J . £ACK-CROU/YD ^ I ^

/ • / < J. £ACK-CROU/YD î^*^ . The story of the beginning of tilings of which he, or hie an- cestors,~<«$«ftHi&* have "been a part, should "be and usually is of ab sorbing interest to a thoughtful man* and their subsequent history is of -as less concern to him* Every®man inherits a back-ground, laid in the character of his forebears, which, with hisênviron- ment, determines to an appreciable extent, those traits of his own character which distinguish him from and ally him with his fel lows. Strong men sometimes out-grow the evil, and weak men surren der the good inheritance with which they have thus been cursed or blessed, but in the average man it remains an easily recognized V- and more or less dominating force througnout his life. Every city also, and county, and amm^^y, has its back- ground, the influence of which in its history may *e traced quite as definitely as the corresponding in the life of a man. The back- groundnnd. pfJRacinpfRacine county is a most interesting stuay, and may prop- erly serve as arîntroduction to this history, provided it be not permitted to out-grow its character. The title of this work ia an accurate statement of its scope, and it is the purpose of the au thor to Keep quite strictly within the limits there laid dowm. While it is recognized that many readers would discover a casual Interest in an outline historical sketch of the domain of which Mcine county is a small unit, and something in brief concerning the natural history, the natural resources, the Ihdian inhabitants and the early settlement of our great state, I have concluded to limit reference to these matters to very brief mention,-in bare outline,-of the more significant general features of the back-ground. , £ The alternative would be either a lomg-drawn-out, fragmentary and unsatisfactory history of our country and state, or a digest of those histories,-brief, certainly, but laborious and difficulty and eitherv in of them requiring more time and talent than the writer has to give to it. Readers with a serious interest in those histories would, naturally, be satisfied only with the expert work of professional historians, available at the nearest public library. In the large view, the domain of which Racine county is a small unit, is the North American continent, the history of which furnlshes the back-ground of all of its geographical and political A divisions and subdivisions, great and small. 'it is a solitary fact, unique in its fcarren significancej and in its untimelyness, that five centuries before Columbus dis covered America, the north Atlantic coast was visited and explored by Norse navigators. Hazy in outline from sheer distance and isola tion, and meagre in detail, the story was long discredited, though known and nowâccepted as authentic. It was in A.D. 986 that Captain Herjulf- sor., storm-driven while on a voyage from Iceland to Greenland, came near to wreck on the coast of Labrador, the slgnt of which he re ported to his fellow vikings on his return to Iceland. In A.D.IOOO -re lief EricksonAdiscovered and explored the coast from Labrador to Rhdde Island, and named it "Vinland". Some flew colonies were planted but they were snort-lived. Other Norse captains visited these shores in the same decade but nothing came of it; their col onies were fore-doomed to failure; Europe did not hear of "Fin land, and its discovery stands out stark,- isolated fromând unre lated to>any subsequent event in American history. Following the disappearance of the Norsemen from its shores, the curtain of dark ness and silence which had been lifted for a space, settled again on the Western Continent, until .in the providence of God, a half- millenium later, it was brushed aside, and North America began to M Known to autoiy. COLUMBUS Except for the fruitless exploits of Lief Erickson and his fellow Vikings at the conjunction of the tenth and eleventh cen turies, the western hemisphere was unknown to white men and to history, until October 12, 1492, when Christopher Columbus landed on an island of the Bahamas, which he named, and which is still called,San Salvador. Columbus was an Italian, whose explorations and discoveries were made under the patronage of Isabella, Queen of Spain. He made four voyages to the islands and mainland of the Americas. His landing on San Salvador was the first of a long fcta series of discoveries by Europeans which led to the êxploration, colonization, and the eventual possession and peopling of the continent of North America by white men. He died unaware of the tre- A mendous significance of his discoveries, and unsuspecting the gre&t fame that was destined to be his in the centuries to come. ( Foot-noteO (I) Tnere are few places in America today where that hardy Norse strain is more marked than in the people of Racine countyând of Wisconsin at large. H BgMiMMMjy then In 1512, Ponce de Leon, Governor of Porto Ricoâ Spanish possession, set out from that island In search of the fountain of youth, and discovered Florida, which was named by him, and which, with an of its hinterland, unknown in extent, he claimed for the King of Spain. CdMST In 14-96, John Cabot, of Venice, under commission of Henry VII of England, re-discovered the continent of America at a point on the eastern coast of Labrador; he was fhe first fbite man,after the Vikings, five centuries before, to explore any. portion of the mainland of North America, and he took possession of it in the name of the King of England. Two French expeditions of discovery, one by John verrazzani, in I52H-, and another under James Cartier, in 153^-, resulted in the exploration of the coast from the CarolinaUnas to New .Fqundland , $u InrtetMii &OJLn and beyond, and of the St.Lawrence River as far as. Quebec, ail of A which was claimed for the king of France, and given the name of "New FranceM. In 1609, Henry Hudson, In command of a Dutch expedition in search of a northwest passage to the Pacific, entered the bay of ms. Sandy Hook and explored the Hudson River, in the ship "Half Moon". During the next few years other Dutch captains made explor ation of the nearby coasts, from Henlopen to Cape Cod, an of which was claimed for Holland. The story of the efforts of the various nations of Europe to colon! z« the New World; to validate and delimit their almost limitless claims to territory there, and to establish and protect their assumed right of sovereignty over that territory; of their disputes, misunderstandings and wars among themselves, and eventual near extinction of the aboriginal inhabitants - the Indians; of Of the American coloniesÊngland, and their relations with and final severance from the Mother Country in the Declaration of Independence and the War of the Revolution; and of the momentous career of the United states of Amer ica, now in the one hundred and fifty fifth year of its independence, has provided the subject matter for innumerable volumes that constitute the written his tory of the North American continent, including that of our own glorious republic.)*) *-——s-\. ' me history of our country and state, by virtue of its teaching in the schools of the land, is now the easily acquired heritage of every American-grown citizen. Their stud? has fostered the growth of patriotism and of state pride, but there has not been, anywhere in America, that I have been able to discover, any systematic effort to promote study of the history of smaller political units, the lac^ of which is one probable cause of the unsatisfactory home-town; pride, or public spirit, inUhe average American community today. 7?fB Ps<LCR/MS It was a fateful day for America, and for the world at large, when on December II, 1620, the ship Mayflower discharged its one hundred and two passengers on Plymouth Rock,- a company of Bil- (I) grims, men and women, seeking asylum for freedom of worship. That little company r* the fore-runner of a^-raanfeerl&f others simi larly inspired ^represented in its aspirations, principles and character, the mmw essence of the very best in American life as exemplified In its colonial history, and in the history of the Re public of the United States of America. Racine county itself was directly affected, for more than three-fourths of its early set tlers were natives of New England and New York, descendants of those Puritans, and Inheritors and exemplars of that Puritan spirit which was transplanted and deeply rooted on the eastern shores of America in the early years of the seventeenth century. They were the men and women, with others from European countries like-minded, who comie later, who in pioneer days wrought Into the fabric of the religious, educational, social, business and political life of city and county and state , a texture of incorruptibility which has not yet worn thread-bare. - TitBHC HAND INDISNWAK 1 During the first two and one-half centuries after the dis covery of America, the Atlantic coast country was colonized from Maine to near Florida by England, whose claim to territory includ ed everything west from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. During the same period the French out-posts were Jesuit Mission stations, * MUM SMALL, following which they stretched aperies of 'aessntvB^ settlements, ' and trading and military posts in the St.Lawrence River valley, in cluding the Great Lakes region, and beyond to toe Mississippi Riv er, claiming all of the territory south to agr^ôiMê^QÊgg^ê^, and westward to the Pacific.

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