MEMORIES of the DOOR PENINSULA Was Crejted by the Students in Lois Koehn 'S and ~ Mary Wanke 'S Sixth Gr Lde L1n~Ua9e ~ Rt S Cl~Sses at Thomas J

Memories Of the

Zc ~ · Door Peninsula

Memories Of the

Door Peninsula

MEMORIES OF THE DOOR PENINSULA was creJted by the students in Lois Koehn 's and ~ Mary Wanke 's sixth gr lde l1n~ua9e ~ rt s cl~sses at Thomas J . Walker Middle School. The students interviewed longtime residents of Door County, t r anscribed the in terviews and edited the transcripts until they arrived at the articles within. Our special th anks to the people \'/ hO spoke of their lives, and to the students \'/ho were there to hear them. This project was funded with a grant from the Door Coun ty Historical Society.

FRONT COVER "Memories Of the Door Peninsul a" is b~· lac Cote , a sophomore at Sturseon Bay Hi 9h School . He is n 1986 recipient of a summer art scho larshi p to Silver Lake Col lege for his pencil sketch of Odin, a Viking qod . TABLE OF CONTENTS

Joe Allie ...... 1 Lee Birmingham ...... 4 Catherine Boyd ...... 8 Con Conjurske ...... 11 Gebora DeBroux ...... 14 Fred Erskine ...... 18 Genevieve Gerlach ...... 21 Evelyn Grassel ...... 23 Jane Greene ...... 26 Stanley Greene ...... 29 John Groenfeldt ...... 40 Stanley Jacobson ...... 44 Marie Kalms ...... 47 Esther Knudsen ...... 52 Floyd and Helen Knuth ...... 56 Clara Kreft ...... 62 Mr . and Mrs. Milton Lenius Sr ...... 65 Gerhard Miller ...... 69 Iva Moore ...... 75 John E. Nelson ...... 81 Varian 01 sen...... 85 George Oram ...... 90 Fred J . Pete rs on ...... 94 John Peterson ...... 96 John Purves ...... 98 Hannah PreuLer ...... 104 Fritz Reynolds ...... 109 Grace Samuelson ...... 112 Hoyt Vrooman ...... 118 Nick Wagner ...... 121 Al Wanke ...... 124 Georgianna Walters ...... 128 Ted Wester ...... 130 ,... Laura Wiegand ...... 133 13[1lJ Nil rnr SCENES ...

f.·

' \ . \ I j' • Grace Samuelson and Evelyn Grassel told of their school days and experiences as youn g girls so thilt Thomas J. Wfflker Middle School sixth graders would know what to expect when they began interviewing senior citizens for an oral history proj ect. Also pictured are Cheryl Heikkila, Lori Brauer, Bambi Quam and Kim Car l ey .

Tim Barr nnd Molly Simon 1i sten as Advocd te reporter 'ind "old timer" Cheri Harris role pl;1ys n senior citizen -. llere students are admiring character dolls Cheri rlayed ...,itil as i1 youngster. The robe, rocker and gray hair were also "props". Behi nd the scenes co nt'd:

f-< - ~ ,-: • • , "I :· .,~,. _,,~· -~~.. ;. ·~~~·~- ... .~:.: .. ~ ,,,,.._, Fred Erskine and George Oram recall early ba5eudll days in Door County during proofreading party. Al so pi ctured are Scott Richard, Richard Kyllonen, Keven Berns, David Soleck i and Jeff Teich .

•· WtAJ>E CO,\IPl.E'l'ES,, OHAL JUSTOHY '" • • fft •PH o.JJiX:T ~v:~

John Groenfeldt, Doo r County Historical Soc iety presiclent, and Grace Samuelson prepare for a historical exhibit. ~mP.l~B~m~mn -

1 Tr·11cy Schu111,1cher, Paul a Gunn 1augsson and Kathy Verl1, Sturgeon Bay High School business educa tion rlcp.-1rl111cnt., print f inal intervievis . - THE PAST DAYS OF COMMERCIAL FISHING By Jenny Berumen Jodi 'l'orstenson Andy Di tewig

Joe Allie was a commerci~l fisherman for most of his life . He, his father, and his grandfather went out f r om approximately five- thirty in Lhe morning to twelve noon every day. They - fished mainly on Lake Michigan and Lhe Green Bay waters.

In the early forlies the Allie Brothers bui lt a fish and cheese markel on the Wesl Side of SL11rgeon Bay . TL was located

on Madison Avenue on I.op of th•:! hi I l, where the Sa\.,ryer Cafe is now .

Joe nm-1 lives aL 226 S. 15Lh ,\vc>nu~ with his wife, Caryl. - JENNY: When did you start and stop commercial fishing? JOE: After I graduated from high school in 1933, my two brothers and I joined my father in commercial fishing. We were forced to stop commercial fishing in 1965 when the DNR closed the lake from Kewaunee to Baileys Harbor. JENNY: Did you run into any trouble with storms? JOE: Yes, we did . The storms from the northeast were so bad at times that it would stir up the bottom of the lake and break the nets. When we pulled them up, instead of getting fish, we got a bunch of sticks and dirt, and sometimes clinkers from steamboats. ANDY: Where did you catch the fish?

JOE: Well, we mai~ly caught our fish in Lake Michigan and in the Green Bay waters. JODI: How deep was the water where you caught the fish? JOE: I caught the trout in 90 feet of water and I caught the chubs in 420 feet of water , 10 miles out in L~ke Michigan . ANDY: Where did you work after they closed commercial fishing? JOE : I worked at Peterson Builders as a shipbuilder. JENNY : After the fish were cleaned, what did you put them in? JOE : We put them in boxes, 100 pounds to a box. We had 1,200 foot long nets. We would lift 12 boxes a day. CARYL : Did you tell them about the fish you shipped by plane? JOE : We took a plane to St. Louis, Chicago, and New York once a week to Kroger's Food Store. We brought 1,800 to 2,000 pounds of fish a week. On that day we would pack the fish at noon . JODI : What did you use t o catch the fish? JOE: We caught the fish with large gill nets and sometimes pound nets. A gill nel is a large net with mesh that allows only the head of the fish to pass through, but entangles the gill covers as the fish tries to escape. AND Y: What kinds of fish did you catch? JOE: We caught trout, perch, smelt, herring, whitefish, and chubs. JODI : What part of the boaL did you work at? JOE: I stood at the opening and threw out the nets and pulled them in . I also cut and cleaned the fish. ANDY: After you cleaned them, where did.you ship them? JOE: We shipped them to Kr oger's Food Store in St. Louis, Chicago, and New York. We used to pack them up at noon , ship them, and they would get there tha t evening. Our objective was to get fresh fish to the market.

Jod;, ~"~'i) ::ro

fhrough Rain or Snow. Lee Birmingham was born in 1914 in Sevastopol on Cherry Road. His faLher was n farmer, buL became a rural mail carrier in 1918. During Lh e ' 20s, L0e became a Navy postal carrier .

BRANDON: What was your childhood like?

LEE: Well, I lived on Lhc Lop of ll ou l e 's Hill, which is now Jefferson Street . In Lhe spring we moved back t o the farm again. On e fall my dad sold the farm. Then we mov ed to L0\11n and lived on Sherman Street, which is Sixth Avenue now.

The firsL dav I wenL LO school, I came home in the middle of Lhe morning . My mother asked, "What are you doing home?"

I answered, "E.vcrybodv wenl out to play so I figured I'd come home."

She replied, "That was on l y a r ecess ! You better go back."

The year I graduoLrd from high school was the year they put Lhe new addition on t he h igh school . I got out in Na y, insLend of June, o[ 193 1.

4 The next fall I was too young to get a job, so I took a "post-graduate" course in business and typing. And that's as much education as I got. BRANDON: What was your first car like? LEE: My first car was a model T Ford, a paneled delivery truck, home-made job. Most of it was 1918, remodeled a little bit. The front end was 1923, but that ' s as new as it got . It was originally a delivery truck for Frank Starr's grocery. It had the nickname of the "Night Rider" when I got it . It ·got that name be cause Frank's kids used it for some "extra("urricular" work at night, taking out girls and stuff like that. I got it from Roy Marshall, who was a rural carrier like my dad . I went out there one day, and it was sitting in the garage. I said, "Gee, I ' d like to buy that car ! " He said, "Well, you can have it for $20.00." Of course I didn't have $20 . 00, so he said, "Well, you can work it off . " So that summer I worked hard and earned the money working with Martin Larsen, planting and picking corn. That was my old Susabella. Being a paneled delivery truck, it was tall and thin as cars were in those days. I thought it wasn't good enough for me, so I fixed it up a little bit . I put more seats in the back. An old red plush seat from the horse-drawn bobsled was swiped from my dad's barn. I took that, drilled some holes in the floor of the truck, and mounted that the opposite way the driver's seat was facing. Then the people in the back couldn't see what was coming ahead of us or see what was going by, so we put a rear view mirror in the back, so that the people in the back seat could see what was coming. Susabella was long, narrow, and high, so we had to put a ladder to the tailgate so people could get in and out without jumping. When we drove in the back and opened the do?r, my mother said she didn't know how many were coming in for supper because there were always two to a half dozen in the car . That old Susabella was really a car! MIKE: What was your house like? LEE: Well, my folks bought this house down on Grant Street, a large hip-roofed house. It was a big house with a barn in back. It had a place for the horses, and later for the car. In fact, when we moved in, there was a pigpen in the south end of the garage, but we took care of that.

5 BRANDON: What was the newest road in Sturgeon Bay that you can remember? LEE : I remember when they changed the names of the str eets. That wa s wh en 1 was in the service or soon after . They are now numerical from the bay east, and named from north to south. MIKE : When did you become a rural mail carrier?

LEE: I started at the post offi~e the first of May, 1942, and I retired at the end of December, 1972 . MIKE : What was the Navy like? LEE : Darrel Starr and ( were going into service at the same time. We went down to Milwaukee for inductions. We had it all figured out ahead of time tha t we were going to stay together. When he went through the line ahead of me, he gave me the sign for the Army . I was going to be in the Army too because the Army gave you thirty days before you were inducted. In the Navy they only gave Len days. So when it came my turn , the interviewer said, "What do you want, Army, Navy, Marines, or Coast Guard?" I said, "Army. " He said, "All filled up. You' re in the Navy . Next !" So I was in the Navy for tw o and one-half years . MIKE: Did the train bring anv mail in when you worked at the post office?

LEE : All the mail came 1n bv train . It came in a couple of Limes a day, sometimes early in the morning, sometimes late at night. We could be called back anytime t here was work to be done. There mi ght only be work for an hour, a half-hour, or so, and t hen go home again. Yo u couldn ' t really plan much . BRANDON : llow long did i L Lake Lo get from Sturgeon Bay to Green Bay?

LEE : Probably a 1 iLLle l ong e r than it does now because it went through and stopped al Kewaunee and other towns . MIKE : !l ow many posLnl service offices were there in Sturgeon Bay? LEE : The first one f remember was \vherc t he waterbed sales arc now. From there it went to where the Advocate is now, and then to the present location on North Fou rth Avenue and Louisiana Street .

6 MIKE : How mu ch did an ice creJm cone cost? LEE: A nicke l, as I remember.

BRANDON : Where did you gel the ice cream cones?

LEE: Ohhh! We had a sperial pl~ce to get them, down at the northeasl corner of Garland. where t he Bank of Sturgeon Bay parking lot is now: BRANDON: What was your hobby? LEE: Wh en I wa s a kid L liked chickens. My da d, being on the ma il route and all, had a chance to bring home a few eve r y once in awhil0. So he brought home s ome "ban t y" chickens, wh1t you call miniatures, two hens and a rooster. Boy, were they cute! They made eggs a ll s ummer long. One evening for supper we had chicken . I was iust about through ealing when my dad said, "How did you like t hat chicken, B11d?" r said it was good . He said, " I just '1.-rnnlecl to tel 1 you that was your banty rooster. '' But he brought: a new one home the next dav. I l earned early Lhe value of things . ·

I ..../ b

- ' CH I LDHOOD MEMORI ES By Becky Gigler Tanya Herschleb Kim Tan ck

\ .._ ' Cll.therine Ki m ) B e. c. k y , a. n d Ta. n y a. Miss Catherine Boyd, a true reside nt of Door County, has lived her entire eighLy-eight years in this area, except for a short period of Li me spent in New York City and Chicago . He r home, built in 1868 by Alex Meikle a nd purchased by her father in 1883, is located al 460 N. Third Avenue . It is a co llection of fond memories and familv heirlooms . This delightf11l lady is full of ener gy , stories, and f r iend liness. BECKY : What could you cell us about going to grade schoo l? MISS BOYD: I had to walk Lo SL. Joseph 's School ever yda y a nd that was many blocks. We wrote on slates because in those days, we were saving with t he paper . When we were naughLy, we got our hands slapped by the rul er . TANYA : What did your family like to do in the wi nter? MISS BOYD : The biggest Lhing was to take a sleigh ride, since Door County has plenty of snow for winter outings . We played card games and all o( my family played the piann and liked to sing . KIM : How did you spPnd your summers? MISS BOYD : We went swimming in Lhe bay area , where Bay Sh ipbuild ing is presenLly localed . Our favo ri te games were skipping ropP . playing kickball or Run, My Good Sh eep , Run. KIM : Could you explain the game of Run, My Good Sheep, Run? MISS BOYD : Two teams line up in a yard and each chooses a captain. One team has the opportunity to hide and the idea is for the opposing team to find them. When the captain, of the team that is hidden, sees that they are close to being found, he ye 11 s, "Run, My Good Sheep, Run 1" Of course, no one wants to be caught; everybody runs. BECKY: How did your family spend Christmas? MISS BOYD: Christmas always started early in December when Saint Nick came. Next, Santa would arrive by train to Rosen berg's Department Store. Now, Fascination, Ltd . occupies that building. He would throw candy to the children and this was a big treat . On Christmas, we attended mass, had a big dinner, and sat by the Christmas tree and unwrapped presents . We got two to four presents each; mostly books, but always a couple of toys. TANYA: What kind of candy did you get? MISS BOYD: Mostly ribbon candy and stick candy which was bought in town. KIM: You said that Santa arrived by train--did you ever ride this train? MISS BOYD: I had an experience I'll never forget on the train . I had been hospitalized at St . Vincent's in Green Bay and my mother came to take me home. This was during the month of January and there was a big snowstorm . Relatives tried to persuade us to stay the night in Green Bay, but I wanted to go home. They brought us pillows and blankets so we'0 be comfortable and the train left Green Bay at four in the afternoon. That was t he night I spent sleeping on a train from Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay. There were many traveling salesmen on it and the conductor got us all in one passenger car. While it was storming, we were warm and kept each other company . Somewhere, near Maplewood, they stopped the train and men walked to a nearby Gordon farm and came back with sandwiches and hot coffee . We arrived in Sturgeon Bay the next afternoon at two o'clock . That was quite trip and I ' ll always remember it . The year was 1918 .

TANYA: What other types of transportation did you have? MISS BOYD: We used the horse and buggy and did a lot of walking.

9 KIM: Whal did vour fatlwr do tor a living?

MISS BOYD: lie was a Lu ~bM1L c~prain on the Creal Lakes for 59 years .

TANYA : Di d you have clwrl'S :1round the house?

MISS BOYD: Evervone in our tami Iv did. T had Lo c l ean o ut Lhe lamp' chimnf'ys every ni2hL an

BECKY : You have many int<>ri>st:ing things in vour home. What do you cherish Lh,, most?

MISS BOYD: IL wo11ld hav~ to b•> rn:: doll. .. she ' s ove r 100 years old . She was given to my .:wnt and then passed on to our fami 1 ~1 . Her lwnds :rnd feet are made of kid and of course, she ha s a b0auliiul china face. As you can see, the d 0 1 l i s l n p (> r r (~ c l (' 0 n d i t i 0 n .

Christmas Wishes THE BUSY COUPLE By Allan Conard Mi chael McCullough Richard Allen Stephenson

fllla.n

814 Cove Road is the home oE ~Ir. and Mrs. Albert Conjurske, known to most pC'ople as " Mick and Con". They a re a n a c L i v e c c1 u p l e ~111 d c n i o y work i n g i n t he i r a pp 1 e a nd pear o r c h ards .

AL AN : Do you r 0 ca 1 l an v s p L' c i a I mC' mo r i es wh i l c you wo r k c d w i L h L he S L11 r g eon Ba ,. po s t ~j I s er v i c e?

CON: 1 rcmc•mber when l \vas un the route, the posL office usc>d L o de 1 i VC' r c•µ gs L n ~Ii I w:lllkE'E' . The re we re L we l ve dozen eggs pnt.kPd in a c<.irton . People broughL Lhem to Lhe posl nff1ce ns lay !"0t1r mo1·v c>ggs? " So 1 w.:iiLcd while her chickens laid four more> <'g~s . She pul the eggs in the craLP and nailed it dc,wn. [delivered the crate Lo Lhe posl ot [ice and they wrr<> on their way Lo ~lilwaukee . \..' h c e v c r L hough t a ma i l nw n wo u l d wa i t f o r a c h i ck en L o 1a v four more eggs. l w~1iL1~ d tPn to fittet:>n min11Les. Th

~ILCHAl:.L : h'hPn did yo11 sLart ~rl1\vin~ vo11r 0 r chc'.1rcl?

CON: That was hack in lf' 31.

RTCH.ARD : Whal kinds ol tff!•'S did '.'( Ill begin wilh?

CON: h'e h~1d chrrric's and appl··s; 17·, acre::; of land .

I J - ALLAN: Do you still run your 0rchard? CON : The big orchard is gone now . What ' s left is the apples and the pears. You know, a cherry tree only will last about 18 to 20 years and Lhen il will go down hill. But an apple tree ... it can stay as long as 75- 100 years. MICHAEL: What kind of an education do you have? CON: I went t o St. Joseph ' s Graqe School, which still stands on the corner of Kentucky Street and Fifth Avenue. Later on, wh en I was working downtown, I was a printer ' s devil in a Door County news office . I thought I'd like to go to Lacrosse and take up a course in physical education and so I turned around. 1 l eft for LaCrosse in September, played foot ball, and wh en I came home for Christmas, someone wanted me to work with the post office . I sub stituted on a city route carrying a mail pouch and never went back to college. The rest of my education was on the job . When the postal clerks did take a vacation, I would take over their job.

1 had really wanted Lo be a physical education teacher but instead, I tho11ghl Lhe sixLy-five cents an hour looked pretty good . I was working eight hours a day at sixty- five cents an hour.

MICHAEL: I bet today they might get two or three dollars an hour. CON: You mean, seven to ten do llars . It's a good paying job . MIC HAEL : When you drove the rural route, how long was it? CO N: Seventy- five miles and I had about 1,500 patrons . ALLA N: Did yo u make f r iends on your route?

CO N: Sure, l ots of them. 1 made friends with peopl e from Chi cago and Milwaukee . In those days, many of them were bankers and had bought their property on the water fo r thirteen dollars a fool. Today, you ' ll pay much more . These people liked Door County and said i t was second heaven . Many had bought their property from Mr. SchmoLk on Glidden Drive. ,\LLAN: How long did you have Lhe postal route? Did you like it?

CON : Twenty years . I really enjoy~d thP route but missed the people more than the driving. And Lhe Coast Guard . . . every year around Christmas Lhcv would invite me to have lunch at the Canal Station.

12 MICHAEL: Did you have any special hobbies when you were yo ung?

CON: Fishing on LhC' bay WClS y., reri l sporL and Lhr->re was the deer hunting. I had a nice outboard and motor that I had bought for $125 . And I liked Lo swim. We used to dive off the bridge years ago. Not of[ where the cars went; we'd dive off the top .. . forty [eet up. Would you believe we'd dive off that t h ing for fifty cents. A fellow, f r om Chicago , asked, "Will you dive some more for fifty cents?" I said, "Sure!" and dove off three times. We kept diving and this fellow kept paying . He finally said, "You fellas are go ing to run me poor . " Fifty cents was pretty nice money! Would you dive off the bridge [or fifty cenLs? MICHAEL: No ! You might accident:ly belly flop. How did you get the nickname Con? CON : My name spells Con-iurske and when you drop the last two syllables, you ge t Con fo r short . I've had it for many years . RICHARD : Does your family visit vou often? CON: They're out of town and come twice a year; at least once a year anyway . We should get together more which we will . I'm ~e ttin g Loo old to wo rk and l've got to take it easy . I'm eighty-three years oJd and should sell the farm.

\ \ ·l t :. :a., , !928 13 I NKWELLS, WASHBOARDS, AND COTTAGES By Rene Baudhuin Kim Goll Denise Tebon 1\ (c1'---~· ~~~

~ ."" ...... , [...... '- ... . :·. : r:. - ·. r ") r' ').

The one-r oom schoolhouse, attended by Gebora DeBroux, still stands on County Trunk M. Grades one through eigh t were guided and taught in this building. the Hainesvi l le School . Today it is used for storage. This spri t e, eightv-two vear old lady, still owns and main tains four summer cottages al Jdlewild with her daughte r, Joan Cofrin . Her recreational needs are met by playing bridge every Tuesday with her friends.

RENE : Where were you born and in what year? GEBORA : I was born abou L Lhree miles f r om my present home 1n 1904 . DENISE: Would you tell us wh ere Lhis t s?

GEBORA : I was born and raised on R fA rrn , on Highway M; right a cross from the o l d church and schoolhouse in a village named Ha i n ~svi ll e . RENE : What was i t l ike in school fo r you? GEBORA : Well, it was eighl g rades and we didn't have any sports or other doings except reading) writing, and arithm etic . We had many tests and had Lo go to anothe r school to take final exams .

1 4 RENE: What did the teachers do for discipline if yo u d i d something wrong? GEBORA : I don ' t know, I was neve r disciplined ! I really can ' t t el l you excepl some naughty childr en had to stay aft er school . Of course, Lhat was quite a punishm en t because we a l l walked home in g roups. Oh yes, some of the boys would be naughtv and had to stand in the corner with their faces to the wall. That was a good one .

DENIS E: Di d the boys get into misch~e( often? GE BORA : Well, we had desks and riiht in the middle of each desk was an inkwell . Now, i( there was a girl sitting in front of a guy, Lhe guy would stick the girl ' s braid i n the inkwell. Once in awhile, if t he guy was in the possession of a scissors, he wou ld cut the hair . At that time, all Lhe girls wore l ong hair . DENI SE: What styles of clothes were popular when you were young? GEBORA: I ' ll tell you, there is a difference. We dresssed like they do now, bul of course, in the winterLime we had to wear l ong, black s tockings and long underwear. We didn ' t have buses at Lhat time; we had to walk through ice, snow, and whalever you had . Everyone had to dress real warm. DENISE: When you were a young girl, what did you and your friends do for fun? GEBORA : We played a lol of baseball and of course, I was born and raised on a farm . l had a l ot of cats and had fun playing with them. I was the vounges t child; my brother was ten years older than me . so I didn'L have any play mates. We played ball and we went swimming. My brother would Lake us to Sand Bay and we would swim and have a good time. RENE : Did you ever have a favorile pet?

GEBORA : I always had a dog, but if one got naughty or chased cows, he was shot and we'd get another . Dogs were suppose to get the cows for milking, not chase them. I had one that was verv smarL; Pvcn knew the cows bv name. When 1 was a lii.Lle girl, I 'd have Lo go in i.he woods and get the cows and Jessie would come righl with me. Those cows would come out of the woods one by one. If there was one that maybe didn't come and I ' d say, "Jessie, Brownie isn't here . Go get Brownie . " She'd bark, go back into the woods, and come out with Brownie.

15 RENE : Would you rather have worked outside with your dad or inside with your mom doing the cooking and stuff? GEBORA : When I was younger? I didn't work much inside because mother was an e f ficient housekeeper. I was mostly outside. I'd be outside with my dad pulling weeds and picking stones. My dad hated one weed called cockle . It was just terrible in the fields and spread rapidly. Dad used to pay me two cents for each armful of cockle. I tell you if I made five cents, I thought I was doing alright. Then, I covld almost buy a package of gum. It was only f ive cents in those days. DENISE: How much was a lot of money to you when you were young? GEBORA: You know, if I had a quarter, that was pretty good ! Sometimes my mother would give me twenty-five cents if I was going to the Door County Fair . Having a quarter to spend, I thought I was really smart. RENE: What could you get? GEBORA: I'd get an ice cream cone and maybe go on one ride. A cone was a nickel. You know, maybe I'd come home with money too . RENE: How did your family wash clothes? GEBORA: On a washboard . .. I can remember , while I was getting ready for school, my mother would begin washing clothes by rubbing them on the washboard and she'd still be scrubbing on the washboard when I came home from school at four o'clock . Then, we always had to boil them i n a big boiler on the stove. We 'd rinse them out in cold water and hang them out the next day. DENISE: What was a sad exper i ence in your life? GEBORA : Sad? Of course, it was when I lost my husband, Felix DeBroux. Also, the deaths of my parents, Jens and Marie Valley, and my brother, Art. My maiden name was Valley and I'm the only one le f t . RENE: Would you tell us about your husband? GEBORA: Felix was a garage owner, DeBroux Auto Sales. He sold Chevrolets and Oldsmobile s. The business was started by Felix and his father as a Ford Dealership and then thev switched from Ford to Ch evrolet. He was still in buslness when he suddenly passed away of a heart at tack in 1957.

16 Then I mo ved to Idlewild and bought three cottages . They were old and losing their pain t . One was built in 1903 a nd the r est in 1905. They ha ve been around a long t i me. Today we call them t he De Broux House keepi ng Cottages. Th e Pines Resort was near us and it was s tarted many years ago, in the early 1900's, by El i a nd Tina Haine s. They began on a small scale . Mrs. Haines served mea ls to the fishermen from he r home and as the business g r ew, it developed. into t he Pines Resort at Idlewi ld . The Haines family enjoyed a good business for man y yea r s followed by their son, Kenneth, and then his s on , Nick . T~rec generations ! RENE: Did you e ve r have a scary Px perience during your life time ? GEBORA: That wa s not too long ago; about a couple of years. I wa s burn ing papr>rs in the burn barrel on my property . Some of t he sparks flew 0ut of the barre l and, un beknown to me, it had got caught in t he l eaves and it was traveling pretty fasr toward the woods. I wa s here alone, so that was a scare . I ma naged t o get i t out by t r amping on the flames a nd g etting a rake and raking it out. That was the onlv scare T had. Tn my younge r da ys, I can' t remember. -I've lived 3 soher life. I guess, I d idn ' t do much to creaLe scares.

17 MR. JACK SONPORT By Ke ven Berns Richa rd Kyllonen

0 Keve.n ) Fre.d ) a.nd I) ic.ha.rd

Spending time with Fred Erskine is a good experience . He's ninety-five years old and has lived his entire life in Jacksonport . Our class held a proofreading party and Fred was there . He drove from Jacksonport to our middle school in Sturgeon Bay . Af ter working on the interview and having our picture taken, we showed him our school. He wanted to see every bit of it . Fred is a World War I veteran and told m~ny of his exper iences and showed us pictures. That could be another story ! ....--

KEVEN: What was Jacksonport like when you were a kid? FRED: The village \vas much different than it is now . Most of the old log buildings are gone. We had dirt roads and when it rained or the snow melted, there were deep ruts. RICH: How were the buildings destroyed?

FRED : You see, most o[ them burned down; we have had lots of fires here.

KEVEN: Was there ever a big fire in Jacksonport that was hard to control? FRED: Well, the Sunrise Tavern burned down . There ' s another place that also burned and that was the old Ivanhoe . In town is where they burned; right in the middle of the v illage .

18 RICH: When JacksonporL was a port, did big boats or ships ever dock here? FRED: Oh yea, when T was a small boy a steamship from t he Good rich Transportation Line, used to come in. You could go from here to Milwaukee or Chicago by boat . They used to slop here, buL Lhat changed quickly. I don't know why but they did. I know al l about this because when I was a small kid I rode one . RICH: And they ran by steam? FRED : That's why Lhey were called steamboats ! RICH: Did a boat ever burn?

FRED : Yes, when I was a small boy; only about four years old . That time, a sLeamboat burned right off the Jackson port shoreline. RICH: Did it burn down right here (as I pointed to the water)?

FRED: It burned about a mile or so off the shore. I don ' t know why, but my father always said the crew set it on fire. She burned there unLil late afLernoon or night. A tug from Sturgeon Bay came, hooked onto it, and tried to pull it down Lo the canal. It sunk off of Cave Point.

RICH: Were there many early models of cars around here? FRED: A few people did c'.'lnd someLimes the cars couldn ' t even climb a hill to g~t back out of town after they got to Jacksonport . RICH: When you were a p0stmaster , whal kinds of things did you drive? FRED: Those days were the horse and buggy days. The mail came through here wiLh horse-drivin' wagons in the summer and sleighs in winter .

They carried the passengers as good as the mail. Well, that changed with the first mail truck . The truck took right over. but it wasn't dependable. In the winter, that's ~hen a horse and sleigh could do the .i ob.

KEVEN : How long were you c'.1 postmaster?

FRED: Forty-two years ... I was appointed in 1915.

19 KEVEN: When were you born? FRED: 1890, do you think you can figure that out? We ll, if I live until next December, I will be nine ty-six. RICH: Kind of old , right? Wh ere did Jacksonport get its name? FRED : Well, it was named after one of the early people that came here. His name was Andrew Jackson, just like the seventh president of the United States . What I don't understand is that there were other people here and Andrew didn't stay too long. RICH: Was there ever a mayor in Jacksonport? FRED: Nope. KEVEN: As a young man, what did you do on Sundays?

FRED : Played baseball ! Sure, I played it for many years. I was a good player, too. I played for Jacksonport and Sturgeon Bay .

KEVEN: You were born i n 1890. Where were you born? FRED: I wasn't born in a hospital. No, I was born in the Jacksonport post office . My father was the postmaster before me. KEVEN: How long did you live in the post office? FRED : I lived most of my life in that place until I was done. KEVEN: What was Jacksonport ' s most profitable resource? FRED : Wood was the most profitable . They shipped it on boats to many places. The farmers made money by cutting the wood up and selling it for their farms and living. Fishing was profitable for awhile, but it didn't last long. RICH: We have had fun here!

20 - CONVERSATION WITH GENEVIEVE By Tracy Nowland De e Dee Hayes

Tr a.c..y) b-enevieve D e e D e.e " Genevieve Gerlach, 73 years old, was born and rais ed in Doo r County . As a young child, she lived mainly in Brussels , which i s considered the Southern Door area o[ Door County. Presently , she lives at 748 N. 3rd Avenue and enjoys her walks to Sunset Park . TRACY : Where did you live as child?

GENEVIEVE : I was born and grrw up on a [arm . The farm is no longer sLanding, but it was where today 's Cherryland Airport is located. My parents, Mary and Seraphin DeW itt, wo r ked and lived our family farm Logether with 6 daughters and 4 sons . DE E DEE: What was schoo l like for you?

GENEVIEVE : We did lots of reading, writing , and arithmetic . I wen t Lo Corpus Christi Church Sc hool. We had many good times playing tag and walking Lo school everyday . School wa s a mi l e and a hnlf away .

TRACY: Whal kinds of books did you e nJOY reading? GENEVIEVE : My favorites were Black Beauty, Little Women, and mys t ery stories . DEE DEE : Whal was your home like? GENEVIEVE : I lived on Lhe farm until 1 was eighteen years old. My home had no electricity; we used kerosene lamps for lighL . Our house used a woodspace heater and my mother cooked on a woodstuve. Our family used g ranite dishes.

21 Granite dishes are a metal dish with a white enamel coating. We slept on straw ticks for a mattress, which was our bed. Once a year our bed was changed at thresh ing time . .. new straw replaced the old. We had 5 rooms in the entire house and our bathroom was outside. Mother had to do the laundry with a boiler and a washboard. DEE DEE : · Did you have to do chores? GENEVIEVE: I had to do many chores like hauling in water and wood, and helping in the barn. TRACY: Where did you work after you were no longer on the farm? GENEVIEVE: I was employed at Amity Leather for 18 years. Amity Leather was located in the area of Sunset School and Dorco and eventually, moved to West Bend. We made leather handbags and wallets. DEE DEE: How are things different in Sturgeon Bay today from when you were younger? GENEVIEVE: The old bri dge, Michigan Street, cost one penny to get across on. Naturally, the new bridge was no where in sight. There were no shoppin~ malls or a Peterson ' s Pool. Shipbuilding was the big thing. At that time, we didn't have television or radio, to watch or play, but we had a record player and my favorite record was "Indian Maid". TRACY: What do you like to do now? GENEVIEVE : I enjoy making homemade bread, canning jellies, jams and vegetables. I also like to sew, crochet, knit and make pretty tree ornaments for the Christmas holiday. DEE DEE: Do you have any children? GENEVIEVE: My husband Earl and I had only one child, a daughter named Jackie . Jackie now lives in Southern Door and owns a western shop located in her home, K Saddlery. (Genevieve is Tracy ' s g reat-grandmother.)

Lo..uri e. 1:- velvn a.ncJ Heidi ) . )

Evelyn Grassel was born in Sturgeon Bay May 23, 1909. She attended Morning Star Country School, Nasewaupee District No . 1 . She graduated f rom Sturgeon Bay High School in 1927. Her hobby is writing stories . Her husband, Edward, with his brothers, built their house near Jellystone Park and about seven years later had it moved to the present l ocation, 3431 N. Duluth Ave . LAURIE : Tell us something about your fami l y . EVELYN : I am the second generation born in America . My mother's name was Ne lson and her parents came from Norway and lived in Clay Banks township. My father's name was Gordon, he was Scotch-Irish and his parents lived in Forestville township. The Grassel family was German and lived in the Cloverleaf area of Nasewaupee township. My fami ly consists of two sons, a daughter, three granddaughters and three grandsons. My husband died in 1979 . HEID I : What was your husband like? EVELYN : He was a commercial fisherman in winter; other times he worked in orchards , and we raised strawbe rries and rasr berries to sell. He didn't even know the word "d iscip ine" - there weren't very many rules for our children - if they did their chores and school work, they were free to do pretty much as they pleased.

23 LAURIE: Can you describe your school? EVELYN : It was a one room red brick building with a bell tower over the entrance . At times we had as many as 50 pupils for one teacher . The room was heated with a wood stove surrounded by a metal "jacket ." Water was carried from a nearby farm . There was a woodshed, an outhouse for boys and another for girls. The yard was large but there was no playground equipment. The brick school was re placed by a two-room stucco building and that, in turn, has been replaced by a dual purpose building for Southern Door Fire Department and Nasewaupee Town Hall. It is across from the county airport on Highway C. HEIDI: Tell us something about your school day. EVELYN: We had school from nine to four - a morning and afternoon recess and an hour for noon . The first four grades had longer recesses and went home earlier . We learned to concentrate on our work while other classes were reciting . We began each day with Pledge of Allegiance and flag raising (the flag was never put outdoors in rain). LAURIE : What did you study? EVELYN : Reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling , geography, grammar . Civics was the study of government . Agriculture was nature study and pertained mostly to farming . Physiology was emphasized with a home health chart on which we reported health habits, stressing cleanliness and neatness. HEIDI: Did anybody play tricks - did the boys fight? EVELYN : A trick was for the big boys to pull the long heavy bell rope hard enough to tip the bell over, then someone had to borrow the farm ladder. Boys brought snakes back when we were permitted to go to the woods to pick flowers . One trick was to dip girls braids or curls in the desk ink wells. The boys didn't fight much becausP they had to get along in order to play baseball - there were so few they even allowed girls on the team . LAURIE: What did you do without playground equipment? EVELYN : We brought marbles, jacks, and jump ropes. Little kids played tag; big kids played ball and rough games like Red Rover and Crack the Whip. In winter we played a tag game called Fox and Geese in a circle marked in snow .

24 HEIDI: Did you have other school activities? EVELYN: There was no 4-H, FFA, Scouts, etc . A bird chart was put up in February to record the return of spring birds . An occasional spell down with another school wa s exciting. Examples of pressed leaves, plants, penmanship, and il~ lustrated stories were made into booklets. Types of wood and grain were mounted on boards. This was our "art" work and taken to the county fair; an award from the fair was highly prized. LAUR IE: Did you celebrate any holidays? EVELYN: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Washington and Lincoln birthdays, and changes of t he season were observed with programs and decorations. Christmas , with parents to hear the program, Santa Claus and exchange of lOc gifts, was the highlight of the year. A close second was end of school term picnic with games, pot luck, ice cream and milk cans of lemonade. HEIDI: Was there anything different or special about your school? EVELYN: I don't know i£ other schools taught parliamentary pro cedure . We had business meetings. We waited to be re cognized by the chairman, made motions , seconded them , nominated, voted and appointed committees. There was no janitor so pupils were elected (often appointed) to such chores as the morning flag raising and careful folding at - the end of the day ; carrying in wood and taking out ashes; sweeping and dusting; bringing water; blackboards; and some little kid was honored with emptying our only pencil sharpener! After the business we had a program. We were patriotic and recited poems and sang songs about our country. Li ttle kids enacted "Three Little Pigs" & "Billy Goat Gruff," but "Brehmentown Musicians" was most popular . Skits of Kat zenjammer Kids and Maggie and Jiggs funny paper characters of that day were done by older pupils . Anyone who attended a country school could add much more to these memories -- -

25 lf·' lj• f ·',,.~ ti.,,• JANE GREENE By Kim Carley Kim Schmidt

Kim Sc.hmid+ r-re.fl ene 1{1m Car l e.;

Jane Greene was born in Almond, Wisconsin. She was brought up on a farm called the Livingston farm, and attended a rural school with all eight grades in one school room. She came to Sturgeon Bay 1n 1945, right after World War IC.

KIM C.: Whal did vour mother and father do [or a living?

JL\NE: My mother a nd father worked on a farm . My mother had been a school teacher before my mother and father were married. Later they left the fa r m and ran a chicken hatchery. · KIM S . : Can you tell us some of your memories of Sturgeon Bay?

JANE: Sturgeon Bay was quite different Lhen . There have been a loL of changes. One of the things I remember most is Lbe migrant workers that used to come in every summer Lo pick cherries.

KIM C . : 0 n II o 1 i days how d id you decor a t e you r house ? JANE: We hod a Chr istmas tree in the corner but nothing outside . We used to have candles on the Lree, and LhaL was da ngerous. We didn't e ven decorate the house for other holidays. On Easter we would have Easter eggs and candy.

26 KIM S.: What were some of the things you did in the summer?

JANE: In the summertime when I was growin ~ up, I used to help my mother in the house. Sometimes I had to pick beans to take to the factory. Some years we had to pick cucumbers, and that was the worst. I had to always help with dishes, but after that I could play for awhile. I also belonged to a 4-H Club. KIM C.: When and how did you become a librarian? JANE: Well, that was a long time ago. I went to high school, then through college, and then I had to go to Madison for library school. I graduated in 1940. After that I went to Detroit, Michigan, to a Children's Library. I came to Sturgeon Bay in 1945. KIM S.: What kind of hard things did you do? JANE: The hardest thing is to get the money to buy all the books the kids wanted . Working in a library is fun, and it isn ' t very hard either . KIM C.: What were some of the craziest things the kids did with their library books? JANE: The kids used to write in them, but it wasn ' t their fault. It was the littler ones or dogs that did the damage. Sometimes the kids couldn't find their books. Do you know what we used to tell them? We would tell them to look under their bed or behind the refrigerator. KIM S.: How long did you have to stay at the library? JANE: I think it opened about noon and closed at 9 o'clock at night. Later it opened at 10 o'clock in the morning and c losed at 9 o 'clock at night. KIM C.: How man y library books were they allowed to take out? JANE : I don't think there was any limit. I guess there was a rule until I came. but I said to let them take out as many as they could read before the due date. KIM S. : What kind of mischief did the kids get into to make you mad? JANE: They didn't get me mad, but they did get a little loud. It was the high school kids who were the noisiest. KIM C.: Can you remember how many books there were? - JANE: I really don't remember. There was two sections of reference books, and the rest were books for the kids to read. - 27 KIM S. : How many books did you read? JANE : Well, I r ead them all the time. I wouldn't remember how many I read. When I was telling stories I didn ' t have time to read books. But I pretty well r emember the stories . I took a lot of time to do that.

KIM C. ~ Ca n you remember some of the books you liked? JANE : Oh, dear! I don't remember any particular title. The books the children liked were the fairy tales and Laura Ingall 's Little House on the Prairie. KIM S .: How did you get intereste d in quilting? JANE : Well, I was interested in quilting because of my grandmolher ma king quilts . The quilt my grandmother made is over eighty yea rs o ld. When I was growing up I had these [or my blankets and they were very warm in the winter time. I have e leven nieces and I thought iL would be nice to make them quilts because they like them . It's someLhing to keep me busy, and it's something to do . My g randmother mad e all of them by hand, even the sewing, and so do I . KIM C. : What are some of the quilting designs you made? JANE : Well, some of them are the Double Wedding Ring, Log Cabin, Double Ranch , Patience Corner, Do e and Darts, and Drunkard Path . Lots of patterns have names that are historical, like Kansas Dugout, Hon ey Bee, Tumbling Blocks, Corn Stalk , Grandmother 's Fan, House on the Hill, Morning Star, Turkey Tracks, Hands all Around, and Flying Geese. These things are named after Lhings that are going on in the country. There are all these and hundreds more. KIM S .: Did you do any othe r needlework like crocheting? JANE: I did some knitting and some crocheting a long time ago . I don 't think it ' s too interesting or fun to do . KIM C.: What do you like about quilting? JANE: I like to do things by hand . I like the looks o ( a quilt when it is done . It 's very nice, and it 's nice to be satisfied to be in a warm bed at nighL. -

28 A HISTORIAN REMINISCES By Jim Bangert Joe Hoffman Dale Pollock Andrew Woods

Stanley Greene is 76 years.young. He was born at Stur geon Bay in 1909; the year the city went dry. It went dry in the spring; Stanley was born in the fall, and by that time it had gone wet again. Quoting Stanley, "I ' ll be 77 this Oc tober and that makes me pretty ancient. " He is considered Door County's leading historian. To day, many p~ople encourage him to write a book, telling h is vast knowledge of the peninsula.

JIM: As a child, what was vour home like? STANT.:.EY: I lived on Thi rd Avenue where The Yan kee Clipper stands; right across from Door County Ha rdware. I grew ~p in a grocery store; our living qua rters were in the back. The store and home had stoves to heat them. In those days, there wasn ' t a rai lwav service . Most of the groceries ~ere shipped in by boats. When I was a real small kid, my fathe r got i n a ship ment of watermelon . I went out one afternoon and there was a knife nearby. You would have to plug the watermelon to see if it was good . I got hold of the knife and had a little war with those melons. Boy, did I get it.

29 Until high school, I wore kneepants . When I start&d high school, I was able to wear long pants. Very young boys wore dresses. When we wanted to play, we went to the bay. There were several ships by the shore that were about to be wrecked . They were hauled in and either tied to the docks or put on land. JOE : Could you tell us about your grocery store? STANLEY : There was a big stove in the center of the store . The store opened up at 6:00 A.M. or 7:00 A.M. It was closed at night when nobody came around . It was a great place for old gentlemen to ga ther in the evening out of the cold. They would spit and smoke all night. Many of the men fought in the Civil War. I heard how the Union soldiers fought the Re bels from tree to tree and shot them down. When I got out of school , I started reading about history . I could never figure out how they got everything wrong when they were right there . Most of the goods in the store were put up on shelves so people couldn't get at them. I n those days, they had long counters with drawers set in them. At t he end of the counter, facing the customer, there was glass on the front of the drawer . In each glass case, there were beans, peas, or something like that, show ing what was in the drawer. Customers very seldom paid in cash. They would pay after the harvest, when they had money. You had to ship in all the goods in the fall for the winter . Generally, you had to help the customer plant their crops in spring and most of them were farmers . After the harvest , you would collect the money once or twice a year . You paid your own bills on the same basis. In five or six months, we would collect all. t he money. JIM: What was your favorite toy as a child? STANLEY: Some of us had b-b-guns and some didn't. Some kids had bows and arrows. But generalfy, I was interested in something that would kill . We would go hunting and kill rabbits, squirrels, and birds. For Christmas, you usually got books. Trains were very popular and so were steam engines.

30 DALE : What were your schools like? STANLEY: Oh, nothing at all like today . Generally, you would learn by memorizing. I remember that multiplication tables were pretty hard. One trick was the teacher would set out a lot of problems on the blackboard all around the room. The kids, with one leg tied up by the ankle, would hop problem to problem and solve them. The teachers would have big classes with thirtv to forty kids . In the rural schools it was very tough because you had to teach everyone in the same room. But by the time I went to school here, they had just built the old school building, which is today's Community Center. The quarters were pretty good. It had large rooms, good teachers, and good equipment. When my mother attended school, she walked six miles back and forth each day, winter and summer. They cut through the swamps and the woods to make a shorter route. Then you had to get dried off . It was really tough back then. I went to school in 1915. They started you in kin dergarten. JIM: Do you still continue to play any childhood games, hobbies, or sports? STANLEY: Well, I think the f irst t hing I might say is I'm no longer a child . Chess, I still play, but I don't care too much about checkers. I really could never play any card games or was interested . ANDREW : Did it make a difference to grow up in town i nstead of in the country? STANLEY: It made a lot of difference. There were more kids to play with and more to do. One of the things we did as a k id ... in those days they had saloons, not taverns . Everything was dumped out in the alley and we'd go gather tinfoil . When you got a big ball of it, you would bring it to the junk man and get three, four, or five cents back . You could buy a l ot of candy for four or five cents .

The high point of the year was one or two trips to the Government Reservation where Potawatomi Park is now. There were no roads out there; you had to walk . When school got out that was a great place to go for the summer for a real blow out. You would have - marshmallows and all that sort of stuff.

31 JO E: What were some o[ your jobs as a young boy?

STANLEY : Most of my ~obs were carrying stuff on the s he lves at the store, cleaning the basement, kePping the back yard clean, and weeding mother's garden . Then I'd go out on my grandfather's farm. There were a lot of jobs out there. DAL E: Could you tell us a little about your fa mily? STANLEY: I just had one brother that was younger than I was. Consequently, I always had a problem. My father was mostly busy at the store, so that left my brother and me pretty loose and we spent most of our time at our aunt's house; relatively playing around. But it was a very close family life because we were all working and l iving together and in the same area. It was a rather nice wav of living when we were so close together. But the thing I remember the most is that James Ol i ver Curwood was a great author of those days . All of his books are about dogs, wo l ves, and hunting. My father handled the comics in the weekly Sunday paper; Green Bay Press Gazette or the Milwaukee Jour nal . He would read us the comics . He'd lav the paper down and then we all would gather aro~nd . The store was open on Sundays as well as Saturdays or anyday of the week . During the summer, when the traffic was heavy, my father was a busy man. Then in the summer when all thP cherrv pickers came in ... vou fellows can't realize what an attraction t ha t ~as. There were migrants following strawberry crops up to Door County, doing the cherries here, and then going to Minnesota. When the railway boxcars came in, there would be skid row bums from Chicago. They would sit around on the street and buy Woolworth's tin heat. The tracks ran where First Avenue is now. Between the tracks and Bay Shore Drive was nothing but t r ees and bushes. It was called the iungle. The tramps would turn out at the iungle with tin cans and build cardboard houses. It was real fun going down there and listPning to their stories.

32 ANDREW : Who were some of your childhood heroes? STANLEY: It ' s hard to think back that far . It was the time the war was going on. We paraded a nd some of the local boys, who were serving in the front, were heroes . Politicians .. . I suppose Lafollette is my big hero. He spoke one time at the county fairgrounds standing on an old wagon. Bov, he could sure spin the words out. Locally, some of the captains that we re going out in the boats. A captain was really a top man in the community . Eve r y family had connections with the marine traf fic; either sailing in the summertime or connec ted someway with boating. A captain was an absolute lord when he was on a boat. So when the captain came down the street, he was a person you took your hat off to or be polite to. The rest of the popu l ation didn ' t amounl to much. Captains were big stuff. Remember though, when the boys came back from the war, they were heroes for awhile too . In sports ... Bahe Ruth. He even had a candy bar named fo r him. I can remember that big, fa t candy bar. It cost a nickel. Stores didn ' t have any lOc candy bars; nobody could afford it and for a couple of cents you could buy a bag of )elly beans . A penny could buy a whole lot . Five cents for a package of gum and you got five to ten slices de pending on the flavor or the quality of t he g um . A fellow with five cents could do quite a bargain ing )ob too. Movie stars ... Lon Chaney could scare the he ll out of you . Then on Saturday, they always had the se rials for a nickel. You could really live it up. If you had another nickel, you could buy a couple bags of popcorn. The movie theatre was a good place Lo go on a Saturday afternoon . All sorts of activities were going on ... like lo cal ballgames. The baseball player who could hit it the farthest was the outs t anding hero , until ·someon e came along and did just as good. All the high school activities went on at Market Square . When you hit a ball, you blocked traffic .

33 Horse and buggy was disappearing then. My father had a horse and a little wagon to deliver groceries in . He 1 iked race horses. The horse he had used to carry groceries nround was also the horse he used at the racetrack. lt wouldn't be passed, not even by a car. A car started to pass us, father couldn't control the horse, and the horse iust laid it on and we went down the street, slickety-cut . Of course, the horse was always beaten by the car hut she never gave up. Racing was a popular thing. Some of my early heroes were the people who raced at the county racetrack . When I was five or six years old, I got one of those wooden horses with a little seat behind it. You worked pedals and you went down the street licketv cut with Lhe horse's legs moving. It was fun on a Saturday night when the stores were open. I'd get the darn Lhing out and go pedaling down the street as fast as you can and you 'd be kicking the people's legs and they would be getting mad and calling for the police. Then you would have to get off the street (ast. We were just like you in those days, only we didn't get as many things. A bicycle was a rare Lhing Lo have . You had to be a pretty big sporl to own a bike. JIM: Could you Lell us o ther [unny stories from vour childhood?

STANLEY: I think Lhe funniesl pel I had was a little mongrel. He was black and white and domineering . Just a lit tle pug, parl bulldog and part something else . .. a general mixlure. Ile liked to play football and when ever someone threw the ball and missed, he would grab it by the laces and starl off. There were wagons parked in the lot across the street from where we played football. lle would get under a wagon and then we would have to chase Lhe darn clog for 30 minutes in order to gel Lhat foolball back. We kept him in our house and the door to the store was always open. lie was taught that he could not go beyond that livingroom door into the store . That was it, whether Lhe door was open or not. He would have to stay out of sight of the threshold. Some body would come into the store and he would go rushing through the house. He was going so fast that when he came to Lhe door, he wasn'L allowed to go through, even though he put on the brakes, he wo~ld generally slide three or four feet into the store . Then he would put down his head and go back through the door and look upset with his tail down. It was the fun niest thing.

34 Generally, in the wintertime, in the snow, you had a lot of fun! You would go to the top of Jefferson Street hill and slam down. You wou l d go down on the sidewalks, of course , but there were intersections . The intersections would always be used. The problem was, could you get through without hitting the wagons and sleighs? Once i n awhile, somebody zipped through , right under a sleigh . It was the craziest thing , it was absolutely forb i dden, and it was il l egal. But when you start going down a hill, nobody could stop you. If you saw a s l e igh coming, you would try to maneuver out of the way . Sometimes there was a very close call . No one ever got killed but some got gummed up . JIM : What was Sturgeon Bay like when you were a child? STANLEY : It's hard to tell you . It's an altogether differen t place. The town was j ust replacing the boardwal ks with cement walks . The old boardwalks were fun. On the Fourth of July, they were a good place to plant a firecracker. When a person was coming, you would throw the firecracker under it, but you would have to time it just right so the fuse would be the certain length and BOOM! But it wasn ' t long before they had cement sidewalks so t he re was no more fun. Most of the stores were up high, above the road, be cause the road itself was not paved . Heavy rain in the fall and spring caused a lot of mud . They would build walks across the streets because the women's skirts were down to the ground. Then, they could go cross the street without walking in the mud up to their ankles . The buildings were made mostly of wood; however, there were a number of brick bui l dings . They start ed building with brick around 1880 and stone around 1890 and the early 1900's. As a youngster, there were quite a few stone and brick building s . There was iust one main street and that was called Cedar Street. The bathing beach was down at the foot of Jefferson Street. Kids also went swimming in the bay where the ol d bridge came over on Kentucky Street. It was quite high because they raised it up so the train could come over without going up and down the bank. The only sewer line that t he city had came out under the bridge; five or s i x fee t into the air. Kids would swim around down below, but they weren't suppose to do it.

35 There were many stores ... twelve through fifteen gro cery stores and then several general stores. Many more stores than there are today, but these were a lot smaller. The fire department was located where the city hall is now . They had horses and it was really something to see them go to a fire, because the men would have to keep a fire under the big boiler ready so when they took off, they could start shoveling in coal . It would be developing a blaze and the water would be getting warm as they started. Generally, they had a couple of dogs following. Fires were a big attraction and there were a lot of fires because of the wooden buildings. Kids had fun following fire engines . During the wintertime, the bridge was closed and you went across the ice. There were roads laid out . In fact, people drove to Menominee on the ice. They had a little wayside cabin stuck in t he ice. You could stop on the wayside and have a drink of coffee or a drink of liquor, if you were an adult, or a meal on the way over. In the wintertime, often trains couldn't get in and you had no radios then. It was a telegraph that you used for important messages . Newspapers didn't come through and recreation was everybody coming out and shoveling or sailboating on the ice. It was popular . Almost everybody had some kind of a sailboat or ice boat . With the big sails you could make terrific time. It didn't turn over easily . JOE: What were medicines like when you were young? STANLEY: For what I heard, there was not much in the form of medicine in use except for the sugar pills. Those were the things they would give you when thev didn't have anything else. The pills couldn't hurt you . They were more or less candy but people thought they were taking something important . But aside from that: quinine, cod liver oil, and stuff like that played a role. There wasn't much vou could take for a disease or an illness. You .iust had to stay in heel, keep warm, drink plenty of water. and keep clean. I can remember being chloroformed for the removal of my tonsils. I fought like the devil. I managed to bite one doctor, scratch another, and then they got that thing over my face and held me down. That was my only experience with doctor~ in those days . Thank heaven that's all there was. -

36 Most of thP operating was done on the kitchen table . Childbirth was seldom in the hospital. It was generally at hom e . You only called a doctor in case of an emergency and you were lucky if the doctor could come. JOE : How were holidays celebrated? STANLEY : At least, I know Christmas was celebrated. We had the old Christmas tree with candles you put on, not the lights. If you had a dog or a cat in the house, the tree was liable to be knocked down. There were more darn fires from Christmas trees than anything else. The Christmas season was always something special. The Fourth of July was special too . You would make all kinds of cannons with the gases available . And remember, I told you about the good times tossing the firecrackers under the boardwalks . Easter ... with the eggs and egg hunting . But in those days everybody participated . The whole family was involved! The lack of transportation and the short ness of money kept families together as they worked and played . In those days, people died so young ... babies and chil dren dying. It wasn't until you got up to middle age that you began to become durable enough to survive . Nowada ys, it's so easy to keep an ind~vidual living. In the good old days, no one ever retired . A person who retired got looked•

37 And I don't think you can see the past if you go to t hose Heritage Hill places, because their recreations are not the way of Lhe past . It's the way we wa nt to look at it. They build to atlract us; not to repro duce t he past . Don ' L depend on your historica l d i s plays . They ' re designed to attract your attPr1 tion an~ not to inform you as to what it was like back then .

I hope I haven't bored you. I don't know what you ' re going to make of it because it's most difficult. for a person 76 years old to understand your point of view and you to understand my viewpoint. We look at thin~s at different milestones from the way we live our lives.

You're looking for a fulure that I can ' t even under stand .. . computers, space travels, and all these won derful things that are turning up. I can remember when I was a youngster, Lhe radio first came. You had to build your own sets Lhen. The ser that my father and I built took an eighL-foot long table to hold it. You would work and work on the dials and all of a sud den you would get a litLle music . There were only about four or five sLalions.

I wonder what my grandfalher would have said if he could come back and see today . DALE : How did you become inLeresLed Jn history?

STANLEY : I suppose in reading to begin with. 11. G. Wells' History of the World had iust been published and I found it wonderful reading. I always was interested in world history and history of the USA. If vou're referring to local hisLory, I don't think I became interesled in that unLil I was in poliLics . Then I got curious and wondering how the heck Door County ever got started and kept going. JIM : What were the steps you took to become mayor? STANLEY : It's very hard to say. My father had been a mayor. I had the feeling anyone who ran for public office must of had something wrong wiLh them, because you go out and expose yourself Lo all Lhe trouble you encounter fulfilling your job. T iust figured my father wasn ' t real smart. I was rcallv interested in Lhe libr ary . In the course of trying io do something about t hat, I became interested in ciLy politics.

38 As much as I didn't like to, I had to run for mayor. I was mayor for twelve years and I was glad to get out of it . As for the steps for getting the ~ob, just know a lot of people. Of course, at the store you met many acquaintances . Then it was knowing what kind of office you were running for, and doing some thing to improveyour knowledge of it. Before I ran for mayor , I ran for alderman for one term on the council in order to make sure I knew what I was getting in t o . I t ' s one o f tho s e j obs , i f you can ' t s t and the heat, don't go in the kitchen! But for some people, they get quite a kick out of it. JIM : Who was your first guest on your talk show, "What's Your Opinion"? STANLEY : I can't recall. At that time, we specialized largely on calls. Young men were allowing their hair to grow down to their shoulders. Anyone who let their hair grow long must of had something erratically wrong with them, and we had a g reat time with the listeners calling in and saying how horrible it was and how demeaning it was to have long hair. Others were calling and saying it was the proper thing to do. I do remember that because I was told that nobody wanted to talk about hair styles. Of course, that's what thev all wanted to talk about; both the men and - the women. JIM : How did you meet your wife, Jane? STANLEY: I didn't know her until she came to town as the li brarian. The library was one of my favorite places. I thought it always was the most important place in Sturgeon Bay and the librarian one of the most impor tant people, so she was very special . Then, she be came important as an individual. It was at the library I first met her and I got my self on the library board very shortly thereafter. We had an opportunity, for many years, to work to gether; promoting the county library, bookmobile, and the new ljbrary. I sort of sa]d to myself, "She 's such a damn good politician, I need her by my side." So, it was the library that brought us together and jt was through the library that our relationship de veloped. ONANGUISSE /0-nan-gi-say/

By Nicky Gray Bambi Quam Nik ki Townsend

' . ~I i • -r. I G.... .:i. m o : 1 • 1 :-• •< . .. cJ r n n a. n ~ N1t.k·,-,

John S. Grof-'nfPlclt 0 1.;nc.; ;ind 0fH'rnt0s LhC' OnnngldSSP Cot tR$H's on the' shor0s of L:il<0 Michig:in in Do0r Counry. HP is sixtv-nine v <'a r s o l d a n d \.J Cl s b n r n s01H. lw is Lhe pr0siclent o f t he Door Co1111tv llistoricnl Socic•tv .1ncl was inslrumentnl in the - societv's backing l~f this histl)ric,,J prniC'cl. ThC' Croc>nf0ldL::: . .lohn :ind 1·:v:1. livP in LhPir fr1milv hontP D t Onang11 i ssc>.

NT CKY: WhC1 t schoo 1 di cl vn11 g0 l n wh011 y0u w0 rp young?

JOHN: r \v en t l o sch o o 1 1 n W1, s t n n d E.:i s t O0 Per E> •

NlCKY : Has it :i hip or littl0 school?

JOllN: 'J'hf' grt1clf' scl10ol in h'Psl D0PC'rc , LlwL l a llPndC'd, was the mt1ior school for th:it pnrL of LhP citv. TL hcicl gradP schoo l ,1nd hir,h school nil in o nC' h11ilding . WP h

NfKKl : D i d v l~ 11 do <111 v l h i n g m i sch i C' v o us '"ht' n v o 11 w <> r P a ch i 1 cl?

JO llN: h1('1 1 ' 1 .£! l 1(' s s I cl i cl d n s rnn t' L h j n gs . Bll L ' I \•'A s C1 l wav s inLrrr·sLf'cl in doing Lhinr.s wiLh mv hands cis wc>ll as !Parninp, from verv v011ng 0n 11p. f hacl ci little> shop • 1 l i v e cl r i g h L 0 n n riv0r bank so '"f' lwd n' a c t i v e> in 011td0or sp0rts.

40 NICKY: Did you have any favorite possessions when you were a child? JOHN: I can ' t remember, except a dog, a bicycle, and a r ow boat. We did a lot of skating but, we had to learn to be careful because the river was too treacherous. BAMBI: Did you go [rom grade one all the way through? JOHN : I went from grade one all t he way, but not in the same school . Mv father died when I was nine and we moved to East DePcre. I graduated from high school in 1935, from Moravian College in 1939, and from the theological seminary in 1942, so I've been in school a long time . NICKY : Was Harry Damkoehler your great uncle? JOHN : Yes, but I don ' t remember a great deal about him. I knew him fairly well as a person, but I didn't have a great deal of opportunity to have l ong conversations with him . I knew he did a great deal of recording of family history. He also was the founder of the Door County Historical Museum. NICKY : What year did you gel married? JOHN: I got married in 1942. See, World War II was already in progress. I was ordained a minister that same year . NICKY : Wh at kind of a minister are you? JOHN: I am a Moravian minister . I had a local church in Pennsylvania. My father, Rev. Samuel Groenfeld t, was pastor of the Moravian Church he re. He was a pastor for 21 years, from 1888 to 1909 . The n, after I had been a l ocal pastor for fjve years, they put me in charge of the denominational education department and the church ' s magazine as an editor. I did that for 20 years . Af ter that, I was only a local pastor for five years . NI KKI : How did vou get the property you own now? JOHN : This property has been in our familv since about 1920. My father purchased it and at that time it was just wilderness. We had a large cottage. It had fourteen rooms in it and had been the board ing house for the loggers, because there had been a sawmill r ight on this property. Later, this house had to be torn down because it was too close to the road.

- 41 When I was still in high school and my father had died, my mother had severe eye trouble. We knew that when I went to college, she couldn't keep house by herself. The plan was for her to come to Sturgeon Bay and live with one of her old childhood friends . I then would be off at college and I go t to thinking, where would I hang my hat when I came home because my mother would be living with someone else. I de cided I was going to build a log cabin. Now, I was still in high school and some of my rela tives, who were handling finances for us, doubted if a high school boy could build a cabin. But, they finally agreed. During the Christmas vacation, of my iunior year in high school, I came up here and started to cut the logs fo r our first cottage . The pastor, of the Moravian Church at the time, had been a logger in h is early days and said, "I like to use an ax and I'll help you." He came out and helped me cut some of the wood. That summer, he helped me all the free time he had and we put up our first cottage . Then during the war, I couldn't get out here anymore, but it was rented to a shipyard worker. After that, during our summer vacations, we, as a family with some help from my friends, built cottages for about 30 years . It would take us five years to build one cottage because we only had a month to do it. Then we would have to close everything up and come back the next year. One year we'd get the site and all the materials r eady and the next year we'd put up the shell and the next year, we ' d try and get some of the inside done . So, the last year we would put it all all together, paint, and get it ready to use. So over the years we built five more cottages which made a total of six. I told you I continued my hobby with woodworking and I built most of the furniture for the cottages too. NIKKI: Did you make most of this furniture? JOHN: Yes ... the lamp table, this table, and all the book cases in this room. BAMB I : Do you have other hobbies besides woodworking? JOHN: I like to read, write, and I'm also president of the Do o r County Historical Society . One of the things I did was to get this project underway.

42 NICKY: When vou were vounger, do you remember much about the Depres~ion? I mean were times hard around here? JOHN: It was hard for our familv because my father had died iust before the Depression began. I remember some body saying so many people were poor and we didn ' t realize how poor we reallv were because most of the people were in the same situation. As an example, while I was in high school, one summer I came here and worked in the canning factory. You know what wages we got? Thirty-two cents an hour. We wo rked a double shift; starting in the morning and wo rking until all the cherries were canned . I can remember sometimes going home and seeing the sun coming up. I would have to be back at work by 7 : 30 a .m. We put in iust about fifteen Lo sixteen hours a dav. I was not. touched by the depress ion as much as some people because we had food and our needs were very few . NIKKI: Do you remember much about Sturgeon Bay other than what you told us? JOHN : When we began to come here, the railroad was still working and I took it a number of times . It was so slow that one time a passenger got out and ran along side the train and then ~ot back on. The hospital was another big change. The business section is pretty much the same way as it was; expanded a bit though. It use

JOIIN : T asked Hjalmar Holancl, who was the old Door County historian, if he knew the Indian name for this area . This was an old Indian village al one time, when I was a youngster. Mr. Holancl said it would be very hard to find the Indian name, but if vou want one, why don't you take the name of the old Indian chief, Onanguisse. He was famous. In fact, so famous that all the Pota watomi chiefs after him, Look on the name Onanguisse . So, I did that. Later, I began to find out a little bit about him. He lived in the late 1600's and whal made him well- known was the fact that the Indians were fighting among themselves at Lhat time . The French were upset with this because it was upsetting the fur trade. So, they had put in a rule that the French would nol give the Indians anymore gunpowder . The Indians w0re concerned with this and they took a constitution to Montreal to plead with the French not to take away the gun powder. The I ndians had lost their old skills and this would mean that they would be starving to death. The Indians promised to stop [1ghting. Also, they had chosen Chief Onanguisse to be their spokesperson and it worked out very well . That's how he became verv famous. The last Indian chief to have the name Onanguis~e ~as buried in Peninsula State Park . "SI X GALLON S FOR A DOLLAR" By Len At ki ns Lori. Br a ur Nikki Lauger

I l · I ! . L e. n .S I· a. n ! t:. , ' L. o r i •Ii< 1\ I ; ) ) a. n a

Stanley Jacubson was born i11 PorL Washington, Wisconsin on AugusL 16, 1898. lie grew up on a rarm and attended school i n Kenyon, Minncsola. SLanley moved Lo Door County in 1940 . He launched his insurance business nbou L 1941 ; retiring in 1968 . ln his sp3re Lime, Stanl0y enjoys his hobby of marquet r y; decorative work in which picLurPS arc formed by inserLing pieces of wood. He gl>es Lo Lhe Senior CiLizen Center Lo Lalk Lo men his age and play cards.

LORI: h1hat do you remember abouL Lhe Depression?

STANLEY: A11 of l he banks got 1 ocked up, and i r you had any money in Lh e bank, you wouldn't get much back . There was no wnrk but after awhile, people managed Lo gel some type of a job. 1 worked for nineteen cents an hour; Len hours for a dollar and ninety crnls . Most people were happy, because we were all in Lh<> same boat. You could get six gallons of gasoline for a dolla r . You didn't need much monc•y ! NlKKI: Whal we1s your job during Lhis Lime?

STANLEY: I workc>d in a chnir factory in Port Washington . We pul f urn i Lu re• Lo g e Lhe r .

LOR1: Were th('rc other job:.; av:Ji I able?

STANLEY : You were jusl lucky to g<>L a job. In Lhose days, there were ~~.HIP lines in Lhe larger cities. People would line up LO get a bowl of soup because Lhey didn't have work and nothing Lo eat. Bul, we seemed to ge l along alright .

44 NIKKI: What was the most popular invention when you were a child? STANLEY : The biggest attraction was the car because it was such a change in transportat ion and it was faster than what we had . In 1916, my falher bought his first car . LORI : What was your most memorable moment as a boy? STANELY : In 1909, my father sold his farm in Perl Washington, we moved to Minnesota, and that was my first train ride. We changed trains in Milwaukee and it was my first time in a big building in a big city . Then we rode all night ... I'll never forget that trip ! NIKKI: What was your childhood like? STANLEY : We didn't have much. I mean, when I was a young fellow, the only way we moved around was to walk or ride horses. All the entertainment was in the neighborhood so we could walk to the neighboring houses. We couldn ' t use the horses much because they had to work on the farm. We didn't mind walking two or three miles but you see, there weren't any cars around so it wasn't like we could just jump in and go someplace . When we got the car, we were very careful with it. In 1914, I had an uncle who bought a model T and one time, he came to visit us. It was the first drive in a car that I ever had, and what fun it was to ride and hear that motor running. It was big thrill to see a car and a bigger thrill to ride in one . Once, in 1905, we were in school and heard a noise. A few of the older boys ran to the window and yelled, "A car was coming up the road!" The teacher gave us a recess to see it. That car stopped right in front of the school house. At the time, people wore big, fancy gloves with long cuffs and a fancy hat to go with them. Folks assumed that if you could afford a car, you could well afford fancy clothes to go with it. If yo11 heard a car, you dropped everything and waited to see it go by. LORI : Did you have many tests or examinations? STANLEY : We always had written tests, many spelldowns, and some times we had mathematical problems that we raced to see who could get the most points. Often, Lhe teacher asked me to fill in for her and help. I would stand and get the games started. Iguess I was a little smarter than the rest of the kids. I thought that was fun to help the teacher.

- 45 LORI: What did you do on weekends? STANLEY : We never had much recreation; we usually had chores to do . We had a woodstove and my j ob, after school, was to fill the woodbox . Also, our family had to pump water by hand . NIKKI: What did the girls in your family do?

STANLEY: ~ h ey had to make meals . In those days you didn ' t buy everything in a can. My mother and sisters sa lt-brined meats. You would put them in a brine that would prevent the food from spoiling . We didn 't have a refrigerator back then and no way of keeping it fresh . You had to preserve your food . In the summertime, my mother would do what you call cold packing . What you would do is put fruit, vegetables, or sometimes even meat in jars. Then you would place it in a double boiler and boil the stuff in t he jars . It would seal and keep pretty good . LEN : Did you ever get to go hunting? STANLEY : Oh, yes, we used to hunt for rabbit and squirrel . Then we brought it home . and for a couple of days we had fresh meat to eat . You see, we had to make our own enjoyment, like going hunting . We ' d go out in t he woods, hunt, and that took care of t h e day . Then we had to dress our game, somother could cook it fo r supper . LEN : What did you do with the skins? STANLEY : We threw the squirrel and rabbit skins away . The mink and skunk skins were worth $1 to $2 and we sold those. That 's when we got a little spending money . NIKKI : Did you go to war? STANELY: No, but in 1918 I reg istered for World War I . If the war would have kept on for another two weeks, I would have went . I registered late because I was young . I was examined and ready to go , but then . the war was over . NIKKI : Did any of your friends or relatives go to war? STANLEY: Two of my brothers went. One was in France and on a particular day, he was standing under a tree and a sniper shot at him. The bullet missed his nose by about three centimeters because of a limb on a tree.

46 .. l: li'f·

MEET ME AT SCH OOL Marie Ka lms By Co lleen Anders on Kirsti Kruger Molly Simon

:;;ii -:78

Colleen ) Marie. > f1olly> o.nJ K i rst i

On June 7, 1909 , Ma rie Kalms wa s born. She is now seve n ty- s ix years old, a nd is s t i ll e ne r ge t ic i n c hu r ch and vari ous community a c tiviti e s . She live s on Ro~t e Tw o near Sevas topo l Sc hool . Mar ie was a pi onee r schoo l t eache r for tw e n ty-four yea rs . Sh e t aught <.1L Persh i ng , Ca r lsvi I l e , and Se vastopol Schools . Ma rie i s now r e Lirrd, but f r equently subs titutes for g r ade s one th r ough [our . ShE> is happily married Lo he r r e tired husband, Hugo Kalms . MOLLY : Whal did you do to occupy you rself wh e n you we re a child?

MARJE : D1 1 ring t he wi nte r we had s l eds a nd s l id down the h i ll by Va l my . l n the summ e r l ha d t o work on our (a rm . We visi ted f ri e nds tha t w er~ n ' t s o far away , s uc h as Mar ie Li <-'b l c a nd Marie Fie lds . L neve r we nt Lo a s how be cause t hPy we r e i n Sturgeon Bay, And t hat was n ine mi l e s away .

KlKSTL : llm.,i long did you go Lo school during the da y?

MAR[E : We had to be there a l 9 : 00 A . ;-1. and we go L out at 4 : 00 P. M . T walked Lwo and a half miles Lo schoo l. I we n t fo r t wo years at Distric t Number Five wh i c h was on C la r ~ La ke Road, L hr e P -q 11a r t er s o f a m i 1 <: c .'.ls t o E Hi g h \vo y 5 7 . The n 1 we n L Lo SL . l'E-' Le r and Pa ul P;1rochial Sc hool in lnst itute .

CO I LEEN : ~vh c' re d i d you 1 i ve wht'n you we re young ?

Yl/\R l t, : We 1 i V('U c.'.lst of Valmy on Lop o f a hl.11 wh e re t he Happy Hour 'lc:ivc r n and KerschC'r' s Food Sto r e .:ir e now. My mothe r boughl groceries there wi Lh he r egg m o n ~~· Lhal s he got from chickens on our larm . We didn ' L P

47 MOLLY: Where did you teach? MARIE : I started teaching at Pershing School in the Polish Settlements in Baileys Harbor. In 1929-1930 I taught all eight grades in a one-room schoolhouse. I had about thirty· students in all. There was no electricity and the outhouses were out back of the school. There was a coatroom on each side, one for the boys and one for the girls . There was a big furnace in back of the room, and t hat was our source of heat. Girls and boys carried in wood for the furnace. I made my own fire, but in the winter the man next door, Mr . Raza, would come and make it, but I had to pay him. Usually, I did my own jani tor work . We made a lot of booklets, and of course at that time, the eighth graders had to go to an assembly to write the eighth grade exams to see if they passed or not. All t he eighth graders would go to one separate school to take the· exams . We had a county suoerintendent who would write exams for the students to take. You could make booklets or charts and maps for extra credit. The students who failed, wouldn't go on to high school . It was called the county exam, and all the boys and girls in the county took the same exam in the same schoolhouse. COLLEEN: How far did you get in math? MARIE: We got as far as you get today, but no algebra . There weren't any machines to run off assignments . We wrote all our assignments on the board. When I moved to Carlsville School, that was a two-room school, and at that school they had a hectograph machine. There I only had the upper grades. When I first started out, I had nothing like t hat to copy assignments. MOLLY: How long did you teach school? MARIE : For about twenty-four years . KIRSTI : Did you have Lois , (Grassel) Koehn, one of the middle school teachers, for a student? MARIE : Yes, I remember Lois Grassel, and I also had Bill Schultz, who is a seventh grade teacher at T.J. Walker Middle School.

48 COLLEEN: Did the boys play any jokes on the girls? MARIE: No, I don't remember anything like that. Of course, we weren' t on the playground all the time. There was a recess at noon hour . We got out as much as we could, but they didn ' t have all the playground equipment and things they have today to play with. Of course , in the spring, we played baseball, and then I guess in the fall we played baseball too. KIRSTI: Do you have many grandchildren? MARIE: I have twelve grandchildren. The oldest one is twenty-eight years old, and Kristy, the youngest, is in the eighth grade. None of them are married. Two are out of college, and one is graduating this year . My mother 's family was small, my dad's family was small, so our relation is not that big. Oh ! You might be interested in the wages that teachers earned in those days. I started out at the Polish Sett l ement getting ninety- five dollars a month. Then the next year I got a five dollar raise, so then I got one hundred dollars. I had to pay board and I had to walk t hree-quarters of a mile from my boarding place to school ever y day. When it was cold, he would take me to school in a sleigh, but otherwise I walked. We, as teachers, always had a lot of homework . At tha t time we had to do all the correcting ourselves because we didn ' t do that as a class project. The seventh and eighth graders went together. We studied a book that the state sent down, and they had what was called even years and odd years . In one we taught di fferent subiects. We didn't have many maps . We probably had one or two good maps, but that was it. Of course, the boys and girls had to furnish their own paper . We had no bookmobile . The onl~ library we had was in the school which was quite limited. The state would only allow so much money for books to each school. Outside of that the district bought none. There were no buses to haul children to other places, so we couldn't go on any. fiel d trips. When you got married you were done teaching. There were so many teachers, and they all didn't get jobs . I was married in October, and I had a contract, so they had to let me finish the year .

49 COtLEEN: What was Sturgeon Bay like then? MARIE : I'll tell you we didn't get to Sturgeon Bay that much, except, of course, after I started teaching . Then I got there more often . Well, I guess the main part of Sturgeon Bay was Main Street ot Third Avenue. The Door Theater was the Borchert Theater, and that was across from what is· now Prange's. MOLLY : What did you do to entertain yourself?

MARIE : We didn ' t get a radio until I don't know when . Then it would squeal, and it would whistle . KIRSTI: Was there ever a place where you would go with your friends? MARIE: Yes, Palace Ice Cream Store in Sturgeon Bay on Main Street . It was where Classic Furniture Store is today . COLLEEN: What kind of clothes did you wear? MARIE : We didn ' t have much of a choice . As I recall, when I went to school, we wore aprons . We wore the same dresses though .

We didn't have any programs like ph~ ed . I had to be the art teacher and the music teacher . MOLLY: What did you have for snacks at home? MARIE: We had hard candy, but not maple sugar . Peppermint sticks were very popular. I also remember some kids only had bread with molasses for lunch, and that was it. KIRSTI: Did most of the girls have long hair? MARIE: Well, yes, most of them had braids. I remember when the boy 's bob came in. COLLEEN: Did you ever cook in school? : MARIE : Not when I first started, but when I taught in Baileys Harbor they had what they called Domestic Science . There was a kitchen in the basement. Every Friday the seventh and eighth grade girls would cook.

50 MOLLY : Whol were birthday parlics like Lhen?

MAl{L E : They were very plain. We always had a birthday cake Lhat my mother made. We didn't get much [or pre sents .

KlRST I : Did you ever h.:ive concerts al school?

MJ\Rlr:: Yes, we always had to put on~ Chrislmas program for the public at Pershing School. We had no electricity. ·rhere was one outstanding thing that makes me shiver Lo think of today. 1 had all Lhcse children holding candles, and they were layered on risers. JusL think if someone got t heir hair burnt? But it was beautiful, and they ca lled it a living Christmas trPP .

------

··w:

-~.: )

,- : 1 F ; r s t Ye. a. r 0 f:. ·r(:. A c. h i n_ q , Pe. r ..s Jr i n q \):.:.h.oof . (..) (',. I ~ ...'7 · 1~3D

51 I ' I J '. " ' ' ESTHER KNUDSEN ,,_,,~. ~,,. By Michelle Stratton Amy Hershleb Cheryl Heikkila

r-.v'f ' i } : I i;c..he. ie..

Esther Knuds e n was born April l, 1901 . She grew up on a family farm in Siste r Ba y . Esther speaks with a Norwegian accent, main ly becausP borh of her parents were born and raised in Norway. We e njoyed listening to her with her delightful accent. Todav Esther lives with her dEtughter and son- in- law, Marge and Adrian Freitag . They li ve across from the local duck pond at 940 N. Third Avenue in Sturgeon Bay.

MICHELLE : When you were a c h ild was life rough?

ESTHER : We ll, it was pretty rough but we didn't know iL , because we lived on a [<1rm anci iust didn't rea l ize it.

AMY : On holidays what did you do o r where did vou go?

ESTHER: W~ ce l e b rated the holidays like Christmas. Easter . and t he Fourth of Ju]v. · WP d i dn't rP~l1v go anvwGPre becausP jt was mostly iust family .

CHERYL: What d id vou do a fter you got home from school? ESTHER : The very first Lhing I did was play school with my broLher, Theodore, wh o we ca ll ed ' Teddv: ' Mv brother didn't go to school unti l he was seven years old, because my mother thought it was too far for Lh e baby to w.q l k, which was aboul two to two-and-A-h<'ll f mi,l e s. The teacher was a ma zed with whal he kn ew , like writing his nam ~. a nd knowing all the f irst and second g rade books . ll e was promoted to the thi rd g rade afte r his f irst week or school in the Eirs L g rade.

52 - When the teacher asked him who his teacher was he said , "My sister, " which was me! Then she sa id, "Well, she was a good teacher." CHERYL: What was one of your favorite toys? ESTHER: I got a doll when I was about nine years ol

MICHELLE~ What grade did you finish in school? Did you go on to high school? ESTHER: No, I never went to high school. I went through the eighth grade. There was no high school around our place then . The nearest high school was in Sturgeon Bay. AMY: Were you born in Wisconsin? ESTHER: In Sister Bay. . about three miles east of Sister Bay on a fa rm. MICH ELLE: What was the worst thing you ever d id with your childhood friends? ESTHER: The worst thing? I don't think we did anything because we had a strict mother, who watched us like everything. CHERYL: Did you ever soap people 's windows on Halloween? ESTHER: I never did because I was never allowed to go out on Halloween . My older brother did . AMY: How many brothers and sisters did you have? ESTHER: I had five brothers and five sisters . I was number nine. I had neighbors across the street and we used to play things like Porn Porn Pullaway, and Ante Ante Over, and baseball in the yard . AMY: When you were in your teens did you get a job? ESTHER: Mv first iob was when I was seventeen years old . I· waited on tables in Ephraim at the Knutson House.

53 AMY : How old were you when you were married . ESTHER: Twenty- one years old . I was about thirteen t he first time I came to Sturgeon Bay . That was because I was invited to go along with our neighbors who had a car . Elmer, my youngest brother, won the spelling contest for our area. So he came to Sturgeon Bay for t he county spelling contest . He was on ly thirteen but could really spell. The spelling bee was i n t he h igh school. There were so many people we had to stand outside on the sidewa l k. All of a sudden, the doors burst open and our teacher, Mrs. Mary Bunda, came out of that school like someone had shot her out of a gun . She said, "MY SCHOLAR WON ! MY SCHOLAR WON ! MY SCHOLAR WON!" CHERYL : Did you have to wear certain kinds of clothing to school? ESTHER: No, we could wear whatever we wanted except we couldn ' t wear slacks . I always got a new dress at the beginning of the year . MICHELLE: Did you have a best friend when you were in school ?

ESTHER: Yes, I had a best friend, and her name was Edna Larson . They were our neighbors.

CHERYL: Did boys ever dip your braids in the ink wells?

ESTHER : Yes, but we had a strict teacher . When I first started school there was an upstairs and a downstairs . The big kids were upstairs and the little kids down stairs, but then that school dissolved because Sister Bay built their own school . So we all stayed in the country school downstairs. - AMY : When you walked home from school, did you ever stop along the way? ESTHER : Yes, sometimes we picked f lowers. There was a pond on the wav home that I remember. My brother used to stop there and spear suckers. He had a little bicycle, I remember, and he was the one who won the spelling bee . He would stop and spear suckers . We'd go home, and he woul

54 AMY : Did you ever go swimming? ESTHER : I never learned to swim, but we could go in wading if there was someone older with us. I suppose we should have l earned to swim . My brothers learned how to swim . MICHELLE, AMY, and CHERYL: Thank you very much !

55 FLOYD J\ND HELEN KNU Tll By Justin Hoelscher Jason To r deur Jonatha n Oe1ler

cTon Zla. s on ~ u s f i n a.n d ) ) ) Floyd

Floyd Knuth was born in Door Cciuntv on a s1Mli l farm in 1902. During Lhf' summPr Flovcl worked on Lhe rarrn Clnd during VflCC'ltions h e a l so workf'd on LhP. farm . F'loyd \vorkPcl

JON: Whal did vou do in LhC' s11mmer as .r's f.::irm . Shr usf'd Ln gC't pr n v o k 0 d \v i i: h us b Pc .J 11 s <' l h P m i n u L <' w <' g n t L h E' r f' . \v e ' d lakP 1'fr nur shoes And stockings and rt1n bnrefon t. Mv mot h er ll('vcr l et mc> do Lhnt downto1-.m, ancl 111v granclmothPr didn't think I needc"'d Lo dci it oul thPrE' eilher . I guess. Anoth0r thing we usrd Lo d0 do was climb LrPPS and shP didn't like that. She w;1s afraid we'd fall nnd brrak our ;-irm or ]pg or sonlC'Lhing , e1nd now T kn0w ho"' shP ff'lL.

JUSTLN : lL hcippPnE>d?

HELEN : No , bl t L I w or r v A h nu L l h n c 1 i in h 1 n (H I r L rri:• s hp rP .

J UST I N : Wh <' n v o 11 \v P r e v o u n g '" 11<1 L '"' t1 s v 0 11 r s c h (1 o 1 1 i k <" '?

HELEN: I alwavs liked schoo!!

56 JUSTIN: Were the classrooms real small?

HELEN: No, not in Sturgeon Bay . In Sturgeon Bay w~ had all different g rades because there were more children. I did visit a school in the country because the teacher used to live at my grandmothe~'s . Yo~ know the~ each person didn ' t own a car, and if you lived ten miles out of town, you had to get a ride with a horse and buggy or a stagecoach. JUSTIN: What was school like for you? FLOYD: Well, we had a one-room schoolhouse and all eight grade s were in one room . That got pretty difficult for t he teacher . Yes, we did reciting and everything ~n t~e one room. For the classes each grade would go up in front to sit on a bench, and the rest of us had to be quiet . Of course, we were supposed to be quiet anyway . JUSTIN : How big were the rooms in a one-room schoolhouse?

FLO~D: I would say the one on County Trunk S was about twenty f i ve by forty-five . You would walk into an entrance and the girls turned to the right and the boys turned to the left. That's where you l eft your boo~s and lunches, because in those days kids all carried their lunches in pails. Our home was within ~ about a block of the schoolhouse and that was close out there . All my brothers and I had to walk home for lunch, and we didn't like that because we wanted to eat with the other children . JASON : Did you go to college?

FLOYD: I went to high school. We lived about four to four- and- one-half miles from school. .that's tAe present Market Square Community Center . In those days when you came through the West Side, we called it Sawyer . The old bridge went down to the end of Madison Avenue and came around up to where Kentucky Street is now, so we had to walk way around there . There was ~ tall bridge on the way, and a railroad used to run across part of the bridge. There was a trestle jn there, and we had to walk uptown to what's now Third Avenue where the Bank of Sturgeon Bay used to be. Then we ' d walk over to Michigan Street and come up to the stoplight by the bridge and then walk up to the school . But talk about a long walk, every morning and night! We carried lunches, too, in a paper bag. A lot of us would go down to what, in those days, was Guserud Brothers Wagon Works where they built wagons, and we could sit and eat our lunches . That's on the corner of Second Avenue and Nebraska Street.

57 HELEN: Sometimes we'd go to the John Schmidt Bakery, and the most we ever had to spend was a nickel or a dime. JUSTIN: At Christmas did you have a tree? HE LEN: Oh, yes, we always had a tree, and we never could wait until Christmas morning. We didn 't see a thjng. We didn't know what was going on in the living room at all. It was all kept closed until Christmas morning .

JASON: What were some of the things you en~oyed doing on holidays? FLOYD : We l ived on a farm, and do you know what you do on holidays? JON: What? FLOYD: You work! Everything in those days was done by hand. JUSTIN: Did you have any brothers or sisters to help you on the farm? FLOYD: I had one real brother and one foster brother. JUSTIN : When did you get married? HELEN: In 1925 .

JASON: What was one interesting thing you en~oyed doing? FLOYD: I think one interesting thing years ago was the fair . They had it much later, after school started. They closed the school for a day. On that day the children got in free . If we got five or ten cents to spend that was a lot. JUSTIN: What kind of rides were there? FLOYD: There was a merry-go-round and a ferris wheel. That was about it. JUSTIN : What were some of the other things they had at the fair? FLOYD : There was a much better display of grains and farm pro ducts, and me, being a farm boy, I was interested in that! HELEN: They had a lot of fancy work and things that the women did~ They had embroidery and homemade quilts.

58 JASON: When you were younger what did you do for work? HELEN: At the time I went through high school, they had an excellent commercial course . All of us who knew we weren 't going to college would take those courses . First, I worked in an insurance office, and my sister worked in a bank . When she got married, they asked if I wou l d come and take her place . I worked i n the bank until I was married. J USTIN: What bank was t hat? HELEN: It was the Merchant ' s Exchange Bank . It was on the corner by the stoplights, where the Parson's Accounting Firm is located now . JASON : What was your first car? HELEN : Our first car was a Whippet . Its shape was like a gr eyhound. JUSTI N: What did you do for work? FLOYD : I worked in the shipbuilding officP. for 43 years . JU STIN : What were some of the things you had to do? FLOYD : Well, of course, I was there before World War II. I started there the day that Captain Roen and Bill Wolter bought the yard. JUSTIN : What yard was this? FLOYD : It ' s Bay Shipbuilding now, but it was the Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company at that time. I started there April 1, 1934, in the office . There hadn't been a bookkeeper there for a long time. They'd been doing some work so they had time cards. There were materials to charge to the )obs. Mr . Wolter took me to the safe, opened the doors, and said there were some time tickets and material slips . He told me to go to work. That's all the instructions I had, and I had to figure it out. JASON : What kind of boats did you make? FLOYD : Oh, I tell you, during World War II we built an awful lot of ships. We built eighty-six ships during the war . HELEN : Before that you repaired yachts .

59 FLOYD: We did repair work for Uncle Sam, the Navy and Coast Guard. The first iob that I remember was a 45 foot steel fish tug. W~ converted yachts to vessels for Navy use . ·

JUSTIN : What was your last job at what is now Bay Ship? FLOYD: I was corporate secretary and office manager. J ASON : Were there lots of tourists when you got married? HELEN : There were quite a few tourists when I was going to high school . I used to work in the dimestore during summer vacation. We were always terribly busy at the dimestore because they would come in there to buy all the cooking utensils and things that they needed. JASON: My great- grandmother told me that they used to take a fishing boat from Michigan, and come over to pick cherries. HELEN: Well, we had to pick cherries, too. That was the way we used to earn money for our school books. FLOYD: We used to pick them with the stem on them . HELEN: That was before I was old enough to work in the dimes tore . JUSTIN: When you were a child what was Door County like? HELEN: Well, I think it was a lot nicer than it is now because there are so many people now. FLOYD : We had all dirt roads in those days so you did a lot of walking.

JASON: On your farm did you sell your products? FLOYD: We had a dairy farm . Yes, there was a cheese factory iust about a block away from our place, right across t he street from the schoolhouse . JON: Did you have a full year of school? HELEN: We had a summer vacation the same as you do now, but we used to go to school till the middle of June, and it would start again after Labor Day. I know I graduated from high school on the 16th of June .

60 JUSTIN : What were some of the things you did after school? HELEN : We used to make doll clothes, and the girls used to get together and sew, or we played games, a lot of outside games like Run Sheep Run, Tag, Drop the Hand kerchief, and Porn Porn Pullaway. JUSTIN : Did you have a l ot of toys? HELEN: At Christmas we were lucky if we got one Loy, but we would often get oranges . JON : What were the houses like? HELEN: Most of them didn ' t have furnaces, and some of them were two stories. If there was an upstairs often there was a grill or register in the ceiling. JASON: What was you r favorite toy when you were liltle? HELEN: I think my dolls were . I used to like to play with paper dolls. FLOYD: I loved the horses and the cows and the dog and cats. JUSTIN: What was Sturgeon Bay like during the Depression? HELEN : We didn't live here too long during the Depression. We were living in Battle Creek, Michigan. At that time the company we were working for folded right up. We were both working for the same firm. Mr. Knuth was working in the factory office as a cost accountant, and I was working in the sales office as a secretary. We were laid off and we eventually lost everything we had . Then we came back here because his father wasn't very well. JON: Did you have many big storms? HELEN: We had a few of them. One of lhem we had twenty-eighl years ago. It was on a Sunday and I was coming home from church. We lived on Bay Shore Drive. You couldn ' t see a thing as you went down the road. It was raining so hard, and tree limbs were breaking off . As I turned into our driveway, I saw our neighbor's fish shantv fly off . We didn't have any damage done, but Lhere were a lot of people who did, especially in the Brussels area.

61 OUR FRIEND, CLARA KREFT By Misty Brilla Wendy Smith

o.n d Mis+v I

In a little green house on Superior SLreeL livPs a retired schoolteacher, Clara Kreft. Clara is 79 years old. She has lived in Door County all of he r life ; teaching school for 16 years . She spenL memorable years with her studenLs at what is today ' s Sturgeon Bay Community CenLcr.

Today, Clara is a busy friend creaLing ob i ecLs from cans . light bulbs, milk carLons, e tc .

WENDY : Whn L \v e re ti.mes like \.Jh en you w P re a child?

CLAR A : Th .<1 L re q u l re s a 1 o t o [ t h i n k i n g .

MlSTY : Just explain to us the bes t way yo u can.

CLAR A : We 1 1 , [ s u pp o s e a 1o L d i f ! e r c n t t ha n L hey a n~ now c s p e c i a 1 - ly i_f you lived in Lhe country. Th ere wasn ' L .'.15 m11ch transportation as you have and we didn't have a telephone , rad i o , or t e 1 e v is ion . T n s tend , we found nw n v L h i ngs Lo pl ay with on the fa rn1 . MISTY: What was your favorite pct?

CLARA : I didn ' t have any real pe L by my se lf cxccpl for one cow that I learned Lo milk and i t was a blue and whiLP color ; at l easL it looke d kind of blue . lt was thP easiest one Lo milk and thaL was mine . We h.::id cows and somC' horses . We used Lhe horses for culLivaLing.

62 MISTY : Is it fun milking cows? CLARA: It's a job and it wasn't too bad . One time, when my folks were working in the fields quite far out and didn't get hom e early, I milked seven cows . Once I got started I just kept going one after another and had them milked by hand and fed before dark. MISTY : That must have taken a long time. CLARA : It took maybe a couple of hours and we didn't have a with stanchions either. The cows just walked around yard. MISTY : Did you like living on a farm? - CLARA : Yes, because I didn't know any other way. WENDY : Did you have a doll? CLARA: Yes, I had only one doll that was real special. It was .... old-fashioned with a china head and long blond hair . It wasn't a doll to plav with; it was more of a grown-up doll. My aunt, who gave her to me, worked as a nanny in Milwaukee to two little girls. I would get left-over dresses, pinafores, aprons, and lots of clothes that were far too fancy to wear around the farm. MISTY : Dolls back then and dolls now are certainly a lot differ ent, especially with the Cabbage Patch dolls. I really don't care for the Cabbage Patch dolls. I think they are kind of ugly . CLARA : Oh, I think they are cute. WENDY : Where did you go to school? CLARA : Living in Little Sturgeon, I went to Stevenson Pier school and I had to walk 2~ miles . WENDY: What kinds of things did you make at home or at your school? CLARA : I don't Lhink we had time to make very much. In those days, you didn't make many things in school like they do today. We had only one teacher for all the grades and there wasn't much time to make anything . We did draw once in awhile and I found a picture of a bird the other day that I thought was pretty good . It had been - drawn when I went to school out there .

63 MISTY: Did you have assignments to take home? CLARA: Not that I can remember. When the teacher was having one class, the other kids would be studying. Our school day started at about nine and lasted until four in the afternoon . We ate cold lunches and brought them to school in two quart syrup pails. MISTY : Did you have a certain teacher you liked? CLARA : I don ' t t hi nk so. I liked them a ll. You know, I don't r ememb er so well anymore. I meet someone a nd they say, "Hi," and sometimes I won ' t remember their name. MIS TY : You're doing good so far. You could just say, "Hi, how are you doing?" They don't have to know that you can ' t remember their name. WENDY : I like talking with you. MISTY: Did you have any hobbies later in your life? CLARA : Not really. I was busy all my life teaching. I had classes one right after another and had to be all pre pared ahead of time. There was lots to write on the board, in those days, to be ready for the kids and we didn't have all those machines to make copies with . There was a lot of preparation and I wanted to be ready to talk with my kids. WENDY: Did you give your kids book reports to write? CLARA: Oh, sure ! Just the other day I came across a pack of - cards that I kept a record of my kids' book reports on. Each card had a name with a grade up in the corner and a list of all the book reports. Then when I was working on report cards, I could look at each book card. When I knew you were going to visit with me, I began to look over manv of the things.I've saved over the years . There are so many memories. MISTY : What was school like with all those kids in one room? CLARA : It wasn't so hard . Kids knew thay came to school to learn and they were prepared. One thing I liked were the programs. We'd have a program for Washington's birthday or some other holiday and invite the parents . It was fun and most of the parents would be there . MISTY: Would you mind if I ask how old you are? CLARA: Heavens, no . I ' ll be 79 this March.

64 flRE • [Ill A LIFF.TIME OF DOOR COU NTY FARMING By

'I' im Barr Andrew Kurth Chrjstopher Mann

Tim

i'lr. and Mrs. Le nius Sr. were producLive Door CounLy farmer s for ::i pc>ri o cl of over forty years . Mr . L.enius g rew up on a f.:irm and l alc>r moved Lo Milwaukee. At Lh e ~lg(' of L'iglll ePn, h e worked at La kesidf' 13ridge a nd Stee l. A[Ler his moLhPr passed awa'.-', he r eturned Lo Doo r County, in 1942 , with his wife-, 1\lfriL'da . Today . thf'ir son, Russell, together with hi s wilP, bil<>e>n , 11pprale the o rig ina l family farm locale d on Countv Trunk C.

CllR l S l'OPllER : Did ,you live o n a l<1rm all .vour lil1''?

MR . Ll ~ NlllS: Exe cpl when l went Lo Mi l w~1ukE'<' :ind workc d. ,\ l f r ieda a nd 1 bought ou r [nrm in 1942 .

CllRJ STOPHER: Whal \vas fc:1nning like al Lh.:H tim<•? Did vo11 hn vc .:iccessories with th t> tractor , I ik1• u pl(1w or sp1·eader'!

MR . l.l·: N I US : We farmed with horses and lwd otH' tractor . Our [arming was don e with both. W0 l l S(' cl Lo hitch the horses on t o the spreader. Then, when w1' ha d l h e tract o r we could u sP that.

ANDR l·.W: \.Jhal was your [irst t:raclur?

MR. LENIUS: LL was a J o hn DecrE', 1929. IL h '1d ir~in whe<>ls and spade lugs thaL would dig inL~~ tlw ~ro1111d.

ANDRE\~: Whal kind of fa rming did vPu cll)--111ilk ('r gr

MR. l.l:NIUS: Primarily, a dairy l°<1r111.

65 ANDREW : Where did you get feed? Was there a mill near here? MR . LENIUS : There was the Knauf and Tesch in Maplewood, about 5 miles from here. Now Ernie Eicher has it . CHRISTOPHER : How many acres did your family farm? MR . LENIUS : We bought the whole farm and that was 115 acres. But, as we built up, we bought the Herman Hembel farm and the George Hembel farm to hold more acres and to feed more cows . Then we had more tractors and we forgot about the horses . CHRISTOPHER : What would happen after the milk was collected? MR . LENIUS : The truckdriver would come and get the milk in the cans . After loading, he would deliver the cans to - Ervin Schley . CHRISTOPHER : On the Junction of County M and County C, there was a place to deliver milk. Did you do anything there? MR. LENIUS : That ' s where I used to haul milk before I moved to - Milwaukee . I did it for my dad and neighboring farmers . That's where I made my spending money . ANDREW : When you were farming, how many acres of corn and oats did you have? MR. LENIUS: How many acres? It would take about twenty acres to fil l a silo . Accordingly, a 10 foot by 40 foot silo held about twenty acres of corn. We didn't have choppers . We used to green feed the cows. The feed would be run through the silo filler and then given to the cattle green . Twenty acres of corn and the rest was oats . Nowadays, we fence off a piece of land and put cows in it, and they eat off the ground . MRS. LENIUS: In our farming days, it was much different than now . Our son, Russell, keeps feeding constantly to keep producing. When our pasture went short, we had no way to bunk feed or things like that. They have improved their methods so that when the pastures get down, they have all kinds of ways to keep feed ing the cattle . Their production stays up.

66 CHRISTOPHER: When you had cows, how many calves would you get? MR. LENIUS : Well, if you had 18 cows, you had 18 calves . Except, sometimes some died or got sick with pneumonia . We would keep heifers, grow them up, and gel rid of the older cows. CHRISTOPHER: When you built the silo, did you construct it or did someone else . MR. LENIUS : Somebody else built it for us. MR S . LENIUS : You should have been there when they built that silo ! They put it up 10 feet at a time and these men would walk the edges . As the silo grew higher, you could see far, far way, because it ' s 70 feet high on a narrow ledge. MR. LENIUS : It took about a week to built it. Two or three weeks later, they returned and put the roof on . MRS. LENIUS : Another big difference the way farmers farm today compared to the way we farmed long ago is when we planted the grain . When it was ripe, we cut with a grain binder . There was a carriage on the side and it would dump the bundles off . We had to shock them up by hand and then after drying, put the grain on a wagon.

MR . LENIUS : The grain would be hauled up Lo the yard . We had a threshing machine and threshed with it; not a combine . MRS. LENIUS : Talking about threshing, it reminds me of something else that is different . All the neighboring farmers would help load up the wagon and bundle up grain to pitch into the threshing machine . The ladies had to cook. We had lunch for the men in the morning, dinner at noon, lunch in the afternoon, and dinner at night . There would be four or five women and we would cook and bake all day for the men during threshing season . The men looked forward to good food. ANDREW: Did you ever have trouble with wild animals, like a fox or a wolf? MR. LENIUS: No, not around here . When I was a kid, my dad used to pay us for hunting woodchucks . Those woodchucks would dig holes in the field and, if you went over these holes, you would f ly up in the air off your seat ! No, there were no wolves or anything similar. Al so, there were no deer when we moved here. The first deer crossed our land in the early fifties .

67 ANDREW : Were there Indians in the neighboring area? MR . LENIUS : Sure, my mother was afraid of them. They were real friend l y . The Potawatomi loved my mother's homemade bread . She would trade them her bread for a catch of fish . After she got to know them, she wasn ' t afraid . The Indians couldn't understand my mother and my mother couldn't understand them, so we just kept giving them bread and they gave us the fish . ANDREW : Did you need to pick rocks from your fields? MRS . LE NIUS : Now, that is a drawback . If iL wouldn't be for stone-picking, farming would be much easier in Doo r County . Because of all that stone, it takes so much mor e t ime . If you can get on the field, work . it, and not have to take the time off to remove stones, you would have more time to do other things . MR . LENIUS : lt depends what fields . Some of them are like gravel and others have no stones at all. Some days you would have Lo pick all day and that would put you back in time . CHRISTOPHER : Did you ever have vacation Lime?

MRS. LENIUS : In 1971, we went to the Ha~aiian Islands. That's when we had our real vacation. Our boys, Russell and Milton Jr . , were older and Look care of all the chores .

Today, Mr . and Mrs . Lenius are retired and live in a pleasant home on County Trunk M. Mr . Lenius helps Russell by moving machinery and getting supplies . Mrs . Lenius enjoys slaying al home and working in the garden . She also babysits their grandchildren, Angela and Rachael . Our sixth grade science teacher, Millon Lenius Jr . , is also their son .

68 I NTERV I EW WITH AN ARTIST By Eric Ol son Rick La Viol ette Todd Hanrahan

Ge rhard Mi ller had po lio as a child, and couldn 'L walk for a long time . Because of this, he started Lo draw and painL pictures . Th is hobby developed inLo a voca Lion, and he is now a we ll- known artist .

TODD : When did you start painting and why?

GERHARD : l starLed when 1 was about twelve years old . When l was ten years old l had polio, and didn'l walk for quile awhile . Then my grandmother taughl me how to crochet washclothes so I would have someLhing to do. After a mil lion washcJoLhes, then whal dn you do? So then l started drawing and eventually sLarLed pain Ling, and I ' vc been doing i L e ver since .

There was a period wh ~n J didn ' t paint because I was in school. When I got out of high school, I went to the University . Then, instead of Laking arL, 1 Look business adminisLraLion . My wife, who was from Milwaukee, went to the Layton School of Art . She graduated from there and Lhen graduated (rom Lhc UniversiLy of Minnesota with an art degree . So no1.,r Lhings are just Lurned righL aro11ncl with me doing the painting and she handles the business. TODD : Whal schoo l did yo u go to? GERHARD : l went to t he UniversiLy of Wisconsin. TODD : Whal was it like? GERHARD : lt was a g reat school, not as big as iL is now, but iL was a good schoo l, and l Look busines s administration . Yuu see l was in the clothing business for many years. My CaL her start ed that b1 1siness in 1901. Would you like t o knO\v n l ittle biL abo11t him? lt goes \vay back .

69 He came from Bay City, Michigan, and he crossed the Lake on a boat. He came to Sturgeon Bay on a miserable rainy, cold night in May . He landed at the Goodrich Dock, where Peterson Builders is now. He walked up to the Vendome Hotel, which was where the pool is now. TODD: Peterson's? GERHARD : Yeah ! Peterson's, where Peterson ' s Pool is now . It was about eleven or twelve o'clock at night. The hotel was packed full of people, and they couldn't give him a room . The town was buzzing with news of a tragedy . There was a barber in town by the name of Moore. His wife had taken her two children in a baby buggy and wheeled them down to the old Hagemeister Brewery, right across from where the cemetery is now. (That was the old Hagemeister Brewery . It produced a beer called Cherry Circle Beer. It had a circle of cherries and in the middle was a rooster crowing and their slogan was "Something to Crow About.") So she took her two youngs~ers . She took one youngster out in the bay and held it out under the water until it drowned and brought it back and laid it on. the shore . Then she took the other youngster out and drowned that youngster and laid it on the shore. Then she went out and drowned herself . It was a miserable night and Dad was all alone . He came from Michigan, a young fellow twenty-one years old, and to walk into a thing like that! He said if that boat was going back to Michigan that night he probably would have:been on it. A very nice old Norwegian gentleman by the name of Tollef Haines said, ''I think I know where you can get a place to stay." He took him down to a place on Third Avenue. Do you know where LeRoy Olson lived? It's a sort of an olive green .color and it's right across from Bay Ship. That was a house that was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Simon. Grandma Simon met him at the door. She welcomed him as if he was her long lost son. He lived there with room and board until he was married in 1902 . Later on Grandma Simon and Grandpa Simon were like Godparents to me. When I had trouble with - earaches, Grandpa Simon would blow hot tobacco smoke in my ear . That always seemed to help. He was a great fella . Well, would you like to know some things about Sturgeon Bay in the early days? Well, they had wooden sidewalks all up and down Third Avenue. They were wide planks, and we kids found money in the cracks. We would get a penny and go downtown and buy a stick of gum and chew it until we could stick it to the end of a stick. We would go 100king along the cracks and when we would see a penny or dime down there, we would puil it out.

70 GERHARD: And then you know where the Eagle's club is? Right across the street from there was John Schmidt's Bakery. It was a little baker shop and everybody in town thought he made the best white bread in town. They figured the reason he got it so white was because he put soan in it . We used to stop in and buy penny candy, licorice whips, and licorice pipes . Straight down the street, was the Goserud Blacksmith Shop. Old Thorwald was an old Norwegian. I can remember him because that's whe re he used to shoe horses. We ' d stop in there every once in awl1ile and that was always interesting. He'd always have a great big wad of tobacco in his mouth . And then down where the big Pe t erson Builders, Incorporated, building is on Third Avenue was the sight of the Eirst electric light plant in Sturgeon Bay. That was later discontinued and they built anot her electronic light planL across from the Goserud Blacksmith Shop . TOD D: Have you always Lived here? GERHARD : Yes, I was born here . I lived down on Memorial Drive . You know where Rod Bohn lives? It 's the house with gray stucco below and brown above . That ' s where 1 lived, and then in 193 6 I built this house. TODD : How long did it take ?

GERHARD : I started in the fa ll of 1936 and we move d in May of 1937 . TODD : Pretty Cast? GERHARD: Yeah, pretLy fast . l worked here al Lhe time of Lhe Depression. The big stock market crash hit in October of 1929. From t hen on we went into a Depression you wouldn'L believe! In the clothing store that Depression lasted for about four years . It didn'L hit Sturgeon Bay until the summer of 1930 and t he n it got worse and worse until we finally came out oE it in 1935 . A suit of clothes Lhat had originally been about $75 before the Depression was about $29 by 1935. We got in eight ship ments during that period where we sold merchandise for less than we paid for it . Business was so bad you couldn't even give a suit of clothes away. You just weren't selling'em, that's about the size of it . TODD : Was yours the only store Lhat did Lhat? GERHARD : Greisen had a clothing store down where Seeber now has his store, and he finally went out of business . T think we are the oldest store in Sturgeon Bay.

71 RICK: Our teacher told us about a vase . GERHARD: I t hink I know what she ' s talking about . I was making fifteen cents an hour and in Weitlich ' s Jewe l ry Store there was this beautiful handpainted vase . I thought it was the greatest t hing in the world, but it was $12 . 50 . You had to work a long time at fifteen cents an hour Lo make $12.50, but I had to have it for my mom. She was really good to me. When I could walk a little bit she took me to McLain ' s Sanitarium in St . Louis to get my leg straigh tened out . They operated on it a lot and then put it in braces up to the hip. When I left they l owered it to my knee and put a shoe on it . I wor e that for five or six years, but I couldn 't get away from the vase, it was so beautiful . So I made a little payment on it every once in awhile until I had $12 . 50 . Wh en I took it to my - mother she was really happy with that. I got raised to twenty cents . Eve r y time a shipment came in, I wanted something new, so I charged it . Well, after awhile my dad called me into the office and asked me if I knew how much I owed. When I said I didn ' t know, he told me it was $90, and asked what I was going to do about it . I said that I thought I would have to pay it . He said, "You bet your life you have to pay it . Now that you' re earning money you not only have to pay your bill, but I want you to pay $5 a week at home." Well, it Look a couple of years to pay that bill . When I finally paid it, my dad handed me a bank book. He had put that $5 a week into Lhe bank for me. He was really teaching me never to run a bill that big again, and I haven't. RICK : When you were young what did you do for fun? GERHARD : Oh, boy, did we have fun ! We made our own fun . We didn'L have toys like you guys . I had an erector set and a train, I did a lot of ice skating and sailing . A(Ler I wa s twelve I did a lot of hunting (because I couldn ' L get a license until then) . We did everything you do now, play ball and marbles . Then in September of 1913, I was sailing a boat with my brother- in-law, who later became a ship captain. We were sailing the boat on a beautiful September day, buL all of a sudden I got terribly cold . I wenL home and sat over a hot radiator and my mother put me in a Lub of hot water, but I was still cold. She put me in bed at 4 : 00 and 6 : 00 I had a 106° fever . That's when I got polio. When I came to three days later I was like a dishrag . I was paralyzed from my neck down . My doctor put my left leg in a cast and I was in bed for a long time . When I finally got out of bed I couldn 'L walk. My doctor took

72 my mom and dad into the 1 ibrary and told them never to expect me to walk again . But my father turned t6 my mother and said, "That boy will walk again if it ' s the last thing he does .:" Then he started to work on me, massaging and treatments and he did all of those things for me . That's why 1 say he's such a great guy. He did all the things for me that Sister Kenny became famous for in treating polio patients, and that was long before any Salk vaccine . My father would put me on the floor of the library and go to work . All 1 could do was lay there all day until he came home . When I began to walk, I walked on my ankles with my foot turned up. In.·St . Louis they took care of me, operated on me, straightened me out, and got my foot back down a little bit, and put on braces . At that time it cost dad $1,000 a month to keep me there which today would be about $10,000. He had to let the stock of the store go down, and borrow from the bank and his life insurance just to keep me down there . By the time I came home he had spent a lot of money on me . RICK : So you were really lucky to have a father like that . GERHARD : You bet your life I was ! Some years later when I was working in the store a man by the nam e of Spieber came in the back door carrying his son on his shoulders . His kid was about twelve, too big to be riding piggyback on his father's shoulders. The boy's name was Fritzy . I said, "What are you doing on your dad's shoulders?" He said he couldn't walk because he had polio . I said, "W ell, shucks, that's nothing. I had polio when I was a youngster and I couldn't walk for a long time, but look how good I walk now. I'll make you a deal . The day you come walking through that door on your own two feet , I'll buy you the best bicycle we can find in town." Well, I forgot about it and time went by. It was over a year later and I was sitting back in the office, when the door opened and a boy called, "Hey, Mr. Miller ! Here I am !" There was Fritzy, coming through the door on his own two feet . He wasn't walking very good, but he was walking, so we went out and bought him the best bicycle in town . When something goes wrong you need a goal . If he wouldn ' t hav~ had that goal, he probably never would have walked again . ERIC : Out of all the artwork you ' ve done what's your favori te? GERHARD: l don't have a favorite, but I've been very fortunate in many respects. It was hard doing art work because I was working at the store too. We opened at eighL, and to get my art work done was a real job. I'd get up early in the morning and paint until I had to work. Then when I got home I'd grab a sandwich and paint until Lt was time to go back to the store. When 1 got home al night I 'd paint again.

73 GERHARD: Doing two things at once was hard. I was in the store until 1959, but prior to 1959, in about 1953, I was elected as a member of the American Watercolor Society in New York. In 1967 we both had fellowships at the Hunting in Hartland Foundation in California . That's where I began to experiment with painting in egg tempera. I painted about fifty-five pictures out there, and twenty one of them were sold to Vincent Price. I had exhibits all over including the Metropolitan in New York . Ten years ago we decided that we wanted to have an art museum in Sturgeon Bay. The old library which was stone had been built in 1913 and it was real outdated . They tried to get a new library financed at that time, and they got a $90,000 grant from the government, but the county board wouldn't match it, so they lost the money, and then the whole thing died for about five years . Then Ruth and I were in Venice and one morning we got a burning idea. We were with the head of the Library Board at the time . We thought that if we furnished the money for an art museum and used that as an incentive that we could get the county to raise enough money for a library. Well, she was all excited about that, and so when we came home we started the ball rolling. The county put up $200,000, the city put in $200,000, and they formed the "Friends of the Library . " They raised $200,000 and with our $50,000, the new library was built . Within two years it was get ting too small because we were building up a permanent art collection that we had no room for . So we asked the librarian if we could use the balcony . He said we could, but if the library grew, they would need that space too. There was only one thing to do. We gutted the old museum and put in the mezzanine floor so we had a place for the permanent art collection. !J( I • THE FIRST SETTLER'S GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER By

Stephanie Ash Sherry Sanvictores Pam Pagenkopf

o.. S he.rrv ) Pa. m ) nd S+ e.phan;e. Dora. V!'.f te.r o.r.d Tva., Moore., 9re.:1.. l· · qro.nd ci!l.u.Qn f°e..rs oi- Tn~re. a.se. o..!?d f"7ary· Ar.11. CJ c.J • Iv-a Moore is eighty-one years old. She had fourteen children and two of her daughters died . There are two girls and ten boys living. She lives on Route 2 next to her old home, which was moved because a highway was being constructed. I ncrease Claflin was Iva 's great-grandfather. Increase was Door County's first white settler.

SHERRY: Could you tell us something about the historv of your family? IVA : Well, I have some l iterature here to share with you . You know my g reat-grandfather, Increase Claflin, was the first settler in Door County . He was born on September 19, 1795 . When he came here,and even wh en my father was young, there were quite a few Indians in Door County.

STt:PHANIE: Did vour great-grandfather get along with the I ndians?

IV/\ : lie did, but his son-in-law did not. My great grandfather came home one day and here were the I ndians . They were about to kill the son- in law, Robert Stephenson, and they were going to take Increase's daughter to live with the Indian women. Bul Increase came home just i n time . He sea red them with gunpowder. He went in and got some gunpowder and he told them that it would blow them up.

75 PAM: What kind of book did you get that information from? IVA : This came from the library. This is al l from a .. book called Old Peninsula Days. Now here ' s the the part I was telling you about . It says Claflin got along very well with the Menominee Indians. You see, Increase Claflin settled in Little Sturgeon, and that is where I was born and raised . It's in the Town of Gardner . According to this, Increase raised horses. In that village there were four or five hundred Menominee Indians . This is a quotation from the book : "Claflin got along very well with these Indians, as he treated them fairly and generously . Two or three years later, however, serious trouble broke out between them, brought on by Claflin's son-in-law, Robert Stephenson. This man, originally from Pennsylvania, came to Little Sturgeon in 1836, and was employed by Claflin in various capacities . The next year he married Claflin's oldest daughter, but continued for a time to make his home with the Claflins. He was capable, energetic man, but domineering and tricky in dealing with the Indians. His usual procedure was to get the Indians drunk, whereupon he would obtain their peltrie s at prices ruinous to the poor redskins. This greatly displeased Claflin, who was as fair to the Indians wh e n they were drunk as when they were sober . One day, when Claflin returned from a round-up of his horses, an alarming sight met his eyes . A band of Indians in war paint were scurrying around his cabin. Stephenson was engaged in a hand to hand fight with several redskins and was felled to th~ ground with several knife stabs . Another white man in the employ of Claflin lay dead in the doorway, and a couple of Indians were just dragging out his daughter, Mrs. Stephenson . Dashing his horse into their midst, Claflin scattered the Indians who were dragging away his daughter, and hurried her into the house where he found the other members of his family safe, but trembling with fear . Turning to the Indians he demanded the meaning of the attack. A stalwart Indian, their chief, stepped up and spoke : ' You are our friend and we wish you no harm . You may take your squaw and your papooses and go away in your boat. But we shall kill your son (pointing to Stephenson), and burn your house and let no white man stay here among us . Our young men bring their furs and our daughters their robes and blankets to your house and he (Stephenson), makes them drunk with fire water and gives them nothing in reLurn . We shall kill him and give his squaw to our young men for our daughters to laugh at and spit upon . Go, while we remember your good deeds! ' In vain Claflin Lried to reason with them, but a hubbub of excited Indian outcries and threats broke out. Claflin then said : ' Well, if I have to go, l e L me treat you before I go . We have always been friends and let us part in the same manner .•

76 The Indians grunted their approval of this and seated them selves in anticipation of their feast . Claflin then entered his storehouse, and returned with a keg and a tin cup. He carried it into their midst and poured a little of the liquid into the cup . To their amazement the Indians saw, not whiskey, but gunpowder trickle into the cup . Then he took his flint and fire-stell, ignited a piece of tinder and threw it into the cup. There was a flash, a loud report, and the cup was gone ! - Apprehensively the Indians looked at each other and fidgeted in their seats. The chief then said, TWh-what is my white brother going to do with the keg of powder?' 'Do! 1 exclaimed Claflin, 'I am going to blow you all to hell! Either you smoke the peace- pipe with me or not a man leaves this spot! I have always treated you Indians fairly and squarely and now you turn upon me like wolves to kill my children and drive me from my home . If my son Robert has mis used you, you have punished him enough . Now l et us be friends and smoke the pipe of peace . 1 Filled with mixed feelings of admiration and apprehension at Claflin's audacity, the Indians assented . Claflin filled his pipe and lit it, whereupon it was passed from Indian to Indian with all proper solemnity . Two gigantic elms near the shore at the mouth of Little Sturgeon Bay now mark the spot where this eventful meeting took place . 11

IVA : Have you ever gone out there? There 's a rock with with a plaque on it there . You have to go all the way to Little Sturgeon. Then you go to County C and you turn on CC. PAM: I noticed that you have a clay pipe by you . IVA: Well, my father's mother used to smoke a clay pipe . We lived with my grandparents and she smoked a clay pipe. I was in Ireland last year and I saw this pipe and it reminded me of my grandma, so I bought it and brought it home. Hers wasn't fancy; this has Irish things on it, like a shamrock, but that was why I got it . I remember my grandma's clay pipe . She would sit and smoke and she would wear her hair in braids . In those days they made tea for dinner and that was called steeping tea. It would get quite dark but she never threw that tea away. She'd save that and she'd put that in the washbowl. We would dip our comb in there and run it through her hair. That kept her hair dark. This was my grandmother's Bible. There are some things in here like family obituaries, who died and where they were buried, and how old they were. I got it out because I thought you might like to see it. It was printed in 1889.

77 SHERRY: What was it l ike growing up i n Wisconsin? IVA: I don't t h ink I could t hink of a better place to g r ow up . Could you? There are winters and there are s ummers, and some warm a nd others are cold, bu t nobody can bea t it . When I was growing up , we were poor. . very, very poor . My father was a fisherman, and fisher men have good times and bad times, but we managed . We didn't have any running water in the house. We'd get the washtub out to take a bath . STEPHANIE : What were some of the chores that you had to do? IVA : We always had to do dishes after supper and we had to scrub floors . We had to get down on our hands and knees and scrub . Washing was done on a washboard . There were no washing machines . Carry water, pump it from the pump outside, and carry it in . Well, we didn ' t think of it as ha rd work . PAM : Were there any hard times when you were young, real hard times? Did you have any bad storms where you couldn't get out to get food?

IVA : I i really don ' t think it ever got that bad. We always had f ish. We only ate good f ish. We never ate bad fish, like carp or suckers, or anything like that. SHERRY : Did you have any favorite hobbies when you were a child? IVA : Reading. SHERRY : Reading? IVA : Yes, reading . PAM : What kind of books did you read? IVA : Anything I could get. We didn't have much of a library at school. But we had books. I like to read. SHERRY: What were your teachers like? IVA : Very nice, good teachers; always good teachers. SHERRY : Did you have any favorites? IVA: Well, not really, they were all good , I think.

78 SHERRY: Did boys ever play tricks on yo u? IVA: I don ' t think they ever did. SHERRY: Did the boys dip the girls' braids in the ink wells? IVA : Well, I had braids, and they got pulled, but I don ' t remember that t hey ever got dipped in ink wells . STEPHANIE: Were there any dances? IVA: There were country dances . There was a dance hall not too far away. My dad used to take us to the hall. We had to walk a few miles to get there. My mother always took us along . There were always other kids there . STEPHAN IE : Did you have anything like a prom or any school dances? IVA : No, we didn't . I was born in 1905. I was 13 when I graduated from eighth grade. There weren ' t many things to do . STEPHANIE: Was graduation from eighth grade a big thing? IVA : It was a big thing for me because we were from Little Sturgeon. We never took our eighth grade exams there. We always went to Brussels. SHERRY: Where did you stay when you took yol1r exams? IVA: I stayed with a cousin of mine, because she lived there. PAM: What grade did you end with? Did you stop at eighth grade or go on? IVA: I had a year and a half of high sch?ol. I was the onlv one in mv family who went to high school at all . I w~nt through my freshman year and part of my sopho more year. SHERRY: Did you e ver want to be a nurse or something like that? IVA: No not reallv. I don't think I could be a nurse. I ca~'t stand the sight of bloo

SHERRY: What was the happjest thing that ever happened to you? IVA : I 'm not sure. There were a lot of happy things, anct bad, too. STEPHANIE: Could vou LC'll us cibout some of those happv thinp.s thaL h~prenP

IVA: WC'll. somP of Lhrni are whPn mv childrPn ccirnc hornP, nnd bring mv grnndchi l dren al~ng.

STEPHANI E: Were you verv happv when Lhe highway wPnl through vour hous0?

TVA: No, thal wasn'L a h0ppy time. We moved t.o Lh is h ouse in J8nucuv of 1975. There' wDsn'L much snow on the ground . so we werP able to move a lot of things with a wheelbarrow. No. neither one of us liked that .

PAM : lvhnt were the nice.' things about vour o l d house?

IVA: WPll, W<' had ;:in upstairs, a downsUlirs. and a big k1Lchen, buL we didn't have running water.

PAM : Do you rrmember whal Sturgeon Bay used Lo look like?

IVA: Yes, there used Lo he board sidewalks 8nd dirt. roads. You know where the ExPcuLive Offict" BuildinR i~. rhnl wns a hotPl. Th<>v Look care of the horses where the Bank of Sturgeon Bay is now.

STEPllANlE: Did vnu h<1ve to pav to keep thP horses there?

r th1nk so . 10c for o n e day.

SHERRY : Do vou think clcn-inlo\vn changPd a lot?

IVA: Ln ~ •vav. it would ncvC'r stav Lhe wav iL was, but that's progress. -

~ 1.1. t h S c. ho J :z: for f rays f'vi o. r y A n n • r r. 1· f\ I r· I • :.,J;rf:. l\t" .n~re.ase. u . ').r.:n.. 80 WARD THREE COLLECTIONS John E. Nelson By Vaness a Bauch Er i ka Ba chman Caterina Merri man

~ rik a, C o. te.ri;n~ o..n Va.ne.SS.A. ) M r u.nd Mrs·' . tVP.1Sor.I

John E. Nelson was born in Two Ri.vers, Wisl.:onsin, buL lived most of his life in Sturgeon Bay . lie grew up in Lh e Third \.Jard, and he will share some of his recollections of llf(' d11ring his early years .

ERIKA : Where was Lhe Third Ward?

JOHN : IL rem all along Mem o rial Drive [rom Pl'LL'rson Huilders Lo Lhe Or bi L Resort . From the Orb i L, i l went L<' Michigan Street .

VANESSA : What was Lhe Thi rd \fa rd? JusL an etn•a?

JOHN : That's what it was, a residential arc.a. f\L Lh~1L time it was only partially built . Some [am il iPs had one cow, maybe Lwo, depending on the size of the family . After \.Jorld War I1 Lhc .::ir0<.1 devr l uprd .

1 CATERINA : Wh y did people call you lhe 'bad bovs l)[ \ford rhrPc if n o body was bad?

JOHN : 1 rea 1 l y don' L know . h'e d i.dn' L have monP.y Lo s1wnd but vi e had fun, and o n Hal l oween \v e pulled a fl!w liLtle pranks.

CATERINA: Could you Lcll us abo ut them?

JOllN : We 11 , the old Pe op 1 P ' s Hos pi ta l wa s ab and o 1w d . There were some Loil e L fixtures laying around. i\ few of us took an o ld Loi.leL bowl and hung il up on top o[ an o ld spi.nster's h ome .

8 L ERIKA : Did you get in trouble for it? JOHN : No, nobody ever knew we did it . ERIKA : Tell us more about the Third Ward. JOHN : In the ' 20s a group of SLurgeon Bay men got togeLher and built what they called the Country Club, which is now a portion of the Orbit Resort . In conjunction with that they built a nine-hole golf course . In the 1920s a caddy could earn 25~ for carrying golf c lubs for nine holes. JOHN: Another thing they had back in those days that I 'm sure you heard of was a dance club called the Grass hopper. That was right in the area where the Star dust Motel is now. Part of the dance club projected right over the water. During the summer they kept a band there every day of the week, and there was dancing every night. Back in those days I remember sitting up on the front porch of the dance club watching a string of cars going down the block . But, there was so darn much dust that everybody along the line complained, because they did not have a black-top road at that stage of the game . Some of these guys would drive as fast as they could t o raise as much dust as they could, and they did . Are you familiar with Peterson Builders? Well, in 1942 the U.S . Government came in and tried to make a canal . They pumped up everything that was in that mud, and filled it up behind the dike. CATERINA : That's where the canal is now? JOHN: Yeah, that ' s where it is now. My granddad, on my mother's side, worked on the canal . That was quite a lot of work because they didn't have the kind of machinery that they do now, bulldozers, and you name it. That was altogether a different ball game. VANESSA : Do you know how long it took to build the canal?

JOHN: I don't really know how long it took. I would guess that it took them at least a couple of years because everything was done by hand with the help of horses. CATERINA : Did your grandpa live rhrough it or did he die? JOHN : He lived through it, bul it wasn't long after that he passed away. 6ut it wasn't as a result of what they were doing .

82 JOHN: Oh, another thing, they had a hospital called the People's Hospital. It was built on what is now Memorial Drive . After it was no longer in operation, Captain John Roen bought the property . After they dismantled the hospiLal, he puL in his beautiful new home. The person who owns it now is Mr . Zuelke, but Mr. Ro en and his family lived there for many years . There was a box factory a l ittle bit east of Peterson Builders. It was a good-sized Cape Cod type of building . Back in those days there was quite a demand for boxes, for instance, for crating food, vegetables, and even fish boxes . That box factory operated there for quite some time . Later on in the late ' 20s and early ' JOs the Depression came, so the demand for boxes went down, and they just fel l by the wayside. But I remember when I was a kid - I wasn't even twelve years old - they had pieces of wood that were very, very thin. They used those for cupboards, I believe . When they got to that point, they had to be taken ou t to a field across from the factory where they could dry out . And the only way they could dry out was to get them out in the sun and spread them around all over in this field. VANESSA : Was the bridge the same as it is now? JOHN : Wel l , they had an old railroad bridge . Originally, that bridge was used for the train as well as for people to walk on and cars to drive on. They used that old railroad bridge shortly after World War II was over. Then they took off the railroad track . VANESSA: Were tourists as big a thing in Sturgeon Bay then as they are now?

JOHN : No, bu~ e~ch year the tourist industry has grown until it is now a major industry in Door County, along with shipbuilding . I CATERINA : Were you born here? JOHN : No, I was born in Two Rivers, but when I was six weeks old, my dad and mother moved back to Sturgeon Bay . My dad was a lighthouse keeper in Two Rivers I at that time . A lighthouse is for navigational purposes. There's one at the Canal Coast Guard Station. VANESSA : Did you live anyplace else but Sturgeon Bay, except for when you were little? JOHN : Yeah, when I worked in Green Bay . It was only for a couple of years though, and then we moved back .

83 VANESSA : Did your wife grow up in Sturgeon Bay too? JOHN : Sure . Her dad had the hardware store that we later on called Wulf Hardware. After she graduated from high school, she went to a state teachers' college for a semester. VANESSA : What was school like when you were little? JOHN : I wouldn ' t say that it was the same as it is now . I think nowadays the students are more advanced as far as their studies and everything else are con cerned . We didn ' t have exchange students or T. V. or computers, but our subjects were almost the same, except for art and classes like that . We also had longer school hours and no buses . Everyone walked, no matter how far . VANESSA: What did you do for fun or in your free time?

JOHN: I did a lot of fishing and hunted rabbits and ducks . We played baseba ll and went swimming and ice skating . We skated at the Market Square, and many kids were there every night of the week . If you went to the movies you could spend ten cents, but it was even hard to get ten cents in those days. So, we spent most of our time ice skating, or on school activities like basketball games and that sort of thing . CATERINA: Did yotl ever have any bad experiences? Did you ever fall through the ice? JOHN: The only shocking experience that I recall was one time when I was getting ready to go fishing. Some fishermen had their boat anchored in back of their house . I went down to catch some minnows from that boat because there we re minnows in that area . I grabbed the net with one hand, and I was trying to swing around. I thought that I had grabbed the rail on top of the cabins of the fishing boat. It was really a buoy with a folded rail at the top . I was going to swin? around and walk in fromt of. the deck . Since it wasn t the rail, I swung out and kept on going, right into the drink. I was wet from the top of my head to the tips o[ my toes. It was in the early spring and the ice had just melted . And it was cold, really cold! The shore wasn ' t too far so I just swam onto the beach and got out. I didn ' t suffer too much as a result, but that was one little shocker I had !

84 - /\ W/\SlllNGTON ISL /\NOEH Va rian Olsen By

Chad Mo ore Ta g Gunnlaugsson

r • Mike Rom eis Joshua Hu ssin ' . - .,-:: -_:~ - ~ ' . ~ --· ~ t~--- tW Zlo s h a. nd C h a. d -/a.q \/a.r 1a.n cJ ) ) a.ndMike.

Wasl1ington Is l and was Lhe h ome [or Varian Han son. As Cl child, Varian enjoyed naLure and school. She taught o n Washington Island [or [011r years . She quit so she could get married to John Cornell. Back then women couldn 't teach if Lhey were married.

CHAD: What: was your childhood like?

VARlAN: Tha l is D pretty broad question. Childhood was out in Lhe coun l ry o n a b co utifol island surrounded by Lake M i chi g an t.J.:i L c rs . Wash ington Island . I gre~ up on a farm an Jackson Harbor Road . Our farm was righL across Lhc road from Jackson Harbor School.

Wl rn L w;1 s i 1 1 i kc ? We l 1 , i L wa s a fo r m , and we d id n ' l: have all Lhe equipment you h ave nowadays. The children really worked on Lhe farms. In the spring we would lwvC" Lo cut potatoes. Dad raised a lot of potatoes. J remcmbrr sitting on t h e back of Lhe potaLo planter, <:Incl put L L11g the cut pat those rnw.s. t.Jp did Lhl' sanH" wiLh corn.

~Iv fothc1· and manv pcopl0 up Lherc we r e fishermen. p~1rt um<>. Ile nlso likc boat for fun. but when Lhey came in and drcss0d the fish , thev would wash them and p11t them Pn <.l u:1blc wiLh t'.l rnck Lirnt was full of salt. \·!c• h't>uld s t :ind LIH"rc• and pul I Lh0 h<>rring through the - S t1ld p11L LIH•m <"lr011ncl lhi' c•dgc of ;i fish keg. The k1~ g \·.•as :1bn11L tw0 fP0t high. Thi:; wns the w

85 Oh, about fishing ! Our ne i ghbor didn ' t j ust fish herring i n the spring and fall. He f i s hed al l year . His name was Mr . Nelson . He fished trout . Now they don't fish trout like they use d to. They had trout lines, and they 'd come in with all these lines with the meters and the lines all thrown in a box. I would sit on the dock and do what is called 'run over hooks .' I would have to arrange them all on a rack. The box would be all arranged nice so when they we n t out to set their hooks, they'd go right in order . Otherwise they wouldn ' t be able to set those hooks. That ' s how I earned some money in the summer besides picking c herries - with the stems on . MIKE: What was the schooling system like on the island? VAR IAN : There you hit me righ t where I livel because, like I said, I grew up right across the road from the Jackson Harbor School . We called it a rural school . Out on the Lake View Road was the other rural school called the Lucke School or the Eastside School . A rural school is all eight grades with one teacher . We took turns going up to class, while the rest were supposed to be studying. The teachers were pretty strict, and we learned . We learned probably by listening to one another . ~'i2J.i·~J1yway there were two other schools, the Washington~d School and the Detroit Harbor School . Later I taught primary school. These were called state-graded schools and they had two rooms. They ' d have grades 1-4 in one room and grades 5-8 in the other room. We had the primary teacher and the upper grade teacher. There was no high school. If the children in those days wanted to go to high school, their parents would find a place for them to board in Gibraltar or in Sturgeon Bay . Their children would be gone except for holidays . They would maybe work at the Hotel Roxana or what is now called Gallagher's. I had a friend who went to Gibraltar . Okay, private school, what does that mean? It meant that a lot of peopl~ di

86 I went to high school when it was a private high school. The Island had that for awh~le before they got the new public school. The parents who wanted their kids to go to high school would get together and decide how many would be going, and how much it would cost, and who they could get to teach. I went to school three years. We did six subiects two years and five subiects the next. I had skipped thi~d grade, so I was-out of school at sixteen. Terribl~! I don't believe in it really, but that's the way it was. I went to Algoma school for one year, and I was back on the Island teaching at seventeen. How would you like that? BOYS: We'd like having a seventeen year old teacher! VARIAN: And vou know where I taught? Out where all of Tag Gunnlaugsson's relatives went, out at the Lucke School. I taught there for four years. Four eighth graders were repeating eighth grade, and there were about thirty-seven children . I had to build fires, and keep the school clean . I drove to school in a Model T Ford. I earned $100 a month for nine months. After one year, when I became a widow, the Detroit Harbor School Board came Lo ask me to teach their primary grades, which I did for nine years with some breaks, including World War II and travel with my husband, Donald Olsen. I married him in 1942. TAG: How did you gel around on the Island? Car, or what did you use? VARIAN: Well, as you know at that time on the farms we used horses. I went to high school in the winter with a • sleigh pulled by a horse. It was a covered sleigh something like a fish shanty. Inside my dad fixed up a kerosene healer so we could keep warm. When we went visiting we would ride in this covered sleigh with bells iingling. You know the s nowplows wouldn't clear the roads and the horses would be going up and down, and you would gel seasick before you got there . You would have Lo stick your head out in the air. You could look oul a little window and see what was going on. We would sing and talk. I drove when I was fourteen years old because my dad got me a special license to takP milk to the cheese factory. We drove an old Model T and a little Chevrolet touring car . We would drive to school that way, taking turns with others that were going to high school. There weren't any school buses, so that was the kind of transportation we had.

87 JOSH: What did you do in your spare time? Did you have any hobbies? VARIAN: Well, I realize now that I always was interested in nature. I remember we would go down to the swamps near school and see jack-in-the-pulpits and marsh marigolds . We would make a raft and float on the pond . We would gather frog eggs, put them in pans, and watch them turn into tadpoles . We would eat leeks in the spring, and the teacher would have a fit be - cause of the unbearable odor, worse than onion s or garlic. The teacher made some rules and that was the end of that! We played ball and Ante Ante Over, and other games l ike Porn Porn Pullaway, Prisoner's Base, and more . Of course Island children swim. We had fine beaches and docks . In the winter we went skiing and sledding . I remember one Christmas we really thought things were pretty rough around home because we didn't see many presents. Finally after Dad made us suffer long enough he said go outside, and there stood a pair of skis for each of us children. They were hand-made by our neighbor . That was one of the best Christmases ever. That was wonderful. MIKE : What kind of iokes did you play on people in school? TAG : Stick the frog in the teacher's drawer? VARIAN: No, but the boys would stick the girls' braids into the ink wells. I was always a bookworm. I was usually sitting with my head in a book . I didn't even know when class would start. I would be the laughing stock because they would have to say, "Varian!" Then I would know it was time for class. So everybody gets noted in school for being a certain way. Then they would get teased. TAG: How many people were in your family? VARIAN : There were five children. I was the oldest, then Gerald, Doris, Eleanor, and Harley . Ten years after Harley was born came my little brother, Glenn. After he was born my mother, Mary, never got well, and she died not too many years later. It was rough .

88 T.t\G : h1 h c. t \•/ e re L lw h o us P s l i kc' 1 11 l hos f' cl c-1 vs?

VAR1J\N: \·Jc d i cl n ' l h a v l" .'.1 l I L ht' L I 1 i n g s v Cl t 1 ha v 0 n mv , I i 1<0 \v:ishf'rs, clrvcrs, or mic1·1)wnv0s. Ot1r mot h<' r \v o11 ld hnvP to h.'.1n g thP. clolhPs o ut in spring nnd wintPr . WP h mn cl 1' D \v Cl l<:' r s v s l P 111 I h n t \v <' n t throt1?h thr \voorlburnin}'. pnrl of Lh P SL0VP thnl h('n l <'d Lh f' \v~JlPr nl into D Lani< in thP baLhrnom. Ollr [irsL hnthroom wcis 0 littl e housP ou t h<>hind th e> lil ~1c b 11 s h P s , a n d s om c n f t h \' s P t r i p s we r P p r e L L v c o I d . I gr r• \v 11 p i n <1 I o g ho u s r• '" i t h i1 wood h c:> a L 0 r ;111 cl .:1 won d - s t ovt-> . WP didn't hav<' n l l"L 0f bedrooms . 1ust \)flt"' big onP 11pstHirs that \,1(' kids slept in, ;incl 1i1H' dO\vn- stciirs. Things were' dirf0n•nl then.

T1\G: ll ow o l ci a r c• v o u ?

VJ\Rl/\N: lll1w old am I? Don't"<'" kn O\v vou shc'ltl l dn 't :isk vt-> ntv-two vPnrs t' ld. li vc·cl 1hr1111gh LhrE't' h't'lrs. N0thing \vns \v\) rs0 tlwn t h [l l .

89 ... HORSES I N HI S BLOO D By David Solecki Scott Ri cha rd Jeff Teich

George Oram was born in 1910. The house he lives in now is the one nexl door to the house he lived in when he was little . When he was in school, his p.:irents thou~hl that the kids at Sturgeon Bay were Loo rough for him so they sent him t o a Baileys H:irbor grade school. lie has trained horses, and began this training when he was twenty years of age .

JEFF : When did you become involved with horses?

GEORGE : When 1 was eight or nine years old 1 started Lo pick stones ouL there al the [uir. In those years th<"y d i dn't have Lhe ground eq u ipment Lhat Lhey have now for picking stones and dragging sluff . So L 'd go out thert about five o ' clock in Lhc morning and pick stones on the race t rack. They had a wa l er Lank ma de ou t of a gas Lank with Lhe Lop cul off, and iL was built up on stones . f'A_ IL was my job Lo kPcp a fire going und er il. I ' d have Lo pick up fir0wood on Lhc f~1irgrou n ds a nd keep a f i r<" under Lhe waler Lank Lo bathe a horse after a race .

I don ' t knuw how o l d L w<:ls when l started Lo jog a horse, bul Beni i George was LhC' I irst horse that l ever drove . She wa s a p re t L y good r a c eh o r s c . Sh c wcl s a pa c e r . She came here when s he was LhrC'e years o l d, and raced out o [ t h e C h c r r y l a n d S L a b 1 (' s .

90 DAVlD : Whal was Lhe Eirsl horse you ever trained? GEORGE: Benji George was Lhc [irsl hors0 1 ever helped train. I jogged her, and I slarl<'CI at Lh.'.ll because there was an old fella who was crippled . She was hol, you know, and she'd take off with you. You had to be preLLy strong Lo handl0 her, so he said, "Wh ere ' s Lh.'.lt young fellow , where's thal young fellow?" So 1 wenl out Lhere and thaL' s when I started jogging. So 1 just kepl on going . one after another . Some winters l 'd jog as many as five horses out there .

JEFF: Whal were some of the olher horses that vou Lrained? GEORGE : Well, my favorile horse was the son of Benii George . lli s name was Dusly Bing. When vou have a coll registered like Lhal you send in Lhree names, and lhen the United Stales Trotting Associalion will select the name lhat isn't lik0 some other horse's nnme. We wanted him to be named Dusly Georgie, but Lh ey selected Lhe name Dusty Bing. So that got Lo be his name, bul he was my favorite .

- He ca 111 e he re when he w.:i s j us l

DAVlD : Was it hard to train a horse?

GEORGE: Nol excepl ional 1y. Mosl horsPs are pn•Lly easy, bul once i n aw h il c yo u g c> l o n e l l w L ' s .:1 L i t L 1L' rn L l 1 c h c a d e d . Mo s L of Lhem, if you i-tre pal ienL and Leach what they are s u pp o s e d l o 1 ea r n , v o u ' l 1 g e t ;il on g D 1r i g h L . Pa t i en c e is the big thing. Thal ' s why girls g0L along good wilh horses bec:ausc Lhoy havC' t1 soll voicf', a g0nl le Louch, and a loL of pal ience. /\ horse•' s ears and eyes are six Li.m0s more sensitive Lh.'.ln a human's. I( you look into a horse 's 0yrs you only l ook about five inchc>s Lal I. Th a L ' s why you don ' L h :.1v c Lo ho 1 le r .'.1 l D horse . l f you jusl Lalk low you won't spook Lhe hors<'.

91 '

JEFF: What are some of the maJor horse races that you ' ve been to? GEORGE: I 've been to the Kentucky Derby and the Little Brown Jug. You go there on Thursday, that ' s Jug Day, and race there all week. The Little Brown JJg is for three-year old pacers, just like the Kentucky Derby is for three year- old running horses. Then they have a three-year old trotting race, too, at the Hamiltonian in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. If you go there you see the best in that group of horses . Just like at the Kentucky Derby. Three hundred fifty-nine horses were nominated, and thirteen started. JEFF: What do you think is one of the easiest tracks for pacers to run? GEORGE: Usually the mile track for the simple reason that the turns are bigger . DAVID : What ' s the life span of a horse? GEORGE : Well, if a horse gets thirty years old, it ' s really old . There is a butcher in New Jersey that butchers the horses and makes dog food and cat food out of them. It ' s better to dispose of them than to put them in a pasture someplace and forget about them, or neglect Lhem, which does happen to a lot of horses. SCOTT : What's that picture on the wall? - GEORGE : That is my Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary . It was fifty years in 1983 . We are now going to have our fifty-fourth high school graduating party on the 8th of June. We are going to have three classes -- 1929, 1930, and 1931 -- at Andre ' s SCOTT: Do you think you will remember all Lhose people? GEORGE: No. We went from our fifteenlh reunion to the thirty fifth, and in that span there were quite a few of them lost, but they all changed so much that if they didn't have their name tags on their lapels, I wouldn't have known half of them, and that ' s a fact. Of course, you remember the guys that you played football with and basketball or baseball. You know them better than you do Lhe average kid that didn't get involved in anything . Bul it was fun and I enjoy going Lo those class reunions. I like to meet all those old-timers.

92 SCOTT : So you co1 1ld see ~1 11 your uld girlfr1L~nds?

GEO RGE : T lwd no time when played football, baseball, and baskelb~1ll, if you c~rn beli1'vc that!

SCOTT : NO!

DAVlD: T DO!

GEORGE : Well) that' s trtJC') vou know. If you want to play football, basketball, and basebnll you have to have a girl that ' s smart enough Lo rt>aliz.e that you got to get to bed at a reasonabl0 Lime. Some girls think that you have to go out rompin' around. if you get too tired out , somebody's going to beat the lwl 1 out. of you on the field . You go t lo be a b I P Lo pro Ll' t' L you rs C! 1 f .

&-e.o rqe. c.•

93 ~fiF.D J. PETERSON By Jason Howard Da n Pillow Grceory Zipperer J\dnm Goettelman

G- r ed J 0 a. n J ll. n J ~rCl. s 0 t1 rvt r Q()d Mrs. Pel-etSO(J a.nd llda.rri

Free.I .J. P<·LPrson Has born in Lhc year 1894 in Racine, Wisconsin. l~IH!l1 he w.-1s young, he and his father h.:1d a boaL- bui.lding busi1wss c.:illP.d Peterson Boat \fo rks . Thi::; \.J.:ls the sLarL o [ a v C' r v s u c c <' s s f u l bus in es s . ln ·1956, he sniled around the world in hi s sixLv-[ive fool s a i l boa L , l h c !J t: o p i ~1 . I L Lt) o k h i m L h r e e y e a r s [ o r L h i s a d v e n L u r e - some vovag~. For tlw p~1st thirty-five years, Fred has liVL'd aL ULopia Circle. lie and his wife, Tiz, have sc:1iled manv Linws Logether.

J\D1\M: h'lwrl' werP you firsL employed!

FRED: r cl<"'cidecl Lei leave school in the eighth grade and work - for mv dad. The firsL boa L we builL wa s Llw Marian . We h i1 d 1 <1 L s of success an cl pub l i c 1 L y fr om Lh a L . We bu i 1 t many s~1ilbonts and yachLs . 1 sL il l have onP of those rowboaLs from Lhat period o[ time . My son, El lswo rLh, just goL one of Lhose city b<>aLs .

1\Di\M: Diel your boat just turn f<1 r ty yea rs o ld ?

FRED : YPs, Llw firs L trip we lO{)k in 1947 was for my son, El l~\.Jllrlll. IL 1.;as for his honeymoon, \.Jilli <' l c>vcn peopl e on bP:trd. lh• went Crom SLui·geon Bay Lo G('l)rg i an Bay, and l lw 11 L <' D<' t r n i L . \~ e n1 c• L I r c n e P e t e r s o n , wh o wa s my w i [ e tlwn, :111cl WP sailed c1\'t~1- LP Lhe SL . Lawrence' Sf'away, v 1: n i n g \·JP c a 11 g h t t he t.: J i l c n d o f a h u r r i 1: a n c , a n d i L blf'\·.' 1111r Jenny out \>( conlrt)l . After tlw hurricane we got caught in another storm. Tht"n a few guys l icd dO\vn the s~1ils. ThP nt!:>:t morning wp h

94 the Azores, and we were there for about an hour when another boat sailed in. There were just two men, and one of the fellows had a broken arm because of the storm . Then we brought him to the hospital, but they didn ' t have a strong enough bandage to make a cast . We had a doctor on board, so the next day our doctor put on a cast. JASON : Whal was the smallest trip you've taken? FRED : We've taken many short trips around the bay. We've done a great deal of sailing. In 1956 my sons, Ellsworth and Bob, learned how Lo operate the shipyard by them selves. Then I decided to fulfill my wish to sail around the world. We powered down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico with Ann and Bill Fitzgerald. We got sails on the mast again, and we set off for St. Petersburg, Florida, where we stayed for awhile. We scratched the wood on the hull, so we took the boat out of the water to check for water worms. There was one. Then we filled it with kerosene, painted it, and put it back in the water. We headed for the Galapagos Islands which are about 700 miles west of the Equator . We docked there for a few days. Our trip around the world took us three years. We crossed three oceans and ten seas, visiting many interesting places - along Lhe way. GREG: Did you get any artifacts on your trips? FRED : Yes, we got a lot of artifacts . JASON: Was it fun to build ships? FRED : (Laughing) Yes, it was fun! We had to keep'--'=-~.-...... -- the crew_,,__-- down below. We had people with good experience al our '--._____ shipyard, and we sailed ships around a lot. '---

Designers and Builders.

WOOD } ALUMINUM BOATS & SHIPS AROUND THE WORLD TRIP OF "UTOPIA" STEEL Down the Mississippi, ,1cro~s three oceJns ancl ten soas. FIBERGLASS visiting Cuha J~ma1c.i. P;mam.1. Galap.igos. M.irqu1•s;1s, Tahiti. Samo,1 T ono,1 F iii. Solomons. B.ili, Sing.1port!, Malaya, Ceylon. S11c1 lt11lv. Franc••. Snain, Afric,1. FabricaJors of shipboard romponenls, u1ood Ponugal. A7orcs ,uld 11.111 11 hundred exotic ploces. up the laminated beams am/ heat'l/ stetl v·eldmenls. ne.-, St. L

FRED J. PETERSON, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD PETERSON BUILDERS. INCORPORATED STURGEON BAY WISCONSIN "Shipbuildfog and )'uchli11g Ca7>ilol of the Great l,akni"

95 VISIT WITll A SllIPBUTLDER By Fred Brunswick Je.ff Poh

e. o n t! e a. n L a. ) Fr d ) J t t > d do h n

J ohn and Leon a PPLerson liv0 n l 1101 Texas Street. ThPv we r e bo r n in t hi s cenl11rv ; -'•)hn is 82 vears old and Leona is· 81. As J0hn s;iys . "Th.'lt ITlC'.'lns w1.... 'vc bee n here quite awhile." 1 n h i s 1 i r P l i m c . .J o h n h a s \.JO r k r d 1 n t h e s h i p b u i l d i n g i n d u slrv in six st.nlP~ .

JEFF :

L EO NA: f was born in \l

f was thinkinr. when 1 IH'

.IH F:

LEON ,\; r cJid. Ye~ ... I 1-.1.'.'ls .si..rrv \·•hen I f i nished in 1920.

JOUN· Well. Lhink T did ri.-Lt:'r a fris hi o n. Alt.hough mosL boys w <> r 0 hap p v t o Ii

96 LEONA: And there were no hot lunches. JEFF: What did you do in the summer time? LEONA : We picked cherries and strawberries. The people that owned the cherry orchards or strawberry patches would come around early in the morning and pick us up and we would take our lunches . When the strawberries were done, it was time for the cherries. And there were lots of cherries back then ! JEFF : What was your favorite possession as a young person? JOHN : Mine was a bicycle . I think that because of the great lengths you had to walk. The bicycle was Lhe best means of transportation . FRED : Have you lived in Sturgeon Bay all your life? JOHN : I was in the shipbuilding business and worked in various places. I started here and when we went out of work, I moved to Manitowoc by way of Florida. I went there first to find a iob but found out iL cost Loo much Lo live down there. · I have {.;orkecl on shjps in Manitowoc, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, New York, and Louisiana. I retired ir: 1969 and have lived in the Sturgeon Bay area ever since. JEFF: Did you like shipbuilding as your iob?

JOHN : Yes, I did. I had a good time. But ln those days, the shipbuilding business was rather spoltv. FRED : What kind of ships did you build?

JOHN: We built quite a variety. I worked on small boats, ran by outboard motors, aircraft carriers, and every thing in between. At NewporL News. Virginia, I worked on two well-known aircraft carriers, the Yorktown and the Enterprise. I think the EnLerprise was Lhe most famous of the two. FRED: John, were you in the war?

JOHN: I was too young for World War I and too old for World War II; however, we had two sons thaL served in World War II. JEFF : What did you do for entertainment as a young couple during this time? LEONA : We read books, mostly mysteries, played checkers, or went t o movies . Remember, movies were onlv a nickel. ~ . ~

97 ~® FROM ONION FIELDS TO SHIP ' S CAPTAIN By Kevin Schultz Matt Wa ke

Ma. +t Jo h n !l. n d Ke v i n

John Purves ' life has been unp r edictable, buL exciLing. As a boy he had a job working in an onion field for six and one- half cents an hour . Eventually, he did receive a on<' penny raise .

At the age of twenty-four . John got his first job on a ship, the Fontana, which was docked in Sturgeon Bav. !IP w;is raised to a higher status many times. One yPar laier, he was hired by the Roen Steamship Companv. John ' s marine career with the Roen Steamship Companv and later, as a marine consulrant, spanned a pPri od of m0re than fif ty yea rs.

KEVIN : What kind of a studen t werE' you as a voung school bov?

JOHN : At first, 1 wasn ' t very good in school. ln spelling. we use to stand up in a row and if you missed a word you had to go to the tail end o( the row and thaL's where I was most of the time. One day, mothe>r we>nt to school wi th me and ta lked t o the teacher. Whf'n l got home , she drilled me on spelling and ariLhmcL ic. It wasn ' t long until I was near rhe head of Lhe row - in spelling . I liked to go to school. T Lhink iL was a good deal like your school is today . KEVIN : What was your favorite class'? JOHN : 1 guess I liked geographv the besl.

98 MATT : Did you play any tricks on the girls? JO HN : In those days, girls had braids and we had ink wells in our desks. We would slick lheir braids in lhe ink wells an d would they get mad. My favorite school story is about my friend, Eddy. His father was on the school board and Eddy was a cut up. Do you have music in school? Well, we had music books and Eddy worked as a delivery boy al a grocery store. He got some limburger cheese and smeared it in mosl of those books. Whew! When it came time for music, we opened the books, and they all stunk. The teacher somehow found out that Eddy had done it . He had to apologize and his father was standing in the doorway while he said, " 1'm sorry, Mrs. Gutlon ." He wasn't really sorry. lie got in quite a few scrapes. Then there's the poem! When I was in fifth grade, one of the boys brought a poem to school and gave it to me. I was passing it to somebody, the teacher caught me and I had to read it out loud in front of the class. It said: Dear Lord of love Look down from above And pity us poor scholars For we hired a fool - To teach our school And paid her forty-five dollars. (That's what our teacher got per month.) KEVIN : What happened to you?

JOHN : I don'.t remember, bul I was sorry for the teacher. She was n1ce. MATT: Would you tell us aboul some of your career experiences? JOHN : My first job was in an onion field weeding onions. That was quite awhile ago. My brother and I, together wilh two other boys, worked for a farmer two miles out of town in Berlin, Wisconsin. We got six and one-half cents an hour. Then, we thought, we should have more pay. The farmer asked how much we wanted. I said we should gel seven and one-cents an hour. That was my first raise!

- 99 I also had a iob before and after schoo l for twe lve and one-half cents an hour. l s wept outan office and picked up time cards at a utilily plant. When 1 got a raise to LwPnty- five cents an hour, T thoug ht l had it made. I worked one and one -half hours before and and two and one-half hours after school. I mad e one dollar a da y and that was pretty good at Lhat time. After high school, I went on to Lawrence Co llege a nd the University of Wisconsin.

I came to Sturgeon Ba y in June of 1924 and workPd fo r the Door County State Bank at sixty dollars per month. The bank was located where thP Athlete's Foot is to dav. My boa rd and room cost twentv dollars so 1 had forty dollars left. Mr . Leathern Smith was the bank pres~dent and after about six months, he gave me a job at t he shipyard, Leathern D. Smith Coal and Dock Company, as a timekeeper. 1 t hink I got eighty dol lars down there . At that time, there wasn't much work al the vard so Captain Boyd, whose daughter, Catherine. stiil lives here, asked me if I would go on a tug for one night as a cook. The tug was the Leathern D. Sm ith. Well, 1 had never been on a tug, no r e ver been a c ook! li e said I could probably cook bet t e r than Dewey SchJoth, t he cook he had . I got a loaf of bread, some baloney . and 1 went on the tug . We went to Marinette where a Valley Camp boa t was stranded . We worked all night and came home in the morning . A little later, that spri ng of 1925 . a friend of mine said he could get men iob sailing . When his hoat, LhP Fontana, came into the quarry for a load of stone. l went to the capta in. He didn't have a n opening for a deckhand but he said he was sure he wo uld hav ~ an opening when we docked in Detroit wi th the load of stone. I could work my way over, iust for hoarrl ;:ind room . All the deckha nds did quit so I was considered the oldest deckhand. and I got S77 per month. After the first day, I became a deck watch and deck watches pot SIO more . I was getting S87 per month and I had mv room and board. On a boat, a deck watch worked six on and six off . Actually, ]L wa s twelve hou r s, s0ve n days a week; right y- four hou r s. The deckhands worked when they werP needed, usuallv ten hours a day.

100 I had many interesting experiences that season on the Fontana. I wasn't very big at the time and I'm not very big now. I think I weighed 130 pounds. After about six weeks, the mate called me into his room be cause he said he could make a watchman out of me. A watchman was paid $100 per month. He explained that I had to get an A.B. ticket. I was able to do that. I went uptown in Detroit and got my Able-Bodied Sea man's ticket. Then, as a watchman, my room was on the starboard side of the boat instead of the port side with the deckhands. The mate explained I shouldn't talk to the deckhands anymore because I should act like an officer, and if I had trouble making a deck hand work, I could hit him. He said he couldn't hit a man because he might get his license pulled, but I didn't have a license so I was at liberty to hit them. It didn't seem like a good idea because they were mostly bigger than me. We did have lots of good times . But . . . we had bedbugs ; I had an awful time with them. They didn't bother my roommate, but bothered me a lot . And, I wasn't supposed to talk to the captain so I complained to the cook, as it was his department to look after the quarters . But he wouldn't do any thing . They were really bothering me and I wanted our sleeping quarters to be fumigated. Well, the cook told the captain he saw me scratching coming ~p · the ladder in Sturgeon Bay, so he thought I brought bedbugs aboard. To make a long story short, I found a little tin can, that Prince Albert tobacco used to come in, and I was able to catch about twelve lively bedbugs. One night, I did sneak in the captain's quarters, while he was up in the pilothouse, and 1 put them between his sheets. We got fumigated the next time we passed Detroit. KEVIN: How big were these bedbugs? JOHN: About one-fourth of an inch in diameter; big ones. They would scurry into the woodwork as soon as the lights went on, so you had to be quick to catch them.

KEVIN : Would you tell us about the book you wrote? JOHN: Mostly, it's the history of the Roen Steamship Company. I was with that company 47 years and mos t of my life was involved with their projects. Being a small com pany, I got into the bookwork, sales, negotiating, and operating. Whereas, in a bigger company, I would have probably had to stay in one spot all the time.

101 We hauled lots of pulpwood and lumber. I'd meet the barges, l oaded with pulpwood. and measure the cargo. That ' s called scaling; an estirnatjon of Lhe arnounl of sound lumber in logs or standing timber. Usually, A the paper mill would have a scaler and I would rep resent the boat company to be sure we go L paid for all we carried. The scalers were interesting people, usually old l oggers . Sometimes , the shipper would send a scaler along too . I had good friends . We 'd meet the barges in Green Bay, Muskegon, Detroit, or Buf fa lo a nd the scaling would be done immediately upon arrival, before the barges could unload. We did that day or night . Also, we hauled lumber; lots of lumber from Canadian ports to the state of New York, near Niagara Falls . Then, we were on many salvage jobs. We always had crews because of carrying pulpwood and lumber, bu t if a salvage _iob came along, like a boat in trouble, we ' d try to get on that. There was usually compelition for who could get their first with the best equipment. The men always liked the salvage iobs because some were very interesting. Captain Roen's biggest job was raising a big boal, Lhe George M. Humphrey. It was a 600-footer, carried 14,000 tons of o re, and had a collision in the Strails of Mackinaw. We got the job t o raise it .

I wonder if you boys have heard of Normandv. She was a big French boat that had a fire in New York and Lhev poured so much water in her, she turned over on her side in New York Harbor. Well, one of t he biggest salvagers at that time was working on that but was invited to take a look at the Humphrey when she sunk in 80 feet of water. This salvage company decided it was not economical Lo raise her. Our companv Look the job, with the understandingthat if we raised the boac, it would belong to us and if not . it had to be cul down to 35 feet helow the surface . That would mean cutting off her cabins . The sunken Humphrey was a menace to navigation because her masts were sticking out .

Captain Roen got a half dozen good divers and in t~ose days they used the old-tyoe suits with the heavv hel mets and the weights in the shoes. They took off Lhe hatch covers, underwaler, and dug Lhe ore out of the boat. We wanted to se 11 the ore because it was during the war, 1943, but the only place we could sell was to a steel company on the St . Mary's River up near Sault St. Marie. We sold them about 9,000 Lons. The resl was mosLly wasted.

1:02 MATT: While you were on this iob, 1s there a day you re member the best? JOHN: One was when I did some diving too. Captain Roen al ways got sui ts that fit big men and I'm not a very big fellow. One day, at 40 feet, some of the divers got nose bleeds and Captain Roen asked me if I ' d like to try it. I went up and got in a suit, got down on the deck of the Humphrey, which was 40 feet below the surface, and I hooked on Lo a few hatch covers . Awk ward as I was, I stumbled and fell into a hatch and down onto the ore . I felt both of mv eardrums snap and I gave mysel f some air . But, I gave Loo much air and t he helmet lifted right off my head. My arms stuc k out so I couldn' t s hut off the valve Ln stop the air flow . The tender couldn't hear me because the top of my head is at the top of the breastplate of my diving su it. I knew he was pulling hard be cause there is a lifeline, 3/4 inch rope, and then the airline from the barge up rtbove . I thought when I feel the water trickle down this airhose and I was afraid it would snap, thrtt would be the end of me. I guess I remember that about as good as anything . Somehow or other, the wind changed and the scow got in a l ittle different position up above, I swung out, and floated to the surface. I was spread-eagle and scared. Eventually, we did raise the Humphrey. KEVIN : I see you have a boat named after you. JOHN : Yes, I sure do ... a tug, the John Purves.

-- 0

.__...... ----. -· ------"--___------·~ TAKI!: Mf. OUT 'l'O THE AJ\ LL GJ\MI•:

13y Ji'.lson Conger Darin Lienau Da vid Tomkins

JO..son ,Oa.r;n ) 1-/a.nno..h ) a.nd Oa.viJ

Hannah PrueLer was born in 1890 and is ninety-six years old . She lived on a farm between Egg Harbor and Baileys Harbor . Today, she is residing at the Dorchester Nursing Home . She's been a fer vent Brewer fan for a long time and even received a l etter signed by Lwo Brewers, Jim GanLner and Rene Lachemann.

JASON: I know you like the Brewers , but did you like sports when you were younger? HANNAH: Well, sure, look at the Brewer banner. There's a letter from Lhe Brewers, and see the little Brewer on the radio, and sec the cap behind you? I was always interested in sports but more so here because all I can do ·is read and wriLe, and 1 can ' t read well . DARIN: When did you start liking baseball? llANNAH: Since a litt:le girl, I've liked the game . l always lis ten to the Brewers here. l have been at the Dorchester twelve years. DAVlD: What was it like when you were a kid?

ll/\NN/\H: hlell, it's not like it is now . We never had oranges or bananas. I lived on a farm. On the Fourth of July, my dad would give us fifteen cents to go to Egg Harbor, and get a banana and an orange and we'd come bac k with a nickel. We didn't have much fruit . DAVID: Did you like oranges and bananas? !IANNJ\H: Well, sure l did, and we had no ice cream .

l 011 DARIN: Did you eat apples a lot? HANNAH : No, you see the a pples were wormy because the trees weren't sprayed . Then someone would give my father some apples in t he fall , just a few, and he 'd bury t hem in grain . See, they kept; they didn't freeze . Then my dad would take one out every once i n awh ile and give each one of us a quarter of an appl e, and that was a treat. Not like when you get an appl e now, you don ' t think much of it . You don't think much of ice cream or things like - that, but that was a treat for us. In later years, we got an ice cream freezer, and made our own ice cream . We had to get the ice from Egg Harbor and we had cows so we ha d milk, cream and eggs . Do you know where the Birch Creek Music Center is? ALL: No . HANNAH : It's between Egg Harbor and Baileys Harbor . That was ou r farm . Do you know wh ere Peninsula Center is? ALL : No . HANNAH : That's the center of the peninsula and t hat ' s on that road (her farm) . It 's about two miles from our home. We used to walk to Egg Harbor. We used to pick straw berries and walk way to Fish Creek a nd sell them . DAVID: Did you have to walk to school? HANNAH : Oh, sure! DARIN : How man y miles? HANNAH : About a mile and a half . In the winter there were no snowplows . We had no snow pants like kids now, but we didn't mind . We took our lunch to school and we didn't have fancy sandwiches . We had them with syrup on our bread, or lard . Sometimes we didn't have butter . We had to churn . We would put thick cream on our bread with a little sugar ... that was good . JASON: What hobby did you enjoy when you were younger? HANNAH : Just playing and I went to school . I liked to go to school because then I didn' t have t o work . We played ball at school, that 's after I was older . That's how I l earned a little about ball. We didn't have bats; we used boards . We had a lot of trees around the school and we'd climb up a tree and sway .

105 DARIN : Did any boys play tricks on the girls at school? HANNAH : Well, no, the only time they played tricks was on Uallo ween. They used to pull wagons up on building s and you know what the old fashion toilets were like--the boys used to tip them over . We played with the neighbor kids . We had no toys, but I remember gett ing a doll for Christmas one time. We had no money. It isn't like now . I wish you could live the way we did; just for a day . DARIN : How long did you live on the farm? HANNAH : Well, until I was married when I was twenty-two. I lived there and then in Baileys Harbor. Do you know where that is? ALL: Yes . HANNAH : You better. It's on Lake Michigan and I lived there un til I came here. DAVID : Did your family always live in Wisconsin? HANNAH: My parents came from Germany when their parents died. DAVID: Did they move to Door County immediately? HANNAH: Yes, and they didn 't come over together because they didn't have the money . My father came first and there was an uncle here. My father worked for him. He worked for him until he had enough money for the three kids and my mother to come over . She got so sick, she didn't care if the boat went down. The passengers took care of the kids. Just think, coming to New York, couldn't speak English, and not much money . I don't know what it's like either . See, I was one of the youngest in the family, so I don't know all of the hardships. DARIN: Do you know what year they came over to America? HANNAH: I don't know exactly, but it was in the 1880's. See, 1 was born in 1890 . They came over in the early 1880's, that's a long time aRo. There was no way of making mone y . People say, Why didn't you buy this or that?" - In the first years, they had no cows, no chickens, nothing. Later, I remember, we'd take eggs to the store . With the money we would buy groceries . When we didn't have the money we would charge it and then in the spring we would pay it . Our credit was always good . People were honest. I t's not like now.

106 DARIN: Did you ever live in Sturgeon Bay before coming to the Dorchester? HANNAH: No> except while I went to high school . DARIN: Could you tell us about that? HANNAH: I had a sister living here so I stayed with her . I was a country kid> shy, didn ' t talk much . DARIN: Were you attractive when you were younger? HANNAH: No> I wouldn't think so . I made the honor roll at school. I liked school . I liked algebra. Even now> I like numbers. I still write my own checks and balance my savings account. Now that ' s something that too many people don ' t know how to do. JASON: Do you enJOY reading? HANNAH : Yes> but I didn't read enough when I was younger . If I could change my l ife that ' s one thing I would do mor e . Do you read? DAVID AND JASON: Yes . DARIN: No. HANNAH: I didn't either. There was a library in Baileys Harbor and I still didn't read enough. Now I read all of the Advocates, although my eyes are bad . I do the cross word puzzles f r om the Milwaukee Sentinel . I also used to read the whole thing but I can't anymore. Did you read my l etter? DAVID: The letter reads that you are a good loyal Brewer fan. Did the Brewers send that to you? HANNAH: Oh, yes r ead the letter . DAVID (reading the letter): I hear that you are a good loyal Brewer fan . That ' s what we need are good loyal fans. Rene Lachemann and Jim Gantner send their best wishes. I hope you enjoy the enclosed yearbook and Hall of Fame book. Cordially, John Counsell

107 DAVID: That's prelly neat, Hannah. HANNAH: I've gotLen two cards from presidenls on my birthday. Thal doesn't mean anything Lo me. The president doesn't even know me, he doesn't write the card. He doesn't even pay Lhe postage. The Brewer organization pays for LhaL and sent me two books, one with autographs and the other one a Hall of Fame yearbook. I promised the book with the autographs Lo a grandnephew. DAVID: Who's your favorite player? HANNAH: PreLty much all of Lhem . See, last year I wrote a column about the game of the month. I'll give you some clippings . I like to be doing something. I don't like sitting in Lhe lounge and looking at people. I like challenges! Special Note: Hannah was a dedicated Sunday schoolteacher for 28 years. She would kniL mitLens for Lhe kids in her class. In the summer they would ask, "Hannah, are we going Lo get mittens f0r Christmas again?"

Sox had 23 hits in 25 innings. A total of 753 pitches were thrown and the game lasted eights hours, six minutes. The Brewers also lost the scheduled game for the 9th. A lot of records were broken. Never has a game lasted 25 innings nor taken two days to play. Both teams used all of their players. The only one The first home game of the 1984 season was played who played 25 innings was the White Sox catcher. April 17, when the Brewers hosted the Chicago The Brewers lost the first game because of errors. White Sox and the Brewers won. They played in front They should have won it in nine innings. of a crowd of over 53.000 and Rene Lacheman said that that was the largest crowd he'd ever had for an As of May 17, tor about 17 hours the Brewers were 17 opening day game. games won and 16 lost, but they couldn't stand prosperity, so today they lost to Texas and they are On May 4. the Brewers gave Lacheman a wonderful 17-17. They have had 17 home runs. 39th birthday present by shutting out the Yankees 1 to O. Porter pitched. allowing just three hits. Mollitor is to have elbow surgery May 28, and will be on the disabled list for the year. The game of all games was started May 8 at Comiskey Park and finished May 9, the Brewers losing by a Reported by the Bob Uecker of the Dorchester score of 6 to 7. Our Brew Crew had 19 hits and the Nursing Center, Hannah Prueter.

108 - ,JACK - OF-Al .L-TR J\ or.s Fred (~riL~) Reynol . d ~ By Davld Cumber Willie Mc AllisLer Jeff ,J aros?.

hr L r r ·_, , • ' . . f·. • • ,". t r: ·J ; • :· : . r\ _.; \/ rl .' 1 1 ." ' - ,.' I L. t '. ; ; j I \. r, J r ·>. :- r In n11r intervil'w we visi lPd Fred Reyn olds , b11l he I ikPS Lo be c~llled Fritz . The r eason we picked Lhe name~ ".J~1ck-of-all-trad1· s " i s b r: L' .:.i u ~ \' h c~ d i d .'."! l o t of d i f fer<' 11 t work , and lw kn mv s a l u L o r diflerC'nL things . \..Jhen Mr . Reyncdds was o ur age hl' playrd manv l r i c k s o 11 rw op l c.' . 11 E' \v as .'.l 1 so a very good c l i mb P. r . Tod

DAVID: Whal was yciur school Like?

FRLTZ: \-JC' l l , when I wen L L o sch o o l 1 n eve r once \v ~1 1 k e d l h rough (:] duor ! l know i l Is !i.'.lrd Lo believe' blll r c Lim bed On(' s l u r y Lu g e L in Lo a w i 11 cl P\v . Every day my bro L h e r ' s frii;>nd Look at t cnd.'.lnce and would ca ll, "All present." - Tlwn he-' wo1dd open Lhf' \vindow, and I wotild climb in .'.lnd ~i l in Lhe back cksk.

0 n c e 1 nJ me rn b c r r ha d d P l e n l i o n . I ha d l n s i t i n L h e princ.:ip<:il 's office [L)r 3 whole semester and do my \vork lhrre . Well, the supcrinlendent of the sc h oo l c h ewed Lub;1ccu SLl much that I learned Lo chP.\v also. So everv d a v \•J h e n h r w o u 1 d 1 e<1 V l' h e ' d s a y , " A 1 1 r i g h l , F r i L z , (fo :i good day ' s work ." TIH'n he would l ock the door, and l \.J

One<' \vhcn L was in Lhf' principa l ' s o[ficc, l ooked out th0 window and saw a rnpP hanging the r e, so l c limbed ()fl Lop oi LhP roo[ . fhPy never found 010 fnr Lh e r csL nf Lhe day.

J 09 JEFF : What other kinds of tricks did you play? FRITZ : One time I remember I shot a girl in the back of the leg with a bow and arrow. Today you would get in a lot of trouble for that, but all we did was call the doctor next door, and he put some iodine on it and let it heal. WILLIE: Why do you call yourself "Jack-of-all-trades"?

FRITZ : Well, I'll tell you what I told NWTI al a council meeting one night. They were looking for a technical school teacher eighteen years ago . The Mayor says, "We got an extra position. What would you older men suggest we teach people?"

T~ey went around. There were eight on the council at that time. One of them said we should have ceramics, others said this and that . Finally they came to me, and said, "Mr. Reynolds, what do you think?" I said, "You know darn well that I have no trades, but the Jack-of-all-trades is a pretty handy trade. In a small town when you can do anything that comes your way, welding , driving tractors and bulldozers, climbing smoke stacks, painting, or doin9 whatever, I say you ' re a Jack of-all-trades. But I don t care if you have a dozen teachers, you can't teach a course in Jack-of-all-trades . " They couldn't go with that because they couldn't get a teacher . But when you gotta make a living for •a wife and three kids in a small town, you do most anything. JEFF : Do you remember if this area had steamboats traveling on the bay? If so, what were they like? Also what other types of transportation were there at that time? FRITZ: The steamboat industry was founded by a guy named Hart - Hart Steamship Company . They had three boats, the Sailor Boy, Bon Ami, and the Thistle. One was for ceremonies, andthe other two were package freighters . They weren't more than sixty feet long. They were the best way Lo gel up the county in summer . Otherwise you could go by stage coach, buckboard, or horse and buggy. It took a long time to go up the county. When the railroad came from Green Bay, that forty miles ran to the shipyard. It used to take practically a day to go to Green Bay and back. There's lots of stories to tell about that, but we won't go into that! (Ha, Ha, Ha!)

110 DAVID: Can ~ou tell us what Sturgeon Bay was like when you were growing up? FRITZ : We used to spear suckers at Little Creek and Big Creek . That was a long ways out of town then. It has all changed since then. This was farm land at one time, before you kids were born. There used to be farms and gardens. You could make ten cents an hour if you worked hard in those days. Believe me, today if you don't make ten dollars an hour, nobody works. WILLIE: What are some other changes that you remember? FRITZ : Where Peterson Builders is now there was a pea factory; the Reynolds ' Pea Factory. In 1917 it turned into a cherry factory . Orchards were planted from here to Washington Island. Years ago when they used to say Cherry Blossom Day, you could go for forty miles and see cherry blossoms everywhere you looked~ for forty solid miles . Today you can't see forty cherry trees in ten miles. The price is bad now, and the labor is too high. Unions used to pay four cents a pound, but now they pay forty cents a pound, so you can see what inflation can do. Cherries are good for ice cream and pies and stuff , but they aren ' t something you gotta have. I was in the cherry business twenty years . When I was your age I used to pick cherries, with the stem on . In order to put the pitter needle through, I'd have to pull the stem out. That year it was kind of crude, but the next year somebody came along with what they called a stemmer. The next year they came along with a faster pitter, and now they're pitting up to eighty-six cherries at a time. On a stroke of needles, eighty-six times a minute if it's full; that's 6,400 cherries a minute . You can't hardly pick that fast. All you could see was cherries, cherries, cherries! The cherries were at their peak in the '30s. This county canned the biggest amount of cherries around. Michigan had millions of pounds but we canned a lot. The plant where I worked used to can 60 million pounds of cherries in six weeks. That 's a lot of cherries to can. Somehow we always ran over 1 million pounds a day.

Door Cou.n+y Ll i .sc.ons i n~ Che.rry la.nd

111 OLD TIME SCHOOL DAY S IN STURGEON 81\Y MRS. GRACE KEITH SAMUELSON

By Jason LiLtle Gino Voeks

~--:=Mf 1~ c.la.son, G-ra.c.e. a.nd &- i no ~

Grace Samuelson is eighLy-two yea r s old. With the ex cepLion of abouL ten years, she has lived all her life in the Sturgeon Bay vicinity. Her schooling, teaching, orchard life, and Samuelson's ResLaurant (now While Birch Inn) all took place in Door County. Since retiremenL and Lhe dealh of her husband, Stanley, she has lived al 330 N. JolieL Avenue. She describes going all through school, from primC\ry room through eight grades and Lhen through high school in one building--what is now the Community Building . She also describes Leaching in counLry schools . Gr a c e wa s born Aug us t 2 6 , 1 9 0 /1 , a L w ha t w a s t hen Po p 1 a r Street, and is now cal1Pd Oregon. Her parents were of pioneer stock. Her moLher was Mary Tollerton Bagnall Keith, and she grew up in Jacksonport, the daughter of John Tollerton Bagnall, a lumber cruiser. Il er father was James Burton Keith, and he grew up in Egg Harbor. Grace married Stanley Samuelson on September 1st, 1928 . They had four children, Keith, Ruth, Mary, and Robert. Keith died in 1932, and Mary died in 1982, Stanley diPd in 1980.

GINO: GRACE: l grew up in a housP on what was then POPLAR StreeL. Now that is OREGON Street. And Jon Gast, the sports report er for the Door County Advocate, lives there now.

1 1 2 JASON: Did Lhe Lown look much different then? GRACE: Oh, yes. In 1909, when I started school the town was small, and Lhere wasn't the large shipbuilding industry there is now. And there were only a few automobiles in the county. We were used to seeing horse and wagon de liveries, and we walked everywhere . GINO: How far did you live from school? GRACE: About six blocks. We walked over to what was then called LAWRENCE Ave. It ' s MICHIGAN Street now. I was five when I started school, and I can remember thinking it was such a long way when my sisters and I had to plow through the deep drifts. JASON: Whal kind o( clothes did you have when you were young? GRACE: Not too much like you wear today . We wore cotton dresses in summer and woolen in winter. Little girls wore aprons to help keep clean because the washing was hard to do . Everything had to be rubbed on a washboard. We also wore long collon stockings (wool in winter) and high top shoes . No ieans or T-shirts. Clothes were home-made . We had nev~r heard of zippers . In high school we wore middy blouses and pleated skirts, and we used to wear high boots. We turned down wool socks over the tops of the boots . - GINO: Whereabouts was Lhe school building? GRACE: It was Lhe building that is called the COMMUNITY BUILDING today. There have been rooms added and other changes. BuL Lhere were rooms [or each grade, and up on the second floor, classrooms for high school . JASON : Do you remember any of your teachers? GRACE : Yes, I remember mosL of Lhem but t he one who stands out in my mind was my first teacher--in the primary grade. We didn't have kindergarten then . Her name was Miss Jenkins, and she was old. She had taught my father when he wcnL to school in Egg Harbor, and many other parents in Lown. When you went in Miss Jenkins ' room you learned to write on a slate, and we learned to read by learning the alphabet first, and spelling t he word ; "SEE. CAT . SEE THE CAT. " l was in second grade , in Miss Cologne's room when Miss Jenkins died . I rememb er all the sLores in Lown were closed so everyone could go to Miss Jenkins' funeral, at the Congregational Church. That church was where the Prange ' s Home Store is now .

113 GINO : Did everyone go to the same school? GRACE : No, the c hildren who lived on the Sawyer (W est side) of the bay wenL to school there t hrough eighth grade . About 1918 (?) when the new school was built at t he top of the Sawyer hill the children we n t there for kindergarten and all eight grades, and for the first two years of high school. Then they came across the bridge, Lo high school in Sturgeon Bay. But we who lived in Sturgeon Bay had grade and high school Lhere. The children who lived in the country went to one or two-room country schools through eighth grade . Then Lhey came to Sturgeon Bay for high school. Some of t hem walked back and forth to school, but if they lived too far away they boarded out during t he week , or, they had rooms and cooked Lheir own meals with food they brought f r om home. JASON : Did the high school kids push you around when you were in the lower grades ? GRACE: No, we were kept separately, and the rules were ver y strict . There were BOYS' and GIRLS' doors, and we had to use them. GINO : Did they have shop in school then? GRACE : Yes, the boys had manual training, and they built book ends, and stools and things. The girls had Domestic Science classes . It's called Home Ee. now. JASON : Did you have music when you were young? GRACE : Yes, when we were in the grades we had an arL teacher, and a music teacher who came once a week. We had pic ture study, and we also learned to paint. And we learned to read notes in music classes and we sang a lot of beautiful German songs, like the Blue Danube, and Brahm's Lullaby . But after the 1st World War broke out in 1918 we weren't allowed to sing anv Ger man songs. And then, teachers were scarce, so we no longer had special classes. GINO : Did you get an allowance? GRACE: Not until I was a sophomore in high school. Then I got fifty cents a week. which was a lot of money then...... Be fore that my three sisters and I depended on the nickels and dimes that could be spared, or money we earned, for spending . Non e of the other children we knew had much--there wasn ' t really much to spend it on. We'd get penny candy or a nickel candy bar, and ice cream cones were a nickel. Sometimes we got a dime for doing chores.

114 JASON: Wh e n did you get through high school? GRACE: I was in the Class of 1922. There were fifty-two in the class, and we were the first ones to wear caps and gowns at g raduation . GINO: Were you in Girl Scouts when you were in high school?

GRACE: No, but I was in the Camp Fire Gi~ls. We w~nt on hikes, and went camping, and made our uniforms, which were khaki with Indian fringe and designs. And we learned to weave beaded head bands.

JASON: Did you have a bike when you were young? GRACE: No, and I never learned to ride one. My father rode a bicycle to work at the bank on the Sawyer side for years . He didn't have a car until about 1925 . GINO: Did you get Lo go to the out-of-town games? GRACE : No, my father was too strict. There were no buses then and we would have had to go in someone's car. But I do remember going to a declamator~ contest at C~sco High School. Natalie Beabeau won with her selection : "I ' ve a Rendezvous With Death." JASON : When you got through High School what did you do?

GRACE: I went to Milwaukee State Normal. (Now it's called the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee .) My oldest sister, Vera, wenL with me, and we boarded at my mother's cousin's house, and took the street car to school over on the east side. We rode on the train to get to Milwaukee---the Green Bay and Western to Green Ba~, and then the North western to Milwaukee . When we went hom e for holidays we goL to Green Bay at two or three o ' clock in the morning , and had to wait in Lhe depot till six o'clock wh e n the Green Bay and Western came. No pop machines or sandwich vending machines then. You carried a sandwich and maybe an orange, and you could get a drink of water at Lhe bubbler. GINO: What did you do after Normal School? GRACE: I taught in country schools. My first school was in Mil waukee County, the school where I did my practice teach ing--Washington School, on the corner of Lisbon Ave . and the County Loop road.

115 JASON : Was country school different than the school in Sturgeon Bay? GRACE : Oh, yes, iL was very different . All the grades were in one room; each class was only about ten minutes long. It depended on how many pupils there were in the school (I had forty-five my first year) and some classes three or four in each grade; some had ten. There wasn't too much chance for individual attention, but the pupils benefitted by listening to the others' classes. We had to go by the schedule in the Wisconsin Manual . And you taught music, picture study, and in those days we all memorized a l ot of poetry. What I liked best were the little first graders . We taught them sounds and words, with picture cards and primers. It was a wonderful feeling to know that little folks who came without any knowledge of reading were able to read stories by Lhe end of the year. GINO: Did you Leach anywhere else? GRACE : Yes--Lwo years in Carlsville school . That was a two-room school. I had the first four grades : the Primary De partment. Mr. Willems, Lhe principal, taught the upper four grades . Carlsville School is a winery now . Those school districts that had one or two room schools now send the pupils to Sevastopol School . JASON : Did you teach anywhere else? - GRACE : T taught one year in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania--Moravian Preparatory School--! had Lhe third and fourth grades there. Then I came back Lo Door County and I taught the Primary room at the Sunny Point school. My prin cipal then was Matilda Newman. GINO : Teaching school was pretty different in those days, wasn't it? GRACE: Yes, the methods were different, school equipment was very different, and Lhe buildings certainly were . From the Primary grade on through high school our classes were all in that building. And for most of the parents who lived here that was the case . That changed with the building of Lhe new high school. Then the old building was called the Junior High School. After the Middle Schoo~ was bui1 L, the building that had housed grades and high school was empty, and later used as a place for community meetings.

116 Y01 1 buys wc·nL lo LlH' \.J C'sL Si di' sc h oo l , dicln'L vo11, :rnd l hen l () Mi dd 1 <"' schno 1? Yo11' I I :i L l encl Iii gh sc h ~)(> l in 1 IH' new b11 i ! di n j>, :i I o ngs i cir• Lhis. \"he n you fin i sh hi g h s\.·lrno I )/ 11u t.:Ou Id go LO en I 1<"')',(' Oll l Of Lown, 0 1· yo 11 m:i y go L11 L IH' Tcchn i c;1 l fn sL LlllL C' here>. [ \v C'n l to ~1 Lo wn schon l, bul I l ;1 u g h L i n c o 1111 L r y s c h t lo I s . Th o s c c C11 1n t r y s c h o o I s :1 r c .111 gon e n o w. But w0 s L i 11 ii'1VC the me rn or 1r.s , j11sL :is some d;)y in Lh c fuL 11r f' you m

I I "/ r. :.i(...,f?. t:.f'fll~· · · ~ • -·- -ti :':r·1 ~. ,.'

'l'HEF. SUltGEON '1'0 Ml•:D I CA I. CO HPS'·'

lly

LeL i ci:.i Vr·oom.:in Trac e y Phillips

Tro..c..ey HoyL Vrooman was in Lhe Navy during World War LL. Because he had been a Lree surgeon as a civilian, the Navy placed him in the medical corps ! After the service he returned Lo Door County and worked in the shipbuilding industry . He has many interests including reading and horticulture . lloyL was interviewed by his granddaughter, LeLicia Vrooman, and her classmate, Tracey Phillips_

LETICIA: What was it like when you were going to school? - HOYT : Well, we went to school at Gladstone, Michigan, and l liked school very much . I thought it was very inLeresting . l learned a lot of new things, and l never found a Lime when 1 didn't like school. LETICIA: Whal was your favorite pastime?

HOYT: l!ikillg, going in the woods and looking for [lO\vC'rs, :rnd Lhings like Lhal nature.

TR f\ C E Y : II cn·J o l d \·! <' r e y o u a l L h e L i me o f L h e De p r 0 s s i on , c'.'l n d how did iL :1Uf'cl you?

II 0 YT : l w n s a b o u t L <> n y <' a r s o l d . Th e De p r c s !> i on \.J a s v c r y r o 11 g h b c c .:i u s <' we d i d n ' t h a v c m u c h . Ev e r y L h i n g \·/ e ha d :1 l l h :i l L i rn c we ha d t o s p re a d o 11 L .'.1 l o L . We d i d n ' t: t.I o mu c h L r n v <' l i n g , b u t we d i d e n L e rt ::i i n 011rsc!l ves.

l I 8 LETICIA : How far did you go in school? HOYT: I went to high school, and then I took a correspondence cours e for the Navy Tree Surgery Company. I got a scholarship to Kent, Oh io, for three years. I got out of that and into the Navy Tree Surgery Company where I became a tree surgeon. Shortly after that I was chosen in Door County as one to go in the Selective Service. l didn't want to be in the Army, so 1 joined the Navy. TRACEY: What did you do when you were in the service?

HOYT: Well, I went to Great Lakes and I went through there. Some young man asked me what my civilian job was, and I said, "A tree surgeon ." They said, "You go in the me dical corps," and that's how I got in the medical corps ! The first ship I went on at Newport, Rhode island was the battleship U.S. Mississippi. When I wrote home and told my dad, he said he was on that ship at the end of World War I . Then we sailed off to the North Atlantic. We went to Icela nd and picked up a convoy and took it to Mermas, Russia, which was quite an exciting trip . We had only three ships and Pan American registry coming back . We went to Boston and got a radar put on the ship. Then we took another convoy from Iceland to Russia and went over the Arctic Circle. The Aurora Borealis, or the Northern Lights as we call them, were so bright at times you could stand on deck and read . It's very cold up there . The first time we were up there we had no sunlight at all for 24 hours . The next time we were in Iceland, it was summer and we had day light and could sPe the sun for 24 hours.

Then Pearl Harbor hit and World War II was declared, so we started back to the states . On the way back we were torpedoed, one day out of Norfolk, Virginia. Everybody thought we were sunk because we couldn't break radio silence . When we got to Norfolk everyone tried to get a t elephone to try to call home to say that we were alright . When we got back on the ship, we went through the Panama Canal and over to Pearl Harbor. That was a very bad sight to see with all those ships sunken in the harbor. -

119 TRACEY : What did you do after the service? HOYT : Well, I came home and worked with my father in a hardware store and I also did tree surgery throughout the county for awhile . Then I worked at the Christy Corporation, a shipyard in Sturgeon Bay, for five years . I went sailing on the Great Lakes for two years, and then I went to work for Peterson Builders, where I worked for twenty-five years. After my retirement from Peterson's, I taught at the vocational school for nine years, and Peterson's still call me back from time to time to deliver ships for them. TRACEY : Could you tell us a very short ghost story? HOYT: Oh, yes, I 'll tell you one that's actually true . Before I went in the service my dad used to tell me a story about the walking dead which was a story of people in a port off the Black Sea. They said if you were swimming in this area and you saw these people, the walking dead, down in the water, they would put a curse on you and you would die. That's as far as the story went. He told me that a number of times . Then when I was in the service in Iceland I got a subscription to the Reader's Digest as a Christmas present. I love to read and do a lot of it. I was paging through there one day when I came to the story "The Walking Dead . " It interested me because I always liked to tell ghost stories. I started reading and it was the exact same story my dad told me before the war, but this was supposed to be a true story. How ever, the people in the story died of fright, and not because of a curse being thrown on them. LETICIA : What advice would you give us if you were our age?

HOYT : Well, one thing that I would say is listen to your parents. They have had the experience and they know what they are talking about . Try to get everything out of school because that ' s to your advanta?e in the future . If you don ' t do it now , you won t make it later . You ' ve got a lot of advantages, more than we ever had, so use that to the best of your ability .

120 C/\ PT/\ IN 01' 'I'llF; 'l'UGS Oy

Ke ith F r«rnk c .Je ff f?em i ngl,on

N i c. k Ke.. i t h Je. t ~ a. n d M e.. r c_ ) ) }

Cap t air~ Nicf1olas J. \·!3g01wr is a s prit <' .:111d inL c r est ing seve nL y- two year old. Born in SL11rgcon 13a y , in Lh c year 1913, he ca r r i es on c o r L he o Lcl<' s L t 1n l i m i L c

KEITH: What did vou like when you were .:i child?

CAPTAIN WAGENER : Our family usr>d Ld have a horse and \v agon do'? CAPT,\ IN WAGENEI{: In Ll11• st1n11111·1·Li11!f', I h:id Ln gc·L tip VERY 0~1 r I v, gu t 1i I ea L h c rn Sm i t h l-; c> I l l~l 111 rsc~ I\) ht• l Ji '11111 t d1H·lll l OS L go 1 1· ba I ls . !"Ii i s I d i d 1111t i 1 7 : 01) 1\ . M. TIH•11 I \·J Cl1 t dtHvlll1H·m tu my pn pc> 1· r 011 L c' . I en . ,\rtPr shtws h jning, l 'd g,• b.:1ck lo Lh·· .l~P ll cou r se .:ind c1ddv. Th:ll \v(lS q11 iL C' a bus\' 111or11111g.

121 Then, in the afternoon, after I had finished that paper route, I delivered milk . In a large brown house, on the corner of Louisiana Street and Ninth Avenue, is where the Lawrence family ran the milk through a cooler . Today, that is the home of Bill and Mary Berg . All the houses, that surround Big Hill Park, were built on land that had once been pasture . The cows grazed and Kentucky Street was the lane they traveled down to be milked . The entire area, surrounding my present home, was woods and pasture . I carried milk for five customers and got SOc a month from each customer . Everyday, I carried that milk and then returned home. JEFF : Do you have a favorite childhood memory about going to school? CAPTAIN WAGENER : I sure do. The schools wouldn't let you inLo first grade unless you were six when the school year started. I can remember my mother talking to the teacher . The teacher said you have to fighL to get in and I misunderstood. When I came to class the next day to enroll, 1 grabbed the first kid and punched him. JEFF : How did you get your first sailing job? CAPTAIN WAGENER: A person I delivered groceries for had a friend that was on the ship Hyacinth. They wanted a person that could fill a shipmate's position. I got the job . When the Hyacinth was to be retired and burned, I asked the captain if I could have the bell. That ' s the bell you see nexL to my front walk. KEITH : What ships were you captain of? CAPTAIN WAGENER : I was mostly captain of tugs: John Roen I, II, III, IV, and V. I was a pilot of the first ships built during the second World War. These were built at the Sturgeon Bay Shipyard and brought to New Orleans. I took some boats from Texas up the Mississippi River to the GreaL Lakes. My worst incident was a hurricane in 1941. We were on a 500-foot vessel, leaving Chicago . We met two other ships going up Lake Michigan . Both of those ships sank that day. I wrote a letter to my wife, Mere, telling her it doesn't look good ahead. The storm hit . The boat started shaking and rivets were coming out all over. Those waves were eighty to one hundred feet high . It was afrighLening experience to all hands on board . A good thing Lo remember is to always respect the water .

122 KE I T II : wI H' n tl i cl y()II Ill{'(' L v () ll r hi i r p?

C1\ \>Tl\ I N \.-.'I\ GENE I{ : I 111 e l 111 y \v i l 0 i n h i g Ii ~c h o o l . hi e \v c r c m:1 r r i t> d 0 c Lob C' r 2 8 , 1 9 J 1 a n d h .'.l v P b <~ e n ni.:i r r j c d (" o r f i f L y - f o u r )' <' a r s .

Jl·:FF: ll o ~.J l ong lwvc you I ivc d Lil Door County?

C1\PT/\lN \.Ji\GENER: I ' ve liv<•d in Door CounLy all my li(e. l[ I h ad a chance Lo move, l wouldn ' L. This is the pe r[ccL plncr Lo live.

12 3 MILK I N f\ Cf\N By

John Lundquist Ch r is Mapa Troy Re ichard

Troy , A It re. d, 0 o J ly, Chr is , a. n d do h n

Alfred W. Wanke was born in Cheboygan, Michigan on October 29, 1911. He moved to Sturgeon Bay in 1915. During high school, he began working at the Van Camp Milk Company which was later changed to Evangeline Milk Company . He worked there for thirty-seven years . Afterwards, he was emp l oyed by the Peninsula Processing Plant, but the plant closed because of the offensive fish smell . Both plants were loca ted at what is now part of the Baudhuin Yacht Harhor. Mr. Wanke served as Door County Clerk of Court for thir teen years and two months. On December 31, 1978, he re t ired. - He and his wife, Dolly, curren tly reside at 133 N. Lansing Avenue.

TROY : What was the condenserv.. like? MR. WANKE : We ll, this was the plant we had in Stur geon Bay . It was started in 191 7 by the Van Camp Packing Company. It used to be a pea factory at f irst . Tt was vacant for a few years and then they brought machinery in for eva porating mi lk. They went out and bought severa l c heese factor i es t h roughout the county and in 1917, t hey started producing e vaporate d milk.

They brought the milk in by trucks and teams in open platforms, like this one ( see accom panying picture). The trucks, at that time, had so lid tires . Th e v carried between 75 and 125 cans of milk on one tr~ck . The cans weren ' t all full. Some farmers didn't have a ful l can and some had several full cans, because the farms weren't as big as t hey are now.

124 The milk came in cans and it went to what is called an intake . Each farmer had a number on his can, or cans , of milk. Then it was dumped into a we igh tank. The weight was recorded And pu t on the fa rm e r' s ticke L. A sample was taken bv one of t he fel l ows in t he lab, put inLo a bot tle, and every fifLeen days they were tested for buLLerfat . That ' s how t he farmers were paid. From the intake, the milk was pumped into a tank and then from the tank to the evaporator . There were three stages of heat . One was Lhe L\.;o-to three heater and the other was the evaooraLor . Th e first stage was about 110 degrees fahrenheit . The second stage was about 190 degrees . The third stage, boiled under a vacuum, was about 190-195 degrees. From the r e it wenL Lo LhP holding Lank, where the milk company ' s chemist took samples and made sure Lhe butterfat and solids in milk were the same each day. Then. the chemist okaved it to be canned . It then wenl to the fillers. ·From there il was put into a one-pound can and then it went to a fourleen ounce can . Eventually it went to Lhe sterilizer where the heat was applied . The milk was heated so that the fan killed all the bacteria and it would keep a long time. From there il wenl to the label machine, into the boxes, and down Lo the warehouse. That was the simplest wav to tell you the process of evaporating milk. TROY : How long were you al the condensery?

MR . WANKE : I started there during my high schooldays in 1927; graduating from high school in 1930. I worked there weekends, sometimes after school, and during the summer . I was out [or baseball, basketball, and football. That came fi rst and I worked after wards. Then, in 1930, I went to work for the plant on a full-Lime basis. During the Depression vears, I was fortunate that I worked almost all the time. In 19L1l, I made it to Lhe lab; testing and stan dardizing milk . I became assistant manager in 1946 and was named the plant manager in 1957. January 31, 1964 was our last day of operation. The evaporating milk business was dropping off and fresh milk took over because of modern re frigeration in all households. We went out of business and sold the plant to Lake-Lo-Lake. They, in turn, sold LO Baudhuin Yacht llarbor and that was the end of Lhe company.

125 They started out with the Van Camp Packing Company. Then, in 1929, they went to the Van Camp Milk Company. In 1934, The First National Stores took up their option to buy. The First National Stores put their own label on it and called it Evan geline Milk Company. JOHN: What were wages like back then? MR. WANKE: Well, in 1932, the lowest wage was about twenty one cents an hour and highest was about forty- f ive cents an hour. I got approximately thirty two cents. In 1934, it was considered that they paid very good wages of $150 per month. JOHN: Did you work at any other jobs? MR. WANKE: During that time ... no. But after the plant closed, I worked with Peninsula Processing Plant. They were going to process alewives into fish oil. It started in 1964 and was located at the Evangeline plant. The process had such an odor that no one could stand it! We only processed fish for eighteen days, but we worked about a year trying to get rid of the odor . The city couldn ' t stand it, we couldn't stand it, so we closed down ! Then, I was appointed Clerk of the Circuit Court by Judge Gleason and Judge Rahr. I took over November 1, 1965, because the present clerk, Herb Gaethke, was ill and resigned. I worked there un til I retired and finished mv term at the end of 1978. JOHN: Could vou tell us about any ma1or changes 1n Stur geon Bay? MR. WANKE : There was the Stegman Ice House. That's where the eastside landing dock is now. They used to put up ice for the whole city. When they hauled the ice blocks out, they were covered with sawdust. - I'd see them slide the ice down a ramp, wash the sawdust off, cut it up, and deliver it to the people's homes. I think the biggest change was when they stopped the train corning to Sturgeon Bay. We traveled on the train when I was in basketball. We played a tournament in Madison and that was our transportation. There was a special train to Algoma when we played the last game before the state tournament. ,

126 cim rs: Did vo11 win anv g

MH. h't\NKE: We played two iu1mes 1n M;1clison, b11l lost h<"'lh o [ Lhem .

CllRTS: Do you r e membf>r a ny oth f> r pl;1vC'rs?

MR . Wt\NK l:: : Some of Lhem were Ge o rge Or.'.lm . Joe PcoL. Don.:ild Odbe rt, Delbert LaVasso r. Viner Wi cgnnrl. Connir Schme lzer, a n d myself. JOHN : When did you mo ve to t hi s ho us0 n 0Ci r OLu mba Beach? Wh y did you choose to li ve h0.r c? MR. WANK E: We bough t t his house in 1938. W

Doll y 's brother ~as a capLnin on A ca r f0 rry . Th e car[errv carried railroad cars . It sni led from Ludington ancl Frankfurt to Marinette'. t,Jc ll, 1.ihcn e ve r he would go pasL, he would blow thP whistle . It was nice when the boats went through.

TROY : 1\ow did your wife gel the name Dol l y? MR . WANKE: lier name is Margaret . li er fat:hc r was a sa ilor . Wh en she was born, her fat.her was o ul on

-~-·

l27 MY GRE/\ T-GR/\NDMO'f'llER M/\M TE Oy

Oawn Steph

The Dorchester N11r sing Home is Lh <' home of ni.ncLy-f ivc ye

DAWN : When you were tn grade schoo l, did you have di[ficull homework?

MANIE: Homework was difficult to some kids because they didn't l is ten . I 1 is ten e d and Lo mc , i L was a SNAP ! Som c Li mes kids wou ld come to me for answers and when we would have a Le sL, the kids next Lo me would Lry Lo look al my paper. I would cover my paper, then takC' my hand away for Lhc tun of it, and peck out of the corn<'r of my eye. If Lhc person would l ook at my paper, J would slop their hand.

DAWN: ~ere your Leachcrs sLrict?

MAM I E : S L r i c L ? Th c y we r c so s L r i c L • co u I d n ' t s u111 d i t. Yn11' rP I u c k y b c c .:rn s e l h c .:i r d L h a L y o u r l <' a c lw r s :1 r C' n 1 c c . I w is \1 J were in school now .

Dt\Wi1: Did you ever gel in trouble i11 school?

MMlll·.: Jusl once and it was big trouble. 1 was looking Lhr(lugh my Lca c h c r ' s g r a de book r •"~ . Thal was fun, buL not Lhc gelling in trouble p~1n.

128 DAWN: When you were my age, did you know what you wanted to be when you grew up? MAMIE: I sure did. I wanted to be a nurse . I would play house and pretend that I was nurse to my favorite doll, Martha . As I grew up, I decided I wanted to be a teacher and you know, I was. I was a good teacher, not too slrict and not too nice. Everyone liked me. At one time, I also wanted to be a painter. We had a n e~gh~or who was quile old and I thought her house needed pa1nt1ng. One day I asked her if she wanted me to paint her house and she said, "No." I was disappointed but like my fa ther would always say to me, "People have to somelimes say no and no will be the answer ." DAWN : How old were you when you wanled to painL this house? MAMIE: About ten. DAWN: Could you tell me about your first car? MAMIE : I can remember my firsl car well. It was a small, black Model T Ford . Back then, it seemed there were only black cars. I didn'L mind because I just wanled someLhing to drive . DAWN : Did you grow up knowing your great grandparents? MAMIE : I sure did. They were nice people and their names were Edward and Elizabeth Shine . My great grandma died when she was eighty-four and my great grandpa died when he was eighty-one. Just think of how long ago Lhat was and now, I am ninety-five .

129 A DAY IN TllE woons

f3y Mik0 Ba um Jason Gir;sLead Josh Popour -

cia .son dos h M 1 k e. o.. n d Te.. d / )

Ted Wesler was born in 1906 in hi s family home al Lilv Bav . He had lwo brolhcrs, who nre rlC'CC'nsed, nnd fot1r sisters. Three sisters nrP sLill living and reside in SLurgeon Bay. Ted and his wife, Amanda, nrc> living al Lily Bay nrxt to his childhood homP. He is cightv y0ars old and 1 ikes spending mosL of his time working al his sawmill. The day we visiLcd Ted, he showPd us Lhe mill and Lhen Lold us we coulcl wander along the creek and look for fish. All n( 11s cigrred, we ' d like to live out here .

JASON: \-!ould vou LC'll us ahouL vour work as a vouth?

TED : /\l agc> s ixl C'C'n, T h e lp0cl on farms. This meant plowing, harvE'sLing, and fi 11 ing silos . AL righ teen, I started driving onC' of thr first school huscs for the Sevasto- pol Srhool Districl. Othrrwise, LhC'rc' weren ' r Loo many ic,hs. r worked nn tlw construction of Lak0 Michigan Orivr in 1910 nnd whrn thC'v put in L:tkP forest Park. Wr \v o 11 l cl L r ~ 1 v <' l i n L c' nm s .'.1 n d ;i b 11 n c h o [ g u y s \v o u 1 cl h a u l .:rncl s l10vc'l bv hand. I lH' lpNI c11l LhC' t im ber of( this bi~~ ro~1rl. Thr f irs t milr o r so \vilS from T to TT. Thrr•(' or \IS !C'lln\vS \lll th:1L ro !"rrl w1dr :ind :100111 on0 milr long.

MIKE: \~h:1l kind nt Pq11ipmrnt did vou usr'?

TEO: \·! (' 11 s (' d c r () s s - (" 11 L s [\Iv s ' I 1() r s (' !") , [I n d i I I s t () \l r h D n cl s .

130 J OSH : What was your major problem when you were building Lake Michigan Drive? TED : The biggest problem was all the hard work! JASON : Was there any kind of wildlife during this time?

TED : Mostly coyotes . MIKE : How long did it Lake you to build the road?

TED : About one winter, or two or three months. What was good is we got Lo keep the material that was left over plus two hundred dollars. It was an all-winter job . Then, my brolher and I fished for awhile until we boughr the boxmill in Lhe fall . Then we would have a job for the stale. Every two weeks they used to take the trout eggs and halch them at the hatchery on Third Avenue in Sturgeon Bay . Peterson Builders now occupies t ha t pro perty. They did that for quite a few years . Every body had Lo have one fellow take car e of t he eggs . That ' s whaL we did. Everyone was looking fo r that iob because it paid five dollars a day . JASON: Cou l d you tell us about Gl idden drive? TED: Yes, Mr . Glidden sent a man to buy all t he s hor e pro perty from here to Cave Point . My da d had 140 acres of property up toward Whitefish Bay . That was maybe around 1928. In 1929, the Schmock brothers came from Michigan City, Indiana and Ewald Schmock stayed and bought property . He bu i 1 t G1 i dden Lodge . They had road building equipment from Michigan City. Four brothers were running that. They also had coal mi nes in Michigan Citv. Ewald started selling lots for twelve dollars a foot . If you wanted to buy a lot now you would pay $40,000 dollars on the beach . That ' s the way things are moving now. North, it's more expensive vet. When you get up towards Sister Bay, Ephraim, and Gills Rock, everything costs more . MIKE : Could you Lell us about the history of the sawmill?

TED : I learned Lhe trade when we started the boxmill. I learned to saw and how the mill should operate. In 1960, I built this big sawmill. JOSH : Did you go to school and where did you attend? TED : I went to school at Joint District No . 1 and 2 right he re i n S e v a s t o po 1 . . . Ever g re en School . I ha d t o i.1 a l k 2~ miles to get there. J went through the eighth grade . There was no high school out here un til 1924 .

131 Yo 11 k n 11 \·' . "'" • h : 1cl ! o g s t o s :H,• <' v r r v ,. r (1 1· ; s Pm C' L i m<' s n I s111111111'1· l ci np F.11-mf'rS c:1m0 from :ill ov0r. f\ l0t of f ;1 r111Prs H

Jf\SON: J\s this :1rc••1 b1•c:imc pop11!<1r. where did most of the lo 11 r i s L s c nnH' fr om?
TED: From Mi I •..J.'.l11kc•l' :tnd Chi ca go. Thcv came on sa i 11 ng ves- sc• ls :ind lockPd :it Lilv B.'.ly.
MTKE: ll ow did 1.ilv B;1y gel its n:imt>?
TED: 1 g11P~s then• wc'n' many lilil'S growing in LhP w , f> l C' r .:i n cl :1 b i I' h nu s <' w i l h [ o 11 r l <' r n rooms f o r p <'op l <' L o s ui v over.
-
I 3 2 A YOUNG BA UY SJ 'l"l'Ell Oy
Scott, Jensen Mike Ma ngo
Mi·s. L.111r:1 \·iit'~~:111d is ;i long-L irnr-> rf'sident of Door Counlv. Born in 189(), slw has spent plc>asanL v~ars working and shciring memor ies with h0r r.-i111ilv . She: hLls three sons and a claur.hrer.
SCOTT: Wlwt w:1s v0u1· chi lcih0od like?
MR S WTEl./\N11: I w.:is horn i11 Ill ino is and moved to Wisconsin - i 11 Dr. c: (' mb c r o ! I <) 0 () I wa s L1 v ea r s o l d . I ha d lo cnrrv wood. When mv mother had more babies, I wn 11 1 cl h ii v C' l o s L.1 v i n and rock t hem in t he r o c k i n g l' I 1;i i r . J h <1 cl 1 t1 b r o L he r s a n d s i s t· c rs 0 :1 n cl L h i s i n c I 11 d t' cl 2 s <' L s 0 f L w i n s .
SCOTT: D i cl yo 11 lw v r. n l Ii r l- i obs l o cl o?
MRS . (·!f r·:C:AMD: T:ikin;~ l·:11·r· nl thr> hnb i cs wn s a big iob. huL
SCOTT: II m,• d i d v o 11 l r ,1 v <~ I l u S l 11 rl! <"' on Ba y ?
MRS 1:.'lt:G1\ND: \~i1!i :1 w:1r>1111 :incl ;1 l<':tOI o f li0rses. \•1 e w0uld Sldrl (':Jt"!V in tJF' lll(ll"Pi!H! lllhl it W0Uld UlkC \IS ;.) l c1av. r knw ... l°"ll•"' 1 i1110 . l was l ost in SLur- r.c·nn B;1v. 0111· llirt.~d m.111 ,.,;is LO drive LhC' wagon liomi..'. h,. 111Pl c; a n d k <"' p L r u n - n 1 1 ) : 11 p 1 n d cl (I\,• 11 t 'h~ s l r (> c> t c i· '· i n R Cl n 111 1 d 111 1 • I.'. · . ' c' l I 1: r c k L n L 11 P f .1 rm a r o u n d l 0 n l ' 1 l u r k L I 1 :i l n 1 l' 111 . I 1 ... ~ 1 ~ n ' 1 f 11 n n v .
l J 3 SCOTT : Did you have a favorite toy? MRS . WIEGAND : I had one doll that my grandmother gave me to take along to Wisconsin. My dad didn't like it, sat on it in the chair, and crushed it . I didn ' t get another one . SCOTT : What did you do on Christmas? MRS. WIEGAND : On a farm, there was always work to be done, even on Christmas. SCOTT : Did you believe in Santa Claus? MRS . WIEGAND : A little. We didn't get much, maybe a pair of rubbers and a pair of mittens. My mother would make the mittens for all the children. SCOTT: Did you have an education? MRS. WIEGAND: Not me. When the law was passed, I was too old . I was fourteen at the time. Some people said my dad would have had to pay a fine, but he talked his way out of it.
134 The staff of MEMORIES OF THE DOOR PENINSULA gives thanks to the following :
The Door County Historical Society and its board of directors for introducing us to this project. All the people interviewed for sharing their lives with us. Cheri Harris for a lesson in conducting an interview. Evelyn Grassel and Grace Samuelson for storytelling. Ruth Scholz for her portrayal of Mary Ann Claflin. Helen Walch for providing transportation. Our parents for providing transportation and proofreading skills. Helen Knuth, Vivian Sekey, Alice Anderson, Lois Soule, Toni DeFoe, Isabell e Pe tersen, Bev Ellingson and Eva Groenfeldt for bringing cookies to the proofread ing party. Bob Engebretson for taking photographs. Zac Cote for the front cover. Dodie Schnieder for sketches. Mary Ann Blahnik, Pearl Beane, Mi lton Lenius, Paul Treadeau and Bev Ellingson for their support and assistance. Stanley Greene for verifying facts and spellings. Jerry Kain and Walt Bentley for giving us the opportunity to make this project a part of our language arts classes . Tracy Schumacher, Paula Gunnlaugsson, Kathy Vertz and their business education instructor, Nancy Ziegelbauer, for the typing and printing of the final inter views. They made this book a reality. QUOTES :
11 In 1914, I had an uncle who bou ght a mode l T and one time, he came to visit us . It was the first drive in a car that I ever had, and what fun it was to ride and he ar that motor running. 11 Stanley Jacobson
11 I wish some of you co uld live the way \'le did; just one day . 11 Hannah Preuter "You ' re looking for a future that I can ' t even understand ... computers, space travels and all those wonderf ul things that are turning up." Stanley Greene "In the winter, that ' s when a horse and sleigh could do the job ." Fred Erskine -Mr . Jacksonport-
11 But we st i 11 have the memor ies, just as some day in the future you may rec a 11 your own school day memories . 11 Grace Samuelson