Kewaunee County History: Algoma and Nearly 175 Years of Dolls

Financially strapped as so many were during the Depression and going into the rationing of World War ll, there were plenty of long faces when there were no dolls, trucks, roller skates, BB guns and sleds under the Christmas tree. Beach’s Dime Store – and Beach’s Basement Toyland in 1945 - had toys and if Santa read his mail, he could pick them up in Algoma without making the long journey to the freezing North Pole. Everybody had fresh carrots in the basement bin and a farming community, such as Algoma, had plenty of hay. The reindeer wouldn’t go hungry.

But how did parents explain when Santa forgot, or why a friend got a gift their child desperately wanted? Nobody wanted a pair of socks or underwear unless it was for a dress-up doll. The little ones never knew when second-hand gifts appeared under some trees. Metal toys and old toboggans were cleaned up and painted. If there was a scape or two, it was bound to happen if a toy fell off the overcrowded sleigh or rubbed the side of a chimney. Dolls were washed, clothing was refreshed or new clothing was made. Little girls were ecstatic when a new dress matched the dress on the refurbished doll. Seldom do the moms and dads of today work secretly worked into the night to sew, refurbish and build. Today requests are electronic, mostly phones, which average kids already have. They need the latest model. Video games and subscriptions to gaming sites are desired. Some things are factory refurbished although are not “second hand.” While it seems that everything runs on batteries, it was flashlights that required batteries in 1950, and any kid playing with a flashlight was chastised for using up a battery.

Since the settlement of Wolf River, (one of Algoma’s early names) little girls have played with dolls, however not today’s dolls. Perhaps the area Pottawatomie children did as well. The Oneida populated areas west of Wolf River in what has been Brown County since 1818 when today’s Wisconsin was part of the Michigan Territory. The Oneida children had faceless, corn husk dolls.

The only little girl in Wolf River in 1851 was 9-year-old Harriet Warner. If Harriet had a doll, no doubt it was one made of fabric scraps – a rag doll - rather than a China doll made mostly (or even entirely) of porcelain. By 1859, Harriet’s cousin Lucy Warner lived on the lake shore road about 3 miles south of (then) Ahnapee. Lucy had a China doll, 11” tall with black hair and blue eyes. The doll was in an exhibit at Algoma Library in December 1953, just under 100 years later. Librarian Dorothy Ackerman hosted the display at the library then at the northwest corner of Third and Steele St., above City Hall. Also in the display was a wax doll from 1869. It belonged to Mrs. George Hyde (Sabina Emily Flower Hyde, 1870-1958) and who brought her doll with her at immigration to America. Sabine was the mother of Myrtle Hyde Perry, who became  Mrs. Rufus Runke, the mother of Ralph and Melvin Perry.

National Gallery of Art online tells us dolls go back much farther than the settlement of Wolf River and that since ancient times, dolls were used in magic and religious rituals, and used to represent deities. But they have also been toys for children.

Mattel’s Barbie dolls were introduced in 1959. The full-figured adult dolls that reflected cultural changes and the dreams of little girls were by far the most popular doll of the 20^th century. There were others.

When a 21-year-old art student rediscovered an old German art called “needle molding,” soft sculpture dolls were born. Originally called the Little People, they were renamed Cabbage Patch dolls, marketed as a doll that “looks like you.” They even came with adoption papers.

Cabbage Patch dolls were such a phenomena that adults fought over them. News carried reports about law enforcement called to stores to break up adults fighting over the dolls. Some adults developed strategies to work with another, throwing dolls over the display into the next aisle where another could grab as many dolls as possible. When dolls sold for $25, there were reports of selling on the black market for as much as $2,000, and an online search reports that in the 1980s, 30 million Cabbage Patch dolls were sold.

Kenner introduced its scented Strawberry Shortcake dolls in 1979. Lower elementary teachers of the era remember the scents of strawberry, blueberry, and more when the kids brought the overpowering scented doll necklaces. Now-retired teachers well remember the headaches from all that “perfume” in the classroom.

Girls of the late 1930s and into the 1950s had dolls whose faces were a composite of the famous Dionne quintuplets. The quints were real, and dolls were named for them – Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Emilie, and Marie.

The quints' clothing was copied by well-dressed children throughout the world. Their baby clothing was the inspiration for child models and the colors they wore became the colors in children’s clothing.

By July 1936, the quint dolls were being made with curly dark hair and the dolls were wearing silk frocks and bonnets like the those worn by the girls.

The identical quintuplet girls were born in Corbeil, Ontario, during the Depression and their marketing and exploitation -they  were wards of the provincial Crown - brought profit to the Canadian province. People flocked to “Quintland” to gaze and gawk at the little girls who were taken from their parents and siblings, exhibited like monkeys and even used in scientific experiments. As the world’s most photographed children, the girls were forced to dress alike for photo shoots. Their pictures were in magazines, on postcards, used in advertising and souvenirs, and their images were used to sell products, such as dolls. Dolls with the quints’ likeness outsold the child film star Shirley Temple dolls.

Shirley Temple, America’s child star sweetheart, was an irresistible, curly topped little girl who was always seen as  cheerful, cute, loving, and even courageous on the silver screen. The 1930s saw the depths of the Depression and in the decade, Shirley made 20 feature films. Wikipedia, photo left) says each of her films included emotional healing.

Popular as Shirly Temple and the Dionne quintuplets were, if there was downright fighting over dolls in stores, the newspapers didn’t mention it. However, during the same era, there were reports of women fighting over the fabric stamped flour bags. No doubt some little girl’s dress came from one of those flour bags while her doll’s dress came from the scraps.

Just as the Barbie dolls, the Cabbage Patch dolls are sold as collectors’ items so are the older Shirley Temple and quintuplet dolls. The metal toys of the 1930s often found their way into the World War ll metal drives, but the dolls had nothing to offer in defense of the country and thus exist today.

With tears like a real baby, Tiny Tears made its debut in the 1950s. Betsy Wetsy was even more like a real baby. Entering the market in 1937, the “drink and wet” Betsy grew in popularity.

Algoma was the place for dolls. The late historian Pearl Foshion’s hobby was re-doing dolls from the body to the clothing. She was regarded as an expert who collected and repaired dolls to the point of being known as the doll doctor. Her husband Herb was a city physician. When the Record Herald reported on Pearl’s dolls, it said she had been collecting for years and the oldest was 82 years old.

When the dolls were exhibited in December 1953, the oldest doll was a golden-haired China doll, owned by an Indiana resident, that dated to 1890. Mrs. John Thiard’s bisque doll with auburn hair was on display as was a 1900 doll that came from Mrs. Frank Jirtle’s store. Ruth Henry Evans’ 1903 doll even had its own swing to sit in.

 Mrs. Lorraine Gray, whose husband, Harold,  was the local Methodist minister, had a huge doll collection and in late 1969, she had 2,200 dolls in her home. Ten years later, Mrs. Gray’s museum was a major tourist attraction in northeaster Wisconsin, drawing over 11,000 visitors in 1980.

By spring 1980, Mrs. Gray’s Doll Museum featured 5,433 dolls on the east end of  Living Lake’s Expo on Church St. The museum had Shirley Temple dolls and boasted of having Norwegian, Olympic skater Sonja Heine wearing skates. Her oldest doll, Frozen Charlotte,* dated to 1860. Topsey Turvey** (left) dated to 1884.

One of Mrs. Gray’s most unusual dolls (left) was a replica of a paddle doll*** of Egypt of 3,000 years ago. The doll lacked arms, legs and a head and was not much more than beads on a piece of wood.

She had dolls from porcelain, wax and wood to plastic, and dolls from around the world, including a Belgian lacemaker brought on a tour of Belgians who came to the area in 1978. There were George and Marth Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, the Kennedy family, Queen Elizabeth, Ike and Maimi Eisenhower, Will Rogers, Laurel & Hardy, Elvis Presley, Emmett Kelly, the Muppets and so many more.

Annual doll shows brought hundreds and hundreds to Algoma and in July 1982, the 18^th annual Doll Show ans Sale at Knutson Hall and Dug-Out was the largest ever with dealers and exhibitors coming from 20 states.

 One hundred sixty-nine years after the first documented doll in what is now Algoma, there are a lot of dolls, collectibles and otherwise, in town.

Notes:

* Frozen Charlotte was a china or bisque doll made in one piece between 1850 and 1920. There were no moveable parts, which, Wikipedia says, made them look as if they were frozen. Wikipedia further says as the dolls increased in popularity, its name was inspired by a ballad about Charlotte who froze to death riding in a carriage to a winter ball.

** https://dclu.langston.edu.eflewiscollection history says the dolls were sewn by African-American women who were employed as domestics in European-American households.

Research indicates that the dolls originated during slavery and that there appears to be no single reason for such dolls, the dual doll might reflect the mixed race children who were part of the plantation world.

*** https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544216 says Egyptian Paddle Dolls dated to the Middle Kingdom and were not toys but were necklaces which when shaken made sounds to appease gods or goddesses. They were made of wood although had thick hair.

Cousins in the Blogger's family had quintuplet dolls. Our family shares the quints' ancestry.

Sources: Algoma Record Hearld and websites mentioned above. The corn husk doll is from an Oneida doll-making workshop.