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by Jill Dopke
Front cover - Remnants of Dean's Pier in Carlton Town
The settlement of Dean's Pier was located on a bluff on the lakeshore
in Section 7E of Carlton Town in Kewaunee County, Wisconsin.
It was known by many names - Dean, Dean's Store, Dean's Mill,
The Dean Settlement, Carlton, Carlton Store, Carlton Pier(s), Forest Hill,
and Forest View. Today, only the remnants of the pilings remain
to provide proof that this small town
in northeastern Wisconsin ever existed.
(Photograph by author.)
Funded and published by the
Kewaunee County Historical Society (KCHS)
©April 2009
2009004200
Produced and edited by
Susan K. Slik.kers
ISBN: 978-1-61539-553-8
$IZ.9S
ISBH 978-\-61S39r-SS3·-,8,
.J IJ.ll.
Early History of Carlton Tov.rn (Kewaunee WI)
Historical information about town's beginnings.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Available for purchase at the Kewaunee County Historical Society Research Center, 219 Steele Street,
Algoma WI 54201, or visit the website: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/-wikchs/. For phone
orders, call 920-487-2516.
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Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ v
Introduction ........................................................................................................ vii
Prehistoric People ................................................................................................. 1
Black Earth and the Pottawatomie ........................................................................ 3
Formation of Carlton Town .................................................................................... 6
Carlton Plat ( 1838-1860)
Landowners (plat legend)
Settlements ......................................................................................................... 12
Sandy Bay
West Sandy Bay
Carlton
Woodard Comers
Tisch Mills
Norm.an
West N01man/ Koller's Comers
Zavis
Sipple's Comers
Cheese Factories ................................................................................................. 33
School Districts ................................................................................................... 36
Wayside
Norm.an
East Twin River
Carlton Graded
Thornapple
Sandy Bay
Churches, Cemeteries, and Burials ..................................................................... 43
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran
Methodist Episcopal
St. Joseph's Catholic
St. Peter's Lutheran
St. Mmy's Catholic
Norwegian Lutheran
Volunteer Cemetery
Private Burials
Indian Burial Grounds
iii
Table of Contents
continued
Page
Post Offices ......................................................................................................... 51
Sandy Bay
Sandy Bay II
Norman
Zavis
Carlton Mills; renamed Tisch Mills
Servicemen of Carlton Town ................................................................................ 54
War of 1812
Crimean War
Civil War
1890 Veterans' Schedule .................................................................................... 57
Justices of the Peace ........................................................................................... 58
Century Farms .................................................................................................... 59
Carlton Town Plat (1876) .................................................................................... 60
Carlton Town Plat (1895) ..................................................................................... 61
Bibliography ....................................................................................................... 62
Index .................................................................................................................. 66
IV
Special Thanks
and Acknowledgments
I want to acknowledge and thank all those who contributed to and assisted in the gath
ering of historical information, illustrations, and photographs as well as the production of The
Early History of Carlton Town, as follows:
Jerry Abitz; Julie Bloor; Carl Braun; Marsha Brown; June Cherveny; Dana Gruetz
macher; Louise lhlenfeldt; Virginia Johnson; C.R. Kannerwurf; Arden Koehler;
Judith Leanna; Sheila Maynor; Ben Pelishek; Mary Reckelberg; Patricia Sharpe;
Susan K. Slikkers, staff members of the Algoma Public Library - Mary Bohman,
Rita Schieser, Alyce Sutter, and Lisa VanAlstine; staff members of the Kewaunee
Public Library staff - Kathy Decker, Susan Grosshuesch, Bonnie Joski, and Linda
Vogel; and Jane Zimmerman.
And a special thank you to my husband, Gene, for his encouragement, his advice, and
his patience.
Note: The history of the town of Carlton continues to be a "work in progress." If you have
additional facts, photographs, and/ or corrections to the information as presented, or know
of stories and/ or information handed down orally or available in publications that are not
included in this book that you would like to share, please feel free to contact the Kewaunee
County Historical Society.
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INTRODUCTION
The following history focuses on the early history of Carlton Town from prehis
toric times to about 1900 A.O., and was gathered from numerous sources - land,
vital, and court records, newspaper and local historical accounts, family histories,
and maps. Because records were not always kept in the early days or have been
lost, some information may be missing, and the dates and spellings of names may
A vary depending on the source. I have tried to sort through and present the most ac
curate information with the records available to me to date.
Although I have included references to some of the early saloons, there are few
written records. I have also included a list of cheese factories, but no definitive list
exists. Names and locations of saloons and cheese factories were not always re
corded, and their names changed over time as did ownership; many were referred to
simply as saloons or cheese factories in early accounts.
By way of information, it is important to note that the spellings of Bohemian
names, especially, vary widely. Although it can be confusing, I have tried to pre
serve the integrity of the original document by utilizing the same spelling as the
source. In addition, occasionally names of individuals have been used even when no
first names could be definitively attached to the surname.
Obviously, some of the early settlers were also women. In an effort to both
honor and respect them, I have tried to include the names of the wives, when avail
able, of the early settlers. These women worked alongside their husbands and were
important - often crucial - to their family's survival on the frontier.
vii
viii
PREHISTORIC PEOPLE
The human story of Wisconsin begins about 12,000 years ago after the last ice
age. The timeline below traces the history of these prehistoric people in Wisconsin.
500 Generations in Wisconsin - An Archaeological TimeJlne
1!000. u_oco. io.ooo· 11000 • 7.C(JQ. 6 000· a.ooo - .i.coo .
1•.oo:> 12.000 uaoo 9,000 0000 7. 000 iz_(l':JQ , coo
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Wisconsin's archaeological timeline. (Image from the Wisconsin Historical Society collection.)
Palecrlndian Period - As the glaciers retreated northward, Paleo-Indians en
tered Wisconsin and hunted woolly mammoth, mastodon, and bison. They created
tools made of stone, hunted and fished with spears, and gathered wild plants.
Archaic Period - The climate warmed about 8,000 years ago during the Ar
chaic period, and the large Ice Age mammals were replaced by animals found in the
state today. People lived in small family groups in caves, rock shelters, along rivers,
and around lakes and wetlands; they harvested wild plants, nuts, and acorns. They
also mined copper which they dug from pits in Upper Michigan to make tools, and
