Collected and posted by BILL
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OCONTO COUNTY
Wisconsin
Scenes from Oconto County Past.
Photographs, descriptions and history from the "old days."
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Please click on the photo for a
larger view.
Dr. O'Keefe had his office, hospital rooms and home in one building
off of Main Street at the corner of Washington Street and Superior
Avenue. Long after his death, the building became known as the
O'Keefe Apartments until demolished. The Wisconsin Telephone Company
now stands on the O'Keefe lots. Read about the very gentle and
caring Dr. Patrick O'Keefe at: Dr.
Patrick O'Keefe and Family
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Oconto County Hospital 401 First Street Oconto, Wisconsin |
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Please click on the photo for a
larger view.
Original Oconto County Courthouse
Photo taken c: 1925 Colonel Jones plated the original city of Oconto on July 14, 1856, which then was bound on the north by the Oconto river and on the west by what is now Collins avenue, making an area of three blocks long and three blocks wide. Col. Jones Donated to the community the property now occupied by the country jail and also that now occupied by the Oconto hospital, which formerly was the county courthouse. The Oconto city addition on the south side of the river was platted by the Jones family. All the time it was thought it would be the center of Oconto, and the city lots on Second st were given to the city by the Jones family for a city square. They also gave the site of the present Oconto County and City hospital to be used for public purposes. From: Jones Family |
 Oconto County Reporter The new Oconto County Courthouse was built in 1891 and the old courthouse became the Oconto County Hospital. This view is from the river side (back) of the original building and dates c:1900 It was during the 1920’s that the Oconto hospital came under the management of a newly formed organization, the Oconto County and City Hospital Board of Trustees, John Spies, H.F. (Dick) Muehrcke and Eldred Klauser were the original trustees. Later Theodore Meeuwsen became a trustee. According to records kept by Eldred
Klauser at that time, Dr. Armstrong, Dr. Ouellette, Dr. Stoelting,
Dr. Watkins, Dr. Minnie Hopkins and young Dr. Earl A. Linger were
the Oconto doctors on the medical staff. Then came Dr. Barr,
followed by Dr. A.F. Slaney and Dr. A.F. Tousignant. |
 W.P.A. Funds helped build a new addition to the Oconto County Hospital during the Great Depression of the 1930s. This new addition is to the right on this photograph and included a new entrance on the street side. |
 THE GROUND BREAKING CEREMONIES FOR THE HOSPITAL ADDITION were held April 5, 1935. The nursing staff shown includes Genevieve Amore, Laura Neal, Hattie Kuehl, Superintendant Mrs. V. Nicolai, Nora Kuehl and Mary Gordon. The men shown are, Dr. C. J. Quellette, P. T. Meeuwsen, secretary-treasurer of the hospital board; Dr. C. J. Rogers, Dr, W.C. Wilkins, John Spies, board chairman; Peter Miller, Charles Foley, WERA secretary, and Hugo Muercke, vice chairman of the board. |
A third addition was later made to the hospital and can be seen
on the left 3rd of the building. Private donations played a
large part in the expansion. The original courthouse building is
in the center 3rd. In subsequent years, after these photographs,
other additions were made, such as a power plant building and a
modern entrance.
In 2005 a completely new Oconto Memorial Hospital building opened at a new site and the grand original courthouse - hospital along the Oconto River became silent for the first time in 150 years. |
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