A Mind of Her Own Helen Connor Laird and Family, – / Helen Laird
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189267_dj 12/9/05 2:43 PM Page 1 board of regents in the 1950s. By the WISCONSIN / BIOGRAPHY / POLITICS Laird A Mind of Her Own time her third son, Melvin R. Laird A Mind of Her Own Jr., became secretary of defense in A Mind of Her Own Captures the public achievement 1969, she had served in leadership Helen Connor Laird and Family, 1888–1982 and private pain of a remarkable positions in her community, district, and state even as her family had Helen L. Laird Wisconsin woman and her family, become one of Wisconsin’s leading Helen Connor Laird whose interests and influence “This biography of my grandmother interweaves a woman’s personal Republican dynasties. extended well beyond the borders story with the history of her time. I found it to be a deeply moving, and Family, of the state. Helen L. Laird is author of Carl well researched, suspenseful odyssey.” JESSICA DOYLE, FIRST LADY OF WISCONSIN Oscar Borg and the Magic Region: AMind of Her Own 1888–1982 Artist of the American West. She lives An important book. A searching inquiry into a too long neglected Helen Connor Laird was the eldest in Marshfield, Wisconsin, and serves dimension of the American experience—sensitive, personal, and yet child of William Duncan Connor, a on the Wisconsin Historical Society’s keyed to the larger drama of social and political change.” major figure in Wisconsin’s emerg- Board of Curators. “MELVIN R. LAIRD, FORMER WISCONSIN CONGRESSMAN ing hardwood lumber industry and AND U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE in Wisconsin’s turbulent turn-of-the- century political scene, instrumental A Mind of Her Own is first and foremost the highly insightful in Robert La Follette’s phenomenal biography of a remarkable woman who was an astute participant/ success in the gubernatorial election observer in many of the most significant events and developments of of 1904 and his unsuccessful bid to “her time over nearly nine decades. It is the saga of one of Wisconsin’s gain Republican support for the 1912 most important and influential families over three generations.” presidential election. JOHN BUENKER, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–PARKSIDE Helen spent almost her entire ninety-three years in central and Author Helen L. Laird tells Helen Connor Laird’s story in the rich northern Wisconsin. Her vast read- contexts of family and of state and national politics. Though the ing and probing mind, however, author is part of the prominent family she documents, she does not connected her to the world, and her “shy away from examining its darker sides, thereby revealing much early life in frontier communities as about the nature of ambition and accomplishment in late nineteenth well as her home influences, Pres- and twentieth century America. It is a courageous effort and an byterian background, and education extraordinary accomplishment that rings true.” at Milwaukee Downer and the J. KENT CALDER, TEXAS STATE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION University of Wisconsin–Madison impelled her to lead. While engaging Wisconsin Land and Life at times in the business that ab- sorbed members of her competitive ARNOLD ALANEN, SERIES EDITOR family and sharing with them an interest in politics, she pursued a The University of Wisconsin Press Madison, Wisconsin life-long passion for education, serv- www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress ing on the University of Wisconsin Cover illustration: Shirley Thompson Cover design: Judy Gilats Helen L. Laird continued on back flap ind of er wn W L L ind of er wn H C L F – Helen Laird The University of Wisconsin Press Monroe Street Madison, Wisconsin www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/ Henrietta Street London , England Copyright © The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Laird, Helen, – A mind of her own Helen Connor Laird and family, – / Helen Laird. p. cm.—(Wisconsin land and life) Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (cloth: alk. paper) . Laird, Helen Connor, –. Connor family. Laird family. Pioneers—Wisconsin—Biography. Frontier and pioneer life—Wisconsin. Women political activists—Wisconsin—Biography. Political activists— Wisconsin—Biography. Wisconsin—Biography. I. Title. II. Series. Terrace Books, a division of the University of Wisconsin Press, takes its name from the Memorial Union Terrace, located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Since its inception in , the Wisconsin Union has provided a venue for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to debate art, music, politics, and the issues of the day. It is a place where theater, music, drama, dance, outdoor activities, and major speakers are made available to the campus and the community. To learn more about the Union, visit www.union.wisc.edu. or J E L-R ur est eople Our best people are able to discriminate between what is best and what is mediocre or common and they are also wise enough to hold onto the best of all time, even though it be the past. They are not “the first by which the new is tried, nor yet the last to lay the old aside.” That is, they do not dash ahead until they are pretty sure they have something better. They believe in old-fashioned virtues such as honesty, fair play in the home as well as in the nation’s affairs. They believe in justice, in consideration of others, in the saving grace of kindness and hospitality, and they usually have some faith in their fellow man and rejoice that, in spite of difficulties, he still aspires. Our best people are usually quite modest, unassuming people whose influence sometimes permeates a community rather than directs it, but they are the great stabilizers and in them lives the real worth, the hope of our nation. — ontents List of Illustrations xi Prologue xiii Acknowledgments xv A Note on Some Family Names xvii . To Wisconsin . Getting Ahead . Marshfield . Laona . A Meeting of Titans: Robert La Follette and W.D. Connor . Business, Politics, and Family: – . Risky Business: – . Promising Years: – . Melvin Robert Laird . Illinois versus Wisconsin: – . War: – . Omaha: – . The Return: – . Surviving Losses: – . The Divided House: – . Endings and Beginnings: – . Another Ending, Another Beginning: – . In a Man’s World: – . Regent: – . Family Matters: – .A Different World: – . The Mother, the Politician, and the Professor: – . Past and Present: – . Home: – Postscript Notes Selected Bibliography Index llustrations . Helen Melissa Connor, ca. . Ready for the parade, ca. . The R. Connor Company Farm, ca. . W.D. Connor home, Marshfield, ca. . Helen, ca. . After church, Laona, . W.D. Connor, ca. . Helen Melissa Connor, . Helen and classmates, Milwaukee Downer, . Connor family, . The Ladies Speak Last, . Melvin R. Laird high school graduation, . Donald, ca. . Helen with Connor, . Helen with her Marshfield family, . The Reverend and Mrs. Melvin R. Laird with Dick and Connor, . W.D. with Connor, . Connor cottages, Birch Lake, Laona, . Robert Connor, . Melvin R. Laird, xi xii . The Laird family, . Constance, the “girl with the curls,” . Helen with David and Bom, . Melvin with his four sons, ca. . Senator and Mrs. Melvin R. Laird, . Dick Laird, . Connor Laird, . Melvin R. Laird Jr., . W.D. Connor, . Senator Melvin R. Laird Sr., ca. . Helen, ca. . Helen and F. J. Sensenbrenner, . At a political rally, ca. . Dick Laird’s family, ca. . Bom’s family, ca. . Connors and Lairds at wedding of Jessica Laird and Jim Doyle, . Two generations of Doyles and Lairds, . David Laird and family, . Helen, David, and University of Wisconsin president Fred Harrington, . Helen and Melvin, Washington, D.C., ca. . Melvin R. Laird at South Cherry, . South Cherry, rologue In , Helen Connor Laird delivered a brief autobiographical sketch to a group of ministers’ wives. The “great popularity” of several current autobi- ographies made her think that even her “humdrum life might have something of interest to others.” A thirty-five-year-old “homemaker,” member of the “restless” generation of college-educated women, she had no crystal ball. She did not know that history would largely ignore her father, W.D. Connor, a pioneer in Wisconsin’s hardwood lumber industry, and an important figure in state politics during the period –; that her husband, Melvin Robert Laird, a Presbyterian minister, would become an esteemed state senator; that she would become a regent of the University of Wisconsin; or that her son Melvin R. Laird Jr. would become “one of the great leaders Wisconsin has produced,” whose name would appear in the indexes of numerous political histories. Great achievements and great sorrows lay ahead in the life that proved to be not at all “humdrum.” Her long life’s journey, which began in and ended in , reflects the proud and painful American twentieth century. Her personal story, inter- woven with that of the exceptional men in her life, including her competitive brothers, speaks to the way we were and are: a stridently materialistic nation with a deep and persistent spiritual component. This is her story and theirs, the telling of which would not have been possible had she not been a keeper of records, a “closet historian” as well as “closet poet,” and had not those with whom she was most closely associated also been keepers of records. The pro- gressive movement and the La Follette name have become almost synony- mous with Wisconsin history. This saga of one of the state’s leading moderate Republican families over three generations broadens the scope of that history. xiii cknowledgments Helen Connor Laird, my mother-in-law, saved scrapbooks and diaries, her own and her husband’s, as well as business and political documents, newspaper clippings, notes, essays, stories, speeches, poems, and letters. Disorganized as they all were—and scattered throughout her home, garage, and attic—they, the Helen Connor Laird family collection, became the basis for this biogra- phy.