“It was splendid up there in the big woods. I was there for eight weeks and it seemed like one long holiday for me. Perhaps it was because I felt that somehow my husband was there with me. That’s where he would have been had he been alive, and I felt somehow he was there anyway. And the smell of the pines was good, and the clear, starry nights, and the sound of the chopping all day long as the sharp axes went crunching home at the feet of the young trees. I shall never miss it. Every year I shall go to the Northwoods, and after I am dead there will be others to carry on the work.” – Mrs Schuenemann 1913

December 22, 1913 – Mrs Hermzan Schuenemann, widow of the captain of the ill-faited Christmas boat, Rouse Simmons, which went down to the bottom of Lake Michigan last year with a load of Christmas trees and 14 lives, believes the spirit of her husband is guiding her affairs and that he is really in command of the Christmas boat she has substituted for the Rouse Simmons, moored in the river at Clark street, Chicago.

Mrs Schuenemann has rented the schooner Taylor and stocked it with 2,500 Christmas trees, which she brought down from the north in freight cars, Miss Elsie Schuenemann, ” the little captain.” helps her mother prepare the trees for sale.

“Captain Herman’s widow, Barbara, and her three daughters, continued to bring evergreens into Chicago for another twenty years, first by sailing schooner, then by rail.” Soundings (Publication of the Wisconsin Marine Historical Society) Winter 1963-1964 – Written by Theodore S. Charrney

* Noteworthy

1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).

1864 – Mayor Richard Arnold surrendered Savannah to Union general William T. Sherman… telegraphed President Lincoln on December 22 that the city had fallen. U.S. president Abraham Lincoln was skeptical of “The March
to the Sea” and did not want Sherman to move into enemy territory before the presidential election in November, Sherman persuaded his friend Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant that the campaign was possible in winter. Through Grant’s intervention Sherman finally gained permission, although he had to delay until after election day.

1937 – The first tube of the Lincoln Tunnel-the center tube-opened to traffic in New York City. Originally called the Midtown Hudson Tunnel, building the 1.5-mile-long structure was a monumental task. Hundreds of huge iron rings, each weighing 21 tons, had to be assembled and bolstered together on-site to form the lining of the tunnel.

1964 – The SR-71 Blackbird is still the fastest plane that has ever flown and served an important role in history as a spy plane. Its first test flight was on December 22, 1964 and was never once hit by a missile during its 25 years of service. Though these awesome planes haven’t left the ground since before the turn of the century, they’re still worth all the recognition of being the fastest plane on Earth.

1989 – Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany. Thousands of people spilled on to the city’s streets cheering in the pouring rain to watch the historic ceremony. The 200-year-old gate was built as a monument to Prussian power and it embodied German unity until Hitler’s defeat at the end of the Second World War.