Stables, Not Garages

Work of tearing down the old stable at the rear of the Stebbins Hotel began during September 1933, according to the Algoma Record Herald.

It’s removal marked the passing of a structure believed to have been built about 1870, a time when stables, not garages, had a place in history. That stable had room for at least 20 teams, much like this one behind the Kirchman Hotel.

Places all over Kewaunee County had stables for those who stayed the night, those who came into town just for the day and teams that needed protection from the hot sun or the cold winter winds. St. Paul’s church in Algoma maintained a stable behind the parsonage for church goers.

Stabling with an attendant hostler was necessary for business, but the advent of the railroad, and then the automobile and truck some years later, brought a decline in the need for such facilities.

At one time the Stebbins, then called the Ahnapee House, had another stable on the spot that Harmon Allyn’s Laundromat now occupies. It was considerably larger and could house 50 teams, which was not adequate for hotel purposes. That stable was torn down just after 1900 when a vegetable garden was put in its place. The garden provided fresh produce for the hotel’s dining room.

John Slaby was managing the hotel when the 20-team stable was demolished. His plans included seeding and beautification as soon as debris was cleaned up. Ridding the property of the old stable significantly reduced the fire hazard in that part of the city.

It wasn’t only stables that disappeared. Horse watering troughs at intersections, hitching posts and steps along the streets to facilitate alighting from a buggy are nowhere to be found in today’s Kewaunee County.

1852: Kewaunee County is Born

What today is the Door Peninsula was once part of Brown County, as illustrated on this undated map representing Northeast Wisconsin before 1851. American Indians inhabited the wilderness that became Wisconsin and Indian lands west of Fort Howard -Green Bay today - appear on the map.

Chapter 664 of the Laws of 1851 of the State of Wisconsin created Door County, setting it apart from Brown. A year later Kewaunee County was created and set a apart from Door. Governor Leonard Farwell approved the new county, created in Chapter 363 of the Laws of Wisconsin, on April 16, 1852. An Act to attach Kewaunee County to the 4th Judicial Circuit and to Manitowoc County, for judicial purposes, was approved almost four years later on March 31, 1856. Door County had also been judicially attached to Manitowoc County. From then until the organization of Kewaunee County - on or  about January 24, 1857 - the county's records were kept in both Manitowoc and Brown Counties. In a letter to Edward Decker on April 8, 1857, James Parker of Green Bay mentions the judicial attachment. It was on May 4, 1858 that the Legislature approved an Act organizing Kewaunee County judicially.

Edward Decker was chosen as Register of Deeds in the first general election that November, and the office opened on January 1, 1859. At that point, records held in Manitowoc County were transcribed and deposited in Kewaunee.

There were earlier elections. However as there were no roads in the county, which early surveyors estimated to be 90% timber and 10% marsh, and when possible travel was by water. The first county election was held on May 10, 1852 at John Volk's home at the mouth of the Kewaunee River. The men of Wolf River (today's Algoma) were among those arriving by boat. 

During the meeting, the Town of Kewaunee, the county's only town, was organized. Orin Warner was elected as a supervisor and Abraham Hall was chosen as the first town clerk. John W. Lee was elected as one of the constables and John Hughes was elected as one of the justices, although the county was attached to Manitowoc.  They were Wolf River men as were George Rosier and William Dutton who arrived in Wolf River in the spring of 1852. They attended the meeting and were among the 16 county men men voting.

Twenty-eight men voted in the November 1852 presidential election, favoring Franklin Pierce to General Winfield Scott  by 23 to 5 vote. The meeting was again at Volk's home. It took another six years before there was an attempt to divide the electorate into parties. A year later, 1859, the new Kewaunee Enterprize encouraged immigrants to file their "first papers" so they could vote.

Note: The Enterprize was renamed Enterprise in 1865.

Kewaunee County's "Big Steb"

Noted genealogist/historian Shirley Ver Bruggen's blog presents the story of her ancestor Ahnapee's DeWayne Stebbins. In Kewaunee County's 160 years of existence - that anniversary will be marked on April 16, 2012 - DeWayne Stebbins remains one of its most illustrious sons. That Big Steb entered politics was not a surprise to Wolf River residents.

Baseball bound the young men of Wolf River together as it does in Algoma today. Abisha Perry was an athlete who Bruggen's ancestor George Wing would write of 50 years later remembering his slugging prowess and the long legs that just "ate up the bases." It was Steb who generally played left field, and if the ball came his way, he took his time getting it. If the ball was slugged over Mrs. Lovel's First Street barn and Steb found it, he would often stop to discuss politics rather than throwing the ball. Wing never proffered an opinion on Steb's contribution to the team, but his contributions to his community, county and country are well documented.

DeWayne Stebbins was elected as a state senator in 1872. When he died on June 12, 1901, he was the oldest member of the Senate and had also been a 27-year member of the Kewaunee County Board. At his 66th birthday a few months earlier, his fellow senators expressed their appreciation of his work by presenting him with a gold-headed cane. In 1900 Steb was a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, but he withdrew in deference to Bob LaFollette. LaFollette was among the three thousand others at his funeral only months later.

A Wisconsin State Journal columnist wrote in 1938 that "few men have served in the Wisconsin legislature who had a larger degree of common sense than Mr. Stebbins." It was said Steb did not talk much and rarely debated. Had Mrs. Lovel been living, she might have disputed that. Steb was known to carefully investigate the measures before him. Constituents could depend on his voting. record.

It was said never introduced a bill, but he did. Rumor had it that unobserved in 1894, he slipped through a bill permitting cities and towns to changed their names. Ahnapee had long been the butt of jokes and took advantage of the legislation when it changed its name in to Algoma in 1897. Years earlier, January 1873, the Enterprise reported that Steb introduced a bill prohibiting smoking and the reading of newspapers within the bar of the House. Though Steb was ahead of his time, the legislature was not and the bill was voted down.

Mr. Stebbins' importance was noted in a September 13, 1883 Record article when it was pointed out that he had a "telephone instrument" at the Bank of Ahnapee so he could "communicate with the outside world without leaving his office."

When Frank Slaby bought the Ahnapee House, he renamed it the Stebbins Hotel. It remains on the corner of 2nd and Steele in Algoma, though few residents are aware of the naming and know little of the illustrious Big Steb.

                                                                                      

Kewaunee County and Parker Pens

Imagine what fourth grade would have been like if you had a ball point rather than a fountain pen. Remember that glass bottle of blue ink, filling the pen, your stained fingers and worrying what your mother was going to say about ink on your clothing again? Then there was the inkwell in the desk. There was trouble when boys had fun trying to dip the braids of the girls sitting in front of them into the inkwells. That memorable fountain pen probably came from Janesville’s Parker Pen Co, a company with a close connection to Kewaunee County.

Will Palmer was the son of Seymour C. Palmer, onetime owner of the Ahnapee Record. He was born in Racine and was 8 years old when he came with his family to Ahnapee. Will conducted a telegraph and post office in the present Algoma Mercantile building before leaving town in 1882.

Ten years later, Will was an insurance salesman sharing a hotel room with Mr. Parker in Janesville. Parker was a telegraphy instructor who conceived ideas about a perfect pen while repairing the different makes used by a school. Parker supplied the patent, Palmer the money and a new company was born.

The pen was originally manufactured in the east but within six months the demand was so great that Parker and Palmer opened their own factory. Twenty years later they were employing over 100 men and were turning out ½ million pens for an international market. At one time Parker Pen’s Main Street plant in Janesville was the largest writing instrument plant in the world. The company was eventually sold to Guilette and then sold again.

As so many others with roots in Kewaunee County, Will Palmer achieved a prominence well beyond its borders and yet remains obscure.

Will Palmer served as secretary-treasurer of the company, (after he traded the presidency to Mr.Parker) and while he remained somewhat obscure in county history, he made it big.

When Parker Pen Co. offered stock worth about $4,000,000to the public in late 1928, Will planned to dispose of 75,000 shares of stock that he held. His plan was to leave Janesville to relocate in California.

Googling tells us Will sold 75% of his stock to an investment banking house which then sold the shares to the public. The company had seen tremendous growth during the 1920s and sales increased fourfold. Its Duofold pen came on the market in 1921 and sold for $7.00, which would equate to almost $150 in 2025.

Will was 78 when he died in 1933 in Beverly Hills, California. His remains were returned to Wisconsin for burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, Janesville.

Source: Algoma Record Herald; familysearch.org. 

Boundaries...................

For Kewaunee County residents who fish, hunt, enjoy the casinos or have cottages in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, it is not far away. Why that part of Michigan isn’t Wisconsin is a mystery to many. But, it was "politics." What any mother calls two-year-old behavior was reflected in the politics of the time. Some things never change.

Wisconsin’s boundaries were laid out in the Ordinance of 1787, although there was no name for the place then. As territorial residents began to plan for state governments years later, they began to think boundaries were unjust. To give Illinois outlets to Lake Michigan, that state’s northern boundary was moved 50 miles north of the line set down in 1787. Then Michigan got the slice of land south of Lake Superior that should have been Wisconsin's. That was the inducement offered to settle Michigan’s southern boundary dispute with Ohio.

The Wisconsin Territory was in need of internal improvements and offered in 1834 to stop agitating about boundaries if the Federal Government would build a railroad from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, would improve the Fox River waterway and provide harbors on Lake Michigan. Today we would say the offer was blown off, though the drive for statehood continued. In 1846 Congress authorized Wisconsin to prepare for admission to the Union. When the Federal Government found that the line separating Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula could not be run, it laid out a new line. The new line, however, did not really affect anything.

Wisconsin became a state in 1848, after the people voted on it at least twice. The state had an area of 56,066 square miles but it would have been more, and have counted two lakes as boundaries, if politicians had just left things alone.

 

The map is from The Abandoned Shore-Lines of Eastern Wisconsin by James Walter Goldthwaite, Assistant Professor of Geology at Northwestern University. The book was published at Madison, Wisconsin in 1907. It came from Bulletin No. XVll, Scientific Series No. 5 of Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey. The book is in the author's collection.

Kewaunee County and Rural Free Delivery

Using horse and buggy, the U.S. Post Office Department in 1896 embarked on a great experiment in three West Virginia communities. The experiment was a success and Rural Free Delivery, or RFD, was born. RFD evened the field as it provided rural folks the mail service enjoyed by their city cousins. Consistent mail service was more than a convenience. It shattered rural isolation, created economic opportunities and served to unify the country.

RFD became a Kewaunee County reality in 1904. When Rural Agent William F. Esch described Kewaunee County in his letter of support to the 4th Assistant Postmaster General, he said the county was one of the most thickly settled in Wisconsin. Esch said Kewaunee County had fairly good roads which would be kept open in winter. He said heavy soil was so well mixed with gravel that roads would not be impassible due to mud, and that the mostly German, Belgium and Bohemian population was exceedingly prosperous, possessing great thrift and industry. On one route Esch found 35 homes being constructed, something he had not seen equaled in any other county. Most people were dairy farmers, and cheese making was the leading industry. Esch went on to describe the residents as being bright. When shown the advantages of RFD, he knew they would be quick to avail themselves of it.

Agent Esch recommended 21 routes coming from distribution points in Algoma, Casco, Kewaunee, Luxembourg and Stangelville. Patrons would be equally served from routes of about 24 miles each, and carrier salaries were to be $684 per year. In his final recommendation, Esch said he had no doubt postmasters would take a personal interest in every route and would take great pains to provide service.

For as much as RFD promised, there were those in opposition. Twenty-one post offices were to be closed by November 30, 1904. The offices were in the stores, hotels and saloons of the county where proprietors were sure to experience a drop in business when area residents no longer had to pick up their own mail.

The above picture is from the cover photo on the c. 2008 book Here Comes the Mail, Post Offices of Kewaunee County. Postmarked "Ellisville, 1907," the picture is that of an RFD carrier driving south out of Ellisville. Looking up the hill to the north today, Janda's bar is on the right  (east) side of the road. Once a thriving community, Janda's is Ellisville's only remaining business.

In 1904, Luxembourg was the spelling of the village today called Luxemburg.

Kewaunee County and Prohibition

As lawn care companies flood mailboxes with their best prices for spring weed control, some home owners deep in snow are beginning to think that the worst of their nightmares is really those cute little buttery yellow followers called dandelions! But, during the 1920's, a yard full of dandelions was as good as it could get.

Prohibition was in effect. Dandelions, wild grapes and elderberries were among the coveted ingredients for homemade wine. When Congress passed the Volstad Act in 1919, it became illegal to buy, sell or drink alcohol except for religious and medicinal purposes. The Volstad Act touched so many facets of American life that just touching an alcoholic product could have been a crime. Suddenly many had medical problems requiring alcohol, but physicians and drug stores also had problems with alcohol. If the government approved the sale of alcohol to a doctor, it was for one pint that was to cover ten days. A physician could get an emergency stock of  six quarts of whiskey a year, but the sale was carefully documented.

Any physician wishing to prescribe whiskey was required to make a special request for a permit. Physicians had to describe the nature of the illness requiring the whiskey. If the physician succeeded in prescribing, the patient could get the whiskey only from drug stores having a special permit, Rates were set between $2.50 and $3.50 a pint.

On February 27, 1920 Algoma Record Herald pointed out the facts on whiskey consumption to city residents when it said none of the city druggists had made application for a government permit to sell whiskey, nor had any of the doctors asked for permission to prescribe whiskey as medicinal.

It was not long before there were rumors of bootlegging and moonshine in Kewaunee County. Raids followed. There were seizures of moonshine and then stills were found.  A sizable still was found in Forestville - five miles north of Algoma in Door County - in 1921. Apparently the owners tried to destroy the still, but agents said they found corn and raisen cooked mash and a keg of moonshine whiskey. Just after that, agents intimidated a farm woman who would not unlock a shed. The agents broke in and found a fifty-five gallon drum. When agents simultaneously raided 16 - 18 taverns in the southern and western part of the county, only two saloon keepers were found with liquor. Agents found a still in the tree tops on a Town of Carlton farm. On completing the batch of moonshine, the farmer hid his still in what seemed to be an unlikely spot.

In one instance, a tavern was raided, product was seized and money was taken from the cash register. That turned out to be what some called a frame-up. The feds were on the way, but the scammers got there first. When some young Algoma men returned from a dance and were arrested for drunken driving, agents found shacks hidden in the hills west of town. They reported finding "real Kentucky product" there. A first offense usually brought a $200 fine. That Kentucky product must have been exceptionally good. The fine was doubled to $400. There are still some of Kewaunee County's elderly residents who tell stories of moonshine being hidden under the gutters in the barn. There was safety in manure.

Prohibition's greatest effect in Kewaunee County, as in the rest of the U.S., was disrespect for the law. Prohibition was repealed in 1933 during the depths of the Depression. After all, liquor sales are revenue enhancing.

Boedecker's Drug Store at the southeast corner of 4th and Steele was one which stopped the sale of alcohol before Prohibition. Boedecker Bros. ran ads saying alcohol could be bad for one's health. The photo was taken from a postcard in the author's collection.

Algoma's Stebbins Hotel.............

Algoma's Stebbins Hotel athe northwest corner of 2nd and Steele Streets, ca. 1910

In 1905 When Frank Slaby remodeled the hotel at the Northwest corner of 2^nd and Steele in Algoma in 1905, he renamed it Stebbins Hotel in honor of distinguished city resident DeWayne Stebbins. Stebbins was a Civil War hero who was reported to have saved the life of General - later president - U.S. Grant. "Big Steb," as he was called, served as Ahnapee Record editor and state senator. Stebbins had died a year or two before.

It was during 1857 when David Youngs and George Steele, the Wolf River proprietors of what is now downtown Algoma, approached Capt. Charlie Fellows with an offer of any lot in the tiny village if he would build a luxurious hotel costing at least $1,000. Youngs and Steele had lots to sell. Investors needed a comfortable place to stay if they were going to be induced to buy property in a forward thinking pioneer community of only a few hundred residents.

Fellows agreed and hired local residents Andreas Eveland to dig the cellar and James Keogh to put up cellar walls. Fellows hired Racine carpenters even though such carpenters as George Beuitling, James Parker and Joseph Anderegg were already living in town. Hand shaved cedar and pine shingles were locally made. Hall’s sawmill was in existence on the South Branch of the river, but Fellows brought most building materials from Racine.

1857 was a time of economic uncertainty in the U.S. Hotel business was not appealing to Fellows and did not meet his expectations. Fellows’ Lake Michigan freight business was also suffering when he called upon his father-in-law John LV. Yates and Capt. Bill McDonald to run the place while he tried to keep his shipping business intact. Finally Fellows sold the hotel to Dave Youngs who sold it to Frank Feuerstein who sold it to John Weilep who made money. John Ihlenfeld bought the hotel and he sold to Mr. Grimm who sold it to Frank Slaby.

Although the hotel has undergone changes in the last 100 years, it was Slaby who moved the original hotel back to where the kitchen is now and constructed what is there today. The hotel was one Wolf River’s first frame buildings.

The Stebbins is Kewaunee County’s longest, continuously operating business. It’s had a most impressive history.

Kewaunee County Nicknames

F.D.R. and J.F.K. are known globally. Just how many baptismal names do you know of among the hundreds of Kewaunee County folks known by nicknames? A look through old phone books and business advertising found at both county libraries will give you a chance to find out.

Perhaps you shopped at Blah Barbiaux’ Luxemburg store or bought meat from Foxy or Cuts/Katz Kashik, fish from Bearcat Berkovetz or men’s clothing from Heine Wiese. Toots Wenniger, Shorty Mikle, Jingles, Butch, Killer, Prutz and Goosey Bohman were commercial fishermen known up and down the lakeshore. Goosey owned the Northside Tap where he competed with tavern owners Cozzie Mura, Eppie Boedecker, Nebs Melchior, Blackie Delwiche and Red Zastrow. The Knipfers, both Page 11 and Page 12, had a beer depot. X Naze and Doc Slaby were bankers.

Bumps Nesemann was a Kewaunee physician. His brother Bones was a longtime Algoma pharmacist. Pidge Birdsall and Whitey Ellsworth headed what is now the Hardwoods and Black Jack Jorgenson and Spreader Sibilsky worked there. Cully Serrahn drove truck for the Plumbers. Rio Creek resident Cow Kirchman purchased the Bastar Hotel. Fuzzy Kirchman lives in Rio Creek today. Blue Goose LeCloux repaired shoes and Ole Melchior sold them. Ole’s name was Leo spelled inside out but son Gordy’s was not. He is really Jerome.

Red LaCrosse was Chief of Police. Brownie Cemyla, Seagull Dettman and Pembine Empey served as mayors and Sarge was in the military. Mickey Dettman and Keck Pflughoeft ran barbershops. Hoogie Deprey still does. Sport Fett moved to the state of Alaska and Fat Gerhart ran the hardware store. Yukky Jakobovsky owned the school busses while Knobby Knospe owned a farm implement business. Tiny Nell brought national attention to youth activities.

Maplewood’s Bugs Wagner and Doc Schlise were exceptional basketball players. The Sells, Shiner, Babe and Legs, were noted baseball players. Cowboy Wheeler played for the Packers. Ga-ga Mauer and Gunner Delaruelle excelled in all sports but it was Zug Zastrow who won national fame in the Army-Navy game. Winty Zettle could be found taking tickets at ballgames. Dad Elliott and Scoop Heidmann published the Record Herald. Huntz Nell is an historian. The Meverdens boast Little Barge, Big Barge and just plain Barge. Dippy, Oatsy, Squee and Spaz were Ullspergers. Bing Schmidt apparently had a better voice than Doc and Hertsy. Tippy Toppe is joined by Tarz, Skeebo, Zatka and Muggo who was really Margaret. One-armed Sally Haack was not a woman and who knows how Ratsy got his name. Jag’s name is on billboards all over. His nickname is a pretty good story coming from grade school. One Busch was a Shrub and another gathers no Moss.

Sturgeon Bay residents called those in Ahnapee "Ahnapeepers," apparently part of what prompted a renaming of the community in 1897. A look at the census in those days reveals few little girls named Anna. It was not just Barron and Schmidty today, all those north of the Ahnapee River were Cannucks.

In today’s politically correct society, nicknames such as Belgie, Fat, Queenie, Stinky, and a woman called Eagle Beak would be unacceptable.  Flusher, Pickles and Irish would probably have made it.

Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever and Early Medicine



Postmarked in 1914, this postcard depicts a a country doctor making his way south from Luxemburg.



Early Kewaunee County was just plain healthy and free from disease. Its residents were younger and the county was isolated enough to ward off communicable diseases. Then things changed.                                                         

As settlements grew and people lived farther from rivers and streams, they began digging wells for drinking water. Outhouses became prevalent and they were often built next to the wells. Garbage, chamber pots and wastewater were thrown where convenient and frequent epidemics were related to well water.

Diphtheria was always around. Schools, churches and lodges were closed during the worst of the outbreaks. Deaths were especially numerous among children with some families losing as many as five or six children in a matter of days. Often the deceased was rolled up in his bedding and buried. During the winter a fire would be built on the frozen ground to thaw it thus enabling grave digging. 

A December 1862 Kewaunee Enterprise published a remedy that it said saved lives. One needed to take ordinary pipe tobacco, place a live coal in the bowl, drop a little tar on the coal and then let the patient draw smoke into the mouth and expel it through the nostrils. A few years later the paper told readers to swab their mouths and throats every half hour with a mixture of golden seal, alum, borax, black pepper, salt and nitrate of potash. The slime on the swab was to be wiped off and then a mixture of liniment of turpentine, sweet oil and aqua ammonia was to be rubbed on the throat. People were reminded to keep the bowels clear as diphtheria was contagious.

Scarlet fever was another common disease. The Enterprise published a cure for that too. A poultice of common burdock boiled in milk was to be applied to the neck of the patient. When black smallpox raised its ugly head, the paper again told readers how to take care of it. A mixture of cream of tartar, rhubarb and cold water was said to be the remedy. Others felt that just before eruption, the chest should be rubbed cotton oil and tartaric ointment. The Enterprise wrote about the advantages of immunization editorializing that no family should neglect  it. Ahnapee's Doc Parsons was vaccinating people saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Dr. Parsons arrived in 1855 and was followed by numerous doctors after the Civil War. By then, the doctors were kept busy. Diseases were always around. Lumbering and sawmills meant bones to set and saw related injuries to deal with.  Business for the medical community improved.