Kewaunee County's Milkweed Pods: 1944 and World War ll

 

Milkweed Floss

It’s summer, and as fast as it goes in Wisconsin, it means it will not be long before milkweeds are growing along the by-ways and in fields. On clear fall days, we’ll see pods splitting and the floss, or silk, drifting in the breeze. Despite the plant’s name, milkweed is far from a nuisance. The plant that attracts monarch butterflies, bees, and other pollinators also provides food for immigrating birds and overwintering birds. But there is more.

Although few are aware of it, milkweed plants saved lives, and Wisconsin’s kids played a huge role in the lifesaving. It was during the depths of World War ll – 1944 - that Uncle Sam asked the nation’s children to collect 1 ½ million pounds of milkweed floss to replace kapok. What’s Kapok?

Kapok was the waterproof filling used in life jackets when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Java’s Kapok was the United States’ best source, however when Japan captured South Pacific Islands, Kapok was impossible to get. Milkweed – found throughout Wisconsin – was discovered to have about the same flotation ratio and suddenly what was once a pesky weed became a treasure. Milkweed floss turned out to be vital as it was the only buoyant substitute for Kapok, and it was found to be even better. 

In August 1944, the Door County Advocate was on the bandwagon touting the potential value of milkweed seed in exterior paints, enamels, and baked finishes. It was thought new uses for waste products of floss collection would encourage permanent milkweed cultivation after the war. So valuable in preventing soil erosion, the hardy plant required little attention after the first year. Optimum collection was when the pods were turning brown, the stage that made the best floss. The remainder of the versatile plant had other purposes. Oil and rosin came from the pods, and livestock could eat the residue.

As it was, milkweed floss had been used for making pillows and, in 1944, a 50-year-old milkweed floss pillow was on display at a Petoskey, Michigan, floss processing plant, the plant to which collected floss was sent a few months later. War Hemp Industries, Inc., Petosky, Michigan, was the agent for Commodity Credit Corp. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, or the WHI, CCC, and USDA  as the alphabet soup of the era referred to such agencies.

With that, the lowly milkweed plant earned a place in the war effort when Algoma Record Herald, in 1944, reported the War Food Administration (WFA) asked for the  collection of at least 1,500,000 pounds of milkweed floss to fill urgent war needs. Since time was of the essence, it did not permit developing such seed crops while the wild plants were just about all over. Commodity Credit Corp. said highway rights-of-way were one of the largest potential production areas. Prohibiting mowing of rights-of-way until pods were harvested in 1944 was a boon to floss collection.

The WFA said milkweed was easily controlled in pastures, though mostly found in roadsides, and advised farmers not to cut patches of milkweed. Kewaunee County Road Commissioner Griese sent out the information to county roadmen. No mowing. The highway department and county agent’s office cooperated in the effort to collect, cure, and dispose of milkweed pods.

Sturgeon Bay Advocate reported in July 1944 that life jackets would be provided for armed service members while getting rid of obnoxious weeds at the same time, although milkweeds were far from obnoxious that summer. Door County’s plans included listing patches of milkweed so volunteer groups could be assigned to pick at the right time. Those aware of milkweed patches were asked to call County Agent Mullendore’s office, the county home agent, school superintendent or conservation chairman.

Wisconsin’s milkweed goal was 300,000 pounds according to H.W. MacKenzie, former director of Wisconsin Conservation Department. MacKenzie immediately mobilized school children and others to collect the floss sorely needed for airmen and sailors. Kewaunee County’s milkweed collection was organized by County Agent V.W. Peroutky. Assisting Agent Peroutky were the Mrs. Nona Bartel, May Smithwick, and Florence Bodwin, Herman Griese, Eugene Nemetz, and George Gregor. The committee felt that many patches would not be reached until the groups were given adequate collection bags. In September, Kewaunee Enterprise told readers that government officials claimed over two million kids were mobilized to collect milkweed seed pods for Navy life jackets and other purposes.

Just after school started in September, the Advocate published the Door County’s goal - a bag of milkweed for each man in service. Merchandise prizes were to be offered for the best individual and group records, and in December it was announced that East Maplewood school was doing its share in winning the war when it collected 244 bags of milkweed pods. Astounding was that Harold Fortemps collected 204 of the bags by himself.

5/25/1945 - Record Herald

At the September 1944 Kewaunee County teachers’ institute, Eugene Nemetz, the county farm labor assistant, hosted a milkweed collection discussion. Materials were distributed and teachers received their bags. A few days later, the Record Herald told readership that county schools would be out picking in full force, although 4-H clubs, and church and civic groups were encouraged to help. The paper again pointed out that instructions came from County Agent Peroutky who said pickers needed to pick up sacks.

Across Wisconsin, local authorities, county war boards, county agents, and others oversaw supplying information and distributing the clean, dry, mesh onion bags, which were also available at school offices.

It was suggested pods be picked in pails or baskets and then dumped into the mesh onion bags. Each picker was requested to hang his sack over a wire fence for about 3 weeks for drying. Although pods in burlap sacks were known to mold, even rain did not affect those in onion sacks. It was stressed that collectors should not use closed containers.

The one-bushel mesh onion sacks held about one bushel of pods, which meant 50-pound onion sacks held about 800 green pods. County Agent Peroutky said plants averaged between 2 and 3 pods each although some had up to 15. They were found in fertile, moist areas and were to be picked when pods were mostly brown.

School children were encouraged to pick milkweed pods as it was a “real war job” that would help their older siblings who were serving in the military. The WFA said the kids would be the chief collectors of the floss used in manufacturing “Mae West” life jackets. Wikipedia says the vests were called Mae Wests  because those wearing them appeared to be large buxom women, and actress Mae West was the most popular. Just how did the FWA explain that to grade school kids?

Payment was 20 cents per full bag. Bags of green pods brought 15 cents. Teachers were asked to keep records for payment that was far from simple. Union State Bank of Kewaunee was in receipt of funds from the War Food Administration. The bank paid for the work through the county agent’s office, which paid the children via the teacher. Children were encouraged to use their money to buy more war savings stamps or add their earnings to the school funds. Non-students were paid directly and could accept payment or donate it to the school fund. The website retirementsimulation.com says that 20 cents in 1944 has the same purchasing power as $3.41 cents in 2023, thus one who picked several bags of pods might have been supporting the war effort while saving money for a special purpose. 

The Enterprise pointed out that rural grade and high school students did most of the milkweed seed pod collecting. Kewaunee County had 2,300 sacks to fill and each two sacks held enough floss to fill a life jacket. That prompted a Record Herald headline screaming,  “County Filling Many Life Jackets; More Milkweed Than Anticipated.”

Some Kewaunee County schools filled over 100 sacks when the county reached a peak of 3,300 onion sacks. At least 400 more sacks were asked to be delivered. With a shortage of onion sacks, Wisconsin turned to flour sacks and burlap bags, however care had to be exercised to make sure air circulated efficiently to prevent mold. Moldy pods were worthless.

Kewaunee and Door Counties, and all of Wisconsin, gave generous support to the milkweed drive, however it seemed as if the State of Wisconsin was overwhelmed by the all-out effort that came about. Michigan had ideal soil and climate so it was thought that state would outdo Wisconsin. It did.

When Ag Agent Peroutky reported to the Kewaunee County Board in December, he included milkweed statistics  just as he did dairy, cropping, farm institutes and more. Door County Board was also given a milkweed pod collection in annual report of Agricultural County Agent.

In November, the Record Herald  gave a shout-out and tip-of-the-hat to the kids when it said it was primarily rural, graded, and parochial schools that collected 2,100 bags  with an average of 800 pods a sack, which made 1,050 life jackets. Agent Peroutky said if 1,050 life jackets could save that many lives, the children had shown what their patriotism and all-out effort meant. Twenty cents a sack did not reflect labor costs, but it did reflect cooperation.

Red River Township’s San Sauveur school kids collected 40 bags, however the highest-ranking number of sacks per student was 5.5 at Red River Graded. Ryan school had 5.4 with 4.7 at Hawthorn. Sandy Bay, Garfield, LaFollette, St. Paul’s Lutheran at Ellisville, Jefferson, Luxemburg Graded, and Phillips stood at 2.5.  Peroutky said the heaviest pod yields were in the towns of Red River, Luxemburg, and Montpelier, though medium in Carlton, Lincoln, Casco, Franklin, and Pierce. There was not much in Ahnapee which, Peroutky said, was not a milkweed production township.

Sacks were collected on Monday October 30 via county highway dump trucks, overseen by the rural, graded, high and parochial schools. Families with sacks were to have them at the schools by 8 AM. If seeds were in burlap bags, the onion sacks would be available for transfer, and families were asked to turn in any unused bag. Peroutky said seeds had to fit comfortably in the bag. Crowding would cause shriveling. 

Kewaunee Enterprise reported Wisconsin’s children gathered 350,000 bags of milkweed to rank second in the nation. Door and Kewaunee Counties shipped five carloads to the Michigan processing plant while Shawano County was Wisconsin’s 1^st place county with 35,000 bags. Peroutky pointed out counties collecting more than Kewaunee were far larger, while proudly saying Wisconsin’s boys and girls gathered 350,000 bags of milkweed to rank so highly and do so much for the war effort.

All that milkweed pod picking meant clothing stains. Edna Baumann, assistant state 4-H leader, said to remove fresh milkweed stains, the garment had to be soaked for 2 or 3 hours in cool water, rubbing frequently to loosen the stain, followed by laundering. Gummy residue could be removed with carbon tetrachloride cleaner. If the brown stains set in, the item was to be soaked in cool water before applying glycerin, acetic acid or strong vinegar, and bleaching agents. Acids and bleach affected color so testing the garment was a necessity. Milkweed stains are nearly invisible at first but if not removed, they turn rusty or light brown in time, or with ironing heat or alkali soap, and are then difficult to remove.

In August 1945, it was reported that there would be no milkweed collection because of the amount collected in 1944 and the recapture of islands held by the Japanese. Supplies of life jacket material was meeting needs, and the war was coming to an end.

A little over two years later, it seemed as if the milkweed collection program was coming full circle on the peninsula with the appointment of Charles F. Swingle PhD as research horticulturist at what is now the Peninsula Experiment Station. Dr. Swingle’s extensive professional work history earned an earlier appointment as assistant director of the milkweed life jacket project at Petosky, Michigan, although Dr. Swingle’s Door County work would focus on fruits. Swingle had a tie to Door County and knew something about it as Dr. Ben Birdsall of East Maplewood was in charge of the Peruvian station where Swingle worked for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture teaching farming methods. Dr. Birdsall attended East Maplewood school years earlier and it was at East Maplewood school where Harold Fortemps single-handedly collected the whopping 204 bags of pods.

How many World War ll airmen and sailors owed their lives to roadside weeds?

Sources: Algoma Record Herald, Kewaunee Enterprise, Oconto Falls Herald, Wikipedia, www.retirementsimulation.com; Picture from https://gracegritsgarden.com/2020/10/milkweed-world-war-ii.html 

Ahnapee/Algoma & the Great Fire of 1871: The Child Nobody Talked About

 

Stories of  everyday people are important to our history and culture. In an effort to collect that history, Brown County Historical Society encouraged area residents to tell their story in 800 words from the perspective of the "Fly on the Wall." From the submissions, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners and five honorable mentions were chosen. The story below is the 1st place winner. This one, and those of the 2nd and 3rd place winners, will be published in an upcoming edition of Voyageur, Brown County Historical Society's award-winning magazine of history.

The story below is true and happened in Ahnepee (now Algoma) in October 1871. The child nobody talked about died because of the Great Fire, also known as the Peshtigo Fire. The child was the first born to my great-grandparents who had no time to grieve in such horror. Life was for the living.

The following story is told by the Fly.

The Child Nobody Talked About

That summer was frightful. Ahnepee saw only a few drops of rain in months. The smoke and fog hanging in the air made it even hard to see in the house, and I was afraid to abandon the safety of the kitchen window wall.

Amelia told Magnus that she could not see Mr. Perry's store across the street for the smoke. She could not keep Bay Imelda unsoiled. Amelia bathed Imelda and washed small clothes each day, but when the clothing was dry, Baby's soil was replaced with ash. Grossmutter and Grossvater could scarcely breathe and said Imelda's breathing was too shallow. Amelia was at her wits' end.

It was dreadfully hot that October, yet windows were kept closed to keep out smoke, dust and dirt. Everybody complained about sore throats. Breathing hurt and eyes burned. Imelda was not three weeks old and her cries were pitiful.

Saturday October 7 was a wretched day even for me. Smoke was horrid as soot-blackened folks flocked into town. Magnus said they were Belgians fleeing the woods to the west that were afire. Magnus and Opa spoke in whispers. They were frightened, and I heard them murmur if fire came to Ahnepee, they would take to the lake and meet there. If fire comes, what should I do?

Sunday morning was far worse. Although most birds had left, we still heard crows and gulls, though not in a few days. Dogs stopped barking, and Grossvati said their fur stood on end in fear. It was still when that endless wind sloweed in the forenoon. Grossvati thought there was a chance of escaping fire, but in the mid-afternoon the wind freshened and terrified, deer, foxes, rabbits, and other animals ran from the woods to the lake.

Grossvater and Magnus minded the western skies as did everbody else in the village. It was near 6 and dark, but Grossmutti and Amelia kept eyeing the fire-like glow to the west and southwest.

Just then somebody screamed "fire" and everybody began running for refuge in the Ahnepee River, Lake Michigan or into their wells. I didn't know what to do and stayed on my wall next to the window where I saw people running helter-skelter. Nobody knew what to do or where to go. Amelia covered Baby with a quilt as Magnus snatched her and started running. He shouted to Amelia to life her skirts and run. 

Hearing scream of people and animals, I wondered what would happen to me. Church-going folks knew that day they would be in paradise. Paradise for me was in the stable, but I knew that was not a place for Grossmutti, Amelia, and Baby.

Suddenly I heard what sounded like rain drops. They were! Rain came in torrents as glows in the sky disappeared while the night got pitch-dark and freezing cold. But where was my family?

 At first light, I saw char and ash outside the window. Then Magnus returned to see about the house. After that he and Grossvati joined Mr. Swaty who organized relief efforts to find those injured. Or worse. Thankfully, Magnus said, there wee no deaths. He said several buildings were lost but mostly it was the ash and char that covered everything. Knowing the family would be safe with Grossvati, Magnus joined others who went out into the countryside looking for those who needed help. 

Magnus told the ladies little of what he saw, however I was still near the window when I heard what he quietly told Opa. 

Nobody died in Ahnepee on October 8, 1871, but a few days later there were deaths. Faggs went into their well and a day or two later, little Sarah got the dreaded pneumonia. She died. Mr. McCosky was known to have breathing sufferings, and he died after Sarah. Then Baby Imelda died.

Imelda was three weeks old when she breathed her last. Born into oppressive heat, with smoke and fog on the wind, in those three weeks everything got worse. Her tiny lungs could not sustain her.Magnus built a small wooden box. Amelia lined it with a quilt and gently laid Imelda in. Magnus covered the wall and my grief stricken family carried it away. I never saw Baby again.

In the next days, my family saw to those in need and did for them. Amelia wept bitterly when she thought nobody saw her. Grossmutti wept too. Magnus and Opa were melancholy.

By then it was late in October and winter was coming. Much laid by beforehand was either spoiled or burned. Water was fouled by people and animals boiled to death while seeking sanctuary in rivers, creeks, and wells. Folks saw to the living.

 The Great Fire of 1871 was oft recalled in fear. I remained afraid and kept to the kitchen wall.

Note: The City of Algoma was named in 1897. At first settlement in 1851, the tiny fledgling settlement was known as Wolf River and Wolf River Trading Post until 1859 when it was renamed Ahnepee, meaning "Where is the River?" In 1873, the community was renamed Ahnapee. The Department of Post Offices, the State of Wisconsin, and others consistently misspelled the community's name and finally - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em - the place changed its name in 1873. It became the City of Ahnapee in 1879, and finally in 1897, Algoma, which means, "Where waters meet." 

 

Kewaunee County and Mental Health ca. 1870s - 1920s

 

Language usage has changed over the years. To hear one say “That is insane” today means everything from outrageous to cool. A generation or two ago, the word referred to mental illness. Words such as “mad,” “nuts,” and “crazy” no longer describe mental illness, but have other connotations. Prior to 1900, both Ahnapee Record and Kewaunee Enterprise carried articles about county residents judged insane - mentally ill today - and taken to Northern Hospital for the Insane (at left)  today’s Winnebago  Hospital treatment facility near Oshkosh. After 1900, the county board’s published minutes are full of names of those judged to be insane. The board paid for the “keep” of some in the homes of relatives.  The board also paid for resident treatment. One’s health was not privileged information. There was no HIPPA.

Various issues of the old papers report significant numbers of names, and issues of health were out   there for dissection by the public. The covid lockdown produced a mental health crisis, and there are not enough professionals to provide the help needed. Today there are medications and counseling, in addition to resident treatment, but in the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s, “care” often included prison or places such as the county farm, even reform schools. Wikipedia tells us 1800s’ treatments included purgatives and bloodletting, and sometimes straitjackets as restraints..

In spring 1874, the  fledgling Ahnapee Record made news when it reported on the Virginia state treasure who was sent to an asylum. The same paper reported that the vice president of the Marine Bank of Chicago “is a raving maniac,” and was confined to Mt. Pleasant asylum in Iowa. He had been a member and speaker of the Iowa Legislature. Such mental health issues went far beyond Kewaunee County.

In late February 1875, Wisconsin reported statistics for the year ending on November 1, 1874, when 2,293 Wisconsin residents were in jail. The figure included 153 females. Native born accounted for 748 while 1,228 were foreigners. Of that number, 122 were insane and keeping them varied from $12.25 monthly in Brunette County to $3 in Brown, Dane, and Washington. That same year, the whole number of pupils in “the asylum for the blind” numbered 75, although the average number was 60. The yearly cost was $316.66 while the expense for the “deaf and dumb”  averaged $431.

The paper Mental Illness in Ontario: 1890-1900, August 1977, dealt with symptoms, diagnosis, and expectations. Symptoms fell within the categories of aggressiveness, suicidal behavior, and hallucinations. Such symptoms were broken down into predisposing factors such as physical injury and sunstroke for males. Most women’s issues were attributed to the sexual from puberty to childbirth. Domestic problems such as wife-beating, death of a spouse, and financial upheaval were contributing sources of illness for women, however mostly non-existent for men. Epilepsy was considered a mental health disorder.

For over 1,000 years, hysteria was given as the source of women’s issues. That came from Hippocrates, the ancient Greek physician, who thought some women had a “wandering uterus,” one that was displaced. Since men dominated the health field, it was the 1980s before hysteria was no longer ascribed to women. Women were sent to facilities/asylums for not bending to the will of a husband. There were instances of husbands covering up affairs by controlling their wives, saying they were “mad” or “hysterical.” A woman’s physical make-up was said to make her more susceptible to disorders of the mind. Women and girls were supposed to know their place, and a woman’s “place” was not to seek attention, stand out, or question a man. That was even more important in a family with social standing and more money.

Kewaunee County Board’s committee on “insane and idiots” offered reports as part of the board meetings. The committee often attested to visiting the insane and idiotic of the county, “outside the poorhouse.” The poorhouse was Kewaunee County Farm, at left. Idiot, imbecille and moron were once technical words describing degrees of  intelligence. The words are now considered offensive as are so many other descriptors of the past.

As early as January 1870, it was called to the attention of the Wisconsin Legislature that reform school was not the place for “innocent victims” who were friendless, vagrant children who never committed a crime, but were homeless orphans. There were facilities for boys and girls including this home for girls. An act of 1875 established places for boys and girls to prevent crime, pauperism, vagrancy or children who were orphans. Such facilities were to return those who had fallen into bad habits to a good life or those who had inherited bad tendencies.

Also called to the Legislature’s attention was that the State Hospital felt at least 500 state residents were insane, however lacked care and proper treatment. The legislature was urged to erect another hospital quickly. Also pointed out was that more foreign born resided in poor houses than native born.

Kewaunee County's mentally ill residents were visited by the supervising committee from the County Board. After visiting those in question and considering the financial status of caretakers, recommendations were made for yearly payment to each caregiver. In 1905 the committee – Desire Colle, W.H. O’Brien, Joseph Bauer, Henry Boulanger, and Frank Gregor -  required reports from the District Attorney listing any monies collected from others who were liable for maintaining the “chronic insane.” The committee discussed the maintenance of “insane inamtes” in “insane aslyums.”  Supervisors Gregor and Cain were appointed with the District Attorney, to investigate and inquire into the cases and then enforce payments. There were matters of payment when a Kewaunee County resident found care in an adjacent county. In one instance Door County cared for a Casco resident. The County Board voted to charge the Town of Casco for the man’s keep.

There were 45 claimants in April 1905, 27 of which were denied. In cases where the county was to be reimbursed, the payees’ assessed amount was lower if they paid the bill early. Some of the assessments were for those from other counties as Kewaunee County also paid other counties for care of its citizens.

Costs were always an issue.

Dennis Sullivan, Edward O’Hara, Herman Teske, John M. Borgman were attending to bills in April 1885. One in Carlton said keeping another was $1.75 per week while a Franklin man said it cost $60 a year to maintain his two idiotic children. A Red River man said the maintenance for himself and family amounted to $86 per annum, a time when a Lincoln man kept two non-resident paupers for $60 a year. The committee recommended quarterly payments except for the Red River family man who would be paid annually.

The committee reported in January 1890 that it appeared “by shrewd management,” Brown County was maintaining and supporting its paupers and insane it its own asylum for 27 cents a week and that Manitowoc County showed even “schrewder management.” Manitowoc County maintained such folks free of all cost or expense to the county and even reported profits from the asylum.

J. Walechka, L. Lutz and J.C. Burke offered the insane report in December 1890 saying they examined several people for whom the county paid maintenance in state institutions. They had  relatives who were not liable for support as such support would deprive them and their families of necessities. Committee recommended collection from only those relatives of the idiotic and insane of those with property in their own right.

The county board listed the insanity cases while also listing those with tuberculosis sent to Maple Crest Sanitorium at Whitelaw and the indigent to the Poor Farm at Alaska in 1918. At the same meeting the committee on the Poor and Poor Farm submitted their annual report. Eight males and 6 females  lived there in 1917 for a total of 610 weeks. Residents were listed by name and the number of weeks in residence.

During the World War l era, the committee – then Edward Allard, M.M. Knudson, and John W. Adams – recommended the District Attorney collect fixed amounts from responsible parties caring for the insane. There was a list of other patients and caretakers excused from reimbursement to the county because of lack of property and other financial circumstances.

Some folks remained in their own homes while others were sent to treatment facilities.

During February 1875, a nineteen year old man was taken to the state asylum at Oshkosh. Why? Since the spring of 1871, the young man had been subject to “fits of epilepsy” that lasted from 12 hours to two weeks manifesting “periodical symptoms of raving madness or delirium” in which he would attack others, often endangering lives, thus it was no longer safe to allow him to be in society.

There were other such incidences. In April 1877, Ahnapee resident William VanDoozer’s bill for conveying an insane person from Ahnapee to Illinois was disallowed. In November, Judge Johannes ordered Sheriff Wery to take a Town of Casco woman to the Oshkosh. During the month, the wife of a man confined to his home with rheumatism was suddenly “taken insane” and in such condition that it took two men to watch her and use their “united efforts” to keep her quiet. Dr. Chapel attended her and it was believed she would be in Northern Insane Hospital before there was a permanent cure. At a late November 1877 meeting, the board paid Fred Johannes $15 for services on an insane case and county canvassing. Dr. O.H. Martin presented a $35 bill for examining the insane but the board only allowed $26. Dr. J.H. Chapel charged 35 for medical examinations in insane cases but he was only allowed 22. There were more cases all over the county.

Judge Stransky applied for the admittance of a Town of Franklin women to the Oshkosh Insane Asylum in April 1880. In 1899 an 18-year-old Algoma woman was living in Sturgeon Bay when she was found to be insane. A year later, a Kewaunee bachelor was taken to Oshkosh by Sheriff Kulhanek. The paper said the man attacked his neighbors with an ax. In 1915 a 78-year-old resident of the Town of Ahnapee was taken by auto by Sheriff Dobry to Kewaunee where Judge M.T. Parker adjudged the man insane. The fellow was under the impression that his auto ride felt like being at sea in a steamboat. It sounds like an astute observation for the time. A month or so later, a 59-year-old Luxemburg woman who had spent time at the state hospital in Oshkosh was taken back. Judge W.A. Cowell pronounced her insane as she was under the delusion that she was about to be married but that her family was keeping her intended from her. The next year, Judge Cowell ordered a Town of Ahnapee man to Northern Hospital. The  man was 70 and “his age seemed to enfeeble his mind.”  Drs. W.W. Witcpalek and D.B. Dishmaker did the examining.

Over 100 years later, mental health is a societal problem. Some things have changed. Some things have not. Whether it is those in any kind of treatment, or nursing homes, there are situations the same as when the Record Herald commented in 1922 on the “hidden sorrows” among those at the poor farm. Friends forget to write, a brother who never forgot Christmas fails to send a little gift and so on. A hundred things can dull days as they do for others not confined to facilities. In 1922, the paper editorialized, “It’s the little things, forgotten by those who should remember, which pain in the last gray days of life.”

 

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Record Herald, Door County Independent; Kewaunee Enterprise, Wikipedia

https://time.com/6074783/psychiatry-history-women-mental-health/ 

Sage Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com.doi.pdf

Photos from

Northern State Hospital: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~asylums/winnebago_wi/index.html

Kewaunee County Poor Farm: Algoma Record Herald

 Girls' Facility: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Industrial_School_for_Girls

Letter from Northern State: Door County Independent

Kewaunee County History: Patent Medicines & Algoma/Ahnapee

In the first 100 years of its existence, nearly all of of Ahnapee/Algoma drug stores were on Steele Street, between 3rd and 4th. They included James Dudley, David Logencrantz, John McDonald, W.N. Perry, Christian Roberts, Joseph Knipfer, Mike Shiner, Merton McDonald, James Fluck, and the Boedecker Bros., which became Rexall. Silas Doyen, Emil Spigelberg. H.W. Bates and George Wilbur operated their stores just east of 3rd and Steele. Wilbur joined Voyta Kwapil and opened on the north side of Steele, just east of 4th.

When a colleague was researching reasons for death decades ago, the list included rottenness, catarrh, general debility, too weak to live, summer complaint, liver complaint, scrofula, consumption and more.

Consumption, or tuberculosis, is now more well controlled in the U.S. than in any other country, however it was almost romanticized in the novels of the 1800s. Wikipedia explains it as “the idea of being quietly and inoffensively sick” It says the symptoms of tuberculosis were preferrable to other epidemics and infections that raged during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Catarrh is another illness mentioned in novels, magazines, and newspapers 100 years ago and before. Today we call it postnasal drip. It happens because of hay fever, colds, allergies, or rhinitis when excess mucous is produced.

Then there is scrofula, which is an inflammation in the lymph nodes, part of the body’s immune system. It was not to be taken lightly.

Summer complaint is thought of as flu with shivering and fever lasting three or four days. Summer complaint of the 1800s got its name because it was most common in summer months. It was not a simple thing, and its symptoms including vomiting and severe diarrhea were often fatal in infants and young children.

General debility and feebleness were terms for general weakness that was the result of a medical condition. Included in the definition is what is now called dementia or Alzheimer’s.

More and more, big pharma hawks medications for everything we’ve heard of and more that we have not. On the cusp of 1900, Ahnapee residents didn’t have TV or other electronics, so how did early residents identify their complaints, and what they could do about them?

Wikipedia tells us that by the mid-1800s, patent medicines were made and sold over-the-counter by just about anybody. However, such medicines originated in England where ingredients were granted government protection. Most such medicines were not patented and, without regulation, were proprietary or quack. Although some were found to be therapeutic, but the good feeling might have been produced by the high alcoholic content,

Ahnapee Record’s inaugural issue came out in mid-June 1873, and its second issue carried ads advising people to help themselves improve their health. Early Steele St. druggist W. N. Perry advertised drugs and medicines along with whiskies and trusses right from the start.

By the third issue in July 1873, Wilson’s Carbolated Cod Liver Oil was being peddled as a cure for consumption. Manufactured in New York, the company sold through its western agents in Chicago and St. Louis. While the ad’s title indicates the product would cure consumption, the small print said carbolic acid was the world’s most powerful antiseptic while cod liver oil was “the best assistant in resisting consumption.” The ad claims the product was sold by the best druggists so, apparently, William Perry was among the best. In 1904 Dr. King’s New Discovery was advertised for consumption. Dr. King’s advertising vowed, “Nothing has ever equaled it. Nothing can ever surpass it.”

The July 3, 1873 issue also carried an ad for Vinegar Bitters as the most remarkable medicine the world had ever seen. Vinegar Bitters was said to heal the sick of every disease “man is heir to.” Dr. J. Walker’s California Vinegar Bitters were manufactured from herbs found in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.

As early as 1874, the Record was carrying ads for medicines that strengthened and healed the liver. As a remedy for all “manifestations of disease resulting from Liver Complaint,”  Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery was “positively unequaled.” Using the medicine was sure to change the liver and stomach to an active, healthy state. If the medicine didn’t provide enough of a laxative to move the bowels, the ad suggested taking Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Purgative Pellets.

During Fall 1874, colds, influenza, catarrh, and other disagreeable complaints were prevalent in the unpleasant fall weather. It was then that the paper informed readers that C.H. Hitt of Clay Banks was lying dangerously ill, suffering from dropsy of a long duration. Recovery was thought to be doubtful. Dropsy was a condition characterized by an accumulation of fluid in tissues or in the body cavity. Edema is the term used today, although in the 1800s, dropsy also meant heart disease, liver disease and kidney disease.

On April Fool’s Day, 1880, the Record carried an ad for Kidney Wort which claimed to take care of  just about everything. Saying it was the only remedy to act on the bowels, liver and kidneys at the same time, Kidney Wort also took care of piles (hemorrhoids) , urinary diseases, female weakness, and nervous disorders. One would think Ahnapee residents splurged on the phenomenol Kidney Wort. Why would one suffer from bilious pains and aches, be tormented by piles, be frightened over kidney disorders, and have sleepless nights or sick headaches when one could “rejoice in health” with this dry, vegetable compound. One package made six quarts of medicine. Wells, Richardson & Co. of Burlington, VT, told readers their druggist would order the product, postpaid, for one dollar. Those who only had piles were guaranteed a cure by Pazo Ointment which promised to end itching, bleeding, and protruding within 6 to 14 days. If it didn’t happen, the 50-cent cost was refunded. So, how did anybody prove that one?

In 1886, D. Lancelle was advertising a remedy for asthma and catarrh. Green’s August Flowers – as beautiful as nature itself – was promised to make disheartened, discouraged, worn out people as free from disease as the day they were born. Dyspepsia and Liver Complain caused 75% of biliousness, indigestion, sick headache, dizziness of the head and palpitation of the heart, nervous prostration and more. In June 1887, Green’s said only three doses of August Flowers would bring back a wonderful life. Ten cents bought a sample bottle of the medication with the lovely name.

Picture found on the
Tizzano Museum site.

Colonel George Green served in the Civil War and later bought the rights to Green’s August Flower from his father. Col. Green was a patent medicine entrepreneur who created an impressive marketing campaign, distributed thousands of his health almanacs while mailing free samples. While a surprising number of patent medicines contained alcohol, August Flowers contained laudanum. Did the wonderful life come from addiction? By 1916 the product was discontinued because of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, but Col. Green was a millionaire by then.

Manchester’s English White Lily Circle Brand of Pennyroyal Pills was advertised in 1896 as the most powerful, safe, and reliable pill of its kind on the market. It worked for all kinds of female troubles and everything that could arise from it. If druggists weren’t carrying White Lily, the company would send it for $2.00, postpaid. The English Winchester Chemical Co. of Chicago was the home of the      English pennyroyal pills.

Druggist A. Logencrantz was on the northwest corner of 4^th and Steele in 1896. He advertised Begg’s Blood Purifier and Blood Maker to remove the lingering feeling of tiredness and offer a good appetite with regulated digestion.

Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Co., of Lynn, Massachusetts, advertised in Algoma Press in 1899. The company which said it gave a helping hand to all women, is, according to Wikipedia, still serving women. Lydia Pinkham invented and marketed an herbal tonic for menstrual and menopausal problems in the mid-1800s . Although medical experts of the day called Pinkham’s woman’s tonic “quackery,” the modified product was marketed over 100 years later.

Wilbur and Kwapil, just east of the northwest corner of 4^th and Steele, were stocking W.F. Severa’s remedies which came from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Severa promised to cure almost everything in the early 1900s. Severa had competition from Chamberlain’s Tablets, a stomach medication intended to clean, strengthen, tone, and invigorate, to regulate the liver and banish biliousness “positively and effectually.” It was for sale by all dealers. Severa’s sales were far higher.

Severa's Heart Tonic was said to quickly overcome all heart afflictions, dropsy, circulation, fainting spells while toning up the entire system. All that for $1.00. For 25 cents, Severa's Soothing Drops brought comfort and sleep to children while counteracting pain, colic, and cramps, overcoming all spasms and fever while regulating digestion.

Severa’s $1.00 Female Regulator overcame menstrual disorders, promoting healthy activity of the organs and counteracting all problems incidental to pregnancy, childbirth and change of life.

Severa’s Wafers were touted to quickly, and permanently, cure all forms of headaches and neuralgia, menstrual pain, and fevers. The product cost 25 cents and said it had no injurious effects on circulation. Then there were Stomach Bitters. Server said it promoted secretions of the stomach, aided digestion, stimulated the organs, increased the appetite, and overcame weakness while invigorating the entire body, available in two sizes for 50 cents or a dollar.

Summer complaint was miserable and painful, however the W.F. Severa Co. said it could manage that too. The stomach and bowels were most liable to be affected during summer and the prompt use of Severa’s was sure to quickly resolve the issues. Mr. Severa advised finding his facsimile signature on every package to ensure the product was his. The company said its products were sold by all druggists, one of which was Wilbur and Kwapil on Steele St. in Algoma.

Severa had competition in Dr. Hartman’s Pe-ru-na, which Hartman claimed was the best medication for summer complaint. Hartman said, Summer Complaint was really Catarrh, so he differed with others. In practice for over 40 years, Hartman, of Columbus, Ohio, never lost a sole case of cholera infantum, dysentery, diarrhea, or cholera morbus, all types of Summer Complaint. Cholera morbus is acute gastroenteritis. Cholera infantum was a cause of death in babies and small children. When Hartman claimed he never lost a case, was his advertising factual?

There were medications for Dyspepsia early in the 1900s. If you don’t enjoy the food you eat, it won’t do much for you according to the Kodol Company marketing. The thing to do was take Kodol Dyspepsia Cure each morning because the stomach needed to be kept healthy, pure, and sweet, to prevent disease from setting up. Wilbur and Kwapil were selling the cure which Kodol pledged would end all stomach troubles quickly. A few years later Kodol Dyspepsia Cure was said to cure bad breath and to guard against indigestion following a big meal. One N. Watkins of Lesbus, Kentucky testified that he was afflicted with stomach troubles for 15 years but after taking just six bottles of the Cure, he was entirely healed. He said those six bottles were worth a thousand dollars to him since he was able to eat and digest any quantity of wholesome food. Was he eating wholesome food and a good, well-balanced diet during those 15 years?

By spring 1904, it was said seven diseases caused by measles were cured with Dr. Miles’ Restorative Tonic and Nervine. Rev. Hiram Bender of West Bend did not enjoy good health until 1896 when he began taking the Restorative Tonic and Nervine. He claimed he was a perfectly healthy young man in 1865 when he contracted measles at Camp Randall. It took 31 years to feel good again, and it was because of Dr. Miles. Others also hyped the product which was guaranteed to work with the first bottle.

A year later, Mack Hamilton, a North Dakota hotel clerk, said two bottles of DeWitt’s Little Early Risers cured him of constipation. The pills acted as a tonic and as a drastic purge, curing headaches, constipation, biliousness, and more. Called a safe pill, they were small and easy to take and eat. Wilbur and Kwapil carried them.

Boedecker Bros., on the southeast corner of 4^th and Steele, advertised Gloria Tonic which Mr. William Hessler of Muscoda, Wisconsin, said made him a new man. While he was taking the first box, Hessler said he could not stand on his feet, but when taking the second, he could walk across a room pushing a chair for stability. After the third box, Hessler said he could husk corn and feed sixty head of hogs.

Colonel John F Miller of Honey Grove, Texas, reported being almost dead from liver and kidney trouble. Since his doctor did him no good, he bought a 50-cent bottle of Electric Bitters in 1905 and was cured. Miller said Electric Bitters was the best medicine on earth and gave thanks to God who gave the company the knowledge to make the product. Wilbur and Kwapil promoted the product which was guaranteed to cure dyspepsia, biliousness, and kidney disease. 

Spending 25 cents at Voyta Kwapil’s drug store bought Dr. King’s New Life Pills, pills promised to be the best remedy for constipation, biliousness, and malaria. The pills eased without the least discomfort said Mr. A. Felton of Farrisville, New York. Dr. King offered a free trial bottle for his New Discovery, a  pill guaranteed to kill coughs, cure the lungs, and work for all throat and lung troubles. If the free trial didn’t work, one could purchase the 50-cent or the $1.00 bottle. Dr. King’s ads usually contained testimonials. John Supsic of Sansbury, Pennsylvania, said the pills were the best he ever used and advised everyone to use them for constipation, indigestion, and liver complaint. Druggist Voyta Kwapil recommended the New Life product which cost 25 cents, a drop in price over the years.

All druggists – including Wilbur and Kwapil – were said to be selling Dr. Bell’s Pine-Tar-Honey for 25 or 50 cents or $1.00. Dr. Bell’s was said to break up the worst colds in one night. Dr. Bell warned about cheap imitations with similar sounding names. It was the bell on the bottle that guaranteed the genuine product.

It wasn’t only patent medicines. By 1907 Grape Nuts cereal was making headlines when a 70-year-old Maine man, troubled with dyspepsia and liver complaint was taking medicine with only temporary relief for 20 years when he started eating Grape-Nuts. Grape-Nuts for breakfast with a little cream and sugar took care of his stomach issues. All it took was one daily meal of Grape-Nuts to help him gain weight, begin sleeping well, and eating nearly anything but greasy and starchy foods. The man said he’d write to any person with questions if they sent a postage stamp. Grape-Nuts, sold by the Postum Co. of Battle Creek, Michigan, enclosed the booklet “The Road to Wellville” in the cereal packages.

When John Culligan’s obituary appeared in the Algoma Record Herald on October 25, 1918, the sub headline said Mr. Culligan had been ill a couple of months with liver complaint.

In 1911, it was Chamberlain’s Tablets that was a stomach medication intended to clean, strengthen, tone, and invigorate, to regulate the liver and banish biliousness “positively and effectually.” It was for sale by all dealers.

Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People made news in 1896. Its ad said an honest physician would often tell the number of red corpuscles double after a course of pink pill treatment. Doctors might not see it, however.

Red lips, bright eyes, a good appetite, and absence of pain transform a pale sallow girl into a maiden glowing with health. Dr. Williams said mothers watching daughters grow from girlhood into womanhood should not neglect the pills which were adapted for that particular Illness. Dr. Williams was another who offered testimonials in the ads and said the pills could be gotten from a druggist or ordered from his Schenectady for 50 cents per box. The pink pills were made with iron and did offer an impact anemia and cirrhosis.

In 1900, Dr. T. Felix Gouraud’s oriental cream did to the skin what other products did for the inside of the body. His products were sold by fancy-goods’ dealers as well as druggists. Ferd T. Hopkins was the proprietor of the company which was based in New York. Dr. McNamara was one who was based in Milwaukee at the corner of Johnson and 580 S. Broadway. McNamara said the company was established in 1861 for cure of nervous debility, exhaustion of brain energy, mental aberration, physical prostration, sexual weakness, kidney afflictions, blood diseases, barrenness, leucorrhea, month period and marriage. Leukorrhea is vaginal discharge, but it was not explained what illness marriage was.

It was surprising to see a malaria medication in the Record in August 1889. Ahnapee was never known as a hotbed of malaria but apparently if it made an appearance Steketee’s Dry Bitters would take care of it. One package made a gallon that would cure indigestion, stomach pains, fever and ague, and kidney and bladder problems. At 30 cents for a single packet or 50 cents for two, the tonic was the cheapest remedy known. It could be used with or without alcohol. Where malaria entered in the Grand Rapids made product is hard to say.

Those of a certain age remember the cowboy movies of the ‘40s and into the ‘50s when men rode into town from the ranch to belly up to the bar with a sarsaparilla. Who knew they were in the saloon drinking for the health of it? Drug stores sold “spirits” as healthful so maybe those cowboys pouring a shot were also drinking for health. Ayer’s Sarsaparilla contained blood-purifying roots, iodine of potassium, and iron which was touted as the most reliable blood purifier ever. It took care of what other products did not advertise. Ayer’s was called the best-known remedy for scrofula and all scrofulous complaints, erysipelas in addition to more common problems such as boils, tumors, eczema, ringworm, and sores and for other disorders of the skin caused by thin and impoverished, or corrupted, conditions of the blood, such as rheumatism, neuralgia, general debility, and scrofulous catarrh. One William Moore of Durham, Iowa, said on March 2, 182 that Ayer’s cured his inflammatory rheumatism. Manufactured in Lowell, Massachusetts, the Ayer Co. said the cost was $1 a bottle or six for $5.

As early as 1864, Joseph Defaut was conducting his Ahnapee store on 2^nd Street. When George Wing wrote his memoirs 50 years later, he recalled the store and the astonishing amount of sarsaparilla Defaut sold weekly. Wing commented that more than a few residents had tabs of $1.00. $1.00 in 1864 had the purchasing power of $19.23 in 2023.

The patent medicines were not all patented. To be patented meant revealing secrets. Alcohol. Opium and laudanum were often ingredients and that meant addiction and overdoses. Some concoctions included arsenic, mercury, or lead. Snake oil was popular, but the name has become synonymous with quackery. 7-Up originally contained lithium, a mood-altering drug. Angostura Bitters was originally a seasickness product, however it is used in cocktails today. Carters Little Liver Pills were used for everything, but today it is a laxative. Today’s popular Coco Cola was targeted to morphine addiction and impotence, while Dr. Pepper was marketed to aid digestion while restoring vim and vigor. Hires Root Beer promised to purify the blood and make cheeks rosy but is a much-enjoyed soft drink today. Pepsi was also sold as a digestive aid. Mrs. Moffat was selling Shoo-Fly Powders for Drunkenness was one of the FDA’s first cases. Pope Leo and Thomas Edison were some of the celebrities who lent their name to patent medicines.

Today’s Over-the-Counter medicines are regulated, however Bates, Perry, Boedecker Bros., Kwapil and Wilbur and all the other early druggists more than likely raised their eyebrows at several of their products. Perhaps they worked, and maybe they didn’t. Some certainly had a placebo effect, and with the amount of alcohol and narcotics in the pills and elixirs, it is easy to understand why there were testimonials. 

Sources: An-an-api-sebe: Where is the River?, Ahnapee Record, AlgomaPress, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Commercial History of Algoma, WI, Vol. 1 & 2.

Photos: Algoma newspapers; Kannerwurf,, Sharpe, Johnson Collection,Tizzani Museum website.

Algoma - In Your Easter Bonnet

Wikipedia tells us, “An Easter bonnet is any new or fancy hat worn by tradition as a Christian head covering on Easter. It represents the tail end of a tradition of wearing new clothes at Easter, in harmony with the renewal of the year and the promise of spiritual renewal and redemption.” 

Those of a certain age fondly remember Fred Astaire and Judy Garland smiling on New York’s 5th Avenue as they strolled down the avenue in a delightful rendition of Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade.” When Berlin wrote his original melody in 1917, he called it “Smile and Show Your Dimple” as a World War l song. When it was published as “Easter Parade” in 1933, the depths of the Depression, the song became a hit. 

Whether or not Ahnapee/Algoma ever had an Easter Parade is questionable, however there was no mistaking the parade of hats as women lined up for Easter Sunday communion in the city’s churches. In the early 1900s, newspaper correspondents from such rural communities as Swamp Creek and Rio Creek to the City of Algoma reminded readership about spring hats and to hurry before it was too late.

Milliners – hat makers – found work in the community, now called Algoma, back almost to the earliest days. By the early 1900s – the era Fred and Judy sang and danced through – countless women from other areas came to Algoma to serve in a millinery establishment before moving to a larger areas. It was front page news when milliners such as Louise Paarmann Barnes, Lena Melchior, Minnie Kamer, and Mrs. Feight left town for Milwaukee or Chicago mercantiles and supply houses filled with the latest laces, beads, veils and other finery to purchase for milady’s newest chapeau. 

In March 1877, Record editor Dewayne Stebbins was surely jesting when he told readership that spring hats looked like Mount Zion and were to be worn balanced on the left ear. He went on to say that hair was worn in “a la hay” mound with frizzed up and banged hair in front with more frizz and a tail hanging over the right shoulder. “Steb,” as he was often called, seemed to be criticizing earbobs when he declared anything from a church steeple to a barn door could be hung on the ears. Then he said, “One damphool” goes around town hallucinating that low spring hats will be worn. This is an error. No woman will wear a low spring hat – not if she knows herself.” 

Did Editor Stebbins know Mrs. Frank Fax was waiting for the steamer to bring her new goods? Fax Bros. store sold millinery wares, although Mrs. Fax operated separate millinery parlors on the first floor of the Record building. Mrs. John Roberts announced her new stock as it arrived and mentioned that she worked at reasonable prices. Janda & Kwapil store location sold millinery items for women who wished to do their own work. 

For at least ten years, Mrs. Fax seemed to be Ahnapee’s leading milliner. In May 1880, she announced her move from the corner of Steele and 3rd, over E. Decker’s store, although the papers did not tell readers where she moved. Perhaps she was so popular that every woman knew. Mrs. Fax said she had the finest stock ever seen in Ahnapee and was confident that she could please the most fastidious of women with her large, varied stock consisting of all the latest fashions. Those who called early would find the most complete stock. It seems as if Mrs. Fax invited area women, yearly, to stop and examine her stock, and then to judge for themselves that hers was the best. 

It didn’t happen in Algoma, but it was big news in town in April 1901 when an elephant in Chicago grabbed an Easter bonnet from a woman’s head. The paper said not to find fault with the elephant because the woman’s hat was possibly so loud that it disturbed the elephant to such a state that it might have wanted to place the hat in his trunk as “lid.” Editors Ed Decker, Jr. and W.H. Machia had fun with that one. The Record Herald continued the jesting when the “Puerile Patter” column observed, “The smoked glasses in storage can now be exhumed for observing the Easter bonnet. Easter finery is not just a woman’s thing. 

The flapper movement of the 1920s brought a change in hat styles. Bobbed heads explain the small, tight fitting, unpretentious hats that came into being. The smaller the hat was, the less trimmed it was. It became the line of the hat that was most important. 

For Easter 1927, the fashionable woman sought a simple stone pin, a pearl or a black enamel pin as an embellishments to the close fitting hats of the period. Felt was sought after. Not only was it soft, if it got soaked with rain or snow, it was easily patted into shape for drying, thus far better than a straw hat. Black was in vogue in 1927. In hat color -either straw or felt – in ribbons, trims, bands, or jewels, the stylish wore black. If one chose a larger hat, sand, rose, orchid, soft blue, Alice blue, powder blue, navy blue, or any lighter blue were also fashionable. It was felt that floppy garden hats of horsehair were acceptable for summer wear, though for a spring hat, the wearer should consider what would be under the hat. Women were cautioned against buying anything without looking into a full-length mirror to see themselves from all angles. 

Flappers might have changed hats while Lena Melchior, Louise Paarmann Barnes, and Miss Feight kept on trend while offering employment to women. Lena Melchior offered carnations at her showings. Minnie Kammer expanded her services to weddings and Lucille Englebert opened an additional shop in Kewaunee. Lucille spent part of each week in both places and hired Mayme Schauer to assist with management. 

Head coverings of some sort are found throughout U.S. history. By 1900, hats were a part of fashion dictating the well-dressed woman did not leave the house without one. Hats somewhat faded from the scene following World War ll, but by then mass-marketed sunglasses affected hat sales. However, the Catholic church required women to wear head coverings until 1967.

It wasn’t only women thinking of their Easter appearance. The son of a former county sheriff found his Easter duds in the paper and himself in jail. 

The young Kewaunee man found himself in a Sturgeon Bay jail after he “decided to doff the somber colors of winter and appear in natty spring raiment.” It was the method of procurement that landed him in the slammer. Since the fellow was the son of the ex-sheriff, it appears he didn’t learn much, or maybe thought he’d get away with burglary. The fellow stole another new set of clothing in Kewaunee county and had them professionally altered. The fellow had been making a name for himself as he was also running up bar bills, and when he was asked to settle at the Wolter Hotel on the southwest corner of 2nd and State/Navarino, he said he was transferring his business to the Kirchmann Hotel, saying his father had told him that anytime he traveled through Algoma, he should stop. He’d have been a lot happier if he kept on going, but Algoma was ripe for the pickin’s. 

As it happened blacksmith Art Braun roomed at the Kirchman Hotel and it was there he hung his new spring suit. Four days later, Braun realized the suit was no longer there and, investigating, found the thief had taken the trousers to be shortened by another Algoma tailor before boarding the train for Sturgeon Bay. The nattily dressed younger man was finally found in the Town of Lincoln where he was visiting relatives. 

As soon as Sturgeon Bay authorities learned the crook had been there before pulling off the Algoma caper, he was accused of burglarizing the Linden store in Sawyer, now the west side of Sturgeon Bay. After Sturgeon Bay cops gave him the “third degree,” he owned up to taking a suit and other wearing apparel on the night of March 12 after smashing Linden’s rear window. He was caught. 

A few days before the apprehension, one matching his description had been seen in the vicinity of Capt. C.P. Clark’s store near the shipyard and took $12 from the cash register. If the burglar was indeed the Kewaunee man, perhaps he took the cash to pay for more natty clothing. As it turned out, Art Braun got his suit back, but then a tailor had to lengthen the “high waters” so Art could wear his new suit for Easter. Algoma had more to look at and talk about than hats in 1915.

Kewaunee County Ice: It Wasn't Just for Winter

 

“Be careful. It’s icy out there.” “I’m sick of being inside. When’s the bay ice gonna be thick enough for fishing?” That’s January 2023, though nobody will think of January ice as they get the ice cubes for lemonade, iced tea, or to surround a bowl of potato salad at a picnic in July. Things were far different in 1923 when ice was harvested and important in food preservation. In the 1850s, it was mostly Kewaunee County breweries and saloons that called for ice.

Kewaunee Enterprize* was in its infancy on December 14, 1859, when it told readers to get their icehouse ready. Just as a summer job was getting the woodpile ready to provide winter warmth, within a few years, winter’s job was cutting ice to be stored for summer food preservation.

Summer ice was not a luxury. It was a necessity, and the Enterprize made sure readership knew how to build and properly care for an icehouse by reprinting an article from Wisconsin Journal. In constructing such a house, the Enterprize said, was to keep the ice surrounded by some non- heat conducting substance. Ventilation was important, as was draining for melting water. As long as those things were kept in mind, there were many styles that would work.

The Enterprize told readers that a cheap icehouse for home use would take thick planks to construct a base of about 8 feet square and 8 or 10 feet high. The structure needed to be built in well drained place that was protected from sun. Blocks and sawdust were required to cover the ground to a depth of 1 foot and a plank floor was necessary on top. Readers were told to pack the ice in the middle, leaving a space of about a foot all around, and then to fill that space with saw dust. Next, the ice had to be covered with sawdust and followed by a roof high enough for a window on each side to provide ventilation. When there was an access to the ice, the work was done. If sawdust was not available, plenty of straw worked.

Readership was advised to cut the ice as square as possible using a cross-cut saw. Fine pieces of ice were to be packed between the blocks. Waste not, want not. Anybody planning to do all that work needed to remember that early ice was the best. It was cleaner and clearer.

Wikipedia says ice harvesting got tis start in New England in the early 1800s and by the late 1880s, ice was the 2nd largest U.S. export. Cotton was Number 1. By the 1860s, New England ice was shipped around the country and around the world. Ice transformed the U.S. meat and produce industries.

Ice harvesting in Kewaunee County appears to have started with breweries and saloons which had their own icehouses. Bay or pond ice was hauled by sled to the saloon sheds which were essentially boards fitted between poles and easily removed as the ice was used. Telesphore Marchant was operating his brewery by 1858 and one of the first to harvest ice on Wisconsin's peninsula. Patrons wanted ice to cool their beer and, for Charles, it was no problem as he could get ice easily from the bay. The Ahnapee Brewery stood on the riverbank making its harvest easy for all the years of its life.

Icehouse, upper left, Sanborne Fire Map,
1909

January 1899 was lively on the Ahnapee River. Frank Graessel, the Algoma Vandyke Brewing Co. agent, joined the saloon keepers and butchers when his crew of men and teams put up Vandyke’s ice. In such a banner ice harvesting year, in addition to the Vandyke work, Graessel also had contracts for filling small ice-houses throughout the city with the crystal-clear, 18” thick ice.  

Sturgeon Bay lacks for neither water nor ice, so it was surprising when Sturgeon Bay Brewery Co. harvested ice on the Ahnapee River in 1899, a time when the company sent men and teams to put up 150 cords in the vicinity of Hagemeister’s beer station. They stored another 500 cords at the brewery on the bay. Alaska Lake was another busy place, and that’s where F. Toebe harvested his ice though had to haul it 6 miles to Rio Creek.

Breweries and saloons continued to harvest ice for well into the 1900s. Joseph Cayemburg built a new icehouse for the genial Charles Ruebens at his popular Rosiere saloon in April 1908. In early 1914, saloon keepers in the Champion area were hard at work, but the following year, harvesting was big on the Poh pond in Forestville. Louis Jarchow was harvesting, but for his cheese factories, not beer.

Not all the ice was used for saloons and breweries.

Ahnapee's Boalt and  Stebbins and John McDonald were still harvesting ice during the first week of February 1880. The old hay press building was filled before the Judge and Big Steb turned to the west side of C.H. Sabin’s warehouse. E. Decker & Co.  put up an immense quantity of ice, expecting to cut and pack about 3,000 cords, some of which was piled up on the side of Sabin’s warehouse. Ahnapee Brewery Co. stored ice near the brewery after their ice house was filled. Brummer’s mill pond was skimmed before the companies worked on Hall’s pond. Ice business was booming. The February 6, 1885, Ahnapee Record reported jobber John McDonald’s large crew was going “full blast” filling all the ice houses in the city with superior quality ice nearly 28” thick.

It seemed as if most years both Ahnapee/Algoma and Kewaunee had good ice harvests. The papers mentioned the good quality, blue ice, 18-24” thick, which was often easier to harvest because of the lack of deep snow, and in early 1880, the Enterprise said “hardly ever” was there such an abundance of such fine quality ice. But there were exceptions. In late February 1890, the fears of ice scarcity in Chicago and other large cities were abating. Going from shortages to so much ice reversed supply, leading to an overstock. Northern Wisconsin was sending 400 ton into Chicago daily. More ice came from Iowa prompting one Ahnapee jobber to say delivered ice was going for $1.25 a ton, which was the best price he could get in a non-profitable year.

Northeast Wisconsin had a variety of places to secure good ice, including the bay of Green Bay. Hall’s mill pond in Ahnapee offered excellent quality ice when Henry Schmiling had his crew of thirteen men and five teams working in January 1887. Early in January that year,  the Record reminded harvesters about safety and the law regarding ice: “Any person who shall remove ice, or cause its removal from any stream, pond or lake, sand shall neglect to place around the margin of the opening made by such removal, such guard, or fence as will be a sufficient caution, warning or protection to all persons coming near the same, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not more than six months, or by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars.” As it was, in 1899 Hugo Perlewitz was playing on the ice and nearly drowned. Parents advised to caution kids from going to the river. The river was  often too dangerous with insecure ice and Hugo was not the only near miss.

The ice business continued up and down the Ahnapee River. January 1900 saw Forestville’s ice harvest going strong with both Stoneman & Sloan and the Creamery ice houses filled. Martin Schmitz' icehouse was nearly filled when Bernard Awe’s crew and teams were ready to start work. Louis Trottman was the big iceman in Kewaunee where he put up 500 cords or more in a given year. Trottman delivered ice. Henry Schmiling took advantage of the telephone at Wilbur & Kwapil’s drug store and told citizens to call #24-2. Very few townsfolk had the new-fangled thing so it is doubtful many ordered by telephone. Hall’s mill pond was becoming referred to as the trout stream when the best crop of clear ice “ever” came from there. Farmers and merchants from adjoining towns were harvesting a “store of ice” so it is possible trout ice was a notch above mill ice!

The produce business mushroomed when in February 1899 the Deckers spearheaded improvements to the Ahnapee & Western Railroad. They built a 25’ x 50’ icehouse set on pilings, near the round house in the A & W yard in Sturgeon Bay near the bay shore.  The Record predicted more business if Deckers built the railroad south to Two Rivers while telling residents of southern Kewaunee Co. to be aware of such an expansion. As soon as the Sturgeon Bay ice house was completed, it was filled with ice to supply refrigerator cars loaded in Sturgeon Bay and shipped during the berry season. A month later, Sturgeon Bay Fruit Growers put up 100 cords of ice for the shipping season to come.

From the amount of ice put up in January 1899, the Record said Algoma intended to give summer visitors a cool time during the hot months. Suggesting it was time for one of the enterprising citizens to think of putting up a cold storage building, the paper said it was needed if the city was to continue having the best markets in this part of the state for dairy products.

V.G. Pfeil had took the paper’s suggestion. It was reported in February 1902 that he purchased Lot 5 on South Water Street** from the Ahnapee Dock Co. When Pfeil’s building was completed, he accomplished something Algoma needed for a long time. The cold storage building was planned to serve Algoma and surrounding areas. Fruit shippers never had a fruit storage place and Pfeil’s building was a guaranteed success.

Within 20 years, ice boxes were part of many American homes. The wooden boxes were lead or zinc lined and filled with a block of ice, brought by the icemen who were among the most popular men in town. Ice lasted about a day, and in a time when floors were wood, black spots on the wood floors told callers how well the woman of the house kept order.

The ice harvests went on, however conveyors and trucks made the job a somewhat easier. Jobbers were injured in the harvest, however there was some humor too. Kewaunee’s Joseph Houdek found a 400 pound cake of ice on his barbershop after he jokingly said he’d trade ice for a shave. Local iceman Joseph Selner had gone for a shave in February 1935, however when he came to pay, he did not have money with him.  In jest, Houdek said he’d take the ice and an hour later, Selner parked his truck in front of the shop. Houdek scratched off the bill, but then needed to find someone to take it before it melted on the floor.

As late as March 1949, a Trottman & Selner Co. truck went through the river ice during harvesting. Damage was minor but the truck had to be pulled to the opposite side of the river, where it was shallower, and pulled out. That wasn't the only company whose truck plunged, but it happened as the ice business was wanning.

Refrigerators and freezers took over as communities began thinking of water quality, pollution, sewerage treatment and run-off.

* The Enterprize existed to 1865 when its name was changed to Enterprise.

** South Water Street wentfrom 4th eats where it intersected with the bottom of Steele St. Those few blocks are now the easter end of Navarino St.

Sources: Ahnapee Record, Algoma Press, Algoma Record, Algoma Record Herald, Commercial Development of Algoma Wisconsin, Vol. 1, Kewaunee Enterprise.

Graphics: Icehouse and Sanborne Map from Commercial Development of Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol 1; Selner Trottman photo from Kewaunee Enterprise.