Category: History
Door County is rich in history, from its most prominent founding citizens to the business leaders who embraced tourism to make it the destination it is today. It’s a history of orchards, farming, and fishermen, but also of potters, artists, and writers. But more than anything, it’s a history told in the lives of the remarkable people who’ve called it home for a spell or a lifetime. Door County Pulse tells them all.
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The Door County Historical Society (DCHS) hosts its monthly dinner program, “An Evening with General Grant,” presented by Wayne Issleb on June 25, 6 pm at Union Supper Pub in Sturgeon Bay. Issleb, portraying Grant, takes the audience on a journey from his young years to the very end, back to the cottage where he […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Bear Attack, Pickpockets
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor Independent June 8, 1877 A bear is roaming about the head of the bay near the canal. He attacked Mr. Beverly’s cow last Monday and […]
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Historical Society Hosts Yesteryear Program ‘Pioneer Sheriffs 1858-1878’
The Door County Historical Society hosts another afternoon yesteryear program, “Pioneer Sheriffs 1858-1878,” presented by Chief Deputy Patrick McCarty. In the mid-1800s, Door County was a remote frontier wilderness. As the area became settled, the need for law enforcement grew. The early sheriffs were a unique collection of men coming from diverse backgrounds; many of […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Peninsulars Win, Smallpox, Explosive Committee
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor May 29, 1874 Our boys beat the Modocs at Ahnapee last Saturday in the match game at base-ball pretty badly. The Peninsulars scored 136 to […]
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Death’s Door Maritime Museum Launches Roof Repair Fundraiser
A combination of years of severe winter weather and the April 2018 record-breaking snowstorm took a toll on the roof of the Death’s Door Maritime Museum in Gills Rock. A new roof is required to protect and preserve the historical artifacts and to ensure the doors will open for the first summer season with the […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Picking Pockets and Cherries
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor May 22, 1874 Mrs. E. A. Squier will take a limited number of boarders, by the day or week. Those desiring a pleasant and quiet […]
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Curious Door – the Peninsula’s Most Mysterious Places
Speckled amidst the farms, bluffs and manicured estates of Door County are sites that seem a step out of place. There are curiosities that make you ask, “I wonder what the deal is with that?” You’ll pass them time and again, always asking the question, if only to yourself. Here we track down the stories […]
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VIDEO: Door County’s Cherry Orchard History
Joseph Zettel began planting cherry trees in Door County in 1896, and the bright fruit has been synonymous with Door County ever since. His trees thrived, and soon did thousands of acres of them up and down the peninsula, becoming as much a symbol of the region as lighthouses and shoreline. Learn why cherries thrive […]
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News From This Week’s Past: May 18 – 25
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor May 15, 1874 Reports come to us of a disagreeable row in front of the post office between two of our oldest citizens. A temperance […]
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Egg Harbor Historical Society Places Sign at Sunnypoint Gardens
The Egg Harbor Historical Society (EHHS) recently placed the second of its historic school signs, this one at Sunnypoint Gardens. Why Sunnypoint Gardens? Because directly across the highway is one of five schools that served the residents of the township of Egg Harbor for many years, Sunny Point School, District #4 from 1883 to 1965. […]
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The Door County Historical Society will host its monthly dinner program, “100 Years of 4-H in Door County,” presented by 4-H Youth Development Director Dawn Vandevoort on May 21 at the Log Den Restaurant. The history of 4-H is a story of youth education, community pride, responsibility, personal leadership and volunteerism. While constantly changing to […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Electricity, Marriage License Law
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor May 12, 1876 An artillery company is under process of organization in this place. We understand that the intention is to build a fort upon […]
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Svalhus Research Library to Open in Ephraim
The Ephraim Historical Foundation (EHF) begins a new chapter May 16, with the opening of the Svalhus Research Library. Located at 3060 Anderson Lane in Ephraim, this historic building has served a variety of functions in its more than 120-year history. The Svalhus, Norwegian for “cooling house,” was built around 1890 and owned by […]
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A Man of Another Era: Ellsworth Peterson Dies at 94
For six decades, Peterson Builders Inc. pumped oxygen into the lifeblood of the Sturgeon Bay economy. The shipyard known for building Navy vessels employed more than 1,000 people at its peak, and when profits soared, they were proudly shared with employees. The revenue that trickled up went to executives who lived down the street, and […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Glidden Lodge, Mad Woman, Runaway
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor May 1, 1874 The following is the form of the petition to be circulated among the ladies. TO THE HONORABLE, THE TOWN BOARD OF THE […]
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You can blame the name Ellison Bay on the government, or, to be more precise, the government land officer who got Johan Brendt Eliason’s name wrong when he filed a claim. Eliason — recognized as the founder of Ellison Bay — was born in Denmark on Sept. 12, 1823. Or, maybe he was born in […]
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The Life & Work of Painter Jessie Kalmbach Chase
The early 20th century artist Jessie Kalmbach Chase had a knack for perfectly capturing the rolling fields, country roads, shadowy birch forests and lush green lawns of her native Door County, despite her most deeply held artistic tenet. “It is best not to do the actual canvas in the field,” Chase told a Wisconsin State […]
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Remembering Vel Phillips: A Woman of Many Firsts
On April 17, Vel Phillips, a woman of many firsts, a tiny woman with big ideas, died in Milwaukee at the age of 94. Born Feb. 18, 1924, Velvalea Hortense Rodgers grew up with two sisters on Milwaukee’s south side. Her father, Russell, managed a restaurant and a car garage. She credited her mother, Thelma, […]
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News From This Week’s Past: Chambers Island for Sale
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor April 24, 1874 The great need of this section about now is a man with brains enough to construct an Almanac with Spring placed where […]
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News From This Week’s Past: State Parks, War and Automobiles
All items are from the Door County Library’s newspaper archives, and they appear in the same form as they were first published, including misspellings and grammatical errors. The Expositor Independent April 19, 1878 It is evidently a fact by the stir around Wagener Bros. brewery, that the article of beer they manufacture is by […]