HISTORY OF OUR LADY OF THE LAKE CATHOLIC CHURCH (Version 2)

         HISTORY OF OUR LADY OF THE LAKE CATHOLIC CHURCH

     Before 1907 the Catholics who lived in Dartford and on the surrounding farms who wanted to attend Mass would have to travel to one of the surrounding towns in order to do so.  St. Patrick in Ripon, St. John the Baptist in Princeton or St. Stanislaus in Berlin were the Catholic churches most often attended by those able to travel that far.  Traveling to church by horse and buggy consumed almost all of Sunday, making Catholics wish for a church closer to home.

     In 1907, the same year that the name of the Village of Dartford was changed to the Village of Green Lake, Pleasant Point Hotel, located on the north shore of Green Lake, was owned by brothers, George and James Ross.  They were agreeable business men wishing to accommodate their guests, many of whom came by train and stayed for the summer.  (While George and James were not Catholic, one of their wives was, and understood the desire of their Catholic guests to attend Mass.)

     In the spring of 1907 George Ross talked to Fr. Thomas J. Cosgrove, pastor of St. Patrick Church in Ripon and suggested to him the idea of conducting Catholic services during the summer months for the guests at his hotel.  As many of the Catholic Dartford residents had attended Mass in Ripon at St. Patrick Church, and had their children baptized there, or had received other sacraments administered there, Fr. Thomas Cosgrove, the pastor of St. Patrick Parish, was already acquainted with them.  With the offer of a suitable place to hold Masses, he readily agreed to offer some there.

     The first Holy Mass celebrated in this area was said in July, 1907, in the home of Dennis McCarthy.  Fr. Cosgrove continued to hold Masses each Sunday in July and August in one of the cottages on the lake shore, most of them at the Dennis McCarthy cottage, but also in the homes of Thomas Collins, George O'Callaghan, Mary O'Callaghan, Matthew DeMoss and John Broder.  Fr. Cosgrove encouraged the families at Green Lake to build a church and a building fund was started.  $824.42 was raised that summer.

History Presentation

     I have been asked to present a little history to you today.  I am not sure just what you would be interested in, but I'll start with a little history of my own.

     Fifty one years ago this year I was baptised, received my first communion, made my first confession, was confirmed and married in just slightly less than three months.  Five sacraments of the Catholic Church in a very short time.    

     I came to Green Lake passing myself off as a loyal Catholic bride, but I knew very little about the Catholic faith or even about Catholic people.  I wanted to learn more.  I asked questions, but there were only two answers that I seemed to get.  One was, "I don't know" and the other was, "How come they let you in the Church if you don't know that?"  I quit asking questions and bungled my way.  Many times I was an embarrassment to my mother-in-law.

     How many remember Maggie Shikoski?  She used to make coffee for all the different church functions.  She made it strong and hot.  I used to sneak cold water into my cup.  She was very agitated when she caught me doing it.

     She served as sacristan for Fr. Steve, Fr. Roger and Fr. Karwata.  She had special faculties given by the bishop to wash purificators and handle things that had come in contact with the Blessed Sacrament.  In those days before Vatican II, the Blessed Sacrament was kept very much more remote from us than It is now.  Katherine Jankowski and Mary Fenske helped care for the other linens and vestments.

     Maggie was many things to the church.  Do you remember what else she used to do?

     She prayed.  She was a fan of the rosary.  She knew everything that happened and helped wherever she could.

     One wintry day the sidewalk leading to the old church was icy.  The priest took ashes from the furnace and sprinkled them on the ice so no one would fall down.  Well, some ashes got tracked into the church.  Maggie, single handedly, cleaned up all the ashes and got sand to use on the ice.  Tracked in sand was easier for her to clean up than ashes.

     The old church stood where the steeple now stands.  Besides the church building there was a wide shed open on the south where the old timers sheltered horses during mass.  As far as I recall it was located immediately behind where the present rectory stands.  By the time I came along most parishioners had cars, some farmers drove trucks to church.  No one came to church with horses anymore but the shed still stood.

BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR LADY OF THE LAKE PARISH

           BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR LADY OF THE LAKE PARISH

     Before 1907 Green Lake Catholics had to travel long distances to attend mass.  Many went to St. Patrick's church, Ripon, and asked its pastor, Fr. Thomas J. Cosgrove, to  baptize, marry and bury their loved ones.  He encouraged Green Lake residents to build their own church.  On Aug. 23, 1908, the corner stone of the new church was laid and in Jan. 1909, it was dedicated to the Immaculate Virgin Mary under the title of "Our Lady of the Lake."

     The parish was a mission of St. Patrick's from 1909 until 1923 when the Capuchin Fathers of Mt. Calvary agreed to minister to its spiritual needs.  A priest came to Green Lake from Mt. Calvary by train on Saturday morning, stayed over night at a parishioner's home, administered the sacraments, and left for Mt. Calvary Sunday night, ready to teach the seminarians for another week.

     In March, 1945, Fr. Stephan Szczerbiak was appointed resident pastor of Our Lady of the Lake.  He arranged for the School Sisters of Notre Dame to come each Saturday from St. Stanislaus in Berlin to teach catechism.  A rectory was built.  Fr. Steve was not well and in April, 1951, he passed away.

     Fr. Roger Idzikowski succeeded Fr. Steve.  Under his pastorate a strong Chi Rho Club was developed, new altar boys were trained, catechism by Sisters of Notre Dame continued, Holy Name Society was organized and a Discussion Club was formed.

     In June, 1956, Fr. Francis S. Karwata succeeded Fr. Roger.  In October, 1959, Fr. Karwata passed away, suffering from cancer.

TIME LINE OF EVENTS RELATIVE TO OUR LADY OF THE LAKE CHURCH, GREEN LAKE

                 TIME LINE OF EVENTS RELATIVE TO

             OUR LADY OF THE LAKE CHURCH, GREEN LAKE

 1665, Oct. 1  -  First Mass in Wisconsin offered up by Jesuit Fr. Claude Allouez at Cheguamegon on shore of Lake Superior.

 1669  -  First Mass in Green Bay offered up by Fr. Claude Allouez

 1670  -  Mission of St. Jacques (James) established by French    Jesuits at Mascoutin Village (in what later became Green Lake     County).  Indians built a bark chapel.

 1673  -  Fr. Jacques Marquette stopped at Mission of St. Jacques.       On the same trip he blessed the "Holy Springs" at the St.     Marie site (St Mary of the Fountain), Princeton, planting a    cross there.

 1674  -  Jesuit Fr. Antoine Silvy sent to help Fr. Allouez at   Mission of St. Jacques and Mission of St. Marc on the Wolf      River.

 1675  -  Fr. Marquette died.  Fr. Allouez was sent to replace him    at the Mission to the Illinois.  Fr. Silvy also was sent to    another mission.  Fr. Bonnault was sent to care for the     Missions of St. Jacques and St. Marc.

 1687  -  All remaining French Jesuit priests left the Fox River     Valley when Indians burned the St. Francis Mission at De Pere.

Our Lady of the Lake Church Poems

  

               Gracious God! how well Thou dost provide

               For erring judgments an unerring guide!

               O teach me her for my director take

               Whom Thou hast promised never to forsake!

                                 --John Dryden

                       TO OUR BLESSED LADY

               Mother of Mercy! day by day

               My love of thee grows more and more;

               Thy gifts are strewn upon my way,

               Like sands upon the great sea-shore.

               Though poverty and work and woe

               The masters of my life may be,

               When times are worst, who does not know

               Darkness is light, with love of thee?

               But scornful men have coldly said

               Thy love was leading me from God;

               And yet in this I did but tread

               The very path my Savior trod.

LANGBAUER & MATHE

LANGBAUER

CAYETON L. LANGBAUER - b. Aug. 6, 1834, in Germany

     Brother of Mary Ann Langbauer who married John Mathe

     Married Rosalia Kohler (Kollar)

     Father of John Sr., Frank, Katharine and Mary

     Farmer, Parents unknown on death certificate

     d. July 26, 1906 of heart disease - place of death, Almond -       residence at time of death Almond, Buried in German         Cemetery in Almond - death certificate signed by E. S.       Cooper, Physician  (Vol D pg 75 No 183)

FRANK LANGBAUER - b. Dec. 12, 1862 in Wisconsin

     Son of Cayeton and Rosalia Kohler

     d. Feb. 17, 1914  (Vol 6 pg 231)

ISABELLE LANGBAUER -

     Daughter of John Langbauer Sr.

     Married August Milius

     Mother of Sarah Milius Pohl and Lyle Milius

Lawsonia

      On April 1, 1918, Fred Shikoski bought the farm from I. O. Sherwood on a land contract.  It had a house and a well.  In May, Charlie, the oldest of Fred's seven children, graduated from eighth grade from Kelm School.  He did not continue his schooling but worked to help his father develop a good productive farm.

     The farm was fertile, had been developed, but still retained some huge trees blocking smooth, orderly fields.  Fred became expert at digging and using dynamite to get rid of them.  He also developed rotation and conservation methods to conserve its productivity.

     During the first ten years on the farm, with Charlie's help, Fred made big improvements.  He had developed a yearly system to conserve soil fertility.  He had built a 14x44 concrete silo; a drive-through, double corn crib; a swill-house/milk house: and a machine shed.

     In 1925 Lone Tree Farm was sold to H. O. Stone Company of Chicago, and re-named Lawsonia.  It became an exclusive country estate.  Otto Bierman, who had been the head carpenter of Lone Tree Farm, continued as the head carpenter of Lawsonia.  Charlie, who worked under Otto Bierman as a carpenter, worked on the hotel being built, as well as some of the homes also being built.  One of the homes being built was the Anne Hathaway Cottage.

     Charlie told me that one noon during lunch break, he another was worker were eating their lunch while relaxing in a house being built.  Charlie did not know the other man.  They were both relaxing and not talking.  As Charley looked at him, he began to think that there was something about him that made Charlie think that the man looked like a bulldog.  Though neither one was talking, the fellow said clearly and plainly, "You look like a bulldog."  It scared Charlie to have his thought spoken out loud.

     Another time Charlie said that when he was leaving work he told the bookkeeper that if he didn't feel better in the morning that he would not come in to work. The fellow was surprised saying he didn't know Charlie was not feeling well.  That night he was taken to St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac where Charlie stayed four weeks with a ruptured appendix.

      

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JOSEPH MATHE

                      THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

                           JOSEPH MATHE

                       by His Granddaughter

                      Harriet Grant Shikoski

To my Readers;

     I lived with my grandfather from my earliest memories until a few months before his death.

     The incidents related here are all true as far as I know.  They were written from memory.  Memory can sometimes be an illusive thing, and many of the stories here passed through other minds before I heard them. 

     I have tried to portray life as it was lived, so that my grandchildren might better understand that period before their parent were born.

                                        Harriet Grant Shikoski

                      

     My Grandfather, Joseph Mathe, was born January 20, 1858, in Kewaunee County.  His parents were Johanne and Mary Ann (Langbauer) Mathe, who had grown up in Austria where Johanne made wooden shoes and raised cattle.  When some cattle were ready for market, he banded together with a few of other raisers.  They combined all their marketable cattle in one large herd and drove them on foot into Vienna for sale.  When Johanne was very young, his mother, while carrying him, was caught in a snowstorm during very cold weather.  His fingers froze, leaving them shortened and misshaped.

     During the first half of the 1800s Austria was ruled by bureaucracy and police.  The land was in the hands of rich landowners; the common people were kept poor.  Those who were able to escape, migrated to other lands.

     After Grandpa's eldest sister, Francisca, was born, their parents left Austria, then under German rule, and headed for the overseas land to the west.  They landed in Quebec, Canada.  While they were in Canada, two more children were born, Franz and Mary.  Later they traveled by boat up the St. Lawrence Seaway and landed at Kewaunee.  Joseph was born in Kewaunee County on January 20, 1858, and his younger sister, Victoria, was born in 1860.

     Years later when Grandpa wanted to vote in Portage County, he was asked where he had been born.  He replied that he had been born in Luxemburg.  The poll worker, never having heard of the town by that name in Kewaunee County, thought he had born in the European Country, and at first refused to let him vote.

     It was said that Grandpa's mother had carried him in her arms for 20 miles in order to have him baptized by a Catholic priest.  It was also said that a very small chapel had been built near their home so that a visiting priest could offer Mass there.  However a (rumor? scandal? calumny?) was circulated about the priest and an unmarried mother who refused to name her child's father.  The real truth seems to be unknown, but many Catholics no longer associated with the priest.  At the same time an active Methodist evangelization developed in the area and endeavored to satisfy a spiritual hunger.  The Mathe family became good Methodists.  The chapel that had been built for the Catholic priest was used later as housing for pigs.

     Years later when my daughter and I went to Kewaunee, we discovered a mid-1800s atlas map showing where Johanne owned land.

It showed a two-branched creek flowing through his land, as well as a road which passed it.  By comparing this map with a modern road map we looked for the property, and found it, a wooded tract with the two-branched stream flowing through it.  I was surprised to learn that, with so much good land available for settling at that time, that my Great Grandfather had opted for a tract adjacent to unclaimed "swamp land."  Not until afterwards did I realize that it was swamp land on which grew tamarack trees--wood that naturally resisted rotting from contact with barn yard manure, the best wood for making long-lasting wooden shoes such as those which Johanne made.  Johanne also used tamarack for making long lasting shingles, a product more in demand by settlers than the wooden shoes he made.

Dudzinski Geneology

     Sebastian Dudzinski married Katarzyna Jakubowska on Nov. 25, 1840, in the Town of Gutzyna in County of Posen, Poland.  He was 27 years old; she was 19.  Their children included: (1) Szymon (aka Simeon or Samuel or Sam) born July 23, 1849; (2) Jan (aka John) born May 13, 1852; and (3) Walienty (aka Walenty or Valentine) born in 1856.  (One record lists "William Dudzinski" and gives as "William's" children the names of Valentine's children.)

     John (the son of Sebastian and Katarzyna Dudzinski) married Mary Hirsz (or Hearsch or Hirsch or Hertz) in Gutzena, Posen on Sept. 1879.  John was born May 13, 1852; Mary on Feb. 12, 1858.  She was the daughter of Jozef Hirsz and Mariana Falkenstein.  John and Mary's three oldest children were born in Poland, the children being (1) Marianna (aks Mary Ann or Mary) born August 9, 1880, who later married Nick Bartol; (2) Stanislaw (aka Standish) born March 16, 1883; and (3) John, Jr. born Aug. 18, 1885.

     Mary Hirsz Dudzinski (wife of John Dudzinski who came to America before his wife) arrived in Princeton in the fall of 1885 bringing with her her three children and her sister's son, Fred Shikoski, who was 11 years old.  Mary and the children passed through the immigration center in Baltimore; the Dudzinski brothers had come through New York.  Fred entered United States under the name of Florian Dudzinski as Mary had claimed him as her son.  Florian had helped her care for her children on the way over, keeping them from falling overboard.  It was no small thing to come across the ocean.  Another passenger (a Mrs. Spot who also settled in Princeton) gave Mary some prunes to eat.  This act of kindness was long remembered and appreciated.

     Of the three brothers (Sam, John and Valentine) Valentine came to America first and managed to earn money to send back to Poland allowing John and Sam to come.  Then John earned enough to send for his family to come.  Fred was given the option of staying in Poland alone or come to America and work off the passage money debt.  He chose America.  The three brothers found work at the Montello quarry and later rented farms.

     John and Mary had nine children born in America in addition to the three born in Poland; Mike, Rosie, Frank, Joe, Margaret, Jessie, Carrie and unsurviving twins of Margaret and Jessie.

     In later years these families moved to the Ripon area.  Winnie Duzinski is the widow of Ben Duzinski the son (or grandson) of Standish born in Poland to Mary Hirsz and John Dudzinski.

OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

       OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

     The Blessed Virgin appeared to Juan Diego in 1531, less than 30 years after Columbus reached America.  At that time there were very few Spanish in Mexico.  The various Indian tribes who usually fought between themselves, were putting aside their tribal animosities and planning to drive the hated Spanish back into the sea.  The Spanish did not understand nor care about the Indian's culture.  They considered it to be heathenish and set about to destroy it.

     After the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe Indians came in droves to see her picture.  Thousands of them became Christians and were baptized.

     Why the change?  The Aztec original written language, like that of the Egyptians, was in the form of pictographs, small simple pictures symbolizing concepts.  The Indians read the picture left on Juan Diego's tilma in their own language.  They saw that:

     The woman wore a brooch with a cross on it.  Unmistakenly she belonged to the same religious belief as the Spanish who planted a cross wherever they set foot.

     She is greater than the sun or sun god because she blocks out the light of the sun, whose beams of light stream out from behind.

     She is using the moon as a footstool.  She is greater than the moon god who had to be appeased with the sacrifice of their best maidens and children.

     She is greater than the stars which she is using to decorate her mantle.

     But she is not a goddess!  Why?  Because her hands are folded in the Spanish form of prayer, a supplication to someone greater than herself.  A goddess does not give homage to other gods!

     The way her hair is combed, the way her sash is worn and the symbols on her garment had meaning for the Indians.  One told them that she was a maiden, another that she was the mother of one son.  They accepted the virgin birth of her child before it had ever been preached to them.

     Why should she be known as Our Lady of Guadalupe?  Guadalupe was a small town in Spain.  The only thing which might have set it apart from other similar towns was a woodcarver who carved crude statues of the Blessed Virgin.  Many of the Spanish in Mexico carried these small wooden statues with them.  If the Indians wished to called the Blessed Virgin Our Lady of Guadalupe it was all right with the Spanish.  To them the whole thing was a miracle performed by God and no reason had to be given why she should be named after their crude little figures.

 

     It was earlier in our own 20th century that an American woman went to Mexico to study the remnant of the tribe to which Juan Diego belonged.  Very few still knew the language.  She discovered that the original name was not "Guadalupe" but an Indian expression so similar in phonics that the Spanish easily mistook it for "Guadalupe."  The Indian meaning was "she who was made without blemish."  A modern translator would call it "Immaculate Conception."

     The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was not defined by the Catholic church until more than three hundred years after the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  December 8th was picked to celebrate this feast day, just four days before the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12th.  These feasts coming so close together gives strength to our belief in Mary's instant and complete purity at the time of her birth.

     The North and South American continents are dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe.  The United States is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.  Our Lady of the Lake parish is dedicated to Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception.  Yet so many of us pay so little attention to this mystery that we know little about it.  It is proper that we spend more time in meditation upon it.

DARTFORD: 1875-1899

                       DARTFORD: 1875-1899

                       by Harriet Shikoski

     In 1875 the United States was nearing the end of its first one hundred years.  It had survived the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, expanded its territory from ocean to ocean, and was working on the reconstruction of a unified nation.

     Dartford in 1875 had come a long way from its humble beginning in the 1840s.  In an 1875 Dartford Directory three store keepers were listed: T. J. Clute, Merchant, Dealer in Dry Goods, Groceries and Notions; M. W. Brooks, General Merchandise; and E. P. Locke, Druggest and Dealer in School Books, Stationery, Notions and Perfumery.  Also listed in the directory were M. Brayman, Attorney-at-Law; and I. H. Brooks, Postmaster, Insurance and Collecting Agent, and Justice-of-the-Peace.  Dartford had two churches (Methodist Episcopal and Congregational) with active memberships.  It had been incorporated as village in 1871, it had become the Green Lake County Seat by winning the dispute over this issue, it had a new jail, and it had been connected to the outside world with a railroad.

     A Brooklyn farmer's diary gives a review of the year 1876: "This the Centennial year of our Independence has gone never to return.  The Anniversary has been celebrated at Philadelphia in a style & manner becoming to us as a great nation.  Though unable to attend myself, I have kept posted as well as possible & see by reports that it was a big thing.  It has been our year to elect a President which has been so close that one electoral vote turns the scale & that so disputed as to make it necessary to resort to some extra means to determine who shall be president for the next 4 years.  5 republicans, 5 democrates & 5 Judges of the Supreme court have decided it in favor of Hayes for President & Wheeler for Vice President.  The Winter of 1875 & '76 was uncommonly mild.  No sleighing to amount to anything, but a good rain about once a week.  The Summer in June & July was uncommon warm.  The Spring was backward.  We have enjoyed usual good health through the year.  We had one of the worst hail storms on the evening of the 28th of May that ever passed through this part of the country since it has been settled, hail fell half as large as a hen's egg.  It drifted out about 30 rods of fence & drifted the hail in heaps from 2 to 4 ft.  It lay two ft. thick at noon near McConnels where it fell the hardest.  It looked like snow banks.  It drifted our fences out on the north part of our farm so it took us 3 days to repair them.  It washed out our corn so it took us three days to replant them.  Our crops were not very good.  We had 42 bus. of wheat from 33 acres (shrunk considerably) & 127 bus. of Oats from 4 acres (very poor oats) & 200 bus. of potatoes from 2 1/2 acres which were small ones.  Our corn crop was poor.  Our hay crop not very good.  We milked 10 cows (this all kinds) & sold butter to the Am't of 1,034 3/4 lbs.  We sold 311 doz. of Eggs from nearly 100 hens.  We sold 2,350 lbs. of Pork & kept 4 for ourselves.  Also 200 lbs. of Turkeys at 9 cts. per pound.  We raised 46 lambs & 3 calves & are wintering 10 hogs."

   

OUR LADY OF THE LAKE PARISH AND I

                OUR LADY OF THE LAKE PARISH AND I

     I came to Green Lake as a bride just three months after I had been baptized in St. Stanislaus church, Stevens Point.  Everything in life seemed strange--marriage, farm life, new acquaintances and even my new found religion--all seemed strange.  I had many questions about many things and received many answers, but whenever I asked questions about church articles or practices, I seemed to receive one of two stock answers.  One was, "I don't know," and the other was "If you don't know that how come they let you in the Church?"  I soon stopped asking questions like that.  I found consolation inside the church.  There it was so quiet and peaceful!  That is what I remember most about the original Our Lady of the Lake church--the quiet, peaceful feeling that seemed to comfort me as I sat in the pew.  In those days even a very low whisper was frowned upon, so no one disturbed my reveries.

     While the outside of the church was simple in design, the interior had been richly ornamented.  The stained glass windows, the sanctuary, the side altars, the walls and ceiling were ornate, mysterious and complex but also pleasant and very interesting.  The three altars and the superstructures behind them were white trimmed with gold, artistic scrolls and designs.  Statues of Mary, Jesus, Joseph, St. Anthony, the Infant of Prague, and the Pieta adorned the church.  Above the opening to the sanctuary was painted "the eye of God" who watched over us and our doings.  On the ceiling were various pictures.  The one that captured my fancy the most depicted a fountain with many streams of water flowing out through openings all around the edge of a basin atop a pedestal, reminding us of the many blessings flowing down upon us.

     This original church of Our Lady of the Lake parish stood on the corner of Lake and Ruth streets overlooking Lake street, the Blue Roof Cottages and Dartford Bay.  Its steeple towered above the trees.  Both it and the Lutheran church steeple could be seen across Dartford Bay from state highway 23 (now South Lawson drive).  My husband, Charley, spoke of past winter days when he walked to church cutting across the bay on the ice.

     The first car we used to drive to church was an old Graham Paige.  In 1944, when we needed a car, it was still war time; cars and their parts were nearly impossible to get.  The Graham Paige had been "junked" and Charley bought it from the junk man for $50.00.  He repaired it himself--at least enough so it would run.  Replacement parts for it were impossible to obtain.  When the fuel pump failed, he added an additional gas tank which he mounted higher than the motor to form a gravity gas feed system.  When the transmission failed and the distance between the crank shaft and rear axle was too long for any single transmission available, he put in two used transmissions hooked up in series, resulting in two floor shifting levers, one in back of the other.  When both transmissions were in reverse gear, the car moved forward.

     Parking near the church was limited.  Cars were parked mostly on Lake Street in front of the church.  People who parked on Ruth Street had farther to walk to the church door, so they preferred to park on Lake.  Often in summer when many cars were parked on both sides of Lake Street during church services, traffic past the church on that street was reduced to a single lane.

    

A STORY OF MY LIFE

                        A STORY OF MY LIFE

                             PROLOGUE

     This story of my life is by no means a complete tale of that life.  I have put it together for several reasons; to give a sample of what life was like in earlier years (no telephone, plumbing or TV), what shaped my life and thinking, and to show the merciful providence of the Almighty in my life.

     "The Lord called me from birth, from my mother's womb He gave me my name."  Isaiah 49:1.

                            CHAPTER 1

     Charles and I were married May 20, 1944, in Holy Guardian Angel Catholic Church in Almond, Portage County.  The wedding was small.  My sister, Margaret, was my only attendant; his brother John, Charlie's only attendant.

     That morning John had driven to Almond, bringing with him Charlie and their parents.  After the wedding mass we had a "breakfast" at our home in Almond.  Aunt Laura (Martin) Mehne, a sister of Aunt Ada, served the meal.

     After eating, some pictures were snapped outside our home before John took Margaret, Charlie and me to Stevens Point to have our wedding pictures taken by a professional photographer.  After the pictures were taken, we stopped at my god mother's house in Stevens Point so I could change from my wedding gown to a street dress.  Next John drove us to the Grey Hound bus station and left Charlie and me there.  We had made no plans for a honeymoon, but decided to take the first bus out of Stevens Point regardless of which direction it would go.  The next bus headed north, so we bought tickets to Wausau.

     When we got to Wausau we walked from the bus station to a nearby hotel and registered.  During most of our honeymoon we walked the streets or found some place to sit and rest.  We found a nearby Catholic Church where we attended mass Sunday morning.  Sometime during our walks we found an outdoor scale, the kind you stand on, drop a penny in a slot and watch the pointer to see how high it would go.  Surprise!  We both weighed exactly the same, 150 pounds.  During our lives together I don't think that Charlie ever weighed more and I never weighed less.

     Saturday night when we prepared to go to bed I knelt down at the side of the bed and started to lead a rosary just as my god-mother did each night.  I had become a Catholic, and wasn't that what all Catholics did?  Charlie kneeled down beside me and responded.

Christ

                                 

                                In olden days lost souls besought

                                Sweet solace from the gloom

                                Of all the sin that man had wrought

                                In conquest of his doom.

                                And then one night a ray of hope

                                Shown down from one bright star,

                                And in that morn a King was born

                                Who loves us as we are.                 

                                

 

                                        With each golden minute

                            

                                        May you feel the warmth

                                              and love

       

                                        Of all the dear ones

                                              close to you

                                        And of a caring God

                                              above.

Bluffton

CONTENTS

CHAPTER   1   BLUFFTON - STAR OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER   2   BLUFFTON - PART OF THE MASCOUTIN TERRITORY

CHAPTER   3   JEAN NICOLET - THE FIRST WHITE MAN TO COME

CHAPTER   4   JESUIT MISSIONARIES VISIT THE BLUFFTON AREA

CHAPTER   5   FRENCH FUR TRADERS ARRIVE

CHAPTER   6   FATHER DABLON COMES TO THE BLUFFTON AREA

CHAPTER   7   FRANCE CLAIMS THE BLUFFTON AREA

CHAPTER   8   THE JESUITS ESTABLISH MISSIONS

CHAPTER   9   FATHER MARQUETTE AND LOUIS JOLIET PASS THROUGH

CHAPTER  10   THE COUREURS DE BOIS

CHAPTER  11   THE DECLINE OF THE MISSIONARIES

CHAPTER  12   THE MASCOUTINS LEAVE THE BLUFFTON AREA

CHAPTER  13   THE FOX TRIBE OCCUPY THE FOX VALLEY

CHAPTER  14   THE FOX WARS

CHAPTER  15   THE NEAR EXTERMINATIONS OF THE FOX TRIBE

CHAPTER  16   ENGLISH SUPREMACY

CHAPTER  17   THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

CHAPTER  18   THE NORTHWEST ORDINANCE OF 1787

CHAPTER  19   FOX VALLEY INDIANS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER  20   THE WINNEBAGO INDIANS

CHAPTER  21   THE DECORAHS

CHAPTER  22   THE FOX-WISCONSIN WATERWAY

CHAPTER  23   DAWN OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

CHAPTER  24   THE WAR OF 1812

CHAPTER  25   THE WINNEBAGO WAR

CHAPTER  26   THE INFLUX OF THE NEW YORK INDIANS

CHAPTER  27   THE BLACK HAWK WAR

CHAPTER  28   THE IMPACT OF THE BLACK HAWK WAR ON THE WINNEBAGOES

CHAPTER  29   THE OWNERSHIP OF LAND

CHAPTER  30   SETTLERS

CHAPTER  31   THE BLUFFTON MILL

CHAPTER  32   THE FOX RIVER IMPROVEMENTS

CHAPTER  33   A FURROW STRAIGHT AND LONG

CHAPTER  34   CORN - THE SETTLER'S GOLD

             CHAPTER 1     BLUFFTON -- STAR OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

                            

     There is a beautiful place where the water flows in its unrelenting search for the sea.  The place is called Bluffton; the stream is called the Puckyan River.  They are located in the Town of Brooklyn, Green Lake County, Wisconsin.

     This place has seen the quiet hot summer days, the seething fury of winter blizzards, the beautiful golden colors of autumn and the bird-song-filled lush springs.  It has heard the crow scolding overhead, the owl hooting at night and the honking of geese from their overhead flying wedge.  It has felt the footsteps of the bear and the bison, of the elk, the rabbit, the fox, the wolf, the porcupine and the muskrat, of the moccassined red man and the booted white.  It has known good times and bad, seasons of plenty and of famine.  It has known the friendly Mascoutins who opened their arms to strangers, and the treacherous Fox who made it a part of a "dark and bloody ground."  Here men struggled, loved, raised families, educated their children, held fast to their religious beliefs and hoped for a better future.

     When the nineteenth century dawned it was not yet named Bluffton.  It was a part of the vast Northwest territory that was so vague and unknown in the original states.  It had been ceded by Great Britain to the United States in 1783, but the Americans living along the eastern coast, who had fought the British in the revolutionary War, neither knew nor cared what happened there, and their fledgling government was staggering under more immediate problems.

     The present always depends on the past, and to understand the nineteenth century it is necessary to know what happened earlier.  The past of the pioneer days goes back through days of exploration, through prehistoric days of the ancestors of the Indians, to the days of the animal kingdoms, the dawning of plants and the time of the lifeless ice age.

     Long before the last glacier passed, an ancient river existed approximately where the present day Fox flows.  The Niagara limestone ridge which runs through Wisconsin roughly parallet to the shore of Lake Michigan prevented streams from flowing to the east and so the river took a north-easterly direction.  When that last glacier came it followed the ancient valley, making it wider and deeper.  As the glacier retreated water again flowed in this valley forming the river known today as the Fox River, which is considered the oldest river in North America.

    

MATTHIAS - APOSTLE

                        MATTHIAS - APOSTLE

                                by

                         Harriet Shikoski

  

To my Readers;

     Many details included in this story of Matthias, who replaced Judas Iscariot as an apostle of Jesus, originated in the visions of Ven. Anne Emmerick (1774-1824).  She was a German Augustinian nun who was told in vision that she was privileged to receive more visions than had any other person in history.  Her visions were recorded by Clemens Bretano, arranged and edited by the very Reverend Carl E. Schmoger, C.SS.R. and translated from German into English.  In my turn I have also picked and arranged the material.

     How true are the details acquired in this fashion?  Even conceding that the private revelations to Sr. Anne Catherine were accurate portrayals, it would be a miracle indeed if they retained such accuracy after passing through so many human minds.  Bible references are included, not in an effort to prove the truth of these events, but to help you compare the two sources.

     Though the total accuracy may be questioned, I still believe that the following story of Matthias captures his true character and helps us to understand the man who took over the Apostleship of Judas.

                        MATTHIAS - APOSTLE

     Very little is known about Matthias, his parentage or his early life.  He heard and accepted John the Baptist's fiery preaching about repentance and making straight the way of the Lord. (Mat 3:1-3)  He was baptized by John and embraced his austere life style.  Like many other disciples, he was led to Jesus through John's guidance.  He began to follow Jesus, becoming His disciple and often traveling with Him on His journeys.

     At Ramoth Matthias had been with Jesus when He had gone among some heathens.  They knew about the journey of the Three Kings and of their having seen the birth of the King of the Jews. (Mat 2:1-2)  These pagans had long sighed for instruction and now they received it from Jesus Himself.  Jesus spoke about the Fall of man and of the promised Redeemer.  He told them that the Jews had not obtained entire possession of the Promised Land, that many heathens still dwelt there, but that He had now come to take possession of all that remained, and unite it to His Kingdom, not, however, by the sword, but by charity and grace. (2Chr 33:7-9)  His words made so deep an impression upon many of His listeners that He sent them to Ainon to be baptized.

     Seven aged men could not longer travel to Ainon.  Jesus allowed them to be baptized immediately by two of the disciples.  At the baptism of these aged pagans Jesus had said, "There are three that give testimony: the Water, the Spirit, and the Blood, and these three are one." (1258 Cat Cath Ch)

    

JOSEPH, FOSTER-FATHER OF JESUS

                  JOSEPH, FOSTER-FATHER OF JESUS

                                BY

                         HARRIET SHIKOSKI

To my Readers;

     Many details included in this story of Joseph originated in the visions of Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerick (1774-1824).  She was a German Augustinian nun who was told in vision that she was privileged to receive more visions than had any other person in history.  Her visions were recorded by Clemens Brentano, arranged and edited by the Very Reverend Carl E. Schmoger, C.SS.R. and translated from German into English.  In my turn I have also picked and arranged the material.

     How true are the details acquired in this fashion?  Even conceding that the private revelations to Sr. Anne Catherine were accurate, it would be a miracle indeed if they retained such accuracy after passing through so many human minds.

     Though the total accuracy may be questioned, I still believe that the following story of St. Joseph captures his true character and helps us to understand the man whom God chose to protect and support His Son.

  

                  JOSEPH, FOSTER FATHER OF JESUS

     Joseph was the third one of the six sons of a man named Jacob.  Jacob was born of the House of David, a descendant of David through David's son, Solomon, in a direct male line.  (Matt. 1:1-16)  If Judea had remained an independent kingdom, Jacob might have become its king.  But the Roman legions had over-powered the country.  Herod the Great had been proclaimed King of Judea, and ruled with the consent of Rome.  The beautiful palace that David had built had been made into a government house for Roman authorities.  The descendants of David had been divested of their political power and much of their property.

     Jacob and his family lived in a large mansion once owned by Jesse, the father of David.  It was just outside the city of Bethlehem near its west gate.  David had been born in this house.  In the past when the royal family had lived in the palace that David built, this home had been used only as a retreat, as a vacation spot.  The lower story of the dwelling had a door but no windows.  The upper story had circular openings.  A broad gallery ran around the top of the house.  Above the center of the flat roof was another smaller story, crowned by a tower and cupola.  Joseph and his brothers occupied this top story.

     The grounds had a large courtyard enclosed by stone walls and surrounded by covered walks with trees and shrubbery.  In it was a stone spring-house built over a spring whose waters gushed forth out of faucets, each of which was shaped like some animals's head.  Outside and adjoining the garden wall were some small low dwellings where two elderly women servants lived.  Joseph and his brothers helped them in their work, doing things like carrying water into the house.  His brothers talked with them often but Joseph was more quiet and reserved.