History is Made: Algoma and It's First Woman Council Member

There is no doubt millions of U.S. citizens felt it was a man’s world until passage of the 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote. Hundreds of thousands of men, and even women, felt ratification on August 18, 1920 was a mistake.

U.S. history is full of strong women who were unable to run for office or to vote. Presidential spouses Abigale Adams and Dolly Madison come to mind. Among others in the early days of the country was Margaret O’Neal Eaton, also called “Pot-house Peggy.” Her intelligence and forthright commentary offended the high-born women who were incensed that she rose above her station, that of an inn-keeper’s daughter. Since Peggy O’Neal/Margaret Eaton was reported to be a beauty, jealousy could have played a part in what became known as the “Petticoat Affair.” Of course, Mrs. Eaton never held office, but she affected presidential politics and President Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Eaton was far from the only woman to raise eyebrows before 1900.

About 20 years after Mrs. Eaton made headlines, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott were making them. Stanton was the principal author of the declaration that came from the Seneca Falls Convention in July 1948, an event which was the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement in the U.S. At the time, women were expected to focus on housework, children and husbands. With the exception of extenuating circumstances, women  were unable to own property, nor did they have claim to money they earned. Women were denied the vote.

Almyra Chapel Eveland

Early Wolf River/Ahnapee* had its own women of strength, women who would not be subservient to the men around them.What would Kewaunee County life have been like if Almyra Eveland and Nancy Higgins had been elected to office? They were women who “spoke out.” Almyra Eveland came to Wolf River with her husband and family in the mid-1850s. She was truly outspoken on slavery and the plight of slaves. Although it is not a proven fact, this blogger feels there is history suggesting that Mrs. Eveland had a role in the Underground Railway.

Mrs. Nancy Higgins became well-known about 15 years later, but not because of slavery. Mrs. Higgins was a proponent of women’s rights. In June 1873 George Wing and Charles Borgman, both teen-agers, originated Ahnapee Record. The young men had a progressive record in advancing women’s rights, however Kewaunee Enterprise,* which began publication in September 1859, wasn’t so sure about such a stance. During March 1869, Mrs. Higgins wrote a letter to the editor of the Enterprize, her only newspaper option. At first, that paper denounced the letter saying that “old Higgins was a reliable subscriber” and might be upset enough to cancel his subscription. Mrs. Higgins insisted that such treatment was an “abridgement of her rights,” prompting the editor to finally say he would “cheerfully” give her space in the paper.

Mrs. Higgins wrote that “female men” in Chicago lectured about poor women being robbed of their rights and being slaves to the miserable men they called husbands. She felt that if women didn’t have rights, it was because they failed to fight for them. As for women voting, she felt that married women could get their husbands to vote the way the wives wished. She also wrote that she would like “to see Jeremiah Higgins vote for something I didn’t want him to.” It was Mrs. Higgins’ opinion that women should fight more and talk less so there wouldn’t be quite so much “babbling” about women’s rights. More than likely, there were those who thought Mr. Higgins was a weak man who couldn’t control his wife. Others certainly felt pity for the man married to a shrew who wore the pants in the family.

Mrs. Eveland and Mrs. Higgins were ahead of their time, as were many others in Kewaunee County and beyond. In the early days of the 1900s, women were beginning to show up on school boards, but not in elected public offices. When newspapers began carrying little digs directed toward women, perhaps it was because the “little woman” was gaining a voice.

In May 1915, the Record said, “Even with women in politics, it is doubtful the campaign cigar can be made any worse.” Five years later, the same paper said, “There is one good thing about the participation of women in politics. They won’t keep pulling off crooked deals because they couldn’t keep the secret.”

Just a year later, Jeannette Rankin of Montana, became the first female to be elected to federal office. Rankin, an advocate of women’s rights, served in the House of Representatives. The stage was set!

Mrs. Pauline Danek was Algoma’s first woman candidate for office in a race against William Perlewitz. The two faced off for city treasurer in the spring election on April 23, 1924, a year when !Calvin Coolidge and Robert LaFollette were on the primary ballot. The Record reported that Mrs. Danek’s lieutenants were out working to swing enough votes her way. Other candidates went around town asking for votes while still others asked for votes by using colored chalk to write messages on sidewalks.

As interesting as the election was, onlookers filled the vote counting room. When the votes were counted, 560 Algoma residents had cast ballots. One-third of the number was women, and they were relatively new voters. Hard as Mrs. Danek and her supporters worked, she lost the election to Perlewitz, 301 to 235. Not every city voter cast a ballot in the treasurer’s race, but Mrs. Danek won more than 1/3 of the total votes cast, suggesting that some men cast their first vote for a female candidate.

When Mrs. Huey Long was appointed in 1936 to fill the Senate vacancy created by the assassination of her husband the year before, the paper noted the women in politics. Of the seven woman serving in Congress, five were appointed to succeed their husbands. The paper pointed to a new book by John Erskin, author of The Private Life of Helen of Troy. It was claimed Erskin knew more about woman than most men and that Erskin said women had no business entering politics nor any other mass movement. Commenting somewhat tongue in cheek, the Record thought maybe Erskin knew what he was talking about because it would be easier to name male senators and “more masculine Congressmen who are worse fizzles in political life than are any of the women who now grace the halls of Congress.”

Kewaunee County’s first woman sheriff, Emma Lutien, was appointed in July 1925 by Gov. Blaine to fill a vacancy created by the death of her husband, however Mrs. Joseph (Jennie) Kassner was the

first woman sheriff ever elected in Kewaunee County or (said to be) the State of Wisconsin. She topped six Democrats in the primary before going on to win the 1932 race that included a Republican and two Independent candidates. Perhaps Mrs. Kassner was well-positioned: Democrats took every contest for county office, however she was succeeding her husband who was elected in 1928. Joseph Kassner served as his wife’s under-sheriff and her election placards noted that she would provide the service the county came to expect from him. Joseph Kassner ran again in 1938 and, according to the Record Herald, he won a “sizzling four-cornered race.” 

Newspaper articles indicate that Mrs. Lutien was Wisconsin’s first woman sheriff and that Mrs. Kassner was Wisconsin’s first elected woman sheriff, but online checks do not bear that out. That “first” seems to go to Langlade County.

Governor Warren Knowles was running for re-election in October 1958 when he predicted Mrs. Dena Besserdich Smith would be Wisconsin’s first elected woman in state office. Knowles was speaking at a Republican campaign event at Butch Van’s in Rostok, between Alaska and Kewaunee, when he said that the first woman would be Kewaunee County’s own Mrs. Smith who was honored in that testimonial dinner. Knowles said, “It is a tremendous job for a woman to campaign alone.” He went on to say Mrs. Smith was entitled to be elected treasurer of Wisconsin because of her long experience working with her husband in the office. Mrs. Smith assisted as deputy under her husband Treasurer Warren R. Smith, and, at his death, was appointed to replace him by Gov. Vernon Thompson.

Attorney Don Jirtle told the assembled group that “opportunity comes seldom to a small community as ours to welcome back a native resident.” He went on to say that for 20 years Wisconsin had a balanced budget at the end of every biennium and there was no debt. He said the principles of good government “made Wisconsin the blue ribbon government of the nation.” Assemblyman Frank Graass said Wisconsin was the first state to give women the right to vote and he would not understand it if women didn’t get out to vote for Dena Smith. Mrs. Smith won the election and served from 1957 to 1959 and again from 1961 until her death in 1968.

Kewaunee County saw a semi-political women’s first when Luxemburg’s Mrs. Henry Seidl was the first woman juror called in November 1936. When the paper noted the facts, it mentioned she was the first woman to see “actual service,” and that she was “drawn and accepted” in the Euclid case.

After over 100 years in existence, Kewaunee County Board made history with the swearing in of Martha Procter of Kewaunee. Mrs. Proctor was the first woman to serve, representing Kewaunee’s First Ward. However, Mrs. Proctor was appointed by Mayor Jerome Reinke who noted he was breaking tradition when he chose her to fill a vacancy created by the death of Wenzel Helbick. When Reinke discussed the appointment, he said he was “fully cognizant” of the departure from tradition and wanted to make it clear that “despite her sex,” she, and other women, had a place in politics. When a Record-Herald  reporter asked for her reaction to the appointment, she said it was “a very, very interesting thing to happen. I think they’re going to let me in – I hope.” She continued saying the world was half women and they “might as well have a little representation.”

The following spring Ione Van Price made history in Algoma when she became the first woman to be elected to the city council. That was April 1978. Van Price was called the representative from the Third Ward while the men were called aldermen. “Alderwoman” and “alderperson” were terms that came later.

When Proctor was appointed, Reinke said “departure from tradition” and “despite her sex,” words that said a lot. Lutien and Smith were appointed following the deaths of there husbands. It was well-known that should Mrs. Kassner win the election, she would be sheriff in name but her husband would continue calling the shots.

Ione Van Price was not appointed. She ran for election, won and made history in Algoma and in Kewaunee County.


*Ahnepee was renamed Ahnapee in 1873, and Enterprize became Enterprise in 1865.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; Google. 
Almyra Eveland's photo is from a private collection. Other graphics come from the papers mentioned.

Algoma: A Cross-Buring and the Ku Klux Klan

Hate is nothing new. It’s been around since Cain and Abel. Thousands of years after that, generations of Algoma school history classes learned about the Ku Klux Klan. There were those who thought Gone with the Wind told it like it was, although, little did they know that the Klan, in another era, operated in Wisconsin, or that it touched Kewaunee County. The 1920s’ Klan in Wisconsin was focused differently than it was in in the South in 1866, however.

Wisconsin Historical Society tells us the KKK had its start in 1866, the year following General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General U.S. Grant at Appomattox and the end of the Civil War. It was Confederate veterans who originated the Klan as a means to resist Reconstruction. Civil Rights laws of 1871 were thought to destroy the Klan, but the laws did not, and about 50 years later, in the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was alive and well in northern states. Indiana was a hotbed of activity, and Michigan was not far behind. It gained a toehold in Wisconsin but within ten years, the Klan disappeared within the Badger State, until by 2004 a few chapters were back.

There was , however, such earlier activity in Kewaunee County but incidents such as one appearing in a February 1894 Enterprise when a group of seven men – disguised by their white caps – went into a Carlton home when its young farmer was alone. The man was severely flogged by those who accused him treating his wife poorly, neglecting his animals and being a “nuisance.” The perpetrators undressed the man, bound his hands and feet, laid him on the bed and began lashing him with blows that cut his flesh. 

By 1915 another group had formed and, after World War l, it preyed on fears of radicalism and disloyalty. The society saw itself protecting American values, and those seen as thwarting such values were Catholics, Jews, Free-Thinkers, African Americans and some immigrants. Estimates during the 1920s are that Wisconsin had about 15,000 Klan members.

Before the Klan came into existence, the Know-Nothing political party was the xenophobic, anti-Catholic group in the U.S. That too faded when James Buchanan won the presidency over Millard Fillmore, although Fillmore was elected years later. As the Know-Nothings did, the 1920s-era Klan membership identified with Protestantism in both metropolitan and rural areas.

The re-emergence of the Klan in 1915 caught on in Northeast Wisconsin, seemingly through moving pictures, a technological feat still in its infancy. The January 14, 1916 Union Farmer Herald of Oconto County told readership that Birth of the Nation was returning to Green Bay’s Grand Theater the following week. The paper told about the “sensation and daring work” of the Klan and that the second part of the production created such a stir and weighed heavily into conversations later. The article promised insights into the “scarlet secret organization."

Later that year, in May, the Record Herald reported that hundreds of Kewaunee County residents attended The Birth of a Nation, billed at the Majestic Theater as the “nation’s greatest historical photo play.” The production played there twice after first playing for two days at Kewaunee’s Bohemian Opera House. According to the paper, the big feature was the reconstruction period in the South. The paper said it was the story of the over-bearing attitude of the “ignorant, brutal Negros toward the white population in the days when northern carpetbaggers attempted to make the black the equal socially of the white.” The paper goes on to say that it is the true story of a section of history little known.

The play attracted attention. It was no easy feat in 1916 to travel from Sturgeon Bay to Kewaunee to see the play but, according to the Advocate, the Messers. Minor, Barnhardt, Westerman, Miller and Washburn did just that.

This blogger’s aunt graduated at the top of her high school class at a time when part of the senior year included teacher training for good students who wished to teach in rural schools. The rural school board that engaged Agnes knew she was Catholic when she was hired. Ninety years later, there are those living in the Thorpe-Stanley area who’ve heard stories of crosses burning. One was burned when the news of Agnes’ hiring became public. She resigned immediately, eventually going to Milwaukee where she found employment in a department store.

A friend, whose father was mayor of Kaukauna around the same time, frequently shared his dad’s stories about the Klansman who lived down the street from their Catholic family. Stories focused on Protestant businessmen who were taken to task, by the Klan, for unethical behavior, an affair or any other non-exemplary behavior. While the Klan was linking crime with immigrants who were often Catholic, they did not discipline unethical Catholic businessmen whose behavior was less than stellar. The feeling was that Catholics were among the lower classes from which poor social behavior was expected.

As early as 1884, Kewaunee Enterprise told readership that the Klan was a pleasure group of ten or so men who got together occasionally for an evening of harmless fun. County folks knew otherwise by 1924 when news affected them. Others on both sides of the bay of Green Bay were learning the same things.

Oconto County Reporter Enterprise commented on a mid-January 1923 talk about the Klan given at St. Mark’s Guild Hall by Bishop Weller of Fond du Lac. The Bishop, who was born in the South, told the large crowd about the Klan’s beginnings while even pointing out that some of its outrages were to a degree justified. He went on to say while the Klan did not exist as it once did, the 1915 re-establishment of the secret organization was not justifiable as its principles did not exemplify Americanism. The Bishop said the organization attempted to take the law into its own hands while it promoted racial prejudice against foreign born members of the Catholic Church and those who were Jewish.

The April 17, 1923 Advocate said Sturgeon Bay buildings shook when the Klan burned a cross on Dunlap Reef. The Advocate thought the reef was an unusual place for the burning, but it did attract attention. If folks didn't see the burning cross, they felt  heavy charges of dynamite or other explosives on the streets and in their homes and businesses.

In June 1923, the Advocate reported that Wisconsin was one of the first states to deal with the Klan. Gov. John J. Blaine signed the Price Bill which dealt with punishment of those found guilty of committing a crime while masked. Previous laws dealt with wearing mask only under certain circumstance. The new law meant that if one was masked during a misdemeanor, the penalty would be increased one year over that for a crime over a non-masked person. If a masked person committed a felony while masked, the Price Bill provided for an additional five years in the penitentiary. The new bill did not seem to affect the cross burnings though.

Interestingly, an Oconto November 1924 paper noted residents weren’t bothered by the burning crosses if they didn’t create unnecessary fire hazards. The paper told about a burning near Holt Lumber Yards, about 600’ from the Armory which was jammed with people. The area was filled with dried weeds and grass, with slabs and other combustible material near, prompting the fire chief to say that the burning endangered lives and property of many residents. The chief continued saying trouble would follow future Klan activity and that before it “set out to reform the community, it might well exercise a little common sense.”

Several Kewaunee residents were attracted to the burning of a large cross as they were returning from Sturgeon Bay in 1924. The 8’ to 10’ cross burned on the hill near the Sawyer (Sturgeon Bay’s west side) schoolhouse (now the vacant West Side School). The Kewaunee folks reported that the cross, which had been soaked in burlap and rags saturated with kerosene, was plainly seen in the surrounding community. It was the second cross burned in Sturgeon Bay within two weeks. The incidents were not isolated as both Manitowoc and Two Rivers had cross burnings within the same few weeks.

Just a short time later, the Record Herald carried an article reported from Algoma residents who had attended a Klan meeting at Martin Park in Sturgeon Bay. They said the park was filled with so many people that hearing the speaker was nearly impossible. Folks had been invited to “come hear the truth” about the organization. No attempt was made to prevent the meeting.

One hundred years ago, few had high school educations and a great many, especially in rural areas, did not finish the 8^th grade. Until the advent of Rural Free Delivery, rural communities had little access to newspapers. There was skepticism, so when the August 8, 1924 Advocate reported a cross burning at the intersection of State and Union Streets in Sawyer, the paper questioned whether the 6’ fiery cross was a Klan celebration or a kid prank. The remains of the smoldering cross were there in the morning. That happened two months before October 1924 when the Ku Klux Klan announced it was organizing in Wisconsin.

Its purpose, the organization said, was to make virtue and piety paramount, but that it had no quarrel with Catholics, Jews or Negros.  An Algoma Record Herald editorial was ahead of its time when it opined saying, “the heretic hunt” was on and that the group wanted to make all what was considered “holy and pious.” The paper went on to say that the cause would enlist many because American was fertile soil for hate and that “No sooner is one bogey hatred laid away that a new one more virulent, more vicious, springs up.” The paper noted the placard in an Indiana store. It said, “I am 300% American; I hate everybody.”

Kewaunee’s Dr. L.E. Dockery spoke about the Klan while speaking in Algoma and discussing the anti-Catholic organizations in April 1925. He told his audience that the birth of the Klan was an accident, its growth was comic and its death was a tragedy. He said within two years of its founding, it met its goal with its “absurd hocus-pocus rites  against tyrannical and corrupt renegade Blacks and carpetbaggers” but by 1925 Catholics were targeted. Six months later the Advocate carried an article about former Sturgeon Bay Methodist Pastor Daniel Woodward who was then in Kaukauna and endorsed as a gubernatorial candidate by the Klan.

Then came the unthinkable in Algoma. About 11:00 that October 1925 night, a cross was burned on 4^th Street, about 75’ south of its intersection with Fremont, near the Normal School. Across the street were the German M.E. Church and the English Methodist Church. The site was an odd place for a burning cross, and very little information found its way into the paper.

Activity on the peninsula continued into the fall of 1926 when Pfiel’s Hall in Baileys Harbor held meetings on a Monday and Tuesday in November. The Klan held meetings in Ellison Bay for the next two days. A month later, in mid-November 1926, the Advocate informed residents that Governor Blaine had pardoned five men convicted in Marinette for inciting a riot at a Ku Klux Klan meeting the preceding June. As the paper reported, all five were convicted by a jury “which broke Marinette County records for length of deliberation. Jurors wrangled over evidence seventy-six hours.”

Then came 1937 when Hugo Black was nominated for Supreme Court and it was learned he’d been a Klan member. Back admitted his membership in an October 1, 1938 radio address, but he also said he had left the organization. Three days later he took his seat on the Court.

After Black’s confirmation, Wisconsin Senator Francis Duffy was in Europe, appearing at an American Legion French monument dedication. In his speech, Duffy spoke of the advantages of being born in America, saying that so often when people get something for nothing, they don’t appreciate it. He went on to say, “The opportunities of this country which has real freedom has brought out the best in these (immigrant) nationalities” who came to America.

In a message to Congress on December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln said, “We cannot escape history.” Just about 100 years later, former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, in her book Tomorrow is Now, "We make our own history."

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record Herald; Door County Advocate;  Kewaunee Enterprise; Oconto County Reporter:Union Farmer Herald of Oconto County; Wisconsin Historical Society website.

Graphics are from Door County Advocate.

Algoma: It's Cooler By The Lake

Algoma's Crescent Beach, late 1930s

“ Kewaunee County’s crops are possibly running about ½ of normal because of prolonged dry weather.” The quote came from an August 1936 newspaper. This year, 2019, many fields haven’t been planted due to record amounts of spring and early summer rains. Now the heat is playing havoc with fields and gardens, just as it did in 1936 which remains the hottest summer on record. And this year, just as it was in 1936, it is cooler by the lake.

The 1936 season began with great crop prospects, but then came the extreme heat. By late August, the ground was so dry that rain was not expected to be of much benefit for any crops other than corn. Fortunately, 1935 was a banner cropping year thus animal food shortage was not dire. Wisconsin’s early July 1936 corn crop was estimated to be 76% of normal; it declined to 53% of normal just a month later. The Badger state’s crop reporting services estimated the corn crop would top out at 1917 levels, another dismal year. The 1936 crop was the second such year since 1901.

1936 Kewaunee County was a tinderbox, no doubt prompting oldsters to bring up the Great Fire of 1871. Early August saw raging fires in the Towns of Casco, Pierce, West Kewaunee and Franklin. The grass and stump fire on the Smithwick farm near Casco took over 24 hours to extinguish. Ed Bohman’s Casco woods’ fire was thought to be out on a Wednesday and broke out again on Thursday. The swamp near Joseph Fiala’s Pierce Town farm was ablaze, as was a 40-acred swamp in Franklin. That one smoldered for months. West Kewaunee had a grass fire fought by the Kewaunee Fire Department. Fences and areas of fields were burned while buildings were threatened.

Until dry conditions abated, property owners Henry Gericke and John Slaby closed Krohn’s lake to recreational use. A small fire there had burned several feet into the ground before being discovered by Louis Bathke. Reports were that it took many pails of water to completely kill the fire.

According to the University of Wisconsin Agronomy Department, there was a bright side of the dryness: the drought offered farmers opportunities for getting lowlands into canary grass. The dry lowlands were easier to breakup, thus offering a good seed bed by disking and harrowing for seed sown in fall or in spring mud. The valued canary grass offered “feed insurance” in dry weather, and the Agronomy Department said, such a stand would last almost indefinitely as the sod made haying and pasturing possible even when the ground was wet.

Algoma has always prided itself on being “cooler by the lake,” but 1936 left residents scratching their heads. When the temperature soared to 102 in early July, folks held on and waited for the afternoon wind shift, sure to happen. It did, and the temperature plunged more than 30 degrees to 68. Most years, city residents hoped for a nice summer, but 1936 set records residents hoped they didn’t see again. On the day Algoma topped out at 102, Green Bay registered 106, that city’s highest temperature since recording began in the 1880s. Algoma residents did find some humor in that heat though – a snowplow salesman was in the city! He even brought a sample of his wares.

While Algoma was hot, temperatures were far worse inland. Lake Michigan’s shoreline offered refuge from the heat and Algoma residents didn't need a newspaper or  radio to tell them how hot it was away from the lake. All they needed to do is check the cars along the lakeshore highway. Travel was not as easy in 1936 as it is today. Roads were graveled and there were always tires that blew out and needed patching. It didn’t seem to make a difference though as 105 autos were counted along Crescent Beach (shown in the postcard above) on the day Green Bay saw 106.

Algoma was elevated to resort status the Sunday that 535 cars were counted from Chapek’s cabins (in the above postcard, now Algoma Beach Motel site) to past the utility plant north of the Dug-Out where picnickers were swarming the grounds. That was at 6 PM; there were more at noon. License plates reflected the District of Columbia and 12 states, with Maine being the farthest away. Mailman Will Fellows said the lakefront all around his Stony Creek home was overflowing with escapes from the heat.

Surfboats dotted the lake and local commercial fishermen found extra income in taking out the heat-beat tourists. The golf course was crowded with visiting golfers who filled the rooming houses. Dormitory rooms at D-K Normal School were rented to out-of-staters while residents put spare cots and beds wherever they could in their homes.

The heat was even too much for the Boy Scouts Mel Perry, George Ackerman and Ray Ponath who planned a week camping at Gill’s Rock. The heat forced them to return to Algoma 48 hours after they’d left.

Although heat was limiting playground activities at Perry Field, swimming lessons at the beach continued. Oppressive heat forced delays in the Kewaunee-Manitowoc baseball game. Perhaps the Manitowoc team kept its cool best, deflating Kewaunee 10 – 1.  While the cheesemakers picnic went on at the Fairgrounds, Viola Dahlke was crowned the county’s Cheese Queen. Viola would go on to represent the county at the state fair, and if she won there, to the Miss American contest at Atlantic City. Intense afternoon temperatures ruined programs, however, folks turned out for the picnic and a crowd of 3,000 was in the grandstands for the evening crowning. Algoma band escaped the Luxemburg heat by returning to the lakeshore. Reports of 108-degree temperatures in the shade proved Alaska could not live up to its name. It was so hot at Algoma Plywood and Veneer that after men reported for work, they were given the day off with pay. One fellow, Mr. Towsley, claimed that the temperature of his car radiator water dropped 10 degrees between the top of the Campsite Hill and his stop at the post office.

The Record Herald’s editor told readership that “a quirk of nature” built Algoma into a booming resort when it was so hot inland. After all, the city was three miles farther into Lake Michigan than its neighbors to the north.

The dry spell finally broke on a Wednesday morning when a nice slow rain brought smiles. Most of the farm crops were gone and cows had been turned into the grain fields. Some farmers had cut the grain to use as hay and in other places it was burned. It didn’t stop there. The summer of 1936 was bad enough, but then came a record setting cold winter.

Wikipedia tells us the North American heat wave of 1936 was the worst in modern history with records standing until 2012. Compounding the 1936 issues were the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. The summer’s heat caused over 5,000 deaths and catastrophic suffering. Huge numbers of crops were lost and thousands of farms were foreclosed on, often leaving the owners homeless.

The heat wave began in June and got worse from there. It went into Canada and eventually covered the continent. In July, temperatures reached all-time highs that stood until 2012. Wisconsin was one of the states experiencing record highs, and records set in the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario still stand.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald and Wikipedia. The postcard is from the author's collection.

D-Day and Algoma Seamen Gerhart, Lessmiller & Nessinger

USS Nevada at Normandy

June 6 was the 75^th anniversary of D-Day. Under General Dwight D. Eisenhower, over 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to gain the European foothold in Europe that led to the defeat of Germany a year later. History tells that more than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the invasion. Of the landed troops, more than 9,000 were killed or wounded. Cousin Cal was there and said some drowned jumping from the Higgins boats into the rough surf as the heavy packs pulled men under. Whether it helped if one could swim, Cal didn't think so. Men died in the water and as soon as they hit the beach. That was from fire. The dying continued.

D-Day – or any other war or invasion – just didn’t happen “over there.” Kewaunee County has been touched by all the wars. Even the War of 1812. Then British sloops Felicity and Archangel were patrolling Lake Michigan to keep an eye on the French and alliances they might be forming with the Indians. Joseph McCormick who first visited the area in 1834 came out of that war with the rank of Major. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Civil War veterans were buried in Ahnapee/Algoma before McCormick, but his service was the earliest. Algoma men were among the Kewaunee County men who served, and Algoma men were at Normandy too.

During late summer 1944, Algoma Record Herald carried a reprint from Canton Repository. The article looked back at D-Day saying that America was not then fighting with money and material, but with thousands of lives. The Repository said that until war struck home, it was estimated, but not understood. It was happening daily with telegrams from the Secretary of War saying he “regrets to announce…..” or “he died heroically.” The article went on to say that survivors paid in sorrow for the sacrifice of the dead and only survivors were qualified to speak of the war.

This 75^th anniversary marks the last time World War ll veterans will be in attendance. For the next big anniversary event, the 100th anniversary, there won't be any veterans left and few who lived through World War ll will be alive by then. Who will begin to understand the sacrifices made at Normandy and all over the world? 

Algoma men wee among the over 156,000 U.S. men who stormed Normandy beaches where more than 4,000 lost their lives. Thousands more were wounded or were missing. 

U.S Navy Seaman Melvin F. Lessmiller was one who took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima and in the invasion of the Philippine Islands. He also took part in D-Day aboard the Texas. Another was Pharmacist’s Mate 3c Melvin Nessinger who was aboard the battleship Nevada, the Texas’ sister ship. Gunner’s Mate Ray Gerhart was another Algoma man on the Nevada that day. When Pfc. Thomas Kaye returned to Algoma, the Record Herald noted his certificate from his commanding general, Maj. Gen. Charles H. Gerhardt, who recognized the unusual fighting toughness of his 29^th Infantry Division at Normandy. All participants of Normandy were entitled to one star on their theater ribbons.

When Melvin Nessinger wrote from the Nevada to his parents, he told them D-Day was something Hollywood could never reproduce. He said several hours before H-hour, the sky was lit with dropping shells, but the men didn’t know whose shells they were. He said their minds were torn by what they’d find, and the mines that lined roads. Nessinger told how the ship vibrated in the drone of over 800 bombers and shells hitting an 8-mile stretch of beach, while contrasting the tracers’ beautiful patterns across the sky.

Shore batteries were firing on the invasion fleet when just after dawn Messerschmitts came out of a cloud bank to meet tracer fire. For Nessinger, hours melted into days and nights, and during the days, one could see Allied transports from horizon to horizon as bombers and fighters worked to find enemy positions. Melvin thanked folks for their letters and the prayers which he said were being heard. Melvin was proud to be serving on the ship and glad his parents had heard how well the men on the Nevada accounted for themselves. The Nevada set new records for accuracy that day.

Lessmiller was both at Iwo Jima and Normandy and told his parents that the Marines have “what it takes, and they take what they land on, no matter what.” Nessinger and Gerhart went on to remind Algoma residents to keep buying war bonds because on D-Day alone the Nevada presented “the Germans with a gift of a million and a half dollars in ammunition alone.”

The Nevada was the only ship present at both Pearl Harbor and Normandy, and Gerhart was aboard. Being launched in 1914 and serving in World War l, the old battleship was the flagship at the Utah Beach landing. Hit by 7 bombs and 2 torpedoes at Pearl Harbor, the ship lost 120 men.

Judge Donald Gleason spoke at Algoma’s commencement, offering graduates advice and encouragement. He referenced the war and D-Day saying the graduates would never forget their “graduation and D-Day – the day of the European invasion.” It is doubtful that any ever did.

A week of two later, the Record Herald editorialized about the thousands and thousands of “American boys” were giving their lives to “erase Nazi tyranny from the face of this globe.” The paper pointed out that such tragedy stirred others and how a steady flow of war materials was necessary. The paper went on to say that maybe production wasn’t as dramatic as men struggling against machine guns but production was imperative. It opined that one day Algoma residents might learn that Algoma-made airplane and glider parts played a role in the invasion of Europe. Residents did indeed learn the role of Algoma Plywood made pieces.

And the U.S.S. Nevada? Wikipedia tells us that Nessinger and Gerhart served aboard the 2^nd U.S. Navy ship to be named for the 36^th state. Launched in 1914, it was the lead ship of two Nevada-class battleships and the first of the “standard-type” battleships. Trapped at Pearl Harbor during the attack on December 7, it was the only battleship to get underway during the attack. The damaged ship was salvaged and modernized to serve in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. When the war was over, the old battleship was used for atomic bomb practice. It was decommissioned in August 1946 and later sunk for naval gunfire practice.

Nessinger, Gerhart and Lessmiller told some of their D-Day stories. Stangelville’s James Steinberger never did. He was one of the thousands killed at D-Day. The Record Herald said that “up and down the quiet streets of this country and along rural highways, the homes of America were paying the price for D-Day.” Casualty lists were beginning to catch up.

Raymond Julius Gerhart was born in Algoma on September 4, 1921 and died on October 15, 1979 in San Diego, California. He is buried in El Camino Memorial Park. 

Melvin Nessinger's stone in Pioneer Cemetery, Shortsville, New York

Sources: Algoma Record Herald; Carlton Repository online article; Find a Grave; Wikipedia.
Photos: Naval vessels online; Find a Grave.

Ernest H. Haucke, KIA: World War l & and Haucke Post 236

All over America plans are being made for Memorial Day weekend, which marks the beginning of summer for many. There will be camping trips, weekend trips to water parks and zoos, baseball games and more. There will be parades led by American Legion Color Guards, and Legionnaires will form the parties firing the salute at cemeteries with graves holding veterans of all this country’s wars. In anticipation of the event, the Auxiliary and others will be marking each veteran’s grave with a flag.

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day as it was once called, came about with Southern women who decorated the graves of fallen soldiers, and by May 1868, the Grand Army of the Republic (Union soldiers) established the day to decorate graves of the dead with flowers. Memorial Day, as a designation, came into vogue after World War ll and became the day’s official name in 1967.

The Sons of Veterans (of the Civil War) oversaw Ahnapee/Algoma Decoration Day events from the beginning through 1919. Ernest Haucke American Legion Post was founded in March 1920, and since then has planned Decoration Day activities in Algoma.

Algoma’s Ernest Haucke was the first of the Kewaunee County men to die on the battlefields of Europe in World War l. Born on April 11, 1896, Ernest was Grandma’s first cousin, and was the same age. Fifty years later, he was not forgotten, but frozen in time as a 22-year-old man.

In July 1917, young Ernest was in Two Rivers, in a National Guard unit, and waiting to be called. Men had draft numbers, and Ernest’s was 47. February 1918 found Ernest at Camp Merritt in New Jersey, a camp for transient troops that was one of three camps under the control of the New York Port of Embarkation. In a letter written from Camp Merritt, he said how glad he was to be sleeping in a fine spring bed and to be out of the canvas cots and tents of Camp MacArthur in Waco.

Ernest wrote about his train trip from Waco, Texas to New Jersey . The 4 ½ day, 5 night journey began in Waco’s warm sunny weather and ended with the snow and ice of New Jersey.

The young Algoma doughboy traveled through states he had never been in. He thought most of the larger cities were great, that the Appalachian mountains were prettier than the Cumberland mountains and reported seeing a prison camp for German spies. Periodically, the train stopped so the men could hike for a mile or so. Its first stop was Pine Bluff, Arkansas, which, Ernest wrote, was known for its beautiful women. Arriving at Washington, D.C. at 10:30 at night was disappointing since the captain promised they’d detrain at Washington and parade around the capitol. As it was, they had to be satisfied with the glow of city lights offering a view of the metropolis. Camp Merritt was within 15 miles of New York City, prompting most men to take advantage of a 24 hour leave.. The leave gave Ernest the opportunity to see his relative, Fred Busch, who managed one of the larger New York hotels.

Camp Merritt agreed with Ernest who said it was more like home with snow and heated buildings. There were 60 men in a building and 30 in a room which, Ernest thought, made for “jolly good times” for men who were beginning to feel like brothers. Ernest said he didn’t expect to be in New Jersey long before being shipped to France, knowing Algoma folks read about the sinking of the Tuscania. Troops aboard were in the 32^nd Division, the division that Ernest’s company was a part of. The company knew many of the men who had gone down.

According to Ernest, the YMCA was the first place the men tried to find in New Jersey. The “Y” gave the men something to do to escape lonesome hours, and he generally spent several hours an evening there.

Ernest encouraged friends to write to him at Priv. Ernest H. Haucke, Co, G., 128^th Inf. U.S.N.G., A.E.F. via New York. The address would get letters to him in camp and in France.

A little more than 5 months later, an Algoma Record Herald headline announced Ernest’s death on the battlefields of France. Ernest was the 2^nd city man to enlist – Jerry Jerabek was the 1^st - and the first in the county to be killed in action. He died on July 20^th, but it was weeks later before his family knew it and learned that Ernest was a part of a great allied victory at Chateau-Thierry,  

Ernest was among the other Algoma men who began their training in Sturgeon Bay before going to Camp Douglas for a short time. Then it was to Camp MacArthur for intensive training before going to New Jersey and to France. His parents last heard from him toward the end of June, and when Rev. Schlei spoke at his funeral service at St. Paul’s, he paid tribute to Ernest saying he died a Christian death that was most honorable. Schlei called him a young hero and asked the congregation to offer special prayers for the man buried beneath a white cross in France. Ernest’s body was eventually returned to his family in Algoma, and he is buried at the Evergreens.

As a youngster, Ernest attended school in the Town of Ahnapee and in Algoma where he always lived with his parents. He was employed at Ahnapee Veneer and Seating Co. and was described as a clean-cut young man who was highly thought of. Just after he joined the military, he told his brother Arnold he joined to “do his duty.

Ernest’s story is much the same as the Algoma men who died in World War I, and those who survived. But, because Ernest was the first to be killed, the Legion Post was named for him. Chartered in March 1920, one of the 15 charter members was Jerry Jerabek, Algoma’s first volunteer. In April 1920, the paper announced that 10 new members were added in one week. The Haucke Post was open to men in northern Kewaunee County and southern Door County.

The American Legion was growing and when the Haucke Post was chartered, there were over 8,000 posts. More posts were predicted as the Legion expected to serve 2 million men by the end of 1920. The G.A.R. posts, founded after the Civil War, reached the height in membership in 1910 when its roster listed a half million members. Going forward, the World War l veterans took over duties performed by the Sons of Veterans. That included Memorial Day ceremonies.

Ernest Haucke Post 236 remains in existence at just under 100 years old. As it did for 98 years, the Post will honor veterans for the 99th time in ceremonies in Algoma on Monday, May 27.

Sources: Family history and Algoma Record and Algoma Record Herald. Photos are from the Record Herald.

Silver Creek: Wells, Valentine and the Mill

Silver Creek brings to mind the area west of Algoma radiating from the intersection of County Highways D and S. Named because the South Branch of the Ahnapee River, often called Silver Creek after passing Bruemmerville, went through it,  the rural area supported Silver Creek School, Swamp Creek Cheese factory and folks with names such as Leischow, Nell, Wessel, Sibilsky and Entringer and more.

However, Kewaunee County had an earlier Silver Creek, this one about 3 miles north of Algoma. The  community was fading as the other Silver Creek was growing. The earlier Silver Creek entered Lake Michigan in Section 7, Township 25, Range 26. In 1857 Albert Wells and Alonzo B. Valentine bought a large tract of land surrounding the creek. They built a pier, a sawmill and a store and, for the next few years, the hamlet became one of the liveliest places in Kewaunee County. The settlement even had a school taught by Capt. Zeb Shaw’s elderly father. In that brief span of a few years, Silver Creek looked toward prosperity and by 1860, there were those who said the fledgling community would rival its nearby neighbor, one only a few years older: Ahnepee. That never happened.

Whether or not the Civil War caused the company’s financial struggles remains unclear, although those problems started just after the war’s outbreak. On January 26, 1863, the entire property was sold by Kewaunee County Sheriff J.P. Arndt at a Sheriff’s Sale at the county courthouse. At issue were 482 and 80/100  acres.

Plaintiff Anson Bigelow filed a Summons for Relief against defendants Alonzo B. Valentine, Albert Wells, Julia P. Wells, William Ackley and D.D. Haskell in Circuit Court, Kewaunee County on August 5, 1861. The State of Wisconsin addressed the defendants saying they were summoned and required to answer the complaint filed in the office of Kewaunee County Clerk of Courts Hiram H. Fenn, and to provide a copy of their response, within 90 days, to Attorney J.D. Markham in his Manitowoc office. Failing to answer the complaint meant that the plaintiff would apply to the court for the relief demanded in the complaint. Hon. David Taylor, Judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit of the State of Wisconsin, was the witness.

According to the online site  https://definitions.uslegal.com/c/civil-procedure-summons/  

"A summons is a paper issued by a court informing a person that a complaint has been filed against her. A copy of the summons must be served on each defendant at the same time as the complaint to start the time running for the defendant to answer."  When the complaint is filed, it sets forth facts and allegations that the plaintiff believes justifies the granting of relief against the defendant. Also included is the relief which the plaintiff seeks.

Anson Bigelow was the mortgage holder and it appeared he was the new owner of the property, however he failed to do much with it.

In 1868, Ahnepee shipped 114,718 ties, 211,960 posts and 8,863 cords of wood. During the same year, Silver Creek shipped 10,000 ties, 20,000 posts, although exceeded Ahnepee by shipping 10,000 cords of wood. As shipping decreased, the place gradually deteriorated and the mill was sold. The place that was going to rival Ahnepee faded into history.

Although the Silver Creek lost its importance as a commercial center, the community remained. Silver Creek residents Perry Austin and Charlotte Berg married in Ahnepee on December 27, 1862. Austin was recognized in 1874 for killing 23 deer during the season.  A few months after Austin’s wedding, in February 1863, Ahnepee’s Rev. Hela Carpenter thanked the people of Silver Creek for the “temporal favors bestowed on him for the support of the gospel. “ The temporal favor was in the amount of $63 contributed to support Carpenter’s missionary efforts at Silver Creek.

John Tipler, with George Barrand as his relief, was driving the lake shore stage route between Ahnepee and Sturgeon Bay in 1870. The men carried mail and passengers on an open buck board, fashioned of thin hickory planks and lacking springs. Stops included Silver Creek, Stoney Creek, Clay Banks, Vignes, and Cheeseville, later called Salona. The rest stop was on Shaw’s corner on the Door and Kewaunee County line. By the mid-1870s, there was more fish than forest products going out of Silver Creek. During spring 1874, the Silver Creek Fish Co. reported taking an astounding 20,000 brook trout.

It was in 1946 that the hamlet that time forgot came back into the news. For some reason, while Anson Bigelow was the original mortgage holder and was awarded the foreclosed-on property, he did not get a clear title. It was Zeb Shaw who brought that to light in 1926 when he sued Wells, Valentine, their wives and descendants, and many of the surrounding property owners including Fellows, Braunsdorf, Coe, Wing, Acker and Shaw in addition to unknown heirs, unknown lien holders and unknown property owners.

They had 20 days from service of the summons to answer. The only relief was to quiet the title to and to establish the plaintiff’s claim of title against the defendants. That would bar the defendants from any right or title to the east 30 acres of Government Lot 2 in Section 6 of Township 25 N, Range 26 E, except 2 acres in the northeast corner and a strip of land one rod wide along the lake shore running from the said Lot 2 to the high water mark on the Lake Michigan shore.

Algoma Attorney Sid Knutson was the plaintiff’s attorney who pointed out that the Circuit Court would appoint guardian ad litems for all the infants and all insane and incompetent persons.

Notes: Today's Algoma was renamed in 1897 from Ahnapee, which it became in 1873. The community named Wolf River in 1851 was renamed Ahnepee in 1859. When the village received its charter in 1873, the spelling reflected the "if you can't beat them, join them" idea as the state consistently spelled the community;s name incorrectly  The paper long known as the Enterprise,began as the Enterprize. That spelling changed in 1865.

Captain John Ross made his home at Silver Creek. Living with him was fisherman Jackson Jordan who enlisted in the Civil War. Eli Dunham and Well's employees Willet Wheeler and Spencer Dunham were other Silver Creek men who enlisted with Jordan. Wheeler's military service was short: his hand was blown off at Shiloh, his first military action.

Sources: Ahnapee Record/Algoma Record/Algoma Record Herald; Kewaunee Enterprise; Door County Advocate.

Kewaunee County & the Short-Lived Bookmobile

April 10 is Bookmobile Day in Wisconsin, a day that brings to memory the Door-Kewaunee County bookmobile.  In the world of 2019, few remember it coming to Kewaunee County communities and even fewer have memories of the joys it brought the county’s rural school population. It never was the mainstay that it was in Brown and Door Counties, and that Kewaunee County even had a bookmobile was a credit to hardworking, passionate citizens who wanted to bring books to all areas of the county. Books for kids and books for adults.  During the initial demonstration program alone, the counties saw a 16% increase in library circulation. When the bookmobile made its first appearance in the peninsula’s counties, 23% of Wisconsinites did not have access to a free public library.

Just before Halloween 1949, Kewaunee County Board was considering joining Door County in requesting the state library demonstration in the area. As it was, Wisconsin would approve a single demonstration area and an informational request was not binding. A bookmobile was part of Wisconsin’s Free Library Commission projects and Kewaunee County could get the free information on a bookmobile and its services when such a unit toured the area early in November. On its tour, the bookmobile was expected to stop at schools in addition to the homes of county board members.

During the board meeting, May Smithwick, county superintendent of schools, spoke in favor of the demonstration, which could only enrich the education of the children in rural schools. Rural schools had libraries, but the books – many outdated - remained the same from year to year with possible additions of a few new ones.  Some rural shelves appeared full, but often, being devoid of library books, the shelves stored unusued text books

A letter sent to Otto Adams, chairman of the county board, from the Library Commission, stated that the 1949 legislature enacted the Library Demonstration bill, providing funding of $50,000 yearly for 3 years to a rural county or adjacent counties selected for the demonstration. The law also specified that the state would pay half the cost of a single demonstration as long as the state portion did not exceed 50% of the total cost. It further called upon the people within the demonstration area to develop their own initiatives, ensuring the library service would continue without interruption following the 3 year demonstration period.

In 1950, the approximately $70,000 in books and equipment would be left in the area after the initial period was no small change! The state also pointed out that at the end of the 3 years, a county with a 25,000 population would tax property at one mill.* The state encouraged applications from areas that were neither above nor below average in population, existing services, wealth and more.

 It was furthermore noted that average costs would be about $1.50 per capita if an area held at least 25,000 people. Door and Kewaunee Counties jointly met that requirement. The Library Commission believed average rural Wisconsin communities had the ability to organize free library service and had the local resources to continue its support, providing a large enough population was served. A committee made up of Mrs. Smithwick, a county board member, a school official and 3 prominent community members were charged with informing Kewaunee County residents of the opportunities offered.

Door County wanted the library demonstration project, however its population made it too small to qualify. Working with Kewaunee County made it eligible. In meetings with the state, Door County was given the same information as Kewaunee. They were told how there would be a central pool of books and other printed materials available to all. A system of inter-library loan would put even more information at one’s fingertips. But Door County could not do it alone. There was more than the bookmobile though. There would be book talks and story hours. Films would be available to rural schools. There would be an advisory staff assisting local librarians, school groups and individuals, and a book collection that rotated thus always offering something new. Algoma, Kewaunee and Sturgeon Bay would be the main libraries with branches at Casco, Luxemburg and many of the villages of Door County. There would be two bookmobiles.

It was an exciting time in November 1949 when the bookmobile stopped at schools to allow parents and students to tour it to find out what it held. Still, both county boards had to approve the demonstration if the state approved the counties’ application. Kewaunee County Board approved the demonstration project. Most areas were onboard, but others were not. It was understood that the demonstration would not be put into an area that was opposed to it.

In early January 1950, it was announced that the regional library would go into operation on February 1. An entirely new project meant there were logistics to work out. A temporary director needed to be hired and standards needed to be established. Eyebrows were raised when Kewaunee County board members saw the state-set salaries for the administrative assistant, two typists, cataloguers, 2 drivers and the librarians. The book budget totaled about $12,000. One bookmobile was to be donated by the State Library Commission with funds from the State Federation of Women’s Clubs, while the other would be paid for by the counties. Then there were the office supplies and equipment. The project’s costs fell between $53,500 and $57,500. By-laws were written by a team from each county and an administrative committee was made up of an equal number of residents from each county. Among the committee’s responsibilities was “selling” the demonstration project in their respective areas. It was not easy.

The need to “sell” the project was kept in mind as a requisite for the director. One of the candidates for the job was “high in library work” in the State of Washington. If she were hired to set-up the D-K program, she would have to take a significant decrease in salary. The representative from the state commission felt that the one hired to set-up the program would be one who’d need to take “hard knocks,” and after the set-up, a director with other talents might be named. He pointed out that the D-K demonstration would be closely watched throughout Wisconsin and across the U.S. The person hired to be director would be developing something entirely new. She would be raising her position in the library profession. In 1950, nobody expected a man to served in such a position, especially in such a rural area. Mr. Botsford from the library commission opined that not many were qualified for the director’s position.

Board members noted the need to watch salary precedents carefully so that future county boards would see their way clear to continue the project when the state stepped away from the project. Headquarters for the regional library would be in the basement at the Sturgeon Bay quarters. Sturgeon Bay, Algoma and Kewaunee were to decide whether their books would be circulated. Then it came out that progressive Algoma’s 1948 book budget was $1,400 while Door County spent $1,400 in total. Kewaunee city spent just $482 in the same year.

The goal was that the bookmobile would be ready for making at least two trips each to each school in each county before the end of the school year. To meet that goal, first two months of 1950  were spent getting the new system organized and working out snags

In continuing to explain the need for the new system, it was pointed out that library facilities at schools were important, but did not receive the attention necessary. If the library was well maintained, information on a variety of subjects was available. County teachers had great hopes for the Regional library. Algoma librarian Mrs. Dorothy Ackerman, and the librarian from Baileys Harbor, spoke on WJPG radio acquainting listeners with what was going on with the new library and its programs.

There was eager support and fierce opposition to the new system. There were those who felt the books would put foolish notions into the minds of children. The opposition was largely in Kewaunee County, but there was opposition in Southern Door County as well. Some felt a regional library system was government interference that would only expose folks to moral and political dangers. At the same time Senator Joseph McCarthy was holding hearings looking for Communists behind every tree. There were those who felt that the trouble on the Korean Peninsula meant war and if such a library system was going to add $12-15 a year in taxes, a possible war in Korea would drive taxes up even more.

On April 4, 1950,  Montpelier town board unanimously passed a resolution requesting a referendum on the bookmobile and the money it cost. The Town felt Kewaunee County residents were treated unfairly when the County Board made its decision approving the demonstration.

.

At the end of the demonstration period, the committees, the librarians, the teachers, the kids and most of the parents felt the system and bookmobile was a resounding success. 90% of rural children in both counties used the bookmobile. Kewaunee County’s Town of Franklin students averaged 40 books a year, the highest record within the two counties. Children in the Town of Carlton averaged just over 30 books a year. Women used the bookmobile as well, although during the trial period, only a handful of Kewaunee County men used it.

Kewaunee County voters had their chance to express their views in the 1952 election which also saw future president Dwight Eisenhower and Senator Joe McCarthy on the ballot. Algoma, Casco and Luxemburg voted in favor of the library system. Kewaunee city rejected the system by 1 vote and it was voted down in the rural areas that received the most service. Families with school children generally wanted the bookmobile, however they were outvoted by those without children in school.

When the bookmobile came to an end, rural school children were in tears. For a little while, they had something their city cousins did. The demonstration worked. Other counties got their own bookmobiles and regional library systems. Door County voted to maintain the program on its own. For over 40 years, the bookmobile was a boon to Door County children, their parents, and anybody who wanted to use it.

Sources: Algoma Record Herald

 *The term "millage" is derived from a Latin word "millesimum" meaning "thousandth," with 1 mill being equal to 1/1,000th of a currency unit. As used in relation to property tax, 1 mill is equal to $1 in property tax, which is levied per every $1,000 of a property's determined taxable value. This definition was found at  .https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/millrate.asp

Ahnapee, Algoma & the 2nd Street Bridge

Tongues have been wagging about Algoma’s 2^nd Street Bridge reconstruction for close to 20 years. According to Door County Daily News, it will happen this summer. A year ending in 9 seems to be magic for the bridge since 1899 and 1949 were the two most recent reconstruction years. Set in a 2019 context, discussion concerning the need for the bridge is not much different than it was following World War ll, or well before 1900. Who today would think at one time the bridge’s placement determined the center of town?

Algoma’s senior citizens remember the old iron bridge turning to allow boat traffic to get up river. In an earlier day, boats traversed the river, turning into Mr. Gericke’s dock to off-load provisions for his store at the northwest side of 2^nd and N. Water. Boats went to the furniture factory on S. Water, now Navarino, and as far as the Plumbers and the Veneer and Seating Co., last known as the Hardwoods.

Some of t hose same adults have not-so-fond memories of walking to or from St. Mary’s only to come upon seagulls vying for the fish guts on the deck planking. The gulls didn’t give up easily and the little kids weren’t about to take them on by walking right through. Older boys got plenty of attention as they chased screaming girls with those vile, half-eaten fish. Then there are those who remember getting pooped on when some pleasure boater sounded the horn when coming upon a flock of seagulls feasting near the bridge.

When Major Joseph McCormick and his party sailed up the (now) Ahnapee River to today’s Forestville in 1834, the guts could have been a lot bigger as later history recorded muskellunges of over 35 lb. caught in the river. In a day before the goose poop became part of its landscape, Algoma’s commercial fishing industry lined the river banks on either side of the 2^nd Street Bridge, and the gull offal was there.. Seagulls and fish guts have always been a part of Algoma, and a part of the bridge history.

Most presume that a bridge was always at 2^nd Street, but it wasn’t. The community’s first bridge was a log footbridge constructed near the mouth of the river in 1856 by Joseph Anderegg, Peter Schiesser, William Fagg and Matt Simon, however the mouth of the river wasn’t where it is today. A spit of land covered what today is the mouth. The river turned north, for about a block from the main channel, before turning east and entering Lake Michigan at a spot that in 2019 would approximately be the foot of Michigan Street. When the community’s first school opened on the north side of the river in 1855, south side children were not able to attend because the footbridge had yet to be built. A year after the footbridge, in summer 1857,  a wooden bridge was built near the mouth east of present-day Church Street, crossing the river just east of the current Von Stiehl Winery.

Then came years of problems. Spring ice raised havoc all over the county and when freshets washed out the bridge in April 1866, the bridgeless community turned to Captain Hank Harkins to run a ferry near the mouth for several months as it took some time before normal bridge travel was resumed. By June it was announced Ahnepee's* village bridge was nearly complete. 

Second Street Bridge - 1883 Birdseye Map

Following the Civil War, Ahnepee underwent a period of significant growth, and with that came the June 1868 opening of a new bridge. By then townsfolk, feeling the mouth bridge should be moved toward the center of town, replaced it with a log bridge built on the 2nd Street site. Repair of the 2nd Street bridge was news again on March 23, 1876 when Simon Haag was hired to replace the stringers and then replank the bridge at a cost of $120.00. It was imperative that the bridge was made safe until the channel was excavated to permit passages of vessels to the deeper waters above it. Steam drilling and blasting during harbor development in April 1876 caused the collapse of the newly repaired bridge.

Once again the bridge gave way in September when Charles Damas was crossing with his team hauling a load of wood. Luckily, Mr. Damas and his team were rescued without serious injury. Since the bridge was the only one connecting both sides of the community, once again the town provided a ferry, again run by Captain Harkins, until the bridge was repaired. In April 1883, the bridge was in trouble again. A new brace was a necessity and the drop needed a new 2” thick pine plank cover. The bridge was deemed unsafe again in June 1888 and finally repaired in December 1890.

The bridge remained an issue and when Ahnapee was in the midst of a boom in the summer of 1895, the city again decided to have the bridge repaired. There was no option in August. Seven hundred people -most of whom were on their way to St. Mary’s - crossed the bridge on Sundays. Between 70 and 80 teams also crossed the bridge, however as summer wore on the situation became so tenuous that team travel was banned.

From the late 1850s on, the community sought to Improve the harbor and channel. The nearly on-going work with the U.S. Engineers caused some to call for action on the bridge situation. Since the bridge was too low, it was decided to put a "draw" in it. When the harbor was ready, it was felt the bridge should be ready to permit vessels to travel the river at will. By 1899, the community - newly christened Algoma – was forced to completely construct a new 2^nd Street bridge. William Damas had the contract and began tearing down the bridge in May.

As with anything else, if there was something to go wrong, it did. Work was pushed back in October 1899 when the use of a steam pump was delayed. Without it, the center crib could not be pumped out and masons could not do their work. When the pump finally came from Sturgeon Bay so late in the season, the city said the work would be pushed until completed.

The 2nd Street iron bridge opened 10 years before this post card was send.
The building on the left is Gericke's Store. The dock is at the right of the store.

By mid-January 1900, the workforce had been increased, the heavy center piece was in place and the city said the work would be finished in a few weeks. Fortunately, the ice was thick enough to support heavy pieces of equipment and material, and time was saved. The U.S. Engineers were reconstructing the piers while the bridge work was going on, and dredgings from the pier work were used as fill near the bridge. Algoma’s premier contractor, Fred Wulf, did the masonry work while the J.G. Wagner Co. of Milwaukee built the actual bridge for a cost of $6,700.

When the iron bridge was replaced in 1949, the current bridge was a marvel. Algoma caught up with the big cities! Gone was the planking and the shaking as vehicles crossed the bridge. Gone was the fear of the little kids who could see the water through the planking and through the sides of the bridge, and gone was the long walk to the 4^th Street bridge for St. Mary’s kids who lived downtown.

Phyllis Kessler, Miss Wisconsin, was on hand for the bridge dedication on July 2, 1949. The event began at 7:15 PM with a few words from Frank Knipfer, Kewaunee County’s highway chairman at the time the building decision was made. Second Ward alderman Art Dettman represented the city in his short address. Dettman served as chairman of Algoma’s street and bridge committee. A county representative was there to give a report on the role of the county and state. After the speeches concluded, Miss Wisconsin was driven up to cut the ribbon, thus opening the bridge.

The parade that followed the official bridge opening  was led by the American Legion colors and color guard, followed by Miss Wisconsin, the AHS band, Legion drill team and, of course, the requisite convertibles carrying the speakers. Those who wished to join the parade were invited to do so.

The parade eventually arrived at the Dug-Out where Algoma High School band presented a one-hour concert on the lawn. That was followed by Algoma Hunting and Fishing Club’s annual dance. Royalty was in attendance at the dance as Miss Wisconsin remained for it

New construction brings tweaks and so did the bridge, but the tweak concerned downtown’s other bridge. The new bridge was higher and carried more cars than the 4^th Street bridge, which also needed work. Alderman Wenniger asked for a windbreak for the new bridge and after much discussion, the windbreak was approved. However, a windbreak was also approved for 4^th Street since many citizens would find it improper for one bridge to have such a feature and not the other.

* Ahnepee became Ahnapee in 1873 when the village was chartered. Its name changed to Algoma in 1897.

Sources: An-An-api-sebe: Where is the River?, c. 2001; Commercial Development in the Youngs and Steele Plat, c. 2006; Algoma Record Herald; doorcountydailynews.com.
Map: U.S. Engineers, August 1870

The postcard is in the blogger's collection. The snippet of the early bridge is from the 1883 Birdseye Map.