USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 35
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Also in 1841 there was established in Green Bay a paper known as the Phoenix, with J. V. Suydam as publisher, and Judge J. D. Knapp as editor, but it was burned on December 22d of the same year.
Up to this time the papers had all been short lived, but on the 13th day of August, 1846, the first number of the Green Bay Advocate was issued by the brothers Charles D. and Albert C. Robinson from Buffalo, New York, the former as editor. It was published uninterruptedly from that date and is now (in 1904) in its fifty-eighth year. The presses and most of the type were second-hand, procured from the office of the Buffalo Pilot. The paper .has always been demo-
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cratic, and in 1851, '52 and '53, Charles D. Robinson was secretary of state and was once a candidate for governor. In the early days, when he was absent from home, his wife now and then handled the editorial quill, and once came a good joke on him, by bringing out an issue of the paper advocating the opposite political faitlı.
This paper had a continuous existence under the same management until Dorr Clark on March 8, 1875, was added to the firm. After the death of Colonel Robinson in 1886 the paper was continued under the management of Colonel Robinson's widow, Mrs. Abbie Ballou Robinson, and of Albert C. Robinson. Later the Advocate was sold to David Decker of Casco, and published by him under different editorships until it was dissolved in 1906, after a continuous existence of sixty years.
Soon after the advent of the Advocate into Green Bay the Ryan brothers discontinued the Republican and the Advocate remained up to 1850 the only newspaper published in Brown county. In that year Baldwin and Thayer com- menced the publication of the Depere Advertiser and continued it one year. In 1852 White began the publication of a sheet called the Regulator and published it intermittently for several years. In 1860 the Bay City Press began its career in Green Bay. It was published by John Lawe, and edited successively by Wil- liam Green and Harry E. Eastman. It was a spicy sheet and during the war received news from the front and issued separate bulletins to keep the people informed of special items of interest. The Bay Press was discontinued in De- cember, 1862.
In 1858, a German paper, the Green Bay Post, was published and edited by Jacob Fuss of Green Bay. Later a daily sheet was published for about a year, called the Banner. This paper was succeeded by another German paper called the Volks Zeitung and the Concordia.
On February 1, 1866, the Green Bay Gazette was incorporated by George C. Ginty, who continued as publisher and editor until the early part of the year 1868, when James Tapley and Dwight I. Follett purchased the paper. Tapley was only connected with the firm for a short time and on January 1, 1870, George E. Hoskinson assumed the editorship of the State Gazette, as it was then called. The size of the paper was increased to 30x24 inches. In November, 1871, the Gazette began a daily paper.
The appointment of G. E. Hoskinson in 1873 to the consulship in Jamaica threw the management of the Gazette on D. I. Follett, although Hoskinson con- tinued his connection with the paper, and it was published both as a daily and weekly in 1888.
On the death of D. I. Follett, his widow, Mrs. Rosamund Follett, edited and published the Gazette acceptably until her failing health necessitated the securing of another proprietor. Negotiations were begun with Walter E. Gardner, an up-to-date newspaper man, who had for years been connected with the editorial department of the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin, and also with the Sentinel. The Gazette, under Gardner's management, became a regular city paper, was much enlarged and was well printed and edited. The Associated Press dis- patches were first regularly received at this time, no former Green Bay paper having attempted anything of the kind.
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The Gazette is now published by the Gazette Publishing Company, N. C. Pick- ard president, and a daily and semi-weekly paper is issued.
The De Pere News issued its first number in August, 1871, P. R. Proctor, edi- tor, continuing under that management for several years. J. H. Halline is the present editor.
The De Pere Facts was first issued in 1881 by J. A. Comerford, and after a few numbers had been printed D. E. Hickey became editor and proprietor. The De Pere Standard was also published in 1881 by Edward Van De Casterle and John B. Heyrman. During the seventies the Green Bay Globe, a small but interesting sheet, was published and edited by Mather D. Kimball. The Fort Howard Review and the Fort Howard Herald both came into existence at this time, and Der Landsmann, a weekly German paper. The Green Bay Review, the former Fort Howard Review, changed its name when the two cities con- solidated. In De Pere are published the Brown County Democrat, an excellent county newspaper ; the De Pere News, and De Pere Volksstemm, the only Hol- land newspaper published in Wisconsin, both edited by J. F. Kuyper, and a monthly publication, St. Joseph's Annals. There are also two bright little school sheets published by the east and west high schools, Green Bay-the Aeroplane and Snapshots, respectively. The Denmark Enterprise is published at Denmark, its first issue was in January, 1911. The Green Bay Herald is edited by Louis Sogey.
CHAPTER XXV
RAILROADS-MAILS-WATER TRANSPORTATION-HARBOR
In the address made by James H. Howe of Green Bay on the completion of the Fox River improvement, he thus gave a prediction of the coming railroads in Brown county. "How better can we inaugurate these auspicious events the 'good time coming' than by extending to you here the hand of friendship and good will, pledging ourselves to rest not with what has been accomplished but join hands with you again and again in behalf of all enterprises calculated to hasten our material or moral prosperity-nor stop until the iron horse upon the land shall answer back to his sister upon the water-until your homes and ours shall be bound together with bands of iron-and the interchange of thought between us though far softer than the thunder shall yet be rapid as the lightning."
James H. Howe and his uncle Timothy O. Howe were both deeply inter- ested in railway projects that would connect Green Bay with outside cities. The Fox River Improvement was more on the line of a great canal and was of value in freight transportation, but for speedy connection with eastern cities it was not a success.
In September, 1856, the Milwaukee and Lake Superior Railroad Company was brought to the attention of the Green Bay city fathers, and an appropriation of $1,000, toward the immediate survey of said road ordered by the city council, "as the towns on the line of said road have made the same appropriation be- lieving it would result greatly to the interest of this city and to the county of Brown to have said road surveyed and located as contemplated this fall."
There was much discussion in the Green Bay council of January, 1857, as to the advisability of subscriptions by municipal corporations for stock of any kind, a recent decision in the New York courts having pronounced it uncon- stitutional. The continual petitions sent in, by would-be incorporators of plank road companies impelled the council to decide that a road of this kind was not as practical as a railroad. On January 3, 1857 a committee was appointed to consider the means necessary to be taken to aid a projected railroad leading from this city to Lake Michigan. The committee reported, and recommended that the council communicate with William B. Ogden, of Chicago to procure his concurrence and aid; John P. Arndt, David Agry, Thomas Green, Francis Desnoyers and Albert C. Robinson, committee.
William B. Ogden, a capitalist and owner of extensive saw mills on the Peshtigo river was as president of the newly incorporated Chicago & North- western Railway, the prime mover in bringing the line through Brown county. The line as first planned was to run farther to the westward through Shawano county.
The Northwestern was a land grant road and it was deemed difficult for
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that reason to change the projected route and retain its grant. To do this, an act of Congress was required. Andrew E. Elmore, then of Muckwanago, Wis- consin, an important man in public affairs, was consulted by William B. Ogden in regard to the matter, and Mr. Elmore immediately exerted his powerful in- fluence and procured the passage of an act of Congress, authorizing the company to change its route yet still retain its charter land grant. Upon the passage of this act the line was changed to run to Fort Howard and Green Bay.
Some opposition was manifested apparently for the Bay City Press strikes a warning note and reminds the people that it is an easy matter to "change the hand of friendship into the fist of resentment." On the whole, however, there was enthusiastic support of the impending improvement.
In July, 1861, William B. Ogden, president of the new road, Perry H. Smith, vice-president, and George L. Dunlap, general manager, with Andrew E. Elmore, his son James H. Elmore, then a young fellow of nineteen, Talbot C. Dousman and son Hercules came through to Green Bay.
A meeting was called to consider the railroad project and proved an en- thusiastic occasion. Two chairmen were elected to preside, Henry S. Baird. then mayor of Green Bay and Dr. Uriel H. Peak of Fort Howard, prominent in civic affairs. Rousing speeches were made by the two chairmen, by Dominick Ilunt, John C. Neville, Otto Tank and other adherents of the enterprise as well as by the visiting railway officials. Robert Chappell, president of the Borough of Fort Howard was, on the road's completion in 1862, made the first station agent at the Fort Iloward terminus. A general vote on the railroad proposition was called by the County Board for January 27, 1862. Commenting on it the Press says, "The vote for the railroad proposition proved as generally anticipated a very light one but as far as heard from favorable to the imposition of the tax. We have but little doubt that the proposition has carried in the county by about four hundred majority.
Majorities for proposition : City of Green Bay-
Borough of Fort Howard; Town of Howard; Bellevue, Lawrence, Preble ; Village of De Pere; Town of Pittsfield ; Humboldt.
Against the proposition : Town of Scott-
Morrison, Glenmore, Rockland, Wrightstown.
The towns of Suamico and Depere were not given.
On the favorable report of the popular vote the county board convened and resolved that the sum of $150,000 in bonds to bear interest at eight per cent be issued toward the support of the railway proposition.
In February, 1862, the newspaper item is given that William J. Fisk is begin- ning to get out railroad ties "despite opposition." Green Bay city voted $15,000 toward the enterprise and on May 15, 1862 at a special meeting of the Borough Council of Fort Howard, Otto Tank, president, on motion it was resolved : "That Otto Tank, D. W. Hubbard and Roswell Morris are hereby appointed a committee on behalf of the president and council of the Borough of Fort Howard to negotiate with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company for the pur- chase of $15,000 of the stock of said company, and that said committee is author- ized to pay and exchange for said stock the sum of $15,000 in the bonds of the Borough of Fort Howard."
It was further resolved that: "Whereas the city of Green Bay proposes to
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aid in the construction of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad from Apple- ton to Fort Howard by subscription to the stock thereof, the sum of $15,000, and whereas, the Borough of Fort Howard proposes to subscribe the same amount and whereas it is believed that a free bridge across the Fox River to connect the two said corporations is necessary for the convenience of both; Resolved, that we are in favor of uniting with Green Bay in the cost of building said bridge as soon as said road shall be in actual progress of con- struction, the cost to be apportioned upon the basis of the taxable property in each corporation."
Colonel James II. Howe had resigned from the army in 1863 to accept the position of attorney for the Chicago & Northwestern road. The road from Appleton to Fort Howard was built during the summer of 1862. The majority of the men who went to the war from Brown county in 1861 were carried by the Fannie Fisk to Appleton, where they took the Northwestern road. On the first of May, 1861, the Green Bay Advocate started a daily bulletin of news from the front and the following account of how this ambitious enterprise was accomplished is thus told by Erastus Root, one of "the boys" from the Advocate office who carried out the project.
"The Bulletin," the first daily paper printed in Green Bay, was issued from the Advocate by Charles D. and Albert C. Robinson. It was started in the early spring of 1861, and was continued until the Chicago & Northwestern reached here in November, 1862.
We had neither railroads nor telegraphs at that time, and the quickest way of communicating with the outside world was by steamboats on the Fox river and Lake Winnebago, they running daily between Green Bay and Oshkosh, to which latter place the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad had been built on its way north.
It required a day's time for each boat to make the trip-one starting from Green Bay and the other from Oshkosh early in the morning, about five o'clock. Considerable time was required going and coming in passing through the eighteen or twenty locks on the route, as the elevation of Lake Winnebago is one hundred and seventy feet higher than at Green Bay.
The plan of getting the news was a good one. The Advocate had a minia- ture printing office on each boat. There were racks and cases. The transfer- ence of type, etc., from the boat going south to the one coming north was not always at the same lock-but was Appleton or a little north. The distributing and setting of the type was generally done in the clerk's room.
Upon starting on the return trip the compositors had to select the most im- portant telegraphic news from the latest city dailies, which papers were always on hand for them. The work of setting the type had to be accurately done and ready by the end of the trip to be carried to the Advocate office then located on Washington street, on the second floor of the present Weise-Hollman building.
The following local from the Bulletin of September 2, and the Advocate of September 5, 1861, is worth copying here.
"Good Time-How it is made-A Lake Superior paper acknowledges the receipt of the Advocate Bulletin on the same day it is printed-or rather pub- lished. Well our paper is a little ahead of everything lately, and the way it is done is this: Through the kindness of the officers of Mr. Buck's river boats,
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the Fountain City and the Bay City, who furnish a room for the purpose on each, we have the telegraph news put in type every day on board the boat.
"Two of the boys each with a pair of cases go up the river every morning nearly to Appleton, where they meet the returning boat, transfer the cases to it, and by the time the boat reaches our docks they have the telegraphic news set up. Ten minutes thereafter, our forms are made up and the paper to press and before the mail is distributed the Bulletin is circulated about the city.
"On the evenings when the Swan ( Capt. D. M. Whitney), the Lake Superior mail boat leaves this city, the bulletin dated for the next morning, is thrown on board. In the morning it is at Masonville, Bay de Noquet, and before another evening at Marquette. So the Lake Superior folks may read the news on the evening of the day it is published here, and as soon as many who live not more than forty miles from here."
"The boys" referred to above were of the regular force. Generally two went up together, but sometimes there was but one. They were Erastus Root, in charge of the first trip, George C. Sager, J. Leslie Cady and later Dwight I. and David Follett.
The young compositors of the Advocate, as they went up the river in the fall of 1862, could see the construction train of the Chicago & Northwestern Rail- road as it neared Fort Howard, and on November 10, of that year, 1862, the first train entered the borough. There was great rejoicing over the event in the twin cities of Green Bay and Fort Howard, all uniting in having a great and glorious time. Prominent railroad officials were present, there was a fine banquet, champagne flowed like water, everybody made speeches and good ones, and satisfaction over the successful termination of the great enterprise was universal.
The extension of the Chicago & Northwestern road from Green Bay to the Lake Superior country, was built in the summer of 1871. It was the year when the great fires were burning up the forests of this section and the engineers in charge were greatly hampered for this reason in the work of survey. With the extension northward and the completion of the Manitowoc division, the Chicago & Northwestern now passes through the townships of Wrightstown, Ashwau- benon, Lawrence, Howard, Suamico, Bellevue and New Denmark.
On May 22, 1871, the proposition of the Milwaukee & Northern Railroad, that the county take $100,000 worth of stock in that road, was brought before the county board and later submitted to popular vote and accepted.
On November 17, 1871, the Green Bay & Lake Pepin Railway made a similar proposition which also met with popular approval. William J. Abrams, who, from his coming to Green Bay in 1861, had been interested in aiding trans- portation facilities in this section, obtained the charter of the Lake Pepin road in 1866 while serving as a member of the assembly, and later devoted his time and energy toward the completion of the road to the Mississippi.
David M. Kelly of New York who had come to Brown county in 1870, be- came interested in the Green Bay & Lake Pepin project, was its first vice presi- dent on the road's incorporation, Charles D. Robinson was elected president and James H. Elmore treasurer, of the new railway. Through eastern capital, ob- tained by D. M. Kelly, who took the first contracts for the construction of the
CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN RAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS FOX RIVER
BASCULE BRIDGE, AT WALNUT STREET. GREEN BAY
.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AUTOR, LEAUX AND TILDER FOUNDATIONE.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
road, and through capital obtained by him front eastern men, the 214 miles of road from Green Bay to the Mississippi were constructed.
The Green Bay & Lake Pepin Railroad was later known as the Green Bay & Minnesota, then as the Green Bay, Winona & St. Paul, and now as the Green Bay & Western, with railroad offices in Green Bay. The Kewaunee Railroad known as the Kewaunee, Green Bay & Western, and under the same manage- ment, branches as the Ahnapee & Western to Sturgeon Bay, and as the Iola & Northern to Iola.
The vice president D. A. Jordan, and the general manager, F. B. Seymour of the Green Bay & Western both reside in Green Bay. The Green Bay & Western passes through the towns of Hobart on the west and Preble on the Kewaunee line.
The Milwaukee & Northern Railway Company was incorporated in 1870 by Milwaukee capitalists, and completed its line to Green Bay on June 19. 1873, and regular trains commenced running on the 25th. The road enters the ex- treme southwest corner of the county through the town of Holland, passing through the townships of Wrightstown, Rockland, Allouez. Depere, Howard and Suamico, and the cities of De Pere and Green Bay. Soon after its completion, the Milwaukee & Northern was leased to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Com- pany, which operated it for many years, when it passed into the hands of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. An extension of the Mil- waukee & Northern was built to the Lake Superior region in 1881, upon the road's securing from the state of Michigan a land grant of $4,000,000. This ex- tension was at first called the Wisconsin & Michigan Railroad, but was consoli- dated with the Milwaukee & Northern, and later the entire line passed under the control of the St. Paul road.
The completion of so many railroads in the early seventies. brought added prosperity to Brown county. A celebration of the auspicious event was held in January, 1872, at Turner's hall, Green Bay, which for gayety and hilarity was long remembered. The three roads, Chicago & Northwestern, Milwaukee & Northern and Green Bay & Lake Pepin, were all appropriately represented. A sumptuous banquet was followed by a ball of exceptional splendor, the mottoes of the several roads were entwined with evergreens and the distinguished out of town guests went away, it is recorded, highly pleased and congratulatory of the successful completion of the several roads, to so hospitable a town.
MAILS
In 1824 the United States mails were conveyed during the season of naviga- tion by the irregular and tardy conveyance of sail vessels, and the inhabitants were for weeks and months at a time without intelligence of what was passing in other parts of the world, from which they were as completely isolated as though on a desert island. During the winter the mail was carried on a man's back through the trackless wilderness between Green Bay and Chicago once a month. The privilege was purchased partly by voluntary contributions of the citizens and partly from an allowance from the United States quartermaster's department, and the military post at Fort Howard. The government at Wash- ington found it would not pay to establish a mail route or defray the expenses
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of carrying the mail and decreed that no expenditure could be made by the post- office department for that purpose. If the mail was delayed beyond its usual time the carrier was supposed to have fallen a victim to starvation or been detained by Indians.
In 1832 Alexis Cleremont, at that time a man of twenty-four, began to make regular trips between Green Bay and Chicago, the contractor being Pierre Ber- nard Grignon. He would start from the postoffice in Shantytown, taking the Indian trail to Manitowoc. Only twice would he see the lake between Green Bay and Milwaukee-at Sauk river, twenty-five miles north of Milwaukee and at Two Rivers. From Milwaukee he went to Skunk Grove, then to Gros Point, where he struck the lake again, and would see no more of the lake after that until he reached Chicago.
Cleremont never made these trips alone, an Oneida Indian always accom- panied him. The load was limited to sixty pounds each, and they usually car- ried that weight. As a rule it took a full month to make the round from Green Bay to Chicago and return. In addition to the mail bag, each man carried two shot-bags filled with parched corn; one of them hulled, the other ground. For the greater part of their diet they relied upon the Indians, or on the game they could kill; the bags of corn were merely to fall back upon in case the Indians had moved away, as they were apt to, on hunting and fishing expeditions. At night they camped in the woods, wherever darkness overtook them, and slept in the blankets which they carried in addition to the mail pouch on their backs.
The pay for these early carriers was from $60 to $65 for a round trip, although in the fall when travel was especially hard, At sometimes reached $70. It was a hard life and the four 'week's' tramp meant in winter, in addition to hunger and cold, the danger of snow blindness which often crippled the carrier. His important mission did not always ensure friendly treatment from the few houses lying along his route, and if money, as well as provisions gave out, he was in bad case.
Cleremont made the route between Green Bay and Chicago until 1836, when he was transferred to that of Portage and Fort Winnebago, following the mili- tary road from Green Bay. P. B. Grignon was a mail contractor for many years, carrying mail between Green Bay and Milwaukee, during the forties; the carrier usually going by pony transportation. The pistol holsters to hang in the saddle bow for protection on this lonely route are preserved in the Kellogg public library. Later a regular stage line was established along the bay and river route and to inland towns and this mode of mail distribution was continued until rail- roads threaded the entire country, and the rural mail service was instituted for villages off the line.
In 1834 boats would come to anchor opposite Fort Howard, and the govern- ment boat would immediately come out with anyone who happened to be on hand to inquire for mail from the garrison. The passenger on a small schooner, commanded by Captain Lawrence, says that he had not realized the necessities of the people in this far off post and the absolute lack of news, until he saw how bitterly disappointed two men from the fort Captain Cruger and Doctor Worrell seemed to be, when told there was nothing in the way of mail brought on the boat.
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