Category: Newspaper Highlights

Forest County connections to the Great Peshtigo Fire

Today, October 8, 2021, marks the 150th anniversary of the most devastating forest fire in American history, the Peshtigo Fire.

According to the Wisconsin Historical Society at least 1,300 people died in the Peshtigo fire that left 7,500 people homeless. Many people were not aware of the catastrophic nature of the fire due to the great Chicago Fire that made headlines the same day.

150 years ago the land that we now call Forest County was in the same political jurisdiction, Oconto County as the ill-fated Town of Peshtigo. It was not until 1880 that the large county of Oconto was re-mapped and various counties were created.

Wisconsin counties in 1871. Source: Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. Newberry Library.
Date accessed: October 8, 2021]

Forest county archives begin upon the creation of our County in 1885, fourteen years after the fire but numerous mentions of the fire highlight the impact the fire had on the lumber industry, the fear of wild fire and the collective memory of those alive during that time-period.

One of the most interesting stories to note is the recognition that Peshtigo Fire survivors Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Deau moved from Peshtigo to Laona in 1901 and are buried in the Laona Cemetery.

Alexander and Mary Deau were both teenagers when the fire occurred in 1871. According to details published on the Family History website Find-a-grave, Alex Deau recalled that during the fire his father lowered his children “into a well with only a small amount [of] water at the bottom”. His wife Mary Grandaw Deau told her grandchildren the story of the fire which included “how her dad got heavy winter coats and her mother got the other children. They all ran into the river, put the wet coats over their heads and [she told us] how hot the river water was. That’s all that kept them alive.”

Alex and Mary were married a few years after the fire and had eleven children. The family moved to Laona in 1901 where Alexander was employed as a carpenter for the Connor Land and Lumber Co. Alex passed in 1945 and Mary in 1950. Two of their children, daughters Anna Harris and Laura Martin lived in Laona after their parent’s death.

A few of Laona’s families today can trace their roots back to these two children. Anna Harris’ daughter Iola married John Novak and Laura Martin’s daughter Verna married former Town Chairman Edward Bowling.

While this anniversary may serve as a grim remembrance for those who did lose their lives in the fire, it is also an opportunity to reflect on those that survived and the stories they preserved. If you are aware of any additional stories connecting Forest County to the Peshtigo Fire, we’d love to hear them. Email us at forestctyhistory@gmail.com or comment here.

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Lest We Forget

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words:

“To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…”

This morning I spent some time with the 1944 edition of the Forest Republican.  Not a week went by in 1944 that Forest Republican readers were not told about a local boy missing in action, or one that had fought and died for our country.  The clippings below only offer us a glimpse into the lives of these soldiers and does not give justice to their time served, nor their sacrifices given.   It does allow us to pause, remember and to share.

If you are interested in helping us preserve these stories as they deserved to be told, please contact Michelle at the Library.

Depression Era Photos of Forest County now available

Living in rural Forest County in the 1930’s was tough. Newspaper articles, court records and family stories tell of multiple families living in one room shacks trying to farm the cut-over land with little or no success. Now a U.S. government collection of historic photos offers us a glimpse at just how tough it was. The photos are just part of a new website with interactive browsing tools Photogrammar developed by Yale University.

Housed in the Library of Congress for the past half-decade, the images of rural America were commissioned by the government in 1935 to gain public support for efforts to resettle poor farmers displaced during the Great Depression. A story Forest County farmers knew first hand. In fact “an elderly couple who found it no longer possible to make a living on their farm in the Forest county cutover timber region” was the first family in the United States to receive the benefit of the United States Resettlement Administration. [Appleton Post-Crescent, 03/01/1937, p18.]

Only 35 of the 170,000 photos on the site are of Forest county.  However each of the 35 photos tell a story and remind us how grateful we are to those who chose to settle the land we now call home.

Click here to see Forest county photos.

Click here for an interactive U.S. Map of the photo locations.

The Heat Wave of 1911

As the Midwest Heat Wave of 2012 hopefully comes to an end, many news outlets are highlighting the July 4th, 1911 heat wave that struck the eastern United States and killed 380 people.  This lead me to wonder what kind of weather Crandon was experiencing in July 1911.

As it turns out, the local newspaper didn’t make that big a deal out of the heat wave.  The only mention of the heat is an advertisement from the “City Drug Store” and in an article titled “Beulen Loses His Beer”.

Beulen Loses His Beer

President James Beulen, of the Fine Cut club of this city, is warm under the collar and not from the warm weather either. The last-trip made to Crandon by Joseph Eihlien of the Schlitz Brewing Co., of Milwaukee, he met James and upon parting told him, that he being an old friend, he would send him a case of beer from his big Milwaukee brewery. The beer came just before the Fourth of July, and James placed it in his cellar with great care, and then presented a number of his friends each with a bottle before he sampled any of it himself. Later on he pulled a cork and discovered that some unhung reprobate had opened a good share of the bottles, drank the beer and refilled them with water. Then he had to hunt up the people he had given bottles to and find out if they had beer or water. If Jim should ever discover the perpetrator of the joke he swears that Forest county will have to record the worst tragedy in its history.

As it turns out, James Beulen was one of Crandon’s Civil War Veterans.  According to R.T. Krueger, Beulen served in Wisconsin’s Company I of the 11th Wisconsin Infantry and Company E of the 52nd Regiment Infantry.  Let’s hope someone discovered the “unhung reprobate” that pulled this prank on one of Crandon’s veterans!

A Grand Fourth of July Celebration

Crandon’s Historic July 4th, 1916 celebration

June 9, 1916 advertisement

According to newspaper reports, Crandon’s Commercial Club, began preparing for their “rousing celebration” in May of 1916.  Members of the executive committee included T.B. Guthrie, M.D. Keith, W.A. Wescott, J. Breakstone, Wm. Wilson and Lyle Carter.  These gentlemen urged the citizens of Crandon “to do your share toward making this a big day”.

The committee did their fair share of making this an event to remember. According to the June 30th advertisement in the Forest Republican, the committee went to “great expense” to secure Howe and Barlow and their dog Ginger, a sensational Iron Jay Wire Act and Prof. Perry  who would make a “death defying slide for life hanging by his feet, from the court house dome”.

And, to finish off the celebration, “Fire works will be fired from a barge anchored out on Metonga Lake, on the night of the Fourth”.

A Grand Success!

July 7, 1916 follow-up article

In a follow-up article published on July 7th, it was announced that “about two thousand people from neighboring towns and the country” attended the 1916 Crandon celebration.  The morning trains were filled with visitors from “Shawano, Lily, Neopit, Langlade and other settlements.”   “The trains were met at the depot by the Crandon band which headed a long parade of floats and automobiles”.

The article went on to announce the winners of various races held throughout the day.  In the half mile running race between ponies, Howard Kuss, Dennis Lee and Hiram Ritter were winners in the order listed.  In the “free for all trotting race”, Mont. Whitt, Ed Merenes and E. Jamison all participated with Mont. Whitt earning the first prize money.

A photo of the July 4th parade route meeting the morning trains at Crandon’s depot.

All-in-all it sounds as if the July 4th, 1916 celebration was a grand success!