"Dec. 4 marks 30th anniversary of Door county's only air tragedy" from the November 30, 1978 Door County Advocate
By JOHN ENIGL
Dec. 4 marks 30th anniversary of Door county's only air tragedy
By JOHN ENIGL
PART I
On Dec. 4, 1948, Door County lost one of the most remarkable members of a remarkable family, Karl S. Reynolds. He, along with two other .prominent figures in the cherry industry, Lougee Stedman and Irvin Kussow, died in Door county's only fatal airplane crash.
Over a year ago I asked Advocate Editor Chan Harris if I could write this story because it has a special significance to me. You see, my father and brother were eye-witnesses to the crash and my father is credited with starting the search for the plane. So I have a personal involvement in this story.
Many times in the 30 years that have passed since this tragic event occurred I have heard people say, "The cherry industry would be different if Karl Reynolds was still alive." Ray
Christiansen says, "Reynolds Brothers would have canned cherries in 1978 if Karl were alive."
What kind of man was this that people still remember him with favor 30 years after his death? I must confess that, even after talking for hours to some of his closest friends and having seen him numerous times when I was young, I still don't feel as if I have a complete answer to that question.\
I can say that regardless of whether I talked to those in the same social circles or civic organizations as Karl, to one of his employees or to cherry growers their assessment of Karl's life was the same. He was considered a man truly and sincerely concerned about the welfare and future of the people of Door county more than about his own welfare.
Some even say that Karl Reynolds would have been governor of the state of Wisconsin had he lived a few mere years.
To get the background for this story about Karl Reynolds, I contacted the only surviving Reynolds brother, Fred "Fritz" Reynolds. Fritz. too, is a remarkable person in his own right, deserving of a story about his own life. He's agreed to let me write about him at a later date.
'Fritz' Reynolds, last surviving member of the Reynolds brothers, looks at the building that housed the Reynolds Bros. office before its move to the County Trunk HH location. The building is located next to the Chico processing plant on former Martin Orchards property.
Together, Fritz and I spent a day touring the old Reynolds factory, located about a mile west of Highway 42 on County Trunk HH in the town of Sevastopol. George Marcantonio, head of the Pepperdine holdings which encompass the old Martin and Reynolds orchards, gave permission to tour the factory. Jules "Bud" Parmentier, long connected with Martin Orchards and now with Pepperdine, was helpful in providing information and pictures.
From Fritz Reynolds I borrowed an extremely interesting book, The Story of Wisconsin's Great Canning Industry, by Fred A. Stare. From this source I shall give some background on the Reynolds Preserving Co., some of it in Karl Reynold's own words. The story is not intended to give a full history of the Reynolds family or the Reynolds Preserving Company, however. That story can come at a later date. This story is about Karl, what he was and what he might have been.
I could find little documentation about the arrival of the Reynolds family in Door county. I've heard that there is some connection with the Reynolds of Jacksonport, forebears of John Reynolds, the judge and former governor, such as Sydney Reynolds, and old Tom Reynolds, who fought for the purchase of Peninsula Park by the state. Perhaps some reader could enlighten us about the early Reynolds family history.
The Reynolds Preserving Co. was founded in December, 1895, by Mrs. Eliza Reynolds and her two sons. One was Edward S. Reynolds Sr., father of Edward Reynolds, long active in the fruit industry here and in New York state, a captain in World War I and still living in Sturgeon Bay today. Her other son was William S. Reynolds. Will was the father of Don W. Reynolds, Karl S. Reynolds, Herbert Reynolds, and Fred "Fritz" Reynolds.
The equipment to can peas was set up in Sturgeon Bay and the Reynolds had planted a crop of peas to be harvested that summer of 1896. A Waukesha, Wis. man, Clarence Plummer, was hired to run the factory.
Will Reynolds felt that there would be plenty of hand pickers available to pick the peas but after the first day the crew petered out. Ed Reynolds Sr. wired for a viner, the machine arriving the next day. Thus, the Reynolds early found the need for mechanization and, as will be explained later might have been leaders in mechanical harvesting today if fate had not taken Karl Reynolds.
In 1910, the company. began. encouraging farmers to grow peas to sell to Reynolds on a contract basis.
According to a letter written by Karl S. Reynolds, the pea canning venture ended in 1917 because of problems with blight and other afflications which couldn't be controlled in those times. (Peas are again being raised successfully in Door County because of modern disease and insect control.)
The Reynolds had already seen a future in cherries, having planted trees as early as 1911 and 1912. They had seen proof that Door County was a good place to grow cherries because a number of orchards were already in production. (One of those early orchardists, Art Abramson, is still growing cherries today, 68 years later.)
The Sturgeon Bay plant, located roughly where Peterson Builders and Palmer Johnson is today, was changed over to a cherry canning plant after the last pack of peas in 1917. In January, 1918 (this according to an account by Lougee Stedman) the Fruit Grower's Canning Co. was organized and the group purchased the Reynolds plant. The Fruit Growers Union also was in operation at this time, a separate unit, but A. W. (Gussie) Lawrence headed both organizations as president. Ed Reynolds Sr. was plant manager, to be succeeded on his death in 1919 by Capt. Ed Reynolds Jr. The Reynolds were still part of the new Company.
In 1924. for all practical purposes, the Fruit Growers' Canning, Co. and Fruit Growers Union became one and the same, later to become the Fruit Growers Cooperative.
The heyday of the Reynolds Bros. operation when apples filled the juice bins at the company's plant.
But by 1925 the Reynolds cherry orchard production had grown so much that surviving brother Will and sons, Karl, Don, Fred, and Herb decided to build their own processing plant.
At that time Reynolds owned what was later Martin Orchards. Only a few feet to the east of Dick Ramstack's Chico plant is the building that served as Reynolds' first headquarters in Sevastopol. (It could easily be preserved as a Door County Historical Society project just by putting a new roof on it and that could be done by volunteer help.)
"We had a big barn down where the factory is now, on HH," Fritz told me. "I slept in that barn the night before she blew up and burned from spontaneous combustion. Karl and I got in a squabble — see we were living in the camp building until fall and we'd move back into town for winter. Karl and I got into an argument about some d--- thing and I slept in the barn. Boy, was it ever hot in that barn! And the next night she burned down. I don't know how many horses we lost and whatever.
"We had about 20 some head of cattle in there, and the horses.
"Then we all went out in that big 160 acre woods and cut wood to burn up the carcasses.
"The old man (William. S. Reynolds) was living yet and we decided to build the factory. I hauled all the wood for the factory, as well as all the sand and gravel for the foundation. The factory was built right on top of where the barn was. The barn was as big as the factory."
A little over a year after the cherry processing factory went into production, in October, 1926, Will Reynolds was fatally injured in an automobile accident six miles north Of Port Washington. Twenty-six year old Karl Reynolds and his brother Don, graduates of the University of Wisconsin a few years before, now had to shoulder the operation of the company.
I said the Reynolds were a remarkable family. All the brothers were different, but all were talented in their own way.
Karl Reynolds
After their father's death, Don retained his position as general manager, a role he had assumed in 1925. Karl remained sales manager, having also taken that role in 1925.
Fred (Fritz) was the mechanical genius that made the plant work, the "can do" man. Those who behaved as he did in his high school days would today be called rebels. He got no sympathy from the principal, who happened to be Margaret Reynolds, a cousin. Fritz told me how Lougee Stedman, later to become an attorney and manager of Fruit Growers Cooperative, used to let him crawl in a window so Fritz wouldn't be late for roll call. (Lougee was a monitor.)
Perhaps we can learn something from the fact that Fritz was, and still is, a divergent thinker, who did the impossible in making the plant run. Perhaps we can be a little more tolerant of our children's rebellious natures. But more of Fritz's story must wait until I can do it justice.
Herb Reynolds had a different bent that proved useful to Reynolds Brothers. He became interested in photography and started the Reynolds Art Studio. Karl became interested in flying, and Herb and Karl combined their talents to photograph, from the air, much of Door County.
The idea was to provide each grower who shipped fruit to Reynolds brothers with an aerial photograph of his orchard. If all these aerial photographs could be gotten together, they would furnish a valuable insight into the Door County of the 1940's.
I've spent many hours looking at the photograph Karl and Herb Reynolds took of our own and surrounding farms in May, 1946. I think of where I was at the time — finishing my first year at Door-Kewaunee County Normal School. Brother Charles was home, a junior at Sevastopol. Our farm buildings appear in the center. The north half of the barn appears newly shingled, and I remember when Emil Kuehn and Leo Spittlemeister roofed it in 1940.
That building may have been the last one Karl Reynolds saw in his life because a few seconds later he was dead.
The John Enigl farm northeast of Carlsville (arrow) was below the crash course taken by the plane piloted by Karl Reynolds the evening of Dec. 4, 1948. The senior Enigl saw the running lights moving south and heard the engine running smoothly. Then there was an explosion in the direction of Monument Point. Enigl reported the crash and started the search for Reynods, Lougee Stedman and Ervin Kussow.
Next: The Reynolds' dream grows to maturity.
(To be continued)
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive