{image1}In September 1898, two traveling salesmen had to share a room in the Central House hotel in Boscobel.
John Nicholson of Janesville and Samuel Hill of Beloit had to double up because the hotel was busy. During an evening of discussion and prayer in Room 19, they decided to start an organization of commercial travelers that would "provide mutual help and recognition for Christian travelers."
With the help of W.J. Knight of Wild Rose, they started what today is known as the Gideons, who have distributed thousands, if not millions, of bibles to hotels and other havens for travelers around the world.
More than 60 years later, John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, were tired during a presidential campaign swing through Wisconsin. They stopped at the then Boscobel Hotel and stayed in the same room as Nicholson and Hill.
You can't spend a night in Room 19, or any other room at the old hotel on Wisconsin Avenue, these days, but if you ask Tom Truog or another member of the Boscobel Historical Society they very likely will be nice enough to show you the room.
A special preservation committee of the society, of which Truog is president, opens the bar part of the hotel every day at 3 p.m. and still serves meals in the dining room most Fridays and Saturdays.
"We took it over because we didn't want to see it deteriorate or end up getting torn down," Truog said, while showing this columnist and his wife the hotel. "Ideally, we'd like to see somebody run it as a private business. There have been a lot of owners."
Records show a blacksmith shop on the hotel site as early as 1856, and a home in 1857. The home burned and was never rebuilt. In 1863, Adam Bohl and a partner built a tavern on the site.
Adam Bobel, Bohl's father-in-law, is most often given credit for establishing a hotel on the spot. A fire gutted the building in 1881, but Bobel rebuilt it and only four months after the blaze the Central House hotel opened.
Some say Bobel's ghost still haunts the hotel. Another story goes that the ghost of a 12-year-old girl actually does the haunting.
In 1890, a baby was found in a shoebox next to a lamp post in front of the hotel. It was snowing, so the abandoned infant was named Snowflake. She lived to be 12, and at least according to some legends, loved the hotel so much that she has never left. Snowflake showed up periodically at the foot of guests' beds for years.
Despite the haunting, the hotel became known as a fine inn. In the late 1800s, guests would pay as much as $2 a room for first class accommodations.
This writer and my wife paid more than that when we stayed at the Boscobel Hotel back in the 1980s. Bobel or Snowflake didn't visit us, but we did visit the historic Room 19.
The Gideons officially cite the hotel as their birthplace. An impressive plaque recognizes that fact in Room 19 and in the parlor downstairs.
A former publisher of the local newspaper speculated that John John Kennedy might have gotten his start when his famous father and mother stopped in Room 19. JFK and Jackie reportedly stopped to "freshen up" on their way to Madison, but stayed just a tad longer. John John was born a little less than nine months later, according to reports from this publisher.
Former Gov. and Senator John Blaine and, by some accounts Ulysses Grant, also are notables who stayed at the hotel at one time.
When this writer and his wife stayed at the hotel, we became official members of the Mallort Society. To earn such lofty recognition, you had to drink a certain quantity of the foul-tasting liquor from an ash tray. If you drank it from a dirty ash tray, you qualified as a member of the board of directors. Our memory has it that we settled for a clean ash tray and regular membership.
"I think we still have some of that stuff in the back," Truog said when swapping stories about the hotel and society.
Boscobel might best be known these days for the Super Max prison, but over the years the Boscobel Hotel and the Gideons have probably brought the most recognition to the lovely town on the south banks of the Wisconsin River.
Truog said the estimated cost of renovating the hotel to where it could be completely used again stood at $1.25 million a few years ago. The local historical society doesn't have that kind of cash, but it is devoted to keeping the hotel bar and dining room open on a limited basis.
It's worth a visit. The Boscobel area includes other attractions. It hosts a topnotch Civil War reenactment on the first weekend of every August. Between 5,000 and 10,000 people attend the event.
The Wisconsin River offers great fishing and recreational boating. Boscobel also is hailed as the Wild Turkey Hunting Capital of the state.
Downtown Boscobel features several other historic buildings, but the old hotel stands out. One of its distinguishing features has always been an iron balcony that hangs over the walkway on Wisconsin Avenue.
Who knows if the founders of the Gideons, JFK and Jackie, or U.S. Grant didn't stand on that same balcony to get a breath of fresh air? Who knows if Adam Bobel and Snowflake don't still stand there nightly?
Gregg Hoffmann writes monthly Beyond Milwaukee columns about interesting events, out-of-the-way places, historic sites and quirky characters in "out-state" Wisconsin and elsewhere in the Midwest.
