LAKELAND (steam screw) Shipwreck

Levi Thorp, who for many years was the principal business man north of Sturgeon Bay, was a very capable and experienced man. He was among the early gold miners of California, where he was successful in washing out $6,000 worth of gold. On his way to California he went around Cape Horn, stopped at the Island of Juan Fernandez of Robinson Crusoe fame and returned across the Isthmus of Panama. The imposing house on the hill in the Village of Fish Creek was his home. By 1879 he had 160 acres under cultivation and was at that time the biggest farmer in the county. "

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

In the meantime Egg Harbor had received an important addition to its population in the southern part of the town. These were the two brothers, Thomas and William Carmody. They came from Limerick, Ireland, and lived for a time in Pennsylvania. In 1857 they came to Door County. At that time entire townships lay vacant, waiting for their first settlers. Most of the best land near Sturgeon Bay was still open for pre-emption. Thomas and William Carmody, 'however, chose to go as far back into the timber as it was possible to get at that time and settled ten miles north of Sturgeon Bay. Here, far beyond any roads, trails or neighbors, they settled on some rather low lands just north of the present Carlsville which are even now considered of little value. Their purpose was not farming, however, but to get out cedar. Whether this was found profitable is not known. But here they lived year after year without schools, churches, markets or neighbors. It was in the heart of the wilderness. No daily or even weekly mail came to tell them of the world's progress. Beefsteak was not often on the bill of fare but bear meat took its place and the boys found wolf hunting better sport than pool playing.

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 Egg Harbor Town - 5,021 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.