The Veterinarian

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

As the old adage goes, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”  That’s because as the gift receiver of a horse, to take a look would be considered rude and ungrateful.  But, if one is buying a horse, that’s a different matter.  Then, a good look inside that horse’s mouth should be requested by the buyer to avoid fraud when purchasing the animal.  Dr. James W. Tooley, veterinary surgeon and dentist, could take one look in its mouth and know the horse’s age and health. 

Back in the day when your livestock were your work horses, transportation, and/or next meals, the veterinarian was an essential member of the community and an invaluable partner.  Horses and cattle had a huge economic impact on families and companies.  Keeping animals healthy was critical to the livelihood of farmers and businesses.  A well-trained veterinarian was needed to protect these valuable assets.      

James William Ephraim Tooley was born in England and immigrated to Toronto, Canada.  He graduated from the Ontario Veterinary College of Guelph, near Toronto, in 1896 earning his Veterinary Surgeon and Dentist degree with a specialty in dentistry.  In February, 1902, he arrived in the United States via the Wabash Railroad at Detroit, Michigan.  He made his home in Algoma and built a large veterinary practice.  The following year he was appointed assistant state veterinarian of Wisconsin.    

To be a veterinarian is to be able to talk to the animals without words.  When the patient can’t say where it hurts, the vet needs to be very knowledgeable about possible medical problems.  For instance, poor performance or behavioral issues with a horse could mean an abscessed, loose or cracked tooth or a problem with bite making it hard for a horse to take a bit or to work.  For grazing animals, good dentition and overall health is essential to survival.        

As a vet, J. W. Tooley served businesses as well as farmers.  He was always “on call”.  His newspaper ad read:  “All calls, by day or night, answered from office.  Telephone No. 26, Algoma, Wis.”  In addition to his countywide travels, Dr. Tooley would be called to Sturgeon Bay to care for the horses of the Reynolds Preserving Company.  For example, on one trip, seven animals were sick and he had to inspect all 125 horses to get them in shape for the season’s work.  The next week he went again to look over the horses belonging to the Door County Canning Company and to get them ready to commence work.  It was a big job. 

It was such a big job it often required Dr. Tooley to take on a partner in his practice to assist him.  He moved to Casco to be centrally located to more easily make his rounds.  He had his customers to care for and his other business interest as well.  J. W. Tooley was the owner of a fine French coach stud stallion, “Bell Boy”, too.

In November, 1905, Dr. Tooley put W. E. Hunter from New York in charge of his office in Algoma and another man in Luxemburg and assured the farmers living in the county that they had no fear that they would be left without a veterinarian to care for their needs.  He was relocating to Fond du Lac.  He still visited the county at intervals each month until Hunter fully took over the practice in June of 1906.

Thereafter, as assistant state veterinarian, Dr. Tooley was in a position to educate local farmers.  When a Two Rivers farmer’s herd was sick, he came to the farm with State Veterinarian Eliason to oversee the slaughter and to provide a demonstration and talk about tuberculosis and its effects on livestock.  More than a thousand farmers from Manitowoc and Kewaunee counties were present.  In his capacity and in partnership with the farmers, he was able to have a decided impact on the future of stock in the county and state.  

 

 

 

 

             

The Belle of the Ball Baked a Fabulous Algoma Fig Cake

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

She didn’t have to win a blue ribbon at a county fair for everyone to know that Fannie baked the best Fig Cake in Algoma, perhaps the best in all of Kewaunee County.  If served to the ladies at any social event, news of her delicious dessert would likely have spread around town faster than wildfire and be noted in the local newspaper the next day.

Frances “Fannie” McDonald Phillips Tooley was the “belle of the ball” of the Algoma social scene.  She was born in 1874 in Ahnapee and grew up in the town where, in the “gay nineties”, there were numerous parties and events planned for young women of that era.  When there was a Veterans Day party, Fannie was part of the revue planned to show what fashionable young ladies were wearing.  On the Fourth of July, she was featured in the parade in a patriotic costume.  If it were her birthday, or anyone else’s, the newspaper would report that she was in attendance along with news of the fine quality of the refreshments that were served.    

In August, 1895, the local paper reported, “A very pleasant surprise party was tendered Miss Fannie McDonald last Tuesday, in honor of her 21^st birthday.  Quite a number of young lady friends of Miss McDonald assembled… and enjoyed a tea party which was the first event in the surprise.  In the evening the ladies were joined by a party of young gentlemen, and an adjournment was taken… to Guild Hall, where the evening was pleasantly passed in dancing and other amusements…”     

Girls of Algoma
Frances is the second on the left in the front, seated row

And, “A large number of the friends of… Fannie McDonald…were entertained at cards on Tuesday evening by the ladies… Between 65 and 70 were present and the evening was spent in card playing.  Cinch was the game and among the ladies Mesdames Emil Danek and J.H. McGowen were tied for first prize, the former winning…  Delicious refreshments were served…,” the Record newspaper announced in another of the many, many notices of the comings and goings, doings and bakings of Fannie McDonald.

Frances was a mediocre cook but she loved to bake.  Relatives fondly remember the smell of her gingerbread cookies (made child size for kids) and her pies.  Her caramel cake frosting is legendary.  Literally.  It remains a topic of conversation among her descendants yet today.  Unfortunately, although the ingredients are known (three cups brown sugar, one cup water, one tablespoon butter, one teaspoon vanilla, and enough cream to thin) no one has been able to successfully replicate it.  Boiling, syrup forming a soft ball in cold water, beating until creamy, and thinning to exactly the correct consistency are involved.  No one today can get it just right!        

But, recipes and ingredients were different back then.  Take her Algoma Fig Cake recipe, for example.          

Algoma Fig Cake

One cup butter, two cups sugar, three and one-half cups flour, one-half cup sweet milk, whites of seven eggs, two tea-spoonsful baking powder.  Bake in jelly tins.  Put one pound of figs chopped fine in a sauce pan on the stove and pour over it a tea cupful of cold water and one-half cup sugar.  Cook until soft and smooth then spread between layers and cover with chocolate frosting. 

If one tries to recreate a cake from an heirloom recipe, it won’t be the same.  The basic ingredients have changed dramatically over time.  Sugar and flour are more refined today.  Now, milk is pasteurized and homogenized.  Butter isn’t the same either.  Eggs don’t taste the way they used to because hens are fed differently than they were back then.  And, how much is in a tea cupful?  Is it measured in a delicate, scant ¾ cup sized teacup or something closer to the big tea cup in our cupboards?  Is a “jelly tin” a jelly roll pan or something else? 

How long does one bake this cake?  At what temperature?  Obviously, Frances didn’t need to write those details.  To bake a cake she needed a “moderate oven” (350-400 degrees), not a “slow oven” (250-300 degrees), not too hot.  Without a reliable means of checking the temperature in her oven, she might have used her bare hand to test the heat.  Some bakers stuck their hand in the oven and counted to 20.  If they could stand it for a count of 20, the temperature was hot enough to bake a cake, perhaps 350 degrees.  She might have tried a less painful method to test the heat by placing a little flour in the bottom of the pan and putting it in the oven.  If after one minute the flour turned brown, the temperature was probably just right. 

Yes, one could try to recreate Fannie’s Fig Cake but could never get the same delicious results.  She baked fun into her dessert and how much to stir in isn’t written in the recipe. 

The Modoc Base Ball Club

Monday, March 10, 2014

In 1874, the Boston Red Stockings won their third consecutive pennant with a victory over the Philadelphia Athletics to lead the National Association Base Ball standings.  That year, the Modoc Base Ball Club played America’s pastime in Ahnapee.

At that time, baseball was organized by local amateur clubs, directed by a board of managers.  Baseball in Ahnapee was organized by the Modoc Club which ran for seven years.  In 1874, the club’s president was George W. Wing; vice-president was W. Swaty; secretary was M. T. Parker; and the treasurer was F. McDonald.  Board of Managers:  William Henry, C. Bacon, and S. Warner.

The choice of “Modoc” for their club name might be explained with a back story.  A few years earlier, in 1872-1873, the Modoc War--one of the costliest Indian wars in U.S. history--was fought in California by some of the bravest, fiercest Indian warriors.  The Modocs were nomadic hunters and gatherers from a band in Oregon and California.  When white settlers arrived in the area, the U.S. military tried to force the Modocs to return to a reservation, to a lifestyle that clearly didn’t fit who these Native American people were.  During a six-month war, 50 Modoc men fought off over 1,000 U.S. military troops.  Vastly outnumbered, the Modocs won several battles during the months of struggle.  Ahnapee’s Modoc Base Ball Club President George W. Wing was known to be fascinated by Indian lore.  Perhaps the Modoc Club’s name honored those brave Indian warriors. 

Fans of baseball today would easily recognize the game of 1874.  Since 1845 and the formation of what is believed to have been the first baseball club in America, the New York Knickerbockers, the game was played by the Knickerbocker’s “20 Original Rules of Baseball”.  Regulations of the game were available to the public in Henry Chadwick’s book, Beadles’ Dime Base-Ball Player.   

The club set “The Nine” players.  The First Nine for the Modoc Club were:  M. T. Parker (captain), Irving Elliott, F. McDonald, W. Swaty, Mike Mullen, S. Warner, G. W. Wing, A. C. Eveland, and E. Hutchinson.  The Second Nine were:  H. Overbeck (captain), William Henry, C. Bacon, Michael McDonald, L. Fowles, George Warner, C. W. Borgman, T. Richmond, and H. Van Doozer.

First, and foremost it helped if the teams showed up to play the game.  So, number one of the Knickerbocker Rules was:  “Members must strictly observe the time agreed upon for exercise, and be punctual in their attendance.”  That didn’t guarantee they would play the whole game.  If one team led by too many runs early in the game, records show their opponent team might quit well before the 9^th inning.      

According to rule protocol, the club president would appoint an umpire who kept the stats in a book of tally sheets.  The umpire also noted all violations of the rules and by-laws.  It is unknown if the Modoc Club was subject to a swearing penalty (payable immediately) which some umpires were known to strictly enforce.    

All players “must take their strike in regular turn.”  Three strikes to a batter, three outs to an inning, tags and force-outs but, per rule 13: “A player running the bases shall be out if the ball is in the hands of an adversary on the base, or the runner is touched with it before he makes base; it being understood, however, that in no instance is a ball to be thrown at him.”  There was a fair and foul territory.  No baulk pitches were allowed; no advancing on a foul ball either. 

Equipment was primitive.  Generally, a round bat (made of hickory, ash, or maple) was 30-40 inches long and weighed about 48 ounces, tapered to between 1 ½ to three inches at one end.  A ball would have been the same size played today, made of natural rubber, wrapped with yarn, and covered with a single sewn piece of leather.  A glove--if worn by any player--might be worn by the catcher.  It would be a leather work glove, with or without fingers covered.  The first catcher’s mask was a modified fencing mask invented in 1875, so not likely worn at the Ahnapee club’s games that year. 

On Independence Day, July 4, 1874, at 9:00 a.m. sharp, the Modocs took on the Pioneers.  The line-up that day for the Modocs was: Elliott, Henry, Osborne, Eveland, McDonald, Fowles, Overbeck, Mullen, and Bacon. The first innings were close and promised an exciting game.  Wild throws were made by both teams but the Modocs were superior at bat.  While Albert G. Spalding pitched to catcher James “Deacon” White for the Boston Red Stockings, William Henry threw to Irving Elliott for the Ahnapee Modocs.  The Modocs scored 15 runs in the 7^th and ended the game with 30 runs in the 9^th to beat the Pioneers 81 to 20.  The Pioneers declined a doubleheader that day.   

Modoc Team catcher Irving Elliott playing baseball with his family at age 95!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone in McDonaldville is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day

Thursday, March 6, 2014

There were so many Irishmen named McDonald in early Algoma that one local newspaper editor, Frank Elliott, asked why the town wasn’t renamed “McDonaldville”.

After all, Algoma has never had a problem with changing its name.  In 1859, it was called Wolf River.  Then it became Ahnepee.  In 1873, the spelling was slightly changed to Ahnapee.  Lastly, in 1897, the name was changed to Algoma.  At one time, “McDonaldville” would have been a very fitting name for the town.  There were several branches of the McDonald clans in Algoma. 

On Fremont Street lived Mr. and Mrs. J. R. McDonald.  He was a lawyer, a justice of the peace, and served in several other town offices.  They had three sons:  James; George; and Frank; and a daughter, Nellie.

Across the street lived Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel McDonald.  Nathaniel was a woodsman.  They had three sons too:  Eugene, Walter, and Robert. 

Nathaniel McDonald’s brother, Charles, who was a veterinarian, lived just two blocks east.  That McDonald family also had three sons:  George; Edward; and David; and one daughter, Ida.

A few doors down the street from Charles lived the Michael McDonald family.  Michael was an attorney, businessman, and Civil War veteran.  He and his wife, Ella Louise Elliott McDonald, had (you guessed it, didn’t you?) three sons:  George Irving “G.I.”, Herbert, and Rutherford.  And, one daughter, Frances. 

Michael McDonald’s widowed mother Jane also lived in Algoma.  She operated a hotel and tavern on First Street just south of Steele Street.  She was an early settler who came to Wolf River with three sons:  Michael; John; and Andrew; and one of her daughters, Mollie.

Captain William Henry McDonald and his wife lived at the corner of Fifth and Fremont.  (William was a brother of Nathaniel, the woodsman, and Charles, the veterinarian.)  Captain William’s family owned the Ahnapee House which was later renamed Hotel Stebbins.  Their three sons were Alvin, William Jr., and Thomas.  They had three daughters: Theresa, Millie, and Eva Belle.

John McDonald (the brother of Michael, son of Jane), and his wife, Mary, owned the Opera House in Algoma.  The building was used for roller skating too.  John was a fisherman and held several other careers after losing an arm in the Civil War.  His family was large with at least nine children including: Mary Jane, J. Francis, Andrew, Elizabeth, Charles, Ellen, John Jr., Bessie, and Henry.

It seems fitting that Algoma receive one more honorary renaming--to “McDonaldville”—if only for St. Patrick’s Day.     

Welcome to MCDONALDVILLE

A Hot Craze for Cold Days

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

It was too cold to go out.  There was nothing to do.  Some form of amusement was sorely needed as the city was almost entirely destitute of leisure entertainment.  What did the people of Ahnapee want to do?  Roller skate!

No skating rink?  No problem.  John McDonald would build one.  It was March, 1885.  Building could commence--just as soon as the frost was out of the ground.

Roller skating was a hot craze, sweeping the nation.  A medical journal described the interest to be spreading like influenza.  It said:  “.…the vibrating brain-cells of the enthusiastic roller-skater communicate their rhythmical pulsations to the previously insensitive spectator. Whatever the mechanism, there is certainly at present a morbidly exaggerated passion for, and indulgence in, roller-skating.”

Roller skates were first patented in 1760.  With improvements made around 1863, four-wheeled skates had springy carriages which allowed the skater to turn by leaning in the desired direction.   

John McDonald decided his roller skating hall would be 50’ by 115’ on a stone foundation.  Anton Leiberg was awarded the contract for the Third Street building.  Expected cost was in the neighborhood of $3,000 (estimated to be about $74,000 in today’s dollars).

The entrance end featured a ticket office, hat and cloak room, and a sitting room.  The gallery accommodated from 150 to 200 spectators.  On either side of the ground floor there were seats provided for onlookers and skaters in need of a rest.  A break in the railings on one side allowed skaters to leave the floor.  The rink was large enough to hold 80 sets of dancers at one time so there would be room for everybody.  A band stand sat in the middle of the skating floor.  Opposite the entrance was an exit—in case of a stampede.  The maple wood skating floor was 44’ by 100’, with corners laid to allow skaters to follow the grain of the wood making skating much easier than it otherwise would be, according to an Ahnapee Record news article.

Building progressed nicely except for a temporary concern.  It was feared that siding ordered from a Manistee, Michigan company might not arrive on time.  It did; the building was completed on time.    

McDonald hired a brass band from Sturgeon Bay.  He extended a cordial invitation to the public.  Everyone was welcome! On opening day, July 3, 1885, a flag—a gift of appreciation from Ahnapee citizens--was raised on a staff on the building.   

Opening night attracted a large crowd.  About 100 skaters took to the floor.  There was just one problem.  The band hired to furnish the music for the event that evening was unprepared to play anything but round dances.  They needed free-style dance music.  So, McDonald quickly found ex-Mayor Perry and Mr. C.G. Boalt.  They rescued the night by taking to the band stand, providing excellent music until the party broke up at midnight.    

After the grand opening, the hall was open daily for roller skating.  In the morning from 9 to 11 a.m. and afternoons from 1 to 6 p.m., admission was free; skates were 15 cents.  Ladies enjoyed free nights, except Wednesday and Saturday which were band nights.  On band nights, admission was 25 cents for guys; 15 cents for ladies.  Children skated free on Saturday afternoons and paid 10 cents for skates.   Prices were adjusted as needed.        

Deemed to be one of the finest and largest skating rinks in Northeastern Wisconsin--if not the state—the rink was a success.   Like all good proprietors, McDonald needed to keep the experience fresh and new.  He bought a polo set.  Polo was a new name for what was previously called “shinny” (a game like street hockey).  Customers may have felt shinny was a more fitting name as the game frequently resulted in skinned shins.  In addition to regular open skating, grand masquerades and skating carnivals were planned for important celebrations like Washington’s birthday in February.

When the city council levied a license fee of one hundred dollars on the hall, John McDonald considered the amount exorbitant.  He immediately closed the skating rink doors when his first license expired.  This created a state of, as then President Grover Cleveland would describe, “innocuous desuetude”—complete inactivity.  The Record newspaper opined that, instead, “the council should tender him (John McDonald) a vote of thanks” for bringing some means of amusement to the city.  The common council met and voted unanimously to reduce the fee to twenty-five dollars.  Mr. McDonald renewed the license and made plans for a grand reopening. 

The city once again had a roller skating rink to entertain the rabid roller skaters of Ahnapee.

Ahnepee Dramatic Troupe

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Long before The Lion King, Wicked, and Miss Saigon came to Northeast Wisconsin stages, the Ahnepee Dramatic Troupe brought way off Broadway theatrical performances to Algoma and Kewaunee.

In 1870, a group of local young people formed a dramatic club to perform at the Ahnepee Opera House on the corner of Washington Avenue and Madison Street.  In Kewaunee, they performed at the Bohemian Hall, the meeting place where local Czechs held athletic competitions and dramatic plays.    

Farce and Comedy were the favored genres of the Ahnepee Dramatic Troupe.  In fact, the more buffoonery, the more improbable the plot could be, and the more exaggerated the characters were, the better.

On the programme for their first show were The Secret or Hole in the Wall,  That Wonderful Baby, and A Barber Shop in an Uproar.  According to a local newspaper, the dramatic club association performed “in a manner that reflects credit upon the industry as well as the good taste and ingenuity of its members”.

One of their most highly touted performances was a play called The Toodles.    Written in 1848, the story is about Timothy Toodle, a lovable, easy-going guy with a wacky wife.  She has a penchant for buying useless junk.  Shopping at auctions, she purchases foolish things for which she believes she will find a use.  For instance, she buys a doorplate with the name Thompson on it.  She says if they ever have a daughter who marries a man named Thompson who spells his name with a ‘p’, the doorplate will come in handy.  Her husband, Timothy Toodle, wants to end the wasteful spending so he attends an auction and brings home a coffin, in case his wife dies before him.   

December 28, 1870 newspaper ad for Ahnepee Dramatic Troupe

Theatre goers were told to “Look Out For Fun” in one newspaper advertisement for these shows.  Doors opened at 6:30 p.m. at the hall.  For the admission of 25 to 50 cents, (children half price) they could expect to see a programme such as this:  First, The Toodles after which the entire company would appear in The Maypole Dance, concluding with Funny Thomas.  The ads promised “Dancing after performance, as usual”.   After one holiday show, a Christmas gift was presented to each child under age 12 and a prize was awarded to the Handsomest Lady (Mrs. C. L. Fellows) and the Homeliest Man (Mark McCormick).  Sometimes the show included sleight of hand magic tricks.


Often the troupe manager, Andy McDonald, would appear as one of his favorite characters in an Irish comedy called Barney, the Baron.  First performed in New York in 1850 under the title Fortune’s Whims, in this play, Barney O’Toole, a poor Irish tinker--an itinerant traveler who roams Ireland--becomes a baron when he wins a German castle in a lottery.

The Troupe’s success surpassed their wildest expectations.  The hall was often crowded and it was reported that roars of laughter were conclusive evidence that their “equals had never before been seen…” in the area.    

There was a dark, not-so-funny side to their comic theatre.  Among the plays performed was what they described as an irresistible Ethiopian and Egyptian farce called The Virginia Mummy.   This play, written in 1835, remained popular into the second half of the century and came late to Ahnepee theatre in 1870, after the Civil War.  In the play, a scientist named Dr. Galen bans Captain Rifle, a soldier, from courting Galen’s young ward, Lucy.  When Rifle sees a newspaper ad that Galen has posted for a mummy, the soldier hires a black hotel waiter named Ginger Blue to be dressed as a mummy decoy.  Rifle pretends to be the mummy’s Egyptian owner so they can get into Dr. Galen's house so Rifle can court Lucy, the ward.  While Rifle and Lucy are offstage together, Ginger Blue is center stage with his masks and disguises.  He is left to rely on his wiles to figure a way out, jumping in and out of a box throughout the play.  By making the mummy a white man in blackface who is left to finagle his way out of the situation, the author created a farcical, under the thumb Jim Crow character.  This wasn’t the only such play the Troupe performed.   Especially degrading to black women, Oh! Hush!, written in 1833, featured the blackface wench.  Male actors played black women in drag.      

Essentially, many of these plays were comments on social hierarchy presented wryly as comedy.  Perhaps after all this time, some things haven’t truly changed in theater.     

The Wings of The OWL

Wednesday, February 12, 2014



George W. Wing was the “father” of the Kewaunee County Historical Society. He wrote stories endlessly and documented all aspects of life from the earliest pioneer days of Wolf River (Ahnepee, Ahnapee, later Algoma) and Kewaunee, Wisconsin.  From “how Ahnepee got its name” to politics to the Indian lore of the Winnebagoes, G. W. Wing wrote about it. His stories also included those of his own family’s history in a newsletter he called The OWL (Our Wing Lineage).




George W. Wing (standing) and his mother Mary Elliott Wing with his son, George D. Wing
Seated is George W. Elliott (Mary's father)

 G. W. Wing was the son of a prominent Kewaunee attorney, Rufus Wing, and Mary (Elliott) Wing. Rufus and Mary Wing came to Wolf River in 1858 from Chilton, Wisconsin.

Having had experience at age 16 starting the Ahnapee Record newspaper with Charles W. Borgman in 1873, G. W. Wing set up a small printing press in the upper story of his Kewaunee home for his 12 year-old son, George Dikeman Wing.  They called the room The Owlery. There, George W. (who was affectionately called Col. Wing based on his role as division colonel in the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War) and his son wrote The OWL as a family newsletter. “We ‘hoot’ monthly for fifty cents a year” advertised young editor George D. Wing in Vol. 1, No. 1., September, 1899.

“The OWL, Vol 1. October , 1899  No. 2

…published and edited by George Dikeman Wing, Kewaunee, Wisconsin.  The publisher is a boy 12 years of age…He has a small press and a stock of type in his playroom in his father’s residence, and is compositor and editor and publisher of The OWL, which is notably well written and presents a creditable typographical appearance.  In this connection, we might as well confess that ‘the Colonel’ comes in occasionally and sweeps out the office and wipes the dust off the press, just to keep his hand in.”

Initially G. W. and George D. interviewed all of their local relatives for the paper. Their articles shared tales of overland journeys from New York to the wilds of Wisconsin territory; firsthand accounts of Civil War experiences and Revolutionary War diaries; photos and drawings; and, of course, the begets and begots of each collateral family back to the arrivals of their ancestors to the colonies.

The paper included newsy updates about new births and who visited whom sent in by family members.  These tidbits were chronicled in columns called “Kith and Kin” and “Winglets”. “Our Household Department” featured favorite recipes submitted by the ladies of Algoma and Kewaunee. The newsletter caught on. It really caught on.

Soon this newsletter was being subscribed to by the likes of the New York Public Library. Within a year, The OWL was publishing extensive ancestor pedigrees mailed in from Wing relatives living far and wide and others researched by G.W. and George D.  By October, 1900, The OWL was hooting monthly for a dollar a year.

Given the extent to which this project must have occupied the time of young student George D., his father took on more and more of the work of family correspondence. There was an ever-growing interest by Wing relatives and much research to be done.

Then G.W. Wing visited the homestead of the earliest Wing ancestors in Sandwich, Massachusetts. There he met distant Wing cousins and saw the original home of the family founders in America. The idea for a family reunion and creation of a Wing Family Association (WFA) was proposed in The OWL in 1901.

A reunion was held and papers of incorporation for the Wing Family of America were filed.  The founder of the WFA, its first president, was George W. Wing.  By March, 1902, The OWL had become “A Genealogical Quarterly Magazine” and a real deal at a dollar a year or 25 cents for a single issue, still published by George D. Wing in Kewaunee.  The OWL continued to be published quarterly through June 1934. Eventually its publication was moved to Massachusetts. It became an annual issue in 1936 and, except for a few instances, has been printed yearly as The OWL to this day. The reunions are still held, nearly every year.  The home of The OWL stands in Kewaunee today.

George W. Wing, who was an attorney by age 21 and County Judge by 1885, died April 12, 1924 in Kewaunee. The OWL didn’t let the story of G. W. Wing’s impact go unrecognized. Many articles honored the man who started it all with his idea for a family newsletter.   

What would George W. Wing say (or write) if he could have known that what he began as a little writing project for his son would result in creation of one of the oldest family history associations in America?  The WFA will celebrate its 112th anniversary this year and The OWL newsletters have become one of the family’s most treasured heirlooms.

For more information about the WFA organization and the impact of George W. Wing, see Wing Family of America.

Shirley VerBruggen blogs about family history.  This article was written for her "Remember When" column in the Kewaunee County Times newspaper.    

A Long-lived Love Story

Friday, February 7, 2014

Few couples are married for 67 years.  Fewer still can survive war and the harsh realities of pioneer life for all those years.  For one special Kewaunee County couple, Irving and Sarah Hall Elliott, this marriage milestone seems to have been destiny.

At the age of three, Sarah Hall came to Wisconsin from New York.  The family arrived at Wolf River on the schooner “Erie” at sundown on April 22, 1855.  The area was still very wild at that time and her father set out to build the little town, along with his brother Abe Hall, who had started a saw mill.  The Hall family also had a store, a boarding house, and a blacksmith shop.

 

Irving Elliott and his father, brothers, and sisters arrived in Kewaunee County soon after the Halls.  Following a stint as a printer’s devil, (a newspaper apprentice) at the Kewaunee Enterprise office, and after working at the Appleton Crescent, at 15 years old, Irving enlisted in August, 1862, and entered the 32^nd Wisconsin Infantry for the Civil War.  He was the youngest boy in the company ranks.

 

Meanwhile, Sarah taught school in Ahnapee and worked for the family at the Hall’s store and mill.

 

Away at battle, Irving was planning ahead for his future life.  He wrote to his father, George W. Elliott, from Memphis, Tennessee in May of 1863.  “Father,…I want you to let me know what I can get a good village lot for as I want one, and you pick it out and take my allotment money and pay for it so that if I get home, I shall have a little to show for my labors, and when I pay for these I shall want to get lumber.  I can make preparations for building a home…”  After his discharge in June of 1865, Irving returned to Ahnapee, so thin and gaunt that he was barely recognizable.

When recovered, he set out to make a life and start a family.  Irving was among the first members of the local masonic lodge.  He was a catcher on the town’s first baseball team.  When he found his bride-to-be, Sarah Hall was 19;  Irving was 24.  Irving did what had to be done to make her his wife.  As the story goes, the wedding didn’t happen until, as Irving later recalled, “in the dead of winter, with about four feet of snow on the ground,” he was forced to make his way to Carlton town to get the minister to perform the ceremony.  On February 4, 1871, Irving and Sarah were married at her father’s house, which later became the Algoma hospital.  Just nine months later, they would be lucky to survive when most the area north of the woods of Ahnapee burned in the Peshtigo fire and heavy smoke blanketed the area.

Irving’s family built the house that he had planned for.  It is a large two story white house on 2^nd  Street  in Algoma that is still standing today.

A printer all his life, Irving published the Algoma Record newspaper from 1908 to 1918.  This was the period in which the first linotype was installed in the newspaper office.  The technology revolutionized local newspaper publishing at the time.

Sarah, with Irving at her side, raised their children:  Nellie, Ella Isabel, Mae, De Wayne (died in infancy), and Frank.

Each year, Irving appeared at the Memorial Day program in Algoma dressed in costume for “The World’s All Right” Legion play, holding an age-tattered flag.  He and Sarah had an active social life with their children, extended family, and many friends. 

They both lived to an advanced age.  With a bowed back and failing hearing, Irving still enjoyed life, especially strong tobacco.  Having shared a long and fruitful married life, Sarah preceded him in death.  She died in 1938 at age 86; Irving died three years later, in December, 1941.  He was 95 years old and the oldest Civil War vet of Kewaunee County at the time of his death. 

The picture of the couple appeared in the February 5, 1937 issue of the Algoma Record Herald newspaper in an article celebrating Irving and Sarah’s 66^th wedding anniversary.    

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”.    

       

A Pioneer Businesswoman

I rewrote this article about my ancestor's sister, Mollie McDonald, for "The County Times", the newspaper of Kewaunee County. 

If I had lived in the mid-1800's, I would have wanted to be like Mollie.   

Mary Jane, "Mollie", was born about 1840.  Early in 1856, she came with her mother Jane, sister Lizzie, and brothers, John and Michael (my great-great grandfather), to Ahnapee, now Algoma.

Her mother, who kept a strict boarding house in town, might have been a mentor for Molly.  Mollie became a successful pioneer businesswoman.

When the Northwestern Telegraph Company extended its line from Two Rivers to Sturgeon Bay beginning in late August, 1872, and the line was installed just before Christmas, Mollie McDonald became the first telegraph operator at Ahnapee.  In the telegraph office, Mollie opened a news depot.  She sold periodicals, books, stationery and confections.  From the office, she also ran a circulating library and agency for Singer and Remington sewing machines.

The Kewaunee Enterprise newspaper reported on May 20, 1873:
 

"One of the neatest and best arranged little business places we have visited in a long time is the circulating library and news depot of Miss Mollie McDonald, telegraph operator at Ahnapee.  Miss McDonald has an excellent selection of books and periodicals, and her establishment should be well patronized."

The Ahnapee Record newspaper ran this ad continually for Mollie's news depot from June, 1873 into July, 1874:

 

“MISS MOLLIE McDONALD NEWS DEPOT.  KEEPS A CONSTANT supply of all the leading periodicals of the day.  Also Stationary and Confections.  Agency for the Singer Sewing Machine.  South Water street, Ahnapee, Wis.”

Based on numerous articles in the newspapers, Molly had a very good reputation in the community.  When election returns were due in November, 1873, one paper reported:

"Ahnapee was the first town on the Northwestern telegraph line to report election returns to Milwaukee.  We are endebted to the telegraph operator, Miss Mollie McDonald, for late election returns."

The community was encouraged to shop at her establishment.  In January, 1874, an article read:

"Miss Mollie McDonald has recently added quite a number of new books to her circulating library.  This institution should be well patronized."

And, another reported:

"The News Depot of Miss McDonald, at the telegraph office, is a great convenience to our community, and deserves liberal patronage.  The circulating library contains many volumes of standard authors, besides miscellaneous works upon science, theology and law, and interesting novels."

In May, 1875, the telegraph company promoted Mollie.  She assumed charge of the telegraph office in Manitowoc on May 26, 1875.  Her brother Michael took over the Ahnapee telegraph office.  Upon the announcement, the Ahnapee Record newspaper reported:

"...While the departure of this estimable lady from our midst will be regretted by all, it is a gratification to know that her talents as an operator are appreciated..."

Sadly, in August of 1876, Mollie became very ill.  She had to give up her telegraph job.  Her sister, Mrs. William (Elizabeth "Lizzie") Nelson, went to Manitowoc to care for her.  Ultimately, Mollie moved to Chicago where her other sisters, Mrs. Kingsley (Catherine "Katie") Olmstead and Mrs. John (Margaret "Maggie") Kley, and brother Andrew lived.  Mollie died in Chicago on September 23, 1876 of consumption (tuberculosis).

The announcement, although not unexpected, was a blow to her relatives and friends.  The death notice described her as "an estimable lady, possessed of rare mental powers, an untiring energy, which disease and sickness could scarcely diminish, and a grace of disposition that gained and held for her many firm friends.  Among those who best knew her, and whose hands during her last hours, supplied the tender ministrations prompted by love, her loss will be the most keenly felt, while by all who enjoyed her acquaintance the tidings of her death will be received with profound sorrow and regret." 

For a woman of her time, Mollie had made a significant impact in her community.  At her death, she was only 36 years old.

Shirley VerBruggen is a descendant of a Wisconsin State Genealogical Society Pioneer Family.  Her ancestors made Kewaunee County their home.  She enjoys family history research and blogs about genealogy at http://shirley-familytimes.blogspot.com.