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Flash
From The Past - 1903
Oconto Enterprise
February 27, 1903
Contributed by Jennifer (John) Bumann
February 27, 1903, among our sketches of the lives of our county's
pioneers, we published the following the data for which was furnished
us by Mr. John himself:
Frederick William John whose portrait we present herewith, is one of
the best known pioneers of Oconto county. Mr. John was born in Prussia,
March 3, 1827 and resided there until 1852, when he came to this
country and resided in Milwaukee until the fall of 1854, when he came
to Oconto in one of the Ludington lumber vessels and worked for Mr.
Hubbell in the Ludington Mill. Here he remained until forty six years
ago this coming May when he, with Mrs. (Johanna) John who at first
remained in Milwaukee, but had now joined him, moved to Gillett where
together, out of the virgin forest, they carved a home in which the
weary and hungry traveler or woodsman was always welcome and assured of
needed rest and food.
When they first sought a home in this now thriving county of Oconto,
the only way to reach it was by water or over the ice or by an indian
trail without bridges from Green Bay. The only white woman they saw on
their way to their Gillett home was a Mrs. Timothy Casey in a
small shanty up the river. In the town of Gillett, on the site of what
for a number of years after was his home, Mr. John first erected a
small shanty in which he and his wife and four small children resided
cheered at night by the howling of the wolves outside, which at that
time abounded.
When flour was needed for their subsistence, Mr. John was compelled to
carry it home on his back and when the oldest son and daughter first
attended school they were compelled to go five miles through the woods
without a house on the way.
Fish and game were abundant but so monotonous did this become that the
children occasionally murmured over the unchanging venison diet.
One of the hardest experiences of their lives, however, came in 1871,
when the sun was obscured by the smoke for two weeks during all of
which time the woods surrounding them was on fire. They carried water
and fought fire day and night without rest. On the night of October 8,
which old residents remember with horror as the night of the famed
Peshtigo fire, the children spent the night on a blanket in the road
while their parents fought off the fire, the parents not daring to
allow them to remain in the shanty for fear it with the children would
be consumed.
Mr. John has seen considerable military service, first in his native
country, where as a member of the heavy cavalry, he assisted in putting
down the revolution of 1847-8, which drove Carl Schurtz and General
Sigel out of Germany and later in the 38th Wisconsin infantry in which
he enlisted in this city in 1864 and served until the end of the war
participating in the battles of Hatcher¹s Run, siege of Petersburg
and capture of Petersburg and in the big review at Washington,
returning with the rank of Sergeant. He is the present postmaster of
the village of Gillett and has filled all the offices within the gift
of the people of his town including that of treasurer when the town was
a large one and the treasurer required to give a bond of $25,000.
Mr. John recalls many interesting incidents of the early days among
which is one of Senator Philetus Sawyer when out on one of his
campaigning trips through the lumbering country. It seems that while
attempting to drive from Shawano through this county, Mr. Sawyer was
overtaken by night, became lost and off the road, stopped his team and
alighted from his vehicle to search for the road but after finally
finding it was unable to find the team, but succeeded in reaching the
John's home and secured assistance and lanterns by means of which the
team was recovered and made comfortable for the night.
The prevailing prices about this time were, cotton batting $1.00 a
pound, calico .40 cents a yard, sheeting .50 cents, beans $8.00 a
bushel, flour $12.00 a barrel.
Mr. and Mrs. John celebrated their golden wedding on the 21st of last
November (1902) and have, now living, as the fruits of that marriage of
a half century ago, five children, seventeen grand children and one
great grand child, five and one half years old.
Mr. and Mrs. John are still hale and hearty and likely to live many years to enjoy the fruits of their industrious younger days.
Oconto County Reporter
AUGUST 28, 1903
Nine-year-old Clarence Neubauer, son of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Neubauer,
was playing with Leo Marek, son of Mr. and Mrs. August Marek at the
Marek home. Mrs. Marek took an air gun away from them for fear they
would get hurt. Later the boys went upstairs to play. They found
Mr. Marek's loaded revolver in a drawer. Clarence said, "Let's see if
it's loaded and caught hold of the barrel to pull it when the revolver
discharged. The bullet entered Clarence's head between his eyes. He
lived a little more than an hour.
Charles Norton Jr., who was coming home on the train from Milwaukee
Monday was injured when the train went down an embankment about 10 feet
high. He was taken to St. Agnes hospital, Fond du Lac, with a badly
injured back. One man was killed and 20 injured..
A special meeting of the Oconto Woman's Club was called for Monday afternoon at the home of Mrs. J. B. Atwood.
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