Ahnapee, The First City on the Peninsula to Have Electric Lights

On this date in history - December 20, 1880 - electric lights lit up New York's famed Broadway between 12th and 126th Streets. The blazing lights prompted some to call the area the Great White Way, a name that remains 130 years later. New York's theater district was on the cutting edge. So was Ahnapee. But not quite then.

When Joseph Wodsedalek's electric light plant began operation in January 1892, Ahnapee had the distinction of being the first city on the Door County peninsula with electric lights. The honor was short-lived as Sturgeon Bay followed a month later. Ahnapee's first electric light plant stood at the northwest corner of 6th and Fremont Streets.

Ahnapee boasted seven street lights with 2,000 candle power each, however the electric street lights did not completely replace the oil lamps. Almost immediately it was decided to keep the lights on all night as a service to the number of visitors who were unfamiliar with the city. Wodsedalek's own machine shop was the first building to be lit with electricity. Perry Opera House was the next.

It was not long before the city experienced problems with the new lights. When lines broke in September, the Record opined such trouble could not have been "foreseen or prevented." Darkened streets, which the paper felt was a reminder of "the olden days," were again a reality, ironically, on April Fool's Day in 1897. The break came at a time when residents were beginning to think electric lights were indispensable. Believe it or not, just a year earlier  the Record requested readers to neither damage or interfere with electric lights within the city.

In 1889, just four years before Wodsedalek's light plant threw the switch, Ahnapee prided itself on 18 oil street lamps. They required a lamplighter who was paid $50 a year,but then George Bohman was hired at $2.50 a week. Bohman carried around a ladder so he could clean the chimneys, trim the wicks and fill the lamps with oil. His duties also included those of bridge tender and harbormaster. As ships neared, it was Bohman's job to find a berth. If boats travelled the river, it was his responsibility to raise and lower the bridge at 2nd Street.

No longer is there a lamplighter nor electricity provided by a private company. No longer are there only seven streetlights. Those who thought electricity was indispensable 115 years ago were proven right!

Note: Ca. 1910 is depicted on this postcard of Algoma's Steele Street. Street lights are hanging above the intersection of 2nd and Steele in the foreground and above 3rd and Steele, further down the street. Electrical power poles and telephone poles line the street.

Stebbins, Haevers and Presidential History

DeWayne Stebbins and Ferdinand Haevers were two Kewaunee County men who changed the course of American presidential history. Both served in the Civil War. Stebbins enlisted in Co. A, 21st WI, Vol. Inf. on August 13,1862 but transferred to the Navy. Haevers was in New Orleans at the outbreak of hostilities and somehow enlisted with the Confederacy.

Stebbins, from Ahnapee, saved the life of General, later President, Ulysses S. Grant. And, it was only because Red River's Ferdinand Haevers shot the horse instead of William McKinley, that McKinley gained the presidency only to be assassinated.

Born in New York in 1835, Stebbins came to Wolf River, now Algoma, with his parents in 1856. He graduated from the Naval Academy in the same class as Admiral George Dewey, known for the victory in the Battle of Manila Bay Battle during the Spanish-American War. Following his Army enlistment, Stebbins was commissioned by the Navy as a Master's Mate. He served on the S. S. Corondelet and then on the Mound City, a ship in Porter's Fleet. Stebbins was promoted to Ensign in 1864, then was promoted to Master and transferred to the Kickapoo, a double turreted monitor that was sent to Farragut's Fleet at Mobile. Stebbins was transferred again - this time to the Portsmouth -and on July 4, 1865 was transferred to the Michigan where he remained until discharged on January 6,1866.

It was when Stebbins was on the Mound City that he was credited as saving the life of General Ulysses S. Grant, although the fact has never been actually proven. As the story was told, Stebbins was serving in Porter's Fleet during the siege at Vicksburg. One dark night when he was Officer of the Deck on the Mound City, a sentry challenged men in a small skiff. Thinking the approaching men were spies, Stebbins ordered his men to fire but then suddenly delayed the command to make sure he didn't fire on his own men. Just then a voice in the darkness was heard to say, "General Grant desires to see Admiral Porter."

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 14th in 1861. He was discharged in 1865.

Haevers was captured early in the war and put in a prison camp from which he managed to escape. Finding a Kentucky unit, he joined it. While he was out foraging, he saw a Union officer ride into a clearing. Shooting entered his thoughts 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. The officer was William McKinley. Haevers was captured once again and this time was sent to an Ohio prison camp.

Haevers' Confederate background did not appear to matter when he returned to Red River. He was an office holder, a large land owner and one whose leadership was admired in Red River, Kewaunee County and beyond. As for Stebbins, he was another whose leadership was admired in Kewaunee County and beyond. Big Steb, as he was called, was a long-time leader in Wisconsin's Assembly.

Kewaunee County is small, somewhat remote, and often forgotten about in Wisconsin's politics. Its citizens have played on a world stage. Sometimes that gets forgotten.
 

Chadwick & McDonald: An Ahnapee Swindle

For the transient woodsmen and sailors who made Ahnapee their winter home, drinking, card playing and horseplay were, by far, the most popular activities. Every once in awhile, somebody who did not fit the mold spent the winter.

Bill Chadwick was one of the men who showed up in the fall of 1866, but he was different. Chadwick read. He went to church and Sunday school. Since Chadwick did not drink or play cards, Ahnapee residents thought he might be a useful member of society. Chadwick became quite popular when he inadvertently let it be known he had inherited a large sum of money and was philanthropic. Townspeople were excited when Chadwick announced he desired to enter business with Captain Bill McDonald, who then owned the Ahnapee House (today the Stebbins Hotel) at which Chadwick lodged.

The partnership of Chadwick and McDonald was formed after Chadwick looked into Mr. McDonald's character. Chadwick said he planned to open a mercantile and gristmill where "oppressed farmers" could get a better deal. He also felt the Ahnapee House needed refurbishing and engaged builders.

Giving them a $10,000 draft, Chadwick had McDonald and young Tom Osborn go to Chicago where they were to meet Chadwick's father at the Sherman House. The elder Mr. Chadwick was to give the men funds with which to purchase supplies.

While they were gone, Chadwick started a free-wheeling life. He began tending bar at the Ahnapee House where woodsmen were spending their pay. Passing out McDonald's finest alcohol, he took in more money. It seemed to be a good time for all. Then he swindled Charles Boalt out of a coat, and took McDonald's pride and joy, an exceptionally fine trotter, worth about $1,000. After inviting Neil Mclean to ride to Kewaunee for more lumber, he gave Mclean the slip, pawned the horse for $100 and started south on foot.

By then Captain McDonald was on his way home, knowing he had been swindled. Chadwick didn't have friends in Chicago. Upon reaching Racine, McDonald hired a fast team to take him home to Ahnapee. On the second day of the trip, McDonald and Osborn came upon Chadwick north of Two Rivers. Thinking fast, Chadwick told McDonald his father had come north rather than staying in Chicago and was in the big white house along the road. McDonald believed him and Chadwick climbed into the buggy. When they saw a man,.Chadwick said "that's father now," and, jumping from the buggy, ran up to him. After shaking hands, he ran into the house and disappeared. All Captain Bill was heard to say was "Hell."

It was believed Chadwick left the county. Captain Bill McDonald was often overheard to say in the barroom of the Ahnapee House that he would beat the stuffing out of anybody who ever referred disrespectfully to his late partner. Captain Bill paid all of Chadwick's bills.

Note: The photograph of the  lumbering oil painting is used with the permission of the artist whose paintings chronicle the history of both Door and Kewaunee County from ships, tugs, fishing and lighthouses to skunk trapping, farming that includes manure spreading, the post office and everything in between.

 

Tisch Mills, Pilsner & President Rutherford B. Hayes

Those who think history is dull would find it hard to believe that a Kewaunee Community came close to being named for a beer. They would find it harder to believe that a U.S. president would take much interest in the naming of a community that could only count 50 or so voters. They would find it still harder to believe that the community's name would send a first lady into "hysterics." But, it all happened.

Tisch Mills' post office opened in 1884, though an attempt was made in 1877 to open an office at Tisch’s Mills. Somehow there were questions regarding the place’s name and what it was called or should be called. Kewaunee Enterprise was there to weigh in on the facts, or perhaps that which was not quite factual.

On May 26, 1877, Kewaunee Enterprise told its readers, “In the last ‘Enterprise' the name of the new Post Office at Tisch’s Mills was given as Staus. We are informed that it was an error and that the name of the office is Pilsen. Everybody living in that vicinity is greatly pleased; and we are informed that the supply of Pilsen beer at that point is only limited by the capacity of Anton Langenkamp’s brewery.”

Continuing in the June 25, 1877 issue, the Enterprise wrote that “Mention was made a few weeks ago of the establishment of a new post office in the town of Mishicott, on the line between Kewaunee and Manitowoc counties, at Tisch’s Mills. The post office was first named Carlton Mills. Then some of the folks around there thought they would rather have it called Staus, so they wrote to the Postmaster General and he called it Staus. Then some other folks thought it would be nice to have it called Pilsner, and the Department was duly petitioned to call it Pilsner. Then Mr. Key (Postmaster General David McKendree Key) got mad and wrote back that he thought there was too much fooling going on about naming the post office from which it was not likely they would ever be able to collect an assessment for campaign purposes. Besides that, it would be more than his situation would be worth to call it Pilsner. Staus was bad enough, but Pilsner was worse. Rutherford (Key was referring to President Rutherford B. Hayes), he explained, got tight once on some Pilsner beer which he got from a Bohemian friend of his at Fremont who had obtained it from the old country, and went home, kicked over the cook stove, hugged the hired girl, and stood on his head on the front stoop. On that account Mrs. Hayes resolutely refuses to permit any other beverage than water to be used at state dinners at the White House, and the mere mention of Pilsner as the name of the new post office threw her into hysterics. A Cabinet meeting was called, and it was determined to discard both Staus and Pilsner and adopt the original name, Carlton Mills, and the President instructed the P.M. General to write that if anything more was said about it he would change the name of the Postmaster, Joseph Stangel, to John Jones, or maybe remove him and appoint somebody from Ohio, if he can find anybody down that way to whom he has not already given a government office. So it is settled that the new post office is to be henceforth known as Carlton Mills.”

A brief comment on the name change back to Tisch’s Mills appeared in the July 14, 1877 issue of the Enterprise: “When Postmaster Key said he wouldn’t change the name of that Carlton Mills-Staus-Pilsner post office again for any man alive, we thought he meant it but you can’t depend on any of these public men now-a-days. He has gone and changed it to Tisch’s Mills. It is a good name, however, and we won’t make any fuss about it, but the thing has got to stop right here.”

The thing did not stop, and in another discussion about post office names in the August 4, 1877 Enterprise, the editor reviewed the naming problems for both Norman and Tisch’s Mills. Tisch’s Mills’ report follows: “A post office was established on the south line of the county, in the midst of a people who came from the neighborhood of the city of Pilsen. They were unanimous in desiring that the post office be called Pilsen, but their wishes were ignored, and the office became known as Tisch’s Mills. The Bohemian residents of Kewaunee County are an industrious, law-abiding people, and ready at all times to uphold the institutions of their adopted country. Why should they be denied so simple a thing as the commemoration of their place of birth in the naming of a post office in their midst – a privilege which we believe has been accorded to the people of all other nationalities. By what law, or under what authority, does the Department give an objectionable name to a post office in opposition to the expressed wish of the very people for whose convenience it is.”

The Enterprise seemed to stick up for county residents while keeping its readers informed.No doubt its stance helped boost circulation too.

Information for this article comes from Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County. The 1902 postcard of Frank Stangel's store comes from the same book.

On the Road to Appomatox: The Boys of Kewaunee County

Gravelly Run, east of Petersburg, Virginia, was one of the more obscure battles of the Civil War, however the fight - also known as  Hatcher’s Run, Boydton Road and White Oak Ridge - was not. Gravelly Run, on March 31, 1865 was part of the campaign that finally ended the war with Lee's April 9th surrender at Appomattox Courthouse.

Wisconsin's 6th, 7th and 36th Infantry regiments saw action in the battle where the Union losses of 1,900 men were about 2 1/2 times greater than those of the Confederacy. Pierce Town Private Franz Geneva, 6th Wis. Co. D, was killed during the battle. Eugene Delwich of Lincoln was taken prisoner and then badly wounded. Francis Francee of Red River as also wounded. Both were Privates in Co. B, 6th Wis. and the wounds kept both absent when the company was mustered out.

There were other Kewaunee County men at Gravelly Run. Lincoln's Corporal John Andre and Private Carl Schneider of Ahnepee* of Co. B. saw action. Private Carlton Hall of Montpelier served in Co. E, and Ahnepee Privates William Fagg, August Baumann and William Barrand, Co. G, H and K, respectively, saw action. Private Julius Bernhart, Co. B, 7th Inf., and Private William Graham, Co. C, were other Ahnepee men in the battle. Private Christian Peters  from Coryville was another in Co. C. Casco Private Adolphe Gouchee and  Private James Marshaw from Carlton served in Co. I. Frank Zivney came from Pierce Town.

During the closing battles of the war, the Iron Brigade, which included the 6th and 7th Wisconsin, was under the command of General U.S. Grant. The Brigade saw some of the heaviest fighting and saw the heaviest casualties of the war. At Gravelly Run, when the men were ordered to fall back, it was the Iron Brigade which was the last to leave the field. Men of the Iron Brigade served primarily in the south and were discharged on July 18, 1865, three months after Appomattox. When they returned to Milwaukee, the men were provided a dinner on the street given by the women of the city.

Kewaunee's George Froney appears to have held General Grant and General Philip Sheridan in high esteem. He named his twins Grant and Sheridan.

Wikipedia tells us that 13.4% of the Iron Brigade's total enlistment died. Three thousand seven hundred ninety four were killed in action or mortally wounded, 8,022 died of disease and 400 died accidental deaths. In total, the Brigade lost 12,216 men.

*Ahnepee was changed to Ahnapee when the Village of Ahnapee was chartered in 1873. Proper names have been taken from records and often do not reflect the spelling of the same in 2012.



 

 

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Rankin.....Kuke's Corner or Mallie?

A forty-five mile an hour traffic sign is all that remains of most of Kewaunee County's once thriving hamlets, however drivers don't even have to slow down at Rankin, between Algoma and Casco on Highway 54.

Rankin was originally known as Kuke's Corners until, according to George Wing in the story of The Ghost of Dettman's Swamp, Congressman Joe Rankin "gave the hamlet a post office and his loyal Democrats, as they were, gave it his name."

Whether or not Wing is right, it was merchant Fred Plinke who applied to the Post Office Department for an office at a place he called Mallie. Two weeks after Plinke was appointed on May 13, 1886, The Record announced that the new office would be called Rankin in honor of the late Congressman who had been instrumental in relief efforts following the horrendous Peshtigo fire. Washington proffered no reason for rejecting Plinke's choice of Mallie for the post office expected to serve 500 residents. Rankin post office remained in service until being discontinued on November 15, 1902 when mail began coming from Algoma. In those few years, the Rankin post office operated in four separate locations.

As early as February 28, 1902, Algoma Record was lamenting the poor postal service at Rankin as it pointed out opportunities to better the service.While  Rankin was only 6 miles from Algoma, mail sent to Algoma from Rankin went to Green Bay and back to Algoma, a distance of sixty miles. That took a couple of days. The paper suggested Rankin residents vigorously protest the service. It was further suggested that since mail carried to Two Rivers went by stage, the stage could go through Rankin making Two Rivers' service a trifle longer but thereby securing daily service for Rankin. Apparently the lobbying worked.

It was in June 1904 that the newspaper again delivered postal news when it told its readership, "Postmaster Entringer has received word from the Post Office Department that the post office would be discontinued on November 15 when Rural Free Delivery will be put into service.The farmers through the district are rejoicing over the good news."

St. John's Church has been Rankin's most prominent institution for nearly 150 years. All that remains of Rankin commerce is the current S & K's at N 7551 County Highway D, once the site of a Rankin post office.

When Fred Plinke submitted his 1892 map, he included building locations. The map and the cover above come from Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County.

 

Kewaunee County...Suceeding Where George Washington Did Not

Nearly 250 years ago George Washington was a young legislator in Virginia's House of Burgesses. Pigs were fouling the water and Washington introduced legislation to keep them off the streets of Williamsburg. As inexperienced as he was, Washington's proposal was not acted upon.

About 100 years later, Ahnapee residents dealt with a similar problem.

Ahnapee's first official village meeting was held at 8 P.M. on July 12, 1873. By then the village had 100 registered voters. William N. Perry was unanimously elected president, Joseph Anderegg was elected clerk and in the first historical business conducted three days later, Michael McDonald was elected marshall. Marshall McDonald had to hit the ground running.

A month following his election, McDonald declared war on swine on the streets. Such a thing was forbidden by the newly created Ordinance 4. Cattle, however, appeared to be exempt from Ordinance 4 because just three years later, the Ahnapee Record commented on the "nerve" of the Village Board in creating an ordinance restricting cows from roaming the streets. Citizens were reminded to "keep your cows off the streets or you may find them milked instead of your coffee."

Farm animals in Kewaunee were an issue 140 years after Ahnape's residents breathed a sigh of relief having a marshall who could meet such a challenge. Kewaunee County Star News' columnist Barb Ludlow noted in the September 8, 2012 paper that Kewaunee's City Council was considering an ordinance allowing city residents to raise chickens. Ludlow wondered if chickens were allowed, would pigs, cows and other farm animals be next? In the next edition, Ludlow told her readers that the Council approved Ordinance No. 567-12. Livestock and other farm animals could be kept in agricultural zones but they were prohibited in other zones.

Ahnapee's Village Board and Kewaunee's City Council succeeded where George Washington did not. At least not the first time.

Kewaunee County and the Civil War, 7

 

Books have been written and movies have been made about wars and the men who fought them. Some deal with the horror while others present a kind of a fairy tale romantic version. The five Sullivan brothers of Waterloo, Iowa, who went down together on a ship during World War ll, were the subject of such a movie. Their parents eventually toured the country selling war bonds, asking that their sons had not died in vain. Eighty years earlier, Ahnapee's George Washington Elliot gave four of his sons to the Civil War. Two never returned. What is written about Elliot seems to indicate "tradition," however there is no Jimmy Stewart, Audie Murphy or John Wayne movie telling the Elliot story.

The first Elliot arrived in Swampscott, Massachusetts in 1628, seven years after the founding of Plymouth Rock. Elliot’s grandfathers served in the Revolutionary War. His father served in the War of 1812 and George Elliott himself was a veteran of the Mexican War. His sons followed the Elliot tradition.

Charles D. Elliot was the first Ahnapee man to enlist on June 28, 1861. He joined Captain - later General - Bragg’s Company E, 6^th Wisconsin, which became known as the Iron Brigade. He served at Bull Run and was severely wounded at Antietam though lived to tell about it. Following the war, Charles Elliot became editor of The Star, a newspaper in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Park Benjamin Elliot learned his printing skills at the Enterprize* and was called a superior talent. He was serving as a printer at the Appleton Post Crescent when he joined Company C, 10^th Wisconsin. Just a little more than a year later, at the age of 19, he was in a corn field at Chaplin Hills, Kentucky when he was shot in the head while supporting Simon’s Indiana Battery. A fellow soldier wrote that Park was ”as brave as a lion.”

Brother Irving W. Elliot enlisted on August 16, 1862. Though he made corporal a few weeks later, he entered service as a drummer boy and was the youngest man in Company l, 32^nd Infantry. Irving Elliot was with Sherman on the march through Georgia and was in Washington D.C. in time to wave at President Lincoln who was on his way to Ford’s Theatre.

David Elliot enlisted on August 31, 1862, just two weeks after Irving. In a letter to his father, David reported that of the 950 men who left Fond du Lac with him, only about 340 were fit for duty and that men were dying at a rate of two per day. David died at Nashville, one of many who died of typhoid.

Irving Elliot, who had worked for the Enterprize between 1859 and 1861, wrote his father saying that he would be proud to know he (Irving) had never been in the guard house or under arrest, had never been absent from roll call and had never served extra duty for misconduct. Irving went on to say that few in the regiment could say the same. He continued saying that he “had the satisfaction of knowing that I was not home sucking my paw when the black hearted of the South were trying to tear down the old Starry Banner that we have lived under so many years. I am fighting the devil as long as there are any of them left.”

Irving Elliot was 95 years old when he died in Wauwatosa in December 1941. He had been living with his son Frank for the previous four years. Irving was both Kewaunee and Milwaukee County’s last surviving Civil War Veteran. He was also Wisconsin’s oldest Mason.

The Elliot brothers and the other men of Kewaunee County served in the Civil War with distinction and gave their lives for a cause they believed in. So did the Sullivan brothers and hundreds of thousands other young men, and more recently women, who served in the wars and conflicts in which the U.S. has engaged since the first Elliot arrived in Massachusetts.

*The paper was the Enterprize until 1865 when it was renamed Enterprise.

 

Surveying Wolf River......

City of Algoma, About 1960

Wolf River's most eligible bachelor had to be civil engineer and surveyor George Washington Elliott. The intelligent, politically connected widower arrived in the fledgling hamlet in 1857. After a few weeks he moved his family* north from the Chilton area and stayed. Kewaunee County had been in existence for 5 years. An influx of settlers meant there was land to be surveyed and money to be made. Elliot was the man to do it, though  making Wolf River his home had not been his original intent.

Elliot's experience included bigger things. In 1836 he assisted in surveying the land on which Wisconsin's state capitol stands. Later James Duane Doty appointed Elliot to look after his Kewaunee holdings, land Doty bought in the big Kewaunee gold rush two years earlier. Elliot's association with Doty included farming and dairying at Tay-che-dah before entering the mill business in Calumet County.

Elliot became a justice of the peace and presided over weddings and litigations while continuing to survey, draw maps and dig up government corner posts. The Plat of Ahnepee** and the first map of Kewaunee County, with the streams outlined, were drawn by Mr. Elliot, or Squire as he was called.

Looking at Algoma's main intersections today, one wonders why there are slight jogs in Steele, Navarino and State at their 4th Street crossings when other streets have no problems. Though jogs are minimal today, just before 1900 a few buildings actually protruded into the right-of-ways. Portions of buildings found on the wrong lots prompted lawsuits and eventually parts of Algoma were resurveyed. Block 5 most recently. The issues date to Elliott's original1850's surveys.

It was Squire Elliot who surveyed the original plat of the present city of Algoma, the SW 1/4 of Section 26, Town 25 North, Range 25 East. A portion of the city, known as Youngs and Steele Plat, was full 40' x 70' lots. Streets were 66' wide and 16' north-south alleys ran through the blocks. David Youngs, George Steele, Solomon M. Kicham and William Clark were sealed as the original owners in the documents signed by Elliot on August 1, 1858, attesting to true and correct accounts, "to true variations of the needle."

The adjacent Eveland Plat was laid out somewhat differently than Youngs and Steele's. Streets were 66' wide running north and south at right angles except those on the "East, North and West which are 30' on half street. Blocks East and West 264' with alleys of 16' running North and South through the centers, leaving lots 124' x 40' except one tier of lots fronting on Navarino Street and lying North and South. Those numbered 1 and 2 and 13 and 14 being 40' x 120'. Those numbered 3 and 12 being 120'; one tier of lots on the south side of the said 40 acres numbered 6 and 7 being 124', and the point from which to make future surveys incompliance with the Statutes in such cases provided being a lime stone 6 inches by 18 inches and 21 inches long marked 1/4 section and planted at the North East corner of said Plat." County supervisor J.A. Defaut and Justice of the Peace Orin Warner signed the survey.

Elliot was an experienced surveyor. How did he survey adjacent plats so that three streets meet in irregular intersections? How did it happen that only property owners within a small area were affected? Why did he change the size of several lots? The two plats meet at 4th Street. Youngs and Steele Plat has the Ahnapee River as its north boundary. Tiny Fiebrantz Plat, only a couple hundred feet, comes between Eveland's Navarino Street boundary and the Ahnapee River.

More than 150 years later, there are still a few inquiring minds that want to know how it happened.
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*A widower, Elliot was joined by his sons David and Irving, daughters Frances, who married DeWayne Stebbins, and Ella, his son-in-law Rufus Wing and brother Thomas. Two other sons, Charles and Park, lived in Wolf River for a short time. Both died in the Civil War.

**Ahnepee was the original spelling. It was an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" thing when the Village of Ahnapee was chartered in 1873. Ahnepee was consistently misspelled, even by the state.

Zavis: Saved From Oblivion.....

 

Vying for the title of Kewaunee County's most obscuue community is the once thriving West Kewaunee hamlet of Zavis. In its heyday, Joseph Horak ran both grist and saw mills. The place also included a store and post office, however all that remains today are a few remnants of the old mill on the east side of the water's flow, noted as the Mishicott River on the federal postal site document. And, were it not for the postal history, Zavis might have well sunk into oblivion.

Zavis post office came into existence on January 3, 1878 but was discontinued a little less than 18 months later on June 11, 1879. When Viet Rudolph applied to the U.S. Department of Post Office, he said that the office would serve 300 folks. His post office served area residents from its location along the road in the SW 1/4 of Section 32 in the Town of West Kewaunee.

A postal site document dated December 26, 1877 indicates that Zavis was on Route 25365, the route from Casco to Mishicott in Manitowoc County. Montpelier, 4 1/2 miles west, was the nearest post office on the same route. To the east, the nearest post office was Norman, 4 1/2 miles in a southeasterly direction.

The flow of the river, noted as the Mishicott on the U.S. Topographer's map below, was instrumental in the development of the grist mill. A Kewaunee County map from the same period illustrates the flow of the East Twin River through Section 6 and Section 31 of West Kewaunee. Both the gristmill and store were built along the road which was roughly parallel to the river. Early enthusiasm for the mill waned rapidly as the river never reached original expectations. It happened while Zavis was quickly faded into the annals of a history just as obscure as the community.

 

After its 18 months of operation, Postmaster Compensation Records tell us, "1879, Compensation not listed." Patricia Sharp's 2007 photo above shows today's buildings in the area called once called Zavis. More about Zavis is found in Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County, c. 2010.