History of Door county, Wisconsin, together with biographies of nearly seven hundred families, and mention of 4,000 persons, Part 4

Author: Martin, Chas. I. (Charles I.)
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Sturgeon Bay, Wis., Expositor job print
Number of Pages: 158


USA > Wisconsin > Door County > History of Door county, Wisconsin, together with biographies of nearly seven hundred families, and mention of 4,000 persons > Part 4


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1813. William Marshall; now keeping livery stable; came from Green Bay, where he was born in 1826; first landed in this county as Little Sturgeon, ant for four years had no particular place of settlement. In 1847 he located at Fish Creek; came to Sturgeon Bay 1879. Married Mary J. Claflin 1847. Has no children.


1846. Mrs. Josephine E. Graham; came from Green Bay, and located on Rock Island, where she lived for seven years, then res.ded on Washington Island about 112 years, when she come to Sturgeon Bay; was born on the Island of Cuba 1830; come to the Unit d States 1842; married Rebert Graham 1846. He died in 1873, aged 48 years. Mrs. Graham is still a widow. She raised a large family, but only five (three boys and two girls) are living. Her son Eli married Sarah Green, 1877; has two children, and lives at Omena, Michigan. Robert married Clara Bacon, 1978; has one child, and lives at Point St. Ignace, Michigan. Josephine married Frank Bacon 1878, and lives on a farm in Minnesota.


1850. Samuel N. Bacon, now landlord of Exchange Hotel, Sturgeon Bry; came from Racine to Little Harbor (Bailey's Harbor) where he remained about six months; was then in and out of the county until 18:5, when he located at Clay Banks. Ten years later he moved to Ahnapee, returned [to Clay Banks in '71; came to Sturgeon Bay '73. Was born in New York 1332; married Jane Foss 1854; has seven child. en. His daughter Sarah married T. C. Hayes 1872. Clara married Robert Graham 1377. Frank married Josephine Graham 1878. Elia married Dr. Hendricks 1880.


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HISTORY OF DOOR COUNTY.


1850, Antone Thompson, now a farmer; came from Green Bay; born in Norway 1810; came to America 1848; married Mary Olsen 1834; has two children. His daughter Annie mar- ried R. Olsen 1855, and lives in Chicago. Eli married Celia Peterson 1869, and has two children.


Concerning early settlement Mr. Thompson, the oldest per- manent settler near the present site of Sturgeon Bay, writes us as follows:


STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin, November, 25, 1880.


A. Thompson to C. I. Martin:


When we first came to Door county (we settled on the same place we now live) the only folks we had for neighbors, were the natives- Indians. White people were really a treat .... Our nearest store was Green Bay-a distance of over fifty miles; and we reached there by means of a row boat, or by going through the woods on foot. The term of thirty years has made marked advancement, for we now have communication with that city by telegraph, express, and.daily mail .... In about the year 1853 Bradley built what is now known as Spear's mill. It is not to be wondered at that lumbering here at an early date did not prove profitable. Lumbermen generally carried a pack of cards with them, and when in the woods, away from the sight of the "boss" would indulge in playing the various card games to "pass away the dreary time." .... In the year of '52 when myself and wife were crossing the bay to visit Mr. Philip Jacobs, we heard a disturbance at home. We at once returned, and found our pig pen had been visited by a bear. The beast evidently was determined to carry of the pig, but our little daughter Amelia (now dead) with wonderful courage dealt him a blow on the head, and he made off into the woods, and our pig was saved. Bears and wolves were very troublesome in those days. At present the wolf is almost unknown in this section, but bear continue to cause more or less trouble .... I think that the first steamboat of record, that plowed the waters of Sturgeon Bay, was a side-wheel craft named the Franklin Moore. She called at our dock for wood during the summer of 1853 and '54. She used to cruise along the shores of Green Bay with fish, and supplies for fishermen.


1851. Nels Torstenson, carpenter and joiner; came from Green Bay; born in Norway 1820; came to America '51; mar- ried Ingebor K. Oman 1844; has five children. His daughter Theresa married Nick Simons 1860; has two children, and lives in Nasewaupee township. Christena married H. W. Reed, of Sturgeon Bay, in 1875; has two children. Thomas married Mary Philips 187 -; has two children.


1851. Wm. B. Lawrence, now a farmer, came from Milwau- kee to Washington Island, and located in Sturgeon Bay 1854; born in New Hampshire 1825; first came West 1848; married


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OTUMBA-SECOND ORGANIZED TOWN.


Augusta Brooks 1856; has eight children. His son Myron married Josie Coffeen 1880.


1851. Philip Jacobs; located on his present farm 1851; born Germany 1824; came to America 1847; married Susanna Bar- rouson 1851; has six children. His son Theodore married Jennie Gilbert.


1852. Augustus W. Lawrence, merchant and lumberman; came from Maine, in which State he was born 1830; married Emily J. Marshall 1855; has three children. His daughter Ruth married Hon. L. M. Washburn 1875; has one child.


1852. Joseph Lavassor, now retired from business, came from Lockport, New York; born in Canada 1814; married Mary Hutchinson 1853; has six children. His son Paul married Carrie Hinker 1877; has two children.


1853. Hon. D. A. Reed, attorney at law; came from Sheboy- gan, and remained one year, when he returned to Sheboygan Falls. In 1860 he again returned to Sturgeon Bay-this time accompanied by his family, and has here lived since that dato. He was born in Ohio 1821; married Maria A. Moore 1845; has six children. His son Horace W. married Christina Torsten- son 1875; has two children. Rustin O. married Ella Thayer 1879, and lives in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.


Per invitation, Mr. Reed pens us the following:


STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin. November 22d, 1880.


D. A. Reed to C. I. Martin:


When I first came to Door county, the practic of law was slower work than walking up a steep iced hill. If an attorney charged a dollar and a half as a fee for attending to a case that cost a week's labor; his charges were deemed "out rageou !! " We attorneys can now put on a long face and charge a dollar a minute for small cases, and no grumbling is heard. However, in olden times our pay was ready when the work was done. In most cases now we have to wait two or more years for our fees, and collect them by law. Such is civiliza- tion, and the growing advancement for legal ability .... The following is an illustration of law proceedings in Door county twenty-five years ago. Some time about the year 1858 a man borrowed a boat (without permission of the owner) and during the couple of hours he used it, broke one of the oars, and thus laid the basis for the first "criminal" case that was tried in the town of Washington, which was then, and still is an Island. The defendant was put on trial for petit larceny: the case was fully proven against the defendant, and conviction was the judicial conclusion the court arrived at. But now came the tug of war-with the court. There was only one old law book at hand, and in that volume nothing could be found concerning a "man that took a boat without permission, and while using it broke one of the Oars."


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HISTORY OF DOOR COUNTY.


No copy of the statutes or Other form of law was at hand to guide the judicial mind. Where the lines of distinction should be drawn between petit and grand larceny, he did not know, and the sheriff con- sidered, and the district attorney that that made no difference as the greater always includes the lesser, and the court concluded so too. So the defendant was duly convicted of a States prison offense, and sentence was passed, and so recorded by the court, and a certificate of conviction was duly made, signed by the Justice of the Peace, and delivered to the constable, but he found himself unprepared for a journey of 200 mles without roads, steamboats, or rail roads, and this keen-eye officer saw at a glance that three or four days would be nec- essary in preparing a couple of boiled rags, a knap-sack, and some corn dodgers, etc. Then what was to be done with the state prison bird? Happy thought' Rannev had a root-house, where not a ray of God's sunlight could enter his wicked soul. Into the root-house the constable thrust the "wicked" defendant, and kept him there for four davs. At the end of that time all preparations were duly in readiness, and the line of march taken up; the officer first providing against a possible e-cape of the prisoner by tying a rope around one of the defendant's hands, with the other end securely tied around his waist. In due time both officer and prisoner arrived at Sturgeon Bay. Here the officer was informed that a justice of the peace had no jurisdic- tion over State prison offences, and as the certificate of conviction did not show on its face anything definite or certain. he was further informed that both he and the justice were trespassers. Two minutes later the rope had but one of the cwo at the end of it, for the defend- ant was drodped among the logs and stumps of Sturgeon Bay instanter. The constable turned his face Northward toward the seat of justice, a "'sadder but a wiser" officer.


'The next case was tried in Ephraim, before 'Squire Morbeck. The defendant in the case was arrested and put on trial for assault and battery on his (the defend int's) wife. The testimony showed that the complainant, one of the neighbors, had made quite a mistake. The State showed, by the testimony, that the defendant had been cruelly beating his cow. The court held that that made no difference, as both offences were well known to the law; and then found, as a mat- ter of fact as well as of law, that the defendant was guilty of cruelty to animals, and sentenced himto sixty days in the county jail. The offi- cer was furnished with a commitment, and started for Green Bay-the county being attached to Brown county at that time for judicial pur- poses. The justice took special pains to recite in the commitment the substance of the warrant of arrest and testimony, and concluded the same by finding, as fact and law, that "A. B. having made com- plaint to him in writing, that C. D. did assault and beat his wife, and the testimony offered on the trial showed clearly that the defendant is guilty of cruelty to animals under the laws of this State. Therefore, it is the sentence of this court, duly empaneled and sworn, that the defendant, C. D. be committed to the county jail for the term of sixty


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OTUMBA- SECOND ORGANIZED TOWN.


days, and the jailer be directed to feed the said C. D. on bread and water, and may the Lord have mercy on your poor soul!" Signed -, Justice of the Peace. But the officer got no further than Sturgeon Bay with the defendant, when he was told that his com- mitment would not protect him in executing it, so the defendant was "dropped."


1853. Louis R. McLachlan, farmer and proprietor of a stone quarrie; came from New York; born Canada 1824; came to the States 1842; married Jennie Doak 1862.


Mr. McLachlan gives us the following notes of early date: STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin, November 22, 1880.


L. R. Mc Lachlan to C. I. Martin:


I hired out in the spring of '53, at Lockport, New York, to Mr. David S. Crandall to come to Sturgeon Bay to hew timber for a mill. I arrived here in due time, and in May, '53, work commenced on the mill. In October, same year, the machinery in the new structure be- gan work, and it was then that the first manufactory of any kind was established in this section, and the first lumber sawed on the banks of Sturgeon Bay. The establish nent was known as Bradley's mill ... In those days a man could get to Green Bay (when opportunity afforded) in a row or sail boat for the moderate sam of $3 00-of course the passenger was expected to take his regular turns at pulling on the osr or sailing the craft. At a later date, when occasionally steamboats began to stop at this place, passage on them was $5 ... During the years from 1955 to '6) a good many hand-made shingles were got out in this vicinity and banked along the bay shore. Ox teams in those days were very scarce, while a span of horses was indeed a rare sight. Thus it was that the new settlers had to bank their shingles by hand. The men usually remainedI in the woods shaving out the shingles, while the women, with the assistance of neck - yokes across their shoulders, transferred the shingles to the bank on wheelbarrows. Small sail crafts bought the shingles on the bank, and freighted them to market. . . . While the pioneer settlers endured not a few hardships, enjoyable times were not altogether out of the question. A good social dance (then called "shin-dig") could be gotten up on a day's notice. The young ladies (they were but few in number) in win- ter time often came to dances on eight feet snow-shoes. Yet their feet in natural state were small, and with vigor they would "trip the fantastic toe" until broad daylight the next morning .... It used to be frequently told, years ago, that many of the pioneer settlers in summer lived on crackers and whiskey to get strength to fight sand-flies. This asser tion, however, should only be credited as hearsay.


1953. Lastbut B. married Ole Olsen 1810; he was drowned while crossing the bay on thin ice in 1858. Mrs. Olsen married the second time to Ole Gullickson 1860; has six children. Her


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HISTORY OF DOOR COUNTY.


son Hans J. married Louisa Draper 1870; has four children. Mary married Louis Anderson 1873; has three children. Olof married Eliza Thompson 1877; has two children. Ole B. mar- ried Ella Nap 1878; has one child.


1853. Jesse Kimber, now teaming; came from New York; born England 1328; came to America 1829; married Mary Hendershott 1852; ha· eight children. His son Frank married Elle Stephenson 1877; has one child. Charles married Emma Shiner 1879; has one child. William married Agnes Langlois 1879; has one child.


Of early date, Mr. Kimber writes us as follows:


STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin, November 23d, 1380.


Jesse Kimber to C. I Martin:


I came to Sturgeon Bay from Lockport, New York, to work for Crandall & Bradley in their saw mill, which they had built that season. There were but few settlers here then, and this was an unbroken wil- derness. We cut the pine trees on the bank of the Little Lake-then known as Bradley's lake-but we were all green as to handling saw logs, and it was slow work. .. . The Little Lake was frozen over on the morning of November 5th, IS: 3, and we had some rare sport killing bass and pickerel by striking on the ice over them, and then hooking them out with a piece of wire be it in the share of a hook. In a day or two the weather got warmer, an I the ice all melted, and we had no more srow until Christmas week, when it shut up for the winter. About New Years the snow began to fall, and for forty days we never saw the sun; but we had the most beautiful nights I ever saw. It snowed every day, and by the first of March we had 312 feet of .now on a level in the woods. . . . . About the month of February the Bradley mill changed hands, and D. H. Burtis came here and took possession, and the mill company was known as Burtis & Works -the property being put into their hards to await the issue of a low suit then pend- ing in the courts in Ningera county, N. Y. In August, 1854, Bradley came here and paid off all the men, and Works gave up the property to the old firm of Crandall & Bradley, and matters went on agam quite smoothly for awhile. But owing to Mr. Bradley's inexperience in lun bering, he failed to make much out of it, and in the crash of 1857, they went down with lots of others .... After Burtis & Works gave up the Bradley property, Burtis built what was known as the "middle mill." and commence! to manufacture lumber, but failed, and returned to his old home in Lockport. N. Y ..... In early days there was no aristocracy-all were alike, and we enjoyed ourselves hughely-all were bound to enjoy themselves. We could get up a dance in half an hour; have a full house, and keep up the party until daylight, and then away to the words again ..... I have known the time when we bad to make out a meal on potatoes and salt. We used to spear such.ers in the creeks in the spring, and then we lived high again. I


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OTUMBA -SECOND ORGANIZĒD TOWN.


once heard Bradley remark that he had not a man about him that could get his shirt off, and when asked the reason, he said: "They had eaten suckers so long that the bones stuck through their skin, and their shirts were fast."


1851. Andrew Nelson, farmer; came from Norway; born 1819; married Caroline Knudson 1844; has eleven children. His son Lawrence married Eliza Coleman 1870; has, four chil- dren. Nicholena married Andrew Anderson 1861; has two children. Caroline married Edward Anderson 1873. Josephine married Wm. A. Lawrence 1879.


1851. Nels Olsen, farmer; came from Chicago; born Norway 1829; came to America 1855; married Levakrena Eveson 1857; has five children.


1854. Ole Johnson, farmer; came from Manitowoc county; horn Norway 1821: came to America 1851; married Harbord Everson 1846; no children.


1854. Henry Schuyler, retired from business; came from New York: horn Pennsylvania 1803; married Julia Smith 1826. She died 1864. aged sixty-five years. Second marriage Mary A. Carpenter 1870: has four children-none by the second wife. His son Fredrick married Nancy Marshall 1856; has eleven children. His daughter Mary married Z. J. B. Kimber 1957; has fire children. Albert J. married Amanda. Hitt of Clay Banks, 1830; has nine children. Julia married James McIntosh 1860; has two children.


1854. Fred Berg, farmor; came from Chicago; born Norway 1826; came to America 1853; married Elizabeth Rasmusson 1865: has five children.


1851. Jogoph He bert, engineer, came from Peshtigo; born Canada 1827: came to the States in 1853; married Dalvina Langlois 1855; has nine children. Olive married Henry John- son 1878.


1854. Erick T. Schioeth, owner of a dock and banking ground: came from Norway; born 1808; married Sophia Velda 1836. Second marriage 1865, to Annie Haines; has eight chil- dren.


1834. Sarah, widow, married Wm. Tuck in 1818; came from Connecticut; has nine children. Her daughter Abigail married Aaron Moulton 1859; has one child. Julia married Robert Bartlet 1866; has three children; Jane married Louis Huck 1868; has four children. Harrietta married John N. Scott 1871: has one child. Sarah E. married Arnold Baptist 1874; has three children.


1º54. Soren Peterson, farmer; came from Green Bay (a foot and looked up land); born Danmark 1824; came to America 1852; married Amelia Culumse 1864. Second marriage 1875, to


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HISTORY OF DOOR COUNTY.


Mrs. Elizabeth S. Halverson; has three children.


1855. Robert Noble, contractor for running the Sturgeon Bay and Bay View steam ferry; and dealer in agricultural implements; was born in New York 1837; is a self-button sewer (bachelor).


1855. Hon. J. T. Wright, landlord, and proprietor of Idlewild . Summer Resort; born New York 1830; married Emiline Snyder 1850; has three children. Fred C. married Anna Garland 1876; has two children.


1855. Andrew Peterson, farmer; horn Norway 1816; came to America 1853; married Sarah Erickson 1842; has nine children. His daughter Hannah married John Shafstall 1862; has one child, and lives in Indiana. Celia married Eli Thompson 1869; has two children. Peter married Mary Mathews 1866; has six children. Jennie married Lyman Hall 1872; has one child, and lives in Missouri. Sophia married John Nelson 1878, and lives in Michigan. Mary married Joseph Sweetman 1873; has two children.


1855. Henry C. Knudson, farmer; was born in Norway 1823; came to America 1853; married Mary Hanson 1857; has four children living.


Mrs. Knudson related to us many of the hardships she endured until the close of the war-her husband being in the army. She was left alone, with three small children, in the wilderness, some four miles from Sturgeon Bay, and one mile from the nearest neighbor, with all woods, and no roads .... She spent two rights in the woods away from her family, getting lost while hunting for her cow ... Often she was compelled to chop down trees in the woods to furnish browse for her cows during the winter. . . . After the war Mr. K. came home, and has labored hard the long years since. As a reward for the hardships they endured in helping to settle up Door county, Mr. and Mrs. Knudson now find themselves comfortably located upon a good farm well improved, with plenty of stock, and they are sur- rounded by a highly respected family of young men and women.


1855. Elijah S. Fuller, farmer and proprietor of a lime kiln; came from Racine county; born New York 1815; came west in '41; married Betsey C. Clark 1811; has five children. His daughter Amelia married Abriel Whittaker 1871; has two children. Cornelia married Jacob Hermann 1879; has one child. Harlow married Sarah J. Noble 1380.


1855. Joseph Harris, Sr., real estate agent; came from New York; horn England 1813; came to America 1819; married Charlotte Shingleton 1833. Second marriage 1859, to Susan Perkin .. His daughter Ch rlotte married David McIntosh 1860; has three children, and lives in Chicago. Elizas.th


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OTUMBA-SECOND ORGANIZED TOWN.


married Jesse Birmingham 1860; has six children, and lives in West Pensaukee. Joseph Jr., married Rosa Rice 186 -; has three children, and is keeper of the Government range lights, at Bailey's Harbor. Henry married Elizabeth Hansen 1868; has two children, and lives in Delaware. Edith married Isaac C. Slater 1871; has two children, and lives in Washington, D. C.


The following is a letter from the Hon. Joseph Harris, Sr., concerning Door county a quarter of a century ago:


STURGEON BAY, Wisconsin, October 28th, 1880. J. Harris, Sr., to C. I. Martin;


I was one of the early settlers of Sturgeon. Bay, and went through some of the roughest experiences of pioneer life. When I came to Door county in '55, the town of Washington (Washington Island) Was the only organized town in the county, and when Sturgeon Bay was organized into a town in 1857, by the name of Otumba, it became necessary, in order to assess and levy taxes for county and State pur- poses, to hold a meeting of the chairmen of those two towns as a County Board of Supervisors. Mr. J. Nolan, who was chairman of the town of Washington, refused to come to Sturgeon Bay to hold the meeting, and 'Squire Henry Schuyler, who was chairman of Otumba, and myself agreed to go to Washington Island for that purpose. It was late in November when we started on foot through the woods to Fish Creek. that being the nearest place where a sailboat could be got. There were no roads in any part of the county at that time, and no trail north of Sturgeon Bay, We started in Jacob St. Ore's large sail boat or sloop, with another man to help sail it, and arrived at the Island the same day. The next day the first meeting of a County Board in Door county was held. 'Squire Schuyler was chosen chair- man, and myself Clerk of the Board; the tax levy was made and Door county set upon its legs. The next evening we started back to Fish Creek. While attempting to cross Death's Door, a heavy squall came up, which prevented us from reaching the main land, and we ran before the wind until about midnight, when, seeing lights ahead, we let go anchor. When daylight came we found ourselves at Flat Rock (near Escanaba) where we had been driven by the storm. During the night the wind changed to the North; raining, snowing, and freezing so that the deck and rigging was a mass of ice, but we reached Fish Creek that afternoon, having a fine breeze from over the after quarter of the boat. At Fish Creek we borrowed a smaller sail boat, and started for Sturgeon Bay, which was reached late at night to find the bay frozen over nearly down to Laurie's place, where, with difficulty, we landed; hauled the boat ashore. and footed it home .... Another rough journey that fell upon us, was at the time the county seat was removed from Bailey's Harbor to Sturgeon Bay. About 1851 or '2 the legislature passed an act to organize Door county; locat- ing the county seat at Bailey's Harbor, under the name of Gibraltar,


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HISTORY OF DOOR COUNTY.


but no steps were ever taken to carry out the organization, nor were any county or town officers ever elected there. A Mr. Sweet, of Mil- waukee, who got the above named act passed, had projected opening up a settlement at the Harbor. He built a saw mill and a dock, the mill burned down, the dock went to ruin, and Mr. Sweet abandoned the enterprise. The early settlers of Sturgeon Bay soon resolved to carry out the organization, and proceeded to take the necessary legal steps to remove the county seat from the 'Harbor to Sturgeon Bay. To accomplish this, it was necessary to call a meeting at Bailey's Har- bor, and go through the forms of posting notices, etc., as required by law. Msssrs. A. G. Warren, W. H. Warren, and myself made two journey's on foot to the 'Harbor to effect the removal. As there was no trail through the woods, we had to go to the head of Sturgeon Bay, cross the Portage, and follow the Lake shore, footing it to Bailey's Harbor and back in all sorts of weather .... The settlers who have come into Door county in the past ten years, know but little of the hardships the early settlers went through. Then it was a "howling wilderness" from end to end, but now the new comers find throughout the county organized towns, roads, school houses, post-offices, churches, large farms. and on every side the elements of comfort and prosperity. I have lived to see the county grow from less than one thousand inhabitants to a population of nearly twelve thousand, and the influx is still going on.




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