Meeme's Liberty Pole
Long before Acuity Insurance’s adventure securing the world’s largest flagpole, the town of Meeme celebrated their Liberty Pole. On September 4, 1922 town chairman, Ferdinand Schneider, rallied the community together to raise funds and put together a dedication honoring the first liberty pole that was erected on the site in 1852.
Before the Revolutionary War liberty poles were very popular in town squares. During the war flags on the poles indicated symbols to early colonists.
In the town of Meeme, the first Liberty pole was erected by Nickolas Dittmar, a farmer, in 1852. Nickolas and his wife Caroline.
This first plain wooden pole stood until it had to be replaced by another wooden pole years later. The second pole was damaged during a sleet storm in the winter of 1922.
In a newspaper from the Manitowoc Herald on June 7, 1922 it stated, “Manitowoc County’s only ‘liberty pole’, known throughout the state and perhaps the only staff of its kind to be designated, will be raised with appropriate ceremonies sometime next month in the town of Meeme, the third pole to be erected on the same spot. This time the pole will be of steel and should last at least as long as the other two wooden ones served, about seventy years.”
The article continues to describe the location of the first pole erected by Dittmar. “The original support for old glory stood for many years at an intersection of the Sparr road south of School Hill and was known far and wide. Finally the weather got in its work and it was necessary to replace the old pole with a new one. [Dittmar] accepted aid from his neighborhood in the second raising and it was made an event in the community. “
“[Dittmar] has been dead for many years but his friends determined that the pole would be replaced and Chairman Ferdinand Schneider of the county board headed a committee to solicit funds for a steel pole.”
The Manitowoc Herald covered the dedication of the new steel flag pole with great fanfare it its edition from September 5, 1922, one day after the official dedication. It reads “Meeme made history for Manitowoc County and the State of Wisconsin Sunday when, on the same spot where, seventy years ago, forefathers of the town raised the first Liberty Pole in Wisconsin, their children dedicated a new steel shaft to stand In future years. Coincident with the dedication of the Liberty Pole the American flag was flung to the breeze midst 'the cheers of fully three thousand people who had come from many sections of the state. It was a notable occasion—an epoch in the life of a community and important in demonstrating the spirit with which the people are imbued.”
“Funds for the Liberty Pole, in amount nearly four hundred dollars, were contributed by people of the town in their pride of the possession. The pole is sixty-two feet in height and will serve its purpose for this and succeeding generations.
The flag pole still stands proudly at the intersection of Highway XX and M in the town of Meeme.