(continued)
The
population of the little village at this time
consisted of wandering mill nands of many nationalities.
This is illustrated by the
complexion of a court
trial which was held about this time. A German
named Protepter was tried for an assault
with intent to kill.
On
the jury were three Canadians, three Irishmen,
two Americans, one Bavarian, one Portuguese:
one Prussian and one half-breed. When
the panic of 1857 occurred
and the mills shut down, most of these early
toilers drifted away to other parts and they
played no further part in Door Cgunty's history.
Among
them, however, were many staunch citizens who
stood by the community and later saw it develop
into the fair region it is. Among these early
fathers of the city who came before the panic
were the following, besides those already mentioned:
A.
W and
W. B. Lawrence who came in 1853 They had lived
for two years previously on Washington Island,
where they had been engaged in fishing. Joseph
Lavassor and M.. E. Lyman
also came that year.
In 1854 came
Andrew Nelson, the father of C. L. Nelson, Capt.
Jacob Hanson, the father-in-law of the late
Y. V. Dreutzer;
Soren Peterson Erik Schjoth: and Joseph Hebert.
In 1855
came Andrew Peterson,
the grandfather of H. L. Peterson.
He settled on a farm
south of Surgeon Bay. In this year, too,
came Joseph Harris, Sr. who later started the
first newspaper and made himself greatly useful
to Door Countv in many ways.
J.
T. Wright,
Robert Noble, Albert G.
Warren,
W.. H. Warren,
Geo. H. Thorpe,
Iver Nelson, Hans Hanson, Henry C. Knudson and
Elijah and Nelson Fuller also took up their
homes here this year. In 1856 came
John Long, Joseph Colignon and Chris. and E. C.
Daniels.
In 1857 came
David Houle, who started the Cedar Street house
where now is the People's Store. David Houle's
father, Joseph Houle, was a very early resident
of Wisconsin, settling south of De Pere about 1820. He
died about 1880 at
the age of 114 years.
He was a man
of most remarkable vitality and endurance.
One
meek before he died at the age of 114 years
he walked to Green Bay, a
distance of fourteen miles. In his eighty-fourth
year he walked from Green Bay to
Shawano a distance of thirty-six miles as the
crow flies, carrying a hundred-pound sack of
flour, twenty eigyht pounds of pork, some tea
and coffee and a jug of whiskey. This was in
lS50 when there were only rough blazed trails
to follow through the unsettled wilderness.
He had sixteen children.
His
son David is a chip of the old block. He is
still, at the age of eighty-six, daily tending
his bar. When he was young he was very athletic
and a great
scrapper. During his first years in Sturgeon
Bay he carried the mail to Two Rivers, a distance
of sixty-five miles, once a week,
for which he received $10 per
month.
When
Darid Houle opened his tavern on Cedar Street,
it was not yet cut out. Some of the best timber
had been hauled to the mill but the inferior
timber with brush piles and huge stumps still
littered the ground. His place of business was
therefore considered to be quite a long ways
out in the woods. However, as it was the first
and only place where liquid refreshments of
the desired kind could be obtained, the citizens
cheerfully straddled the stumps
and gathered there for grand pow-wows.
Sturgeon
Bay at this time was a very crude place. It really
consisted of three little communities about
a half-mile apart, having their little jealousies. At each
place was a rumbling sawmill spouting forth
slabs and sawdust. Near to each mill was an
ugly, unpainted boarding house, surrounded by
a few very primitive shanties.
Far
back in the woods, although now included in
the city, were the more substantial and neat
farmhouses of the early Moravian farmers: mostly
Norwegians. Between these scattered settlers
no roads had been opened up, only rough trails
meandering through the timber. Wild animals
were abundant, especially wolves, of which there
were thousands. Even bear were very common.
One day when Anthoni Thompson and his wife were
out on the bay they heard a commotion
at their house.
They
hastened home and found a bear had broken into
the pigpen. Just before they arrived the bear
attempted to carry the pig off, but their little
daughter without thinking of danger had rushed
up, giving the bear a blow across the head with
a hardwood club. Startled by this sudden attack,
the bear dropped the pig and rushed off into
the underbrush.
There
were up to this time no roads in the county.
Sturgeon Bay was separated from Green
Bay by a fifty mile impassable jungle. All travel
was on boats or on the ice in wintertime. The
Michigan, a steamer plying between Chicago and
Buffalo, made occasional stops at Sturgeon Bay
in the years 1852, '53. '54and ’55.
The
Ogontz, plying between Chicago and Green Bay
used to visit the port of Sturgeon Bay in the
years 1856, '57 and '58. The
Franklin Moore was another craft
which used to visit Sturgeon Bay occasionally
and unexpectedly. She was a kind
of a portable dry goods, groceries and general
merchandise store, supplying fishermen and others
with tea, coffee, tobacco, whiskey, flour, clothing
and other necessaries of life.
Isolated
as the village was, it was dependent upon these
and other wandering vessels for its supplies,
as very little farming was done, the only important
crop as yet being potatoes. The arrival of the
steamboat was a picnic for the people, since
she brought with her supplies of goods and also
the latest news from "America," by
which name the pioneers were accustomed to designate
the eastern states from which most of them had
migrated.
When
her whistle sounded there was a general rush
for the pier by such of the population as were
not bedridden, the women, babies and cripples
bringing up the rear. These watched the business
of unloading cargo and "wooding-up" with
lively interest, the boys and men often lending
a hand in these operations, being glad of an
opportunity to thus exhibit their regard for
the link that connected them with civilized
mankind.
In
November, 1857, the
weather suddenly became severely cold and during
a heavy northwester the bay was frozen. Sot
having anticipated so early a stoppage
of travel, the village people
had not yet obtained their winter supplies,
although they expected to receive part of them
by the Ogontz on her next trip.
The
loss of these supplies would be a serious matter
to the village, Lyman Bradley alone, whose mill
had started up again, having at this time nearly
a hundred persons in his employ. A few days
later the Ogontz appeared off the mouth of the
bay, but not being prepared to plow a channel
through the thick ice she made no attempt to
reach the village.
It
was on a Sunday
when the Ogontz hove in sight and a large number
of people had gathered on the pier to see
her force her way through
the ice. For a time
there was a period of suspense and indecision, as
if the captain of the vessel was in doubt as
to what to do.
When
the vessel finally turned her prow out to sea
again and the people saw that they were to be
left without any spplies, a wail of anguish
arose. They felt like a needy mariner, stranded
on a desert island, when he sees the vessel
on which he relied for rescue turn away without
offering help. Everyone realized that unless
supplies were brought to them starvation would
be their fate. There were no roads to Green
Bay and the ice would not be safe to travel
for many weeks.
However,
the Ogontz did not mean to leave them utterly
destitute. When the captain saw it was impossible
to land at Sturgeon Bay, he went to Egg Harbor
and landed the supplies there. At that time
there was no road further than
to
Bassford's farm. Beyond that a dense
and trackless forest stretched unbroken for
thirteen miles to Egg Harbor. What was now to
be done?
When
Lvman Bradley learned that the supplies were
landed in Egg Harbor he swore in his customary
vigorous and picturesque style that he would
either "find a way or make it." He
proceeded to make it. A large
gang of choppers began to hew a path northward
and in about a week a route was opened to Egg Harbor.
It
was an exceedingly primitive road, so rough
that teams could haul only a few hundred pounds,
but it raised the siege and brought the needed
supplies to the anxious mill operatives. So
slowly did the work of transporting the goods
proceed that teams were engaged throughout the
entire winter in making the transfer, While
the freighting was as costly as it was prolonged.
But
those who were not in the employ of the mills
did not obtain much relief from these supplies.
The Crandall & Bradley
Co. had no more than would meet the strictest
demands of their employees and therefore refused
to sell to outsiders. Much distress resulted,
and if the rations common in many
households during that winter and the following
spring should today be set before the boarders
in an almshouse there would be an instantaneous
riot.
The
usual bill of fare included only potatoes and
molasses. A few exceedingly particular persons
insisted upon peeling their
potatoes but the great majority, being democratic
and economical, simply mashed the murphies in
their jackets and then poured over them the
molasses. Although flour at that time cost but $6
a barrel, bread was a luxury which some families
scarcely saw during the winter. As for cake,
that was simply out of the question.
Some
reckless and improvident housewives, who were
so lucky as to obtain a little flour, did go
so far as to waste a portion of it in making
gingerbread,
but
society "sat down" upon them so heavily
for their wanton extravagance that they dared
not repeat the performance. When the ice became
passable a limited
amount of supplies was brought from Green Bay
and for a little while relief was had.
But
after the ice became unsafe in the spring the
privations were greater than ever and the horses
belonging to the mill company nearly all died
from starvation.
The
general distress had the good effect, however,
to draw the victims closer together. Like shipwrecked
voyagers, they were alike involved in the calamity
and bravely endeavored to make the best of the
situation.
If
they could not have a feast they could at least
have fun, and they did. Probably the village
never before or since witnessed such ajolly,
social winter. With feet as light as their stomachs
were empty, the people had frequent dancing
parties, these festivals taking place successively
at various homes, the dancers being occasionally
regaled with hemlock and
wintergreen tea.
Whenever
a family was fortunate enough to obtain some
food out of the common order, the event was
made the occasion of a general "gathering
of the clans," who were made partakers
of the luxury.
The
reopening of navigation was never more anxiously
awaited than in the spring of 1858, and Robinson
Crusoe did not more joyfully greet the approaching
sail that was to deliver him from his island
prison than did the people of Sturgeon Bay welcome
the first sail that brought them relief in the
first week in May.
The
children of those days are now old men and women,
but they will never forget that queer mixture
of mirth and misery they experienced during
the starvation winter
of 1857-8.
The
first merchant in Sturgeon Bay was Oliver Perry
Graham. He had a store
in connection with his boarding house which
was closed in 1857 when the panic stopped all
businesses. Shortly afterward David Houle opened
up a little stock of merchandise which he sold
out in 1860 to Wied & Hoyt. About this
time E.T. Schjoth also opened a general
store.
The
business done by these men was small, however,
compared to that of F. B. Gardner
at Little Sturgeon. As he early put up
a very good grist mill, his place of business
was the center for most of the buying and the
selling in the county for many years.
Sturgeon
Bay was the county seat,
however, and for this reason most of its people
had faith that it would
soon develop into a place of great importance.
For this reason also Joseph Harris in the spring
of 1862 started
the Door County Advocate, the first newspaper
in the county, which is still being published
under the
name of the Sturgeon Bay
Advocate.
The publication of this newspaper was a great
boon to the city and the county.
It
centralized interest in local affairs by furnishing
a medium of exchange for news and ideas. Under
Mr. Harris' and later Mr. Long's able management
it also became an excellent advertisement of
the county's resources and brought a great many
settlers into the county. Being ably edited
from the start it soon achieved a position of
great importance, with a large subscription
list.
This
was frequently paid for by cordwood, hay and
potatoes, but the publisher adapted himself
to local conditions and labored with and for
his readers without complaint. Joseph
Harris was the great man of the county in those
days . Almost from the first issue of his paper
he pointed out the possibilities and great significance
of a canal to connect the waters of Green Bay with
Lake Michigan.
Year
after year he untiringly worked for its realization,
using a great deal of his time and money to
push the project forward amid an unceasing array
of obstacles and indifference. Due to his unremitting
energy it finallv became a reality and Sturgeon
Bay became a city as is told in another chapter.
Mr.
Harris was also the first county clerk, county
treasurer, and register of deeds in the county,
procuring the books of record and getting these
three offices in running order. He was also
our first state senator. In I864
while in the Senate he framed the charter of
the Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan Ship Canal
and Harbor Company. Whether it was to give a
speech at a gathering at home or a trip to Washington
to plead the needs of the county before Congress,
Hon. Joseph Harris was the man that could do
it.
Among
other early celebrities who came at a little
later date were the following: John Garland,
who originally settled down on the bay shore
in 1853. He was
a very popular county clerk for many terms.
Garland Street is named after him. D.
A. Reed
came in 1860, and was the county's first district
attorney. His house still stands adjoining the
Union Hotel on the north.
Chas.
Scofield came in 1868. For a time he operated
one of the largest shingle mills in the county
and did not become permanently identified with
Sturgeon Bay until
about 1880.
John
Leathem and Thomas H. Smith
are two of the best known business men of the
peninsula. They operated several sawmills in
different places, finally taking permanent residence
in Sturgeon Bay about 1880. The Sturgeon Bay
bridge was built by them
in 1884.
Judge F. J. Hamilton
came to Sturgeon Bay in
3871, and for a number of years
was principal of the schools. He later
became county judge. O. E. Dreutzer,
for many years a lawyer
of great prominence also came at this time.
Leroy
M. Washburn
came in I870 and entered the mercantile business
started by A. W. Lawrence. who later became
his father-in-law. The same year also came Archibald
McEachern the first physician to permanently
locate in Door County.
N. Arnold
Wagener and William Wagener came in 1873. The
Wagener family has ever since been prominently
connected with the politics of Door County on
the democratic side.
Sturgeon
Bay in the '6Os and '70s was really a very insignificant
place. As late
as October 22, 1863 Mr. Harris through the Advocate
offered to give a lot
50 by 150 ft. on
Main or Cedar streets to any blacksmith who
would start a shop in Sturgeon Bay.
He was evidently not very hopeful of any one
taking immediate advantage of his offer, for
he adds: "This shall be a standing offer
for the nest six months."
There
was no physician in the village (or in the county),
but in 1868 there was a standing advertisement
from one Lottie Cahoon stating that although
Sturgeon Bay was a very healthy location it was
not entirely exempt from disease and she had
therefore "given considerable attention
to the study of homeopathy, first in the family
and later among others, and invariably with
success.
So
many are applying for advice that I have
sent for a fresh supply of medicine and have
decided to charge two shillings for a prescription.
To those unable to pay it is gratuitous as before." Which
must be said to be very generous terms, indeed.
In
a later issue there is the joyful announcement
of the opening of a drug
store in
Menominee
and complimenting the people of Door County
upon the close proximity of such a desirable
convenience. The
first church building was started in 1857. A
church had this year been started in Ephraim
(the first in the county) and the Moravians
of Sturgeon Bay now felt that they must do likewise.
There
was as yet no congregation organized in Sturgeon
Bay and as the Moravians there were few in number
they invited people of other sects to join with
them to build a Union Church. This proposition
was accepted
by
a number
of Lutherans, Quakers, Methodists and others.
On a certain day in 1857 they met on a lot
given by Anthoni Thompson and began to erect
a church under Hans P. Hanson's
leadership. A foundation was built,
trees were felled and the logs were neatly hewed
and deftly joined together.
When
the walls were about four feet high one of the
workingmen discovered that the laws of Wisconsin
required that a church building must be deeded
to a certain
church organization. A debate now
arose as to what church organization should
hold the deed. There was as yet no church organized
in Sturgeon Bay. The discussion finally got
so heated that all the men present picked up
their tools and went home.
For
six years the halfbuilt church stood there neglected,
with its rotting piles of big pine logs on one
side, a monument of distrust. Finally in the
spring of 1862 a Moravian congregation was
organized by Rev. A. M. Iverson. By his help
legal title was obtained to the church lot and
building and in 1863 the church was completed.
The original church building started in 1857
is now used as a church
parlor and is a part of the present church.
The
Methodists were next to organize and build a
church. Rev. A. M. Iverson,
the county's first pastor, had for some time
been conducting English services in Fish Creek.
As his friends there were mostly of the Methodist
faith, Reverend Fullmer, a Methodist minister,
was in 1862 induced to settle there and take
up the work that Iverson had begun. Fullmer
preached all over thecounty but
found his best support
in Sturgeon Bar.
In
1863 a Methodist congegation was organized in
Sturgeon Bay and Fullmer began to collect funds
for a church. When he shortly afterward removed
to other parts "Deacon" Geo.
Pinney, who was not ordained but had some ability
as a speaker took charge of the work. About
two thousand dollars was collected, and by June
22, 1866,
the frame of the church was raised by voluntary
labor. This church building is now used for
a seed store.
Mr.
Pinney was in charge
of the church work for some time, but later
on difficulties arose and Mr. Pinney was expelled
from the church. A very exciting trial followed,
both before ecclesiastical and common law tribunals.
Mr. Pinney at first had Dr. E.
M.Thorpe,
a pettifogger from Fish Creek, as his
legal adviser, and for a while
had the best of the argument. Later the tide
turned."
About
the same time as Mr. Pinney to ok charge of
the Methodist Church work he was also, according
to published advertisements in the Advocate,
selling fruit trees.
Mr. Pinney owned a tract of land in Ohio
which he had never seen. This he traded for
a quantity of fruit trees which were shipped
to Sturgeon Bay. It was from this lot of trees,
the first to be brought into the county, that
Robert Laurie and
Joseph Zettel, the first fruit growers of the countv,
in 1866 obtained their stocks.
This
apple tree business was pushed by Mr. Pinnev
for some years until it was turned over to Henry
Schuyler and Mr.
Pinney
went into the evergreen nursery business. By
I876 this business had assumed large proportions,
Mr. Pinney shipping from four to six million
seedlings annually. A.
W. Lawrence
was associated with him in this business.
Mr.
Lawrence and Mr. Pinney were also in partnership
in publishing the Expositor,
the second newspaper in the county. Its first
issue came out October 24, 1873. Between the
Expositor and the Advocate there now broke out
a bitter warfare of vilification to the great
entertaiment of the people of the village. This
was kept up until Frank Long in 1875 bought
the Advocate and put a stop to the fighting.
Besides
these church fights and newspaper quarrels there
were also other subjects of interest for the
people of Sturgeon Bay in the '60s and '70s.
Among these may particularly be mentioned hogs,
spirits and Indians, which indiscriminately
were infesting
the village.
For a time
it was the hogs which claimed most attention.
These were permitted to run loose to the great
annoyance of those who would rather
grow peas than pigs.
Finally
in 1867 a local ordinance was passed, the hogs
were shut up and everybody took new courage.
The spirits, however, were not so easily controlled.
As early as 1866 spiritualistic
seances came into vogue and disentombed
spirits were roaming about at any time and
place eager to impart immaterial information.
With
the organization of several religious congregations
the excessive "spirituality" gradually
found expression along more conventional
lines.
In
these early days Indians were frequent visitors
in the village. They usually came in considerable
numbers, begging and bartering and in quest
of spirits, but of another kind from those mentioned
above. In May, 1876,
there was a large concourse of Indians in the
village, among them being Pottawatomies, Winnebagos,
Chippewas and Sioux.
One
superannuated warrior, gaudily arrayed in a
pair of earrings and one coat sleeve, was circulating
a paper with the following appeal to the charitable,
prepared for him by the editor of the Advocate (D. S. Crandall)
inscribed thereon:
"This
may certify that the bearer is an aboriginal
cuss in whom there is no guile. He never lifted
a scalp nor robbed a hen roost in daytime. He
is the father of some of his children and uses
no cologne. He has that noble attribute of his
race-an untutored mind.
His
squaw has gone to the spirit land and he wishes
to visit that earthly land of spirits, where
trouble is forgotten at the rate of 10 cents
a spirit. He respectfully asketh aid of the
pale faces. No order for groceries received."
Up to 1875 Main
Street was
the principal street of the village. Just north
cf the present Advocate building, on the same
side of the street, still stands one of the
oldest landmarks of the city-the Peterson building,
built in 1856 and
used for a hotel for many years. Just across
the street from, the Advocate is the site of the first
county courthouse.
Adjoining
this on the southeast was Leidiger's brewery.
The courthouse was a two-story building with
a basement. The basement was used for a saloon,
which was very convenient for the court and
jury. Howerer, it was customary for the jury
to provide itself with refreshments in another
manner.
After O. E.
Dreutzer had harangued the jury into a real
bellicose attitude, the jury would retire into
its sanctum sweating under the collar. A rope
would then be dropped
to a side door of the brewery and a keg of beer
hauled up.
After
due investigation of the contents of the keg
the verdict would be returned. In this old courthouse
whose site is now marked by a big hole in the
ground, many famous legal battles of the county
have been fought, the narration of which is
beyond the province of this account. An amusing
incident of those days is, however, not out
of place.
