Ah-ne-pee's Own Senator Stebbins

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

I wrote this article for "The County Times" newspaper. 

Every flag in the community was at half-mast on June 15, 1901, when the largest funeral ever seen in Kewaunee County was attended by 3,000 mourners.  People, including the governor, came from all over Wisconsin, to say good-bye to “Old Steb”.  Who was this man and why did all those people come to honor him? 

De Wayne Stebbins was a unique character and a pioneer citizen of Wisconsin and Kewaunee County.  It was said that he believed hypocrisy, sham, and flattery were cardinal sins.  He lived his life in an exemplary way that earned him the respect demonstrated at his funeral. 

Stebbins was descended from a long line of Puritans, his ancestor Rowland Stebbins having come to America in 1634.  De Wayne was born in Clinton, New York, and came with his family to territorial Wisconsin in 1835 as an infant. 

At 16, he received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, graduated, and served for a time in the Navy.  Around 1856, he came to Wolf River, now Algoma, at barely 21 years old.  Soon after, he took an adventure to mine for gold in California, traveling by way of the Isthmus of Panama.  Gold mining didn’t pan out for him and he returned to Wolf River, or Ah-ne-pee.  He, himself, is credited with renaming the village Ah-ne-pee, which later became Ahnapee, and then Algoma.

The War Between the States broke out and Stebbins expected to be called up as a naval officer, but when the call didn’t come, he enlisted.  On the night before he departed with Company K, the 21^st Wisconsin Infantry, on September 5, 1862, he married the young widow Frances Elliott Newel, the daughter of early pioneer settler George W. Elliott.

When Stebbins reached Louisville, Kentucky, the order came to transfer him to the Navy as an officer in Porter's western flotilla.  He served on the Clara Dolson, steamer Mound City, steam ship Carondelet of the Mississippi squadron, Portsmouth, and was second in command under Farragut on the double-turreted monitor Kickapoo.  Among the notable events of his Civil War experience was the time he most likely saved the life of General Ulysses S. Grant.

On a dark, foggy night in April, 1863, the Mound City ran the gauntlet past the batteries at Vickburg.  Proceeding on the river, they participated in several attacks.  After running the batteries, Stebbins helped to transfer General Grant's army across the river.  De Wayne Stebbins shared a personal account of that night and his experience with General Grant, who later became our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.  The story of the siege of Vicksburg was later written in a May 26, 1955 article in the Algoma "Record-Herald" newspaper.  It read:

            "In the dark and mist from the river, a lookout challenged two approaching figures.  Stebbins, the deck officer, ordered his men to prepare to fire on the boat in the belief that Confederate spies might be floating downstream in a canoe or on a log.  While Stebbins delayed his command to make certain he did not kill his own men, a voice came from the darkness:  'General Grant desires to see Admiral Porter.'  A moment later the Union hero stepped aboard, saved from the fate of General Stonewall Jackson, Confederate leader who was accidentally slain by his own men.  Had circumstances been reversed there is no telling how American history would have been altered, so vital were each of these men to success of his own cause."

On that foggy night, De Wayne Stebbins’ direct orders to his men to prepare but hold their fire upon Grant's unidentified vessel is attributed to saving the general's life.

After the war, De Wayne Stebbins came home to Ah-ne-pee and became a real estate dealer, a government harbor inspector, a banker, publisher of the Ahnapee Record newspaper from 1884-1897, a legislator and a Wisconsin state senator.  He served continuously on the Kewaunee County Board for 27 years.   

When he arrived in Madison as a senator, he chaired the Committee on Charitable Institutions.  His Wisconsin legislative colleagues called him “PaPa Stebbins” because, although he was described as “stern”, he served both in a mentor role and friend with a “heart of warmest texture”.  It was said that De Wayne Stebbins could always be depended on to stand with measures beneficial to the people.  At home, he was master of the Masonic lodge for a dozen years and belonged to the GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) and several other local organizations.

His death was a shock and came unexpectedly.  He and his wife had returned just two days before from a trip to San Francisco where he represented the state to present a gift for the battleship Wisconsin.  Late in the evening on June 12, 1901, he experienced severe chest pains and died around midnight with his wife--his partner of nearly 40 years--beside him.

De Wayne Stebbins was buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in Algoma near many of his extended family and beloved friends and constituents.  At the funeral for the man whom everyone said had a simple straightforward style and modesty that earned him recognition, Governor LaFollette summed up Stebbins' contribution best.  He said De Wayne Stebbins “won his place in Wisconsin history because he thought and thought right”.