed and, after World War l, it preyed on fears of radicalism and disloyalty. The society saw itself protecting American values, and those seen as thwarting such values were Catholics, Jews, Free-Thinkers, African Americans and some immigrants. Estimates during the 1920s are that Wisconsin had about 15,000 Klan members.

Before the Klan came into existence, the Know-Nothing political party was the xenophobic, anti-Catholic group in the U.S. That too faded when James Buchanan won the presidency over Millard Fillmore, although Fillmore was elected years later. As the Know-Nothings did, the 1920s-era Klan membership identified with Protestantism in both metropolitan and rural areas.

The re-emergence of the Klan in 1915 caught on in Northeast Wisconsin, seemingly through moving pictures, a technological feat still in its infancy. The January 14, 1916 Union Farmer Herald of Oconto County told readership that Birth of the Nation was returning to Green Bay’s Grand Theater the following week. The paper told about the “sensation and daring work” of the Klan and that the second part of the production created such a stir and weighed heavily into conversations later. The article promised insights into the “scarlet secret organization."

Later that year, in May, the Record Herald reported that hundreds of Kewaunee County residents attended The Birth of a Nation, billed at the Majestic Theater as the “nation’s greatest historical photo play.” The production played there twice after first playing for two days at Kewaunee’s Bohemian Opera House. According to the paper, the big feature was the reconstruction period in the South. The paper said it was the story of the over-bearing attitude of the “ignorant, brutal Negros toward the white population in the days when northern carpetbaggers attempted to make the black the equal socially of the white.” The paper goes on to say that it is the true story of a section of history little known.

The play attracted attention. It was no easy feat in 1916 to travel from Sturgeon Bay to Kewaunee to see the play but, according to the Advocate, the Messers. Minor, Barnhardt, Westerman, Miller and Washburn did just that.

This blogger’s aunt graduated at the top of her high school class at a time when part of the senior year included teacher training for good students who wished to teach in rural schools. The rural school board that engaged Agnes knew she was Catholic when she was hired. Ninety years later, there are those living in the Thorpe-Stanley area who’ve heard stories of crosses burning. One was burned when the news of Agnes’ hiring became public. She resigned immediately, eventually going to Milwaukee where she found employment in a department store.

A friend, whose father was mayor of Kaukauna around the same time, frequently shared his dad’s stories about the Klansman who lived down the street from their Catholic family. Stories focused on Protestant businessmen who were taken to task, by the Klan, for unethical behavior, an affair or any other non-exemplary behavior. While the Klan was linking crime with immigrants who were often Catholic, they did not discipline unethical Catholic businessmen whose behavior was less than stellar. The feeling was that Catholics were among the lower classes from which poor social behavior was expected.

As early as 1884, Kewaunee Enterprise told readership that the Klan was a pleasure group of ten or so men who got together occasionally for an evening of harmless fun. County folks knew otherwise by 1924 when news affected them. Others on both sides of the bay of Green Bay were learning the same things.

Oconto County Reporter Enterprise commented on a mid-January 1923 talk about the Klan given at St. Mark’s Guild Hall by Bishop Weller of Fond du Lac. The Bishop, who was born in the South, told the large crowd about the Klan’s beginnings while even pointing out that some of its outrages were to a degree justified. He went on to say while the Klan did not exist as it once did, the 1915 re-establishment of the secret organization was not justifiable as its principles did not exemplify Americanism. The Bishop said the organization attempted to take the law into its own hands while it promoted racial prejudice against foreign born members of the Catholic Church and those who were Jewish.

The April 17, 1923 Advocate said Sturgeon Bay buildings shook when the Klan burned a cross on Dunlap Reef. The Advocate thought the reef was an unusual place for the burning, but it did attract attention. If folks didn't see the burning cross, they felt  heavy charges of dynamite or other explosives on the streets and in their homes and businesses.

In June 1923, the Advocate reported that Wisconsin was one of the first states to deal with the Klan. Gov. John J. Blaine signed the Price Bill which dealt with punishment of those found guilty of committing a crime while masked. Previous laws dealt with wearing mask only under certain circumstance. The new law meant that if one was masked during a misdemeanor, the penalty would be increased one year over that for a crime over a non-masked person. If a masked person committed a felony while masked, the Price Bill provided for an additional five years in the penitentiary. The new bill did not seem to affect the cross burnings though.

Interestingly, an Oconto November 1924 paper noted residents weren’t bothered by the burning crosses if they didn’t create unnecessary fire hazards. The paper told about a burning near Holt Lumber Yards, about 600’ from the Armory which was jammed with people. The area was filled with dried weeds and grass, with slabs and other combustible material near, prompting the fire chief to say that the burning endangered lives and property of many residents. The chief continued saying trouble would follow future Klan activity and that before it “set out to reform the community, it might well exercise a little common sense.”

Several Kewaunee residents were attracted to the burning of a large cross as they were returning from Sturgeon Bay in 1924. The 8’ to 10’ cross burned on the hill near the Sawyer (Sturgeon Bay’s west side) schoolhouse (now the vacant West Side School). The Kewaunee folks reported that the cross, which had been soaked in burlap and rags saturated with kerosene, was plainly seen in the surrounding community. It was the second cross burned in Sturgeon Bay within two weeks. The incidents were not isolated as both Manitowoc and Two Rivers had cross burnings within the same few weeks.

Just a short time later, the Record Herald carried an article reported from Algoma residents who had attended a Klan meeting at Martin Park in Sturgeon Bay. They said the park was filled with so many people that hearing the speaker was nearly impossible. Folks had been invited to “come hear the truth” about the organization. No attempt was made to prevent the meeting.

One hundred years ago, few had high school educations and a great many, especially in rural areas, did not finish the 8^th grade. Until the advent of Rural Free Delivery, rural communities had little access to newspapers. There was skepticism, so when the August 8, 1924 Advocate reported a cross burning at the intersection of State and Union Streets in Sawyer, the paper questioned whether the 6’ fiery cross was a Klan celebration or a kid prank. The remains of the smoldering cross were there in the morning. That happened two months before October 1924 when the Ku Klux Klan announced it was organizing in Wisconsin.

Its purpose, the organization said, was to make virtue and piety paramount, but that it had no quarrel with Catholics, Jews or Negros.  An Algoma Record Herald editorial was ahead of its time when it opined saying, “the heretic hunt” was on and that the group wanted to make all what was considered “holy and pious.” The paper went on to say that the cause would enlist many because American was fertile soil for hate and that “No sooner is one bogey hatred laid away that a new one more virulent, more vicious, springs up.” The paper noted the placard in an Indiana store. It said, “I am 300% American; I hate everybody.”

Kewaunee’s Dr. L.E. Dockery spoke about the Klan while speaking in Algoma and discussing the anti-Catholic organizations in April 1925. He told his audience that the birth of the Klan was an accident, its growth was comic and its death was a tragedy. He said within two years of its founding, it met its goal with its “absurd hocus-pocus rites  against tyrannical and corrupt renegade Blacks and carpetbaggers” but by 1925 Catholics were targeted. Six months later the Advocate carried an article about former Sturgeon Bay Methodist Pastor Daniel Woodward who was then in Kaukauna and endorsed as a gubernatorial candidate by the Klan.

Then came the unthinkable in Algoma. About 11:00 that October 1925 night, a cross was burned on 4^th Street, about 75’ south of its intersection with Fremont, near the Normal School. Across the street were the German M.E. Church and the English Methodist Church. The site was an odd place for a burning cross, and very little information found its way into the paper.

Activity on the peninsula continued into the fall of 1926 when Pfiel’s Hall in Baileys Harbor held meetings on a Monday and Tuesday in November. The Klan held meetings in Ellison Bay for the next two days. A month later, in mid-November 1926, the Advocate informed residents that Governor Blaine had pardoned five men convicted in Marinette for inciting a riot at a Ku Klux Klan meeting the preceding June. As the paper reported, all five were convicted by a jury “which broke Marinette County records for length of deliberation. Jurors wrangled over evidence seventy-six hours.”

Then came 1937 when Hugo Black was nominated for Supreme Court and it was learned he’d been a Klan member. Back admitted his membership in an October 1, 1938 radio address, but he also said he had left the organization. Three days later he took his seat on the Court.

After Black’s confirmation, Wisconsin Senator Francis Duffy was in Europe, appearing at an American Legion French monument dedication. In his speech, Duffy spoke of the advantages of being born in America, saying that so often when people get something for nothing, they don’t appreciate it. He went on to say, “The opportunities of this country which has real freedom has brought out the best in these (immigrant) nationalities” who came to America.

In a message to Congress on December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln said, “We cannot escape history.” Just about 100 years later, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, in her book Tomorrow is Now, "We make our own history."

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; Door County Advocate;  Kewaunee Enterprise; Oconto County Reporter:Union Farmer Herald of Oconto County; Wisconsin Historical Society website.

Graphics are from Door County Advocate.

Algoma: It's Cooler By The Lake

Algoma's Crescent Beach, late 1930s

“ Kewaunee County’s crops are possibly running about ½ of normal because of prolonged dry weather.” The quote came from an August 1936 newspaper. This year, 2019, many fields haven’t been planted due to record amounts of spring and early summer rains. Now the heat is playing havoc with fields and gardens, just as it did in 1936 which remains the hottest summer on record. And this year, just as it was in 1936, it is cooler by the lake.

The 1936 season began with great crop prospects, but then came the extreme heat. By late August, the ground was so dry that rain was not expected to be of much benefit for any crops other than corn. Fortunately, 1935 was a banner cropping year thus animal food shortage was not dire. Wisconsin’s early July 1936 corn crop was estimated to be 76% of normal; it declined to 53% of normal just a month later. The Badger state’s crop reporting services estimated the corn crop would top out at 1917 levels, another dismal year. The 1936 crop was the second such year since 1901.

1936 Kewaunee County was a tinderbox, no doubt prompting oldsters to bring up the Great Fire of 1871. Early August saw raging fires in the Towns of Casco, Pierce, West Kewaunee and Franklin. The grass and stump fire on the Smithwick farm near Casco took over 24 hours to extinguish. Ed Bohman’s Casco woods’ fire was thought to be out on a Wednesday and broke out again on Thursday. The swamp near Joseph Fiala’s Pierce Town farm was ablaze, as was a 40-acred swamp in Franklin. That one smoldered for months. West Kewaunee had a grass fire fought by the Kewaunee Fire Department. Fences and areas of fields were burned while buildings were threatened.

Until dry conditions abated, property owners Henry Gericke and John Slaby closed Krohn’s lake to recreational use. A small fire there had burned several feet into the ground before being discovered by Louis Bathke. Reports were that it took many pails of water to completely kill the fire.

According to the University of Wisconsin Agronomy Department, there was a bright side of the dryness: the drought offered farmers opportunities for getting lowlands into canary grass. The dry lowlands were easier to breakup, thus offering a good seed bed by disking and harrowing for seed sown in fall or in spring mud. The valued canary grass offered “feed insurance” in dry weather, and the Agronomy Department said, such a stand would last almost indefinitely as the sod made haying and pasturing possible even when the ground was wet.

Algoma has always prided itself on being “cooler by the lake,” but 1936 left residents scratching their heads. When the temperature soared to 102 in early July, folks held on and waited for the afternoon wind shift, sure to happen. It did, and the temperature plunged more than 30 degrees to 68. Most years, city residents hoped for a nice summer, but 1936 set records residents hoped they didn’t see again. On the day Algoma topped out at 102, Green Bay registered 106, that city’s highest temperature since recording began in the 1880s. Algoma residents did find some humor in that heat though – a snowplow salesman was in the city! He even brought a sample of his wares.

While Algoma was hot, temperatures were far worse inland. Lake Michigan’s shoreline offered refuge from the heat and Algoma residents didn't need a newspaper or  radio to tell them how hot it was away from the lake. All they needed to do is check the cars along the lakeshore highway. Travel was not as easy in 1936 as it is today. Roads were graveled and there were always tires that blew out and needed patching. It didn’t seem to make a difference though as 105 autos were counted along Crescent Beach (shown in the postcard above) on the day Green Bay saw 106.

Algoma was elevated to resort status the Sunday that 535 cars were counted from Chapek’s cabins (in the above postcard, now Algoma Beach Motel site) to past the utility plant north of the Dug-Out where picnickers were swarming the grounds. That was at 6 PM; there were more at noon. License plates reflected the District of Columbia and 12 states, with Maine being the farthest away. Mailman Will Fellows said the lakefront all around his Stony Creek home was overflowing with escapes from the heat.

Surfboats dotted the lake and local commercial fishermen found extra income in taking out the heat-beat tourists. The golf course was crowded with visiting golfers who filled the rooming houses. Dormitory rooms at D-K Normal School were rented to out-of-staters while residents put spare cots and beds wherever they could in their homes.

The heat was even too much for the Boy Scouts Mel Perry, George Ackerman and Ray Ponath who planned a week camping at Gill’s Rock. The heat forced them to return to Algoma 48 hours after they’d left.

Although heat was limiting playground activities at Perry Field, swimming lessons at the beach continued. Oppressive heat forced delays in the Kewaunee-Manitowoc baseball game. Perhaps the Manitowoc team kept its cool best, deflating Kewaunee 10 – 1.  While the cheesemakers picnic went on at the Fairgrounds, Viola Dahlke was crowned the county’s Cheese Queen. Viola would go on to represent the county at the state fair, and if she won there, to the Miss American contest at Atlantic City. Intense afternoon temperatures ruined programs, however, folks turned out for the picnic and a crowd of 3,000 was in the grandstands for the evening crowning. Algoma band escaped the Luxemburg heat by returning to the lakeshore. Reports of 108-degree temperatures in the shade proved Alaska could not live up to its name. It was so hot at Algoma Plywood and Veneer that after men reported for work, they were given the day off with pay. One fellow, Mr. Towsley, claimed that the temperature of his car radiator water dropped 10 degrees between the top of the Campsite Hill and his stop at the post office.

The Record Herald’s editor told readership that “a quirk of nature” built Algoma into a booming resort when it was so hot inland. After all, the city was three miles farther into Lake Michigan than its neighbors to the north.

The dry spell finally broke on a Wednesday morning when a nice slow rain brought smiles. Most of the farm crops were gone and cows had been turned into the grain fields. Some farmers had cut the grain to use as hay and in other places it was burned. It didn’t stop there. The summer of 1936 was bad enough, but then came a record setting cold winter.

Wikipedia tells us the North American heat wave of 1936 was the worst in modern history with records standing until 2012. Compounding the 1936 issues were the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The summer’s heat caused over 5,000 deaths and catastrophic suffering. Huge numbers of crops were lost and thousands of farms were foreclosed on, often leaving the owners homeless.

The heat wave began in June and got worse from there. It went into Canada and eventually covered the continent. In July, temperatures reached all-time highs that stood until 2012. Wisconsin was one of the states experiencing record highs, and records set in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario still stand.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald and Wikipedia. The postcard is from the author's collection.

D-Day and Algoma Seamen Gerhart, Lessmiller & Nessinger

USS Nevada at Normandy

June 6 was the 75^th anniversary of D-Day. Under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to gain the European foothold in Europe that led to the defeat of Germany a year later. History tells that more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the invasion. Of the landed troops, more than 9,000 were killed or wounded. Cousin Cal was there and said some drowned jumping from the Higgins boats into the rough surf as the heavy packs pulled men under. Whether it helped if one could swim, Cal didn't think so. Men died in the water and as soon as they hit the beach. That was from fire. The dying continued.

D-Day – or any other war or invasion – just didn’t happen “over there.” Kewaunee County has been touched by all the wars. Even the War of 1812. Then British sloops Felicity and Archangel were patrolling Lake Michigan to keep an eye on the French and alliances they might be forming with the Indians. Joseph McCormick who first visited the area in 1834 came out of that war with the rank of Major. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Civil War veterans were buried in Ahnapee/Algoma before McCormick, but his service was the earliest. Algoma men were among the Kewaunee County men who served, and Algoma men were at Normandy too.

During late summer 1944, Algoma Record Herald carried a reprint from Canton Repository. The article looked back at D-Day saying that America was not then fighting with money and material, but with thousands of lives. The Repository said that until war struck home, it was estimated, but not understood. It was happening daily with telegrams from the Secretary of War saying he “regrets to announce…..” or “he died heroically.” The article went on to say that survivors paid in sorrow for the sacrifice of the dead and only survivors were qualified to speak of the war.

This 75^th anniversary marks the last time World War ll veterans will be in attendance. For the next big anniversary event, the 100th anniversary, there won't be any veterans left and few who lived through World War ll will be alive by then. Who will begin to understand the sacrifices made at Normandy and all over the world? 

Algoma men wee among the over 156,000 U.S. men who stormed Normandy beaches where more than 4,000 lost their lives. Thousands more were wounded or were missing. 

U.S Navy Seaman Melvin F. Lessmiller was one who took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima and in the invasion of the Philippine Islands. He also took part in D-Day aboard the Texas. Another was Pharmacist’s Mate 3c Melvin Nessinger who was aboard the battleship Nevada, the Texas’ sister ship. Gunner’s Mate Ray Gerhart was another Algoma man on the Nevada that day. When Pfc. Thomas Kaye returned to Algoma, the Record Herald noted his certificate from his commanding general, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, who recognized the unusual fighting toughness of his 29^th Infantry Division at Normandy. All participants of Normandy were entitled to one star on their theater ribbons.

When Melvin Nessinger wrote from the Nevada to his parents, he told them D-Day was something Hollywood could never reproduce. He said several hours before H-hour, the sky was lit with dropping shells, but the men didn’t know whose shells they were. He said their minds were torn by what they’d find, and the mines that lined roads. Nessinger told how the ship vibrated in the drone of over 800 bombers and shells hitting an 8-mile stretch of beach, while contrasting the tracers’ beautiful patterns across the sky.

Shore batteries were firing on the invasion fleet when just after dawn Messerschmitts came out of a cloud bank to meet tracer fire. For Nessinger, hours melted into days and nights, and during the days, one could see Allied transports from horizon to horizon as bombers and fighters worked to find enemy positions. Melvin thanked folks for their letters and the prayers which he said were being heard. Melvin was proud to be serving on the ship and glad his parents had heard how well the men on the Nevada accounted for themselves. The Nevada set new records for accuracy that day.

Lessmiller was both at Iwo Jima and Normandy and told his parents that the Marines have “what it takes, and they take what they land on, no matter what.” Nessinger and Gerhart went on to remind Algoma residents to keep buying war bonds because on D-Day alone the Nevada presented “the Germans with a gift of a million and a half dollars in ammunition alone.”

The Nevada was the only ship present at both Pearl Harbor and Normandy, and Gerhart was aboard. Being launched in 1914 and serving in World War l, the old battleship was the flagship at the Utah Beach landing. Hit by 7 bombs and 2 torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, the ship lost 120 men.

Judge Donald Gleason spoke at Algoma’s commencement, offering graduates advice and encouragement. He referenced the war and D-Day saying the graduates would never forget their “graduation and D-Day – the day of the European invasion.” It is doubtful that any ever did.

A week of two later, the Record Herald editorialized about the thousands and thousands of “American boys” were giving their lives to “erase Nazi tyranny from the face of this globe.” The paper pointed out that such tragedy stirred others and how a steady flow of war materials was necessary. The paper went on to say that maybe production wasn’t as dramatic as men struggling against machine guns but production was imperative. It opined that one day Algoma residents might learn that Algoma-made airplane and glider parts played a role in the invasion of Europe. Residents did indeed learn the role of Algoma Plywood made pieces.

And the U.S.S. Nevada? Wikipedia tells us that Nessinger and Gerhart served aboard the 2^nd U.S. Navy ship to be named for the 36^th state. Launched in 1914, it was the lead ship of two Nevada-class battleships and the first of the “standard-type” battleships. Trapped at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, it was the only battleship to get underway during the attack. The damaged ship was salvaged and modernized to serve in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. When the war was over, the old battleship was used for atomic bomb practice. It was decommissioned in August 1946 and later sunk for naval gunfire practice.

Nessinger, Gerhart and Lessmiller told some of their D-Day stories. Stangelville’s James Steinberger never did. He was one of the thousands killed at D-Day. The Record Herald said that “up and down the quiet streets of this country and along rural highways, the homes of America were paying the price for D-Day.” Casualty lists were beginning to catch up.

Raymond Julius Gerhart was born in Algoma on September 4, 1921 and died on October 15, 1979 in San Diego, California. He is buried in El Camino Memorial Park. 

Melvin Nessinger's stone in Pioneer Cemetery, Shortsville, New York

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Carlton Repository online article; Find a Grave; Wikipedia.
Photos: Naval vessels online; Find a Grave.

Ernest H. Haucke, KIA: World War l & and Haucke Post 236

All over America plans are being made for Memorial Day weekend, which marks the beginning of summer for many. There will be camping trips, weekend trips to water parks and zoos, baseball games and more. There will be parades led by American Legion Color Guards, and Legionnaires will form the parties firing the salute at cemeteries with graves holding veterans of all this country’s wars. In anticipation of the event, the Auxiliary and others will be marking each veteran’s grave with a flag.

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was once called, came about with Southern women who decorated the graves of fallen soldiers, and by May 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic (Union soldiers) established the day to decorate graves of the dead with flowers. Memorial Day, as a designation, came into vogue after World War ll and became the day’s official name in 1967.

The Sons of Veterans (of the Civil War) oversaw Ahnapee/Algoma Decoration Day events from the beginning through 1919. Ernest Haucke American Legion Post was founded in March 1920, and since then has planned Decoration Day activities in Algoma.

Algoma’s Ernest Haucke was the first of the Kewaunee County men to die on the battlefields of Europe in World War l. Born on April 11, 1896, Ernest was Grandma’s first cousin, and was the same age. Fifty years later, he was not forgotten, but frozen in time as a 22-year-old man.

In July 1917, young Ernest was in Two Rivers, in a National Guard unit, and waiting to be called. Men had draft numbers, and Ernest’s was 47. February 1918 found Ernest at Camp Merritt in New Jersey, a camp for transient troops that was one of three camps under the control of the New York Port of Embarkation. In a letter written from Camp Merritt, he said how glad he was to be sleeping in a fine spring bed and to be out of the canvas cots and tents of Camp MacArthur in Waco.

Ernest wrote about his train trip from Waco, Texas to New Jersey . The 4 ½ day, 5 night journey began in Waco’s warm sunny weather and ended with the snow and ice of New Jersey.

The young Algoma doughboy traveled through states he had never been in. He thought most of the larger cities were great, that the Appalachian mountains were prettier than the Cumberland mountains and reported seeing a prison camp for German spies. Periodically, the train stopped so the men could hike for a mile or so. Its first stop was Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which, Ernest wrote, was known for its beautiful women. Arriving at Washington, D.C. at 10:30 at night was disappointing since the captain promised they’d detrain at Washington and parade around the capitol. As it was, they had to be satisfied with the glow of city lights offering a view of the metropolis. Camp Merritt was within 15 miles of New York City, prompting most men to take advantage of a 24 hour leave.. The leave gave Ernest the opportunity to see his relative, Fred Busch, who managed one of the larger New York hotels.

Camp Merritt agreed with Ernest who said it was more like home with snow and heated buildings. There were 60 men in a building and 30 in a room which, Ernest thought, made for “jolly good times” for men who were beginning to feel like brothers. Ernest said he didn’t expect to be in New Jersey long before being shipped to France, knowing Algoma folks read about the sinking of the Tuscania. Troops aboard were in the 32^nd Division, the division that Ernest’s company was a part of. The company knew many of the men who had gone down.

According to Ernest, the YMCA was the first place the men tried to find in New Jersey. The “Y” gave the men something to do to escape lonesome hours, and he generally spent several hours an evening there.

Ernest encouraged friends to write to him at Priv. Ernest H. Haucke, Co, G., 128^th Inf. U.S.N.G., A.E.F. via New York. The address would get letters to him in camp and in France.

A little more than 5 months later, an Algoma Record Herald headline announced Ernest’s death on the battlefields of France. Ernest was the 2^nd city man to enlist – Jerry Jerabek was the 1^st - and the first in the county to be killed in action. He died on July 20^th, but it was weeks later before his family knew it and learned that Ernest was a part of a great allied victory at Chateau-Thierry,  

Ernest was among the other Algoma men who began their training in Sturgeon Bay before going to Camp Douglas for a short time. Then it was to Camp MacArthur for intensive training before going to New Jersey and to France. His parents last heard from him toward the end of June, and when Rev. Schlei spoke at his funeral service at St. Paul’s, he paid tribute to Ernest saying he died a Christian death that was most honorable. Schlei called him a young hero and asked the congregation to offer special prayers for the man buried beneath a white cross in France. Ernest’s body was eventually returned to his family in Algoma, and he is buried at the Evergreens.

As a youngster, Ernest attended school in the Town of Ahnapee and in Algoma where he always lived with his parents. He was employed at Ahnapee Veneer and Seating Co. and was described as a clean-cut young man who was highly thought of. Just after he joined the military, he told his brother Arnold he joined to “do his duty.

Ernest’s story is much the same as the Algoma men who died in World War I, and those who survived. But, because Ernest was the first to be killed, the Legion Post was named for him. Chartered in March 1920, one of the 15 charter members was Jerry Jerabek, Algoma’s first volunteer. In April 1920, the paper announced that 10 new members were added in one week. The Haucke Post was open to men in northern Kewaunee County and southern Door County.

The American Legion was growing and when the Haucke Post was chartered, there were over 8,000 posts. More posts were predicted as the Legion expected to serve 2 million men by the end of 1920. The G.A.R. posts, founded after the Civil War, reached the height in membership in 1910 when its roster listed a half million members. Going forward, the World War l veterans took over duties performed by the Sons of Veterans. That included Memorial Day ceremonies.

Ernest Haucke Post 236 remains in existence at just under 100 years old. As it did for 98 years, the Post will honor veterans for the 99th time in ceremonies in Algoma on Monday, May 27.

Sources: Family history and Algoma Record and Algoma Record Herald. Photos are from the Record Herald.