Random Memories of a Camp Kawaga director 
Daughter and Granddaughter - by Lois Mecklenburger



Lois Ehrenreich

1.      My grandfather, Dr. B. C. Ehrenreich (" Doc. E.") was a Rabbi in Atlantic City, Philadelphia and Montgomery Alabama in the early years of 1900.  He felt he could relate to young boys up in the north woods.  He could teach them the Great Outdoors, (GOD), skills and make men out of boys.  Until 1915 he had spent summers in Kennebunk Port, Maine deep-sea fishing with his wife Irma (Mrs. E.), Louis and Rosemary.  They stayed at Forest Hills house there.  One evening a gentleman approached Doc E., and asked if he considered himself a fisherman.  He replied “yes”.  The man asked if he had ever caught a muskellunge and told him where to find them.  Doc E. had been looking for a campsite on the East Coast.  The next summer 1915 the Ehrenreichs vacationed in Minocqua, WI in search of a muskellunge.  It was that summer he found the site for camp Kawaga and built the camp.  Mrs. E. stayed there and supervised building of the “Filling Station”.  They stayed in Crow’s Nest, a homestead log home.  She was a graduate of Hunter College.  She was camp mother, ran the kitchen. Mrs. E. had taught Sunday school, been a woman suffragette, and worked in the Juvenile Court in Philadelphia.  She was bright, warm, energetic and related well to “her boys”.  The Ehrenreichs hired 2 ladies from the school system in Philadelphia, the Jacobs sisters, known as the rainy day ladies.  One taught crafts and one theater.  The camp opened in 1916 with 12 boys @$200 for 8  weeks.  Even then the price was high, but  they felt they would  like a  camp with quality rather than quantity.  It was a tent camp the first few years.  In 1919 they built a few cabins.  
        Lou and Rosemary      

2.      Doc E. was born Bernard Colonius Ehrenreich in 1876 in Szeben, Hungary.  The family migrated to New York Cities lower east side in 1879 where they lived until they moved to the Bronx.  He worked his way through rabbinical school at New York theology seminary by working on the city playgrounds.  He talked of swimming in the East River.  He was a scholar and was well versed in Greek.  Even as he ran the camp he would rise early and read his Greek books.  In 1919, Doc and Mrs. E. bought additional property adjoining  Kawaga. (The previous occupants had not liked the noise of the campers!) The house became Bideawee and it was charming.  It was 2-story clapboard.  On the 1st floor was a living room, 2 bedrooms, dining room, 1 bathtub on claw legs.  There was a screen porch the length of the house.  Upstairs were 3 bedrooms: 2 small and 1 large: the bedroom of Doc E. and Mrs. E.  Over the years, a large living room was added facing the lake and mess hall.  The dining room extended to the porch.  Jossie, the camp nurse,  lived upstairs in the small bedroom.  The 2-room cabin near Bideawee (meaning rest awhile) was Lou's' office when he became head counselor and later served for counselors to gather after taps.

                                             Doc E.

3.      Lou and his wife Evelyn became directors of Kawaga in 1940 when Doc and Mrs. E retired.  WW II was beginning in 1941 and Lou and Evelyn found themselves faced with gas, food, and clothing rationing and coupon books.  Their family with Lois and Margielu lived in a 2 room cabin with screened porch 1927 to 1940-no running water or toilets once near Bideawee dock.  Their children had a sandbox near the boathouse there. 

      We had a pitcher and a bowl on a stand near the boathouse.  We would pump cold water and wash there-not easy as summer cooled off.  In 1940 Louis' family moved to Bideawee.  Evelyn became camp mother and loved the boys and parents.
            Cabin on Bideawee Bay                She managed the kitchen, worked
                                                            out coupons, and managed to get                                                               get  food and meat for the boys.
        
     
Evelyn Ehrenreich with daughter Lois 

4.      Lou and Evelyn divorced in 1951and Lou married Dagne Jersen in 1957. 
They ran Kawaga until both retired in 1968 and sold to Ron and Liz Silverstein.  Lou was at Kawaga from1915-1968-53 years as a camper, counselor and head counselor, assistant director and director.  He loved the camp, the outdoors, and the boys and poured his heart into Kawaga.

                    Lou and Dag

5.  Crows nest and Porcupine (caretakers home) were both log homesteader cabins when purchased. One belonged to Charles E. Albers.  An old Kawaga folk story had Moss Gravel living in Crows Nest.  (Probably the same era as Wild Man Baker on Baker Lake.)  Albert Teigs was the only one I remember living there.  He worked as a handyman, lived in a log cabin on Baker Lake. One winter he numbered each log, took them apart, and  pulled them by boat across the frozen Baker Lake to the other side.  He poled a boat from camp thru the channel to Bakers Lake, never knew how to swim and never drove a car.  He would hike to town along the tracks.  He never married, hardly ever drew a sober breath but lived as a jolly man tell 99 years old.  The last few years he lived in Woodruff in an old folks home.


                       

                                Crow's Nest

6.      Camp caretakers Jim Carlin (1920), Herb and Martha Hill and son Bill (late 20’s, 30’s and 40’s).  Herb was an excellent carpenter, and Martha helped in the kitchen.  Herb scooped ice cream Sundays in  the Mess Hall.  If he did not like a boy, he gave him hollow scoop! 

        Martha and Herb Hill

7.      Prior to 1915, Doc E. had put some money down  on a piece of land on Sunday Lake.  Then  he found Kawaga and changed his mind.  To get his deposit back, he was given a bit of land he touched on a map.  It turned out that the land was  across from Kawaga and the boys used to swim across the bay to it.  Later for Ron Silverstein.

8.      The prayer “Praise be to God for the blessings of Earth and Field - Amen” was recited daily.  One camper by the name of Field thought the prayer was for him! 

9.      Circus Day was a big event at camp.  Many booths set up, Douse the Louse a bucket of water would fall on a seated counselor if a camper hit the right spot with a ball.  My mom would buy a baby pig, grease it, and the boys would try to catch it.

10.  Boys went for one day hikes to an Indian school on Route 70.  They hiked thru the woods towards Agawak to Mercer Lake.  They ended up on 70 at Pinemore Rd.  This was Herb Hill’s homestead.

11.  Back roads between cabins went to Fireline, road cleared by C.C.C. Then turn right to Agawak, and Dr. Finnerudes property, across from Bideawee Bay.  Bideawee trail went along shore to Finnerudes caretaker.  The latter wrote to Doc E. how well behaved his campers were as the hiked the trail. 

12.  3 courts behind Bideawee were clay.  They had to be rolled daily and dragged with nets, a big job.

13.  Boys would arrive from Chicago to Kawaga station on the Hiawatha-Milwaukee Railroad., an overnight train. Then the older campers would walk the new campers to camp (so they would not be homesick). When the tracks were torn up to become Bear Skin Trail, the boys were then bused to camp.  There is a new sign in 2002 put up by DNR at the new station with a map of train routes and a bit of history.

14.  Counselors or others would hike to town on track.  At town was a railroad trestle, although the trains were scheduled every now and then, there was an unscheduled freight train.  Pretty scary.  The trestles had boards with a view of water, so you had to tred carefully. I did this hike frequently with my sister, then husband and children.  Recently I found an old Lakeland Times telling 3 ladies had been killed on trestles.

15.  Great fishing off main dock, Bideawee dock, and bathhouse.  Lots of night crawlers could be found on back diamond #1 with a flashlight or dug up behind Chip lodge.  Swamp was called Horseshoe Bay, later partially filled in for play field and hockey.  Ball diamond #2 was also made from land filled up by Lou.

16.  Source of drinking water for mess hall was from a nearby pump.  One boy from each table was given a bucket.  They used a dipper to fill glasses; it was cold and tasted great.

17.  In early years horseback riding was offered.  Stables were past basketball court/hockey and around bend.  The trails were great; old logging roads. Horses were rented for the summer.  Riding ceased when Lou broke his elbow while riding in Chicago .  He never had full use of it again.

18.  Boys used to stay for post-camp.  Clean air helped hay fever.  Camp had bugle calls.  In my day the camp bugler was Burt Greenfield.

19.  Doc E. and Lou would visit each cabin after taps and call “Everybody In” (yes sir) “everybody alright” (yes sir) “Goodnight boys” (goodnight Doc E. or Lou).

20.  After reveille Lou over loud speaker “Rise and Shine, daylight in the swamp (an old loggers call), Everyman a tiger, top of the morning to you, feet on the floor”.  (It’s a raincoat day; it’s a cool day, wear sweaters and long pants, etc.)

21.  When Doc E. ran camp the boys would do calisthenics on the ball diamond and then early skinny dip.  Doc E. was into physical education and long hikes.  In later years, parents rebelled and long hikes were cancelled.  Doc E and Lou were for making boys into men.

                                Calisthenics on the ball diamond

22.  On Sunday morning Doc E. gave religious services the same ones given today.  He used a tree stump for a pulpit in the Little Theatre.  He would belt out the songs including “Marchetta” most memorable with a nature sermon.  All sat on benches.  Girls who had brothers at Kawaga and attended Agawak would hike thru the woods for the service and Sunday dinner (chicken and ice cream).  We would sit with the boys in the mess hall.  We wore white shirts, blue neck scarf, and blue serge (wool) bloomers (w/elastic).  (It was a wonderful experience, I loved it)

23.  There was lots of singing of camp songs in the mess hall after noon meal with a piano player, also cheers with  
lots of enthusiasm and spirit. Some were: “March, March, on Down the Field”,  “ On the Sunny Shores of Kawaguesaga”, lots of southern folk songs, “Clementine”, “Johnny Ribbeck”,  “Oh the Deacon went down to the Cellar to Pray”, “Gather Round the Campfires Glowing Light”, etc.

24.  Lots of intercamp competition.  Menominee, Ojibwa, Strongheart, Flambeau etc.

25.  Boat regatta-decorated boats, costumes, and parades on lake

26.  Sunday night outdoor dinner

27.  In the early days of Kawaga, the boys stayed in tents,  then cabins (Doc E. called them shacks and called Chip Lodge Barracks.

28.  Around 1924 Doc E. helped his sister in law Helene Bock and partner Daisy Pinkhurt build Agawak. Camps were brother and sister camps.  Agawak was Kawaga spelled backwards.  In town at Bosacki’s restaurant, (bar, boat house, and ice cream parlor) boys would paddle or hike there to have ice cream.  On the menu they had a Kawaga ice cream sundae.  Next to it they had an Agawak sundae, listed same as the Kawaga, but made backwards.  Mrs. E. had 2 other sisters, Gertrude Hauser (Lou Schubert of Schubert Theatres private secretary for over 50 years), and Martha De Strelescki, married to a court and chief antique appraiser for New York State.  Both sisters would come to Kawaga in the fall after camp.
     
            Doc E and Aunt Helene                                           Virginia Jacobs and Aunt Martha

29.  Final Banquet-mess hall was decorated with blue and yellow streamers and flowers.  Herb Hill was friends with Howard Young’s caretaker.  They had beautiful gardens, and Evelyn could pick all the flowers she wanted.  Howard Young was Elizabeth Taylor’s uncle and a big donor for Lake Wood Hospital.

30.  There was a movie house (Agua) in town where Alexander’s Pizza Parlor is today-good entertainment.  Other entertainment in town was 9 pm when the Hiawatha arrived and the town would go to the station and see who would arrive.  Once it was Dwight Eisenhower.

31.  Indian lore was a big part of camp.  
Indians would come down and carved beautiful tall totem poles for the camp. 
 The council ring had the  same ceremonies and traditions as today.
       

                          Totem Poles                                                           Doc E. and Chiefs

Kawaga Alumni Association