Events all over the U.S. marked Memorial Day, honoring the
service of veterans. And so it was in Kewaunee County.
The year 1898 was different. There was a movement to mark the
Golden Anniversary of Wisconsin’s admission to the Union. With that, Kewaunee’s
common council appointed a committee to collect funds for the erection of a
memorial to be built at Court House Square in honor of those who had served in
the “late war.” That war was the Civil War, but by the time the monument was
built, the U.S. had been involved in the wars lumped into what we now call the
Spanish-American War. Kewaunee asked Algoma to join, and the city did without
hesitation. School superintendent Jeremiah Donovan got the county’s children involved
in the history and fund raising in what became a county project.
The picture of the old Kewaunee Courthouse dates to about 1900, before its rebuilding but after the monument was in place.The mounument stands at the southeast corner of the building.
Of the funds raised, a portion was directed to a history of
Kewaunee County to be written by Milwaukee Journal and The Sentinel staff, one
of whom – Mr. Hemming – was doing a history of the Catholic church in
Wisconsin.
Former Kewaunee resident the Honorable John Karel served as
consul general to St. Petersburg. In a letter to his son Albert, Mr. Karel asked
Albert to subscribe to the monument, praising it in the highest terms.
Throughout Wisconsin monuments were being erected and
dedicated to the memories and heroes who served. The monument would also teach
children patriotism. County residents were urged to patriotically contribute
what they could to “preform our duty to the boys in blue.”
A 2019 Harris Survey found that only 55% of Americans could
describe Memorial Day, observed on May 27 in 2024, as a day “to honor the
fallen in all the nation’s wars.” By 2021, Gallup reported that as few as 28% of Americans knew what the day meant, although
in 2019, 45% said they either always or often attended a commemorative event
marking the day. Memorial Day is a federal holiday and a “day off” for most
Americans, and it is the day off that means more than what the veterans gave.
Since Kewaunee County was created in 1852, its men and women
have fought and died serving in the U.S. military. That’s 172 years. There is
one buried in the county who served in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, and
the War with Mexico. There are veterans who served in those wars that were
awarded 160 acres through the Bounty Land Act of March 1855. If the veteran
served 14 days or fought in one battle, they – or their wives or minor children
- were eligible. Some who were awarded such land sold it, never having set foot
in Kewaunee County.
The acquisition of the land is in an early veteran’s story.
Sometimes there is more to it. In Kewaunee County’s early days, the stories are
attached to Major Joseph McCormick. DeWayne Stebbins, Henry Harkins and
Ferdinand Haevers stand out during the Civil War. Several men of Kewaunee
County served with Milwaukee’s Lt. General Arthur MacArthur during the Civil
War and with his son General Douglas MacArthur in the Pacific during World War
ll.
When Algoma’s north pier was being built, it was Douglas,
the young West Pointer, who was
instrumental in its design. It was the same Douglas MacArthur who would have a
connection with Algoma just over 40 years later when the hull of the PT boat
evacuating him from Luzon to Mindanao in March 1942 was manufactured with
Algoma-made plywood.
But Major Joseph McCormick: He was serving in Wisconsin’s
Assembly when he was in his 80s. Buried in the Evergreen Cemetery is the man
who counted Daniel Boone and George Rogers Clark as friends. McCormick was
credited with heroism in the War of 1812 and is thought to be the only veteran
buried in Kewaunee County who served in 1812. It fits that McCormick was born
in 1878, the year the Constitution was ratified.
McCormick served with distinction as a Private in Capt. Beggs’ company of the Indiana militia at Tippecanoe, Queenstown, and participated in the blowing up of Fort Erie before resigning from the military in 1816 to go west. He was at Fort Dearborn (now the City of Chicago) when it was threatened by Chief Black Hawk and a band of hostile Sacs and Fox. McCormick served as leader when he and others used their own money, horses, guns, and provisions to go forward. By the end of the War with Mexico, he had risen from the rank of Captain to Major. McCormick served in the Indiana legislature, served on the Texas Constitutional Committee, and more. McCormick arrived in Manitowoc in 1848, and a few years later, made his permanent home in Forestville. He was awarded 160 acres on the Peninsula under the Scrip Warrant Act and purchased another 80.
In McCormick’s eulogy, one D.W. McLeod said McCormick helped form Indiana into the “pillar of Democratic Republicanism it is today.” (1875). McCormick’s grave was unmarked in Algoma’s Evergreen Cemetery until his great-grandson Ray Birdsall found it and, with his sister, placed the marker.DeWayne Stebbins was educated at Annapolis, and as a Navy
man, offered his services at the outbreak of the Civil War. Getting tired of
waiting for his commission, Steb, as he was known, enlisted as a Private in
Company K, 21st Wisconsin, a company of Manitowoc and Kewaunee
County men.
With his regiment’s arrival at Louisville, Kentucky, he was
transferred to the Navy and was commissioned as an officer in Admiral David D. Porter’s
Fleet.
Steb was Executive Officer on the Mound City when
Porter’s fleet was marooned on the Red River* and escaped capture by the
building of a dam which allowed the fleet to float down river to a safer place.
Mound City was to be the first to go over the dam, but would it survive?
Admiral Porter was on the deck with Executive Officer Stebbins as the vessel negotiated
the dam, coming up perfectly. It was said Porter asked Steb what made him so
white?
General U.S. Grant came close to death while Porter’s fleet
was patrolling the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. It was there where
Stebbins changed the course of history, and Ulysses Grant became the 18th
president of the United States years later.
Grant had drawn lines to disrupt rebel communications.
Patrol was paramount as canoes and drifting logs were used to disguise floating
messages from Confederate Lt. General John C. Pemberton to the armies
attempting to assist him. As Stebbins was serving as Officer of the Deck one
evening, through the darkness and fog, a lookout saw a small skiff that
appeared to be carrying two men. Stebbins hailed them. Without a reply, Steb
ordered the deck watch to fire. The gunner stood at the lanyard (rigging), aimed the gun and
waited for the signal to blow the skiff out of the water. Just as he was giving
the order, a voice in the boat called, “General Grant desires to see Admiral
Porter.”
Admiral David D. Porter was a Commander until 1862. For his
efforts at Vicksburg, he was promoted to Rear Admiral. He held the Mississippi
after Brigadier General John C. Pemberton’s** surrender in July 1863. Ahnapee’s
Big Steb was there.
Then there was Captain Henry Harkins, another Ahnapee
officer in Porter’s Fleet. The thing about Captain Hank was that he was the
romantic of Wolf River. But that’s another story. Captain Hank was another
national hero, but not for his ability to “pitch woo.”
Hank was aboard the USS Cumberland when it fell to
the Merrimac at Hampton Roads. Harkins entered the Navy as an ensign in
1862. Known to be venturesome and seeming to never fear, he soon distinguished himself
and became acting ship’s master. His leadership nearly got him killed in a
battle that led to changes in naval architecture the world over.
The USS Cumberland was another impressive vessel for
the day, even with its wooden hull. When the Cumberland and Merrimac
met, the Merrimac prevailed. Henry Harkins was in charge of the Cumberland’s
gun crew. The Cumberland never flew a white flag, nor did anyone
leave his post. As the ship went down, Harkins swam ashore and escaped capture.
He continued to serve as an officer and was master of a ship on the
Mississippi.
Another Ahnapee man who
changed the course of history was William Henry who entered service in October
1861. At 41, he was “old.” Promoted to sergeant within two months of enlistment,
he became a second lieutenant and then captain. By July 1865, he achieved the
rank of Major. Bill Henry and his Kewaunee County men served with distinction
at Shiloh, Vicksburg, Corinth, and Chattanooga. The entire company – hailed as
heros - reenlisted in January 1864 and when they went home on furlough, Henry
worked to fill the ranks of the company. In June 1890, Major Henry was
posthumously honored when the Sons of Veterans organized Maj. W. I. Henry Camp
#85 at Ahnapee.
Henry’s company was green as grass as it was going into its
first battle at Shiloh. It was said he was giving strict attention to the
battle, loading, aiming, and shooting, retreating and advancing. The Fourteenth
Wisconsin made a gallant stand and captured a canon. When several of the
regimental and company officers were killed, wounded, or just disappeared not
long after the fighting began, the men of Company E and a good part of the
regiment began lining up on Bill Henry, the old fisherman from Ahnapee. Without
orders, Henry was silently leading the battlefront. Much of the impressive work
of the Fourteenth that day is due to the leadership of the grizzled 41-year-old
fisherman from Ahnapee.
Ferdinand Haevers was a Belgian immigrant to Kewaunee
County. Haevers, an orphan, was said to have been a stowaway on an immigrant
ship that landed in New Orleans. Somehow he found his way north to Wisconsin,
however went south again with an employer. Haevers was in New Orleans at the
outbreak of the Civil War. Whether it was the hoopla and excitement in the city
at the outbreak of hostilities, or whether he was coerced, Haevers enlisted in
the Louisiana Fourteenth in 1861.
Captured early in the war, Haevers was put in a Yankee
prison camp from which he managed to escape. Finding a Kentucky unit, he joined
it ,and while he was out foraging, he saw a Union officer ride into a clearing.
Shooting entered his mind before he remembered learning that an officer without
his horse was as good as dead. So, he shot the horse instead of the man. The
gunshot brought soldiers to the officer's assistance. Haevers was captured once
again and this time was sent to an Ohio prison camp. The officer was William
McKinley, the same William McKinley who became the 25th president of
the United States. Although at that point, Haevers was serving the Confederacy,
it was once again that the course of history was changed because of a Kewaunee
County soldier.
Kewaunee County is small, and is the quiet county along the
lakeshore. As the late Algoma newspaper editor Harold Heidmann pointed out,
without major news outlets, the small county is often forgotten about in
Wisconsin's politics even though its citizens have played on a world stage.
Sometimes that gets forgotten too.
Since the days of Joseph McCormick, hundreds and hundreds of
men and women from Kewaunee County have served with distinction that is not
chronicled in the annals of war. Those who served in the Civil War and the
Spanish-American War were remembered by family and friends at the dedication of
the monument.
For all vets – whose names are there or not – Memorial Day
is a day to honor the known and the unknown. As George Washington said over 200
years ago, “Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.”
About 100 years later, Minot Judson Savage, a Unitarian minister, researcher,
and author said, “The brave never die, though they sleep in dust: Their courage
nerves a thousand living men.”
Lest we forget…
Notes: *The Red River rises in the high plains of New Mexico and ends in Louisiana where it empties into the Mississippi. The dam was built because of the rapids in the river.
Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? c. 2001 Johnson, Find a Grave, Kewaunee Enterprise; State Patent Volume; Tell Me Again Stories, undated Heidmann; The Tin Can Sailor, Spring 2004; Wikipedia.