WINTER 2018 WISCONSIN magazin^^ history •\V/« CAWC VinO/ ON GIFT MEMBERSHIPS oAVt 4U /O THROUGH DEC. 31 FREE admission to 12 historic sites and museums during regular operating hours 5-issue subscription to the Wisconsin Magazine of History—also available as an e-publication (Not included with History Explorer level) » 2 historic site one-time use guest passes to bring a friend or family member along for FREE • 10% off all purchases and Society ticketed programs and events ••<• • And much more! O Visit us online af 0 In person at the Wisconsin Historical Society wihist.org/whsholiday18 816 State St., Madison, Wl, Room 107 © Call by phone at 888.748.7479 Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 am-5 pm ORDER BY DECEMBER 17 TO ENSURE DELIVERY FOR THE HOLIDAYS. WISCONSIN Your gift provides vital support to the HISTORICAL Wisconsin Historical Society. Thank you! SOCIETY Letter from the WISCONSIN HISTORICAL Editor SOCIETY Director, Wisconsin Historical Society Press heir resemblance is uncanny. On this issue's cover, a World War I Kate Thompson munitions worker from a United War Work Campaign poster; below, a Editor real-life auto worker standing outside the Four Wheel Drive Company Sara E. Phillips T Image Researcher in Clintonville, Wisconsin. Both wear coveralls with rolled cuffs and over­ John H. Nondorf sized pockets, their forearms bare Research and Editorial Assistants as if they are ready to return to the Molly Biskupk, Rachel Cordasco, Kelli Wozniakowski, Elizabeth Wyckoff, factory floor. Their gazes are direct \ and John Zimm and their stances confident, at ease. Design Both the poster and photograph JingerSchroeder date from 1918, when women filled THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 20 percent of all manufacturingjobs (ISSN 0043-6534), published quarterly, is a benefit of membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society. in the United States, and when, on Full membership levels start at $55 for individuals and November 11, peace was declared. $65 for institutions. To join or for more information, By war's end, the workers at Four visit our website at wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership Office at 888-748-7479 or Wheel Drive had produced 14,473 e-mail [email protected]. trucks for the war effort, and women The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been had gained an unexpected foothold published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright ©2018 by the State in the sphere of what had previously Historical Society of Wisconsin. been men's work. ISSN 0043-6534 (print) / ISSN 1943-7366 (online) And yet, this is only part of the For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, (ISSN 0043-6534), please access story. With the largest German- www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright born population in the United Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, States, Wisconsin doubled down on Danvers, MA, 01923,978-750-8400. CCC is a not- for-profit organization that provides licenses and its patriotic efforts after the US entered the war in April 1917. People like Otto registration for a variety of users. and Ida Grady, the grandparents of writer Lee Grady, were forced to register For permission to reuse photographs from the as German-born residents and made to carry their papers at all times or risk Wisconsin Magazine of History identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, internment. Propaganda posters similar to the one on the cover vilified non- Madison, Wl, [email protected]. naturalized German residents of the United States, and the press was eager Wisconsin Magazine of History welcomes the submission to paint them as suspect at best, spies and infiltrators at worst. Meanwhile, of articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on the Wisconsin Historical Society many American- and German-born residents of Wisconsin were eager to show website at www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/contribute. their loyalty to Uncle Sam. Three of Otto and Ida's sons served in the war. asp. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. This issue of WMH includes two stories from World War I that overlap in Contact Us fascinating ways: Lee Grady's story on "alien enemies" and Simone Munson's Editorial: 608-264-6549 on the print propaganda campaign. As I write, we are one month away from [email protected] the hundred-year anniversary of the end of World War I, and I can't help Membership/Change of Address: 888-748-7479 but ponder the provocative juxtaposition of these stories: one on the power of [email protected] patriotism, another on the power of fear. These are two sides of the same coin Reference Desk/Archives: 608-264-6460 [email protected] when it comes to war in the modern age. We would do well to remember that Mail: 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706 war means different things to different Americans. Pacifists and isolationists, Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. volunteers and active duty soldiers, residents and foreign born—all are part Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage of Wisconsin's population today, as they were one hundred years ago. from the Wisconsin Historical Museum store. Call toll-free: 888-999-1669 or visit shop.wisconsinhistory.org. £w fc -W^ Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, On the front cover: Illustration of a female factory worker from a 1918 war www.napubco.com. campaign poster by AdolphTreidler. The tagline, omitted here, reads "For Every VOLUME 102, NUMBER 2 / WINTER 2018 Fighter a Woman Worker." WHI IMAGE ID 36644 In This Issue 1 Letter from the Editor 4 America's "Alien Enemies" Registering as German in Wisconsin During World War I by Lee Grady 18 Collecting for Victory World War I Print Propaganda and the Wisconsin Historical Society by Simone Munson 28 The 1914 Meeting of the Society of American Indians at UW-Madison by Larry Nesper Nov. 11th to 18th $170,500,000 Wisconsin Magazine of History Winter 2018 38 Henry Sink Settler, Soldier, Citizen by Victoria B. Tashjian and Jeff Kannel 50 BOOK EXCERPT The Misunderstood Mission of Jean Nicolet Uncovering the Story of the 1634 Journey by Patrick J. Jung 54 Letters 56 Curio *% 4k AMERICA'S A ,V,aU unroe° . (otwaia * w re s S" fat/0f1 carO- 7978 ALIEN ENEMIES REGISTERING AS GERMAN INWISCONSIN DURING WORLD WAR I BY LEE GRADY 4 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF FEBRUARY IN 1918, thousands of German-born Above: Loyalty Parade in Madison, men and boys lined up at police stations and post offices around Wisconsin. 1917. Once President Wilson declared war on Germany, people They ranged from teenagers to elderly men. In June, women and girls repeated were expected to demonstrate the process. They were following orders issued by President Woodrow Wilson their loyalty to the United States by and enforced by the attorney general of the United States. Under threat of expressing patriotic sentiments in public, purchasing Liberty Bonds, or imprisonment or deportation, they were required to register with the govern­ volunteering for the war effort. To ment as "alien enemies." In all, approximately 45,000 German-born residents some, the loyalty of a German-born of Wisconsin reported to local authorities within the space of a few weeks.1 person was automatically suspect. "Alien enemy" registration during World War I was a national Baltimore, Maryland, on July 13, 1868, with his family and phenomenon. In every state, German-born residents who had 354 other passengers after sixty-seven days at sea.4 He was not obtained their final citizenship papers were compelled to eight years old at the time. For Otto's parents, the decision to complete affidavits and carry their registration papers with take five children ranging in age from seven months to eleven them at all times. The program had a particularly signifi­ years on such a dangerous voyage could not have been an cant impact in Wisconsin. The state had one of the largest easy one. Like many other immigrants, then and now, they German-born populations in the country.2 As of 1900. were driven mostly by economic circumstances in their home one-third of the state's residents had been born in Germany country. The Grades were coming from Prussia, where indus­ or had parents who were born there. Of the one-half million trialization, crop diseases, and overpopulation made future German aliens nationwide who registered in 1918, nearly ten prospects uncertain enough to prompt the drastic step of an percent lived in Wisconsin.3 overseas voyage to a strange country5 Otto and Ida Grade were among the ten percent. They Otto and his family were headed straight to Wisconsin, had arrived in Wisconsin along with thousands of other and they were not alone. The state had a strong reputation German immigrants in the years between 1848 and 1900. among Germans. New lands were still opening up, and Like many who settled in the state, they were ethnic Germans the state's climate and geography were similar to that of from Pomerania in northern Germany. Otto had landed at their homeland.6 In fact, the state government was actively WINTER 2018 5 child. They bought forty acres of land near Ida's parents in Brown County, where they built a house, farmed the land, and began to raise a family. By the time of his marriage, Otto had changed his name from "Grade" to "Grady." Like other immigrants, he may have felt pressure to assimilate to the ARE YOU 100% dominant American culture.11 Like other Germans, the AMERICAN? Gradys mostly found Wisconsin PROVE IT to be a welcoming place.