Then and Now - 206 East Mill Street, Beaver Dam

The last issue of Then and Now started out as a double mystery; I received a pair of pictures - bound together - of unknown origin and of unknown homes.   I was certain that if I could find one house, I’d find the other as it was obvious that they were located across the street from each other.   The mystery was solved when Margaret Schmitt figured out that our lost house belonged to 207 E. Mill Street, which made it simply a matter of looking across the street to find this week’s Now home at 206 Mill Street.

 If you look at the last issue of Then and Now, you’ll remember the fine wooden sidewalk and small tree that was directly in front of the home.  You will notice the same wooden walk and small tree in our current Then photo but from 180 degrees rotated.  This photo of the buggy and its occupants was taken as the photographer stood near the front porch of 207 E. Mill Street.   Notice the large distance between the Then gravel road, which was Mill Street, and the wooden sidewalk.   The road at that time doesn’t appear to be much more than a path of 12 feet wide.   The buggy apparently pulled up onto the grass – off of the road – to visit the occupants of 207 E. Mill Street.  The photo does have the names – May and Henry Baird – on it, but that does not relate to any occupants at the time.  Maybe you know who the Bairds were.

Speaking of streets, it may have been obvious to some, but even the subtleness of a street named Lincoln can be very interesting.  Since this area was plated in 1848 - well before Abraham Lincoln became president in 1860 - Lincoln Ave must have had a name change.  Street names are changed so seldom so as to imply a great honor when done so.  Prior to 1865, when Lincoln was assassinated, Lincoln Ave was better known as Division St  - as in a division between east and west.

I first tried to date this photo by dating the buggy, which I was fascinated with.  Did these folks live in Beaver Dam, or did they travel here by train and then rent a buggy at the livery so as to pay their respects on friends or family in style.  They each are impeccably dressed - he in a bowler, tie and leather gloves.    By most accounts, this two-seater was popular around the 1870 to the early 1900.  I could not find a definitive answer as to the buggy’s date or manufacture – although a trip to the Carriage House in Mayville was nonetheless interesting.  The horse appears to be of the thoroughbred breed (I only state that because I believe that certain breeds would have been more popular at different times).

We already covered the history of this area in the last issue, so I won’t go over the Ackerman story.  I noticed one very interesting (maybe only to me) subtlety while reviewing the abstract for this home.   Aside from the lawsuits and foreclosures, it dawned on me that every mortgage given on property at this time was not with banks but with private individuals.   Even after the first banks started lending money, it was still very popular to seek the financing from the current owners.

There is something so beautiful – so simple - about the Then homes that that I love them so much more than any Now home I’ve ever seen.  Those beautiful porches seemed to be the first thing to succumb to the harsh elements, which eventually lead to their replacement.  The Then porch was so ornate with its sculpted accents and hip roof.  You can see that the porch roof has now been extended over the left face of the home where a bow window has replaced the two symmetrically offset windows.   The wood clapboard siding of the Then home is still there, but it is well hidden under the current siding.  The outbuildings to the left are gone as are the little trees that got too large for the ever widening road.  Maybe the buggy’s wheels provide an accent in some Beaver Dam garden, but not much else is left of this time.

Writing the Then and Now issues has connected me with many of the resources available.  As you know, I rely on the Dodge Co Historical Society’s collection for much of my research.  What I did not realize is that the Beaver Dam Community Library has a wonderful genealogy and local history collection including a wonderfully cataloged cemetery record.  Margaret Schmitt helped me find Abraham Ackerman’s burial site, which is indeed in the City Cemetery on N. University.  You might consider donating your rare resources to one of these two groups so that all can benefit.

As always, please let me know if you have knowledge relating to our Then home or residents.  If you possess any old photos depicting a Beaver Dam property, please let me know.  You may contact Brian French at 920-356-0825 or frenchco@charter.net

Then and Now - 207 East Mill Street

Thank you to Margaret Schmitt, who lives on South Vita Street, for finding our “Now” home, which is located at 207 E. Mill Street.   She and Beth Milan – the neighbor to our home – were of great help.   Researching the history of this home started out with a dead end as the legal description did not provide a clear path as to its origins.  So, I owe much thanks to Robert and Dorothy Wright of Randolph who are the current owners.  They were able to locate the Abstract of Title to this home, which – if you are unfamiliar with this document – provides a chronological history – a summary of the original documents - of every recorded event affecting our property.

Now, we can literally page back through time to the beginning.  Robert and Dorothy bought this home from their friend Daryl Schwantes – who many of you may have know – in 1980.  Daryl bought it in 1969 and subsequently converted our small home into a duplex – with some help from Robert who did the plumbing work.  Daryl’s mother moved to the upstairs apartment.

For the sake of time and space, I’ll flip back through 15 pages of deeds, mortgages, and probate records to the first entry on Dec 9, 1841 when the United States granted Abraham Ackerman a patent to the land.   He didn’t arrive in the area until slightly later, and didn’t even record his patent until 1846.

As you may already know, Abraham – along with Jacob Brower and Thomas Mackie -were among the very first settlers of Beaver Dam.  Ackerman is related to Brower, and Brower to Mackie, and so it goes until each has drawn all their families, friends and business partners to the area.  The abstract in my hands indicates that Abraham was given 40 acres, but that is only a small portion of his original land possession, which included most land on Beaver Dam’s east side including today’s Swan Park. Abraham built his family a home at 310 South University Ave, which is there today.  Tracing the family tree of Ackerman would certainly be interesting, but unfortunately it would take volumes.  I do think – without a shred of evidence – that Ackerman originated for Holland, or Germany as would be expected.  The name “Ackerman” would translate nicely to “plow man” or “field man” in Dutch and German.   What would it feel like to own almost a third of the City?

Abraham platted out this entire east side along with all of the streets around 1855.  Abraham and his wife (Hannah) had seven children - two of which you’ve know on a first-name basis forever.   Can you guess their names?  On a side-note; I noticed that – according to the phone book, there are no Ackermans living in the Beaver Dam area today.  I also wonder where the family burial site is – Sabine and I spent a few hours on Sunday looking around the cemetery by Casey’s to no avail.

Upon his death, Abraham’s estate was divided among his children and wife Hannan in 1866.  James (second son) was given most of the land surrounding Swan Park and including our subject home.  James sold several of the lots to a Wilhelm Frenzel (misspelled ironically “French”) in 1869, who then sold our lot to Joseph and Maria Guttneder (misspelled several times as Goodnetter and Gudnetter).  Joseph Guttneder died in 1898.  He left behind his wife and five adult sons who resided in Watertown and Beaver Dam.  Incidentally, they finally must have given in to the easier form of their name spelling “Goodnetter” for this was used in subsequent entries.    Maria (Mary) sold her home to son Joseph in 1901 more than likely so as to move in with a family member. 

Our Then home was not shown on the 1867 plat of the area.  So, it would have been around 1868-1869 that our home was built as were many at that time.  People were moving to the area now by the hundreds as the woolen mills and area farms were sprouting up all over.   Maria and Joseph owned the home for over 30 years and raised five boys here.  From the Then photo, we can see that there is an entry on the left that has since been removed.  This entry would most likely have brought you into the living room or sitting room.  The entry to the right, which is still there would have been to the kitchen.  Notice the lovely wood sidewalks and that there is no driveway (why would there be).  There would have been a coal-fired, gravity furnace that heated this house – gravity furnaces work simply by heat rising up from the furnace without the aid of blowers - since there was no electricity at the time, there could be no forced-air furnace).  There is only one chimney on this home, so only a central furnace served the home.  Besides the front door and porch being removed, the siding has been changed to vinyl, the chimney removed, and that beautiful side porch has been removed.  When the side porch was removed, there was then an opportunity to have windows on that west side.

This photo came to me in a pair.  The other photo now makes perfect sense, which I will explain in a future Then and Now.   If you have any old photos from the Beaver Dam area, please allow me to take a look at them – I would hate for them to be thrown away.  I would love to find a photo of one of the original farms (within the city limits) or of one of our many corner stores (those located in just about every neighborhood).  As always, if you have any additional information to any story, please feel free to call me at 920-356-0825 or email me at frenchco@charter.net