Lest We Forget: Kewaunee County Remembers Its Veterans

 

 

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, 21^st 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 18^th 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 10-gun Confederate screw frigate SS Virginia was impressive as it was taking a toll on Union ships. Protected by three-inch iron sides and guns fore and aft, the Virginia had been the 40-gun U.S. frigate Merrimac which was raised by the rebels after it had been scuttled.

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 25^th 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.

Haevers' Confederate service did not appear to matter when he returned to the Tonet are of Kewaunee County. He was an office holder, a large landowner and one whose leadership was admired in Red River, Kewaunee County, Brown County, and beyond.

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.

 ** John C. Pemberton was born in Pennsylvania and was a U.S. Army officer who resigned to join Confederate service in 1861.

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.