Door County, Wisconsin - Chapter 48: The German Settlement in Forestville and Nasewaupee, 1917

Chapter 48: The German Settlement in Forestville and Nasewaupee

The early history of every town abounds with the names of a number of temporary sojourners who later played little or no part in the history of their community. They were usually transient laborers, fishermen or woodchoppers who stayed only long enough to fell a few trees and then move to other parts. To clutter up our records with the meaningless names of these temporary lodgers is but to cause confusion to the later student of our history. In this history of Door County an attempt has not been made to record the presence of every early individual who set foot on Door County but rather to tell of the chief events and men which lead up to the present permanent and well ordered communities.

With this purpose in view, of separating the transient from the permanent, we see the towns of Forestville and Nasewaupee with the adjoining part of Brussels as one large German settlement whose principal settlement dates back to about the year 1870. Forestville is at present looked upon as the front door of Door County but this is since the railroad came. The reason this and the adjoining parts of Clay Banks, Brussels and Nasewaupee, now properly considered the banner farming section of the county, were settled so late is that practically all the early settlers came by water. Along the water front little villages sprang up and their immediate vicinity was early settled up. Forestville, the southern part of Nasewaupee, the eastern part of Brussels and the western part of Clay Banks were far from,the shore and therefore their settlement was late.

There is, however, in Forestville an important exception to this classification. This township in early days had a back door - now used no longer - by which the first and many of the best settlers of the town entered. This back door was the Wolf (later called the Ahnapee) River, now a sluggish creek of no commercial importance but once a deep river on which for more than twenty years steamboats and heavily laden barges used to navigate up and down. This stream drains the greater part of Southern Door County and before the land was cleared of timber it carried much water.

The early settlement of Forestville was largely due to an accident. One day in May, 1855, a steamboat stopped at Manitowoc to deliver a little freight. It was the later ill fated Lady Elgin, plying between Buffalo and Chicago. Among the passengers were four young Irishmen bound for Chicago and Galena, Ill. While the boat was unloading its freight these men took a stroll on the shore to see the sights of the little village. They were James Keogh, Sr., and John, Richard and Matthew Perry. Wandering a little too far they were suddenly alarmed to see the Lady Elgin backing away from the pier. They rushed down to get aboard but too late. The steamer had gotten under headway with Mrs. Keogh and her babies frantically besieging the captain to put back and get her husband. However, the fare was paid and the lordly captain merely shrugged his shoulders.

While these four men were standing on the pier debating their dilemma with many bristling Irish adjectives for the arrogant captain they were approached by an elderly man of imposing appearance who gave his name as "Major" Mc- Cormick. After he had listened to their tale of woe for awhile he suddenly astonished them by saying:

"Boys, you ought to be happy instead of grumbling. You were never in better luck than when that boat left you. Instead of going to Galena and slaving in the lead mines for $1 a day, you come with me and I will show you the best place in the West, where there are all kinds of chances of making money."

"I am from a new town up in Door County about forty miles north of here," 1 he said. "I have a sawmill, a hotel and a townsite there. The timber is grand and the soil is excellent. We have a fine waterfall to give us cheap power and we intend to start a blast furnace. We have discovered a deposit of choice marble near by. All we need to make a first class city is men and we are willing to pay them better wages than anywhere else in America. You come with me and you will get the right start."

Keogh, who was thinking of his wife, carried off to a strange city without money, was not interested. However, the major explained that no boat would leave for Chicago for a week and they would have plenty of time to go with him. It would cost them nothing.

Persuaded by the major's eloquence they finally decided to visit his eldorado while waiting for the Chicago boat. McCormick had a Mackinac boat and they made their way to Algoma (then called Ahnapee) in this. From this point they rowed and poled their way up the little river for about ten miles. When they got up to the major's townsite, however, they were disappointed. His sawmill did not exist, his hotel was only a wretched little hut, the rushing waterfall which was to drive the wheels of industry in the hew city was only a small rapids. The marble deposit, as they later discovered, was merely a layer of smooth limestone. The timber, however, was there, a huge forest shutting them in on every side.

For a while they felt like beating up the wily major for having lured them into such a wilderness. But he was profuse with his explanations and so lavish with his promises of big pay, and the big forest itself appealed to them so much, that they not only forgave him but decided to stay there, buy land and work for McCormick. This decided upon James Keogh went to Chicago and returned with his wife and at once took land and settled in Forestville. So also did John, Richard and Matthew Perry. John Perry after a little moved to California. A fourth brother, Samuel, also took land in Forestville in the later '50s but soon moved to Ahnapee where he became a prominent merchant and manufacturer.

Maj. Joseph McCormick had won his military title in the Mexican war. He was of ancient Scotch-Irish stock and was a big, breezy old man with a commanding presence and stentorian voice. He was the first white man to settle in Forestville. He claimed several tracts of land but made formal entry only of the north half of the northeast 14 of section 29. This entry is dated August 1,

1855. He discovered what he thought was a layer of marble a mile or two up the river above the present village and seeing among other possibilities he planned to lay out a townsite about where the present village lies. Here, half way between the old and the new railroad depot was his home. However, he was unable to raise means to develop his projects and later moved to Algoma, where the daughter of his son, Mark, married Samuel Perry.?

Before this, however, he brought a great many settlers into Forestville. In his bluff, hearty way he told of the marble quarries, the water power and the timber resources so persuasively that a large number was ferried by him up the Wolf River in 1855 and 1856. Among these were John Stoneman, Andrew Sloan, N. H. Rockwell, John Machinsky, Daniel Vaughn, Peter Thompson, and L. H. D. Shepherd. A number of Germans also came in 1855 and 1856, these being Ernest, Franz, Robert and Julius Bernhardt, Samuel and Michael Krueger, John Busch and John Kumn. The four last were German Poles from the province of Posen. The Bernhardt brothers (from Silesia, in Germany) went to work in 1856 to make Major McCormick's dream of water power come true. There was at that time quite a good sized creek flowing into the river from the northeast. On this they constructed a dam making a waterfall twenty-four feet high. Below this they set up an overshot waterwheel, twenty-four feet in diameter, and here for many years a sawmill was operated. The lumber was shipped by way of the river. Later when the land was cleared the creek dried up.

Peter Thompson was the only Norwegian among these Irish and Germans. He purchased 320 acres in sections 17 and 20 July 16, 1855. In 1861 he went to the war but returned to find trouble at home. He was separated from his wife and moved away.

There were by 1857 so many settlers near the site of the present village of Forestville that steps were taken to organize the town. This was the third town to be organized in the county. Washington was the first, Otumba (the old name for Sturgeon Bay) was the second, and Forestville was the third. It included its present territory and also the town of Clay Banks. The other townships in the southern part of the county continued to be a part of Sturgeon Bay for two years more. On November 3, 1857, the town of Forestville held its first town meeting. Major McCormick was elected chairman, L. H. Shepherd, clerk, and Samuel Bacon of the present town of Clay Banks, treasurer.

All the pioneers so far mentioned lived on the east side of the river. In 1856 came the first to settle on the west side. These were the five brothers, Martin, Ferdinand, William, John and Herman Miller. These were from Pomerania, or "Hinter Pommern," in Prussia, and caused quite an immigration of people from the same part of Prussia to follow. On the west side of the river there is now a large settlement of people from Hinter Pommern. In Liberty Grove is another large settlement of Pomeranians. Between the Pomeranians on the west side of the river and the Mecklenburgers on the east side there soon developed quite a heated controversy as to where the church which they planned to build should stand.

2A good genealogical biography of Samuel Perry, with portrait, including also the ancestry of Major McCormick, is given in Commemorative Biographical Record of Brown, Kewaunee and Door Counties, pages 498-503. Mark McCormick, a son of Joseph, who was also a Forestville pioneer, became a Methodist minister.

Bay Shore At Idlewild, Sturgeon Bay

Being unable to agree they finally built two churches, one on each side of the river, only a mile apart. They were both of the same shade of the Lutheran faith, but feeling resentful toward each other they had different pastors. Gradually the center of the Pomeranian settlement moved northwestward. In the eastern part of "russels there was before the great fire of 1871 a large settlement of Bohemians. Many of these were completely exterminated in the tornado of fire, while some of the others left the sad spot never to return. After the fire the Pomeranians moved in, finding the charred foundations of the former dwellers, and here cleared the land, making a beautiful farming section. In 1908 they deserted their little brown church near Forestville and built one of the most beautiful churches on the ` peninsula at Kolberg, five miles northwest of Forestville.

These people came from a section in Prussia chiefly occupied by large estates. On these estates they worked as laborers, and while they were not actually slaves, their position was wretchedly humble. Girls received about $3 per year and board, while able bodied men received as high as $24 per year and board. The board was largely potatoes, with meat twice a week. Water or thick skim milk was their drink, with black coffee for the holidays. The day's labor in summer started at 3 o'clock in the morning. The married men received about 21 cents per day and boarded themselves. If they had a piece of land it was unlawful for them to kill a rabbit that might be nibbling their garden truck. The rabbit must be protected until the Graf and his guests at intervals galloped proudly over the small tenant's fields on a hunt. If at such a time the laborer's dog had the audacity to bark at the passing horsemen, he was shot down at once while the laborer stood by humbly; his cap in his hand.

Besides this life of toil and bondage at home, military duty was also exacted from all able bodied men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. During this entire time they were herded together in huge concentration camps and put through a severe drill. For this they were paid nothing at all but their frugal board. A very large number was needed each year to keep up the standing army of the kaiser. Millions of these idle men were kept cantering about on their idle horses for the glory of the emperor. Meanwhile their places on the farms were filled by women. In order to take the place of the horses taken out of useful work by the king of Prussia for his cavalry it was not an unusual thing to see two women and a dog hitched together to a plow with another woman holding the handles. So used were the people to this wretched system of oppression that they blindly slaved for the worthless nobles and cried "Hoch! der Kaiser!" every time a uniformed body of the emperor's parasites appeared in view.

Some of them, however, realized the wretched bondage in which they lived and found their way to the New World. Here was a ruler who did not enforce military slavery at the penalty of death. Here the land was not owned by arrogant nobles but the government freely presented to each man who would live on it a quarter section of land. Here all men were free and equal. These conditions, so commonplace to us, were things of wonder and delight to the German pioneer who was so unused to them. They were therefore glad to settle in the deep wilderness and toil as never before. They had the incentive of freedom, equality and the hope of prosperity. For a time many of them lived on potatoes and salt and a few dragged their cordwood to the pier on a hand-sled. But little by little their clearings widened, their stock multiplied and their hopes were bright

Meanwhile quite an immigration of Germans had taken place into Nasewaupee. These Germans were from Hessen in the south central part of Germany, and here in Nasewaupee and Forestville they created one of the earliest settlements of Hessians in America. The first were George Senft, Philip A. Schaeffer, Andrew Goettelman, Peter Uhl, Ludwig Schumacher and Adam and Henry Heilman. These men came from Washington County, Wis., and there was for a time quite an emigration from this county to Door County. The following year came Fred Arldt, John Mann, Christopher Stephan and John P. and Nicholas Simon. The two last were French. All of these settled in the northern part of the town along the Little Sturgeon Bay road, which was the only road in the town at that time. A little later a number of Irish families came in and settled along the Green Bay road. Nearly all of these have later moved away.

After this initial settlement near the bay in Nasewaupee and along the Wolf River in Forestville, very few new settlers came in until the later '60s. In 1867 came John Fetzer, who later became the principal business man of Forestville and for almost a generation was chairman of the town. His father, Peter Fetzer, came from Hessen in 1850 and was one of the first settlers in Manitowoc County. John Fetzer in 1877 built a flour mill on the Wolf River which had a capacity of seventyfive barrels of flour per day. This flour mill became a great center toward which the farmers gatheréd from all over Southern Door County and Northern Kewaunee County. Mr. Fetzer later became state senator.

The eastern part of Forestville was not settled until 1870, when the Norwegians came and cleared the land. Their immigration is discussed in the chapter on Clay Banks. The northern part of the town and the southern part of Nasewaupee were also settled about 1870. Quite a number of Austrians settled here. The first of these were Anton Brey, Ferdinand Babler, Michael Breitle and Charles Zastrow. These came from the boundary line between Austria and Bavaria.

In the extreme northern part of Nasewaupee lies a Norwegian settlement known as Hainesville. It was so named in honor of its founder, Tallak Haines (Hóen), who settled at Sawyer Harbor in 1864. He was from the parish of Bamle in the southern part of Norway and made two or three trips back to his old home, bringing many of his old neighbors back to Door County with him.

Just adjoining the old Haines homestead on Sawyer Harbor lies a government reservation of 1,000 acres. This was set aside by the government September 1, 1837, for the purpose of "providing an excellent quality of limestone in all kinds of weather." Several attempts have been made to have the reservation opened for entry but in vain.

Nasewaupee derives its name from a post office which was established there in 1856. In that year N. W. and E. S. Fuller, who for a time lived there, conceived the idea of starting an opposition village to Sturgeon Bay. The first step was to petition for the establishment of a post office, which was granted. The names suggested by the Fullers and their Hessian neighbors were not acceptable to the post office department, which instructed the postmaster at Green Bay to pick a suitable name. He selected the name of Nasewaupee, which was the name of a Menominee Indian chief who had a village a few miles west of the new post

John Fetzer

Practically all of Nasewaupee and a part of Forestville was laid waste by the great forest fire of 1871. In Nasewaupee thirty-eight families lost everything but their lives. A number of persons were also burned to death. Most of the land was still covered with timber, which was all blown down, obstructing the roads with windfalls ten feet deep. Up to this time this region had been only sparsely settled, but after the fire all the land was soon taken up by an industrious class of Germans. Among these was a Hessian by the name of Meulenbach, whose serio-comic tribulations provided amusement for the community for a long time.

Meulenbach owned an eighty-acre farm in Nasewaupee, about three miles from Bay View. He was an honest, hard-working German, having a wife and several children, whose combined labor had cleared up a considerable part of the land and placed them in comfortable circumstances. With increased prosperity came desire for a better dwelling, and in 1883 this building was erected and occupied by the family. In final settlement with the carpenter, Wm. Bade, there was a dispute about a charge of $7. Meulenbach refused to pay it, while Mr. Bade insisted that it was justly due. Neither would recede and Bade finally left with a threat to appeal to the law. Meulenbach, who could not understand a word of English, laughed at the idea that a court would disturb him for so trifling a sum, and when cited to appear and defend a suit brought by Bade under the mechanics" lien law, Meulenbach came to town but neither employed a lawyer nor himself went near the magistrate's office. Of course, judgment was entered against him by default, the total amount being $16.

So far from being discouraged by this result, Meulenbach was more determined than before to resist payment. He took an appeal to the circuit court, but even then he refused to employ a lawyer, having an idiotic idea that the court would somehow recognize the injustice of Bade's elaim and reverse the magistrate's verdict. He did not enter the court room, but with his wife and a so-called "witness" he drank beer and roosted on the sidewalks during the day. Another verdict was entered against him for debt and costs, which now footed up to about one hundred dollars. Upon Meulenbach's refusal to pay this his property was ordered to be sold by the sheriff, which order was executed, and the claim bought by Wenzel Soukup. Mr. Soukup offered to relinquish the property to Meulenbach for the sum he had expended, but the latter refused to make any abatement of his original claim. He declared he owed nothing to Bade and would pay nothing, and there was not law enough in the state of Wisconsin to compel him to pay what he didn't owe.

When Sheriff Houle went out to serve the writ of ejectment the entire Meulenbach family struck up a sort of Indian scalp dance, whooping and howling like lunatics, in the belief that if the sheriff was unable to make himself heard the document would be void and of no effect. The owner of the claim tried to compromise the matter until he found it useless, and when Thomas Scott became sheriff he was instructed to dispossess Meulenbach. Expecting to have a dusty job he took along three assistants; He found Mrs. Meulenbach on guard with a big kettle of hot water. Her husband had secreted himself in a cedar swamp, thinking that nothing could be done in his absence. When an attempt was made to explain the situation to Mrs. Meulenbach she refused to listen and started to fill a dipper with hot water. Tom Scott intercepted the movement and held her while his assistants rushed the plunder out of the house, during which operation Meulenbach emerged from the swamp and threatened to exterminate the sheriff's posse but changed his mind. To improve matters it began to rain, and the household goods were thoroughly soaked. The family took refuge in an adjacent barn, where they camped on the threshing floor, and in this place they remained for several months. Leaving them to get along as they might, the yet unsatisfied Meulenbach departed for Madison. He was convinced that gross injustice had been done him by the courts, and that on an appeal to the governor of the state his wrongs would be righted and the property restored to him. Having no other means of conveyance he took an ox and upon this animal he slowly. journeyed toward the capital, a distance of more than two hundred miles.

It is not known what success he had in finding the governor, nor how many times the chief magistrate invited him to dine, or took a canter on the avenue on Meulenbach's steer. It is likely, however, that the governor was extremely hospitable and "set 'em up" with a perfect looseness, for when Meulenbach started to leave the capital he was so badly mixed up that instead of taking a northerly road he traveled westward and did not discover his error until he struck La Crosse, on the Mississippi River, about one lfiundred and fifty miles off the right road. It was six weeks after his departure when he returned to his family. He had disposed of his ox somewhere on the road, and had made much of his tramp on foot.

Meulenbach made no further effort to regain the property, although he was as obstinate in his original belief as ever. He remained in Nasewaupee a short time and then removed to Dakota, where they are no doubt still insisting that they in Door County were defrauded of everything.

The district was for a time a great wheat growing section. Large crops were harvested, but the prices were very low, often only 50 to 60 cents per bushel. In 1890 peas were worth only 42 cents per bushel, hay $4 per ton, and milk 60 cents per hundred pounds at the cheese factories. Now the price of milk is four times as high and the price of peas ten times as high. In 1916 a farmer in this section had 800 bushels of peas to sell. He refused $3.50 per bushel, saying he would not sell for less than $5 per bushel. As this was an unheard-of price he was laughed at. In the spring of 1917, however, the price reached $5. He immediately began to haul peas, but was unable to catch that price. When he got his crop to the market the price had reached $5.50.