The Squire

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

They called him “Squire” Elliott.

 

As “Squire” is a title given not only to men of noble birth or knights but to one who is a justice of the peace or other local dignitary, the moniker fits.

Honorable George W. Elliott was an early pioneer of Wisconsin and Ahnapee.  A native of New York, he came to Green Bay in 1839.

 

Early in life, he was a civil engineer.  He surveyed public roads, including the route from his home in Martinsburg, New York to Albany, and forest lands.

    

In Wisconsin, he surveyed timberland owned by lumbermen like Philetus Sawyer (U.S. Senator from Wisconsin).  James D. Doty (Territorial Governor of Wisconsin) enlisted G. W. Elliott to survey the grounds where the Wisconsin State Capital now stands and other land Doty owned in what is now Kewaunee County.

It was on a surveying trip to Wolf River that George W. Elliott became enamored with the area.  He decided to relocate to Wolf River, later Ahnapee, now Algoma.

George W. Elliott served his adopted community well.  He was elected the first county surveyor.  He represented the county in the Wisconsin State Legislature--the war legislature of 1861. 

He was a justice of the peace for 57 years.  In his day, this magistrate dispensed justice for ordinary transactions of life.  He did not need a law degree or to pass a bar exam.  George W. Elliott was not an attorney.

He didn’t need to be an attorney because he had a tome like Joshua Waterman’s book (revised, corrected, and improved by Thomas W. Waterman, counsellor at law, 1853), “Wisconsin and Iowa Justice, Being a Treatise on theCivil and Criminal Jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace, Written Expressly forthe States of Wisconsin and Iowa, Containing Directions and Practical Forms for Every Case Which Can Arrive Before a Justice”.

 

Such a book thoroughly outlined the roles and duties of his justice of the peace position.  But, Squire Elliott possessed the ability to process facts, to arrive at an impartial conclusion, and to communicate well orally and in writing.  These were the skills that made him a fine magistrate.

      

George W. Elliott was elected to the position.  He took an oath of office.  In addition to promising to hand over any fees he collected from fines levied, he promised he would “faithfully and impartially, without fear, favor, fraud, or oppression, discharge all other duties now or hereafter required of his office by law.”

 

As justice of the peace he would hear cases involving misdemeanors and petty crimes, trespass for injuries to persons or property, and perform civil marriage ceremonies.  One published historical account of Wolf River and Ahnapee states that Squire Elliott “married nearly all who mated here in the early days and presided over most of the early litigations while his tireless energies were put forth to running lines for the new settlers”.

     

It was performing marriages that clearly gave Justice of the Peace Elliott the most satisfaction.  He said that he believed he had officiated at more than one thousand weddings.

Like today, in the second half of the 19^th century in Wisconsin, there were a few rules to be considered for a couple wishing to be married:  consanguinity (relation by blood), affinity (relation by marriage), incapacity (idiocy or lunacy), and consent (free will to enter into the marriage contract).

 

One could not be nearer blood kin than first cousins.  (Today, usually first cousins can marry if both are sterilized or the woman is age 55 or older.)  Regarding other relationships, while it was lawful for a man to marry his deceased wife’s sister, it was considered improper and immoral.

Secondly, parties could not have a former wife or husband living unless the former marriage was dissolved.  However, a marriage bond would be considered dissolved if one of the parties was sentenced to life imprisonment in jail, prison, or a house of corrections.

    

Prior to the ceremony, the justice of the peace would ask at least one of the parties, under oath, a version of the following questions:  1) Are you related or connected by blood or marriage with whom you propose to join in wedlock? 2)  Have you ever been married?  3)  Is there any legal impediment to the union?  4)  Any good reason you two should not be joined together in lawful wedlock?  5)  Do you give your free, willing, and unconstrained assent to this proposed marriage contract?

 

In those days, every groom was required to be 18 years of age or older, every bride at least 15 years old to be capable of contracting marriage, if they were otherwise competent.  Parental permission was required for men under age 21 and women under 18.  (Today, parental consent is required for a bride or groom who is at least age 16 or 17.)  Some states allowed marriage with parental consent for females younger than 15 years of age. 

  

If the justice of the peace found everything to be on the up and up, there was no particular form to the ceremony except that the parties solemnly declared, in the presence of the magistrate and at least two attending witnesses besides the justice of the peace, that they take each other as husband and wife.

 

Considering his personality, one could easily envision George W. Elliott performing the marriage ceremony.  He had an old fashioned, elegant “courtly” greeting and was a familiar character in Ahnapee.  He was known as a genial, kind gentleman with a good sense of humor.  He was old school.

The title justice of the peace, too, is old.  The term dates back to 1361 and the time of England’s King Edward III.  The title magistrate is from the 16^th century, and more recently in English government was sometimes termed squirearchy.

Squire George W. Elliott was not born to wealth or privilege, but he was privileged to serve others as justice of the peace for over a half century of his life.

  

Lady Ellen

Monday, May 19, 2014

Her bones lie forgotten today, but in her heyday Lady Ellen was known in nearly every port town north of Chicago.

Others like her went by the name of Iris, Laura, and Hattie, but only Lady Ellen called Ahnapee home.

Lady Ellen hailed from Ahnapee.  She ran with the likes of one-armed John McDonald and William Henry.   Together they were adventurous and traveled to places called Bloodsucker Bay and Death’s Door.

She was often seen in Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Jacksonport, Sheboygan, Kewaunee, Racine, Milwaukee, Menominee, and Chicago.  She got around.

People said Lady Ellen was fast.  She was.  She could run in excess of 15 miles per hour.

She was easy to live with, not high maintenance.  She was also light and wore a sleek bow.

Some called her dumpy, but practical.  It’s true; she was shallow, stable.  She had a large flat-bottom and was broad.  Although she didn’t waddle, she moved as gracefully as a duck.  She fit easily in small places.

She could carry a great load with no complaint.  She didn’t mind hard work.  Lady Ellen hauled anything—flour, plaster, furniture, coal, siding, doors, or tiles.  She carried shingles for Hall and Co., barrels of fish or apples, wheat, salt, hay, potatoes or iron, drugs for the pharmacy or store fixtures.  She carried all kinds of wood—bark, cord wood, hardwood, cedar posts, hemlock lumber, and piles.  She delivered a boiler for the Ahnapee Veneer & Seating Co., beer casks, cheese boxes for Paul Gablowsky and Co., and lots of stone.  And, Christmas trees.

If the weather was rough, she preferred to stay home.  She avoided being caught in a squall but when she was, Lady Ellen usually made it home unharmed.  Her men kept her safe and she reciprocated.

But, Sheboygan proved a dangerous place for Lady Ellen.  She was cut by ice one winter.  Another time she got in a tussle with Wannette, was hit on her right side, and was down for 11 days until she recovered.

In Sturgeon Bay, she was struck at the pier and had to limp home.  Another time she was hit by lightning in Ahnapee.

Each December, Lady Ellen came home to Ahnapee to rest until the next April when she got dressed up and went back to work.

Lady Ellen was all business.  However, she would not work for low pay.  In 1894, business was slow and she had more down time than desired.

Yet, she had to keep up appearances.  As she grew older, she grew bigger.  Occasionally, she went in for a makeover.  Her rear was extended and she got a lift.

With age, her upkeep had to be done more liberally.  By 1897, she didn’t look like herself anymore.  Finally, she broke down and, by 1900, drifted into obscurity.

Resting place of Lady Ellen in Ahnapee River

   
The scow schooner Lady Ellen lays buried in the river at Algoma.  Her final resting place is the north side of the Ahnapee River, west of the 2^nd St. bridge.   When the river is low, you can still see remnants of her hull from the shore.  
 

Lady Ellen in the ice at Ahnapee

Loyalty: Two Sides to Every Story

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

There are always two (or more) sides to every story.

Recently I wrote two articles of opposing perspectives about WWI.  One was written for my The County Times newspaper column and is based on the war experience and life of a WWI American soldier from Algoma named Quiren Groessl.

I wrote the other story by request for the Kewaunee County Historical Society Historical Notes newsletter as an alternative viewpoint to an article the publisher had written about anti-German sentiment in Kewaunee County during WWI.

Although it is not directly related to this story, for the purposes of my family history blog, I want to note that my family had soldiers on both sides of the war.  My great grandfather, Georg Scheitzach, served in the German military from 1902 in a train battalion through 1918 as a non-commissioned officer, a captain in a squadron in the German army reserves.  My great uncle Cyril Tracy was an American soldier, a private from a small town in northern Wisconsin.

Here are two perspectives.

Remember When

Corporal Quiren “Squeegee” M. Groessl earned the nickname “Big Boy” on the WWI battlefield in France when he took on three German soldiers at once and lived to tell about it.  Groessl returned home to Algoma a war hero, but more importantly--after time and reflection--found himself to be a much wiser man than when he entered the service.     

Quiren Groessl

Groessl of the Fighting Fifth of Door County and Algoma, 28^th Infantry came home disabled by a German soldier’s bayonet.  After he was captured by three Germans who were marching him to their line, he made up his mind that he might just as well be dead as spend the rest of the war studying German. 

At an opportune moment, as shells from the American line screamed overhead, Groessl pretended to fall and, with a trench knife he had hidden in his pants, struck the man on his left in the neck.  He grabbed that soldier’s weapon and hit the man on the right in the face with the butt of the rifle.  The man behind him stuck him with a bayonet, cutting Groessl across his back, then made a guttural noise and fell over backward, dead. 

Groessl crawled across no man’s land to reach his own company.  A French doctor operated and stitched him up and Corporal Groessl was sent to a hospital in France to recover from severe nerve damage, paralysis, and loss of the use of his right arm.  Later, he was shipped to an American hospital.

Back in the U.S., no one came to visit soldiers recovering in the hospital; they were virtually ignored.  When released, Groessl was taken to rallies to speak to encourage people to buy war bonds.  He found himself telling lies to parents of soldiers who asked if he knew their sons.  Although he knew none of the soldiers, he said, “Yes, they were well when I last saw them.”    

   

Quiren Groessl stepped off the train upon his return to Algoma to the sound of a band, school children, his family, the mayor of Algoma, and people waving and shouting.   

Newspapers claimed that “Big Boy” Groessl was eager to get back into the fight.  Before he had even recovered, they wrote that Soldier Groessl was ready to take another crack at “Fritz”.

Just settled at home, he was again sought to get people to buy war bonds.  The Liberty Loan Committee from Kewaunee encouraged him to speak at a meeting to a capacity crowd.  He was also asked to visit an influential German farmer to convince the farmer to buy bonds so others would follow suit. 

The committee members with him soon got to the point with the farmer and began using threats, telling the farmer he would be run out of the county and that his home and barn would be burned to the ground.  Groessl was ashamed that he had gone with them and disgusted by the extortion and blackmail.  It was the last visit or speech he made.   

For the rest of his long life, Groessl had time to reflect on his war experience and how it impacted him and the community he lived in. 

Quiren Groessl’s diary describes how America’s entry into the war changed everything in Kewaunee County.  At first anti-German sentiment was not too noticeable, “but gradually like a cancer it grew insidiously from a whisper here, and a subtle remark there.  A name spoken of derisively…  Before much longer many more people of German ancestry were automatically suspect… And as time went on, the few grew in numbers.”

Groessl learned that in times of war there were those who considered themselves 100% American--the super-patriots who became suspicious of everyone else.  They could do no wrong but believed that everyone else could. 

To the super-patriots, it didn’t matter that Groessl’s German father had lived a decent life and raised a good family in the U.S. or that Groessl had voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army.  He, an American, had been summoned to the courthouse to be questioned about his citizenship and loyalty to his country. 

The press stirred sentiment with statements like “The German machine-made soldier is inferior to the young, virile, resourceful American.”  The papers helped create a pro-American, anti-German mentality.

Groessl wrote in his pre-war diary that the Algoma community was “made up of all nationalities, blending together, inter-marrying and working and playing together to make a better life for all.”  What could turn a man who was the son of a German immigrant father and German relatives and friends into one ready to take on the Germans?  Propaganda. 

“Squeegee” realized that he and his fellow soldiers were like babes in the woods.  “We came over to France to fight a war that we knew nothing about.” 

He and his buddies saw their friends shot and blown away.  They grew hardened.  He wrote, “I honestly didn’t know that any human being could see and experience these things and come away from a war in his right mind.”  They lived in constant fear of death and weren’t sure how much more they could take. 

Their eyes were opened.  They had been exposed to bands playing, flags flying, and precision marching at home.  Brightly colored posters showing victorious armies were part of the propaganda to appeal to American youth.  He wrote that it had been aimed at the younger generation who, because of their youth, inexperience, and gullibility, had not been made mistrustful of the half-truths being fed to them.  “Wars were started by old men and fought by young men,” he concluded.

He had been conditioned to do what men had done before him--to fight a war and perhaps be maimed or die for those who would not try to settle arguments or problems by open discussion but instead by secret treaties. 

Quiren M. Groessl married, became a prominent local citizen, and raised a family.  He adjusted to life with pain and spent many hours in a radio room making more than 20,000 amateur radio contacts and friends in other parts of the world.    He died in August, 1983 at age 87.    


And another perspective...

Loyalty Efforts in Kewaunee County During World War I

As a follow-up to Jerry Abitz’ article, “Anti-German Sentiment in World War I” in the April, 2014 issue of Historical Notes (Vol XXVI, No. 2), this column presents an alternative perspective. 

Stories of savage inhumanities committed by the Huns and threats by Germany to sink American merchant ships filled American newspapers.  Then, a German U-boat sunk the RMS Lusitania killing 1128 people; 128 American lives were lost. 

Meanwhile, a large number of native born and German-born people sympathized with and were extending financial aid to Germany.  Pro-Germans in Kewaunee County had, very enthusiastically, shown sympathy for Germany up until the time the U.S. declared war.  The declaration of war did not cool their ardor for the Kaiser.  They were sullen and outspoken.  Their leaders--mainly among the Lutheran priesthood--were perpetuating support for Germany. 

Pro-German people were so outspoken in the summer of 1917 that some loyal men realized something must be done to curb them.  The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion was organized in Milwaukee.  A local group, the Abraham Lincoln Chapter No. 5, was started in Kewaunee.

Soon, the chapter had over 100 members and arranged a meeting at the Bohemian Opera House.  The building was packed and pro-Germanism received its first setback.  More chapters were organized.  Influential local people like judges and attorneys went into the county to speak at meetings.  This effort built enthusiasm and the Loyalty Legion rose to over 3,000 members.   

Super-patriots were proud they were able to keep disloyal people in line and to reduce pro-German fervor.  They were doing their part to fight the war from the home front.  They were able to get a German banker sent to Fort Oglethorpe for making seditious utterances and to oust another man who did not serve robustly enough on the County Council of Defense.  They proudly created a secret system to keep many disloyal men and women in line.   

Supporters of Germany were costing the U. S. war effort.  The county had not filled its quota for the first Liberty Loan--bonds sold to finance the war.  So, a speakers bureau created publicity and held public meetings.  As a result of their efforts, the 2^nd Liberty Loan bond sale was 200% over goal.    

Patriotic editors needed to spur the spirit of loyalty so the Kewaunee County Press, from its first publication in June, 1918 until the close of the war, featured editorials loyal to the government and anti-German.  

     

Patriotism and loyalty to the United States were critical to building the confidence of soldiers, their families, and the community.  Young men could not be sent to war confused about their loyalty.  Almost weekly, drafted men, including sons of German mothers and fathers, were leaving for the camps.  Court house corridors were crowded with anxious young men and their families, many of them trying to evade the draft or get service deferments.  To assure the safety of the public and troops, those potentially sympathetic to Germany needed to be called in to be questioned about their loyalties.      

It was important that everyone get on board to support the U.S. war effort.  Young men were encouraged to not only serve when called, but to volunteer, young women to write “Dear Soldier” letters and to do Red Cross work.  Everyone was asked to conserve food.  Splintered loyalism did not demonstrate shared sacrifice toward a common cause.          

  

It was everyone’s duty to wholeheartedly support America’s war effort.  “Pro-Germanism” could not be allowed to fester.    

Article Notes:

Food conservation restrictions during WWI per George W. Wing:   One pound of sugar could be purchased per week.  Flour could only be sold if an equal amount of substitutes like cornmeal or oat flour were purchased.  Conservation required three meatless days a week and two wheatless days. 

There were four issues of Liberty Loan bonds during WWI.  The fifth and last was called a Victory Liberty Loan.  (source:  Google.com) 

Article Sources:

Groessl, Quiren M., “Big Boy” A Diary of World War I, American soldier from Algoma, voluntarily enlisted, was the son of a German born father.  Groessl wrote that he and others were called into the Court House to be questioned about their loyalty.  He also referred to local people who were hyper patriotic as “super-patriots”.  Groessl was recruited to speak at war bond rallies after he returned home a war hero having been severely injured when captured by German soldiers in France.    

 

Wing, George W., Memoirs of George W. Wing, “The World’s War”, pgs. 41-48, Personal accounts of his life and family.  A patriotic local attorney and judge, Wing shared his sentiments about the need to quell pro-Germanism in Kewaunee County during WWI and activities he participated in toward that goal.  

Pvt. Cyril J. Tracy (seated center)

        

Evergreen Cemetery Wausaukee, WI

Our Lady of Good Help

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Bernadette saw the lady.  So did Adele.

A year after a beautiful lady in a white dress appeared to 14 year-old Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes, France, a lady--clothed in white with a yellow sash--appeared to Adele Brise in October, 1859, in the woods of Robinsonville, Wisconsin.  

  

The lady appeared to Adele three times.  The first vision came to her when she was walking to church one Sunday.  In a blinding light, the apparition appeared between a maple and a hemlock tree.  Adele was paralyzed with fear. 

She told her mother what she saw.  Her mother thought that perhaps a departed relative was asking for prayers. 

The next Sunday, fearful, Adele was accompanied by her sister and a friend.  Adele, deathly pale, screamed and fell to her knees in fright when the lady appeared to her again in the same place.  The companions saw nothing of the apparition.

Adele went to confession to the missionary of the Order of the Fathers of the Holy Cross and told him about the apparition.  He told her to ask the lady, “In the name of God, who are you and what do you wish of me?”

Once again with companions, Adele was in the woods when the lady appeared to her the third time.  Adele dropped to her knees and slowly asked the question.  Again, only Adele saw the apparition who told her, “I am the Queen of Heaven.”  The lady admonished Adele.  She told Adele to teach the children and pray for those who were falling away from religion, whose children had no knowledge of the mysteries of the faith.

 

Adele’s family had come to America from Belgium.  It is believed that Adele aspired to become a nun even before they lived in Wisconsin.  After her experience with the visions of the lady, Adele went from home to home and village to village to teach children the faith and sing hymns with them.  She taught children simple prayers and catechism in preparation for their First Communion.

Shrine at the Apparition Site

A neighbor donated land at the spot of the visions.  Adele’s father, Joseph Brise, built a 10’ X 12’ log chapel at the apparition site.  There was a second chapel built at the same location and the third is the chapel that stands at the site today. 

Chapel 

As was the case after Bernadette’s experience, originally, clergy declared Adele’s accounts of the Marian apparitions to be myths.  Adele was refused church sacraments; excommunication was threatened. 

Bernadette became a nun and ultimately a saint.  Adele became a lay preacher and a teacher.  Adele founded a secular third order community called the Sisters of Good Help and ran a school. 

School

The prominent miracle at the chapel happened on October 8, 1871 during the Peshtigo fire.  On the same day, the more widely known Chicago fire destroyed four square miles and killed 250 people.  That night, the fire at Peshtigo caused over 1,500 deaths—the most deaths by fire in U.S. history.  It raged with a fire so intense it was described as having the power of a hydrogen bomb.  It spread throughout part of Upper Michigan and northeast Wisconsin including southern Door and northern Brown and Kewaunee counties in an area the size of the state of Delaware.  Fire burned Robinsonville, the location of Adele’s chapel, and obliterated the town of Brussels.   

Eyewitness survivors said that Adele and neighbors who had fled to the chapel for protection that night carried the statue of Mary in procession around the grounds and prayed the rosary on their knees.  Houses and fences in the neighborhood burned with the exception of the school, chapel, and fence surrounding the six acres of land.  All inside the fence had been spared.

A path of about eight to 10 feet around the enclosure “now shone out like an emerald island amid a sea of ashes,” according to Fr. Peter Pernin, the missionary priest who wrote about the Peshtigo fire and the chapel at Robinsonville in his memoir, The Finger of God was There. 

Since then, others have professed miracles at the site and have left their wheelchairs, canes, leg braces, and crutches at the chapel as proof they have been cured.   

  

Grave of Adele Brise

Sister Marie Adele Joseph Brisse died July 5, 1896 at age 66 and is buried on the chapel property.  On December 8, 2010, the site where she experienced the Marian apparitions received official church recognition.  Bishop David Ricken of the Catholic Church declared the apparitions as worthy of belief making the site the only one in the United States to receive church approval.    

On August 15 each year, the bishop holds a mass at the chapel.  It attracts a very large attendance, many coming from across the country to participate and join in a procession on the grounds.     

A Walk to Mary event will be held on Saturday, May 3 with a 21 mile pilgrimage from St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Robinsonville (now Champion, WI). 

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt has invited Pope Francis to hold mass at Lambeau Field and to take a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in the fall of 2015.  Pope Francis has not confirmed a visit—yet.    Perhaps Divine Intervention is needed to make a papal visit to Green Bay happen but people are also encouraged to show their support for the mayor’s plan on his website at www.popetogreenbay.com . 

Photos are of the small shrine on the property.