News and opinion from Washington Island and surrounding islands
By Dick Purinton
The Kalmbach Property
Originally an Island lad, Albert Kalmbach (1851-1940), and his wife, Dora (Higgins) (1859-1948), lived most of their adult lives in Sturgeon Bay. There, he operated a fish wholesale and retail business on the east side of the bay. They had four children: Maurice Frederick (1881-1961), Mabel Kalmbach Spencer (1883-1970), Ethel Kalmbach Harris (1887-1962), and Jessie Kalmbach Chase (1879-1970).
Daughter Jessie, an artist, married Wilfred Earle Chase, and they lived in Madison. Through Jessie’s letters written about her father and his family we learn more about the Kalmbach home life on Washington Island.
Jessie’s artworks, many of them landscapes, are well-known, with several of her paintings selected for the Miller Art Center permanent collection. Two large murals by Jessie are among the most frequently viewed of any artworks in Door County. From the date of installation in 1942 in the Sturgeon Bay High School auditorium, until 1970 when the old school building was razed to make room for a new, modern City Hall, her bird’s-eye-view paintings of two Door County scenes often distracted students (including me) during study halls or student assemblies. She interpreted the working Door County farmland and the bayside waterfront. A rendition of her own father’s fishing operation can be seen with gill net reels and fishing boats, just beyond the railroad bridge, and farther west, shipyards that have been a staple of Sturgeon Bay industry for decades. Her irresistible, friendly scenes were carefully removed in 1970 and rehung inside the entry to the new Door County Library, to be viewed daily by visitors.
Jessie’ s remembrances, the accounts of her father, mother and grandmother, Christina, can be found in her hand-written letters addressed to Mary Richter. They provide us with glimpses into the Island’s past. Here is an excerpt from a 1948 letter:
“The Kalmbach home as we remember it in our childhood was a place of pure delight. Partly because of our beloved grandmother. The old house with the long porch which overlooked Detroit Harbor, the beaches, woods, small islands, a row boat, congenial cousins and a flower garden formally laid out which we all so loved. This, by the way, was something almost magical. Perhaps due to the rocky soil or some unknown reason, that garden kept on blooming, and it still does, though she died in1902. – Grandmother had only two recreations…to sit awhile and read…I think her Bible usually, or the book of Luther’s sermons… or to work in her flower garden. Here is a sketch of her garden as I remember it in its prime. It is just about a miracle to me that so many of her beloved flowers are still there.”
Mary Richter, it should be noted, continued her gardening spot by growing roses and raising a vegetable garden in that very same location where Christina Kalmbach enjoyed working the soil. A slight, natural hollow is found there, and nearby is an old Wolf River apple tree that provides apples and shade. The sandy soil within that pocket warms from the midday sun, protected from the cool lake breezes that habitually drift inland on warm summer days. Jessie included a sketch from memory of her grandmother’s garden in her letter to Mary, noting the placement of various plants and flowers.
Koken ownership
The Koken family began to enjoy the former Kalmbach property after Walter F. Koken purchased the land and buildings from Albert Kalmbach in September 1913. Unfortunately, letters of correspondence between family members that might give us a closer look into family summers on the former Kalmbach property are not to be found. However, a series of excellent B & W photos from that era helps us to better imagine what summers might have been like for children and adults upon arriving from their homes in the St. Louis area.
One exception to this information void on the Koken summers is an illustrated story written by Staff Historian Brennan Christianson of the Door County Maritime Museum (DCMM) and published in the Spring 2022 issue of the BEACON. This story was based largely on a 1994 letter written by Ernest Koken to the museum. Descriptions within that story help us to know better the patriarch Walter Koken, owner of a leading barber supply business in St. Louis, as he oversaw construction of his fine 23-ft pleasure craft named Berylune.
The Berylune project began in 1916. William Jepson, the owner and operator of a freight boat, and later a ferry operator, was engaged by Walter to build a boat following specifications he provided, according to the story. But then, after more than a year of disappointingly slow progress, and with Jepson back at the summer freighting business, it was Walter himself who finished the project. It was a hands-on push by one with precious little time to spare during his 1917 Island vacation days.
Completed in time to be enjoyed that summer, the beautifully built craft with pleasant lines and constructed primarily of Missouri-grown white oak, became a familiar craft in Detroit Harbor. In the photo on the Beacon cover, the Berylune is shown loaded down with lumber and bundles of shingles. Following years of Koken ownership, there were several other owners (retired Coast Guardsman Phil Carlson was one). Eventually, Judge John C. Jaekels, while visiting Detroit Harbor in his motor yacht, purchased and then transported the boat from the Island by trailer to Green Bay. There, in 1978, a long but careful fifteen-year restoration was begun by Jaekels’ friend, David Nelson. In 1993 Jaekels made the decision to donate the Berylune to the DCMM. Today, the boat is a featured display in the Gills Rock Maritime Museum.
Buildings added to the property
In addition to remodeling on the old Kalmbach homestead with its prominent stone chimney, numerous outbuildings plus a boathouse were constructed during the Koken years. It is very likely that those additional living quarters (many having cedar shingle siding) were in response to an increase in Koken family members, with each family unit seeking to gain a bit of space and privacy.
One of the buildings shown in photos accompanying this story, with its multiple windows, was (and still is today) a storage shed. During the Koken years it also functioned as a workshop as evidenced by a poured cement base with heavy, threaded studs protruding. The cement pad occupies a portion of the southwest corner where overhead are foundations for belts and pulleys, indications that a generator had at one time powered Walter’s saw or other woodworking tools. Like several of the other structures built during the Koken era, rather than being built over an enclosed, outer foundation, this shed rests upon stone piers approximately 16 inches in height (perfect for a fox den underneath). A smooth hardwood floor provides a finished touch to an otherwise rustic building.
Upon Walter Koken’s death, and perhaps in the years leading up to that event, family use of the property had lessened for financial reasons, records indicate, but no doubt also for the diverging interests among family members. Walter’s heirs were listed in a May 24, 1937 court document following his death. They were: widow, Alice W. Koken, listed as “Executrix”; his children—Ellen Koken Fox, Ann Woodward Koken, Jane Koken Maddern, John Charles Koken and Ernest E. Koken. In years since that era, including up to the present day, Koken descendants have continued to visit the island each summer. Today, their activities are centered primarily in Jensenville, in the vicinity of the Washington Hotel.
Girls camp
Following Walter Koken’s passing in 1937, and during a period of approximately four summers, a girls summer camp was established on leased Koken property. The storage shed referred to above became a bunkhouse, and names were written in pencil or crayon by the girls, along with the years they were there, in numerous places throughout the building.
We had the pleasure a few years ago to visit with Jane Weiss, one of the girls who spent several summers at Camp Shuh-Shuh-gah (named for the Blue Heron). Jane, now age 97, resides in Sister Bay. Memories of her summers spent at camp remain among the most vivid highlights of her life. Jane showed us a postcard she wrote as a young girl, begging her mother to let her stay longer: “Dear Mommie – I’m having the Bestest time anyone could ever have. Do you think it would be possible for me to stay up at camp another week or so? I’d love to, if the situation fit your pocketbook comfortably and you wouldn’t have to go without too many of the things you’d like to have.” (Jane explained to us that her father at one time had an auto dealership in Evanston, but he lost it during the Depression, and that made her camp experience all the more special to her.)
(brochure & photo of Jane & camp girls here…)
A document filed with Door County Clerk of Court dated Sept. 1940, indicates foreclosure on the Koken property for unpaid mortgage. Principal and interest, solicitor’s fees, taxes, insurance and miscellaneous costs amounted to $1836.09. On 27 Sep. 1944—the former Kalmbach / Koken property was purchased by Paul and Arni Richter. Then, in 1951, Arni and Mary Richter proceeded with plans to build their new home south of the old Kalmbach house.
Property’s oldest residents
It would be quite inappropriate to assume that no one lived on this land prior to the Kalmbachs or Kokens. Archeological records supported by carbon dating indicate there were native families living here, perhaps early members of the Ho Chunk nation, camping on these shores as long ago as 500 BC (BCE).
Evidence can be found today in bits of pottery, shaped stone tools, and darkened earth where campfires and lodges were located. Uncovered, too, by the archeologists were skeletons, both human and animal, at locations within several hundred feet of the Kalmbach House. Such artifacts were discovered during archeological digs by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1968 and 1973. Close examination of artifacts, along with further exploratory test digs in 2010, led to a doctoral thesis on this encampment site, considered by archeologists to have been their seasonal home—although that remains an educated guess—with occupations that may have been inconsistent over the years. The centuries of inhabitants traced to this property—its stones, soil, trees, insects and animals—reflect a unique shoreline that supported both natural and human history.
