Kewaunee County & the Short-Lived Bookmobile

April 10 is Bookmobile Day in Wisconsin, a day that brings to memory the Door-Kewaunee County bookmobile.  In the world of 2019, few remember it coming to Kewaunee County communities and even fewer have memories of the joys it brought the county’s rural school population. It never was the mainstay that it was in Brown and Door Counties, and that Kewaunee County even had a bookmobile was a credit to hardworking, passionate citizens who wanted to bring books to all areas of the county. Books for kids and books for adults.  During the initial demonstration program alone, the counties saw a 16% increase in library circulation. When the bookmobile made its first appearance in the peninsula’s counties, 23% of Wisconsinites did not have access to a free public library.

Just before Halloween 1949, Kewaunee County Board was considering joining Door County in requesting the state library demonstration in the area. As it was, Wisconsin would approve a single demonstration area and an informational request was not binding. A bookmobile was part of Wisconsin’s Free Library Commission projects and Kewaunee County could get the free information on a bookmobile and its services when such a unit toured the area early in November. On its tour, the bookmobile was expected to stop at schools in addition to the homes of county board members.

During the board meeting, May Smithwick, county superintendent of schools, spoke in favor of the demonstration, which could only enrich the education of the children in rural schools. Rural schools had libraries, but the books – many outdated - remained the same from year to year with possible additions of a few new ones.  Some rural shelves appeared full, but often, being devoid of library books, the shelves stored unusued text books

A letter sent to Otto Adams, chairman of the county board, from the Library Commission, stated that the 1949 legislature enacted the Library Demonstration bill, providing funding of $50,000 yearly for 3 years to a rural county or adjacent counties selected for the demonstration. The law also specified that the state would pay half the cost of a single demonstration as long as the state portion did not exceed 50% of the total cost. It further called upon the people within the demonstration area to develop their own initiatives, ensuring the library service would continue without interruption following the 3 year demonstration period.

In 1950, the approximately $70,000 in books and equipment would be left in the area after the initial period was no small change! The state also pointed out that at the end of the 3 years, a county with a 25,000 population would tax property at one mill.* The state encouraged applications from areas that were neither above nor below average in population, existing services, wealth and more.

 It was furthermore noted that average costs would be about $1.50 per capita if an area held at least 25,000 people. Door and Kewaunee Counties jointly met that requirement. The Library Commission believed average rural Wisconsin communities had the ability to organize free library service and had the local resources to continue its support, providing a large enough population was served. A committee made up of Mrs. Smithwick, a county board member, a school official and 3 prominent community members were charged with informing Kewaunee County residents of the opportunities offered.

Door County wanted the library demonstration project, however its population made it too small to qualify. Working with Kewaunee County made it eligible. In meetings with the state, Door County was given the same information as Kewaunee. They were told how there would be a central pool of books and other printed materials available to all. A system of inter-library loan would put even more information at one’s fingertips. But Door County could not do it alone. There was more than the bookmobile though. There would be book talks and story hours. Films would be available to rural schools. There would be an advisory staff assisting local librarians, school groups and individuals, and a book collection that rotated thus always offering something new. Algoma, Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay would be the main libraries with branches at Casco, Luxemburg and many of the villages of Door County. There would be two bookmobiles.

It was an exciting time in November 1949 when the bookmobile stopped at schools to allow parents and students to tour it to find out what it held. Still, both county boards had to approve the demonstration if the state approved the counties’ application. Kewaunee County Board approved the demonstration project. Most areas were onboard, but others were not. It was understood that the demonstration would not be put into an area that was opposed to it.

In early January 1950, it was announced that the regional library would go into operation on February 1. An entirely new project meant there were logistics to work out. A temporary director needed to be hired and standards needed to be established. Eyebrows were raised when Kewaunee County board members saw the state-set salaries for the administrative assistant, two typists, cataloguers, 2 drivers and the librarians. The book budget totaled about $12,000. One bookmobile was to be donated by the State Library Commission with funds from the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, while the other would be paid for by the counties. Then there were the office supplies and equipment. The project’s costs fell between $53,500 and $57,500. By-laws were written by a team from each county and an administrative committee was made up of an equal number of residents from each county. Among the committee’s responsibilities was “selling” the demonstration project in their respective areas. It was not easy.

The need to “sell” the project was kept in mind as a requisite for the director. One of the candidates for the job was “high in library work” in the State of Washington. If she were hired to set-up the D-K program, she would have to take a significant decrease in salary. The representative from the state commission felt that the one hired to set-up the program would be one who’d need to take “hard knocks,” and after the set-up, a director with other talents might be named. He pointed out that the D-K demonstration would be closely watched throughout Wisconsin and across the U.S. The person hired to be director would be developing something entirely new. She would be raising her position in the library profession. In 1950, nobody expected a man to served in such a position, especially in such a rural area. Mr. Botsford from the library commission opined that not many were qualified for the director’s position.

Board members noted the need to watch salary precedents carefully so that future county boards would see their way clear to continue the project when the state stepped away from the project. Headquarters for the regional library would be in the basement at the Sturgeon Bay quarters. Sturgeon Bay, Algoma and Kewaunee were to decide whether their books would be circulated. Then it came out that progressive Algoma’s 1948 book budget was $1,400 while Door County spent $1,400 in total. Kewaunee city spent just $482 in the same year.

The goal was that the bookmobile would be ready for making at least two trips each to each school in each county before the end of the school year. To meet that goal, first two months of 1950  were spent getting the new system organized and working out snags

In continuing to explain the need for the new system, it was pointed out that library facilities at schools were important, but did not receive the attention necessary. If the library was well maintained, information on a variety of subjects was available. County teachers had great hopes for the Regional library. Algoma librarian Mrs. Dorothy Ackerman, and the librarian from Baileys Harbor, spoke on WJPG radio acquainting listeners with what was going on with the new library and its programs.

There was eager support and fierce opposition to the new system. There were those who felt the books would put foolish notions into the minds of children. The opposition was largely in Kewaunee County, but there was opposition in Southern Door County as well. Some felt a regional library system was government interference that would only expose folks to moral and political dangers. At the same time Senator Joseph McCarthy was holding hearings looking for Communists behind every tree. There were those who felt that the trouble on the Korean Peninsula meant war and if such a library system was going to add $12-15 a year in taxes, a possible war in Korea would drive taxes up even more.

On April 4, 1950,  Montpelier town board unanimously passed a resolution requesting a referendum on the bookmobile and the money it cost. The Town felt Kewaunee County residents were treated unfairly when the County Board made its decision approving the demonstration.

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At the end of the demonstration period, the committees, the librarians, the teachers, the kids and most of the parents felt the system and bookmobile was a resounding success. 90% of rural children in both counties used the bookmobile. Kewaunee County’s Town of Franklin students averaged 40 books a year, the highest record within the two counties. Children in the Town of Carlton averaged just over 30 books a year. Women used the bookmobile as well, although during the trial period, only a handful of Kewaunee County men used it.

Kewaunee County voters had their chance to express their views in the 1952 election which also saw future president Dwight Eisenhower and Senator Joe McCarthy on the ballot. Algoma, Casco and Luxemburg voted in favor of the library system. Kewaunee city rejected the system by 1 vote and it was voted down in the rural areas that received the most service. Families with school children generally wanted the bookmobile, however they were outvoted by those without children in school.

When the bookmobile came to an end, rural school children were in tears. For a little while, they had something their city cousins did. The demonstration worked. Other counties got their own bookmobiles and regional library systems. Door County voted to maintain the program on its own. For over 40 years, the bookmobile was a boon to Door County children, their parents, and anybody who wanted to use it.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald

 *The term "millage" is derived from a Latin word "millesimum" meaning "thousandth," with 1 mill being equal to 1/1,000th of a currency unit. As used in relation to property tax, 1 mill is equal to $1 in property tax, which is levied per every $1,000 of a property's determined taxable value. This definition was found at  .https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/millrate.asp

Ahnapee, Algoma & the 2nd Street Bridge

Tongues have been wagging about Algoma’s 2^nd Street Bridge reconstruction for close to 20 years. According to Door County Daily News, it will happen this summer. A year ending in 9 seems to be magic for the bridge since 1899 and 1949 were the two most recent reconstruction years. Set in a 2019 context, discussion concerning the need for the bridge is not much different than it was following World War ll, or well before 1900. Who today would think at one time the bridge’s placement determined the center of town?

Algoma’s senior citizens remember the old iron bridge turning to allow boat traffic to get up river. In an earlier day, boats traversed the river, turning into Mr. Gericke’s dock to off-load provisions for his store at the northwest side of 2^nd and N. Water. Boats went to the furniture factory on S. Water, now Navarino, and as far as the Plumbers and the Veneer and Seating Co., last known as the Hardwoods.

Some of t hose same adults have not-so-fond memories of walking to or from St. Mary’s only to come upon seagulls vying for the fish guts on the deck planking. The gulls didn’t give up easily and the little kids weren’t about to take them on by walking right through. Older boys got plenty of attention as they chased screaming girls with those vile, half-eaten fish. Then there are those who remember getting pooped on when some pleasure boater sounded the horn when coming upon a flock of seagulls feasting near the bridge.

When Major Joseph McCormick and his party sailed up the (now) Ahnapee River to today’s Forestville in 1834, the guts could have been a lot bigger as later history recorded muskellunges of over 35 lb. caught in the river. In a day before the goose poop became part of its landscape, Algoma’s commercial fishing industry lined the river banks on either side of the 2^nd Street Bridge, and the gull offal was there.. Seagulls and fish guts have always been a part of Algoma, and a part of the bridge history.

Most presume that a bridge was always at 2^nd Street, but it wasn’t. The community’s first bridge was a log footbridge constructed near the mouth of the river in 1856 by Joseph Anderegg, Peter Schiesser, William Fagg and Matt Simon, however the mouth of the river wasn’t where it is today. A spit of land covered what today is the mouth. The river turned north, for about a block from the main channel, before turning east and entering Lake Michigan at a spot that in 2019 would approximately be the foot of Michigan Street. When the community’s first school opened on the north side of the river in 1855, south side children were not able to attend because the footbridge had yet to be built. A year after the footbridge, in summer 1857,  a wooden bridge was built near the mouth east of present-day Church Street, crossing the river just east of the current Von Stiehl Winery.

Then came years of problems. Spring ice raised havoc all over the county and when freshets washed out the bridge in April 1866, the bridgeless community turned to Captain Hank Harkins to run a ferry near the mouth for several months as it took some time before normal bridge travel was resumed. By June it was announced Ahnepee's* village bridge was nearly complete. 

Second Street Bridge - 1883 Birdseye Map

Following the Civil War, Ahnepee underwent a period of significant growth, and with that came the June 1868 opening of a new bridge. By then townsfolk, feeling the mouth bridge should be moved toward the center of town, replaced it with a log bridge built on the 2nd Street site. Repair of the 2nd Street bridge was news again on March 23, 1876 when Simon Haag was hired to replace the stringers and then replank the bridge at a cost of $120.00. It was imperative that the bridge was made safe until the channel was excavated to permit passages of vessels to the deeper waters above it. Steam drilling and blasting during harbor development in April 1876 caused the collapse of the newly repaired bridge.

Once again the bridge gave way in September when Charles Damas was crossing with his team hauling a load of wood. Luckily, Mr. Damas and his team were rescued without serious injury. Since the bridge was the only one connecting both sides of the community, once again the town provided a ferry, again run by Captain Harkins, until the bridge was repaired. In April 1883, the bridge was in trouble again. A new brace was a necessity and the drop needed a new 2” thick pine plank cover. The bridge was deemed unsafe again in June 1888 and finally repaired in December 1890.

The bridge remained an issue and when Ahnapee was in the midst of a boom in the summer of 1895, the city again decided to have the bridge repaired. There was no option in August. Seven hundred people -most of whom were on their way to St. Mary’s - crossed the bridge on Sundays. Between 70 and 80 teams also crossed the bridge, however as summer wore on the situation became so tenuous that team travel was banned.

From the late 1850s on, the community sought to Improve the harbor and channel. The nearly on-going work with the U.S. Engineers caused some to call for action on the bridge situation. Since the bridge was too low, it was decided to put a "draw" in it. When the harbor was ready, it was felt the bridge should be ready to permit vessels to travel the river at will. By 1899, the community - newly christened Algoma – was forced to completely construct a new 2^nd Street bridge. William Damas had the contract and began tearing down the bridge in May.

As with anything else, if there was something to go wrong, it did. Work was pushed back in October 1899 when the use of a steam pump was delayed. Without it, the center crib could not be pumped out and masons could not do their work. When the pump finally came from Sturgeon Bay so late in the season, the city said the work would be pushed until completed.

The 2nd Street iron bridge opened 10 years before this post card was send.
The building on the left is Gericke's Store. The dock is at the right of the store.

By mid-January 1900, the workforce had been increased, the heavy center piece was in place and the city said the work would be finished in a few weeks. Fortunately, the ice was thick enough to support heavy pieces of equipment and material, and time was saved. The U.S. Engineers were reconstructing the piers while the bridge work was going on, and dredgings from the pier work were used as fill near the bridge. Algoma’s premier contractor, Fred Wulf, did the masonry work while the J.G. Wagner Co. of Milwaukee built the actual bridge for a cost of $6,700.

When the iron bridge was replaced in 1949, the current bridge was a marvel. Algoma caught up with the big cities! Gone was the planking and the shaking as vehicles crossed the bridge. Gone was the fear of the little kids who could see the water through the planking and through the sides of the bridge, and gone was the long walk to the 4^th Street bridge for St. Mary’s kids who lived downtown.

Phyllis Kessler, Miss Wisconsin, was on hand for the bridge dedication on July 2, 1949. The event began at 7:15 PM with a few words from Frank Knipfer, Kewaunee County’s highway chairman at the time the building decision was made. Second Ward alderman Art Dettman represented the city in his short address. Dettman served as chairman of Algoma’s street and bridge committee. A county representative was there to give a report on the role of the county and state. After the speeches concluded, Miss Wisconsin was driven up to cut the ribbon, thus opening the bridge.

The parade that followed the official bridge opening  was led by the American Legion colors and color guard, followed by Miss Wisconsin, the AHS band, Legion drill team and, of course, the requisite convertibles carrying the speakers. Those who wished to join the parade were invited to do so.

The parade eventually arrived at the Dug-Out where Algoma High School band presented a one-hour concert on the lawn. That was followed by Algoma Hunting and Fishing Club’s annual dance. Royalty was in attendance at the dance as Miss Wisconsin remained for it

New construction brings tweaks and so did the bridge, but the tweak concerned downtown’s other bridge. The new bridge was higher and carried more cars than the 4^th Street bridge, which also needed work. Alderman Wenniger asked for a windbreak for the new bridge and after much discussion, the windbreak was approved. However, a windbreak was also approved for 4^th Street since many citizens would find it improper for one bridge to have such a feature and not the other.

* Ahnepee became Ahnapee in 1873 when the village was chartered. Its name changed to Algoma in 1897.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, c. 2001; Commercial Development in the Youngs and Steele Plat, c. 2006; Algoma Record Herald; doorcountydailynews.com.
Map: U.S. Engineers, August 1870

The postcard is in the blogger's collection. The snippet of the early bridge is from the 1883 Birdseye Map.

Kewaunee County: Wisconsin's Early Eugenics Laws

Few in Kewaunee County have heard the name Francis Galton and the few who did were probably glad to forget him. He was the founder of a movement dedicated to improving the human population by controlled breeding, thus increasing desirable genetic characteristics. Wikipedia defines Eugenics as "a set of beliefs and practises that aims at improving the genetic quality of a human population by excluding certain genetic groups judged to be less desirable and promoting other genetic groups judged to be superior." Galton's concepts fell into disfavor only after such ideas were included in Nazi doctrines. Nevertheless, eugenics did have an impact on Kewaunee County.

As early as January 1905, the following was included in Algoma Record's religious news: Mr. Francis Galton, F.R.S., has founded in London university (sic)  a fellowship for the promotion of the study of '"National Eugenics," the study of the agencies under social control that may improve or repair the racial qualities of future generations either physically or mentally.

Epileptics, feeble-minded and insane were in 1907 banned from marriage and sexual intercourse. Severely disabled were usually kept institutionalized as it was not expected they would ever marry, but others were often sterilized. Passing a eugenics law in 1913, Wisconsin's edict targeted "mental defectives" and epileptics for sterilization. Laws varied by state and by the 1960s, most sterilization efforts were discontinued. Wisconsin's trust of science, medicine, psychology and sociology was there to form public policy which accepted eugenics as a science.

Mental defectives were defined as those receiving state aid, people in state institutions such as Wisconsin Home for the Feeble-Minded in Chippewa Falls, those who were promiscuous or otherwise  violated social norms. Authorities also looked for similar traits in one’s family. If a family refused sterilization, the one in question could be institutionalized indefinitely, however the director of the Chippewa Falls’ home felt sterilization was both efficient and fiscally responsible over institution. Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the law that required people to prove they were fit to marry.

During mid-January 1914, the Record carried an article saying Wisconsin's Attorney General Owen said physicians who entered agreements not to test under eugenics' marriage law "come dangerously near conspiracy in obstructing the administration of the law" and that the "conditions must be looked after."

Two months later in March 1914, officers of the State Federation of Catholics in Wisconsin and the U.P. adopted a resolution protesting sex eugenics, inviting moral people to use their influence to prohibit such teaching. Then in June 1915, Dr. Charles Davenport of the eugenics laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, NY warned against possible hereditary tendencies and cancer. He said such research showed incidences were highest in Maine, and that dominant traits show up in cousins marrying cousins as frequently happened on the islands off Maine's coast.

When in November 1915 the State Board of Health reviewed 1914 statistics, it was noted that there were 3,807 fewer marriages in Wisconsin than in 1913. Statistical information convinced the board that financial depression “retards marriage” and said economic factors affected marriage rates while the eugenics law was only partly responsible. However, there were also common law marriages. By 1915, the marriage law was amended so that ample publicity was given to applications and thereby allowing for objections to the marriage.

Kewaunee County’s own John Cashman served in Wisconsin’s legislature. Cashman attacked eugenics in April 1923 saying it was “a farce” that the state could no longer afford to keep on the books. He went on to tell of the Milwaukee woman who masqueraded as a man to get a physical certificate to wed and then said the law proved ineffective in accomplishing its original purpose. The law was repealed in the Senate, 18 – 17. The law’s lone defender said he would favor an amendment to provide a Wasserman* test in all cases if the present provisions were inadequate.

Frank R. Sherwood came to Algoma in April 1923, lecturing men and boys on hygiene at a program held in the high school auditorium. He gave his lecture as a part of the State Board of Health and the federal government. Sherwood told the assembled that unless the boys lived better than those around them, American would be ruined because 35 of every 100 examined for the army were physically unfit. They had poor teeth, poor feet and venereal disease. Sherwood said fathers had to give more time to their sons. Then he said the eugenics law should be rigidly enforced because sins of the fathers often result in crippled and blind children or in an invalid mother. He said towels, drinking cups and dance halls were the most common spreaders of venereal disease which resulted in the birth defects.

At the July 1924 meeting of Wisconsin County Clerks, Kewaunee County Clerk Joseph Lazansky was appointed a committee of one to represent the clerk’s association in an appearance before the legislature. Lazansky’s job was working to obtain uniform dance hall ordinances, and the adoption of uniform marriage laws throughout the country. There were those who felt dance halls were at the root of venereal disease. As the law stood, the marriage eugenics law affected  men only. Lazansky advocated that the law should apply to both contracting parties – bride and groom. It was pointed out that, “Couples who are physically unfit go from Wisconsin to neighboring states, get married and come back here. The misfit children are then thrown upon the institutions of Wisconsin.”

In 1931, marriages in Kewaunee County totaled 119, 2 over the previous year. There were 7 divorces and 8 the preceding year according to the State Board of Health, but overall the state recorded 544 few marriages than the year before. The state felt the figure did not tell a complete story because a national committee in 1917 provided for publication, via the county clerk’s office, the intent to marry. That prompted couples to go to one of the 4 adjacent states which had not adopted the 1917 code, however the law was not thought to be a factor. 1930’s marriage rate was 15% below 1929, a rate possibly due to the country’s economic woes.

Women were targets of eugenicists. Women could be judged defective by having a child out of wedlock, going to a tavern or defying social mores. The average age of sterilized women was 21. In Wisconsin Public Television’s October 6, 2016 edition of University Place, speaker Scott Gordon said the sterilization programs was found scientifically credible, nevertheless of the 1,823 people recorded, 79% were women.

In August 1937 the state health officer said 25 years before Wisconsin was proud to be one of the first three states to enact premarital examinations for men and, in 1937, extended the intelligent procedure to brides as syphilis prevention. The effects of the new eugenics law would be immediate and prevent “procreation of innocent babies doomed to suffer the cruel blight of congenital syphilis. “ The State Health Officer said the noble aim would be accomplished without surrendering the right to marry and hinged on successful treatment of diseases because the previous health problem would no longer affect the children born to the union. The health officer went on to say that the law eliminates heartbreak and offers joy to a marriage.

One wonders how such laws affected Kewaunee County. Obviously, there would have been those who were forbidden to marry under the law. A genealogical search brought to light a widow and three young boys living at the Poor Farm. The boys were listed with words describing their limited intelligence, words that would be highly pejorative in today’s society. The boys might have had delayed speech, stuttered, or something else prompting the recorder to jot down the apparent intelligence. One son eventually became a successful business man, married and had a family. Another took employment in his uncle’s hotel. What might the labels have done to those children?

As recently as April 1969 , eugenics was part of the Southern Door High School science fair. The student creating the display received a Superior rating for the charts on eugenics, which was then said to be the explanation of genetics, which is the study of heredity.  Fifty years later, DNA is part of medicine and culture. News reports have carried instances of DNA also being misused.

A generation earlier, in early 1934, the Advocate was a head of its time when it reported that eugenics was a well-born theory that was :undoubtedly true.” The paper said brains had to be educated and environment is education “in the truest sense of the word.” Environment was a matter of home, family, social contacts, geographical location, luck in opportunity and the ability to take it. As the paper pointed out, eugenics could not control those factors.

*A blood test to determine syphilis.

Sources: Algoma Record/Algoma Record Herald with reprints of articles from Wisconsin Dept. of Public Health; Door County Advocate; Wikipedia; https://www.uvm.edu/~lkaelber/eugenics/WI/WI.htm