SHOREWOOD
from the river to the lake
News from the Shorewood Historical Society
The “400” crosses the
railroad trestle at
Capitol Dr.
(Now the Oak Leaf Trail)
IN THIS ISSUE
PAGE 1
Ghost Train
PAGE 2
From the President
Sheldon Room Schedule
Program Announcement
Riding the “400”
PAGE 3
The Blue Hole
PAGE 4&5
Thomas Bare Story
Contact Information
PAGE 6&7
Cement Mills
Hubbard Mystery
PAGE 8
Ghost Train
Newsletter Editor:
Margaret Sankovitz
[email protected]
2016 Issue 4
HERE COMES
THE GHOST TRAIN!
Schedule of Events:
Community Gathering for First Run
of The Ghost Train and Lighting of
the Capitol Drive Bridge
Monday, October 31 (Halloween) 6 –
7:30 p.m. Capitol Drive will be closed to
traffic from Wilson to Morris.
The Ghost Train will “run” at least twice
at about 7 p.m. A short program will be
held before the train run from a stage in
front of Culver’s.
Culver’s is preparing a Ghost Train flavor
of the day and will serve free coffee!
Ghost Train Reception
Metro Market Café, October 31
(Halloween) 7:30 – 9 p.m. There will be a
short program about 8:15 p.m.
Seasonal refreshments will be served
The Ghost Train lighting designer Marty
Peck and representatives from the
Outdoor Art Shorewood Committee and
the Historical Society will be on hand to
answer questions. North Shore Bank is
sponsoring a Costume Contest. Wear a
train related costume and register for the
contest when you arrive at Metro Market.
are located along the Oak Leaf Trail, just
south of the bridge.
Train History Signs
Return to the bridge area in early
November to view the four train history
signs developed by the Shorewood
Historical Society in conjunction with
The Ghost Train project. Signs about the
“400” train and The Ghost Train project
will be under the bridge near the Baker’s
Square parking lot entrance. Two more
signs that tell the story of the role trains
played in the development of Shorewood
History of the Chicago &
North Western Railway
Large panels that convey the history of
the C&NW Railway, and its “400” train
in particular, are currently on display
in the adult section of the Shorewood
Library. The colorful panels are on
loan from Trainfest (America’s Largest
Operating Model Railroad Show) and
will be on display through the first week
in November.
1
The Ghost Train Schedule
The Ghost Train will run each evening
about 7 p.m. (once in each direction)
during the winter. The schedule will
change seasonally and times will be
posted on the Village of Shorewood web
site. Bring your family and visitors to
view the train. Remember that it will
have a different look in rain, snow or fog
because of light reflection off of whatever
is in the air.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
By the time you read this newsletter, construction of The
Ghost Train should be well underway. The first “run” of
the train is scheduled for Halloween (see schedule on p.1).
We have provided a great deal of time, energy and financial
support to this public art project and have great hope that
lighting the Oak Leaf Trail bridge will provide a colorful
and entertaining entrance to the west side of our village.
For us, the project is already a success because of the
connection the Shorewood Public Art committee chose
to emphasize between the art installation and Shorewood
history. We have prepared Shorewood train history for
distribution, spoken to a number of groups, encouraged
school groups to develop train related projects and assisted
Culver’s with a train related display. We also developed
the four interpretive train history signs that will be placed
near the bridge. Recent donations in memory of Michael
Spector made possible, and encouraged, our major
investment in this public education project.
After The Ghost Train settles into its daily schedule, we will
return to other educational efforts such as our digitization
of pictures and development of story banners. We also are
starting a much needed review of our archives to assess
our use of space, our accessibility to residents and our
collection policies.
Please contact me if you are interested in becoming more
involved in Historical Society activities. We can use people
with a couple hours to spare and those who wish to make a
weekly or monthly commitment.
Karen de Hartog
414-964-5258 • [email protected]
SHELDON ROOM SCHEDULE
PROGRAM ANNOUNCEMENT
Determining how to make the best use of the Sheldon
Room, our public room in the Shorewood Village
Center, is part of a larger assessment of our archives
facilities and policies. We are currently looking at ways
to make better use of our space and increase public
accessibility. Because so few residents currently make
use of the Sheldon Room resources, the room will be
open on a limited schedule until the end of the year:
Oct. 12 & 26, Nov. 9 & 30, and Dec. 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Shorewood Senior Resource Center Lunch Program –
November 16, 2016
Limestone, Trains, Parks and Apartments: The unique
history of a narrow strip of Shorewood, from Wilson
Drive to the River
Speaker: Karen de Hartog
For lunch reservations, call 414.847.2727; Everyone is
welcome to attend the program at 1 p.m.
RIDING THE “400”
Marty Peck, the designer of The Ghost Train, spoke at Men’s Morning at the Senior
Resource Center. A member of the audience, Art Schmitz, remembered riding the
Chicago & North Western “400” train from Eau Claire to Milwaukee several times.
One trip was made on an extremely cold day with sub-zero temperatures. The train
stopped at Wyeville, in central Wisconsin, and was sitting there for what seemed
like a long time. Finally, a conductor came through and advised everyone to zip
up there jackets and put on their gloves as they no longer had heat. The throw bar
that connected the engine to the passenger cars had broken due to the extreme
cold and the engine had left the station without the cars! Eventually a small service
engine arrived to tow the cars and the very cold passengers into Milwaukee.
Jim Sankovitz remembers riding the “400” from Milwaukee to St. Paul when he
was a student at Marquette University in the early-mid 50s. He wore his Army
ROTC uniform so he could be accorded the discount offered to “men in uniform.”
(He also rode the Hiawatha train of the Chicago Milwaukee St Paul Railway, also
wearing his uniform.)
2
THE
M.L. “Pete” Rodgers, Shorewood High
School graduate, wrote his memories
of Shorewood in Spring, 1996, while a
resident of Arizona. Rodgers wrote, “I
am doing these (remembrances) purely
by memory and may have made errors
or overlooked important events.” This
excerpt from his remembrances was
published in the July-September, 1999,
Shorewood Historical Society Newsletter.
“Pete” Rodgers died in December, 1997.
** Note the discrepancy in “Pete’s” memory
of Cement Lake and The Blue Hole being the
same lake and the description of two lakes
-Cement and The Blue Hole (p 7).
While not in Shorewood, Estabrook
Park is almost part of it. Forgotten in
the rush of today’s quickly changing
world are such landmarks as the
“Mystery House” (south of the Channel
6 tower and long-razed), the Pig ‘n
Whistle (now the site of Harbor Chase)
and “The Blue Hole” – all adjacent to
the Park.
The Blue Hole, an azure blue lake
about two to three acres in size, was
bounded on the east by a six foot levee
that separated the lake from the river
in a semi-circular curve.
The west side was bounded by an
extension of North Humboldt Ave.
Near the lake was the location of
the Wisconsin Humane Society
(now located on W. Wisconsin Ave.,
Milwaukee).
The lake was almost a circle with deep
slopes on most sides. The blue water
contrasted with the muddy colored
waters of the river. People regularly
fished from its banks, a source of
family food during the years of the
Great Depression.
I avoided visiting the area with my
trusty 1939 Elgin bike because my
grandmother and her neighbors
warned me of the dangers of the
lake. I assume my parents figured I
would never ride some three miles
from our north side home to The
Blue Hole, so they never warned me,
but grandmother (who watched me
while my mother worked) and the
BLUE HOLE
neighbors – oh boy, did they lay it on!
They said that almost every week around
five – or maybe 25 - children were sucked
into the “whirlpool” in the center of the
lake; the steep banks were slick mud
that one couldn’t climb if one slipped
and fell in. In addition, the water was
so cold that one would not last over five
minutes, and the bottom, which is over
100 feet down – or maybe 1,000 feet – is
littered with the bodies and bones of the
numerous children who drowned there in
the last 50 years (1889-1939).
If this didn’t frighten children, nothing
would. I was horrified at going within
a mile of the area. When I was 12
I got my first introduction to the
lake. Some friends goaded me into
accompanying them to the site. Not
wanting to be a sissy, I gave in and
went to the dreaded Blue Hole with
my friends.
We rode our bikes around the
perimeter and it seemed safe enough
until a tough kid stopped me and
pushed me down the fatal bank. I did
go in and was quickly rescued by a
fisherman with his cane pole. I rode
home at high speed, alone and wet.
I was traumatized for years by the
dunking. And by my grandmother’s
accurate assessment of the situation.
Later, I showed my children the area
and told them the stories. They said,
“You must have been really gullible,”
and I was. As I grew older, I found
many other local people had been
told, or heard of, the folklore and scare
stories about the lake.
In the 1970s the truth replaced the
folklore. The University of WisconsinMilwaukee was experiencing growth
and needed more parking area. A
deal was struck with the Milwaukee
County Park Commission allowing
UWM to use the area of Cement Lake,
commonly known as The Blue Hole.
The newspaper article announcing
the project stirred questions all over
the area – “How can they drain a
bottomless pit?” “What will the
authorities do with the hundreds, if
not thousands, of children’s bones
and remains?” “What about the
railroad train that was trapped when
the levee broke, or was it a spring
that was exposed by errant digging
machinery?”
The Milwaukee Journal printed a
history of the lake – in the 1880s to
early 1900s the area was extensively
mined and quarried for limestone.
The lake was called “Cement Lake.”
Lime is an ingredient of cement. (See
pp 6 & 7 for the Cement Mills story
and pictures) There was a spur of the
Chicago and Northwestern RR, still
in existence behind the Humane
Society in the 1970s, that had used to
haul the limestone (thus the “lost train”
connection.)
The lake was actually a water-filled
quarry, not a natural phenomenom.
A short time later, the Journal
announced that a contractor would
start draining the lake by pumping.
I would grab a Yankeeburger and
coke at the “Pig” and drive to the site
and eat my lunch while watching the
operation.
One day after weeks of pumping,
a strange object started to emerge.
What excitement – was this the
locomotive of the missing train?
After more pumping the mystery was
solved. The object turned out to be a
fairly well preserved, and very large,
turn of the century oak wagon, no
doubt used to haul limestone.
The final draining revealed a limestone
quarry about 15-20 feet deep,
perfectly flat on the bottom. The
water that filled it was from natural
springs or spring floods. The blue
effect was due to the white flat bottom
and the clear impounded water.
Now long since a parking lot, the
folklore has been forgotten by most
people. It is thought now that these
horror stories were created to keep
children away from a potentially
dangerous area.
3
THOMAS BARE
Founding Settler - Fiendish Murderer?
by Mara Kuhlmann
When the new Ghost Train (1) public
art exhibit passes over Capitol Drive
on Halloween this year, it will be
following the train right-of-way that
may never have existed if Shorewood’s
founding settler, Thomas Bare, had
gotten his way. Shorewood village
lore has long told the story of the
Shorewood Apple Orchard Standoff
(2) where in the 1880’s Bare held
train track workers at gunpoint,
stopping progress of the train tracks
through what is now Estabrook Park,
but was then an apple orchard on
Bare’s 90 acre lot. Progress on the
railway only continued after a railway
official of the Northwestern Union
Railway arrived and compensated the
landowner for the damage to his apple
trees.
History shows that this incident
was not the first time that Thomas
Bare’s temper got the better of
him, and he resorted to threatened
(or real) violence to resolve his
concerns. In July, 1866, 150 years
ago, Thomas Bare was bound over
on murder charges for murdering
his neighbor’s wife over a dispute
about her dogs running loose on his
property. Newspapers as far away as
Sacramento reported on this story of
the “Fiendish Murder - A Woman Cut
to Death With a Scythe in the Hands
of a Neighbor”.(3)
Thomas Bare is known to be the first
European settler of what is now the
village of Shorewood. (4) In 1841
when he purchased his land, it was
far off the beaten path, with all of the
land between his property and what
is now downtown Milwaukee covered
4
by heavy timber. In fact when two
years later there was a smallpox
outbreak, the Milwaukee board
of supervisors chose to create the
hospital (or pest house) near Bare’s
property specifically because it was
“so far from a residence as to justify
no remonstrance to its use”. The Bares
supplied fresh milk to this smallpox
hospital through a careful hand-off of
a milk can placed on a stump in the
forest, which Mrs. Bare would then
take, fill, and return to the stump
without risking physical contact
with the hospital staff. (5) The Bares
learned to operate independently in
their isolated frontier home.
Twenty-five years later in 1866 more
homes and farms had been settled,
but it was not until 1900 that there
were enough people in the area to
meet the minimum 300 residents
needed to found a separate village
of East Milwaukee. (6) It was in
this sparsely-populated settlement
where Thomas Bare’s run-in with his
neighbor occurred on July 19, 1866.
In a graphic account, the Milwaukee
Sentinel described how Bare killed his
neighbor, Mrs. Hayes:
“A couple of dogs belonging to Mrs.
Hayes ran into the field where Bare
was mowing. Bare started in pursuit
with his scythe and cut one in two.
Mrs. Hayes ran to save the other,
when Bare told her that if she did not
clear out he would serve her the same
way. She stopped to pick up the dog,
when he struck her with the point of
the scythe, inflicting a terrible wound,
which bled profusely. Mrs. Hayes
started for the next field, in which
her husband was at work, but was
pursued and knocked down by Bare.
He then either struck her on the back
with the heel of his scythe or with
his foot, injuring her spine severely.
The woman was taken to her home
and the wound dressed, but the flow
of blood from her head could not be
staunched and she bled profusely
until her death on Sunday night.”
When later arrested, Bare declared
that the wounds inflicted upon the
woman were “purely accidental and
that he bore no malice toward her.”
(7)
As told by the newspaper story, this
sounds like an open-and-shut case,
but surprisingly Thomas Bare was
acquitted of all charges. His case
was tried before a Grand Jury in
early August, and it was found that
the blow struck by Bare was “purely
accidental, and that, therefore, he
could not be held for murder….The
testimony revealed the fact that the
woman was given to sudden outbursts
of passion, and her death probably
resulted from one of those, produced
by the dispute with Bare.” (8)
One can speculate why Thomas
Bare was not convicted of any crime.
Perhaps the newspaper story of July
24 describing the incident was overdramatized and embellished. The
truth of the events may have come out
in the courtroom setting. Another
contributing factor may have been
Bare’s strong legal representation by
the former Governor of Wisconsin Edward Salomon. (9) The fact that
Salomon agreed to represent Bare
may be related to the fact that Bare’s
son James enlisted in the Civil
War in 1862 during a time when
Governor Salomon was under direct
pressure from Abraham Lincoln to
provide recruits.(10)
Perhaps the most likely possibility
is that Thomas Bare’s testimony
was more heavily-weighted because
he was a man. The 1860’s was
an era when laws offered little to
no protection from crime against
women. From the newspaper
coverage it seems clear that they
took the word of Thomas Bare that
this was an accident, discrediting
Elizabeth Hayes by arguing that
she “was given to sudden outbursts
of passion, and her death probably
resulted from one of these, produced
by the dispute with Bare.” (11)
Whatever the story behind his
acquittal, Thomas Bare remained a
free man and returned to his wife
and six children, living out the rest
of his 84 years in the Shorewood
area. His grave, and that of his oldest
daughter Jane can be found at the
Union Cemetery just north of the
current Bayshore Town Mall on Port
Washington Rd. (12) He died 130
years ago this month on Oct 28, 1886,
just three days before Halloween.
Mara Kuhlmann is a Life member of
the Shorewood Historical Society, a
resident of Shorewood since 1970 and
a Shorewood High School grad. We
encourage other members to submit
articles for the newsletter on topics of
interest to the writer and our reading
audience. Contact editor Margaret
Sankovitz or Karen de Hartog if you
would like to submit an article.
1858 Map of Shorewood area (Town of Milwaukee.
The Bare (Baer) farm is in the middle of the map (circled).
Footnotes
(1) Ghost Train Shorewood Historical Society
Newsletter 2016 Issue 2
(2) Shorewood Apple Standoff - Milwaukee
Notebook Aug 18, 2014 by John Swanson
(3) Fiendish Murder, Chicago Tribune, July 25,
1865
(4) Shorewood Historical Society
(5) “Early Settlers” paper read by Peter Johnston,
Sept 6, 1897, published in Early Milwaukee,
Papers from the Archives of the Old Settlers
Club of Milwaukee Country, 1830-1890.
First published 1916, republished 1977 by
Roger Hunt, Madison, WI
(6) July 24, 1866 Milwaukee Sentinel
(7) Aug 7, 1866 Milwaukee Sentinel
(8) July 31, 1866 Milwaukee Sentinel
“Examination of Bare”
(9) The Papers & Writings of Abraham Lincoln
Volume 6. www.gutenberg.org “Call for
300,000 Volunteers, July 1, 1802”
(10) August 10, 1866 Milwaukee Sentinel
(11) US Federal Censuses 1850, 1860, 1870,
1880
US Find a Grave Index 1600s - Current
Shorewood Historical Society
3930 N. Murray Ave.
Shorewood WI 53211
www.shorewoodhistory.org
Email: [email protected]
The Sheldon Room, located in the
Shorewood Village Center
(3920 N. Murray Ave.)
is open to visitors and researchers on
Wednesdays, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Sheldon Room Telephone:
414-847-2726
The Shorewood Historical Society is a
nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization.
Your donations and in-kind gifts are
tax-deductible as allowed by law.
5
“NEW” PICTURES OF THE
MILWAUKEE CEMENT MILLS
6
At the invitation of the County
Historical Society, we have a
new venue for telling Shorewood
history: the Kilbourntown
House in Estabrook Park. Our
first display tells the story of
the Milwaukee Cement Mills.
The display was in place for
the annual Doors Open tour in
September. We will add other
stories to our “Shorewood
Room” when the Kilbourntown
House re-opens in the spring.
While we were planning our
display we found “new to
us” pictures of the mills and
the surrounding area in the
collection of the Milwaukee
County Library. All pictures
printed here are used with
permission of the Library.
It is hard to imagine that the
area we now know as Estabrook
Park and a biking trail was once
a busy, and probably noisy,
industrial area where up to
100 people were employed
to remove limestone from
the Milwaukee River bed and
surrounding bluffs and turn
the limestone into natural
cement. From 1876 to 1909, the
Milwaukee Cement Company
produced a huge quantity of
cement from mills on both sides
of the Milwaukee River, and
shipped their product by rail for
use all over the mid-west.
MILWAUKEE CEMENT COMPANY
MILL #1
Built in 1876, the first Milwaukee Cement
Company mill was located on the east side
of the Milwaukee River at the end of Gruber
St., (currently E. Congress St.) just west of
the railroad tracks.
By 1891 Milwaukee Cement Company’s
annual production was 475,000 barrels
(about 125 million lbs.) making Milwaukee
the largest producer of natural cement in the
United States. Note the conveyer on the left
moving quarried limestone to the top of the
kiln.
The product produced in this mill was
regarded as the standard for natural cement
in the United States. Sales extended through
half of the country and Milwaukee cement
was used for bridges across the Mississippi
and Missouri Rivers.
MILWAUKEE CEMENT COMPANY MILL #2
With business booming, the company acquired land on the west bank
of the river and built a second mill just north of present day Capitol
Drive in 1888.
The cement works were massive – producing 530 tons each day – but
short-lived. The kilns operated for only about 25 years. The invention
of the rotary kiln made the manufacture of Portland cement cheaper
and more profitable than the manufacture of the natural cement. By
1909 Mills # 1 and #2 were closed.
Because the river did the work of topsoil removal, the company
diverted the channel and quarried the riverbed, resulting in a pair of
man-made lakes. The largest was named Cement Lake and the smaller
was named Blue Hole. Both were used for swimming after the mills
closed, but dangerous drop-offs and underwater ledges and caves
resulted in numerous deaths. Blue Hole (on the west side of the river,
across from the current dog park) was filled in the 1930s. Cement Lake
was used as a rubbish dump in the 1920’s. Eventually it was paved over,
and the area is currently the UWM parking lot.
Approximately 100 men were needed to remove the limestone rock
from horizontal and vertical quarry shafts. Rock was moved to the mills
on small train cars pulled by engines like “Flora.”
HUBBARD MYSTERY
In our last issue, we asked if anyone
knew the story behind a concrete
square, obviously old, near the river in
Hubbard Park. We speculated that it
might have something to do with the old
amusement park.
Byrda Raffe says she believes there
was once a bubbler in that location in
Hubbard Park.
Sue Rebholz didn’t have a guess about
the square, but related a story about the
house across the street from her home
on the corner of Morris and Menlo at
the Hubbard Park entrance.
The house was moved from the 3900
block of Murray when then the block
was being redeveloped with several
apartments being erected. When the
basement for the house at its new site
was dug a big chunk of concrete was
found and it was surmised that it was
part of a foundation of a ride at the
amusement park.
7
3930 North Murray Avenue
Shorewood, WI 53211
Here Comes
the
Ghost Train!
October 31 • 6 – 7:30 p.m. • Capitol Drive Bridge
HALLOWEEN EVENING