Kewaunee County History: Marking an Ahnapee New Year

 

This picture postcard was sent early in the 1900s

Harriet Warner Hall was a 9-year-old child when she arrived with her parents Orin and Jane Warner on July 4, 1851, to be the 3^rd resident family of the place called Wolf River. When Mrs. Hall was interviewed about the founding of the community years later, she discussed the homemade beer at the wedding of Amine Parker and George Fowles in 1857. She said when there was a fiddler around, there was a dance, and that meant homemade beer to whet the whistle.

Harriet told about the fledgling community’s first Christmas, one of wont and deprivation. She didn’t describe bringing in the new year, which became more important as the hamlet gained residents. The 1850s residents did not bring in the new year with champagne toasts, but as time went on, that changed.

When Kewaunee Enterprize* began publication in September 1859, among the first ads were those for Berni & Zimmermann’s new Ellis Street Brewery. Also on Ellis Street was Joseph Duchoslav who was also brewing lager beer. The Enterprize informed readership about ship arrivals and in just one month in Fall 1859 ship arrivals at Hills & Carter’s South Pier in Kewaunee included three trips by Capt. James Flood. Flood brought beer in three of his four trips: 12 kegs, 10 kegs, 4 kegs which is a lot of beer for a county with 5,300 residents when roughly 2,400 were under the age of 20. If county residents wanted to bring in the year raising a glass or two, there would have been no shortage. Ahnepee* was without a newspaper until June 1873. Capt. Flood was frequently mentioned and always a popular captain, who no doubt made Ahnepee with the same products he brought to Kewaunee.

The Ahnapee Brewery was operating when the newly organized Record had thoughts on “spirits” well before New Years, possibly because of the Temperance movement when it said what a “practical toper proposed.” And what is a toper? Simply put, according to the Wiktionary, a toper is a drunkard.

As a compromise to Temperance women, the Record reported that one who “topes” might say, “O, woman, in our hours of ease, you know we’ll do what ‘ere you please; we’ll promise to renounce the sin of Bourbon, brandy, rum and gin, and so far as to refrain (except when tempted) from champagne; but have some mercy, do my dear, and leave, oh, leave us lager beer.” Was the Record plugging its advertisers!

By the early 1870s, W.N. Perry was selling California wine and Kentucky whiskies at his drugstore. Sam Perry was advertising wine and liquor in any quantity and Weilep, Decker, Boedecker, Villers and Marsh applied for liquor licenses. H.M. Terens let it be known he “constantly” had liquor in his Alaska House.

During its first year of publication – 1873 - the Record said New Year’s passed off quietly in the city* with nothing important going on. Several churches had services but it was sleigh riding that the young indulged. It seems as if Perry sold some of that fine wine and whiskey because he ran an ad asking all who owed him more than 30 days to stop at his drugstore to pay their debt.

It seemed as if 1877 must have been a slow news New Year as the Record saw fit to report on the Memoirs of St. Simon who commented on the hair dressing of the women of Paris in 1713. That year, the Duke and Duchess of Shrewsbury came from London to have the Duchess say hair fashions were ridiculous. Parisian women were wearing brass wire edifices to hold up their hair over two feet. They adorned the “structure” with ribbons and what the Duchess thought was rubbish. Moving caused the edifice to tremble. King Louis XlV was disgusted with the hair, but even as King, he could do nothing to get rid of the fashion that lasted for 10 years.

As it was, 1877 was a year that set records. On January 3, the Record reported a balmy, spring-like new year with lilac buds turning green and even opening. Door County farmers were plowing, and Sever Anderson, in Clay Banks, sowed 4 bushels of spring wheat the day before Christmas. Cold toes and ears for New Year’s suggested weather was turning.

The Baptist Church planned a Dime Sociable which offered choice readings, singing, instrumental music. All proceeds were to go to reducing the church debts. That was happening when about 75 people surprised the Charles Fellows family at New Years. The group met at George Youngs’ residence and then “took the Fellows’ residence by storm.” The Record said some who had not taken part in such an event in 20 years were among those who turned out, and that Fellows would remember the evening forever. Fellows invited the throng to gather at his Foscoro home for New Years Eve 1878.

During those early years, county residents thought of more at the New Year than the raised glass. Whether folks went to Fellows’ Foscoro home in 1878 is debatable because typhoid was almost sweeping the county. Teacher Fannie Gregor and her sister were quite sick, as were Charles Deda and Dr. Martin. With Martin in bed and so much sickness, Dr. F. Simon of Manitowoc was called to Kewaunee to offer his assistance.

Typhoid was there in 1878, along with some scarlet fever when the weather changed after Christmas. Roads partially froze, although not hard enough to support teams in places. Some said New Year’s seemed like Sunday because businesses closed, and folks attended services at nearly every denomination. “Happy New Year” was heard all over and streets were filled with smiles even though residents were dealing with serious illnesses.

Tanner Michael Luckenbach ended 1878 marketing his house and lot at the corner of Navarino and 4^th Streets. Luckenbach felt his lot, with 80’ frontage on 4^th and 150’ on Navarino, was the best in the village. He planned to sell for $800 with $200 down and the balance on easy terms. Luckenbach sold his tannery to his partner, Mr. Meverden, and in December 1878 was proprietor of the East River House in Green Bay. Luckenbach didn’t get the tannery out of his system because his Green Bay hotel was opposite a large tannery. A small part of the original tannery business burned when Bearcat’s Fish House was destroyed in a 2021 fire.

With the news there was, one would not think the paper had to go looking for it. But it did, and reported on an unusual custom found in the Boston Transcript. Apparently Greeks, Romans, Persians, and Gauls saw eggs as renewal at both Easter and New Year’s. If those in Boston celebrated New Years with eggs, it was not noted, however such a custom never caught on in Ahnapee.

In 1879 the Record said the new year was received with feelings of dread as the old was remembered with regret, however it felt that the year was good to people. It went on to opine that if there was nothing to regret, there was nothing to hope for in the future. According to the Record, the beginning of the year is for making resolutions but later in the season was the time to break the slate. Nothing new there.

C.J. Barnes bought the Record in August 1879 from Hiram Wing who received a flattering offer from Jamestown, Dakota. Barnes thanked customers and asked them to continue the support. He felt the new decade would bring improvements to the lively, newsy paper and to the office, a resolution which would not be broken because it was a Leap Year, and “a little off.” Why a little off? Editor Barnes said 1880 was a year where “women propose and men dispose.” He continued to make a statement, saying it was “jubilant when we think how jolly it is going to be to say “no” as “It’s a long lane that no turn has.” The paper suggested each day should be an improvement on the past since lives are strengthened by experience.  Diphtheria raised its ugly head again and New Year’s Eve 1879 saw the C. Martin family of Carlton lose three children to diphtheria. They were kept together and buried in one grave. Just after that, two more of the Martin children died. It was said one school district had 20 children who died of diphtheria.

Light housekeeper Samuel Stone was living in Sandy Bay when he went to Manitowoc where he saw Dr. Cookley on December 30, 1879. Stone had surgery for a Rebel bullet to the leg in the Civil War 16 years earlier. Stone wanted Cookley to prob for the bullet which had pained him for so long. Cookley made an incision on the opposite side of the leg where he found a good-sized chunk of lead. Surgery was successful, and Stone said he felt like a different man.

The Record marked the end of 1879 by mentioning its large subscriber list, thanking subscribers and friends for sending in news items. The paper said it would be glad to have all subscribers pay up a year in advance and forward names of those who would be possible subscribers. The close of 1879 found the firm of Hitchcock & Kwapil dissolved by the retirement of Mr. Hitchcock. His part of the property in the Alaska store and pier was bought by Frank Shimmel and Joseph H. Janda who joined Frank Kwapil in the new company. That transaction made the company the largest business in the northern part of Kewaunee Co. as the firm had three stores in operation, the one in Ahnapee, one in Forestville and the new company at Alaska.

To round out the year, Simon Pies reminded folks to pay their City* of Ahnapee taxes which would be collected at his 4^th Street residence.

A watch meeting at the Methodist Episcopal Church on New Year’s Eve welcomed 1880. Residents also brought in the year at two balls, one at the Temple of Honor, given by William Dingman, and the other at the Wisconsin House. Both dances were said to “pass off merrily” into the small hours of the morning. The Record promised the day would linger in the minds of many with “thoughts of sweet and loving kindness” before passing into time. The same paper that offered a “Happy New Year” also said, “Pay your taxes.”

As the city grew, ads called attention to fine wines and oysters, which were popular at New Year’s. There were parties and dances for those who could get there if the roads had hard packed snow to allow the horses to get through. Harriet Warner Hall felt the pioneer days ended in about 1860. Although Ahnapee was greatly affected by the Civil War, there were marked changes in the 1860s and 1870s. Ahnapee was no backwater.

 

Notes: Renamed Algoma in 1897, its first name was Wolf River and derivations until 1859 when it was renamed Ahnepee (Ojibwa for “Where is the river?”) until the place was chartered as a village in 1873 when there was a change in the spelling. Since the state and others consistently spelled the place’s name with two a’s and two e’s, the village couldn’t “beat ‘em” so “joined ‘em.” In 1879 the Village of Ahnapee was chartered as the City of Ahnapee.

Kewaunee’s newspaper underwent a spelling change in 1865 when Enterprize became Enterprise.

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record Herald; An-An-api-sebe” Where is the River”; Kewaunee Enterprize/Enterprise; https://en.wiktionary.org. The postcard is from the blogger's collection. Images can be found in the Kannerwurf, Sharpe, Johnson Collection at Algoma Public Library,

Kewaunee County History: An 1851 Wolf River Christmas

 

Manhattan Transfer’s “Christmas is a comin’ and the geese are getting fat……” is a popular take on a song arranged by Frank Luther and sung by Bing Crosby and others a generation ago. Even the Kingston Trio had a version. Youngsters recognize the music featured by John Denver in a Muppets’ special, in A Charlie Brown Christmas and more.

The founding residents of Wolf River – Ahnepee in 1859, Ahnapee in 1873, and Algoma in 1897 – no doubt wished they had geese, fat or not.

The Hughes and Tweedale families arrived in Wolf River at the end of June 1851. A few days later, on July 4^th, Orin Warner’s family became the third permanent family at the place. Orin and Jane Warner had three children, Harriet aged 9, and two boys, 7 and 3.

Being the first of the firsts was not easy. The three families had only themselves on whom to depend. It would be the following summer before Goodrich’s rickety old Citizen changed their lives when it dropped anchor in the lake, bringing supplies and people.

What was Christmas 1851 like? Years later, Harriet, then Mrs. Abraham Hall, remembered that first Christmas in an interview with the local paper, Ahnapee Record. There were no geese getting fat in that difficult winter of deprivation. Harriet mentioned the deer, ducks, fish, partridges and the partridge eggs they gathered, but Christmas dinner 1851 was a salt pork pie. Spring was a long way off and there were no eggs. Ducks and most birds had gone south. Deer were scarce, and thick river ice needed to be chopped to fish. More than likely, the salt pork pie was a feast that day. Laura Ingalls Wilder would later write that “Ma” got ready for Christmas by baking bread, crackers, pie, and cookies. Caroline Ingalls cooked salt pork too, but it was in the beans she made.

Had the Warners been in Waukegan where Jane’s parents, the Bennetts, lived, Christmas would have been far different. Over the years, Ahnapee’s Christmas celebration changed too.

If the Warner children received gifts, no doubt it was mittens or stockings that Jane had knitted, or possibly something that Orin got in Manitowoc on one of his trips walking down the lakeshore for supplies. If the small log homes were decorated, it was with green boughs adorned with pinecones, perhaps a ribbon or two, or maybe even strings of popcorn. Christmas trees would have taken far too much room in the log homes for years to come.

Twelve years later, Ahnapee (the name was respelled in 1873) had a new newspaper with merchants advertising wares for Christmas giving. Home-crafted gifts such as preserves, needlework and candies were popular while stores such as August Fromming’s on 4^th and Clark Street offered such things as confections, sachets, perfume, “Yankee notions,” sewing supplies, tobacco pouches, shaving soaps and slippers. William Perry’s Steele Street drugstore sold books and stationery. Logancrantz’s jewelry, at the northwest corner of 4^th and Steele, sold everything in silver – dishes, napkin rings, and cutlery. Mr. Logancrantz also pointed to his gold pens and holders, and all types of jewelry.

Ahnapee Record was in its infancy when it published its first Christmas edition. The editors, George Wing and Charles Borgman, reported seeing loads of evergreens on the street while churches smelled like pine and spruce. Parents were mysterious and children were expectant. Anthems and carols were joyful, sounding like angels singing. How much that Wolf River Christmas had changed in a mere 12 years! Even the community’s name changed twice in that time.

In that first edition, the paper wished readership “peace on earth and good will to men.” The paper talked of families gathering at the fireside while other who were gray thought of Christmas gatherings past. Some surely included Jane and Orin Warner’s family. Others were the Tweedale grandchildren. The Hughes family left the area around the time of the Civil War.

Sir Clement Moore penned A Visit from St. Nicholas on December 23, 1823. It caught on fast. Just over 25 years later, the paper echoed the poem, telling stories about the shoes and frocks that “old Santa” left in Ahnapee stockings.

On the 31^st, the paper said St. Mary’s services were of “an interesting nature.” The church Christmas tree was “illuminated by 110 burners for a beautiful emblem of Christmas teachings.” Young and old participated at St. Paul’s where a Christmas tree was beautifully laden with presents for the little children who had to wait patiently until the Lutheran school students sang and recited selections appropriate to Christmas Eve. Congregants at the German Methodist Church were said to have “enjoyed a season of rare pleasure.” Following devotionals, youngsters were enthusiastic about the books, toys and pretty items adorning the tree.

The Baptists did not observe Christmas Day with a service, however the next day was Sunday and the church – as the others in town – was filled to capacity. On the evening of the 26th, which was the Sabbath, Wilhelmshoe was the site of a grand ball. The only problem was that not enough tickets were sold to fund the grand prize which had to be postponed.

A few days later, the Masonic Lodge offered entertainment beginning with Maj. Joseph McCormick’s words on the tenets of Masonry and its relationship with Jesus Christ. Ahnapee Quadrille Band provided wonderful music after McCormick’s remarks, and a midnight supper ended a beautiful evening attended by many from Kewaunee, Foscoro, Forestville, Casco, Sturgeon Bay, Clay Banks, and even from Chicago.

Christmas celebrations differed over the years. The influx of Germans brought Christmas trees which turned into a business in December 1876. Each ethnic group brought its own customs and traditions, but it appears that salt pork pie was not one of them!

Sources: Ahnapee Record; An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? Postcard is from the blogger's collection.