Crandon Area Historical Society
Forest County, Wisconsin
Hello Forest County Residents!
I thought you would enjoy this photo of N.H. Smith and the early surveyors of Northern Wisconsin. I cannot imagine how difficult it would have been to trek through the dense woods of Forest County to try and create maps and lay out boundaries. How would present day surveyors feel about operating with this early equipment? Has anyone ever used equipment like this?
Hello Forest County!
This week I was given a packet of interviews done by Mrs. DiMartino’s 7th grade Social Studies class in 2008. The students choose senior members of the community and asked them questions about the Great Depression. I am going to share with you a sample of the interview done by Ronnie Krueger speaking about Marie Davis.
“Marie Davis was 10 years old when the stock market crashed. During the Great Depression money was scarce. To save electricity, Marie’s family would put candles o the Christmas tree. Marie’s family was one of the more fortunate families. Her mother was very good friends with a woman who got oranges from Florida, so they got fresh oranges. They only ate half an orange per sitting. Her father was very good friends with a man who worked at a creamery, so they also always had butter. They were also lucky in that they were one of the only families in the neighborhood with a radio. Her father would always make the family be quiet whenever President Roosevelt would come on the radio. She said her father absolutely adored President Roosevelt. He campaigned for him his second term. He once told Marie that Roosevelt, ” Pulled the nation together” (Krueger, 2008).
If anyone of the teachers at the local schools would like to do a similar project in their classrooms this year please let me know . The Crandon Public Library is always happy to facilitate kids with the opportunity to be involved in local history.
Hello Forest County Residents!
The Forest County Fair is this weekend September 5th-7th, and there is nothing more historic than an old fashioned county fair. I encourage everyone to visit the fairgrounds located in Crandon to check out the Forest County Historical Society booth which is filled with photographs of early Forest County events and people. There is also a booth featuring the history of the fair surrounded by objects that would have been used by residents to prepare for the festivities. There is also a lot of other fun activities such as the talent show, rides and games, and the Healthy Harvest Day on Saturday beginning at 9 am.
The fair has always been a momentous event in our county’s history. According to several of oral history interviews, this was one event that bought all the families that lived in the country into town. Steve Conway remembers the fair this way:
” The fairgrounds used to have cart races or trotters. They had a solid clay quarter mile track and a grand stand. Across from the grand stand they had a stage where they put on performances. They also had big round barn and that was where the horses were. They had another place where they kept the horses that they used for racing. They had two wheel carts and the horses would pull them and it was a lot of fun. At the end of the pens is where they kept the races horses that they brought in. The race horses were not local. They trotted, they could not run. It was the prettiest thing. The horses were so graceful. So county fair was a big thing. There was a wooden fence all around it so you had to pay to get in unless you removed some boards and snuck in”.
Hello Forest County Residents!
For those of you who were not on the Historic Lakeside Cemetery Tour I decided to share one of the stories that was told at the event.
Angus Plummer, the son of Anderson and Sallie Bowman Plummer, was born in Lee county, Kentucky. Shortly after his birth, the extended Plummer family began the migration to Northern Wisconsin. Angus’ father Anderson, and his uncles Matt and Sam Plummer, left Kentucky and made their way to Goodman, Wisconsin where, according to the Goodman Centennial book they helped build many of the original buildings that made up the town of Goodman.
Shortly after their time in Goodman, Matt and Sam Plummer settled in the Crandon area while Anderson, along with his wife and children, settled in Peshtigo. It is here that Angus, at the age of 12, contracted and died as a result of scarlet fever.
Early in the 20th century scarlet fever was a leading cause of death among children in the United States. In 1912, the State of Wisconsin reported 3,304 cases of Scarlet Fever with 283 resulting deaths. The cause of Scarlet Fever was not known in 1912, although physicians knew that it was a “germ” disease and was very contagious. The Wisconsin State Board of Health demanded that children who had contracted the disease be quarantined at home for at least 21 days from the beginning of the disease. If the child was lucky enough to survive the disease he or she was required to stay home from school for at least six weeks while siblings or any other child associated with the child was banned from attending school 10 days after the quarantine had been lifted from their homes (Michelle Gobert 2014).
Angus’ death and burial in the Crandon cemetery was not reported in the Crandon newspapers even though his aunts, uncles and cousins were settled here. Whether this was due to the fact that he was living in Peshtigo at the time or due in fact that his death was from the dreaded scarlet fever we will never know. Family lore tells us that his father wanted him buried in Crandon so that he would be near family and if you look around we now know that this is true (Michelle Gobert 2014).
Hello Forest County Residents!
A new Lakeside Cemetery index has been added to the Crandon Public Library website. You can now search over 3800 burials and find the resting place of your ancestors. This is a great resource because researchers come from around the country in search of information on where their ancestors settled. One of the best ways to find out that information is through cemetery research. From looking at a gravestone you will learn the birth and death date , the place they lived, their family members, and sometimes how they died. This is invaluable information for many genealogists! One woman is coming to Crandon this weekend from Indiana after she found out who her grandmother was by way of the obituary and cemetery research I provided.
If you want to know more join us for a Lakeside Cemetery tour on Monday, August 25th at 6:00pm or visit this link http://www.crandonpl.org/city-of-crandon-lakeside-cemetery-index/
There were no battles fought in Wisconsin but almost every family was affected by the Civil War. Between 1861-1865, more than 91,000 young men left Wisconsin to fight in the South and 12,000 brave souls never returned. Wisconsinites participated in every major battle of the Civil War. Training centers for the soldiers were located in Milwaukee, Fond du Lac, Racine, and Madison. Camp Randall, where the Wisconsin Badgers play football, was used to house Confederate prisoners of war.
Wisconsin’s most famous Civil War unit was the Iron Brigade. It was composed of the 2nd, 6th, and 7th Wisconsin Infantry regiments, the 19th Indiana Infantry, 24th Michigan Infantry, and Battery B of the 4th U.S. Light Artillery. Made up primarily of Wisconsin men, they saw action at Bull Run, Virginia, Antietam, Maryland, Gettysburg, Virigina, and other key battles. Almerion Mead, grandfather of Crandon residents, served in this brigade. To learn the names of all the men from Forest County that fought in the Civil War and to view weapons from that time period visit the display case at the front of the Crandon Public Library. To see the gravestones of these brave men join us for a cemetery tour on August 25th at 6:00 pm at the Lakeside Cemetery in Crandon, Wisconsin.
Hello Forest County Residents!
In honor of the Green Bay Packers starting their season this weekend I have a bit of history that brings the beloved Green Bay Packers to Crandon, Wisconsin. The local basketball team challenged the national football team and came out victorious! According to the February 27, 1936, Forest Republican ” Playing their best brand of ball in over a month, the Crandon Legionnaires easily trimmed the Green Bay Packers 53 to 26. After the first few minutes the football stars never had a chance. The locals shot the ball around the court fast and accurately. The Packers just off the football field having returned from the west coast, were inclined to be a little rough at times. However, they played pretty good ball but showed weakness in shooting baskets. The winners pulled up at the end of the first round with a 21 to 3 lead and at the half the score stood 27 to 8. The third period Crandon leading 36 to 15″.
The players included:
Packers
Legionnaires
Hello Forest County Residents!
Did you know that the first distillery to be built after prohibition was located in Crandon? W.B. Gambill Distillery was the only distillery operating in Wisconsin from 1937 to 1950. According to the Rhinelander Daily News (Aug. 30 1955)
” They distilled rye and bourbon whiskey and neutral spirits selling them in bulk in 1937. There was a bottling house in connection with the plant but the firm did not bottle any of its whiskey until after WWII. From 1942-45 the company processed alcohol spirits for the Defense Supply Corporation of the U.S. Government. At its peak the company employed 35 people. After the company lost the business of the U.S. Government they could not compete with the national distilleries and had to sell the company to Streckert Plywood Corporation”.
Steve Conway Jr. recalled the distillery in an interview “There was a distillery on Clear Lake. Now there is a company there that makes cutting boards and stuff like that. During WWII they made alcohol at the distillery. They had oak barrels that were burned on the inside. They stored the alcohol in the charcoal barrels. They made Seagrams liquor there. Some of the barrels were seven or eight years old when they shut the plant down. During WWII they made alcohol for torpedoes. They would burn alcohol to propel the torpedoes. After the war the company failed and the distillery closed”.
Hello Forest County Residents!
Today the community of Crandon is celebrating “Kentuck Days” and I encourage everyone to visit to the courthouse square in downtown Crandon to join in the celebration. “Kentuck Days” recognizes the mass migration of rural Kentucky residents to Forest County around 1900. The people of Kentucky came to Northern Wisconsin looking for jobs in the lumber industry, to take advantage of the abundant natural resources, to escape the violence of local feuds, and to join family members that had already moved(Flannery 2013).
They were described as ” a people that settled throughout the woods and were a great help in the logging process. The Kentucks were good Christian people and never did any harm to anyone unless they interfered with their moonshine still. To them that gave cause to shoot someone on site” (Holt 1948:20).
Zorie Cracraft, a 101 year old resident, recalls her move from Kentucky as such ” I moved to the Crandon area in 1934 from Kentucky. Some of the people that were already here were the McMillions, Griffiths, Deatons, Spencers, and the Kings. I recall hunting as a major factor in part of the move to Wisconsin. The family moved here because of the beauty of the area, hunting, job possibilities”.
The majority of today’s Crandon residents can trace their ancestry back to Kentucky as you can see from the sample of 1920 Federal Census records below.
Hello Forest County Residents! This week’s blog post includes a local resident living under an assumed name to escape the law. Vance Purdy was born in 1906 to Robert and Olive Purdy in Crandon. During the hard times of the depression he would travel to Door County to pick cherries for very little money. To survive he turned to driving moonshine to Milwaukee in the days of prohibition. Eventually he entered a life of crime, robbing banks in Woodman and Leopolis, Wisconsin. He also may have been involved in the stick up of the Refined Cabaret cast of Rhinelander. Purdy and his two accomplices escaped to Upper Michigan and were chased through swamps by the police (Appleton Post Crescent, Ludington Daily News, Rhinelander Daily News 1930). When they were surrounded by the authorities Purdy escaped by floating down the river at night. Purdy’s partners in crime were caught and spent a great deal time in the state prison (Tribbett 2014). Purdy then changed his name to Ward Abbett. There are records of Abbett living in Popple River and Crandon in 1930. Purdy now known as Abbett joined the military in 1942 and served for three years. Abbett lived in Milwaukee where he was married several times and eventually died. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the Lakeside Cemetery (Tribbett 2014) .
