Sturgeon Bay
seems to have been a center for human intercourse
long before white men came here and began to
do business. The remains of several Indian villages
have been discovered in or near Sturgeon Bay
which show that it had a large
population hundreds of years ago.
One
of these villages was located on the property
of the "Cove" summer
resort about three hundred feet south of the
boat landing. Another was across the bay at
Circle Ridge on block 5,
A great
many fine relics
have been unearthed here. Another village site
has been found on block 3 of
Wagener's second addition to Sturgeon Bay, just
north of the city. Two large village sites are
also found at Little Harbor.
The
Indians presumably found this a convenient
place of habitation because of its proximity
to the waters of both Lake Michigan and Green
Bay. When the first settlers came they found
a well trodden path leading from the head of
Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan, just north
of the present canal, over which the Indians
had portaged their canoes for centuries.
One
of the first white men known to have visited
Sturgeon Bay was the great missionary and explorer,
Father James Marquette. On the 25th of October,
1674, a solitary
canoe left the majestic waters of the Fox River
at a point then known as St. Francis
Xavier Mission, at the head of Green Bay. A black-gown
with two companions manned the canoe. This priest
was Father Marquette, on his last visit to the
Illinois Indians, a visit
from which he never returned.
On
the 27th
of October he landed at a point where there
was an Indian village (probably Circle Ridge)
and remained there three days instructing and
ministering to the Indians. Proceeding on their
journey they carried their canoes across the
portage to Lake Michigan, surveying, as it were,
the ship canal of two centuries later.
As
far back as records go Sturgeon Bay has gone by the
name it still bears. The first to mention the
name is Father Allouez, the first missionary
of the West. Late in October, 1676, he set out
from his mission at De Pere to visit the Illinois
Indians.
Cold
weather overtook him and he was obliged to winter
with some Potowatami Indians, who lived on or
near Sturgeon Bay. March 29, 1677, he embarked
in a canoe, assisted by two men, on Lake Michigan.
This he reached by way of the Sturgeon Bar portage
(La Portage des Eturgeons), where now is the
canal¹
This
portage was also much used by early French:
English and American fur traders in conveying
their supplies from Green Bay to Milwaukee and
intermediate points. It is probable that some
of them also used Sturgeon Bay as a temporary
trading post. In a letter
dated May 18, 1825, H.
B. McGulpin,
a fur trader, mentions Sturgeon Bay in a way
which suggests that it may have been one
of his regular stations.
After
him a young trader by the name of Joshua Johnson
Boyd made periodical visits there, on which
occasions the Indians used to gather to barter
and celebrate. He was the son of Colonel Boyd,
U. S. Indian Agent at Green Bay. Colonel Boyd
was a very capable and distinguished gentleman
who had been prominently employed by the Government
abroad and was a brother-in-law of President
John Quincy Adams. In 1832 his son Joshua was
killed at Sturgeon Bay by an Indian for refusing
him credit.
It
was this dangerous business that Increase Claflin
assumed when he in 1835 moved from Green Bay.
He changed the location of the trading post
from Sturgeon Bay to Little Sturgeon and for
many years Sturgeon Bay lay silent and a deserted
save for its dusky nomads.
Among
the early settlers on Rock Island and St. Martin's Island
was Oliver Perry Graham. He had a sail boat, did quite
a little traveling disposing of his fish, and was also
associated with the fur
traders
in bartering with the Indians. In this manner
he became a well-known
figure among the Indians, who greatly respected
him because of his powerful physique and commanding
presence, and he was elected chief both by the
Menominees and Chippewas.
On
these travels he had several times visited Sturgeon
Bay. He was greatly impressed by the grand forest
of pine which lined the shores of the bay, particularly
where now the City of Sturgeon Bay is built.
He felt convinced that soon the
tide of empire rolling westward would need this
timber for building material, and profitable
business would be opened for a sawmill.
Accordingly
on August 14, 1849,
he entered a tract of land now included in the
business section of the city and in 1850 erected
the first house of the future city. This stood
a little southwest of
where Vendome Park now lies.
Sturgeon
Bay at that time was one grand forest of
pine. From the cove to the brewery, from
the bridge to the courthouse and eastward
for miles mas a forest
of tall, bulky columns of pine rearing their
tops a hundred
feet in the air. Where now the business houses
line Cedar Street, the ground stretched smooth
and soft, covered with pine needles and always
shaded by the green pine.
For a year
Graham dwelt here alone with his family, a hermit
in a wilderness
of pine. His nearest neighbor was David Greenwood,
who lived on the Sawyer side of the bay. There
was also Peter Sherwood, a quiet,
genial old man, who lived on Sherwood's Point,
about six miles down the bay.
A
half-mile south of him
at the head of Sawyer Harbor lived Frank Sawyer,
an Indian trader and trapper
who had just located there. Seven miles farther
west Robert Stephenson, another Indian trader,
lived at Little Sturgeon, while far to the
northward, Fish Creek, Increase Claflin held
undisputed sway.
It
was not long, however, before Graham got more
neighbors. One morning in the fall of 1851 he
saw a sailboat come gently floating up the bay
and land at his house. It contained Rev. A.
M. Iverson,
who with two representatives of his congregation
in Fort Howard, were seeking suitable Government
land to form a colony.
This
Morarian congregation of about twenty Norwegian
families had for
some time been buffeted about in great hardships.
A few
years previously its members had left Norway
partly because of economic reasons and partly
because of religious pressure. They had been
among the pioneers of "Walker's Point" in
Milwaukee and there struggled under the handicap
of strangers in a strange land unable to speak
its language.
In
Milwaukee a Norwegian nobleman of immense wealth
had come to them unexpectedly like an angel
from heaven and volunteered to buy lands for
them all. With joy they had followed him across
the Wisconsin wilderness to Fort Howard, where
the colony had been established. Unforeseen
difficulties, however. had arisen, and now they
were left more destitute than ever in the little
Village of Fort Howard, without work, money
or lands.
Now
weary with wandering, their committee had reached
Sturgeon Bay to see if here, beyond the pale
of civilization, lands could be obtained where
they could settle and dwell in peace.
At
Sturgeon Bay practically all the land was still
unpre-empted. However, that forest of pine which
had prompted Graham to settle there discouraged
Reverend Iverson from doing so. He was of the
opinion that evergreens grew only on poor soil,
and as they wished to form a farming community
he felt it would be a big mistake to locate
here.
He
returned to Fort Howard with his committee and strongly
advised against settling at Sturgeon Bay. The greater
part of his congregation accepted his advice and later
moved with him
to Ephraim. A few,
however, were impatient of further investigation and
believed it more important to obtain homes at once.
These
were Salvi Salveson (Solway), Anthoni Thompson,
Louis Klinkenberg, H. P. Hanson
and Ole Falk, Melchior Jacobs, Christian Knudson,
E. Rasmussen, Sels Torstenson and Philip Jacobs.
Of these Salveson settled near the later city
in 1851,
on
the spot later occupied by the dwelling of Leidiger
Bros. The others moved up in I852 and settled
along the shore, Torstenson and Philip Jacobs
taking land on the Sawyer side.
For
awhile it looked as if the whole Mloravian congregation
might settle at Sturgeon Bay after all. A wealthy
Moravian in New York City by the name of Clark
heard of the hardships of the little wandering
congregation and offered to loan them money
to buy land. With great anticipation they obtained
Mr. Graham's aid and selected 1,200 acres of
land for the colony at Sturgeon Bay.
Mr. Clark,
however, suddenly withdrew his offer and their
hopes were dashed to the ground. With more chastened
expectations they now entered 160 acres of additional
land and invited their brethren in Fort Howard
to join them. Before they could pay anything
down on the land they learned that their claim
had been jumped by a Mr. Lyman Bradley.
This
Mr. Bradley was a prospective lumberman who
with David S. Crandall came from Lockport, N.
Y., in
the spring of 1852. They went into partnership
under the name of Crandall & Bradley,
and bought many hundred acres of pine lands.
Most of these entries are dated September 11,
1852. Next spring they brought several men with
them from Lockport to build a mill.
L.
R. McLachlan was forman. Under his supervision
the mill was completed in October, 1853, and
at once began to saw lumber. This was known
as "the
lower mill" and occupied the site of the
Pankratz mill. Mr. Jesse Kimber, an old settler
who began work in this mill when it opened for
business, thus describes this first beginning
of Sturgeon Bay's business.
"I
came to Sturgeon Bay from Lockport, N.Y., to
work for Crandall & Bradley in their sawmill,
which they had built that season. There were
but few settlers here then, and this was an
unbroken wilderness. We cut the
pine trees on the bank of the Little Lake-then
known as Bradley's Lake-but we were all green
as to handling saw logs, and it was slow work.
Little
Lake was frozen over on the morning of November 5, 1853,
and we had some rare sport killing bass and
pickerel by striking on the ice over them, and
then hooking them out with a piece of wire bent
in the shape of a hook. In a day or two the
weather got warmer, and the ice all melted,
and we had no more snow until Christmas week,
when it shut up for the winter. About New Year's
the snow began to fall, and for forty days we
never saw the sun; but we had the most beautiful
nights I ever saw.
It
snowed every day, and by the first of March
we had 3 ½ feet
of snow on the level in the woods… About
the month of February the Bradley mill changed
hands, and D. H. Burtis came here and took possession,
and the mill company was known as Burtis &Works-the
property being put into their hands to await
the issue of a law suit then pending in the
courts of Niagara County, N.Y.
In
August, 1854, Bradley came
here and paid off all the men, and Works gave
up the property to the old firm of Crandall & Bradley,
and matters went on smoothly for awhile.
But
owing to Mr. Bradley's inexperience in lumbering,
he failed to make much out of it, and in the
crash of 1857, they went down with of others… After
Burtis & Woks gave up the Bradley property
Burtis built what was known as the 'middle mill,'
and commenced to manufacture lumber, but failed
and returned to his old home at Lockport, N.Y.
In
early days there was no aristocracy-they were
all alike, we enjoyed ourselves hugely-all were
bound to enjoy themselves. We could get up a
dance in half an hour, have a fill house and
keep the party until daylight, and then away
to the woods again.
I
have known the time when we had to make out
a meal on potatoes and salt. We used to spear
suckers in the creek in the spring, and then
we lived high again. I once heard Bradley remark
that he had not a man about him that could get
his shirt off , and when asked the reason, he
said: 'They had eaten suckers so long that,
the bones stuck through their skin, and their
shirts are fast.' "
The
principal reason for the failure of this enterprise
is reported to have been the lack of experience
and attention to business on the part of the
promoters. Crandall and Bradley were both newspaper
men but had more hope than knowledge of the
lumber business.
Bradley
had a great slant for law, was a shrewd pettifogger
and found much more interest in followng anybody’s
lawsuit than in managing his
mill.
Crandall was a famous storyteller who is
said to have had free transportation whenever
he traveled because of his witty stories. While
the bosses were off in distant parts storytelling
and arguing law, the mill men shifted for
themselves in indolence and quarreling and the
result was ruin.
In 1854 D. H. Burtis
built the second mill in Sturgeon Bay, which
was located on the site of Washburn's planing
mill. Among the men who came with him were the
Schulers, Henry Schuyler, Sr., and his sons
Henry, Fred and Albert. Henry Schuyler, Sr.,
became the first county surveyor. He had owned
and operated mills in New York and had assisted
in building "Walk in the Water" and
other earlv boats.
In
1844 he built Burtis' mill, then put in new
machinery in Bradley's mill and finally was
in charge of the construction of Graham’s
mill. In these jobs he was ably assisted by his
son Fred Schuyler, who was also a master mechanic.
Mr. Graham,
who was the first to locate at Sturgeon Bay, was
the last to build his mill. This was just east
of the Reynolds Preserving Co. plant and was
erected by Fred Schuyler, A. W. and
others in July 1855. While
Mr. Graham's mill was the last of the three
to start operation he had accumulated the greatest
amount of timber lands.
Having
unbounded faith in the future of the town which
he had founded he invested all his means in
timber lands. He borrowed from his friends and
kindred and bought more. He mortgaged all he
had and with the proceeds increased his holdings.
Finally he had 4,800 acres of pine lands near
Sturgeon Bay. Then, shortly after the whirring
saws had begun to cleave the big pine logs in
his trim little mill and success seemed near,
the panic of 1857 laid its blighting hands on
nearly all sawmills.
The
price of lumber went down
so low it did not pay for the transportation.
Like the two other mills in the village, he,
too, failed in business. Sturgeon Bay for a
time was a dreary
monument of disappointed hopes for practically
every man in the village lost a large
amount in wages due from the mills, varying
from twenty five to five hundred dollars.
The
methods of handling the logs and lumber in vogue by these
early mill companies seem rather crude when
viewed in the light of later efficiency. The
pine was cut-none less than ten inches in diameter-with
axes. Only logs free from limbs were used. The
balance of the tree was left to obstruct the
ground. The big angular cuts of the axemen and
the rejected tops caused a loss
in lumber which would pay a modern
mill's operating expenses.
The
logging camps were at various points
a mile or two from shore and banking grounds
were located at three or four different points
between the present city and the mouth of the
bay. From these points booms were made up and
most of the logs reached the mill by water.
As soon as the ice left the bay the rafting
crew would set out to get the logs from below
up to the mills. This was very slow work and
as hard as it was tedious.
A
scow about twenty feet long by eight or ten
feet wide was rigged with a windlass. To this
a rope four or five hundred feet long was attached.
After the logs had been put into a raft
the boat was pulled out into the bay by means
of oars, and when the length of the rope was reached
the anchor in the box of the scow was dropped and
the work of winding up began.
This
would probably require half an hour on an average
if the weather was favorable. As some
of the roll-ways were about five miles from the
mill it took a long time for a
raft to reach the mill after getting started. Sometimes
it would require from twenty-four to thirty-six
hours to take a raft of about one hundred
logs
from the mouth of the bay to the Graham sawmill,
and the men would be completely whipped out
by the long and heavy pull.
A
raft of 100,000 feet was considered a big
one, and the rafting boss was complimented
very highly for being able to handle such
a large lot of timber.
After
trying the scow and windlass for a few seasons,
the mills began to use horses for towing. A span
was hitched to the rope, and by following the
shore fairly good time was made with an ordinary
raft. The driver was mounted on the back of
one of the animals, and often the horses were
in water up to their backs.
The
driver was compelled to hang on, and it was
not an unusual thing for him to be swept off
by some overhanging tree or limb. When they
came to where the shore was bold and the water
deep the horses would have to swim until they
could touch bottom again. Three and four
men were required to keep the raft from going
ashore, and when the wind blew heavily toward
the land this was an utter impossibility.
In
such an emergency the raft would have to remain
on the beach until the wind went down. The first
of these methods was also employed by many captains
to take their vessels up the bay in case of
a head wind. A small anchor was placed in the
yawl boat and taken perhaps a hundred fathoms
ahead and thrown overboard.
A
turn was taken around the windlass on deck and
the ship was warped along until the kedge anchor
tripped. One of the big anchors was then dropped
to hold the vessel in position until the former
operation could be repeated. It sometimes
took a week to kedge
a large vessel from the mouth of the bay to
Graham's or Schjoth's dock..
The
first village plat of Sturgeon Bay was made
and recorded August 10, 1855. The proprietor
was Robert Graham, a brother
of Oliver P. Graham. It embraced
several blocks of land bounded by Spruce
and Church streets.
The
name of the village was Graham, by which name
the later City of Sturgeon Bay was known for
several years. This was the second platted village
in the county, the Village of Ephraim
having been platted in 1853. The
village plat of Ephraim, however, was not recorded
until 1859.
As
all three of the mills by this time (August,
1855) were
running, there was quite a population in the
future city. About twenty to forty men worked
at each mill-the oldest, Crandall & Bradley’s
being a little the largest-making a total population
of about two hundred people, of which a little
more than half were floating mill hands.
In
November of that year occurred an election for
Governor of the state, which is the first election
on record held in Sturgeon Bay or Door County.
The manner in which this election was conducted
was unique but very effective and is well worth
relating.
On
that memorable election day a group of patriotic
plank pushers were sitting around the stove
of the boarding house of Graham's mill after
dinner. The merits of the two candidates-Barstow
democrat, and Bashford, republican-were discussed.
Barstow was candidate for re-election and had
a powerful state machine behind him.
The
spokesman, however, was a staunch republican
and made it clear that
the salvation of all depended on the election
of Bashford. In order to do what they could
to save the state from damnation it was enthusiastically
decided to constitute themselves into a board
of election. This was done and each man present
was required
to vote a straight Bashford ticket. Word was
sent to the other mills that an election was
in progress at the upper mill and all were urged
to present themselves.
Meanwhile
the board of election sat in patriotic dignity
awaiting the voters. These sordid savages of
the other mills seemed, howevet to be interested
in ripping logs than in saving the nation. Seeing
the mountain would not come to Mahornet, Mahornet
decided to go to the mountain. Taking the ballot
box with them the board of election sallied
forth and invaded the middle mill.
Here,
amid the flying sawdust, it was explained to
the Canadians, half-breeds and Irishmen working
there that it was a guarantee of their bread
and butter to drop a slip in the box bearing
the name of Coles Bashford. This was cheerfully
complied with. Another halt was made in the
snug furnace room of the lower mill and forty
more republican votes were garnered in.
The
election board then went out into the highways
and byways of the new metropolis-that is, along
the water front and around the plank piles,
and every person wearing trousers was required
to drop the right kind of slip into the box.
Toward the close of the day the board of election
with great magnanimity and to avoid any suggestion
of coercion permitted three voters to cast votes
for Barstow.
The
ballot box was then carried back to its home
in the
dining room of Graham's mill and the votes were conscientiously
counted. The result was very gratifying- 84 for "the
great statesman," Bashford, and 3 for “the
low-down demogogue" Barstow. A messenger
was subsidized and sent on foot to Green Bay with the
election returns.
A
few weeks later the
loyal patriots of Graham were greatly uplifted
to learn that Bashford had been elected by a
small margin-the state saved from disaster by
Graham's (alias Sturgeon Bay's,) intelligent
and loyal vote!
