Kewaunee County, Abraham Lincoln & the Nomination of 1860

 

Kewaunee Enterprize was the first newspaper on Wisconsin’s Peninsula when it published its first edition on Wednesday, June 22, 1859. Door County Advocate followed on March 22, 1862. What started as the Ahnapee Record in June 1873 became Algoma Record Herald in 1918. There were other Peninsula papers within those years, however they came and went, or merged with the big three.

Of the papers, it was only the Enterprize that saw the nomination and the election of Abraham Lincoln. It was only the Enterprize that witnessed the start of the War Between the States, later being mostly known as the Civil War.

The presidential election of 1860 was 164 years ago. One hundred sixty years certainly brings change, but then again……not so much.

In today’s world, news travels electronically in seconds, however in 1860 telegraphs had not yet made it to the Peninsula. Travel was primarily by horse or boat, and while railroads were making inroads, it was over 30 years before trains were a reality on the Peninsula. News came to the lake port communities via the ship captains and any newspapers they brought with them. Door County was set off from Brown County in 1851 and Kewaunee County was set off from Door a year later. The Peninsula is no longer the “backwater” it was in 1860 when often news was hearsay, although many would say today's rumor-spreader is social media.

When the Enterprize published on Wednesday, May 30, 1860, it told readers the Republican nomination of Abraham Lincoln in Chicago “astonished everybody, and none more than that party.” The paper went on to say there was no use in “disguising the fact than that the nomination is a wet blanket” on the party’s election chances. It said the charming, gregarious William H. Seward was really the enthusiastic choice and looked forward to by the rank and file as the preeminent choice.

It said that Lincoln, Pennsylvania’s Simon Cameron, Missouri’s Edwin Bates and others were fair enough as candidates but that Seward was a champion of the issues, a man of extraordinary talent and more. Lincoln was identified as a man of good reputation with a “sort of coarse popularity.” He was called a country stump speaker. His sense was sound, but his talent was “medium.” The Enterprize did not say that at the Chicago convention, Mr. Lincoln was on his own turf. Called the Chicago Wigwam,** the building was specifically erected for the convention in the young city that would after play an important part in U.S. politics.

In a reprint from the Green Bay Advocate, found in the Enterprize, the Advocate said it could probably find 20 Wisconsin farmers within a day’s drive who would be at least equal to Lincoln in “all valuable respects.”

The Advocate thought Lincoln’s nomination was brought about by those hostile to Seward, those who would rather have the party defeated than have Seward succeed. It thought the Democrats who were about to meet at Baltimore might have learned a lesson from the Republicans: “Chicanery is fatal to party success.” Men who were faithful, prominent and demanded by the people were those the Enterprize felt must be nominated even though it did not suit the political managers. Had Seward been nominated, the paper felt, the Democrats would have had a horrible time defeating him. Green Bay Advocate said the Democrats only needed to be marshalled on election day to march “over the field to certain and rapid victory” with a candidate like Stephen A. Douglas.

Enterprise Editor Garland said that from boyhood forward men were raised to see talents and abilities in looking for a presidential nominee. It carried correspondence from the Free Democrat which said there was excitement in the city (Chicago) and issued a statement “of ground of the fitness and capacity of ‘Old Abe’ for the high office for which he was nominated.” It was also written that “the Press & Tribune office was illuminated from the top to bottom, and on each side of the counting room stood a rail taken out of 3,000 split by Old Abe on the Sagamom River bottom some 30 years ago, and on the inside were two more rails hung with tapers.”  “Old Abe” was a mere 52 years old.

The Free Democrat said it learned early of Lincoln’s “peculiar fitness” for office. Mockingly, the Enterprize said if rail splitting was a qualification for office, Kewaunee County would have no problem finding several hundred men who qualified as timber candidates. It went on to say stalworth farmers “who are sound on the rail” should be selected to bear aloft the Republican banner.”

Boston Chronicle of the same date said Friday, May 18, would be remembered by the men of Massachusetts as the day the Republican party executed itself. Since the death of Daniel Webster, the paper had not seen men “so sober and so sad.” The Chronicle thought if the capital sunk into the earth, if the courthouse turned around, if city hall and the old state house moved to the customs house..….all those unnatural things could not have produced such profound a sensation as the announcement of Lincoln’s nomination. It said the intense sadness of the Republicans was so bad that Democrats “could not find it in their hearts to make light of their affliction.” But they did.

When a Boston merchant asked what possessed Republicans to nominate such a man, a “shabby man said it was availability.” As the merchant walked off, he was said to be muttering, “And are the great interests of this great nation to be given over to a man we do not know, because someone says he is “available?” It was said men stood in groups on the street discussing the “blunder.” Mr. Seward had the hearts of New England masses. He spoke well, he was educated and had a familiar name. How could such a man be thrust aside with the likes of Abraham Lincoln? The Illinois rail splitter was nominated in the morning and in the afternoon, Massachusetts’ sister state, Maine, won the “second prize” in Hannibal Hamlin. Such candidates could not be more unfortunate for Massachusetts and even women and children were laughing, said the Chronicle. Still, there was a 100-gun salute, however nobody knew if it signaled the life or death of the six-year old party.

The New York Tribune felt Seward’s election chances were so strong that his nomination was a foregone conclusion, so when news of Lincoln’s nomination came, it was considered a hoax. It was said in 1856 that John C. Fremont was nominated to be defeated until the Republican party got stronger.* The Tribune opined “Lincoln was set up to be knocked down to save the credit of some other man.” Then the New York Times of a few days earlier suggested Lincoln’s nomination was so bad that the chances of  any candidate nominated at Baltimore were greatly improved.

Then the Boston Courier, an old line Whig journal, believed it was the same influences that overthrew Daniel Webster in Baltimore in 1852 secured the defeat of Mr. Seward in Chicago. The Courier said Seward was a first class statesman and anybody who knew the “rail splitter” would be the first to admit he was not. It said that nomination was the “meanest specimen of availability.” The Courier asked what Republican editors had to say about such “impudence.”

Editor Thurlow Weed of the Albany Journal was Seward’s political manager, and Weed came “ungracefully” to the support of Lincoln, doing so under protest and writing that it was only “an idle attempt to disguise the disappointment of the people of New York” in regard to the failure of the Chicago convention. Kewaunee Enterprize pointed out that Republicans of Wisconsin were of the same spirit. On the 21^st of June, the New York Tribune suggested that some prominent members of the Albany lobby were goning to bolt the Chicago nominations. The Albany lobby was made up of its favorite son’s supporters.

On May 23,1860, just days before Kewaunee received the news that the Hon. Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President on the third ballot, Capt. Smith of the schooner Racine brought a newspaper, the Racine Daily Journal, which gave the account of the Republican convention held the previous Friday, May 18.

The Journal said the third formal ballot gave Mr. Lincoln 235 votes. The first ballot gave Seward 193 ½, Lincoln 102, Bates, 48, Cameron 50 ½ and Samuel Chase 49. On the second, Seward received 184 ½ , Lincoln 181, Bates 45, Chase 42 ½ with the balance scattered among others. Then came the third ballot. When Hannibal Hamlin was nominated as vice president that afternoon, it was said the nominations were confirmed with such enthusiasm that it was almost beyond conception. But, as history tells us, that was not quite factual, but, of course, politics is politics.

News from Chicago was that an hour before Mr. Green opened the Republican convention with a prayer, the facility was densly crowded. First, it was moved by Blair of Missouri, to admit 5 more delegates to give them a vote equal to the electorial vote.

According to news received, it was Everett of New York nominating William Seward. Abraham Lincoln’s campaign manager Norman B. Judd of Illinois nominated him. No surprise that others from the candidates' home states did the nominating, but it was Caleb B. Smith of Indiana who seconded Lincoln’s nomination. It was said all candidates received great applause, but the most was reserved for Lincoln and Seward.

Surprising as it was, Abraham Lincoln won the presidential election. Before he could take office in March 1861, the February 13, 1861, issue of the Enterprise reported Madison Patriot of the 4th said it felt “irrepressible” Republicans got themselves into “bad order” with the president elect, which they would find out in due time. It did say Mr. Lincoln was considered to be a man of sense who knew he could never be president of the whole country. The Enterprize pointed out that Seward and Cameron (by then in support of Lincoln) spoke for themselves and the President-elect.

The paper said if Mr. Lincoln redeemed the “hope warmed into life, he could rely on the confidence and support of every Northern Democrat.” If they backed him, he had nothing to fear. The paper suggested a wait and see approach. It hoped he could restore government to its “original stability and safety.”

With unprecedented security arrangements to that time, Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. On March 13, the Enterprize told readership that  Mr. Lincoln made one of his characteristic speeches that was either ignorance of the widespread effects of national division or a woeful misrepresentation of the true state of trade and business when he said there was “no cause for this and nobody is hurt.” The paper said thousands were unemployed in the North – reported to be 30% in Philadelphia alone - because of secession brought about by “intense love for the Negro,” in preference to citizens "means somebody is hurt and pretty badly too.”

The March 20 Enterprize carried an article from the March 9 Patriot about winning back the seceding states. Thus, it said, Mr. Lincoln was trying to steer the “old, shattered ship of State between the dangers of Scylla and Charybdis,” and if he got the Union through, he would be the greatest of all great men. If he failed, he would go down with the sinking of the Union to be known no more.”

And the rest, as they say, is history.

-------------------

*March 20, 1854, is the date given for the establishment of the Republican Party in Ripon, Wisconsin. Those founding it were against the expansion of slavery.

**Although Chicago's 1860 population was nearing 110,000, the city did not have a large enough facility to house the presidential convention. Call "the Wigwam," meaning "temporary shelter, the wooden building was constructed in under a month to serve the convention. It was destroyed by fire in 1869. 

Note: Men who ran against Mr. Lincoln were part of his first cabinet. Most positions changed with Lincoln’s short second term. In 1861, William H. Seward became President Lincoln’s Secretary of State. Edward Bates was Attorney General, Caleb Smith was Secretary of the Interior, Simon Cameron the Secretary of War and Solomon P. Chase Secretary of the Treasury.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Kewaunee Enterprize (became Kewaunee Enterprise in 1865), Wikipedia.

Ahnapee: When Leerie Lit the Lamps at Night....and Tended the Bridge and the Harbor

     Today - 2024 - harbor communities maintain the offices of a harbor master whose duty it is to warn vessels of hazards and to ensure that regulations are followed. They see to the safety of marine traffic. Generally, today’s harbor masters and dock tenders have different jobs.

Ahnepee/Ahnapee, now the City of Algoma, employed a bridge tender since the 2^nd Street bridge was built. Before that, the log bridge near the mouth of the river needed to be taken down to allow ships such as The Ahnapee, built for Chicago businessmen J.P. and Titus Horton by Martin Larkin & Co., to get into the lake. Built upriver in the southwest part of Section 9 in the Town of Ahnapee, it was necessary to dismantle the log bridge that ran from approximately the foot of Church St. to what is now the east side of Von Stiehl Winery. 

On  September 14, 1875, the Record told readers the town board advertised for sealed bids for the construction of a new bridge to be opened on October 3. Board members visited Two Rivers to see its draw bridge and decided to build such a style. The board decided to move the bridge to 2^nd Street as it was the "center of town." When the bridge was constructed, the town needed a bridge tender to raise the bridge when necessary. His job was spotty thus enabling him to also serve as harbor master.

It was Chapter 140 of the laws of Wisconsin, published March 13, 1877, that enabled Ahnapee to go ahead with either a new drawbridge or turnbridge at 2nd Street.The bridge was to be erected with a draw or swing that could acommodate large class vessels with ease. Chapter 140 charged Ahnapee with the care and maintenance that allowed passage of vessels as quickly as possible in all types of weather. All funds were to come from collection of taxes within the town.

The community built a drawbridge and it seemed as if there were always issues with it. They began when the first vessel used it. On May 10, 1877, the loaded scow Charley Ross came down river under sail and carried away telegraph wires.

After the 2nd Street wooden draw bridge was condemned in 1895, the iron swing bridge was built in its place in 1899. The old wooden bridge needed work, however it was the blasting for harbor development that brought push to shove.

The September 1, 1899, the Record  informed readership that within three months a $6,700 iron and steel bridge would span the river at 2^nd Street to “supply a long-felt want.” Fred Wulf had the contract and was getting things in readiness for the cribs and approaches.

Wulf was paid $1,602 for the work that included two 32' wide abutments, 6’ at the base and 4’ at the top with wings of 16’ long, and a center crib, about 20’ in diameter, for the swing to sit on. Plans were for Milwaukee’s Wagner company to construct the bridge which would take about two months.

Before the days of gas - and then electric lighting, - most communities installed oil burning streetlights. The lights needed to be lit at dusk and extinguished at dawn. Lamps required cleaning and wicks needed trimming. Later, when gas arc lights came into being, the often temperamental lamps still needed cleaning and more maintenance. The lighter/maintainer was called a gas lighter and it was the job of the Ahnapee lamplighter/gas lighter to also serve as bridge tender and harbor master.

   

Lamplighters were hard workers whose work meant carrying ladders and equipment for servicing the lights to ensure safety for those on the streets at night, whether the safety was physical or personal. Even small towns had “footpads.” Except for some historic villages, lamplighters have faded into history and about the only time anybody thinks about streetlights is during a power outage.

Robert Louis Stevenson's poem The Lamplighter (published in 1885 in his Child's Garden of Verses) was one of the poems included in our grade school "memory work." There was a lamplighter in Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince, which was also a movie, but it was the movie Mary Poppins that brought lamplighters and chimney sweeps back to life. In the 2018 version, Mary Poppins Returns, Lin.Manuel Miranda played Jack, a cockney lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert, played by Dick VanDycke in the original film.

Stevenson called his lamplighter “Leerie,” a Scottish word meaning lamplighters. Wikipedia says the word also refers to the light of a lamp, a candle, or the lamp itself. As far as can be determined, Ahnapee’s lamplighters were never referred to as leerie nor were they ever the romantic, dancing figures the movies suggested. While lamplighters in larger cities were more no-account, or just “there,” Ahnapee’s lamplighters were respected members of the community. They were reliable and trustworthy, serving somewhat like  night watchmen.

At first, the Ahnapee streetlights were lit with oil. Ahnapee's lamplighters worked in the same manner as those in other U.S. cities and across the world. He had a ladder which he carried from lamp to lamp to climb and reach the wicks. He cleaned the chimneys, trimmed the wicks, and filled the lamps with oil. He? Men only? It would have been unthinkable for a woman to hold such a job in 1875, or ever, in Ahnapee. When gas lights were introduced, they replaced the oil-lit lamps, and men continued doing the work. Gas lighting was originally used in London in 1807 and soon after, in 1820, in Fredonia, New York. Some said the gas lighting era was a period of gracious living that would never be forgotten.

When a ship neared the harbor, the lamplighter became harbor master and had to find a berth for the boat. Then, as bridge tender, he opened and closed the bridge when boats went up or down river. For that he was paid about $50 a year. https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday says $50 in 1875 has the 2024 purchasing power of about $1,430.89. Salaries in March 1873 were set at $50 for the bridge tender, lamplighter $20, and harbor master $25, which would be just under $3,000 in 2024 dollars. In its first action, the new village* council appointed Joseph Pauly to the three positions.

Some businesses had their own streetlights and often maintained them. When a streetlamp was put in front of the post office in December 1873, the Record said it would be convenient for a small expense. In February 1874, hotel owner John Weilep, on the northwest corner of 2nd and Steele, was praised for putting up a large streetlight to throw light on the evening’s proceedings. That light caused some comment. Weilep surely had the light for safety as he wasn’t showing the rest of the city who frequented his establishment. There were Temperance societies and the hotel had a taproom! When Bill Boedecker raised a large streetlight in front of his hotel at 4^th and Steele in March 1874, he joined Weilep and Charles Hanneman, who was located on the southwest corner of 3rd and Steele. The paper said some of the businessmen “go home with the girls o’ nights and don’t like them ‘ere streetlamps.” Hmmmm.

By mid-October 1878, several groups and public-spirited citizens provided lamps for street corners. “Let the good work go on,” opined the Record.

Halloween 1878 brought word from Moses Teweles who was going to put a streetlamp in front of his saloon just west of 2nd and South Water. Teweles was having tinman Leopold Meyer manufacture it for him and said he would not ask the city fathers to pay for it.

As George Warner was about to walk home from Fax’s bar at the corner of Steele and 1st on the night of November 21, 1878, he noticed a suspicious character, thus prompting his return to Fax’s. There he left his money and watch with Capt. Laurie before starting for home again. He was accosted by two heavily built men who searched his pockets to only find 25 cents. They demanded his watch and not finding it when they searched him, they took his overcoat. The editor said if the neighborhood was possessed of such characters, something needed to be done about it and that meant streetlamps.

On May 5. 1881,the council appointed John Cooper, Sr. to serve all three positions. Cooper was appointed at the same meeting that gave the street commissioner’s job to George Bohman. Less than a year later, City Marshall Joseph Pauly was appointed bridge tender, lamplighter, and harbor master.

Before Pauly's appointment, John Cooper was paid $36.00 in salary as a bridgetender, harbor master, and lamplighter, and for buying a dog in early July 1882. In April 1883, the motion was made and seconded that John Cooper be appointed lamplighter for the coming year. He was also appointed as harbor master. Who was the bridgetender?

George Bohman was appointed in April 1885 and again in April 1888 to all three positions.

In 1889, the village board bought 18 oil lamps for street lighting and mounted them on cedar posts in strategic places. They were lit from dark to daylight except on moonlit nights when they were not needed. The lamplighter had his work cut out for him.

At the board’s September 4, 1890, meeting, it was moved and carried that George Bohman be dismissed and the offices of lamplighter, bridgetender and harbor master be declared vacant. What happened? Earlier that year, on April 10, 1890, George Bohman received 5 votes in the council’s informal vote for bridge tender. In the vote for harbor master, he received 5 of the 6 votes cast. When the vote was taken for lamplighter, Bohman received two where Simon Pies received 3. When a formal vote was taken, results were the same. When a second formal vote was taken, Bohman received 3 votes and was declared lamplighter, but that changed by meeting’s end.

When Fred Wolfgram submitted his resignation as city marshal to the council on September 4, later that same evening he was appointed to the offices of harbormaster, bridge tender, and lamplighter, the positions previously held by George Bohman and for even a few minutes on September 4. Since Wolfgram’s resignation left the city without a police officer, the mayor appointed E.C. Cameron to the position as a special policeman. Cameron had served as the city marshal, a job he held admirably. It was felt the council would approve the appointment.

When the council was paying its bills in January 1893, Emil Schubich’s salary as bridge tender and lamplighter for 7 months was $49.00. The harbor master was set as a separate job, however the year’s salary was fixed at the same rate. One year earlier William Koch served as lamplighter for just one month and was paid $20.00. How did that happen?

Ahnapee’s lighting watershed came about in 1883 when Adolph Hamacek was working on electricity while Adolph Bastar was operating a blacksmith shop on the northeast corner of 6^th and Fremont Streets. Bastar formed a partnership with Adolph, and his brother Anton, Hamacek to open a foundry and machine shop called A. Hamacek & Co. As with anything new, there were things to work out, and when the dynamo in the electrical equipment was disabled by some burning wires, it was called one of the “unavoidable occurrences” that happened to any business. Street lighting did not happen overnight. 

The 1883 dynamo Edison-Hopkinson graphic comes from https://www.fineartstorehouse.com/legends-icons/famous-inventors-thomas-edison-1847-1931/dynamo-machine-edison-hopkinson-1883

In 1885, Wodsedalek’s foundry and light plant were burned in a most destructive fire, plunging the city into darkness. Wodsedalek rebuilt less than six months later. At first, only the streetlights were operated, but a few days later, the plant was running regularly to include inside lighting. Three new streetlights were put up and all lights were kept burning from dusk till daylight.

The Record felt the first carbon arc electric lamp on the Peninsula was lit when Adolph Hamacek received a 2000 candle power arc lamp and put it in front of their foundry on July 4, 1890. 

https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html says "the carbon electric lamp was the first widely-used type of electric light and the first commercially successful for of electric lamp."

What is a carbon arc electric lamp? Wikipedia tells us English physicist Sir Humphrey Davy invented arc lamps, the first type of electric lights, in the early 1800s. They were used for streetlights and lighthouses. The arc lamp, known as an arc light, is a device that produces light by passing a high current through a gap between two conductors, usually carbon rods. The light comes from the heated ends of the conductors and the arc itself. Britanica explains the workings of another kind of arc lamp, saying that the arc lamps are gas discharge lamps that produce light by passing an electric current through a pressurized gas between two metal electrodes. 

The graphic at the right comes from https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html. The site is a go-to for electric light history.

Carbon arc lights were brighter and cheaper streelights than gas or oil. Still, the carbon rods didn't last long and had to be replaced often, thus a full time job. Carbon lights were fire hazards in places like theaters Carbon monoxide was bad indoors, however buildings were poorly insulated that fresh air did enter the building.

In August, about 300 Invitations were issued for an Electric Light Hop at the Music Hall. Hamacek and Co. was sponsoring the dance in the hall lighted by an electric arc lamp. How much light one lamp provided is curious.

Because of its geographical position, Ahnapee followed Kewaunee with installation of telephones and natural gas, but when electric lamps illuminated Ahnapee on March 11, 1891, the city was the first on the peninsula to be so lighted.

Things changed in April 1892 when Anton Hamacek took over lighting for the city. Aided by Ordinance 9, Hamacek furnished three lights of 2000 candle power, two placed in the original part of the city - the Youngs and Steele Plat - and one in the Third Ward, the northside of the river. The cost was $300 per year and since the Third Ward was outside the original part of the city, Hamacek was compensated for erecting, operating and maintaining lights there.

June 1893 saw Hamacek’s – by then called Ahnapee Foundry and Machine Shop – form a partnership with Joseph Wodsedalek and August Ziemer – called Joseph Wodsedalek and Co. Having experience in several businesses, the men felt the new company would meet all expectations.

When Hamachek’s Foundry, in 1894, added a dynamo to its equipment to furnish electric arc lamps for street lighting, the company had 60 patrons in addition to the city. Electricity did not totally end the lamplighter's job as carbon rods in the 1890s needed replacing after about 75 hours. By 1910, the rods lasted twice as long.

Joseph Wodsedalek had just been paid $110.35 in February 1898 for city lighting when he received a new arc lamp to be used in a streetlamp trial. However, the lamp was broken in transit and could not be used. Martin Bretl was the first in the city to try a gas arc lamp in April 1899 and felt it was impressive. The gaslight had a small chamber holding a quart of gasoline which was warmed with a generator and ready to go. Cheap and efficient. Electricity was less work.

Once again, on May 14, 1898, Ahnapee Record said the city had the distinction of being the first city on the peninsula with electric  streetlights. Results were positive and traveling men said the lamps equaled the brilliant lights of larger cities.

The arc lamps were of 2,000 candle power each. Though some of the needed materials – lamps, wire and regulators - were purchased outside of Ahnapee, Adolph Hamacek and company designed nearly all the machinery in the plant. Not long after the street lighting was introduced, business owners and industries were interested. So were homeowners.

Adolph Hamacek was living in Sturgeon Bay in October 1898 when the U.S. Patent Office awarded him a patent for his electric arc lamp. By then, Algoma** was enjoying its light.

Residents were reminded of the old days when the main shaft at the lighting plant broke in July 1907. The issue necessitated bringing out the stored old oil lamps and cleaning up the chimneys. All electric lighting was cut off and finding sidewalks was hard. Once again, the city needed lamplighters. Inside lighting was back online days before the streetlights were back in operation.

Well over 50 years after oil lights were last used in the city, in May 1950 Door-Kewaunee Normal School students held the spring formal themed “The Old Lamplighter.” Decorations and slow, modern music, furnished by the Polka Dots, harkened back to a day that was.

The lamplighters were not forgotten when lamplighter ceremonies were held marking the event when Gerhart Leischow threw the switch at Algoma’s utility plant. Mayor Malcom Empey offered the dedication when two magnesium bombs (fireworks) exploded over Perry Field. It took 18 months to get to a point where Algoma’s new system of mercury-vapor lights were a reality. Hundreds lined the street and the stores featured lamplighter specials. Algoma High School band paraded down the street and all were invited to a free dance at the Dug-Out given by the Ernest Haucke Legion Post.

The stationary 2^nd and 4^th Street bridges eliminated the need for bridge tending, the marina takes care of docking, and Algoma Utilities is serviced by WPPI Electricity.

To read the Record is to wonder about the checkered history of the three jobs. What was going on? Politics? Lamplighters, bridge tenders and harbor masters – the days of yore.

NOTE: *Ahnepee became the Village of Ahnapee in 1873. The village became the City of Ahnapee in 1879.

**The City of Ahnapee was renamed the City of Algoma in 1897.

SOURCES: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record Herald, An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River? Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol. 1, 

Disney Wiki; https://disney.fandom.com › wiki › Lamplighters    

https://edisontechcenter.org/ArcLamps.html. The site is a go-to for electric light history.

https://www.fineartstorehouse.com/legends-icons/famous-inventors-thomas-edison-1847-1931/dynamo-machine-edison-hopkinson-1883

https://www.measuringworth.com/dollarvaluetoday  

https://en.wikipedia.org>wiki>Arc_lamp

PICTURES: The 2nd Street bridge picture is from the 1883 Birdseye Map of Ahnapee. The 1911 bridge postcard is in the blogger's collection.