Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 23: Newspapers and Literary Productions, 1917

Chapter 23: Newspapers and Literary Productions

The first newspaper in Door County was the Door County Advocate, established March 22, 1862. The publishers were Joseph Harris and Myron H. McCord. At that time Door County had a population of less than three thousand people nearly all of whom were engaged in lumbering or fishing; farming with its resultant stable population was only in its earliest infancy. Sturgeon Bay at that time had only thirty houses. For several years it was a small, five column sheet, about one-half the size of the present county papers, and was a losing proposition to the amount of several hundred dollars per year. Mr. McCord probably foresaw the hard sledding in store for the little newspaper and discreetly withdrew from the partnership a month after the first issue.' The advertisers on whose support the Advocate depended for its existence were few. In the first issue A. & R. Laurie & Co. (consisting of Alexander and Robert Laurie and Soren Peterson) are the principal advertisers. Other advertisers were David Houle, who promised "warm meals at all hours" at the Cedar Street House and N. R. Lee of the Lee House who did not promise anything; Lyman Bradley, dealer in lumber; C. G. Boalt and T. E. Schjoth, general merchants; W. H. Warren, county surveyor; D. A. Reed, attorney at law; John Long, shoemaker; Peter Peterson, Ephraim, general merchandise; and Moses Kilgore, Baileys Harbor, the same.

"We welcome thee to our beautiful bay Now sad in its armor of spotless white, Where the snowfringed pines so gracefully gay In forms fantastic greet the wondering sight.

We warmly wish thee a happy success And hail thee with pleasure, a welcome friend, May the fruitful thoughts thy pages express Through forest and hamlet wisdom extend."

D. C. McIntosh Soren Peterson Fred' I. Schuyler Nicholas Simon Alex Templeton Eli A. Thompson - Chas. A. Cocagne Adam Heilmann Philip Jacobs Nels Olson

"In the fall of 1861, at Green Bay, the writer met Joseph Harris, Sr., by appointment for the purpose of talking over the advisability of establishing a newspaper at Sturgeon Bay. Mr. Harris was very enthusiastic over the project and did not appear to think there was any question of a financial character about the matter. He was so completely wrapped up in the idea of settling up Door County and thought a newspaper the one thing needful to accomplish that result.

"When it was suggested that a newspaper could not be published without quite an outlay of money and that the population of the county was small; that the actual outlay for help and blank paper, rent and fuel could not be figured at less than $1,000 a year he was completely perplexed and did not know what to say. He was at that time serving the people in the capacity of county treasurer, receiving, I believe, a salary of $400 a year, and this he required for his own living, and as a matter of course, was compelled to live in a very frugal manner to make both ends meet.

"But I knew of a printing office that could be bought cheap and mostly on time; so we decided then and there to form a partnership and establish a newspaper at Sturgeon Bay. I don't think I should have consented to undertake the venture had it not been for the earnestness with which Mr. Harris pleaded. He went home to Sturgeon Bay to arrange for a building for an office and I to Shawano to purchase the outfit.

"On the 22d day of February, 1862, I think it was, I started with a two horse sleigh and the entire print shop. At that time there was but a very indifferent road from Shawano to Green Bay, and just as we were leaving the latter city there came on a terrible snow storm, which so impeded our movements that three or four days were consumed in making the last half of the trip. However, we arrived at our destination at last; and although we were not received by a very large number of people, yet we were warmly greeted and thought at the time that a warmer hearted, more generous people never lived. Everybody seemed friendly to the new enterprise and also to each

"Not being a practical printer myself I engaged at Green Bay, on the recommendation of the late lamented Charles D. Robinson, David F. Follett, now deceased, who was as faithful as the day is long, and a very good printer; yet he had a very perplexing habit of taking a 'lay off' when his services were most needed. One of these 'spells' came on about the time the first number of the paper should have been issued, and it was by one delay and another that the publication was postponed until March 22, 1862, twenty-six eventful years since.

"I soon discovered that the paper could not support two proprietors, and I sold out my interest to Mr. Harris, taking his notes of hand on his own time, being promptly paid at maturity. And while I made no money out of the enterprise I have always been glad I went into it, for it resulted in two things at least, the contemplation of which has given me much pleasure. One is that it laid the foundation for making one of the best local papers in Wisconsin, which has contributed much to make known its resources, develop and build up Door County with its splendid republican majorities; the other that it resulted in making Joseph Harris a state senator, in which capacity he did much to make the wants and interests of his locality known and secure the necessary legislation to build them up, the most notable of which may be mentioned the ship canal, an improvement which has done more for your city and county than anything ever projected.

"T said it resulted in making Mr. Harris a state senator. I will tell you briefly how it happened: Outagamie, Kewaunee, Oconto, Door and Shawano counties then compromised the Twenty-second Senatorial District as well as two assembly districts. The convention to nominate a senator was called to meet at Oconto and each assembly district was entitled to six delegates. When the first formal ballot was taken it was found that the delegates were evenly divided, six being for Joseph Harris and the remainder for Geo. H. Myers, of Appleton, now a circuit judge - and a very clear headed, honest and upright judge he is too. We were in a deadlock and remained so, balloting one or two hundred times a day for three days. We were determined to tire the Myers' men out if we could.

"On the third day one of the delegates from Outagamie and myself paired and went out for a walk. While strolling along the bank of the river he asked me how long the Harris men would hold out. I said I did not know for certain but that I had engaged board until after election, and should certainly stay that long unless Mr. Harris was sooner nominated. He then proposed to 'flip' a copper with me to see whether I should vote for Mr. Myers or he for Mr. Harris. I consented with one reservation which I will not name, but which was not unfavorable to Mr. Harris' final nomination. He threw up the copper. I took 'heads' and 'heads' came. We walked back to the courthouse, where he arose and stated publicly the agreement with me and the next ballot he voted for Mr. Harris and of course Mr. Harris was nominated.

"After Mr. Harris was nominated a committee was appointed to wait upon him, inform him of his nomination and request his presence before the convention. 'lhe committee consisted of Gen. Geo. C. Ginty, then of Oconto, and now of Chippewa Falls; Geo. M. Robinson, of Appleton; and the writer, and I am sorry to say the duty was performed in a most mischievous manner. Mr. Harris was found at his room in the hotel somewhat nervous. This was not strange, as he had been tempest tossed for nearly three days and nights - his nerves wrought up to their utmost tension, in fact on the ragged edge as it were. Ginty informed him with a countenance most sober and in a decidedly sorrowful manner that his friends had made the best fight they could for him, but for the good of the party and the sake of harmony had consented to allow Mr. Myers to be nominated; that the convention having heard that Mr. Harris and some of his friends had said they would bolt the nomination they would like to have him appear and deny the report, and the committee, or rather the chairman, urged him to do so. In reply Mr. Harris said, 'Why, certainly I will; the convention has had a long siege and a tedious session; but so far as I know its proceedings have been characterized by fairness and honesty and why shouldn't we give the nominee a hearty and cordial support?

"We went to the courthouse and Mr. Harris was introduced to the convention ignorant of his nomination. He commenced by thanking his friends for the heroic manner in which they had stood by him, then proceeded to make a nice little republican speech, and was about to conclude by asking his friends to work as hard for the nominee as they would have done for him had he been the candidate. At this the chairman saw there had been a joke played on Mr. Harris and that gentleman proceeded to tell him that he himself had been nominated on the four hundred and seventy-fifth ballot, receiving seven votes to five for Mr. Myers, and that on motion of Mr. Robinson, a Myers delegate, the nomination had been made unanimous.

Of course, Mr. Harris felt greatly chagrined and mortified to think his friends had played such a trick on him; but the heartiness of the support which he had so generously tendered to his supposed successful antagonist under such circumstances made him many friends among both the delegates and the people and brought him many votes in the election.

"The election of Mr. Harris followed, his opponent being T. R. Hudd. now congressman of the 5th district, and he made an excellent senator. That was in the fall of '63. I visited Door County during that election, but have never been there since, though I have, until I sold the Lincoln County Advocate in 1883, been a careful reader of your journal, and through its columns have watched the progress of the county with a great deal of pleasure. I have seen through that reflector, the Advocate, the little village of Sturgeon Bay grow from a population of perhaps one hundred and fifty people in 1862 to nearly eighteen hundred in 1885, and Door County from a population of certainly not over five hundred to upward of fifteen thousand. I have watched the young boys and young girls who were then taking their first lessons in the rudiments of education grow to manhood and womanhood, assume the duties of their respective stations with credit to themselves, their parents and the public institutions of learning of Door County. All this I have watched with genuine pleasure; but on the contrary my heart has often been saddened by the demise of some old settler who has been called to that far away land 'from whose bourne no traveler returneth. Notably was this so recently when I read of the death of big-hearted, generous John Garland, who at the time I was there was register of deeds.

"T cannot close this already too long letter without congratulating the people of Door County upon the success achieved by my whilom young friend and former 'imp,' Frank Long, who commenced at the bottom round of the Advocate ladder and is now at the helm, and deserves, and I hope receives, the patronage which to publish a splendid weekly newspapeer merits.

ing the interests of the Sturgeon Bay Canal and as secretary to Senator Sawyer the management of the paper was principally left to Henry Harris until 1875, when it was bought by Frank Long.

In 1883 Mr. Long, who had been associated with the Advocate from its first issue, wrote the following interesting reminiscence entitled "A Glance Back over a Long Road," published in the Advocate of May 3, 1883."

"Twenty-one years ago an excited group of people was assembled around a printing press in a room over Graham's store, which is at present a weather stained and unoccupied building near the foot of Main Street. On the bed of the press was a type form which a small boy was inking with a small roller, and as the lad was taking his first lesson in the typographic art he had followed the example of all young disciples of Faust by carelessly smearing his face and hands with the mixture of lampblack and linseed oil until he looked as though he had slept in a tar barrel. The form being rolled to the foreman's satisfaction, he laid a sheet of dampened paper on the 'tympan, detached the 'frisket' from a hook in the ceiling, ran the bed under the platen, pulled the impression lever, and a moment later spread out upon a table for the inspection of the group the first number of the Door County Advocate.

"Although the sheet was a folio, with only five short columns on each page, it was regarded with as much pride and satisfaction as if it had been as large as the Sunday edition of the Chicago Times. The type on which it was printed was long-primer, and for the information of the non-professional reader we explain that 'long-primer' is three sizes larger than the letter in which this article is composed, and is seldom used by journalists nowadays unless they desire to spread a very little reading matter over a great deal of surface, as is the case with some of our esteemed contemporaries who are publishing ten-column newspapers in six-column towns, All other printers have very properly relegated long-primer to the jobbing department, using it chiefly for auction bills, circus posters, gutter snipes and similar long-range literature.

"Twenty-one years is not a very long period in human life, but in that of a newspaper it is often an advanced stage of existence, if we measure length of days by the changes the journal has witnessed and the progress made by the world around it. Judged by this standard the Advocate is a centenarian. In long settled communities affairs move at a uniform pace, and although great changes occur they take place so quietly as to attract little attention, towns expanding into cities almost without the knowledge of the busy inhabitants. Upward of five thousand new buildings were constructed in the City of New York last year, but the average citizen would not have known that even one of these structures had been added had not a special department of officials kept careful record of such improvements. But in a young village like ours a single additional edifice is an event, and a dozen new structures cause our bosoms to swell with pride and make us dream of street railways, gas, policemen's clubs, an opera house, burglars, a board of trade, oleomargarine factories, a rascally common council, Chinese laundries, sneak-thieves, and other metropolitan luxuries.

"It has been our fortune to witness the growth of the Advocate from its beginning to the present time, and probably no one knows better than ourself through what thorny paths it has traveled to reach the position it now occupies. We have seen its pages gradually expand to their present dimensions, and its subscription list grow from a few score to over twelve hundred, while its other patronage has correspondingly increased. From a rude settlement in the woods we have seen Sturgeon Bay blossom into a thriving city of almost two thousand people, and the trackless wilderness surrounding it become the home of more than fourteen thousand industrious inhabitants. Had any person predicted, twenty-one years ago, so great a change as this he would have been thought visionary. Yet our people have just begun to develop the resources of Door County. We are finding that its timber was by no means its most valuable feature, and it is only when the forests are swept away that the settler begins to lay the foundation of an enduring prosperity.

"Except the editor's 'salutatory' and a few brief paragraphs the first number of the Advocate contained no local intelligence, but this deficiency was compensated for by tolerably recent news of the war for the Union then in progress; and there being many gallant boys in blue from this vicinity their families were more interested in hearing of their achievements on the battlefield than in learning what their next-door neighbors were doing. Nor had the time yet come when people relied upon the press to supply them with a species of information that is now accepted as legitimate 'home news.' In those days had Thomas Belcher read in the local paper that he had come over here from Kangaroo Lake 'to have a little picnic with the boys,' which, being interpreted, means that he had been having a 'howling drunk,' he would have presently been seen armed with a sled-stake in search of 'that infernal newspaper man.' Had Mr. Skidmore learned that he was smilingly setting up the cigars for everybody in commemoration of the birth of the ninth young Skidmore, while he really was only restrained by fear of the law from dropping number nine into the cistern, his visit to the editor would have been closely followed by that of an ambulance and a surgeon. When, in those primitive times, a man thrashed his wife, robbed a hen-roost, or pitched his daughter's beau over the fence, he considered the affair a purely domestic one in which the general public could have no possible interest, and he would have forcibly disputed an editor's right to give such intelligence to the world. When a misdemeanor was committed the offender was seized by the town constable, taken before a justice of the peace and fined, and there the matter ended. That is to say, the constable made the arrest unless he chanced to be too drunk to perform the duty; the magistrate heard the complaint provided he could be found and was sober enough to know a law book from a ledger; for in that time there was so little police businesss that His Honor could not be expected to keep his office open for business at _all hours, as he was usually a carpenter, blacksmith or other artisan who generously sacrificed a part of his time on the altar of justice for the benefit of his fellow men. In case there was no hindrance from any of the causes mentioned, the carpenter swept the shavings from his bench with his apron, dusted his spectacles with the same garment, took down his docket, and seating himself on a sawhorse gravely listened to the evidence. The amount of the fine was so nicely adjusted to the size of the crowd that it was seldom necessary for the magistrate to pay the barkeeper anything out of his own pocket, though it did sometimes happen that through miscalculation the defendant was obliged to pay extra for his own drink. If the newspaper man was present he had his share of the refreshment, after which he retired to his cobwebby sanctum to write a heavy article on The Political Situation in Europe, and to search his exchanges for the most recent discovery in feeding swine and in keeping hens from eating their own eggs. He took it for granted that none of his patrons cared to read this week about what themselves or their neighbors had done the week before, and would no sooner have thought of chronicling the fact that Mrs. Gopsill had contributed to the census during her honeymoon, or that Deacon Snivler had capsized under a too heavy cargo of bug-juice, than he would have announced his own change of linen on Sunday morning. But the press gang has improved on all this during the past twenty years, and people have learned to look to their home paper for the gossip which was formerly confined to the tea-table, the tavern, and the Dorcas Society. The local journalist has wisely decided to leave general intelligence to the ponderous city daily, and to devote his attention to the smaller but not less important world in which he lives. He is no longer restricted to events of vital importance, but is expected to publish whatever happens in his vicinity, so thau the columns of his journal shall be a faithful reflex of life around him. The newspaper reporter is now supposed to be ever on hand with note book and pencil, and whether it be a boiler or a lamp explosion, a runaway horse or a runaway couple, a smashed bank or a smashed toe, a man blown up by gunpowder or by his wife, a vessel enptain's trouble with a schoonerload of lumber at sea or a schooner of beer on shore, a fight or a frolic, a feast or a funeral, a new calaboose or a new baby, the reporter must take it all in or be blamed for his remissness.

"Our files will show how far we have succeeded in catching the spirit ofthe times, and while we know that some events have managed to get away from us, we believe that the next idiot who tries to write a history of Door County will be able to give his readers something. more interesting than a mass of graveyard epitaphs and his own portrait.

"We salute our esteemed friends as we open the twenty-second volume of this journal. That the Advocate is to them a welcome guest we have the assurance given by a subscription list second to that of no similar publication in the Northwest, and other grateful evidence. A very moderate estimate gives us upward of five thousand weekly readers. Weare by no means unmindful of the duty we owe to this large constituency, and shall endeavor to perform that duty to their satisfaction. And as we thus begin anew the record of passing events we trust it will be long before the hand of fate shall close the labors of the Advocate or of any of its friends with the brief but sorrowful inscription, "The End.' "

Under the able management of Mr: Long the Advocate continued to appear regularly every Thursday until his death in 1912. The paper then continued to be published by Mr. Long's family under the management of Dudley S. Long. The Advocate has always been republican in polities and has a circulation of almost three thousand copies.

published. This was the Expositor, a small four-column, eight-page quarto, published by Pinney & Co. A. W. Lawrence was the "Co." and put up the funds while Geo. Pinney was the editor. Between the Advocate and the Expositor there promptly ensued a most bitter period of abuse and rivalry. The new paper for a time was commonly known as the Hurdy-Gurdy and seemed on general principles to be against everything advocated by Harry Harris, a son of Joseph Harris, who at this time was in charge of the Advocate. The following are fair samples of the "bouquets" handed out in this newspaper strife:

"The truly good deacon (i. e., Mr. Pinney) says he can imagine one situation in which we would tell the truth. We heartily wish we could say the same about him. But he is such an inveterate liar that when he becomes an inhabitant of the regions below he will swear he likes it while suffering the torments of the damned." *

This furious mud-slinging, of which the above is only a mild illustration, became a matter of remark in the state press. In an issue of the Winnneconne Items the editor, referring to the nasty flavor of the quarrel of the Sturgeon Bay papers, says: "Sturgeon wants a mineral spring. We should think the Advocate and the good deacon might start one in partnership." To which the Advocate rejoins: "A good suggestion. We might furnish a barrel of soft water and the deacon might soak himself in it overnight and make it the foundation of a first class sulphur spring." *

This controversy, which drew many men into it, came near having atragic ending. July 4, 1878, there was a grand celebration in Sturgeon Bay in honor of the joining of the waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan by the partial completion of the canal. Judge Rufus M. Wright was master of ceremonies and succeeded in making it a very successful affair in which hundreds of visitors from other cities joined. He also read a very well written ode at the celebration in honor of the opening of the canal' For all this he received much praise from the Advocate. The Expositor, Mr. Pinney's paper, however, ridiculed the whole affair, which was a bitter pill for Judge Wright. A few days later, when coming out of a saloon while under the influence of liquor, he met Mr. Pinney. Throwing his arm around him he pulled a revolver and said, "Pinney, you d - d old four-eyes, hic! I am going to shoot you!" Whereupon he blazed away, his shot

4 Judge Wright was a poet of considerable ability, a number of his poems being printed in the Advocate. The ode referred to above is printed in the Advocate of July 11, 1878.

In April, 1875, Mr. Frank Long bought the Advocate and the quarrel came to an end for a time as far as the Advocate was concerned. In May, 1877, the Expositor was purchased by Charles I. Martin, who published and edited it until 1885.

While it seems strange that two newspapers should be published in such a crude wilderness as Door County was in 1873, there was one incentive which lured the publishers onward. This was the county printing. In the early days of this county its lands were not thought desirable for farming purposes. The legal title to the land was therefore usually suffered to lapse by the nonpayment of taxes as soon as the best timber was cut off. In this way thousands of tracts of land were annually offered for sale by the county clerk for the taxes. The fees for the publication of these tax deed notices were fixed by law at 30 cents per description. By a system of abbreviation it was possible to publish twenty-six descriptions to the inch, which entitled the publisher to $7.80 per inch. In this way the income from county printing sometimes amounted to $1,000 per year.

The county printing was, however, a too uncertain source of income to depend upon and Charles I. Martin was finally compelled to give up the publication of the Expositor. The last issue bears the date of February 26, 1886. The Advocate for March 11th contains a long and very sarcastic obituary writeup beginning as follows:

"Died - In this city on Friday, February 26, 1886, of paralysis of the brain and pocket, weakness of the spinal column, flatulence, swelled head, hard times, universal contempt, mismanagement, stupidity, ignorance, general debility and natural cussedness, the Weakly Expositor, aged about twelve years and four months.

The departing editor, Mr. Chas. I. Martin, was a young man of pleasing personality and great enterprise but unstable and weak in management. He entered into various lines of business only to promptly fail. Finally he secured an important position as district manager for a large meat packing establishment. His duties necessitated the handling of large funds and his father-in-law, A. W. Lawrence, signed his bond for $75,000. Not long after Mr. Martin with two companions left Menominee in an open boat for Sturgeon Bay.

Mr. D. S. Crandall was at this time editor of the Advocate. He was an experienced journalist of wide reading, possessed a very vigorous and picturesque style and for some years made the Advocate the most readable newspaper in the state. He was a very hard worker 'and it was his wont to have a special article - a piece de resistance - of historie or humorous nature in almost every number. These extraordinary clever articles were read with huge enjoyment by everyone (unless he happened to be the victim of Mr. Crandall's excessively sarcastic pen) and the Advocate was week by week looked forward to with keen anticipation. In one thing, however, the Advocate, or rather Mr. Crandall, made a serious mistake. There was at this time much talk of a railroad and one project after another was launched. Influenced by the vessel interests the Advocate was induced to fight the railroad projects, ostensibly on the ground that the county would suffer from a bond issue. For a time the Advocate was successful in this opposition and Mr. Crandall's caustic wit and far-reaching pen knocked out one railroad project after another.*

This opposition to the railroad went much farther, however, than the peace-loving Mr. Long, the proprietor of the paper, had planned. The business interests of the city (with the exception of the vessel interests) were unanimously in favor of a railroad, and the more broad-minded men of the county also saw that unless inducements were made to persuade a railroad corporation to extend its line into the county there would be no real development of the county's resources. Due to his mistaken policy the Advocate was fast being looked upon as an obstructionist, a reputation which it took many years to conquer. As Mr. Crandall would not change his views and as personal differences had also entered it became necessary for him and Mr. Long in 1887 to part company.

In the meantime an important faction of the business men of Sturgeon Bay, disgusted with the Advocate's anti-railroad attitude, had started another paper. When the Expositor expired, February 26, 1886, the plant was bought and a new paper appeared the next week bearing the name of the Independent. The publishers were the Independent Publishing Company, which was incorporated March 1, 1886. The stockholders were A. W. Lawrence, C. L. Nelson, O. E. Dreutzer, E. S. Minor, L. M. Washburn, J. G. Wright, R. T. Thorp and W. B. Carr. The last was for a time editor of the paper. In spite of its staunch backing the paper lacked snap and vim, however, and after a year or so the publishers were constrained to go to their old enemy, Mr. Crandall, and secure his services as editor. For a time Mr. Crandall forgot his prejudice toward railroad bonds and lashed his old child, the Avocate, merrily. However, the evil fate that had followed the paper through its several transmutations was not easily overcome. After the stockholders had been called upon for several assessments in much esteemed bank notes their enthusiasm ebbed, particularly as the Advocate, now under Mr. Long's personal careful editorship, was no longer opposing the railroad. They were therefore glad to sell the paper to Joseph Harris, Jr., who changed its name to the Republican. In 1891 he sold out to his son, J. E. Harris.

'There were many sidelights and cross currents in the keen rivalry between the Advocate and the Expositor-Independent which cannot here be discussed as the matter has now lost importance. Behind it all, however, were two rival factions scheming for supremacy in commercial and political circles. On one side was the Leatham & Smith crowd, backing the Advocate; on the other side was the A. W. Lawrence ring represented by tHe Independent.

During the latter '80s the Evergreen Nursery Co., under the management of J. J. Pinney (the son of Geo. Pinney, the founder) had been conducting a very extensive advertising campaign from their nursery in the Town of Sturgeon Bay. Part of this was done through a trade periodical called The Ornamental and Forest Tree Grower, the forms of which were made up at the nursery but printed by the Advocate. In this way Mr. Pinney gradually worked into doing much job work and advertising for other business men. At this time the democratic party was gaining great strength throughout the country due to the commanding influence of Grover Cleveland. As there were two republican newspapers in the county and no democratic to voice the sentiments of the large and growing number of democrats in the county Mr. Pinney decided to publish a democratic newspaper. About January 1, 1893, he made an announcement in the Advocate that he would shortly begin the publication of a newspaper for democrats to be called the Door County Democrat.

Among those who read this announcement was also J. E. Harris, the publisher of the Republican. Believing that the decisive hour had come he straightway tore out the old form that had for years contained the name of his paper, substituted in its place the letters The Democrat and the next week the readers of the county were highly edified to see faith of another party. Not daunted by this flanking movement Mr. Pinney began the publication of the Door County Democrat January 28, 1893. For a couple of years there now existed the strange situation of two papers of the same name being published in the same little city. It was confusing enough for the people at home but they finally managed to differentiate the papers by calling Mr. Pinney's paper the Democrat and Mr. Harris' paper the "Little Democrat." To outsiders, however, confusion reigned supreme. Mail was mixed, bills were missent and embarrassing situations arose.

In order to put an end to this tangle Mr. Harris in 1895 decided on another bold stroke. He went to Marinette and there secured the services of Mr. Hugh McDonald, who was supposed to be a most compelling rough rider among newspapermen. Mr. McDonald came to Sturgeon Bay, girded up his loins and got out one issue as a sample of what he could do. This done he went down Cedar Street and had a grand celebration. With this skyrocket exploit the "Little Democrat" suddenly expired. Mr. Pinney bought the subscription list and Mr. Harris departed for other fields.

'The Door County Democrat was originally started by J. J. Pinney and Kirk J. Shepard. Mr. Shepard was associated with the paper for only one year and was succeeded by G. W. Allen, one of the old attorneys of the county.

Mr. Pinney proved an able newspaper man and under his management the Democrat developed into a popular and influential sheet. He remained as editor, publisher and proprietor of the paper for eighteen years, until his death on July 30, 1909. Shortly before his death he built the large office building in which the Democrat is housed, which when built was the largest business building in the city.

In March, 1910, following the death of Mr. Pinney, the Demoerat passed into new hands, having been purchased by old employees of the paper. The new owners incorporated under the name of the Door County Publishing Company, and became the sole owners and publishers of the paper, all owning an equal interest.

'The new owners were Herbert J. Sanderson, editor and general manager; Edward L. Houle, news editor; Arthur T. Harris, secretary and treasurer; and J. E. Harris, foreman of the mechanical department. In September of the following year Messrs. Sanderson, Houle and Harris purchased the interest of J. E. Harris in the business, and continued as sole proprietors and publishers of the Democrat.

Sanderson, president and manager; Edward L. Houle, vice president; A. T. Harris, secretary and treasurer. No other persons are interested in the business.

The first typesetting machine to be installed in a Door County. printing office was installed in the Democrat in 1911, and was a Mergenthaler Junior. The rapid growth of the paper soon outgrew this machine, and in December, 1914, a Model 14 Mergenthaler Linotype machine was installed. It was the best standard machine on the market at that time and was the third of the kind to be installed in the State of Wisconsin. The Model 14 carries three complete magazines and three molds, and an auxiliary magazine for large advertising figures and display newspaper headings.

Under the present management the Democrat has never indulged in personalities or fights through the columns of the paper. Its columns have always been free from abuse in every form.

The Door County News was started July 1, 1914, by the Door County News Publishing Co. The incorporators were E. M. La Plant, W. E. Wagener and Rudolph Soukop. E. M. LaPlant is president of the company and editor of the paper. C. A. Lundberg is vice president and W. I. Wagener is secretary and treasurer. It has stockholders in every town in the county and is independent in polities.

Door County has been fortunate in its newspapers. Owing to its peculiar geographical situation it has never been burdened with a multitude of inefficient sheets, having never had more than three at one time. 'These three have found a freer field for growth, never having suffered much from competition by newspapers of other counties. As a result they have been able, most of the time, to pull together in a larger way for the good of the county than is the case where several papers are published in different rival parts of a county. They have also been very ably edited. Mr. Joseph Harris, Sr., the pioneer newspaper man, was an editor of exceptional and most well balanced gifts. He was followed by Mr. Long, who for a generation published a paper that was considered one of the best in the state. I forbear from saying anything about the present publishers and editors, as this work does not contemplate advertising any business of the present day at the expense of a competitor.

standards Mr. Crandall exhibited serious faults as an editor, but newspaper standards have changed. A generation ago his style was a model which many sought after but few achieved. Aside from his merits or demerits as an editor of a rural weekly, Mr. Crandall was a man of rare literary talent - a humorist who would have won national fame if he had written in more favorable environments. I append two or three of his articles culled from the great number he has written for the Advocate. These selections have been made not only for their literary quality but also for their historic interest. It should be borne in mind that these articles were written amid the bustle and distraction of a busy newspaper office.

The Shearing Of The Sheep

"A few years ago Alex. Templeton, of Sevastopol, decided to engage in sheep raising. For the purposes of working into the business gradually he began with two sheep. He now has about five times that number. He would have had more if the hoodlums down there had not amused themselves by harassing the flock until several of the ewes lost their lambs, as recorded by us several months ago. This would not have happened if Aleck had anticipated the trouble by loading his army musket with slugs and spending a few days in gunning for boys before turning his sheep loose. It unfortunately happens that there is in this country no regular season in which it is lawful to shoot all boys running at large unmuzzled. Our legislators have thus far neglected to offer any bounty for boys' scalps, although the slaughter of other noxious vermin is encouraged. Until this error is corrected there will be little use in trying to raise sheep, fruit or girls, and thus some of our most important industries must be paralyzed for lack of a little gunpowder and buckshot. They manage these things much better in some of the South Sea Islands. Every year the inhabitants 'round up' the boys just as the Texans do their cattle for branding. The surplus boys are killed, roasted and eaten, and the islanders are happy for the next twelve months. Apples are raised in the open air in that country. Chickens fearlessly roost on the fences. A dog is never seen with a tomato can hitched to his tail. It is a nice country to live in.

"The first sheep of Mr. Templeton's flock having come from eastern Sevastopol, the people of that part of the township have always manifested a deep interest in Aleck's success. The interest is sincere and disinterested. In addition to several thousand dollars' worth of good advice, they have given him much material assistance in the management of his sheep. Especially has this been so at shearing time. While Aleck was attending school they forgot to teach him to shear sheep. He can weave anything under the stars, but he couldn't get the wool off the sheep without skinning the animal. If it were not for his friends his flock would probably travel around all summer with their winter clothes on. It has thus come to pass that every spring, à detachment of his eastern Sevastopol neighbors journey over to the bay shore to help Aleck gather his wool crop. At first the number of these people was not large, but as the flock increased in size so has the band of shearers, until this year about sixteen persons assembled to assist in the job. As there were seven sheep to be sheared this gave an average of a little more than two people to each animal. Aleck was afraid there were not enough to finish the work in one day, and was about to send up to town for re-enforcements, but upon consulting with some experienced shepherds who were of the party he was assured that there were men enough present to mow the wool if the women would attend to the raking and binding.

"The visitors from eastern Sevastopol were James R. Mann and wife, George Bassford and wife, Henry Martin and wife, Jacob Crass and wife, and Henry B. Stephenson. From the bay shore were Robert Laurie and wife, Mrs. H. Seidemann, and Mrs. Leidiger, while Idlewild and Sturgeon Bay were represented by J. 'T. Wright and wife, Ella Wright and Ross Wright. The whole of Mr. Templeton's large house was thrown open to the guests, and although their coming partook of the nature of a surprise party, Mrs. Add Templeton hastened to make all weleome, being assisted in her hospitable labors by Mrs. Seidemann. The eastern Sevastopol delegation had brought with them enough provisions to stock a small grocery, which seems to indicate that they had come over quite as much to have a picnic as to engage in wool-gathering.

"After an interchange of social, domestic, agricultural, horticultural, and other interesting intelligence, the farmers prepared for the great work of the day. Then a lively discussion arose as to the proper method of securing the sheep in order to obtain their fleeces. A few thought it would be necessary to run the animals down, but this was objected to as involving too much exercise in a country strewn with fallen timber. A proposition to shoot the sheep was received with favor, but was discarded because somebody happened to recollect that if the sheep were killed they would not lay any wool next year. The party was becoming quite discouraged, and a motion to postpone the shearing until next spring was about to prevail when a distinguished farmer from eastern Sevastopol announced that it was perfectly easy to catch a sheep after salt had been put on its tail. It was then remembered that before starting from Sevastopol a quantity of salt had been procured for this very purpose and was then out in the wagons. This information relieved the general gloom, and the party at once started for the yard to unload the salt. It was found just as stated, and was contained in small barrels of which there were three. This was more than actually needed to catch seven sheep, but, as one of the grangers sensibly remarked, 'It was much better to have too much of a good thing than too little.' The barrels were unloaded and taken to the cellar, where one of them was soon opened for inspection, but to the consternation of the grangers the contents proved to be not salt at all but a liquid substance of a color resembling six-months-old rain water. It was evident that in the haste of departure the wrong barrel had been put in the wagon. There being much curiosity as, to the character of the fluid, an expert was requested to examine and report. He filled a tin dipper with the stuff and gazed at it with a critic's eye. 'It looks like beer,' he gravely remarked. He held it to his nose and sniffed the odor. 'It smells like beer,' said he. Then he poured some of it down his throat. 'It tastes like beer. And upon my word, boys,' he solemnly declared as he dropped the empty dipper, 'it is beer.' Encouraged by his example the other agriculturists took turns at the dipper and successively confirmed the verdict of the expert. While all admitted that it was a great misfortune that the small barrels contained beer instead of salt, it was generally acknowledged that the mistake might have been more serious. For example, the barrels might have been filled with water. Knowing that they never would hear the last of it if the women discovered the blunder that had been made, the men joined hands over the beer kegs and faithfully promised that the dark secret should perish with them.

"Meanwhile the farmers' wives up-stairs were anxiously waiting to see the wool harvest begin, some of them not having seen the operation performed. One of the inexperienced having inquired how the wool was obtained, a sister ruralist who knew all about it obligingly informed her that the sheep were first put to soak for half an hour when the wool came off easily. At this there was a perfect gale of laughter from the other shepherdesses.

"At this the gale of mirth increased to a cyclone. The men down cellar heard the racket, and thinking there was a change in the weather they again passed round the tin dipper.

7 "Oh, that is too gorgeously funny for anything! exclaimed Mrs. Y when the laughter permitted her to be heard. "The idea of a farmer's wife not knowing any better than that. Plucking sheep, indeed! Haha, ha." And she went off into another fit of merriment.

" 'Perhaps I don't know,' indignantly exclaimed Mrs. Z. 'I never saw it done, but I have heard of "sheep's pluck" hundreds of times, and so has every lady in this room."

"Of course you have,' said Mrs. Y., 'but it had nothing to do with wool. "Sheep's pluck" is the heart, liver and lights of the animal, and these grow on the inside, while the wool grows on the outside."

"^I will, with pleasure, my love. The operation is extremely simple. They fill a barrel with hot water, put the sheep in it for a short time, then they pull it out and in a few minutes they have the wool nicely scraped off, The sheep squeal in a shocking manner as though they didn't like it - '

" "That settles it,' said a middle aged lady as she wiped the tears from her eyes. 'We know all about it now. Why, woman, you are thinking of pig killing time. Scalding a sheep to get its wool off! Well I never.'

"What further interesting disclosures in sheep management would have been made will never be known, for the discussion was stopped by the appearance of the men on the grounds outside. A council of war in the cellar led to a court-martial to discover who had basely substituted kegs of Leidiger's beer for the salt needed to capture the sheep.

"The drivers were subjected to a severe examination, but if they knew anything about the fraud they could not be induced to give itaway. The judge advocate tried to refresh their memories by pass-

"It was now about the middle of the afternoon. Unless something were soon decided upon the chief business of the day would be left undone. At this crisis Aleck Templeton recollected that he had in his library a book that contained full information about sheep growing. He found the book and a brief study of its pages made the whole matter plain. The crowd was so much relieved by this discovery that they set up another keg and started the dipper on a fresh cruise. The sheep were driven into a pen and while the other grangers stood around to offer an occasional word of advice or encouragement, James R. Mann grasped the shears and with a dexterity which showed him to be a master hand at the work rapidly and neatly relieved the sheep of their fleeces. By the time the shearing was completed the ladies had prepared the dinnner, and the party took their places at table. To those who are acquainted with the persons who composed the gathering it is unnecessary to say that in Sevastopol or any other town it would not be easy to find a more whole-souled, jolly, and fun-loving lot of people. For the next two or three hours there was the gayest kind of a mass-meeting, and it was not until the sun was about to go to bed in the blue waters of Green Bay that the shepherds and shepherdesses wrapped their plaids around them and started for their distant homes. As they passed out of sight they could be heard merrily singing:

" 'Beneath the tall tomato tree I swing the glittering hoe, And smite the wild potato bug As he skips o'er the snow.' " From the Advocate of June 7, 1883.

"Those who have cows that are obliged to pick up a living along highways and in the wogds, should be blessed with a more than ordinary amount of patience and muscle in order to pass through these midsummer days without kicking the stuffing out of the Ten Commandments. The scanty herbage to be found at this season makes it necessary for a cow to travel nearly all over the county in search for enough forage to keep herself in good health, and it not unnaturally follows that when she has finally succeeded in raking in a tolerably good meal she feels no inclination to return to the diet of sand and sawdust that is her portion as long as she remains in the village. She, therefore, skirmishes around for a soft and shady spot wherein to chew her cud, as though it was a matter of no interest to her whether or not she ever again knocked over the family milk-pail or sent the dairy maid sprawling about the barnyard. But what is fun for the cow is quite reverse for the person whose task it is to seek and bring the vagrant heifer home. As every proprietor 'goes it alone' in these cow hunts, each evening sees no inconsiderable number of our townspeople girding up their loins preparatory to an excursion of whose length, breadth, direction and result they have no conception whatever. And a tramp through the airless woods on these simmering hot summer afternoons is no pleasure trip. It seems as though nature purposely throws obstacles in the way of the perspiring pedestrian. There are mosquitoes, gnats and other bloodsucking insects to assail the face and hands, briers to grasp the clothing and scratch the limbs, while fallen timbers and thick growing underbrush often cause the traveler to wish that he had taken the other road.

"Tf the average cow gave a barrel or two of milk at each session, and that milk was so thick with cream that it had to be blasted out of the pans with nitro-glycerine and churned into tons of butter by a fifty horse-power Corliss engine, then the prospective rewards might encourage and console the weary searchers. But since at this time of the year these animals have all they can do to hold themselves together, and rarely 'give down' more than a quart or so at a milking, it does seem to the man on the fence that the game is hardly worth the candle. And when we take into consideration the demoralizing effect which these journeys have upon the cow boys, we wonder that the country is not full of 'Societies for the Suppression of the Cows.' We care not how virtuous a boy may naturally be, nor under what refined influence he may be reared. He may have been brought up by a tender mother who held the Westminster Catechism in one hand and a trunk strap in the other. She may have impressed upon his mind the facts that it is wicked to lie, steal, swear, and suck goose eggs, and he may have traveled for years in the straight and narrow path; but set that boy to hunting after a cow every night and he will go whooping along the broad-gauge route to perdition at the rate of a mile a minute. We do not pretend to explain the phenomenon. Perhaps it is owing to the weather? Perhaps the mosquitoes are to blame. He may have had an unsatisfactory interview with a nest of yellowjackets, or the cow herself may have trodden upon his sore toe. But whatever may be the cause, that boy is headed so surely towards the penitentiary in this life and a sulphuric broil in the next that nothing less than the sharp tuition of a reform school can switch him off the track.

"Tt is not beer, or cigars, or flirting with girls and kindred follies that are undermining the morality of the age and yanking our youth down to an early and frequent acquaintance with police magistrates and calaboose sawdust. It is the cow - the temper-destroying, cursecompelling Cow. It is in chasing up hill and down dale after this Wandering Jew of ruminant animals that our otherwise well-behaved boys are transformed into howling hoodlums.

"It is in searching for her, weary, foot-sore and supperless, that the boy takes the first downward steps that may end in his becoming a lawyer, an editor, a legislator or other social outcast. If we were asked how this grievous evil can be arrested, we should promptly advise the immediate and complete extermination of the Cow from the face of the earth. But as this remedy would be so expensive as to meet with strong opposition, we have another which we confidently believe will achieve the desired results. It is simply to compel every owner of a cow to procure and use our recently invented 'Universal Cow-Jerker. The operation of this device is so simple that it can he understood by the person of ordinary intelligence. It is only necessary to attach to the animal's tail a stout rope of sufficient length to permit her to graze over a reasonable extent of territory. At the home end of the rope a windlass is to be planted, and when milking times comes the crank is turned and the cow is slowly but surely reeled into the barnyard. We do not need to be told that this machine has its objectionable features, and that accidents to the cow are liable to happen, from its use. She may occasionally get snagged out in the timber, or become mixed up with a log fence, in which cases either the rope or her tail would give way. In the latter event the cable can be transferred to her head, and when this is also pulled out by the roots, her usefulness as a milker will be so seriously impaired that it will probably be as well to transfer the rope to a new cow. The 'Uni- , versal Cow-Jerker' is not patented, but is freely given to suffering humanity in the hope that it may achieve the purpose for which it is designed. If it should be instrumental in keeping even one boy from cussing, and swearing, and throwing stones, we shall not have exercised our inventive faculties in vain.

"That this machine, or something equally effective, is needed must be evident to every observant person. It is but a few mornings since that we met one of our townsmen who returned home with his cow. He had not been able to find her on the previous evening, and this is no wonder, for when we met him he was on the last lap of the tenth mile of his tramp after the brute. 'I have been having a h - ll of a time looking for my cow! he exclaimed in response to our salutation, as he mopped his face with a grimy semblance of a handkerchief. Under ordinary circumstances we would have sharply rebuked his profane outburst. But the morning was extremely warm; there was no breeze stirring; the roads were ankle deep with dust, and the man had not yet breakfasted. Taking these things into account we put ourselves in his place, and quickly reached the conclusion that in a like situation we, too, might have been tempted by the Evil One to forget our early religious training and to express our feelings in language more robust and emphatic than if we were addressing a Bible class. We had walked but a short distance further when we encountered a small boy who was trudging at the tail of a cow whose full udder furnished strong circumstantial evidence that she had slept away from home on the previous night. This evidence was corroborated by the boy himself, who casually remarked that he had been having a 'h - ll of a time looking for his cow." As the little boy was limping from a stonebruise on his heel; as his hat looked as if it might have been kicked by a mule through three-quarters of a mile of blackberry bushes; as he was ornamented from head to foot with a species of burr familiarly known as 'beggars' lice,' we did not doubt the truthfulness of his assertion, though we felt that he was using language that was from twelve to fifteen sizes too large for him. And when, a few minutes later, we met a limp woman with bonnet askew driving a heifer, we were so sure that she had been having the same kind of a time looking for her cow that we did not stop to talk to her, for it pains us to hear a woman swear.

was having a disagreeable time in cow-hunting just now, and that these perverse beasts were responsible for a frightful amount of profanity.

"If we were so unfortunate as to possess a cow that had so little regard for our salvation as to wander five miles into the country and there remain until we went out to invite her to return, she would have to say her prayers in a hurry if she finished them before we turned her into corn beef. But there are people who want milk more than they want meat, and as long as such persons exist among us, cows will be regarded as a necessary evil. It is to such as these that we recommend our 'Universal Cow-Jerker,' by the use of which they may continue to have cream in their coffee and at the same time remain consistent members of their church, while their boys will ornament society instead of joining the chain-gang at Waupun. Unless our suggestion is adopted the present work of demoralization will go on until the whole social fabric is in ruins, and throughout the uncivilized world, instead of the usual friendly greetings it will come to pass that men, women and children and even babes and sucklings will join in the universal refrain, 'I'm having a h - 1l of a time looking for my cow!"

The author of the following merry "Ballad of the Bold Britisher" is unknown. It appeared in the Advocate in 1885. I have been at considerable pains to learn its authorship but have failed. All signs point to Mr. Crandall, but he will not admit that he wrote it. A few words of introduction are necessary.

In the early '80s three doughty graduates from Oxford University appeared amid the slashings of Jacksonport. 'lhey were Mortimer Hales Crosse, John Leschmere and Frank Stradling. They came, three cheerful adventurers and remittance men, from England, apparalled in the latest skin-tight hunting costumes and monocles, avowedly for the purpose of hunting buffaloes in J'acksonport, and incidentally to visit a relative back in the timber. As the buffaloes were very scarce in Jacksonport at that time and as the remittances failed to appear on schedule time, they laid aside their guns and monocles and tried their hand at chopping cordwood to eke out the slender board at their relative's humble home. As cordwood chopping proved a dull and weary job they soon left their axes, seized their guns and tramped to Sturgeon Bay, hoping to shoot a grizzly bear or two on the way. In Sturgeon Bay the long lost remittances were found and for a time they were a great comfort to the barkeepers of Cedar Street and good cheer to the local youth. When the local youth learned that they yearned for wild game of any sort they one night piloted them out where a flock of wooden decoys were sitting on the moonlit water. Wooden decoys being new to these sportsmen, they energetically blazed away for quite a while before they discovered that these American ducks were quite immune to shot.

In this merry way they spent several years in and around Sturgeon Bay, most of the time waiting for remittances which always were inexplicably late in arriving. Mr. Stradling finally settled down in the city and become a respectable insurance man and justice of the peace. Mr. Leschmere sought a larger field. Mr. Crosse returned to his ancestral home - not to be hung as the poet in the ballad prophesies but to become a most worshipful divine in the Church of England.

His store of cheek was quite untold; His look was high, his bearing bold; His pockets fairly lined with gold, And thus he went 'To Yankee-land, and traveled through Its states and cities not a few, And picked up new ideas to A great extent.

And now it fell from want of cash This noble youth, this Shropshire mash, Came down at length to slinging hash, At least he tried; But when he'd broken every plate, Which happened at an early date, "The boss on him with boot did wait And said, *Now slide!"

At length he finds an uncle kind Who says he'll help to raise the wind If Morty'll leave his guns behind As souvenirs, - Now reached at length his native shore Again he fights his battles o'er, And each time taller than before 'The tale appears.

Moral

The first poet in Door County was Allen G. Powers, once chairman of the Town of Gibraltar. In 1857 he wrote the pretty poem on Kangaroo Lake which is printed in the chapter on Baileys Harbor. Mr. Powers moved to Beloit at an early date.

Rufus M. Wright was a man of consideralile poetic ability. His "Ode to the Fourth of July" already referred to in this chapter shows high literary ability. From time to time other poems were published by him. At the soldiers' reunion in Sturgeon Bay in 1885 he deliv-

"Gloomy and dark and sad the day When traitor hands essayed to stay The onward march of Freedom's way And sought our nation's peace to slay."

Two or three poems extolling the beauties of Ephraim have been written by summer resorters. The following poem on "Door County" by Harry E. Dankoler is well worth preserving:

"Door County! pride of Badger State! Our lives to her we consecrate! Though foreign born or native son We'll serve her till our work is done!

"While fairer land ne'er saw the sun, Her progress has but just begun; Rich, too, she is in men of deeds - 'Door County Does,' their motto reads.

"Her climate fine, and air so pure, Alone will make her fame endure. Her highways broad, from town to town, Have won her praise and great renown.

"Her Park has sylvan charm and shore Where wavelets laugh or billows roar; Where rich or poor may camp and rest, And know himself a weleome guest.

"Her soil is rich - her pastures green - Choice dairy herds can there be seen; With apples sweet and cherries tart, Door County fills the city mart.

The most important contribution to literature by Door County people is two novels written by Mrs. Alice Prescott Smith. Mrs. Smith is a daughter of Rev. G. W. Prescott, the first Congregational minister in the county. He lived in Sturgeon Bay from 1880 to 1891. Mrs. Smith's first novel is entitled "Mont Livet." The scene is principally laid in Door County about the year 1700. Many pretty and highly dramatic pictures are painted of Washington Island, Sturgeon Bay and Idlewild. Mrs. Smith's second novel centers around the great forest fire of 1871. It is a highly realistic and vivid story and is entitled "The Legatee." Both novels are as good as the average best sellers.

A third novel, "Lazarre," by Mrs. Catherwood, was also written in Door County wliile the author was spending the summer at Mr. Parkinson's home in Egg Harbor. One or two characters of Sturgeon Bay are portrayed.