"Claflin Powder Keg Bluff Recounted in 1894 Letter" from the March 22, 1962 Door County Advocate
Claflin Powder Keg Bluff Recounted in 1894 Letter
The following letter was copied from the original on file at the State Historical Society Library in Madison:
Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
January 24, 1894
H. K. White
202 Park Street
Madison, Wisconsin
Dear Sir:
By request of Wm. O. Brown I send the following statement of matters relating to the Door Peninsula which have come under my observation or of which I have credibly informed.
I came from Norwich, Conn., with my brother Wm. H. Warren from Worcester, Mass., from Bay Settlement near Green Bay on the ice of Green Bay, arriving here April 3rd, 1855.
There was then here one steam saw mill running and two others were being built and there were about 25 families settled on this bay and in the other parts of Door county perhaps 200 persons, a considerable part of them on Washington Island.
David B. Greenwood, a French Canadian who had been in the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company, settled on the south side of Sturgeon Bay within the limits of the 4th ward of the present City of Sturgeon Bay in 1850, where he now lives. He was the first white settler on this bay above its mouth.
Peter Sherwood had settled at the mouth of the bay on the point now called Sherwood point in 1837 and Frank Sawyer on the isthmus connecting Sherwoods point with the main Peninsula in 1843.
There was then but one family living in that part of Door County south from Sturgeon Bay, that of Robert Stevenson, a son in law of Increase Claflin, at Little Sturgeon Bay, where Claflin had first settled.
The first settler in Door County was Increase Claflin, who settled at Little Sturgeon Bay, April first, 1835, as a trader. Some particulars of his settlement I have learned from his daughter, Mrs. Wm. Marshall, now living in this city. Though then just 4 years old she remembers very distinctly the circumstances.
Mr. Claflin with his family and goods came on a vessel from Green Bay April 1st, 1835 (he himself with help had been there about 3 weeks before to prepare a house) and settled on the point on ' the West Side of the mouth of the Bay.
At that time there were several hundred Menominee Indians encamped on the opposite side of the Bay (now called Squaw point), and the Chiefs, with some squaws, came across the Bay in canoes and ordered them to leave within 2 days or they would kill them assigning as their reason, that they feared he would sell liquor. Mr. Claflin told them he would not keep liquor, but they insisted that he should leave and told him they had killed a Frenchman who had sold liquor there and would kill him if he did not leave in 2 days. Mr. Claflin told them that there was no way for him to move his family, there being no vessel there to go in.
After the 2 days the whole force came over in canoes to execute their threat, but it seems the squaws were friendly, and had concealed the warriors guns, but they flourished their tomahawks and threatened to kill them unless they left. Mr. Claflin had opened 2 kegs of powder and stood ready with fire and tongs and threatened to blow all up, and the Indians fled in a hurry, but a few days afterwards the Chiefs came again and told them they had concluded to let them remain if they would be their friends and that they (the Indians) would be their friends, and thereafter they had no trouble with them.
The first white child born in Door County was Wm. Claflin, born at Little Sturgeon Bay, in 1837 and lives there now.
Mr. Claflin lived there 9 years, and in 1844 moved to Fish Creek and was the 1st settler there, where he lived 11 years until his death.
About 1852 A. M. Iverson, a Moravian Minister from Stavanger, Norway, with a number of Norwegians, settled and founded the Village of Ephraim, which was their principal settlement, but about a dozen of the families which came with him settled at Sturgeon Bay.
Two or three families lived on Chambers Island as early as 1837.
Some fishermen lived on Washington and Rock Islands previous to 1840.
In 1837 John Russell came from Sheboygan, with his family, to Eagle Harbor and engaged in making and shipping lime but left on account of difficulty of getting winter supplies.
Soloman Beery came to Baileys Harbor in 1849. Miles M. Carrington and Darius Griffin came there in 1852 and Carrington lives there now.
The County seat was first at Baileys Harbor but in 1857 was removed to Sturgeon Bay.
In 1856 a considerable number of Belgians settled in the Northeast corner of Brown County, the Northwest corner of Kewaunee County, and in the Southwest corner of Door County, since which time there has been a gradual settlement of the county until now there are about 17,000 inhabitants, made up of Americans, English, Scotch, Irish, Bohemians, Poles and Finns or Russians.
In general the settlers could read and write in their own language, except the French Canadians.
Their children have been sent to the Public school, and of many of them are now teachers of the Public Schools, and the various nationalities are rapidly becoming Americanized and appear to be in favor of the Public School System.
There has, for 2 or 3 years, been, in this city a Parochial School, taught by Catholic Sisters, with considerable attendance, and now there is a similar Catholic School in the town of Sevastopol.
Some Bohemians and a few other settlers had their dwellings and stables under one roof, which I suppose was owing their limited means, but such dwellings are being replaced with good houses and barns.
The Belgians were, at first, all Catholics, but are now mostly divided between Roman Catholics, Old Catholics, and Spiritualists. The Germans are divided between Catholics and Protestants. The Scandinavians are Protestant. The French and French Canadians are Catholics, as are nearly all of the Irish. The Bohemians are Catholics. The English, Scotch and Americans are Protestants.
Many of the first settlers were fishermen, especially on the Islands, and came here because of the great advantages this county affords for their business.
Others were laborers and came to work in timber and finding the climate that they expected (the extremes of heat and cold being less than in the central part of the State), and the soil production, and that there was no malaria, and that the County, was free from venomous serpents, they decided to settle permanently as farmers.
Some have gradually added to common farming, fruit growing, and find this peninsula better for growing apples than the main land, and plums, cherries, and small fruits are a success.
I have raised peaches of the very best quality and of large size, from peach stones, but the peach trees are short lived and apt to be winter killed.
Stone quarries have been opened and extensively and profitably worked in our numberous harbors, four of which are on the shores of Sturgeon Bay, and the supply is unlimited and the demand has exceeded the quantity yet quarried and bids fair to continue without end, owing not merely to the quality of the stone, which is excellent, but especially to the conveniences for shipment.
Sturgeon Bay is a commodious and perfectly secure harbor, entered at its mount from Green Bay and from Lake Michigan through the Ship Canal (which was purchased by the government in 1893 and made free). The canal has no lock, the level of Sturgeon Bay and Lake Michigan being a water level, thus making Sturgeon Bay a harbor on both Green Bay and Lake Michigan, and the best in the State on Lake Michigan.
The ease with which this harbor can be entered from Green Bay is well illustrated by the following incident which occurred the year before I came.
Alex and Robert Laurie had been here and built their houses on the shore near the mouth of the bay and went east after their families and goods and tried to agree with the Steamer Michigan, there running regularly between Buffalo and Green Bay, to land them at Sturgeon Bay but could only get them to agree to land them at Green Bay, but when they would pass the mouth of this bay there was such a storm blowing directly into this bay that they were in danger of shipwreck unless they made the harbor but the sea was such on Green Bay that they could not turn the boat and they steamed forward and back keeping opposite this bay until they were blown sideways into the mouth of this bay and then steamed forward and were safe in the lee of Sherwood Point and the Lauries and their goods were landed where they wanted to be.
Until now we have been without a Railroad but one Is now being constructed to terminate at Sturgeon Bay and is to be completed on or before July 29th next.
A. G. WARREN
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
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