12/08/2022
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Operating as usual
12/07/2022
These Naval Recruiting Bureau images, filed with the Ninth Naval District, were taken in the 1930’s and show ships that were damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor, which happened 81 years ago today. All of the ships either remained in service or were soon returned to service. The USS Indianapolis, not present at the time of the attack, sank in 1945, and resulted in the greatest loss of life at sea from a single ship in the history of the US Navy.
The descriptions from the back of the images are transcribed below.
270 - Deck Scene. A bit of seamanship. One of the California’s sailors bending a “Turk’s Head” on the gangway of his ship
1174 - Signaling on board the USS California, flagship of the Battle Force
2509 - Scullery on U.S.S. Pennsylvania
204 - USS Utah (1934 Photo)
10331 -Silhouette of destroyers in maneuvers during tactical exercises off San Pedro, Calif.
9912 - USS Indianapolis alongside USS Vestal
4263 - USS West Virginia
From RG 181 Department of Defense. Department of the Navy. Ninth Naval District. Office of the Commandant. 9/18/1947-6/30/1979 Entry 30; Correspondence and Reports, NAID 283485
10/26/2022
Happy National Pumpkin Day! From pumpkin soup and pie recipes to decorated and carved pumpkins, our online Catalog has numerous records related to this cultivar of winter squash.
http://ow.ly/Nker50Lkxcx
Image: Champion pumpkin grower in Frederick County, Maryland, 1927.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/100310897
10/20/2022
Real Property Disposal Case Files consists of case files pertaining to the sale of excess and
surplus federally owned land, buildings, and equipment. In box 565, the United States Post Office in Mount Vernon, Illinois was up for sale in 1963. In this specific file, the appraisal covers the land and building that the building stood, and a brief history of the city and the community. The photographs of the street also include some residents going about a normal day in mid-century America. Mount Vernon, named after George Washington's home, is in the county of Jefferson, named for the 3rd President.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/4486951
10/08/2022
This evening marks the 151st anniversary of the Chicago Fire
10/07/2022
Rapid Transit, circa 1879.
These photographic exhibits were included in the patent dispute between Morgan Elevated Railroad Co. and George Pullman. Pullman was accused of stealing the patents of Richard P. Morgan, Jr. These photos appear to be from New York City.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/176216082
10/04/2022
The series "Records of Wrecks and Other Casualties" from the Collection District No. 38 (Detroit, Michigan) Department of the Treasury, Bureau of Customs consists of log entries documenting shipwrecks and other marine casualties. Since these records are based in Detroit, they cover incidents on the Great Lakes and its tributaries. So why is this report included for a ship that was torpedoed off of Cape Town, South Africa during WWII?
The Ford Motor Company ship "East Indian" was commissioned by the The War Shipping Administration (WSA) and used to ship supplies for the United States. Though still registered to Dearborn, Michigan, she was carrying war material across the Atlantic when she was spotted and sank by a N**i submarine. A copy fo this report was sent to the home port of "East Indian" and filed loosely a log book.
More information of the Ford fleet can be found at the Henry Ford archive
https://www.thehenryford.org/explore/blog/the-ford-fleet
From NAID 651300 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/651300
09/06/2022
A patent dispute held in the United States District Court from the Northern District of Illinois Chicago Equity court led to these airbrushed images of neon lighting to be included as exhibits. The case was against the defendant Q.R.S. Company and LI-MI-NUS Signs, Inc. and the Claude Neon Light Inc as plaintiff. Harrison's Orange Hut was a small chain of lunchroom diners. One was located at Clark and Madison in Chicago, (89 W Madison), another at 6321 S Halsted, and the Gateway Garage was at 5608 S Stony Island Avenue.
Equity Case Files, 1913-1938 NAID 1693074 https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1693074
08/16/2022
It’s a Dog’s Job…
It’s a Dog’s Job…
…but someone has to do it! The hard working Coast Guard mascot dogs worked across seaman’s duties during World War II. From assisting in sickbay to providing docking support, these dogs were …
08/09/2022
Historian and author David McCullough passed away at the age of 89. He believed and demonstrated through his remarkable career that history and records matter. He frequently researched, visited, and spoke at the National Archives and was one of our greatest fans.
"The great collection of the National Archives is one of the wonders of our country, the richest, most enthralling documentation we have as a nation of who we are, what we have achieved, our adventures, and what we stand for," said David McCullough as part of his introduction to the book, “The National Archives of the United States,” in 1986.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLugwVCjzrJsXueSe9GatwS_zyuMl1wfNp
Image: David McCullough, 2011
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/210383267
08/08/2022
See Movies from Your Car! (If You Can Beat the Traffic)
See Movies from Your Car! (If You Can Beat the Traffic)
Sidney Lust’s Drive In Theatre, U.S. Route 1, Beltsville, Maryland (NAID: 169136694) It’s summertime and that means that it is drive-in movie season! In their heyday, there were thousands of …
07/28/2022
This month, Jim Thorpe was reinstated as the sole winner of the 1912 Olympic pentathlon and decathlon.
In 1912, Thorpe competed in the Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, where he won gold medals in both the decathlon and pentathlon. That year was also the first time baseball was included in the Olympics, and the exhibition game was played between the United States and host country Sweden. The American team was made up of athletes from the track and field delegation, including Thorpe.
But this baseball game was not what caused Thorpe problems, it was the two seasons he played minor league baseball. This violated the very strict amateur status required of Olympic athletes, and Thorpe was stripped of his medals. Today he is again fully celebrated for his achievements on the field, and in 1982 the Thorpe family received replica gold medals.
The family has generously loaned the medals for display in “All American: The Power of Sports,” opening on September 16, 2022, in Washington, DC.
https://museum.archives.gov/all-american
Image: Jim Thorpe, 1910.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595347
07/22/2022
Timeline photos
Now in our online Catalog: Census Roll for the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation of the Tomah Indian Agency, January 1940
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/241531364
06/29/2022
Today, the last living Medal Of Honor recipient from World War II, Hershel "Woody" Williams, has passed away.
On February 23, 1945, when American tanks were held up by Japanese guns, minefields and rough island terrain, Williams advanced alone and, in a four hour effort while under terrific fire, utilized demolition charges and flame throwers to annihilate many enemy positions, thus enabling his company to reach its objective.
For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life," he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Fair Winds and Following Seas, Sir. https://bit.ly/3I2queX
06/17/2022
Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972, an event that rocked the U.S. political landscape and led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.
Paper records, exhibits, and artifacts–including these microphones disguised in ChapStick tubes–from the United States v. G. Gordon Liddy trial have been digitized and are available in the online Catalog.
Staff faced challenges in photographing these artifacts, which were sometimes inside plastic bags or tied in string.
“We attempted to get the best images possible while leaving the original condition undisturbed. In most cases, multiple views of each artifact were captured in order to provide our researchers with the most complete view possible when viewing the item in the Catalog," said Digital Imaging Specialist Jennifer Seitz, who was responsible for photographing the Liddy trial exhibits.
Learn more about the new research portal and these newly digitized records in today’s National Archives News story.
https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/watergate-50th-anniversary
05/18/2022
On December 3, 1924 the SS Lakeland floundered and sank in Lake Michigan near Sturgeon Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. Following the sinking, charges of insurance fraud were claimed. This case file includes answers, assignments of errors, blue prints, charts, depositions, exceptions, exhibits, maps, motions, orders, petitions, subpoenas and testimony. The case file includes a small number of unique photographs captured by a crewman on an adjoining ship that depicts the Lakeland sinking. There are a total of 16 Federal cases related to the sinking, but case 13039 contains the bulk of information. (Cases 13039-13055, 13063 can be found in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Cleveland) Division of the Northern District of Ohio)
The wreck of the Lakeland was discovered in 1960, and added to the National Register of Historic Places.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/148071136
05/09/2022
Tune in on Wednesday, May 11, at 1 pm ET, as we continue the 2022 Genealogy Series with Sharon Tosi Lacey, Chief Historian for the U.S. Census Bureau. She will trace the arc of progress from 1790 to 1940, then provide the context for how the Census Bureau collected, processed, and analyzed the 1950 Census data.
Learn more about the 1950 Census, which is now available online, in this fifth webinar of our Genealogy Series.
https://go.usa.gov/xuvJK
05/04/2022
The World's Columbian Exposition, more commonly called the Chicago World's Fair, is known for the introduction of the Ferris Wheel. This recently digitized case consists of an equity suit brought by Garden City Observation Wheel Company, alleging that the Ferris Wheel was actually designed by William Somers, who secured a patent on January 3, 1893, against the Ferris Wheel Company. William Somers, of Atlantic City, New Jersey, named his invention the Roundabout. The Ferris Wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., of Galesburg, Illinois. The case file includes blueprint, drawing, answers, assignments of errors, depositions, exceptions, motions, orders, petitions, subpoenas and testimony.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/235900749
04/15/2022
On April 15th, 1865, as news of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination spread across the nation, references to his death (often in the form of proclamations) can be found in documents from the Federal Courts. Usually, they are recorded in the days and weeks following, but in Cincinnati, a Saturday session in the United States District Court referenced it on that day.
US Attorney Flamen Ball (1809-1885 - yes, his actual name) and District Judge Humphrey H. Leavitt (1796-1873) both spoke and honored his memory and mourned Lincoln’s passing. The transcription from the series Journals, 1849-1921 (NAID 176236033) is below.
The death of the President was announced by F Ball Attorney of the United States for this district in the following words
May it please the Court: A great calamity has befallen this great nation; nay a calamity has befallen the whole interests of humanity, and of the human race. The cup of joy of which the whole people of our country drank on yesterday with so much delight, has been suddenly dashed from their hands, leaving upon the taste nothing but gall and wormwood. From the acme of rejoicings we have suddenly plunged to the depth of grief, at the loss which our country has sustained by the sudden unexpected and overwhelming event. It is not possible for me, or for this Court, or for the jury to compose our minds for the performance of judicial duties; nor is it possible for me by words, to say anything to your honor, by way of eulogy, or of regret, in reference to the death of the great man whose life and services have thus been so ruthlessly and untimely terminated. The most fitting eulogy on this occasion is the mute eloquence of silent sorrow. I do therefore, on behalf of my brethren of the bar, and of the community, most respectfully move that the court do now adjourn.
His Honor Judge Leavitt remarked as follows;
It is due to the occasion that the motion of the District Attorney, for the adjournment of the Court be granted. He is right in supposing that neither the Court, the bar nor the jury, are in a state of mind suited to the transaction of business. The appalling event just noticed has caused the deepest depression and sorrow in the hearts of all. We cannot interpret this dispensation of God's providence. His way is in the sea, and His path in the great waters, and His footsteps are unknown. But yesterday the people were exultant and joyous in remembrance of His great and manifold mercies to the nation; today they are agonized with grief by the sad intelligence that Abraham Lincoln has fallen a victim to a fiendish assassin. I cannot trust myself to say more. The event excites not only our horror, but our indignation. Let us, however, strive to be calm under the pressure of this great affliction, and as far as possible, repress and moderate the feelings of indignation which unbidden, rise to our hearts and mingle with our sorrow.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/176236033
04/01/2022
Starting tonight at 12:01 am ET, the release goes live! Users will be able to access it on our website for free.
The new website will include a name search function powered by an Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology tool. It will also include a "first-draft" name index and a new transcription tool, and you are encouraged to use it to assist the agency to make the records search as accurate as possible and improve the index.
To access the dedicated website, visit our 1950 Census page: archives.gov/1950census
03/17/2022
Have you got questions? We (usually) have the answers. Check out History Hub.
“I'm trying to trace my ancestors that arrived from Ireland to the states around 1870. What immigration records might show the county where they came from?”
See the answer to our on , our crowdsourced platform for history and genealogical research where anyone can ask questions and get answers from archivists and other community members. https://historyhub.history.gov/thread/14114?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=QOTW&utm_content=IrishHeritage-20220317
03/16/2022
1950 Census Records
Getting close! Here’s how to prepare
Taken every 10 years since 1790, the United States census provides a snapshot of the nation's population. Because of a 72-year restriction on access to the records, the most recent census year currently available is 1940. On April 1, 2022, the 1950 Census will be released, and users will be able to....
02/25/2022
“Where can I find a comprehensive list of all the schools set up by the Freedmen's Bureau after the Civil War for the formerly enslaved?”
See the answer to our on , our crowdsourced platform for history and genealogical research where anyone can ask questions and get answers from archivists and other community members. https://historyhub.history.gov/thread/11630?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=QOTW&utm_content=BHMFreedmensSchools-20220225
01/25/2022
75 years ago today, infamous Chicagoan Al Capone died in Florida. We commonly receive requests for records about Capone, so we have digitized many of the files related to him that we hold. One of the more unique items are the scrapbooks of George E. Q. Johnson, the United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1927-1932. The books cover the years 1929-1932. The scrapbooks include clippings from newspapers across the country of articles relating to the professional and personal life of Johnson. Many articles relate to the prosecution of Al Capone as well as other Chicago-area criminals. Johnson also clipped every image he could find of himself from the local papers.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/160919113
01/19/2022
Famed attorney Clarence Darrow, in 1908, represented Russian dissident Christian Rudovitz in an attempt by the Imperial Russian government to extradite him for murder. There was much doubt if he ever committed the murder and rather was being targeted for his criticism of the Russian royalty.
This case has been digitized and is newly available on our catalog.
In the Matter of the Application of the Imperial Russian Consul General at Chicago for the Extradition of Christian Rudovitz
Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, Admiralty and Law Case Files, 1871-1911 #10137
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/200185519
01/17/2022
African American History
African American History
The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the African American experience and highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media. In January, to honor the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we remember his contributions to the nation and...
01/14/2022
Retirement of Archivist David S. Ferriero
Retirement of Archivist David S. Ferriero
After 12 years as the tenth Archivist of the United States, I have decided to retire, effective mid-April 2022. As I wrote to President Biden, it has been the honor of a lifetime to ser…
01/06/2022
National Archives at Chicago updated their business hours.
National Archives at Chicago updated their business hours.
01/03/2022
Recently digitized, "Frank Elie et al vs the Illinois Central Railroad Company et al" is a Chicago law case between members of the Ottawa, Chippewa, Potawatomi, and other Native American tribes of Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois against the Illinois Central Railroad Company; the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company; and the Michigan Central Railroad Company. At issue were lands along the lakefront of Lake Michigan in the Chicago area that were reserved for the tribes in the Treaty of 1783 (The Treaty of Paris) and August 3, 1795 (Treaty of Greenville) and the Treaty of St Louis of August 24, 1816, which together granted "one piece of land six miles square at the mouth of Chicago River." Based on the government survey of 1821, named the Walls Survey, the plaintiffs claimed ownership of this land and demanded damages of fifty million dollars.
The file includes affidavits, motions, stipulations, orders, and a pamphlet named "The Greatest Conspiracy Ever Conceived." Documents also list hundreds of members of the Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi tribes.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/222562978
Creator(s): U.S. District Court for the Eastern (Chicago) Division of the Northern District of Illinois. 3/3/1905- #30943
12/30/2021
As 2021 comes to a close, our staff and genealogists around the world are eagerly looking forward to 2022!
On April 1, 2022, the National Archives will digitally release the 1950 population census schedules, exactly 72 years after the official census day of April 1, 1950. The first Federal Population Census was taken in 1790, and a census has been taken every ten years since.
Who will you be searching for in the 1950 Census? Save the date and join the public transcription effort!
Learn more in our latest story on the National Archives News webpage:
https://go.usa.gov/xehyv
Image: Census enumerator visiting a Virginia household during the 1950 census.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/207899869
12/07/2021
As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the National Archives is honored to care for and share photographs, video footage, and military records that provide eyewitness accounts surrounding December 7, 1941. Learn more on our Special Topics Page:
https://go.usa.gov/xewDu
Image: USS Arizona burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/12009082
12/02/2021
This artifact is held here in Chicago.
In our holdings is an unusual empty wine bottle, signed by scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.
On Wednesday, December 2, 1942, the world's first controlled nuclear chain reaction was achieved by physicist Enrico Firmi and a team of 49 scientists under the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field.
Afterwards, physicist Eugene Wigner opened a bottle of chianti he had purchased earlier in Fermi’s honor Then Fermi, Wigner, and the other Metallurgical Laboratory scientists drank a silent toast from paper cups to recognize their world-changing achievement. The bottle's basket bears the signatures of the scientists present at the historic experiment.
Explore more interesting wine-related holdings in our online Catalog: https://go.usa.gov/xeVgS
Image: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/68888290
11/23/2021
Today is the 109th anniversary of sinking of the Rouse Simmons, popularly known as the Christmas Tree Ship. Below is the 2006 Prologue article.
On a drizzly, overcast day in late October 1971, Milwaukee scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard was surveying with sonar the bottom of Lake Michigan's west coastal waters off of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Bellrichard was searching for the Vernon, a 177-foot, 700-ton steamer that had sunk with only one survivor in a storm in October 1887.
Local fishermen described an area to Bellrichard where their nets had snagged on previous occasions as a potential site to search. His sonar made a promising contact, and he descended to what appeared to be a well-preserved shipwreck resting in an upright position on the lake bed in 172 feet of water.
Upon reaching the wreck, his jury-rigged dive light promptly malfunctioned, leaving him blanketed in murky darkness. Without light, he surveyed the wreckage by feeling along its hull. Bellrichard quickly realized that he had not discovered the larger, propeller-drive Vernon, but the wreck of the elusive Rouse Simmons, a 205-ton, three-masted schooner that had disappeared beneath the waves in a winter gale in November 1912.
When Bellrichard surfaced, he lay in his boat and yelled for joy. His discovery ended a mystery that surrounded the fate of one of the most legendary ships, and its much-loved captain, to sail Lake Michigan's waters. For Bellrichard had discovered the grave of one of the most famous "Christmas tree ships" and its skipper, "Captain Santa."
The saga of Herman E. Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is a microcosm of Great Lakes maritime history preserved for researchers who visit the National Archives and Records Administration–Great Lakes Region in Chicago. The original and microfilmed records held in the Great Lakes Region not only document the birth, life, and death of the legendary schooner but also its enigmatic and kind-hearted captain.
The 1870 census reveals that Wisconsin native Schuenemann was born about 1865, into the middle of a growing family of six children in the predominantly German community of Ahnapee, now present-day Algoma, on the shores of Lake Michigan. His oldest brother, August, born in 1853, was the first of the children to make his living on the lake. Herman, however, soon followed in his brother's footsteps.
In 1868, three years after Schuenemann's birth, the age of sail on Lake Michigan reached its zenith when more than 1,800 sailing vessels populated the lake. After that year, the number of sailing ships began a decline that lasted until they disappeared almost completely by the late 1920s. The dominant sail-powered vessel on Lake Michigan was the sturdy schooner, built to haul heavy loads out of, and into, shallow harbors. The principal cargo for most schooners on Lake Michigan was lumber, which fed the high demand for building materials in growing urban areas such as Chicago and Milwaukee.
The 1868 peak in sail-powered ships on Lake Michigan also marked the year the Rouse Simmons was launched from Milwaukee's shipyards. The ship was built by the firm of Allan, McClelland, and Company, one of Milwaukee's preeminent shipbuilding firms.
Sleek and sturdy, the 123-foot Rouse Simmons was licensed and enrolled on August 27, 1868, at the Port of Milwaukee. The vessel's managing owner was Royal B. Towslee of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and its first master was Alfred Ackerman. The Rouse Simmons was named after a well-known Kenosha merchant of the same name. A brother, Zalmon Simmons, soon gained fame for his family's burgeoning mattress company.
In the early 1870s, the Rouse Simmons joined the sizeable shipping fleet of wealthy lumber magnate and philanthropist Charles H. Hackley of Muskegon, Michigan. Hackley's lumber operations stretched to all corners of Lake Michigan's coastline. The Rouse Simmons was a workhorse, hauling loads of lumber for Hackley's fleet from company mills to the various markets around the lake for roughly 20 years. A survey of entrances and clearances from the Records of the U.S. Customs Service for the port of Grand Haven, Michigan, for August 1883, shows that the Rouse Simmons was making almost weekly runs from Grand Haven, most likely with loads of lumber, to the port of Chicago.
Grand Haven's monthly report on daily entrances and clearances for August 1883 reveal the continued dominance of sailing ships even at that late date. Among the 458 ships that entered the port for the month, 269, or almost 60 percent, were sailing ships, while the remaining 189 were steam-powered. Following the Rouse Simmons's service with Hackley's fleet, the schooner changed numerous owners and captains before Schuenemann assumed an interest in the vessel at the beginning of the 20th century.
By the early 1890s, Schuenemann lived in Chicago, and his career as a local merchant and lake captain was well established. On April 9, 1891, he married German-born Barbara Schindel. The 1900 federal census indicates that Barbara and Herman Schuenemann had three daughters during the 1890s: Elsie, born in January 1892, and in October 1898, twins Hazel and Pearl. Barbara learned that being the wife of a lake captain took special qualities. She also realized, as did most wives whose husbands made their living on the Great Lakes, that it was not a matter of if catastrophe would strike, but when.
* * *
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the popular German tradition of decorating an evergreen tree in the home was widely practiced, and demand for Christmas trees was great. It was not uncommon for a handful of lake schooners to make late-season runs from northern Michigan and Wisconsin—before the worst storms and ice made lake travel too hazardous—loaded with thousands of Christmas trees for busy Chicago waterfront markets. Estimates of the number of Christmas schooners vary, but perhaps up to two dozen vessels in any season delivered evergreens to markets in Great Lakes states.
In Chicago, most vessels, including the Rouse Simmons, sold the trees directly from their berths along the Chicago River's Clark Street docks. Electric lights were strung from the schooner's bow to stern, and customers were invited to board the ship to choose their trees. In addition to selling Christmas trees, many boat operators, including Schuenemann, made and sold wreaths, garlands, and other holiday decorations. Barbara Schuenemann and her three daughters helped make and sell these items as part of the family's holiday trade.
At some stage of Herman Schuenemann's long career as a late-season tree captain, he was given the title of Captain Santa. The affectionate nickname was bestowed by Chicago's local newspapers and by the city's grateful residents. Schuenemann's profits from selling Christmas trees had never made the family wealthy, but his reputation for generosity was well established, and he delighted in presenting trees to many of the city's needy residents. Schuenemann enjoyed the sobriquet and proudly kept newspaper clippings about his role as Captain Santa in his oilskin wallet.
Over the years, Herman Schuenemann commanded several schooners that carried Christmas trees to Chicago, including the George Wrenn, the Bertha Barnes, and the Mary Collins. Like many other merchant-sailors, Schuenemann could not afford to purchase a schooner outright. It was a common practice for two or more businessmen or lake captains to form a partnership and purchase shares in a vessel. In 1910 Schuenemann purchased a partial interest in the Rouse Simmons. By 1912, Schuenemann's financial interest in the ship amounted to one-eighth of the ship, while Capt. Charles Nelson of Chicago, who later accompanied Schuenemann on the fateful November trip, owned another one-eighth share, and businessman Mannes J. Bonner of St. James, Michigan, held a commanding three-fourths interest in the vessel.
Throughout the year and especially during the winter months when the Great Lakes were impassable because of ice and storms, many lake boat captains supplemented their incomes in other ways. As a small businessman, Schuenemann not only made his living on the lake, but he also owned businesses that in 1906 included a saloon. In these business endeavors, Schuenemann did not always meet with success, and on January 4, 1907, he petitioned for bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. Listed as a saloon keeper, Schuenemann's debts to his creditors amounted to over $1,300, which he was unable to satisfy. This financial setback, however, does not appear to have interfered with his other role as a lake captain.
On November 9–10, 1898, tragedy marred the Schuenemann's holiday season when, just one month after the birth of twins Hazel and Pearl, Herman's older brother August Schuenemann died while sailing a load of Christmas trees to Chicago aboard the schooner S. Thal. The 52-ton, two-masted schooner, built in Milwaukee in 1867, broke up after it was caught in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. There were no survivors. The Schuenemann family was devastated, but Herman continued the family tradition of making late-season Christmas trees runs.
District court records for Milwaukee suggest that August came to the S. Thal just weeks before his death, when it was sold at auction by U.S. Marshals to pay fees owed to Otto Parker, the vessel's 19-year-old cook. Parker sued the vessel's previous owner, William Robertson, in admiralty court over Robertson's refusal to pay Parker the remaining $66 owed for his services as cook aboard the tiny vessel. In September 1898, Judge William H. Seaman decided the case in favor of the young cook, and the vessel was sold to pay the debt.
By 1912, Schuenemann was a veteran schooner master who had hauled Christmas trees to Chicago for almost three decades. While Schuenemann was in his prime as a lake captain, the same could not be said for the Rouse Simmons. The once-sleek sailing vessel was now 44 years old and long past its peak sailing days. Time, the elements, and hundreds of heavy loads of lumber had taken their toll on the vessel's physical condition.
On Friday, November 22, 1912, the Rouse Simmons, heavily laden with 3,000–5,000 Christmas trees filling its cargo hold and covering its deck, left the dock at Thompson, Michigan. Some eyewitnesses to the Rouse Simmons's departure claimed the ship looked like a floating forest. Schuenemann's departure, however, coincided with the beginnings of a tremendous winter storm on the lake that sent several other ships to the bottom, including the South Shore, Three Sisters, and Two Brothers.
What happened after the Rouse Simmons departed the tiny harbor at Thompson with its heavy load of trees is unknown, but Life Saving Station logs testify that at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, November 23, 1912, a surfman at the station in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, alerted the station keeper, Capt. Nelson Craite, that a schooner (the Rouse Simmons's identity was unknown) was sighted headed south flying its flag at half-mast, a universal sign of distress. In his remarks on the incident, Craite wrote, "I immediately took the Glasses, and made out that there was a distress signal. The schooner was between 5 and 6 miles E.S.E. and blowing a Gale from the N.W." Craite attempted to locate a gas tugboat to assist the schooner, but the vessel had left earlier in the day. After a few minutes, the life-saving crew at Kewaunee lost sight of the ship.
At 3:10 p.m., Craite telephoned Station Keeper Capt. George E. Sogge at Two Rivers, the next station further south. Craite informed Sogge that a schooner was headed south, flying its flag at half-mast. Sogge immediately ordered the Two Rivers surfmen to launch the station's powerboat. The boat reached the schooner's approximate position shortly thereafter, but darkness, heavy snow, and mist obscured any trace of the Rouse Simmons and its crew. The schooner had vanished.
Barbara Schuenemann and her daughters were concerned when the Rouse Simmons failed to arrive in Chicago Harbor on schedule. However, it was not uncommon for a schooner to pull into a safe harbor to ride out a storm and then arrive days later at its destination. The family's worst fears were realized days later, when still no word of the vessel had been received. Over the next weeks and months, remnants of Christmas trees washed ashore along Wisconsin's coastline. Astonishingly, the lake continued to give up clues long after the vessel's loss. In 1924 some fishermen in Wisconsin hauled in their nets and discovered a wallet wrapped in waterproof oilskin. Inside were the pristine contents that identified its owner as Herman Schuenemann, the captain of the Rouse Simmons. The wallet was returned to the family.
What caused the disaster that befell the Rouse Simmons? There are several theories, but most likely a combination of circumstances or events drove the ship under in the heavy seas. Among the factors are the possibility that the vessel lost its ship's wheel in the storm, its poor physical condition, heavy icing and snow on the vessel's exterior and load, plus the load of 3,000–5,000 evergreen trees itself.
A recent underwater archaeological survey, conducted in July and August 2006 by the Wisconsin Historical Society, discovered that the Rouse Simmons's anchor chain, masts, and spar were all lying forward beyond the bow of the wreck. The location of these items suggest that the schooner's weight was in the bow, causing it to nose-dive into the heavy seas and founder. Another explanation may be that the masts, rigging, and chains were all shoved forward when the vessel dove into the lake bed during its descent to the bottom.
After the schooner's loss, the vessel's sailing condition came under scrutiny. One of the legends associated with the disaster was that prior to its departure from Thompson, rats living aboard the now-dilapidated ship were seen making their way to dry land, as if they had a premonition of its doom.
Moreover, some of the crew was rumored to have deserted the ship prior to its departure. There is some disagreement over the exact number and the identities of the crew members aboard the Rouse Simmons, but newspaper accounts following the tragedy provide evidence that those aboard the vessel included Captain Schuenemann; Capt. Charles Nelson, who was part owner of the schooner; and approximately 9 or 10 other sailors. Some estimates place the number of men aboard the ship as high as 23, when it was said that a party of lumberjacks had secured their passage back to Chicago.
Following the tragedy, Barbara and her daughters continued the family's Christmas tree business. Newspaper accounts suggest that they used schooners for several more years to bring trees to Chicago. Later, the women brought the evergreen trees to Chicago by train and then sold them from the deck of a docked schooner. After Barbara's death in 1933, the daughters sold trees from the family's lot for a few years.
The loss of the Rouse Simmons, however, signaled the beginning of the end for schooners hauling loads of evergreens to Chicago. By 1920, the practice of bringing trees to Chicago via schooner had ceased. Just a few years later, the majority of the once-proud schooners lay leaking and decaying, moored in their berths around the lake.
Over the years, the schooner's disappearance spawned legends and tales that grew ever larger with the passage of time. Some Lake Michigan mariners claimed to have spotted the Rouse Simmons appearing out of nowhere. Visitors to the gravesite of Barbara Schuenemann in Chicago's Acacia Park Cemetery claim there is the scent of evergreens present in the air.
Today the legend of Captain Schuenemann and the Christmas Tree Ship appeals to a large and varied audience, but children seem most attracted to the story. Perhaps the allure of a heart-warming story mixed with shipwrecks, Christmas, ghosts, and Lake Michigan's many mysteries proves irresistible to children of all ages. At least four histories, two documentaries, and several plays, musicals, and folk songs have been written or produced about the legendary ship and its captain and crew.
Each year in early December, the final voyage of Captain Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is commemorated by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, which makes the journey from northern Michigan to deliver a symbolic load of Christmas trees to Chicago's disadvantaged. Captain Schuenemann and the crew of the Rouse Simmons would be proud.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/winter/christmas-tree.html
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Today is the 109th anniversary of sinking of the Rouse Simmons, popularly known as the Christmas Tree Ship. Below is the 2006 Prologue article.
On a drizzly, overcast day in late October 1971, Milwaukee scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard was surveying with sonar the bottom of Lake Michigan's west coastal waters off of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Bellrichard was searching for the Vernon, a 177-foot, 700-ton steamer that had sunk with only one survivor in a storm in October 1887.
Local fishermen described an area to Bellrichard where their nets had snagged on previous occasions as a potential site to search. His sonar made a promising contact, and he descended to what appeared to be a well-preserved shipwreck resting in an upright position on the lake bed in 172 feet of water.
Upon reaching the wreck, his jury-rigged dive light promptly malfunctioned, leaving him blanketed in murky darkness. Without light, he surveyed the wreckage by feeling along its hull. Bellrichard quickly realized that he had not discovered the larger, propeller-drive Vernon, but the wreck of the elusive Rouse Simmons, a 205-ton, three-masted schooner that had disappeared beneath the waves in a winter gale in November 1912.
When Bellrichard surfaced, he lay in his boat and yelled for joy. His discovery ended a mystery that surrounded the fate of one of the most legendary ships, and its much-loved captain, to sail Lake Michigan's waters. For Bellrichard had discovered the grave of one of the most famous "Christmas tree ships" and its skipper, "Captain Santa."
The saga of Herman E. Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is a microcosm of Great Lakes maritime history preserved for researchers who visit the National Archives and Records Administration–Great Lakes Region in Chicago. The original and microfilmed records held in the Great Lakes Region not only document the birth, life, and death of the legendary schooner but also its enigmatic and kind-hearted captain.
The 1870 census reveals that Wisconsin native Schuenemann was born about 1865, into the middle of a growing family of six children in the predominantly German community of Ahnapee, now present-day Algoma, on the shores of Lake Michigan. His oldest brother, August, born in 1853, was the first of the children to make his living on the lake. Herman, however, soon followed in his brother's footsteps.
In 1868, three years after Schuenemann's birth, the age of sail on Lake Michigan reached its zenith when more than 1,800 sailing vessels populated the lake. After that year, the number of sailing ships began a decline that lasted until they disappeared almost completely by the late 1920s. The dominant sail-powered vessel on Lake Michigan was the sturdy schooner, built to haul heavy loads out of, and into, shallow harbors. The principal cargo for most schooners on Lake Michigan was lumber, which fed the high demand for building materials in growing urban areas such as Chicago and Milwaukee.
The 1868 peak in sail-powered ships on Lake Michigan also marked the year the Rouse Simmons was launched from Milwaukee's shipyards. The ship was built by the firm of Allan, McClelland, and Company, one of Milwaukee's preeminent shipbuilding firms.
Sleek and sturdy, the 123-foot Rouse Simmons was licensed and enrolled on August 27, 1868, at the Port of Milwaukee. The vessel's managing owner was Royal B. Towslee of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and its first master was Alfred Ackerman. The Rouse Simmons was named after a well-known Kenosha merchant of the same name. A brother, Zalmon Simmons, soon gained fame for his family's burgeoning mattress company.
In the early 1870s, the Rouse Simmons joined the sizeable shipping fleet of wealthy lumber magnate and philanthropist Charles H. Hackley of Muskegon, Michigan. Hackley's lumber operations stretched to all corners of Lake Michigan's coastline. The Rouse Simmons was a workhorse, hauling loads of lumber for Hackley's fleet from company mills to the various markets around the lake for roughly 20 years. A survey of entrances and clearances from the Records of the U.S. Customs Service for the port of Grand Haven, Michigan, for August 1883, shows that the Rouse Simmons was making almost weekly runs from Grand Haven, most likely with loads of lumber, to the port of Chicago.
Grand Haven's monthly report on daily entrances and clearances for August 1883 reveal the continued dominance of sailing ships even at that late date. Among the 458 ships that entered the port for the month, 269, or almost 60 percent, were sailing ships, while the remaining 189 were steam-powered. Following the Rouse Simmons's service with Hackley's fleet, the schooner changed numerous owners and captains before Schuenemann assumed an interest in the vessel at the beginning of the 20th century.
By the early 1890s, Schuenemann lived in Chicago, and his career as a local merchant and lake captain was well established. On April 9, 1891, he married German-born Barbara Schindel. The 1900 federal census indicates that Barbara and Herman Schuenemann had three daughters during the 1890s: Elsie, born in January 1892, and in October 1898, twins Hazel and Pearl. Barbara learned that being the wife of a lake captain took special qualities. She also realized, as did most wives whose husbands made their living on the Great Lakes, that it was not a matter of if catastrophe would strike, but when.
* * *
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the popular German tradition of decorating an evergreen tree in the home was widely practiced, and demand for Christmas trees was great. It was not uncommon for a handful of lake schooners to make late-season runs from northern Michigan and Wisconsin—before the worst storms and ice made lake travel too hazardous—loaded with thousands of Christmas trees for busy Chicago waterfront markets. Estimates of the number of Christmas schooners vary, but perhaps up to two dozen vessels in any season delivered evergreens to markets in Great Lakes states.
In Chicago, most vessels, including the Rouse Simmons, sold the trees directly from their berths along the Chicago River's Clark Street docks. Electric lights were strung from the schooner's bow to stern, and customers were invited to board the ship to choose their trees. In addition to selling Christmas trees, many boat operators, including Schuenemann, made and sold wreaths, garlands, and other holiday decorations. Barbara Schuenemann and her three daughters helped make and sell these items as part of the family's holiday trade.
At some stage of Herman Schuenemann's long career as a late-season tree captain, he was given the title of Captain Santa. The affectionate nickname was bestowed by Chicago's local newspapers and by the city's grateful residents. Schuenemann's profits from selling Christmas trees had never made the family wealthy, but his reputation for generosity was well established, and he delighted in presenting trees to many of the city's needy residents. Schuenemann enjoyed the sobriquet and proudly kept newspaper clippings about his role as Captain Santa in his oilskin wallet.
Over the years, Herman Schuenemann commanded several schooners that carried Christmas trees to Chicago, including the George Wrenn, the Bertha Barnes, and the Mary Collins. Like many other merchant-sailors, Schuenemann could not afford to purchase a schooner outright. It was a common practice for two or more businessmen or lake captains to form a partnership and purchase shares in a vessel. In 1910 Schuenemann purchased a partial interest in the Rouse Simmons. By 1912, Schuenemann's financial interest in the ship amounted to one-eighth of the ship, while Capt. Charles Nelson of Chicago, who later accompanied Schuenemann on the fateful November trip, owned another one-eighth share, and businessman Mannes J. Bonner of St. James, Michigan, held a commanding three-fourths interest in the vessel.
Throughout the year and especially during the winter months when the Great Lakes were impassable because of ice and storms, many lake boat captains supplemented their incomes in other ways. As a small businessman, Schuenemann not only made his living on the lake, but he also owned businesses that in 1906 included a saloon. In these business endeavors, Schuenemann did not always meet with success, and on January 4, 1907, he petitioned for bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. Listed as a saloon keeper, Schuenemann's debts to his creditors amounted to over $1,300, which he was unable to satisfy. This financial setback, however, does not appear to have interfered with his other role as a lake captain.
On November 9–10, 1898, tragedy marred the Schuenemann's holiday season when, just one month after the birth of twins Hazel and Pearl, Herman's older brother August Schuenemann died while sailing a load of Christmas trees to Chicago aboard the schooner S. Thal. The 52-ton, two-masted schooner, built in Milwaukee in 1867, broke up after it was caught in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. There were no survivors. The Schuenemann family was devastated, but Herman continued the family tradition of making late-season Christmas trees runs.
District court records for Milwaukee suggest that August came to the S. Thal just weeks before his death, when it was sold at auction by U.S. Marshals to pay fees owed to Otto Parker, the vessel's 19-year-old cook. Parker sued the vessel's previous owner, William Robertson, in admiralty court over Robertson's refusal to pay Parker the remaining $66 owed for his services as cook aboard the tiny vessel. In September 1898, Judge William H. Seaman decided the case in favor of the young cook, and the vessel was sold to pay the debt.
By 1912, Schuenemann was a veteran schooner master who had hauled Christmas trees to Chicago for almost three decades. While Schuenemann was in his prime as a lake captain, the same could not be said for the Rouse Simmons. The once-sleek sailing vessel was now 44 years old and long past its peak sailing days. Time, the elements, and hundreds of heavy loads of lumber had taken their toll on the vessel's physical condition.
On Friday, November 22, 1912, the Rouse Simmons, heavily laden with 3,000–5,000 Christmas trees filling its cargo hold and covering its deck, left the dock at Thompson, Michigan. Some eyewitnesses to the Rouse Simmons's departure claimed the ship looked like a floating forest. Schuenemann's departure, however, coincided with the beginnings of a tremendous winter storm on the lake that sent several other ships to the bottom, including the South Shore, Three Sisters, and Two Brothers.
What happened after the Rouse Simmons departed the tiny harbor at Thompson with its heavy load of trees is unknown, but Life Saving Station logs testify that at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, November 23, 1912, a surfman at the station in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, alerted the station keeper, Capt. Nelson Craite, that a schooner (the Rouse Simmons's identity was unknown) was sighted headed south flying its flag at half-mast, a universal sign of distress. In his remarks on the incident, Craite wrote, "I immediately took the Glasses, and made out that there was a distress signal. The schooner was between 5 and 6 miles E.S.E. and blowing a Gale from the N.W." Craite attempted to locate a gas tugboat to assist the schooner, but the vessel had left earlier in the day. After a few minutes, the life-saving crew at Kewaunee lost sight of the ship.
At 3:10 p.m., Craite telephoned Station Keeper Capt. George E. Sogge at Two Rivers, the next station further south. Craite informed Sogge that a schooner was headed south, flying its flag at half-mast. Sogge immediately ordered the Two Rivers surfmen to launch the station's powerboat. The boat reached the schooner's approximate position shortly thereafter, but darkness, heavy snow, and mist obscured any trace of the Rouse Simmons and its crew. The schooner had vanished.
Barbara Schuenemann and her daughters were concerned when the Rouse Simmons failed to arrive in Chicago Harbor on schedule. However, it was not uncommon for a schooner to pull into a safe harbor to ride out a storm and then arrive days later at its destination. The family's worst fears were realized days later, when still no word of the vessel had been received. Over the next weeks and months, remnants of Christmas trees washed ashore along Wisconsin's coastline. Astonishingly, the lake continued to give up clues long after the vessel's loss. In 1924 some fishermen in Wisconsin hauled in their nets and discovered a wallet wrapped in waterproof oilskin. Inside were the pristine contents that identified its owner as Herman Schuenemann, the captain of the Rouse Simmons. The wallet was returned to the family.
What caused the disaster that befell the Rouse Simmons? There are several theories, but most likely a combination of circumstances or events drove the ship under in the heavy seas. Among the factors are the possibility that the vessel lost its ship's wheel in the storm, its poor physical condition, heavy icing and snow on the vessel's exterior and load, plus the load of 3,000–5,000 evergreen trees itself.
A recent underwater archaeological survey, conducted in July and August 2006 by the Wisconsin Historical Society, discovered that the Rouse Simmons's anchor chain, masts, and spar were all lying forward beyond the bow of the wreck. The location of these items suggest that the schooner's weight was in the bow, causing it to nose-dive into the heavy seas and founder. Another explanation may be that the masts, rigging, and chains were all shoved forward when the vessel dove into the lake bed during its descent to the bottom.
After the schooner's loss, the vessel's sailing condition came under scrutiny. One of the legends associated with the disaster was that prior to its departure from Thompson, rats living aboard the now-dilapidated ship were seen making their way to dry land, as if they had a premonition of its doom.
Moreover, some of the crew was rumored to have deserted the ship prior to its departure. There is some disagreement over the exact number and the identities of the crew members aboard the Rouse Simmons, but newspaper accounts following the tragedy provide evidence that those aboard the vessel included Captain Schuenemann; Capt. Charles Nelson, who was part owner of the schooner; and approximately 9 or 10 other sailors. Some estimates place the number of men aboard the ship as high as 23, when it was said that a party of lumberjacks had secured their passage back to Chicago.
Following the tragedy, Barbara and her daughters continued the family's Christmas tree business. Newspaper accounts suggest that they used schooners for several more years to bring trees to Chicago. Later, the women brought the evergreen trees to Chicago by train and then sold them from the deck of a docked schooner. After Barbara's death in 1933, the daughters sold trees from the family's lot for a few years.
The loss of the Rouse Simmons, however, signaled the beginning of the end for schooners hauling loads of evergreens to Chicago. By 1920, the practice of bringing trees to Chicago via schooner had ceased. Just a few years later, the majority of the once-proud schooners lay leaking and decaying, moored in their berths around the lake.
Over the years, the schooner's disappearance spawned legends and tales that grew ever larger with the passage of time. Some Lake Michigan mariners claimed to have spotted the Rouse Simmons appearing out of nowhere. Visitors to the gravesite of Barbara Schuenemann in Chicago's Acacia Park Cemetery claim there is the scent of evergreens present in the air.
Today the legend of Captain Schuenemann and the Christmas Tree Ship appeals to a large and varied audience, but children seem most attracted to the story. Perhaps the allure of a heart-warming story mixed with shipwrecks, Christmas, ghosts, and Lake Michigan's many mysteries proves irresistible to children of all ages. At least four histories, two documentaries, and several plays, musicals, and folk songs have been written or produced about the legendary ship and its captain and crew.
Each year in early December, the final voyage of Captain Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is commemorated by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, which makes the journey from northern Michigan to deliver a symbolic load of Christmas trees to Chicago's disadvantaged. Captain Schuenemann and the crew of the Rouse Simmons would be proud.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/winter/christmas-tree.html
On a drizzly, overcast day in late October 1971, Milwaukee scuba diver Gordon Kent Bellrichard was surveying with sonar the bottom of Lake Michigan's west coastal waters off of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. Bellrichard was searching for the Vernon, a 177-foot, 700-ton steamer that had sunk with only one survivor in a storm in October 1887.
Local fishermen described an area to Bellrichard where their nets had snagged on previous occasions as a potential site to search. His sonar made a promising contact, and he descended to what appeared to be a well-preserved shipwreck resting in an upright position on the lake bed in 172 feet of water.
Upon reaching the wreck, his jury-rigged dive light promptly malfunctioned, leaving him blanketed in murky darkness. Without light, he surveyed the wreckage by feeling along its hull. Bellrichard quickly realized that he had not discovered the larger, propeller-drive Vernon, but the wreck of the elusive Rouse Simmons, a 205-ton, three-masted schooner that had disappeared beneath the waves in a winter gale in November 1912.
When Bellrichard surfaced, he lay in his boat and yelled for joy. His discovery ended a mystery that surrounded the fate of one of the most legendary ships, and its much-loved captain, to sail Lake Michigan's waters. For Bellrichard had discovered the grave of one of the most famous "Christmas tree ships" and its skipper, "Captain Santa."
The saga of Herman E. Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is a microcosm of Great Lakes maritime history preserved for researchers who visit the National Archives and Records Administration–Great Lakes Region in Chicago. The original and microfilmed records held in the Great Lakes Region not only document the birth, life, and death of the legendary schooner but also its enigmatic and kind-hearted captain.
The 1870 census reveals that Wisconsin native Schuenemann was born about 1865, into the middle of a growing family of six children in the predominantly German community of Ahnapee, now present-day Algoma, on the shores of Lake Michigan. His oldest brother, August, born in 1853, was the first of the children to make his living on the lake. Herman, however, soon followed in his brother's footsteps.
In 1868, three years after Schuenemann's birth, the age of sail on Lake Michigan reached its zenith when more than 1,800 sailing vessels populated the lake. After that year, the number of sailing ships began a decline that lasted until they disappeared almost completely by the late 1920s. The dominant sail-powered vessel on Lake Michigan was the sturdy schooner, built to haul heavy loads out of, and into, shallow harbors. The principal cargo for most schooners on Lake Michigan was lumber, which fed the high demand for building materials in growing urban areas such as Chicago and Milwaukee.
The 1868 peak in sail-powered ships on Lake Michigan also marked the year the Rouse Simmons was launched from Milwaukee's shipyards. The ship was built by the firm of Allan, McClelland, and Company, one of Milwaukee's preeminent shipbuilding firms.
Sleek and sturdy, the 123-foot Rouse Simmons was licensed and enrolled on August 27, 1868, at the Port of Milwaukee. The vessel's managing owner was Royal B. Towslee of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and its first master was Alfred Ackerman. The Rouse Simmons was named after a well-known Kenosha merchant of the same name. A brother, Zalmon Simmons, soon gained fame for his family's burgeoning mattress company.
In the early 1870s, the Rouse Simmons joined the sizeable shipping fleet of wealthy lumber magnate and philanthropist Charles H. Hackley of Muskegon, Michigan. Hackley's lumber operations stretched to all corners of Lake Michigan's coastline. The Rouse Simmons was a workhorse, hauling loads of lumber for Hackley's fleet from company mills to the various markets around the lake for roughly 20 years. A survey of entrances and clearances from the Records of the U.S. Customs Service for the port of Grand Haven, Michigan, for August 1883, shows that the Rouse Simmons was making almost weekly runs from Grand Haven, most likely with loads of lumber, to the port of Chicago.
Grand Haven's monthly report on daily entrances and clearances for August 1883 reveal the continued dominance of sailing ships even at that late date. Among the 458 ships that entered the port for the month, 269, or almost 60 percent, were sailing ships, while the remaining 189 were steam-powered. Following the Rouse Simmons's service with Hackley's fleet, the schooner changed numerous owners and captains before Schuenemann assumed an interest in the vessel at the beginning of the 20th century.
By the early 1890s, Schuenemann lived in Chicago, and his career as a local merchant and lake captain was well established. On April 9, 1891, he married German-born Barbara Schindel. The 1900 federal census indicates that Barbara and Herman Schuenemann had three daughters during the 1890s: Elsie, born in January 1892, and in October 1898, twins Hazel and Pearl. Barbara learned that being the wife of a lake captain took special qualities. She also realized, as did most wives whose husbands made their living on the Great Lakes, that it was not a matter of if catastrophe would strike, but when.
* * *
By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the popular German tradition of decorating an evergreen tree in the home was widely practiced, and demand for Christmas trees was great. It was not uncommon for a handful of lake schooners to make late-season runs from northern Michigan and Wisconsin—before the worst storms and ice made lake travel too hazardous—loaded with thousands of Christmas trees for busy Chicago waterfront markets. Estimates of the number of Christmas schooners vary, but perhaps up to two dozen vessels in any season delivered evergreens to markets in Great Lakes states.
In Chicago, most vessels, including the Rouse Simmons, sold the trees directly from their berths along the Chicago River's Clark Street docks. Electric lights were strung from the schooner's bow to stern, and customers were invited to board the ship to choose their trees. In addition to selling Christmas trees, many boat operators, including Schuenemann, made and sold wreaths, garlands, and other holiday decorations. Barbara Schuenemann and her three daughters helped make and sell these items as part of the family's holiday trade.
At some stage of Herman Schuenemann's long career as a late-season tree captain, he was given the title of Captain Santa. The affectionate nickname was bestowed by Chicago's local newspapers and by the city's grateful residents. Schuenemann's profits from selling Christmas trees had never made the family wealthy, but his reputation for generosity was well established, and he delighted in presenting trees to many of the city's needy residents. Schuenemann enjoyed the sobriquet and proudly kept newspaper clippings about his role as Captain Santa in his oilskin wallet.
Over the years, Herman Schuenemann commanded several schooners that carried Christmas trees to Chicago, including the George Wrenn, the Bertha Barnes, and the Mary Collins. Like many other merchant-sailors, Schuenemann could not afford to purchase a schooner outright. It was a common practice for two or more businessmen or lake captains to form a partnership and purchase shares in a vessel. In 1910 Schuenemann purchased a partial interest in the Rouse Simmons. By 1912, Schuenemann's financial interest in the ship amounted to one-eighth of the ship, while Capt. Charles Nelson of Chicago, who later accompanied Schuenemann on the fateful November trip, owned another one-eighth share, and businessman Mannes J. Bonner of St. James, Michigan, held a commanding three-fourths interest in the vessel.
Throughout the year and especially during the winter months when the Great Lakes were impassable because of ice and storms, many lake boat captains supplemented their incomes in other ways. As a small businessman, Schuenemann not only made his living on the lake, but he also owned businesses that in 1906 included a saloon. In these business endeavors, Schuenemann did not always meet with success, and on January 4, 1907, he petitioned for bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. Listed as a saloon keeper, Schuenemann's debts to his creditors amounted to over $1,300, which he was unable to satisfy. This financial setback, however, does not appear to have interfered with his other role as a lake captain.
On November 9–10, 1898, tragedy marred the Schuenemann's holiday season when, just one month after the birth of twins Hazel and Pearl, Herman's older brother August Schuenemann died while sailing a load of Christmas trees to Chicago aboard the schooner S. Thal. The 52-ton, two-masted schooner, built in Milwaukee in 1867, broke up after it was caught in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. There were no survivors. The Schuenemann family was devastated, but Herman continued the family tradition of making late-season Christmas trees runs.
District court records for Milwaukee suggest that August came to the S. Thal just weeks before his death, when it was sold at auction by U.S. Marshals to pay fees owed to Otto Parker, the vessel's 19-year-old cook. Parker sued the vessel's previous owner, William Robertson, in admiralty court over Robertson's refusal to pay Parker the remaining $66 owed for his services as cook aboard the tiny vessel. In September 1898, Judge William H. Seaman decided the case in favor of the young cook, and the vessel was sold to pay the debt.
By 1912, Schuenemann was a veteran schooner master who had hauled Christmas trees to Chicago for almost three decades. While Schuenemann was in his prime as a lake captain, the same could not be said for the Rouse Simmons. The once-sleek sailing vessel was now 44 years old and long past its peak sailing days. Time, the elements, and hundreds of heavy loads of lumber had taken their toll on the vessel's physical condition.
On Friday, November 22, 1912, the Rouse Simmons, heavily laden with 3,000–5,000 Christmas trees filling its cargo hold and covering its deck, left the dock at Thompson, Michigan. Some eyewitnesses to the Rouse Simmons's departure claimed the ship looked like a floating forest. Schuenemann's departure, however, coincided with the beginnings of a tremendous winter storm on the lake that sent several other ships to the bottom, including the South Shore, Three Sisters, and Two Brothers.
What happened after the Rouse Simmons departed the tiny harbor at Thompson with its heavy load of trees is unknown, but Life Saving Station logs testify that at 2:50 p.m. on Saturday, November 23, 1912, a surfman at the station in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, alerted the station keeper, Capt. Nelson Craite, that a schooner (the Rouse Simmons's identity was unknown) was sighted headed south flying its flag at half-mast, a universal sign of distress. In his remarks on the incident, Craite wrote, "I immediately took the Glasses, and made out that there was a distress signal. The schooner was between 5 and 6 miles E.S.E. and blowing a Gale from the N.W." Craite attempted to locate a gas tugboat to assist the schooner, but the vessel had left earlier in the day. After a few minutes, the life-saving crew at Kewaunee lost sight of the ship.
At 3:10 p.m., Craite telephoned Station Keeper Capt. George E. Sogge at Two Rivers, the next station further south. Craite informed Sogge that a schooner was headed south, flying its flag at half-mast. Sogge immediately ordered the Two Rivers surfmen to launch the station's powerboat. The boat reached the schooner's approximate position shortly thereafter, but darkness, heavy snow, and mist obscured any trace of the Rouse Simmons and its crew. The schooner had vanished.
Barbara Schuenemann and her daughters were concerned when the Rouse Simmons failed to arrive in Chicago Harbor on schedule. However, it was not uncommon for a schooner to pull into a safe harbor to ride out a storm and then arrive days later at its destination. The family's worst fears were realized days later, when still no word of the vessel had been received. Over the next weeks and months, remnants of Christmas trees washed ashore along Wisconsin's coastline. Astonishingly, the lake continued to give up clues long after the vessel's loss. In 1924 some fishermen in Wisconsin hauled in their nets and discovered a wallet wrapped in waterproof oilskin. Inside were the pristine contents that identified its owner as Herman Schuenemann, the captain of the Rouse Simmons. The wallet was returned to the family.
What caused the disaster that befell the Rouse Simmons? There are several theories, but most likely a combination of circumstances or events drove the ship under in the heavy seas. Among the factors are the possibility that the vessel lost its ship's wheel in the storm, its poor physical condition, heavy icing and snow on the vessel's exterior and load, plus the load of 3,000–5,000 evergreen trees itself.
A recent underwater archaeological survey, conducted in July and August 2006 by the Wisconsin Historical Society, discovered that the Rouse Simmons's anchor chain, masts, and spar were all lying forward beyond the bow of the wreck. The location of these items suggest that the schooner's weight was in the bow, causing it to nose-dive into the heavy seas and founder. Another explanation may be that the masts, rigging, and chains were all shoved forward when the vessel dove into the lake bed during its descent to the bottom.
After the schooner's loss, the vessel's sailing condition came under scrutiny. One of the legends associated with the disaster was that prior to its departure from Thompson, rats living aboard the now-dilapidated ship were seen making their way to dry land, as if they had a premonition of its doom.
Moreover, some of the crew was rumored to have deserted the ship prior to its departure. There is some disagreement over the exact number and the identities of the crew members aboard the Rouse Simmons, but newspaper accounts following the tragedy provide evidence that those aboard the vessel included Captain Schuenemann; Capt. Charles Nelson, who was part owner of the schooner; and approximately 9 or 10 other sailors. Some estimates place the number of men aboard the ship as high as 23, when it was said that a party of lumberjacks had secured their passage back to Chicago.
Following the tragedy, Barbara and her daughters continued the family's Christmas tree business. Newspaper accounts suggest that they used schooners for several more years to bring trees to Chicago. Later, the women brought the evergreen trees to Chicago by train and then sold them from the deck of a docked schooner. After Barbara's death in 1933, the daughters sold trees from the family's lot for a few years.
The loss of the Rouse Simmons, however, signaled the beginning of the end for schooners hauling loads of evergreens to Chicago. By 1920, the practice of bringing trees to Chicago via schooner had ceased. Just a few years later, the majority of the once-proud schooners lay leaking and decaying, moored in their berths around the lake.
Over the years, the schooner's disappearance spawned legends and tales that grew ever larger with the passage of time. Some Lake Michigan mariners claimed to have spotted the Rouse Simmons appearing out of nowhere. Visitors to the gravesite of Barbara Schuenemann in Chicago's Acacia Park Cemetery claim there is the scent of evergreens present in the air.
Today the legend of Captain Schuenemann and the Christmas Tree Ship appeals to a large and varied audience, but children seem most attracted to the story. Perhaps the allure of a heart-warming story mixed with shipwrecks, Christmas, ghosts, and Lake Michigan's many mysteries proves irresistible to children of all ages. At least four histories, two documentaries, and several plays, musicals, and folk songs have been written or produced about the legendary ship and its captain and crew.
Each year in early December, the final voyage of Captain Schuenemann and the Rouse Simmons is commemorated by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw, which makes the journey from northern Michigan to deliver a symbolic load of Christmas trees to Chicago's disadvantaged. Captain Schuenemann and the crew of the Rouse Simmons would be proud.
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2006/winter/christmas-tree.html