Christmas Eve Special Feature
Juergenmeyers on Taylor Street
225 Taylor Street
Kaukauna, Wisconsin

This two storey home with the basement and broad front porch was the home of  Martin, Marie, and Hazel Juergenmeyer in the 1920's and early 1930's.
Martin Juergenmeyer ran a small bus company between Kaukauna and Appleton.  After their daughter Hazel was married in 1934, Martin and Marie Juergenmeyer rented out the house and moved to Seymour, Wisconsin.  Here Martin bought a Phillip's 66 Gas Station (See Blog Post Saturday Travel Feature, "Phillips 66 in Seymour", Saturday, March 20, 2010) and built a house attached to the back.  Marie and Martin planted statice on part of the acreage behind the house and sold it to the local funeral parlor for floral presentations. 

When Martin died in 1948 his wife Marie moved back to the house at 225 Taylor Street in Kaukauna.   The house was modified for her to live upstairs and she continued to rent out the downstairs.  An enclosed stairway and entrance porch was added to the back of the house to protect her from climbing the stairs in the snowy Wisconsin winter.  The upstairs apartment had a  large square hall leading to the living room that looked out to Taylor street and a kitchen, to a bedroom, and to a bathroom.

The downstairs was rented to Bill and Betty Roerig.  Here is Bill's description of their time on 225 Taylor Street. "225 Taylor Street is the source of many fond memories. It was our first home... We arrived in Kaukauna very newly married--August 22, 1948--and the promise of a house to rent from a local dry cleaner. In going in to get the key, etc., we were informed that they had changed their mind. Now what? On leaving the store we bumped into a local police officer who told us that your grandmother in Seymour was planning to move back to Kaukauna. So, off we went to Seymour, introduced ourselves to your grandma who told us that there had already been 14 folks ahead of us. Oh boy! She did not seem very friendly but asked us what church we intended to join. Knowing that Kaukauna was mostly Catholic we quietly said we were Lutheran. She asked if we would be willing to take her to church [Trinity] from time to time and of course we said, certainly. The rest is 7 years of a very good relationship, especially for Betty as your grandmother acted as a mother figure for a young girl 220 miles from home for the first time---

"At first we shared the bath upstairs for a year, or so, and after a  couple of awkward incidents I put a toilet and a shower in the basement. Your grandma bought a TV, wonder of wonders, and she would invite us up there for a 30 minute program, much to our delight... In 1955 we began building our own home on the South Side of Kaukauna and our relationship with your grandma was coming to the end. She had lost her health and , I believe, was hospitalized for a short period. After being discharged from the hospital she went to stay with her old friend, a Mrs. Clough (sic). She then wanted to return to her own home and with the help of a friend of mine we managed to bring her up the outside stairs to her own bed. Betty helped care for her, read to her, prayed with her almost to the end. I do not recall the details of that period since I was busy building and teaching. We treasured those years with your grandma who was a "no nonsense", lovable lady...


"The house faced North and the lower rooms were oriented as follows; The kitchen was in the southeast corner with the rear entrance on the south side. Entry was at ground level with maybe 3 steps up to the kitchen and several steps down into the basement. ( I was in charge of keeping the furnace going where I once blew the furnace door off , not knowing how to handle Pocahontas(sic) coal----also, if grandma needed heat upstairs in the morning there were several thumps on the floor to rouse me out of my slug-a-bed laziness---one night, due to my lack of knowledge about coal, we burned coke at home, I found myself on the roof  stamping out sparks from a chimney fire).---The northeast room was designed for a dining area but was used for a living room since there was no suitably large room for a master bedroom which , in turn, was the northwest corner with access through French doors. The stairway to the upstairs was in the south center off the "master bedroom" and a smaller southwest bedroom which became the boy's room.

"The basement consisted of a cistern to the right of the stairs, the furnace was the octopus style in the center of the basement, the coal bin was in the northwest corner and  a small room in the northeast corner served later as a shower and toilet..." (Bill Roerig 2010.)

In 2010 Zestimate (See Link.) reported that the 2009 tax assessor's value of the house was $94,000.  The lot size was listed as 7,405 sq. ft.

The house at 225 Taylor Street was the home of Suzanne Wilson's grandparents and her mother Hazel.  Suzanne has vivid memories of her grandmother, Marie, living in the upstairs apartment and the Roerigs.  Marie is the middle name of both Suzanne Wilson and her granddaughter Holly Misner.


Thank You: To Bill Roerig for his memories of 225 Taylor Street.

Photo: Taken in Kaukauna, Wisconsin in 2006 by SW.
Link: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/225-Taylor-St-Kaukauna-WI-54130/69784528_zpid/

Anton Frank in Front of Original Grocery Store

on Tobacnoir Street 1908

Special Birthday Feature

Happy Birthday Suzanne

The Frank Compound

Kaukauna, Wisconsin

The Frank Family Compound started in 1888 when Peter Frank and his family moved from Sherwood, Wisconsin to Kaukauna, Wisconsin and he and his son John purchased the grocery store on Tobacnoir Street.  They not only owned and operated the store until 1907, but bought a family home around the corner at 806 Oviate Street. 

In 1908 Peter Frank moved to Shawano, Wisconsin and sold his co-ownership to his son Anton Harold Frank.   Anton Frank is pictured in front of the store in that year. Then Anton Frank also purchased the house on Oviate St. from his brother and father.  Anton, his wife Dorothea, and their children, Emmet, Orville, Harold, Geneafava, Elaine, and Dorothy May moved into the house.

Original Store on Tobacinoir Street Converted to Apartment Building

In 1926 a red brick grocery store was built on the corner of Tobacnoir Street and Oviate Street. The symbol on the second floor above the front doors states the 1926 date. On the ground at the front doors was the name "Frank" in mosaic tiles.  The original red brick store had two large front store window and the check out counter was in the center. In 1930 when his father Anton Frank died, Harold Frank became the store manager. He ran the store for his mother Dorothea Frank until she died in 1968 and the store was sold.  By 1994 the building housed a laundomat.

1926 Grocery Store On Corner of Tobacnoir and Oviate Streets

The Frank family home originally had brown siding. There was a large glassed in porch all the way across the front of  the first floor and a porch on the second floor. The back of the house was also a glassed in porch. Inside on the first floor of the house was a living room on the right, a dining room on the left and behind it a kitchen and small bedroom. In these rooms is where Orville Frank and Hazel Juergenmeyer (Suzanne (Frank) Wilson's parents) were married. Between the living room and the dining room was a large center stairway with an open railing on the livingroom side. Other bedrooms were upstairs. After Anton died, his wife Dorothea (Suzanne (Frank) Wilson's grandmother) "took to her chair". A lift was installed on the center stairway and from then on she greeted her grandchildren and twisted colored foil onto wheat seeds on stalks to make bouquets from a chair next to a table in the living room.

Frank Family Home at 806 Oviate Street

The large flower garden between the 1926 red brick store and the family home completed the compound.

Photos: Top-Old family photo of Anton Harold Frank, grandfather of Suzanne
                           (Frank) Wilson 1908 in front of first Frank Grocery Store on the
                           100 block of Tobacnoir  Street in Kaukauna, Wisconsin.
                2nd-Store from 1908 now turned into a building with apartments. 
                          Sold in 1968.  Photo taken in 2006 by SW.
                3rd-1926 Frank Grocery Store.  Sold in 1968. Photo taken in
                         2006 by SW.
               Bottom-Frank family home at 806 Oviate Street.  Sold in 1968.
                         Photo taken in 2006 by SW.
Note: Suzanne(Frank) Wilson is the daughter of Orville Carlton Frank, the
              granddaughter of Anton Harold Frank, and the great granddaughter of
              Peter Frank.
Thank You: To Karen (Frank)  Hull for family history information.
       

Easter Sunday Church Feature

Lutherans in Kaukauna

On April 15, 1877 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized with 22 charter members in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. The minister was Rev. Reinhold Pieper of Wrightstown and the services were conducted in German. The next year they built the small wooden church with the single steeple that (shown in the photo below) on the 800 block of Grignon Street. In 1885 the Rev. William Hinnerthan was installed as the first official pastor and in 1889 a charter was granted to the church. In 1917 the Rev. Paul Oehlert became pastor and the following year a Sunday School was started. The present red brick church with the two square steeples was dedicated in 1915. Starting in 1920 services were conducted in English as well as German. In 1965 the Rev. John Mattek became pastor and in 1969 the new front entrance was built onto the 1915 church. (Link. )(See photo above.)

1878 Small Wooden Church on right (Link.)

It is interesting to note that the 1915 Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kaukauna, Wisconsin and the Emmanuel Lutheran Church (See March 21, 2010 blog post.) built in 1915 similar styles. Both are red brick and have two square steeples. The street that the Kaukauna church is on, Grignon Street, is named for Charles A. Grignon who obtained the first land deed in Wisconsin.

Sanctuary Altar (Link.)

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church was the home church of Marie Juergenmeyer when she, her husband Martin, and daughter Hazel lived on Taylor Street in Kaukauna in the late 1920's and early 1930's. The family then moved to Seymour where she attended Emmanuel Lutheran Church. Following Martin's death in the 1950's she returned to live in the Taylor Street house in Kaukauna and again attended Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. Marie and Martin Juergenmeyer were the grandparents and Hazel the mother of Suzanne Wilson.

For more information on Kaukauna, Wisconsin see blog post from April 3, 2010. 

Thank you: To Irene Luehring and Bill Roerig of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran  

               Church, Kaukauna, Wisconsin, for the information and the memories.

Photos: Colored taken in 2006 by SW.

               B and W probably taken shortly after 1915. See Link.

Link: http://www.trinitykaukauna.com/index.php?pg=pages%2ftrinity_history.htm

Saturday Travel Feature

School on  the Fox
 
Kaukauna, Wisconsin is 100 miles north of Milwaukee and is east of Lake Winnebago. The town of 12,983 people sits on the banks of the mighty Fox River. Kaukauna High School is on an island in the middle of this river that divides the town into North Side and South Side. Kaukauna High School has
1,350 students and is the only public high school in Kaukauna. The original school was built in the late 1850's. The school in the photo is that school but it is now a middle school.

There are five bridges that cross the river within the city. There is also a hydroelectric company with its dam. And because of the dam there are locks for the movement of boats along the river. In the 1940's all the Kaukauna children knew the chant describing the boat whistles, "One for danger, two for dock, three for passing, and four for locks."

"The city includes diverse industrial and manufacturing businesses, including the Oscar Thilmany Paper Mill, constructed in 1883. The name dropped off the mill when it was purchased by HammerMill in 1969, which was in turn bought by International Paper in 1986. In 2005, theNew York-based equity firm Kohlberg & Company bought the mill, changed the name back to Thilmany, and created a company of the same name. It is this paper mill that is the cause of a less than desirable odor that can be detected at times throughout the Fox Valley. ^[4] Kaukauna club cheese, once made in the city, is now manufactured by the Bel/Kaukauna corporation in the neighboring village of Little Chute."
Link.

Kaukauna High School is where Suzanne Wilson's parents, Hazel Juergenmeyer and Orville Frank, met.

Photo: Taken in 2006 by SW.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaukauna,_Wisconsin