USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 37
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
"In 1854 the Morgan L. Martin, a sidewheeler was put on between Oconto and Green Bay, and in 1855 the Pioneer came on in opposition.
"In 1855 the Queen City owned by John Jacobs of Marinette was put on be- tween Marinette and Green Bay, going down one day and back the next. In 1856 or 1857 the Fannie Fisk, another sidewheeler was put on in opposition to the Queen City. This boat was afterward bought by the government and later was sunk in the Red river. In 1865 the steamer Union came to the Marinette- Green Bay route, the owners bought up the Queen City and the line was in operation up to the time that the Chicago & Northwestern filled in the gap be- tween Green Bay and Escanaba in 1871.
"In 1866 the Hart line was established. The first boat of this line was the Oconto, and the next year the Northwest was put on and the line was main- tained until the building of the railroad extension. This line was the basis of the present Hart system which operates between Green Bay and the Soo.
"Captain Henry W. Ilart engaged in the boat business which was conducted by his father and two brothers, Captain C. B. Hart being one of the members of the firm and which was purchased by Henry and Cliff in 1864. The head- quarters were at Oconto.
"In 1866 the business was sold, each brother running a side wheel tug and towing in and out of Oconto harbor. They built the steamer Northwest in 1868 which ran between Green Bay and Oconto, and later to Sturgeon Bay. She was burned at the Hurlbut docks in 1875. Captain H. Hart moved to Green Bay in 1871. The steamer Welcome was built in the winter of 1876 and in the fall of 1883 the C. W. Moore was purchased. In 1884 the steamboat offices were moved from Oconto to Green Bay, Captain C. B. Hart locating here. In 1888 the Fannie C. Hart was built, and in 1890 the Eugene. The Petoskey was also purchased and sold after two seasons. The City of Louisville was pur- chased in 1901 and rebuilt and rechristened the Harriet A. Hart, which was wrecked.
"The last three boats ran for many years on Green Bay and Lake Michigan routes between Green Bay city, bay points and as far north as Cheboygan, Mich- igan, and the Soo doing an extensive business. Captain Hart, when a boy of four- teen, shipped on board a lake vessel in the capacity of cook, from which humble position by energy and perseverance he rose step by step in the various experi- ences of a sailor's life, at the age of 18 (1864), becoming captain of his own ship, the steamer "Eagle." This vessel was built in Oshkosh and was rechristened in Oconto, running between Green Bay and Oconto for two seasons after which it carried both freight and passengers for a time and was then turned into a tug boat for raft towing.
"Hart's Steamboat Line was founded in 1873 with a capital of $140,000 by H. and C. Hart, both able and experienced steamboat men. They built the May Queen in Green Bay and ran her on the old line for two seasons, afterward build- ing the Northwest and rebuilding the May Queen, which was burned at the dock in this city in 1877. The Welcome and the C. W. Moore Henry Hart ran between Green Bay and Manistique until 1888, when the Fannie C. was built which has since run between Green Bay and Cheboygan, Michigan. This boat was re- modeled in 1890. The Eugene was built in 1890 and ran on the same route as the Fannie C."
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
The transportation lines with offices in Green Bay are the Arnold Transit Company, Denessen Line, Hart Transportation Company, and Nau's Tug Line.
HARBOR
The entrance to Fox river was originally obstructed by three long shallow sand bars. The first as boats entered from the north was known as Long Tail Point, projecting from the west shore south easterly about four miles. At the end of this bar as it existed in 1848, the old stone tower was erected and still stands. The second bar about one mile south known as Point au Sable projected from the east shore southwesterly about five miles overlapping the Tail Point bar.
Next south was Grass Island extending from the west shore nearly six miles easterly. When the straight cut was made, it was a large island nearly covered with cottonwood and willow trees, some over two feet in diameter, and was a favorite camping and picnic ground for the residents of Green Bay and vicinity.
After the "straight cut" was made the island was gradually washed away by the diverted action of tides and waves.
In entering the harbor in old times navigators were obliged to steer southwest to pass the north side of Point au Sable bar, turn sharply around its west end and and steer southeast for about two miles along the north shore of Grass Island. Then turn sharply around the east end of island and follow its south shore about two miles, then a westerly direction south for the mouth of the river. The chan- nel forming a letter S around the sand bars.
The earliest plan for the improvement of the harbor was presented in 1853. by Major J. D. Graham and proposed the excavation of a channel from the mouth of Fox river through Grassy Island.
In the winter of 1864-65 the first diagram of distances and soundings at the mouth of Fox river and head of Green Bay across Grass Island was made at the request of Andrew E. Elmore who was then in Washington working to obtain an appropriation from Congress for the improvement of the harbor.
James H. Elmore with Captain A. Taylor in January, 1865, made a careful survey of distances and took soundings preparatory for making an estimate for dredging a channel between the channels at that time existing on both sides of the island. The following letter with diagram was sent on January 9, 1865, to Andrew E. Elmore, of Fort Howard, at Washington, and formed the basis for the amount of appropriation later asked for and received from government.
"Enclosed I send you draft of distances and soundings at the mouth of the river as you desire.
"The water was low the day we took the measurement and consequently could only get eleven feet of water on the south side of the island, as you will see by the chart.
"The bottom of the channel however is mud and propellers drawing eleven and one-half and twelve feet of water could get along.
"The long line on the diagram is the straight cut we have talked of and is more direct than that to the east which is about two thousand four hundred and seventy-five feet shorter and I think more feasible.
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"We took our measurements each way from the center of the island and the figures each side denote the distance in feet from that point-and the small figures the depth of water."
The route suggested by this letter of J. H. Elmore's was later adopted by the government engineers and was the basis on which the original estimates were made.
In April, 1866, the petition was brought before congress for an appropria- tion of $30,500 for the improvement of the harbor at the mouth of Fox river and Major J. B. Wheeler of the United States Engineer corps presented estimates for dredging a channel two hundred feet wide and twelve feet deep from the mouth of the river to deep water north of Grass Island, together with the revet- ment of the cut through the island.
In May, 1867, work was commenced and was pushed so successfully that in September the "Queen City" passed through.
Since then large amounts have been expended in dredging. repairs to piers, docking and so forth, until Green Bay has one of the best harbors on the lakes.
Grass Island light station has a light at each end of the cut; the lower visible thirteen the upper twelve and one-half miles. Both lights are a fixed white light of the sixth order. The keeper's frame dwelling is situated on the island between the outer and inner lights and is a snug dwelling painted white with green blinds and a red roof. The cut is two hundred feet wide and is protected by close-piling. Tail Point Lighthouse northeast two and three- fourths miles, Point au Sable four and one-tenth miles.
Numerous buoys mark the channel from Grass Island and up Fox river. A black spar buoy marks the end of the spit which extends in a westerly direction three and one-half miles from Sable point, the old Indian camping ground, and shows the route taken by all sailing vessels before the cut was made through Grass Island.
Long Tail Point is situated five and one-half miles north-northeast from the mouth of Fox river, and about four miles northeast from the mouth of Duck Creek. Bids were received in 1847 for the construction of the old stone tower which has been a landmark for many years. It was built in 1848. The tower was surmounted by an iron lantern and the house of the keeper of the light was only a few feet to the north, and also built of stone. This lighthouse was aban- doned in 1859 and a new one of frame erected, twenty-seven feet square, three stories high, the ground sills from which the lower timbers rise resting upon iron piles eight feet apart. The light surmounting the tower was a fixed white light of the fourth order, the local plane sixty feet above the water with a visibility of about fifteen miles. The present Tail Point light station stands about nine- tenths mile from old Long Tail Point Lighthouse, east. It is a fixed light fourth order visible fourteen miles. The lantern is on the top of a timber dwell- ing fifty-six feet high, standing on the westerly side of the channel. The fog signal is a bell struck by machinery at intervals of ten seconds. Distance from the Grassy Island lower lighthouse is one and fifteen-sixteenths miles.
Big Suamico river is three miles from Long Tail Point Light. Vessels load here at anchor, and there is good holding ground. A pulp wood dock has been built here. The east side of the bay is rocky, with poor anchorage. At Red
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Banks, Point Comfort and Bay Beach piers have been built where excursion boats land in bringing guests to these popular resorts.
The following paper on the old Stone tower was read before the Green Bay Historical Society by T. P. Silverwood.
"Extending from the town of Suamico in a southeasterly direction out into the waters of Green Bay, is a long, low narrow point of sand-a sand bar in fact-below the water in places, extending out of the water a few feet in other places. This bar is called Long Tail Point, and upon it stands the old stone tower light house. Concerning it there is not very much information to be un- earthed, and in gathering what little is available we have become impressed with the fact that the person who intends to write history should also prepare to write fiction and gather the materials for both works at the same time.
"The old tower was erected in the summer and fall of 1847. This date will not be accepted without question. Bella French in her history of Brown county says it was erected in 1848, but gives no authority for the statement. Wil- liam Whitcomb of this city, who helped to build it when a boy of fifteen, says it was erected in 1847, and Captain C. B. Hart agrees with him as to that date. It was first used in 1848, and we think Bella French and the older people of Green Bay generally date its erection from the first year it was used. It was the first light at this end of the Bay, and was used as a light house until 1859, when the frame light house was erected and the use of the stone tower dis- continued.
"At the time of its erection it stood near the southeast point of the bar, or that part which was above water. The bar extended almost out to the new light house as it does at present, but very little of it was above water. At its base the tower is nearly twenty-five feet in diameter, and its walls between five and six feet thick. Its diameter and the thickness of its walls gradually decrease until at the top they are respectively eight or ten feet and about two fect. It is built upon nothing but sand, with the foundation about six feet below the surface, and its height was eighty-four feet to the stone cap beneath the lantern. The tower and small frame building near it, erected at the same time, for a house for the light keeper, were built by Edwin and Asahel Hart (the father and uncle respectively of Captains C. B. and H. W. Hart ), who were subcontrac- tors, having contracted with the original contractors, who were Detroit parties, to build the tower and light keeper's house. Edwin Hart did much of the work himself. Daniel W. Hubbard had charge of the mason work.
"The stone was brought across the bay from the east shore at Bay Settlement on a scow. Its crew was composed principally of French Canadians and half- breeds who propelled it by means of walking poles. They would leave the point early in the morning, pole their scow across the bay and get her loaded with ten or twelve cords of stone before 9 o'clock the following morning, and reach the point again late that night. Their course skirted the east shore and along Point Sable, then across the bay, keeping in about six feet of water. The stone in the tower is of all shapes and sizes. It was picked up along the shore, some of it pulled out of two or three feet of water and some gathered from the surface of the soil near by, but none of it was quarried except the cap stones just below the lantern, which were probably brought from Death's Door on a schooner. The lime was procured at Bay Settlement, and there was plenty of sand on the point.
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Captain C. B. Hart was a boy eight years of age at the time and helped to erect the tower. Not being in love with school, he played truant and his father, after a judicious application of the rod, set him to work driving the horse around the capstan by means of which the stone and mortar were hauled to the top of the wall with a rope.
"The first keeper of the light in the old tower was John P. Dousman, who was afterwards revenue collector at Green Bay. He was the light keeper until 1853, when he was succeeded by Thomas Atkinson, who had recently arrived from Ireland, and who kept the light until 1859, being the last light keeper in the stone tower. The frame light house was erected in 1859 and the stone tower abandoned. Captain C. B. Hart says the reason for this was that the water of the bay had risen so much that it surrounded the tower completely, and the authorities were afraid that the water would undermine it and cause it to fall.
"The frame lighthouse was kept for one season by David Fleury, who was succeeded by Sergeant John Hamm, a soldier who had been in the service at Fort Iloward. His term of enlistment had expired and he was discharged and given the position of light keeper. After him came Marcus Shaler, and then in 1863 William Mitchell, the father of Mrs. Theodore Harris of Green Bay, accepted the position which he held for many years, and he was succeeded by Captain Gaylord.
"In the early 'yos the United States government authorities apparently think- ing the tower was an eyesore to Green Bay, gave it to Mr. Mitchell to be torn down. He accepted it for the stone that was in it and commenced the work of destruction, but although it was builded on the sands, it was there to stay, and Mr. Mitchell found it impervious to bar and pick. It is hoped that no act of man will disturb it. The old tower was the first light house at this end of the bay. It stands like a grim old sentinel, its appearance and surroundings eloquent with memories of the past. It serves to remind us of the last half century, and the hardy seamen who have striven for the welfare of this city and to build up a commerce that should make it an important lake port. May it stand for cen- turies to come as a monument to these men who first sailed the waters of Green Bay."
( References for Chapter XXV : Railroads : Green Bay Advocate, 1858; Jour- nal of Board of Supervisors ; Bay City Press, 1861-2 ; Records of Borough of Fort 1 Toward: James H. Elmore, Hist. of Northern Wisconsin. Harbor: Arthur C. Neville, James H. Elmore, Scott, Coast Pilot. Mails: Wis. Hist. Colls. Vol. 2, 15 : Green Bay Advocate, 1846-56; Report of Green Bay Postoffice. Water trans- portation : LaHontan Travels ; Arndt, "The Valley of the Fox :" Green Bay Advo- cate. Bay City Press, Cyrus F. Hart. )
CHAPTER XXVI
BROWN COUNTY TOWNS
The difficulty of finding records renders it impossible to give anything like a complete sketch of Brown county cities and towns from their first organization, the only town whose records are preserved complete from the date of its incor- poration being the town of Howard.
Eleven years previous to the first recorded meeting of the county board of supervisors and in pursuance of the act entitled "an act to provide for the gov- ernment of the several towns in this Territory of Wisconsin," the town of Howard, which at that time included all that part of Brown county lying between the Menominee river on the north and the present town of De l'ere on the south, organized a town board.
The borough form of government which began in Green Bay in 1838, two years after Wisconsin Territory was formed, provided for a president and six trustees, who administered the affairs of the village up to the time of its incorporation as a city in 1854. All the records of the Green Bay borough prior to November 19, 1853, were burned in a destructive fire which occurred in Green Bay. November 6, 1853. There are no records to be found of town government in De Pere previous to its incorporation as a village in 1857, so the only records remaining of the years of territorial and early state government in Brown county are com- prised in the "Records of the Town of Howard," which date back to April 5. 1842, when "a meeting was called to order between the hours of nine and eleven a. m., at the house of Daniel W. Hubbard in the town of Howard." Hubbard's house stood on the slough which extends from Fox river to Duck creek, and enters the river just south of the Duncan coal docks. ( Notes by Charles Wheelock. )
The minutes of this first meeting according to the new law show that Josiah Baldwin was chosen moderator, and D. W. Hubbard, clerk. "The moderator and clerk being duly sworn the meeting was adjourned until 3:00 o'clock P. M. At 3:00 o'clock P. M. the meeting met according to the adjournment, proclamation being made at the door according to the law." ( Book of town records for the township of Howard, 1842.)
The verbal proclamation giving notice that the county or town board was about to convene was in use in Brown county for many years, and can still be found in practice in small places where no regular newspaper is published. Throughout the length and breadth of Brown county there was at that time but one newspaper, the Green Bay Republican, edited by Samuel Ryan, Jr., and other parts of Wisconsin were quite as destitute of printed news. For this reason a law had been passed on February 1, 1833, ordering that all legal notices should be "posted on the door of the house where the circuit court was last held." This
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law was carried out at De Pere, the county seat, but in case of a meeting such as that of the town board of Howard, proclamation of official business was made by the town crier, usually the constable, who stood before the place of meeting and called, "Oyez, Oyez, Oyez, the honorable board of supervisors of the town of Howard in the county of Brown is now in session."
The members of the Howard town board in the month of April, 1842, were : Chairman, Samuel Ryan, Sr .; Joseph Paquette, Josiah Baldwin; town clerk, E. B. Sherwood; commissioners on highways, Dominick Brunette, E. B. Abbott, D. W. Hubbard; assessor, E. B. Abbott; treasurer, Solomon Davis; path masters, Dominick Brunette, Jr., Henry Fry ; constables, Preston Beebe, Josiah Baldwin; fence viewers, Joseph Paquette, Dominick Brunette, Jr., Peter T. Fredman.
The office of fence viewer, now obsolete, was of importance in the year 1841. Through the streets of the three villages in Brown county cows and horses more or less wild roamed at will and pigs wallowed in the muddy puddles. Not until 1842 did a pound and the office of pound master come into use. The enforce- ment of this ordinance did much to better conditions, for five dollars was the fine for allowing dangerous animals to wander abroad. The. "commons," how- ever, were still exempt, and over these wide tracts of open treeless prairie and through the adjoining forest still roamed great droves of unherded cattle.
The overseers of highways in these several towns also acted as fence viewers. All fences were to be, acording to law, four and one-half feet in height, whether consisting of rails, timber, boards or stone walls, or any combination thereof, and all brooks, rivers, ponds, creeks, ditches, or other things which shall be equiva- lent thereto. The vexed question of boundary lines might also be decided by the fence viewer ; each person employing him was to pay $1.00 per day for his services, and his judgment in these matters was usually accepted as legal and sufficient.
At this first meeting of the town board of Howard it was resolved that all fences in that town should go a half foot higher than the law required and must be five feet in height to be a lawful fence; the fence viewer was to notify the board of any deviation from this rule, and was also to report when fences were not kept in good repair. The office of the fence viewer seems to have been abolished after 1850.
The opening up of new roads through the county, the building and repair of bridges, the improvement for navigation of Fox river, the provision for the housing and care of the poor were all matters that came under the jurisdiction of the town board rather than that of the county until after 1848. Taxation through- out the territory had not yet been adjusted, and in Brown county, which was always an independent quantity, no regular tax was levied until 1833. The school taxes of 1838-40 created much dissatisfaction, and for a time were made optional with each community. In 1842 Howard voted a tax of three-fourths of one per cent on the amount of the inhabitant's assessed property. All taxes seemed to have been considered exorbitant, and were loudly complained of and criti- cized by the pioneers; the expenses of the annual legislative session aroused special antagonism, one per cent of the entire valuation of the territory in 1844 being expended in this way. The machinery of county government in Brown was tardily established. and each town felt competent to manage its own affairs.
VILLA OF BISHOP FOX. ALLOUEZ
BAIRD'S CREEK, TOWN OF PREBLE
THE NEW ICHI PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASICS LIMBA AND TILDEA PULABACIONE
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
The first systematic attempt toward the repair and upkeep of roads was made in April, 1844, and shows the extent of the town of Howard at that date. It was agreed at a meeting of the Howard board that the town be divided for the more convenient making and repairing of the public roads into five road districts ; to include all of the inhabitants "between the first east and west section line north of the Oconto river, and the Menominee river in the town of Howard, county of Brown."
Marston's creek and the creek known as Tippy's creek, which empties into Green Bay north of Little Suamico, were also boundary lines for road districts.
The path master's office had disappeared when the laws of 1849 were pub- Iished, so that it is difficult to say just what his duties were. The paths through Brown county were more numerous than the roads, for Indian trails threaded the forests in every direction. The only two roads opened up at that time through the county were the military roads; one running to Fort Winnebago at the portage of the Fox and Wisconsin, the other by way of Manitowoc and the lake shore to Milwaukee and Chicago. These roads were repaired by the soldiers from the lake forts, and it was at least ten years, 1859 or 1860, before the county assumed the upkeep of these government roads. (Town records. )
In September, 1844, an appropriation of one hundred dollars was made toward the repair of roads and bridges by the Howard board. A bridge was ordered to be built immediately across Ashwaubenon creek, a makeshift affair, which a few years later collapsed with a Hollander and his team, sprightly men- tion of which is made in the Bay City Press of that date. The roads to Duck Creek and Bay Settlement were largely a heavy sand, through which horses and oxen toiled laboriously in hauling produce to river ports, but in other parts of Brown county and towards the Oneida Reservation a corduroy was the only help in preventing teams from sinking to unimagined depthis.
The record of the doings of the Howard board reflects the methods of admin- istration for all three of the villages then in existence in Brown county. Meetings were held once a month and for many years either at the house of Daniel Hub- bard or at that of John Hogarty who lived not far away. After the death of the latter some time in the forties the board rented a room from the Widow IIogarty for the sum of five dollars a year, which paid for the fuel.
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