SPRING 2009 NEWSLETTER #12 A HOME FOR JHS! JACKSONPORT HISTORICAL It has been a historical year for the Jacksonport Historical Society!!! The SOCIETY SCHEDULED big news is the purchase of land for our long awaited vision of having PROGRAMS - 2009 land on which we can build a museum to keep and protect the history of Jacksonport. In early summer we had the opportunity to purchase 4.3 June 24 - Annual Meeting. acres of land on the south edge of Jacksonport on Wisconsin Highway 57. Jessica Michna from Racine WI will After much consideration and negotiation the Board of Directors decided portray First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. it was too good an opportunity not to pursue. So on October 31, 2008 the Originally from Pennsylvania, Jessica Jacksonport Historical Society became the proud owners of this fantastic Michna developed a love of American historical piece of property. As to the history of this property, it was originally history at an early age, visiting the many owned by Joseph and Margaret Smith in 1872. On this property, they built Revolutionary and Civil War sites in the a large home which was a gathering place where many parties for cousins, area. Mrs. Michna’s performances are friends and community members were held. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and compelling and emotionally captivating. the 4th of July were special holidays at the Smiths, “Aunt Maggie” always We will laugh along with her humorous anecdotes about life in the White House, served and ample meal. All the children looked forward to sliding down the and share in her tears as she relates how long banister in their home. Joseph Smith was a dealer in cedar logs and the horrors of war impacted the First posts in Wisconsin. It is said that he shipped more cedar logs and posts to Family. It will be fascinating to meet one Chicago than any other person on the Great Lakes. This feat earned him the of history’s most influential and often title “Cedar King.” misunderstood women. Our goal for this property is to develop a place for the community to gather and to be able to experience first hand the history of the township July 22 - The Episcopal Church of of Jacksonport through hands on experiences, activities, and educational The Holy Nativity. displays. Kevin and Debbie Magno, son and daughter-in-law of Marlene(Cote) We will visit the Episcopal Church of and Napoleon Magno have donated a log cabin which is located on the the Holy Nativity which stands on the wooded hill on County V. Simplicity and west side of County A just north of County V formerly on the property of peace and a hovering beauty enfold it. It long time residents Joe and Lou Cote. We will be moving this cabin to our is a hallowed spot, a bit of Old England new property. The Cote property was originally owned by Charles and Mary that has in some way strayed into this Reynolds in 1885. In 1933 the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac purchased whirling western world. We will also visit 60 acres from the Reynolds to build their vicarage, guild hall, and church. In the cemetery down below the ridge—on 1935 Joe and Lena Urban purchased the piece of land where the log cabin is the old Lumberman’s Road where lie the located. When the vicarage and guild hall burned in 1936 there is reference remains of Reynolds, Robinson, Nugent, to “Father Hood now being comfortably housed in the Urban cottage Smythe, Erskines, Johnson, and McArthur, nearby.” Historically this is the first reference we have to this cabin. In 1943 and others, who will be portrayed by the Urbans sold this property to Joe and Lou Cote and then in 1989 Kevin, family and friends. Our program will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the cemetery. Parking Joe and Lou’s grandson purchased the property from them. The cabin will will be at 6313 County A, and we will walk need some tender love and care and we would like to have your involvement, on a path up to the cemetery. Dessert and whether it is by volunteering your labor, tools, or expertise. beverages will be served on the lawn of With great appreciation we would like to thank you at this time for your the church after our visit to the cemetery. involvement in our activities this past year. First and foremost we want to continued page 3 thank Jerry and Judy Cote, Marge and Mayo Carrington, Carol Halstead, The purpose of the JHS is Jeanette Logerquist, and Don and Carolyn Weber for storing our artifacts for educational in nature through the us. We placed a Wisconsin State Historical Society marker at the Episcopal study on the Town of Jacksonport, its Church of the Holy Nativity on County V this past summer and we would history, people, lands, buildings and like to thank Eric Leist for providing his truck and labor for setting the stone, continued page 2 other topics of general interest. A HOME FOR JHS - continued from page 1 Mallien Masonry for choosing and erecting the stone, Terry Simon for use of his masonry saw, and Jerry and Judy Cote for their assistance. Be sure to stop by the church and read the history of this amazing little church. Also we created a fantastic brochure promoting the Jacksonport Historical Society this 6310 County Road A year. We hope you have all seen it in the local businesses and have enjoyed it. Much Egg Harbor, WI 54209 appreciation goes out to Rob Onan for working with Vicki Bley and Eileen Roberts in proofing and critiquing the brochure. OFFICERS Dennis Dietrich When you drove past the Erskine Rest Area you probabley noticed how lovely the flowers President were in front of the restored root cellar. We would like to thank the Sturgeon Bay Florist for donating the flowers and Jerry and Judy Cote for planting and maintaining them Vicki Bley throughout the summer. Kudos to Dick Birnschein who donated his labor to raise the Vice President bottom of the vegetable bins in the restored root cellar for display purposes as well. Judy Cote Another exciting project for us has been undertaking the development and design of our Secretary new website. The new location of the website will make it easier for our friends to find us on the web, all of our information will be easily accessible to everyone. Visit our website Kandie Skippon at: www.jacksonporthistoricalsociety.org Gary Arndt of Fox Valley Web Design has donated Treasurer the hosting and his labor in designing this new home for us. We are happy to be able to work with him and have the ability to keep all our current events on line. Thank you Gary. Eileen Roberts Such great things have happened for the Jacksonport Historical Society through the great Historian & efforts of many, many people. With this land purchase we truly have become “THE KEEPERS Program Chairman OF THE PAST” for the Jacksonport Township. Stay tuned for all the latest in our activities for the upcoming year!! TRUSTEES Ray Osinski THE ERSKINES — Memories of Dan Carmody Mitch Honold In the life of a child in a very small town there are important families and individuals. In Patty Birnschein mine there is no question that the Erskines topped the list. This awesome family included Fred and Gertie, daughters Carol and Marie, and sons Hilton, Pete, and Mike. They lived ____________________ across the street from us in the post office. It was a large building that was once known THE JACKSONPORT as the Eureka House which had rooms to rent. In my time it was never used for the latter HISTORICAL SOCIETY purpose. Fred was the postmaster but it appeared to me that Gertie pretty much ran things. PROGRAMS Fred was busy doing whatever intellectuals do and being a jack of all trades. Theirs was are always held: the most interesting home that I have ever been in. Fred was The Fourth Wednesday an avid photographer whose of each month at 7:00 pm images date to the early teens or at the Jacksonport Town earlier. Upstairs was a darkroom Hall County Trunk V in which he developed all ____________________ of his own film. Many of his pictures can be viewed in the The Jacksonport Historical Jacksonport town hall. His Society (JHS) would like to still photography constitutes thank Eileen Phetteplace a pretty good visual history of for designing the newsletter the Jacksonport area. He took a and Cathy Gerdmann for number of group photographs. her contribution of the word In many of them he was the guy Standing in back left to right: Carol and Marie. Front left to right: puzzle. on one end because his camera Fred, Pete (Victor), Eugene, Hilton, and Gertie Erskine had a timer. One was an image of the Jacksonport grade school children and their teacher. Fred pointed out two of my mother’s brothers, Hank and Exor Cote who were maybe 9 or 10 years old at the time. The picture was taken on the steps of the store probably sometime after 1910. There were maybe 30 or 40 kids indicating that the town was fairly bustling at the time. Fred was the only person that I knew that had a movie camera. It was so exciting 2 continued page 3 THE ERSKINES - continued from page 2 continued from page 1 to sit in their living room and watch movies even if they didn’t have sound. I August 26 - Visiting With the thought I was the luckiest kid on earth to be able to hang around their house Schleicher Family.