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By Mary Jane Gruett Twelve year old Derk Van Vliet began the adventure of a lifetime in Holland in 1847. He left his home, his friends and his faithful dog, Bello, to begin a new life in America. But, disaster struck as his ship came within sight of its destination, Sheboygan, Wisconsin. The Phoenix, a Great Lakes steamer, normally delivered immigrants to their new homes. But, on Derk’s voyage, the doomed Phoenix, was part of an historic disaster which would cause Derk to question everything about life. He would have to forge ahead to find a new life and search to find courage deep within himself. -
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By Bill Wangemann.
This is a collection of Sheboygan City Historian, Bill Wangemann’s 2005 and 2006 Sheboygan Press articles. Topics include Memories of Railroads, Electric Rail or the Interurbans, maritime stories- The Burning of the Niagara and The Mysterious Loss of the Pere Marquette 18, movies, TV and drive-in theater, Garton Toy and its fire, the stumpff fiddle and so much more.
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The Sheboygan County Connection is a collection of forty-one stories about the way folks from Sheboygan County are connected to the greater world. Most were seen as Sheboygan County History columns in the Sheboygan Press from February to October 2014. Extra information and photos have been added. Topics range from ice fishing and the brutal winter of 1936 to the advent of Rocky Knoll and citizens’ participation in the Manhattan Project. -
This is the second volume in a series. It contains more than fifty stories about Sheboygan County citizens and the amazing ways they participated in important history. Topics range from the 1950s bomb shelter scare to the opening of Road America and Clif Tufte to the opening of the Erie Canal in the 1830s. -
Sheboygan County Connection III is the continuing record of the lives of Sheboygan County residents and their adventures in history. Read about dozens of historic happenings experienced by residents from the death and autopsy of victims of Ed Gein to the mysteries of Sheboygan's Rancho de las Flores, refugees of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, the architect for the construction of the first Mormon Temple at Nauvoo, Illinois and history of outhouses. These stories ran in the Sheboygan Press from November 2015 to October 2016. -
This is a compilation of articles run in the Sheboygan Press during late 2016 and early 2017. Story titles include: What we used to do at Sheboygan's zoo Remembering Sheboygan County’s forgotten places Interurbans’ meteoric rise, then fall Remembering American wars from the Home Front Memories from a town of Mitchell farm Recalling Sheboygan's unsavory 1920s, 1930s Quirky forgotten laws abound in Sheboygan When bootleggers smuggled margarine Pinehurst Farms boasts rich history Letters to Santa offer look into kids' lives Discovering stories of lost places in Sheboygan County Remembering the architectural trend of octagon houses Appreciation of Grassroots art emerges in recent decades Advertisements reflect culture, paint picture of past Passengers on Orphan Train found home in Sheboygan Dozens of brothels housed in county in early 1900s How Sheboygan cleaned up after hosting brothels -
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Sheboygan County has a rich and varied Native America past. When the first Europeans arrived, there were probably only about a thousand Indians permanently residing in Sheboygan County, perhaps another thousand during the fishing season on Lake Michigan.
These Indians had relinquished their title to the land by various treaties made with the United States, from 1831 to 1833, but remained here for a number of years until they gradually moved to other locales, as their former hunting and fishing territories disappeared.
What is known of the Indians of Sheboygan County comes mostly from the perspective of white settlers. The Native Americans neither kept nor left any written records; they had no written language forms. What is known of their manner of life, their history and traditions, has come down to us in their myths and legends, through archeological remains, and in the accounts of explorers, missionaries, traders and early settlers. The records of even their white observers are scattered and scanty. They are mainly recitals of their own activities, their references to the Indians usually being only incidental. Much valuable information concerning the life and characteristics of the Indians has been obliterated, although some remains.
This book will share a sampling of the written information gleaned from the archives of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.
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By Earl and Charmaine Kneevers During the late 19th and early 20th century, there was a relatively strong Socialist movement in the United States. Sheboygan, Wisconsin was one of those cities that had an active Socialist Party. The movement believed in public ownership and democratic management of the basic means of production and distribution. It had strong ties to the organized labor movement of the time. A strong leader of the Sheboygan movement was Fred Kneevers, whose history as a struggling worker with a family to support and with Socialist beliefs, brought him into the hotel and restaurant business to support his family when known Socialists were not welcomed in privately run businesses. The Kneevers' Hotel was a successful meeting place of the Socialists. -
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On a cold, cloudy evening, February 20, 1919, Zion Reformed Church in Sheboygan was reportedly "packed to the doors" to hear a concert. The highlight was to be a cantata performed by the Zion Choir, but the program listed them as "assisted" by a new entity: the Sheboygan Community Orchestra, led by John Schmidt, "who certainly needs no introduction," according to the anonymous review published the next day in the Sheboygan Press. In the months to follow, that body of players would be performing on their own, and by the time of their third concert they would be calling themselves the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra. They are still the SSO, one hundred years after their founding in the fall of 1918: the oldest symphony orchestra still functioning in the state of Wisconsin. They have performed continuously, except for pauses during the Great Depression and in the midst of World War II; and though they were called the Sheboygan Civic (Symphony) Orchestra from 1936 to 1973, there has been a continuity in both personnel and musical vision, linking one generation to the next over a 100-year span. -
By Bill Wangemann Sheboygan deserves its reputation as a conservative city, quiet and law abiding. But here are some stories from the past that have been swept under the rug or lost overboard. Venture into the mists of the Lake Michigan Triangle that have swallowed boats, planes and entire tribes. Investigate speakeasy shootings, safes burgled by a flyswatter, poisoned Christmas candy and the hoax that had militiamen firing on their own cattle. Or just sit down with some bizarre anecdotes about a hometown you though you knew, from the town’s first baseball game to the man freed from jail by a jug of whiskey to the deputy sheriff who had to enforce Nicholas Hoffman’s first bath in fifty years.
