Oh, Canada

Knowing that we were going to a take a road trip out east for a wedding, we planned to stop at Niagara Falls.  Many of those who knew of our trip recommended this stop.  Photos prepared me for the appearance of the falls, but what I was not prepared for was Niagara Falls, Ontario.  I would never have guessed that this city of about 88,000 would be Wisconsin Dells on steroids.  I don't know what it is about the human race that we take a perfectly good facet of nature and commercialize the area around it.

American Falls at Niagara Falls

 I think commercialization of such areas is that the natural experience at Niagara Falls could be captured in a few hours, most often less than a day.  Therefore, it is often necessary to find other activities.  The commercial arcades provide the other activities.  This is true whether it be water parks at Wisconsin Dells, or the arcades at Niagara Falls, Ontario.  Commercialization is part of the human experience.  Since early times, even pre-settlement when roaming tribes were the norm, humans have been trading goods and services.  Cities originally developed, in part, as trading centers. More modern cities have developed based other activities, and it seems that much of Niagara Falls, Ontario is based on tourism.  The New York side is pretty much dominated by Niagara Falls State Park, the customs area and a large development.  The Canadian side well outdoes the United States side in brass commercialization, at least from what I had seen. 

Horseshoe Falls at Niagara Falls, as taken from Maid of the Mist boat
Notice the rainbow over the man's head.

We had found a hotel room on the Canadian side, so we first crossed the border into Canada. After checking into the hotel we made the walk over to Niagara Falls State Park.  What I did not expect was to have to pay $1.00 to leave Canada and walk over to the United States, I guess it is the Canadian version of a pedestrian toll.  We spent a good number of hours at the State Park, walking and viewing the varied falls from different angles. Being a hot and humid day we appreciated the mist blowing on to shore as we viewed Horseshoe Falls.  On our way to Niagara Falls we stopped at a New York Service Center and the New York agent was very helpful and provided a map of the area.  The agent also noted to be prepared that about the only thing you can do without a fee in the park is walk and view the falls. We decided to give into commercialization and do one paid activity at the state park.  You pay for a tram, so we walked; and you can pay to walk down and go behind, or right next to one of the falls, or do a boat ride into the mist.  We chose to do the boat ride into the mist of Horseshoe Falls.  To avoid having to exchange currency, we purchased our tickets on the US side for Maid of the Mist.  It is a twenty to thirty minute boat ride and we were as close as about 150 feet to one side of the falls, at least from what the ship captain responded to my inquiry.  There was so much water spray that it was hard to tell where we were actually positioned.

Street Scene, Niagara Falls, Ontario

After our boat excursion, and dinner at Hard Rock Cafe, just outside the park, we walked back to Canada (no fee to leave the US) and found ourselves in a long line of pedestrians being questioned and waiting to get into that independent country.  Upon being questioned, the Canadian agent seemed baffled as to why we got a hotel in Canada only to make our way to the state park across the border. "Why do with a car when walking will do," seemed like a response that I did not wish to provide the Canadian border agent.

American Falls lite up at night

That evening as dark approached we could see the waterfalls lit up by powerful flood lights.  Then, showing how much of a night owl we have become (yes, my wife and I were up past 11:00 pm for two nights in a row!) we watched the fire works set off from the Canadian side over the river, and state park.  We then walked along the full length of the Canadian side early the next morning.

Yes, Niagara Falls, Ontario even has an upside down house

When walking the side in the early morning we could contrast the activity, or how little there was, with what it was like the night before.  The night before, one could hardly make any headway on a sidewalk, with all the people responding to the varied arcades, noises, loudspeakers, bright signs and other businesses.  It was an amazing amount of stimulating senses overload.  As I said, this place is like the Dells on Steroids.  It had a wide range of people, and it certainly seemed as if English was the minority language, and not to French spoken in the Province to the east.  There were a large number of Asians, and many, many persons from India.  There were others who appeared to speak Eastern European languages.  I guess this is the place to vacation. Any honeymoon couples were likely embedded in the mass of humanity that slowly made its way along the sidewalks of this Canadian city.  Haunted houses, wax museum, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and almost any fast, or fast casual food place imaginable could be had within a few blocks, not to mention probably every major hotel having a presence to capture what we had become a part--the tourist crowd.

The large, iconic Ferris Wheel in Niagara Falls, Ontario 

The amount of commercial development in Niagara Falls, Ontario was attracted by the natural feature of falling water collectively known as Niagara Falls.  The falls are said to be eroding at a rate of of over 1 foot a year, and in the last 12,000 years the falls have moved upstream seven miles. Seven miles, even if over 12,000 years seems quite a bit to me The last glacier was receding about that time frame).  Flow regulation has reduced the erosion rate of the falls at present time from that experienced a century earlier.   The rock over which the water cascades consists of limestone, the same stone, that makes up Door County and the Niagara Escarpment along the eastern shore of Lake Winnebago. This rock is crumbled, or really disintegrated, by a chemical reaction with water.  It is said that the falls will slowly make its way to be part of Lake Erie in about 23,000 years.  Four of the five Great Lakes, accommodating 20% of the world's fresh water supply feed the falls at Niagara.  Oh, Canada, I did not think it possible that a place could outdo the Wisconsin Dells for commercialization and crassness, but you provided one indeed, hey.  In 23,000 years when the falls are no more, and Niagara Falls, Ontario is but a remnant to a future archaeologist, there will be archaeological evidence of a civilization that liked to eat, drink and do odd activities.

Horseshoe Falls on Monday morning

Disembark, the Hawel Family Arrives in the United States

The air hung like a heavy wet blanket over the port of Baltimore as the Hawel family completed the penultimate leg of their journey to their new home near Jefferson, WI in the United States.  It was on this date 150 years ago, July 18, 1868, that Anna and Josef Hawel and their eight living children disembarked the SS Baltimore in Baltimore, Maryland.  It was a crossing that took over half the month of July, and would see them travel across the often turbulent Atlantic Ocean from Bremen, Germany to Baltimore, Maryland their port of arrival in the United States. 

Baltimore and Ohio Rail lines 1860
Source:  Library of Congress

The journey would not be easy.  There were summer storms, sitting, heat, boredom, and humidity any of which independently could easily drain a person’s strength, but together would simply be just plain difficult to bear.  The close quarters of the passengers in steerage would be exceptionally difficult, and infectious diseases would often run rampant in such immigrant ships.  I do not know if a sick child or parent was separated from the rest of the family upon arrival, as was a not uncommon occurrence with immigrants.  The ship slowly made its way slowly across the expansive ocean; the immigrants probably wondered if the trip would ever end.  I do not know if the large number of immigrants, 774, aboard this overcrowded ship would have celebrated the 4^th of July during their voyage from Bremen to Baltimore, but if they did, it may have either had little significance or it would be of great significance.

Rail map of West, 1870
Source:  Library of Congress

 The port of Baltimore is not near as famous as that of New York.  Ellis Island, the famed port of entry into New York did not open until 1892.  Yet, Baltimore during the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century was the second main point of entry for immigrant ships arriving from Europe.  Arrivals increased significantly after the Irish potato famine in the middle of the 1840's, and uprisings in Germany in 1848. Before 1868 the immigrant ships in Baltimore arrived at Fell's Point, but crowded conditions led to the construction of Locust Point, near to Fort McHenry.  The first ship to arrive at the new Locust Point transfer station would be March 23, 1868.  The transfer station would have been new upon the arrival of the Hawel family.  If you recall your history, you will know that the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in September of 1814 led to the writing of the "Star Spangled Banner", the national anthem. 

Locust Point
Source:  Google images

  

Baltimore in 1868 was more than Fort McHenry or Locust Point.  It had become a manufacturing and trade center.  Population of the city increased by almost 200,000 persons in seventy years, reaching 212,418 in 1860.  Its largest increases in population occurred between 1840 and 1860 when over 100,000 persons were added to its teeming shores.  To have accommodated such a population, buildings would have primarily been of wood construction, and built close together due to the need to accommodate walkability.  Baltimore would not construct its first sewer lines until the 1870's.  As many large cities then, and today, the sewer would handle both human and storm water runoff and dumped into a nearby water body (Baltimore was smart and later added a separate sanitary sewer system).  In this case without any sewer system, privies would be important, but people being people and using the most convenient method available excrement was likely dumped in the streets.  The smell of humanity, seaweed, algae, horses, and industrial activity crowded into the port area would have been overwhelming. 

Josef Hawel Immigration paper
Source:  familysearch.org

 In Baltimore in 1868 immigrant entry was made easy as doctors and immigration officials would board the ship for its journey to Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore was the western most port of those on the Atlantic seaboard, so it gave westward travelers a heads up the old “move west young man” mantra.  Josef was not a young man, he was aged 60.  The Hawel family would disembark at one of the two Locust Point terminals constructed by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.  In 1867 the B&O, made famous by the commonly played game Monopoly, entered into an agreement with the North German Lloyd Steamship Co. (who owned the SS Baltimore) which would allow passengers to purchase not only the steamship passage, but the same ticket would allow transport on B&O lines into the center of the United States.  I suspect it is likely that the Hawel family would have taken advantage of this arrangement.  The family would have either made their way on the B&O to Milwaukee, or transferred at some location and used the Northwestern line that served Jefferson, WI.  If the family was required to spend the night in Baltimore, perhaps they boarded at the large boardinghouse run by Mrs. Koether.  For over fifty years, this woman would receive over forty thousand borders a year at her boardinghouse.  I, however, doubt they stayed long on the east coast.

1870 Census Town of Jefferson
Source: heritagequestonline.com

From the 1870 census we know that Josef and family were farming in the Town of Jefferson.  By 1872 they own and farm 80 acres in the Town of Koshkonong, where the northern boundary of the property was the Town of Jefferson south border.  (They may have owned land in 1870, but the 1870 agricultural census does not list owner or renter, nor do they show up in a 1870 plat map.)   Jefferson County was hardly settled by Europeans in 1840, but by 1850 would have a population of 15,317.  It would see significant growth between 1850 and 1870 by more than doubling its population in that 20 year time frame.  However, its population would decrease between 1870 and 1880, and it would not be until the mid-1990’s that the county would once again reach and surpass its 1870 population.  The Hawel family would add ten persons to the 1870 census, and like others, a number of members of the Hawel family, including my great grandfather Martin and his young bride, would depart Jefferson County for points west, in this case north central Iowa.  In the early 1880’s all but one member of the family would move.  Rose Hawel would marry George Kachel and they would purchase the Hawel farm in the Town of Koshkonong before later moving a few miles away to Rock County, by Whitewater, WI. 

Jefferson, WI in 1870
Source:  oshkonong Country: A History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin
1975 WD Hoard and Sons

The Hawel family migration, I believe, is an example of chain migration. In chain migration a family followed a relative(s) or a friend and generally traveled as a whole family.  In 1866 Jakob Fitzl, who had been born and raised in the same small hamlet from which the Hawel family hailed, Dolni Chrastany, arrived in Baltimore on the ship Pallas on 19 November 1866.  Jakob was identified as a shoemaker, with a destination of Milwaukee, WI identified on his immigration papers.  The Hawel family immigration records did not identify a destination.  I do not know if Jakob met the Hawel family in Milwaukee or if the family transferred and arrived by train in Jefferson.  Jakob would marry the oldest daughter Anna at St. John the Baptist Church in Jefferson on 25 October 1869.   His state marriage license identifies him as living in the Town of Milford, Jefferson County, with an occupation as a bootmaker.  As an aside, Josef Duscheck lived in the Town of Milford before moving to the Town of Bristol in Dane County (sometime between 1860 and 1870).  Josef Duscheck’s daughter Amelia would marry Martin Hawel the second oldest son of Josef and Anna and my great grandfather.

State Marriage Record of Josef Fitzl and Anna Hawel
Source:  Wisconsin State Historical Society Library

 The Hawel family would also appear to share the common trait with other chain migrants.  Those involved in chain migration were more risk adverse, due to the need to care for a family, and thus wealth accumulation was not their primary purpose. It appears the primary purpose was to provide opportunities for their children.  This can be seen in the Hawel family by some of the children moving to the less expensive farmland in northcentral Iowa, rather than attempting to purchase land near Jefferson. Land, often treated as a commodity, was in short supply in their homeland.  The Hawel family not only were typical migrants, but it appears, like others in Jefferson County, they migrated from that county to take advantage of opportunities elsewhere.  A second, but shorter migration to Iowa.  Jakob Fitzl and his wife Anna Hawel would also move with many other members of the Hawel family and change his occupation from a cobbler to being a farmer.  As, I wrote in the past, (you can find here, here and here) the Hawel family was on the frontier of farming and settlement of the open Iowa prairie. 

1872 Plat Map of Town of Koshkonong
Jefferson County, WI
Name appears as Haffell on the map
Source:  Wisconsin State Historical Society Library

 As the family arrived in Baltimore they would head west to Wisconsin, settling among many German settlers in the Jefferson, WI area.  While they were Bohemian (Czech), the Hawel family would know German as that was the language of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which Bohemia was a part.  Germans and Czechs did not always get along in the old country, but perhaps such differences were set aside for the commonalities that would be shared among different, but similar ethnic groups. 

Great Grandfather Martin Hawel Immigration paper
Source:  familysearch.org

 As the family disembarked to the shores of Baltimore, I wonder what the first thought to cross the mind of one or more may have been.  Did one think about finally being off the ship and setting foot on terra firma for the first time in almost three weeks?  Did they simply think about getting the last leg of the journey completed and once again having a place to call home?  Did a thought about the opportunities that awaited, that incentive to leave their homeland, come to mind?  For some reason, and it may be the eight children with her, but I view Anna as being very practical.  I suspect her first thought, as she got off the ship was verbalized as, “Josef, take the older boys and go get our luggage.” 

St John the Baptist Catholic Church (1866)
Jefferson, WI
Where Jakob Fitzl and Anna Hawel were married
Source:  Koshkonong Country: A History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin
1975 WD Hoard and Sons

Poor Stepchild

Common in literature of old, particularly fables, is the idea of the poor stepchild, and how they fit or do not fit within the reorganized family structure.  Looking through genealogy records it is not uncommon to find a women who died early, perhaps in childbirth, and the husband would remarry.  When I visit Door County, as I once again did two weeks ago, I sometimes think of the Lake Michigan side as the poor step child to the Bay side.

Lady Slipper at Ridges Sanctuary
My first time viewing, I believe, of a Lady Slipper plant

The lake side has its share of expensive homes on or near the shores of a great lake, but the bay side has what many refer to as the quaint villages, which, without proper planning, can often become a victim of their own success.  Those quaint villages of Egg Harbor, Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, and Gill's Rock are tourist magnets.  What does the east side contain for villages?  Bailey's Harbor. Although you could also count Jackson Port.  When my spouse and I visit Door County we like to spend more time on the Lake side than the Bay side.  I am not into shopping, and neither fortunately, is my spouse.  The stores in those picturesque villages hold little for me.  Even though it has its share of homes on the lake shore, some of which have been destroyed by ice floes this past year, there is still significant public or reserve land on the lake side.  The bay side has Peninsula State Park, and the geologically interesting Door Bluff County Park, but the lake side has it beat, in my opinion, in areas of natural interest.

Cave Point Cairns

The lakeside has two state parks.  Whitefish Dunes State Park preserves massive sand dunes formed by Lake Michigan wave action.  At the north end of this park is Cave Point County Park, with its dolomite/limestone outcroppings being gradually eroded by wave action.  (  Perhaps the time is not too far away, that the famous "blow hole" at Cave point falls into the mass of Lake Michigan.  One can already see just south and west of this famous opening the location of a fissure.  Geologically, a chemical reaction takes place as waves continually beat the limestone rock, making it almost melt away over time.  This is what causes the famous sink holes, or what we in the geography world refer to as Karst topography.  Door County is part of the Niagra Escarpment, which arcs from Niagra Falls and generally ends somewhat south of Milwaukee.  But for the Niagra Escarpment, Door County probably would not exist being above water level.  Wisconsin would not have its thumb.

Southwest of main blow hole at Cave Point
is a developing fissure

Cave Point and Whitefish Dunes are near Jackson Port.  Near the north east end of the county on the mainland sits Newport Beach State Park, the only wilderness state park in the state system.  Its almost 2400 acres has eleven miles of shoreline.  By comparison, Peninsula State Park has eight miles of shoreline, but a mass of 3,776 acres.  Newport Beach is long and linear providing a great deal of lake shore for us non-lake side homeowners to enjoy.  That is the general public.

Flowers at Ridges Sanctuary

Besides Cave Point Park, there are other features and places that have been preserved between Whitefish Dunes and Newport Beach.  Mud Lake State Natural Area, Moonlight Bay State Natural Area, Bailey's Harbor Boreal Forest and Wetland, near Cana Island lighthouse, and Mink River Estuary State Natural Area.  Add to this the private land trust of the Ridges Sanctuary and you get a view of the unique nature of the lake side.  Together, all of these natural places set the lake side apart from the bay side.  I suspect, the ability to preserve this land had to do with early human settlement.  The bay side offered calmer water for harbors and ports from which fisherman could dock.  The limestone shelf, which is so prevalent on much of the lake Side is not as extensive on the bay side, and would allow less navigation issues.

Swale at Ridges Sanctuary

As I travel to Door County, and around Madison and Monona (and many lakes up north), I think of  what is termed the Tragedy of the Commons.  Where private interests have topped that of the public.  This is particularly present in the development of our lake shores.  Traveling the bay side in Door County, or biking in Monona there is little in the way of great public expanse of beaches.  The small towns may have a small beach area, but by and large much of the bay side in Door County, but for the large state park, and some county parks, has been developed.  You see that in much of Madison, too.

Ridge at the Ridges Sanctuary

On our most recent visit to Door County we stopped at "The Ridges Sanctuary" near Bailey's Harbor.  This was our first visit to this unique place.  Created in 1937, it was the first land trust in the State of Wisconsin.  It was founded to preserve some unique ridge and swale habitat formed by Lake Michigan over the past 1400 years.  The ridge-swale-ridge-swale...with its repeating pattern... topography is a unique habitat for flora and fauna.  It is not large in area, nor are the ridges tall and imposing, but luckily someone had the foresight to preserve this unique habitat.  It was well worth the $5.00 donation, which is the price of a beer (or less) at some restaurants. This unique habitat can be well seen in air photos.

Air photo of Ridge's Sanctuary
Source:  Google Maps

While many visitors to Door County will stay to the trendy bayside of the peninsula, that is fine by me.  I like the fact that the lake side, that poor step child of this vacation hot-spot, is less crowded, but, it seems with every visit we see more and more activity along the lake side.  Not unlike me, perhaps they have come to enjoy nature as intended.  It may quickly become a regular child and not the poor stepchild.

Sunset over Green Bay

Photos by author, June 2018

Embarkation--The Hawel Family Migration

It was on this date, 150 years ago, July 1, 1868, that Anna and Josef Hawel and childreny boarded the ship SS Baltimore for the United States.  They were on the penultimate leg of a long, over four month journey, as they traveled from their hamlet of Dolni Chrastany in southern Bohemia, to the town of Jefferson, WI.  Just over three years since the end of the War of Rebellion, the United States was seeing a major increase in immigration from Europe.

The budding empire of the United States was becoming dependent upon immigrant labor to settle the Midwest and West, provide labor for its growing factories, and raise crops to feed a growing population.  The Homestead Act become law only six years earlier, in 1862.  The State of Wisconsin, seeing the need for immigrant labor engaged an immigration commissioner who was active in promoting the state to would be migrants.  Sources indicate that the state advertised in varied European countries, or dominions.

Dolni Chrastany to Bremen Germany
Google maps

While they likely walked, or used a horse cart to get to the Bremen port from their home in southern Bohemia, the most expensive part of their journey was likely the tickets for a ship to cross the Atlantic.  In this case the family choose to leave from Bremen, Germany for Baltimore, Maryland on the ship SS Baltimore.  The SS Baltimore was built for the North German Lloyd line of Bremen in 1868.  It could accommodate 81 first class, and 600 third class passengers.  Constructed of iron at a length of 285 feet, it had one funnel and two masts rigged for sale.  When the Hawel family departed Bremen on 1 July 1868, on the SS Baltimore was just the third trans-Atlantic crossing for this new ship.  Its maiden, non-trial, voyage, took place starting on 3 March 1868.  It appears that the ship made a total of about 21 voyages to the end of 1871.  In 1872 the ship was hit by a Spanish steamer as it made its way back to Bremen from Baltimore.  The recovery of persons was more successful than that of the HMS Titanic, since the 80 seamen, and 130 passengers were all rescued.  The non-human cargo of tobacco, lard and molasses was not so fortunate.

SS Baltimore Illustration

Of the 21 voyages from 1868 through 1871, the number of  passengers  varied from a low of only 28 on 12 January 1870 to 779 passengers on 2 June 1869.  The Hawel family would account for ten of the 774 total passengers on the 1 July 1868 voyage. Since the ship was built to accommodate 681 passengers, it is obvious that at least two voyages well exceeded ship capacity.  Only one other of the 21 voyages (April 4, 1869 with 711) would exceed the ship's person capacity.  A crowded ship would not be a pleasant voyage. One has to think about the trepidation the family experienced in leaving their homeland, and traveling such long distance just to get to Bremen. Then, to top it off, imagine the crowded cabins in the steerage with lack of proper facilities and food.  It was not unusual that lice, typhoid and other maladies could easily spread through the steerage passengers. The smell of humanity in crowded close quarters was probably closer to that experienced in a Roman galley of 2000 years ago than a cruise ship even 50 years after their voyage.  Think of poor Anna with a child who is less than 9 months of age.  While she likely would have had some assistance from her 20 year old daughter to care for a young child, it still would have been difficult.  The oldest son Johann is the last family member listed on the ship manifest.  Mom and Dad in the lead with the oldest child bringing up the rear to make sure all were present.  Tucked in cramped quarters on a rough sea in the bowels of the ship sailing in mid summer with summer storms, its heat and humidity would not have been a simple easy cruise across the Atlantic.

SS Baltimore Passenger Log July 1, 1868
Page with Hawel Family
Source:  WI Historical Library, print from microfilm

The Anna and Josef Hawel family would depart from the shores of Germany and their homeland, moving further distant temporally, geographically, and culturally.  As they stepped on the shores of Baltimore several weeks later they would find a nation in the throes of reconstruction, but desirous of  some immigrant groups to feed its growing needs, and assist in production of its goods.  The journey across the ocean would be long and trying.  But, the family persevered.  One wonders if they ever thought of turning back?