The unveiling of the monument was followed by a national salute fired by the U.S. Revenue Cutter Morrill from the harbor. The chorus then sang The Star-Spangled Banner and the monument was accepted by W. J. Wrieth, president of the common council.

On July 21, 1891, the Manitowoc County Chronicle reported, “Work on the library building is now in progress” and on October 13, “The building for the Joseph Mann Library is nearly completed.” The two-story front-gabled frame library building was located on Lots 3 and 4, Block 72, south of Main (now Sixteenth) Street between Washington and Adams Streets. The total cost of construction, heater, furniture and books was $3,363.73.

When the tannery opened in May of 1851, it was one of the largest in Wisconsin and the Midwest, with 134 vats for tanning 100 hides daily for harness and light stock on the ground floor and extensive drying and storage rooms on the second floor. In 1861, a second, larger tannery, 315 × 50 feet, was constructed south of  the earlier one, with 150 double vats for tanning 75 hides daily into sole leather. Bricks used for its construction came from Milwaukee.

On March 29, 1976, the Herald-Times-Reporter printed a brief news story ‘Carter to Visit Area’ on page 3 of the Monday edition. The former Georgia Governor was expected to reach the city on Wednesday, March 31, at 1:15 p.m., coming by car from Appleton.

Built in 1878 for $700, the Sexton’s house is located on the original five acres purchased by the village of Manitowoc as a burial ground in 1852. Prior to that, the village owned a small burying ground at the corner of North Eighth and Park Streets.

The Green Bay Road bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. It is of statewide significance in engineering as one of the oldest remaining Pratt truss bridges from the pre-1890 period still on its original site in Wisconsin.

On the unusually hot afternoon of Saturday, July 26, 1930, friends, teachers and former students of John Nagle gathered on the grass and under trees on the grounds of the Manitowoc County Normal School (today’s Heritage Center) on Michigan Avenue in Manitowoc to dedicate a stone monument with the inscription “To John Nagle, Educator, Philosopher, Editor, 1848-1900.”

Completed in October 1914, the Voshardt mausoleum was said to be the best in the state and one of the finest in the West. In all, 16 Voshardt family members (Herman’s father and mother, five brothers, three sisters and five of his siblings’ spouses) are laid to rest in the stately mausoleum, the last being in 1954. Herman Voshardt was interred here after his death in 1929.

During the late nineteenth century, Voshardt’s Hall was the scene of many social activities that included concerts, balls, dances, parties and wedding receptions. It was a popular place for labor meetings, boxing and wrestling matches, and, for a few years, exercises and physical activities by the local German Turn Verein or “Turners.”

Manitowoc has an important association with Jensen as he designed the original landscape plan for Lincoln High School. In 1923, when construction of the Collegiate Gothic high school on Roeff’s hill was underway, Jensen came to Manitowoc with Chicago architect Dwight Perkins to meet with School Board members and survey the building site.

In 1847, Daniel Smith, a lumberman from New York State, plotted a small village around his dam and mill, seven miles north of Two Rivers, naming it for his friend Old Chief Mishicott. The Potawatomi leader is also the namesake of the Town of Mishicot, organized in 1852, and the Mishicott River (now called the East Twin) in Manitowoc County.

Soon after arriving, the agents became aware that the task of destroying the plant and equipment, estimated to be worth $100,000 or more, was beyond them and called for reinforcements, another carload of operatives arriving during the night. The following day the distillery was dismantled, all of the metal being purchased by a Two Rivers dealer in scrap metal.

On Sunday evening, October 7, 1883, news reached Manitowoc that a destructive fire had raged that afternoon in Mishicott, and that the western end of the downtown on both sides of Water Street (now E. Main) had been wiped out. The fire started in the smokehouse of Louis Levenhagen, who was rendering lard at his butcher shop.

According to the local paper, Earhart’s presence at the carferry slip in Frankfort soon became known and scores of residents and travelers kept her busy signing autographs.

The recently completed mural of Ruth West in downtown Manitowoc is a colorful and meaningful tribute to an avid gardener, patron of the arts and a beloved humanitarian. But many local residents and Lakeshore visitors may not know the story of her life, how she came to call Manitowoc home and about her many gardening, art and civic achievements.

Knowing well the story of Baron Georg and Baroness Maria von Trapp and their children who fled Austria to escape Nazism in 1938 (the inspiration for the musical play and film The Sound of Music), I was quite surprised to learn of the family’s evening performance on Monday, November 30, 1953 in Manitowoc.

According to Roy Valitchka of the Manitowoc Herald-Times on December 1, 1953, “an evening of joyous song was the reward” for those who crowded Lincoln High School auditorium to hear the Trapp Family Singers, America’s favorite musical family. The 90-minute performance was described as “flawless” with “voices that were fresh and true.”

Nearly one hundred years ago, on Tuesday, January 27, 1920, The Chronicle of Two Rivers announced Jane Addams, head of Hull House, Chicago, one of the most prominent women of the country, was booked to deliver an address at the Opera House on N. Eighth Street in Manitowoc on Thursday evening. Her lecture was free, the expenses being defrayed by local businessmen.