"The bloody sixth ward" a history of the sixth ward in the city of Oshkosh from 1880 to 1940

143 Pages·1991·28.453 MB·English

by  Clarence Jungwirth

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A HI STORY OF THE
"BLOODY SIXTH WARD ..
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IN THE
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CITY OF OSHK OSH
CLARENCE ·· 1NKY .. JUNGWIRTH
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.1880
SlXTU 6TllEET flCUOOL, 81XTU WARD.
"THE BLOODY SIXTH WARD"
A History of the Sixth Ward in the City of Oshkosh
from 1880 to 1940
A personal view by: Clarence "Inky" Jungwirth
The following is from a report in the Daily
Northwestern from 1898 concerning the violent
wood workers strike in Oshkosh:
"On ~.ugust 6 a most serious clash between the
constabulary and civilians in the History of
the city took place. The strikers and their
families gathered on Jackson Street in front
of the Morgan plant. A wild eye, threatening
mob of law breakers, MOSTLY FOREIGNERS FROM
THE TERRIBLE SIXTH WARD, prevented the morn
ing shift of scabs from going to work. The
police, after repeatedly beating many people
and arresting seven women and six men,manag
ed to disperse the mob. ".
(*) Italics by the author
Oshkosh. Wisconsin
1991
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
a
Chapter One How it Started
Chapter Two The Highholders 17
Chapter Three Life in the Ward 22
Chapter Four Sample Rooms so
Chapter Five Prohibition Years 59
!""'I
Chapter Six Dating and Romance 63
Chapter Seven Sacred Heart Church 69
Chapter Eight Death and Funerals 93
Chapter Nine Recreation 99
Chapter Ten Grocery Stores 108
Chapter Eleven Meat Markets 110
Chapter Twelve Politicians 117
Chapter Thirteen Small Business 126
Chapter Fourteen Franklin School 128
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Chapter Fifteen Potpourri 131
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am indebted to the following former and current resid
ents of the "Old Sixth Ward" as well as to others, for their
stories, experiences, pictures and their help in writing this
book.
Eugene Steckbauer Otto Stoegbauer Jr .
Clarence Bloechl Genevive Radde
Ann Kellerman Mildred Berger
Joseph Poklasny Mary Wagner
Elsie Knobloch Robert Kinderman
Alois Penzenstadler William Mauritz Sr .
Edward Weisheipl Joseph Fisher Jr.
Steve Langkau Ralph Heinzl
Germaine Hogue Leonard Berger
Sidney Hogue Joseph Drexler
Lorraine Kuehn George Oaks Jr .
Donna Serwas Mara Munroe
David Langkau Jane Mauritz
Debbie Cleveland Ralph Reichenberger
Reuben Drexler
NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR
A number of references in this book are dated the year 1910.
We selected the year 1910 as a approximate mid-point in the
period covered by this book. The ward had gone through many
changes before and after this time. There are many events
that took place in the ward from 1871 to 1940. We have only
recorded some of them here in order to keep the book within
reasonable size. We hope that those recorded here will en
able you to understand the flavor of the Sixth Ward.
All street addresses in this book are the old street numb -
ers. The City of Oshkosh changed all street addresses to
the current ones in 1958.
When we speak of different generations in this book, the
First Generation refers to the children of the original im
migrants who settled in the ward after corning here from the
"Old Country". For most of the 6th Ward this meant those
born around the turn of the 20th Century.
This book is dedicated to my wife, Virginia, whose help and
encouragement made this book possible.
This book is written in the Sixth Ward Dialect and does not
always meet the rules of English Language.
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INTRODUCTION
The history of the Sixth Ward is a colorful one; it was
known as the "Bloody Sixth ward" for reasons the following
pages will illustrate.The term"The Bloody Sixth Ward" can be
misleading. It's citizens were not violent per se, but they
were fighting to survive in the rather hostile climate they
were to encounter in Oshkosh during the late nineteenth cen
tury and early twentieth century.
Most of the males from the ward,starting as early as the
age of twelve to fourteen; worked in the forty five or more
lumber mills along the Fox River. This is why they had come
to the "Sawdust City" in the first place.Anything was better
than the life they were leading in the 110ld Country" meaning
the countries of Europe. Besides living in grinding poverty
there, they were also the "Cannon Fodder" for the armies in
Europe that were being destroyed in the senseless wars being
fought in the late nineteenth century.
They came to America-The land of the Free-and found they
had to endure more exploitation by the lumber barons of that
era. In 1898 wages in the lumber mills of Oshkosh averaged
ninety-eight cents per day, compared to the national average
of $1.50 to $4.00 for lumber mill workers. Many children and
old men working in the mills were paid less, averaging about
forty to sixty cents a day. There was no retirement in those
days . You worked until your health failed or you died. These
were substandard wages on which men had to support families
of ten to twenty children in many cases. There was no birth
control for them as most residents of the ward were Catholic
and it was forbidden by the laws of the church.
The language barrier was a formidable one for the . early
German immigrants to the ward. Most could not or would not
learn the English language. They wanted to preserve a way of
life and language from the "Old Country''· Not being able to
speak English furthered their exploitation by the lumber and
other industries in Oshkosh.
The immigrants were known only to be "stubborn Germans"
"drunken Irishmen" or "dumb Pollacks". Can we blame them for
using violence, in their ignorance,to obtain some element of
justice in their lives?.
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PHYSICAL OUTLINES OF THE SIXTH WARD
The Sixth Ward was officially created on Feb.16,1871.
Wards were a political device that divided a city into areas
or districts for political purposes. This is what was done
under the Aldermanic form of government in Oshkosh.
As the city grew in population, wards would be enlarged and
in many cases new ones created.
By 1880 the Sixth Ward encompassed the area from the present
Rush Street to 18th Street and all the land West of the Fox
River from Minnesota Street. At this time much of the Sixth
Ward was open fields.
By 1883 the ward had been rapidly settled and the area south
of 9th Street to 18th Street was taken from the Sixth Ward &
used to create the 13th Ward.
Ward boundaries were always to the center of the street.
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Chapter 1
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How it started!
The genesis of the legend of the "Bloody Sixth Ward" be
gan during the wood workers strike in Oshkosh in 1898.It was
a contest of wills between the underpaid wood workers and a
coalition of the lumber barons who owned the many mills that
lined the banks of the Fox River. The workers were trying to
organize a union to improve their living conditions.The main
protagonist was George M. Paine from the Paine Lumber Co.
The Paine Lumber Co. was one of the largest employers of
mill workers in the city. At one time or another most of the
males in the Sixth Ward worked at Paine ' s .
Attempts to organize the woodworkers union was sanction
ed by none other than Samuel Gompers , the head of the newly
born AFL. Attempts to stop union organizing were made by all
the mill owners.The strike endured the entire summer of 1898
and became quite violent at times. This violence led to the
death of a sixteen year old boy who was killed in a melee at
the McMillen Lumber Co.
The violent str ike led to the calling up of the National
Guard to maintain order. The guard set up machine guns and a
defense l ine on the Morgan Co. property on Oregon Street.
Union leaders were charged by the local authorities with
the death of the sixteen year old boy. During the trial the
union leaders were defended by a lawyer who l ater on in his
career was to gain fame during the famous "Monkey Trial" in
1925 in Tennessee. His name was Clarence Darrow.
The trial in Oshkosh was a bitter one with inflammatory
statements made by both sides during the proceedings.Some of
Clarence Darrow's remarks are listed below.
Clarence Darrow:
"The only difference that I can see between the
states prison and George M. Paine 's factory is
that Paine's men are not allowed to sleep on
the premises ."
"Back of all the prosecution i s the effort of
George M. Paine to wipe these labor organiza
tions out of existence, and you know it."
"If the ernigra ti on companies, instead of send
ing information to the poor of other lands in
reference to the beauties and the glorious
opportunities of America , would send a picture
of George M. Paine and his prison pen,we would
not have so many aliens in this land today . "
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The Oshkosh wood workers strike generated quite a bit of
publicity in other newspapers throughout the state including
the Milwaukee Sentinel which commented:
"for this class of late born arrivals, the laboring
people are much more inclined to peace than war.The
women are the most vicious. They were largely Poles
and Bohemians and perfect viragoes. "
Other published reports on the strike commented:
"The resentment against immigrants is explicit in
the newspaper accounts - and yet these are the
people Mr. Paine, Tommy Morgan,and the other mill
owners actively recruited to come to Oshkosh, in
the belief they'd work cheaper.
Such insults were not new for the working class
of the region. If they had to live in poor quart
ers they were called shanty boys . If they had to
get the logs down river, they were called river
hogs . The women of loggers were spoken of affect
ionately by their men as"my prize log".The ethnic
and sexist epithets and jokes are abundant, and
the fury of the South side exceeded anything sus
pected by the Protestant, Anglo-Saxon,respectable
families of the North side business district. The
women al so responded audaciously to the impasse
in other ways as we shall see".
The following are published reports on the role of the
women in the strike:
The Women, Most Feared Fighters
"The women who had to make do, often with large families,
on the pay arbitrarily decided upon by Mr. Paine and his
peers - they were the most feared fighters and the hard
core among the strikers."A dozen infuriated women,wives
of the strikers, constituted the most disorderly element
in the crowd" at the Morgan plant wrote the Daily North
western. "Urged on by the cheers of the men, the women,
with pouches filled with eggs,sand and pepper hanging in
front of them, and with great clubs in their hands,three
and four feet long, swung up and down the street halting
pedestrians and chasing every non-union man who appeared
within a block of the mill." Their men mostly hung back,
available but slightly out of action, perhaps fearing
that to be recognized as such tasks would result in them
being blacklisted from a mill job forever. At McMillen
"the mob seemed to center around a half dozen women who
carried clubs in their hands, stones or eggs in their
apions, and packages of salt or pepper in their pockets"
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