Silver Creek: Wells, Valentine and the Mill

Silver Creek brings to mind the area west of Algoma radiating from the intersection of County Highways D and S. Named because the South Branch of the Ahnapee River, often called Silver Creek after passing Bruemmerville, went through it,  the rural area supported Silver Creek School, Swamp Creek Cheese factory and folks with names such as Leischow, Nell, Wessel, Sibilsky and Entringer and more.

However, Kewaunee County had an earlier Silver Creek, this one about 3 miles north of Algoma. The  community was fading as the other Silver Creek was growing. The earlier Silver Creek entered Lake Michigan in Section 7, Township 25, Range 26. In 1857 Albert Wells and Alonzo B. Valentine bought a large tract of land surrounding the creek. They built a pier, a sawmill and a store and, for the next few years, the hamlet became one of the liveliest places in Kewaunee County. The settlement even had a school taught by Capt. Zeb Shaw’s elderly father. In that brief span of a few years, Silver Creek looked toward prosperity and by 1860, there were those who said the fledgling community would rival its nearby neighbor, one only a few years older: Ahnepee. That never happened.

Whether or not the Civil War caused the company’s financial struggles remains unclear, although those problems started just after the war’s outbreak. On January 26, 1863, the entire property was sold by Kewaunee County Sheriff J.P. Arndt at a Sheriff’s Sale at the county courthouse. At issue were 482 and 80/100  acres.

Plaintiff Anson Bigelow filed a Summons for Relief against defendants Alonzo B. Valentine, Albert Wells, Julia P. Wells, William Ackley and D.D. Haskell in Circuit Court, Kewaunee County on August 5, 1861. The State of Wisconsin addressed the defendants saying they were summoned and required to answer the complaint filed in the office of Kewaunee County Clerk of Courts Hiram H. Fenn, and to provide a copy of their response, within 90 days, to Attorney J.D. Markham in his Manitowoc office. Failing to answer the complaint meant that the plaintiff would apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint. Hon. David Taylor, Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of the State of Wisconsin, was the witness.

According to the online site  https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/civil-procedure-summons/  

"A summons is a paper issued by a court informing a person that a complaint has been filed against her. A copy of the summons must be served on each defendant at the same time as the complaint to start the time running for the defendant to answer."  When the complaint is filed, it sets forth facts and allegations that the plaintiff believes justifies the granting of relief against the defendant. Also included is the relief which the plaintiff seeks.

Anson Bigelow was the mortgage holder and it appeared he was the new owner of the property, however he failed to do much with it.

In 1868, Ahnepee shipped 114,718 ties, 211,960 posts and 8,863 cords of wood. During the same year, Silver Creek shipped 10,000 ties, 20,000 posts, although exceeded Ahnepee by shipping 10,000 cords of wood. As shipping decreased, the place gradually deteriorated and the mill was sold. The place that was going to rival Ahnepee faded into history.

Although the Silver Creek lost its importance as a commercial center, the community remained. Silver Creek residents Perry Austin and Charlotte Berg married in Ahnepee on December 27, 1862. Austin was recognized in 1874 for killing 23 deer during the season.  A few months after Austin’s wedding, in February 1863, Ahnepee’s Rev. Hela Carpenter thanked the people of Silver Creek for the “temporal favors bestowed on him for the support of the gospel. “ The temporal favor was in the amount of $63 contributed to support Carpenter’s missionary efforts at Silver Creek.

John Tipler, with George Barrand as his relief, was driving the lake shore stage route between Ahnepee and Sturgeon Bay in 1870. The men carried mail and passengers on an open buck board, fashioned of thin hickory planks and lacking springs. Stops included Silver Creek, Stoney Creek, Clay Banks, Vignes, and Cheeseville, later called Salona. The rest stop was on Shaw’s corner on the Door and Kewaunee County line. By the mid-1870s, there was more fish than forest products going out of Silver Creek. During spring 1874, the Silver Creek Fish Co. reported taking an astounding 20,000 brook trout.

It was in 1946 that the hamlet that time forgot came back into the news. For some reason, while Anson Bigelow was the original mortgage holder and was awarded the foreclosed-on property, he did not get a clear title. It was Zeb Shaw who brought that to light in 1926 when he sued Wells, Valentine, their wives and descendants, and many of the surrounding property owners including Fellows, Braunsdorf, Coe, Wing, Acker and Shaw in addition to unknown heirs, unknown lien holders and unknown property owners.

They had 20 days from service of the summons to answer. The only relief was to quiet the title to and to establish the plaintiff’s claim of title against the defendants. That would bar the defendants from any right or title to the east 30 acres of Government Lot 2 in Section 6 of Township 25 N, Range 26 E, except 2 acres in the northeast corner and a strip of land one rod wide along the lake shore running from the said Lot 2 to the high water mark on the Lake Michigan shore.

Algoma Attorney Sid Knutson was the plaintiff’s attorney who pointed out that the Circuit Court would appoint guardian ad litems for all the infants and all insane and incompetent persons.

Notes: Today's Algoma was renamed in 1897 from Ahnapee, which it became in 1873. The community named Wolf River in 1851 was renamed Ahnepee in 1859. When the village received its charter in 1873, the spelling reflected the "if you can't beat them, join them" idea as the state consistently spelled the community;s name incorrectly  The paper long known as the Enterprise,began as the Enterprize. That spelling changed in 1865.

Captain John Ross made his home at Silver Creek. Living with him was fisherman Jackson Jordan who enlisted in the Civil War. Eli Dunham and Well's employees Willet Wheeler and Spencer Dunham were other Silver Creek men who enlisted with Jordan. Wheeler's military service was short: his hand was blown off at Shiloh, his first military action.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record/Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; Door County Advocate.