Fred and Edwards’ story intersect with the deadliest theater fire in American history. The Iroquois Theater fire killed more than 600 people, but Manitowoc’s Bahr family survived to grow their lives in our community.

On November 24th, 1892 the Toledo, Ann Arbor and Northern Michigan Railroad started what many people thought was impossible, crossing Lake Michigan in the winter with a car ferry. The Ann Arbor #1 set out on that date from Frankfort Harbor, Michigan and was loaded down with four railroad cars filled with coal.

Theodore Churchill Shove was born in 1831 in New York and came to Manitowoc with his family in 1850. Shove studied to be an attorney and soon turned his focus to the growing banking industry. He began as a teller at the Wollmer Bank and opened his own bank, the T.C. Shove Banking in 1858. The bank operated until tragedy struck in 1892.

The cornerstone for the current Manitowoc County Courthouse was laid on Saturday, September 30, 1905. The cost of the new courthouse was not supposed to exceed $100,000 but the final price tag came to about $233,000.  After committee and construction issues of its own, the courthouse was formally opened with impressive ceremonies on November 12, 1907.  During the dedication of the new courthouse, Wittmann wrote “Anent the dedication of the new palatial residence of the county government, today, let us give a parting thought to the old structure which for half a century served the purpose and which, in that time, was the scene of many a stirring incident in matters political and the tragical sides of human life and strife.”

“From Two Creeks to Two Rivers, the woods are burning. Heavy rain is our only salvation. All the roads are impassible and the worst is not yet known,” wrote Henry Marshall of Milwaukee on October 5, 1871. Marshall was traveling to Two Rivers and boarded the steamer Sheboygan to escape the fire. The days that followed, October 7 and 8, would bring the Peshtigo Fire and the Great Chicago Fire, destroying communities, livelihoods, and families.

Days after the incident, the paper quoted Vits as saying "The damage to the building is a matter of no moment in view of the terrible toll of the tragedy. The building can be replaced, the lives lost, never..."