Once Upon Our Peninsula: Opera House, Self-Wringing Mop, Wolves

News from this week’s past

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.

Door County Democrat

January 12, 1917

FORESTVILLE TO THE FORE

To Have $2,500 Opera House, Large Two Story Concrete Garage, and a Jewelry Store.

A company is being organized in Forestville for the purpose of incorporating, and building an opera house. Stock in the company to the amount of $2,500 will be issued and already $1,550 of this amount has been raised. The building will be modern in every respect, with a fine stage and electric lights, and besides being used for theatrical performances it will be used for motion pictures and dances. Postmaster Ed. M. Perry and other young business men of the village are at the head of the project. Shares in the corporation sell for $25 each. Work on the building will start early in the spring.

Henry Leege has started the erection of a garage 44 by 65 feet, two stories in heighth and to be concrete. This new business will be of great benefit to the village and will no doubt get considerable of the traffic thru these parts.

The Democrat

January 12, 1893

Wm. L. Donovan, of this city, has secured the agency for this county for a self-wringing mop, which is one of the handiest devices we have ever seen and which no housewife can get along without. Mr. Donovan will canvas the county thoroughly this winter, and everybody will be given a chance to purchase one of these labor-saving inventions.

Door County News

January 13, 1915

GETS THREE WOLVES

All good things come in threes, and Ed Casperson of Chambers Island believes it for last week he killed three wolves that had probably crossed on the ice from the main land to the island.

The hunt that Ed had will bring him sixty dollars.

The wolves were big animals and it is lucky that Mr. Casperson was able to get them in so short a time. Mr. Casperson is the manager of the island and is running the same for Mr. Dennett of Port Washington. It is one of the best kept islands in the bay or lakes and is the summer home of the owner. Mr. Casperson has at times seven to fifteen men employed during the busy season.

The Advocate

January 14, 1909

ELLISON BAY

The crossing at the Door is not entirely safe unless the Arctic weather since Friday has made it so. In crossing with Capt. Peter Anderson, the mail carrier on that day, Capt. J. P. Whelan, of the Plum Island life-saving station, went through the treacherous surface, but nothing more than a partial wetting followed. It is believed that crossing with teams will be quite safe now that the channel will no longer be broken up by the Ann Arbor boats, which have given up the attempt to maintain com­munication between Frankfort and Menominee.

The Republican 

January 15, 1891

On Saturday afternoon Will Reynolds opened his skating rink to the public and there was a large crowd during both the afternoon and evening. The ice was somewhat soft on that occasion but since that it has been flooded again and is in first class condition. No doubt the young people will find much amusement there during the continuance of the cold weather. Races and other attractions will be offered in the course of time, and our champion skaters will then have a chance to show their abilities in this line. The rink contains ample room to accommodate any crowd that may visit it from this city, and everything is conducted in an orderly manner.