Outagamie County, WI - "Canal Builder was Mysterious Man" ************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net ************************************************************* Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives Subject: newspaper article "Canal Builder was Mysterious Man" Submitted by: county coordinator EMAIL: jmmarasch@aol.com Date Submitted: 15 March 2000 Source: New London Press newspaper article from Bicentennial issue, undated. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Canal Builder was Mysterious Man by Leona Mech There has been much controversy over the Rassmussen Canal, and yet no one knows much about the man who built it. I have questioned many people, Ray Prahl, Art Lasch, Matt Burton, Bill Sohrweide, Joe Kische, and others. Ray Prahl remembers the man worked on road construction, and owned land along the Embarrass river, where he raised cabbage, for sale. According to Ray, Ben built the canal to divert water from his land, and the city. He spent a lot of his own money on the project, plus much labor. He asked the city for monetary help, but was refused, and laughed at - they called the canal 'Rassmussen's Folly!' R. B. Rassmussen, called 'Benjy', lived at 904 Shiocton St. in 1915, according to Art Lasch's Post Office Directory of that year. Ray said he lived with his sisters on the corner of Shiocton and Lima streets. He never married. He is remembered as being an alderman, and also worked on New London streets, at one time. Mrs. Jasper Sells said he had something to do with gravel work at Mosquito Hill. Art Lasch wrote his brother-in-law Elder Schoenrock, Haze, North Dakota, inquiring about Rassmussen. Schoenrock's letter said: "Regard to Rassmussen ditch, I was acquainted with the ditch as early as 1906-1908 - we used that as a landmark for fishing. The ditch, as I recall, some one must of worked on that before the turn of the century. This ditch was to drain water from north of the railroad tracks - some of the land belonged to the Rassmussens." "In 1912, July, after heavy rains in Northern part of Wisconsin, some dam went out on the Embarrass river, which caused a quick flood. We were working on the basement and remodelling the home of Charles Kische, and all 11 a.m. we had to leave the job, water was two feet high. Rassmussen's Ditch was helpful in dawing water from north of the railroad tracks." "After the flood Ben Rassmussen was making a move to have that ditch dredged, he couldn't get co- operation, it seemed, and tried himself - then the war came, and the ditch project was dropped." "In 1919 the road north of town was built and made higher, the old bridge was replaced, which still stands, and was built, higher too. Schoenrock built the bridge." "In 1922, April, another flood came, mostly from the Embarrass, to North Main street. At this time the ditch was ueful. This was another time Ben started to get the city to cooperate, so the water could be drained when floods came. Ben met with the city council, they gave him the right to work, and gave him $200. He tried to get a dredge tug-boat, but he got very little help on that." "In 1929 the Wolf river went on a rampage, and guess that was because two big rivers were too much. This was a set-back for Ben." "In 1922 Schoenrock built the first filling station in New London, and all the material, etc. went down the river with the flood waters." "After the 1929 flood, Ben worked for the Green Bay & Western railroad. In 1930, Ben worked on some building in Green Bay that the Schoenrocks were building." Matt Burton remembers Ben owned land from West street to the river. He sold the trees off this land to citizens who could cut them for 50 cents a cord. He remembers helping cross-cut 25-40 cords, which Ben would measure before payment. Burton, said Ben had ditches dug through this area and to an old barn that stood on the end of Waupaca street. You could pole a boat through these ditches. Bill Sohrweide purchased the sister's shoe store, and even bought the shoe supplies, in order to hurry the transaction along, selling the shoes himself. Eileen Krause Roloff worked for attorney Capener -- she said Rassmussen would dictate letters to her, which she would type for him - Helen Abrams Hetzer worked for Walter Melchior (former city attorney). She said 'Benjy' would bring in letters, asking her to type them for him, and his spelling was much to be desired. This was about 1934. Joe Kische sent me the following story entitled: "A Man Changed the Flow of the Waters." "A man who had been away for a long time returned to spend his retiring years in New London, and became an active influence in changing the flood of the waters that traversed through the City." "He was a stranger to most of the towns-people, entirely to the younger generation, not the kind of person who made friends easily, much alone." "A man of average build, slightly stooped, possibly because of his age, walked at a brisk pace, seldom stopping to converse, except for an occasional greeting of the day. Dressed moderately, that blended in appearances with the average citizen of the community. Not outstanding physical features, nothing impressive that would set him apart from other men." "He resided with his two sisters at the west end of Waupaca street. The sisters operated a shoe store on North Water street near the Elwood Hotel. (in the Friendly Tavern building)." "Seldom was the fellow seen in the store, for he had too much on his mind to be concerned with shoes. Also included in the store was a shoe repair shop operated by a small cobbler, who received no help from the returnee." "This person who returned had a serious nature, apparently thinking about the increasing flooding of the north side of New London. Occasionally, and for years past, during the spring thaw, when the ice in the rivers broke up, the Embarrass river overflowed its banks, covering much of the area north of the Wolf river. Many of the houses in the section, with the first floor erected as much as four feet above the ground surface, bears witness to the history of flooding." "The floods became increasingly serious as year passed - Why? Originally the two rivers, the Embarrass and the Wolf, had free flow without obstruction, and room to expand into flood plain areas, allowing nature to take its course. But man and progress intervened, and after each action, the problem became more acute, and the water rose higher and higher. Some of the projects were:" 1. Shawano street was extended and built higher to the Cheese Factory, presently Don's Supper Club, acting as a dam directing the flow across the populated area. On it, about one-tenth mile east of the present Green Bay & Western Railway right-away, was installed a bridge wide enough for two teams of horses to pass, and long enough to cover the length of a wagon, too small to carry the flow of water beneath it." 2. The Green Bay & Western, and the Chicago & Northwestern railways built high banks on which to lay their rails, with bridges too small, acting as additional dams." 3. The Pearl, Shawano, St. John's, Hatten Lumber Yard, and Stephensville road bridges, with their abutments, further hindered the free flow." 4. Old Highway 54, North side of town, was raised, reducing the flood plain area to spread out the excess water." "The above alone, was more than enough to make the rivers angry, but to make matters even worse, man and progress again acted, this time raising the Shawano road higher and paving it, installing a bridge at the old site, larger, but yet small." "After this was accomplished, the rivers responded with revenge, channelling the water high through almost all of the northside of New London, the worst of all times, the year 1922." "The man who returned had been engaged in construction and engineering during his absence, and for a long enough period to see what had happened to the town caused by the rivers, and the possible solution. His name Benjamin Rassmussen, better known as 'Ben'. "He was familiar with the small water-way over which the bridge on Shawano road spanned; it began at the Embarrass near the Chicago Northwestern bridge, and terminated near Northport, a distance of less than three miles. The length between these two points, by way of the rivers, around and through the Community, being approximately six miles, with six bridges to molest the free flow." "Ben's plan was simple and practical, dig a passage, the short-cut between the two rivers, wider and deeper, with a larger bridge, allowing the high water to by-pass New London." "After much planning, surveying a persuasion that went on for a long period, several years; for Ben wasn't the be salesman, and many people thought ill the man, the project was complete according to plan, without a ribbon cutting ceremony or fan-fare." Years passed and New London was fr of serious floods, except recently. Possibly if Ben were here, he would have the solution. The first place he would investigate would be Rassmussen's Ditch maybe it's plugged at, both ends???"