Sunshine Shipwreck (Scow Schooner)

The present settlements of Liberty Grove are largely outgrowths of the early Norwegian colony at Ephraim. The first settlers were originally members of this colony. Among them was John Thoreson; a Norwegian who settled at Little Sister Bay in 1854. He was for many years a prominent man in the town, was a political boss and had a pier over which he shipped much cordwood and other timber products. Another well known early Norwegian was Zacharias Morbek. He was a member of the original Norwegian Moravian colony which settled in Ephraim, was a man of some education and for some time held most of the town offices in the Town of Gibraltar. Later other candidates for political honors began to usurp what he considered his prerogatives. In disgust he complained that liberty was dying out in Gibraltar and in order that he might again have matters under his own hand he got a portion of Gibraltar set off in 1859 as a separate town. This he called Liberty Grove, meaning by that that liberty (the Morbek brand) had there found a home. For many years he was very successful and had the office of clerk, treasurer, assessor and justice of the peace.

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

In the first company of Moravians who settled at Ephraim in 1853 was one German. His name was Gottfried Matthe, from Bavaria. In 1857, while on a trip to Green Bay, he met some German emigrants looking for land and persuaded them to accompany him to Ephraim. 'These were Wilhelm Dorn and Christian Hempel. They were from Pomerania, or Hinter Pommern, in East Prussia. Dorn and Hempel took land in Liberty Grove back of Ephraim and became the founders of the large German settlement of whom nearly all are from Hinter Pommern. Among the earliest were Carl Stoever and Wilhelm Sturm who came in 1865, August Stoever, and Fritz, Frantz and Ferdinand Schmidt, who came in 1866; August Rowe, Ludwig Heling, Carl Mogenburg, and Herman, Ferdinand, Fritz and Johan Mueller, who

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Liberty Grove Town - 4,444 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.