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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. However, friction between BUY native-born citizens and immi­ U.S.GOVERNMENT BONDS grants did exist. Even as the state government was encour­ THIRD aging immigration, some people saw immigrants as a LIBERTY LOAN threat to American institutions. Tensions between Wisconsin's native-born and German-born residents came to the surface in 1890, when Governor William D. Hoard signed legislation "to The Committee on Public Information produced thousands of posters and pamphlets to promote require that reading and writing the war effort, with many appeals to "pure" Americanism. See Simone Munson's article in this issue for many more examples of this pervasive rhetoric. in English be daily taught" in all schools, both public and private. encouraging immigrants to come. New arrivals were viewed The Bennett Law had other provisions, but it was the language as a source of labor, and they often brought money and skills stipulation that eventually touched off a political battle.12 with them. In 1867, Wisconsin created a government board Hoard claimed that he was only interested in the welfare to help stimulate immigration to the state. The Board of of the children of foreign-born parents, arguing that they were Immigration appointed county committees that canvassed "handicapped by ignorance of the language of the country."13 recent immigrants and compiled lists of relatives and friends German-born residents, especially those who supported who were still in the old country. The board then mailed parochial schools, saw the law as an attack on their culture pamphlets directly to families in Germany and other Euro­ and religious freedoms.14 An editor of Milwaukee's German- pean countries to encourage chain migration.' language newspaper Germania answered Hoard by asking, By 1900, Germans were the largest immigrant group in "Are not the non-English speaking foreigners and foreign- the state.8 Many were displaced farmers, but they were far born citizens and their children well enough off? Don't they from a homogeneous group. Some immigrants were from manage to get along very well... to compete with their English cities and had left for political or religious reasons. Others speaking neighbors, and to make a creditable showing on the were fleeing mandatory military service. Some were Protes­ farm, in the workshop, in the studio, in the learned profes­ tant and some Catholic.9 Once here, they tended to cluster in sions, and in public offices?"15 their own communities, with German-language newspapers, In the short run, the Bennett Law would come to haunt churches, and parochial schools.10 Hoard and his fellow Republicans. They were swept out of Otto Grade spent the rest of his childhood on a farm power in the next election, demonstrating the political clout in Oconto County The family spoke German at home, but of the German-American community in the state.16 Never­ Otto and his siblings learned to speak English in the commu­ theless, the underlying distrust and resentment revealed nity He labored on the farm, and as he reached adulthood during the political debate did not fade away. he found work at a sawmill in Oconto. In 1884, he married In August 1914, Germany went to war with France, Ida Pagel, who had also emigrated from Germany as a Belgium, Russia, and Britain. From the beginning, the

6 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY sympathies of Wisconsin residents were divided. Those of Wilson ended up adopting Gregory's approach. Greg­ Yankee stock—with British heritage, born in the eastern ory's assistant, Charles Warren, drafted the restrictions and United States and transplanted to the Midwest—were often Wilson issued them in a presidential proclamation on April 6. disposed to support the British and French. A few Belgian- First, he defined all non-naturalized German males over the born Wisconsinites even left to join the Belgian army. At the age of thirteen as "alien enemies." He would later expand this same time, many German-born residents openly supported definition to include Austro-Hungarian men (December 11, their country of origin. Some even raised money for the 1917) and German and Austro-Hungarian women (April 16, German Red Cross and sold German war bonds.17 Gradu­ 1918). Wilson then outlined a set of sweeping restrictions. Non- ally, however, US foreign policy and the majority of public naturalized German residents could not possess "any fire-arm, opinion came to side with the British and French. weapon or implement of war, or component part thereof." On April 2, 1917, Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a They could not operate a wireless device or aircraft. They declaration of war against Germany. One issue of immediate were also prohibited from approaching within one-half mile concern was the hundreds of thousands of German resident of several defense-related buildings or installations, including aliens living in the United States. In his speech to Congress, factories involved in munitions work. They were forbidden Wilson assured the American people that he expected only a to "write, print or publish any attack or threats against the few to be disloyal. When he added that disloyalty would "be dealt with a firm hand of stern repression," he was greeted "with an explosion of applause."18 The problem was how to identify those few disloyal German aliens. The Bureau of Investigation, later known as the FBI, had already compiled a list of 98 German aliens Which of the Men You know is a German Agent? it wanted to arrest on the first day Agents of the German Government are everywhere of the war, and another 1,300 to —every section of the United States—every city—every keep under surveillance. But the Gerard street—is infested with them. The long, snaky arm of Warns America Committee of Internment of Alien Wilhelmstrasse, darting here and there, opening its poisoned talons, has dropped these men close to you in Enemies recommended the intern­ "Since my return from Berlin I order to forward the secret plans of Prussia—to aid in have visited many sections of ment of all one-half million German the United States. I have been the spread of Kultur and the undermining of America. as far west as Washington and California. I have been to Mil­ aliens on US soil "to safeguard the waukee, Minneapolis, Chica­ The poisoned hands, the poisoned tongue, the poisoned Often cleverly concealed in a guise of apparent inno­ go and Cleveland. Everywhere brains, the poisoned tips of the widespread fingers of cence, yet, insidiously introduced into school books, into public from their depredations [and] American homes—fostered and spread by politicians I found the stink of the poi­ Prussian propaganda — the secret steps by which the soned gas propaganda of Ger­ kaiser and bis counselors are still attempting to realize and public officials "who venture as near as they dare the aliens from unfriendly acts of toward treason"—how this propaganda goes on — how many." their dreams ot world dominion—the gigantic web of the German agents collect money for the furtherance of 19 spv system, which has its center in Wilhelmstrasse and their plots in the heart of America—all are exposed by —James IT'. Gerard citizens." Some cabinet members extends its threads to the furthermost corners of the the man whose four years in Germany made him familiar world—the modern, educarud barbarism of Kultur...... with things seldom breathed outside the inner circles of supported mass internment, but the diplomacy. War Department argued against it on the grounds that the resources Ambassador Gerard would be better spent on military Takes up, not only our perils abroad, but the danger which threatens at home, a menace far efforts. Attorney General Thomas greater because it's secret and unsuspected, identifying these enemy agents, how to spot them and how best to combat them in his Gregory was against it, citing the "economic waste.. .involved in the Second Great War Book attempting to intern hundreds of • *» thousands of people indiscrimi­ 'Face to Face with Kaiserism nately, and...the economic loss... Startling chapters reveal the workings and effects of this German "poison gas"—the inside story of the L.usitania disaster and the entire history of Germany's submarine activities—intimate first-hand pictures of the kaiser, Alfonso of Spain, Gustavus of Sweden, Briand and Poincare of caused to industries through a labor France—the "unknown, unseen, relentless power of the real rulers of Germany," a company of unknown men, housed in a gloomy building on the 20 Wilhelmstrasse, whose orders even the kaiser must obey—all this is told graphically, truths that cause one to shudder because of their dangerous shortage." Gregory argued for a proximity to home, in this great disclosure which will appear in more selective internment based on Daily Installments, Commencing Next Sunday, Feb. 24, in a set of new legal restrictions.21 Daily if Fear of infiltration by German spies The JOURNAL was just one example of the suspicion The newsboy will call for your order===if you should miss him send your order directly to The Journal Co., Milwaukee, Wis. toward German-born residents. •

WINTER 2018 7 Government or Congress of the United States, or against l 3 -J •• Where Disloyalty in Wisconsin Chiefly Centres the person or property of any Wlr person in the military, naval or SEDITION MAP" civil service." The property of an PREPARED ar~ "alien enemy" who violated these THE WISCONSIN LOYALTY LEAGUE rules could be seized. Further, TAe sftadCornell University who was an Amer­ For the first time, probably, in the history of the j spotted. There are counties not indicated by the ican citizen of German descent. country it has been necessary to man the sedition of a shading where strong sympathy for Germany, and very State of the American Union. The Loyalist Legion of . 3rf™ !fckine fOT La F°1!ette is ma.n"est' SS^w In July 1915, he set off a bomb 3 * j whole the counties marked rcoresent the most violent in the US Capitol building and Wisconsin, after an investigation lasting about six j hostility to the President's policy and to the war aims months, located in certain counties of the State certain i of the nation. These are the counties in which another on a ship called the centres of pro-Germanism and active or silent dis-! Thompson, La Follette's candidate for the Senator- loyalty. It purposes to be only a rough and general ship, received his heaviest vote and where Victor Minnehaha. He then forced his indication of the way in which Wisconsin is rotten I Berger rolled up a large vote. way into the home of financier A"sedition map" printed in a New York newspaper showing "pro-German"areas of "disloyalty." The J. P. Morgan and shot him twice. fact that people outside the state were calling Wisconsin disloyal helped fuel resentment toward Morgan survived his wounds, the German-born population within in the state. and Muenter was imprisoned. He claimed his acts were in protest against American ship­ did little to discourage. In an editorial that ran in several papers ments of munitions to the Allies. He committed suicide in around the state, writer Emerson Hough declared that "this jail.24 While incidents like this received a lot of press, the country is honeycombed with German spies... .They are doing number of perpetrators involved was very small compared all they can here, there and everywhere, in countless places, to to the millions of German-born citizens and resident aliens kill the American enthusiasm for this war and the American living in the country. confidence in our ability to win this war. This propaganda is Nevertheless, in the months following Wilson's declara­ an enormous thing and a tremendously dangerous thing. Any tion, there was an outpouring of anti-German sentiment in man who countenances it.. .is himself worse than a traitor to his Wisconsin and across the country25 Editorial pages around the country today. He sides with the murderers of innocent women state reflected a sense of paranoia that the Wilson administration and children."26

8 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY In the context of this kind of rhetoric, people were over to federal officers and later sent to an internment camp inclined to see spies where there weren't any. An alderman in Georgia.29 US government propaganda posters only fed the from Crandon, Wisconsin, urged the State Council of Defense hysteria. The most extreme seemed to support the idea that to investigate a local Lutheran minister who was hosting Germans were naturally aggressive and depraved. Instead Germans in his house and teaching at a parochial school. of urging calm, President Wilson asked Congress to enact He had no particular evidence against the minister, except harsher punishments for aliens who had been interned.30 that it did "not look right."27 In fact, the slightest evidence of The paranoia sometimes led to physical violence. A pro-German feeling could land someone in jail. A Kimberly. congressional candidate running in Wisconsin's second Wisconsin, man assaulted a German-born resident after district recalled a group of "patriotic partisans" who "had claiming to hear "unpatriotic utterances" from him. The | victim of the assault, Albert S Gosa, was held in jail to await | prosecution by a US marshal.28 i John Gierston was being held | in a Waukesha jail as a vagrant S when he allegedly "sang | German songs and declared § that he wanted Germany to win the war." He was turned

The German Whisper

By HARVEY O'HIGGINS Associate Chairman) Committee on Public Information

Issued by THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION The Secretary of State The Secretary of War The Secretary of the Navy George Creel

Above: One of the many anti- German pamphlets distributed by the Committee on Public Information. Right: Cartoonist W. A. Rogers published this piece in the New York Herald on March 28,1918, at the height of suspicion toward German- {COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE born people in America. NEW YORK HERALD CO.)

WINTER 2018 9 thrown a doctor in a river and held him at intervals under Who were these alien enemies? Judging from news­ water until he decided to kiss Old Glory rather than drown."31 paper accounts, most of them were older and had been in In Ashland, a group of men calling themselves the "Loyal the country for some time. This is not surprising given that Knights of Liberty" abducted a Northland College professor the bulk of German immigration to the state had taken place of German heritage, stripped him of his clothes, and covered before 1900. Authorities in Eau Claire reported that "the big him in tar and feathers.32 These incidents were relatively rare, majority are men well advanced in age and are men who but the fact that they were not widely reported or condemned came to America as children with their parents. Their fathers in the press speaks to the strength of anti-German feeling in failed to become citizens."35 The Sheboygan Press reported mainstream society. one registrant who said "that he was ignorant of his not being a citizen until he investigated. He said he came to this country IN ASHLAND, A GROUP OF when only a few years old and had always believed that his father had obtained his naturalization papers."36 This was MEN CALLING THEMSELVES THE exactly the situation for Otto Grady. He was fifty-nine years old when Wilson issued his order. Grady and his wife, Ida. "LOYAL KNIGHTS OF LIBERTY" had been in Wisconsin for fifty years and had raised nine chil­ dren. Two of their sons would soon be in France fighting for ABDUCTED A NORTHLAND the United States, and a third would fight with the US expe­ COLLEGE PROFESSOR OF ditionary force in northern Russia.37 Otto thought his father had been naturalized, and he had voted in every election GERMAN HERITAGE, STRIPPED since age twenty-three. He now he found himself classified as an "alien enemy"38 HIM OF HIS CLOTHES,AND The restrictions of April and November 1917 had a devas­ tating effect on many of the German-born residents they COVERED HIM IN TAR AND targeted. In April 1918, Secretary of State Robert Lansing FEATHERS. reported to Wilson that "many enemy aliens have been

Even people who had opposed the Bennett Law in 1890 were now disposed against their German-born neighbors. Ellis B. Usher of Milwaukee wrote to former Governor William D. 1 Hoard, apologizing for his earlier opposition to the Bennett German Aliens law and praising Hoard's "superior insight into German char­ Have your photos made at Reierson's acter." Usher said that he now realized that "the distinguishing i Studio. The pictures will be ready for fact about real Americans is that they can drop all else and delivery the following day. be freemen first, when their institutions are threatened, as I at present." In his response, Hoard acknowledged that he s had recognized "way back in 1890" that "there was a deep i Reierson's Studio conspiracy existing in German circles for the prevention of I 23 So. Pinckney Thone 5880 the Americanizing of their young people." In fact, he asserted, ft there had been "a deep laid scheme or propaganda for the In some Wisconsin cities, photography studios marketed directly 33 Germanizing of the state and nation as far as possible." to people who needed the required registration photos. Reierson's It was in such a climate of war hysteria that President Wilson Studio was in Madison. expanded the restrictions on "alien enemies." On November 16. 1917, he outlined eight new orders, including one that forbade thrown out of employment as a result of the water front and non-naturalized German residents from entering the District zone restrictions, etc., no less than on account of the sentiment of Columbia, and another that required them to notify the US of employers throughout the country."39 He pressed for a relief marshal's office before changing their residence or occupation. effort to prevent "distress and, in some cases, actual starva­ He also ordered all non-naturalized German males over the tion." Such an effort was desirable from "a humane point of age of thirteen to formally register as alien enemies. He left it view," but also to keep the large number of alien enemies in a to the US Attorney General to work out how this would be "safe state of mind."40 When the Swiss and Swedish legations accomplished.34 In April 1918, Wilson expanded the definition to the United States offered aid to "deserving enemy aliens to include women over the age of thirteen, including US citizens and their families," Wilson agreed with their proposal, but who were married to non-naturalized Germans. declined to make the statement himself. Instead, he asked

10 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Lansing to make a brief statement and to publicize it through During this first round of registrations, there was some the Associated Press.41 confusion about who needed to register. A Rhinelander Wilson's order mandating the registration of alien newspaper reported that "officials at the city hall have been enemies was implemented in the first months of 1918. In besieged by inquiries as to who is and who is not a citizen Wisconsin, the registration process was directed by US of the United States and who is obliged to register."49 Many marshals operating out of Madison and Milwaukee. The people had filed a "declaration of intent" years earlier and registration period for men was set for the week of February had come to believe that they were citizens. These "first 4, 1918. Women would register in late June. In January, US papers" in the naturalization process had allowed them to Marshal Frank O'Connor sent a circular to police chiefs in purchase land from the federal government and vote in elec­ his district, asking them to "give the matter of this registra­ tions. However, to complete the process of becoming a citizen, tion as much publicity as possible." He further asked that they also needed to file a "petition" or "second papers." If they "warn the people...that failure to register will mean their petition was approved, they would be granted citizen­ arrest and possible confinement during the war." Finally, he ship. Immigrants who had not completed the entire process, asked that "every American who knows of an alien enemy, even if they had voted in elections for years, were considered no matter how peaceful the man may be.. .should give the to be "alien enemies" and were required to register.50 police department this information."42 Anyone who fell within the definition of an "alien enemy" was required to report to local authorities during the registration period. In cities of over five thousand inhabitants they would register at police stations. In smaller towns and rural areas the process would be handled by the nearest post office.43 Registrants were to bring four photos of themselves, each measuring 3-by-3 inches. When they arrived they would have to complete an affidavit and have their fingerprints taken. Local officials around the state scrambled to prepare. Nobody knew how many people to expect, and some offices lacked the necessary staff facilities, or equipment for taking fingerprints and processing large numbers of registrants.44 At six o'clock in the morning on Monday. February 4, men (and some boys) began lining up at police stations and post offices across the state. In La Crosse, the police department was "swamped.. .and the number in waiting steadily increased as the hours passed."45 In Milwaukee, "long lines of men were formed in the third floor hall of the police station."46 In Racine, the police chief and his assistants "were kept hustling" into the evening, registering over one hundred and fifty men in the first two days. The chief estimated that it took an hour to process each registrant.4' Some cities turned to volunteers to help with the process. In Sheboygan, the police were assisted by local high school students. In Milwaukee, the County Council of Defense supplied volunteers.48

Government propaganda posters contributed to the anti-German hysteria of 1917 and 1918.The most extreme of these supported the idea that Germans were depraved or even sub-human.

WINTER 2018 11 (Data)

Thiscertifiehiscertihes Ihat^,SThat^...JUL-_. 8 I?JL

(Name alregistraftfe^"^ residing at-. ^U:.B~ Green BSrtrfWS. THIS REGISTOATION CARD MUST BE CARRIED ON THE PERSON f/^^\ (Comity.) (State.)

whose photograph and signature, and / or other (PENALTY)

Any one required to register stall not, after the date fixed for mark of identification, appear hereon, has registered at her registration and the issuance to her of a registration card, be found within the limits of the United States, ite territories or possessions, without" havings her registration card on her person, under liability, (DauT) ; (City, town.) (Freoinct.) among other penalties," to arrest and detention for the period or This certifies; Th. as a person required by law to register under the Procla­

mation of the President of the United States, dated

April 19, 1918.

(Signature ermark of registered person.) ^T /hose photograph and Signature; iaik of identification, appear hereon, has registered at (Registration officer.)

POSTMASTER (Stata-j . ' (Cojmtyj (Official title, police or post office.)

Above: Ida Grady's registration card, interior the United States?" Have you "had any relative in arms for Above right: Otto Grady kept only the photo from his or against the United States and its allies during the present 53 registration card. The back, shown below the photo, includes war?" The form was to be completed in triplicate with a some of his registration information. photo affixed to each copy. Within ten to fifteen days, registrants were required Some people arrived at the registration office with more to appear again to receive their registration cards, which complicated questions. One young man explained that he had included a photograph. From that point forward they were been born in Germany to Russian parents who were never to carry their cards with them at all times until further notice. naturalized as Germans. At nine months old he had moved Anyone considered an alien enemy who was caught without with his parents back to Russia and never lived in Germany their card would be subject to arrest and imprisonment. again. He was told that he had to register.51 Officials in Understandably, some German-born residents felt "hurt La Crosse had to clarify that anyone born in Alsace-Lorraine and embarrassed" at having to register.54 Nevertheless, few after May 10, 1871, or in Schleswig-Holstein after August 23, public complaints were heard, and many registrants went 1866—the dates these territories were added to Germany— out of their way to demonstrate their loyalty to America. was required to register.52 Chief John Webber of La Crosse reported that "we have not Registrants began the process by filling out a three- a particle of trouble with the registrants" and praised "the page form, or affidavit. The form collected information on a cheerfulness and willingness with which the men affected are person's birth, marital status, family, residency, occupation, co-operating in the work." He concluded that "the majority and the circumstances of their arrival in the United States. of the aliens who have been registered here this week are loyal The form also asked about languages spoken and written, and American citizens" and noted that he had "heard the Kaiser whether the registrant had "ever been arrested or detained on damned more yesterday by registrants than [he had] since any charge." Other questions probed the registrant's relation­ the war started."55 Chief Don C. McKay of Waukesha later ship to foreign countries: "Have you reported to or registered echoed this view, asserting that "most of the women [and]... with a consul or representative of any country other than the men who registered, were victims of circumstances A large United States for Government service of any kind?" "Have majority of the women registered appeared to be strongly you taken an oath of allegiance to any country.. .other than American in feeling."56

12 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 12. Have you ever been naturalized, partly or wholly, in any country other than the United States? £. hisZL If >es, ("Yes" or "No. ) state when and where and in what country _ . -

13. Has your present husband ever applied for naturalization in or taken out first papers of naturalization in the United States ?

("Yes" or "No.") If yes, state when and where _. _ — 14. Has your present husband ever been naturalized, either wholly or partly, in any country other than the United States? If yes, state when and where and in what country -— ("Yes" or "No.") 15. Have you ever taken an oath of allegiance to any country, State, or nation other than the United States? _<™S_JCJ? ("Yea" or "No.") If yes, state when and where and to what country 16. Have you ever been arrested or detained on any charge? -- ^3^C^. If yes, state when, where, and on ("Yes" or " No.") ^^^ what charge - Are you on parole? -_r£-T2^?.. ^ ("Yes" or "No.") 17. Have you a permit to enter forbidden areas? _^35e£££_ If yes, state number of permit ("Yes" or "No.") (18) Languages: Spoken.

I solemnly swear that all the above statements and answers by me made are true.

Lett thumb print, if regis­ (Signature.) trant can not write.

Sworn to before me this , V&£

DESCRIPTION OF REGISTRANT. ^U^ hPAJlSt, (To be filled in by registration officer.) Age /-.S?.-. years _/___ months. Mouth.LA^Z^&L*r^~-.-

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Enemy alien affidavit of Johanna Katerof Newton, Kansas. Most of the half million affidavits taken in 1918 were destroyed after the war. This is one from a small collection of affidavits from German-born Nebraska n residents held by the National Archives.

WINTER 2018 13 (COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE NEW YORK HERALD CO.) All Rights Reserved. Despite the willing compliance described at registration and that the postmaster "was perfectly right in his refusal offices around the state, some newspaper editors remained to give [the list] to you." The State Council of Defense was hostile. The Kenosha News, in a widely reprinted editorial, more sympathetic, urging Ashland officials to "bring all the declared that "German aliens are entitled to courtesy so pressure to bear locally that you can, in order to force [the long as they are willing and ready to abide by regulations. If postmaster] to [give] up the information."60 they complain on the regulations, send them to internment German-born residents who were caught without their and send their friends along with them."57 The editors of the papers or who violated any of the other rules that applied Wisconsin StateJournal, without any apparent basis in reality to alien enemies were subject to internment. And some claimed that "in all the large manufacturing cities hundreds were interned. In 1919, US Attorney General A. Mitchell of German enemy aliens are being arrested for non-registra­ Palmer estimated that across the United States "about tion, and the majority of them state that they were working 4,000 enemy aliens were interned during the war."61 Most in factories at twice the wages they could get in Germany." had been detained for failing to notify the authorities when The editorial went on to suggest they changed their residence.62 that "maybe we should have laws Some were interned for doing to deport aliens who are with us "GERMAN ALIENS ARE or saying things that were long enough to become citizens considered disloyal or unpatri­ and do not."58 ENTITLED TO COURTESY otic. Others were arrested for If there really were hundreds failing to register. A Lutheran of aliens arrested for nonregistra­ SO LONG AS THEY ARE minister from Janesville who tion, it was not reported in the was charged with this offense papers of those "large manufac­ WILLING AND READYTO pleaded that he had been born turing cities." For example, five ABIDE BY REGULATIONS. in Alsace before it became a days after the Statejournal edito­ German province, and he did rial, the Racine Journal-News IFTHEY COMPLAIN ON not think he needed to register. reported that "federal authori­ The police claimed, somewhat ties are said to be inclined to deal THE REGULATIONS, SEND improbably, that a picture of leniently with German aliens the Kaiser had been found in who failed to register during the THEM TO INTERNMENT his pocket. He was held for the stipulated period and who have US marshal.63 Another man, reasonable explanation of why AND SENDTHEIR FRIENDS Herman Heller, tragically they failed. So far as is known ALONG WITH THEM." committed suicide in jail after there are very few in Racine being held for failure to register. who failed to register."59 The Upon searching his room, the truth was that most officials had no reliable way of knowing MarshBeld Times reported, "nothing was found to attach whether anyone had failed to register. him with the German government."64 In some communities, zealous citizens demanded to see After the war, most of the detainees were paroled or the names of their neighbors who had registered. They argued released. About nine hundred, however, were considered by that the names should be "a matter of public knowledge" Attorney General Palmer to be "dangerous enemy aliens" and and should not be kept secret from their "American neigh­ were to be "held indefinitely." They included, in his words, bors." They claimed that they wanted to inform their local "convicted criminals, spies and enemy agents" as well as police officers, to ensure aliens were not voting, and to verify two hundred "professed members of the I.W.W. [Industrial that all who needed to had registered. Postmasters and police Workers of the World, a labor organization] or anarchistic chiefs had been warned by US marshals that the information organizations."65 Clearly, in the view of some local and federal submitted during registration was to be kept strictly confi­ officials, membership in a labor union or radical political dential. Accordingly, a few postmasters refused to release the group was enough evidence of "disloyalty" to be prosecuted names. In Ashland, local officials appealed first to the office of under wartime alien enemy restrictions. During the war, a the federal marshal, Frank O'Connor, and then to the State Sheboygan alderman had accused police of detaining and Council of Defense. O'Connor confirmed that "the names of questioning citizens for no other reason than having joined the aliens who registered are to be withheld for the present" the local Leather Workers Union. In a subsequent trial, a US military intelligence officer testified that the union had Opposite: Cartoon by W. A. Rogers, published in the/VewVor/c "banded" with twenty-eight "alien enemies of this govern­ Herald on March 3,1918 ment," and therefore the police had been justified in arresting

WINTER 2018 15 citizens who belonged to the union. The police department the war.71 Many of the currents that fed the anti-German and its officers were acquitted.66 hysteria of the war years—nativism, fear of attack by enemies On Christmas Day, 1918, a little more than a month after from within, and demonization of those enemies—while no the end of the war, President Wilson ordered the removal longer aimed at Germans, are still a powerful force in Amer­ of most of the restrictions that had been imposed on non- ican political discourse and policy today. Wi naturalized German residents. The government retained the power of internment and continued to restrict the entry and Notes departure of non-naturalized Germans from the United States. 1. Men registered from February 4 to 13, women from June 17 to 26. Wisconsin State However, for most of the fifty thousand Wisconsin residents who Journal, April 28, 1918. 2. Robert G. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume 3, Urbanization and Industri­ had registered, life gradually returned to normal. For many, the alization, 1873-1893 (Madison: SHSW, 1985), 285; John D. Buenker, The History of first order of business was to complete the naturalization process. Wisconsin, Volume TV, The Progressive Era, 1893-1914 (Madison: SHSW, 1998), 183. 3. Richard H. Zeitlin, Germans in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of During the war, enemy aliens had been barred from becoming Wisconsin, 2000), 13. citizens. Some had attended citizenship classes instead, looking 4. Passenger list for the ship Gutenberg, July 14, 1868, Baltimore, Passenger Lists, 1820- 1964 Ancestry.com; Selected Passenger and Crew Lists and Manifests, National forward to the day they could get their final papers. After the Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC. restrictions were finallylifted , officials in several Wisconsin cities 5. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 285-288. 6. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 285-288. noted an increase in the number of applicants seeking citizen­ 7. Theodore G. Blegen, "The Competition of the Northwestern States for Immigrants," ship at local courthouses. Despite the wartime restrictions, Otto Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 3, no. 1(1919): 11 — 12. 8. Christopher Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Grady had managed to file his papers in Brown County the Modern American Citizen (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 180. same week he registered as an alien. He and Ida finally became 9. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 285-290. 6/ 10. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 294. citizens on November 10, 1919. 11. Marriage record for Otto and Ida Grady, Wisconsin Pre-1907 Vital Records: Marriage As the years passed, the registration program was largely Record for Oconto County, March 5, 1884, vol. 1, 263, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. forgotten. It seems likely that those who had been forced 12. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 603-609. to register would have preferred it that way. The govern­ 13. William D. Hoard Papers, Mss 232, Box 44, Folder 8, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. ment obliged by destroying most of the affidavits that were 14. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 603-609. filed, perhaps to protect the confidentiality of the registrants. 15. Christian F^oerner, The Bennett Law and the German Protestant Parochial Schools of Wisconsin (Milwaukee: Germania Publishing Co., 1890), 9, online facsimile at http:// Beyond newspaper reports and some scattered documents, content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/tp/id/44821. very little evidence remains of the alien enemy registrations 16. Nesbit, The History of Wisconsin, Volume III, 603. 17. Richard L. Pifer, The Great War Comes to Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical carried out during World War I. A very small number of the Society Press, 2017), 38-39. one-half million affidavits filed by German-born residents 18. Quoted in Jorg Nagler, "Enemy Aliens in the USA, 1914-1918," in Minorities in 68 Wartime, ed. Panikos Panayi (Oxford: Berg, 1993), 196. remain in local offices or at the National Archives. Most 19. Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You, 186-187. were destroyed after the war. Some families still have the 20. Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States, December 5, 1918,: quoted in Nagler, "Enemy Aliens in the USA," 202. registration cards that their ancestors carried, but many have 21. Nagler, "Enemy Aliens in the USA," 202. been lost or discarded. 22. Woodrow Wilson, "Additional and Supplemental Regulations Concerning Alien Enemies," Statutes at Large, vol. 40, part 2 (Washington, DC: Government Printing In the years since the World Wars, German culture Office, 1919), 1651-1652; Helen Divjak and Lee Ann Potter, "Alien Enemy Registra­ and language have lost much of their stigma in Wisconsin. tion during World War I," Social Education 66, no. 5(2002): 2262-2269. 23. "Warns Enemy Aliens," New York Times, April 7, 1917, as quoted in Capozzola, Uncle No doubt this is largely due to the decline in the number Sam Wants You, 178. For a more detailed discussion of the Wilson administration's of German-born immigrants in the state. German- "alien enemy" policies, see Capozzola, especially 173-205. 24. Jules Witcover, Sabotage at Black Tom: Imperial Germany's Secret War in America. language newspapers and German-only instruction in schools 1914-1917 (Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 1989), 110-112; see also "J. P. Morgan Shot have virtually disappeared.69 German heritage has gradu­ by Man Who Set the Capitol Bomb," New York Times July 4, 1915. 25. Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You, 182. ally become something to celebrate again. It is now more 26. Sturgeon Bay Advocate, February 21, 1918; Eau Claire Leader, March 3, 1918. frequently associated with food, music, and drink than with 27. Abner Carpenter to Council of Defense, February 16, 1918, State Council of Defense Records, Series 1642, Box 15, Folder 19, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. parochial education, language, and cultural institutions. 28. Marshfield Times, August 21, 1918. Nevertheless, the episode was not without its lasting 29. Waukesha Freeman July 4, 1918. 30. Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress, December 4, 1917, The Public Papers of impact. "Alien enemy" restrictions, wartime propaganda, Woodrow Wilson: War and Peace, vol. 1 (New York: Harper, 1927), 136. and the programs of patriotic associations arguably hastened 31. Oscar Ameringer, If You Don't Weaken (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1940), 338. 32. Pifer, The Great War Comes to Wisconsin, 215. the decline of German-language and cultural institutions in 33. Ellis B. Usher to William B. Hoard, August 27, 1917; Hoard to Usher, August 29, 1917: the state. The association of German culture with disloyalty William D. Hoard papers, Box 43, Folder 4, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. 34. Wilson, "Additional and Supplemental Regulations Concerning Alien Enemies," during the war made it difficult for the advocates of German 1716-1718. language, schools, and newspapers to pursue their causes in 35. Eau Claire Leader, February 9, 1918. 70 36. Sheboygan Press, February 3, 1918; see also La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, the years to follow. Further, some scholars have argued that February 1, 1918. polarization over questions of loyalty and citizenship during 37. The men were Private Reynolds Grady, Company M, 11th Infantry, Private Walter Grady, Company D., 324th Infantry, and Private Fred Grady, Company I, 339th the war helped shape the American state that emerged after Infantry. All three survived the war and returned home.

16 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 38. Otto Grady naturalization papers, November 7, 1919, Brown County Natural­ ization Records, Brown Series 27-29, volume 9, page 46, UW—Green Bay Area Research Center, Green Bay, Wisconsin. 39. Robert Lansing to Woodrow Wilson, April 18, 1918, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 47, ed. Arthur S. Link (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), 360-61. Leave your mark 40. Lansing to Wilson, April 18, 1918, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 47:360-61. 41. Woodrow Wilson to Robert Lansing, April 20, 1918, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 47:380-81. 42. Janesville Daily Gazette, January 15, 1918. 43. New North (Rhinelander), February 7, 1918; Eau Claire Leader, February 9, 1918. 44. La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, January 2, 1918. 45. La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, February 4, 1918. 46. Milwaukee Journal, February 4, 1918. 47. Racine Journal-News, February 7, 1918. 48. La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, February 7, 1918; Milwaukee Journal. Your planned gift to the February 4, 1918. 49. NewNorth, February 7, 1918. Society is a contribution that 50. Jane sville Daily Gazette January 15, 1918;-Racme/ouraai-./Vews',January 22, 1918. 51. NewNorth, February 7, 1918. 52. La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, February 11, 1918. can last for generations. 53. Enemy Alien Registration Affidavit for Johanna Kater, Enemy Alien Registra­ tion Affidavits, 1917-1921, Record Group 118: Records of US Attorneys, National Archives website, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/286862. Retired Madison teacher Carroll Heideman 54. NewNorth, February 7, 1918. 55. La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press, February 7, 1918. has assured that her legacy—and that of her 56. Waukesha Freeman, July 4, 1918. 57. Reprinted in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, February 19, 1918. beloved late husband, Robert—will be one of 58. Wisconsin Statejournal, February 20, 1918. 59. Racine Journal-News, February 25, 1918. helping students learn to research and appreciate 60. J. G. Owen, Secretary of the Eau Claire County Council of Defense, to the State Council of Defense, March 6, 1918; Carl Rudquist to State Council of Defense, history by including the Wisconsin Historical March 21 1918; Federal Marshal Frank O'Connor to Carl Rudquist, March 23 1918; Assistant Secretary of the State Council of Defense to Carl Rudquist. Society in her estate plan. In Carroll's words, Chairman of the Ashland County Council, March 23, 1918; all letters from Wisconsin, State Council of Defense, General Correspondence, 1917—1919, Series "We need to reach beyond ourselves, to make 1642, Box 1, Folder 3, Wisconsin Historical Society. 61. Grand Rapids Tribune, April 10, 1919; for more on internment of German aliens contributions to organizations that can make a during World War I see Capozzola, Uncle Sam Hants You, 186—190. 62. For more on the history of German internment camps in World War I, seejorg difference in the world." Nagler, "German Enemy Aliens and Internment in World War I: Alvo von Alvens- leben in Fort Douglas, Utah," Utah Historical Quarterly, 58 (1990): 388-405. 63. Wisconsin Statejournal, April 10, 1918. 64. Marshfield Times, September 25, 1918. 65. Grand Rapids Tribune, April 10, 1919. 66. Sheboygan Press, September 5, 1918. 67. Otto Grady naturalization papers. 68. See, for instance, Johanna Kater's affidavit, held at the National Archives and available in their online archive at https://catalog.archives.gov/id/286862. A German-born resident of Newton, Kansas, Kater was sixteen when she registered. The National Archives holds 5,993 alien enemy records from the office of the US Marshal for the District of Kansas. 69. Randi Julia Ramsden, "Shaping Identity: The History of German-Language Newspapers in Wisconsin," Wisconsin Magazine of History 100, no. 1 (Fall 2016): 41-43. 70. To cite just one example, the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire discontinued German language instruction during the war and did not restore the program until the 1930s. See Hilda Garter and John Jenswold, The University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire: A Hstory, 1916-1976 (Eau Claire, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Foundation, 1976). 71. Capozzola, Uncle Sam Wants You, 183. Capozzola contends that "tensions over how the obligation of loyalty would be enforced—of how the very borders of citizenship would be defended—prompted a remaking of the political culture of obligation and laid the foundation for the state that emerged from the war."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Lee Grady is a reference archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. He has master's degrees in American history and information studies from the Uni­ versity of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the great-grandson of Otto and Ida Grady.

WINTER 2018 17 us

OUR BOYS

ov. 11th to 18th CAM PA $170,500,000 Collecting for VICTORY World War I Print Propaganda and the Wisconsin Historical Society

BY SIMONE MUNSON

"If the war had not stopped we should have been obliged to move into the street and let the posters have the building!"1 —Annie Nunns, Assistant Superintendent, Wisconsin Historical Society, 1920

Mobilization for war encompasses more than soldiers, guns, and ammunition. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, the entire nation mobilized to take part in the war effort, even the histo­ SKilled rians, librarians, and curators of the Wisconsin Histor­ ical Society. "WbrRers Public perception of the war in Europe was an important issue long before the United States officially entered the fray. President Woodrow Wilson had run for On the dround behind the lines office on an antiwar platform in 1916, but as German aggression persisted, the United States found it neces­ In the Air Service sary to enter the conflict. The massive organization and CHAUFFEURS WOODWORKERS CARPENTERS the quick change in public opinion needed to prepare METALWORKERS MACHINISTS TAILORS AUTO MECHANICS PHOTOGRAPHERS MOTORCYCLISTS AND MEN FROM 40 OTHER TRADES the country for war also required the control of public Skilled Workers Registered in the Draft, information. Printed propaganda, including posters, or Under 40 Years of Age Can Still Join the pamphlets, and handbills, was crucial in promoting Aviation Section, Signal Corps, U. S. Army I the war effort. The printing and propaganda efforts flOB INSTRUCTIONS WRITE AIR PERSONNEL DIVISION,RECRUmNGSECTIO«.SIGNAlC0RPS.WASHINGT0N.D.C. were led by the US government's Committee on Public Information (CPI), chaired by George Creel. Creel was

Left: This poster promoted the joint efforts of the YWCA and YMCA to endorse President Woodrow Wilson's United War Work Campaign, an effort to raise money for the ongoing war in Europe. Ironically, the armistice was signed the first day of the campaign, which was scheduled from November 11 to 18,1918. Above: Recruiting posters weren't just about getting young men to the front lines. This one, illustrated by Louis Francher for the US Signal Corps, encouraged skilled workers forty and younger to join work"on the ground behind the lines."

WINTER 2018 19 <

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Left: In summer 1917, the American Red Cross put out an urgent call for more than one and a half million knitted goods. They provided patterns for socks, mufflers, sweaters, and fingerless mittens.This highly publicized campaign encouraged women to take up knitting whenever time allowed, through knitting clubs, FOR U.S.ARMY parties, and even at church. NEAREST RECRUITING STATION Right:This iconic poster of Uncle Sam (top) was drawn by James Montgomery Flagg in 1917. Uncle Sam's image was reused countless times in World War I posters—even in the guise of a stern Lady Liberty (bottom), who compels the viewer to buy liberty bonds with a pointed finger. Opposite: Women were often portrayed in classical depic­ You can help tions of the mother, the angel, or the goddess in World War AMERICAN RED CROSS I posters—here, as winged "Victory."

a liberal who came to government service from working as the US government the ability to produce large quantities a muckraker journalist and editor in Denver.2 The CPI had of vibrant and eye-catching posters for distribution around several subcommittees devoted to various forms of media, the county4 including print, radio, and the movies. One of the subcom­ The CPI designed posters for government agencies mittees was the Division of Pictorial Publicity, which was as well as partner organizations and industries vital to the formed in 1917. Creel asked Charles Dana Gibson to be his war effort. The posters were used by these entities to spread partner in the effort. Gibson, creator of the iconic Gibson information on a variety of subjects, including recruitment, Girl, was one of the most famous American illustrators of the fundraising, and home front labor, as well as to inform citi­ period and also the president of the Society of Illustrators. He zens about food rations and restrictions and more generally reached out to the country's best illustrators and encouraged to promote patriotism. The work of the artist was of vital them to volunteer their creativity to the war effort.3 importance in spreading the poster's message and provided World War I marks the first military engagement in a pivotal part of the emotional response needed to promote which the American government used modern marketing action. Countries on both sides of the conflict distributed techniques and advertising language to compel the support posters widely to garner support, urge action, and boost of the American people. After chromolithography was devel­ morale, but as former director of the Wisconsin Historical oped in the second half of the nineteenth century, it became Society George L. Vogt pointed out in a Wisconsin Maga­ possible to reproduce full-color posters and other printed zine of History article, "Unlike many European posters of the material. These advances within the printing industry gave period, American posters almost never mentioned the word

20 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SHARE IN THE VICTORY SAVE FOR YOVR COVNTRY |S] SAVE FOR YOVRSELF BVY WAR SAVINGS STAMPS

KW Coffin voLurmiRS WANTED FOR FARM WORK

A PLACE WILL BE FOUND FOR YOU Every fit Briton should join our brave at the Front. ENLIST NOW

THE CALL TO DUTY/ U.S. NAVY • & JOIN .tfWvnVi 'J! THE ARMY nft\V - FOR HOME

FIRST IN m ALWAYS THE FIGHT-m FAITHFUL BE AU.5.MARINE!

22 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY war." Instead, words like liberty, service, and freedom were used to sway hearts and minds.5 In all, the US federal government commissioned more than 1,400 different posters, cartoons, and graphics to merge this artistic form of advertising with key messages about the war.6 Pamphlets created by the CPI also flooded American homes. The United States entrance into the war had been a hotly debated topic for years. To convince the American public that the president had made the right decision, the CPI issued a series of pamphlets. One, titled "How the War Game to America," had more than five million copies printed in English. It was also printed in German,

. 0 Italian, Polish, Spanish, and 11 Portuguese. The message | = of the pamphlet was clear: I < II entry into the war was a necessary step, and all Americans would be called upon to play a role in the war effort.' The GPI worked continuously to dissem­ inate the war message, supplying newspapers with daily updates on the war and producing a wide variety pamphlets meant to target specific audiences. Tor example, 5,550,000 copies of a pamphlet titled "Kaiserite in America" were printed and sent to traveling busi­ nessmen throughout the United States.8 The purpose of the pamphlet was to make citizens aware of common "German lies" that were thought to be circulating around the country. According to the pamphlet, these lies included false claims about religious differ­ ENLIST j ences between Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, NOW 'doing to p FOR n[L ? The print room of the Wisconsin Historical Society, ca. U.S. 1917.The room featured a rotating display of posters, ENLIST IN THE N JOIN YOUR AMERICAN RED CROSS pamphlets, and information about the war effort. l.b.NAVY RECRUITINGSTATION Some of the posters in this photo are still part of the Society's archival collection today, like the poster in the top row featuring a chicken. The poster (right) was created in 1916 by R.G. Praill and printed by the Avenue Press in London. It was donated to the Society in 1916 before the United States'entry into the war.

WINTER 2018 23 as well as false information about the goals of the Red Gross, forever lost."13 The commission was first chaired by Milo lies about unequal food rationing, and other falsehoods M. Quaife, the director of the Wisconsin Historical Society. designed to turn allies against each other.9 This pamphlet Not surprisingly, most of the eight-member commission was and many like it were designed to sway public opinion for the made up of Society staff, and the group worked tirelessly to war, encourage patriotic activity, and incite fear and heighten network throughout the state to gather material on Wisconsin suspicion of the enemy. However, Creel might have disagreed soldiers as well as Wisconsin citizens who contributed to the with this assessment. In his final report summarizing the war effort. actions of the CPI, he wrote: The goal of the commission was to document all official war-related activities, including the efforts of social organizations At no point were our functions negative. We dealt in like the YMGA, YWCA, and Red Gross, and to gather docu­ the positive, and our emphasis was ever on expression, ments and reports from local and state government programs not suppression. We fought indifference and disaf­ related to the war effort. The WHC was particularly interested fection in the United States and we fought falsehood in the story of food conservation, war gardens, the Tiberty Toan abroad. We strove for the maintenance of our own drives, relief work, and children's activities during the war. In morale by every process of stimulation; we sought the addition to documents and reports from local organizations, verdict of mankind by truth telling. We did not call it the WHC also received relevant published material from every "propaganda," for that word, in German hands, had newspaper published in the state.14 Deposits were made at court­ come to be associated with lies and corruptions. Our houses and public libraries in every Wisconsin county. Whenever work was educational and informative only, for we possible, two copies were collected, one for the home county and had such confidence in our case as to feel that only another to be sent to the Society in Madison.15 fair presentation of the facts was needed.10 To carry out this enormous task, the WHC attempted to create a local War History Committee in each county. At the Even before the United States entered the war, the histo­ peak of the collecting efforts in 1919, the WHC had estab­ rians at the Society took an interest in documenting the conflict, lished active committees in sixty-seven of the seventy-one particularly as it related to British and Canadian history. As early counties that existed in Wisconsin at the time. The primary as 1914, curators began adding a few pamphlets and posters to goal of the local committees was to collect information on the Society's collection.11 With the United States' entrance, cura­ the men and women in their communities who served their tors began collecting CPI posters and pamphlets as they were country at home and overseas. The WHC created a standard published, in effect creating an archival collection of the war in form and guidelines for the types of information it wanted ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ real time. Acquisitions grew committees to collect, and it encouraged committees to try to at an increasing pace as the create a complete list of all those in service from their commu­ suggestions io, New Yorker. war progressed. What began nities. The local committees also reached out to photogra­ as a haphazard collection of phers to help them document the war effort at home.16 WAR WORK posters and pamphlets soon From July 1917 through much of 1918, the Society's print H.(jMh, turned into a coordinated room was used for continuous exhibition of acquisitions related WHERE TO SEND statewide effort to collect to the war. The collection consisted of posters, handbills, and THINGS YOU SAVE o material related to Wiscon- circulars issued by all levels of government and by local orga­ "Waste and extravagance 17 are Germany's dent allies. sjn's r0}g [n mg Great WlT. Lvery bit or waste; every nizations in the United States, Britain, and Canada. As the needless expenditure takes force from the driving power In 1918, Wisconsin's war progressed, artifacts began to come back to Wisconsin that America must put into , ihe«"" State Council of Defense from the front lines. Soon the Society's exhibition included not OCT 2 9 |9i8 , responded to requests to only posters and pamphlets but also military equipment and ...... further document the role munitions found on the front lines, letters and censored mail Published with indorsement of of Wisconsinites in the received by loved ones at home, and other items from the war.18 war effort by creating the Additionally, the Society purchased photographs and War History Commission other documents from the CPI to help complete the collec­ ;WHG). Albert O. Barton, tion. One such set of photographs documents various US National War Savings Committee L 51 Chambers St., N. Y. C. who led the collecting Army activities, mainly in France, from 1917 to 1918. Included "WarWorkat Home"seems practical, but its message was effort at the end of the war, are images of soldiers, front line trenches, and military trans­ based in anti-German rhetoric commented, "Too much portation, as well as photographs taken after battles showing 19 with its opening statement ephemera was going into wounded men, hospitals, and the ruins of bombed-out cities. thaf'waste and extravagance wastebaskets. If it were not When the war ended in November 1918, Barton and Society are Germany's silent allies." preserved now, it would be staff around the state used their well-developed network to

24 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY ON THE JOB FOR VICTORY UNITED J'TATEJ /HIPPING BOARD EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION'

Above:The hustle and bustle of a 3J0BS for FIGHTERC shipbuilding operation take center stage as US shipbuilders work together for the war effort. One of the largest in the Society's collection at 54 x 38 inches, the poster was meant to motivate the viewer into action and instill a sense of collective pride. Left: Commissioned in 1918 by the National Association of Manufacturers, this poster uses a quote from PresidentWilson to rein­ force its pro-work message for men America Needs Its Nan Power who remained on the home front. Sticking to your job will help to shorten the Right: Former soldiers were not war and pave the way for a prosperous forgotten after the war. This poster, peace. The demand for supplies for Our Boys designed by Gordon Grant, publicizes "Over there" is so great that every bit of man power we possess is needed. If you can't IfYou Need ^ Job the free services offered to veterans enlist.get a Job and hold on to it. If You Need a Man who needed to find work after Inform the Official Central Agency The Service is Free returning to the United States. irSYOURWAYTO HELP LKKTHE KAISER The United States Employment Service Bureau for Reluming Soldiers and Sailors ZL] THIS CHURCH IS HELPING c

WINTER 2018 25 Left: Even children were recruited for the war effort, as demonstrated by this poster commissioned by the US Food Administration encouraging them to eat less wheat and clean their plates. Right: Designed by John Norton in 1918, this poster was used to WM.""^ encourage Americans to purchase liberty bonds to support the war. Little Fundraising posters often used AMERICANS dramatic imagery, like these bloody German boots threatening Do your hit to march on US soil. Eat Oatmeal-Corn meal mush- Hominy-other corn cereals - ttiese Opposite: Frenchman H. Gray illus­ and Rice with milkx trated this poster in 1919. It was Save the wheat for our soldiers. oir part of a series of posters printed Leave nothing on your plate after the war to help raise money the USA for recovering communities and STATE S \DMINISTRAT bring tourism back to France. Buy mote LIBERTY BOtfDJ collect as much as possible. Their efforts were a success, and 8. The United States Committee on Public Information, The Creel Report, 20. 9. The United States Committee on Public Information, The Kaiserite in America: One in the end the commission compiled thousands of wartime Hundred and One German Lies (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, documents and first-hand accounts. Quaife believed the 1918), 4-7. 10. The United States Committee on Public Information, Creel Report, 1. poster collection to be the most complete in the country, 11. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Proceedings of the 1916 Annual Meeting of the and the model of work established by Wisconsin's WHC was State Hstorical Society of Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin. copied in a number of other states.20 1916), 62, 67. 12. Milo M. Quaife, "Survey of Historical Activities: The Society and the State," Since the Society first began developing its collections, the Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 1, no. 4 (June 1918): 437-438. practice of contemporary collecting has been an important 13. Clifford L. Lord and Carl Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1846-1954 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1967), part of documenting history. This spirit of collecting "in the 234-235. moment" was not new to the Society in 1917, but the Great War 14. Directive of the Wisconsin War History Commission, June 1918, Wisconsin War History Commission, General Correspondence, Series 1693, Box 1, Wisconsin inspired the most systematic and bureaucratic collecting effort Historical Society Archives. undertaken by Society staff to that point. The Society continues 15. Lord and Ubbelohde, Clio's Servant, 234. 16. "Report of the Work of the Wisconsin War History Commission, April 21, 1918," this practice today, as archivists, curators, and librarians work State Historical Society of Wisconsin, General Administrative Correspondence, with state agencies, partners, and citizens to collect documents 1900-2005, Series 934, Box 80, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. and artifacts about Wisconsin's past and present so they can be 17. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Proceedings of the 1917 Annual Meeting of the State Hstorical Society of Wisconsin (Madison: The Society, 1917), 37. used by historians and patrons both now and in the future. IXfl 18. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Proceedings of the 1917 Annual Meeting, 33. 19. Collection summary and donor information, "World War I Photographs: United States Army Signal Corps," Wisconsin Historical Society Library, UW Library Notes website, https://search.library.wisc.edu/catalog/9911126155502121.

1. Annie Nunns to Marguerite E. Jenison, December 3, 1920, State Historical Society 20. Multiple letters from other state commissions asking Quaife for advice and direction. of Wisconsin General Administrative Correspondence, Series 934, Box 53, Wisconsin Wisconsin War History Commission, General Correspondence, Series 1693, Box 1. Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. 2. For more on Creel's oversight of the CPI, see Alan Axelrod, Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2009). 3. George L. Vogt, "When Posters Went to War: How America's Best Commer­ ABOUT THE AUTHOR cial Artists Helped Win World War I," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory (Winter Simone Munson is the Collection Develop­ 2000-2001): 39. 4. James Robert Mock and Cedric Larson, Words That Won the War: The Story of the ment Coordinator for the Wisconsin Historical Committee on Public Information (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1939), 77. Society. She earned a master's degree in his­ 5. Vogt, "When Posters Went to War," 41. tory from the University of New Mexico and 6. The United States Committee on Public Information, The Creel Report; The a master's degree in library and information Complete Report of the Chairman of the Committee on Public Information (New York: De Capo Press, 1972), 42. sciences from the University of Wisconsin- 7. The United States Committee on Public Information, How the War Came to Madison. Munson resides in Black Earth with America (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1917). her husband and four children.

26 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Edite par laCompaqnie du CHEMIN DE FER DU NORD CORNILLE i. SERRE -1MPHIMEURS, 19, Rue du Terrase. PARIS, The 1914 Meeting of the of American

BY LARRY NESPER THE DISADVANTAGES FACED BY AMERICAN INDIANS LIVING on reservations in the early twentieth century are by now commonly known: physical health, diets, and housing were The Society of American poor; education was inferior; and many tribal members lived Indians met in Madison at the in poverty. Under the Dawes Act, tribes continued to lose University of Wisconsin for valuable land as the result of an allotment policy that divided their fourth annual conference collectively held tribal estates into parcels held by individuals. Though that same policy made those who were allotted land in 1914. The first Indian rights US citizens, most Indian people continued to live as wards organization composed of and of the government. Federal agents with little knowledge of run solely by Native people, its Indian people governed tribal communities autocratically with inadequate understanding of tribal sovereignty, history members lobbied for Indian or culture. citizenship, equal education, It wasn't until 1911, when the Society of American and a legal means for tribes to Indians (SAI) held its first meeting at Ohio State University that Indians organized to advocate for themselves. According bring claims directly before to historian Ghadwick Allen, the SAI was "the first American the US government. Indian rights organization conceived, developed, and run by

28 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Society Indians at UW-Madison

Attendees of the 1914 Society of American Indians conference are pictured in front of Lapham Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

Native People themselves."1 Previous organizations, including ^Yavapai-Apache), were influenced by the ideology of Richard the Women's National Indian Association, the Indian Rights Henry Pratt, founder of Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Association, and the Lake Mohonk Conference, were made "To civilize an Indian, put him in civilization and keep him up almost entirely of non-Indians. The SAI—national, secular, there." Montezuma, who had been raised outside of tribal pan-tribal, and Progressive—was composed of members of life since age four, believed in "public education and instant the first generation of well-educated, professional, middle- assimilation" and, like many in the SAI, was opposed to the class American Indian men and women. Together, these work of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and to reservation life in "Red Progressives" sought to use their education and status general.2 Others, like Laura Cornelius Kellogg, a Wisconsin to improve the conditions of American Indian people in Oneida educator and activist, sought to develop the reser­ the areas of health, education, and civil rights, largely by vations as industrial communes with a degree of separation lobbying Congress on behalf of all Indian people, and, to a from the dominant society. Gertrude Bonnin, a Sioux, took lesser extent, by intervening at the tribal or local level. this further with the belief that the SAI should make an effort In recent years as a strong tribal sovereignty movement to aid Indians living on reservations: "It is our first duty, to has reemerged, the SAI has been criticized for its perceived make an effort toward uplift work among our reservation commitment to the assimilation of American Indian people. Indians, ourselves; and in our own way"3 In fact, during its twelve years of existence, SAI members Despite individual members' concern for the plight embraced a measured cultural pluralism and self-determi­ of reservation Indians, the SAI thought more in terms nation to different degrees. Some, like Carlos Montezuma of race than in terms of tribal affiliation. As historian

WINTER 2018 29 Left to Right: Carlos Montezuma (Yavapai-Apache), ca 1905; Laura Cornelius Kellogg (Oneida), 1911; Sherman Coolidge (Arapaho), ca. 1900; Henry Roe Cloud (Nebraska Winnebago or Ho-Chunk), ca. 1910.

Jeffrey R. Hanson points out, they "embraced several key University of Wisconsin—Madison.7 This would be the first components of late-nineteenth century evolutionism."4 time that the SAI met in a state where there was a relatively SAI members believed the "Indian race" could be uplifted large resident Indian population and multiple reservations. In through education and opportunity, but that the reser­ fact, local Indian people constituted half of the attendees. As a vation policy and Indian people's status as wards of the result, the political status of tribal communities in treaty rela­ government were holding them back from full participa­ tionships with the federal government emerged as a central tion in American life. Among their goals, they hoped to theme. This represented a departure from the nearly exclusive "promote and cooperate with all efforts looking to the emphasis on "the Indian" and "uplifting the race" in previous advancement of the Indian.. .To develop according to the meetings. It also highlighted the tension between tribalism natural laws of social evolution;.. .To present in a just light and assimilationism and between reservation Indians and a true history of the race;.. .To promote citizenship among their counterparts in the SAI who had been inducted into Indians and to obtain the rights thereof;... [and] To estab­ mainstream American society. lish a legal department to investigate Indian problems."5 The first contact between the Society of American That first meeting of the SAI was organized by Indians and the University of Wisconsin appears to be a letter early-twentieth-century luminaries, all of whom had been sent by sociologist Fayette McKenzie, to the prominent UW successfully assimilated into American life. They were the sociologist Edward A. Ross in March 1912. Prof. McKenzie products of Indian boarding schools like Carlisle, gradu­ had facilitated the birth of the SAI at Ohio State, and he ates of elite secondary institutions, and professionals well- helped produce draft legislation that would create a commis­ regarded by the white public. Charles Eastman (Dakota) was, sion to codify the legal status of Indian people. He wanted like Carlos Montezuma, a physician and author; Henry Roe to know if Ross would consider serving on that commission, Cloud (Nebraska Winnebago or Ho-Chunk) was the first should the president appoint him.8 American Indian to graduate from Yale; Henry Standing In early 1913, Charles E. Brown, director of the State Bear (Lakota) was an assimilationist chief; Sherman Coolidge Historical Museum, wrote SAI secretary-treasurer Arthur (Arapaho) was the Episcopalian priest who worked with James C. Parker about the possibility of hosting the third annual Mooney, author of The Ghost Dance Religion; Thomas Sloan SAI meeting on the UW-Madison campus. He had spoken and Hiram Chase (both Omaha) were law partners; and with Dr. J. Ward of the University Extension, telling him of Arthur C. Parker (Seneca) was an anthropologist.6 the conversation that Ward and Parker had in Columbus Committed to education as the key to making possible the about planning the next meeting. Brown sang the praises of changes they sought, the SAI met at Ohio State University the city and the university and indicated the UW might have again in 1912 and at the University of Denver in 1913, when a strong interest in hosting. membership peaked at 619 members. In October 1914, the On February 17, 1913, UW president Charles R. Van Society held its fourth annual meeting on the campus of the Hise responded to a letter from Brown suggesting that his

30 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISFORY institution might be interested in "inviting the American treaty rights and sovereignty; the situation of reservation Indian Association to meet under the auspices of the Univer­ Indians; the concerns of local tribes; and the SAI's ongoing sity," pending receipt of more information and a commit­ commitment to the uplift of the "Indian race." ment from "some society or body to take responsibility for The conference was called to order on the evening of the invitation and for the appropriate receiving and enter­ October 6 in the assembly chamber of the Wisconsin State 9 taining of the visitors." In the meantime, the SAI sent out a Capitol. Col. Duncan MacGregor, the governor's private form letter to a number of institutions—the State Historical secretary, gave the address of welcome on the governor's Society among them—asking for support for an American behalf. He thanked the SAI for choosing Madison, calling Indian Day, another initiative recently adopted in the SAI's attention to the city's beauty and endorsing the importance 10 platform. According to Parker, it was to be "a nation-wide of education, progress, and civilization "in abolishing those holiday (official or otherwise), devoted to the study or recital distinctions over which the individual has no control."14 He of Indian lore" with "picnics, parades, Indian games, music, lauded progress as the antidote to the "sickening tragedy"— ceremonies, dramas, speeches, orations, recitals of history." World War I—that had just begun in Europe, and endorsed Its aim, wrote Parker, was to garner atten­ tion "which the red man would command 5 and would help him immensely"11 1 UW-Madison's expression of interest The Quarterly Journal in hosting a meeting notwithstanding, the 0/ SAI decided to hold their third meeting at The Society o the University of Denver in order to gather erican India "closer to Indian country while remaining LQDJ independent of the reservations."12 Early in " The honor of the race and Ibe good of the country thall be paramount 1914, however, the Society accepted President Van Hise's invitation. In the letter to Charles VOL. II WASHINGTON, D. C. APRIL-JUNE. 1914 NO. 2 Brown indicating the unanimous decision of the SAI's Executive Council, Parker acknowl­ Editorial Comment edged their mutual interest in archaeology, saying they would have to wait to discuss these BY THE EDITOR-GENERAL matters until such a time as "the Society has accomplished its aims and brought the Indian THE Fourth Annual Conference of the The Madison Society of American Indians will be held Conference Topic to a position where his social and industrial at Madison, Wis., in buildings provided condition is as safe as that of the ordinary by the University of Wisconsin, October 6-11, 1914. American."13 The proviso signaled an ambiv­ Every Indian and every person of Indian descent, together with all friends of the race, have a right to be present. In­ alence about the relationships between history deed, all are cordially invited. There are great problems to culture, and politics that would prove to be a discuss. A race undergoing a transformation for better or problem for the SAI in the long term. worse calls out for help and opportunity. The Fourth Annual Conference of the SAI The Quarterly Journal suggests as the theme for discussion "To the American Indian let there be given equal opportunities, took place from Tuesday, October 6, through equal responsibilities, equal equipment." Sunday, October 11, 1914, and attracted more The Indian cannot compete in civilization unless placed than fifty Indian people from at least thirteen on the same footing as other men. An equal status is im­ different tribes across the United States. Of perative. If the Indian does not become an equal before the law he will be robbed, plundered, trampled upon, and the twelve meetings the Society would convene finally die out. This will not be alone his fault. To obtain between 1911 and 1923, this is the only one for legal equality the law must pave the way. There is a pri­ which a detailed transcript exists, likely facili­ mary need, therefore, for legislative action. The legislative needs of the race need a thorough understanding. We have tated by Charles Brown, who would have been many times pointed out these needs. They should be care­ in a position to access the stenographic labor fully discussed at Madison and our demands given added such a task would require. The result, a single- power. We are not to demand a dozen new laws. In our spaced, 121-page account of the proceedings, is endorsement of laws let us stick to those already demanded. now held at the Wisconsin Historical Society. It offers a window into the process by which the SAI constituted itself and its agenda and highlights the main themes of the conference: The SAI's quarterly journal was edited by longtime member Arthur C. Parker.

WINTER 2018 31 the SAI's purpose "to secure equal opportunities and equal The second day of the conference was spent on an rights for all and require equal responsibility of all regardless "inspection of campus buildings" and an automobile tour of race, color, or nativity"15 of the city's parks, which included visits to the Black Hawk In response to the welcome, SAI president Sherman tablet on Bascom Hill and the Observatory Hill mounds on Coolidge took up the theme of distinctions by contrasting the campus, followed by a ceremonial unveiling of a mound tablet reservations, which were not "the best thing for the manhood in Vilas Park.22 Charles Brown had been on a very active of the race" with the Society, which he described as "a tower campaign to save the mounds of Madison since organizing of strength" that sought "to save the country and the race."16 the Wisconsin Archaeological Society in 1901, and he was C. W. Buell, representing the Madison mayor, welcomed successful in getting the legislature to enact a law protecting the group to the city and spoke of his admiration for the archaeological sites on public lands.23 As the State Histor­ Oneidas in the state. He had represented the tribe in recent ical Society's representative and the local organizer of the litigation over the Treaty of Buffalo Creek. Hiram Chase conference, he was eager to use "the opportunity to draw (Omaha), a lawyer and county judge from Nebraska, picked public attention to his efforts."24 The land had only recently up on Buell's reference to treaties and repeated some of the been secured by the city. Brown gave an address and Sara points he had made at the 1911 meeting, explaining that a Mallon, a Menomonee living in Milwaukee, unveiled the tribe "was a state with sovereignty over its domestic affairs."17 tablet. Henry Roe Cloud accepted the tablet in the name of The Madison Democrat noted his "stern face" and that he the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), who were the original inhabi­ became "worked up" in his "bitter attack" on federal Indian tants of those lands.25 policy over the last several decades.18 Chase thanked Justice The following day, SAI president Coolidge called the Joseph Lamar of the US Supreme Court for recognizing that meeting to order at the Engineering Building and invited Roe "the treaties are as sacred as any that were ever made by the Cloud, ordained as a Presbyterian minister the year before, United States."19 to give the opening invocation. The prayer included the The Odanah Star, published at the Bad River reservation request that "we make no colossal mistakes." First Coolidge, in northern Wisconsin and the only tribal newspaper in the then William Kershaw, a Menominee who practiced law in state at that time, also foregrounded the political status of the Milwaukee, reported on several issues in which the society Indian communities. The newspaper published an October had intervened in the previous year. Coolidge also gave an 9 front page article, titled update on the Carter Code bill, which proposed legislation to "Many Different Tribes codify Indians' legal status, and the Stevens bill, which would Are Represented—Among open the Court of Claims and provide a legal avenue for them Are a Number of Indians to argue for their rights directly with the US govern­ Odanah People" and ment. These were the two major projects the Society had been then selected Van Hise's working on since its first meeting three years earlier. remarks about treaties as Both Montezuma and Coolidge made reference to the the opening: "Ever since rough start the meeting was having due to the absence of the white man first landed prominent members, the most important of whom was on American soil, he has Arthur C. Parker, the secretary—treasurer, who had the been making treaties with "books and records" of the Society. Earlier in the year, Parker the red man with the same had attacked the chairman of the Senate's Indian Affairs solemnity that marks a committee in the Society's journal, and the conflict upset treaty between two nations some members of the SAI.26 In a session characterized by in this modern time. Very Coolidge as "the remaking, if you please, of ourselves, as an few of these treaties have organization," the group debated the relationship between been observed."20 This the SAI and the federal government. They made the decision Charles E. Brown, director of the concern for tribes and to create local chapters on reservations to help with financial Historical Society's museum, was treaties represented a break stability and increase their dwindling membership.2' well respected by tribes across from the racialist discourse The issue of tribal and treaty concerns emerged again Wisconsin and by the SAI for his that had characterized expertise in tribal culture and on Thursday, the conference's third day. The members burial mounds. His efforts helped the earlier meetings of recognized that they were bound to put on a large public to bring the SAI conference to the Society with the most meeting for several hundred people the following evening UW-Madison, and at the end of common terms of reference "with Indian entertainment" and they had yet to plan the the conference he was named an being "the Indian," "Indian event. It is clear from how they went about planning that honorary member. race," and "the race."21 they understood that their educational message of equality

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Brown reads a speech at the Vilas Park mound tablet, while Sara Mallon (Menominee) waits to unveil it. for "the red man" had to be packaged in such a way that Mindful of the need to balance entertainment value their non-Indian audience could hear it. As a result, they with the SATs message, Carlos Montezuma suggested "a needed to accommodate white expectations and stereotypes of reservation scene" be put on for the sake of the students, Indians without compromising that message.28 The suggestion with "an old Indian, interpreter and the agent." The group was made to have a few local Indian people give speeches in rehearsed the scene immediately. Gus Beaulieu, editor of the their Indian languages, with translations, and to invite some tribal newspaper at the White Earth Reservation in Minne­ younger Indians to sing. In addition, several SAI members sota, took the role of interpreter for the Chippewa. He trans­ would give speeches on the goals of the Society. lated as the "old Indian" complained about the borders of It was at this point that William Kershaw invited the reservation being violated by whites living on the land, Wiuskasit, traditionalist chief of the Zoar community on which meant Indian people were unable to hunt where they the Menominee reservation, to speak, translated by fellow liked.31 Though the transcript does not specify, it is very Menominee Frank Gauthier. Wiuskasit thanked the group likely that "the old Indian" was played by a member of the for the opportunity, and said he was willing to speak about Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, which had his service in the Third Wisconsin with one hundred other sent a six-member delegation. Several years earlier, tribal Menominees in the Civil War. Then he added that the member James Blackbird had been convicted for violations Menominee Indians were in a very critical condition, as of state fishing laws, and the dispute still lingered.32 whites had robbed them of land and lumber and their super­ At this point, Hall commented on the gap between the intendent could not be trusted. intentions of the local Indian leaders to have their particular Associate (non-Indian) member Robert D. Hall of problems heard and addressed and the goals of the leadership the YMCA commented, "These things could be elegantly to create the conditions and mechanisms to address a greater translated and it is one of the finest things—I believe it variety of problems. He suggested that a session be set aside would bring down the house."29 The group decided that at the next annual conference to hear from local people so Gauthier, as translator, should be granted the discre­ that they might "go back home feeling that we are generally tion to edit the speech as it was given at the large public interested in things vital to them and to the hearts of their meeting. They also decided to add a speech by a Chippewa people." Hiram Chase endorsed the suggestion, assessing the (Ojibwe) and a Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), "because here is testimonies from local leaders as evidence for "Congress to the Winnebago's country"30 pass a general bill by which every Indian tribe in the United

WINTER 2018 33 States can litigate these treaty rights in the Court of Claims."33 Nuwi picked up the treaty theme, talking at length The group passed a motion to hear these grievances and about the meaning of signing the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. explain to tribal leaders what the SAI was attempting to do Quoting Nah Kens, the term used by the Potawatomi for the about them as a class. Lac Courte Oreilles tribal member Ira American treaty commissioner, he said, "The time is coming Isham, fluent in several Wisconsin Indian languages, trans­ that we, the present people, are going to die: we are not going lated the deliberations and motion in Ojibwe. to live forever, but this paper is going to be left here with you The following day, the group spent a for the benefit of the younger generation good deal of time debating how and when and you must depend on that." He added to hear the local grievances, as well as what REMARKABLEFEAT in his own voice, referencing the need to their relationship to the rest of the work of meet directly with the US government the SAI would be. Papers had been prepared in Washington, DC, "There is a place for presentation, and there was still the busi­ where these agreements are taken and ness of electing officers in light of ongoing BY INDIAN GUEST cared for."37 conflicts with Congress. Did the group Both Hiram Chase and Sherman need to know who would be carrying the IRA ISHAM. CHIPPEWA, TRANS LATES TEN SPEECHES TJQ Coolidge responded to Nuwi and Shohn, burdens of the SAI first or should that be THREE TRIBES stating that this kind of testimony made determined by hearing from local people? them rethink the place of "the uncivilized 'tin: acknowledged most- experienced] Dennison Wheelock's argument that the and ttrulieletil Indian interpreter In \ or full blood or reservation Indian, or Wisconsin Is Mr. Ira O. .Isham ofJUe-' group needed to hear the local grievances u^rvo, Wis." .'.Mr. Isliam, who°'is' a niein- j whatever they may be called" in the work prevailed. Ira Isham interpreted for Shohn, Ij'jr. (if iliu Socfely vt American, Jnifl- f of the SAI. And though such testimony ans, came to ihe cily in charge of u a Potawatomi chief from the village of Skunk patty of Chippewa Indians from Urn ! would only be heard "anytime there was Lite .Courte Ortilles reservation iii Hill, a multitribal off-reservation settlement Siwycr conntr. Wis., consisting of a lull in the business of this association," in Wood County34 M SICBSIM'H" Gro.ver, one'of Ihe chiefs, it was, indeed, as Coolidge said, "a new and' Mr. Hilly Boy, the speaker of the 38 Shohn commenced with a mytho­ rnttttm" uuiiuufr. idea." Three local Indian leaders had The most remarkable exhibition of poetic history of the Indians meeting the MJ\ (sham's power was Riven before addressed the Society in Denver the year French on an island near New York in "nearly Joo peoj)lo in the reception before, but they spoke generally and in room of. l-rathrop hall ut the umver- 1492. He contrasted the reciprocities that -Hity on last Wednesday afternoon. At terms of "the race" and not in terms of this time he Interpreted to the Chlp- were characteristic of relations between .pewH.-vMenornonee .and, Pottawatamlo particular tribal issues and the obligations his people and the French with the Amer­ Indians present, the addrerfea of ten that treaties entailed. This turn toward the Indians and whito-jpeakers who pre­ icans, detailing the failures of the latter to ceded :Jilra. political status of local tribes signals an live up to the Treaty of 1833. He named On Friday uikhi he gave auothor important moment in the history of the demonstration by reuuest before the individual leaders on both sides and large audience of citizens gathered to SAI when it shifted, if only for a moment, meet the Indian delegates in the uni­ recited the promises they made to each versity gymnasium. At this timo he to considering "the Indian problem" in reDcaied in Chippewa the addresses terms of specific tribes' concerns. It should other. Commenting on the outcome, he delivered by Dr Sliejiuaii Coolidge* said that despite these promises, "We have president uf the society, and of Pro­ not be overlooked that this occurred the test !'\ A. MeKeitsie of the Univer­ never received one penny of the promise sity, of Ohio. first time that the Society met in a state [nor] any profits or benefits."35 Nonethe­ Mr. Isham is a most intrectiting. per* with a far more complicated tribal demog­ soilage. Ho speoka perfect Knglisli— less, he was "proud to see here before me more perfect than the ordinary, weiy| raphy than any state where they had met educated white man. lie is n native, j the different tribes that are in the same of Wisconsin, born In Chippewa ICalUtl thus far. predicament that we are" and proud that OS years ago, nnd la a snbBteiitiaf The "Large Public Meeting with the SAI had come together and try to help Indian Entertainment," as it was billed in this matter.36 in the program, took place in the university's Red Gym Isham then interpreted for John Nuwi, the last leader on Friday evening, October 9, and attempted to offer just and most famous resident of Skunk Hill. Originally from a enough Indian culture to attract and hold the audience of village near Milwaukee, Nuwi was the owner of five ceremo­ several hundred that would listen to the main concerns of nial drums, making him a significant regional figure in the the society. In his opening remarks, university president Big Drum or Dream Dance, a multitribal religious movement Van Hise recited the virtues of "the Indian race," and SAI that began in the late nineteenth century and continues to this president Sherman Coolidge followed with an overview of day. With his knowledge of Potawatomi culture and history the society. He also demonstrated Indian sign language. Nuwi had assisted anthropologist Alanson Skinner in the Prof. Fayette McKenzie spoke next, challenging the Milwaukee Public Museum's publication, The Mascoutens university to take action on Indian issues, implicitly evoking or Prairie Potawatomi Indians. the recently articulated Wisconsin Idea. The idea, as stated

34 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Clockwise from top left:This 1910 photograph of prominent Milwaukee men includes (left to right) Wisnokwut, Wiuskasit, Thomas Hog, Kesoafomesao, Louis Amore (or Amour), and Judge Perrote; Skunk Hill leader John Nuwi (Potawatomi), in front of his summer tent, ca. 1926; a group at Skunk Hill, a multitribal Indian community near Arpin, Wisconsin.

WINTER 2018 35 by Van Hise, was to extend "the beneficent influence of the before recounting his own war experience. Wiuskasit ended University" to "every family in the state."39 Extending this his talk by expressing his fear of losing the tribe's land, asking to Indians living in Wisconsin, McKenzie admitted that he "for the white people to help me now."44 William Kershaw then himself had failed to motivate anyone in power to attend to spoke on the importance of Congress passing the Carter and the needs of the approximately one hundred Indians who Stevens bills. He, too, mentioned the oppressive conditions on still lived in the state of Pennsylvania. Then he asked, "There the reservations. Instead of identifying as a reservation Indian are at least six thousand Indians in the State of Wisconsin himself, however, he implicitly identified himself as an Amer­ and what are we doing? Are you taking care of the Indians, ican, saying: "We have smothered their ambitions, we have your immediate neighbors? Our field workers are sent by our placed them in a position of bondage and we have held them universities to China, to Africa, and to other far parts of the there in a tyrannical manner."45 earth, but how many missionaries The strongest antipaternalist have you sent from this university message was saved for last. "Fiery to the Indians of Wisconsin or the 'Fiery Apache" Carlos Apache" Carlos Montezuma took United States?.. .There is a responsi­ Montezuma took the the stage, describing himself as "the bility that you have not met."40 oldest fighter on this platform." He The challenge did not go stage last, describing spoke strongly about "do [ing] away unheeded. Within a year, the himself as "the oldest with the Indian Bureau," and stated College of Agriculture sponsored that Indians ought to be loaded on the first of the Indian Farm Institutes fighter on this platform.' ships in San Francisco and sent to on the Menominee reservation, He spoke strongly about New York as immigrants, where four days of talks and demonstra­ they would "root, live or die."46 It is tions about recent developments in 'doling] away with the possible Montezuma was pointing to farming techniques. The university Indian Bureau," and his own experience as a young man, would offer institutes to the different when he was forced to make his tribes in the state over the course of stated that Indians own way in Chicago and eventually the next few decades.41 In her gener­ graduated from a Chicago medical ally critical 2010 article about this ought to be loaded on school. Though an active member project, Angela Firkus concedes of ships in San Francisco of the SAI, Montezuma was also a J. W. Wojta, the Agricultural Exten­ strong critic of the group, especially sion Service administrator at UW, and sent to New York as regarding Indian employees of the that "no other state had such a dedi­ immigrants, where they Bureau of Indian Affairs acting as cated and consistent advocate for officers in the Society. extending AES to Indian farmers."42 would "root, live or die." In addition to re-electing the The Indian Farm Institutes were the officers and taking the decision to beginning of the university's research interest in the tribes. establish SAI offices in local Indian communities, one of the Following McKenzie's challenge, Ira Isham translated the last motions passed at the meeting made Charles Brown an speeches given in English for the sake of the Indian monolin- honorary member of the SAI—a great honor as full member­ guals. Henry Roe Cloud spoke on the importance of good ship was available to "persons of Indian blood only"47 The education. Hiram Chase disabused the audience of the idea group also decided to present a memorial to the president of that Indian people are dependent upon the government, the United States to advance their goals for Indian citizenship reminding them that "what we have is either from our own and legal recourse. exertions or from the moneys due us from the government by Two months after the Madison meeting, five members promises, by the sale of our lands under treaty obligations" made the trip to Washington, DC, and made a presentation (author's emphasis). Then he went on to detail "how we are to President Woodrow Wilson read by Wisconsin Oneida at the mercy of the Indian agents," with several anecdotes.43 Dennison Wheelock. Gently reminding the president of his Chauncey Yellow Robe (Lakota), one of the SAI founders responsibilities to the tribes, the group "suggested] a few and an educator at the Rapid City Indian School, criti­ things which seem to us necessary to our welfare and progress, cized the commercialization of Indian culture in the form to our development as co-laborers and producers."48 They of the Wild West shows, citing the misrepresentation of the made two specific suggestions. First, they sought a clarifica­ Wounded Knee massacre in pageants and motion pictures. tion of the status of Indian people to be studied by a commis­ Menominee tribal member Frank Gauthier interpreted for sion that would make a recommendation to Congress in order Wiuskasit, who told of losing two brothers in the Civil War to codify Indian law. Second, they asked that the Court of

36 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Claims be given jurisdiction over all Indian claims against 14. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, Roll 10: 107-227, SAI Papers. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 3. the United States. Here the SAI recognized the deleterious Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 5. effects of what were at the time widespread "feelings that the Hertzberg, The Search for American Indian Identity, 70. 18. "Indians Trampled On by Government, Society Would Bring Better Conditions," 49 country had not fulfilled its obligation to our race." Madison Democrat, October 7, 1914. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 8. Coolidge spoke a few words followed by Kershaw, "Conference at Madison," Odanah Star, October 9, 1914. who gave a speech that Arthur C. Parker appraised in the Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 73. Proceedings of the Society at its Sixty-Third Annual Meeting Held October 21, 1915, Society's quarterly journal as "one of the masterpieces of Publications of the State Historical Society of Madison, 47 Charles Brown Papers, Box Indian oratory"50 Congressman Charles Carter (Chick­ 53, Folder 6. Robert A. Birmingham, Spirits of theEarth: The Effigy Mound Landscape of'A: asaw), concluded speaking on behalf of the proposed legis­ and the Four Lakes (Madison, University ofWisconsin Press, 2010), 98. lation regarding Indian legal status. The presentation of the 24. Birmingham, Spiritsof the Earth, 158. Papers from the Congress of American Indians, 1914, Box 53, Folder 6, Charles Brown memorial was regarded as significant by the members of the Papers. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 20. Society because it brought the SAI's agenda to Washington, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 29. DC, for the first time. Michelle Wick Patterson explores this problem in "'Real Indian Songs: The Society of American Indians and the Use of Native American Culture as a Means of Reform," The issue of treaties was addressed the following year American Indian Quarterly, 26, no. 1 (Winter, 2002) 44-66. at the meeting in Lawrence, Kansas. Like they had the year Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 60. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 61. previous, many Indians from the region and beyond came Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 66. to the meeting to complain about local conditions.51 With 32. In Re Blackbird, 109 F.139, 1901. Nearby Red Cliff was also in a conflict with the state over fishing in State v. Morrin, 136 Wis. 552, 1908. the proclamation of American Indian Day on the second Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 67. 34. See Robert A. Birmingham, Skunk Hill: A Native Ceremonial Community in Saturday in May, however, the Society once again returned Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2015). to the discourse of race. This trend would continue. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 75. The Treaty of Chicago, signed in 1833 between the United States, the Ojibwe, the Ottawa, and the Potawatomi, ceded The SAI held its last meeting in 1923 in Chicago. the lands from Lake Michigan to Lake Winnebago in exchange for lands west of the Conflicts over its relationship to the Bureau of Indian Mississippi and cash annuities. In his 1918 Wisconsin Magazine oftListory article on this treaty, Milo M. Quaife writes that "charges of improper influences and conduct Affairs and the Peyote religion were most responsible for its in connection with the framing of the treaty began to be made as soon as it was nego­ demise, but World War I, in which many Indians served, also tiated. Milo M. Quaife, intra, and notes, "Documents: The Chicago Treaty of 1833," Wisconsin Magazine of History 1, no. 3 (1918): 288. changed the way the Americans public viewed Indians. In Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 75. 1924, Congress would make all American Indians citizens. It Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 76. Nah Kens is an iteration ofnakanis, the kinship term for sibling in the Potawatomi language. likely designat the chief would be another two decades before Congress created the commissioner for the United States, George P. Porter, governor of the Michigan Terri­ tory when the 1833 treaty was signed. Indian Claims Commission wherein the tribes could litigate Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 77. their grievances with the federal government. In 1944, the 39. Charles Van Hise, Adress before Press Association, February 1905, University ofWisconsin online Archives, available at https://www.wisc.edu/pdfs/VanHiseBeneficentAdclress.pdf National Congress of American Indians—whose members Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 89. were made up of many former SAI leaders—formed as a kind L. F. Wojta, "Indian Farm Institutes in Wisconsin," Wisconsin Magazine of History 26, no. 4 (1946): 423-434. of successor pan-Indian reform organization. It continues to Angela Firkus, "Agricultural Extension and the Campaign to Assimilate the Native meet to this day. Americans ofWisconsin, 1914—1932,"Journal of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era 9, no. 4 (October 2010): 477. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 92—93. Notes Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 97. Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 98. 1. Ghadwick Allen, "Introduction: Locating the Society of American Indians," > Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference, 100. of American Indian and Its Legacies: A Special Combined Issue of SAIL and AIQ. Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 38. American Indian Quarterly 37, no. 2, ed., Ghadwick Allen and Beth H. Piatote Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 38. ;Summer2013): 3-22. Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 38. 2. Hazel W. Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity: Modern Pan- 50. Arthur C. Parker, "The Awakened American Indian: An Account of the Washington Indian Movements (Syracuse University Press, 1971), 44. Meeting," Quarterlyjournal of the Society of American Indians 2, no. 4(1914) 270—272. 3. Gertrude Bonnin, quoted in Lucy Maddox, Citizen Indians: Native American Intellec­ 51. "The Fifth Conference," Quarterlyjournal of the Society of American Indians 3, no. tuals, Race, and Reform (Ithaca: Cornell UP), 102. 4 (1915): 281. 4. Jeffrey R. Hanson, "Ethnicity and the Looking Glass: The Dialectics of National Indian Identity," American Indian Quarterly 21, no. 2 (Spring 1997): 19. 5. For a full list of the objectives set by the SAI at the first conference, see Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 80. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity 31 58. 7. John W. Larner, Guide to the Scholarly Resources Microfilm Edition of the Papers | ; N Larry Nesper is a professor of anthropology of the Society of American Indians, 1987, 1, Wisconsin Historical Society Pamphlet Collection, Madison, Wisconsin. and the director of American Indian Studies at 8. Fayette McKenzie to Edward A. Ross, March 23, 1912, Roll 6, Edward A. Ross Papers, M UW-Madison. He is the author of The Walleye Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. Charles Van Hise to Charles Brown, February 17, 1913 Box 53, Folder 6, Charles War: The Struggle for Ojibwe Spearftshing and Brown Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. Treaty Rights, a cultural account of the treaty 10. Arthur C. Parker to the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, February 22, 1913 Roll 5, Papers of the Society of the American Indians (hereafter SAI Papers), Wisconsin & rights conflict that took place in Wisconsin in Historical Society Archives. 1 the 1980s. His current research explores the ^v^ 11. Arthur C. Parker, quoted in Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Identity, 83. development of tribal courts in Wisconsin as Hertzberg, The Search for an American Indian Ide 111. 13. Arthur C. Parker to Charles Brown, February 22, 1914, Roll 5, SAI Papers. well as state court/tribal court relations.

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Sink's residence in northeast Wisconsin had begun enlisted in the Twenty-Ninth Regiment of the United States decades earlier. Born into slavery in Batesville, Arkansas, Colored Troops (IJSCT) to fight in the Civil War. At that in the 1830s, he moved with his young family to Fond du time, Sink lived in Fond du Lac with his wife, Mary, and son, Lac, Wisconsin, in the early 1860s. Though the history of Charles. Charles's 1859 birth in Arkansas, the draft register, African American settlement in nineteenth-century northeast and the family's 1864 residence in Fond du Lac establish the Wisconsin is largely forgotten today, Sink was one individual window for their arrival.3 in the region's small but steadily growing African American Though their route to Wisconsin is not known, the Sinks population during the second half of the nineteenth century. may have been "contrabands," formerly enslaved people who Henry Sink first emerges in the local historical record in during the Civil War made their way to freedom behind Union June 1863, when his name appears on the list of draft-eligible lines. In October 1862, approximately seventy-five African men in Rosendale, Fond du Lac County2 In April 1864, he Americans moved from the contraband camp at Cairo, Illinois,

Left and above right: Civil War veteran Henry Sink was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic's Samuel Harrison Post 91 in De Pere, Wisconsin. In his official GAR portrait, the style of the badge dates the photograph to 1883 or later. Above: Henry Sink's 1864 Civil War enlistment form. Sink probably signed up in Fond du Lac, though the location was listed as Madison. Lewis Isbell, an African American barber and anti-slavery activist from Chicago whose signature appears here, was Wisconsin's African American recruiter.

WINTER 2018 39 • Kally Round the Flag, boys! Rally once again, (Utlng iiic battle cry of FREEDOM r

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Above & right: After to Tond du Lac at the suggestion of Rev. James Rogers, the the Emancipation chaplain of the Tourteenth Wisconsin and formerly a minister Proclamation was signed MEN Or COLOR! in Tond du Lac.4 into law on January 1, TO 4MB! TO ARMS! Sink was one of many formerly enslaved men to join the 1863, the federal govern­ Union Army. Though President Lincoln had initially rejected ment formally opened NOWORNEVER allowing African Americans to serve as soldiers, he began military service to African to rethink this position in the summer of 1862, and growing American men and actively For Three Tears' Service numbers of black troops joined the fight that fall. Signed by worked to recruit them. Lincoln on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation Northeastern states A MASS MEETING made national policy of the recruitment of freed and formerly recruited widely with FRIDAY JULY 17, colorful, bold posters enslaved men. In the last two years of the Civil War, approxi­ and printed announce­ WASHINGTON HALL mately 185,000 African Americans served in the Union army SOUTH CAMDEN, M. J, 5 ments, while efforts in the and navy. FREDERICK DOUGLASS Midwest were much more The Twenty-Ninth Regiment was organized in Illinois modest. beginning in late 1863. Volunteers trained at Quincy, Illinois,

40 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY across the Mississippi River from the slaveholding state of Missouri. The first six companies of the Twenty-Ninth included many men who were enslaved until they crossed the river to volunteer for the army6 Wisconsin did not form a USCT regi­ ment because of its small black population. However, state offi­ cials knew men from the state were joining the Twenty-Ninth. In March 1864, Wisconsin began its own recruitment of African Americans. All volunteers from March through late June, including Henry Sink, were assigned to Company F of the Twenty-Ninth USCT and went to Quincy for training.' Wisconsin Civil War histories seldom mention African American soldiers. Various sources count between 155 and 353 black men credited to Wisconsin but say little more.8 Some emphasize that a majority of these men never set foot in the state, making their numbers seem even more inconsequential.9 In reality, twenty-two men in Henry Sink's Company F were Wisconsin residents when they enlisted. At least twenty-six other men who lived in Wisconsin before or after the war served in other companies of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, and many more served in other USCT regiments, including the most famous African American regiment, the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts.10 Others joined white Wisconsin regiments.11 The Twenty-Ninth's Company F was mustered in on July 8, 1864, with Captain Willard Daggett of Milwaukee in command. Almost all USCT officers above the rank of sergeant were white, as was the case in Company F The twelve noncommissioned officers included four African American soldiers from Wisconsin: sergeants Lloyd Bryon and Alfred Weaver and corporals Lewis Paten and William McKenney.12 The company went east by train on July 8, arriving at the Petersburg, Virginia, front on July 15, where it was incorporated along with the other companies of the Twenty-Ninth USCT into the all-black TV Division, Army of the Potomac.13 Barely two weeks after the company's arrival, the TV Division took part in the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg.14 The goal was to take the Confederate forces by surprise and capture the high ground on Cemetery Hill. Pennsylvania soldiers who had been coal miners before the war dug an underground mine five hundred feet long. It reached from behind Union lines to a key point beneath the Confederate entrenchments. The tunnel was packed with explosives, to be detonated in the early morning. Taking advantage of damage and confusion along Confederate lines, the lead division was to attack immediately and try to capture Ceme­ tery Hill. If the Union efforts were successful, Petersburg would be captured, cutting off the Confederate capital of Rchmond from the rest of the South and possibly ending Top: US Colored Troops at rest near Petersburg, Virginia, following the war in Virginia.15 the Battle of the Crater. The USCT division was chosen to lead the assault because Bottom: The explosion of a mine under Confederate entrench­ its troops were fresh and motivated. In the days leading up ments at Petersburg, Virginia, initiated the Battle of the Crater on to the explosion, they practiced maneuvers for the attack. July 30,1864. Pictured is the entrance to the mine in 2015.

WINTER 2018 41 However, less than twenty-four hours before the mine was to reveal that their racially fueled animosity toward black troops be detonated, the lead in the attack was shifted to the exhausted was intense. Some reports say white Union soldiers in the and poorly commanded First Division. The division, made up Crater bayoneted their black comrades in an attempt to solely of white men, was chosen by drawing straws.16 convince the Rebels above to spare them.20 The battle was a Just before sunrise on July 30, an hour later than planned, devastating loss for the Union. the mine exploded. It left a crater 170 feet long, 60 feet wide, Seven of the ten regiments with the highest casualties on and 30 feet deep.17 But the division chosen to lead the charge this day were USCT regiments, including the Twenty-Ninth. did not advance. Instead, some of its soldiers descended into Eighty-eight enlisted men of Company F participated in this the crater left by the explosion. Their commanding general was battle. Ten were killed or died shortly afterwards and at least drunk throughout the day in a bombproof shelter well behind twenty-three others were wounded, including Henry Sink.21 the line of battle. The disorganized division blocked other units He was hit with a Minie ball, a heavy bullet that shattered the from moving forward, so the element of surprise was lost.18 bones around his left elbow. His casualty sheet gave the place The soldiers of the IV Division, including Sink's Twenty- where he was shot as Cemetery Hill.22 Though his wounds Ninth Regiment, were finally able to move out of the trenches were severe, he was able to retreat to the Union lines. and across the former Confederate line several hours after the The use of the Minie ball in the Civil War left many explosion. They advanced farther than any other Union troops veterans with devastating injuries. Minie ball wounds often during the battle and captured more Rebel prisoners than all damaged limbs so severely that amputation was required.23 other Union units combined. However, they were driven back Sink avoided that fate, though reconstructive surgery to repair by reorganized and enraged Southern troops, who had threat­ the damage to his elbow was beyond medical capabilities of ened to execute rather than take prisoner any captured African that time. He was taken to the USCT field hospital at City American troops and their officers.19 Point, Virginia, where other African American members of When the counterattack reached the crater, the Confed­ his regiment were also treated, many with amputations. From erates shot down into the pit and killed large numbers of there, Sink was transported to Satterlee Hospital in Phila­ Union soldiers, both white and black. The racism directed at delphia, Pennsylvania, on August 17, and two days later to the black troops was evident in the actions of both Northern Summit House General Hospital, also in Philadelphia. Treat­ and Southern soldiers. Recollections of Confederate soldiers ment of his injury was limited to "simple dressings."24 All three

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I OSKT.VV, l)*l. . hsTemjrfutl nt'cnHr«i., .••'/:':: .'-•••/• y <>>"'. Left: Henry Sink's Certificate of Disability for Discharge, issued ..Hteb—:«\'fo~. M^ Am. March 20,1865. His disability is listed as "gun shot wound of left &>4.&M^X* ! -J j> L **^*^^ elbow resulting in ankylosis of that joint." The bottom line indicates his address as Fond du Lac, where his wife, Mary, lived during his Civil War service. Above: Bed card from Philadelphia's Summit House General Hospital, which served African American soldiers. Sink was a patient here from August 1864 until his discharge in March 1865.

42 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY hospitals served only black soldiers, who were segregated from the medical practitioners and hospitals treating white soldiers. ^y^/auXy^ siege of Petersburg. They also took part in the final offensive of the Army of the Potomac, in battles at Hatcher's Run, the capture of Petersburg and Rchmond, and the pursuit of Robert E. Tee. When Tee's army tried to break out from Appomattox, the soldiers of Company F were among the troops who blocked its escape.27 278 Holland's Fond du Lac City Directory. As nineteenth-century historian George Washington Williams noted, "The last guns fired at Lee's army at Appomattox were Business EstatxLlslieca. XS36. in the hands of Negro soldiers."28 <3/i Following his discharge, Sink returned to his wife and child in Fond du Lac, where he spent the next twelve years. Despite J. Q. GRIFFITH & SONS, significant injuries, Henry Sink persevered, working as a mill Manufacturers ami Healers in hand and laborer. One of his jobs was as a fireman tending the factory fires atj. Q. Griffith and Sons, a mill that manufactured shingles, doors, and other wood products, conveniently located 29 Lumber. a block from Sink's West Street residence. Henry Sink became involved in local political activities SHINGLES, LATH, in Fond du Lac but paid a price for it. During the 1872 presi­ dential campaign, he participated in the Tanners, a grassroots Pickets, organization supporting the re-election of Ulysses S. Grant. The Tanners were named for Grant's trade before he became $^k!W0 kitdSliqdji a soldier and politician. They included many veterans and were organized on a military model, holding rallies and torch­ PLAIN 10 SCROLL SAWING light parades. The Fond du Lac Tanner regiment organized ZDoaSTE TO OISI3EIS. companies based on place of employment, ward, and race:

WINTER 2018 43 were popular local entertainment.33 In an 1857 state election, with two white men, one of whom was tried and acquitted white Wisconsinites denied the vote to African American men, in October 1877 while the other was released the following while in 1863 the Wisconsin Assembly considered petitions spring when his trial resulted in a hung jury.41 This left Sink the that would have made it illegal for African Americans to move only defendant to serve time. He had an impeccable conduct into the state.34 record in prison, and upon his release in 1879, he received a Federally, African American veterans of the Civil War pardon from the Wisconsin governor to "restore the rights of faced racially discriminatory treatment of their pension citizenship."42 This included the right to vote, gained by African applications, and those veterans whose applications were American men in Wisconsin in 1866.43 approved often received smaller pensions than white Despite the challenges imposed by both wartime service soldiers with similar injuries.35 Sink asked for an increase and racism, many men of Company F lived long and successful of his pension many times, arguing in his 1888 applica­ lives.44 Charles South, who later changed his last name to tion, which was filled out and certified by a notary public, Walden, was a Missouri volunteer severely wounded at the that "he thinks the rates allowed Battle of the Crater. Walden have been unreasonably low and A"-' « became a medical doctor and disproportionate to the rates \ 4^1^-^fo organized annual reunions of granted others for similar or (claimant's signature.) Missouri USCT veterans. Aaron equivalent disabilities."36 Doctor t^^-^^-^Kj Roberts of Vernon County, after doctor found Sink signifi­ Wisconsin, owned a lumber mu an cantly disabled, at times in need (Signature of applicant.) C&...JL/YX+J- l d barrel stave factory. of a full-time companion to help Charles Allen ofWisconsin and him eat and dress. Though his Daniel Lucas of Missouri bought officially recognized "degree of farms, married, and raised fami­ disability" crept up over time (Signature of applicant.) jej^jj^ lies. Benjamin Colder settled in from one-fourth to two-thirds Marshall, Missouri, and became to three-quarters of being Many African Americans sought literacy after moving a school teacher.45 "incapacitated for obtaining his north, including Sink. His signature evolved from making Henry Sink also landed on his markin 1878,toa shaky hand in 1881, toa fluid subsistence by manual labor," his feet following his incarcer­ signature in 1885. his pension remained always ation. Making his way farther short of that awarded for ampu­ north, he spent the next twenty- 3 tation, to which Sink believed his injury equivalent. ' five years in Green Bay and De Pere, save for short stints With omnipresent racial inequities compounding the during the 1880s in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. His trials facing all war veterans, it is not surprising that a number marriage to Mary ended either while he was imprisoned or of veterans of the Twenty-Ninth Regiment experienced trou­ shortly thereafter. In 1882, he married Charlotte Richards, a bled times. Some had physical and psychological disabilities mixed-race woman born in New York in 1822 whose mother that prevented them from returning to their previous work was most likely from the Brothertown tribe and whose father or work of any kind. Poverty was a permanent presence in was African American.46 In these years, Sink worked mainly the lives of many of the men and their families, driven by as a laborer, sometimes shoveling snow for the city of De Pere. the consequences of wartime service and the racism that Briefly, he was a sailor.4' constrained their access to well-paying work. Evidence of Sink also became literate during this period. His 1864 unstable family lives, drug and alcohol addiction, and incar­ Volunteer Enlistment form indicated that he could not read ceration are found in their pension files, a phenomenon or write, and his pension file showed him still making his mark familiar to many Vietnam and Gulf War veterans today38 with an X in 1878. But in 1881 he had the shaky signature of Racial and ethnic bias pervaded the judicial system in the a novice writer, and by 1885 it had become practiced. The nineteenth century, as it continues to do in the twenty-first.39 1900 census indicated that he could read and write.48 Given the often fragmentary historical record it can be difficult Following Charlotte's death in 1895, Henry Sink married to ascertain the precise influence of bias in individual cases, Amanda Bostwick in 1897. Perhaps she brought greater pros­ but events do suggest racial bias against Sink. In August 1877, perity to the union, for though in 1896 Sink received poor Henry Sink was one of three men arrested for stealing four relief from the city of De Pere, in 1900 he purchased a home thousand cigars in Waupun. According to the Dodge County in the city for $250.49 Democrat, he quickly pleaded guilty "at his own request" to the The De Pere News and Brown County Democrat charge of larceny in September and was sentenced to two years mentioned Sink regularly, and he seems to have been held in the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun.40 Sink was arrested in considerable local regard.50 The coverage of Henry and

44 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Amanda's marriage referred to them as "leaders of De Pere's a load of cooling drinks aboard Wednesday and was given colored population."51 They hosted a number of weddings a chance to recover at the 'stone building.'"58 Perhaps this of people of African and Native American ancestry, occa­ alcohol use resulted from his war wound. Sink and some of sions that made the news. So did Sink's home purchase. Two his doctors argued that he would have been better off with an months after the purchase, the De Pere News reported that he amputation than a frequently painful, unusable arm. In 1892, had "repainted his house and made other improvements."52 a panel of doctors sympathetic to Sink's regular attempts Additional evidence of to qualify for a higher local esteem for Sink can be disability rating noted, found in his membership "Do not doubt, that the in the Grand Army of the man at times suffers greatly Republic (GAR). The GAR from the old wound... was a fraternal and chari­ [and] with consideration of table organization for Union the suffering it should be veterans that wielded great rated equal to 20/18 of 3rd political clout as it obtained grade." This would have increased pensions for Civil given him a pension of War veterans and their $20.00 per month, but the widows. Wisconsin GAR Pension Office disagreed, membership hit its peak in instead awarding him only 1889, with more than two $17.00 monthly59 hundred active posts and Near the end of his 13,978 members.53 Appli­ life, Henry and Amanda cants for GAR membership Sink left De Pere for the were voted in by members Wisconsin Veterans' Home of their post, and acceptance in Waupaca County. Their was regularly denied.54 June 1904 departure made States and commu­ the local news, as did the nities with larger African fact that "Mr. and Mrs. American populations Henry Sink were in the city often had segregated posts. Saturday" when they came In Wisconsin, and in small back to visit in 1905.60 The towns in other states with veterans' home provided modest numbers of black housing and medical care veterans, integrated GAR for indigent veterans and posts were more common, their wives. On Sink's though many cases of white application for admission, posts excluding blacks he reported that he had existed even in these loca­ sold his De Pere house Tintype photograph of Rickey Townsell, a member of the Milwaukee- tions.55 Integrated northeast and "paid all for medical based Company F Twenty-Ninth USCI Civil War reenactors, taken in treatment." He could no Wisconsin posts included 2008 using Civil War-era technology. The soldier portrayed byTownse longer support himself or Appleton, De Pere, Fond du has many similarities to the real life Henry Sink. Lac, Marinette, Oshkosh, his wife.61 and Peshtigo. Henry Sink was a member of De Pere's post. Sink's sojourn at the home was brief. On July 24, 1905, Company F's William P. Stewart was a charter member and Sink was, in the home's military parlance, dishonorably the first chaplain of the integrated post in Peshtigo.56 discharged. CommandantJ. H. Woodnorth testified that Sink Though he seems to have been comfortably settled in "was discharged for being drunk and using insulting language this stage of his life, Sink probably struggled with alcohol. to Mr. Barry about his wife and making indecent proposals. In 1877, the intake records for his imprisonment labeled him He plead [sic] guilty. He made some very indecent proposals, "intemperate."57 In 1894, he was sentenced to fourteen days in so much so that it is a wonder he got out of here alive."62 As jail "for being drunk and disorderly," and in 1898, he received with his incarceration for theft, racism certainly could have a Certificate of Conviction for drunkenness. Two years later, factored significantly in this allegation. African American the Brown County Democrat reported that he "got too large men regularly faced false accusations that they had sexually

WINTER 2018 45 sWk

46 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY harassed or assaulted white women. Sometimes this served as An undated photograph shows a row of cottages on the grounds a pretext for vigilante justice, including lynching, making the of the Soldier's Home in King, Wisconsin. The institution was one implicit threat to Sink in Woodnorth's words meaningful.63 of several homes set up in the state ofWisconsin for the care of' - Sink returned to his first known home in Wisconsin, Fond veterans, and it was the first in the state that allowed wives to du Lac, where he died from heart disease on September 23, live with their veteran husbands, as did Amanda and Henry Sink. 1905. His funeral was held at the African Methodist Epis­ copal Zion Church, which, since its founding in the 1860s, had served Fond du Lac's African American community64 Upon hearing of his death, the De Pere News wrote that he would be "kindly remembered by his old comrades, as a good-hearted, whole-souled fellow, ready to help a friend at any time."65 Although Henry Sink made a home for himself in north­ east Wisconsin in the second half of the nineteenth century circumstances were worsening for African Americans. In a pattern replicated across the northern United States, with the dawning of the twentieth century African Americans became increasingly unwelcome in communities they had long called home. For example, in De Pere, less than a half mile north from where Sink owned a home to the apparently unremark­ able approval of the community newspaper in 1900, the Ku KJux Klan burned a cross in 1928.66 And less than a half mile south of his former home, a 1948 De Pere development's restrictive covenant excluded African American and Jewish home ownership.6' The number of African Americans living in northeast Wisconsin plummeted over the early decades of the twen­ tieth century and ultimately fell to zero in community after community where African Americans had worked, lived, married, and raised families in the nineteenth. In 1870, Fond du Lac had the largest African American population of any Wisconsin city, with 179 black residents; by 1940, its black population stood at only five.68 As African Americans left northeast Wisconsin, local memory of this population faded away, too. Parallel to the erasure of this history of African Amer­ ican settlement, toward the end of the nineteenth century the participation of African Americans in the Civil War was largely eradicated from the national narrative. White Confederate and Union veterans began holding joint reunions, extending their hands across the national scars of war. In these acts of reconciliation, though, they expunged the participation of African Americans in the war. In 1903, a commemoration and reenactment of the Battle of the Crater was held at the site. According to military historian Richard Slotkin, "No blacks participated in the re-enactment, and no USCT unit was in any way represented."69 The only mention of the USCT was by a Virginia colonel who referred to the "brutal malice of negro soldiers."70 Since 2003, Civil War reenactors have portrayed members of Company F. Rickey Townsell, who has been a reenactor since 2005, explained his interest: "When I retired from the National Guard, I decided I wanted to be

WINTER 2018 47 8. Frank L. Klement, Wisconsin in the Civil War: The Home Front and the Batde- Henry Sink is Dead. front, 1861-1865 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1997); Robert Henry Sink (colored), for a Wells, Wisconsin in the Civil War (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Journal, 1962); William number of years a resident of De Pere, died at Fond du Lac Satur­ A. Gladstone, United States Colored Troops, 1863—1867 (Gettysburg, PA: Thomas day, Sept. 23. Mr. and Mrs. Publications, 1993); George Washington Williams, History of the Negro Race in Sink had moved to Fond du Lac America, from 1619 to 1880: Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and Citizens (New York: about six weeks before from the G. T. Putnam & Sons, the F^nickerbocker Press, 1883). Waupaca Soldiers' home, where thjey had been for about a year 9. The service of all Civil War soldiers, whether drafted or volunteered, was credited to a and a half. Death was due to liv­ locality. Though he was a resident of Fond du Lac, officials in Madison credited Sink's er trouble. Henry Sink was 65 service to Milwaukee. None of his comrades in Company F who were Wisconsin resi­ years of age. He served iu the war of the rebellion and was a dents were credited to the town where they actually lived. James M. Geary, "Yankee member of Harrison Post, G. A. Recruits, Conscripts, and Illegal Evaders," in The Civil War Soldier: A Historical R. The funeral was held at Fond Reader, ed. Michael Barton and Larry M. Logue (New York: NYU Press, 2002), 64: dn Lac. Mr. Sink is survived by Miller, The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois, 44. a widow, who has returned to De Pere. Henry Sink will be kindly 10. Documentation of Wisconsin residences of African American soldiers comes from remembered by his old comrades, their Combined Military Service Records, held at NARA; Federal Censuses of 1860- as a good-hearted, whole-souled 1920; the US Census of Veterans 1890, Wisconsin State Censuses of 1855, 1875, 1885, fellow, ready to help a friend at any time. 1895, and 1905, and Wisconsin Census of Veterans 1885 and 1895; and local histories and local property and vital records. See also Luis F. Emilio, History of the Fifty- Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863—1865 (Boston: Boston Henry Sink is buried in Rienzi Cemetery in Fond du Lac, in a section Book Company, 1891), 339, 367. Wisconsin state and federal censuses are widely avail­ devoted to Civil War veterans. The headstone, provided by the able at ancestry.com. 11. Some African American men from Wisconsin served as enlisted soldiers in white federal government, was erected in 2005 as part of a local initiative Wisconsin regiments, but discrimination limited many more to working as nonenlisted to mark the burial sites of these veterans. Sink's obituary (right) personnel. Civil War Roster and Regimental and Descriptive Rolls, Wisconsin Histor­ ical Society website, https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4267. More erroneously lists his age at death as sixty-five. He was seventy-four. than one hundred men appear on the regimental rosters as "colored cooks." Many more worked as personal servants to Wisconsin officers but were never listed on rosters. 12. Muster rolls, Company F. a reenactor. I was recruited into this group when I started 13. Morning Reports, Company F, Twenty-Ninth USCT, Record Group 94: Records of Adjutant General's Office, Book Records of Volunteer Union Organizations, Compa­ work at the VA. This Company was an important part of nies A-K, vol. 4, n.p., NARA. Wisconsin and Milwaukee history, but I went to Milwaukee 14. Miller, The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois, 42. 15. Richard Slotkin, No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864 (New York: Random Public Schools and the local histories and I couldn't find House, 2009), 132-134. 71 anything about it." 16. General Henry Goddard Thomas, "The Colored Troops at Petersburg," in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, vol. 4, ed. Robert Underwoodjohnson (New York: Today a small but steadily increasing number of histo­ Century Co., 1888), 563; Joseph T. Wilson, The Black Phalanx: A History of the rians is working to make it easier to fill these gaps in our Negro Soldiers of the United States in the Wars of 1775-1812, 1861-65 (Hart­ ford, CT: American Publishing Company, 1888), 413, 426; Williams, History of knowledge of Wisconsin's past. Reviving the memory and the Negro Race 341; Edwin Bearss, The Petersburg Campaign: Volume 1, the the service of Henry Sink and his Wisconsin comrades in Eastern Front Battles, June-August 1864 (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2012), 216. the Twenty-Ninth US Colored Infantry and other regiments 17. James McPherson, Batde Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford helps to complete Wisconsin's Civil War history.72 Recog­ University Press, 1988), 760. 18. Slotkin, No Quarter, 203, 266; Bearss, The Petersburg Campaign, 219. nizing and reconstructing the broader history of African 19. Wilson, The Black Phalanx, 427; Williams, History of the Negro Race, 342; Slotkin, American settlement in Wisconsin's smaller cities, towns, No Quarter, 93-94. 20. Slotkin, No Quarter, 289-294; Bearss, The Petersburg Campaign, 234-235. and rural communities, of which Sink's life is but a single 21. "Return of Casualties in Union Forces: Assault at 'The Crater,' near Petersburg, Va.. example among thousands, likewise yields a richer and more July 30, 1864," in War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 40, Part 1, "Reports" (Washington, DC: Government Printing complete understanding of nineteenth and early twentieth Office, 1892), 246-249. Company F figures are modified based on Combined Military century Wisconsin history. LVi Service Records and Pension Files, both held at NARA. 22. Casualty sheet, Henry Sink Combined Military Service Record, Private, Company F, Twenty-Ninth United States Colored Infantry, NARA (hereafter, Sink Combined Notes Record). 23. J. Julian Chisolm, MD, A Manual of Military Surgery, for the Use of Surgeons in the The authors are indebted to Omobolade O. Delano-Or iaran and Nicholas J. Hoffman for Confederate States Army (Columbia, SC: Evans and Cogswell, 1864), 119. their perceptive critiques of an earlier version of this article. 24. Henry Sink, Hospital Bed Card, Summit House General Hospital, Sink Combined Record. 1. Brown County Democrat, June 10, 1904. 25. Certificate of Disability for Discharge, Sink Combined Record. 2. Original Enrollment Lists and Corrections, 1863—1865, Wisconsin Fourth Congres­ 26. Henry Sink, Soldier's Invalid Pension Certificate No. 101361, Henry Sink Pension File, sional District, Records Group 110, NM 65, Entry 172A, Box 3 of 9, National Archives Civil War and Later Survivor's Certificates, 1861 — 1934, Records of the Department of and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), Washington, DC. Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15, NARA (hereafter, Sink Pension File). 3. Henry Zink [sic], 1870 US Census: City of Fond du Lac, 3rd Ward, Fond du Lac 27. Elizabeth Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil County, Wl. War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 93-99; Miller, The Black Civil War 4. "The Contrabands," Fond du Lac Commonwealth, October 22, 1862; A. T. Glaze, Soldiers of Illinois, 146-150. History of Business in the City and County of Fond du Lac from Early Times to the 28. Williams, Hstoryofthe Negro Race, 546. Present, (Fond du Lac: Haber Printing, 1905), 219. 29. Hollands' Fond du Lac Directory for 1869—70 (Chicago: Western Publishing Company. 5. Budge Weidman, "Black Soldiers in the Civil War: Preserving the Legacy of the 1869), 163. United States Colored Troops," National Archives Educators Resources, accessed at 30. Fonddu Lac Daily Commonwealth, September 3, 1872; Fond du Lac Daily Common­ http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/blacks-civil-war/article.html. wealth, September 4, 1872. 6. Edward A. Miller Jr., The Black Civil War Soldiers of Illinois: The Story of the Twenty- 31. African American women faced similar barriers to employment locally, and in the Ninth U.S. Colored Infantry (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, nineteenth century they were disproportionately employed as maids, servants, and 1998), 11-18. launderers. See the "Profession, Occupation, or Trade" column in the 1860, 1870, 7. Muster Rolls, Company F, United States Colored Troops (USCT) volunteers, Series 1880, and 1890 US Censuses. 1200, Box 255, Folder 2, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. 32. See, for example, "Miscegenation. A Young White Girl Marries a Negro on the Sly.

48 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Discovery of the Fact Today by Her Irate Father," Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. 57. Prisoner Number 2367, Henry Sink, WSP Prisoners Descriptive Records, 1870-1889 March 17, 1883. (42/3/22), Series 1392, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay AARC. 33. The Green Bay Press Gazette, the Oshkosh Northwestern, and the Appleton Post 58. De Pere News, August 25, 1894; Henry Zink [sic] Certificate of Conviction, Certif­ reported regularly on minstrel shows that came to town during the second half of the icate of Convictions, 1852—1936, Brown County Circuit Court, Clerk of Courts, nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1875 alone, three Brown Series 113, Box 2, Folder 5, University ofWisconsin—Green Bay AARC; Brown minstrel shows played in Green Bay. See "Lions Revive Old Time Minstrel," Green County Democrat, August 10, 1900. Bay Press Gazette, February 9, 1963. 59. Surgeon's Certificate in Case of Henry Sink, Sink Pension File; Henry Sink, Increase 34. Christy Clark-Pujara, "Contested: Black Suffrage in Early Wisconsin," Wisconsin Invalid Pension, Sink Pension File; Claim for Increase of Pension Under the General Magazine of History 100, no. 4 (Summer 2017): 21-27; "Black History in Law, appeal, Sink Pension File. The Pension Bureau rated the permanent injuries of Wisconsin," Wisconsin Historical Society, accessed at http://www.wisconsinhistory. Civil War veterans in terms of degree of disability, and created the categories of first- org/Records/Article/CS502. On racial discrimination in early Wisconsin, see also grade (most severe), second-grade, and third-grade (least severe) disabilities. By way Jaclyn N. Schultz, "In Search of Northern Freedom: Black History in Milwaukee of comparison, Clement Warner, a white Wisconsin Civil War veteran whose left arm and Southern Ontario, 1834—1864," Wisconsin Magazine of History 101, no. 1 was amputated (the functional equivalent of Sink's injury), received a monthly pension JAutumn 2017): 42-53. of $55.00 in 1903, at which time Sink was still only receiving $17.00 a month. DoraL. 35. Larry M. Logue and Peter Blanck, "'Benefit of the Doubt': African-American Civil Costa, "Appendix A: Union Army Pensions and Civil War Records" in The Evolution War Veterans and Pensions/'^/ourna/ of Interdisciplinary History 38, no. 3 (2008), of Retirement: An American Economic Hstory 1880—1990 (Chicago: University of 377-399. Chicago Press, 1998), 197-212. Pension Certificate of Clement E. Warner, Clement E. 36. Application for Increase of Pension, Sink Pension File. Warner Papers, 1855-1918, Box 1, Folder 2, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. 37. Certificate of Disability for Discharge, Sink Pension File; Examining Surgeon's Certif­ 60. De Pere News, May 10, 1905. icate for Henry Sink, August 1, 1865, Sink Pension File; and Examining Surgeon's 61. Wisconsin Veterans' Home Application of Soldier Henry Sink, Wisconsin Veterans Certificate for Henry Sink, October 30, 1869, Sink Pension File. Home (King), Mss 2012 167, Box 8, Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center. 38. See, for example, Lisa K Richardson, B. Christopher Frueh, and Ronald Acierno, Madison, Wl. "Prevalence Estimates of Combat-Related PTSD: A Critical Review," Australian and 62. State Board of Control, "Report of Investigation ofWisconsin Veterans Home," Testi­ New ZealandJournal ofPsychiatry 44, no. 1 (2010), 4-19. mony of Commandant J. H. Woodnorth regarding Sink's discharge, Records on the 39. According to records from 2013, Wisconsin incarcerates a greater percentage of Wisconsin Veterans' Home, 1887-1921, Series 32, Box 1, Folder 5, Wisconsin Histor­ its population of African American men than any other state—at almost twice the ical Society Archives. national average. See John Parasawat and Lois M. Quinn, "Wisconsin's Mass Incar­ 63. Lynchings were not unknown in the Upper Midwest. In June 1920, a week after the ceration of African American Males: Workforce Challenges for 2013," available at John Robinson Circus visited Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, a white mob lynched three https://www4.uwm.edu/eti/2013/BlackImprisonment.pdf African American Robinson Circus workers at a stop in Duluth, Minnesota, claiming 40. Dodge County Democrat Juneau, Wl), August 8, 1877; Dodge County Democrat. that they had raped a white teenager. Evidence for the alleged crime was nonexistent. September 5, 1877; Dodge County Pionier (Mayville, Wl), August 3 1877; Dodge "Traveling Back through Advocate Files: 40 Years Ago, June 25, 1920," Door County County Pionier, August 10, 1877. Advocate, June 23, 1960; Minnesota Historical Society, "Duluth Lynchings: Back­ 4:1. Juneau Telephone, October 24, 1877; Dodge County Democrat, August 15, 1877: ground and Historical Documents Relating to the Tragic Events of June 15, 1920," Mayville Telephone, March 13, 1878. accessed at http://www.mnhs.org/duluthlynchings/lynchings.php. 42. Pardon of Henry Sink, Wisconsin Governor Pardon Papers, 1837—1986, Series 98, 64. Sally Albertz, "Fond du Lac's Black Community and Their Church: 1865-1943," in Box 30, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives. Source of the Lake: 150 lears in Fond du Lac, ed. Clarence B. Davis (Fond du Lac: 43. Clark-Pujara, "Contested: Black Suffrage in Early Wisconsin," 27; Grace Castagna. Action Printing, 2002), 33-53. "Abolition and the Law in Civil War—Era Wisconsin: From Glover to Gillespie," 65. "Henry Sink Is Dead," De Pere News, October 4, 1905. Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 102.1 (Fall 2018): 44-53. 66. "News Notes from Neighboring Cities," Door County News, November 15, 1928. 44. Donald R Shaffer argues that Civil War service gave African American veterans 67. Bruss Addition, City of De Pere, Received for Record by the Register's Office, Brown substantial benefits in their postwar lives in After the Glory: The Struggles of Black Co., Wis., May 13, 1948, City of De Pere Engineering Department, De Pere, Wl. Civil War Veterans (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004), esp. 16—21, 47—50, 68. 1870 US Census and 1940 US Census: Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac County, Wl. 118-142, 152-159. 69. Slotkin, No Quarter, 353. 45. Soldier's Pension Certificates, Company F, Twenty-Ninth United States Colored 70. Slotkin, No Quarter, 353. Infantry, NARA; Vernon County Plat Maps (Pardeeville, Wl: Briggs and Falconer. 71. Interview of Ricky Townsell by Jeff Kannel, June 15, 2015, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 1878), Wisconsin State Gazetteer and Business Directory, 1893—94 (Chicago: R. L. 72. 2005 Wisconsin Senate Resolution 3, available at https://docs.legis.wisconsin. Polk Co., 1893), 345, 346; Iva May (Roberts) Story, Ancestry and Relatives of Harriet gov/2005/proposals/sr3, belatedly honored the men of Company F and Wisconsin's Jennett (Roberts) Roberts, Part 77 (self-published, 1985), 37; 1900 US Census: Marshall, debt to them. Saline County, MO (Colder) and Burr Oak Township, Lincoln County, MO (Lucas). 46. Sources differ regarding Charlotte's tribal affiliation. She is identified as Oneida in "Mrs. Henry Zink [sic] Dead," De Pere News, July 13, 1895. Caroline Andler, former genealogist of the Brothertown tribe, identified Charlotte's mother as Brothertown ABOUT THE AUTHOR and her father as African American in an email to the authors, December 6, 2012. The marriage registration listed her as "mulatto," supporting Andler. Registration Victoria B. Tashjian is a professor of history of Marriage, Henry Sink and Charlotte Richards, Brown County (Wl) Register of at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, Deeds, Original Marriage Certificates, University of Wisconsin—Green Bay Archives and Area Research Center (AARC). where she teaches courses in African history. 47. "City Council," Brown County Democrat, December 7, 1893; Registration of The co-author of"/ Will Not Eat Stone": A Wom­ Marriage, Henry Sink and Charlotte Richards. en's History of Colonial Asante, she is currently 48. Volunteer Enlistment Form, Sink Combined Record; Declaration for the Increase of an Invalid Pension, 1878, Sink Pension File; Application for a New Certificate, 1881, researching African American settlement in Sink Pension File; Declaration for the Increase of an Invalid Pension, 1888, Sink nineteenth-century Northeast Wisconsin. Pension File; Henry Sink, 1900 US Census: City of De Pere, Brown County, Wl. 49. Brown County Democrat, March 26, 1896; Brown County Democrat, April 27, 1900. 50. Given the evidence for a widespread area racism, the respectful newspaper coverage of Sink is not necessarily indicative of his daily, lived experience. 51. Brown County Democrat, April 15, 1897. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 52. De Pere Newsjune 6, 1900. 53. ThomasJ. McCrory, Grand Army of the Republic: Department of Wisconsin (Black Jeff Kannel is a semi-retired physical thera­ Earth, Wl: Trail Books, 2005), 1, 67. pist and PTA educator, and a resident of Wau- 54. All applicants faced a vote, but African Americans sometimes experienced exclusion watosa. He has been a volunteer guide at the on solely racial grounds. See Shaffer, After the Glory, 144. 55. Barbara Gannon, The Won Cause: Black and White Comradeship in the Grand Army Civil War Museum in Kenosha since 2012. He of the Republic (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2014), 36-37, is currently working on a book on Wisconsin's 210—220; Leslie A. Schwalm, Emancipation's Diaspora: Race and Reconstruction in the Upper Midwest (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009), 237-239: African American Civil War soldiers, to be pub­ Shaffer, After the Glory, 143-159. lished by theWisconsin Historical Society Press. 56. McCrory, Grand Army of the Republic, 269.

WINTER 2018 49 The Misunderstood Mission of Jean Nicolet Uncovering the Story of the 1634 Journey

BY PATRICK I. JUNG

The following excerpt comes from The Misunderstood Mission ofjean Nicolet: Uncovering the Story of the 1634 Journey, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in fall 2018. This excerpt examines the evolving geographic knowledge and diplomatic work ofNicolet's superior Samuel de Champlain, which proved crucial for discerning the goals ofNicolet's later mission and correcting the fallacy that Champlain directed Nicolet to seek a passage to China as late as 1634.

hamplain spent the winter of 1615-1616 recuperating Champlain later gleaned more information from the in Huronia and learned more about the regional Hurons about this mysterious tribe as well as another, more C geography, particularly from the Nipissings, who enigmatic society. What he heard must have come as a promised Champlain they would take him northward toward surprise, perhaps even a shock. Champlain wrote: Hudson Bay. However, an Algonquin chief dissuaded them, citing the need to have the Nipissings present at a council to The savages to whom we have access are at war moderate a dispute between the Algonquins and Hurons. with other tribes to the west of the said great lake Upon learning his Indian [Take Huron], which is the reason why we could allies had cancelled yet not have fuller knowledge of it [the region west of another expedition, Lake Huron], except that several times they told us Champlain plaintively that some prisoners from a hundred leagues [210 noted, "If any one was miles] off related to them that there were people sorry it was I; for I had there white like us and similar to us in other respects, quite expected to see and through their intermediary they had seen the that year what in many scalp of these people which is very fair, and which other preceding years I they value highly because of their saying they were had sought for with great like us. Regarding this I can only think that those solicitude." He continued, whom they say resemble us, are people more civilised "I had such positive than themselves.3 information.. .from these people trading with others Clearly, Champlain heard about two different groups whose habitation is in of people. The first—the tribe with whom the Indians were those northern parts and at war—was very likely the Puans, for we know from other who form a considerable French sources the Puans were the dominant power at Green division of those tribes Bay along with their allies, the Menominees. Despite their in a country of abun­ ferocious nature, other sources indicate the Puans also traded dant hunting and where there are many large animals."1 with the Indian nations of Lake Huron when it suited their Most likely, he referred to the Cree Indians who lived in the interests. This would explain how the Nipissings acquired subarctic regions to the north. There was one consolation: bison hide shields from them.4 the Nipissings told him about a tribe that lived about forty But what of the fair-skinned people described by the days'journey to the west with whom they traded. Champlain Indians with whom Champlain conversed? The Native noted, "I saw several skins .. .and by their drawings of their communities on the eastern shore of Lake Huron were shape I judged them to be buffaloes [bison] ."2 The Nipissings describing a more distant tribe with which they had no almost certainly referred to the Puans. contact: the Mandans on the upper Missouri River. During

50 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY E. W. Deming's 1907 painting. The Landfall of Jean Nicolet, shows Nicolet wearing a Chinese robe, suggesting the popularized notion that he was still searching for a Northwest Passage and expected to encounter Chinese people when he journeyed across the Great Lakes to Green Bay. More recent research demonstrates the mythical nature of this scenario. the nineteenth century, the myth arose in Great Britain and Lakes region anywhere in his writings; he only wrote that one the United States that the Mandan Indians, often called the would need to see the people described by his Indian infor­ "white Indians," were the descendants of the Welsh Prince mants "in order to know the truth of it Only time and the Madoc, who arrived in North America in 1170; however, courage of some persons of means, who can or will undertake the origins of this legend went back much further. In the to assist this project, can decide in order that one day a full 1730s, Assiniboines, Crees, and French fur traders described and complete exploration of these parts may be made in order the Mandans in the same fashion as the Indians with whom to obtain certain knowledge of them."6 While his mention of Champlain spoke. Scholars continue to argue about how "some persons" seems to allude to Nicolet's future voyage (a this myth concerning the Mandans grew, not only among claim made by earlier historians), the context indicates Cham­ Europeans but also among North American Indian societies. plain was talking only in general terms. Moreover, Champlain, Certainly, the large subterranean lodges of the Mandans were when he sent Nicolet westward in 1634, definitely wanted him unique; as far as physical characteristics, the Mandans may to make contact with the Puans as well as gather information on have possessed genetic characteristics that led to significant the Indian nations that lived (ancestors of Wisconsin's contem­ variations in skin tone as well as premature graying of the hair. porary Ho-Chunk tribe) farther to the west. However, he did Nevertheless, the Mandans were simply another American not believe by that late date, and in fact never believed at all, Indian society5 that a colony of Chinese settlers lay only a few hundred miles Several historians have proffered that Champlain believed farther west of Lake Huron. the Indians with whom he spoke might have been describing The most important source for understanding Cham- the Chinese rather than the Mandans, and that this was one plain's knowledge of North American geography at this of his motivations for ordering Nicolet on his famous journey time after his 1615—1616 journey is a map he made after many years later. However, Champlain's writings do not he returned to France in September 1616 and which only support such a conclusion. Champlain never expressed a belief came to the attention of scholars in 1953. Champlain never in the existence of a supposed Chinese colony west of the Great completed the map, nor was it published during his lifetime.

WINTER 2018 51 • du- cojhe du \sr

U am

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Champlain's 1616 unpublished map clearly illustrates Lake Huron, or MerDouce (the Freshwater Sea), as Champlain labeled it.To the west stretches Lake Michigan, although Champlain gave it an east-west orientation rather than the lake's well-known north-south orientation. It was the first map to depict Lake Michigan as well as the first written document to record the existence of the Puans.

Nevertheless, it illustrates what geographical information Peninsula that juts out into the northwestern corner of Lake he received from the Indians on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, thus creating Green Bay. One of the key pieces of Huron, particularly from the Ottawa chief who sketched a evidence that demonstrates this body of water is Lake Mich­ map of the country to the west with charcoal. The two lakes igan is that Champlain wrote Les Puans on the seeming that Champlain saw are both on the map: Mer Douce (Lake northern shore of the lake. Champlain's 1616 map stands as Huron) and Lac St. Louis (Lake Ontario). It also shows a the earliest document that records the existence of the Puans. diminutive and unnamed Lake Erie. While the proportions If we turn the 1616 map ninety degrees counterclockwise, and shapes are not exact, Champlain connected the lakes in we see the rough outline of Lake Michigan emerge, and the their proper sequence and accurately showed them flowing Puans are located where they lived at the time: on the north­ eastward into the St. Lawrence River.' western portion of Lake Michigan at Green Bay. We even see He also added a new lake to the west of Lake Huron. two small indentations on the top of Lake Michigan that are Several scholars have asserted this lake, due to its east-west Big and Little Bay de Noc.8 orientation, is Lake Superior, and the strip of land between The map also demonstrates Champlain still held out them is the Keweenaw Peninsula. However, as Conrad E. hope the Great Lakes provided for the Northwest Passage, Heidenreich has demonstrated, this is actually Lake Mich­ for the new lake on the 1616 map stretches westward toward igan, and the strip of land separating it from Lake Huron is the the Pacific Ocean. In fact, it appears to be some great bay Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Either the Ottawa chief did not or estuary of the Pacific. Champlain's 1616 map, in many mention the eventual southward turn one took as they trav­ ways, was simply an updated version of Edward Wright's eled along the northern shore of Lake Huron into Lake Mich­ 1599 map and Edward Hayes's 1602 treatise. As mentioned, igan, or Champlain failed to note it. Thus, Champlain's sketch these works, in part, led Champlain to conclude after his of Lake Michigan exhibits the same east-west orientation as 1603 expedition that Lake Huron was the Pacific Ocean or Lake Superior. Champlain also did not learn of the Door an extension thereof. After standing on the shores of this great

52 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY freshwater sea in 1615, this idea was no longer tenable, but afterward, his duties were that of a colonial administrator. he was able to extend this possibility to the new lake of which After 1616, he continued to shuttle between France and he learned from the Ottawas. Thus, he clung tenaciously Quebec, although his visits to New France increased in dura­ to his dual-drainage theory of the Great Lakes chain, and tion. His duties as the commander of the colony became all his dream of finding the Northwest Passage remained alive. consuming, and his priorities shifted as well. After 1616, he Moreover, it is clear Champlain continued to stay abreast focused primarily on securing the future of New France from of the voyages of other explorers of his day, as his 1616 map the dual threats of the Iroquois and other European powers. depicts Chesapeake Bay on the Atlantic coast, a body of water Rather than accompanying his Indian allies on war parties Champlain may have learned about fromjohn Smith's 1612 as he had done earlier in his career, he went on a diplomatic map of this region.9 offensive after 1616 to ensure they stayed at peace with the Champlain remained in France for most of 1617 and part Iroquois.13Just as we must understand the evolution of Cham­ of 1618. By this time, not everyone involved in the project of plain's geographic knowledge during the span of his career, New France saw the need to establish a settled colony. Most we must also understand the development of his plans for of the investors simply wanted to make money from the fur the colony of New France if we are fully to understand the trade, which continued to be profitable. While in France, mission of Jean Nicolet. Champlain wrote a petition to the chamber of commerce as well as a letter to King Louis XIII outlining the advantages Notes 1. Conrad E. Heidenreich, Explorations and Mapping of Samuel de Champlain. of colonizing New France and the tremendous resources Monograph No. 17, Gartographica (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976), to be found there, including rich fisheries, vast forests, and 24—26; Samuel de Champlain, The Works of Samuel De Champlain (Toronto: The Champlain Society, 1922-1956), 104-105. plentiful supplies of furs. 2. Champlain, Works, 3:105. In his petition, he wrote, 3. Champlain, Works, 3:119-120. 4. Claude Charles Le Roy, Bacqueville de La Potherie, "History of the Savage Peoples RELATION "In addition to all these Who Are Allies of New France," in The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley DE CE QVI S'EST PASSE' and Region of the Great Lakes" (Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark, 1911-1912), 1:293: ' EN LA things one may hope NOVVELLE FRANCE Gabriel Sagard, Histoire du Canada (Paris: Claude Sonnius, 1636): 201. to find a short route to 5. Conrad E. Heidenreich, "Huron," in Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. EN L/ANNEE I«+E. & ,64J. EnuoyeeauR. P. IEAN FILLEAV 15, Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. Prouincial de la Compagniede IESVS, China by way of the cnia Prouince de France. 1978), 385; Arthur J. Ray, "The Northern Interior, 1600 to Modern Times," in The frfrfr R.P. B ARTHELEMY VlMOHT,lfe river St. Lawrence; and Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas, Vol. 1, North America, Part U mefmt Compagnie, Suptriciir dc 2 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 265; W.J. Eccles, "French Explo­ route la Mifc that being the case, it ration of North America, 1700-1800," in North American Exploration, Vol. 2, A is certain that we shall Continent Defined (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press: 1997), 160, 183-184; James D. McLaird, "The Welsh, the Vikings, and the Lost Tribes of Israel on the Northern succeed by the grace of Plains: The Legend of the White Mandan," South Dakota History 18 (Winter 1988), God in finding it without 245-273; Marshall T. Newman, "The Blond Mandan: A Critical Review of an Old 10 Problem," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 6 (Autumn 1950), 255—272. much difficulty." In his 6. Champlain, Works, 3:120. 7. Lawrence C. Wroth, "An Unknown Champlain Map of 1616," Imago Mundi 11 A PARIS. letter to the king, Cham­ SEBASTIEN CRAMOtsY,} (1954), 85-94. 1 CltO »P"'i"»'Otdm»rt

WINTER 2018 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Wisconsin Historical Society Board of Curators Announcing the Winner Officers John W. Thompson, Madison President: Brian D. Rude, Chia Youyee Vang, Glendale of the Hesseltine Award Coon Valley TerriYoho, Adell President-Elect: Gregory B. Aharon Zorea, Richland Center Huber, Wausau Governor's Appointees Treasurer: Walter S. Rugland, David G. Anderson, Wausau Appleton George Jacobs, Madison Secretary: Christian 0verland, Keene Winters, Wausau The Ruth and Hartley Barker Director Legislative Appointees Past President: Conrad G. Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Goodkind, Milwaukee Milwaukee Rep. Cody Horlacher, Term Members Mukwonago Angela B. Bartell, Middleton Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison Mary Buestrin, Mequon Sen. Van Wanggaard, Racine Ramona Gonzalez, La Crosse Cate Zeuske, Green Bay Mary Jane Herber, De Pere Curators Ex-Officio LI Norbert S. Hill Jr., Oneida Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha Catherine Orton, Chair, Carol J. McChesney Johnson, Wisconsin Historical Black Earth Foundation James Klauser, Pewaukee Phillip Schauer, President, Thomas Maxwell, Marinette FRIENDS of the Society Susan McLeod, Eau Claire John Decker, President, Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Wisconsin Council for Local Newspaper editor Pete Savage, sitting in front of his drum cylinder Donald Schott, Madison History press, looks over pages from the Iron River Pioneer in this January Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska Greg Summers, University of 1952 photograph. Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee Wisconsin System Designee Robert Smith, Milwaukee Honorary Curators Leonard Sobczak, Milwaukee Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire e congratulate Zoe von Ende Tappin, winner of the fifty-second annual William Best Hesseltine Wisconsin Historical WAward for volume 101 of the Wisconsin Magazine of FOUNDATION History. Her article, "Pioneer Editor: Pete Savage and the Iron River Pioneer," appeared in the Fall 2017 issue and received the Wisconsin Historical Foundation most votes from readers for the best article of the volume year. Officers Linda E. Prehn, Wausau The longest-running editor of a small town paper in Chair: Catherine C. Orton, Jack L. Rhodes, Waupaca Mauston Karl Robe, Mukwanago Wisconsin, Peter J. Savage published the Iron River Pioneer Vice Chair:Theresa H. Richards, David S. Ryder, Mequon from 1898 until his retirement in 1952. Although linotypes had Marshfield Derek L. Tyus, Milwaukee been in use since before the turn of the century, Savage set his Treasurer: Patrick P. Fee, Jane Villa, Madison Wauwatosa Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfield articles by hand using old-fashioned type in cases—a skill he'd Secretary: Susan Crane, Cathi Wiebrecht-Searer, learned as a printer's devil at the Washburn Itemizer before Burlington Madison taking over in Iron River. During his years in Iron River, Savage Michael L. Youngman, Board of Directors became a well-known figure in the community. The culmination Milwaukee Christopher S. Berry, Middleton of his career came when the town celebrated Pete Savage Day Stephen F. Brenton, Verona Directors Ex-Officio Diane Dei Rossi, Rhinelander Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, on September 22, 1948. Whether he was covering high school Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon President, Wisconsin Historical basketball or a skunk that found its way into a local classroom Jessica Garcia, Shorewood Society Board of Curators or presiding over the municipal court in Bayfield County from Thomas P. Handy, Wausau Gregory B. Huber, Wausau, Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee President-Elect, Wisconsin his print room, Savage was known for his affable personality, Ellen Langill, Waukesha Historical Society Board of informal editorials, and love of Northern Wisconsin. Edward L. Murray, Fitchburg Curators Readers were uniformly delighted by Lappin's story, Daniel M. Pfeiffer, Sussex which they called "absorbing," "well-documented," and "a Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation truly marvelous read." One reader wrote, "The warmth and Board of Directors Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg charm of Lappin's writing and the affection she expressed for President: Bruce T. Block, Milwaukee Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee her grandfather made me wish that I had been honored to Vice President: John Beck, Madison Joseph D. Shumow, Madison Treasurer & Secretary: David T. meet such a man who represented everything the true founder Wilder, Madison of our democracy represented." Another echoed this sentiment.

54 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY saying, "The authenticity of Pete Savage's contribution to the THANK YOU! town typifies what is best about a small town and what one person can do... an example of life at its best." This remark It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes individuals and organizations who contributed $5,000 sums up what we at the Magazine feel about the piece: "Some or more between October 1, 2017, and September 25, 2018. heroes are the people who write, print, and distribute the news $25,000+ the charitable arm of The for others. Pete Savage devoted many decades to informing Rima and Michael Apple Capital Times people, and received no great financial reward for that—but Ruth and Hartley Barker Advised Friends ofWisconsin Public you hope he derived great satisfaction from having chosen Fund through Incourage Television Community Foundation Hammes Company to do such a noble thing through his working life." Kudos, Angela and Jeff Bartell Hayssen Family Foundation, Inc. Ms. Lappin! Your grandfather would be proud. Oscar and Patricia Boldt International Harvester Collectors The Lynde and Harry Bradley Wisconsin Chapter #4 Foundation S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. Zoe von EndeLappin is a granddaughter of Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. Kohler Foundation, Inc. Peter J. Savage. She has a BA in journalism Bob and Susan Crane Ruth DeYoung Kohler John and Sandra Decker from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Ann L. Koski Robert Dohmen Memorial Pendarvis Endowment and spent her career at daily newspapers Ray and Kay Eckstein Charitable Trust including the Denver Post and the Rocky Trust Nancy Mohs Pleasant and Jerry Frautschi Mountain News (Denver). She is the author Pace Woods Foundation Greater Milwaukee Foundation The George and Jane Shinners of her Irish family history. The Savage Family Black Point Historic Preservation Charitable Fund Operation and Maintenance of County Louth and America. She grew up Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Fund Jane and David Villa in Iron River but was never lucky enough to Caxambas Fund Waukesha County Community work in her grandfather's print shop. Now A. William and Joanne B. Foundation Huelsman Fund retired, she lives in Denver with her husband. William O. Peterson Charitable We Energies Foundation Fund Wisconsin Council for Local History Estate of Lorenz Heim Wisconsin Humanities Council, Herzfeld Foundation with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities Letters Gregory Huber and the State ofWisconsin Jeffris Family Foundation Ltd. Wisconsin Preservation Fund, Inc. Claire and Marjorie Johnson Dear Editor, $5,000-$9,999 Robert and Patricia* Kern Adamany Family What a pleasant surprise for this old history buff and writer to Kohler Trust for Preservation American Girl KwikTrip find and greatly enjoy Matt Foss's excellent, in-depth "Univer­ Mr. and Mrs. Dave Anderson Richard and Joan Leffler sity of Wausau" feature on our 1942 unbeaten, untied-upon Anonymous (4) Dale Leibowitz and Ron Suliteanu Nancy Marshall Bauer high school football team in the Autumn 2018 issue. I'm a bit Stuart D. Levitan, Jr. Christopher and Mary Pat Berry Thomas and Cheryl Maxwell younger, and had a minor role my 1945 and '46 sophomore Black Point Horticulture Fund at the Navistar Greater Milwaukee Foundation and junior years. But I always remember Coach Brockmeyer's Old World Wisconsin Foundation Briggs & Stratton Corporation teaching and his winning attitude! The O'Neill Foundation Foundation, Inc. John R. and Catherine C. Orton My wife, Joyce, and I are both Wausau High School gradu­ Thomas E. Caestecker Mary and Lowell Peterson Pat and Anne Fee ates. Mine is a pioneer family and we both consider Wausau Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation Rockneand JoAnne Flowers Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of our home town. Following college and then a career, mostly in John J. Frautschi Family Foundation Commerce Walter A. and Dorothy Jones Milwaukee and Madison, I lost knowledge of Wausau football. Fred and Nancy Risser Frautschi Charitable Unitrust Your article brought back all that historical void. Richard Searer and Cathi E. Conrad and Sandra Goodkind Wiebrecht-Searer Kurt H. Krahn, Rhinelander Tom and Char Hand Patty Sch mitt Herb Kohl Philanthropies Don and Cindy Schott Barry and Eileen Mandel State ofWisconsin Audrey and Rowland McClellan Natalie Tinkham MGE Foundation Inc. Toro Giving MIG Commercial Real Estate Gregory C. Van Wie Charitable WE WANT TO HEAR WHAT OUR READERS THINK! R.J.Williams Questers #1288 Foundation Quincy Bioscience Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum Email us at: [email protected] Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sensenbrenner JoAnn and Michael Youngman I Comment on our facebook page: Miriam Simmons $10,000-$24,999 James S. Slattery www.facebook.com/whspress AT&T Elizabeth Uihlein Follow us on Twitter: @WI_Mag_History O.C. and Pat Boldt Family Rhona E.Vogel Fund within the Community WaterStoneBank Foundation for the FoxValley Write to us at: Wisconsin Hospital Association, Inc. Region WPS Health Insurance Wisconsin Magazine of History Cary and Jill Bremigan City of Milwaukee Arts Board Wisconsin Society of Mayflower 816 State Street Descendants Mary M. Eckstein Estate and Trust Madison, Wisconsin 53706 The Evjue Foundation, Inc., */n memoriam

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t four feet high and three feet wide, this hand-drawn Civil War roster from Oconto County's Company F, 12th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry is already impressive in size. But this is just one A of the fascinating qualities of the "River Sackers" roster. Years before large-format printing was common for anything other than newsprint, the roster was "executed with a steel pen" by SW. Martin's Writing Academy of Madison, as stated at the bottom of the left column. The creators of the roster penned the names of each member of the company in four columns, from the captain and lieutenants to privates, musicians, and even the captain's boy at bottom right. Each name is accompanied by a small albumen portrait, common for soldiers entering the war. The original, now held at the Wisconsin Historical Society, has been replaced at the Oconto County Library by a duplicate scan that won't fade with time and the elements. £\ §L

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ON MADISON'S CAPITOL SQUARE Wisconsin Historical 608.264.6555 I shop.wisconsinhistory.org M U S'E U M WisconsinHistoricalMuseum.org I F) 0 0 In 1914, the Society of American Indians met for its fourth annual conference, hosted by the University ofWisconsin at Madison. As part of the week's celebrations, a memo­ rial was unveiled at an Indian mound site in Vilas Park in Madison. The mound tablet, draped in an American flag before being unveiled by Menominee Sara Mallon, reads: "One of the several groups of prehistoric burial, linear and effigy mounds formerly located on the crest of the Monona-Wingra ridge. Several of these were surveyed by Increase A. Lapham in 1850. Village site was in the park below." Author Larry Nesper explores the unveiling along with other events of the 1914 conference in "The 1914 Meeting of the Society of American Indians at UW—Madison."

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