GUEST BLOG by Francis G. Ginther, author of “The Life & Times of Dawn Manor”
Since it first was built in 1855, the handsome Potsdam sandstone mansion, known today as Dawn Manor has been a place for entertaining and celebrations. Past owners and occupants saw this unique building as a centerpiece to bring people together, hold special family gatherings, and a site to be preserved and provided with special décor both inside and out. As we enter the holiday season, let’s take a look back at some of the unique family events that have taken place at this one-of-a-kind building in beautiful Wisconsin Dells.
Abraham Vanderpoel, the builder of the home and more often than not, referred to as Captain Vanderpoel, was reportedly a friend of Abraham Lincoln. In April of 1861, when President Lincoln issued a call to the states to provide 75,000 militiamen to suppress the rebellion in the southern states, Abraham Vanderpoel responded. He and Lieutenant John Gillespie recruited local men to serve in the war effort. “Coming from Newport, Kilbourn, Delton, and Mauston…Vanderpoel led these recruits in drills on his property…near Dawn Manor…until the sand on the flats was found to be too deep for keeping step and the drills were moved to the village green at the village of Delton. The men became part of company E of the 12th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment…and Vanderpoel served as their captain”, according to local Sauk County Historian, Paul Wolter. “The Regiment…served in the Western campaigns with Ulysses S. Grant in Tennessee and at Vicksburg. Later they marched from Atlanta to the sea with William T. Sherman, and on to Washington D.C. where they took part in the Grand Review on May 23, 1865”, as reported by the local Dells Country Historical Society.
According to Helen Hammond in her 1956 book, “The Dells Story”, Vanderpoel also laid out and built special gardens where Abraham’s private band played on Saturday and Sunday. Abraham and his wife Christina used the upstairs of the house as a schoolroom where private tutors taught their numerous children for a time, and their daughters were married from the library of their home there as well.
The next family to live at the Manor, Enoch and Rhoda Chaffee had some reported happy times while at the house in old Newport. In 1877 their daughter Helen Louise was married at the home. The next year, 1878, they celebrated a family reunion at the ages of 72 and 73 years respectively. After the party had partaken of a bountiful repast, the aged parents requested the 121st Psalm to be read. Their grown children then withdrew and bid a last adieu as they dispersed to their respective homes. During the sojourn of the family, numerous birthdays and wedding anniversaries were celebrated, making a very pleasant affair.
Not long after the deed transferred in 1887, the local newspaper acknowledged that, “they were glad to notice the fine improvements that are being made on the…Chaffee Place by the present owner Mr. Kerfoot of Chicago”. Samuel Humes Kerfoot, Sr. and Annie Warfield Lawrence Kerfoot were seemingly well-connected in Chicago society and their comings and goings to the Kilbourn City area were covered regularly by the press. Soon after they purchased their place in Kilbourn the press picked up on a name that Annie used for her suburban home in Lake View, Illinois. “Dawn” was the scene of hospitality and entertainments still pleasantly remembered and often alluded to by her contemporaries and by the Kerfoot children. Whether or not Annie chose to use duplicate names for her two properties it’s hard to say, and yet there had been a small delightful gazebo located at the old Newport site that one could absolutely picture Annie Warfield Lawrence Kerfoot enjoying as the sun came up over the marsh.
Dawn was a welcome respite from the noise and foul air of big city Chicago. Mr. Kerfoot dealt with rheumatic difficulty and from time to time would suffer from long and tedious spells. In June 1889 the local newspaper expounded on reasons why the Kerfoot’s acquired Dawn in the first place. They had an invalid daughter, whose health was one of the chief reasons for making the purchase and, “Miss Kate”, “has been much benefited by the bracing, pure air of this charming Wisconsin home. …Mr. Kerfoot is quite positive, the article goes on to say, in describing the remarkable change to our healthy location”.
The Kerfoots often entertained and welcomed guests to Dawn. They typically arrived in Kilbourn in May and sometimes stayed until the snow flied. Besides their own family members, somewhat of a Who’s Who of Chicago society were reported on locally as being guests of the Kerfoots. These included Mrs. H.R. Symonds, wife of the cashier of the First National Bank of Chicago, the Honorable A.N. Waterman of the Appellate Court of Chicago and his wife, Mrs. C.B. Lawrence, widow of the late Chief Justice of the State of Illinois, and Mr. Lyman Gage, the president of the Board of Directors for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, and eventual Secretary of the Treasury for Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. In 1894, the Kerfoots were informed that Vice President of the United States, Adlai Stevenson and his family had accepted an invitation to visit Dawn as well.
Family celebrations, including birthdays and wedding anniversaries, were noted and reported on in regular fashion. News of Annie and Samuel’s 41st wedding anniversary in 1888 highlighted the good-natured gathering, “With such a charming home as Dawn, the exceedingly genial and happy family ties, and the prospect of many more happy reunions, Mr. and Mrs. Kerfoot have every reason to feel at peace with all of the world”. Their sons were with them for the two days of celebration, and their daughters were making a longer stay. Displays of Japanese lanterns were on hand for the Kerfoot’s 43rd wedding anniversary celebration at Dawn, and fireworks, a popular celebratory feature for both family and friends, flew into the July 1890 sky.
By 1916 although it appears the Bement family, owners of Dawn at the time, may have primarily lived in Kilbourn City (now known as Wisconsin Dells), a widely reported special event took place at what the press was now referring to as Dawn Manor House. “The rooms and halls of the Manor had been most artistically and appropriately decorated with pink and white flowers and vines. An altar was formed in front of a large fireplace in the reception room…with…deep banks of foliage and flowers affording the most charming effect. … Amid an environment of indescribable beauty of fall foliage, within the sound of the ceaseless swishing current of the Wisconsin River”, this classy evening affair was the wedding of Miss Belle Bement to Mr. Jess Clark Edmonds.
The La Crosse Tribune described the wedding garments and the bride’s background – “The bride was attired in a dainty gown of white embroidery and carried white roses. The bridesmaid’s frock was of sheer white voile over pink silk. …Belle…was a long resident of Kilbourn and was one of the city’s most popular young ladies. She graduated from Kilbourn High School and also from the Frence Shimer School for Girls at Mount Carroll, Illinois. …Belle…held the position of bookkeeper at the State Bank at Wonewoc and also the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Kilbourn”. The groom, much like his bride, is also a graduate of Kilbourn High School and for the past six years has been employed as a railway mail clerk. Mr. Edmonds was described as, “an ideal man, intellectually and morally, and holds the admiring esteem of all who know him”.
Music for the 8:30 PM event included, “To Have, To Hold, To Love”, sung in perfect voice by Mrs. H.D. Snider and accompanied by Miss Vivian Peterson and the Peterson Harp Orchestra. Additionally, the orchestra played, “Oh Promise Me” on violin and harp following the double ring ceremony. A sumptuous banquet was served to about 100 guests by twelve girls from the domestic science class of Kilbourn High School, with an enjoyable evening of further music and congratulations to follow. At a proper hour the bride and groom slipped away in an automobile for Baraboo where they went to Chicago on a wedding trip.
Helen Raab, longtime owner and resident of Dawn Manor from circa 1946-1970, threw herself into making the home a restored 1855-era showpiece. She loved exotic hats and native headgear bringing them back in her lap from her many international travels which she said, “made her look like one of her immigrant ancestors and helped to explain luggage problems”. Helen said she could trace her ancestry back to a signer of the Magna Carta.
In a tribute to the Vanderpoel era using two pictures of Abraham Lincoln done by Helen’s second husband, the late George Raab, and two convincing life masks of the 16th president, Helen created a Lincoln room on the second floor of the Manor. One room in Dawn Manor had a series of Japanese prints given to Frank Lloyd Wright by the governor of Japan when Wright completed the Imperial Hotel. Miriam Noel Wright, Wright’s former wife who Helen took care of in her last days, gave them to her. There was even a polar bear skin at the foot of one bed, and a huge brass candelabra suspended from the ceiling in another room, which was a gift from the Russian Grand Duke Alexander.
Mrs. Raab loved to entertain and had regular Saturday tea parties with local ladies, including actress Agnes Moorehead who grew up in neighboring Reedsburg, attended the University Wisconsin, and later returned often from her home in California to take care of her mother. Helen formed a friendship with Frank Lloyd Wright who also visited, giving her advice on art and architectural styles and taking a keen interest in the recovered pieces from Midway Gardens that past Dawn Manor owner W.J. Newman had used to decorate the grounds. Longtime caretaker Ron Soma remembers meeting these famous people of the day and assisting Helen’s maid Elsa in brewing her exotic teas which were often the source of conversation.
In May 1955, Helen Raab threw a big 100th anniversary party for Dawn Manor. The day would feature the installation of an historical marker, a speech by an official from the State Historical Society, a fancy tea put on especially for women from the state Mayflower Society, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America, as well as tours of the Lower Dells, all with 200 guests enjoying the day of grand celebration.
For the full and complete story about the history of the mansion, pick up a copy of “The Life & Times of Dawn Manor”, by local author F.G. Ginther at the Sundries Shoppe located inside Dawn Manor Restaurant and Speakeasy in Wisconsin Dells. If you are interested in hosting your celebration or event at Dawn Manor, please visit:
https://www.dawnmanor.com/group-private-dining/ to learn more.
