Kewaunee County & Remy's: See the U.S. A. in Your Chevrolet

One hundred years ago, Algoma folks weren’t thinking of skyrocketing gas prices. They were thinking of buying autos which then cost an average of six hundred dollars or so. It was a lot of money then, about $9639.36 in 2022 dollars. By today’s standards, it was not an expensive for a car. 1925 Kewaunee County still saw horses on the road, and even if one had an auto, it often took a horse to get anywhere on rural roads in the winter.

Today’s Algoma has one car dealership, and, in our world of shortages, its inventory offers few choices. Imagine Algoma having four auto dealers in the 1920s. Gaspard-White, Algoma Motor Car Co. and Lakeshore Garage were the companies remembered years later, however there was another: Remy Motor Company.

On March 26, 1926, Algoma Record Herald announced that J.E. Remy of Green Bay leased the former Algoma Motor Car Co. building at 4^th and Fremont, the site of the Temple of Honor ten years earlier. When Ted Richmond purchased the Temple building, he had a section moved, and then repaired the rest of it and cleaned the site for Algoma Motor Car Co. In May 1916, the Record felt the completed 60’ x 100’ concrete building with the white stucco pebble look on the south and west sides would be “most pretentious.” F.V. Leischow and Berl Rider owned the property and partnered in Algoma Motor Car Co. Ownership changed several times over the next few years until Remy reopened the old Motor Car business about April 1, 1926. Two weeks earlier, it was announced that two carloads of Chevrolet cars and a full line of parts were in transit while Remy was looking for a residence for his family.

Remy’s first newspaper ad ran on April 2, 1926. He called attention to low priced, quality autos costing from $395 for a ½ ton truck to $765 for a Landau car, all F.O.B. Flint, Michigan. Remy advertised beautiful colors, - the early Fords were all painted black - an attractive Fisher body, 3-speed transmission, balloon tires (a broad tire filled with low air to cushion the shock of uneven surfaces), Alemite lubrication (a method of using pressure to inject grease into bearings), water and oil pumps, and rustless airplane metal radiator shells while being vacuum fuel fed. Remy advertised electric starting, lighting and ignition, safe and easy steering, and light action dry-plate disc-clutch.  This modern streamlined beauty was a completely closed car that had an instrument panel with speedometer. Who could imagine what Chevrolet brought? It was easy enough to find out because Remy encouraged asking for a demonstration.

J.E. Remy came from Green Bay to open his garage. Maybe he had big city ideas because in May 1926, he wanted an electric sign. Remy got the sign after Alderman Koch directed the street committee to supervise its installation. Remy wasn’t exactly on the cutting edge as there were a couple of other lighted signs in Algoma, but he was the first auto dealer to use one in his business.*

Https://www.triaccollection.ro/en/collection/cars/1927 says that the 1927 Chevrolet Series AA Capitol was the car that helped Chevy knock Ford from the top of the U.S. car sales’ chart. Ford had sold 15 million Model-Ts, known as Tin Lizzies, between 1918 and 1927. Billed as “The most beautiful Chevrolet ever,” Remy was touting all the new features in his newspaper ads.  “Remarkably smart” cars came in lustrous colors and sold for $745. Lustrous colors beat out 10 years of all black Tin Lizzies.

In October, “marvelous smoothness” at any speed was the way to go when the coups selling for about $645 were getting tops speeds of 30 mph. To sweeten the deal, Remy advertised Chev’s small downpayment, convenient terms, and told folks to ask about the 6% Purchase Certificate Plan, a kind of rebate program.

By late January 1927, Remy was advertising a host of improvements at reduced prices. Fish-tail styling and balloon tires were standard equipment on all models. To buy from Remy meant such features as ignition and steering locks and remote-control door locks. Although there was no color in the newspapers of the time, peacocks appeared in Remy’s ads. The black and white peacocks called attention to the choices in auto colors. 

A few weeks later, Chevrolet was advertising the most beautiful sedan in Chevrolet history. The peacock drew attention to the $695 purchase price of such beauty. Wikipedia says Chev started manufacturing in 1912 and sold for about $2100 in the early days. Mass production made a difference.

Adoring women were featured in 1927 ads, suggesting there was “a car for her too.” Most men nixed that idea feeling that driving was far beyond the brain of a woman. Fifty years later there were woman who still did not have an operator’s license and older men still crabbin’ about the “damned women drivers.” In 1927, Chev pointed to two-car families and even offered financing. Chevy felt a woman needed her own car to get groceries, take the children to school and do afternoon calling. Such big city foolishness did not go over then. It was after World War ll and women in the workforce when that began happening in Kewaunee County. One wonders how Remy’s was perceived in his 1927ads ad?

In anticipation of spring, shipments of new autos were coming to Algoma in February 1927. Lakeshore Garage got new Fords. Gasper-White touted the new Whippet Six Landau, something new in the Willys-Knight-Overland Line, while Remy Motors got Chevrolets, including the new cabriolet model. Algoma was the place for dreaming in February. Remy was selling trucks too. His March 1927 ads claimed Chev sold more gear-shift trucks than anyone in the world. Unchallenged in its 3-speed transmissions, the company offered oil filters and air filters. Chevrolet was advertising its economical truck transportation with the lowest cost for ton-mile. Chev said a ton-mile was the cost of transporting one ton of material for one mile. That ½ ton truck sold for $395 and the “world’s most popular gear-shift truck” was said to give unrivaled performance. If the buyer needed a larger truck, a one-ton truck was available for $695.

When Remy was advertising the “The Coach” in June 1927, the company called attention to the “scientifically balanced” auto that offered comfort on the road hour after hour. The astonishing Coach sold for $595.

Chevy said one needed to comprehend its cars to further understand how the company could sell at such low prices. The company claimed its “vast resources, tremendous purchasing power, and mammoth engineering organization, 12 factories equipped with the most modern machinery known to science and its tremendous production volume” made Chev such an affordable car. The company said their vehicles “provided the greatest dollar-for-dollar value in the history of the automotive industry.” The auto industry was not that old. Wikipedia says the first car bought in the U.S. was a Winton purchased by 71-year-old Robert Allison on April 1, 1898. Allison paid $1,000, far more than the cost of a Chevrolet less than 30 years later. Mass production made the difference.

Buick was rarely mentioned in a Remy ad, but he sold some. Remy’s ad of January 14, 1927 offered evidence, in that ad, that in 1926 more Buicks toured Yellowstone Park than any other car except one of the lowest price. Believe it or not, Buick said it held the honor since the park opened to auto traffic. Wikipedia says the first car legally into Yellowstone was a Ford Model T in 1915. The Model T was indeed a much less expensive auto.

For the few years Remy was in business, his ads indicated T.A. Dillenburg of Casco would also be of service. In January 1924, the Record Herald reported that Anton (Tony) Dillenburg, a local garage man, was constructing a Chevrolet snowmobile to be used for his winter business. Chevrolet was advertising when Remy selling and Remy was a big advertiser in Algoma Record Herald for the few years he was in business. Tony Dillenburg’s name was found at the bottom of each of Remy’s Chev ads.

It all happened 25 years or so before the Dinah Shore’s Chevy Show kicked off with Dinah singing, “See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet, America’s asking you to call…….” Copyrighted as a jingle in 1949, it was a year later when Peter Lind Hayes and Mary Healy recorded the song. Later, singer Pat Boone sang the song on his Chevy Showroom. Even a couple of the Los Angeles Dodgers were singing the song, but announcer Vince Scully thought their singing careers were going nowhere.

One hundred years after J.E. Remy brought the dealership to Algoma, folks are still driving their Chevrolet through the U.S.A., but maybe not so much with gas prices over $4 per gallon. A few years ago, one could go to Algoma Motors, or any other dealership, find a beauty on the lot and drive away with a big smile after a sweet deal. Today’s lack of inventory puts a new slant on everything.

Notes:**When F.W. Lidral purchased his up-to-date gasoline storage tank, it was one of the best on the market. It had an electric sign marking its spot on the curb. Lidral’s sign was Algoma’s first lit sign, in May 1914, it was at a time when many citizens had not upgraded to electric lighting. Joseph Knaapen installed an electric sign at his Home Bakery in May 1923. Deep Rock Oil Co. was given permission to erect an electric sign on their property in October 1924, and in May 1925 Alderman Busch moved to refer the request of V.L. Wheeler to the Street and Bridge Committee. Wheeler want to call attention to his new restaurant, bar and bowling alley. Lit signs became more and more popular.

Remy's was on the east side of 4th, between Clark and Fremont, on the approximate site of today's BP One Stop.

Sources: Algoma Record/Algoma Recor Herald, Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol 1, https://www.triaccollection.ro/en/collection/cars/1927, Wikipedia. colored ad was found on Google; other ads are fromAlgoma Record Herald.

Kewaunee County's Early Norwegians

 

During Wisconsin’s territorial days, the few non-native people in what became Kewaunee County were transient, being employed at the lumber mill on the Kewaunee River or the mill at Red River. In the week from June 28 to July 4, 1851, Wolf River (now Algoma) saw its first three settling families. However, the Warner, Hughes and Tweedale families lived in Door County at the time. That county had just been sent off from Brown a few months earlier. The three families were also Kewaunee County’s earliest settling families when the county was set off from Door in May 1852.

They were Yankees who were followed by a few more Yankees, but not far behind were the German immigrants. Close on their heels were Bohemians, and, in 1858, Belgian immigrants who were making their way to build homes in what would become the Towns of Red River and Lincoln.

Although Kewaunee County is not generally known as a Norwegian enclave, Norwegians were settling in the towns of Carlton and Franklin, also in the 1850s. Names such as Gulickson, Hoverson, Christianson, Knutson, Nelson and Olson are only a few of those represented, and they made an impact on the new county.

Carlton’s earliest land sales, however, were to non-Norwegians, James Doty on September 1, 1838, and Lode Baker in 1839. Doty – 2nd Territorial Governor of what would become Wisconsin -  was a speculator who felt what became the settlement of Carlton was an ideal place for a city. Though Lode Baker has eluded an historical lens, he patented more Carlton land than anyone other than Isaac and Joel Taylor who made their purchases in the early 1850s. Baker's purchases would seem to make him a speculator or one intent on purchasing pine lands. The Taylors were indeed looking for timberland.

Commenting on immigrants to Wisconsin, the November 9, 1859 Enterprize* reprinted an article from the Milwaukee Sentinel saying that nearly every day the Detroit & Milwaukee Railway brought immigrants - mostly Norwegians and Germans - who wanted to settle in Wisconsin. The paper saw a return to more prosperous times (after the Panic of 1857) and felt a great inrush of immigrants would follow in the coming spring. Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota were considered broad enough and rich enough to furnish comfortable homes and honest employment for all “whose good destiny may send them hither.”

In June 1866,  the Enterprise* was touting Kewaunee County for its unrivaled beauty, soil fertility, and healthy climate that was entirely exempt from fever, ague, and other local diseases. It was a good place to locate homes and business, and to trade and farm. The new county looked to induce uncertain emigrants to see the county before going to other states. A December article continued saying a company was established at Copenhagen to encourage Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes to come to the U.S.

When the State Board of Immigration met just after the turn of 1870, reports showed Wisconsin had 22,932 immigrants coming through Milwaukee and Chicago. The Board further said 11,263 came through Wisconsin as they traveled to other states. It went on to say more arrived at Green Bay, Manitowoc, and other lake ports, however records were not kept in those places. Over thirty-three hundred dollars was expended by the Board for brochures touting the advantages and resources enticing immigrants while arrangements were made with a company in Holland to produce 5,000 brochures in Norwegian, 5,000 in German, 2,000 in Dutch and some in French. According to an article in the State Journal and reprinted in the Enterprise, Milwaukee and Chicago immigration offices would keep busy.

Much was written about Tulif Olson who came from the area of Stavanger, Norway. George Wing’s history  indicates Olson  bought 160 acres in the Town of Carlton, sight unseen, from the federal government in October 1855 when he paid 50 cents per acre for land on the north side of today’s Highway AB near to what became the village of Tisch Mills. Bureau of Land Management records, however, indicate Olson bought his land in February 1858. Ole Pedersen Berger purchased land next to Olson. There were no roads in the primitive area and the Olsens and Bergers carried their belongings and supplies inland. Getting through the thickly wooded, hilly, and, sometimes, swampy terrain was a long, difficult job. According to Wing, Diedrich Christianson paid 50 cents for Olson’s acreage, and that eventually some of Olson’s land on the East Twin River was sold to Charles Tisch who built a sawmill and gristmill. It was said that after Olsons’ home burned down in 1862, they exchanged their land for Charles Tisch’s farm. Tisch paid the Olsons an additional $20. From then on, the area was known as Tisch or Tisch’s Mills.

Another Olson - Anton -  also came from Norway, however from Valders. In his earlier years, he was a lake sailor. His wife sailed with him and did the cooking for the crew, while caring for their daughter whose early years were spent on the ship. It was said that Olson’s ship hit a buoy somewhere near Kewaunee and sank, thus Olson settled near Tisch Mills and began farming, although he maintained his sea-going skills. If men needed rope spliced, Olson was the man to do it. He was instrumental in the organization of the telephone company, having the switchboard operated by his daughter in his home. Anton Olson donated land for the second school, built in 1889.

Eventually, there were so many Olsons that they were marrying each other. September 1918 saw a Norwegian wedding when Meta Olson married Orrin Olsen. When the “write up” appeared in the paper, guests were listed. Included were many more Olsens and Olsons. Witnessing the ceremony performed by Rev. O.K. Aspeseth at Sandy Bay Norwegian Church were those named Birkedal, Peterson, Jensen, Thompson, Knutson, Jacobsen, and Johnson.

Norwegian Lutheran Church of Sandy Bay was incorporated in 1886. It was built on the county line road about a mile west of the lake. Located on the southwest corner of Section 35 on County Highway BB in Carlton in 1893, the church held services until 1953, thus serving the community for about 60 years. It was torn down in the 1960s when the road was widened. Services were bi-weekly and conducted by pastors from Manitowoc. During September 1915, Sandy Bay Norwegian Church offered Norwegian and English services with Rev. O.K. Aspeseth in charge. Sandy Bay Norwegian Church was affiliated with the Franklin Lutheran Church in Section 25 of Franklin. Sandy Bay Church had a choir in April 1896 when a “singing society” was organized at the church. Meeting twice each month, the Enterprise pointed out  the group’s progress.

Sandy Bay Cemetery was located at the corner of the NE ¼ of Section 26, on Highway 42, a mile and a quarter north of the Manitowoc-Kewaunee County line. It was also known as St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery, that congregation being formed in 1869 and disbanding in 1947. One hundred years after its founding, the cemetery was turned over to Carlton Township in 1969.

Church and cemetery locations are a bit confusing on the plat maps. The 1876 plat map shows a church at the SW corner of the SW 1/4 of Section 25. A cemetery is next to the church, but it is in the SE 1/4 of the NE 1/4 of Section 26. The 1895 plat map shows a church where the cemetery was show in 1876.

The 1895 map shows a church at the NE corner of the SE 1/4 of Section 25 in the Town of Franklin. When the religious Norwegians built Franklin Lutheran Church, with a cemetery next to it, it was a mile west and a mile and a half north of Tisch Mills. Destroyed by fire from a bolt of lightning in 1954, the church was never rebuilt. In the horse and buggy days, a minister came from Manitowoc about once a month - a 20-mile trip that necessitated an overnight stay. Norwegians joined the Bohemians who were settling the Town of Franklin, and Paul Hoverson was one of the Norwegians who served in Franklin offices in addition to serving in the State Assembly for two years.

Thomas Gullikson/Gullickson was a pioneer who settled in Carlton in 1857. When he died in 1920, he was living on the farm he settled on immigration, a farm then owned by his son-in-law Anton Olson. Gullickson  was said to have remarkable stories of pioneer life in Kewaunee County, although it appears that his stories do not live on in print. When he was buried in the Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery in Franklin, Gullikson’s pall bearers included other Norwegians, Tollef Jorgensen, Knute Olson, Ole Holderson, and Charles Olson. Knutsons also lived in Franklin, and their names are found in the Franklin Norwegian Lutheran Cemetery.

In December 1860, one John Olsen Otien of Carlton wrote to the editor of the Emigranten, one of the earliest and most prominent of the Norwegian newspapers in Wisconsin. Emigranten (The Emigrant) was located at the corner of King and Webster Streets in Madison. It was one of the many publications that helped immigrants keep abreast of news in their own language.

The newspapers provided fellowship and connections in a day without radios, telephones, televisions, computers, and the social media of 2021, but in 1860, it was Otien’s letter that spoke about Kewaunee County Norwegians. Otien told the editor that Norwegian settlement began in the Town of Carlton about 5 ½ years earlier, so possibly in summer of 1854. By 1860, there were 50 families trying to farm. However, farming came slowly as Carlton was densely forested. First, the trees had to come down. Otien said it was the hope of a free home and a better future that helped the pioneers endure. When Otien wrote, he said their pastor, Jacob Aall Ottesen, had moved to Dane County. Even so, the community laid the cornerstone during the summer with hopes to be in the new church during the winter. Otien said the Norwegians looked forward to a Manitowoc pastor serving them four times a year.

Organizing went on for a long time. The Enterprise of July 27, 1907, reported that Wisconsin Norwegians were asked to join an international organization for fraternal purposes. Promoting closer connections between those in the new county and the fatherland, part of the mission was to protect the rights of Norwegian-American citizens and help then navigate their way in the commercial world. It was expected that hundreds of Kewaunee County Norwegians would join. It was a surprise to some that Kewaunee County was home to hundreds of Norwegians. As late as November 1930, the comment was made that, a “babel of tongues” from North Europe was voiced by emigrants from the countries around the waters of the North Sea and the Baltic.

Norwegians in Kewaunee County affected the foodstuff economy. Was it Norwegians who prompted sales of Hutchinson’s Cough Cure? Druggists C. & J. Roberts were advertising it in the fall of 1884 and made it available at their drug store.

Ahnapee Record didn't seem to carry herring advertising, but the paper did carry articles about Plumb and Nelson's stock, which could be found at their stores in Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Appleton, and Sturgeon Bay. Plumb and Nelson said their prices were so fair that nobody could "attend to your business" as promptly as they could. In early 1883, Plumb and Nelson said thet sold the finest Holland Herrings at $1.20 a keg. If one only wanted fine herring, it was $1.00 a keg. Settling for "good" herring was even less at 75 cents a keg. Norwegian anchovies were going for 35 cents a quart. One hundred years later, Norwegians were eating anchovies on their Italian pizza. Lefse, a bread made from potatoes and baked flat, fed the Norwegians on their ocean voyage and was always a part of their diet. In more recent years, lefse has become a delicacy that is most always served at Christmas. If one doesn't have a Norwegian baker in the family, one that can purchase lefse at many specialty shops, such as Weinke's Farm Market north of Algoma on Highway S, and supermarkets such as Festival Foods.

Norwegians coming into Manitowoc County usually stayed there or went into southern Kewaunee County. However, there were those who went north to Door County, settling in the Town of Clay Banks. Some went farther north in Door County to settle among other Scandinavians.

To learn more about Norwegian immigration to Wisconsin, check Door County Historical Society's site to find out about Norwegian Day, scheduled for mid-May at the Hans and Bertha Hanson House on Utah Street, just east of its intersection with Highway 42-57, in Sturgeon Bay. The restored house offers examples of Norwegian construction during 1857. Today - over 160 years later - it is said many of the joints "are still so tight you cannot slip a knife between the logs." The day will showcase all things Norwegian and have something for all.

*Note: Known as Kewaunee Enterprise, the paper had its beginnings in 1859 as Kewaunee Enterprize. The spelling changed to Enterprise in 1865.

Jacob Aall Ottesen and John Olsen Otien are two whos surnames reflect Norwegian naming patterns where a farm name is used after a patronymic name to distinguish themselves. WSHS says the name servered much like a postal address everytime they moved.

 Sources: Ahnapee Record; Algoma Record Herald; Door County Advocate; Here Comes the Mail: Post Offices of Kewaunee County; Kewaunee Enterprize/Enterprise; Wing Histories; BLM online.

Kewaunee County Ice Storms: 1922 & 2022

If the ice storm on February 21-22 held off for only two more days, it would have been exactly one hundred years since newspaper headlines screamed what residents knew by just glancing out the window. It was written in 1922 that Wisconsin experienced its biggest ice storm ever. But what was “ever?” “Ever” in Kewaunee County would date to May 1852 when the county was  split off from Door. Since the Enterprise started publishing in 1859, “ever” might have started them.

The 1922 storm started out much as the 2022 storm did. Both dawned with a day before that was mild, but windy. It was 50 degrees on Sunday in 2022. The next day started off normally in both 1922 and 2022, but then the rain started. There was sleet, more rain, snow, thunder and lightning in no particular order, but the kinds of weather kept changing. The difference was that in 1922, the storm went on for four days.

TV channels began running closures during the late afternoon of February 21, 2022, while in 1922, folks looked outdoors to make decisions. Most still had horses, and who’d subject a horse to such weather when it wasn’t necessary?

One-hundred years apart, folks looked out the window on the morning of February 22^nd, or 24^th, to see snow and ice sticking to the trees, fences and whatever else was in the yard. Both years saw more snow and ice throughout the day. The biggest difference in the one hundred years was that in 1922 the heavy ice broke tree branches which landed on the ice coated wires and poles, ensuring that wires kept snapping until the storm was over. There was devastation in Kewaunee and fallen wires were scattered all over the city. About thirty light poles snapped, and who knows how many telephone poles came down?

Wisconsin property loss was in the millions with power, telephone, telegraph, and transportation companies bearing the brunt. It was felt repairing Wisconsin telephone lines would cost at least two million. Those who had electric service through the Kewaunee Electric Light Plant were told it would be at least 30 days before power could be restored. A little more than two weeks after the storm, the Peninsular Service Co. completed work on their lines near Kewaunee. That company’s damage estimate was about $11,000 as that loss was the heaviest on the Kewaunee line. Kewaunee’s mercantiles selling lamps, flashlights, candles, lanterns, and lamp chimneys provided a bright spot in the local economy. Those who were just beginning to experience what electricity had to offer were back to the “old days.”

Wisconsin Public Service had eighty men repairing damage about three miles north of Kewaunee near Fred Leudtke’s in Pierce where twenty-two poles were down. Frozen ground made digging holes to sink the new poles difficult. Without the equipment of 100 years later, it took two men an entire day to dig one hole. The damage near Luedtke’s was due to a lack of buffer from the strong Lake Michigan winds.

Kewaunee’s telephone company thought it was looking at the same schedule as the electric companies, however rural telephones were said to be crippled. Both the Ryan and Horseshoe Telephone Companies’ lines and poles were almost completely down. Ryan said it would be spring before any attempt would be made to restore service. Kodan's telephone company saw heavy losses as most poles were damaged. As it was, so many repairmen - including some from Michigan - came to the area that hotels were booming. On March 17, Algoma Record Herald announced the city's telephone service was restored. It would take weeks more in rural areas. What made things more difficult for the city, and the rural areas, was that there was no fund set aside for emergencies.

The loss in area shade trees and orchard trees was unimaginable. Mr. Shestock said his orchard near Algoma was probably damaged for the year, however the J.A. Dworak orchard near Casco escaped with minor problems. The Enterprise said Sturgeon Bay orchards were destroyed, however Algoma Record said a week later that Sturgeon Bay orchards came through the storm unscathed. The State said ice sheets covering fields of winter wheat, rye, clover, and alfalfa were smothering the fields. Without power, if an industry functioned, it was by their own manpower.

The 1922 ice storm interrupted mail service. With telephone and telegraph wires down, communities were isolated, however most adults had spent much of their lives living that way. One-hundred years later, the loss of TV, computers, and cell phone access is enough to melt their grandchildren. Five days after the 1922 storm, the first train left Kewaunee. It was carrying ninety-two sacks of out-going mail. Since February 22, 1922 was George Washington's birthday, mail service was cancelled, however the net day the storm had started and mail service was again curtailed.

The last train reaching Algoma was the night prior to the 1922 storm. Snow and ice buried the tracks to such an extent that the railroad track clearing equipment was powerless. It was a herculean effort by every available man who worked with picks and shovels from Thursday into Monday to clear the tracks.

Several Slovan people were surprised on the Sunday following the storm when they walked to the track to see how the crew was doing cutting up the ice. Rather than watching, they were given shovels and picks to help dig. In all, 24 Slovan men, and two teams, helped and got to Casco Junction the next day, Monday. Reports were that all had sore backs. Green Bay was without railroad service for three days. Salesmen marooned in Algoma traveled to Luxemburg via sleighs, hoping to get on a train there. Algoma residents trying to return to the city were caught in Luxemburg where they remained for a few days.

Heavy snow and ice caused the warehouse behind Algoma Foundry and Machine Company to collapse. Although the loss was small because the contents were saved, the entire warehouse was torn down and rebuilt. Following the storm, Street Commissioner Kinnard spent days sanding the treacherous sidewalks. Walking was not safe.

A heavy load of snow and ice caused the cave-in at hardware and farm machinery merchant, Joseph Drossart & Sons’, machine shed. Numerous hay loaders, mows, and side delivery rakes were in the shed, but were not damaged. It took several men to accomplish the cleanup and repair the roof. The cave-in amounted to hundreds which was not covered by insurance.

The day following the worst of the storm, Thursday, February 25, 1922, the sun rose “bright and beautiful,” a scene hard to describe. Icy though things were, Kewaunee residents were out enjoying a fairyland. The Enterprise felt that those who did not see the beauty amid the destruction would probably not see anything like that for 50 years.

By St. Patrick’s Day 1922, the ice was breaking up and blockading along the Kewaunee River. Clyde Bridge was in danger of being swept away. A week later, ice in the Ahnapee River began breaking up when a huge ice jam formed against the 4^th Street Bridge, which was in danger of being lost. Dynamite was used to break the jam while men worked for an entire day to clear a passage in the river.

Newspaper reports in 1922 say the storm was the worst in the Fox Valley, Oshkosh, Appleton and Chilton, and those places suffered losses of over a million dollars. The City of Kewaunee was the hardest hit area in Kewaunee County. When the Enterprise said residents wouldn’t see a storm like that for 50 years, it was wrong. It took just two days short of one hundred years. When one hundred years marks a special occasion, cake and coffee are generally part of marking the anniversary. Not this time: it was cuss words.

Accessed on February 22, 2022, https://www.weather.gov says the storm of 1922 still stands out as Wisconsin’s worst ice storm. And, as Little Orphan Annie sings, "The sun'll come out tomorrow..."

Sources: Algoma Record Herald, Kewaunee Enterprise, https://www.weather.gov

From Newman to Bearcat: Ahnapee/Algoma and 4th & Navarino

 

Bearcat's No More- February 2022

When Andy LaFond left Algoma a dozen or so years ago, a long history of commercial fishing went with him. The fire at Bearcat’s during the summer of 2021, and the subsequent decision to close the store, was the demise of another long history. The fire at Bearcat’s was not the location’s first. In 1883, there was another conflagration, one that affected local business.

The fish in the river and in the lake were a food source for the first three settling families who arrived in the wildness – today’s  Algoma - in the week ending on July 4, 1851, just as the fish were for the Potawatomi people along the lakeshore for eons. Almost 170 years later, those who were not fisherfolk themselves knew where to get fresh fish. And that was in town.

Bearcat’s was a destination, and its closing affects the local economy. Its location is historic. Dating nearly to first settlement, the location had an economic prominence, which waxed and waned in all that time, but economic nonetheless.

A potash ash maker by trade, Jonathon Newman opened his potashery on the site that became Bearcat’s, the northwest corner of 4^th and Navarino in the Fiebrantz Plat, which appears to be Algoma’s smallest plat extending, from 4^th Street to the east side of 6^th Street, from the north side of Navarino to the river.

Newman’s potashery business and Hall’s lumber mills were the first industrial ventures in Wolf River, Algoma’s first name. Newman opened his potash factory in the late 1850s, however business was not very successful. By 1865, Michael Luckenbach had purchased the property, converting it to a tannery, although the potashery kettles remained for years and figured into the play of area kids. 

Two years later, in 1867, the Luckenbach-Melchoir Co. was running ads in the Enterprise although ownership records indicate the property was owned by Luckenbach, Melchoir, and Peter Anhauser. John Van Meverden, who had been employed by Luckenbach, bought half interest in the tannery, which was refitted it with new machinery. Van Meverdan and Luckenbach were co-owners until August 1873 when they dissolved their partnership. Van Meverdan became the tannery's sole owner.

The Record informed readership that Van Meverdan was turning out fine leather goods in addition to selling plastering hair, but then Van Meverdan's business caught fire in July 1883. Luckily, the firemen were able to extinguish the fire before the business was a total loss. Although the fire's origins were not clear, it was felt that coal and ashes falling into the liquid mixing vat was the cause. Insurance covered damages estimated to fall between $200 and $300, which translates to 7,000 to 8,000 dollars in 2022.

Meverden continued tannery operations until he closed and sold the property in April 1889. During the same year, city voters passed a bond issue in favor of relocating the Kelsey Fly Net Co.to the site. Prior to its relocation, George Kelsey, Sr. briefly operated on the second floor of the panel factory and in Marr’s Lace factory. Once again, the tannery was outfitted with new machinery, but this time for making flynets, which were made by fastening cords on a loom and tying the cords to make a net. The nets had dangling strings and when put on a horse, the nets shake and drive flies away.

Flynets

Kelsey wasn’t in business there for long and left the 4^th and Navarino site by 1895. After standing in disuse from then on, the building - the oldest of the city’s pioneer manufactories - was torn down by Frank Novak in February 1915. February 2022 saw Bearcat’s lot completely bare.

It was in 1939 that Cities Service distributor Henry G. Muench announced the construction of a gas station on the corner. It was operated by Leon Kashik. A year later, George Brey took over. Brey had the business until about 1965 when Ralph Scherer rented and operated the station until 1974. In 1987 Chuck and Cindy Bohman opened Toot’s Fish and Galley, which offered retail sales of fish, fish plates, sandwiches, and deli items. Norman and Rita Paul bought the property in 1990 when Mrs. Paul had an H & R Block office. Since Linda and Jerry Berkovitz purchased the property in 1996, Bearcat’s Fish Shop has been a fixture on the corner until the fire. Bill and Nicole Smith bought the shop in 2012 and owned it at the time of the fire.

For the first time in almost 170 years, one can no longer purchase fresh fish in Algoma. But one can no longer purchase potash, have leather tanned in town, or purchase Cities Service gas either. However, in the event you are building and want to do your own plastering, John Van Meverdan left his 1888 recipe for enough plaster to cover 100 sq. yards of wall: 8 bushels of lime, 16 bushels of sand, and 1 bushel of horsehair, but it might be hard to find that much horsehair!

Note: The surname Van Meverdan eventually became Meverden.

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record Herald, An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Commercial History of Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol. 1, Kewaunee Enterprise. The flynets are a portion of an oil painting and used with permission.

Ahnapee Baptist Church: Trouble Right Here in River City

 

Today’s Algoma is a faith-filled community, many identifying with one of the area church congregations. The community was Kewaunee County’s first permanently settled place during the week that ended on July 4, 1851. Early settlers’ religious needs were met by itinerant clergy known as circuit riders, and congregations organized quickly. In 1858 a Lutheran church was built on the north side of the river. Catholics organized the following year and built a church in 1863. A German Methodist Episcopal congregation was formed on the county line in 1861 while  Methodist church was built at 4^th and Fremont in 1863. In 1873, the Baptists had organized and were meeting on 3rd and Clark, By late 1874, it seemed - with the exception of the Episcopal church which had yet to be organized - they were all building.

Althought it was Abraham Hall who instigated the Baptist congregation, it was the blind preacher, Rev. George P. Guild, who did the organizing. The small congregation was made up with many of those credited with much of the community’s early history. The small congregation that disbanded in 1894 brought “trouble right here in river city.”

Trouble in Ahnapee’s fledgling Baptist church turned to scandal in May 1881 when the remaining congregation wanted financial reports following the departure of the minister. Where was all the money raised for the Union Church that was never built? Membership was unable to get satisfaction regarding finances before the first minister left. Distrust followed his successor, and depending on which story is to be believed, the congregation was on-again-off again for years until it finally disbanded in 1894. Animosity affected townsfolk whether they were members or not, and it remains unclear if the financial matters were ever sorted out.

Ahnapee’s Baptist congregation was organized in 1873 by Rev. George P. Guild who immediately led the efforts to build a church that stood at 3^rd and Clark Streets. Church women’s groups worked tirelessly over the years to raise funds through oyster suppers, maple syrup events, Christmas bazaars 4^th of July festivals and more.

Rev. J. Banta was serving the Methodists of Ahnapee and Carlton when Guild came to begin his Ahnapee ministry. In March 1974, Banta ran a logging bee on itinerant minister Hela Carpenter’s land to cut timber for the new Ahnapee Methodist church at 4^th and Fremont. The April 16, 1874 Record quoted the Milwaukee Christian Statesman’s interview of Rev. J. Banta who told about those in Ahnapee and Carlton crying for the love of God and forgiveness, desiring salvation. He told about the numbers baptized at both places, some who had been in habits of drunkenness and tippling. Banta said the Baptist brethren at Ahnapee were having good success under the leadership of Bro. George P. Guild, a blind pastor who was aided by his wife, laboring in the Lord to save the place. It sounded as if Ahnapee was a den of iniquity. The Catholics and Lutherans of the place were not mentioned, however those congregations were organized nearly 15 years earlier. Interesting as it is, the Methodist Rev. Carpenter filled in for Baptist pastors.  The adjacent picture post card from the blogger's collection predates the 1937 fire that destroyed the building, the once Baptit Church at the southwest corner of 4th and Fremont.

After a ministry of about five years, a May 1878 the Record noted Rev. Guild was in town visiting before leaving for his new home in Portage. Having resided in Ahnapee for about 5 years, the paper noted his accomplishments in building up the church to the point where it could sustain a pastor, an attraction for drawing a new pastor. Guild was wished well as he went on to serve as a general missionary in Wisconsin.

A year and a half later, October 1879, former Ahnapee pastor Rev. Guild led the Wisconsin State Baptist Anniversary at Fox Lake. Untiring efforts in Ahnapee were mentioned. The Standard, a religious paper, mentioned Rev. John Churchill of Ahnapee, who followed Guild, while saying there was no Baptist preacher between Ahnapee and Milwaukee. That paper said the poor people in the “new country” were without preaching for years. The paper told about Churchill’s trip in the northern part of the peninsula where he walked nine miles to and back for an appointment, the mention of which “touched the hearts” of the ”good sisters” who began raising funds for a horse for Churchill. At the close of the convention sermon, “Brother Churchill” was called forward and presented a cup filled with money for the purchase of a horse. Brother Churchill said he felt “his cup had runover.” By October 1879, the Baptists were meeting in a new building at the southwest corner of 4^th and Fremont, now the site of Algoma Public Library.

When Guild arrived in 1873, he found 9 Baptists from Ahnapee and one from Kewaunee. He baptized 27,  and 16 more joined by letter. Eighteen of them either left the church or died by the time Guild was leaving town. The first serious trouble came when remaining congregants wanted a financial report. But Guild left and members never got one.

Controversaries within the Baptist congregation exploded during 1881, when the Record published a letter, signed by one who called himself/herself “Justice,” taking issue at goings-on at the Baptist Church. The letter pointed to the blind preacher, and to accuse a blind preacher of corruption within the church was something few would do. The facts – at least as they were known to be by author of a letter to the editor - were carefully laid out in a series of missives. The paper called the affair a “confidence game.”

Justice’s information came from a trustee and one who served on the building committee of the “Union Church.” The church was called a failure although the trustee disputed “failure.” In the year 1862-63 Presbyterian Elder Donaldson periodically preached in the schoolhouse. Ten years later the Baptist edifice was built. Area population was small, times were hard, money was scarce, and because there were a few Presbyterians, a few Methodists and a few Baptists, the proposition was made to build a Union church. Within a half hour, enough money was raised to build a church estimated to cost from $800 to $1000.

In mid-May 1881, Baptist Church treasurer William Hilton wrote a letter to Mr. Barnes, editor of the Record, disputing what he called a malicious letter from “Justice.” However, Hilton did write about the "hypocrite preacher who prays and takes opportunities to pick pockets." He called the preacher a sneak thief and said the Sunday school was better before.

Hilton pointed out the scarceness of money and the decision to build a Union Church for Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, but said the Methodists cancelled their representation in the Union Church and wanted to abandon the idea when W. B. Selleck said he would donate a site to the Methodists and personally pay what could not be raised to build. The Union Church organizing ended and subscription papers were burned.

Hilton said the monies raised had gone into the minister’s pocket and there was no accountability. Hilton said he did not care how the pastor spent his own money, although charged him with immorality and dishonesty which was an “open secret” in Ahnapee. The preacher left when there were only 8 active members left, going on to cause more trouble, and Hilton felt there was “honor among thieves” as a “Christian virtue.”

Hilton also claimed Guild failed to keep records. He said Guild never built a church and that folks were dissatisfied because he had no energy. Guild was said to build a house with some of the money, and when Hilton accused him of stealing church money, there was no denial. Hilton questioned money he was owed by Guild who said Hilton’s money got credited to A. Hall & Co.

Guild left and was replaced by Rev. Churchill. In April 1881, it became known that Rev. Churchill was resigning as pastor of the Baptist church although some wanted to retain him as an evangelist. The Guild accounting spilled over to Churchill and there were questions in the congregation, such as who would control the church and whether divine services would continue in the building. Churchill was engaged for another 6 months and at the first evening service following the re-engagement, he gave his reasons for staying while he had fully intended to leave. He said he remained not to cause discord, but because he had agreed to stay for a specified sum and felt it was wrong not to accept the call.

By mid-1881, Abraham Hall's brother Simon Hall got into the act, casting slurs on the character of “Public Sentiment,” another of the writers to the paper. Editor Barnes took issue with Mr. Hall waging war on a private individual who wrote on behalf of an outraged community. Barnes said the paper wanted to be “counted out” in the private warfare among citizens and continued saying that every communication in support of the preacher “simply adds another nail to his coffin.” The paper went on saying, “Truth is mighty and will prevail, therefore if he is innocent the fact will be established in due time and his friends need not tear their hair on that account." Barnes said the paper was not prejudiced in the matter but did have the welfare of the community at heart thus would always labor for protection of the right and suppression of the wrong.

Hall said the former pastor elevated the moral and religious standing in the community. Hall questioned the credibility of Public Sentiment while hoping Editor Barnes would not throw his letter in the waste basket. Hall said he was not a member of the church and had no religious ties with it.

Public Sentiment said $8,000 was raised for a new church although Hall declared he got copies of the subscriptions and a total of 34 people donated $1,238.75, but not all in cash. The balance was paid in material and labor, but what is the value of that, he asked? Hall understood the Ladies’ Christian Association contributed a large amount, making the total about $1500. He felt it was the untiring work of the ladies and the perseverance of the blind preacher that built the church. According to Hall, the church was built under disadvantages when contributions of labor and material could not be obtained when wanted. There was no competent master mechanic to direct the labor, therefore parts of the interior were torn down and rebuilt. A lack of funds, labor and materials called for the necessity of building paper, also called tar paper. Hall said the church was built piecemeal and went on to list expenses and sources of payment. The Methodist, Episcopal and Lutheran churches were built with the same kind of contributions, many in contributions of material or labor. Costs were excessive for the Baptist church, but it was the swindling. When Guild left, the congregation gave him a recommendation. Nobody questioned anything until he left town.

Hall called attention to more than blindness, saying Mr. Guild had an invalid family to support while his health was in decline. He thought the preacher had more friends after the “tide of calumny” than before, however if there were charges, they needed to be brought forth and dealt with. They were wounding an already inflicted man.

Early in May 1881. Rev. John Churchill had served the Baptist church for three years when he said he was giving his last sermon. The large crowd paid close attention, rather than the usual whispering of the young, which said the Record, was ill-breeding and bad manners. Churchill’s text concerning every man’s work was taken from 1st Corinthians.

Churchill discussed responsibilities of a minister and his flock, pointing out that every minister’s work would stand the test of time set forth in scripture. He acknowledged his resignation because of the differences in opinion on the transactions connected to building the church. It was impossible for a divided church to be successful. Christian churches owe fairness to their sister churches and when he became pastor, he was given to understand there were 45 members with a church that cost $4000, but he couldn’t see where the money was spent. That the church was misrepresented was unfair to him. The congregation felt it could not raise money to keep the pastor on, but they hoped he could serve other denominations.

When a May 26, 1881 letter to the editor was written, its author questioned the information from the preacher saying only 34 of the 800 English speakers in Ahnapee and the area contributed toward the building. The church itself had 53 members when the pastor left, prompting the possibility of over one-third of the members not contributing anything. It kept going. Churchilll lacked information.

The letter’s author claimed to have a list of over 200 who donated, some several times, though he knew his list was incomplete. The author said the preacher (Guild) failed to keep records while doing the collecting and spending himself. While Guild – referred to as Simple Simon – said he collected $193 in cash, the author had concrete evidence that at least $1300 was donated, however it was felt the total was more like $1800-2000. It was shown that the church was $500 in debt while pointing out that vouchers, treasurer’s reports, and so on had disappeared. Contention was that the fraud bilked other churches out of money because those of other faiths charitably offered monetary assistance for the Union church.

The letter writer identified himself as “Public Sentiment,” reflecting the outraged and swindled public who had the “right to ventilate the rascalities of a dishonest, lecherous old fraud” who pretended to fulfill the gospel. Furthermore, “Under the guise of his sacred calling, he has swindled men out of their money under the pretenses of building a church, and entered the homes of our people and insulted unsuspecting women.”

Public Sentiment said the public press was right to expose the duplicity of the minister – a public man – who set himself up as a teacher of morality and religion, and thus thought he was excused from accountability or criticism. The minister countered with his integrity being questioned until he left Ahnapee.

It was said there were substantiated charges in Milwaukee as well, however they were suppressed because of politics. Public Sentiment felt the Guild left Ahnapee because he couldn’t steal anymore and that it was getting “too hot” for him.

While money was raised in every conceivable way, Public Sentiment felt the exact cost of the Baptist Church would probably never be told. When “Simple Simon” left, the church was not finished and the “discordant and unharmonious” membership was left with a $500 mortgage and a floating debt of $200.

The Guild animosity kept on going and nearly spilled into the Enterprise which made it known in June 1881 that it received a letter about the “Baptist muddle” in Ahnapee but would not publish it.

Rev. Churchill seemed caught in the middle and, no doubt, had it when he gave his second farewell address in mid-July 1881. Churchhill again based his remarks on Corinthians - this time 2nd - the 14^th verse of Chapter 13. The paper said though the remarks were brief, they were well chosen and commanded strict attention. It went on to say he was leaving in a spirit of good-will and would probably permanently settle in Iowa after a stint in Sheboygan. Those sorry to see him leave Ahnapee felt at least he would no longer be venomously attacked as the target of unscrupulous acts.

By 1894, the congregation had disbanded and its building sold to Hanford Hall who turned it into a hotel known as the Dormer House. For a time, it was used as a furniture store before becoming Door-Kewaunee Normal School. The building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt. In 1972, the building was sold to the City of Algoma and is currently used as Algoma Public Library and city offices including the police department.

1950s postcard of Door Kewaunee County College; now Algoma's municipal offices' center

Sources: Ahnapee Record, An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Commercial History of Algoma, WI, Vol. 1, Kewaunee Enterprise. Postcards are in the blogger's collection.

 

Barbed Wire & Ahnapee's Tifft and Hay Hardware Store

Barbed wire is something few have on their things-to-research-list, although barbed wire had an impact on settlement of the west and farming in general. The upbeat Farmer and the Cowman Must be Friends from the Rogers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma, puts fences into Broadway musical theater. Barbed wire has a history.

Such wire is something we see little of today. Rural America remembers it while their city slicker cousins know little about it. Wikipedia tells us one Joseph Glidden of DeKalb, Illinois, applied for a patent in October 1873. His patent? Glidden developed a new kind of wiring using sharp barbs, and that wiring changed the face and the future of farming. The wire was really a cable formed by twisting two or more wires, and then twisting barbs, within a few inches of each other, around that.

Barbed wire caught on fast and by late January 1879, a bill was introduced into the Wisconsin Assembly revising statutes relating to barbed wire in fences. Ahnapee’s Tifft and Hay hardware store was on the cutting edge. Within a few years, they had the Door County market as well.

Barbed wire was far better for controlling cattle than smooth wire, log fences or hedges. Since barbed wire fences only called for fence posts, it was popular on the plains where wood was in short supply. It meant Wisconsin fences could be built more easily following the Great Fire of 1871, but the wire was expensive. Wikipedia puts its cost at $20 per hundred pounds in 1874, $10 in 1880 and dropping to $2 just before the turn of the century when technology and falling steel prices brought costs down. During the mid-1880s, said the Enterprise, ¾ of U.S. barbed wire companies formed a pool to keep prices up. That price-fixing raised charges 15% while claiming selling prices were ten cents per hundred lower than costs, however the companies had business and were making money rather than going into foreclosure.

According to the May 13, 1886 Advocate, Door County farmers had discovered the superiority of barbed wire fencing thus bringing new importance to the hardware trade, most notably to Tifft & Hay, the Ahnapee hardware store that launched a Sturgeon Bay branch. Until Tifft and Hay opened the new store, the few Sturgeon Bay merchants selling the wire charged 8 or 9 cents a pound. Tifft and Hay brought Ahnapee prices, charging two cents less, or the same price charged in their Ahnapee store. Then they lowered the price again.

When Hay ordered a half ton of wire, he felt it would last a year or, perhaps, two. By the time Hay got the invoice, he sold a few more tons. The Advocate said that the cheap prices encouraged the farmers to give away timber and buy wire.

The following year, Mr. Hay ordered more wire and needed two shipments. From February to the 1^st of May, he sold ten tons. The Advocate pointed to men throughout the county buying large quantities of the wire. Some bought as much as a ton each.

Barbed wire faced deceptive advertising in the late 1800s just as other products did during the shortages of the 2020-2022 Covid pandemic. In 1886, false advertising said prices had risen significantly, but as the Advocate pointed out, it was not the fact. Throughout the summer, Tifft & Hay advertized being the sole agents for the popular Kelly steele barbed wire and at 1885 prices.

What about Charles Tifft and John H. Hay who were partners, as well as brothers-in-law, in a hardware venture?

In 1880 the men, who had just become brothers-in-law, bought a red brick building on the northwest corner of 4^th and Steele, on Lot 6, Block 8, Eveland Plat, from George Roberts for $3,000, and then built a coal shed behind their building. By September 1881, they moved their immense stock of nails, iron, paints, oils, and shelf hardware into the section used by H.W. Bates as his drug store, and broke ground for two-story, 23’ x30’ addition for the storage of heavy hardware. Although the new building was frame, plans were for it to be brick veneered in 1882. The second story was eventually used for rental offices. Bates did not discontinue his business but moved it into the brick store owned by Stebbins and Decker on the north side of Steele between 2^nd and 3^rd Streets, now the west section of Clay-On-Steele.

Charles Tifft and John Hay quickly made inroads and an impact with the farming cmmunity. As early as February 1882, papers often mentioned them in Door County on hardware business or the numbers of Door County customers flocking to the Ahnapee store. Tifft and Hay said they were a headquarters for low cost barbed wire, and they were.

Business was good and in September 1889, Tifft & Hay moved into their newly completed building at the corner of Cedar and St. John Streets in Sturgeon Bay, now  the southwest corner of 3^rd and Kentucky. Business remained good in Ahnapee. Hay ran the Sturgeon Bay branch while Tifft managed Ahnapee’s. In 1891, Tifft and Hay’s Ahnapee branch was building cheese manufacturing systems, as was the city’s popular Leopold Meyer. That same year each company manufactured 6 or 7 outfits each, making for 12 or 14 cheese factorys’ equipment coming from Ahnapee alone. By the end of that year, the Ahnapee firm was the second city mercantile to be lit with electric lights. The company was on a roll.

Business continued, but things changed following a depressed economy when the February 8, 1894 Advocate pointed to Mr. Hay as unethical. As chairman of the fire commission, he directed a piping order to his firm, Tifft & Hay, without seeking other bids. The paper said ordinances forbade aldermen from an interest in what was furnished to the city, said Hay made 15 to 20% on the deal, and said it needed investigation. There was another issue because the company was not paid by those they carried on credit. On February 17, 1894, Door County Democrat published a letter in which Mr. Hay thanked the public for the business they brought. Hay wrote that the depression of the previous year caused business failures due to carrying so much customer credit. Hay said the company was going forward to serve customers on a different and solid basis, and would not offer credit beyond 60 days. As he pointed out, a business could not survive selling products in January and February and then waiting till fall for payment. Hay said he was correcting an incorrect system of doing business.

Just two months later, on April 19, Tifft and Hay dissolved their partnership as hardware merchants in both Ahnapee and Sturgeon Bay, Mr. Tifft assumed the assets, debts, and liabilities of the Ahnapee business while Mr. Hay assumed the same in Sturgeon Bay.

The Ahnapee building burned in 1896 and in 1900, Tifft sold the proberty to Mr. Charles. In that time, Tifft continued business, still selling farm imolements and Sherwin-Williams' paint. In April 1896 he was elected mayor of Ahnapee. He and his wife eventually went west where he died near Portland. 

John Hay died on October 25, 1898 while he was on business in Oshkosh. His obituary recounted his life saying, following his Civil War service, he joined his parents who had relocated to Manitowoc, where he found employment as a traveling man for farm machinery. Mr. Hay and his wife Susan moved to Ahnapee in 1879 where he joined his brother-in-law Charles B. Tifft in the hardware business. When the men opened the Sturgeon Bay branch in 1884, Hay moved there to manage it. The Advocate called him a man of tact and judgement who grew the business rapidly.

Barbed wire use in the two counties kept on, although sometimes brought sensational news. It was July 1907 when the Kewaunee Enterprise alerted readership that barbed wire fences served as a lightning rods and if livestock drifted toward such a fence during a storm, there were chances that the fence would be struck by lightning. Because animal bodies were such good conductors of electricity, results could be fatal. The paper went on to point out that the barbs worked like batteries to collect charges and went on to report animal losses, due to the wire, in other states. It was advised to run a wire perpendicular to the post and into the ground. Such a “lightening rod” was much cheaper than lightening running down the legs of cattle. Driving a staple over the barbed wire and the safety wire would save thousands in losses each year. The cost was insignificant compared with the value of a choice animal.

There were other losses from the barbed wire. In April 1914, three Forestville men were in a runaway accident when the horse was frightened and jumped into the ditch, tossing the buggy into a telephone pole and a barbed wire fence. The horse dragged the buggy and the men who were only able to free themselves when the buggy was completely smashed. Aside from the wire scratches, the men escaped from an accident that could have cost their lives.

During World War 1, British army scouts described the barbed wire being used by the Germans in “no man’s land.” It was reported that one night some scouts crawled to the barbed wire, about 10 yards in front of a German machine gun trench. There they tied empty jam tins to the barricade and tied small telephone wires to that before they crawled back to their own lines. When the British began pulling the wire, the tins began to clatter and the Germans started firing in the direction of the noise. The English saw it as a good joke while the Americans said, “It was good tonic for the Tommies.” Ther Germans used about $10,000 worth of ammunition and lost a night’s sleep over the noise made by about 5 shillings worth of jam containers.

Just as other metals, barbed wire was in short supply in World War ll so it was big news in June 1943 when about 20,000 tons of wire with extra long barbs made for military purposes became available. The use of military wire was allowed because of the shortage created by midwestern floods. The War Food Administration was going to release the wire maintaining fair and equitable tretment. There would be quotas according to the June 25 Enterprise. 

One hundred fifty years after its patent, barbed wire is still being used, however electric fences have replaced much of it. 

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Commercial History of Algoma, WI, Vol. 1, Door County Advocate, Door County Democrat, familysearch.org, Kewaunee Enterprise, Wikipedia.

Algoma, Wisconsin: The Ghosts of the Ahnapee River

 

What a sight Ahnapee/Algoma must have been in the days of the wind ships. What it must have been like to witness 12 or 15 -  or even more - schooners riding at anchor in the harbor is nearly impossible to imagine. Today we see scores of fishing boats, and perhaps a sailboat or two, while knowing the likes of the Wren, Industry, Shaw, S. Thal, Whirlwind, Evening Star, Glad Tidings, Sea Star and so many more will never be seen again.

The late 1860s was the heyday of Lake Michigan schooner traffic. As steamers and railroads replaced sailing vessels, they began to disappear. Some were scrapped. Some were burned to the waterline and sunk. Others just deteriorated and sank. That’s what happened to Lady Ellen and Spartan whose final resting places are between the present 2^nd and 4^th Street bridges in Algoma.

Lady Ellen’s history is storied in the annals of Algoma. The Spartan? Not so much. For several generations, the Ellen was remembered by Algoma youngsters such as Jag Haegele, who sat on its gunwales each winter while putting on their ice skates for some after school fun. Spartan came to life years later when Jim Kirsten was making preparations for his campground at the corner of 4^th and Navarino.

Spartan made a significant commercial impact on Ahnapee and beyond, and its resting place seems fitting. As early as 1854, Yates and Wild had a mercantile on Capt. K’s spot. Lots 10 and 11 of Block 3 in the Youngs and Steele Plat of the City of Algoma. There were other owners, the most impressive being Detjen Bros. Planning Mill and Dock which opened in 1870. Just over 20 years later, the company became known as Ahnapee Manufacturing Co. Years later the building served as a flour and feed store and then as an annex for Algoma Net Co. , just across the street to the south.

Lady Ellen lives on in the memories of the retired set who remember part of her peeking out of the Ahnapee River near the southwest side of the 2^nd Street Bridge. Built by respected Civil War hero Major William I. Henry, also Ahnapee’s most noted shipwright, the two-masted Lady Ellen was built of walnut that more than likely came from the area’s virgin timber. Henry built the schooner to join Capt. Bill Nelson’s Whiskey Pete in Capt. John McDonald’s stone trade, however she was used for lumbering operations, fishing and was also one of the Christmas tree ships. Lady Ellen was engaged in Lake Michigan traffic until 1899 when she was put out of business by the steamers. The hardworking Ellen was docked on the north side of the river, about 200 feet west of the 2nd Street Bridge where she eventually rotten and sank. (See below for a description of the photo.)

William I. Henry honed his shipbuilding craft  in his native Scotland. Born in 1820, Henry, the old Ahnapee seaman, was credited by the men of Ahnapee  who carefully observed his Civil War battlefield actions, advances and retreats as saving their lives, Henry served General Sherman who used the shipwright's skills on the famous March to the Sea.

Northeast corner of the point at which the Ahnapee River meets Lake Michigan, 1883

It wasn't only the Ellen. Henry designed the largest ship ever built in Ahnapee, the 105-foot, 173-ton Bessie Boalt. Henry’s shipyard was in a small bay, east of the bottom of Church St., behind what became the end of Michigan Street between Algoma Dowell Co. and Algoma Pallet Co., later Pier 42. Henry’s son William I. Henry, Jr. was another sailor, and he sailed the Ellen for over 25 years, from 1871-1899.

Lesser known is the schooner Spartan which sank in the river on the southeast side of the 4^th St. Bridge near the old Detjen dock. Forgotten until in 1985 when Jim Kersten began improving the lot on which Capt. K’s campground sits, the Spartan languished, deteriorated, and faded into history. But what a significant history the Spartan had.

The Spartan, said the Ahnapee Record in September 1885, was the oldest vessel plying the waters of Lake Michigan. Since construction in Montreal in 1838, the schooner had made all 5 Great Lakes and even sailed the Atlantic. Spartan was the largest schooner on the Great Lakes for many years and one of the best sailors afloat, but at the time of the article, the schooner was laid up in the Ahnapee River, its final resting place.

It was only two months earlier that the Spartan was undergoing repairs in Ahnapee when a kettle of pitch on the cabin stove caught fire. Fortunately, the damage was not severe, but when she was bound for Clay Banks two weeks later, exceptionally fierce winds forced her to seek refuge in Ahnapee’s harbor for two days. At the time, September 1885, the owners could not decide whether to strip the vessel or rebuild it. By the 1^st of October, the nearly 50-year-old, mighty schooner was stripped of everything of value and allowed to decay and sink in the Ahnapee River, or possibly serve as a relic to days gone by. It did. (See Detjen's dock description below.)

That decision was not the end of the Spartan.

During 1890 the Advocate carried an article saying the schooner was being broken up. Three years later the Record editorialized saying that the old Spartan was nearly rotted to the waters’ edge and that if it were not removed then, the work would be far more difficult. In April 1894, the paper again called for removal, this time saying that if much more was cut away from the old boat, it would not be self-supporting and that removal would be quite expensive. The paper felt that a powerful tug could lift what was left at substantial savings. The paper also encouraged the City of Ahnapee to have the job looked at by one of experience. What the paper didn’t say was that the city was doing too much diddling around and its failure to act was costing the taxpayers more as the days went on.

As it worked out, it was Jim Kersten who took care of removing the Spartan in 1986, about one hundred years after the mighty vessel was “laid up.”

It is not only the ghosts of the Lady Ellen and the Spartan that inhabit the Ahnapee River.

In 1899, Algoma Record commented on the dredging going on in preparation for the new 2^nd Street Bridge and mentioned the boats sunk in the river. By then, the lower half of the Spartan’s hull was submerged in mud, although broken pieces of its ribs were sticking up above the water. The hulk of the Lady Ellen was in the water, however all the rigging had been cut away. During blasting, rocks and debris was blown higher than the Ellen’s spars, which remained. The paper said since the useless Lady Ellen presented a “bad appearance,” the “whole outfit” should be taken out of the river. It didn’t happen.

At bit up-river beyond the Spartan was the schooner Tempest. A few rotten timber ends were visible at the turn of 1900. The Tempest also figured prominently during the schooner heydays. Town of Carlton’s James Flynn was one who sailed aboard the small schooner and served as her captain. As a footnote, history says in 1862 during the Civil War Flynn fired the first shot when the “formidable Tennessee” was coming down the river through the Union fleet. Porter was created an admiral following the action. Also sunk in the river was the schooner Belle. Who would have believed that after a month, the vessel was raised, taken out of the river and partially rebuilt? The Belle faded away in the local papers, so what happened to her is conjecture.

Beneath the fire engine platform at the foot of 3^rd Street in 1899 was the rudder of the old river tug Betsey/Betsy. Years earlier, in 1892, the paper said plans for the Betsy’s hull was being torn to pieces to be burned for fuel indicating that tug had been in a state of deterioration for at least 5 years. As early as summer 1887, Betsy’s boiler and engine were sold to C.W. Baldwin. The equipment had a history before being put on the tug. The machinery had belonged to the Evelands who arrived in (then) Wolf River in 1854. Interestingly, A.D. Eveland purchased Capt. Ross’s interest in the boat. The tug was built in the 1860s by Orrin Warner, a founder of what is now Algoma, and Charles Ross, an early resident. The Betsey and her companion tug, the Two Davids, towed scows and rafts up and down the Ahnapee River for years. Two Davids disappeared in the river marsh near the old Forestville sawmill.

An 1899 paper opined that the “relics of bygone navigation at ‘The Mouth’” brings a “tinge of sadness as one views the old fragments and thinks of the busy, happy times when the ties, posts, wood bark and provisions constituted the main articles of commerce at this port.”

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Photo description: As the photo indicates, Lady Ellen is west of the present 2^nd Street Bridge and in some ice. Wenniger’s pump factory and saloon, last known as the Northside Tap, is the building with the high roofline right of center. The white building on the hill is Wenniger’s Wilhelmshoeh. By the time of this photo, Wilhelmshoeh was refurbished and sections torn off. It is now an apartment building.

The amounts of wood products to be shipped are evident in this Frank McDonald photo dating to before 1900. Writings prior to 1900 tell about wood products awaiting shipment as far as one could see all along the river’s edge from Ahnapee to Forestville. As the forest was cut, the river was left to bake in the hot sun and eventually seep into the surrounding area leaving the narrow, shallow Ahnapee River that exists today. During the pioneer days of the community, before the trees were all cut, it was possible to make Forestville by boat. In 1834 Joseph McCormick and a party of men sailed upriver to today’s Forestville. Trees made the vast difference.

Photo description: Detjen's Dock was on the river side of the Detjen furniture factory on the northeast corner of S. Water Street (now called Navarino) and what is now the foot of 4th Street. The map section was cut out of the 1873 Ahnaoee Birdseye Map. 

When the river was being dredged to permit the docks shown in this 1986 Harold Heidmann photo of Capt. K's Landing, pieces of the old schooner Spartan, which sunk about 1900, came to the surface. A section of a rib is shown in the H. Nell photo below.

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Press, Algoma Record, and Algoma Record Herald; Commercial History of the Youngs and Steele Plat, and Other Significant Properties in the City of Algoma, Wisconsin,