AUTUMN 2017 magazine of history

ISSflfe*.

y*& ;•"?/-«. Mystery of the SS Lakeland Exposing the Myth of the Free North

BOOK EXCERPT Wig* , "^tarffl RA'tf^gyH j The Wisconsin Capitol rss^j^m^s^ You can take care .";'. r \- 7 !-•*» of the Society and realize substantial tax benefits with a gift of retirement assets.

Your retirement assets - traditional individual retirement accounts (IRAs), 401(k) plans, profit- sharing, Keogh or 403(b) plans - are likely a significant component of your net worth. And because of tax benefits, they are an excellent option for making the Wisconsin Historical Society part of your legacy. WHI IMAGE ID 50491 Naming the Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Inc. as a beneficiary of your retirement assets can be the most tax-efficient way for you to support the mission of the Society. Retirement plan assets would be TIPS FOR CONSIDERING income-taxable to your loved ones when distributed. A PLANNED GIFT Instead, by naming the Foundation (a 501(c)(3) income tax-exempt organization) as your beneficiary, Planned gifts can be flexible to meet the all of your gift will benefit the Society tax-free. You needs of you and your family. Consider have worked hard to earn your retirement assets, and supporting the Society with a percentage leaving a portion of these assets to a registered charity of your overall estate, specific assets, like the Wisconsin Historical Foundation will allow or the remainder of your estate after you to have to the greatest impact. providing for heirs.

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WISCONSIN Visit wisconsinhistory.org/legacy to learn HISTORICAL more about making an estate gift. SOCIETY Letter from the WISCONSIN HISTORICAL Editor SOCIETY

Director, Wisconsin Historical Society Press f you received our summer issue, you probably know that Kathryn L. Borkowski we've been celebrating the centennial of the magazine for Editor Sara E. Phillips Ithe past volume year. Now the page has turned, and Autumn Image Researcher 2017 is the first issue of the next hundred years. So, what does John H. Nondorf the next century hold for the Wisconsin Magazine of History? Research and Editorial Assistants In many ways, more of the same. The same in-depth history Emily Buck, Grace Castagna, Colleen Harryman, Elizabeth Wyckoff, and John Zimm beautiful images, sound research, and engaging storytelling Design you've come to expect, whether you've been a member for one Nancy Rinehart, Christine Knorr, University Marketing year or for twenty. But we're also planning a few changes, which THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), will go into effect over the next volume year. published quarterly, is a benefit of membership in the First, the contents page will now be laid out over two pages Wisconsin Historical Society. instead of one, to provide you with a better preview of our Full membership levels start at $55 for individuals and $65 for stories. Another change comes in the form of an editor's letter, institutions. To join or for more information, visit our website at wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership Office reinstated after an almost fifteen-year break. We care about at 888-748-7479 or e-mail [email protected]. connecting with our members, and we hope you will enjoy The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly hearing more about what goes on behind the scenes and why since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright© 2017 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. we choose the stories we do. You can expect to hear from a variety of people in this space, from the Wisconsin Historical ISSN 0043-6534 (print) ISSN 1943-7366 (online) Society director to the head of membership to the magazine's

For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, image researcher. (ISSN 0043-6534), please access www.copyright.com or contact the If any theme binds the stories in this issue together, it's Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA, 01923,978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that rediscovery. From the depths of the waters surrounding the provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. Door County Penninsula to the jungle villages of El Salvador,

For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine the authors bring forgotten tales of intrigue to our pages. Paul of History identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Recker, Tamara Thomsen, and Richard Boyd share a ship­ Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison, Wl, 53706 or [email protected]. wreck story with a unique twist: it was the reason for the first helium-assisted dives in deep water. After the SS Lakeland went Wisconsin Magazine of History welcomes the submission of articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on the down in 1924 under suspicious circumstances, US Navy divers Wisconsin Historical Societywebsiteatwww.wisconsinhistory.org/ helped investigators determine whether the ship was deliberately wmh/contribute.asp. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. scuttled. Zoe von Ende Lappin pursues a discovery of a different Contact Us: kind in "Pioneer Editor," a profile of her grandfather, the long­ Editorial: 608-264-6549 time editor and publisher of the Iron River Pioneer. Molly Todd [email protected] reopens a chapter in the history of the Salvadoran civil war Membership/Change of Address: 888-748-7479 with her examination of the Sister City relationship between [email protected] Madison and Arcatao, El Salvador. And Jaclyn Schultz takes Reference Desk/Archives: 608-264-6460 [email protected] a new look at black history in early Milwaukee and southern Mail: 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706 Ontario, asking whether former slaves in the "free" north, who Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. often crossed into Canada in hopes of better opportunities, were Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage from the truly emancipated. Wisconsin Historical Museum store. Call toll-free: 888-999-1669. We hope you enjoy the first issue of the next hundred years! Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, www.napubco.com.

On the front cover: A two-door Nash sedan rests in the sand off the SS Lakeland's starboard side as underwater archaeologists swim with Sara E. Phillips cameras and lights over the break in the vessel's hull.

PHOTO BYTAMARA THOMSEN; WHI IMAGE ID 119845

VOLUME 101, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN 2017 1 In This Issue

1 Letter from the Editor

4 Pioneer Editor Pete Savage and the Iron River Pioneer by Zoe von Ende Lappin

14 Solving the Mystery of the SS Lakeland by Paul E. Reckner, Tamara Thomsen, and Richard J. Boyd

24 BOOK EXCERPT The Wisconsin Capitol Stories of a Monument and Its People by Michael Edmonds

THE "CRANSTON" Wisconsin Magazine of History Autumn 2017

28 Wisconsin's Gold War Citizen Diplomats and the Salvadoran Civil War by Molly Todd

42 In Search of Northern Freedom Black History in Milwaukee and Southern Ontario, 1834-1864 byjaclyn N. Schultz

54 Letters

56 Curio

i

NEWSPAPER PRESS. PIONEER EDITOR Pete Savage and the Iron River Pioneer

BYZOEVONENDELAPPIN

he afternoon of both personal and public September 22, 1948, news items. Circulation Twas mild and sunny. never topped 1,000, and in It was Pete Savage Day, the 1950s it totaled about and the town of Iron River, 780. When appropriate, Wisconsin, shut down for a his community came in couple of hours as townsfolk for a scolding, and his and dignitaries from miles articles were sprinkled around assembled at the with his gentle humor. He high school gymnasium to was not a reformer like the honor the town's best-known great progressives of his citizen, Peter James Savage. era, Theodore Roosevelt,

The celebration marked his THE " CRANSTON " NEWSPAPER PRESS. Robert M. La Follette, or fifty years as owner, editor, A Cranston drum cylinder press, similar to the one editor Pete Savage the famous small-town and publisher of the weekly used to print the Pioneer during his lateryearsatthe newspaper editor, William Allen newspaper, the Iron River White of Emporia, Kansas. Pioneer. He also served as a Bayfield County municipal judge, Though he shared their faith in the progress of man, his was the a position he'd held for forty years. quieter voice of civility and reason. He was a Republican but The Pioneer was no ordinary country paper. It was entirely seldom expressed a political opinion, even in his few editorials. handset, printed on antique presses in a small, timeworn shop in However, his personal opinions salted his news stories, even the McGord Block building on US-2, which runs through Iron when he wrote about his own court, the Second Municipal River. Although linotypes, the huge mechanical typesetters, had Court of Bayfield County. Nobody seemed to care that he was been in use since before the turn of the century, Savage never both journalist andjudge. got that far into technology. He set his articles by hand using an Savage neither drank nor smoked and never learned to old-fashioned composing stick and taking type, letter by letter, drive a car. He was devoted to northern Wisconsin and held from individual type cases. For thirty-five years, the paper was out hope that it would flourish years after the virgin timber was printed on a flatbed hand press, and after that on a Cranston gone and the sawmills burned. He sometimes was a shameless drum cylinder press. It was a broadsheet, usually eight pages, booster. He didn't mind responding to a plea for help in settling only two of which were printed in Iron River. The other six were a personal matter—he was the judge, after all. preprinted by a syndicate that served small papers throughout Savage was tall and sandy haired. He had a roll-top desk, the Midwest. For all of Savage's years as editor, the paper was his fingers were ink-stained, and he wore a rumpled suit and a published on Thursdays. When he retired in 1952, the Pioneer green eyeshade. His staff consisted of typesetters and "devils"— was the last handset newspaper in Wisconsin.1 young printer's assistants—often part-timers. Several were rela­ As the speakers at Pete Savage Day emphasized, Savage tives. served his community, dispensed justice, and published his The esteem in which he was held was never more apparent newspaper with pride and affection. Each week, readers got than at Pete Savage Day, and when it was all over, he said: "It

wisconsinhistory.org Pete Savage setting type by hand at the Iron River Pioneer office, 1947

appears that the [organizers] deliberately selected speakers who and her husband, Margaret and Charles Rogers, to Washburn, are prejudiced in my favor. They can't mislead me, however, as Wisconsin, in 1886. John eventually became the Washburn city I've had to live with myself for over 70 years and I know very librarian and died in 1899.' well that I don't have any wings. Just to be agreeable, though, I Savage left school in 1889 at age thirteen when he began his guess I'll have to accept all these tributes on about a 50 percent life's work, getting his start as a printer's devil at the Washburn basis." Any regrets? "I guess I'd do the same thing if I had to Itemizer. He learned to set type, even though he was so short he do it over again. There hasn't been any money in it, but it's had to stand on a box to work from type cases. At age sixteen, he been lots of fun."2 became foreman at the Bayfield County Press and also worked After the speeches and obliging the photographers, Savage at papers in Spooner, Amery, and Cumberland.8 He returned to hurried away to his shop. The Pioneer went to press the next Washburn in 1893 to work for Frederick T. Yates at the renamed day, and he had to get to work.3 Washburn News and Itemizer and became foreman there at age seventeen.9 It was Yates who backed him financially to take • • • over the Iron River Pioneer, beginning on January 1, 1898. Iron River was a burgeoning lumber town, population 900, and Peter J. Savage was born on October 28, 1875, in Mankato, Savage was twenty-two. He would be editor and publisher for Minnesota, the ninth of ten children of John Patrick Savage, the next fifty-four years, until his retirement in 1952. an Irish immigrant, and Zoe Arbour, a Quebec native.4 The Iron River Township sits in the middle of Bayfield County couple homesteaded in Brown County, Minnesota.5 Zoe died the northernmost county in Wisconsin, about twenty miles in 1884, leaving three children, including Pete, under eleven.6 south and west of Lake Superior. Iron River village straddles John took the young children and followed his older daughter US-2, which serves as its main street. The first residents, Frank

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Painted in 2007, this mural of the McCord Block building in Iron River features townsfolk and storefronts from the 1940s and 1950s. The Iron River Pioneer occupies the eastern corner, where longtime editor Pete Savage stands outside chatting with a passerby.

Lore and his family, came in 1885. Three years later, John A. land and raised beef and dairy cattle. City fathers promoted Pettingill of West Salem, Wisconsin, established a claim and creameries, cheese manufacturing, farming, and tourism. Small opened a trading post and hotel in time for the land rush of industries came and went—a bean cannery, a pickle factory, 1890 and 1891, when railroad land grants were opened to home­ a small Chinese-food packing operation—but nothing lasted. steaders.10 In March 1892, Pettingill filed a village plat, marking Businessmen and farmers hung on, often in painful economic the official founding of Iron River, and the new town took off11 straits. Government employees had fairly stable jobs as teachers, The great virgin forests, ready to be harvested, along with the members of road crews, and snowplow operators. Vacationers opening of the railroad, quickly made Iron River a commercial and summer residents came from all over the Midwest. But in center. By 1900, the population had blossomed to 2,500, and it Pete Savage's lifetime, Iron River never again had an economic boasted fourteen saloons.12 engine to match the timber industry. Iron River's first lumber mills were built in 1891. By the next Iron River had weekly newspapers right from the start. year, six lumber mills and three planing mills were in opera­ Byron Ripley and a partner started the Pioneer in 1892, and in tion.13 The largest was Lea-Ingram Lumber Co., with smaller 1895 Ripley merged it with the Iron River Times and the Home­ mills owned by William Bohn, King Staples, and E. H. Marion. stead. Ripley, a Canadian, was an aspiring capitalist in the upper Lea-Ingram eventually evolved into the Edward Hines Lumber Midwest.16 In 1897, Yates and a partner, E.J. Costello, bought Co., and its mill was known as the Iron River Lumber Co. It out Ripley, who went on to be an Iron River banker. When finished its cut in 1912 and burned down in 1913, thereby ending Costello moved on, Yates staked Pete Savage to secure owner­ Iron River's days as a boom town.14 ship of the paper and remained a silent partner for several years. The millworkers, lumberjacks, and barkeeps moved on, Savage announced his ownership in the Pioneer on January 6, many with their families, to the timberlands of the Pacific 1898, promising to do right by his community: "Our best efforts Northwest or wherever opportunity beckoned. By 1910, the will be put forth to give the people of Iron River a paper they population had dropped to 1,696, and by 1920 it was down to can be proud of and one that will be a credit to our thriving little just 793 residents.15 The railroads—three companies still ran city. . . . Give the Pioneer your patronage and we will promise nine daily trains through town in 1911—decreased their service you satisfaction in every way"17 and eventually left altogether. Gradually, the village became a In 1899, Savage began his career in the judiciary. Governor maintenance community as those who stayed behind tried to Edward Scofield appointed him judge of the newly created keep it alive. Still, the town persisted. Farmers tilled the cutover Second Municipal Court of Bayfield County that spring.18 He

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Savage stands with three fellow Wisconsin newspapermen on Pete Savage Day, September 22,1948, in Iron River. From left are reporter Charles M. Sheridan of Washburn; Savage; John B. Chappie, editor, Ashland Daily Press; and Frank B. Dexter, editor, Bayfield County Press, Bayfield. served for one year.19 In 1908, aged thirty-two, Savage was also a booster. He used the pages he was appointed municipal judge again and of the Pioneer to promote anything that he served the rest of his life.20 The court died thought might benefit northern Wisconsin: when he did. the oiling and later paving of the course of On April 16, 1903, Savage married , US-2 through many towns close to Lake Edith Margaret Beaton, a teacher in a rural £ Superior, the Bayfield County Fair in school.21 He was twenty-seven and she was § Iron River, modern farming methods, eighteen. They eventually had seven chil­ the Agricultural Experiment Station in dren, and it may have been family respon­ the adjoining Ashland County, national sibilities that made him cash-short and forests and reforestation efforts, the prevented his installing a linotype machine Union Airport north of town, even a and making other improvements. Buying bean cannery. Although his editorials on credit would have been out of the ques­ were rarely political, he strongly backed tion for the frugal Savages. Still, the Pioneer the war effort in both World War I and covered nearly everything in Iron River and World War II. He printed letters home from its environs—schools, churches, lodges, Scouts local men in the armed services who became births, marriages, deaths (including war correspondents with a unique Savage was twenty-two in 1898 when he became suicides), weather, elections, fishing, perspective. editorand publisher of the Iron River Pioneer. hunting, sports, and courts. Perhaps the Savage's journalism was often best-read feature was the locals column. Its standing headline personal, and his own kids were a source of pride. His daughter read, "What People You May Know Have Been Doing Which Zoe was a basketball star at Iron River High School in 1921 and Caused Their Names to Appear in Print." In 1922, for instance, 1922, and the Pioneer followed her career. At center, she scored readers were informed that "Mark Hessey has apparently decided so often that the squad became known as "a one-girl team." to get into the auto-owner class, for he has just converted his barn An opposing coach once invoked an obscure rule that forbade into a garage."22 And in 1927, they learned that 'Jas C. Moran the center to shoot baskets, meaning that Zoe couldn't shoot Sr. went to Duluth yesterday to consult an oculist. One of his eyes from the floor. But the team still won, and Savage commented: has been bothering him for a long time."23 "There was nothing to the 'knock' . . . that Iron River had a

AUTUMN 2017 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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Savage's reporter's notebook, ca. 1899 one-girl team, for without Zoe shooting, they beat Hurley Editor Savage favored all types of sports. He covered high 13 to 4."24 school games, and when the underdog boys' basketball team His younger son, Peter James "Jimmy" Savage Jr., had won the district tournament in 1937, the Pioneer's, headline a promising baseball career in school, on town teams and on March 11 proclaimed: "Championship Final. . . Will Live at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He in History as Outstanding Thriller." It was accompanied by a was a right-handed pitcher, and he played in 1939 and page one editorial: "Congratulations, Boys." "Iron River folks 1940 for the Grookston, Minnesota, Pirates of the semi-pro are happy and proud of their boys," Savage wrote, "because Northern League. The Pioneer played up his successes, and [they] played a gentlemanly, sportsmanlike game all the way early in his first season, Iron River townspeople organized through."28 When the boys lost at the regional tournament a a tribute to their twenty-one-year-old hometown star. On week later, Savage took his customary upbeat approach: "There June 2, 1939, Jimmy was honored at a pregame ceremony is no criticism heard here concerning the Iron River boys who in Superior, Wisconsin, in a foggy drizzle. He was scheduled really did a good job of their basketball this season."29 to pitch against the Superior Blues, but then the rains came Savage was a fisherman and a hunter and became well- and the game was canceled. Savage's long article described acquainted with Bayfield County's woods and barrens. The the ceremony. 'Jimmy Savage was escorted to the front of the April 17, 1930, edition of the Pioneer exhibited his esteem for grandstand and got a tremendous ovation," he wrote. "[His] the natural world as he pointed out that picking arbutus and speech consisted of bowing in recognition of [a] gift, but the other wildflowers on public lands was prohibited. So Savage audience seemed satisfied with that for they realized that as a invited "boys and girls under 150 years of age" to pick them speaker he is a pretty good baseball pitcher."25 Jimmy's semi- on woodland he owned, provided the flowers were for personal pro career consisted of two seasons at Crookston with a record enjoyment. Other private landowners, Savage suggested, should of six wins and twenty-seven losses and an earned run average do the same so the delicate flowers could "bring happiness to of 6.68.26 Sportswriters called him talented but wild.27 He later mankind [rather] than go to waste."30 was drafted and played Army ball, with his dad keeping his Bizarre details fascinated him. "Lost Life Trying to Save readers up to date. Fish-hook" said a headline in 1927. An unidentified man

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Savage pictured with family at Pete Savage Day. From left, rear, are William von Ende, son-in law; Crystal Savage, daughter-in-law; Zoe Savage von Ende, daughter; Myrta Savage Church, daughter; Pete Savage; Edith Beaton Savage, wife; Peter J. Savage Jr., son. Grandchildren, from left, are Robin Larkin, Mary von Ende, James Joseph Savage, and Zoe von Ende.

office, and Savage covered the story. "Robin Hung Itself," said the page one headline.32 His work as a judge fit easily into daily life at the Pioneer. The anteroom of the print shop was a convivial spot, and Judge Savage convened his court there, or, if a trial was required, in the town hall. He frequently reported on his own court with such headlines as "Convict Two of Illegal Fishing" and "Speed Cop Acquitted" in 1926. In the first, a jury found one man guilty of trout fishing out of season and another of using a spear and light to catch trout.33 In the second, a game warden had come upon an Ashland traffic officer with a suspicious catch. The warden got the Copyright, 1907. P. F. Barrett traffic officer to admit that he was the Main Street, which runs north and south, was at the heart of Iron River in this 1907 photo. "speed cop" who had arrested a fellow warden for speeding a while back. The drowned at the town dam when he went fishing with only a jury saw it as revenge and quickly found the fisherman inno­ line and a hook, no rod. The hook got snagged, and witnesses cent, believing the defense's contention "that there was malice heard the stranger say, "I don't want to lose this hook." He connected with the arrest."34 waded up to his neck trying to free it, but then witnesses "saw Then there was the case of unregistered automobiles his head disappear under the water, to rise no more."31 In 1934, during the Great Depression. Alvin Boelter, an agent of the a farmer found a robin strangled in a loop of string with which State Treasurer's office, was ticketing unregistered vehicles in it was building a nest. He brought the dead bird to the Pioneer Bayfield County, where traffic laws were rarely enforced and

AUTUMN 2017 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

THE IRON RIVER PIONEER.

VOLUME XXXXIH IRON RIVER. BAYFIELD COUNTY, WISCONSIN, THURSDAY. MARCH 11, 1987.

CONGRATULATIONS. BOYS

Mass Meeting I The Iron Rivet b'^h school bas­ Iron River Annexes District ket bill leacu faas won tbe distilcl championsbio lor tbe 1936-37 sea­ Hereon 18th son, and well earned ibe lieht to represent ibis district in tbe Re­ Basket Ball Championship gional meet which will be held at Rice Lake on March 19 and 20 This is the first time in many River's tenm has Championship Final With Drummond Saturday Night Will Live in History as years that I far, though they have tone tb! Outstanding Thriller—Bob Griffiths Vied With Brilliant Team-mate Hicks D to «ve been "runner-up*". in Dazzling Floor Work and Marksmanship Winning the district champion- ip this year is an accomplisb- nt that not only reflects great The Iron )igb school has- i ol bounds without sal all-tournament team. Josepbson. beat team won." dit UDOO tbe players, but is a ket ball i illy turned tbe 5 concerning themselves, ol Drummnnd. and Peloquin. oi :icularly notable accomplish- trick at the Ashlanad TournamenToutoament • But that ended the stage-liighi and ; Ondossagon, were also named Of course, you ft-na from the t tor Myron Harbour, their U»t week. nd will reptcseut this I ttom then on, oh, boy! Things | onenlniously lot tbe all-tournament peppy Drummond locality won't con h. who started the season last district at the Regional Tournament happened and happened last, lton j team, but the Ashland Picas wrilet cede the latter—we don't blame, you, rith but two boys who had to be held at Rice Lake on Friday : Rivet. Hailing by two points eatly : and the Telegram writer did not 'cauae aa noon aa you aUrtadmitting with the team belote. and sod Saturday evenings ol uext iu the 6rst Quarter, pulled abead i agree on tbe Glib member oi tbe eotneUiing—well, ita not chivalrous of thci bad ' rry little for- week—Match 19 and 20. to 9 to 6 at the quarter, only to see | first team—Tbe Telegram man to aay the leaat. A good fast small WW tsket ball experience. Other* w***2!& Gning into tbe tournament as the the scote tied lor a htict period' in: picking Fossum. ol Ondossagon, team with a heckuva fine ayatem take a championship i \. attache i "oodet-dog", they bad a tougb as- tbe second quarter wilh II andj while the Ashland Press man pick- and with by far the beat man in the isignment lot the opening game on then 1? all. Then Iron River | ed Morrio ol Bayfield. tournament in Ita ranks won the inlisbmeut Wednesday night, with tbe Bay- moved abead under pressure froml * » * tournament—Francis Hicka, your t be had Francis Hicks, field County League leading team | tltcks and Gitmtbs, and lead 17 to | For the second team, tbe press appearance in the Ondossagon game

Savage was known In 1920, the issue arose again, and Savage quoted Judge for reporting on local wAl 0.1- * „... «*X 4U- L. E. Davis of the Bayfield Municipal Court, who had lot sports and, as occasion ,« wl.)..-"°'lo,b. **>w oy» defended him in the Bayfield Progress. The county board was „,o«\cov.«0 •» „0, t.««*, « .v.. -"* warranted, local wildlife. reO-lct-i""1," '" considering abolishing the Iron River court, but that would bwo'-—" " be a calamity, Davis wrote, adding: "Peter Savage has earned many owners couldn't afford to buy license plates. In one after­ the reputation [as] one of the most level-headed lower court noon in 1934, he issued thirty-one tickets in Iron River. The judges in the state. To deprive the county ... of so fair and case came before Judge Savage, who determined it was time impartial judgment is the height of economical foolishness." to dispense compassion with justice. All but one of thirty-one Savage headlined the item "Thanks," and added: "It brings to defendants came to court, and the judge put all thirty names our mind once more that it is a difficult thing to live up to the on one complaint and asked if anyone was innocent. No one reputation which one's friends give him."37 Never mentioned pleaded innocent, so he assessed a five-dollar fine and three was the possible conflict of interest between the bench and dollars in court costs—to the group, not to each offender. The the press. It was Savage's ethics and reputation that kept the individual share worked out to 26.67 cents, so he dropped 50 court going for forty-six years. cents of the court costs for a total of $7.50, making each fine That reputation extended to assisting in the personal issues an even quarter. Then he required everyone to buy a license.35 of the locals. A farmer sought Savage's help in dealing with his The court was a community institution, but it had its rough wife, who was having an affair with the hired man. In a private moments. In 1913, the editor of the Spooner Advocate, Frank letter to the couple, Savage advised the woman to mend her Hammill, declared that Iron River's court should be eliminated ways. Another farmer sought help keeping rural roads in shape to save the county money. Savage's salary was $600 a year. so his kids could get to school. Judge Savage presented the man's What's more, the Advocate stated, Savage naturally would case to the county superintendent of schools.38 side with other officeholders in any case that pitted taxpayers Calamities brought out his best writing, illustrated by the against the government. In an unusually lengthy editorial, Pioneer's, coverage of the fire that destroyed the Edward Hines entitled "The Grumbler Still Grumbles," Savage defended the Company sawmill in 1913. It described the scene as a storm blew system as saving taxpayers at least 50 percent over the system it up around midnight: "The bright light of the flames reflecting replaced in 1899. He even offered to pay for an investigation of against the low-hanging clouds presented a weird and unac­ the costs. "Gome on and get the money if you are so cocksure customed scene and when someone hollered 'cyclone,' there that Bayfield County taxpayers, for whom you have so much were screams from the women and scattering of spectators in sympathy, have suffered by the change [in the court system]," all directions."39 The fire put three hundred men out of work he wrote, challenging Hammill. "To say that because the editor and ended Iron River's twenty-one-year timber boom. of this paper holds a little judicial position he has a natural Savage found great satisfaction in his work as a sleuth of sympathy for office holders generally ... is far-fetched."36 sorts, especially during the search for the body of a homicide

10 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY victim east of town in 1936. A nineteen-year-old Janesville, Wisconsin, man, Laverne Marks, had impulsively shot and KILLED BY CRANK WITH killed his friend Robert Bernstein, twenty-four, in Waupaca 1 I County while fishing in July. He put the body in the trunk of FANCIED GRIEVANCE his car and dumped it somewhere in northern Wisconsin. When Marks was arrested in Washington State a few days later, he Town Folks Astounded When Word Spread Monday Evening confessed his crime but gave conflicting accounts of where he'd That Some Man Invaded the Pettingill Home and Shot and Killed John D. Pettingill left the body. Authorities eventually got to Iron River, and when

John D. Pettingill, aged 44 years. time was probably in tbat city. grandson of John A. Peitingill. However. Ashland officers, as well Savage heard Marks's description of the site, he recognized it PETTINGILL FL'NERAL SER­ founder oi tbe lown ol Iron River. as officers In all surrounding towos was killed in bis own home in the and cities were notified to be on VICE ARRANGEMENTS as a point in the woods along US-2. Accordingly, he joined the presence ot his mother, Mr* Nel­ tbe lookout and all roads were The body will be taken from lie Pettingill. last Monday evening blocked. William Von Ende. pro­ the Lenroot Funeral Home to the about 7:40 o'clock, by G. Albin prietor uf the Ino store, bad sold Congregational church at twelve search party that included law enforcement personnel from four o'clock noon tomorrow (Friday) Bergquist, aged 61 years, a sales­ 14 gallons of gasoline to a man driv­ and will lay In abate until two man oho made bis home In Ash­ ing a black coupe and tbe fellow o'clock, tbe time of service, giv­ counties, a prosecutor, and newspaper people from Chicago, land. appeared to be nervous, bat at the ing frtMadi a lait chance to pay When word spread ol tbe murder lime Mr Von Ende was unaware their respects. The casket will oot b« opened after the service, Duluth, and Milwaukee. Savage made the discovery and, with the whole village was thrown Into of tbe murder. A little later be learned of it but the Information interment will be in tbe family a panic and hundreds of people lot in the City Cemetery. humility, gloated. "With that strong and unmistakable odor gathered at the Pcttiof.it] home to given bim was that tbe car tbe kill­ get tbe details of (be crime and do er escaped in was a tan color, so Bergquist was quite readily revived. what they could to solve the mys­ tbat did not tally with tbe car wbicb Bergonilt ran a hotel and res­ drifting across the roadway, one would have to have no sense tery, and. if possible, aid in cap­ be serviced, nevertheless Ije could taurant for a abort time In tfat* city turing the killer. not help believing tbat (he fellow he sold tbe gas to was tbe man nearly 20 years ago. As he ran a Mrs. Pettingill was so overcome of smell and direction not to have readily traced its source," wanted. About ar> hour liter that questionable place be was ordered by tbe traeedy that, at first, she same man, but now wearing dark to leave town and did so within 24 was unable to give a very clear ac­ clothing and a bunting cap. in-'e»d hours. B. F- Daniels was chair­ he wrote. "We make this statement with better grace because count of what happened, but did of the light colored cloihing and man at that time, and it was be who say that the killer was a man past biowu bat. again appeared at tbe ordered Bergquist to leave. I middle life, large*, wore a grey ov­ of the fact that it was the editor of this paper . . . who first saw It seems (bat Bergquist ran a ercoat, and that she beard her sun hotel and it loon in Ashland at one 40 call him Mt. Hloomquitt oi a name 1 borr ! buy n-jshlig lime, bur ol laic has been a sales­ the body" Ibar sounded much (like ii. Since Knowing tbat Fubtruami bad pic man and one el tin- things be sold she did not know the man herself cd up a revolver near there, tl wa> popcorn mucbiuef. He ttied she »«s cot certain as to the name, thought flashed through Mr. Vl to sell such a ruicnioe. to tbe Pett­ It was another murder that garnered the biggest, boldest hut sbe did know that be and her Hnde'e mind, "ibis man wants ingill litotbet> who operates the son bad been talking about some tLshhuht I i thai IUIJ 1 Liberty Bond which tbe stranger headline ever in the Pioneer. It occurred in 1938, and the victim tor bis lost revolt claimed was left for sale keeping able to make the sale, and appeared left presently, driv to be much peeved about (bat. with bis faibcrLtbe late George L. was John D. Pettingill, the forty-four-year-old grandson of the Peitingill. many years ago. l.vmao Pettingill, brother of John, i bis •adlights. but the 1 lig informed (be wrilet tbat John told With this information, it soon was burning. Mr. Von Ende cal­ him thai Bergquist threatened tbat town's founder. "KILLED BY CRANK WITH FANCIED was possible to get more informa­ led the officers in Iron River as be would eel even iur not buying* tion as to the identity of (he party. quickly as possible and Informed lor be bad talked witb .Mr. Byron Sheriff Prostmau that he believed GRIEVANCE" was emblazoned across the top of the paper Lyr used Hit! about a Ripley and Mr. T. F. MackmiMer be was looking for >>s at same man entered about a hoti.f matter a lew days Superior Tneaire previous, and as soon as tbey on November 10. Savage had virtually nothing to do with appre­ He tell very certain ol tbat e told his brother learned thai tbe discussion at tbe I eason that In tbe mcantune !Bergauist's)iatnet I'et'irgill home was about tbe bond. : D (be V .Its of witb the Iron River hension of the criminal—his son-in-law did—but he kept his they knew tbat it must have l-ei-n ' to his store be bad learned ibit ibr ] teenm twenty yean the who ilked killer had s(olen Mr. Pettingill'* L rittei tbe readers vividly informed. car to make bis getaway, and he - j them. The description alan tallied tnniiiHoner and was in- As Mrs. Pettingill was under thi bad serviced tbat car many limes | impression that Ibe killer was sill -iid was quite certaXn that he rrcnv . The crank was Albin Bergquist of Ashland. Bergquist >r ibal allegedly lost in Iht bouse and biding on th< nixed it. A posse was soon lorm- | en ROHCII a-ked bim sreond floor, some delay was oc cd. beaded by Sheriff Ptonuiii) t he letter he tefcrred to cssstoned while awaiting (he a: xnd Undrrsbenff Gidlol. and pro­ fancied that twenty years earlier his father had left a fifty-dollar it be did not have it rival ol tear gas bombs from Ash ceeded eastward on J'j S -'. They' Finally Russell told land, but Anally, without waiting bond with PettingilPs father, George, who had been the cashier latn* ol H tt ibe trouble is that longer for their arrival, Officer! found It wa( Gidlol and Frostman went up stall.' son wanted, hut tbe next am and wilh the aid of a fltah ligbi at the Iron River bank. Bergquist, intoxicated, wanted that bond ed to be. Several shots wei

1 for a (est days. floor without finding bim. - and within a few seconds the and accosted the younger Pettingill at his Iron River home on filer i to he Clinking A short tine later. Howard Pubr- was handcuffed and brougt On Monday be November 7. Pettingill promised to try to locate the bond. But rotnn, traffic officer, arrivrd In j here and identified by tbe m all day. t >wn and reported that be Dieted ] of tbe victim. In the car n lait t e.l as Bergquist prepared to leave, he pulled a revolver and shot Pettingill several times as his widowed mother, Nellie, looked on. She "pleaded with the crazed man to stop shooting," Savage wrote, "but instead of doing so he grabbed Mrs. Pettingill with his left hand while he continued firing at John on the floor." She escaped his grip and hid in a closet while Bergquist stole PettingilPs car, heading east out of town on US-2. Savage's son-in-law, William von Ende, proprietor of the store in nearby Ino, had been alerted to watch for the fleeing killer. When Bergquist pulled up, von Ende recognized Pettin- gill's car. He phoned Sheriff Hjalmer Frostman to report that the suspect was heading back to Iron River. The sheriff formed a posse, and they intercepted Bergquist just east of the village. "Several shots were fired before the driver stopped the car," Savage wrote, "and within a few seconds the killer was hand­ cuffed and brought in here and identified by the mother of the victim."41 Bergquist pleaded guilty, and in Bayfield County Circuit Court on December 22, 1938, he was sentenced to life in prison.42 Savage typing copy before setting it in print at the Pioneer office, 1947

AUTUMN 2017 11 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

THE IRON RIVER PIONEER

K.oo PER TO. SttztSi&UgZ.'ZiXihliESr' " "- IKON RIVER. BAYFIELD OOUNTT. WISCONSIN. THURSDAY. AUGUST 7, 1962—Put VOL. UX—NUMRKR 16

the {treat, fold and mail the papers aa THE SAVAGES GATHER NEWS At Empty Spec Agtiut •Mil aa do Job printing on the affka. VnaaOcally all of the time he did the greater share of this work hlT"tflT Editor P. J. Savage Retires The Sky When his two sons and five daughter* Frank 1 Dexter were old enough, they often helped oat aa' wail aa-vanoua school boya over lh* Bayfield County Pre** year*. Baylteld. Wtt. In addition. Mr Savage has been After 54 Years of Service Judge of tbe Second Municipal Court It li hard to find wi at Iron River for the past 44 jean, the day when a printer-editor with having been re-elected to the office •now than sixty yean oi serriee to hat again last spring * credit lays aside Us stick, hu maka-up In both Job* be lias earneaUy Bought nile. and bis Unc gaujt. ami remoTCe i contribute to the progress* and well- Mr. Caster Brown Bis Arrived fron South Dikoti to hi* apron for the last Urn* being of hit town and Its people and The poet, to telling of tbe pass.ii* ol the nigh esteem in which he is held a great man, likens it to the toppling •bow* that ha ha* succeeded Take Over fobliihiBj utt Printing Dsties t! of a giant tree which leave* -an empty We hope Mr Savage enjoy* bis aril- apace against the iky.* Happily, Brill- earned rut and to the new editor. Mr. ThelPioneer Neit Week or-Judge Savage t* not paaatnc from Brown, we extend a hearty this earthly accne; yet aurety lor man) citizens there will be -an empty apaot against the aky" as he lumt grer con­ trol of Tbe Pioneer to other hand*. A Job Well Dose •EDITOR'S MOTE: The following for :•; yean and la tbe For more than two generations, the John L. MacRae people nf Iron River nave known bin article 00 the sale Of the Pioneer a paper founded when the community a* their editor and (be career of the editor was waa only two month* old Tbe iron The Town of Iron River prepared for publication In several "" - Tunes, published o> J A Mun- A reaamiably diligent search baa Tblt bring tbe lait Issue of tbe Iron nudwestem metropolitan dailies, i g*r of A'-Jand. printed it* tiral tstut failed to reveal any record in American iver Pioneer under the dlractiofl at Warcr. 10. tttOT Iron River was then Journalism that approaches the record ir present Editor. Mr. P. J. Savage. Charles M. Bhrndan booming irotillrr settlement ol 600 that he has eataaliihed. True, the yean lere ihare had been solid forest two the clUMoi of Iron River say. with Waabburn. Wisconsin have been spent within a relatively humble sincerity, "A Job wcjl done!" ititht before Five sawmills of var­ small circle, yet the iniluence that be IRON RIVER. Wis. — A long «nd for the past fifty-four years Mr. ious type* were turning out thousands has wielded has .ir-nTu».i a continent eventful cbapter in tbe history of ihtf et of lumber dally ana raipl In every direction. Savage has been the Editor of our weekly net ipaper. During that lime he community, covering over M of it* too men His early days as a newspaper man 00. years, coma* to a Clots thl* week ha* btazed the brail for many projects ron Ripley and Frank Lure tool were spent as lore-nan of The Bayfield such as ReforeatraUou. Fnreat Pire with tbe gale of tbe Iron River Pio­ OcwKy PITM. a lew years later found neer by Pater J. Savage. IB. who hat the Iran Rlna Tune* about a Protection. Panning and Tourist Ba> alter i: was founded and inter bim In the newspaper office at Wash­ leiia lata Yea, forty yean ago he advo­ burn But for more than naif a cent­ record in Wlscocada Ripley ran It alone Another paper. cated and actively worked for tbe Ttir Hotnetstcad. iu founded Seplwn- ury, nit life ha* been devoted to aar- ptsming of alfalfa field* for feed lor and the midwest, if not the nation. vtng the tuagrnnnlty of Iran Blver Editor savage fell 111 last winter and », ISM. b>- S. P Marletle. The oar Increasing dairy herds Look at folkncmg spmlg The Uomstrwd wi Earthly reporter! might find pleasure these fir Ids now I since then bis newspaper duties liavt In UbuUllng the more than two hun­ been handled competent!} by bU taken over by Ripley and the Iron Ri dred million pieces, of type that be baa atr. Savage aito helped to promote daughter Zoe. lira William Ton End*- er Punaer flral appeared April I bandied, yet the Matter Reporter bu tbe pavtng of U. S Hlghwa) I. he was Although his health 1* now much im­ IBM. aa aiicceaaor la the Iron River written a different alary . . one COT- one of the original group that wa* suc­ proved. It was decided that It was tbe Time* and Homestead Later Ripley ering a hie well spVfit . a life of cessful in founding the Bayfield Coun­ better part of valor for him to retm It to Fred Yates and E J Cos­ ty Fair; and the eatjshbibtnent of the tello and on January t. 1198. Peter J •service, rendered in large part for the nermahenU} Irani the grind of pub* Union Free Airport was In a measure Sarage became editor and publtaher. sheer jov of serving. Uablng a weekly paper tha'i has occu­ due to his effort* Re. srlth other pio­ hiring purchased the interest of E J It was mr,f>Tofaun with my wife to pied him constantly since he came hen neers. Borne of whom were Mr Ed Costello Yates, who published the Bites** -tw pert* given for Editor- ago last January. As soon at Ooulet, Mr, E P. Daniels. Mr. Albert Washburn News and Itemuer and later •ludgj Savage a fe* years ago upon bit Improving health permit*.- Mr Sa*> G. Johnson and Mr. Olr Olson marked the.compietloi of flljp yaan aa eduor age will resume bis part-time duties at ottt the trail on foot of the road which of The* Pioneer a»d lorty yean aa Judge ' of the second munlrtnal court wa* an inactive partner in The Pio­ A Tribute te i Great flan ss now the Scenic Pike Lake Drive— Judge Shortly thereafter, be and I of Bayfield county, a post be baa held neer for anmr years tberealter. North Wisconsin* moat beautiful high­ Morgan Murphy attended together anoeher great parly, uninterruptedly for 44 years. way. He bat always worked tinieasly President one given b: Cable folks to honor Dr. The new owner, editor and publish and.unaeUlshly for the betterment of The Evening Telegram A Triiute To Editor Savage " o a much-beloved einaen

The last edition of the Iron River Pioneer edited by Savage, marking the end of his fifty-four years at the paper's helm

Savage rarely wrote editorials dealing with national news international tensions: he believed the possibility of nuclear war in the early days, confining his opinion pieces to local issues. united Americans even as other issues divided them. He got personal in a conflict with Washburn mayor Hubert H. He expected many of 1948's domestic problems, including Peavy who also was the Washburn News editor, in 1922. The strikes, federal vs. state power, racial issues, voting rights, and issue was the route of a highway along the Lake Superior south depletion of fossil fuels, would be solved by 2048, and he antici­ shore. "There are few issues of the News in which Peavy does pated that educators would play a key role—greater than that of not try his dingest [sic] to boost Peavy's stock politically and to scientists—in getting things right. Still, he was wary about the belittle and vilify those whom he suggests stand in the way of his future. Fifty years in the newspaper business and forty years as political advancement," Savage wrote.43 Later that year, Peavy a judge had taught him a few things. "While not pessimistic," was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress, he said concluding his message, "I see little in my reading of the opposing the incumbent A. P. Nelson. The Pioneer's preference record of man's behavior . . . which encourages me to believe for Nelson was obvious only in the amount of space it gave him; that you people of 2048 will have found it necessary to employ Savage never formally editorialized against Peavy, but he barely no policemen."44 mentioned him in the Pioneer's news columns. But Peavy won The Cold War preoccupied Americans when, in a front page the nomination and by default was elected to Congress because editorial in 1950, Savage celebrated that South Carolina, not there was no Democratic candidate. northern Wisconsin, was selected for a federal hydrogen bomb Later in Savage's career, national and international issues factory. Better to beef up Union Airport north of Iron River to more frequently found their way into the Pioneer. In 1948, he house military installations to intercept enemy bombers aiming expressed his expectations in an essay that was printed on page for Lake Superior ports, the Pioneer urged. For now, Savage one of the Pioneer and included in a "Century Vault" in the wrote, "we can just go on thanking our lucky stars that the experts cornerstone of the new Minneapolis Star and Tribune building. picked another site they liked much better."45 The site became the He titled it "A Message to People of 2048," and he was not Savannah River Project, and Union Airport never was developed. particularly optimistic. Hoped-for peace after World War II had In 1950, Savage became ill with cancer, and by early 1952, not materialized, and Savage perceived threats from commu­ when he was seventy-six, it became apparent he could no longer nism and the Soviet Union. However, he saw one upside to work. His daughter Zoe Savage von Ende became de facto

12 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

editor, with help from her brother Leland Savage and printer 7. Washburn News, July 15, 1893; letters to author from Patricia O'Sullivan, May 28, 1985, and June 7, 1985; "OBITUARY, P.J.S., Son of the Deceased," Iron River Pioneer, August Joe Pemberton. She contacted as many of Savage's creditors 2, 1899. as possible, for he had made no financial arrangements for 8. "Local Chitchat," Bayfield County Press, July 9, 1892. 9. Charles M. Sheridan, "Editor a Newsman for Six Decades," Saint Paul Sunday Pioneer retirement, and he was owed thousands of dollars. Many came Press, August 29, 1948. through.46 10. Ibid. 11. George L. Pettingill, "How Iron River's Founder Came Here," Iron River Pioneer, August But what to do with the Pioneer? The shop was obso­ 9, 1934, rep. in Iron River, Wisconsin: Centennial, 1892-1992 (Iron River: Book Committee, 1992), 2. lete and rickety. Eventually buyers turned up—Chester and 12. Fred P. Lund, "That Memorable Year," History of the Iron River High School Alumni Betty Brown of Milbank, South Dakota. They took over in the Association 1911-1982 (Iron River: Iron River High School Alumni Association, 1982), 9, rep. in Iron River, Wisconsin: Centennial, 19. summer of 1952 with plans to modernize, and Savage officially 13. "Iron River Mills," in Iron River, Wisconsin: Centennial, 76. retired on August 7, 1952, after fifty-four years. It's believed 14. P.J. Savage, "The Story of Iron River," 1929, rep. in Iron River, Wisconsin: Centennial, 6-8. that no other American newspaper has had only one editor 15. Iron River Pioneer, September 30, 1920. for so many years. The final edition with Pete Savage as its 16. Commemorative Biographical Record of the Upper Lake Region (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1905), 53-54. official editor was published that day, full of accolades from 17. "Announcement," Iron River Pioneer, January 6, 1898. other editors and townspeople and even photographs of the 18. Commemorative Biographical Record, 489—490. 19. Ibid. changing of the guard. "We are Grateful to you PeterJ. Savage 20. Sheridan, "Editor a Newsman." Our Editor and Friend. THANKS A MILLION!" declared 21. Bayfield County certificate of marriage, marriage 1182, dated April 16, 1903, filed with county register of deeds, Washburn, Wisconsin; "Married," Iron River Pioneer, April 23, a full-page ad that listed ninety-two local businesses. Special 1903. 22. "News of the City and This Vicinity," Iron River Pioneer, September 14, 1922. columns heaped praise on Savage: "A Job Well Done," said 23. "News of the City and This Vicinity," Iron River Pioneer, March 10, 1927. town chairman John L. MacRae. "A Tribute to a Great Man," 24. "Lose at Superior; Win at Hurley," Iron River Pioneer, January 26, 1922. 25. "Rain Dampened Celebration," Iron River Pioneer, June 8, 1939. from Morgan Murphy, president of the Superior Evening 26. "Savage, PeterJ.," Professional Baseball Player Database, accessed online at http://www. Telegram. "An Empty Space Against the Sky," wrote Frank baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=savage001pet. 47 27. Pirates Show Form But Lose to Eau Claire," Crookston Daily Times (Crookston, MN), Dexter, editor of the Bayfield County Press, Savage and his May 20, 1939. wife traveled some in retirement, but his health continued 28. "Championship Final . . . Will Live in History as Outstanding Thriller," March 11, 1937, Iron River Pioneer. to decline. He died in Ashland on January 21, 1954, at age 29. "Lost at Regional Tournament," Iron River Pioneer, March 18, 1937. seventy-eight.48 30. "Arbutus Law Stirs Interest," Iron River Pioneer, April 17, 1930. 31. "Lost Life Trying to Save Fish-hook," Iron River Pioneer, June 27, 1927. The Pioneer eventually installed a linotype and went 32. "Robin Hung Itself," Iron River Pioneer, June 21, 1934. 33. "Convict Two of Illegal Fishing," Iron River Pioneer, April 29, 1926. through several publishers after the Browns. Its last owners, 34. "Speed Cop Acquitted," Iron River Pioneer, June 21, 1926. Dan and Leslie Satran, merged it with three Bayfield County 35. "Lund Recalls Justice of Pioneer Editor," Iron River Pioneer, July 7, 1983. 49 36. "The Grumbler Still Grumbles," Iron River Pioneer, September 18, 1913. papers in 1989 to become the Bayfield CountyJournal., For 37. "Thanks," Iron River Pioneer, March 18, 1920. the first time in ninety-seven years, Iron River was without a 38. Correspondence from 1922 in PeterJ. Savage File at the Western Bayfield County Histor­ ical Museum, Iron Rver, Wisconsin. hometown newspaper. The Pioneer itself lasted for ninety-four 39. "Big Saw Mill is No More," Iron River Pioneer July 31, 1913. years total, including thirty-seven years after Savage retired. 40. "Looking for Body Here," Iron River Pioneer, July 30, 1936; "Murdered Youth Body Found Friday," Iron River Pioneer, August 6, 1936. The town museum devotes a corner to Pete Savage, and 41. "Killed by Crank with Fancied Grievance," Iron River Pioneer, November 10, 1938. Savage himself returned to Iron Rver, in a way, in 2007, when 42. "Bergquist Sentenced to Life Imprisonment," Iron River Pioneer, December 22, 1938. 43. "Editorial," Iron River Pioneer, January 12, 1922. a historic mural went up on the building at the site of the 44. "A Message to People of 2048," Iron River Pioneer, October 7, 1948. McCord Block that had housed the Pioneer. It features paint­ 45. "Editorial," repr. in Superior Evening Telegram, December 14, 1950. 46. Author's personal knowledge. ings of townsfolk from the 1940s and 1950s against renderings 47. The articles appeared in the August 7, 1952, issue of the Iron River Pioneer. 48. PeterJ. Savage, Wisconsin death certificate, filed with the state on February 8, 1954; filed of storefronts in the block. The Pioneer occupies the east corner, in Ashland County on January 29, 1954. and Pete Savage stands outside chatting with a passerby. But 49. "Four County Newspapers Will Be Merged," Iron River Pioneer, April 19, 1989. the timeframe is skewed. In the window of the Pioneer office sits a woman operating a linotype machine. Savage never got ABOUT THE AUTHOR around to installing one of those. IM Zoe von Ende Lappin is a granddaughter Notes of PeterJ. Savage. She has a BA in journalism 1. Clifford F. Butcher, "Exit: The Hand Set Weekly," Milwaukee Journal, September 3, 1952. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 2. Charles M. Sheridan, "Pioneer Newspaper Editor," Duluth News-Tribune, January 8, and spent her career at daily newspapers 1950. including the Denver Post and the Rocky 3. Ibid. 4. Baptismal register, Saints Peter and Paul Church, Mankato, Minnesota, 1876, page 195, Jh Mountain News (Denver). She is the author number 94, Saints Peter and Paul Church archives, Mankato, Minnesota. «N»»v]^ IV/ of her Irish family history. The SavageFamily 5. Bureau of Land Management, land entry file, application number 1308, patent number 1130, Brown County township 108, section 2, range 33 West; Minnesota tract books volume of County Louth and America. She grew up 117, n.p., Family History Library microfilm 1,445,671 (hereafter FHL microfilm), Salt Lake in Iron River but was never lucky enough to work in her grandfa­ City, Utah. ther's print shop. Now retired, she lives in Denver with her husband. 6. Waseca County District Court, death records, volume A, page 60, FHL microfilm 1,320,459.

AUTUMN 2017 13 BY PAUL E. RECKNER, TAMARA THOMSEN, Remarkably, a crewman aboard one of those vessels standing AND RICHARD J. BOYD by, the Ann Arbor No. 6, managed to snap a haunting series It was over in less than ninety minutes. At 10:00 a.m. on the of photographs of the Lakeland during its final minutes. Elliot morning of December 3, 1924, a lookout at the Sturgeon Bay Jacobson's quick thinking left us with a rare and eerily silent Coast Guard Station observed the Lakeland, a Great Lakes record of an unfolding disaster; the Lakeland incident is one car carrier, in apparent distress, although no actual distress of the earliest Great Lakes losses to be caught on film in the signal had been received.1 At 11:25, the venerable iron and process of sinking. steel freighter slipped beneath the waves of Lake Michigan off Maritime accidents were everyday occurrences in the of Sturgeon Bay in spectacular fashion. Portions of the vessel's heyday of Great Lakes shipping, but the Lakeland incident upper cabins and several of the ship's hatches were blown was, from the beginning, a bit out of the ordinary. A wreck forty feet in the air by the force of air pockets trapped in the on the Great Lakes in December often meant certain death hull as it went down.2 The crews of two other large steam­ for the ship's crew, but on the day the Lakeland went down, ships and a US Coast Guard rescue boat looked on helplessly.3 the wind was moderate and the lake was calm.4 Remarkably

14 wisconsinhistory.org i OF THE

4 * I

the entire crew of twenty-seven officers and sailors escaped Photo mosaic of the SS Lakeland comprised of over 500 images unharmed, and the men were able to save their luggage and collected in July 2010. The ship is broken in half near the automobile personal effects.5 The ship's captain, John T. McNeely, never loading elevator. A diver can be seen off the starboard bow, showing ordered the transmission of a radio distress signal, nor did the ship's massive scale. he accept offers from the other ships' captains on the scene to tow the foundering vessel into shallower water where The Lakeland had been plying the waters of the Great it could at least be salvaged.6 Curiously, the Lakeland's Lakes since 1887. In the late 1800s when it sailed as the captain had decided to set anchor a short distance east of Cambria, it was one of the fastest and most well-appointed an escarpment where the bottom depth of the lake dropped bulk freighters on the lakes, setting several cargo weight from less than one hundred feet to over two hundred. So and speed records.7 It was rechristened the Lakeland in when the Lakeland finally went down, it went down in deep the early 1900s and converted into a passenger and freight water. Thankfully, all it took to the bottom was a light cargo boat.8 After nearly a decade making regular runs between of about twenty-five Nash, Kissel, and Rollin automobiles Port Huron, Michigan, and Duluth, Minnesota, the Lake- bound for Detroit, Michigan. land was reconfigured yet again to carry automobiles—a

AUTUMN 2017 15 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

growing niche in the Great Lakes ship­ by inspectors with the US Steamboat ping market.9 By 1924, the Lakeland was 500,000 LOSS AS Inspection Service in early 1925.12 Based showing its thirty-seven years of service, on their findings, charges of negligence but the sinking of the aging vessel was were filed against the Lakeland's Captain still a substantial loss to its owners at the McNeely and its chief engineer, James Thompson Transit Company of Cleve­ Giant Auto Freighter W. Hidden. After a formal hearing, both land, Ohio. The company had been on Sinks Near Canal men had their licenses suspended. In a shaky financial footing for some time, but CREW OF 27 MEN, remarkable gesture, Thompson Transit fortunately it carried a $350,000 insur­ OFFICERS SAVED Company (TTC) kept the two men on 10 ance policy on the vessel. Bad Leak Forces Ship to Steer the payroll during the period of their When the Lakeland went down on For Shore After Leaving suspensions. Despite not being permitted that winter morning in 1924, it set in • Shelter".. to work aboard a ship, they continued to 13 motion a remarkable series of events. A lost) of ?500,000: on ship and draw their former officers' salaries. $45,000'on a cargo of 40 Nnsh and Suspicion of foul play led to a three-year Kissel cars was reported at tho gov­ In the summer of 1925, reports legal battle, creating a detailed record of ernment canal coast guard station by Capt. jbhn McNeoly, of tho surfaced that a consortium of insurance one of the earliest intensive investigations freighter Lakeland which sprung a companies with financial interests in the leak amidships about 15 miles east of a deep-water Great Lakes shipwreck of the canal entrance and sunk at Lakeland—the same group represented by 11:30 Wednesday morning 9 miles ever attempted. This is the story of the out in Its effort to gain shallow wa­ Foster the previous fall—intended to inves­ ter and safety. , ' researchers and divers who pushed the The crew of 27 men and officer* tigate the incident further. Claims of local took to boats on the calm waters boundaries of early deep-diving tech­ and was picked up by the Ann AT" fishermen that they had seen the Lakeland nology. In their quest to uncover the bor No. 6, bound to Menominee, and the canal coast guards who were on running in circles on the morning it went secrets of the Lakeland, they conducted the scene a short time after the 3, down, together with the other remark­ O. S. call was sent and sensed by the first dives using helium to improve Watchman Earl Delorme. Twenty- able circumstances of the incident, fueled three of the men were landed at the divers' ability to work at great depths. Goodrich dock by the ferry, while insurers' suspicions that the sinking of the the captain and three others worked 14 The record of evidence brought to the for more than two hours gathering Lakeland was no accident. The consor­ up floating wreckage, with the ex­ surface by the dive team allows us to take cellent assistance of Capt. Robert tium proposed an unprecedented investiga­ another look at this infamous chapter in Anderson and his coast guards. tion of the wreck site itself, lying in open Great Lakes maritime history. water deep below the surface, in order to A week after the sinking of the Lake­ prove the suspicion that TTC had ordered land, attorney S. D. Foster arrived in Sturgeon Bay to investi­ the Lakeland's officers to sink the vessel so the company could gate the incident on behalf of the fifteen insurance underwriters collect on the ship's hefty insurance policy. liable for the vessel's loss. He told a reporter at the Door In order to locate the wreck, the consortium hired a local County Advocate that "as far as he knew, there would be no fisherman, Albert Kalmbach, to search for the site with a disputing of claims for loss." The same reporter also observed drag device. In midsummer, he succeeded in snagging the that "having sunk in 210 feet of water, no attempt will be sunken vessel.15 With the wreck site identified, a deep-diving made to salvage [the ship or cargo]."11 Foster was not the team had to be assembled and outfitted. Conducting a forensic only party investigating the wreck, however. The first formal examination of a shipwreck lying in two hundred feet of water inquiry into the circumstances of the wreck was conducted on the bottom of an inland sea was no small task, especially

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in 1925. Such a feat had never before been attempted in the Elliot Jacobson, a crewman on the/Ann/Arbor Wo. 6, snapped a Great Lakes or, for that matter, anywhere. The well-known haunting series of photographs of the Lakeland during its final minutes, one of the first times a sinking ship was captured on film in New York firm Overseas Salvors Inc. was willing to take on the Great Lakes. In the second and third photos, the lifeboat can be the project, but only if it could secure the assistance of one seen moving away from the vessel. particular diver, Clarence L. Tibbals, a US Navy captain.16 At the time, Tibbals was one of the navy's most experienced deep-sea divers. He had already racked up many professional Tibbals and three others. He also made equipment available accomplishments, including founding the navy's diving school to conduct field tests, including four bottles of helium. at Newport, Rhode Island.1' The Lakeland investigation dive team consisted of three Tibbals had also served as captain of a US Navy salvage Overseas Salvors divers, Harry "Big Harry" Reinhartsen, vessel the USS Falcon which was where he first crossed paths Hubert A. Groves, and Stephen J. Drellishak, and two navy with Dr. Royd Ray Sayers, chief surgeon for the US Bureau divers, Francis Smith and Joseph Eiven.18 Tibbals was to serve of Mines. Dr. Sayers had been overseeing research at the US as the expedition's divemaster, and William Yant, a chemist Bureau of Mines Experimental Station in Pittsburgh, Penn­ from Sayers's lab, would supervise work related to the helium sylvania (USBOM-PES), on the use of helium as a breathing research. Overseas Salvors outfitted a salvage barge, John W. medium for working in high-pressure environments, including Chittendon, to support the mission. It was equipped with a underwater diving. His research promised to significantly diving platform, or stage, as well as a decompression chamber increase the depth at which divers could safely function as well on loan from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.19 The chamber would as providing treatment for decompression sickness, commonly be a critical lifesaving device if Sayers's untested decompression known as the bends. timetables proved inaccurate or other emergencies arose.20 In Helium was considered a scarce strategic resource at mid-August 1925, the Chittendon arrived at Sturgeon Bay and that time and was strictly controlled by the Helium Board, was soon anchored at the wreck site, about five miles out in under the Bureau of Mines. In 1924, Sayers arranged with Lake Michigan.21 the US Navy to conduct several tests of helium for diving Over the next three weeks, from August 17 to September using equipment aboard the Falcon. Shortly after the tests, 7, the dive team made multiple dives on the wreck to conduct Sayers recruited Tibbals to join him at USBOM-PES, where their investigations.22 Divers were connected to the support his team was working out new decompression tables based on crew aboard the Chittendon by a lifeline, an umbilical bundle their research. Divers use decompression tables to calculate consisting of an air supply hose and a communications line. how long they can remain underwater at a given depth, and The two-hundred-foot descent to the wreck site took the divers how often they need to stop as they resurface to off-gas the only two to three minutes. Dives were initially limited to thirty nitrogen that has built up in their tissues while submerged. minutes or less at maximum depth, but the men were "found Overseas Salvors asked Tibbals to join the Lakeland investi­ to be in a weakened physical condition when brought to the gation with permission to "try out any new data we see fit on surface." Bottom times were later reduced to twenty to twenty- their divers." With research in Pittsburgh on hold awaiting five minutes.23 All of the divers struggled with the numbing new test equipment, Sayers agreed with Tibbals's argument water temperatures, estimated at 38 degrees Fahrenheit at the that the Lakeland job would be "a very good chance to try out depth of the wreck.24 some of the decompression data, also helium for treatment of Working within the broken hull of the Lakeland was diffi­ bends." Sayers quickly took steps to secure official leave for cult and treacherous. The lake bottom was nearly pitch black.

AUTUMN 2017 17 .— —fTtmnii' • ' • - j • * —• •

In 1920, the Lakeland was overhauled and refitted to carry automobiles. The vessel is shown here moored at a wharf in Cleveland unloading a cargo of cars sometime between 1920 and 1924. and the murky quality of the water further reduced visibility. To from at least one bout. Newspaper reports claimed that none make matters worse, debris filled the wreck, and several divers of these cases were serious, but their occurrence suggests that became ensnared in tangles of ropes and wires. During one dive, there were still problems with the decompression tables.28 navy diver Smith became snarled in a mass of floating ropes Even so, the research was invaluable. All previous attempts to while exploring the Lakeland's engine room. He reached for his employ helium had been limited to laboratory tests involving knife to cut himself free only to find that it was gone, probably animals and simulated dives in hyperbaric chambers using torn away as he worked his way into the wreck. In response to human subjects. As a reporter for the Door County Advocate Smith's call for aid, another knife was quickly sent down the put it, "the experiments here are the first attempts to put the umbilical and he was able to extricate himself, fighting his way work into practical use."29 out of the engine room.25 The investigators arrived at the wreck site with a working Groves also encountered trouble in the ship's engine room: theory of how the ship's crew might have caused the Lake­ land to sink. The aft sea cock was a primary focus of suspi­ My air supply was suddenly cut off overhead by some cion. This large valve, when opened, allowed water to enter accident. I felt myself suffocating. I phoned news of my a vessel's hull through an inlet located below the waterline. peril to the watchers overhead, but the difficulty was It was normally used to fill the various ballast tanks located somewhere below the surface. They urged me to hold throughout the lower portions of the ship, balancing the on while they investigated to find the kink. Perhaps vessel and compensating for any list resulting from uneven it was only a few seconds before their efforts were distribution of cargo weight and adjusting the ship's draft successful, but I had already lost all ability to speak. I 'the depth at which it sits in the water). Because photos of no sooner was at work again than my light went out. the sinking showed the Lakeland going down stern first, and ... Patience was the only way out. Little by little I the aft sea cock was located in the stern of the ship, it was untangled my life-line and worked my way along it, considered a likely culprit.30 under pipes, through tangled metal, and then up the After numerous preliminary dives, the team was able to engine-room ladder to the deck of the sunken ship.26 affix a descent line to the top of the low-pressure cylinder of Yant, reporting back to Sayers from a small office on the the ship's hulking triple expansion steam engine. This line barge, noted that as of August 26 there had been no cases of allowed divers to descend directly to the engine room.31 The the bends among the dive team.27 By the final week of the team was able to find an entry point into the lower deck of the investigation, however, each of the five divers had suffered engine room, and Reinhartsen was the first diver to examine

18 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY the critical aft sea cock valve.32 As the team suspected, the valve had been fully open when the ship sank. For the inves­ tigators, this was the proof of foul play they had been hoping to discover. The dive team immediately consulted with the insurance consortium's legal team. They discussed cutting the valve out of the engine room and bringing it to the surface to submit as evidence. The consortium's lawyers did not want to rely solely on divers' testimony to make their case; they wanted hard evidence brought up from the wreck that could be presented in court. The salvage barge had been outfitted with an under­ water cutting torch with this goal in mind. But Tibbals felt it was too dangerous. The position of the valve and the depth of the wreck made it impossible without placing divers' lives at serious risk.33 As a safer alternative, two divers descended into the engine room, first with a metal bar and later with a wooden measuring stick, to record how far the valve's threaded stem extended above the casing of the valve. During the court cases that followed, the sticks were submitted with testimony from the divers.34 Lake Michigan's infamously rough seas and shifting currents plagued the project from the beginning, but condi­ tions deteriorated further in the first week of September. Up to that point, none of the divers had suffered serious injury, but Tibbals feared that worsening seas would lead to more severe cases of decompression sickness. The consortium's lawyers would have to make their case with the available evidence and the testimony of the dive team. The first effort to investigate a Prior to the 1920s, divers relied exclusively on compressed air to Great Lakes wreck at such a great depth was deemed a success, breathe underwater, but compressed air imposed significant limita­ and the salvage crew was treated to a farewell party and dance tions on the depth and duration of dives. In the early 1920s, R. R. at Sturgeon Bay's Grasshopper Pavilion.35 The total cost of the Sayer began lab tests of helium breathing mixtures on guinea pigs diving operation was estimated at $60,000.36 using the small hyperbaric chamber pictured here.This research, plus The consortium's legal team kept the divers' discovery a handful of tests on human subjects, became the basis for the use of secret until September 11, 1925, when they made an official helium during the Lakeland investigation. announcement: the dive team had found definite evidence that the Lakeland crew intentionally opened certain valves in order to sink the vessel.37 Further, it was suspected that they had done so on the orders of the ship's owners. In October 1925, the Lakeland case had its first hearing in the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.38 The unusual nature of the trial, including the novel use of evidence collected by deep-sea divers, attracted international attention.39 The issue in the first trial, and those that followed, was not simply whether the valves were open. The prosecution had to present sufficient evidence to prove that the owners of the Lakeland had directed members of the crew to arrange to sink it. If so, the insurance companies would not be required to pay out on the various policies that covered the vessel. Initially, the plaintiff, Thompson Transit The Lakeland investigation team aboard the salvage barge John W. Corporation (TTC), claimed that the ship had been lost due Chittenden in 1925. The team's five divers, Harry "Big Harry" Reinhartsen, to "perils of the sea." It later qualified its claim, stating that Hubert A. Groves, Stephen J. Drellishak, Francis Smith, and Joseph the company owners had "no knowledge as to said valves Eiven, are seated in the center of the group in full diving dress.

AUTUMN 2017 19 The John W. Chittenden served as the salvage vessel for the Lakeland operation. It was equipped with a decompression chamber and diving platform.

Divers Hubert Groves and Joseph Eiven carried metal and wooden s measuring bars down to the wreck in two separate dives to record how £ far the aft sea-cock had been left open by the Lakeland's crew at the | One ofthe/.a/cefand investigation divers returning to the surface via the time of the sinking. Both objects were submitted as evidence in the § Chittendon's diving stage after completing a descent to the wreck site. court cases that followed. =

20 wisconsinhistory.org being open, but allege that if they were open ... it was by In this image from August 2013, Wisconsin Historical Society archaeolo­ reason of the negligence of the master mariner or engineer gists pause above the Lakeland's engine as they prepare to entered the . . . which are among the perils and risks [against which the ship's engine room and retrace the path that Overseas Salvors divers vessel was] insured."40 took in the summer of 1925. Notably, several of the divers who examined the wreck were unavailable during the first hearing. They had been vessel's chief engineer was reassigned and a new chief engi­ called up to serve on the dive team attempting an emergency neer, James W. Hidden, joined the Lakeland crew. Hidden rescue of US Navy submarine S-51, which had gone down had previously served with McNeely on other vessels.45 with its crew in Block Island Sound off the coast of Rhode Moreover, the consortium's dive team found a ten-inch sea Island.41 After all of the evidence and testimony had been cock valve open in the stern of the Lakeland. In such a state, presented, the jury began deliberations. The members of the seawater would have been able enter the vessel more rapidly jury became deadlocked, however, and the judge declared a than the ship's pumps would have been able to remove it.46 mistrial. He ordered a retrial to be held in February 1926.42 The captain and his new chief engineer had, under orders The records of this second trial provide an even better view from TTC's owners, conspired to sink the Lakeland in order into what likely happened on the Lakeland. to collect on its large insurance policy. The opening remarks of William Day, the consortium's During the six-day trial, each of the men on the dive team lead attorney, outlined his clients' case. Day contended that gave remarkably thorough and clear testimony47 They spoke TTC was in financial trouble in 1924 and had in fact fallen at length about the difficulties and perils they encountered, behind in premium payments on the insurance policies and it seems unlikely that the jury was left with any doubt as to covering the vessel.43 The policies that were the key issue in what they had seen at the bottom of Lake Michigan. Despite the court case had actually been canceled and then reinstated this, the jury found in favor of TTC, which was awarded the after overdue balances were paid.44 A man only referred to entire insured amount, plus accrued interest.48 The strong in court records as Mr. Riley, involved in the management circumstantial evidence in the consortium's case was not or ownership of TTC, met with Captain McNeely of the sufficient to prove that the owners of TTC had ordered the Lakeland in September 1924. Shortly after this meeting, the Lakeland's crew to sink it. Because it was a civil, not criminal.

AUTUMN 2017 21 The driver's side door dangles from a two-door Nash sedan as it hangs off the wreckage at the vessel's break. The car rests upright atop the frame of another upside down Nash automobile. Archaeologists worked with experts from the Wisconsin Automobile Museum, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the Nash Automobile Club of America to identify the make and model of cars left on the Lakeland. trial, the jury made no formal decisions regarding the actual cause of the sinking and the parties aboard ship who were directly responsible for it. In the wake of this decision, the consortium's lawyers filed an appeal, which they won.49 A third trial was ordered and scheduled for fall of 1928.50 Unfortunately, this is where the trail of evidence goes cold. The case does not appear in court dockets or annual reports of the court. In the absence of a published, court-issued decision, it is almost certain that the consortium reached an out-of-court settlement with the Lake­ It took another ten years and the dedicated work of a Milwaukee researcher to finally solve the helium diving problem. Dr. Edgar land's owners prior to the third trial. The terms of this settle­ End, a physiologist at Marquette University, calculated a set ment were never publicly announced, however, and no private of helium-oxygen decompression tables based on his own records of the agreement have been located to date. Surpris­ research. He then assisted Milwaukeean Max G. Nohl in his ingly, the resolution of this long-running and high-profile case record-shattering 1937 dive, during which Nohl descended received no newspaper coverage, suggesting that the parties to a depth of 420 feet in Lake Michigan with no ill effects, involved made an effort to keep the settlement quiet. revolutionizing deep-water diving.

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By 1928, as a result of three years of ongoing newspaper 36. USDC, 359. 37. "Lakeland Valve Was Open, Says Insurance Atty.," Sheboygan Press, September 11, 1925: coverage, the wreck of the Lakeland had gained celebrity status "Indictment of Three May Be Asked in Sinking," Manitowoc Herald-News, September 11. on the lakes. The sordid story of the sinking of the Lakeland 1925; "College Point Diver Makes Record Plunge on S.S. Lakeland Job," Daily Star (Queens, NY), September 15, 1925; "Detectives in Diving Suits Find Clues on Lake Bottom." still holds a prominent place in the annals of Great Lakes ship­ 38. "Divers Describe Lakeland Work," Plain Dealer, October 27, 1925; "Federal Court Instructs ping history, and it remains one of the most talked-about inci­ Jury in Lake Steamship Litigation," Plain Dealer, October 28, 1925; "Capt. Anderson, Coast Guard Head Here, On Witness Stand," Door County Advocate, October 30, 1925. dents on Lake Michigan. The inconclusive civil court findings I>II I >• • i il - I. .1 • I .ii I \\ 11 40. USDC,2e-2f. still provide more than enough evidence that the sinking of the 41. Four ofthe five Lakeland divers were called to assist in the S-51 salvage effort, including Lakeland was not an accident; through intention or negligence Tibbals. "The Deep Sea Diver Faces Many Perils," New York Times, October 4, 1925; USDC, 293,313,317,324. the ship's captain and chief engineer caused it to go down. But 42. "Lakeland Case to Be Reopened," Door County Advocate, February 12, 1926. did they conspire with their employer to collect on the Lake­ 43. Ibid. 44. USDC, 16. land's insurance policy? None of the parties to such a hypo­ 45. Ibid., 2b. thetical scheme ever spoke of it on the record, but the 46. Ibid., 2e. 47. Ibid., 425. circumstantial evidence is hard to dismiss. »\'i 48. "Owners Given Full Insurance on Lakeland," Plain Dealer, February 24, 1926; "Lakeland Case Won by Owners in Second Trial," Door County Advocate, February 26, 1926. 49. United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, Case Nos. 4709-4723, The Auto­ Notes mobile Insurance Company of Hartford Connecticut, et al, Plaintiffs in Error, versus Central 1. Robert Anderson, Record of Miscellaneous Events of the Day, December 3, 1924, Station National Bank, Savings and Trust Company, as Trustee, et al, Defendants in Error, Record Log Book, Sturgeon Bay Canal Coast Guard Station, Eleventh District, Records Group 26, Group 276, National Archives and Records Administration, Chicago, Illinois. National Archives and Records Administration, Chicago, Illinois. 50. "Lakeland Case to Be Tried Third Time," Door County Advocate, August 19, 1927: 2. "Detroit Attorney Here Tuesday to Investigate Sinking of Lakeland," Door County Advo­ "Third Trial of Lakeland Case Set for Fall," Buffalo (NY) Courier Express, October 1, 1927. cate (Sturgeon Bay), December 12, 1924. 3. US District Court, Ohio, Northern District, Eastern Division, Central National Bank Savings and Trust Co, et al. versus Automobile Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut. Defendant's Narrative Form, Record Group 21, LAW 13039, Box 303(B), National Archives ABOUT THE AUTHORS and Records Administration, Chicago, Illinois. Case records hereafter referred to as USDC. 4. Ibid., 196. Paul E. Reckner is a terrestrial archaeolo­ 5. Ibid., 83. 6. Ibid., 2h-2j. gist by training. Researching the Lakeland 7. "Launched," Marquette (Michigan) Daily Mining Journal, February 2, 1887; "Launch ofthe incident was his first foray into the world Propeller 'Cambria,'" Marine Record (Cleveland, Ohio), February 3, 1887; "Another Quick Trip Made by the Propeller Cambria," Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), August 30, 1887. of Great Lakes maritime history. On land, 8. "News ofthe Ships and Shipping Men," Inquirer (Philadelphia), May 1, 1910; Bureau of he has worked on a number of high- Navigation, Lakeland Certificate of Enrollment No. 22 (Permanent), 1910, Port of Port Huron. profile archaeological projects, including Michigan, Huron Customs District, Record Group 41, US National Archives, Washington. DC. the Five Points African Burial Ground site 9. "Captain John McNealy Nearly Died with the Steamer Lakeland," Daily Tribune (Port in New York City and the Ludlow Massacre Huron, Michigan), n.d., 1924; USDC, 9. 10. "Think Ship Met Toul Play,'" New York Times, August 24, 1925. Memorial site in Southern Colorado. Since 11. "Detroit Attorney Here Tuesday." 2006, Paul has worked with the Wisconsin Historical Society's 12. "Indictment of Three May Be Asked in Sinking," Manitowoc Herald-News, September 11, 1925. Museum Archaeology Program, and he is also codirector of the 13. USDC, 18. Fort Atkinson Archaeology Project. 14. "Think Ship Met Toul Play.'" 15. Paul J. Creviere Jr., Wild Gales and Tattered Sails: The Shipwrecks of Northwest Lake For thirteen years, Tamara Thomsen has Mchigan from Two Creeks, Wisconsin to Dutch Johns Point, Michigan and all ofthe Bay of Green Bay (De Pere, Wisconsin, 1997), 273. worked as maritime archaeologist with 16. "U.S. Using Diving Tests in Lakeland Investigation," Door County Advocate, August 21, the Wisconsin Historical Society's Mari­ 1925. 17. USDC, 266. time Preservation and Archaeology pro­ 18. "U.S. Using Diving Tests." gram. She has nominated forty-three 19. USDC, 312, 331. 20. "U.S. Using Diving Tests." Great Lakes shipwrecks to the National 21. "Rough Weather Causes Much Delay in Lakeland Sinking Investigation," Door County Register of Historic Places and received Advocate, August 28, 1925; Creviere, Wild Gales and Tattered Sails, 273. awards from the Association for Great 22. "U.S. Using Diving Tests"; "Rough Weather Causes Much Delay"; "Investigation of Lake­ land Finished," Door County Advocate, September 11, 1925. Lakes Maritime History and Great Lakes 23. USDC, 272. Shipwreck Preservation Society. In 2014, she was inducted into 24. C. F. Howell, "Wresting Its Secret from the Sea: How the 'Lakeland' Went Down in Sturgeon Bay, and How Underwriters' Agents Learned the Reason," Weekly Underwriter. the Women Divers Hall of Fame. September 26, 1925. 25. USDC, 272. Richard J. Boyd, PhD in microbiology 26. Ibid. 27. William Yant to R. R. Sayers, August 26, 1925, Record Group 70, US National Archives (UW-Madison), has sixty years of applied and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. experience in underwater disciplines, 28. "Investigation of Lakeland Finished." 29. "U.S. Using Diving Tests." including commercial diving and salvage, 30. USDC, 225. shipwreck research, nautical archeology, 31. Ibid., 318. and life support system designs. He 32. Ibid., 295. 33. Ibid., 269. recently retired as CEO at Global Mfg. 34. Ibid., 305. Corp., a major producer of specialized 35. "Investigation of Lakeland Finished"; "Detectives in Diving Suits Find Clues on Lake Bottom," Buffalo Evening News (New York), September 18, 1925. underwater equipment.

AUTUMN 2017 23 THE WISCONSIN CAPITOL STORIES OF A MONUMENT AND ITS PEOPLE

BY MICHAEL EDMONDS

Blueprint of the current Capitol dome by George B. Post & Sons, 1911

The following is excerpted from The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories County. Rising out of this Glacial Lake Yahara was the rounded of a Monument and Its People, published this fall by the hilltop where today's state capitol stands. Small bands of hunters Wisconsin Historical Society Press and available at bookstores speared mammals, caught fish, and gathered plants all around everywhere. This year marks the hundredth anniversary ofthe the water's edge for thousands of years, and the remains of their current capitol building, but as this excerpt details, the history keyhole-shaped cellars and stone tools can be found in abundance ofthe Capitol's location goes back much further. throughout the Madison region. Around 500 BCE, native peoples began burying their deceased leaders in conical or linear-shaped n 1837, when workers began building Madison's first capitol. mounds, which can still be seen around the city. people had been living on the isthmus for more than ten thou­ In approximately 800 CE, residents of what would become sand years. At the end of the last Ice Age, melting glaciers Madison started sculpting mounds into the shapes of eagles, flooded hundreds of square miles in what is now central Dane geese, bears, deer, snakes, and mythical creatures. More than

24 wisconsinhistory.org James Doty's plat of Madison, 1836, centers around Capitol Square. six hundred of these effigy mounds once ringed the city's four the Ho-Chunk in about 1821 and helped keep them neutral lakes. The site ofthe modern capitol contained several mounds, during the 1832 Black Hawk War. When the war ended, he including a dramatic "water panther" longer than a football set up a trading post just north ofthe current capitol, where field that overlooked Lake Monona from the corner of today's he exchanged manufactured goods and liquor for furs. When West Wilson Street and Martin Luther King Drive. Archae­ federal troops forced the Ho-Chunk out of Wisconsin in the ologist Bob Birmingham concluded that "one could rightly 1840s, Armel went with them. He died on their Nebraska reser­ consider Lake Mendota the symbolic capital ofthe whole effigy vation sometime after 1870. mound region" that stretched from the shores of Lake Michigan Until the summer of 1836, none of this mound-building, across the Mississippi River into Iowa. Today's Capitol Square exploring, fighting, fur-trading, and surveying had happened was hallowed ground for at least a thousand years before white in Wisconsin, technically speaking, because there was no people arrived. legal entity with that name. The area had, at various times, Archaeologists generally agree the effigy mound builders been part ofthe Spanish (1512-1627), French (1628-1762), were probably ancestors ofthe Ho-Chunk Indians. In 1829, and British (1762-1783) empires before the United States a census by a US Indian agent counted nearly six hundred took control in 1783. Soon after, it became part of Michigan Ho-Chunk residents living around the Madison lakes. One Territory, which stretched westward from Detroit all the way Ho-Chunk village was located just north of today's capitol, to the Great Plains. where a steep ridge protected it from winter winds; south-facing When Michigan became a state in 1836, the land west of slopes supported the growth of corn, beans, and squash; and Lake Michigan was formed into a new Wisconsin Territory the lake at the foot ofthe hill made for easy fishing. This sunny spreading from Green Bay across modern Iowa, Minnesota, slope was home to sacred effigy mounds for a thousand years, and half of the Dakotas. Congress enacted a law establishing until nine tee nth-century white settlers constructed streets and it on April 20, 1836, and on July 4 of that year, Henry Dodge houses on Mansion Hill. took office as its first governor. When the first government surveyor, John Mullett, In 1827, Dodge brought slaves with him from the South to arrived on Madison's isthmus in 1834, he found a few hundred open lead mines on land illegally seized from the Ho-Chunk. Ho-Chunk families and a fur trader named Oliver Armel In 1832, when Sauk Indians tried to reoccupy their homeland living just north of today's capitol. Armel had settled with southwest ofthe Ho-Chunk, he commanded local militia in the

AUTUMN 2017 25 The first capitol in Belmont, now a historic site

Black Hawk War, which culminated in the ruthless slaughter them. Instead, he proposed that the territorial capital should of hundreds of women and children at the Battle of Bad Axe. be set on an obscure isthmus in the Four Lakes region that In 1836, Dodge decided to let the voters choose their own he'd visited on his way to the convention—and, conveniently capital, which was the most important question debated at the where he and a couple of friends had just bought all the best territorial convention that fall. Milwaukee was just a fur trading real estate. He called it Madison in honor of Founding Father post with a single house, so that city didn't seem a likely choice. James Madison, who had recently died. Residents of Green Bay, the oldest town in Wisconsin, wanted On November 23, a draft bill naming this isthmus the the honor, but most ofthe population actually lived in the lead seat of government was introduced. "A spirited attack was mining region southwest of modern Dodgeville. And residents made upon it," one member wrote, "and motions to strike out of what is now Iowa thought the capital should be centrally Madison and insert some other place were successively made in located somewhere on the Mississippi River. favor of Fond du Lac, Dubuque, Portage, Helena, Milwaukee, The territorial convention met from October 25 to Racine, Belmont, Mineral Point, Platteville, Green Bay, Cass- December 9, 1836, at Belmont, a few miles east of Platteville. ville, Belleview, Koshkonong, Wisconsinapolis, Peru, and Wisconsin's first lawmakers at this gathering were far from Wisconsin City." Each of those motions failed to win a majority. expert statesmen. "I find as I anticipated," Green Bay delegate By then, winter was setting in and the delegates were Henry Baird wrote home to his wife, "a great want of legal sleeping on bare wooden floors in the frigid building. "Doty talent. . . . The representation is, however, for a new country supplied himself with a full stock of buffalo robes," an eyewitness by no means despicable, and much superior to my expecta­ remembered, "and went around camping with the members, tions." Delegates deliberated and slept in two hastily assembled and making them as comfortable as he could," while also trying wooden buildings that were drafty and inhospitable for the cold to win their votes. He unrolled a hand-drawn map showing the autumn days. isthmus divided into streets and blocks, and held private conver­ The agenda initially focused on more mundane matters, sations during which "Madison town lots in large numbers were but perpetual side conversations revolved around which location freely distributed among members, their friends, and others who would be named the territorial capital. "Numerous specula­ were supposed to possess influence with them." By the time the tors were in attendance," one of the attendees recalled, "with final vote was called, sixteen of the thirty-nine delegates, the beautiful maps of prospective cities, whose future greatness was clerks of both houses, and Governor Dodge's son all owned new portrayed with all the fervor and eloquence which the excited property on Madison's isthmus. imagination of their proprietors could display." On November 28, 1836, the bill naming Madison as When the capital question finally came up for debate, argu­ Wisconsin's capital finally passed, and lawmakers rushed home ments raged for two days. James Doty, the only delegate who'd to their fireplaces. The humble wood-frame building in Belmont actually seen most of the proposed locations, wanted none of where Wisconsin's government was born was sold to a farmer

26 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY who used it as a stable. Meanwhile, as Bay serendipitously appeared on July settlers flocked to Madison over the 2, providing meat for the festivities. next several years, Doty and his part­ On the evening of July 3, the ners made $35,510 on their initial real lumber arrived, and by one o'clock the estate investment of $2,400, and Doty next day, the dining room floor was laid, was appointed the second territorial a table built, and the holiday dinner governor by the new president, John cooked. Her guests included Doty, his Tyler, in 1841. friend Morgan Martin, thirty-six Roseline and Eben Peck left Blue workmen who came to build the capitol, Mounds for Madison in the spring of and a large assembly of Ho-Chunk 1837 to construct an inn that would Indians with their chief Mau-nah-pay- house the workers needed to erect the ho-nik, known to the whites as Dandy. state capitol. She was the city's first "In the evening there was a basket of white female resident, and her memoirs champagne carried into the dining- highlight details that male authors left room," she recalled, "and . . . good out. "Pshaw," she protested in response feeling, friendship, and hilarity to the men's accounts, "talk about the prevailed generally." The capitol's cere­ time that tried men's soul, just as if a monial cornerstone was laid, and the woman had none." festivities continued for as long as the Peck reached Madison while seven months pregnant, with food and liquor held out—three full days. .Ml a young son and an unreliable husband, at the same moment that a vicious spring blizzard descended on the capital. "Well Sources now, here we are at Madison on the 15th [of April, 1837]," she Birmingham, Robert A. Spirits of Earth: The Effigy Mound Landscape of Madison and the Four Lakes. Madison, Wisconsin: University ofWisconsin Press, 2010, 117. wrote afterward, "sitting in a wagon under a tree with a bed- Butterneld, Consul W. Hstory of Dane County, Wisconsin. Chicago: Western Historical Society, 1880. Also contains the earliest first-person accounts of Madison. quilt thrown over my own and little boy's heads in a tremendous Christiansen, George W. Archaeological Investigations, University of Wisconsin—Madison storm of snow and sleet, twenty-five miles from any inhabitants Campus, City of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee: Great Lakes Archaeo­ logical Research Centerjune 2005; GLARC Project 04.005: 19-20. on one side [Blue Mounds] and nearly one hundred on the Cravens, Stanley. "Capitols and Capitals in Early Wisconsin." Wisconsin Legislative Refer­ other [Milwaukee]." ence Bureau. Accessed online at http://wihist.org/2dMIYmb. Durrie, Daniel S. A Hstory of Madison, the Capital of Wisconsin. Madison: Atwood & "We were well aware what our business would be when Culver, 1874, 53-58, 65-68, 72, 82-86. settled," she wrote, and so "we provided ourselves accordingly, Janik, Erica. Madison: Hstory of a Model City Charleston, SC: History Press, 2010. . "Sacred Ground." On Wisconsin (Spring 2016): 24. and purchased at Mineral Point over one hundred dollars worth Smith, Alice E. From Exploration to Statehood. History of Wisconsin 1. Madison: State of groceries, as I have the bills now to show." Her first guests Historical Society ofWisconsin, 1973. .James Duane Doty: Frontier Promoter. Madison: State Historical Society ofWisconsin. arrived two weeks later, and though Peck had no beds for them, 1954. Strong, Moses McCure. Territorial Legislation in Wisconsin. Madison, 1870, 12—13. she wrote, "Well, we had a spacious dining-room—under the Taylor, Hawkins, "Before and After the Territorial Organization of Iowa," Annals of Iowa, 1st broad canopy of heaven." The Peck cabin was located roughly series, 9 (January 1871): 452. Waggoner, Linda, ed. Neither White Men Nor Indians': Affidavits from the Winnebago where today's Butler Street meets East Wilson Street, just behind Mixed-Blood Claim Commissions, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, 1838-1839. Roseville, the modern state office buildings above the north shore of Lake MN: Park Genealogical Books, 2002. Monona. Soon, according to surveyor Franklin Hatheway, two other primitive hotels sprang up, including "a large one-and-a- ABOUT THE AUTHOR half story frame boarding house and tavern, the entire upper floor being one bare room with rows of beds on each side under Michael Edmonds is the author of several the eaves and a passage-way through the middle barely high books from the Wisconsin Historical Soci­ ety Press, including Out of the Northwoods enough to allow a man to stand erect." (2009), Risking Everything (2014), and War­ Doty told Peck, "Madam, prepare yourself for company riors, Saints, and Scoundrels (2017), which on the Fourth [of July, 1837], as a large number from he and his co-author based on the "Odd Milwaukee, Mineral Point, Fort Winnebago, and Galena Wisconsin" sketches Edmonds wrote for have concluded to meet here for the purpose of viewing the a syndicated weekly newspaper column place and celebrating the day. . . . Just constitute me your between 2006 and 2015. He has also written articles for the Wiscon­ agent, and I will contract for whatever you want." She told sin MagazineofHistoryand other publications. His next book. Taking Doty to order lumber from the Wisconsin River and dishes, Flight: A History of Birds and People in the Heart of America, is forth­ fixtures, provisions, wines, food, and bedding from Mineral coming from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in early 2018. Point. A herd of Illinois cattle that was being driven to Green

AUTUMN 2017 27 Wisconsin's Cold Wa and the Salvador r Citizen Diplomats an Civil War BY MOLLY TODD

A,I I I

stive welcome greets a delegation of Madison sister city advocates to Arcatao, El Salvador, in March 1988.The sign reads, "The children of Arcatao send our greetings to the children of Madison." In the back­ ground are mountains defoliated by chemical weapons, a result ofthe ongoing Salvadoran civil war. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

aaH-faaHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM Mary Kay Baum with children at Calle Real, a center for displaced persons on the outskirts of San Salvador, spring 1986

n May 1986, Mary Kay Baum, single mother and member their community in the midst of war. Baum was one ofthe first of the Madison School Board, set off on a dangerous outsiders to reach these isolated survivors. journey deep into the mountains of Ghalatenango prov­ Under cover of trees, Baum unrolled a sweat-dampened ince, El Salvador. The tiny Central American country document and read aloud to the villagers who had welcomed her Iwas in the midst of a brutal civil war pitting the Salvadoran moments earlier. The citizens of Madison, she read, decried the government against the Farabundo Marti National Liberation exclusion of rural Salvadorans from basic health and education Front (Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberation National, services and condemned the Salvadoran military for wartime or FMLN). Northern Ghalatenango was a hot zone in this war, atrocities, including massacres. Madisonians commended the with the FMLN declaring it liberated territory, and the Salva­ citizens of Arcatao for responding to such violence through doran armed forces struggling to oust the insurgents and regain peaceful means, including "democratically elected town councils control. Baum's purpose for going there was not revolutionary and cooperative projects" that sought to build a more equitable in a traditional sense; she had no intention of taking up arms society1 As unarmed civilians with legitimate demands for civil for the FMLN. Yet her voyage was in many ways revolutionary: and human rights, the Arcataenses, as they called themselves, Baum was a citizen diplomat, purposefully operating outside deserved Wisconsin's support. official channels. Her compatriots, affiliated with the Madison The proclamation went further, its final lines carrying a Common Council and a coalition of El Salvador solidarity orga­ powerful indictment: "The United States government is inti­ nizations, appointed her to deliver a message to the residents of mately involved in the conflict in El Salvador and our tax Arcatao, an isolated village tucked in a valley a few kilometers dollars are funding the war there."2 According to this perspec­ south of El Salvador's border with Honduras. tive, President Ronald Reagan's policy toward El Salvador had Although military operations blocked Baum's access to failed. An alternative approach was necessary, a more humane Arcatao, dozens of villagers had hiked for hours overnight in diplomacy based on solidarity, advocacy, and humanitarian order to meet her in a more secure location. They represented aid. By declaring a Sister City relationship with Arcatao, the 350 people who had intentionally repopulated Arcatao in Madisonians set out to model a new foreign policy for the early 1985. Military sweeps had turned Arcatao into a virtual United States. ghost town by 1981. Many villagers fled to the mountains where For the Salvadorans listening, the proclamation came just they lived in hiding until the bold decision to return and rebuild in time. Government-supported counterinsurgency operations

30 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

A Resolution for the City of Madison to Establish a Sister-City Relationship with the City of Arcatao, El Salvador—March 7,1986 Whereas, the people of Madison have a tradition of supporting grass-roots democracy and providing aid to victims of political strife around the world; and Whereas, the Madison Common Council has affirmed this tradition through the passage of a resolution declaring Madison a City of Refuge for Salvadoran and Guatemalan refugees; and Whereas, socioeconomic conditions in rural El Salvador are such that half of the children die before their fifth birthday, a large percent of the population lacks Baum's first delegation to El Salvador, spring 1986. From left, Carlottia access to basic health care, the illiteracy rate is 40%, and Scott, chief of staff to Rep. Ron Dellums (CA); Baum; Father Eugene malnutrition is a leading cause of death; and Boyle, vicar of public affairs for the diocese of San Jose, California; Whereas, the Salvadoran military regularly bomb and Tracey Schear, NEST executive director; and Margarita Studemeister, strafe civilians with sophisticated weapons, a practice executive director of the Center for Central American Studies. recently condemned by the Archbishop of El Salvador; and had swept through Chalatenango and neighboring areas in the Whereas, numerous organizations concerned with preceding three months. In a quest to flush out FMLN guer­ human rights including Amnesty International, Americas rillas and collaborators, troops razed dozens of hamlets, left 454 Watch, [and] the El Salvador Human Rights Commis­ people dead or "disappeared," and forcefully displaced more sion. . . have documented continued massacres of non- than 2,600 people.3 Arcatao was more fortunate than other combatants; and villages. Troops "rounded up everyone they found," survivor Whereas, the citizens of Arcatao, Chalatenango Prov­ Milton Monge explained, and forced them into the town center. ince, El Salvador are attempting to cope with problems There, soldiers tortured and murdered seven residents, inter­ of increasing poverty and government violence through rogated scores more, and threatened the entire community with democratically elected town councils and cooperative annihilation if anyone remained in Arcatao. Monge recalled projects in agriculture, literacy and health care; and ... the military commander ordering his prisoners to "make your Whereas, labor, church and women's groups, daycare peace ... for soon we will kill you all."4 The troops withdrew, organizations, high school and university students and promising to return. Arcataenses faced a difficult decision: flee teachers have expressed interest in carrying out projects their homes again, or remain steadfast in their commitment to of humanitarian aid and cultural exchange with their rebuilding their community—no matter the cost. counterparts in Arcatao; and ... Goincidentally, a group of European journalists had Whereas, the town of Arcatao has expressed a desire observed the initial occupation. A military helicopter quickly to become a Sister-City with Madison; and whisked them away, but these international witnesses publicized Whereas, the assault of non-combatants has received news of the attack. Among the first to respond were Tracey scant attention in the U.S. media as of late; and Schear of New El Salvador Today (NEST), a California-based Whereas, the United States Government is intimately humanitarian aid foundation that had been supporting projects involved in the conflict in El Salvador and our tax dollars in Ghalatenango since 1983, and Madison-based activists who are funding the war there; had been working with Schear to establish a sister city relation­ Now, Therefore, be it Resolved, that in the interests of ship with Arcatao. In 1987, Baum joined Schear's emergency establishing a dialogue between the people of El Salvador delegation as Madisonians published an open letter to Presi­ and the people of Madison, increasing local awareness of dent Jose Napoleon Duarte in the Salvadoran daily El Mundo. the situation in that country and facilitating efforts for Signed by state representatives, city council members, profes­ Madison groups to provide material aid to Salvadorans sors, and others, the letter announced Madison's adoption of suffering from the ravages of war, the City of Madison Arcatao as its Sister City and demanded "an immediate end to establish a Sister-City relationship with the town of 5 attacks against Arcatao and other areas inhabited by civilians." Arcatao, El Salvador. This response was part of a growing El Salvador solidarity —From the MASCP records, private collection, Madison, Wisconsin movement in the United States. By 1986, citizens across the

AUTUMN 2017 31 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

What Do Your Taxes

El Salvador? Tell Congress: End U.S. Aid call (202) 224-3121

government in El Salvador Posters and bumper stickers such as these, created by CISPES and other solidarity groups, helped raise awareness about connections between US military aid and the appalling human rights record of Salvadoran state forces. country had established hundreds of organizations to lend aid taenses decided to remain in the village. They were no longer to victims ofthe war. Many groups adopted the strategies known alone; Wisconsin was watching. as "witnessing" and "accompaniment" which, according to theo­ US and Salvadoran authorities responded less enthusiasti­ logian Robert McAfee Brown, entailed walking "alongside the cally. Edwin Gorr, US ambassador to El Salvador, explained victims—not trying to strategize on their behalf, or propose our to Robert Kastenmeier, the US representative from Wiscon­ solutions for their problems, or otherwise give them the benefit sin's second congressional district, that "no authorities in El of our 'wisdom'—but simply being there in acts of physical soli­ Salvador recognize the action taken by the city of Madison." darity."6 These so-called sister cities, Corr argued, were "an outgrowth of Sistering relationships were a particularly successful accom­ activities undertaken by NEST," an organization directly linked paniment tactic, and the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project to Salvadoran insurgents and communists through "Soviet front 'MASGP) was among the first enduring links. Arcataenses groups" like the World Peace Council.8 learned of Madison's declaration by radio soon after the mili­ For their part, Salvadoran officials impeded US-based tary commander issued his ultimatum to leave or die. "This sistering activists in many ways, including prohibiting them announcement," Esperanza Ortega said, showed "those of us from traveling to paired communities and threatening to deport who lived in the conflict zone the people of Madison had the them "as undesirables."9 Officials also routinely denied visas to spirit of brotherhood and the desire to support us."7 The Arca­ applicants, among them Reverend John Fischer, director ofthe

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In 1991, US citizens accompanied refugees returning from Nicaragua. Their banner reads/The People of USA Support Your Right to Return."

Wisconsin Council of Churches. Fischer had signed an open including the Wisconsin-Nicaragua Partners of the Americas letter critical of the Salvadoran government—an act that (WNPA) program, launched by Governor John Reynolds in "constitutes a clear interference with the internal affairs of our 1964. Similar to its contemporaries, WNPA aligned with the country," declared General Gilberto Rubio, chief of staff of the staunchly anti-communist goals of Cold War—era US foreign Armed Forces of El Salvador.10 policy, leading Reynolds and WNPA's Executive Board to That authorities take notice was, in fact, one ofthe objec­ laud Nicaragua's Somoza dynasty as a "bastion of Western tives of sistering. Madison's "adoption" of Arcatao was an democracy and freedom, facing Castro and Communism." intentionally bold move, helping to set foundations for a new The Wisconsin-Nicaragua Sister State relationship, Reynolds transnational movement that, in the words of activist Juliana explained, was a perfect way "to directly demonstrate our Barnard, served as "a direct challenge to the gunboat diplo­ support and at the same time counter-attack hostile infiltra­ macy, the carrot and the stick, the bombs and bullets. . . . We tions."13 say there is another way, based on justice, mutual respect [and] A radically different form of sistering took shape in the self-determination. . . . Since we can't wait for our government 1980s. This was a grassroots initiative with origins in oppo­ to make the change, we will begin to do it ourselves."11 Barnard, sitional leftist political movements. In El Salvador, the roots Baum, and other US citizen-diplomats used sistering as a of sistering reach back to the 1960s, when peasants, laborers, springboard for debates across the nation about the meanings and progressive Catholics and intellectuals began pressing for of democracy, good government, and citizenship. reforms to benefit all Salvadorans, not just the "fourteen fami­ lies," as the country's oligarchy was commonly known. State The Roots of Solidarity authorities responded to dissent with increasing force, and as The concept of sistering emerged in the early post-World War II violence foreclosed legal routes to change, many on the left period. In Western Europe, town twinning programs developed formed militant organizations. Five of these groups formed the as a means of reuniting Europe. In the United States, Dwight D. FMLN coalition in 1980. Together they waged war against the Eisenhower and John F Kennedy integrated sistering programs Salvadoran government until 1992, when the two sides signed a into what law professor John Juergensmeyer characterized as peace accord and the FMLN transformed into a political party. "the new 'sweetness and light' phase ofthe Cold War."12 Many The largest and most influential member of the FMLN US—Latin American partnerships appeared in this context. coalition was the Popular Liberation Forces (Fuerzas Populares

AUTUMN 2017 33 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Madison Arcatao Sister City. Project Madison • Arcatao

Sister City Project

Stoten,&Cty

An early brochure for the Sister City Project, ca. 1988 AT-shirt worn by MASCP delegates to Arcatao, ca. late 1980s or early 1990s de Liberation, FPL) which, by mid-1982, had driven govern­ Christian Committee for the Displaced (Comite Cristiano Pro- ment forces out of northeastern Chalatenango and established a Desplazados de El Salvador, or CRIPDES). Chalatenango was "deep collaboration" with civilians organized into local popular ground zero for this movement; Arcatao was among the first governments.14 "In the absence of State structures," explained villages to be repopulated.19 activist Jose Antonio Mejia, popular governments worked to Salvadoran officials regarded repopulations as FMLN meet the people's basic needs, including food production, fronts. "Everyone in Arcatao was a subversive," quipped one health, education, and self-defense.15 army commander, "even the chickens."20 When travel restric­ While insurgents and collaborators like Juana Serrano, a tions and economic blockades failed to destabilize the repopula­ broadcast journalist for the FMLN's clandestine radio network, tions, the government used military sweeps. By 1986, however, encouraged popular governments as "the foundation of the the displaced had launched an international public relations future democratic revolutionary government," state officials campaign to garner support for repopulation. As part of this launched "scorched earth" operations in zones where popular campaign, CRIPDES president Reina Hernandez and her allies governments and FMLN forces were active, with the deliberate issued a "Call to Accompaniment" to the people ofthe United intention of evicting civilians.16 Northeastern Chalatenango, States: "HELP US END THE WAR BEFORE THE WAR where the FPL reigned, was especially hard hit. "The subver­ ENDS US."21 sives like to say they are the fish and the people are the ocean," By this time, revolutionary movements in El Salvador, Nica­ Salvadoran army officers explained. "What we have done in ragua, and Guatemala had captured the attention of many US the north is to dry up the ocean so we can catch the fish."17 citizens, giving rise to a nation-wide Central America solidarity On one level, this strategy was successful, displacing movement involving some 2,000 organizations.22 El Salvador more than 712,000 Salvadorans by 1984.18 This brought solidarity was diverse, with political advocacy groups like the unanticipated consequences, however: displaced Salvadorans Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, health- began mobilizing to resettle rural communities. Beginning focused organizations like Medical Aid to El Salvador, and faith- in June 1986, just one month after Baum's visit, a series of based Sanctuary, which provided safe-haven for refugees fleeing high-profile mass repopulations occurred, facilitated by the from the Central American wars.

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Baum shares photos and drawings with children at the Tres Cabelas cooperative school, 1986

Solidarity work in the United States during the 1980s philosophy, Reagan increased military aid to El Salvador from built on the legacy of earlier oppositional movements, from $25 million to nearly $600 million per year during his first term.25 the Revolutionary War and the abolition of slavery to Socialist- Many US citizens argued that this aid exacerbated the and Communist-inspired immigrant left and labor movements region's long-standing problems and contributed to human ofthe late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to the rights violations. To "work against that morally bankrupt Progressives, pacifists, and more recent New Left "movement policy," as the Wisconsin Interfaith Committee on Central of movements," which encompassed activists from the women's, America (WICOCA) put it, they joined forces with Central American Indian, and civil rights movements, as well as students Americans who were organizing for change.26 and others who opposed US intervention in Vietnam.23 Politi­ cally committed Salvadorans living in the United States also "Not in a Quiet Way" influenced solidarity work. Refugees contributed to the develop­ Wisconsin activists were part of El Salvador solidarity from ment of Sanctuary, and clandestine FPL representatives helped the start, building on their state's long history of progressive form new organizations and offered guidance to solidarity politics that tackled not only local matters but also interna­ groups throughout the decade. tional issues. During the early 1980s, average citizens formed US activists celebrated the projects promoted by CRIPDES, groups like Madison's Community Action on Latin America, local popular governments, and refugees as remarkable experi­ the Peace Committee ofthe Diocese of La Crosse, and other ments in grassroots democracy. But where activists perceived a groups specializing in labor and health issues. Groups ranged Utopian vanguard in the move toward universal equality and from local collectives to countywide organizations such as the justice, President Reagan saw the Cold War's new front line. South Woods County Committee on Central America to the With Soviets "at our doorstep," Reagan explained in 1984, the powerful statewide interfaith group WICOCA. By 1986, their United States had a "legal right" and "moral duty" to protect combined efforts prompted Don McClain ofthe Interreligious "our way of life." Sustained security assistance to the Salvadoran Foundation for Community Organization to praise Wisconsin government and other "freedom fighters" in Central America, "as the best organized and most active state" working in Central Reagan promised, would "get the job done."24 In line with this America.2'

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•rfcjiij.Y.r.a.i*'. i\l ihFlHiNil.H'flilVq. CONLAUNIDAD Y Sister city lets Madison PARTICIPACIONDETODAS LAS FUERZAS VIVAS DEL PAIS, EN LACONQUISTA learn about El Salvador DE UN GOBIERNO PATRIOTICO. By William C. Thiesenhusen The Philippines. Libya and aiding the t'ontras re­ cently have obscured news from El Salvador, while the long desultory war there between the government and the guerrillas persists. With expected irony, the poor in El Salvador — a group that participated little when the economy grew — must now pay a disproportionate price for the strife through broken families, shattered expectations and a debilitated economy. Now, Madison residents can learn from the grass roots how at least one town is affected by these clashing belligerents. A resolutionestablishin g Arcatao, El Salva­ dor, as our "sister city" was passed April 1 by the City Council Arcatao, which bes in opposition-controlled territory near the Honduran border, was destroyed and depopu­ lated as a result of government attacks during 1982 and the poor and the small middle class in El Salvador — a 1383 country that in 1977 had one of the worst patterns of in­ vam Pledges by city residents will raise at least $5,800 to come distribution in the Third World. aid with projects of agricultural development, sboemak- uig and health care in Arcatao, thus helping that war- President Jose Napoleon Duarte, who stood for elec­ raked town in Chaletenango province to rebuild and its tions last March, has brought the civil war no closer to refugee citizens to return. resolution. The guerrillas of the FDR-FMLN have contin­ ued to hold key areas of the eastern part of the country Since 1980, the United Slates has contributed about $2 and have just lately escalated the war into the coffee- billion in economic and military assistance to the govern­ nch west Any damage to coffee this year is very impor­ ment of El Salvador to promote democracy and to tant as prices are high due to Brazil's drought and El Sal­ strengthen economic development The results on both vador counts on coffee for about SO percent of its export counts have been minuscule, though there has been a na­ earnings. tional election. There is an additional $488.2 million in the Meanwhile inriiscnminalp hnmhimre ,„ i-^,.™,... Madison sister city Above: Labor unions in Wisconsin lent support to Salvadoran unionists who struggled to defend their rights under the attacked; 9 captured militarized government.This 1988 pennant By Batty Brickson from the National Union of Salvadoran VMsconatn SUM Journal [\_^ ENLARGED Madison's sister city In El Salva­ S *-X AREA Laborers exhorts,"With all the vital forces dor. Arcatao. was attacked by the Sal f V 1 ARCATAO 1 ofthe country unified and contributing, we vadoran army Tuesday with planes and helicopters Nine residents were -MiW.W.M / Otfnlt • \ will achieve a patriotic government." ' captured, according to reports which GU&TEMAt fc reached- the sister committee V^.,-^^ ^*^^C tMr-t—tV] Wednesday Right: US news outlets such as the JT^i Santa Ana Arcatao, a civilian community of ChaTatBrtango; Wisconsin State Journal helped promote about 850 near the Honduran border, the sister city partnership and provided lies in a guemlla-controlled region of *^v San Salvador. q--7 EL SALVADOR $• northern El Salvador where the Un­ SVer ongoing coverage ofthe conflict in El supported army conducts frequent *-— f ) military operations to discourage ^^- San Miguel *MM Salvador. support for the rebels The country is in the grips of a nine-year civil war between the Marxist^ guerrillas and 0 35 ^s-/ the elected government, soon to be tm.Es Pacific completely controlled by the right Ocean wing Nationalist Republican Alliance, j-— rK^riUl or ARENA party Kmghl Ridder Graphics Network In a press conference held Thurs­ day. Mayor Paul Soglin announced young people to a separate location came through the National Commit that a sister city delegation would and the community heard screams tee for Repopulation in San Salvador, travel to Arcatao next week to lend coming from the area. an organization that works with re­ help "Women and elderly people have cently repopulated communities like "We are hoping that in some small been hit, pushed and threatened by Arcatao. and through Salvadoran sup­ way our relationship with the city the military during the operation port groups in Washington, DC. Al­ through the sister-city connection will Nine have been captured and taken to though she was not certain, Aruguete bring an end to the strife." Soglm said. the First Military Detachment" in the said that someone must have fled In a prepared statement, sister city of Chalatenango. about 30 miles from tbe town to a nearby village to city coordinator Joy Aruguete said away. report the attack.

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El Salvador—specific work began partly through connec­ Wisconsinites also coordinated delegations, and in 1987 tions that Madisonians and Milwaukeeans established with WICOCA rebranded itself the El Salvador Accompaniment the Gasa Romero refugee shelter in Texas in 1980 and 1981. Project of WICOCA, a "unique" undertaking "in that Wisconsin Building on their experiences with refugee support at Gasa is the first state in the country to initiate such a project."34 In Romero, Wisconsinites brought Sanctuary work home, influ­ addition to providing material aid to help Salvadorans "rebuild encing a series of high-profile declarations including Governor their lives" in repopulation sites, "visits/delegations of accom­ Tony Earl proclaiming Wisconsin a Sanctuary State for Central paniment" were critical. According to the project's executive American refugees in September 1986.28 director, Eric Popkin, "Our presence provide [d] spiritual and Many Wisconsinites were deeply disturbed by the terror moral support as well as security"35 In the words of one former tactics used against civilians and by President Reagan's continued refugee, "When [delegations] were there, they [government support for the Salvadoran regime. Exiles and refugees in the forces] mistreated you, but they didn't kill you."36 United States helped direct attention to the plight of Chalatenan- To organize delegations, WICOCA worked closely with the go's uprooted peasants during the early 1980s. Wisconsin groups CRIPDES Committee for the Displaced. Partners in the United responded by collecting funds and materials. Among the efforts States included the Salvadoran Humanitarian Aid, Research, was a 1983 toga party at the UW-Madison campus, hosted by and Education Foundation; New El Salvador Today (NEST); Community Action on Latin America and the Central America and the new Interfaith Office on Accompaniment (IOA). Head­ Solidarity Alliance. Entry fees supported a project at a refugee quartered in Washington, DC, IOA opened its first Midwest camp in Honduras, and proceeds from the beer table went to office in Madison, which hosted the organization's October Madison-based Medical Aid for Central America, which supplied 1990 national meeting. At that time, Midwest director Joy an emergency clinic in Arcatao.29 Aruguete highlighted the state's prominence: "Wisconsin's role In 1985 and 1986, when displaced Salvadorans began is very significant—4 of the 9 delegations involving IOA [next returning en masse to villages like Arcatao, Wisconsinites cele­ month] are Wisconsin based."3' brated the "movement of hope" that was rebuilding communities Whereas these delegations provided short-term accompa­ "from the ground up," as a letter from MASGP to supporters niment, another level of support involved permanent sistering stated.30 But, as Mary Kay Baum and her emergency delegation relations between US and Salvadoran communities. A coali­ colleagues reported, Salvadoran authorities intended to obliterate tion of Madisonians involved with WICOCA, Sanctuary, these "wonderful examples of grassroots democracy" using the Community Action on Latin America, and other groups took "new prototype . . . of US sponsored counterinsurgency" repre­ the lead. Allying with NEST and El Salvador's CRIPDES, sented by the military operations that precipitated the delega­ they helped develop an interlocking network of sistering tion's visit.31 When Salvadorans called for accompaniment in the projects. wake of these sweeps, MASCP activist Marc Rosenthal explained, An early outcome of these efforts was the Madison- Wisconsinites "decided to accompany, but not in a quiet way"32 Arcatao Sister City Project (MASCP), formalized in the In coordination with Salvadorans and other US groups, Common Council resolution that Mary Kay Baum deliv­ Wisconsin activists began combining explicit political advocacy ered to Chalatenango in April 1986. Well before that, Tracey with ongoing humanitarian assistance. They adopted the strategy Schear at NEST had begun facilitating the connection of accompaniment with the goal of lending international legitimacy between Madison activists and the local popular government to the repopulations in order to ensure rural Salvadorans' survival. in Arcatao. Initial discussions led to a proposal in which One layer of this work involved steady rotations of short- Arcatao's leaders outlined the history of their "simple and term delegations to refugee camps and repopulations. These hardworking" community, the "great deal of repression by the were common between 1987 and 1991, as tens of thousands of government," and their "strong desire" to resettle their town. Salvadorans returned from Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and The "moral and economic support of the city of Madison," Costa Rca. Some Wisconsinites traveled with refugees as they leaders argued, would help residents with "the reconstruction left Honduran camps and moved south toward the border; others of their town and to meet their agricultural, health, clothing, received them as they crossed back into El Salvador. Delegates and shoe necessities."38 After receiving the proposal from witnessed Salvadoran officials' hostile reactions, including denying Schear, Madison activists promoted the project to local citizens re-entry, seizing supplies, and engaging in verbal and physical and elected leaders. The city's Common Council formalized abuse. Delegates who observed such altercations publicized them the relationship in an 11-1 vote on April 1, 1986. through ads taken out in Salvadoran newspapers, reports to the After MASCP became an independent organization, it international press, and telegrams and phone calls to US politi­ served as a model for other city pairings, while WICOCA cians. Such publicity drew attention to the human rights crisis promoted links between faith communities. Activists associated facing civilians in war-torn regions of El Salvador and heightened with WICOCA and MASCP led national delegations, moni­ international condemnation of Salvadoran state forces.33 tored human rights in repopulated communities, and provided

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CUBIC* NARTIN LUTHER

Arcatao's health workers at Clfnica Martin Luther King, 1989. Wisconsinites provided supplies to the clinic and helped it expand to meet the needs ofthe growing population,as thousands of Salvadorans returned from refugee camps. staff for repopulation-support projects in Chicago, Cali­ goals of reconstructing their nation along more democratic fornia, Washington, DC, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. By the lines. end of El Salvador's civil war in 1992, in part due to the leader­ Although the most direct beneficiaries of sistering were in El ship and encouragement of Wisconsinites, the sistering network Salvador, at the behest of their Salvadoran partners, US activists had expanded to include more than fifty pairings of cities, reli­ also focused on their own homefront. As CRIPDES urged, they gious sanctuaries, schools, and clinics. These interrelated layers became "the voice that expresses the suffering and the hope" of solidarity work propelled the state into position, reporter Eric of Salvadorans: "Ask your representatives to stop all aid to the Scigliano noted, as a "national leader" in refugee support and war."43 Salvadorans made similar exhortations to visitors like "civic foreign policy-making."39 Baum, who participated in ten delegations. "As I was leaving," she recalled, "every single time people told me, 'Now your real The Real Work at Home work begins when you get home.'"44 Sistering was a means for US citizens to provide humanitarian Toward this end, Wisconsin's sistering advocates worked aid to victims of war. For most, it was also a form of political to "build public awareness of the situation on El Salvador in activism. Examples set by the civilian base of El Salvador's general, and to publicize the US government's role."45 According revolutionary movement inspired many in Wisconsin. Baum, to Alderperson Rosa Escamilla, who sponsored the Common for example, admired the popular education system. The Salva­ Council resolution in favor ofthe Madison-Arcatao pairing, dorans were "so self-organized," she remarked, "creating their sistering not only "helps the people of Arcatao to rebuild their own schools . . . [with] young people with an eighth grade own community," it also "allows our community to exercise its education teaching third graders."40 Wisconsin health profes­ ability to impact world opinion and events."46 In other words, sionals praised the "health promoters" who traveled through through sistering, Wisconsin citizens would be agents of change Chalatenango "delivering health care to people in rural areas working to end war and strife. . . . for the first time."41 Arcatao's residents contributed to a As part of their campaign to raise awareness, sistering communal kitchen project and daily sanitation campaigns. advocates emphasized the civilian nature ofthe repopulations. "Collective life," marveled activist Marc Rosenthal, was "quite "The US State Department and the Salvadoran government an experiment.... [It was] an alternative world."42 By champi­ said over and over that there were no civilians [in Chalat­ oning such initiatives, sistering supported Salvadorans in both enango], there were only 'terrorists,'" explained Rosenthal. their daily struggle against dictatorship and their longer-term "And what we said was very simple: there are civilians, and

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Delegation experiences were especially Editorials. 2C Sound 0£f. 2C powerful because participants witnessed Plain Tali. 2C MONDMSection•flaP M the consequences of their own govern­ The Capital Times • Monday, Nov. 3, 1997* ment's policies in the region. During An alliance forged in the Cold War evolves as communities in Wisconsin and El Salvador realize they still need one another her first journey to Chalatenango, for example, Baum watched as a plane with MADISON & ARCATAO US insignia flew overhead and, then, "in B/jj*£Jjjgwh ith the end of the Cold War, the geopolitical SAEVADORAN VISITOR the distance, under the plane, we saw deck was reshuffled. But a strange tiling happened precisely Salvadoran activist Marina Rins will be in W HHjB Madison to talk about organizing woman wotk- 50 when new freedoms and new oppressions began to reshape every nation on Die globe: Americans, who ers and sweatshops. She will speak at noon Nov. puffs of smoke come up." Whether at had spent tile 1 OBds monitoring every move in die 10 at the Edgewood CoUegc Library, Room 3, {joint] t-hi.'iis NI:I1I:!I iir'.vffli: -.lit VA\\:?A tt.-jw run! I lit' and again at b p.m. at Pros House, 731 State St. Soviet Union — a chess match In which oilier coun- For more information about Bus' visit or about gcltiug involved with the Madison Sister Ctiv home or abroad, Salvadorans' accounts Project, rail l'.il-ei280, or write the projeot at PO dr;;m»i!C iliar. in Central Bos 308, Madison, Wl 53701. During the 1980s, miUions of Americ of persecution crashed against US about the region. They had reason lo 1 l'!)f.<"t. riie'cl: America wss pursuing a dirty war agai ,1 ;l |)iTVt .Vffl Ho argues Iti.it ::i jinr'srl lessons I,I 111 communist threat, a war that saw hun' War em are being laugbl in Areolae. sands of civilians killed, thai 'I lien mid iirtiughoul SI Salvation, tor listeners' moral standards and demo­ ii:ai (h:il cost America billioi sucocssiidly bultbng •'neo-lihendisin," I Churches declared Uiemsel vie mi. iii, ti lies in il policies that hat refugees. Grandmothers challenged congressmen to government so ' cratic ideals, and revealed contradictions justify U.S. support for death squads that murdered unions and guar; ork loiee Tor Salvadoran priesls, Guatemalan trade unionists and niiiltiualioiiii, ciirpiiralinns. aid workers in Nicaragua. And communities across "What Is significant about what is happening In El (he U.S. formed sister city relationships with Central Salvador is that the farmer rebels in places like between President Reagan's pronounce­ American villages. An ulno have inc-soi'li'd u itiulieege Id iH'o-lititialisni A model sister city relationships developed a decad inti In v tnivc wot iiisiiiisl in-in nilds." Rosenthal ago between Madison and the municipality of Areata says, referring to tin: Furabuilllo Marti Nalinnal ments about El Salvador and the very in El Salvador's Chalatenango province. "Madison l.ilimiillmi Front (FMLN). really was a key player in the whole solidarity move­ in Mnnii i lie IA11.N won eoitltol of 1,3 municipali­ ment," recalls Marc Rosenthal, a Madison nurse « ties, iiuludinu the (inpiim, San Salvador. has devoted 17 years of his life to Central Americi 'llu' setiind-lmgesi putty in lhe national Assembly, different reality lived by Salvadorans. with a delegation intituling Arrnlno's Scrrmui. i lie "El Salvador became the last hurrah of the Cold F'MLN has sutecssfully louglil privatisation ut War. It's where the Reagan lelccninmunitations .services and led the tun tie In line in the sand. And it's where people in Madison In light of this reality, sistering said to Reagan, if you're going to thaw that line in Children In Arcatao (above) have a connection factories in free-trade zones. sand, we're going to stand on the side of the with children of Madison's Marquette Elementary Al llw loin! level in iiliivns like Arcatao, the FMLN is Salvadoran people in places like Arcatao." School (above right making a mural (or Arcatao}. baulutg lo piescrvi in iilriisirneliire ol grass-roots advocates called on Congress to "put as Now, in the aftermath of the Cold War, while sisl Tbe same goes for adults like Marc Rosenthal, of heiiltii curt- ;t:trl ethical inn programs while prnmnting city connections between some U.S. and Salvador; the Madison-Arcntno Sister City Project, and ins I i n.on is I,itl a vi 11 , noil,.mi Ives I lie; me. says communities liave withered, the Mailison-Arcatao Maria Serrano, who represents the region around hiisiiiiliii.l. eiciillilg n si'.cliil slim lute uf cinpowcr- relationship is emerging as a model f( Arcatao in the Salvadoran Assembly (right). much pressure as you can on whoever in American cities and their SaJvadorai This is revnlntioniiry work. Yet, he udds, '('nijiressiii.s in Anli-rica even in Mndisou, haven't venbtM proclamation announcing Madison 1 you can in this country and El Salvador" •I'm if people, if it doesn't happen in a sound selectelected Arcatao os its sister oily. RosenUud found the disconnect The danget is llial political and economic pressures a be in We wereal! weary mid t-igli ing: "When 1 wits in El Salvador h lit,in tie IIS mill lie World llnnk for El Salvador 10 osted," Rosenthal says. fs Serrano, who now said to tnei 'The solidarity you ha' follotv nen-iiheial eeonomie policies still I litem en :lie That's a far cry from the days when the Madison- represents Arcatao in the Salvadoran Assembly. "I critical aow titan ever. Tits wind. [•'.111.it's di vitdinneiil nl'tnil a I: m unlive mullet Thai's to "make the Salvadoran government Areatao relationship was forged, a time when 800 was tilled with ire II gave inn suit strength. I knew open, but it is a fragile opening.'' a danget fet American progressives, its well, says people met for solidarity meetings. there was hope for us, that somewhere — I did not Roseathal. In those days, E! Salvador's military and civilian know exactly where at the time — there was a city "Who is in say that the aiodel lot responding lo observe the Geneva Conventions" and """'" Sdisd. -ore t.n.rc.t tropin H 3 o Called tJatjiSM »nt In.li.l Slu^erwd.-tn let civilians "live in peace."51 They In a 1997 article, Wisconsin journalist John Nichols highlights the alternative development model implemented by progressive activists in Arcatao. demanded, moreover, "that all US mili­ tary assistance to El Salvador be ended we can prove that, we can document that, we are with them, so that a political solution to the civil war can be reached."52 here are the photos."4' This call echoed their Salvadoran partners who, for years, had Activists denounced human rights abuses perpetrated condemned their own government for violating "the will of against civilians. In the wake of attacks, they mobilized emer­ the people" and for "selling out to the US government's inter­ gency response networks to flood Salvadoran and US officials ests." As CRIPDES commented, "North American advisors with phone calls and telegrams, sponsored paid advertisements . . . come here to train more men for war."53 Without US aid, in Salvadoran newspapers, and sent delegations with materials Arcataenses and their representatives at CRIPDES argued, the to help meet immediate needs. Within days ofthe March 1987 war would end. detention and torture of Arcatao teachers German Serrano and Miguel Navarro, for example, Wisconsinites sent more than "Our American Responsibility" seventy telegrams to US Ambassador Edwin Gorr, Salvadoran In the midst ofthe Cold War, concerned citizens in Wisconsin President Duarte, and Salvadoran General Blandon, and placed challenged the counterinsurgency doctrine promoted by Pres­ a full-page ad in El Mundo, signed by 250 Madison residents. ident Reagan and the Salvadoran government. They devel­ Serrano and Navarro were released and, soon after, a Wisconsin oped the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project, the El Salvador delegation arrived to Arcatao bearing gifts of school supplies to Accompaniment Project of WICOCA, and other sistering initia­ replace those stolen by soldiers. This layered response purposely tives to "build bonds of friendship" between communities in involved hundreds of citizens; as MASCP leaders explained, Wisconsin and Chalatenango, and to "Build Bridges, not Walls" "We speak more effectively when we speak together!"48 between the United States and El Salvador.54 A key method of public education came through direct Although accompaniment by US citizens ended neither exchanges between Wisconsinites and displaced Central Ameri­ US funding nor El Salvador's civil war, Arcatao natives like cans. Most often, this happened at home through events like Maria Navarrete insist that it "was effective—the army stopped the intensive Central America Week in March 1987, during its abuses when internationals were present. It stopped military which a caravan of fifteen Salvadorans traveled throughout oppression" and forced the Salvadoran government to comply Wisconsin educating communities about the situation in their with basic human rights in order to ensure continued funding home country49 In addition, thousands of Wisconsinites trav­ from the US government.55 In addition, direct aid from eled to El Salvador with MASCP and WICOCA, engaging with Wisconsin helped Arcataenses reconstruct their community. repopulated communities and government and military officials. "I remember, early on here in Arcatao, they sent cows [and]

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Esperanza Ortega, lifelong resident ofthe municipality of Arcatao, welcomes participants to a three-day celebration in July 2016 in Arcatao marking 30 years of sistering and solidarity. Behind her is a banner that community members presented to MASCP during the event's closing ceremonies. Ortega helped groups of people safely cross the border to Honduras during the war and later aided the repopulation of Arcatao. She continues to be active with community organizing today. horses," said Esperanza Ortega. "They always supported us search of refuge—just as their grandparents did during the with agricultural production."56 They also provided funding 1980s. "The battle continues," says sistering activist Alfredo for new buildings and infrastructure, and helped establish and Marroquin, "only with a different face."59 Through everyday maintain a small health clinic, which Arcataenses christened challenges, activists in Wisconsin continue to accompany their the "Chnica Martin Luther King" in honor of Madison's Salvadoran sister citizens as they have been doing for three contributions.57 In the US, moreover, sistering forced public decades: by sending delegations, monitoring human rights, debates about themes at the core ofthe US national identity: providing aid, lobbying politicians, and educating neighbors. democracy, civil and human rights, freedom of opinion, and The accompaniment role played by Wisconsinites has not freedom from repression. In so doing, sistering provided a been lost on Salvadoran audiences. In July 2016, MASCP repre­ unique opportunity to Wisconsinites "to exercise our Amer­ sentatives traveled to Arcatao for a grand reunion of "historic ican responsibility of participatory government" and "lead the solidarity founders."60 There, CRIPDES leaders recognized leaders" in the creation of a more "humane and enlightened" IMASCP's thirty years of "support and solidarity to achieve foreign policy58 social justice in El Salvador," and Arcatao mayor Jose Alberto For decades, US audiences have overlooked the contribu­ Avelar presented MASCP with keys to the city. Even the vice tions of Wisconsin's citizen diplomats—a remarkable oversight president of El Salvador, Oscar Ortiz, expressed his apprecia­ given that MASCP and the broader US—El Salvador Sister tion. "All of us who are here today," the former FPL commander Cities network are active to this day. El Salvador is ostensibly said of his Salvadoran compatriots, "are the survivors. . . . We at peace, yet many root causes of the civil war remain unad- were lucky to have the privilege . . . of completing the process dressed. Moreover, frightening new challenges have arisen in that culminated with the peace accords. . . . This would have recent years, most notably the expansion of criminal gangs, been impossible without the heart and soul delivered to us for forcing many rural youth to choose between being recruited many years by you, representatives of the purest form of soli­ (under threat of death) or leaving their homes and country in darity with the Salvadoran people."61

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But it was not for these accolades that MASCP representa­ Resistance Records, Box 6, Folder 2, Marquette University Department of Special Collec­ tions, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. tives retraced the journey that Mary Kay Baum made in 1986. 28. "Wisconsin a Sanctuary for Refugees," Washington Post, September 21, 1986. Rather, through three days of spirited discussion with Salva­ 29. "April 5 Steering 5pm Pres House," and "General meeting 4/20/83," both in Box 1, Events & Minutes binder, Records of Community Action on Latin America, Wisconsin Historical doran, Canadian, and US solidarity activists, these citizen diplo­ Society Archives. 30. Karen Heimer, et al., to Friends ofthe People of Arcatao, January 21, 1987, MASCP mats reaffirmed their commitment to the "social struggle for Records. human rights.. . and the construction of a more humane, just, 31. Mary Kay Baum and Loretta M. Grow to friends, July 20, 1994, Box 1, Origins of 62 WICOCA folder, WICOCA Records; NEST, "The Destruction of Rural Life," CDA records. and dignified world." MASCP's presence in Arcatao in July 32. Marc Rosenthal, "Reflections on Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project," Presentation to 2016 attests to the fact that, even in peacetime, Wisconsin is MASCP members, June 30, 2010, Madison, Wisconsin. 33. Human rights-related publicity threads through MASCP, WICOCA, and CDA Records. watching. In the words of Maria Navarrete, the sistering activist 34. WICOCA, "History and Context of Project." from Arcatao who received the original Madison Common 35. Eric Popkin, "A Proposal to Create a Statewide Project to Accompany the Church and People of El Salvador," ca. May 1987, Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua Council proclamation from Mary Kay Baum in 1986, "Your Records, Box 4, Folder 21, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. accompaniment in those moments of war was extraordinary— 36. Norberto [pseud.], interview with author, February 22, 2003, Chalatenango, El Salvador. 63 37. WICOCA Board Meeting Minutes, October 31, 1990, Box 1, Board Meeting Minutes and today it is even more so." »Vl Folder, WICOCA Records. 38. Local Popular Government of Arcatao, "Sister City Project for the City of Arcatao," ca. 1985, Box 8, Folder 10, CDA Records. Notes 39. Eric Scigliano, "Sisterhood," New Republic 207 (1992): 12-13. 1. "A Resolution for the City of Madison to Establish a Sister-City Relationship with the City 40. Mary Kay Baum, interview with author, March 13, 2001, Madison, Wisconsin. of Arcatao," March 7, 1986, Records ofthe Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project (hereafter 41. Medical Aid to Central America, brochure, ca. 1987, MASCP Records. MASCP), private collection, Madison, Wisconsin (hereafter MASCP Records). 42. Rosenthal, "Reflections." 2. Ibid. 43. "A Call to Accompaniment." 3. New El Salvador Today Foundation (hereafter NEST), "The Destruction of Rural Life in 44. MASCP Twenty-Fifth Anniversary transcript. El Salvador," May 1986, Center for Democracy in the Americas Records, Box 16, Folder 10, 45. MASCP brochure, ca. 1987, MASCP Records. Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin (hereafter CDA Records). 46. MASCP fact sheet, ca. 1987, MASCP Records. 4. Milton Monge, quoted in Lu Lippold, Hope, Faith and Revolution: The US—El 47. Quoted in Lippold, Hope, Faith and Revolution. Salvador Sister Cities (Lu Lippold Video, 2000), accessed at https://www.youtube.com/ 48. MASCP to Friend, October 24, 1990, MASCP Records. watch?v=iPfTU-XPfcg. 49. Arthur Lloyd to WICOCA, December 20, 1986, Box 1, "File" Folder, WICOCA Records. 5. "Carta abierta al Pre side nte Jose Napoleon Duarte," El Mundo, May 3, 1986, MASCP 50. Baum interview, 2001. Records; Mary Kay Baum, interview with author, February 13, 2015, Middleton, Wisconsin. 51. Erik Breilid to Rep. Michael Barnes, April 11, 1986, MASCP Records. 6. Robert McAfee Brown, "A Theological Reflection on Accompaniment," in Jose Escobar 52. Wisconsin Conference of Churches Expression of Concern for Human Rights in El and Lana Dalberg, "A Call to Accompaniment: American Religious Response to Repopula- Salvador, December 8, 1987, MASCP Records. tion in El Salvador," ca. 1987, page 2, MASCP Records. 53. CRIPDES, Denuncia, ca. June 25, 1987, Box 8, Folder 3, CDA Records. 7. US-El Salvador Sister Cities (hereafter USESSC), AquiEstamos (N.p.: USESSC, 2011), 39. 54. USESSC, "Statement of Sister City Common Goals," ca. January 1988, MASCP 8. Ambassador Edwin Corr to Rep. Robert Kastenmeier, telex, March 25, 1988, Records of Records; Medical Aid to Central America, "Let Us Build Bridges, not Walls," ca. December USESSC, private collection, Bozeman, Montana. 1987, MASCP Records. 9. "Ordenan salir a 21 norteamericanos," El Mundo, June 26, 1987, Box 8, Folder 3, CDA 55. Notes and recordings from International Sistering Exchange, July 22—24, 2016, Arcatao, Records. El Salvador, in author's possession; Cynthia Arnson, Crossroads: Congress, the Reagan 10. Gen. Gilberto Rubio to Rep. Jim Moody July 10, 1991, MASCP Records. Administration, and Central America (New York: Pantheon, 1989), especially 81—87. 11. Juliana Barnard to Friends of USESSC, April 29, 1993, MASCP Records. 56. Quoted in Salazar and Cruz, CCR, 114. 12. John E. Juergensmeyer, The President, The Foundations, and the People-to-People 57. NEST and MASCP files contain funding requests and reports from Arcatao. Program (Indianapolis: Inter-University Case Program & Bobbs-Merrill, 1965), 9. 58. WICOCA, Delegation Reports Announcement, June 1988; Milwaukee Pledge of Resis­ 13. Governor John Reynolds, Executive Office Release 64-349, June 27, 1984, in Liz Chilsen tance, Newsletter, November/December 1988; and National Central America Health Rights and Sheldon Rampton, Friends in Deed: The Story ofU.S.—Nicaragua Sister Cities (Madison: Network, Conference Workshops and Working Sessions, ca. 1987, all in MASCP Records. Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua, 1988), 19. 59. International Sistering Exchange notes. 14. Frente Paracentral del FMLN, "Reglamentos sobre los cuales se rigen los Poderes Populares 60. USESSC, International Sistering Exchange brochure, ca. May 2016, in author's posses­ Locales," June 8, 1983, Box 8, Folder 13, CDA Records. sion. 15. Armando Salazar and Maria del Carmen Cruz, CCR: Organizacion y lucha popular 61. International Sistering Exchange notes. en Chalatenango (San Salvador: Asociacion de Comunidades para el Desarrollo de Chalat­ 62. CRIPDES, USESSC, and Salvaide, Press Release, International Sistering Exchange, July enango, 2012), 41. 25, 2016, in author's possession. See also Vanguardia El Salvador: "Organizaciones sociales 16Juana Serrano, "La Primera Asamblea Regional de los Poderes Populares," May 18, 1983, internacionales apoyan a comunidades Salvadorehas," Vanguardia El Salvador, July 25, Box 8, Folder 13, CDA Records. 2016, accessed at http://www.vanguardiasv.net/index.php/nacionales/sucesos/item/694. 17. Quoted in Michael McClintock, The American Connection: State Terror and Popular 63. International Sistering Exchange notes. Resistance in El Salvador (London: Zed Books Ltd., 1985), 307. 18. Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, Honduras: A Crisis on the Border A Report on Salvadoran Refugees in Honduras (New York: Lawyers Committee for Interna­ tional Human Rights, 1985), 30-31. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 19. Molly Todd, Beyond Displacement: Campesinos, Refugees, and Citizen Action in the Molly Todd holds a PhD in Latin Ameri­ Salvadoran Civil War (Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 2010), chapter 7. 20Jeannie Berwick, interview with author, April 15, 2013, Seattle, Washington. can history from the University of Wis­ 21. "A Call to Accompaniment from the Church and the People of El Salvador," January 20, consin-Madison. She credits Professor 1987, MASCP Records. 22. Christian Smith, Resisting Reagan: The US Central America Peace Movement (Chicago: Emeritus Steve Stern with introducing her University of Chicago Press, 1996), 387. to the Madison-Arcatao Sister City Proj­ 23. Van Gosse, Rethinking the New Left: An Interpretative Hstory (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005), 2. ect, which led to her first book. Beyond 24. Ronald Reagan, "Address to the Nation on United States Policy in Central America," Displacement: Campesinos, Refugees, and May 9, 1984, accessed at http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1984/50984h.htm. Collective Action in the Salvadoran Civil 25. Leigh Binford, "Hegemony in the Interior ofthe Salvadoran Revolution: The ERP in Northern MOTZLZZLII," Journal of Latin American Anthropology 4, no. 1 (1999): 12. War, published by the University ofWisconsin Press in 2010. This 26. El Salvador Accompaniment Project ofthe Wisconsin Interfaith Committee on Central article is part of a book project on the history ofthe US-El Salva­ America (hereafter WICOCA), "History and Context of Project," September 7, 1988, MASCP Records. dor Sister Cities network. Todd teaches at Montana State Univer­ 27. Milwaukee Central America Coordinating Council, Report on Meeting with Interreli- sity in Bozeman. gious Foundation for Community Organization, September 3, 1986, Milwaukee Pledge of

AUTUMN 2017 41 IN SEARCH OF NORTHERN FREEDOM Black History in Milwaukee and Southern Ontario, 1834-1864

The North is often imagined to have been a place of refuge for black men and women escaping their enslavement. However, the mythologi- zation of places like Wisconsin and Canada hides the realities of racial discrimination and inequality that those seeking freedom often faced in these places. BYJACLYNN.SCHULTZ istories of antebellum black Milwaukee tend to focus on lives.5 But in the context of antebellum political possibilities, was Hthe story of Joshua Glover. Glover's tale of escape from Milwaukee an ideal home for free blacks as historians including both slavery itself and from the threat of re-enslavement has Green and Vollmar have suggested, or was it simply better than become an important element ofthe city's popular memory; some alternative options? Further, references to the Underground murals, plaques, and street names all serve as remembrance and Railroad and Glover's escape to Canada overlook reasons why reinforce the centrality of Glover's story to understandings of blacks sometimes chose Canada over Milwaukee. These stories the city's racial past. Glover was an enslaved man from Missouri simultaneously mythologize border crossing as a transformative who escaped and found refuge in Racine, Wisconsin, in 1852. experience, but life for black men and women after they crossed Two years later, US marshals north ofthe Canadian border arrested Glover on account of mft is rarely considered. his fugitive status and brought I SALC AIM ran uutos CA«*AIG* son •iffadl This article aims to tell a him to a jail in Milwaukee. SHAI-LEWM, OAT * CO, story of black possibilities in KAff-XW*V. During his incarceration, a mob aj-v A TXUU9W aWr. OT4 I* Man, Milwaukee and Canada by aaaP Mtnltii* WiafcLml a (a la* •AVBIS of angry Milwaukeeans, stirred ™a. a***,a**>*. aMgaa, war w aa* lmM4,a*MM>ni considering ways in which O ' ' "l"*ll j " I •****)• 4*** Jam*«**1*M*> by the abolitionist Sherman black men and women strove —*•« Mai *» 1«—a*t »*•.«* m« I nH.»»: Booth, surrounded the jail and *r» r. a. fAfix.*^. ri«tt mm* »*•» «»•«». to make these places home. broke Glover out. With the aid M RIWARO. These stories are complicated •aaataraf *_ a aaaariaf 'atfMlaat, • aajn •*• -4 of white sponsors, Glover made *a* aaaaaaf «v*jt I aaaaAVaralnana) aa». akaa* *fc*t by the political realities and S£Z ^.aa***.•Mat— aaaa a*4 *Wt Mi. fa* «ail his way to the safety of southern aTSa>.»f»atiiianlta Milwaukee and southern (OTkrMka.Uaa.fau;. ». ». UAAt* ftp. tWf Glover's story is one of »W T.W. «^»*»» a-Tark. afOR aULK. Ontario (where most blacks brotherhood and redemption, _k AliMr aOT>W*aaH.aa^OTB *•! a«aaw.JaM who escaped to Canada found sentiments which are echoed in themselves) both existed within most of the now-aged historical r*r» larger infrastructures of politics accounts of antebellum black and ideologies that, in combi­ Milwaukee on which histo­ nation with the actions of the rians continue to rely. In 1895, few, informed the day-to-day William T. Green, an African realities faced by black men American lawyer who lived in k. r. A»AJB. and women. These factors ^^ ATK>TiC«*UlTnrLAJI»aa*a*M.lMtaC«aa- Milwaukee, wrote a history of TJaaaiaa Win i ••nlnaj llaTTial «—n - -| "r • T'l r -1TT contributed to a constant need JMgfaK, — HaaMaaltaaat iiaHinn. IWamaw black Milwaukee and noted the «»<••. T3LT~ai>aialil II • aaai at haakaa*) aanaaianVaaiiv, to relocate, which led to insta­ prosperity of the city's twenty Runaway slave ads, like this one Benammi Garland commissioned bility in the black community black families as of 1845 as well after Glover escaped in 1852, often ran alongside advertisements despite concerted attempts as the city's importance as an for the sale of enslaved men, women, and children. to establish roots. Such black 2 Underground Railroad station. itinerancy made these refugees In his 1968 master's thesis, William Vollmar found that in 1850, global actors who simultaneously lacked true citizenship. By black Milwaukeeans were over 70 percent literate, worked in complicating the history of black Milwaukee in this way we can both service and skilled labor, and owned "moderate amounts see that race relations were not "exceptionally good" as Vollmar of property"3 His assessment was that black-white relations at would have us believe, nor were economic advantages neces­ the time were "exceptionally good."4 sarily capable of thwarting structural race-based disadvantages Yet, these two accounts and that of the Glover affair leave and discrimination. A closer look at antebellum Milwaukee and several historical questions unanswered. For example, how can southern Ontario demands that we reconsider current historical we best measure Milwaukee's antebellum race relations? Green narratives that associate the North with egalitarianism. and Vollmar seem to have thought that property ownership In the years leading up to the settlement of Milwaukee by was an important metric. Vollmar also lauded the "adequate nonindigenous men and women, which began around 1818, employment" and "few official restrictions placed upon" black chattel slavery was a well-established but sometimes contested institution in North America. When Britain gained formal The US Northwest Ordinance and Upper Canada's provin­ control over New France in 1763 at the conclusion ofthe Seven cial abolition of new enslavement collectively signaled "the Years' War, slavery was already entrenched in the British colo­ North" as a place for freedom from slavery, as evidenced by nies. At that time, escape from slavery meant disappearing the War of 1812. According to Jason Silverman, the myth of a into the hinterland and was not a matter of crossing national "Canadian Canaan" encouraged at least two thousand black boundaries. Following the American Revolution, when refugees to cross the border into Canada during the chaos of Britain lost control of thirteen of its North American colonies, the war.8 Ohio, a non-slaveholding member ofthe Northwest present-day Milwaukee was home to bands of Potawatomi, Ordinance, was another common destination for escapees. Prior and present-day Ontario was part of the British Province of to the first Great Migration ofthe twentieth century, Cincinnati Quebec. Other than full or partial early abolition in states like experienced its largest increase of black residents by proportion Vermont and Massachusetts, slavery generally continued to ofthe city's population between 1810 and 1820.9 exist unchanged in the United States and Canada until 1787 When fugitives from enslavement fled North, neither their and 1793, respectively. In 1787, US passage ofthe Northwest absence from the South nor their presence in the North went Ordinance allowed for the expansive territory bounded by the unnoticed. In 1826, US Secretary of State Henry Clay asked Mississippi River on the west and the Ohio River on the south the British government of Canada for "a mutual surrender of all (including present-day Milwaukee) to be divided into three to persons held to service or labor ... who escape into the territory five states at some point in the future. Importantly, the North­ ofthe other."10 The British government replied that there was no west Ordinance prohibited slavery in these new states; the circumstance under which it could agree to return fugitives from ideologies which guided the American Revolution had created slavery to US authorities. Despite this amnesty, racial tensions a sense, particularly in northern states, that slavery should increased in Upper Canada after the War of 1812. According be the exception, rather than the rule, in the nascent nation. to Silverman, black migrants were unable to escape poverty To the north, in 1793, the province of Upper Canada (newly in Canada, and white Canadians began to see the refugees' formed from a division of Quebec and encompassing present- destitution as representative of their race. The lesson learned day southern Ontario) abolished slavery "without violating by Canada's new arrivals was a difficult one: "[A] humane private property."6 Thus, only new enslavement was ended form of slavery did not necessarily imply pro-black attitudes in Upper Canada; anyone enslaved in this province prior to among white Canadians; nor did a strong antislavery move­ July 1, 1793, as well as the children born to those previously ment mean Canadians were predisposed toward blacks." n The enslaved, remained as such except in cases in which owners situation wasn't any better in Ohio. In 1829, Cincinnati officials granted freedom.' announced they would begin enforcing the 1804 Ohio Black

44 wisconsinhistory.org 5 Above:This mural, S Local Rescue of Slave in 1854 Drew National Attention located on Fond du Lac Editor Sherman M. Booth Helped Case Went to the Highest Court; Avenue under the 1-43 Slave, Joshua Glover, Get Away Booth, Himself, Landed in Jail overpass in Milwaukee, Sherman M. Booth was the editor and publisher at US'*- It might be supposed that the successful rescue of Milwaukee of the Free Democrat, a daily newspaper the slave Joshua Glover (see story at left) ended with his escape to Canada. Certainly for the lowly slave, near the Marquette devoted to the anti-slavery cause, lie ".-as born at the story ended there. Davenport, N. Y.. in 1812. He became a country school But much, much more was to follow. The reper­ Interchange, visually teacher at the age of 15, a lecturer on temperance, a cussions of the mob violence and rescue were signifl- student at Yale from which he graduated, a fanatical and lasting. The Issues raised were eventful and advocate in Connecticut of the abolition of slavery both historical. On a far higher plane than the streets of captures the story of on the platform and in the columns of the Christian Ad­ t .a** Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha were the ensuing i\ .JiAjj scenes of the drama to unfold. Great tribunals of jus­ vocate of which he was editor. tice were to be forums of lofty argument and decision. Joshua Glover. In 1818 he purchased from C. C. Olin the American MM The state of Wisconsin itself was to become the chief Freeman, Waukesha's first newspaper, which four party involved, the cynosure of the entire nation, north and south alike. years before had been brought here from Milwaukee. He at once moved it back to that city and called it the ^B'? i Wzm Back in Milwaukee, Sheriff Murrison of Racine Left: Stories of Wisconsin Freeman, but he soon discontinued it in served a warrant of arrest on B. G. Garland for assault and battery on Glover, his slave. Judge Miller prompt­ favor of a new paper he named the Free Democrat. ly retaliated with a writ of habeas corpus on the sheriff. Joshua Glover was a slave who had escaped from ^~i\ At a hearing on the following Monday, the judge re­ Milwaukee's role in the A>-, leased Garland. his master. Benjamin W. Garland of St. Loui?. He was employed as a sawmill hand about fcur miles from On March 15 Booth was arrested by ,U. S. Marshal Underground Railroad Pacine where he lived alone in a shanty. Ableman for aiding and abetting Glover's escape. At k**9r - hearing before U. S. Court Commissioner Winfield Just before dusk on Friday. March 10. ISM. U.S. '-h, lasting three day: ~ Deputy Marshal Charles Cotten of Milwaukee and I'. S. lill of indictment ag have long privileged Deputy Marshal John Kearney of Racine and five others of the U.S. district o Including Garland drove out from Racine in two wagons

AUTUMN 2017 45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

which was then in the territory of Michigan, had been very slowly acquiring a Euro-American a population since 1818, but the city's population took off after 1834 and began including black DULW]DDD nnwaauaaounnn residents as well. Milwaukee's first black resi­ iDDQeanDnDiflnDQQflQQpaq dent was Joe Oliver, who arrived in the city in 1835. Oliver was a cook employed by Solomon pnnnp DO Juneau, and he was the first black man to vote in what would later become the state ofWisconsin. His vote in an 1835 county election may have been the sole black vote in the state until 1866.13 By 1838, Milwaukee County's black commu­ nity counted fifteen members, mostly individuals working as live-in domestics in white households but also two families, the Fosters and the Greens. William Green was the first black barber in wiHanoD Milwaukee, eventually opening his own barber­ Dl shop in the city, the Emporium of Fashion. The city's first census, conducted in 1840, noted that rap twenty-two residents of Milwaukee's population of 1,712 were black.14 Black Milwaukeeans found themselves in various states of unfreedom as soon as they arrived in their new home. In the early 1840s, black travel to Milwaukee increased as a result of the steamship and the city's reputation as home to the weekly American Freeman. Connecticut- born Charles Sholes's abolitionist newspaper was initially funded by a consortium of white men, and it gained some subscriptions outside nnnnEfDnaQ odppaty the state.15 However, the American Freeman was •DnaQaDnrjnncpa • moved from Milwaukee to Waukesha two years after its 1843 debut, as Milwaukee "contained ztannLBnannnn dtinn 16 ^••gaanann anad too many strong pro-slaveryites." Addition­ r. ,. I .... , ..at. ,lJr—• • a—. , , . m, |. . , , r * | | r fT "" — ' ally, Wisconsin's territorial status and inability zfnanLjnnnDnnnn to pass legislation until 1848 arguably made the unnnnnnnnDDDi kidnapping of previously enslaved black men, women, and children legal there.17 Most shock­ ingly slaveholders were moving into Wisconsin William Vollmar designed this map for his 1968 master's thesis,"The Negro in a from the South, especially Missouri, and Midwest Frontier City, Milwaukee: 1835-1870." The map shows the locations of black bringing enslaved men, women, and children residencies in Milwaukee in 1852. with them.18 In 1897, members ofthe Parkman Codes. Among other provisions, these codes required black Club, an organization ofWisconsin lay historians, remembered Ohioans to carry papers ofthe court certifying their freedom. At these immigrants to the state who brought chattel slavery with the city's announcement of its intention to enforce the codes, a them. John Nelson Davidson wrote in an organizational docu­ mob of Cincinnati's white residents violently attacked members ment that "the old relation of master and slave [continued] for ofthe black community and their property compelling upwards a time in practical, though not legal, existence."19 of 2,000 black Ohioans to flee once more, many to Canada.12 Black refugees who migrated to the region of present-day The final abolition of slavery in British Canada roughly southern Ontario from the United States faced different forms coincided with the first settlement of black men, women, and of unfreedom in the 1840s, a time when the black population children in Milwaukee. The British Parliament abolished slavery of Upper Canada reached as many as 12,500.20 During this in its colonies effective August 1, 1834. Meanwhile, Milwaukee. decade, racial prejudice led to race-based job competition, black

46 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY children being denied access to schools, and Jim Crow-like Senator from Wisconsin, James Rood Doolittle, made similarly policies that barred blacks from lodging and transportation unwelcoming remarks in 1861. Doolittle, whose Republican in certain places. Black refugees also feared extradition to the party was led by Abraham Lincoln, argued that the ideal result United States, while politicians in Canada sought to relocate for those "ofthe African race" was "the gradual emancipation black Canadians to Trinidad. This relocation scheme failed to ofthe subject race, and... a gradual and peaceful separation of materialize only for a lack of funds.21 the races, for the highest good of both."29 While Doolittle seems Milwaukee's black population continued to grow in the to have been an abolitionist, he also did not believe that the 1840s, and by 1850 the black community included ninety-eight United States could be a multiracial nation. Instead of arguing members, twenty-four of whom were children.22 However, for racial equality, Doolittle suggested that blacks be removed Milwaukee overall grew by a much larger percentage; black from the nation once freed. Such seemingly incompatible views residents accounted for only 0.5 percent ofthe city, compared were common among white abolitionists who could easily be to 1.3 percent in 1840.23 In 1850, the black community consisted both antislavery and antiblack. primarily of single men who found work as cooks, waiters, or Nevertheless, black Milwaukeeans attempted to put down barbers, often in hotels where they also lived. Some black men roots and grow their community, with little success. While in the city were successful enough to open their own businesses no black church existed in Milwaukee until 1869, Milwaukee as grocers, barbers, and possibly launderers; nine black families did have a black history museum in 1860, highlighting black owned some amount of real estate in 1850, usually in combina­ efforts to make a place for themselves in the city. Black grocer tion with one of these three jobs. Other common positions of J. J. Myers created the museum in Milwaukee after he trav­ black employment included whitewasher, laborer, and domestic eled to Africa and returned with artifacts from what is now worker. While women's work was not recorded by the 1850 South Africa. Unfortunately, the museum was short-lived, and census, black women certainly took on domestic tasks for pay Myers went back to his grocery business in 1861. He and as did the wife of Louis Hughes, the formerly enslaved autobi- his family left Milwaukee shortly thereafter. In 1857, another ographer who settled in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. The many black grocer, Jesse Epps, left Milwaukee after seven years of surnames present in one household in the 1850 city census also residency when the white owner ofthe building in which Epps suggests that some black families took in boarders to help make ran his grocery business had the store demolished. Epps was ends meet. Finally, three of Milwaukee's ninety-eight black reported to say that he wouldn't live where an honest man residents in 1850 were girls living in the homes of white fami­ was not respected.30 lies, presumably as live-in domestics or child nurses—Caroline On September 7, 1861, a black man named Marshall Clark Delony (age eleven), Mary Lot (age ten), and Sarah Sutphen was lynched in Milwaukee by a mob composed mostly of Irish (age eight). William Vollmar specified that in 1850, Milwaukee's immigrants. Clark and a black friend were out one night and schools were not segregated, and 69.2 percent of school-aged encountered a group of three Irishmen. All five of the men black children were enrolled. However, Caroline, Mary, and had been drinking, and an altercation ensued. Irish-American Sarah were part of the almost one-third not receiving formal Dabney Carney was stabbed during the melee and died the next education, as they did not attend school in the year previous day of his wounds. As the Wisconsin State Register reported to the 1850 census.24 of the lynching: "On the same night a mob took one of the Black men in Milwaukee immediately faced obstacles to negroes named Marshall Clark from the jail and hung him.. .. voting. In March 1847, a general vote in Wisconsin on a proposed Milwaukee will soon be known as the 'Mob City'"31 William state constitution and black suffrage failed to elicit enough votes T Green wrote three decades later ofthe larger consequences to pass either. Even Milwaukee County voted against the black for the black community: "Frightened by threats of extermina­ vote—1,832 to 616.25 The next year, eligible Wisconsin voters tion, many of the colored people moved away"32 Seven black passed a state constitution that restricted the vote to the state's men disappeared from the 1862 city directory includingjohn white citizens. Another petition for black suffrage in 1849 won Boland, who had lived in Milwaukee for over a decade.33 a majority of votes but the state legislature refused to accept the Kidnapping was a constant threat to black men, women, result on a technicality. Black men in the state ofWisconsin were and children in the free states ofthe North. The first attempted unable to vote until the State Supreme Court overturned the kidnapping in Milwaukee may have been that of Caroline technicality in 1866, following the Civil War.26 Quarles.34 Quarles was born enslaved in Saint Louis, and in There were other reasons black Milwaukeeans likely felt 1842, around the age of sixteen, she escaped from her owner, unwelcome in the state. In 1858, the Wisconsin state legislature Charles Hall. Quarles escaped to Illinois and hid in plain sight considered a bill that would "prohibit any further immigration among a group of traveling white schoolgirls since she had a of free" blacks into Wisconsin.27 The bill did not pass, but as light complexion and was able to pass as white. However, a Vollmar explained it: "The colored people of Milwaukee looked black man who suspected Quarles of being a fugitive warned upon this act... as an out-and-out slap in the face."28 A US her that she was not safe, and she ended up on a stagecoach

AUTUMN 2017 47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Mo& LAW IN MILWAUKEE.—-Milwaukee Hag be'cu the theatre of another disgrace­ ful mcb tragedy. On Friday .evening oi last week, two negroes .assaulted ami stabled oiio DARKY CARNEY-, an Irishman, so that he died on Saturday evening! A little after 12 o'clock, Sunday nnniiiiig, a mob of the countrymen of Carney, com­ posed of some 40 or 50 persons, assailed the jail in which the two negroes were confined, with a log of timber for a bat­ tering ram, and battered down the doors, took cut MARSHAU. CLARK, (one ofthe ne­ groes,) and lynched him in the most; bru­ tal manner. All day Saturday, great ex­ citement had existed in the 3d YVWd] where CABIKRV had had his rcsulenocvfuitl violent threats were uttered and circula­ ted, that if CABNKV died, tha negroes' The only known likeness of Caroline Quarles should anffur summary vengeance. The Lyman Goodnow, a white man from Waukesha, successfully city papers all agree in saying that this escorted Quarles on the five-week journey to Canada.35 excitement and these threats were well known all day, to the Sheriff and the city The precarious nature of Quarles's freedom was not officers whose duty it wua to subdue it unusual in southeastern Wisconsin. The following year, in 1843. and prevent this most disgraceful outrage. a Milwaukee man who had apparently escaped his enslavement Andyet, uot the slightest preparation was in Missouri was kidnapped by Chicago-based authorities. In made by any one of them all, to prevent another case of attempted kidnapping in 1848, concerned white the accomplishment of their fiendish pur­ citizens in Wheatland, Wisconsin, thwarted the kidnapping of pose. The following condensed account two black men by slavecatchers.36 ia from the Wisconsin ; As an act ofthe federal government designed to appease the "Lookers on say that tho number engaged at southern oligarchy the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 made black the jail could not have exceeded -fifty; ihat Ibe; cainciip in order ancV wens systematically to freedom increasingly uncertain. The act not only overrode the work: ~b irst buttering in tho outside door—a work authority of local law enforcement, it denied the right of trial requiring bat little ofl'ort, as it vrta a- cr.rinnon wooden door. Tho inner door to the prison de­ or even testimony to those captured under the law and deemed partment—a thick, boltod, hardrwoodslructurft— waa next assaulted, nfid soon yielded lo the blows "fugitive slaves." Stories of kidnappings, occurring near and far. of the assailants. Inside of this door were three filled the pages of Milwaukee newspapers in the 1850s. The keepers, the ordinary number, armed with revol­ vers but tlioy did clot attempt to uso them. Some case of a black child kidnapped in Philadelphia received much of the mob pointed pistols at the-bonds of these attention in 1851.37 Kidnappers argued that the child, born free, hooper?, demanding the kfiyn, which were given up, and with them the buck door of the prison was a slave because his mother had been enslaved at birth. In a lending into the yard was unlocked. ' The ceil door in which the NogvooH were confined, was similar case the same year, a black child of Milwaukee named forcod open, and Clark was siezed and brought George Wells was kidnapped, never to be seen by his family out. He was Immediately thrown in tho passage­ way and stomped upon rind beaten, and from again.38 Then, in March 1854, Joshua Glover, the formerly thence taken to the street and assailed with clubs, atones, feet, flsts, &c, and dragged with a rope enslaved man from Missouri, suddenly found himself pursued attached to his person, the streets, to the engine by his former owner, Benammi Garland. Glover had been living house In tho Third Ward, more dead than alive." 39 .— 1 aaaa , ,— and working in Racine as a free man for almost two years. In the immediate aftermath of the Fugitive Slave Act's The brutal lynching of Marshall Clarkas described by passage, members of Milwaukee's black community discussed the Green Bay City Press their options at a mass meeting they organized and held on bound for Milwaukee. Shortly after her arrival, Quarles learned October 7, 1850. Chairman Lewis Johnson clarified the purpose that Hall was looking for her in Milwaukee and had hired an ofthe meeting in his opening remarks: "We feel called on to attorney to help him reclaim the young woman. Despite a three- decide for ourselves whether we will tamely submit to this enact­ hundred dollar reward for her capture, a coalition of white ment or not. . . . We are also to say whether we will suffer our churchmen eluded pursuit with Quarles in tow. Eventually, brethren to be taken back into worse than Egyptian bondage."40

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VOICE OF THE FUGITIVE dcgTfitfn;servitude j bul he mikes nu alio-j arresting or cam-ins; back hi* state. Thit worse which I think our northern people will portions of the northern stales. Public sen­ •too to these outrage*. law secures him sfraiast interference on tbe J take with regard to it, Jjst the President timent is loud in condemnation of this Isw ; ! will nosr quote, with pleasure, a -rmi rirt nf inj-f rnrn tn jTTrnThlTn frnm attnt ptiarl hii mints at tin. Immm uf Use Nortb- opposition to it is increasing and ejfeuding menlent in which I folrfairr/ concur. The President I ittu,g _so d returning his chve. TbOM who had Let him speak of tha> powers tested, ID hint ; and rolling forward, and no power can. atop it says that' erery citizen who truly laves the aaaisted m framing ibe constitution, ladisenl, let bun use tbe bayonet, the sword, snd tbe until this law shall be stricken from the sta­ Constitution, sod desires the continuance of in framinK this law. Tnev knew the iaten- cannon ; let him make himself another HIT- TtlMI: tute bool. Who is the President, thal.be IU exisience and iu bleasinc, will resolutely jtioo of those who framed the Constitution,: nan; let him drench our land of freedom Ishoul d threaten and menace the people with 0>* lk)LL_-Jt per anOUtfiT'atwaYS 1(1 SdTatlce. and firmly resist any interference in thotciand I bare no doubt carried tbat intention with blood ; but be will nerer mike us obey Ihi s power ! Why, Sir, be is metery eatrusaed Kb subscription will be reOeiTed for * less domestic affairs which the Constitution has . into the law of "<»3. • thtt liw. The fir< centa. m n Constitution, the doctrine of its Iranters. It I ™- ' 'W3, tbii new theory of prostHu*1 army or nary confronU tbe freemen ol the The President says, near the conclusion of is tbe doctrine of the Free Scalers. If there * "ng the power of this Government in faror j North, that moment will bring thi« Republic j his message, "" I cannot donbt that the Ame- besny .»« feature of the Constitution, which I of slafery was pnt forth by the then Secrets- j .to its eternal sleep. I mako this remark »ot, rican people, bound together by kindred blood SPEECH Kf HON. JOSHUA I G1DMNG3, the whole history of its adoption his made) 7 o' S;*lc i but no span m this House over by wsy of menace. I do not merely say that snd common traditions, tttt) cherish a pars- plain, it Is that ids very is a Stato institution! {came f<«rwaxd with an argnment in favor ol I am shaking my personal intentions In that \ mount regard for tbe Union of their fathers j orer which Congress has no control—aanihjlhst doctrine until tbclaat seawonof CoogrCM.^ respect. I sUte what erery enlightened and tbat they are ready to rebuke any attempt •.klivv.-fd in tbefj. S House at Bey wain tot it-aav which this federal Government has no legiti-'The gentleman from Georgia, [Ur. TotoV.] > statesman who has read the history of oar I to violate its integrity, to disturb the cooi- December 9th. mate powers to interfere. We, sir, of the \ sail now in his seat, was the first to come for- race, must feel and admit. A tree and en- prnoisari on which it is based, or lo resist phe Mr. GIDMSSS rose and said : I more, sir, North, will not be constrained, eren bv rour i ward m this Hall with s* e^guaaent in fator | lightened and independent people will never! law* which have been enacted under its eu- to insert between the resolution isst read, and fugitiTe laws, to interfere with it. The sis- (of tbsf new theory of subsidising the people be compelled by the bayonet, or cannon, or thorily," the one succeeding, the following 'aa a dis- rery nf Virginia belongs to her. Ifshs pos- «< •** free States to the support ol slirery. I tbe STurd. to aid in carrying into effect tins} A noble sentiment, to which I rusnond Ir. tinet resolution : seas the poaer and the disposition lo uphold) Now. sir, aith the Presideut.I repeat, that! fugitive law. j the deepest fee lings of myneert. TbsUni Radved, That eo much of said it, we cannot put it down or abolish it. If iQ O lover ol the Constitution will seek to in-1 It is doe to our southern friends, who, from of our fathers ! there is something solemn ID >liw l,m of and accompanying documents as relates lu ahe sees fitl o abolish it, t have no power to terfero in matters left with tbe Slates. Wwe \] "**"' *"****• "* *»*"•" P***"r——•"** «**"* ™»»*"• ••"»*• ••••»• r™*"•**- i •*it• . »^o»Look. sait inthee uiineethirteean oiolad Htitv"8lat*a.. How U e lblt ,oe our domestic policy, be referred to the Judi­ interfere lo sustain it. will not be made Is interfere with it: but I ! P* •9r* **" Presidcuta In the different was that Union trota th« pftsrnt ! >nt ciary Committee. I have often denned the views of anti%1xvcry tnust hasten to another expression of tbe Pte-1 •" "(disinclination lo obey it, ttuuM send I rev. re ibe Union of our fathers ; ttW*W a m D an ul r ree ua B Mr. G. continued as follows ft has been 1 * > ^ ^ SoH'ra "'* subject. sident. his troops, his minions to enforce it ; il is pleasing solemnity in the rccollectiossi ol 1 Others have done it; yet we arc mtsapnre- He tells us - the law is Ihe onhr sore pro-{ dur "»lnMB-'. wpesl, that they should under-.| evetythingtbat lertains to that Unas*; Wl usual. air; for this body, while considering the . . , misrepresenied. The very clause ! tect.<»o of the weak, snd the onlv efficient' «and that the inteUigence and firmness ol j wb^re ii.it now I How have their sons aben- Presidents Message in Committee of the , ™*'"~ 0oIf wthe message Dow under consideration, i rettrsmt upon tbe strung. Thh-, sir, is said' |hve (re«n#n of the North cannot be forced [doued it! IVkAlai ,,,,,.,.:;„„,„i -v.mi«- it. K,,li message now miuer cuns)04>:aiittu.i re-trsitit upon tbe sxfOaV. 1 uw, sir, is said' *" ' toSaZLSZTiZt^S^AthL S2l •»«*" »"" *• President intended to impute i. dirert relerencv to U.e lagitive slave law. ,nt0. • compl.snce with its injunctions, snd Gunmen iat benedta first induced a* to tical flfearacur. in acordancc with that freo-| tftMtM ^^^j^ .r^u^,. „ ;„,.„,;„„ ...! i u ,»...... Pr^t.. i I^I ...i then il.ainl.ni the Inicn ol our fithiTi ud annex 1/Miisii ns—1„ Bsso4 iate' wilh a foreignpoo* terized our consideration of tbat document, I 1 am lold in an uodcrtout. laal power will pie. Then ws again abandoned thai Union, liol be exerted. I hope and trust it will not. and took Florida to ourarahract. Then, t nine that portion Which relates to our £*£ b*" ?f?T?EL"!jS ? ?' 'T, i^V^T ^ U's!bc E'EMJCl* doeaestic affairT I did not anticipate sir, e and unlimited powers over .boss youth ha. been spenl in labor for anoth-1 WMsntf ; if be be a friend.of this Union, he | Ten., as-uming ber war and carrying devas- ZZ£Z?:?ZJL Tl&ZZSSi F&S.! ,be i«"itttion of slavery within Eta own bor- |er ;'whose intellect ha7 been neark blotted ' »«' "™r •">«r>' »<• •«(<>«» this taw, or to| tation,rapsne, and bk>>dshedlo the heart of «a l preaenpresenti toto gign t e il tbat examination w-bich . . nM.„M' „, <,.,.-.:-ss-.w . L_ • uri L . • . • "' *•-c.rry• —ou•l •»Uro- ———miM • —»-J—coiil.ine>j i•n- lU•»--l •«—-• • Muico,."-- -- •a' „nli' r lo iw»ltl.Tcry.^_._^. And._J , ._I, I should have bestowed upon it, had I more TbMe UUCM kre ttnwonjiy of lh« I cip tat rlinax you li.Tf r ,i,, 1 thi, luiili,. time for preparation, f J - Dot impuu thoni lo il.vv, ,ad m»dr thecitiKU of Ohio,moiof .11 - tails. There are some COODKI by which he the fn-,- State,, the c.l. ltp>.l.-, to Teaao sage which I heartily -on the 7th of ^Mre himtn-,. Well, 8ifTl do not Mjr fast -> to commend, and ii meaiores m j northern then lure fort all fore and retard coincide -hole'poweror the am-' fat forth at the end ofthe capitol. and de-'for the Union. Rot one thlnf ia eartaln that. tar, iti 1'ro.idciil', comin.od. ihtej "ted there for loontli, i hot thk finitiroblU. the, do not frel that rcemneo for it which t is hurhl1

The mason Joseph Berget spoke of the common cause amongst black Milwaukeeans: "Forget that you were freeborn, forget, you whose parents wore chains, all differences between you."41 He warned that slaveholders sought to rob men of their wives and children and that the established black community was no safer than those newly escaped from their enslavement. Berget also offered up the only alternative to self-protection: "Let us then, as the last resort, point our brethren to the north star. The eagle no longer protects him under the shadow of her wings. Let him go and throw himself under the tender clutches ofthe British lion."42 Black Milwaukeeans took action to address the 1850 act and found flight to be a reasonable strategy, if only as the last resort. Black Milwaukeeans were not the only ones considering the option of flight. Milwaukee's Daily Free Democrat reported on October 1, 1850, on "A Negro Stampede" in Pittsburgh where small parties of the formerly enslaved were leaving daily for Canada.43 Henry Bibb, the famous fugitive from slavery, lived in Detroit until 1850 but moved to Canada with his wife Mary because ofthe act's passage.44 It was from Sandwich, Canada, that Bibb edited and published the black newspaper Voice of the Fugitive. Bibb's periodical circulated throughout the United States, Canada, and Britain, inviting black refugees from the Henry Bibb escaped from Detroit to Sandwich, Ontario, with his wife US to make a new home in Canada. Ultimately ten US states after passage ofthe US Fugitive Slave Act. Bibb was the editor of Voice had a decrease in their black populations between 1850 and ofthe Fugitive, Canada's first black newspaper.

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I860.45 By 1855, Milwaukee's black population had declined to only sixty-nine men and women.46 Some ofthe impetus for black men and women to leave for Canada stemmed from collective action of the black church. While Milwaukee did not have its own black church in the 1850s, many cities in the North did, and their congregants left en masse. An 1851 article in the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel and Gazette reported that 130 members ofthe Baptist Colored Church at Buffalo had migrated to Canada because of the Fugitive Slave Act. The Colored Baptist Church at Detroit had eighty-four members who left, and the Colored Baptist Church at Rochester lost all but two of its congregants.47 Additionally the black-organized National Emigration Convention was orga­ nized in part by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Ambrose Dudley, a black cook from Milwaukee who later volunteered to fight in the Civil War, served as an execu­ tive delegate at the 1854 National Emigration Convention in Cleveland. Indeed, the connection between emigration and Christianity was strong; biblical analogies of Egyptians following the North Star to the Promised Land may have made the deci­ sion to travel north easier for black Christians. As a result of the exodus, black churches sprang up throughout present-day southern Ontario.48 Refugees tried to establish self-supporting black commu­ nities in southern Ontario, but they had only limited success. St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Church, today located on The first such settlement, Oro Township, was sponsored by the Atkinson Avenue, was the first African American congregation British North American government in 1819 but had failed to in Milwaukee. It was formed 1869 and held its first service in this support itself by 1870. Black men and women from Cincinnati building in 1887. established the Wilberforce Settlement in 1830. Unfortunately Wilberforce never gained economic momentum, and most of selves as a black middle class. As Bibb's paper reported: "Men of its residents had relocated by the end ofthe 1840s. The prom­ capital with good property, some of whom are worth thousands, ising Sandwich Mission, created in 1851 through a black-white are settling among us from the northern states."51 coalition on both sides ofthe border, bought over 1,000 acres of Just as in Milwaukee, Canada's new arrivals sought to land in Essex County and distributed it among 150 blacks from establish roots and make southern Ontario home. Caroline the United States. The area of Sandwich was already occupied Quarles attended school for one year after arriving in Sand­ by a large number of black emigres in 1851, including Caro­ wich. She eventually learned to read and write, married, and line Quarles. Henry Bibb became the leader ofthe Sandwich had six children. Quarles and her husband, Allen Watkins Mission's overseeing society, but the mission ultimately failed (also a refugee from slavery), became devoted members of the financially, and Bibb's death in 1854 sealed its fate.49 nearby black Sandwich Baptist Church. Joshua Glover was also Despite the disappointments of these black settlements in married but had no children. He lived with his white wife, Ann. southern Ontario, many black migrants found ways to eke out a on the property of Thomas Montgomery his white employer, living in Ontario's established white communities. An estimated where they grew crops and raised pigs. In his advanced age, 20,000 blacks migrated to Canada during the 1850s, increasing after Ann passed away, Glover was fortunate to find a benefactor Canada's black population threefold.50 Most of these 20,000 in Montgomery's son.52 ended up in present-day southern Ontario, particularly the coun­ However, all was not rosy; as the black population increased, ties of Essex and Kent and towns like Saint Catharines, Hamilton. so did racist sentiment among white Canadians. Even the gener­ Chatham, and Toronto. As in Milwaukee, most black men were ally optimistic Bibb wrote in May 1851 of "color-phobia" in employed in the service industries, often as barbers, launderers, Canada: "This most obnoxious and fatal disease has made its or hotel staff. When Joshua Glover arrived in Canada in 1854. way into this province where it is destined to make havoc among for example, he took up work as a laborer for the white owner the ignorant and vicious."53 Bibb suspected arson in 1853, when of Montgomery's Inn in Etobicoke, today a suburb of Toronto. the office and press ofthe Voice ofthe Fugitive burned to the Other new arrivals to Canada immediately established them- ground.54 A decade later, the US Freedmen's Inquiry Commission

50 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

IEJISU8 1881-EECENSEMBM RECENBEMZm 1881 CEM6l> Province of t&Jtr District No./5V Jz£^/ S/^/{ District

r /* /'

/} •Af Hi /f /> '? r i . !/**£•-*. I, -*.-1- % 6 7 ,- 3 at* ' ^ This 1881 manuscript census of Etobicoke, Ontario, shows that Glover remained in the town at the age of seventy-one (sixth entry from the bottom). He was listed as a widowed Baptist laborer of African origin who was born in the United States.

investigated the status of refugees in southern Ontario. According to the investigator, white abolitionist Samuel Gridley Howe, white mobs burned down the dwellings of black newcomers, and white parents fought to have black children excluded from common schools. White Canadians stereotyped black men as lazy for taking service jobs and saw them as petty thieves. Blacks were also generally excluded from jury service. A white hotel head- clerk complained to Howe that visits to his town were infrequent on account ofthe presence of blacks. His assessment was that "N-—rs are a damned nuisance."55 Black Canadians interviewed by Howe often related that they found the prejudice in Canada worse than what they'd experienced in the US free states.56 Quarles and Glover both experienced hardships in their new homes. From Sandwich, Quarles wrote to Lyman Goodnow in 1880: "My husbands occupation is a cook i got a pretty good living but by working pretty hard for it, but i am not very happy"57 While Quarles did not elaborate on this unhap- piness, it's highly likely that "color-phobia" played a role. For example, Quarles had once been able to rely on the kindness of white Canadians such as Colonel John Prince, who had often offered up his estate for black gatherings, including Quarles's Thomas Montgomery's Inn, Glover's first place of employment in wedding to Allen Watkins in 1845. However, that kindness soon Canada, operates as an Etobicoke museum today. changed to animosity. In Prince's case, he began to argue in

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they should call home, and for some, Canada was seen as only a temporary respite from a worse fate in the United States. The black community in the town of Saint Catharines printed a letter to the US Congress in the Voice of the Fugitive requesting that the Fugitive Slave Act be reconsidered. The exiles lamented their "having been bred up in northern states" only to have the US government forfeit any protection of their liberties.60 A white resident of Chatham told Howe in 1863 that if blacks "could have the same privileges in the States that they have here, they would not remain a moment."61 Ultimately, it was not merely a love of home that drew black Canadians back to y the United States. Factors pushing them out of Canada were equally relevant. Dr. A. T.Jones, a black man living in Canada, told Howe: "I don't believe that in ten years from this time / you will see a colored man in this country," as he warned that •• -/, ,-'<*. /set.'*, f •'-/ black Canadian children were learning to hate their country62 In 1880, Quarles reported that at least one of her children had taken up residence in the United States, a son who made his home in Cincinnati.63 These black experiences in Milwaukee and Canada exem­ plify the fact that protection from enslavement did not imme­ it >AA'ai-*• erf i (//• /'2; 2 JJuY - Ua blacks and whites living in the North shared the same status as free people, black men, women, and children were often denied the same rights of citizenship and personhood that whites were / t ' • y afforded. These factors, amplified by the constant threat of kidnapping and new or re-enslavement, made it difficult for A letter Quarles wrote to Lyman Goodnow from Sandwich, Ontario, in black communities to form, grow, and flourish in these places. 1880 Instead, forced black itinerancy often led to further disappoint­ ment, as the Promised Land never truly materialized for black 1857 that blacks were only fit for slavery, were mostly criminals, travelers to the North. D'Si and should be removed to a remote island.58 Glover also suffered from race-based discrimination. There Notes 1. See Ruby West Jackson and Walter T. McDonald, Finding Freedom: The Untold Story of is evidence to suggest that he was violently attacked a decade Joshua Glover, Runaway Slave (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2007). after his arrival in Etobicoke. In 1884, Glover stabbed a white 2. William T. Green, "Negroes in Milwaukee," Milwaukee Sentinel, October 16, 1895. 3. William J. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City, Milwaukee: 1835-1870" man namedjohn Howard who was holding Glover against his ^Master's thesis, Marquette University, 1968), 24-25, 58. will and demanding money. Howard survived the incident and 4. Ibid., 27. 5. Ibid. claimed that it was unprovoked but Glover gave two reasons 6. 1793 bill quoted in S. G. Howe, Report to the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, 1864: The for the stabbing. In addition to Glover's charge of kidnap­ Refugees from Slavery in Canada West (1864; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1969), 9. 7. Eric Foner, Give Me Liberty!: An American History, vol. 1, 3rd ed. (New York: W. W. ping against Howard, he also told a man who discovered the Norton & Company, 2012), 253—254; Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission. crime that Howard had beat him eighteen years previously. 8—10; Allen P. Stouffer, The Light of Nature and the Law of God: Antislavery in Ontario, 1833-1877 (Montreal: Mc Gill-Que en's University Press, 1992), 13-14. However, Glover's worst individual treatment on the basis of 8. Jason H. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests: Canada West's Response to American Fugitive race in Canada may have been after he died in 1888; his body Slaves, 1800-1865 (Millwood, NY: Associated Faculty Press, Inc., 1985), 13-14. 9. "Table 36. Ohio—Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Large Cities and Other Places: was taken to a medical school in Toronto without his permission Earliest Census to 1990," accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/ and against the wishes of his benefactor, William Montgomery.59 twps0076/OHtab.pdf. 10. Clay, quoted in Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 12—13. Such racial tensions in Canada complicated the decision 11. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests, 13—14. 12. James T. Campbell, Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the for black men and women choosing which side of the border United States and South Africa (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 72.

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31. "Mob in Milwaukee—A Negro Lynched," Wisconsin State Register, September 14, 1861. RAILROAD RETURN 32. Green, "Negroes in Milwaukee." UsauRQitouND' 33. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 65-72. TRAINS.— The Cleveland Plaindealcr 34. Alternative spellings include Quarlis and Quarlls. states .that every steamboat arrivingaUbat 35. Fred Holmes, Badger Saints and Sinners (Milwaukee: E. M. Hale and Company, 1939), 188-189; Davidson, "Negro Slavery in Wisconsin," 226-229; Vollmar, "The Negro in a ; place brings back from Canada families of Midwest Frontier City," 10-13. See also Caroline Quarlls and the Underground Railroad, by negroes/.-who. have formerly fled to the Julia Pferdehirt (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2014). Provi ocesfrom.tho States: They are prin­ 36. "On Sunday, 23d ult." Milwaukie Sentinel, April 12, 1843; Ephraim Wilcox, "Case of Kidnapping," North Star, August 18, 1848. cipally from Canada West. They describe 37. "The Requisition for Mitchell—The Pennsylvania Kidnapping Case," Milwaukee Daily the life and condition of the blacks in Can­ Sentinel and Gazette, May 1, 1851; "Agitation' in the Senate," Mlwaukee Daily Sentinel and ada as miserable in the extreme. The Gazette, March 5, 1851. 38. James S. Buck, Pioneer History of Mlwaukee (Milwaukee: Symes, Swain, and Company. West is .therefore.likely to have large ac­ 1884) as reported in Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 32. cessions to its colored populatioD, nod.it is 39. Jackson and McDonald, Finding Freedom, 36-38. not at.all improbable..that Black Republi­ 40.Johnson, quoted in Jackson and McDonald, Finding Freedom, 21-22. 41. Alternative spellings include Barguet and Barquet. Berget, quoted in Jackson and canism und Abolitionism will diminish, iin McDonald, Finding Freedom, 23. consequence, in pro1portion.os:the aegroca 42. Ibid., 24. increase- The•Canada folks do not want 43. "A Negro Stampede," Daily Free Democrat, October 1, 1850. 44. Charles J. Heglar, Introduction to The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, An American them, and have shown» disposition in their Slave, by Henry Bibb (1849; reprint, Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 2001), xi. Parliament, and .otherwise, to discourage 45. Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 14. their comiug;to' or remaining in: the Prov­ 46. H. Robert Baker, The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and >; the Coming ofthe Civil War (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2006), 64. inces.:; In some.infctance3, the question of 47. "Dispersion of the Members of Colored Churches," Mlwaukee Daily Sentinel and ejecting those now resident.there, has been Gazette, February 20, 1851. discussed, ? Otir .western States .will, be 48. Ibid.; Campbell, Songs ofZion, 75—76; James K. Lewis, Religious Life of Fugitive Slaves and Rise of Coloured Baptist Churches, 1820-1865, in What Is Now Known as Ontario be likely to experience a similar. attack:of '1965; reprint, New York: Arno Press, 1980), 3-5; Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier the.WtKvfc vomtfo', when tbej: shall have be­ City," 33, 102; Proceedings ofthe National Emigration Committee of Colored People; Held come satisfied "with this peculiar' southern at Cleveland, Ohio, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, The 24th, 25th and 26th of August, 1854 [Pittsburgh: A. A. Anderson, 1854), 9, 18. luxury;; r -Ittl* some localitie*, tte: -supera­ 49. Silverman, Unwelcome Guests, 24-34, 58-61; Kimberly Simmons and Larry McClellan, bundant (free.negro population has already "Bridging Rivers: Caroline Quarlls's Remarkable Journey," in A Fluid Frontier: Slavery ; Resistance, and the Underground Railroad in the Detroit River Borderland, eds. Karolyn become a: burden, while in. bthersrtbey"are : Smardz Frost, et al. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2016), 194. undersevere ;restricti6o»; Iwbieh *mountal 50. Fred Landon, "The Negro Migration to Canada after the Passing ofthe Fugitive Slave most to aa exclusion- from'the limit* of.the Act," Journal of Negro History 5 January 1920): 22. States: 51. Ibid.; Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 2, 56;Jackson and McDonald, Finding Freedom, 90-91; "The Cry Is—Still They Come," Voice ofthe Fugitive (Sandwich, According to this article in the Racine Democrat, the Windsor, Ontario), October 22, 1851, quoted in Landon, "The Negro Migration," 27. 52. History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 239-240; Simmons and McClellan, "Bridging Rivers," terrible conditions for black refugees in Canada led to in A Fluid Frontier, 194; Jackson and McDonald, Finding Freedom, 103-108, 114-118. "Underground Railroad return trains"as early as the 53. "Henry Bibb Editorial on Color-Phobia in Canada from 21 May 1851 Voice ofthe Fugi­ tive" in Bibb, Life and Adventures, 227-228. 1850s. 54. Hegler, Introduction in Life and Adventures, xiii. 55. Quoted in Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 40—41. 13. Green, "Negroes in Milwaukee"; Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 2-3. 56. Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 43, 45, 50, 56. 14. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 2-6; Green, "Negroes in Milwaukee": 57. Quarles (Signed Caroline Watkins), quoted in Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier "Table 50. Wisconsin—Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Large Cities and Other Places: City," 143. Earliest Census to 1990," accessed at http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/ 58. History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 239; Robin W. Winks, The Blacks in Canada: A twps0076/WItab.pdf. History, 2nd ed. (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Que en's University Press, 1997), 214. 15. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 9-10; Dictionary ofWisconsin Biog­ 59. Jackson and McDonald, Finding Freedom, 101, 112-123. raphy (Madison: State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 1960), 326; History of Milwaukee, 60. Voice ofthe Fugitive, February 26, 1851, quoted in Karolyn Smardz Frost et al., eds. Wisconsin (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1881), 224-226. Ontario's African-Canadian Heritage: Collected Writings by Fred Landon, 1918-1967 16. History of'Mlwaukee, Wisconsin, 224. ^Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2009), 166-167. 17. See, for example, "On Sunday, 23d ult.," Milwaukie Sentinel, April 12, 1843. 61. Quoted in Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 44. 18. John Nelson Davidson, "Negro Slavery in Wisconsin and the Underground Railroad," 62. Jones, quoted in Howe, Report to the Freeman's Inquiry Commission, 51—52. Parkman Club Publications 18 (September 14, 1897): 211-220. 63. History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 240. 19. Ibid., 211. 20. Stouffer, The Light of Nature, 58. 21. Ibid., 58-65. 22. "Table 50. Wisconsin—Race and Hispanic Origin"; Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest ABOUT THE AUTHOR Frontier City," 26. 23. "Table 50. Wisconsin—Race and Hispanic Origin." Jaclyn N. Schultz is a Milwaukee native 24. " 1850 Federal Census Milwaukee County, Wisconsin," Manuscript Census by City Ward, Transcribed by Regan Kanaley, July 4, 2008, accessed at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry, and proud alumna of Rufus King High com/ cenfiles/wi/milwaukee/1850/milwaukee/; Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier School and the University of Wiscon­ City," 7-8, 27, 35, 62, 86. 25. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 17-18. sin-Milwaukee. She is currently a PhD 26. Frederick I. Olson, "The Railway Porter Who Wanted to Vote," in The Negro in candidate in history at the University of Milwaukee: A Historical Survey (Milwaukee: Milwaukee County Historical Society, 1968), California, Santa Cruz. Her dissertation 2-4. See also Christy Clark-Pujara, "Contested: Black Suffrage in Early Wisconsin," Wisconsin Magazine of History 100, no. 4 (2017): 21-27. focuses on the intersections of childhood, 27. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 50. race, and cultures of consumerism in the 28. Ibid. 29. "What Shall Be Done with Them?" Milwaukee Morning Sentinel, June 24, 1861. nineteenth-century United States. 30. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 35-38, 62-65; Green, "Negroes in Milwaukee."

AUTUMN 2017 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL The William B. Hesseltine Award SOCIETY Each year, we ask readers to vote for the best original article in

Wisconsin Historical Society Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska the Wisconsin Magazine of History. The Hesseltine award was Board of Curators Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee established in 1965 in memory of historian and past Wisconsin Robert Smith, Milwaukee Officers Historical Society president, William B. Hesseltine. The winner John W.Thompson, Madison President: Brian D. Rude, Chia Youyee Vang, Glendale will be announced in the Winter 2017-2018 issue, and a cash Coon Valley Aharon Zorea, Richland Center prize of $100 is awarded. President-Elect: Gregory B. Huber, Wausau Governor's Appointees Here are the entries for volume 100: Treasurer: Walter S. Rugland, David G. Anderson, Wausau Appleton George Jacobs, Madison Autumn 2016 Secretary: Ellsworth H. Brown, Keene Winters, Wausau Wisconsin Congressman Steve Gunderson: Gay The Ruth and Hartley Barker WISCONSIN Legislative Appointees magazine o/h Republican in the American Culture War, by Director, Fitchburg Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Milwaukee Past President: Conrad G. Goodkind, Jordan O'Gonnell Milwaukee Rep. Cody Horlacher, Mukwonago Sen. Van Wanggaard, Racine Shaping Identity: Fhe History of German- Term Members Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison Language Newspapers in Wisconsin, by Randi Angela B. Bartell, Middleton Julia Ramsden Curators Ex-Officio Ramona Gonzalez, La Crosse Michael Young man, President, Fhe Disillusionment of Father Bonduel, by Anne Beiser Allen Norbert S. Hill Jr., Oneida Wisconsin Historical Foundation Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha Phillip Schauer, President, FRIENDS Winter 2016-2017 Carol J. McChesney Johnson, ofthe Society Black Earth Fhe Children's Code: Securing Due Process for Lane R. Earns, Provost & Vice Chancellor James Klauser, Pewaukee the Children and Families ofWisconsin, by for Academic Affairs, UW-Oshkosh Thomas Maxwell, Marinette John Decker, President, Wisconsin RchardJ. Phelps Susan McLeod, Eau Claire Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Council for Local History "Fhy Word is a Lamp to My Feet": Fhe Lamp Jerald J. Phillips, Bayfield Honorary Curators and Wisconsin's Welsh Christian Endeavorers, Michael P. Schmudlach, Brooklyn Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire by Robert Humphries Donald Schott, Madison Wisconsin's Good Neighbor: Maestro Diego 'Jimmy" Innes and the WPA Wisconsin Symphony Orchestra, by Charles V. Heath Wisconsin Historical Spring 2017 FOUNDATION Re-examining the American Pioneer Spirit: Fhe Extended Family of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Wisconsin Historical Foundation Richard A. Reinhart, Minocqua Jennifer Van Haaften Officers Jack L. Rhodes, Waupaca Hemp: Wisconsin's Forgotten Harvest, by Dirk Chair: Catherine C. Orton, Mauston David S. Ryder, Mequon Vice Chair:Theresa H. Richards, William S. Schoyer, Elm Grove Hildebrandt Marshfield Derek L.Tyus, Milwaukee I Indentured Children ofthe Wisconsin Public Treasurer: Patrick P. Fee, Wauwatosa Jane Villa, Madison School, by Jan Gregoire Coombs Secretary: Susan Crane, Burlington Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfield Cathi Wiebrecht-Searer, Madison Summer 2017 Michael L.Youngman,/V,/7i/rau/cee Board of Directors | Fhree Degrees of Separation: Wisconsin's Loren J. Anderson, Elkhorn Christopher S. Berry, Middleton Directors Ex-Officio ! I Environmental Legacy, by Michael Edmonds Stephen F. Brenton, Verona Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, Fhe Fenpin League of Women Bowlers, by Diane Dei Rossi, Rhinelander President, Wisconsin Historical Erikajanik Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon Society Board of Curators Chris Her-Xiong, Milwaukee Gregory B. Huber, Wausau, Contested: Black Suffrage in Early Wisconsin, Jennifer Hill-Kelley, Green Bay President-Elect, Wisconsin by Christy Clark-Pujara Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee Historical Society Board of Adda F Howie: 'America's Outstanding Woman Farmer," by Peter A. Ostlind, Madison Curators Linda E. Prehn, Wausau Nancy C. Unger "A Fair Chance for All": McGovern's Progressivism, by Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation Michael E. Stevens Board of Directors Treasurer & Secretary: David T. President: Bruce T. Block, Milwaukee Wilder, Madison Vice President: David G. Stoeffel, Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg Cast your vote! Whitefish Bay Joseph D. Shumow, Madison You can send in a postcard with your vote, or fill out an online survey using Survey Monkey: http://wihist.org/hesseltine2017 Voting ends October 1, 2017.

54 wisconsinhistory.org 4® I WISCONSIN THANK YOU! It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes individuals 1917 • 2017 and organizations who contributed $5,000 or more between July 1,2016, and June magazine of history 30,2017.

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AUTUMN 2017 55 **" Curio "*•

tuart Stebbings of De Pere had a sweet tooth. Feb. 15, 1966 S. M STEBBINGS 3,234,948 He was also diabetic. His wife, Bertha, a p CHEESE -FILTER CieARET Sprofessional cook, came to the rescue in a very | Filed May 12, 1964 Wisconsin way. Bertha mixed Swiss cheese into SKATED CHEE.SE PREFERftBl-V MLXEO WITH CHARCOAL. chocolate, reducing the sugar content by 40 percent -y. while adding protein. Stuart, a clever businessman, w& decided to market the treat. Alice in Dairyland intro­ \P ^SZ TOBACCO duced the unique confection at the 1955 Wisconsin INVENTOR. ^5 POROOS Pi.ua- State Fair, where six hundred pounds ofthe concoc­ 3-s *y^" BY tion were distributed. The candy was perfected with POEOUS Pl.U& the aid of Harold Pieterson, a Milwaukee candy maker, and J. C. Tupper, a cheese chemist from Plymouth. Maronn Candy Company of Milwaukee manufactured it for the national market. Varieties included cheese pecan, cheese caramel, cheese opera creams, and cheese cranberry, as well as cheese chocolate bars. In 1958, CheeSweet was named the world's finest candy at the Fancy Food and Confec­ tionary Show in Chicago, but regardless, it seems to have never taken off with consumers. Steb­ bings died in 1985, but the CheeSweet trademark lives on, renewed in 2007. Stebbings had at least one other cheese-related invention. He served as campaign manager for Senator Alexander Wiley, who wanted to diversify Wisconsin's dairy product industry. At Wiley's urging, Stebbings patented a cigarette filter that used grated cheese in 1964. Coming this Fall from the OLD FfiRrn Wisconsin Historical Society Press

^4'U^sS/^

WRITING FROM THE HEART, THE GUT.' AND THE POISONVlVY PATCH;.- i,'

RECIPES, MENUS. AND MEMORIES JERRY BPPS& SUSAN BPPS-BODILLY

Old Farm Country Cookbook: Recipes, Menus, and Memories by Jerry Apps and Susan Apps-Bodilly The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories Danger, Man Working: ISBN: 978-0-87020-830-0 of a Monument and Its People Writing from the Heart, By Michael Edmonds the Gut, and the Poison ISBN: 978-0-87020-842-3 Ivy Patch by Michael Perry life ISBN: 978-0-87020-840-9 in a northern town JUSTICE FoR ALL SELECTED WRITINGS QOF 3[LL«YD A. BAR6EE

DAPHNE E. BARBEE-WOOTEN Life in a Northern Town: mEMHD BY Cooking, Eating, and Other CONGRESSHOMAH GWEN MOORE Adventures along Lake Superior Justice for All: Selected Writings Mexicans in Wisconsin by Mary Dougherty of Lloyd A. Barbee by Sergio M. Gonzalez ISBN: 978-0-87020-828-7 Edited by Daphne E. Barbee-Wooten ISBN: 978-0-87020-834-8 ISBN: 978-0-87020-838-6

The Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop is located on the Capitol Square at 30 N. Carroll St., Madison, Wl 53703 TO ORDER Please call: (888) 999-1669 or (608) 264-6565 (in Madison) Wisconsin Historical Society Shop online: shop.wisconsinhistory.org PRESS Members ofthe Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! 3r oi the Iron River t 1. The loneest-runnine editor 1 O 1 O O 11 J O 1 weekly from 1898 to his retirement inl952. Although linotypes had been in use since before the turn of the century Savage set his articles by hand using old-fashioned type in cases—a skill he'd learned as a printer's devil at the Washburn Itemizer before taking over in Iron River. In "Pioneer Editor: Pete Savage and the Iron River Pioneer," author Zoe von Ende Lappin chronicles Savage's years as editor, owner, and publisher of the paper, as well as Iron River's municipal judge, recounting his affable personality, informal editorial style, and love of Northern Wisconsin.

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