Main Street, Hayes, looking east c: 1900. The first building on the right is the Holl General Store, established in 1897 and run by John Holl, Sr. (standing on the store porch with his wife and second daughter  Kate). The building was a furniture factory when it was destroyed by fire in the 1970's. Next on the right is Johnson's Saloon, then the Bartz cheese factory. On the immediate left is a private home, then several other commercial buildings including the blacksmith shop, and the Hankwitz store. Only one commercial building is left in Hayes with a few private homes dotting main street.

HAYES Oconto County Wisconsin

built 1904                                                                                          built 1885 St. John's Lutheran Church in Hayes remains                                            Evangelical United Brethern  active.This building replaced the log church                                                         as it looked in 1888.  that was built in 1884.

C:1890 Built in 1883. Hayes Graded School was the first school building in Town(ship)  of How. It initially taught grades one throught twelve. The school was also used for meetings,  celebrations, weddings and other community activities. The building remained a  school until the mid 1900's  when it was enlarged and updated with funding by  Annie Holl and remains a community center.

Herman Hankwitz and family (below left), who came to Hayes in 1882.  They bought the Joe (Julius) Suring store that year. He sold that building in 1892 and constructed a larger store in Hayes in 1901 (above). First store in 1971 (below right).                                                                  C:1890                                                   The only commercial building standing in Hayes.

Bartz Cheese Factory  Farmers hauled their own milk to the cheese factory daily where it was weighed and bought. Mr. Bartz proudly stands in the middle of this photo in a white shirt with hands on his hips. With travel increased by new roads and the railways, affording better ways to market goods, dairy farming increased rapidly and became a highly respected family business that many settlers worked hard to achieve.

In a "leanto" attached to the Hankwitz Store, cobbler Mr. Schultz made and repaired the shoes that kept Hayes and the surrounding area on it's feet. His specialty was hob-nailed boots (metal spiked soles) that were used by lumbermen and farmers clearing the land. First home in Hayes built in the 1870's originally by Joe (Julius) Suring, then owned by Herman Hankwitzand later, William Stehlow.

1887 -  John and Veronica (Fronnie Kurz) Holl, Sr. The young couple sat for a photograph in the new Hayes studio of former New York photographer Arthur Cato. John was building a general store with the money from selling his Town of How homestead which he built from the wilderness from 1880. They raised 7 children and celebrated their Golden Wedding in 1935 at their home in Hayes. Mr Cato moved his studio to Suring in 1896.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Johnson    The family photograph was taken in 1902. The children's names are (clockwise from middle left)  Millard, Elsie, John,  Lillian and Leonard (twins), Myrtle, Gladys and infant Violet.

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