Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in service of the United States of America. As towns and villages throughout the country join together to remember and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, constant reminders and memorials can be found throughout our area.

The Reedsville Area Veterans Memorial Park brings together the Reedsville AMVETS Post 1032 and the American Legion Gosz-Novak Post 199 to pay tribute to those who have served in the area. A main feature of the park is a T-33A United States Air Force military aircraft.

Construction on the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company’s first World War II submarine, USS Peto, had gone well except for a snag it hit in the latter part of 1942.  In October 1942, a Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company employee was accused of wartime sabotage acts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for a defect that was found on the USS Peto.

Education has always been an important focus in our county. It was only a year after the first permanent settlers came to Manitowoc from Chicago that our county’s early pioneers began to establish schools for their children. The first school in Manitowoc County was a room in a warehouse on the corner of 6th and Commercial Streets in Manitowoc, owned by Benjamin Jones, a prominent citizen. Soon schools began popping up across townships and by the end of 1850 schools were located in Centerville, Cato, Newton, Rockland, Meeme, Mishicot, and Liberty.

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.

There’s a life-size picture of a woman, Emily (Kletzien) Underberg, hanging from a trapeze bar inside the Manitowoc County Historical Society’s McAllister House Welcome Center. Emily passed away in 2012 at the age of 96 but her legacy lives on as an inspiration for all who learn her story.

During the outbreak of influenza in 1918, there was a shortage of medical professionals across the nation. The shortage was caused in part by World War I, as many nurses were sent overseas to aid in the war effort. Another cause of shortage were nurses and doctors themselves getting sick. The shortage of medical professionals, specifically nurses, also effected northeastern Wisconsin.

The late 1800s and early 1900s brought the development of many tuberculosis clinics across the United States. Sanatoriums were created as treatment facilities for the growing number of people infected with TB, an infectious bacterial disease that mainly affects the lungs.

The Manitowoc County Board signed a resolution in 1911, marking the start of the Maple Crest Sanatorium, located north of Whitelaw. County Board Supervisor Joseph Willott Jr. called attention to the high number of tuberculosis deaths at the time. A total of 50 deaths were reported from TB in 1910. There were 250 recorded cases of TB in 1911.

Leading the movement for the creation of a TB Sanatorium were prominent local physicians – Dr. Harvey D. Brown, Dr. J.W. Coon and Dr. J.R. Currens. County Judge Chloupek also voiced his support of the project.

As the current Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic spreads and impacts lives, behavior and livelihoods around the world, readers may not realize it is not the first time a deadly disease has affected local residents.

In the History of Manitowoc County, published in 1912, local historian Dr. Louis Falge chronicles two disastrous cholera epidemics in 1850 and 1854 which affected the lives of early settlers.

With the coronavirus pandemic currently impacting our country, it seemed appropriate to discuss another illness which spread throughout the country and Manitowoc County over one hundred years ago, the Spanish flu or influenza.

Where were you on the night of March 25, 1962? If you were in the city of Manitowoc on that cold spring morning you most likely remember what Fire Chief James Danielson called “the biggest and most spectacular fire ever in Manitowoc.”

It was just around midnight when a fireman looked out a window of the old Franklin Street Station and saw flames coming from Elevator B, formally owned by the Northern Grain Company, which was located four blocks away.

In the spring of 1836, the company of Jones King and Company of Chicago, Illinois sent a group of men to Manitowoc to clear a site for settlement. The company was formed to speculate land in Northeast Wisconsin and soon worked under the name of the Manitowoc Land Company. The group landed in Manitowoc on May 1 on the schooner “Wisconsin”.

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.

From February 21-23, 1922, much of eastern Wisconsin was hit by an ice storm. Snow and freezing rain coated trees, power lines, streets and railroads, cutting off electricity, phone and telegraph service.

The storm was headlined across the state, including Manitowoc County. The Manitowoc Herald News on February 23, 1922 featured the storm and the damage it left.

General stores were the center of economic activity in many small communities in the late 1890s and early 1900s. They were place where seed and crops were bartered or sold and everything people were not able to make or raise at home or on the farm could be found. Storekeepers were leading citizens of their communities, and that was very much true for early Clarks Mills General Store proprietors Richard and Elizabeth (Hammond) Burke.

During the 1800s until the early 1900s, Kingsbridge was a booming little crossroad village. In a 1997 Pinecrest Spirit article it is said that in 1880 Kingsbridge had a population of 65 people. As settlers came to Manitowoc County, more and more little crossroad villages like Kingsbridge started to form. Crossroad villages usually included a blacksmith shop, saloon, post office, cheese factory and in many cases a church and school. Kingsbridge was not a typical crossroads village, however.

For decades, Marge Miley helped us all remember the stories, lessons, and people of days gone by through her wonderful “Milestones” column. We all tend to measure our lives and history through major events, or milestones, such as a move, marriage, birth of our children, or the passing of a loved one. As we look back at our lives, these events stand out and give us perspective.

Operating until 1994, the history of the Schuette Brothers Store, owned by the Schuette family for nearly 150 years at the corner of Eight and Jay Streets in Manitowoc tells a story that mirrors our County’s growth, values and challenges. Founded by German immigrant, John Schuette in 1849, the store passed from one generation to the next evolving along with our community.

Nearly one hundred years ago, on Tuesday, January 27, 1920, The Chronicle of Two Rivers announced Jane Addams, head of Hull House, Chicago, one of the most prominent women of the country, was booked to deliver an address at the Opera House on N. Eighth Street in Manitowoc on Thursday evening. Her lecture was free, the expenses being defrayed by local businessmen.

Reminders of our community’s past remain all around us. Framed photos, street names, and historic buildings help us share the story of our county’s founding and growth. The Dempsey name can still be seen etched in history by all who pass by the namesake’s building at the corner of North Eighth Street and Maritime Drive in downtown Manitowoc. But who was M. H. Dempsey?

On December 27, 1932 area women joined to take part in the Junior Service League's 4th Annual Charity Ball. The ball, which was held at the Manitowoc Elk's Club, was a project of the Junior Service League, which began in Manitowoc and Two Rivers in 1928.