The Belgian Settlements is Door and Kewaunee Counties
Sep 1858- From the Green Bay Advocate.
It will surprise very many even of our own people when we state that Kewaunee county and the southern portion of Door county are as densely populated as any other section of the same extent in the State--that is, of strictly farming country. The people there are mostly Belgians, and are settled compactly together— each family upon a forty or eighty—rarely upon a larger tract. They are just beginning to hew openings enough among the trees to raise what they need for their own consumption. We can scarcely expect any surplus from them for some years, but it will come by and by; and we are confident that the Peninsula will be one of the gardens of Wisconsin.
Probably no other race on this continent could have gone into the woods and combatted the privations of forest life with the patience, industry, and success which these people have. They were poor, with few exceptions, reaching here with exhausted purses after running a gauntlet of emigrant swindles between New York and the West. The purchase of forty or eighty acres of land generally took all that was left— and after throwing up a rough block house, the first question which presented itself to the head of the family was, how to get food for his little ones until an opening could be made in the trees, and the season roll round with the fruits of the earth. Shingle making has generally been the resort in such cases ; but the hard times of last year and the general crash in everything reached even the shingle trade so that none but a Belgian pioneer could have faced the task of making a living for a family by manufacturing shingles at the ruling prices. It was done however.— The very best quality of shaved shingle shingles were made in large quantities and sold for one dollar per thousand, and even less.
Another thing. Some of them manufactured lumber by hand. The statement will hardly be credited, but it is no less a fact that the Belgians have, with a common "whip-saw," manufactured the best pine lumber at a less price than it could be made with all the appliances of steam engines, muley saws and the most improved styles of mills. As handsome lumber as we ever saw has been made by them and sold at $5,- 50 and $6 per 1000 feet! In such ways as this— by hard and persistent labor— they gathered together the means of obtaining their daily bread find little else they needed; for some dry bread and potatoes formed the bill of fare for six days in the week, and the seventh a little coffee, mixed with chickory, for economy's sake, made a sort of holiday of Sunday. Butter and milk and eggs, there were none, for there were no cows nor hens.
Last week we were in the mill which does the grinding for probably half the county. It is the rudest structure imaginable. An over-shot wheel turns one stone slowly, and the bolting apparatus is propelled by a woman. She stood there patiently the day long, turning the crank with one hand, and with the other supplying the screen with the unbolted flour. The mill was thronged with customers, men, women and children, who brought the grain on their heads, and waited for it to be ground. Some of them come five, six, and eight miles, bringing each a load of from fifty to an hundred pounds.— Among hundreds of families, there are but two or three pairs of oxen, and we did not hear of but one horse in the whole settlement. The roads, indeed, do not permit of the use of wheeled vehicles to any extent. They are nothing but trails.
We saw, in one clearing, a man and a boy hitched to a wooden drag, preparing the ground for next season's crops. Most of the tilling is done by means of a sort of grub hoe; though lately the more fortunate ones manage to get some plowing done.
We met a woman and her son on the way to Green Bay with a basket of chickens and some other little produce. They had already walked eight miles and had fourteen more to go—making twenty-two miles. Their marketing would bring them in town perhaps one dollar and a half.
At one house where we stopped in, the field hands were at dinner, a loaf of black bread and a kettle of coffee were all that we saw on the table. They dipped the bread in the coffee and seemed to be making a comfortable meal. At another house we found a man cutting up a pig. So marked an instance of extravagance surprised us, until we were told that a hear had killed it the night before, and they had rescued it from his clutches. The bears are very troublesome, carrying off pigs and calves. Some of them are killed occasionally.
We have already noticed the beginning of a town on the Bay shore— Dycksville- which is likely to be their principal post on the western side. Here are one or two taverns, or places where the travelers may find rest for the night—and a very good store kept by Mr. Van Dyck. His establishment embraces almost everything needed in a new country, from wooden shoes to sacks of flour. And not alone wooden shoes, for we noticed some fine shoes for women and boots for men. Mr. Van Dyck seems to be doing a paying business, and he ought to— for he is a pleasant and sociable gentleman.
Years hence, when another generation shall have grown up and taken the place of the present one, the solid and prosperous men of the Peninsula will remember the stories of their fathers' hardships in the new country with wonder. The "gentle slopes and groves between" will bloom and blossom with all the wealth of a rich country, and Kewaunee County will rank with the first in the State.
