Author: Amanda

Happy Labor Day weekend Forest County Residents!

I am sorry to inform you that this is the last week I am working as the full time archivist at the Crandon Public Library. I will still be cataloging archival material ten hours per week so I will do my best to write a new blog post during this time. I am working on finishing writing my thesis on the disappearance of Keith Siding as a lumber town so if anyone has any information on the subject let me know.

I would like to invite everyone to an Open House at the Crandon Public Library, September 10th at 5-6:30 pm. I will be giving a presentation on the work I did this summer and I would love to share my exciting discoveries with everyone so please attend! There will be food!

Alright back to business.

Did you know that the United States government was considering abolishing Forest County in the late 1930’s-early 40’s? According to an article in the Forest Republican, The Department of Agriculture recommended that the federal government let the Forest Service take over the cut over lands, relocate the families living in Forest County, and begin a reforestation program. These harsh measures were due to the fact that 75% of the cutover land was not fit to be farmed and a large portion of the land had already passed into the hands of the government because of tax delinquencies.

They did not go so far as to disband the county but they did put drastic measures into place in order to deal with the horrendous economic situation in Forest County. In 1939, the government enforced “rural zoning” in which any residents that lived in a sparsely populated area, was subject to tax delinquency, or lived on land that could not be farmed or logged had to be relocated to a more heavily populated area. All of the small towns in Forest County cost the state and federal government a great deal of money because they had to provide funding for schools, roads, and medical treatment to every community. The government’s solution was to buy their land from them at a very cheap rate and provide them better land to live on that the newly removed residents had to pay for over time. They created government housing right in the City of Crandon for the elderly that still stands today. This is the reason why so many small towns and rural schools ceased to exist in Forest County.

If Forest County residents could help solve this mystery for a local library patron it would be most appreciated.

Can anyone identify the woman farthest right in the back row?

She was believed to be a Crandon resident and may have attended high school in the late 1930’s.

Hello Forest County Residents!

Papers thought to be lost forever have been found! Before today there have been no copies of The Forest Republican from the year 1924. The reason for this is rumored to be because there was a big scandal in the City of Crandon that year and the town officials wanted to cover it up. Now we have two copies from January and one from February but no mention of any shocking events. Even if there were not any earth shattering revelations in the newspaper it is still a very interesting archival document because it really paints a picture of the way people were living at the time. Some of the news to make the front cover of the January 17th  edition included:

• “Injured in Fall!”- E.A. Gruentzel escaped with several bad bruises and a sore back when he fell down the cellar steps at his home Monday evening.
• “Warns Farmers of Foreign Seeds”- Wisconsin grown seeds more suitable for climate
• “Buys Snowmobile”-Dr. G.W. Ison received a new snowmobile yesterday and declares it to be the real way to travel during the winter months
• “Mole Lake News”-The pupils at the Mole Lake School have been finishing their portfolio for the Junior Red Cross this week. It is to be sent to some school in a foreign country

These are only a few of the fascinating articles. I could read the older newspapers for hours! I encourage everyone to check out the newspaper collection at the Crandon Public Library to learn more.

 

A few of the ads:

           

Hello Forest County Residents!

I am revealing my archival discovery a day early because I am fortunate enough to attend the Northwoods Regional Historical Society conference tomorrow. I anticipate a lot of sharing of amazing objects and documents found by other historical societies and I will share any awesome finds I hear about from the other museum professionals.

The historical event I am writing about this week has come up several times in different types of archival material so I thought it was time to share it to see if anyone else out there has any more information on it. Because it is so prevalent in the historical record it must have been a major event in the town’s past. On March 17, 1908 around 8 am a loud blast woke the people of Crandon when a boiler exploded at the Kempf Planning Mill located at the crossing of the Northwest railroad and Lake Avenue. The boiler was catapulted nearly two blocks through the roof of the Emil Shoepke home and finally landed in a nearby yard. The engine room in which the boiler was located was completely destroyed and three men lost their lives. That morning the engine would not work so the owner of the mill, George Kempf, the engineer, George Minton, a common worker, William Hawkins, and a manager, Henry Kempf, went in to inspect the situation. As they were discussing the predicament the boiler exploded killing G. Kempf and Hawkins instantly and Minton dying hours later. Henry Kempf would live but sustained serious injures from which he would never recover. The Forest Republican claims that the mill owner G. Kempf was to blame because it had been long discussed by the workers that the boiler was not safe.

There are a few court cases relating to the boiler explosion in which the estate of George Kempf was suing the estate of George Minton to cover the damages of the boiler explosion. The George Kempf estate claimed that as the engineer and fireman Mr. Minton should have prevented the accident. The court ruled in favor of the estate of George Minton.

There were several different postcards printed with scenes from the boiler explosion that people from town would send family members as just another form of correspondence. One of the postcards had faint X’s drawn on it to show where they found the bodies of the men.

Mill conditions were less than ideal at the turn of the 20th century and similar stories can be found in every area of the country during this time period. Many men had little choice but to accept the dangers because that was the only place to seek employment and support their families.

       

Hello Forest County Residents!

This weeks discovery is not entirely archival it would be categorized partially as a museum discovery. I visited the home of a lovely Laona resident that had entirely too many treasures in her house that she had to share with the Forest County Historical Society. One of the objects is very fitting for this time of year as the high school football teams begin their practices and as the Packers start their preseason. She donated a 1946 Laona Kelly football jersey worn by Wilmer Kramer! As you can see there is a remarkable difference from the attire of football players during the 1940’s from today’s high school athletes. I delved into the Crandon Yearbook archival collection to find a photo of the Crandon team during that time to see what the jersey would look like on a player. In 1946 Laona Kellys defeated the Crandon Cardinals 19-0 lets see what happens in 2013!

 

Crandon Cardinals 1946

Laona Kellys jersey 1946

Hello Forest County Residents!

This week’s great archival find was actually uncovered by one of my amazing volunteers, Goldie, as she was assisting me in cataloging the Civil Court records from Forest County. The case pertained to an annulment between  Louis Mortiz , the plaintiff and Rose Moritz, the defendant  who resided in Laona in 1932. Louis was a 51 year old foreign sawmill worker who resided either at the boarding house or at the Taylor residence. Rose was a 41 year old divorcee bent on being married again and used every means necessary to make that happen.  Louis claimed that Rose called the sheriff to force him to Crandon in front of an attorney to marry her under false pretenses. The attorney said that Louis had to marry her because they had slept together or he would go to jail. Louis claimed that Rose would always force him to drink copious amount of alcohol then ask him if he wanted to sleep with her. Once he sobered up he would run away from her house but she would trap him in situations so they would interact and then shower him with alcohol.  Louis did not speak or write any English and was just complying with the wishes of an officer of the law. He never wished to enter into a marriage but did so out of fear for his life. Rose admitted that the sheriff did escort Louis to the attorney’s office but claimed that he did so voluntarily and had been asking her for her hand for some time. Rose also asserted that she gave Louis over one hundred dollars for safe keeping and now she wanted that money returned. The verdict of the trial was not present so we may never know if Louis was released from the marriage or if he was forced to honor his nuptials vows and Rose kept him drunk for the rest of his life in order to prevent him from running away.

I would like to thank all my wonderful volunteers for their amazing work! Without their help I may never discover great stories like this one. I am encouraged by their love of history and dedication to the preservation of Forest County’s past. I hope this encourages others to volunteer and learn something new about the times gone by!

Hello Forest County Residents,

This week I have been investigating the Civil Court records from Forest County with the help of some amazing volunteers,  that date back to the turn of the 20th century when the county originated. This week’s discovery contains an air of unsolved mystery, a bit of legend, and factual information from historical documentation. This is the story of James Walsh, a prominent attorney, who may have gotten away with murder and more. According to the newspapers in 1905 James Walsh’s wife, Frances, was found dead from a gun shot wound which James claimed was self inflicted. James and another young woman from town were in the house the time of France’s death and James was thought to be guilty of the crime but never convicted because of his powerful role within the town. This week I found a Civil Court case convicting J.A. Walsh  for wrongfully committing John Hanson and Mrs. Anna Mc Hugh to the Northern Hospital for the insane and E. Bailey to the Industrial School for Boys. He was also fined for pushing the court cases through to make sure these people were locked away. He had to pay around $60 for his actions. Anna was listed in the 1940 census as still residing in the insane asylum but there were no records of John being committed. Was Anna Mc Hugh the young woman that witnessed the murder? Was he covering his guilt by wrongfully using the law to his advantage? I will have to dig deeper into history to find out the answer. It is rumored that Frances Walsh still haunts her former Crandon residence possibly trying to seek justice for her death.

Good Afternoon Forest County Residents!

This week while I was exploring the historical documents of our great county I found a ledger from 1941-1942. It appears to be created by a school nurse who documented the name of the student, the diagnosis, and treatment. The main ailment of the school children was a cut finger, with more than twenty children coming in with this complaint. The nurse treated this injury with a dose of iodine and a bandage. In fact, from the records in seems that iodine was used in almost every case from cuts to splinters, everywhere on the body a child scraps up when on a playground. The nurse had to remove quite a few bugs from children’s eyes and dealt with insect bits. Apparently in the 1940’s soda paste is the go to fix for an itchy mosquito bite! I have never tried it but its something to keep in mind after a long day outside when you start to feel the welts the pests left on your body. Let me know if it works!

www.wisconsinhistory.org

Hello there Forest County Residents!

This was a colorful week in my archival world because I organized and analyzed Justice Court Dockets. These large books include information on any legal disputes or court appearances in the City of Crandon’s history which you can imagine is as entertaining as watching the day time court television shows like “Judge Judy”. There were the standard disputes you would expect with many complaints about people being too drunk, hunting or trapping out of season,  and driving recklessly. As I scanned through the document one case caught my eye because of the punishment that was doled out.

On June 15th, 1939 Charles Stegall claimed that Lenard Montgomery came into his house and took a watch with a value of $19.00. Lenard plead guilty and his punishment handed down by Judge Clarence Sipple was: signing a promise that he would never take or steal anything from now on because he understands it is wrong. Now I know why they are called the good old days! I wonder if this vote of confidence from the judge was all it took for Lenard to change his ways or if he broke his promise? I will have to investigate deeper into the archives another day to solve the mystery!