(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society ofWisconsin • Vol. 69, No. 3 • Spring, 1986

y flfe •«BV:i fV 2 ll'—1 w^ ^t'

2 \ 1 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Director

Officers

MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., President GERALD D. VISTE, Treasurer WILSON B. THIEDE, First Vice-President H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Secretary GEORGE H. MILLER, Second Vice-President

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and dis.seminating knowledge ofWisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Individual membership is$15,orfl2.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200—500; patron, $500 or more. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows:

General Administration 262-3266 Library circulation desk 262-3421 General information 262-3271 Maps 262-5867 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of manuscript materials 262-3248 Museum tours 262-7700 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0585 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference inquiries . .262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-8000 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-7539 Historic sites 262-9606 Speakers bureau 262-9606

ON THE COVER: The mammoth fireplace in the boathouselgreat hall of Chester H. Thordarson's estate on Rock Island, which is now a state park. Another view of the fireplace is reproduced on the outside back cover of this issue, and an article on Thordarson and his buildings begins on page 211. [WHi(X3)41700] Volume 69, Number 3 / Spring, 1986 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, Fame and Obscurity: 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Distributed The Baker Brothers of St. Croix Falls 171 to members as part of their Carolyn Wedin Sylvander dues, (Individual membership, $15, or $12,50 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, Ephraim Is My Home Now: $20, or $15 for those over 6,5 or members of affiliated societies; Letters of Anna and Anders Petterson, contributing, $50; supporting, 1884-1889 (Parti) 187 $100; sustaining, $200-500; Translated and edited by Lucille Petterson patron, $500 or more.) Single numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed copies available through Rock Island: University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, The Personification of Chester H. Thordarson 211 Michigan 48106; reprints of Carol Lohry Cart-wright Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route 100, Millwood, New Book Reviews 228 York 10546. Communications should be Book Review Index 242 addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume Wisconsin History Checklist 243 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Accessions 246 Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin. Contributors 248 POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, Copyright © 1986 by the State Llistorical Society of Wisconsin,

The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by Editor the editors; cumulative indexes PAUL H. HASS are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted Associate Editors and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, WILLIAM C. MARTEN Index to Literature on the American JOHN O. HOLZHUETER Indian, and the Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in Hutorf, 1838-1974. Ray Stannard Baker sharing an office with Hollis Field in the Chicago News Record building, 1894. Fame and Obscurity: The Baker Brothers of St. Croix Falls

By Carolyn Wedin Sylvander

What a man he was, —our Father! How fortunate we were to have been his sons!

HARRY D. BAKER "LETTERS TO CLARENCE"

AMOUS writers are allowed their of Theodore Roosevelt, and friend, associate, F flights of fancy, their creative and biographer of Woodrow Wilson, Ray melding of memory and myth to astound, en­ Stannard Baker moved physically far away tertain, and impress us. But what is left for the from the small town of his upbringing, and his kid brother of the famous—the kid brother journalism reflected national atid intertia- who stays home, rescues and develops the tional issues. family business, deals daily with a strong and But in another side of his writing, pub­ willful father, and all the while feels the same lished for decades under the pen name "David need to make a mark for good on the world? Grayson," Baker created an alter ego who was What happened to Harry D. Baker of St. a country farmer and philosopher. Graysott Croix Falls, Wisconsin, when his big brother enabled Baker to depict the characters and Ray Stannard Baker left the place his father values of his frontier upbringing. In his auto­ created for him to go out in the world and, biographies, Native American: The Book of My eventually, to make his mark as a muckraking Youth (1941) and American Chronicle (1945), journalist and friend of presidents? these two personas—Grayson and Baker— Ray Stannard Baker was born in Michigan came together, showing the struggle Baker in 1870, but he grew up the oldest of six broth­ underwent to leave his father and St. Croix ers in northwestern Wisconsin, in the Polk Falls, as well as the advantage he took as a County town named for the St. Croix River, writer of that early experience. whose dalles it viewed to the west. After study At the periphery of Ray Stannard Baker's at Michigan Agricultural College, Baker spent depiction of his early life in Wisconsin stood a summer in 1892 working as a reporter for his younger brothers Charles (b. 1872), Harry the Chicago Record, a summer which convinced (b. 1874), Clarence (b. 1876), Hugh (b. 1878), him that his calling was newspaper and maga­ and Fred (b. 1880). They appeared in Ray zine writing. Eventually, in 1898, Baker be­ Stannard's graceful and evocative prose as mi­ came an associate editor oiMcClure's Magazine nor characters, as allusions to a quaint and dis­ in New York, and in 1906 he joined with fel­ tant past more than as flesh-and-blood people low muckrakers Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Ste- with their own versions of the events he re­ ffens to found The American Magazine. Friend lated, and with their own life stories to tell

> 1986 by The State Historical Society ofWisconsin 171 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved Joseph Stannard Baker's rambling house on the hill in St. Croix Falls, about 1891.

from center stage. An incident from Ray's and cal inaccuracy in Ray's statement about Harry's versions of the Baker familv's emigra­ where he slept our first night in St. Croix tion t(t Wisconsin illustrates the difference. Falls,—ttpon our arrival at the big, ram­ Ray Stannard Baker opened Native Ameri­ bling, old house on the hill which was can with a description of traveling by stage vour and my boyhood home and is now a with his mother and two yoimger brothers, hospital. Ray stated in Native American "one a bab\ in arms," front Httdson into the that he slept that first night in a bureau drawer in the old home, but we have that "wilderness of northern Wisconsin" in the still same old bureau iti our attic and I am icebound spring of 1875. St. Ooix Falls had a sure that a five year old boy couldn't rest population of perhaps 400—verv nuich a raw comfortably in one of its drawers. Fur­ frontier \'illage. Ray was five years old; Harry thermore, Father told me that Kate was the "baby in arms." In St. C^roix Falls that Bland (the German girl who came with night, the older brother reported, "iti the cold us from Lansing) t(X)k Ray and (Charlie house mv father had made ready for tis, I slept over to the St. Croix House (the old Fisk in a bureau drawer."' Hotel long sitice razed) for that first When, a dozen years later, Harry D. fiaker night and Mother made a bed for me,— the baby,—in that btueau drawer, be­ told his version of the trek to Wisconsin, Rav's cause there was only one bed set up in the portion came otu to be somewhat less pictur­ old home at that time. I write these facts esque. Harr\'WTOte:- of which you had no personal knowledge I wish to correct, upon authoritv of Fa­ . . . for the benefit of mv children and ther's statements to me,—a slight histori- ^Harry D. Baker, )uly 10. 1953, 'Tetters to Clarence," a forty-six-page typescript in the State Historical Society 'Ra\- Stannard Baker, Xiitive .American: The Book of ,\1\ of Wisconsin's Area Research Center at the L'niversitv of Youth (.New York. 1941), I. Wisconsin—River Falls, 172 SYLVANDER: THE BAKER BROTHERS

anyone else w4io is interested to know advancement. The struggle to utiderstand that Ray Stannard Baker was, at that emerges from the contrasts between the world early age, considered worthy of a better he grew up in and the world he entered to de­ bed than a bureau drawer, on his first velop his writing career. Second, he had great night in this little river valley town which difficulty in, and probably great guilt from, became, in his maturity, qtute notable as freeing himself of his father's influence and his boyhood home. his father's plans for him. In Native American, Baker wrote of his first experience with ttrban poverty in the early wo full-length scholarly biogra­ 1890's:'^ T' phies have been wTitten of Ray What I found in Chicago, or seemed to Stannard Baker. The first, Robert C. Bannis­ find, was a cheapening of hutnan beings. ter's Ray Stannard Baker: The Mind and Thought The great teaching of my youth on the of a Progressive, published by Yale University frontier had been the incomparable pre- Press in 1966 and reprinted by Garland in ciousness, the value, of a man: of a per­ 1979, sketches out an early life of Baker based sonality. ... In Chicago the man seemed lost: I myself felt lost. One became a part primarily upon his own two autobiographies. of the crowd; there was no anxiotts fam­ Native American and American Chronicle. It also ily looking on, no real neighbors.. . . Life draws on materials in the Library of Congress, on the frontier was never cheap. ... It including letters between Baker and his fa­ was too precious; it was to be preserved. ther, Joseph Stannard Baker, during Ray's Life was good, not doubtful: no one was college years. Bannister's biography gives little "tired of life." While it was rough, and of­ sense of the younger brothers who enabled ten dangerous: while men suliered and Ray's essential escape from a powerful father struggled, they also hoped. in t)rder to become a journalist, urbanite, attd In American Chronicle he wrote of his brief muckraker. experience working in his father's land agency The second standard biography, Ray Stan­ business in St. Croix Falls, an experience of nard Baker: A Quest for Democracy in Modern which more will be said later.' America, 1870—1918, by John F. Semonche (University of North C^arolina Press, Chapel I also learned inuch by trying to play Hill, 1969), emphasizes Baker's early life up to some minutely small part in the politics of the town and the state. . . . One thing I his change from reporter to historian and bi­ came to believe more firmly than ever be­ ographer of Woodrow Wilson. Semonche tises fore was that the primary need for cur­ much more extensively the unptdjlished work ing the ills of our body politic was not of the younger brother Harry D. Baker, whose new mechanisms or a new system of gov­ "Letters to Clarence" (addressed to a younger ernment . . . but more knowledge, more brother who had died in 1906) are used almost understanding, more sense of obligation as extensively as Ray's journals, letters in the on the part of all the people, more will­ Library of Congress, and Baker family papers. ingness to sacrifice immediate profit for But neither Bannister nor Semonche uses let­ future welfare. ters of Harry D. Baker in the large letter-press In American Chronicle, too, he wrote of his book held in the State Historical Society of reasons for becoming a w riter, and the kind of Wisconsin's Area Research Center at River writer he became.' Falls. Fhis volume, though somewhat obscttre, contains many insights into the Baker family What scented to me then the supreme and its relationship to the eldest brother who problem confronting mankind was the art of living in a crowded world. Fhe part left Wisconsin to find fame and fortune in the I could best play in it as a writer . . . East. was to become a "maker of understand- A couple of characteristics of Ray Stannard Baker which clearly emerged from his early life in St. Croix Falls are evident to diflerent •'Baker, Native .American, 288. ••Ray Stannard Baker, American Chronicle: The Autobiog­ degrees in the two biographies as well as in his raphy of Ray Stannard Baker (David Grayson) (New York, autobiographies. First, he placed great value 1945),218.' upon understanding as the hope for httman ^Tbid., 133, 158. 173 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

ings." ... If men can really be made to trasting worlds of his youth and his adulthood, understand one another they can live to­ the contrasting values of fame and simple liv­ gether peaceably, even in a crowded ing, the contrasting aims of reportage and wis­ world. But I have learned with the years dom. In Adventures in Friendship, for example, how difficult real understanding mav be, Grayson wrote:** especially if it asks service and sacrifice as the price of living happily in a crowded Let me here set down a close secret re­ world. ... I did not want to reform the garding celebrities: they cannot survive world; there were plenty of others will­ without common people like you and me. . . . ing and eager to do that! I knew I did not And always, and always, tne leaders tend know enough to do it: what I wanted was to forget that they are only servants, and to understand it. would be masters. . . . And always, and always, there must be a following bold Of his own choice of subject matter—the enough to prick the pretensions of the poor, the oppressed, the black people of leaders and keep them in their places. America—he wTote in American Chronicle, "I [Let's organize a party with one plank.] have always liked, best of all, to study minori­ We believe in the passage of legislation ties. Majorities may have power; minorities of­ which shall prevent any man taking from ten have understanding. Majorities are com­ the common store any more than he ac­ monly interested in property; minorities in tually earns. ideas."'' In his major study of America's black And, near the end of his life (Baker died in minority. Following the Color Line: American- 1946), in Under My Elm: Country Discoveries and Negro Citizenship in the Progressive Era, he con­ Reflections, he wTote that'* cluded that the Golden Rule is "the least senti­ mental, the most profoundly practical it came to me with strange intensity that I teaching known to man."' might not be here many years longer, among the things I love, and that I had Ray Stannard Baker's most important use not begun to write of all the things I had of the experience of his upbringing in a small seen and heard and felt and thought Wisconsin town on the frontier, however, was since I came here to this hillside. . . .A his creation of an alter ego, David Grayson, man's thoughts, his ripe experience, the whose books reflected all those early teachings treasures of his knowledge, what he has which could not simply be incorporated into gained in all his years of wisdom, or of the observations of an urban, international beauty or of friendship perish with him journalist. Beginning with Adventures in Con­ unless he has communicated them, in tentment in 1907, and continuing with Adven­ one way or another, before he dies. tures in Friendship (1910), The Friendly Road (1913), Hempfield (1915), Great Possessions (1917), Adventures in Solitude (1923), Adventures S the eldest son of a strong, in­ in Understanding (1925), The Countryman's Year A^fluential father, Ray Stannard (1936), and Under My Elm {i943), the Grayson Baker broke away from the family home in St. books allowed Baker great freedom of reflec­ Croix Falls, the family business, and the father tion, of encounters with nature, of descrip­ only with great difficulty, a difficulty implied tions of unique characters, of literary and his­ more than stated in his autobiographies. Fhe torical allusions, of moral judgments. He Baker brothers' father, Joseph Stannard adopted the role of a small farmer who lived Baker, commonly called "Major" Baker from with his sister Harriet in some unspecified his Civil War experiences as a Union spy and Yankee locale, a farmer who met and learned cavalry commander, ran a business and a from infidels, socialists, unwed mothers, household of six active boys with an invalid preachers, tramps, politicians. Periodically, in mother (who died in 1883) as he might have the Grayson books, the reader feels Ra\' Stan­ run an efficient military camp. New York- nard Baker attempting to synthesize the con-

"David (irayson [pseudonym of Ray Stannard Baker], >^Ibid., 167. Adventures in Friendship, in Adventures of Daxnd Grayson 'Ray Stannard Baker, Following the (;olor Line: A mencan (Garden City, New York, 1928), 204-220. Negro Citizenship in the Progressive Era (New York, 1908; re­ •'David Grayson, Under My Elm: (Country Discoveries and printed, 1964), 307. Reflections (Garden City, New York, 1943), Introduction.

174 The Gushing Land Agency building in St. Croix Falls, about 1891. born. Major Baker came with his family from nothing to be a hardship." Appropriate litera­ Michigan to Wisconsin in 1875 to take a posi­ ture, regular church attendance (Presbyte­ tion as resident land agent for Caleb Crushing rian), moderation in all personal and political and Benjamin Butler for their large land hold­ affairs, hard work from an early age, training ings in northern Wisconsin. Eventually his to duty—all were means by which strict disci­ dealings as agent for Gushing evolved first pline was enforced in the patriarchal Baker into an independent company—the Cushing household. The Major was a man you liked Land Agency—in 1887, and then into an in­ enormously or liked not at all, and he had corporated family business—later renamed many enemies in St. Croix Falls and Polk the Baker Land and Title Company—in 1902. County. According to one resident, he was "a It is clear that Ray, his eldest, was the impor­ mean old fellow" who "ruled his house like an tant son to J. S. Baker: "to the budding patri­ army." Baker's sons, particularly Ray, under­ arch it was the first-born that really counted." standably praised their father and gave him Accordingly, Ray was groomed to take over credit for early inspiration, even as they the land agency from early on.'" sought ways to separate themselves from his Handsome, erect, and vigorous, though overpowering personality and influence and suffering deafness from his wartime experi­ his plans for their lives.'' ences, J. S. Baker lived by the motto "admit One of Ray Baker's biographers remarks: "Some of the guilt [Ray] felt in his inability to '"Robert C, Bannister, Ray Stannard Baker: 'The Mind and Thought of a Progressive (New Haven, 1966; reprinted, 1979), 3-23; John E, Semonche, Ray Stannard Baker: A ' 'Ibid. Also Lester Swanson, St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, Quest for Democracy in Modern America, 1870-1918 (Chapel columnist for St, Croix Standard Press; interviewed by the Hill, 1969), 11, author, June 12, 1985.

175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY SPRINC;, 1986 completely please his father is reflected in Na­ a business man than I was, became his tive American where the son seems to be mak­ loyal assistant and afterward took over ing a plea for the reader to confirm his course the business; and I know that in later as opposed to his father's.'^ When Baker years my father came to approve of my found himself reading say George Bernard profession, though he never admitted it Shaw in college, "I remember having a sudden in so many words. It is certain that a man is happiest when he has found his own sharp sense that I was doing something that lace in the world, and is doing what he is my father would disapprove of and closing the est fitted to do. book with a half-guilty feeling—and quickly C opening it again. . . . He was my master, I was And what of Harry? Was he doing what he his Pupil. I looked up to him, I obeyed him, I was best fitted to do? Had he found his own followed him," Baker wrote of his father and place in the world? In the early years, helping his early years. Yet that father's death, in 1912, his father, it appears that perhaps he had. He was mentioned only once in two volumes of agreed to come home permanently from an autobiography. "My father died before the unfinished course at Michigan State College in disillusionment was far advanced. He died in November of 1893 in order to free Rav to pur­ the faith. He would not have known, much less sue his newspaper work in Chicago.'' In Janu­ respected, a world in which the value (tf land ary of 1889 he wrote to Ray, "I wish that I was went steadily downward, when a mortgage going to stay here in the office all my life. I like was a liability, when sober farmers revolted the business. I should choose it for my life vo­ against the payment of interest and taxes."'"' cation, if I had my choice now. But perhaps Providence has laid out other lines for me.""' But Major Baker was very determined that his eldest son take over the business. He for­ RO FHFR Harry Baker was a key mally made a business offer to Ray; Ray re­ B enabler for Ray Stannard Baker turned to St. Croix only to allow Harry to go to in this distancing from his father. Fhe way Rav college. But wdien the request came repeatedly told it, Harry "was born to" the business he to free Harry for further years of college, now took over from his father (and from Ray's tem­ with Harry's pressure as well,'' Ray finally porary help) in the early 1890's. Each request "was as firm as he thought the filial relation­ Ray recei\ed to relieve Harry for a school term ship would allow: the request was 'almost at Michigan Agricultural College was received more than could be asked of any man': onlv in with more resistance: "I was torn between the event of 'absolute necessity' would he re­ what I wanted to do and what I thought it was turn." Finally, "Harry's decision to stick with my duty to do." He described "the momentary the land business freed Ray for the career he kjnging to go back to the rich and beautiful so much desired."'** years of m\' childhood, . . . and then the sud­ Both Ray and Harry had been active partic­ den re\ulsion, and the fear of somehow being ipants in Joseph Stannard Baker's business ac­ suffocated." Finally, Harry agreed to come tivities from an early age, and both wrote of home at mid-term so that Ray could go to law this early work with their father. A compari­ school. "I think, in all honesty, it was my pas­ son of these descriptions shows that the youn­ sionate desire to get away from home, any­ ger brother was not without a certain grace where, on any excuse, rather than the decision and style in his prose writing, and also shows to become a lawyer, that was the chief incen­ tive in making the plan," Ray later confessed. At the end oi Native American, Ray Stannard Baker wrote:''' '"'Harrv D. Baker, "Letters to Clarence," November 8, My father was presently reconciled. My 1953, brother Harry, who was far more gifted "'Harry D, Baker to Ray Stannard Baker. Januaiy 10, 1889, in the Baker Papers, Library of Congress, '' Harry D, Baker to Rav Stannard Baker, December I, 1892. January 26, \S9$, ibid. '"Semonche, Ray Stannard Baker, 61, based on letters ''-Semonche, Ray Stannard Baker. 1 1, from Ray Stannard Baker to Joseph Slannard Baker, Jan­ ''^B-aker, Native American, 174—175, 150. uary 3 and February 4, 1894; and Ray Stannard Baker to 'Vbid.. 17,224,232,336, Jessie Beal (later his wife), January 6, 1894. 176 The Baker family camping at Deer Lake, about six miles from St. Croix Falls, m 1896. Left to right, seated on the ground, Harry, cousin Helen Baker (Lansing, Michigan), and Hugh; seated on camp stools, Helen (Gower) Baker, Jessie (Beal) Baker, and Clara Gower (Lansing); standing at the back, Clarence. the convincing detail which Harry included knew it was for more than this—he liked and Ray left out. to have me go. As for me, nothing ever FinstRay:'-' made me happier.. . . It was purecleiight to know that I could help him when he My father's business took him for long needed it. I think I iUtained a considera­ drives into the 'upcountry,' the wild ble facility in talking with the Scandina­ northern townships of our own county vian settlers who were then coming in on of Polk attd the still wilder stretches of the land, usually on land purchased Burnett County, which was then largely from my father. ... I sat at his elbow uninhabited. . . . We always carried an when he conferred with the count\ axe with us to chop out a by-pass if neces­ officers at (Grantsburg or helped when sary. . . . Venison in those days was we stopped to pay taxes to backwoods cheaper than any other kind of meat— township treasurers. He could scarcely even the buffalo steaks which were occa­ have got along without me during the sionally shipped in, frozen, from the preliminaries of one stormy lawsuit west. where he refused to take the word of On a great many of his trips my fa­ anyone but me. The very thought gave ther, who was hard of hearing, took me me a measure of joy that made me choke with him, as he said, to be his ears: but I and the tears come into my eyes. Harry wrote that because he was the third '"Baker, Native American, 16-17. child, and not so important in work around 177 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 the home, and because he could make his fa­ took over the management, was born to it."-' ther hear, "I was his companion on many in­ That statement is likely both misleading and teresting 'upcountry' trips in his old road understated, for Harry later wrote that the buggy." Harry expanded convincingly on his day he became his father's assistant was a ability to speak Swedish;-" memorable one as a result of the difficulties the business was in, following Ray's assistance A never-to-be-forgotten experience with Father occurred in a little frame town to his father. He suggested that wdiat was hall on the south shores of Mud Hen needed was not someone born to the land Lake at a Town Board of Review meet­ management business, but someone willing to ing where father appeared seeking jus­ work at it, which he was. tice in assessment for taxation of consid­ "I can never forget my conversation with erable acreage of lands in that town. . . . Father on that first morning after I had Not wishing Father or me to understand, started a fire in the old office stove, swept the the Board members conversed in Swed­ floors and he came down irom the old home ish and having acquired a limited knowl­ on the hill." Major Baker laid out for his tiew edge of that language, necessary in our business, I wrote down on a pad, which assistant the debts he could pay and confessed Father always carried, my translation of that he was bankrupt. Harry responded by what they were saying and Father would suggesting:-'- answer their opposing arguments with that as he owned large acreages of unim­ wonted vigor. Mystified for a time as to proved land that we should advertise it how he could learn what they said in a lan­ for sale outside and try to realize enough guage that they knew he could not understand, to pay those debts. . . . Feeling that Fa­ even if he had good ears, the Chairman ther had rather "dared" me to do what finally 'caught on' and said to the others: he thought could not be d

^'Baker, Native American, 220. "Harry D. Baker, "Letters to Clarence," August 6, '•^^Harrv D. Baker, "Letters to Clarence," November 8, 1953. 1953. 178 Looking north up Main Street, St. Croix Falls, about 1905.

that I knew would pay all of Father's Ray also complained about deserving to re­ bank indebtedness. ceive salary after Harry began the assistant The next morning after I returned work.^' from paying Father's bank indebtedness, he had Billy Patterson,—our village He soon received word that Harry was drayman, . . . come to the office, load on doing well as his father's assistant, but his rolltop desk and take it up to the 'den' some difficulty arose concerning when at the old home. He never returned to Ray's salary had terminated and when the office for any regular hours. . . . Harry's began. Major Stannard saw no reason to pay two salaries when he needed only one assistant. Ray, now hav­ ing to exist completely on his own re­ sources, felt that if a choice had to be OF only did Ray Stannard made he should receive the salary during N Baker not report this near- Harry's training period. Stannard finally bankruptcy of his father, and Harry's role in relented and paid a double salary for a recovery from it, he actually devoted space in half month. his autobiographies to suggesting that his fa­ ther was unnecessarily stingy, especially with In February and March of 1901, Ray wrote the oldest son;-*^ Major Baker, strenuously arguing that it would be best for Harry to remain in St. Croix My father—as I knew better later than I Falls, where his business future and best knew then—could during the earlier chances for success clearly lay. He appreciated years have paid all my expenses without Harry's desire to get out into the world, he too much sacrifice, but he had a stern said, but it would be better for him to stay philosophy regarding the upbringing of nis boys, and I, being the oldest, was the home and work and travel for his education first to face the practical application of than to spend money going to college. Harry it. ... He sent checks—and blessed had recently suflered a major trauma with the checks they were—a little after they be­ death of his young wife, but when his sorrow came absolutely necessary. I think now diminished (Ray continued), he would realize that he was too severe. that his best interests lay "at St. Ooix Falls and

'•^"Baker, Native American, 200. ^"'Semonche, Ray Stannard Baker. 48. 179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 with you." H'irry was a "practical, wise-headed himself, and for his brothers. First, his father man," and for him to leave St. Croix f~alls still was influenced, swayed, convinced, and would be "a great blow to your interests ancl all handled primarily by his first-born, not by his of the boys httpe it may not come." Harr\ business-assistant s

180 •-'^i

The Presbyterian Church, St. Croix Falls, about 1891 .Joseph Stannard Baker and his first wife were founding members. fidence that he felt Father was right, but "the to bear upon him to make him feel that way he took to vindicate himself was wrong, he owes it to himself and to his family and the manner in which he has treated Mr. and to the church that he take just the French is unquestionably so." Father's reply to right position in regard to this matter a conciliatory letter from Mr. French did and treat Mr. French with a generosity and magnanimity that will compel re­ not [give] an inch in the wav of meeting spect. Father is a large man in almost Mr. French's advances. I told Mr. Erench every way and it seems a pity that he that I did not think I could do anything should belittle himself by acting as he has with father personally, but that I would done with reference to the difficulty with write you in regard to it. I have consider­ Mr. French. able confidence in your diplomacy and I I will ask you the favor to destroy this know that father would regard anything letter as soon as you have read it, not that that came from you on the subject with a I am ashamed of anything I have said in good deal more toleration than he would it, but that I would very much prefer that from anybody else. what it contains be unknown to any one I wish that you could bring something but yourself. Not only was Harry perpetually the youn­ lite most Presbyterians are, especially in official records." ger son dealing daily with a strong father who (Letter to the author fnmi Ann D. Hulsether-McKee, In­ terim Minister, First Presbyterian Clunxii, St. Croix Falls, seemed to respect the independent thinking Wisconsin, Mav 27, 1985,) 181 I?«:»ciil«'c r^rtiinf ^^ "^^^^ hundreds of land deals annually Real Estate rvc&tUllS V>UUlll totalling in the millions of dollars, nearly half being to local people. 'Where others get satisfactory service, you can too. Mortgage Loans Ask for"BuIletin and Farm List. 99 Percent Accurate Abstracts S"bTm% Abstracts perfect. Our abstracts are in demand by those who know what a good one should be. Neat, reliable, typewritten, doubly compared, at as low Insurance cost as others. 1% Saved on Many Loans ^L''lnroJr1fo6 BAY STANNARD BAKER, Ptm. O. W. COMER, Vice-Pres. • partial payment plan worth that alone. Get our rates. No delay. HARHY D. BAKER, Sec.-Treag. Tnciifp. Yniif Hrtiicp. Your cattle, your crops, your car S. H. WILtX)X. Loans-Ins. insure 1 our OOUSe, and don't forget to insure that which is of most value—your own life. 'We represent Guardian Life— R B. PLATMAN. Land. a Wisconsin company that invests its money in Wisconsin mortgages. P. C. WEINHARDT, Abstracts. 'We write all kinds of insurance. C. O. THOMAS, Life Ins. Baker Land and Title Company ST. CROIX FALLS, WISCONSIN HF

WHi(X3)41767 An advertisement for the Baker family business, from the back cover of A Souvenir. Polk County, Wis., about 1919.

only of the eldest son; evidently he was also ography of 1969, lacking the evidence of the somewhat frustrated on the small stage for letter-press book, credits Joseph Stannard civic affairs which St. Croix Falls and Polk Baker with a series of achievements made by County pro\ided. In three letters of July 29, Harry. Major Baker was "a fairly astute busi­ November 20, and December 22 of 1908, he nessman," writes Semonche. "Quite fre­ wrote to Ray with a kind of envy of Ray's op­ quently he purchased land in tax sales. When portunities. "I am not sorry that I am thirty- the Cushing agency was terminated in 1887, four, in fact rather glad of it, mv only regret Stannard was well equipped to operate as an being that I haven't accomplished as much, independent. In the 1890's he began to see the nor as well as I had dreamed of doing. ... I tapping of the great dairy potential of the val­ have given up all hope of ever being rich and ley. At the same time land was purchased in great, and am verv complacent in enjoying so the area to be developed into Wisconsin's first much contentment and happiness." "I am State Park. Stannard incorporated the Cush­ pleased to hear that you are in demand as a ing Land Agency in 1902 and then changed lecturer, it increases by that much your oppor­ the name to the Baker Land and Title Com­ tunity for doing good, which with the audi­ pany in 1911."^** ences you have in the way of magazine read­ Actually, the activities Semonche cites were ers, is now very great." "There are a lot of Harry's, who was involved in a wide range of things to be done in this world and I am sure useful, progressive activities. His letters pro­ that you are doing some of them." moted, arranged, and argued for roads, Fven those accomplishments for which schools, drainage, fish stocking, land reclama­ Harry might have been given credit do not ap­ tion, elm trees on the courthouse grounds, wa- pear in the autobiographies and biographies of Ray, where emphasis is on first Ray, and then Ray's father. Even John Semonche's bi- '^'^'Semonc:\\e, Ray Stannard Baker. 1 1. 182 SYLVANDER: THE BAKER BROEHERS ter coolers for inside the courthouse. He con­ perance issues. "I am against saloons first, last tacted buttermakers in the county townships and all the time, and am particularly opposed to support a county agricultural school propo­ to open and llagrant violation of law, whatever sition. He promoted Louis Ck)peland of Fre­ it may be," he wrote to L. J. Askov of Luck, on deric for county judge. He worked to get Axel August 1, 1903, in the context of an inqtiirv as Johnson of I urtle Lake elected to the state to how to get at illegal liquor sales in that com­ legislature, declaring him an "earnest, honest, munity. Ray, on the other hand, suggested clear-headed, intelligent man and a believer in that one of the few people he enjoyed in St. reform legislation along the line of gctod Croix Falls during his brief stays there in roads, drainage, temperance, etc." Many were 1891—1893 was "a drunken printer, the scape­ the letters he wrote to get the Inter-State Park grace son of a clergyman. . . . Although in his established, including one to Governor Robert sober moods he was a dull super-patriot, when M. La Follette on June 12, 1905, asking for he was drunk he was as radical as any popu- money to complete the project: "Every beauty list."2« On November 20, 1908, Harn sked spot in Northern Wisconsin is being searched Ray for an opinion on his idea for a law "mak­ out and bought up in these days by wealthy ing it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and men who exclude the public." It was impor­ imprisonment, for any newspaper to feature tant to keep the Dalles "open to all classes"; crimes, or any other news subversive of public then "future generations will rise up and call morals, and providing that such news should us blessed." not appear on the front page of the paper nor He corresponded regularly with Hon. Ole in type over a certain size." (Even lacking Rav's Erickson of Grantsburg ("Friend Erickson"), response, it is pretty easy to guess what a jour­ legislator, concerning real estate matters, nalist then gaining considerable fame as a USGS maps, the Inter-State Park, copper muckraker would say to such a proposition!) veins in the Dalles area. He wrote his "Dear brother" Hugh P. Baker at the Bureau of For­ estry in Washington, that while Bulletin No. I UT his family, at least Harry, was of the Wisconsin Geological and Natural His­ B not all that far off from Ray's tory Survey, on "Forestry Conditions in own progressive principles, even though Ray Northwestern Wisconsin," was "nearly" cor­ would seem to wish us to think so. It appears rect as to jackpine area in Polk County, it was that Harry was instrumental in ititroducing not entirely correct for Burnett. Some of this Ray to Robert M. La Follette, a relationship of area, he added, could be donated or leased long and mutually admiring standing. Ra\ cheap "if the Bureau of Forestry would use it wrote, "I had heard of La Follette from m\ un­ for experiment work." (February 22, 1902.) cle [Henry Chapman Baker, 1831-1914], who He arranged for sending literature to the lum­ wasalawyer of Hudson, Wisconsin, and then a ber camps in the county—"back numbers of partner of United States Senator [John G] the best periodicals including McClure's, Cos­ Spooner, who considered La Follette a 'tire- mopolitan, Harper's Weekly, etc." (December 5, brand' and a 'wild-eyed radical.' . . . After be­ 1904.) For the St. Croix Falls Fortnightly Club, ing well warned one day of the danger of any "a little literary and current events organiza­ association with La Follette, I left the little old- tion," studying the lives and works "of some of fashioned country law office at Hudson all our most useful Americans," he wrote ablaze with curiosity to know what a real politi­ photographer-reformer Jacob A. Riis in New cal 'firebrand' was like.""'" Ray did not menticm York City, saying "it would be really quite an Harry at all in connection with meeting La Fol­ inspiration to us in this little out-of-the-way lette, but letters from Harry to both La Follette village in Northwestern Wisconsin to have a and Ray in the letter-press book show his pro­ personal message from you. We are not much motion of the meeting. On April 12, 1905, in touch here with anything to take us out of Harry wrote to Governor La Follette that his ourselves. . . ." (February 22, 1902.) eldest brother, "of whose work as a magazine In some areas, Harry Baker's civic- writer on industrial problems you probably mindedness was clearly of a more conservative bent than was cosmopolitan brother Ray's. ^•'Baker, Native American, 221-222. Harry was particularly concerned about tem­ '"Baker, American Chronicle, 261. 183 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 know," was to be in Madison for material on He was hardly out of college before he railroad rate legislation. "I know you will be in­ began exploring and collecting in Nica­ terested to have Wisconsin's attitude toward ragua and Cuba, he became a curator of this important subject intelligently presented, the notable Brazilian museum at Para on and that you will be glad to render ni\' brother the Amazon River, he studied the botany any assistance that you can." And to Ray he and entomologv of Japan and the Mala\- States, he was largeh' responsible for or­ WTOte on the same date suggesting that he stop ganizing the scientific department of the at the Park Hotel, Madison's "oldest hostelry," University of the Philippine Islands and and more a political headquarters than any­ long served as its dean. where. He suggested which state senators Ray should see—George B. Hudnall, James H. (Harry, on July 29, 1908, wrote Rav that Stout of Menomonie, and James A. Frear of there was money waiting for (Charlie upon his Hudstm (who "knows H.C. Baker although arrival in New York after one of his many he is a 'half-breed' [i.e., progressive] and H. C. trips.) Ray told his readers that his brother is a 'stalwart" "). He had WTTtten La Follette, Hugh organized the forestry department at Harry continued, "becattse (k)\ernor La Fol­ Syracuse University and became president of lette has spoken to me several times of his de­ the Massachusetts State Cx)llege.''' (I'o Hugh, sire to meet you." Harry wrote on October II, 1907, with re­ quested advice on complications Hugh had The meeting was indeed one of the more with a house rental agent: "As a general thing fruitful meetings of journalist and politician in I do not believe very much in bluffiitg, but it is American history. Ray Stannard Baker's faith sometimes necessary in order to get one's in Bob La Follette's character and principles rights.") St. Croix Falls residents who knew never wavered or changed (as did his belief in Harrv D. Baker remember him lamenting his Theodore Roosevelt), but it was doomed to being "the only Baker brother not in Who's some of the same disappointment as his later Who."'^'^ (In fact, neither Clarence nor Fred belief in Woodrow Wilson. In both cases. Baker appeared in Who's Who, either; but the Baker suflfered great disappointment that point is still valid: Ray's fame, and his own ob­ more in the way of national and international scurity, did sometimes rankle Harry D. Baker change was not accomplished through these of St. Croix Falls.) men's careers. When Ray later w rote of La Fol­ lette, in 1945, he said:"" Major Baker died in 1912 at age seventy- four, apparently leaving (as Ray's biographer La Follette's method seemed to me then, puts it), "Ray Stannard the titular leader of the and still seems, to have been founded Baker clan, and he willingly accepted the bur­ firmly upon scientific principles. It was dens of becoming the family advisor and the the method not of an adolescent but of a wielder of family unity. He was especiallv close mature democrac\'. It was based first of all tipon a thorough-going exploration to his brother Harry. . . ."•'"' of the facts b\ honest leaclers, whether Perhaps. But it was not to this "titular statesmen, scholars, or WTTters, and was head," this wielder of family unity that Harry followed by the educational process of D. Baker began WT'iting on December 15, informing the people regarding those 1952, when he himself was almost eightv. In­ facts. The process was difficult, the way stead, it was to his younger brother (Clarence, was long; it took courage and faith to who had died, suddenly, and childless, of a carrv it through, especially if one's own brain tumor in 1906, at age thirty. Fhe "Let­ career and livelihood was dependent ters to Clarence" that Harry wrote during the upon it as was that of La Follette. following year were informative and evocative Rav Stannard Baker effusively praised his as regards the Baker family, St. Croix Falls, younger brothers who left home. He did not and the surrounding locale of Polk and credit Harrv with significant accomplishments Burnett counties; they were also totiching lor staying home. He described brother C^harlie's what they revealed of affection between two devotion to science:'"- •"Ibid.. 169. ".'Vttornev H. D. Bianding. .St. Croix Falls; inter­ '^'Ihid.. 264. viewed by the author, June 12, 198,5. •''-Baker, .\ative ,4meriraii, 171. •'•'Semonche, Ray Slannard Baker, 247. 184 \VHi(x:i)-ii The Dalles of the St. Croix River in Interstate Park, Polk County. Hariy Baker icas active in getting the area set aside as a state park. brothers and what they said of the felt need to thecenter of the meandering recollections are pass on to one's children something of the life Major Baker—white-haired, leonine, upright, of an uncle they never knew. "At long last," imposing as an Old Festament prophet—and WTOte Harry to his long-dead brother, "and to the ill-starred Clarence, two years vounger fulfill the wish of many years, I began w riting than Harry, gentle and generous of spirit, these letters to you who left us so long ago . . . fearless and hard-working, the \er\' paragon to interpret as best I can for mv children the of son and brother. high character of one of our large family who It was C^larence who had written (among combined, in remarkable degree, verv unu­ other poems) "Fhe Pra\er of a Mediocre sual heart qualities, of great unselfishness and Man," which was woven into a memorial ser\- consideration for others." ice at the time of his death in 1906 and was No doubt the passage of almost liftv vears then quoted by Harry Baker in "Letters to made it inevitable tfiat Harry should idealize Clarence" a half-centur\ later: his brother; but it is impossiltle to read "Let­ Grant strength to meet the daih needs— ters to Clarence" without being impressed by Scant time there is for sects ancf creeds— the impulse behind them and the depth of Assure me. Lord, a conscience keen, feeling inanifested in them. Between Decem­ For what I am—that would I seem; ber 17, 1952, and December 17, 1953, Harry- Keep me simple, strong, pure. I pray Baker wrote fifteen such letters, running in all Not for earth's gold but that I may to more than 18,000 words. (All this from a Do earth the little good I can— businessman, not a professional writer!) At And be a noble-minded gentle-man! 185 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

In the context of "Letters to Clarence," these places in the world where life can be lived to lines are resonant with significance—for Clar­ the fullest and freest, where it can be met in its ence, all his promise cruelly aborted at age greatest variety and beauty, I am convinced thirty; and for Harry, all his achievements and that there is none to equal the open country, sacrifices overshadowed by his elder brother's or the country town."'' And, philosophically, fame. They may be read almost as a thinly realistically, in 1943, three years before his veiled rebuke of Ray Stannard Baker/David death by heart attack at age seventy-six, he Grayson: "For what I am—that would I seem." wrote: "Fame. Today, walking in the autumn In fact, neither Clarence nor Harry Baker woods, a maple leaf fell on my hat." He looked was any more a "mediocre man" than was their at it, wondered at it. "It was not finer or more famous brother. Fame, as they all seemed to beautiful than the billion billion others—but it realize, had its opportunities and it had its bur­ had fallen on my hat."-'*' dens. Harry closed his "Letter to Clarence" of Harry D. Baker, the younger brother of the July 10, 1953, with "an incident indelibly im­ famous Ray by five years, lived on well into his pressed upon my memory"—the arrival in nineties, dying on November 3, 1970, though Taylor's Falls, Minnesota (just across the St. by the end of his life he had grown senile and Croix River), of the "first railroad train pulled helpless. Happily for readers who wonder by a bunting-bedecked locomotive and bear­ about what happens to siblings left behind, ing officials of the old St. Paul and Duluth R.R. how they feel about, how they react to, a for the formal opening of the branch from the world-famous older brother, Harry wrote his main line at Wyoming, Minnesota." Mother, own version of the Baker brothers' early life in Father, Ray and Charlie went to the event, and St. Croix Falls. Because one of a billion equally Harry was "resigned, but not happy, at not be­ beautiful leaves had fallen on his hat, the fa­ ing a participant." Since then, he added,"''' mous writer was moved to create a blurry background for that leaf. And in that back­ I have been left out of many things, in which I had hoped to be a participant,— ground another leaf cried out, "I, too, imbibe in Shakespeare's meaningful words, 'I the world's poison and breathe out life-giving sighed the lack of many a thing I oxygen. I, too, am alive and beautiful and pro­ sought!'—but no similar experiences ductive." ever impressed me more deeply— Ray Stannard Baker left St. Croix Falls only probably because I was not then as in­ to find a way to return in spirit as David Gray­ ured to disappointment as I later was son. Harry D. Baker stayed in St. Croix Falls, compelled to oecome. and, by so doing, made a great and largely un­ acknowledged gift of freedom to his older brother. Later, past the passion of their living, F the younger brother was sensi­ we can recognize both the gift and the sacrifice I tive to the loss of opportunity his behind it, just as we have recognized the en­ family position had brought him, the eldest during creative use made of it. brother was likewise sensiti\e to the handicaps that fame had brought him. In 1917, as David Grayson, Ray Stannard Baker wrote "of all •"David Grayson, Great Possessions (1917), in Adventures of David Grayson, 193. •'"David Grayson, Under My Elm: Counti'y Discoveries and •'"Harry D. Baker, "Letters to Clarence," passim. Reflections (Garden City, New York, 1943).

186 Ephraim Is My Home Now: Letters of Anna and Anders Petterson, 1884-1889 (PART I) Translated and Edited by Lucille Petterson

INTRODUCTION of age and Anna, twenty-five. In adjusting to their new home, one of^ the greatest difficul­ ties, particularly for Anna, was the cultural isolation they felt. This was not the first HEN Anna and Anders Petter­ change of country for either of them. Both w son arrived at Ephraim in Anders, a Swede, and Anna, a Dane, had been Door County, Wisconsin, in October, 1884, educated in Moravian schools at Niesky and they found a locale far different from the busy Gnadau in eastern Germany; these schools, resort area it is today. Situated on the bay side where members of the Prussian and Saxon no­ of the peninsula separating Green Bay from bility often sent their children, had gained in­ Lake Michigan, Ephraim possesses great natu­ ternational repute. While Anders was training ral beauty, but there were few amenities a cen­ to be a missionary, Anna completed her edu­ tury ago: the first settlers had arrived only cation as a music teacher and had begun teach­ thirty years before, transportation was primi­ ing. tive, winters were often harsh, and life was The sixty letters in this collection were writ­ hard for the congregation of Norwegian and ten in German to Anna's mother in Niesky. Danish farmers who struggled to produce After their mother's death in 1889, Anna's sis­ crops in the rocky, though fertile, soil. The ter Dora preserved the letters. Years later, she Moravian congregation the Pettersons had turned them over to a member of the family been called to serve had its house of worship who was visiting Europe, and they eventually there, built under the active supervision of the reached a shelf in the basement of the young­ founder of Ephraim, the Reverend Andrew est Petterson daughter, Elsie (Mrs. C. P.) Iverson. Dedicated in 1859, it was the first Blakeslee, whose home for many years has church erected in Door County. Nearby was been at Mankato, Minnesota. The translator- the first parsonage, also built for and with the editor of this collection is the daughter of the aid of Iverson. Both still stand today, though first Petterson child born in America, Hans. in altered form.' In reflecting the immigrant experience, the Upon arrival, Anders was twenty-six years letters not only describe the details of daily liv­ ing but also illuminate the innermost feelings 'For more information on Iverson, see John Kahlert, of this couple. Anna, in particular, was often Pioneer Cemeteries (Baileys Harbor, 1981), 157—162, and overcome with homesickness and longing for H. R. Holand, History of Door County, Wisconsin (Chicago, family and friends. She was constantly sus­ 1917), 1:342-348. For a picture and description of the tained, however, by her deep love for Anders, Iverson house, see John Kahlert and Albert Quinlan, Early Door County Buildings and the People Who Built Them whose ebullient nature, self-confidence, opti­ (Baileys Harbor, 1978). mism, sense of humor, and strong religious

Copyright © 1986 by The State Historical Society of 'Wisconsin 187 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 faith never deserted him. He had another Moravian Church. (There is no connection quality, possibly somewhat unique in the nine­ with the present-day Church of the Breth­ teenth century: he considered his wife his in­ ren.)'* tellectual partner. He discussed everything From the first, Moravians placed much em­ with her, and he was not above helping her in phasis on music and education. Their congre­ domestic tasks when the need arose. gational part-singing acquired some fame, Immigrant literature in this country tends and in 1501 they produced the first hymnal to reflect an ethnic point of view. But more im­ ever published in the vernacular. Printing portant to the Pettersons than their national presses, said to be among the finest in Europe, identities was their bond with the religious were established and used for a Czech transla­ movement they both adhered to, the Mora­ tion of the Bible, which remains today the vian Church. In reply to the call he received standard Czech version. The church also ran from the denomination's American Province schools which acquired high repute; their in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Anders made scholars later produced some of Bohemia's this point very clear in his answer to a specific best literature. question: "As far as nationality is concerned, I Despite such achievements, however, can assure you that it plays no false role with church members experienced great difficul­ me. I shall never let myself be influenced by it ties. Severe persecution led to a wave of emi­ in carrying out my duties. ... A Christian, es­ gration during and after the Thirty Years' pecially a witness of Jesus Christ, must learn to War (1618—1648), and some followers moved be at home everywhere."'^ As for Anna, there to Poland, Prussia, and Hungary. When new is no doubt that she fell the same way. persecution began in the eighteenth century, the voluntary exile resumed. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf (1700—1760), moved by their plight, welcomed exiles from Moravia at his HE Moravian Church, through­ Berthelsdorf estate in Saxony and helped T' out its long history, has exer­ them establish a Moravian settlement, Herrn- cised an influence upon religious life that is hut, in 1722. Zinzendorf himself became a much greater than the size of its membership Moravian minister (later a bishop) and used rolls would seem to warrant.' Termed by the his own resources and many contacts, some of prominent German Protestant churchman them familial, to establish other Moravian set­ Martin Niemoeller "an ecumenical micro­ tlements in Germany, Scandinavia, Holland, cosm," it has pursued no special doctrine but the British Isles, and America. On his visit to a has stressed Christian unity, personal religion, new settlement on the Monocacy River in and missionary zeal. This pre-Lutheran Prot­ Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve in 1741, Zin­ estant movement first began to form after zendorf decided that its name should be Beth­ John Hus, a priest, was burned at the stake in lehem. Today this city is the site of the North­ Constance in 1415. By about 1457 his fol­ ern Province of the American Moravian lowers had established a church in Bohemia, Church. which soon also took root and spread exten­ sively in the neighboring province of Moravia. It was the renewed Moravian church Known eventually as the Unitas Fratrum, the brought to Scandinavia by Zinzendorf that church in Germany became identified as the came to affect so deeply the lives of Anna and Briider-Unital or the Brildergemeine; in English- Anders Petterson. In Anna's case, the active speaking countries, the official name is the involvement of her own family, the Wolters, spread to four continents and included several aspects of the church's work. By nationality, ^Letter from Anders Petterson, Niesky, Germany, to Anna was a Dane, and Danish contacts with province officials. May 30, 1884, in Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. '^Moravian Daily Texts, 1984 (Bethlehem), vi, gives cur­ ••Principal sources used for data on Moravian history rent membership in the worldwide Moravian Church as were Heinz Renkew'ivi, Die Briider-Unitdt (Vol. V of the se­ some 450,000 members in seventeen provinces; Europe­ ries Die Kirchen der Well, Stuttgart, 1967); James Hastings, ans and North Americans, however, represent only a mi­ ed.. The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (New York, nority in this figure. The total circulation of the Daily Texts 1958), VIII: 735-745 and 837-841; A. H. Mumford, is nearly one and one-quarter million copies, with versions Our Church's Story (London, 1911); and Walser H. Allen, in thirty-four different languages. Who Are the Moravians? (Bethlehem, 1966). 188 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON the Moravians date back to 1731, when the ubiquitous and well-connected Count Zinzen­ dorf visited the Danish court; he was a cousin of the queen mother. Interest grew rapidly in the new movement. Initial resistance on the part of the authorities gradually decreased as it became obvious that the Moravian Diaspora, which encouraged spiritual life by meetings held in private homes and visits to prisons, ex­ hibited no separatist tendencies and had gained the support of many Lutheran pastors. A Moravian society was founded in Copenha­ gen in 1739. Finally, with the support of King Christian VII, a Moravian settlement was es­ tablished at Christiansfeld in 1771. Christians- feld is located in South Jutland. (Also known as North Schleswig, this disputed territory was incorporated into Prussia in 1866 and re­ stored to Denmark in 1920.)

HE first member of Anna's fam­ T' ily to beconte a Moravian and to dedicate his life to the service of the church was her uncle, Hans Christian Wolter (1794— 1871), a native of Faaborg on the Isle of Fyn, who came to Christiansfeld in 1813 to practice WHi(X3)41589 Hans Haastrop Wolter, Anna's father, about 1880. The family his trade as a tanner. From 1823 until his pictures accompanying this series are courtesy the author. death, he was a Moravian Diaspora worker in Schleswig and Holstein, and it was due to his influence that Anna's father, Hans Haastrop most of whom were utterly opposed to the ed­ Wolter (1808-1882), left Faaborg and joined ucation and conversion of the African slaves, the Moravian community at Christiansfeld in preferring to keep them illiterate. A few estate f828.-'' holders, however, did assist the missionaries Hans Haastrop Wolter departed from eventually, and mission work also began in Christiansfeld in 1838 on his first assignment other West Indian areas. By the beginning of as missicjnary to St. Fhomas in the Danish the nineteenth century, it became apparent West Indies, where Moravians had initiated that the emancipation of the slaves was immi­ their missionary efforts a century earlier.*' The nent; this was achieved in the Danish area in first missionaries had encountered considera­ 1848, the British in 1834, and the Dutch in ble hostility on the part of plantation owners. 1863. Fearing that chaos might follow emanci­ pation, plaitters slackened their opposition and appealed for help to the "dear Moravian ^Data on Hans Christian Wolter are from his autobio­ brethren" to smooth the transition." graphical sketch in the files of the .Moravian church in Although obviously at less risk than their Christiansfeld, supplied by the Reverend Helge R0nnow. Hans Christian was actually Hans Haastrop's half- predecessors had been, the nineteenth- brother. Their father, a shoemaker named Hans Jakob century missionaries often fell prey to health "Wolter, was married three times. Hans Haastrop's problems. A week after his arrival at St. mother, Hans Jakob's second wife, was the former Kirs- fhomas, Hans Haastrop Wolter married tine Haastrop. "Data on Hans Haastrop Wolter's early life are from Ernestine Schick nee Tilemann, the widow of "Geburts- oder Taufs-Register von den Missionsplatzen auf St. Thomas, St. Croix und St. Jan," List #1, in the Mo­ "Additional information on the West Indian missions ravian archives; date of death is from Herrnhut, the Mora­ is from Gustav Warneck, History of Protestant Missions (New vian newsletter, July 8, 1882. York, 1901), 175 ff. 189 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 a missionary who had died the year before. John with her brother and sister-in-law.^ Hans Their first child, Jacob Joseph, was born on Haastrop's work at Emmaus kept him very April 2, 1839; he was to die of malaria in 1877 busy; a visitor in July, 1842, had reported that while serving as a missionary in Surinam, many Negroes attended church services and where the first Moravians had arrived in 1738. that in the Sunday school, where reading was A girl, Clara, was born on November 2, 1841, taught. Brother Wolter had 120 "old and by which time the Wolters had been trans­ young scholars." An earlier mission report de­ ferred to the island of St. John. Another scribed Emmaus alone as having over a thou­ daughter, Marie Louise, arrived on May 11, sand converts. 1843; three weeks later the mother died of Riis eventually found the proper candi­ "childbed fever." In 1845, a new bride arrived dates in Jamaica, six families and three bache­ for Hans Wolter from the Moravian settle­ lors. They boarded the ship Riis had leased, ment of Gnadenberg in Prussian Silesia. bringing with them their sheep, goats, and Within six months, she was dead. In mid- chickens, and the party set sail in February, 1846, the church recalled Wolter to Europe. 1843. It was a tumultuous crossing. At sea, in In the meantime, he had suffered another April, Anna Riis gave birth to her last child, loss, the death of his half-sister. She was Anna Susette, who died after the return trip to Af­ Margrethe Wolter, for whom the writer of the rica. When they reached Akropong, the Riis letters was probably named. She is not men­ party found everything in disorder and had to tioned in the letters, but the story of her life start over. The difficulties were enormous, but must have been known to Anna Petterson, and progress was made. Their health debilitated, it is a story worth telling. the Riises left Africa permanently in the fall of Born at Faaborg in 1815, she came to Chris­ 1845. Anna died off Cape Verde and was bur­ tiansfeld after her parents' deaths in 1835.** ied at sea. Riis, although he had failed to bap­ One day a church elder visited her in the sin­ tize a single African convert, is credited with gle sisters' house to ask her to travel to the having prepared the way "for the great results Gold Coast of Africa (now Ghana) to marry the Basel Mission later achieved in the mission the Danish missionary Andreas Riis. She and field.""' He spent the rest of his life as a travel­ Riis were strangers. Reluctant at first, she con­ ing mission agent for the Lutheran church in sented within ten minutes. According to Riis's Grimstad, Norway. biographer, "This created no sensation in the Moravian community. The system had been in effect for one hundred years." T was also to Norway that the Mo­ The first woman to enter the service of the I ravian Church sent Hans Haas­ Basel Mission on the Gold Coast, Anna arrived trop Wolter in June, 1847." He lived and in November, 1836, and she and Riis were married by one of the two new missionaries who had escorted her. As it had with the few ^'Biographical data on .'\nna Wolter Riis are from the entry on Andreas Riis in the Dansk Biografisk Lekxsikon (16 earlier missionaries, disease soon took its toll: volumes, Gyldendal, Denmark, 1979-1984), 12: 211; one missionary succumbed to fever on Christ­ "Family Register," in the Archives of the Basel Mission, mas Eve in 1837; Anna's first child, a girl, died Basel, Switzerland; Noel Smith, The Presbyterian Church of in October, 1838; and the death of the other Ghana (Oxford, 1966), 28-43 and 286-287; Walter assistant missionary occurred a month later. Oelschner, Landung in Osu: das Leben des Andreas Riis fiir Westafrika (Stuttgart, 1959); and "Diarien," Single Sisters' Sometime in 1838, a son, Johan, was born to House, in the Moravian church archives at Christiansfeld. the Riises. Then in 1840, they were recalled "The meeting between Anna Riis and her half-brother temporarily to Europe where another child, is not mentioned in any of the sources previously cited. Anna, was born on July 4, 1841. In May, 1842, Confirmation of it and further data on Hans Haastrop's work were obtained at the Moravian Archives in Periodical the Riises left for the West Indies, where they Accounts Relating to the Missions of the Church of the United -were to recruit former slaves, now Christian Brethren Established Among the Heathen, Vol. XVII (Lon­ converts, w'ho could help them form a new set­ don, 1844), 156-157; 210; 257-259. tlement at Akropong in the Gold Coast. In the '"Warneck, History of Protestant Missions, 194; see also fall of 1842, while her husband was visiting his article, "Die Baseler Missiongesellschaft," in Daheim (a German periodical), September 30, 1886. Moravian missions on St. Croix and St. "The date of Wolter's arrival in Trondheim is re­ Thomas, Anna Riis was at Emmaus on St. corded in Trondheim police records (Trondheim Po- 190 Courtesy the author Anna, back row, second from the left, and her classmates at the Moravian school in Gnadau. worked for about ten years in Trondheim, The home in which Anna lived as a child where a Moravian society had existed since the was pleasant and stimulating. It was not the early I740's. At Trondheim he was married austere, chilly, and stifling atmosphere often for a third time—to the former Dorothea Ja- associated with religious homes in northern cobsen, born April 8, 1825. This is the climes. Moravian children are encouraged to "Mother" to whom the letters were addressed. be loving and kind, to give expression to their She was obviously a woman of good educa­ feelings, and to form intimate friendships. Ed­ tion; the fact that the letters were written in ucation was valued, and there were many German may indicate that she had attended books in the Wolter home. There was also a pi­ Moravian schools in Christiansfeld or in Ger­ ano, and Anna displayed talent as a pianist at many. an early age. A quiet child, she was a good lis­ Peter, the first child of this third marriage, tener, and the steady stream of her parents' was born on March 25, 1853. A second son, visitors—missionaries from far-away places, Ephraim, born in 1855, was to die at the teachers, and other ministers—provided her age of twenty-four. Another son, Matthaus with a view of other people and other customs. (Matthew), arrived on December 27, 1857. When she was ten, Anna was sent to the Mo­ Not long afterward, the family moved to Co­ ravian boarding school for girls at Christians­ penhagen, where Hans Haastrop served as feld, and in 1876 she was admitted to the train­ the Moravian pastor and later as the mission ing school for teachers there. She completed agent. Anna, the writer of the letters, was born her education as a music teacher at Gnadau in there on January 29, 1859. Her younger eastern Germany in 1878 and remained there brother, Kristian, arrived on January 16, to teach. The history of Gnadau is similar to 1861. The last to join the family circle was that of other Moravian settlements.'^ Moravi­ Dorothea (the Dora of the letters), born Au­ ans had first been housed at the nearby castle gust 20, 1866.

'^The description of Gnadau is from Handbuch der his- litikkammer passprotokoll. 1845-1850: Indleverede torischen StdttenDeutschlands, Vol. 11, Sachsen-Anhall (Stutt­ Passe #202/1847). gart, 1975). ' 191 VVHi(X3)41597 The Female Teacher Training School at Gnadau. of Barby on the Elbe, leased to them by a back primly over her ears, may not have been brother-in-law of Zinzendorf s. In 1765 they beautiful, but there was something appealing began building their settlement, which they about the quirky, almost quizzical little smile named Gnadau. (The German word Gnade she often displayed, and she was blessed wdth a means "grace," and the prefix Gnad- appears lovely speaking as well as singing voice. In any in the names of several other Moravian settle­ event, she soon charmed the six-foot-tall, ments: Gnadenberg, Gnadenfrey, and Gna- blue-eyed, dark-haired Swede. For Anna, An­ denfeld.) At Gnadau, boarding schools for ders possessed the essential qualification to be boys and girls and separate male and female her husband: the intention to make his career teacher training schools were built. Gnadau in the Moravian Church. She was also, need­ also became the home of an influential pub­ less to say, pleased with his good looks, intelli­ lishing operation. In addition, a bakery valued gence, warmth, and sense of humor. The fact for its pretzels no doubt helped many a stu­ that he had no "worldly goods" to endow was dent assuage stomach pangs before an exami­ immaterial. nation. By 1881 both Anna and Anders had moved It was at Gnadau that Anna first met An­ to Niesky, Anna to teach music and Anders to ders, a student at the teacher training school enter the mission school. After her husband's and a tutor in the boys' boarding school. Petite death in July, 1882, Dorothea Wolter tempo­ Anna, with her gray eyes, rather long "Wolter- rarily carried on some of his duties as mission ian" nose, and straight, dark-blond hair pulled agent and then moved with Dora to Niesky. 192 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON

Kristian and Matthaus were already there, Records from the Moravian Archives at Kristian as a student and Matt, an 1880 gradu­ Bethlehem indicate that Anders was enrolled ate of the Gnadenfeld seminary, as a teacher. '•'' in a "college," probably a boarding school, at The whole family soon established a warm and Orebro, Sweden, from 1868 to 1877.'" A de­ loving relationship with Anders. parture certificate was issued for him at Harg, Stockholm's Ian, in May, 1878, and at that juncture he must have left for Germany. According to family legend, Anders' par­ NDERS Petterson's background ents at some point were active in the Moravian A'wa s rather different from his Diaspora in Sweden. A young Swedish noble­ wife's.''' The eldest of seven children, of whom man, Grundelstjerna, had come to Herrnhut five survived to adulthood, he was born in in 1721, and the first emissaries from Her­ Alingsas City, north of Goteborg, Sweden, on rnhut visited Sweden, where the movement December 6, 1858. His father was Per Persson became known as "Herrnhuterism," in 1731. Liljequist, who later became known as Per or After some initial resistance, a society had Peter Pettersson. His mother's maiden name been organized at Stockholm by 1741, and was Maria (Marja) Greta Jacobsdotter. In De­ other groups were formed in Goteborg, Ud- cember, 1862, the Petterssons with their two devalla, and Karlskrona. sons, Anders and Carl (born on January 29, 1860), moved to Hyltinge parish in Soder- It was probably with the aid of the Diaspora manland, where Per was a section foreman for that young Anders made his way to Germany. the railroad. The birth of their third child, Exactly when and how his little brother Otto "Aunt Anna" of the letters, was registered at got there is not known, though perhaps An­ Gryt on May 20, 1862; she herself, however, ders brought Otto back with him after a brief gave the year as 1863. Another girl, Ingeborg visit to Sweden in late 1881. By that time the Potentia, was born April 8, 1865, at Hyltinge. family was located at Osthammar, north of The Petterssons lived at the Sparreholm sta­ Stockholm. We know that Anders maintained tion until October, 1868. When Knut Otto's constant contact with his parents and that he birth (the Otto of the letters) was registered at visited them again before his marriage and de­ Grava parish on May 20, 1871, a note indi­ parture for America. The letters, however, cated that the family had no permanent resi­ clearly indicate a strain in the relationship. dence, dhis was the period of railway con­ The reason for this tension did not emerge struction in Sweden, and the workers moved until information from the files of the mission often from place to place.'^ school at Niesky arrived from the Moravian Archives in Herrnhut, East Germany. It was indicated that Anders' father had suffered financial reverses and nearly faced bank­ '•'An obituary of .Matthew Wolter in the Moravian (Bethlehem), June 2, 1920, tells about his education and ruptcy in 1881. This is followed by the phrase career. "went over to the Mormons." '''Anders spelled his surname Pettersson when he first Records from Salt Lake City reveal that the came to America but later dropped one "s." He also angli­ first member of the family to join the Mor­ cized his first name to Andrew, but usually signed as the "Rev. A. Petterson." Although his birth certificate gave his mons was Anders' mother, who was baptized date of birth as December 5, 1858, he always celebrated on into the faith in August, 1880, according to the the sixth, and that is the date given on other records the records of the Uppsala congregation. She re­ family possesses. In copies of Swedish records held by the mained a member until her death in 1897. Genealogical Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his parents' names are given as Per Daughter Ingeborg joined two months later, Persson Liljequist, later altered to Peter Pettersson, and but was excommunicated (no reason given) in Maja Greta Jacobsdotter. Anders, as well as his sister Anna 1886. Anders' father was baptized a Mormon and brother Carl, always referred to them as Peter Pet­ in May, 1881, but was excommunicated in Au­ tersson and Maria Pettersson nee Jacobsen. The account gust, 1885. No other members of the family of Anders' early life and education in his obituary in the Northfield Independent (Northfield, Minnesota, November became Mormons. 1, 1938) contains several inaccuracies; some of the infor­ (Active in Sweden beginning in the 1850's, mation applied to his wife and to his brother Otto. '•'Letter and attachments to Lucille Petterson from the Genealogical Department, Church of Jesus Christ of '"Summary of data from mission school files, Archiv Latter-day Saints, February 10, 1984. der Briider-Unitat, Herrnhut, DDR. 193 WHi(X3)41386 WHi(X3)41387 Maria Pettersson, Anders' mother. Peter Pettersson, Anders' father.

the Mormons experienced their second great clarity of expression, sureness of judgment, period of conversion there between 1878 and sufficient strength of memory, a talent for elo­ 1882. This was a time of economic depression: quence, practical competence, and prudence. railway construction had ended, and poverty Ability to wTite correctly and legibly was also became se\'ere. Some 7,822 Mormon converts essential; knowledge of foreign languages and emigrated to the United States between 1850 music was good. A doctor's certificate of com­ and 1909, while 1,452 died in Sweden and petence for mission service in a non-European about 4,116 later withdrew from the faith. A country was required. The course lasted three number of Mormon missionaries were fined, years.'** and others went to pristm for short terms be­ Parents had to give \vritten consent but little cause of their propaganda activities. However, financial support since tuition was free and cases of persecution tapered off during the books were provided. Students were advised 1880's.)'' to bring enough clothes to last two years. If a The religious split in his family must have student had a bed, he was to bring it; other­ been difficult for Anders to accept. So far as is wise, he could rent one for a small fee. Many know n, he never discussed it with his own chil­ students, including Anders, worked as tutors dren. His enrollment in the mission school at in the Niesky institutes (boarding schools) to Niesky signified his total dedication to the Mo­ earn money to pay for their food and for such ravian Church, and he never wavered. The services as repair of their clothing and shoes. mission school was established in 1869 for In April, 1884, the Provincial Elders' Con­ those brethren who formerly had followed a ference (PEC) at Bethlehem w rote to the mis­ trade or some other occupation and who "felt sion school seeking a "suitable brother for called to service among the heathen." Accord­ Scandinavian work." The PEC also suggested ing to the school bulletin for 1891, applicants that "it would be well if he could marry a Dan­ w^ere required to have these necessary gifts: ish or Norwegian sister."'^ Anders was recom-

'"See Florence Edith ]'di\sor\, Background of Swedish Im­ '"The mission school bulletin for 1891 is available at migration, 1840-1930 ('Chicago, 1931), 200-203, 217, the Moravian Archives. and 280-283. '"Letter on file at the Moravian .Archives. 194 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON mended. After a call was issued to both of man. The "choir houses," where the single them, Anders and Anna announced their en­ brothers and the single sisters resided, became gagement in June. the sites of many industrial concerns, and Before his marriage and departure for Niesky eventually acquired a large foundry, America, Anders was allowed to make a study machine shops, and factories for vehicles, rail­ trip to Denmark to increase his fluency in Dan­ road cars, and wood products. The piano the ish. After five weeks in Copenhagen, he paid a Pettersons brought with them to Ephraim was brief visit to his family in Osthammar. It was to an upright made in the town. be his last visit with his parents. How did they, Niesky is situated on a great plain sur­ now Mormons, feel about his pending mar­ rounded by forests of spruce and is not known riage and departure? And what about Otto, for its scenic beauty. As a visitor from Bethle­ their youngest child, who remained in Niesky? hem reported in 1869, however, "What it lacks It is very likely that Anders persuaded them to in external attraction is more than compen­ leave Otto in Niesky. sated by the beauty of the village itself, as well However they felt, they doubtless were in as by the character and number of its institu­ no position to offer Anders any financial aid. tions."^^ A particular attraction was Mon- Naturally, there was no question about the ex­ plaisir, a large park built on the edge of town penses for the Pettersons'journey to America, as a recreation area for students and teachers. but the Mission Department in Niesky took There they could plant gardens, play games, one step which later met with the PLC's disap­ hold school festivals, make music, read, write, proval: they authorized him to put new cloth­ walk, and cultivate intimate friendships. ing on his expense account. (It was the practice The 1880 census gives Niesky's population in Germany to outfit impecunious ministers as 1,300. By the end of 1883, there were 880 and missionaries in this way, but such a proce­ brethren (members) in the Brildergemeine. dure was unknown in Bethlehem.) After some When they gathered for services on Sunday to and fro, the PEC eventually agreed to ac­ morning, they walked in procession to the cept the charge.^" Shortly after his return to large hall. The single sisters in their little caps Germany from Scandinavia, Anders took resi­ and special costumes would come out of their dence in Anna's mother's home in Niesky, and house in one group, and the single brothers in the young people prepared for their wedding. their Sunday attire would do likewise. A brass A little more needs to be said about Niesky choir played for the procession. Inside the in order to understand why Anna, in particu­ church, outfitted with a very fine organ, there lar, although obviously fond of her native Co­ would be more music. A music room adjoining penhagen, later expressed such nostalgia for the sanctuary was the site of lessons held twice this little German town.^' Only twenty-five weekly in vocal and instrumental music. Many miles from Herrnhut, Niesky was founded in concerts were presented by the choral society, 1742 on an estate owned by a cousin of Zinzen- to which both Anna and Dora belonged. In ad­ dorf's. In 1754, Zinzendorf himself took dition, they were able to attend symphony charge of Niesky. The Brildergemeine, which concerts held in the large hall of the inn. was ineligible for church tax funds, needed to Sometimes groups of players from the orches­ raise money on its own, and Zinzendorf was tra and band of the Nineteenth Infantry Regi­ successful in inducing various industries to ment in Goerlitz, the nearest large city, played settle in the town.^^ Soon Germans, Swedes, there. Niesky truly enjoyed a remarkable mu­ Swiss, Danes, and Alsatians were added to the sical life for such a small community. population, giving it a truly international at­ mosphere; the dominant language was Ger- HE wedding of Anders and T Anna took place in the large ^"Minutesof the PEC, 1884, at the Moravian Archives. ^'See Romantische Stdtten Deutschlands, Vol. 8, Sachsen (Stuttgart, 1965), and Der Grosse Brockhaus, Vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1967) for descriptions of Niesky. ^^A similar situation arose in Bethlehem, Pennsvlva- nia, where members of the church initiated industries and ^^H.A.B., "Beschreibung von Niesky," in Der Briider kept a common budget. Botschafter, July 28, 1869. 195 \VHi(X3)41398 Anders, hack row, far right, and his teacher colleagues at Niesky.

church on September 3, 1884. A week later, kee.2'' While a student at the Lutheran mission thev departed bv train for Hamburg, where school in Stavanger, Norway, Andrew- Iverson they would board the ship for America. They had had contacts with the Moravian Diaspora. were never to see Europe again, and the sepa­ After his arrival in America, he was ordained ration from their parents was permanent. in the Moravian Church at Bethlehem and As in Europe, the growth of the Moravian then assigned to a small group of Scandina­ Church in North America was due much less vian Moravians in Milwaukee. Under his lead­ to proselytizing, which Zinzendorf in particu­ ership, these Moravians moved north to Fort lar opposed, than to the desire of emigrants Howard (now the west side of the city of Green from Moravian settlements, or those who had Bay). On Green Bay's east side, a group of been moved by their contacts with the Dias­ German Moravians formed a separate congre­ pora in Europe, to have their own Moravian gation; the church they built has been pre­ churches in the new country. This is the prin­ served and now can be seen at Heritage Hill cipal reason that Moravian churches exist to­ day in certain cities and small towns in some areas and not in others. In Wisconsin, where ^''Historical Records Survey, Wisconsin, Inventory of the there are now twenty Moravian congrega­ Church Archives of Wisconsin. . .Moravian Church (Mad'ison, 1938). Latest figures are from the North American .Mora­ tions, the movement began in 1850 at Milwau- vian (August—September, 1985), 27. 196 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON

Park. The Scandinavians at Fort Howard, their ability to improvise and make do, and however, grew suspicious of their local spon­ soon she began to feel at home. The task was sor. Nils Otto lank, and decided to move on made easier by Anders, whose very humor under Iverson's leadership.^' I he arrival of and own iitventiveness enabled him to fit into the Iverson group at Ephraim is described in the community quickly. Anna's letter of October 5-14, 1884. The letters are as much the story of the Pet­ tersons' adjustment to the new* world as they are about their family life and the Moravian Church. They stand apart from many collec­ HF leap from the sophisticated tions of immigrant letters in their ease of rhet­ T-centers of Moravian learning in oric and grammar, and in their descriptions of Germany to pioneer Dttor County, Wisconsin, places and events. They readily display An­ was bound to be difficult for the Pettersons, es­ ders and Anna's education and curiosity about pecially Anna. She was accustomed to nice the world around them. Their importance lies things, a rich musical life, educated compan­ in their illumination of several themes: Mora­ ions, and a household routine which guaran­ vian Church activity in Wisconsin, the devel­ teed cleanliness and order. Her expectations opment of Ephraim and Door County, the ad­ were ordinary in Niesky, but unrealistic fcjr justment of an educated couple to life iti a Door County in the 1880's. relatively young settlement, and, most of all, That area of Wiscoi-isin still was being de­ the unfolding family life of a young minister veloped when the Pettersons arrived, even and his wife. though its immigrant settlements dated from The actual stories are best told by the let­ the I850's. Agricultural progress had been re­ ters. 4'his first installment of four details the tarded by the forests and cedar swamps which Pettersons'journey to America and their ini­ covered nearly the whole peninsula. While tial experiences in New York, Bethlehem, and they were clearing their land. Door County's Ephraim. The footnotes contain explanatory farmers depended more upon the fish in the or supplementary details; additional details waters of Green Bay and Lake Michigan than inserted by the editor into the letters are en­ upon agriculture for their livelihood. The closed by brackets. Ellipses indicate cuts made county's ties to the outside world, even to the to eliminate repetition and to spare readers nearby city of Green Bay, also depended upon verbiage in salutation and complimentary the bay and the lake. Compared to southern close, as well as the religious and theological Wisconsin and the lakeshore counties to the asides to be expected of a Protestant clergy­ south. Door County was undeveloped in the man and his bride in the nineteenth century. 1880's, though it was on the verge of change. It was to take many steps forward during the L.P. Pettersons' residence there, so they were able e \.' ^ '^^^^ ^ '•i >. to report on the progress of an American com­ munity, just as settlers had forty years earlier [From Anna] in the southern parts of the state. Aboard fhe Rugia^'" Many Door County residents barely eked September 17,1884 out an existence, and they were poor in worldly goods. This immediately made Anna Dear Mother, self-conscious of her possessions. She went so We have been on this ship for a w'eek now, far as to leave some of them packed in the attic, but it seems like a very long time to me. It is lest their abundance shock the community. In hard to do anything. Sometimes the sea is too this reaction, and in other ways, her letters at turbulent or one doesn't feel well enough to first betray a tone of condescension towards work, walk, or write. Right now I am sitting on the area's average citizens. But in time she be­ my black trunk, using Anders' suitcase, w'hich gan to appreciate their qualities, especially

^"The SS Rugia was a one-stack steamship also equipped with sails. See a photograph obtained from the ^^Hjalmar R. Holand, My First Eighty Years (New York, Hapag-Lloyd .\G, Hamburg, Federal Republic of Ger­ 1957), 134-145. many. 197 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

go down one flight of stairs to reach the ship. Naturally, we had a look at our cabin, which we occupy alone. We have a sofa, most of which Anders has reserved for himself. Oth­ erwise, we have only a washstand and our lug­ gage. Most of the other passengers live four to a cabin and complain a good deal about being cramped. The Rugia is not at all one of the largest steamships, but she is still a very re­ spectable ship and rides rather deep in the wa­ ter, hence relatively smoothly. But now, back to Hamburg. Toward eve­ ning we took a long walk through the city and gardens. When we returned, we could hear the music of the Renz Circus from our win­ dow. Wednesday morning at ten o'clock we went out on another ship to the Rugia, which had moved out to Cuxhaven the night before because of the tide. As soon as we were aboard, the ship set sail. We had just sat down in our cabin when we received a telegram from Peter and Jeanne.^^ How nice that was! The words were: "God be with you!" That was enough. Mother dear, I will not describe what feel­ ings overcame me as we set forth, but you can imagine. I am often plagued with homesick­ ness but want to keep quiet about it, as other­ wise I wouldn't WTite anything else. We both feel that not only you but many others as well \\Hi(X3)41590 are thinking of us, and that is the consolation The "Mother" to whom the letters are addressed, Dorothea which fills our hearts. Jacobsen Wolter, about 1880. The day passes as follows: at eight o'clock, we have early breakfast—beefsteak and pota­ I put on the couch, as a writing table. In the toes, together with eggs, coffee or tea w'ith drawing room the ship rocks even more than sweetening, dark bread (like ours in Copenha­ here. Ne\'ertheless, 1 am now going to try to gen), and white bread, too, fresh daily. At describe our experiences in a more organized twelve we have lunch, also a hot meal, with fashion. I hope you got our cards from Ham­ some fricassee, perhaps, then bouillon, bread, burg. I told you about the fine meeting with and many kinds of cold cuts, I always look for Lisel Schumann and our stay at Gnadau. Our something sharp and piquant as nothing else dear old colleagues there entertained us so tastes good to me. Dinner is at five. It normally beautifully that Anders and I will never forget consists of soup, fish, roast, poultry, cake or ice them. We often speak of the two hours we cream, dessert and coffee. I can't say that I spent there. If any of them ever come to care for it, but that may be because we feel the Niesky and you see them. Mother dear, thank rumbling of the ship so much more in the sa­ them again in our name. loon; it takes self-control every time we go in We arri\-ed in Hamburg early Tuesday there. At eight, tea and cookies are served. morning. W'e were very tired; I lay down for a We are eighty-seven adults and twelve chil­ second and slept until almost 11 A..M. Then dren in first class. For the most part, they are Anders returned from Mr. Bolton's office, German-Americans who have spent a few where he had bought the tickets and checked all the luggage. The last piece, to be sure, still had to be picked up at the station; it had fallen ^'Anna's brother and sister-in-law from Copenhagen. apart. From Wietzel's Hotel we needed only to Anna and Jeanne apparently never met. 198 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON

Image suppressed pending copyright clearance

Courtesy Hapag-Lloyd AG The SS Rugia, the steamship equipped with sails, on which the Pettersons came to the United States. months in Europe and are returning after areas of Berlin and Schleswig, and there are having had a good time. Their chief topics of some Russian Jews as well. If you could see the conversation are money, dollars, and mar­ people in steerage! We are appalled by the riage. My neighbor, a Herr Mans, told me he sight. During the first few days they were all on would gladly give a hundred dollars if he deck, for the weather was so lovely. I saw three could eat a sour pickle again. The poor man is children there who were dressed only in boots, very sick, with quite severe consumption. He a shirt, and a red dress that had lost all of its doesn't come to the table any more, which is all buttons and was open, fluttering in the wind. right with me as his presence robbed me of my Now just think of the wind that always prevails appetite. Across from us is a woman from Co­ over the ocean. It is dreadful! These people, penhagen who is now returning to New York, however, seem quite happy. In the evening where she is a dressmaker, after a two-week someone plays the harmonica, they all gather visit in Copenhagen. We often talk with her. around, and there is often singing and some­ Making money is her chief topic of conversa­ times dancing. In the last few days, however, tion. Next to her are seated a Mr. and Mrs. we have heard nothing of them. Perhaps they Silversen and their two charming, well- are seasick in this stormy weather. I, of course, behaved children, boys six and three years of would not like to go down to the steerage, but age. The wife is very attractive. She reminds Anders has been there. I am a little afraid. me of Agnes sometimes, and then again of The first few days, the weather was lovely; Jeanne, tojudge by the picture. It isn't possible the North Sea was so beautifully blue and the to get very close to these people; despite all weather so warm that we stayed up on deck friendliness, they are very reserved. We until 10 P.M. On Thursday we reached the haven't met any others. Greetings are ex­ English Channel and had a lovely view of the changed in passing, but that is all. cliffs of Dover. We also saw many ships and to­ In steerage there are probably four hun­ wards evening observed the lighthouses with dred people, including children, who make up their bright beams. Anders also saw some a sizable part of the total. Most are from the sharks. Friday morning at seven we finally left 199 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 the Channel; the Scilly Islands with two large living has a lot to do with it. Now he feels bet­ lighthouses marked the end. These steep ter, however. He is in good spirits and is enjoy­ masses of rock w^ere beautifully illuminated. ing Uncle Brasig in the Stromtid.'^^ It is Sunday And then we were headed out on the open sea. today, but there is no sign of it on the ship—no At 11:30 at night Anders awakened me to religious service. If the captain does not ask show me the cliffs of Dover, to be sure only in him, Anders can do nothing. I'he people here miniature. In the eight days we have been sail­ don't seem to want it. ing, we have seen only three ships. Of course, a Now, Mother dear, I hope you will get this ship is greeted with greatjoy even if it is ever so letter. . . . You must not give it to others to far away. . . . read—just tell them about it, for the actual de­ Sunday was like an ordinary day of the scription will come later. My dear little Dora is week. That seemed very strange to us. In the happy, I hope? And our good Kristian is al­ evening I played and sang a little. That took ready a first-rank teacher; good luck to him. some self-control on my part, for I am over­ Greet all our dear friends, especially the come with homesickness whenever I do Riises, and tell Aunt not to forget to send us that. . . .There is a very good pianist on board her picture and one of the children. And now who occasionally entertains us with his play­ God keep you, dear Mother. If only I could ing, but I don't know him and do not want to embrace and kiss you, and thank you for know him. everything, everything! The time that has Monday and Tuesday the weather was very passed lies behind me like a beautiful, beauti­ stormy. Everyone felt unwell; I stayed in bed ful dream. In the last few days I have had so both days. The air is so brisk, anyway, that you many dreams about you. I hope you are always want to sleep and, with the best will in happy. the world can't accomplish anything. Yester­ Farewell! May God protect us and guide us day the weather was calmer again but very in happiness to our new home. Anders sends cold. The ship always rocks considerably, and warm greetings to Dora, Kristian, and you. A the waves are high. You would be sick all the thousand greetings and kisses to you from time. Mother dear. Just think, here on board Your grateful daughter, who loves you de­ there is a seventy-two-year-old lady. She and votedly, her daughter were in America before but re­ Anna turned to Germany five years ago. Since they didn't care to stay permanently, they are now- going back. When I saw- them, I naturally fos­ [In Anders' writing] tered the hope that some day you might come And now for a few words from my side. As to visit us. . . . Anders and I speak of you of­ for "monopolizing the sofa," I must register a ten. We regret the time change very much. definite protest, since I, as the "little one," The difference is at least five hours. We shall must always content myself with the outer soon go down to dinner, and you are already edge, but that is the way it is—"Ingratitude is on your way to bed. It bothers me when I think the world's reward!" And then, in order to get of you, but nothing can be done about it. the facts straight, I merely want to add that she Mother dear, Anders and I are so very happy. wasn't all that reluctant to go into the saloon, I must tell vou that again and again. But we for my dear one was very happy to go there would also like very much to return to you now when the bell sounded for meals, and at other and then. times, also, when there was something to listen Now, happily, it is Sunday, and tomorrow, to there. . . . The journey was a happy and September 22, we hope to be in New York. We quick one even, though at times it was a little have had very stormy weather since Thurs­ wearing. God be with us! day. That night, three sails were ripped to Anders pieces. We were awakened by a frightful jolt. The ship rolled so violently that you had to hold on to save yourself—I did, at feast! Some of the others didn't even lie down. Friday, my dear Anders was very miserable. His stomach ''^Stromtid may have been a newspaper distributed on is not strong; of course, the different way of the ship, and Uncle Brasig a comic-strip character. 200 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PE'ITERSO.N

[Written in margin] official on board, we raised anchor again and Anna -will soon be asleep again. soon lay beside the huge landing dock in New- [Written on back] York, or rather Hoboken. The city of New I have already wTitten my parents. Please York lies on the other side of the river. You greet Otto and Brother von Dewitz.^-* can believe, Mother dear, that many thoughts were racing through our minds, and the worst Temporary address: c/o Rev. Ch. Madsen of all came when we saw the letter "Z." "Zoll" in Sturgeon Bay English is "customs." I had already had to take Wisconsin, Door County an examination aboard, which Anna knew North-America nothing about; for she was standing in all tran­ quility up on deck, dissolved in delight over the beauty of nature. When I told her about it, [From Anders] she uttered a great, "So-o-o!!" with the mien of an American lady. The moment we had Bethlehem feared had arrived, and the specter material­ September 26, 1884 ized in the form of an Englishman who under­ Dear Mother, stood not a word of German. The captain had As my dear Anna WTOte you last time, it is already given me all sorts of advice, and I had my turn today, and I do so very gladly. . . . not been a lazy pupil. Soon I had all the crates Monday morning, at 5 A,M., I woke up and and boxes together. Now, of course, the word ran to the window, and there was land to be was, "Everything has to be opened." While still seen! A blissful feeling! My little Anna has on the ship, I had had to surrender the box be­ never jumped out of bed so quickly as on that longing to Fraulein Clauss, and the customs morning. As soon as I was ready, I went up to officials fell upon me like predatory vultures.'^" the upper deck. The weather was lovely. I hey were about to confiscate the entire, enor­ Thousands of lights beamed at me from the mous box! But when I made it clear to theiri coast nearby, and morning was dawning in the that it was only a small case inside the big one, sky. The sun was in the act of disclosing his their faces lengthened significantly and Box golden face to us mortals. Land on the left, the No. 11 had to be opened first, which was very infinite sea on the right, and the good sun easy. Kristian must have anticipated that it gradually rising: a lovely view, beautiful be­ would come to this, for with one little push, the yond description. Unfortunately, I had to en­ lid opened. joy it alone, for ladies always need a great deal Did all the suitcases and boxes ha\e to be of time to get ready!! My Anna has just seized opened, then? Yes, for a man near me not only this letter, wishing, of course, to strike out the had to open his big box but also take every­ remark I just made. American ladies are ac­ thing out, piece by piece. He had already had a customed to showing everything about them­ big discussion with the officials. Now just selves in a good light, and Anna has adapted think. Mother, all our boxes and all the little herself to this habit with astonishing and big articles inside! I'he second box was speed. ... opened. What to do? The official stood over But now let me go on. The entry into New me. I expressed my regrets and at the same York was lovely. After Anna had consumed time let a few pieces of silver glide into his one hour down below getting ready, I had her hand. At one stroke, the situation changed. at my side and heard her say, "Oh, wonderful, There was friendliness in word and look. "You beautiful," etc. When the doctor had in­ are free, sir! The crates can stay closed. Just spected the ship and we had taken a customs sign the document here, and all is in order." Even the piano did not have to be opened. I could also sign in good conscience—we had only our own possessions with us. It was only a '^"Otto was Anders' youngest brother, who was in matter of having to open everything. And he school at Niesky; August von Dewitz (1836-1887) was the director of the mission school there. Dewitz was the au­ thor of several books on missions, including one on the Danish West Indies: In Ddnisch Westindien: Anfdnge der •'"Elisabeth (Clauss. a friend and colleague from Gna­ Briidermission im Gebiet der Heidenmission (Niesk\', 1881). dau; the box was for her brother in Kansas.

201 The Moravian Church building in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the nineteenth century. The photograph ts courtesy the Moravian Archives, Bethlehem.

might have found something dutiable, and who, it seemed to me, looked like a Moravian that would have made matters worse. So Anna minister. . . . When we arrived at the ferry and and I rejoiced. Only one jarring note, and that it started out, we saw the same man standing was that Fraulein Clauss's box cost so much back and watching us. "Are you perhaps duty, but I couldn't help it since I was formally Brother Petterson?" 1 heard him ask. ... It asked if I had brought anything for anyone appeared that Brother Leibert had planned to else, and then I couldn't say, "No." The duty meet us; Brother von Schweinitz''^ had tele­ for this was $ f 1.80 . . . and that was a lot, quite graphed him, but a little too late, and he had a lot. not expected the Rugia until Tuesday. Now, We waited in vain for Dr. Leibert,'*' but. . . all went well. We sta-yed at his [Brother decided then to go to him. ... I turned all our Leibert's] house and were received in a very things o\er to an expressman and then went kindly manner by him and his wife. through a gate to a ferry that was to take us to On Tuesday morning, I shipped our things New York. On the way we met another man '^Bishop Edmund de Schweinitz, president of the •"Morris William Leibert, 1855-1919, who at time of board of the American Moravian Church and a descen­ his death was the Moravian bishop of New York. dant of Count von Zinzendorf, died in 1887.

202 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON by express to Green Bay, and at noon that day, Helene Croeger from Herrnhut—that was the 23rd, we took the train, a journey of 80 very nice. . . . We long for rest, as one soon English miles. We were there [Bethlehem] at gets enough of travel. Sunday, October 5, I four o'clock, and Brother von Schweinitz met shall probably give my first sermon at us at the station. We are staying at a hotel here Ephraim. May God help me! It is a great field and are treated in a most accommodating of work with much to be done. . . . But now I manner. Last night we were at Brother will stop so that Anna can write something, Schulze's;^^ he entertained us very nicely. . . . too. I hope she won't complain about me too We have to stay here a little longer [than much! . . . Please greet everyone, all the dear planned]; everything was arranged in ad­ friends and relatives, and you, too, beloved vance. . . . Mother, with my little Dora and Kristian. And now you are wondering where we shall Your go next, Mother dear. Well, to Ephraim! That Anders is where we shall live. On Friday, September 28, I shall be ordained here by Bishop von [Anna's addition] Schweinitz. . . . We shall probably not be able Dear Mother, to visit Brother Bahnsen now, for that would . . . Although my Anders has given a fairly take too much time, and everyone is waiting extensive report, there are still a few little de­ for us in Ephraim.^'' Young Groenfeldt came tails for me to describe. We were in New York from there yesterday and told us a great deal only a very short time, but still, thanks to about it. . . .'^^ Brother Leibert's guidance, we were able to get an impression of the city. I cannot say that Saturday, September27 it pleased me. The air was so very bad, the streets were so dirty, and the noise was terri­ Yesterday Anna and I spent the entire ble. You can't imagine the noise of the car­ afternoon at the von Schweinitzes', and it was riages! Besides, the railways in the middle of very delightful. We also met Missionary Hart- the city! You must picture a bridge resting on mann,^^ who has just returned from Alaska; pillars, extending up to the second floor of a he will lecture on the Alaska Mission tomor­ building. As we also rode this train, we could row evening. . . , The time up to our depar­ look down into the people's rooms. But it ture is crammed with invitations, and just now moved very fast. It affected me terribly and Brother Schulz,^' the new preacher, stopped made me dizzy to look down at the swarm of in at the hotel to invite us for tomorrow eve­ people, for they have no fences nor iron shut­ ning. My ordination will be on Sunday. Six ters. Everything is open. We saw many Negro questions will be asked, which I am quite pre­ and Chinese people. The shops are splendid, pared to answer. This kind of ordination is not and the buildings very large. Some structures in style in Germany yet. . . . Otherwise, the have nine floors. Of course, the people use ele­ procedure is the same as the one we are accus­ vators. You hear the bells of the horse railway tomed to in Germany. ringing all night. I like Sister Leibert very . . . We will write again soon. Mail arrives much. She is a pretty, young, and sweet every day in Ephraim and goes out every day, woman whom one gets to know very quickly. too, as I hear from young Groenfeldt. . . . The day before yesterday, Anna got a letter from It is very beautiful here in Bethlehem. The town has 1,600 inhabitants and lies on two mountain slopes. In the valley the Leche flows, on the banks of which huge ironworks send '^Professor Augustus Schulze, secretary of the board. pillars of smoke into the air. The weather is ^"•George F. Bahnson, minister of the Moravian church very lovely, but almost too humid. Yesterday I at Sturgeon Bay. •'•'John Greenfield, son of J. J. Groenfeldt, the second felt quite tired from the heat and consequently Moravian minister at Ephraim. See Hjalmar R. Holand, went to sleep. My dear husband also lay down, History of Door County, Wisconsin . . . (Chicago, 1917), II: of course. We are staying in a hotel as the 182—185, for a photograph and biographies of the Schweinitzes have company. He repeated sev­ Groenfeldt family. eral times how sorry he was that he couldn't '*J. A. Hartmann, for many years a Moravian mission­ ary in Canada. take us in—usually, they do so. He is a very "C. B. Schulz, pastor at Bethlehem, 1884-1886. fine man. His wife, unfortunately, speaks only

203 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

English, and I—it is frightful to be so stupid— hem. A stove had been installed in the Mora­ I keep on talking whether she understands me vian church there.•'•' Since the congregation is or not. But I must tell you something about very poor, the members decided to raise this hotel, for an American inn is interesting. money -with this type of meal, for lotteries and We are on the third floor, overlooking the the like are not permitted in America. street. The furnishings consist of a washstand, [Change in wTiting] a vanity, a wardrobe, two chairs, the indispen­ Anna lay down and is sleeping, as usual! I sable American rocking chair (in every house, told her repeatedly to hurry so that the letter there are at least four of these). Fhe bed is very can still leave here this year, but it seems that wide. It has a wire mattress [spring], another my cajoling and complaining were in vain. Do mattress, a long, narrow bolster at the head, you still recognize her. Mother? She blames it two pillows, and a woolen blanket. It is a rather on the air here. I pity you, for when will you odd feeling to lie in it because it gets cold now ever get letters from her? She is waking up and then. Can you imagine that? You know now. It is time, too, as we are invited for tw^o how I like to cover myself up, and here there is o'clock, and it is now 1:45. Hard times!!!! always a hole on one side. (If the left side is [Change in writing] warm, then the right side is cold. Then Anders Anders is very mean to me. Instead of has to warm it for me!!) At seven o'clock, they waking me up on time, he lets me sleep. He al­ wake us up—with a drum. If you could hear the ways rests in the rocking chair so the bed is left awful noise this thing makes, you would flee! I for me. Oh yes, men! had no idea what it was, either, until Anders More about the benefit dinner. The women showed me this interesting device for awaken­ brought the food: bread, ham, eggs, a cake, ing people, downstairs in the dining room. etc., and everyone paid whatever he wished The drum sounded again at noon and in the for this meal. Mother dear, I would like to tell evening to signal mealtimes. you so much more—yes, pour out my heart to And now, something about the food. You you—but Anders is sitting behind me like a will be wondering about that. At breakfast, the dragon, therefore I don't dare! Another time, waitress regularly asks us: "Wollen Sie" or perhaps, I can do so if only he will sleep!!! "Willst Du" even to Anders—beefsteak or [Change in writing] roast lamb. The people here speak a good deal If I am a dragon, what is the dragon's wife, of German, but don't ask me how [well]. Then then? she brings: Vandgrod [Danish for oatmeal], [Change in wTiting] meat, fried potatoes, pancakes covered with That is only a little joke on the side. We are syrup, and coffee. Besides, there is bread like very happy and very much in lo\e with each our Danish white bread, and everything is other!! eaten all at one time. At noon, there is no Vandgrod, which is eaten with milk and sugar. Later that evening Instead, there are many vegetables, like dried We have just come from the Fruehaufs'. It beans, cabbage, etc., all very tasteless, also was very delightful there. First, her daughter corn, fried sweet potatoes, etc. In short, it is showed us the large school for girls, an impos­ very strange, and we leave the table still hun­ ing building, and then we sailed out to a little gry. How little meat! At six o'clock we eat island on the river. When we returned to the again, about the same things, only there is a lit­ house, we met her son, who had visited us in tle pastry, and tea is served. The coffee is poor. Copenhagen in 1868 and 1871. 1 don't re­ There is no wine or beer; everyone drinks wa­ member him, but he related the story of his ter or milk. There are only three meals. They visit. Do you remember him? We had supper don't take much trouble with meals. Sister there and then had a musical evening. The Fruehauf told me that, also. She is a widow daughter is very, very musical. . . . Tomorrow who lives here. We are invited to her house this afternoon. She is a dear old soul who speaks German and lived in Germany for '"This may have been .^gnes Clara Frueauff, widow of many years.•^'^ the Reverend Eugene A. Frueauff. Formerlv principal of Linden Hall Seminary in Lititz, she had lixed in Bethle­ . . . [One day] we went with Professor hem since 1873. Schulze to a benefit dinner in south Bethle­ ""Advent Moravian Church.

204 i^ftMt^ .

The Ephraim Moravian Church, about 1860, before it was moved inland, as painted by the first minister, A. M. Iverson. This print of the painting is courtesy of Lloyd A. Olson, Ephraim. night we are invited to the home of Brother [From Anna] Schulz, who also visited us. Do you see. Mother, here again is an example of how fa­ Ephraim ther's friendliness benefits his children. October 5, 1884 We just received your letters. This is a very Dearest Mother, great joy. . . . Monday morning we start for Here I sit in Ephraim. How I feel I cannot, Ephraim. We think of you a great deal. will not describe, for we are very grateful to Mother, and I feel that you are praying for us. the Lord that we arrived here in good shape Always do so! And now, a thousand greetings and are now in our new home. . . . Mother to Dora, Kristian, and everyone. May God dear, I hope you have received our first letter protect and preserve you. and will soon have the second, which we sent Your off on Sunday, September 28. On that Sunday, Anna my dear Anders was ordained.'" It was very [In his writing at bottom of page] impressive, and Brother von Schweinitz gave a Rev. A. Petterson fine speech. The church w'as decorated very Ephraim well and they even had a choir, but don't ask Door County, Wisconsin me how they sang! 4'he heat was frightful. North America! Brother von Schweinitz stood at the altar with Hils Otto! [Greedngs to Otto] a fan in his hand. We stayed for dinner w'ith the Schweinitzes and there met Brothers [Written in margin, first page of this letter] Hartmann and Weinland, who have just re­ Anders is often very naughty, for he kisses turned from Alaska." me almost without stopping. Although we have only been here two days, he has already Tuesday, October 14 acquired this "awful" American custom! I didn't get any further that first day. Now [Written in margin of another page] we have already experienced so much that I Many thanks for your fine letters! We en­ joyed them so much. ''"In Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem. God be with you, '"William Weinland; he is mentioned later as return­ Anders ing from Alaska in 1887. 205 « **• ^-s ciiM*^^

WHi(X3)4189I Reverend J. J. Groenfeldt and his first wife. The original, framed picture was loaned to the Society for copying by John S. Groenfeldt, Sturgeon Bay. scarcely know where to start. Along with came to meet us. Finally, we found someone to Brother Hartmann, who was on his way home, show us the way. . . . Brother Groenfeldt had we left Bethlehem Monday morning. The rail­ been at the station, but had missed us."*^ The way journey was splendid at first. We rode feeling of being with brethren again and of be­ through the Lehigh Valley—on one side we ing able to rest was wonderful. . . . After a saw water, and on the other, high rocks; and good cup of coffee (for the coffee isn't bad there were also the most beautiful woods in all here) we went out to buy a stove, since they their autumnal splendor! told us there was none in the house at Soon we went up a mountain, naturally Ephraim. After much negotiation, we bought with decreased speed. At the top, there was a a fine iron stove, which now stands in our large inn. The train stopped, and we went into room, and also a cookstove, both together for the dining room. Twenty minutes later, we $36.00. My cookstove has four burners, and a went on; all of us had to see to it ourselves that water container is attached. There are also a we did not get left behind. At eight in the eve­ wash boiler, a tea kettle, two pots with covers, a ning we arrived at Hornsville, where Brother frying pan, three pans for baking bread, two Hartmann left us. Soon we were on our way to piepans, and a tea caddy. Isn't that fine? Chicago. Of course, we were already in the It was very nice at the Groenfeldt's. They sleeping car, for we had another day and night told us a lot about Ephraim and gave us an ahead of us. . . . We arrived in Chicago, dead idea of the local conditions. We were supposed tired, the same evening and went right on, for to leave early Friday morning, but it was so the train had been late. We had barely stepped foggy that we waited all day for the steamer into our compartment when the train started that was to take us to Ephraim. It didn't come; off'again. It rained violently during the night, and the travel blanket was really needed. '"'J.J. Groenfeldt, pastor of the Moravian church at Finally, at six in the morning, we were in Ephraim from 1864 to 1883. At this time he was pastor at Green Bay. We waited and waited, but nobody Green Bay. 206 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON so we had to stay another night. It was not until The next day, at 10:30, the church service Saturday that we could go to Sturgeon Bay in a was held. Brother Groenfeldt installed An­ small boat. Brother Groenfeldt accompanied ders and gave a fine talk. Then Anders gave us. Brother Madsen greeted us there in a most his first sermon—God be praised, all went friendly manner. We had to eat dinner there, well. The church is very lovely. There is a but we hurried a good deal in order to get to small organ, but the organist is in Green Bay Ephraim that same day. At 1:30 we left. just now, taking care of the parsonage for In all my life I will never forget that jour­ Groenfeldt. I sit in the first pew. The service is ney, for the roads are indescribable. It had similar to that in Germany. Afterward, many been raining into the bargain, so that they re­ came up to greet us, but all in all there were vealed themselves to us in their loveliest state. not many there, for it was raining frightfully. We went through real seas of water, and the We had our dinner at the 'Valentines'. The horses would stop every time before they congregation had made this plan before we would decide to step down into the very deep came. Naturally, I was glad, for the first week holes. That is the way it went, through dense was dreadful. How often I wanted to write woods, and now and then we caught a glimpse you. Mother, but I just could not do it and was of a farm or a log house. All the cattle run very depressed. loose around here, in short, as freely and The first thing we did here was to paper our primitively as one can imagine. Finally, finally, living room. Brother Groenfeldt had sent the at 7:30 in the evening, we saw lights, and paper by boat earlier, but it didn't get here un­ Brother Groenfeldt said it was Ephraim. Com­ til after our arrival. There are no pa- ing out of the woods, we rode down toward the perhangers here so consequently we had to do water, for Ephraim lies on a little bay of the it ourselves. That took a good deal of time, but twenty-mile-long Green Bay.^^ Imagine, we were very happy anyway when the room Mother dear, a locale something like Skads- was finished. Then we had to start unpacking! borg. The bank is high, and on its slope lies the Crate No. 11 came first. Oh, Mother, how glad little town. Fhe church, which used to be down I was when I saw my little table! Mother dear, a by the shore, was brought up two years ago thousand thanks to you; that was a great sur­ and is only fifty steps away from the house. prise to us both. How glad we were, also, when We are living in Groenfeldt's house—it is we took out our two folding chairs because we his property. It is spacious, but only half of it is could sit on them—there is no furniture here. We ours. We have a living room and a bedroom, a have had to buy everything. Our things were study for Anders upstairs, and a kitchen. The all in good condition. Not much was bro­ other half of the house is occupied by a family ken. . . . Oddly enough, the glass on father's named 'Valentine.''''. . . He is 29 and she is 23, two pictures broke, but the pictures themsel­ an American who speaks only English, so I ves did not suffer. We left many things in their have a good chance to learn the language. We boxes and put them in the attic, for the people went to the Schulzes' right away and had our cannot stand to see too many things at once. supper there. Some of the elders called, and Anyway, they are doing enough talking about we were together for about half an hour be­ us. Before we could place the furniture, I had fore returning to our rooms. There stood all to clean and polish everything, wash the win­ our things, even the piano, unpacked—that dows, etc., for no one had lived here for a year. was really wonderful. The 'Valentines had pre­ That was a dirty task, but the young woman pared their room upstairs for us . . . and we [Mrs. 'Valentine] and Anders helped me as slept there the first week until we had every­ much as they could. thing in order. . . . By Friday afternoon, we had everything settled. Our living room is very friendly, just like your parlor, only there are no windows on one side. Imagine that you are coming in from "•^Anna minimized Green Bay's length, which is about your bedroom. My piano is on the right, on the 120 miles, with a width varying from about ten to twenty very same side as yours. It is excellent—it has miles, to which she may have been referring. The bay was such a beautiful tone that it is a joy to play on it. Door County's major highway for years until auto and truck transportation replaced it in the twentieth century. Father's picture will hang above it as soon as ''^Frank and Anna Valentine. we have the glass for the frame. On the long 207 WHi(X3)41887 The old parsonage, known as the "Iverson House," in Ephraim. From an original loaned byjolm S. Groenfeldt. wall, so far, only the big picture of Helene Cro- wall with the windows, hangs the picture of ger and Emma Riickert''^ is hanging; on the Mary and Jesus. . . . There is a little table in the wall with the windows, we have pictures of middle of the room, and we have bought six Niesky-Jankendorf, and of the group of four chairs to put around it—with the two folding boys from the institute,"' on the right. At the chairs, they are our only furniture. In the bed­ top between the windows we have the picture room, of course, there is the bed, so big and of Jesus at Jacob's well, and below- that the pic­ wide that two can lie on it, but I have to pull the tures of Father and Mother. Below them, the mattresses very close together. ... In the bed­ little basket of flowers. In front of that stands room there are also a washstand, a mirror, our my table. To the left of the next window, suitcases, and one crate. For the time being, we where you have your easy chair, the clock don't want to get anything else because we hangs on the wall. On the next wall is the door must be very careful with money. to the bedroom, but more in the center than in The view from our window is very splen­ your house. Next to that, the stove is stand­ did. In front of us is the water—at the moment ing. . . . Between the bedroom door and the it is very, very blue. On the shore beyond, a forest is now displaying its wonderful colors. Somewhat to the right is the large Green Bay. . . . But now let us go on to the kitchen. It ''•''Friends from Niesky. -•"The bovs' school in Niesky where .Anders had been a is very large, and that is good, for we two fami­ tutor. lies must share it. Our stoves are not far apart. 208 PETTERSON: ANNA AND ANDERS PETTERSON

Next to mine, I have my kitchen table. Fortu­ Last Sunday Anders preached in Sister Bay nately, there are also two pantries and a large and Ellison Bay.'"'" The latter is nine English basement, which we share. But now, the cook­ miles from here. Jansen provided the carriage ing. Mother, here they cook quite differently! and she [Mrs. Johnson] went along, too, in or­ I seem like a dunce of the first order. But Mrs. der to become acquainted with the people. Valentine is very friendly and shows me how Services are held in the schools, for there are to do many things. She is a proper American no churches. In Sister Bay, the carriages were woman, that is, very domestic—she cooks and standing on the open field. After a time, the bakes all day long, working without stopping. people came in and the service began. When I can learn a great deal from her. someone arrives late, it makes quite a noise. As far as the brothers and sisters here are The children cry—mothers must bring them concerned, they are very, very plain people, along, for otherwise they can't come—nobody mostly farmers who own some land, a few cat­ has a maid here. ... I, too, can get along with­ tle, and a little house. They have very little out help, for we have no cattle to care for. But money, but they supply us with food to the ex­ Anders really should have a horse and wagon. tent that they can. Just now, they are digging The long walks in winter are not good for potatoes. Someone just brought us four bags him. . . . Oh! I worry. of potatoes a little while ago. I have also re­ From Sister Bay we went on, over terrible ceived some preserved fruit since I wasn't here roads, rocky and full of holes. On the way to at the right time to put it up myself, as they say. Ellison Bay we stopped to have dinner at The people are mostly Norwegians. The old­ farmer Christensen's, a Dane. They had roast est settler came here thirty-one years ago. chicken, rye bread, and coffee, everything on Then the shore was so densely wooded that Ja- the table at once, as is the custom here. Then kobsen, the first one who came here—now the he hitched his horses to the wagon, and he and postmaster and a homeopathic physician, who his wife came along; it was somewhat crowded. lives two houses away from here—had to leap We arrived at Ellison Bay at three o'clock. The from the boat and cut down a tree in order to schoolhouse was very full there, mostly with be able to put his trunk on the ground.'" This women and children. Afterward we rode back Jakobsen lives with a family by the name of to the Christensens' and had supper. At six Jansen."** Both are Danes and so very friendly o'clock we started home, in good weather, un­ to us. The neighbor on our left, Haagenson, is der a clear sky, but through dense woods. Now also a good man, and a very intelligent one.''-' I know what a virgin forest is like. When they We went there after supper last night. The want to cultivate a piece of land here, they start people are looking forward with much antici­ a fire in the woods, and the limbs of these pation to our visits now, and we must go in the splendid trees make the land so fertile. You evening because they work in the fields all day. ought to see this great amount of firewood. It The congregation has about 145 members, is so cheap here. We were given ours; how­ but another hundred are in our care, and they ever, it is not very dry, and that makes it hard will have to be served as well. There is enough to start a fire. We have no kindling wood. work here for two ministers. We also have received gifts of butter, milk, and apples. We live very simply. In the morn­ ing, bread and coffee; at noon, fried bacon or '"The name he used was Hans Peder Jacobs (1817- potatoes, also often with bread and coffee; and 1894). He did not have a medical degree but did not need one to practice medicine in Wisconsin at that time. In re­ in the evening, bread and tea. Fresh meat is lating the story of his arrival to Anna, he failed to make rarely available; I haven't seen any yet. Fresh any mention at all of the Rev. A. M. Iverson, under whose fish is often available, however. I was given a leadership he had come, and who served as the Moravian pastoral Ephraim for many years. A man of many talents, Iverson built the house later owned by J. J. Groenfeldt; this is the house Anna describes. Controversy eventually •'"The Historical Records Survey Moravian Church in­ developed in Ephraim concerning Iverson, and Jacobs ventory for Wisconsin states that the preaching place at was one of the people instrumental in depriving him of his Ellison Bay was established by the Reverend Mr. Petterson pastorate. about 1888 (sic) from Ephraim and that there were ''^'This family adopted the name Johnson. monthly meetings with an attendance of seventy to one '"Fordel Hogenson (1849- 1927), later the proprietor hundred. Sister Bav had been a preaching place since of the Evergreen Beach Hotel. 1866. 209 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 fish yesterday. I fried one-half and boiled the today. I long terribly for a letter. How glad I other half. On Tuesday, I baked bread for the was to get the first one! . . . Dear Mother, I first time, with help, of course, and it turned constantly remain your grateful daughter out well. Everything is done in such a relaxed Anna and easy way here. Yesterday Brother Kant came from Manas- [From Anders] seh . . . for supper.•'' Then I boiled the fish, for October 16, 1884 the poor man is not very well off up there with his Germans. They are so poor, and he lives all Dear Mother, Sister, and Brothers, alone in his house, walking two miles for his We don't want to give the post office some­ dinner every day. Tomorrow he must go to thing for nothing; so I will add a few lines of Gnadenhuetten, Ohio, for his ordination. To­ my own. To be egotistical, I have a great deal morrow we expect Brother Madsen. ... I to do. When I am not busy with scouring, pa­ don't know what I will have to cook, but up to pering, or chopping wood, there are a thou­ now the Lord has always sent something to our sand other things to do, so that I have little home, and He will help again. You know. time to prepare for my many services. I have Mother, I always have too pessimistic an out­ already preached four or five times in dif­ look, and too little faith. Anders often makes ferent places. . . . Those pleasant and friendly me feel ashamed. . . . Our salary is $500 a days in the homeland are past, and we are year, but the food we get is worth a great deal. plunged into our work. Anna, praise God, is You will understand that. cheerful and well, and I can't thank the dear How often I wish you were here, dear Lord enough for giving me this treasure. And Mother. I would like to ask you so many her mother, too, for you let her come with me! things. ... I, too, think about you so much in Yes, those were lovely days in Niesky, and all the morning and again in the evening. I wake of you -were so good to me. We often recall that up early again now. Do you, too? Greet all the in times of work and struggle. . . . brethren and friends, and tell them there But time has moved on quickly. Please for­ won't be much letter writing at first. . . . Sev­ give my poor handwriting, but everything eral people who are here from Schleswig knew here in America must be done at a rapid pace. Uncle, but I have yet to find anyone who knew Anna and I must leave right away to pay some Father. '2 I would like to write again as much. calls. Our post here, if not a splendid one, is My heart is so full! But the letter must go out still free of care as far as externals are con­ cerned; the brethren bring . . . considerable food. At first there are many things to buy. . . . I'll have to have a horse, carriage, sleigh, etc. ''Theobald Kant had arrived in Bethlehem from Gna­ But all the ministers have to do that and it denfrey in 1881, and he served as assistant to the Mora­ hasn't made anyone poor yet. Brother von vian pastor at Lake Mills in 1883 to 1884. Ordained at Schweinitz said. But more about this another Fry's Valley, Ohio, on October 24, 1884, he was pastor at Manasseh from 1884 to 1888 and later served in other time. Mother dear. Don't you want to come Moravian parishes until retirement in Watertown in 1915. over here? Sister Jacobsen from Herrnhut has Manasseh (also spelled Manasse) later ceased to be a sepa­ been here, and I believe she stood the trip very rate entity, and the congregation was absorbed into the well. . . . Ephraim Moravian Church. The church building was moved to Sister Bay. God protect and keep you. Heartfelt greet­ ^''"Uncle" was Hans Christian Wolter, Diaspora ings from your worker in Schleswig and Holstein. Anders

(This IS the first of four parts.)

2f0 Rock Island: The Personification of Chester H. Thordarson

By Carol Lohry Cartwright

I URING the I920's Chester H. of the estate's buildings and much of its land­ D Thordarson, a Chicago electri­ scaping by Wisconsin's parks department cal inventor and businessman, designed and (owners of the estate since themid-1960's) and supervised the construction of six unusual an incomplete knowledge of Thordarson's life stone buildings and structures on the south­ and work have combined to create an image of western shore of his 777-acre estate on Rock Thordarson as an eccentric, self-indulgent, Island, off the tip of northeastern Wisconsin's arrogant man whose Rock Island estate is an picturesque Door County peninsula. The oddity, architecturally expressing merely the stone structures included a small cottage, a whims of a wealthy Chicago businessman. reservoir building, a tower, an open-air orien­ Thordarson was an iron-willed, sometimes tal pavilion, a large greenhouse with attached arrogant and self-indulgent man; but he was caretaker's house, and an "Icelandic" great also well-educated (in spite of having little for­ hall which included an elaborate sunken boat- mal schooling), inventive, inquisitive, hard­ house. At the same time, Thordarson contin­ working, and a lover of science, nature, and ued previously begun landscaping around books. All of these characteristics are to be these new buildings and structures and found in Thordarson's life and in the estate he around the log and frame buildings he had developed on Rock Island. Thordarson is not constructed on the estate between 1910 and so easily written off as a moneyed eccentric 1920. The landscaping included stone walls, when one e.xamines his rise to wealth and no­ paths, and embankments, a large stone gate, toriety in his electrical career, his pursuit of another large "nordic" log gate, and an array rare books and classic literature, and the de­ of gardens and other flora. velopment of his island estate. This building and landscaping effort was The best information about Chester Fhor- the culmination of Thordarson's develop­ darson and his life story resides in his personal ment of his island estate; the result was an ec­ papers housed in the Archives section of the lectic group of buildings, structures, and State Historical Society ofWisconsin, and in a grounds which personified Thordarson's life­ few biographical articles, primarily based on a long vision of himself and his environment— first-person account of his life written in 1926. an uncompleted vision but a very revealing An examination of these resources together one. Unfortunately, the demolition of many reveals a portrait of a genuine "Horatio Alger"

Copyright © 1986 by The Slate Historical Society ofWisconsin. 211 All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 and the all-consuming effort he put into every public aspect of his life. They also reveal how Thordarson's conception of his Rock Island estate grew and changed during the thirty-five years he owned it, paralleling changes in his personal and professional interests.

HORDARSON was born on T May 12, 1867, in Stadur, Hru- tafjordur, Iceland. He came to Milwaukee in July, 1873, where there was then an Icelandic community. 4"he family stayed in Milwaukee until 1874, when Thordarson's recently wid­ owed mother moved the family to DeForest, in Dane County, where they lived until 1877. It was there that Thordarson began formal schooling, and where his teacher (reportedly Ella Wheeler [Wilcox]) changed his difficult Icelandic name—Hjortur—to Chester.' In 1877, the nomadic Thordarson family again moved to Shawano County, to an Icelan­ dic farming community. In 1879, the Thor- darsons, together with some of their Shawano County neighbors, moved to the Red River Valley in North Dakota. Here, Thordarson was unable to attend school, but he developed an interest in science, fostered by an Icelandic physics text which he remembered reading so many times he practically memorized it. In particular, Thordarson was interested in elec­ \VHi(X3)41877 tricity, and in 1885 he followed one of his sis­ The young Chester H. Thordarson. ters to Chicago in the hope of eventually pur­ suing this field as a career.^ immediately. The determination to get an ed­ In Chicago, Thordarson did not find work ucation that he had showed as a boy emerged again when, as an eighteen-year-old, Thor­ darson enrolled in the fourth grade in a Chi­ 'Almiost all sources regarding Thordarson's early life cago public school. Thordarson later claimed and career are drawn from an article about Thordarson that he was not bothered by being in a class which appeared in American Magazine in 1926; Neil M. with mostly ten-year-olds: "It was embarrass­ Clark, "The Flare of the Northern Lights Started Thor­ ing, but I didn't mind much, for all I wanted darson on his Quest," 'm American Magazine, 183— 190 (De­ was the chance to learn." He completed grades cember, 1926). This article is almost entirely made up of first-person quotes, along with some narrative by C^lark. four through six in two years. Then, in 1887, The quotes are very much in the style of Thordarson's let­ he obtained his dreamed-of position in an ters and they appear to be accurate. Other articles or bio­ electrical manufacturing shop at a wage of $4 graphical materials include: Dennis JK. Hill, "Chester H. a week. Thordarson worked in this position Thordarson—.\ Biographical Chronology," unpublished report prepared for the Rare Books Department, Univer­ until 1889, then worked for four years in both sity ofWisconsin .Memorial Library, 1976; and Pal Powell, St. Louis and Chicago in electrical manufac­ "Chester Thordarson: Scientist and Bibliophile Extraordi­ turing companies. In 1892 Thordarson de­ naire," in the Wisconsin Academy Review, 26:38 — 40 (Sep­ cided not to go to college with money he had tember, 1980). saved, but to take a trip to California and Mex­ ^Clark, "Flare of the Northern Lights," 184-185; Hill, ico instead. Fhis decision to travel and not at­ "Chester H. Thordarson," 2; Powell, "Scientist and Biblio­ phile," 39. tend college was not entirely out of character. 212 CARTWRIGHT: ROCK ISLAND AND CHESTER H. THORDARSON since Thordarson had a strong belief in self- age for transmission was not limited by the education, a trait he attributed to his Icelandic transformer but by the insulation of the line. heritage.'' Fhis was an important finding in the field of When Thordarson returned from his trip, electrical transmission at the time.' he worked for the Chicago Edison Company The million-volt transformer project estab­ for three years. Then, in f 895, with only $75 lished Thordarson's reputation as an electrical to his name, the newly married Thordarson "wizard." His company—by 1916 called the began his own electrical repair business. One Thordarson Transformer Company—spe­ of his early customers was the Chicago Tele­ cialized in the manufacture of transformers. phone Company, a contact which developed In 1916, Thordarson boasted that his com­ into a three-year repair contract with the pany made transformers for every purpose, Western Electric Company. Thordarson at­ "whose refinement of construction equals that tributed his early success to hard work and of watch making," and further, "we have con­ what he called "good deportment," by which structed units which operated successfully at he meant "doing right by all the people with voltage ratios heretofore unattainable in com­ whom you deal." He offered the following ex­ mercial practice."'' ample. When Thordarson left the Chicago Some of Thordarson's experiments were Edison Company to begin his own business, he done in conjunction with American universi­ brashly opened up his repair shop in the same ties. In fact, Purdue University had contracted building as Edison's repair shop, where he had Thordarson's million-volt transformer pro­ previously been working. Surprisingly, the ject. Fhis academic relationship was aided by Edison Company gave him little trouble, even the Thordarson company's ability to design extending him a credit line for company mate­ and manufacture made-to-order experimen­ rials. Fhordarson believed that "the credit cer­ tal laboratory equipment. Thordarson's fame tainly w^ould not have been forthcoming if I as an inventor peaked in 1915 when he dis­ had not left the company under circumstances played another million-volt transformer at the of mutual good will. I had earned my share of Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. the gocjd will by my deportment as an em­ This improved transformer won another gold ployee." While it is difficult to believe that medal while demonstrating an improved Thordarson's good behavior as an employee transmission line construction technique and was the sole reason why the Edison Company other features designed to improve commer­ tolerated his brash competition, Thordarson cial power transmission.' remained convinced that it was his behavior, After moving to larger quarters in 1912, loyalty, and character which promoted his suc­ I'hordarson's business—now the Fhordarson cess, and he continued to extoll "good deport­ Electric Manufacturittg Company—expand­ ment" as the key to success in whatever a per­ ed into transformers for smaller commercial son chose to do.' applications, such as bells, toys, and neon During the next nine years, Fhordarson signs. I'he company also produced ignition not (mly repaired electrical equipment but coils for the auto industry and amplifiers and also began inventing and manufacturing it. transformers for radios. Bv 1929, the com- He specialized in the field of electrical trans­ formers, and his experimental work with high-voltage transformers culminated in a ''"A 500,000 Volt Transformer at the St. Louis Exposi­ gold medal at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair tion," in Electrical World fcf Engineer, 44:306 (August 20, for a million-volt, 25-cycle transformer, the 1904); "A .Megavolt, Megawatt, 25-Cycle Transformer," largest, highest voltage, low frequency trans­ 'm ElectricalWorld and Engineer, 4:A:b50 (October 1, 1904); former constructed to date. It generated awe­ "Some High Potential Effects," in Electrical World &? Engi­ neer, 44:616-617 (October 8, 1904). some jump spark discharges which amazed ''Advertisement for the Thordarson Transformer fairgoers and proved that the maximum volt- Company, f916, in the Chester H. Thordarson Papers, Archives Division, State Historical Society ofWisconsin. '"High Tension Experiments," in Electrical Review and Western Electrician, 68:2 (January 1, 1916); Neil Willson, 'Clark, "Flare of the Northern Lights," 184-186; Hill, "Million-Volt Transformer to be Demonstrated at the "Chester H. Thordarson," 2 — 3. Panama-Pacific Exposition," in Electrical Review and West­ •'Clark, "Flare of the Northern Lights," 184- 189. ern Electrician, 67:945-946 (November 20, 1915). 213 WHi(X3)41879 (Chester ihordarson with one of hcs company's electiualpiojects.

pany produced 25,000 transformers per day. distinguished. And by the 1930's, like many Thordarson's manufacturing patents and ex­ businesses, the Thordarson Electric Manufac­ perimental laboratory equipment continued turing Company was in financial trouble. The to foster his company's reputation as a small company hung on until the needs of the war manufacturer of quality electrical products.*^ effort in the early 1940's brought it back to life. In a field peopled with giants such as Edi­ Atthe time of Thordarson's death in 1945, the son, however, "Thordarson's experimental company was almost exclusively engaged in work is largely overshadowed by others. The war-related production.^ high-voltage transformer projects and the ex­ Like many self-made men, Chester Thor­ perimental electrical equipment won Thor­ darson worked very hard and was under­ darson a positive reputation in academic cir­ standably proud of his accomplishments. Yet cles, but his company's later emphasis on small his iron will and personal arrogance may have commercial transformers was not particularly masked a deeper vulnerability, a fear of fail­ ure. To one of his doctors in Madison, he once confided: "The greatest thing I fear is business "Information about the Ihordarson Electric .Manu­ facturing Company product line came from business let­ ters, reports, company catalogs, and advertisements in the Thordarson Papers. Also see K. A. Hathaway, "Machines "Thomas G. Nee to C. H. Thordarson, December 11, Busy in High Output at Thordarson," Chicago Daily News, 1933; "Operating Results." companv report for 1942, April 3 or 4, 1929, p. 38, in the Thordarson Papers. March 8, 1943, !6i(i. 214 CARTWRIGHT: ROCK ISLAND AND CHESTER H. THORDARSON failure. One who fails in business only gets N 1910, Thordarson began the ac­ censure and criticism for his efforts." To com­ I quisition of Rock Island, a largely pensate, Thordarson worked harder than wooded and uninhabited island located at the those he thought might criticize him, cloaking tip of the Door County peninsula. At the time, himself in self-confidence and "good deport­ local farmers and fishermen owned most of ment.""' the island, while the northernmost section was Thordarson, passionate but aloof, left little a 130-acre government reserve with the now information in his personal papers about his historic Potowatomi Light House on the Lake family, and the biographical articles speak Michigan shore. Although Thordarson never only brieffy of his wife and sons. In 1894, he fully articulated the reasons he became inter­ married Juliana Fridriksdottir, who lived until ested in Rock Island, many reasons seem obvi­ 1955. They had two sons: Dewey, who died in ous. As a boy, Thordarson had lived in north­ 1968, and Trygve, who died in 1957. Neither eastern Wisconsin—Shawano County—for a son took over the family business, and Trygve time, and since he kept track of other Iceland­ had the only Thordarson grandchild, Julia ers, he was probably aware of the Icelandic set­ Ann. Thordarson's ego probably instigated tlement on nearby Washington Island. The clashes with his sons, and given his almost total prospect of owning almost an entire island to immersion in his career and outside interests, do with what he pleased no doubt excited him. it is quite possible that he had little time for his Further, as suggested by his later develop­ family. His sons were apparently not as ob­ ment of his estate. Rock Island may have been sessed with hard work as was their father, and symbolic of his native Iceland—the small Rock there are rumors among those who knew the Island being Iceland in microcosm. In any family that the sons had problems with alco­ event, the development of Rock Island, hol. Outside his career and possibly his family, largely documented in Thordarson's personal Thordarson had two interests in which he in­ papers, reveals the many facets of his person­ vested much time and money: his book collec­ ality, particularly how that personality inter­ tion and the estate he developed on Rock Is­ acted with others and how his development of land. Rock Island changed with his changing per­ He had begun to collect books even as a sonal interests. young man earning four dollars a week. To do Right after Thordarson acquired the pri­ this, the determined immigrant put himself vate parcels of Rock Island he apparently had on a strict budget. "I lodged in a pretty poor doubts about whether to develop the estate at place on the West Side ... I paid two dollars a all, or even whether to keep the property. In week for my room and breakfasts. I walked to January of 1911, he wrote to Henry Koyen of work. That left me one dollar each week for Washington Island, "I beg to state that I have other meals. . . . One dollar remained. With not as yet decided what to do with Rock Island that I bought books."" and for this reason do not want to disturb any­ Thordarson's book collecting centered thing there." However, his interest in nature around his native Iceland, scientific thought, demanded that the property not be disturbed and nature studies. After he gained some while he made up his mind what to do with it. financial success, his collection increased in He employed a local Washington Island man both quantity and quality. By the time of his to watch his property and see to it that "no one death in 1945, Thordarson's library contained molests the deer or cuts down any trees. . . ." between 10,000 and 11,000 volumes, some of By the spring of 1912, Thordarson had for­ which were valuable rare books, and many mulated his plans for the island. He wrote others related to the early written history of Koyen, "I decided last Fall to hold (and not Western science and technology.'^ sell) my Rock Island property, and it will be necessary for me to spend considerable money "•C. H. Ihordarson toj. A.Jackson,Jr.,July 13, 1920, on same. I will undoubtedly live there a por­ ibid. tion of each summer, and make visits out there "Clark, "Flare of the Northern Lights," 185. at different times of the year."'^ So at first '"John Neu, "The Acquisition of the Thordarson Col­ lection," in University ofWisconsin Library News, 11:2 — 6 (March, 1966); Powell, "Scientist and Bibliophile," 39- 40. "C. H. Thordarson to R. Hansen, November 9, 1910; 215 The Thordarson estate on Rock Island.

Rock Island was primarily a vacation retreat aspects of the island's native ecology. He be­ for Thordarson, but he intended to keep the gan a vigorous program to introduce new wild portions of the island as a nature pre­ plants and animals to the estate. In 1912 alone, serve. As he wrote Professor Alfred Burrill of he planted over 4,000 fruit trees, berry the University ofWisconsin in the fall of 1912, bushes, and ornamental shrubs.'" As to the na­ "it is my intention to keep this Island as a wild tive animals, depending upon their usefulness park for the protection and preservation of to him, Thordarson did, at times, make efforts our wild animal and plant life. . . ." Again, in to preserve them; but when they became what 1919, Fhordarson wrote to a Madison attor­ he considered a "nuisance," he proposed radi­ ney, "my main object in purchasing that Island cal solutions to deal with them. For example, was not in any sense for profit but for preserv­ in 1911 he wrote to Henry Koyen, "true the ing the splendid and extremely varied forest fox are 'pests,' but they are not nearly as bad as life that is nati\'e to the state ofWisconsin."''' the rabbits that gnaw, destroy small trees and The noble intentions which Thordarson es­ shrubs and inasmuch as the fox kill the rabbits poused were not as easy for him to keep in I would prefer the lesser of two evils." But by practice, and he soon began also to alter many 1912, he WTOte, "my object in keeping them [the foxes] there, up to this time, has been for exterminating the rabbits. When I was out on Rock Island a month ago, I looked for rabbit C. H. Thordarson to H. Koyen, January 12, 1911, and April 2, 1912, in the Thordarson Papers. '••C. H. Thordarson to Prof. Alfred C. Burrill, Novem­ ber 25, 1912; C. H. Thordarson to Vroman Mason, Janu- '''C. H. Thordarson to Vroman Mason, January 15, arv 15, 1919, zfo-rf. \

216 •* .Jt^'' - . ^* ""

WHi(X;i)41706 The Rock Island sfioreline. Door County, 1942. tracks, but I could not find any anywhere on keeper, had difficulty keeping them off'the es­ the island, and I really believe that the foxes tate, but Ihordarson rigidly enforced his pri­ have killed them all. Therefore, I think it vate property rights.'' would be safe to have the foxes all extermi­ Between f913 and 1919, the problem with nated next winter.""' hunters apparently abated, but the deer popu­ Fhis same line of reasoning extended to the lation increased dramatically. By 1918 and island's white-tailed deer, and led to what can 1919, the Rock Island deer herd was begin­ only be termed the "great Rock Island deer ning to destroy the valuable trees and plants controversy." When local people owned pri­ that Thordarson had planted on his estate, vate parcels on the island, apparently local and with the same determination he had used hunters had kept the island's deer herd small. to try to save them only a few years earlier, Thordarson, though, wanted private hunting I hordarson now tried to have the deer "exter­ to stop immediately after his purchase, and in minated." Ironically, by that time, all of Door 1912 he WTOte Rasmus Hanson of Washington County was under a hunting ban, in an at­ Island, "I am very anxious to have all hunters tempt to replenish the county's dwindling kept away from that Island this Winter. . . ." deer population. Undaunted, in 1919, Ihor­ However, in the fall of that year, despite warn­ darson had his lawyers engage ii-i a campaign ings from Thordarson in the local paper, to convince the state's conservation commis­ hunters did attempt to hunt on the island. I'he sion to allow him to kill all the deer at one time, local game warden, as well as the lighthouse despite the legal ban on hunting. He finally se-

''C. H. Thordarson to Rasmus Hansen, January 15, "'C^. H. Thordarson to Henry Koyen, January 18, 1912; C. H. Thordarson to Ed Cornell, November 25, 1911; C. H. Thordarson to Henry Koven, April 12, 1912, 1912; C. H. Thordarson to W. M. Earnhardt, November ibid. 15, 1912, and November 26, 1912, ibid.

217 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 cured such permission, and in February of of a nature preserve protectiitg local plants I9I9 Thordarson organized a party of and animals always competed with his obses­ hunters from Chicago and southern Wiscon­ sion for experimentation and his need to con­ sin to drive the deer off Rock Island and onto trol the environment. Washington Island, or to kill them if that was Of all the experiments Thordarson con­ not successful. The expedition was reported ducted on Rock Island, probably the most bi­ in the Door County Advocate (Sturgeon Bay), zarre had to do with "electroculture," or the which commented that allowing Thordarson effects of electricity on the growth of plants. to kill his deer would set a precedent for all But instead of applying electrical current di­ residents w ho had trouble with deer to be able rectly to the plants, as one would expect, given to kill them, therefore negating the whole rea­ today's knowdedge of the subject, Thordarson son for having the hunting ban. devised a different procedure. He was of the The Thordarson hunt was largely unsuc­ opinion that electrical current had an effect on cessful, driving few deer anywhere and only the atmosphere. In two letters to a caretaker in killing two, one a doe that was found to be 1913, Thordarson briefly outlined his plans pregnant. A succeeding issue of the Door for his "electroculture" experiment. On April County Advocate chided the hunting expedi­ 21 he wrote, "I would like to have about 3/4 of tion, particularly noting that most were out- an acre cleared and underbrushed in the for­ of-staters, and that when they proved unsuc­ est east of the field: that is leave all the trees cessful, Thordarson refused to allow experi­ standing that are healthy and over 4 [inches] enced hunters from Washington Island to in diameter. You see I want to experiment help with the hunt. The paper also noted that with the effects of electricity on plants in the "the attempt to exterminate the deer in this forest where there is little direct sunlight." On matter is strongly resented by residents of April 28 he wrote, "I intend to run a net work Washington Island," and that county farmers of wires over the field and investigate the hadjustasmuch trouble with deer eating their effects that electricity in the air will have on the crops, but did not have the influence Thordar­ plant growth and I especially ask you to try the son had to get a special permit to kill them.'** result when applied on the air in the forest. I Ihordarson felt that the newspaper and believe we could get very interesting results by some local residents had ridiculed him and his planting some of the fruit trees in the forests hunting party for their lack of success. He with shrubs and other plants. I feel confident WTOte to his Madison attorney Vroman Mason that we can make everything grow nicely with­ in March of 1919, "It seems to me now that the out direct sunlight."^" deer on Rock Island are a temptation and nui­ sance to the morals of the people of Washing­ ton Island and for that reason alone the act is fully justified to have them exterminated." In EFORE the mid-1920's, the 1919, Thordarscjn summed up the whole deer B buildings that Thordarson had controversy in a letter to Adolph Moe. "The constructed or renovated on his island estate greatest mistake I have made on Rock Island reflected his early view of Rock Island as a va­ has been to allow the deer to increase in num­ cation retreat and nature preserve. They were ber until now it is impossible to cultivate the almost all log or frame-constructed buildings. land. We must get rid of that nuisance. . . ."'•' For example, in 1912, Fhordarson wrote that The whole issue must have blown over, be­ he wanted to build a one-room, eighteen-by- cause Thordarson's papers ne\'er referred to twenty-four-foot log house, with "maple the "deer problem" again. But throughout flooring and good roof." In 1913, Thordarson Thordarson's tenure on Rock Island, his goal made several inquiries about having such a log house built and wrote Rasmus Hanson, "I am getting a collection of books on bungalows and '^Door County Advocate, February 14, February 21, log cottages and hope to be able to find a de- I9I9; C. H. Thordarson to Vroman Mason, January 15, \9\9,ibid. '"C. H.Thordarsonto Vroman Mason, .March 3, 1919, Thordarson Papers; C. H. Thordarson to .Adolph Moe, 2"C. H. Thordarson to .A. Setterberg, April 21, 1913; August 20, \9\9,ibid. April 28, \9ri,ibid. 218 Wlli(X3)41697 The log lodge, one of the earliest buildings on the estate in 1925, now torn down. sign that will suit the scenery on Rock Is­ nent architect to design a high-style building land."2' complex on his estate when he decided to By the mid-1920's, I'hordarson's estate in­ change the island from a "rustic" retreat to a cluded a number of log and frame buildings more formal estate. But, as in everything else located on the southwestern shore of the is­ Thordarson did, he wanted total control over land. The largest of these was a long, low, log- the product. The results indicate he had a constructed cookhouse. There was also a one- master plan in mind when he began to change and-a-half-story lodge with "chalet" type the appearance of his estate. During the late porches along the first and second story fa­ 1920's, when Ihordarson was in his fifties, he cades. This building also had a rear, project­ began the building program which reflected ing screen porch which had a large stone foun­ this master plan. He erected four stone build­ dation sloping down the rear incline, fhis ings, two stone structures, and increasingly section also had stone pillars supporting the utilized stone in the elaborate landscaping he roof. The stonework used for the lodge fore­ continued, all in an apparent attempt to create shadowed the type of construction which his master plan: a romantic vision of an Icelan­ would soon commence on the estate.^'-^ dic village. All the buildings and structures, As a moderately wealthy Chicago business­ along with the landscaping features, were con- man, Fhordarson could have hired a promi­

"'•'Information about the frame and log buildings of "'C. H. Thordarson to Rasmus Hanson, January 15, the estate came from photos in the Rock Island collection 1912; C. H. Thordarson to A. Setterberg, April 21, 1913; located in the Iconographic (Collections, State Historical C. H. Thordarson to John Johnson, July 3, 1913; C. H. Society oi Wisconsin, collection number 3304. These Thordarson to Rice Lake Lumber Co., October 6, 1913; buildings have been destroyed, except for three small C. H. Ihordarson to Aug. L. Larson, November 15, 1913, service buildings, because of perceived maintenance ibid. problems. 219 WISCONSIN MAC;AZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

buildings, was designed as a water tower, though it never functioned as one. (A small stone building, the reservoir, closer to the main complex, did actually function as part of the estate's water system.) The pavilion, with its red tile "oriental" roof supported by large log timbers, was an outdoor sitting area. The pavilion was part of an elaborate landscaped area with a stone wall and large stone entrance gate creating a "gateway" to the complex. One of the most interesting of the new stone buildings was the greenhouse. There were two sections to this beautiful building: a greenhouse section built of glass, supported by a fieldstone foundation with fieldstone pil­ lars at the corners of the greenhouse's T-plan. Attached to the greenhouse was a caretaker's cottage, which had a gray cobblestone exterior and a roof of green Spanish tile. In this green­ house, of which only the caretaker's cottage still stands, Thordarson could experiment with new plants and protect the more fragile species he enjoyed. Of the two stone buildings attributed to Thordarson's architect, Frederick Dinkel- berg, the boathouse-great hall is the most significant—indeed, the most significant building on the island. Dinkelberg, who had once worked extensively with Daniel H. Burnham in Chicago, provided plans and spe­ cifications for the boathouse in 1926. Al­ though Dinkelberg prepared the designs, it was Thordarson's concept that provided the building's appearance. His design for this building was reminiscent of the "Althing," the Icelandic parliament building in Reykjavik. At the base of the building were large limestone WHi(X:j)4169;i arches, sunk into the water, through which The water tower. boats were steered and docked, once inside. At this level there are also some small dressing rooms. The upper level is the great hall, with structed of native limestone. The buildings large arched windows on each side of the and structures had a nineteenth-century ver­ building. The exposed ceiling beams in the in­ nacular quality about them, with rough stone terior of the great hall have an unusually deli­ walls and foundations. All structures which cate appearance, given their function of sup­ were covered had tile roofs, most of identical porting the heavy Spanish tile roof of the red Spanish tile. Although a noted Chicago ar­ stone building. When Ihordarson occupied chitect drew up specifications for at least two the estate, this great hall was decorated with of the stone buildings, it is obvious that the de­ "nordic" chandeliers and large wooden tables sign concepts came directly from Thordarson and chairs carved with nordic motifs. During himself. the early I940's, Thordarson housed his ex­ Each of the new structures served a func­ tensive book collection in this hall while he tion for the estate. Fhe stone tower, located contemplated the construction of a large stone across the island from the main complex of library-lodge building. The new library build- 220 CARTWRIGHT: ROCK ISLAND AND CHESTER H. THORDARSON

i«*i«*)^S*»«^^fe.~^S

Wlli(X,

ing was never constructed, but a model exists The foundation will be laid in about 7 showing an almost castle-like structure of feet of water and the base of the founda­ limestone with an oriental-style red tile rooL^^ tion will be seven feet wide. ... I have The construction of the boathouse was an had the best architect in Chicago engineering as weU as a building chaUenge. In [Dinkelberg] make detailed drawings March of 1926, Thordarson described the up­ and specifications for that building and it coming construction to one of his local ma- win be the finest structure of that kind on sons:^'' Lake Michigan when completed. The roof will be Spanish tile and weigh 50 tons. All walls and foundation will be ""Frederick P. Dinkelberg, Specifications for Boat made of rough stone. The walls will be House and Casino al Rock Island, (ireen Bay, Wis. for about 3 feet in thickness. C;. H. Thordarson, Esq. Owner," in the Thordarson Pa­ pers. Information about Dinkelberg came from Henry F. As testament to the sturdiness of the com­ Withey, A. LA., and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical pleted building, Thordarson later described Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased) (Los Angeles, the boathouse and great hall, then housing his 1970), 174-175. Plans for the cottage are in the posses­ valuable library, in a manner typical of his sion of the Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreations Department on Rock Island. Information prose: 2'' about the furniture in the great hall is from the State His­ torical Society's Iconographic Collections. The model of Referring to our last discussion of the Thordarson's library-lodge building which was never con­ fire insurance for the librarv on Rock Is- structed is currcndy housed in the museum collections of the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, Madison. "'C. H. Thordarson to Peter Urdahl, .March 18, 1926, '•''C. H. Thordarson to A. M. Wilbins, Februarv 3, in the Thordarson Papers. 1942, ifci.

221 ^-.-'^^.TfPA"

222 Four views of the exterior and the interior of the boathousel great hall, which came to serve as the library for Thordarson's rare book collection. The model of the proposed new library building can be seen on a table to the right in the picture with the chandelier.

223 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

land, there are se\-eral points I wish to Thordarson often entertained his Chicago make clear. The building is absolutely employees and friends at Rock Island. Since fireproof. We could have a bonfire in the he was always willing to show off his book col­ front entrance and one in back of the lection to important visitors in Chicago, he was doors [of] the boathouse. It would burn acquainted with a number of prominent peo­ the doors and entrance frame but would ple in that city. In fact, until the 1960's, there not set fire to the building. We have nine was a cabin, built in the "cowboy style," for the large windows lO'xlS'andeachonehas exclusive use of William Hale "Big Bill" a double French door. We could have a Thompson, the one-time mayor and power big fire in each one of these doors, that is broker of Chicago. A historic photo of we could have twelve fires burning si­ Thompson and friends in hunting clothes and multaneously, that would burn all the with rifles indicates that he did, indeed, come door frames and shatter all the plate glass but would not set fire to the build­ to Rock Island to use his cabin. One guest of ing. Thordarson's, who visited Rock Island in 1930, when the estate was at its peak, was The stone cottage, w-hich Dinkelberg also moved to wTite a glowing narrative about her made the plans for, is constructed of the same visit and send it to Thordarson. In flowery lan­ rough limestone as the boathouse, and its en­ guage she described the beauty of the estate, trance is a smaller version of the large arched and the peacefulness of the island. Of her windows in the great hall. The cottage comple­ host, she WTOte:^*' tes the "Icelandic" complex. Probably because of the Depression, Thordarson did not con­ Mr. Thordarson was like a little boy tinue any building on Rock Island, although, showing us his treasures, as we followed him from place to place, listening to his as mentioned earlier, plans and a model for a plans and marveling at his optimism, pa­ large library-lodge w'ere on the drawing tience and steadfastness in overcoming board. obstacles, that his dream might come Except for the greenhouse, all the stone true, viz: to share the island of his youth buildings and structures of Thordarson's Ice­ [presumably Iceland] with his friends, landic village are still standing. They are sig­ employees, the people he buys from, and nificant to the broad range of vernacular ar­ those who buy from him. He was a pic­ chitecture in Wisconsin, and are listed in the ture of dreams come true. National Register of Historic Places. The high level of construction materials and construc­ As indicated by the "great deer contro­ tion techniques utilized in these buildings and versy," Thordarson did not always have good the design concept behind them make them relations with the permanent residents in the more than mere architectural oddities. The area. He did make numerous friends with the beautiful limestone walls and tile roofs are in­ residents of Washington Island, and he corre­ deed reminiscent of some Icelandic structures sponded with many of them frequently. He familiar to Thordarson, and the similarity of provided employment for local people on the construction suggests a sense of continuity estate and of course purchased goods from lo­ and shared purpose throughout the estate, cal businesses. However, Thordarson's atten­ even though the buildings now sit by them­ tion to detail and obsession with "good deport­ selves, out of their original context. ment" often created conflicts with the more low-keyed local residents. When conflicts arose, Thordarson often took a no-compro­ mise attitude toward those with whom he dis­ HE history of Chester Thordar­ agreed. T' son's estate is of interest not For example, in 1911, when Thordarson only for its architecture. Since Thordarson placed an advertisement in the Door County Ad- left few perscjnal papers, the correspondence relating to Rock Island also gives significant glimpses into his importance in Chicago soci­ ""C. H. Thordarson to W. H. Thompson, December 5, ety and his relationship with the rural W'iscon- 1924; Millicent M. Stegade, narrative of her trip to Rock sinites who were his neighbors. Island and tour of the estate, .'Vugust, 1930, ibid.

224 WHi(X3)41876 SigBiir Thompson and two Chicago cronies in front of his lodge on Rock Island.

vacate (Sturgeon Bay) warning people not to In 1912, a Washington Island merchant hunt on Rock Island, his copies of the pub­ billed Thordarson twice within the same lished ad were lost in the mail. When he re­ thirty-day period for some merchandise pur­ ceived no response to his inquiry to the news­ chased by one of Thordarson's workers on the paper about the copies, instead of having one estate. Because of this, Thordarson wrote the of his local contacts investigate the matter, he merchant a mean-spirited letter in reply that wrote a demanding letter to the editor stating, closed, "I have ordered Mr. Johnson not to ". . . [I] am not asking anymore than is consid­ buy any more material from you." In 1913, ered good business policy by any respectable Thordarson spotted an error in hours worked newspaper. This letter must be answered!" In by a cook's helper. He told him, "You certainly fact, the Advocate was making a concerted show most extraordinary ingenuity in trying effort to locate copies of the ads. In those days to get in extra time, a cook charging for over­ before Xeroxing, the newspaper had already time I have never heard of before." And to the sent the only copies they had to him and in or­ casual bookkeeping of another Washington der to find additional copies they had to Island merchant, Thordarson wTote, "You gather old newspapers from subscribers and will recollect that last year we had some trou­ the trash to obtain a complete set.^^ ble with items you claimed that I owed of which you gave me no record of until after sev­ eral months. . . . If I owe you money it is up to "'According to Thordarson's laborer's timebooks for "28 Rock Island, he had anywhere from three to ten men you to prove it. working for him on the island at any one time. The spat with the newspaper is covered in the following: C. H. "*C. H. Thordarson to Christian Sabye, May 18, 1912; Thordarson to the Door County Advocate, October 10, C. H. Thordarson to Andrew Irr, September 18, 1913; 1911, and the Door County Advocate to C. H. Thordarson, C. H. Thordarson to H. H. Anderson, October 30, 1913, October 11, 1911. ibid.

225 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

In 1919, still upset over the local sentiment in northeastern Wisconsin, he made many about the deer hunt, and annoyed that fisher­ friends and business associates in Madison men Still dumped fish refuse into the bay after and at the University of Wisconsin. In 1929, it became illegal to do so, Thordarson at­ the university informed him that because of tempted to influence the decision of who "the distinguished quality that has marked would be appointed local game warden. He your career as a craftsman, inventor, lover and and his Madison attorney lobbied conserva­ collector of books, and conservationist" it de­ tion officials in order that a man sympathetic sired to confer upon him an honorary master to Thordarson's "problems" would get the po­ of arts degree at commencement that year. sition.^^ Thordarson, piqued by some dealings with While such conflicts may be construed as the conservation department, replied charac­ Thordarson only enforcing his rights as em­ teristically to his recognition as a conservation­ ployer, consumer, and resident, he showed a ist: "I am very sorry to report that my greatest marked lack of tact and tolerance in an area obstacle to my conservation w-ork has been the which traditionally has had a love-hate rela­ Wisconsin Conservation Commission itself. . tionship with its wealthy part-time residents. . . At present I feel reluctant in receiving hon­ On the other hand, if Thordarson liked some­ ors from the state that has worked so decid­ one, or he felt they showed "good deport­ edly against the improvement and ment," he could be generous and, if not warm, development of a portion of that state. . . ." at least politely cordial. For example, when The state's conservation department (now the one of his Rock Island stonemasons died in Department of Natural Resources) policies 1932, Thordarson wrote to the family, "I have have made many enemies in northern Wiscon­ never met men who have show n finer charac­ sin, and Thordarson was no exception. But his ters, uprightness, honor and skill than Mr. Ur­ feathers were apparently smoothed, and he dahl and his brother always displayed when did appear to receive the honor at the univer­ they worked with me on Rock Island. ... I sity's commencement.-'" shall never forget the many pleasant hours I had in my associations with him." When Thor­ darson died in 1945, the Door County Advocate ran a front-page obituary which was very S Thordarson's life was nearing friendly, and noted that Thordarson had A an end, he spent more and many friends in the area. The obituary also re­ more time on Rock Island. In 1941, he moved membered that he once donated $250 to the his collection of 11,000-plus books to the is­ Sturgeon Bay library for reference books land. He had often spoken of his desire to when he came in one day and found them have the book collection in the hands of the wanting. It also noted that Thordarson had University of Wisconsin, and even suggested once furnished a buck deer for the Chamber that the university acquire the estate to use as a of Commerce dinner, taking it from his over­ research and teaching center for university stocked Rock Island herd by special permis­ students. But Fhordarson was no philanthro­ sion of the state conservation department. Ob­ pist, and he never made arrangements to do­ viously, some fences had been mended, nate the collection or the estate to the univer­ perhaps because Thordarson made a concilia­ sity. In 1946, shortly after Thordarson's tory gesture when he realized that harsh death, the university raised $300,000 to pur­ words and an inflated ego engendered only chase the Thordarson library from his heirs. criticism and controversy.''" This acquisition helped to establish the Memo­ Although Thordarson's primary residence rial Library's rare books division, and is part of and business was in Chicago, and his estate was the library's outstanding history of science col­ 32 lection 3iGlenn Frank to C. H. Thordarson, April 29, 1929; ^^C. H. Thordarson to V. Mason, March 3 and April 1, C. H. Thordarson to CJlenn Frank, June 17, 1929, in the I9\9,ibid. Thordarson Papers. '"C. H. Thordarson to Mrs. Peter Urdahl and familv, ""F. A. Aust to C. H. Thordarson, January 11, 1937, January 29, 1932, ibid.; Chester Thordarson obituary. ibid.; Neu, "Acquisition of the Thordarson Collection," 2- Door County .Advocate, Februar\ 9, 1945. 6.

226 CARTWRIGHT: ROCK ISLAND AND CHESTER H. THORDARSON

Thordarson's son, Trygve, continued to use the estate after his father's death, but in 1964 the state ofWisconsin purchased the es­ tate from Thordarson's heirs for $175,000 in order to add to the state's park and recreation areas. Renamed Rock Island State Park, the land has been maintained as a semi-wilderness hiking and camping area, which is accessible only by ferry service from Washington Island, and only during the summer months when the area is ice-free. Because of the perceived high cost of maintaining all of the buildings of the Thordarson estate, park personnel demol­ ished all the log buildings and most of the frame structures, as well as letting most of Thordarson's landscaping revert to the wild. The DNR has maintained the stone buildings, even, at a significant cost, rehabilitating the tile roofs of some of the buildings. The DNR also constructed a restroom facility which is com­ patible with the architecture of the estate. Thordarson's presence, however, only exists in a small museum of photos, building plans, and a few other physical reminders of the old estate which is located in the great hall. The museum, while informing visitors of Thordar­ son's tenure on the island, is only a part of the story of the man who built an estate reflecting his idealized vision cjf another culture.'*'' The estates and mansions of many wealthy Wisconsin residents reflect high architectural style or the skill of an architect more than they do the man or woman who had them con­ structed. The Thordarson estate is unusual in that it reflects the man himself and how he viewed his island estate. His career as an elec­ trical inventor and manufacturer is now over­ shadowed by others, and his book collection has been swallowed up among other impor­ tant book collections in the University of Wis­ consin library. Few persons are still alive who remember him personally, and the remainder of his family has scattered. But as long as the buildings of Rock Island are maintained just WHi{X3)34505 as they were constructed, they endure as a Chester Thordarson in the John Crerar Library, Chicago. physical reminder of who Chester Thordar­ Original loaned for copying by Helen Charest. son was and what he tried to create on a small island in northeastern Wisconsin.

"'"New State Park's on the Rocks," in the Milwaukee Journal, Sunday Picture Journal Section, August 1, 1965, pp. 18-19.

227 BOOK REVIEWS

The Kennedys: An American Drama. By PETER This image conformed with what could be COLLIER and DAVID HOROWITZ. (Summit found in the standard Kennedy biography, Books, New York, 1984. Pp. 576. Illustrations, John Kennedy, A Political Profile, by James Mac- bibliographic note, notes, index. ISBN 0-671- Gregor Burns. Professor Burns claimed that 44793-9, $20.95.) his 1960 publication was "neither an autho­ The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, 1848—1983. rized biography nor a campaign biography." By JOHN H. DAVIS. (McGraw-Hill, New York, In fact, as his personal papers reveal, he was 1984. Pp. 722. Illustrations, bibliography, ap­ directly influenced by the Kennedy family, de­ pendixes, notes, index. ISBN 0-07-015860-6, termined, then as now, to present JFK in the $24.95.) most favorable light. There were hints of a more earthy and cyni­ cal Kennedy in Paul B. "Red" Fay, Jr.'s The Not long after her husband's assassination, Pleasure of His Company, a personal memoir Jacqueline Kennedy told journalist 4 heodore censured by Robert F. Kennedy. The sugges­ White that the Kennedy Administration tions were amplified in Benjamin C. Bracllee's seemed to her to have been like the mythical Conversations with Kennedy, published in 1975. kingdom of Camelot. White and an assort­ By this time the entire Kennedy family was ment of pro-Kennedy writers and scholars de­ falling under careful scrutiny. Two solid biog­ veloped the Camelot metaphor for several raphies of Joseph P. Kennedy, the President's years in scores of often highly-praised books domineering and ruthless father, were in and articles. A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy print, along with an objective study of family in the White House by historian Arthur Schles­ matriarch Rose, and some revealing research inger, Jr., for example, portrayed the late into Ted Kennedy's conduct at Chappaquid- President as a sort of King Arthur who dick. brought brains, beauty, skill, and integrity to The Camelot myth began to collapse in the halls of power. Kennedy adviser and 1975 when a Senate investigation revealed the speech writer Theodore C. Sorensen pub­ existence of one of Kennedy's many White lished Kennedy that same year, 1965, describ- House mistresses. It also began to document ingJFK as a man of intellect, strength, wit, and what we now know were clandestine efforts, character. There were also glowing polemics before and after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to rid by Kennedy secretary Evelyn Lincoln in 1965 Cuba of Fidel Castro, including the employ­ and 1968, press secretary Pierre Salinger in ment of Mafia assassins. 1966, and aides Kenneth P. O'Donnell and In 1976 Joan and Clay Blair, Jr. published David F. Powers (now a major figure at the their superbly researched The Search for JFK. John F. Kennedy Library) in 1972. John F. This pathbreaking study corrected a large Kennedy, in short, was widely canonized as a number of errors and falsehoods in the stand­ virtually flawless hero; his administration was ard accounts of Kennedy's life to 1947. It re­ a thousand days of grace and light. vealed, for example, his lengthy illnesses, de- 228 BOOK REVIEWS formed back, and Addison's disease. It set the Davis majored in history at Princeton and re­ record straight on his formal education, de­ veals a special prowess with historical analysis. molished most of the heroic claims surround­ The Collier-Horowitz book has many ing the PT-I09 incident, described Kennedy's strengths, among them the account of the first moral relativism and obsession with sex, and Kennedys in America. Patrick Kennedy was a examined his almost pathetic obeisance to­ humble cooper whose death in 1858 left his ward his father. widow working as a clerk in a Boston notions The following year Judith Exner's My Story shop. Their son, Patrick Joseph, opened a sa­ described in detail the author's love affairs loon at twenty-two and soon went into politics. with Frank Sinatra, two top Mafia leaders, and He prospered in both endeavors, becoming a President Kennedy. Her account also contrib­ liquor importer, a state senator, and a shrewd uted to our knowledge of J. Edgar Hoover's political manipulator. One of his associates unusual power in the administration. Several was John F. "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, a brash, Kennedy sycophants dismissed the book as often unscrupulous politico who became Bos­ gossip. Historians ignore it at their peril. ton's mayor. In 1914 Kennedy's son Joseph Herbert S. Parmet's scholarly Jack: The Patrick married Fitzgerald's daughter Rose, Struggles of John F. Kennedy (1980) 'dnd JFK: setting the stage for the "Kennedy dynasty." The Presidency of John F. Kennedy (1983) made The rich detail of this account is unequalled judicious use of all the latest information, in­ anywhere, in part because the authors' re­ cluding the Exner revelations. Parmet also dis­ search included manuscripts and interviews covered, among other things, that Kennedy collected by one of Joe Kennedy's sisters. was undoubtedly not the author of Profiles m Joe Kennedy's rise to wealth and fame is de­ Courage. scribed fully and with considerable insight. The two new volumes under review carry Loved by few and feared by many, the Kennedy scholarship even further. Both are "Founding Father" specialized in making extremely valuable. Their authors read and money, chasing women, and filling his ever­ digested almost everything in print on JFK growing family with his own intense ambition and what some have called America's only for respectability and political power. His for­ "royal" family. They scoured the generally un­ tune was made largely in banking, the stock cooperative Kennedy Library for evidence market, real estate, movies, and bootlegging; and pored over vast quantities of newspapers, at one point he was worth between $250 mil­ magazines, and documents. They tracked lion and $400 million. During the 1930's his down and interviewed hundreds of people loyalty to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who had known the Kennedys here and landed him the ambassadorship to England. abroad. Collier and Horowitz, for example, Still, Kennedy could not overcome the per­ spoke at great length with Kennedy intimate sonal anguish that resulted from the fact that LeMoyne Billings, who turned over his price­ the Cabots and Lodges sneered at his humble less collection of letters from JFK. Several of Irish origins. When a persistent admiration Bobby Kennedy's children shared their often for Hitler ruined his political future, he be­ painful memories. Davis used his position as a came all the more determined to see his sons in cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy's to obtain re­ positions of power. He wanted the presidency vealing interviews with family members and for his first-born, Joe Junior. friends. He also drew upon his own collection When his older brother was killed in World of Bouvier papers. As a result, the Camelot War II, John F. Kennedy inherited the weight myth may now be officially declared dead. 4 he of Joe Kennedy's ambition. He was an unlikely same might well be said for the Kennedy fami­ candidate for anything of importance. As Col­ ly's political future. lier and Horowitz lavishly detail, young Jack Both studies attempt to tell the full story of was aloof, often curiously hostile, sickly, mis- the Kennedys, from Patrick Kennedy, who chievious, foul-mouthed, and girl crazy. He emigrated from Ireland in 1849, to almost the was almost court-martialed during the war present. The authors stress diflerent parts of over an affair with a suspected Nazi spy, and the story in large part because of the distinc­ he probably should have been court-martialed tive evidence they collected. Collier and Horo­ for the PT-109 incident. After the war, more witz are trained historians and experienced sickly than ever, Jack returned to his pursuit journalists, and their account is the more so­ of women. His political career, begun in 1946, phisticated and lively of the two. Nevertheless, was strictly his father's idea. "I can feel Pappy's 229 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 eyes on the back of my neck," he confided to a Davis is fond of Jacqueline on the whole, al­ friend. In the fall of 1947 Addison's disease though he readily acknowledges her vanity was diagnosed, and Jack was certain that he and superficiality. He gives her credit for the had only a short time to live. White House remodelings and admires her Collier and Horowitz present brief and stoic acceptance of the President's extramari­ solid accounts of Kennedy's political cam­ tal flings. She also gets high marks for her con­ paigns and his undistinguished record in the duct after the assassination. Davis is sympa­ House and Senate. Their treatment of the thetic toward Jacqueline's marriage in 1968 to Presidency is realistic: the principal legacies multimillionaire Aristotle Onassis: she was were the Vietnam War and a smiling Fidel marrying for wealth and power, as she had Castro. The emphasis, however, is on Ken­ been trained to do. nedy the man: his heroic struggles with his Davis is much more interested in politics health, his reckless sexual aflFairs, his limited and the Kennedy Administration than are commitment to liberalism, and his brilliant Collier and Horowitz. He is particularly criti­ self-promotion. The White House chapters cal of the Kennedy foreign policy and devotes contain excellent portraits of both Bobby and much space to Cuba. Citing an abundance of Ted Kennedy. The President's sisters, also evidence, Davis suggests that Kennedy knew molded by Joe Kennedy, appear throughout about the CIA-Mafia plot to assassinate Castro the book. even before the Bay of Pigs disaster. Indeed, The last chapter of the volume, entitled the President's failure to provide air cover for "The Lost Boys," is an unforgettable look at the invasion forces was probably related to the the younger generation of Kennedys. Rich, bungled assassination attempt; with the dicta­ spoiled, and neglected, many of them turned tor still in power the invasion would fail any­ to drugs, sex, and delinquency. Ethel Ken­ way. The post-Bay of Pigs commitment to dis­ nedy apparently rejected her sons after her ruption and murder in Cuba, Davis contends, husband's assassination, and they suffered the tells us much about what Kennedy would have worst. Bobby Junior became extremely dif­ done in Vietnam if given the time. ficult and wound up hooking Jack's old friend Davis also examines Bobby Kennedy's un­ Lem Billings on drugs. David Kennedy finally precedented attacks on organized crime and died of his narcotic excesses in mid-1984. explores a possible connection between Cuba, A few omissions might be cited. There is the mob, and the assassination of JFK. He not enough on the radiant side of Jack's public quite rightly rejects the discredited notion that personality, his fine mind, and his intellectual Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and he thinks curiosity. And something surely could have it likely that the Mafia was responsible for the been said about the family's idealism and com­ President's death. The cover-up that followed mitment to public service. The Kennedys are was approved by Attorney General Bobby not simply monsters. I also have qualms about Kennedy in part because of the horrible suspi­ the numerous "confidential source" footnotes cion that he was indirectly responsible for the and the use of Kitty Kelly's undocumented tragedy. J. Edgar Hoover's unconscionable Jackie Oh! to substantiate the life and times of conduct during this period is described in full. Jacqueline Kennedy. The Davis study is also strong on the 1969 John H. Davis provides us with the finest tragedy at Chappaquiddick. Ted Kennedy's description of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy thin alibi does not survive the author's meticu­ Onassis in print. They met as children, grew lous scrutiny, and the Senator's stumbling ex­ up in similar upper-class settings, and had nu­ planation to television correspondent Roger merous conversations throughout their lives. Mudd ten years later is quoted in full. The Jackie was a shy, bright, rather cold, and story of the cover-up leaves one angry at the selfish youngster, brought up to worship Kennedys and their minions. Longtime family money and position. She learned to manipu­ retainer Richard Cardinal Cushing, for exam­ late men when her divorced parents struggled ple, was enlisted to pressure Mr. and Mrs. Jo­ for her attention. By the time she began to seph Kopechne to reject exhumation of their date Jack Kennedy in the early 1950's she was daughter's hastily buried body. Somehow personally without funds and eager to escape Davis manages to conclude his devastating ac­ her grasping mother. Jack needed a wife to count with "Ted Kennedy is a very likeable boost his political career; or so his father had person, and basically a very decent human be- decreed. Joe Kennedy arranged every detail of the wedding. The book has additional assets. It is strong 230 BOOK REVIEWS on the family's financial data. Its eye-witness graduation would best promote western set­ accounts are interesting. Bobby Kennedy's as­ tlement and development. An alternate idea sassination is covered carefully, and the possi­ originating in Maryland, and picked up by bility of a plot is weighed and abandoned. The Henry Clay, proposed to distribute the reve­ story of Ted Kennedy's unsuccessful cam­ nue from constant prices on land sales to the paign for the White House in 1980 completes states for projects such as roads and canals. Af­ the study fittingly. ter a decade of jockeying between factions and There is more than a little repetition in this sections over graduation and distribution, the fat volume; a hard-nosed editor could have land issue, along with the Bank War, helped cut out at least 100 pages. But this is a minor polarize American voters into two competing objection. Davis, as well as Collier and Horo­ parties. witz, has produced a first-rate book that Some readers may hear an echo of Fre­ greatly amplifies our knowledge of the Kenne­ derick Jackson Turner and his student Ray- dys. Now it is time for an able historian to take nor Wellington in the above summary. How­ what we know and create a reliable one- ever, Feller's sympathies seem to lie more with volume biography of JFK. Too many people Clay and those who wished to put a brake on continue to read the Camelot myth. And that the pell-mell disposition of the public lands, may account for the poll in 1983 declaring rather than with Benton and those on the Kennedy to be our most popular president. frontier. Still, Feller does share certain as­ sumptions of the Turner school and the "old" THOMAS C. REEVES political history in general. First, and unlike University of Wisconsin—Parkside much recent literature, he does make explicit his belief that issues do matter to voters and political leaders. This is a particularly impor­ tant point for the early 1820's, when, in the ar­ guments of some historians, national govern­ The Public Lands injacksonian Politics. By DAN­ ment was out of sight and out of mind of IEL FELLER. (University of Wisconsin Press, voters. Second, and following as a conse­ Madison, 1984. Pp. xvi, 264. Notes, bibliogra­ quence. Feller sees the upsurge of voting, citi­ phy, index. ISBN 0-299-09850-8, $29.50.) zen participation in politics, and formation of a new party system as a response to real issues, Daniel Feller's study of the politics of ante­ and not a mirror of cultural cleavages. Third, bellum land disposal attempts to combine the but not made explicit, the author assumes that "old" political history's concern with lively is­ the debates, speeches and writings of Con­ sues and the "new" political history's focus on gressmen, state legislators, and newspaper ed­ legislative behavior and party formation. The itors accurately reflect the thoughts of the vot­ attempt succeeds and the result is a well- ing public. Feller asserts but never shows that written account that reveals the political con­ citizens felt deeply about the public land ques­ troversy leading to the creation of the Second tion. His sources underscore his focus on po­ American Party System of Democrats and litical leadership: a wide and careful reading Whigs. of the Annals of Congress and Register of Debates, Feller argues that public land disposal as a the journals of several state legislatures, the political issue arose from several sources: the papers of leading Congressmen, and two- self-consciousness of the "West," defined as score newspapers. Yet in a work concerned the trans-Appalachian region; the breakdown with public opinion, there is scarcely a refer­ after 1819 of the federal government's land- ence to citizens' petitions to Congress, a source on-credit policy; and the desire of some east­ that might sustain Feller's point. ern states to restrict the westward stream of Students of Jacksonian America should migration. The early years of the second Mon­ read this book to better understand the public roe Administration saw the framing of the ba­ land question within the Jacksonian party sys­ sic approaches to federal land policy for the tem. What we now need as a complement to next twenty-five years. Senator Thomas Hart Feller's book is a study on the land issue, the Benton and what became Andrew Jackson's collapse of the party system, and the coming of Democratic party favored a policy of "gradua­ the Civil War. tion," that is, disposing of tracts of unsold pub­ lic land below the minimum price of $1.25 per JAMES W. OBERLY acre. Proponents of this policy claimed that University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire 231 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, cause the two architects explicitly "read" 1880-1920. By CARL S. SMITH. (University of buildings as texts that expressed certain Chicago Press, Chicago, 1984. Pp. xiv, 232. Il­ ideas to those who saw and used them, lustrations, notes, bibliography, index. and, more directly, because they con­ $26.00, cloth; $14.00, paper.) ceived of themselves as poets who worked in steel and stone. Sullivan, who worshipped Whitman and wrote poetry Dirty, dynamic Chicago has always been a himself, asserted that the architect was "not a merchant, broker, manufacturer, magnet for the imagination of writers, espe­ business man, or anything of that sort, cially during its yeasty youth, 1880—1920. By but a poet who uses not words hut building "literary imagination" in his title, Carl Smith materials as a medium of expression" (the means not merely novels and poetry but also emphasis is Sullivan's). The writings of guidebooks, travel accounts, histories, jour­ Root and Sullivan, and the buildings nalism, expose tracts, autobiography, and they designed, related closely to the call even the wTitings of architects and city plan­ of many authors and critics for a new lit­ ners. Smith is associate professor of both ur­ erary form that realistically reflected life ban studies and English at Northwestern Uni­ in Chicago. As practicing architects, versity, and it is his interdisciplinary breadth however, they had the advantage over which gives his book its special nature, and writers in that their work incontrovert- earns it a high place among good earlier books ibly became part of the world of which it on Chicago writing by Duff'ey, Kramer, Wil­ spoke, and so its meaning could not but liams, and Andrews. be heeded. Smith analyzes novels about life in Chicago Finally, Smith finds a third major symbol of by Henry Blake Fuller, Will Payne, Robert Chicago to have been its stockyards, which Herrick, Frank Norris, and Theodore Dreiser, and proves himself an acute literary were important in the imaginations of waiters critic. With his special interest in novels which for a hundred years. Rudyard Kipling, Upton took Chicago as the subject matter and not Sinclair, H. L. Mencken, and Norman Mailer, merely the locale of a story, he traces such none of them shrinking violets as commenta­ themes as "The Artist in the City," "City tors, have been among those who viewed the Women and Urban Ambition," and "Business stinking and brutal abattoirs on South Halsted and Art." Street as an apt emblem of Chicago's spirit and Smith's most distinctive discovery is that ruthless genius. thoughtful writers over and over again fo- Smith's book is broader and more detailed cussed on the same three Chicago features— than can be suggested here. Elegantly con­ its railroads, its big buildings, and the ceived and well written, it is full of unexpected stockyards—and used them as symbols for the ideas which refresh our understanding of the vast, variegated metropolis as a whole. Chica­ phenomenon called Chicago. go's ceaseless rail traffic and trolley cars, for example, were often introduced by writers as a JAMES STRONKS way of showing the city's sprawling growth The University of Illinois at Chicago and constant motion. Also to be conjured with were the Loop's fa­ mous skyscrapers, which loom impressively in FuUer's The Clijf-Dwellers (1893), Norris' The Pit {1902,), and Dreiser's Sister Carrie {\9{1{)), to name only three among many. And it was not The Documentary History of the First Federal Elec­ only novelists who philosophized about Chica­ tions 1788—1790. Volume 11: Connecticut, Dela­ go's big buildings, but also other kinds of WTit- ware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia. Edited by ers. For example. Smith draws upon the "liter­ GORDON DEN BOER. (The University of Wis­ ary imagination" of Chicago architects John consin Press, Madison, 1984. Pp. xxii, 522. Wellborn Root and Louis Sullivan, and what ISBN 0-299-095I0-X, $50.00.) he says about them shows his synthesis of dif­ ferent disciplines, as well as his own good style: This volume is appropriately dedicated to the late Merrill Jensen, of whom it would be The observations of both men [Root and strictly correct to say (as many readers of this Sullivan] were intensely "literary" be­ magazine will know) that without him the vol- 232 BOOK REVIEWS ume and the series in which it appears would others in the series) has at least the double not have existed. Let it be said at the outset value of a calendar and bibliography. It is all that both, so far as I can tell, are a fitting me­ very well to say that many of the documents morial to a great scholar. are available on microfilm (though many are There has been a change in editorial policy not) and almost all in public depositories since Volume I, in which documents were where they are available to serious scholars. modernized and in which the material was ar­ But at the very least the editors have done us ranged chronologically within the chapters the favor of searching them otit and guiding dealing with the various states. Here the docu­ us to them. Moreover, so far as I can tell from ments are not modernized (though some Connecticut (the state, of these five, with punctuation has been added within brackets) which I am best acquainted), the searching out and the material is arranged topically within and the guiding are of a high caliber. But this the state chapters. My own preference is for is not the book's only value. the present arrangement in both cases— Second, and perhaps more important, this strongly so in the first, moderately in the sec­ documentary history as a whole does not, I ond. The few documents I have checked have think, aim quite so much at the serious estab­ been accurately transcribed; the editorial lished scholar who knows what path he or she notes tell me pretty much all I want to know; is following, as at the beginning scholar—even and the inconvenience (if that is what it is) of (we might hope) the undergraduate, who may having a relevant diary distributed in pieces be led by the existence of these books to that among several topical sections is minimal. One kind of comparative study that is iteeded to can say that within the bounds set out for it, give meat and meaning to history. Fhis is not this is a job well done. to say that established scholars will not find les­ It may be worthwhile, starting from that sons here, as well as materials which have thus matter of chopping up a diary (as, for exam­ far escaped their ken: they will. But it is to say ple, that of Francis Taylor), to look briefly at that we may, in hope, see future students the bounds and the purpose of the book. This standing at the range-face where this and its is a volume in a documentary history; it is not companion volumes are shelved, staring (with, itself a documentary history (the five states one hopes, a disciplined surmise) at the goodly chosen bear no strong relation to each other); states therein, and entering the serious sttidy it is emphatically not a document (except per­ of this part of our national origins. haps in the history of historiography); and it is It should be mentioned as well that the brief certainly not, as it stands, a history. Interpreta­ biographies of candidates and electors are well tion is admittedly implied by selection, but done and call to our attention names that were only implied. The book—or, certainly, the in their day important and are now unknown: chapters—can be read from beginning to end, if we need reminder that historv is written but we miss the excitement of singularity that about the winners, consider the first senatorial may come from a single document like Ma- election in Maryland. For the senator from the clay's journal or even Madison's notes. And, as Western Shore (yes, the Senate seats were ter­ I noted, the link between the chapters is not ritorial also), eighty-three electors voting, the strong: Connecticut is cut off from New En­ votes were: first ballot Carroll 40, Forrest 41; gland, Delaware from Pennsylvania, and second ballot Carroll 41, Forrest 41; third bal­ Georgia from the Carolinas (though there are, lot Carroll 42, Forrest 40. Charles C'arroU of of course, connections between C^onnecticut CarroUton thus becomes one of Maryland's and Georgia, and Delaware, Maryland, and first senators, and who has heard of Uriah Virginia). Forrest? (And who, moreover, was aware that What we have here is an example of an his­ Senators were ever elected to represent dis­ toriographical sub-genre which in Madison tricts within a state?) goes back at least to the Thwaites-Kellogg vol­ Every college library wiiere students are en­ umes on the Upper Ohio, and in general to couraged to do serious research should have O'Callaghan's Documentary History of the State of these books on its shelves, and this is a first- New York. It is, perhaps, a curiously rate addition to the series. (But I could wish it nineteenth-century phenomenon that some did not have to cost fifty dollars.) might think out of place in the late-twentieth- century world of microfilm and microfiche. I think not, and for two reasons. JARED LC:)BDEI.I. First, this volume (as well I believe, as the Washington and fefferson College 233 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the paradigms used to explain "inferior" peoples Indians, 1880—1920. By FREDERICK E. HOXIE. prompted those interested in Indian assimila­ (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 1984. tion to back off from their goal of equality and Pp. xvi, 350. Tables, appendices, notes, bibli­ to lengthen their estimates of the time re­ ography, index. ISBN 0-8032-2323-4, quired for assimilation. In general, America's $25.95.) confidence in its ability to absorb diverse eth­ nic groups declined, and Indians as well as other ethnics were relegated to peripheral In a field as well worked as ninteenth- socio-economic positions. century American Indian policy, one expects Hoxie focuses on three major aspects of the little new to arise. But Frederick E. Hoxie ap­ assimilation campaign on a national level to proaches this topic from a larger cultural and demonstrate the transformation of the Indian political perspective and provides intriguing question: land tenure, education, and legal cit­ insights into the assimilation campaign as a izenship. In tracing each issue, he demon­ reflection of changes in white society and na­ strates the subtle changes in policy as they re­ tional experience. Using the popular press late to changes in the intellectual and political and literature, anthropological and educa­ environment of American society. His chap­ tional theory, and the politics of regionalism, ters on the professionalization of social science racism, and immigration, Hoxie describes "at­ and anthropological thought, the emergence titudes and actions as expressions of a com­ of a colonial, paternalistic land policy, and In­ plex culture confronting an alien people in a dian education are particularly interesting. rapidly changing environment," without mak­ His final assessment of this campaign is that ing moral judgements on the actors or poli­ the assimilation of the 1920's was an inversion cies. In this way he assesses the intellectual and of the intent of the 1880's—that the assimila­ social currents of the time, the changing atti­ tion effort created a plural society due to gov­ tudes toward race, immigration, and homoge­ ernment paternalism. The eventual exclusion neity, and their inffuence on government pol­ and confinement of Indians in their "proper icy in light of Indian resistance to assimilation. role" bred cultural and class consciousness Most scholars view the period from 1880 to and ethnic pride among both whites and Indi­ 1920 as the culmination of the reforms envi­ ans, and precluded the envisioned incorpora­ sioned during the Grant Peace Policy years. tion. Furthermore, "the assimilation cam­ Historians have portrayed the vears between paign has produced a legacy of racial distrust the passage of the Dawes Allotment Act (1887) and exploitation we have thus far been unable and the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) as a to set aside." period of policy implementation with few vari­ Traditionally, historians have looked for ations on the optimistic theme of imminent as­ change—breaks in the "running fabric" of his­ similation. But Hoxie sees two distinct phases tory or society or even policy. But is Hoxie de­ in this assimilation campaign. Hoxie believes scribing change or a subtle shift in a larger pat­ that between the late nineteenth and early tern of policy continuity? The problem twentieth centuries a "break" occurred in the becomes one of reconciling academic, intellec­ attitudes of the American public and policy tual thought and its actual influence on policy makers toward the possibility of assimilating makers and policy. Hoxie relies heavily on the the American Indian. In the first phase, re­ racial paradigm of turn-of-the-century social formers, social scientists, and policymakers science thought, particularly that of anthro­ optimistically agreed that Indians could be pologists commenting on Native Americans. easily and quickly transformed into civilized While he does recognize that Indians were less citizens and incorporated into American soci­ subject to this brand of racialism than other ety as equals—that this case would demon­ ethnic groups, and describes the role of Franz strate the ability of an open and dynamic Boas in overturning this point of view, Hoxie American culture to absorb diverse peoples. gives the impression that all reformers and But as the new century approached and the policy makers threw out their old assumptions larger problems of immigrants and an increas­ and accepted this racial explanation from ingly heterogeneous population threatened among the four competing paradigms of the the cultural norms and values of the white time. Hoxie does provide evidence suggesting Protestant majority, reformers, anthropolo­ that indeed some policies were subtly changed gists, and politicians grew more pessimistic in to meet this new intellectual current. Yet he their assessments. Indian resistance and racial down-plays the increasing trend toward 234 BOOK REVIEWS

Boas's "cultural relativism" and continuities in of the nineteenth century, "the first full-scale the assimilation policy which transcended study of the origins, contours, development, such intellectual or procedural changes—for and significance of his thought." example, the constant diminution of Indian At the core of Douglass' thought was his lands and attempts to transform Indians into deep-seated humanism, embodying a belief in self-sufficient yeoman farmers. Whether on equality and progress as essential to the the margins or in the mainstream, quickly or achievement of the American democratic over a longer period of time, optimistically or ideal. These concepts shaped his thought: not, the incorporation of the American Indian they made him an optimistic advocate of the remained an ideal in American policy and re­ norms of an American middle-class society form thought. characterized by order, morality, and self- The question raised by Hoxie as to the improvement, as he fought relentlessly for transformation of the assimilation campaign blacks to share equally in the opportunities between 1880 and 1920 is, and will remain, a and rewards of that world. His career was debated topic for those who see a larger conti­ characterized by a ceaseless effort to eradicate nuity in government policy. But Hoxie's find­ racism and discrimination while maintaining ings should not be dismissed so easily. After both his reformist approach to society's prob­ all, change and continuity are not necessarily lems and his position as a black leader. At mutually exclusive or a zero-sum equation. A times, most notably in his battle against slav­ Final Promise is an important book, ably writ­ ery, he could harmonize these three themes ten and researched, which offers new insights very effectively, alerting Americans to that into Indian policy in the context of the larger monstrous evil and prodding leaders into national experience. Hoxie has made a sub­ action. After Appomattox, however, Douglass stantial contribution to the literature on found himself struggling to preserve that ac­ American Indian policy between 1880 and cord, and more often than not was confronted 1920, bridging a gap too often separated in with dissonance. monographic accounts. Given Hoxie's work, a Martin is at his best in the first part of the reassessment of the allotment and assimilation book, where he shows how Douglass har­ policies of reformers and the federal govern­ nessed ideas in the pursuit of goals, develop­ ment seems in order. ing arguments and defending pctsitions as part of his abolitionist crusade. Once this goal DAVID RICH LEWIS was achieved, Douglass had to consider both D'Arcy McNickle Center his black constituency and white leaders as he The Newberry Library worked to preserve his position as a black leader. Too much moderation in the pursuit of black interests, while it might maintain his reputation as a reasonable man among whites, might cost him the support of fellow blacks. But strident advocacy of black equality would The Mind of Frederick Douglass. By WALDO E. inevitably sacrifice his influence among MARTIN, JR. (The University of North Caro­ whites, especially Republican politicians. Like lina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1984. his white counterpart, Ulysses S. Grant, Fred­ Pp. xii, 333. Bibliography and index. ISBN 0- erick Douglass had to balance his principles 8078-I6I6-7, $27.50.) with what he conceived as possible, resulting in a pragmatism dedicated to conserving in­ Historians remain fascinated by the life fluence even as events made it clear that his story of Frederick Douglass, confirming the efforts would soon become moot to the freed- judgment of Republican abolitionist senator men. Henry Wilson that the ex-slave's life "is in itself Unfortunately, other parts of the book do an epic which finds few to equal it in the realms not display a similar awareness that Douglass' of either romance or reality." Moreover, primary role was as a leader, not as an intellec­ Wilson pointed out one of the major themes tual. For example, what is memorable about pursued by Douglass' biographers: "no man Douglass' stand for women's rights is his early represents in himself more conflicting ideas support of it, as well as how he justified his de­ and interests." Waldo Martin explicitly ad­ cision to give black rights priority. His argu­ dresses this theme in attempting "an intellec­ ments on behalf of sexual equality, while occa­ tual biography" of the foremost black leader sionally insightful, are rarely original, and 235 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRINCi, 1986

Martin's overview of the subject lacks interest. Michigan, 1984. Pp. 440. Illustrations, maps, The author's discussions of Douglass' idea of bibliography, index. ISBN 0-87812-180-7, "a composite American nationality" and the $27.95.) black leader's assault on the ideology of white supremacy also fall victim to this problem, oc­ Wausau Judge Louis Marchetti produced a casionally obfuscating the vital connection be­ mammoth 982-page history of his home tween thought and argument. At times, Mar­ county in I9I3. For the next sixty-four years, tin defines tensions in Douglass' thought this volume stood as the only historical work to without demonstrating that Douglass brought focus on that rich, diverse section of north- his various arguments together in a search for central Wisconsin. In the last ten years, how­ consistency. Douglass offered justifications ever, Marathon County history has become as and advocated various positions as he engaged popular a literary topic as the latest cause at a in debate, often without concern that, over wine-and-cheese party. Spurred by the na­ time, he would contradict himself. In his tion's Bicentennial, county residents pro­ mind, ideas were weapons. duced a sequel to the Marchetti work, Woodlot More irritating is Martin's criticism of and Ballot Box, which dealt primarily with eco­ Douglass for not being radical enough in his nomic and political developments. The dean approach to the problems confronting blacks. of northern Wisconsin historians, Malcolm He terms Douglass' reformist ideology "woe­ Rosholt, subsequently compiled a "stereopti- fully inadequate to the task" of social, eco­ con lecture" on the region, A Photo Album of nomic, and political change. Having carefully Marathon County, 1850-1925. Michael delineated the sources and shape of Douglass' Kronenwetter's "illustrated history" is the lat­ ideas and his adherence to American ideals, it est entry in the burgeoning collection of Mara­ seems pointless to assail him for acting accord­ thon County historical literature. ing to those beliefs instead of rejecting them. This book has an identity crisis, beginning Too, would Douglass have held on to his jiosi- with its very genesis. I he initial impetus be­ tion as the black leader had he advocated more hind its creation came not from local sources, radical solutions involving "fundamental but from an out-of-state publishing company structural changes" in American society? which specializes in the production of such White leaders might have been scared ofl'; coffee table community history books. It blacks might have decided that he was too vi­ found local collaborators, but they ultimately sionary, too impractical, to achieve much. chose to work with another publishing com­ Most nineteenth-century Americans, after all, pany, which had no prior experience with this did see abolition and its aftermath as constitut­ type of book. That inexperience undoubtedly ing a fundamental, in fact revolutionary, helps account for the book's structural prob­ change in American society. lems, which are discussed below. Despite these reserxations, on the whole The ambiguity surrounding the book's ori­ Martin has produced an admirable study of gins carries over to its contents. Wisconsin Douglass' thoughts about race, reform, and Heartland is essentially a pictorial history, but it American blacks in slavery and freedom. also emulates the Marchetti effort as a virtual Douglass emerges as both a representative encyclopedia of Marathon County's economic American and an extraordinary man despite and social evolution from the period of Indian his limitations, for, as Martin concludes, predominance to the time of the book's publi­ "Freedom demands a measure of ideological cation. Having limited space for both objec­ as well as strategic flexibility." tives, it never succeeds in achieving either. Photo researcher Maryanne Norton, librarian BROOKS D. SIMPSON of the Marathon County Historical Museum, The Papers of Andrew Johnson has unearthed a wealth of photographs from University of Tennessee—Knoxville the county's past. However, they are typically much smaller in size than those in the Rosholt volume, obscuring detail and having little room for caption information. The inclusion of a number of lush, color pictures of present- Wisconsin Heartland: The Story of Wausau and day county life, while enhancing the book's at­ Marathon County. By MICHAEL KRONENWET- tractiveness, further clouds its definition, giv­ TER. (Pendell Publishing Company, Midland, ing it the air of a chamber of commerce

236 BOOK REVIEWS promotional publication. This impression is of President Carter's visit to the area more reinforced by the book's final section, "Part­ than forty years later. ners in Progress," a series of historical profiles What finally undermines the book's cohe- of current local business and professional siveness is its structural disorder. Pictures of­ firms. The sketches provide important names ten have no relation whatsoever to the adja­ and dates and never fail to present the subjects cent text, and the narrative is interrupted by in a flattering light. The onward-and-upward the introduction of unrelated topics. To cite tone is understandable, since the local cham­ the most glaring example: the reader is im­ ber of commerce is one of the book's principal mersed in the story of a Wausau newspaper sponsors, and the profiled firms paid the pub­ editor's crusade in the 1890's to overturn a lishing company to have their stories included young woman's murder conviction in Rich­ in the book. land Center, when, suddeitly, an account of The rest of the text will have little appeal the 1950 mock "Communist takeover" of Mo- for the scholar or longtime student of Mara­ sinee intrudes. Such disorganization is symp­ thon County history. Large parts of the narra­ tomatic of a book that, contrary to its subtitle, tive are generalized accounts that are never is not a story, but a collection of glimpses that sufficiently tied in to the specific county. fail to form unifying themes. One finishes this There is little new information that can be ve­ book feeling that he has been hurried through rified, since there is no documentation beyond a historical museum; considering the price of a brief bibliography. That listing reveals a admission, a longer, better organized tour heavy reliance on secondary sources. (The au­ could have been expected. thor frequently quotes from the Marchetti vol­ ume, even though he labels it "less than reli­ HOWARD R. KLUETER able in many respects.") There is little Wausau, Wisconsin apparent usage of county newspapers and no indication that any interviews were con­ ducted, a curious omission in what is intended to be a popular history. The Wool-Hat Boys: Georgia's Populist Party. By The novice local historian or casual reader BARTON C. SHAW. (Louisiana State University may also be disappointed by the lack of depth Press, Baton Rouge, 1984. ¥p. 237. Map, in the coverage of topics, except for the pio­ notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 0-8071- neer period, some featured biographies, and a 1148-1, $22.50.) number of natural disasters and sensational crimes. When the author does take time to go American Populism was the first major po­ into some detail, the results are satisfying, al­ litical movement to advocate a substantial role though his fondness for parenthetical com­ for the federal government in the market ments (like this) provides an annoying distrac­ economy. This unique characteristic of the tion. His choice of emphasis must also be People's party has often tempted historians to questioned at times. Fhe impact of the Great describe the Populists in terms of their rela­ Depression, for instance, is allotted only six tionship to political movements of the twenti­ pages. The pageantry attending the 1874 ar­ eth century. Different students of the agrari­ rival of the railroad in Wausau; the colorful ans have thus argued that the Populists careers of business and agricultural pro­ represented everything from proto-fascism to moters such as Frederick Rietbrock, B. F. Mc­ radical socialism, and from the reactionary in­ Millan, and August Kickbusch; the long his­ tolerance of the 1950's to the last best hope of tory of labor-management strife in Wausau; participatory democracy. The great strength the modernization of agriculture and educa­ of Barton Shaw's study of the Georgia Popu­ tion; the legacies of the non-German ethnic lists is the author's realization that f'opulism groups; the home front during World War II, should be viewed primarily as a nineteenth- to mention but a few intriguing subjects, are century phenomenon. As a result, he evalu­ either given the briefest attention or are ig­ ates the movement without undue attention to nored altogether. President Coolidge's 1928 its twentieth-century political cousins and visit to Wausau is told in entertaining detail; clearly places Populism within the context of one can only speculate why the author chose the 1890's. not to add, for the sake of contrast, an account Shaw traces the rise and decline of the

237 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

Georgia agrarians in a skillfully written narra­ gun battles, divided communities, and broken tive. Historians will be especially interested in families if Shaw's assertion is correct. On the what Shaw has to say about the origins of state level, despite a persistent racism. Popu­ Georgia Populism, the activities of Tom Wat­ lists threatened the racial status quo by reject­ son, and the Populists' struggle for electoral ing white supremacy as the primary political victory. Challenging previously held assump­ issue. They challenged established leadership tions about the importance of the Farmers' Al­ and proposed reforms, however limited, op­ liance and the lack of large black populations posed by the conservative elements within the in Populist strongholds, Shaw argues that in Democratic party. In a book that for the most Georgia, Populism was most successful in ar­ part avoids presentist evaluations, on this eas that lacked a powerful Alliance presence point Shaw seems to expect true reformers to and in the midst of the "black belt." Shaw be­ be integrationists or advocates of an early ver­ lieves that in the tenth congressional district a sion of the welfare state. On the whole, how­ historic preference for political independence ever. The Wool-Hat Boys is the best state study determined inordinate support for Populism. of Populism yet written. Barton Shaw is to be In contrast to C. Vann Woodward's portrait, applauded for his thoroughly documented Tom Watson emerges from Shaw's discussion and well-argued monograph. as an irrational politician disposed to political maneuvering and personal hatreds. De­ JAMES L. HUNT scribed as somewhat less than a dominating University of North Carolina Law School figure in the party's more radical early days, Watson gained control of the state organiza­ tion by 1894 and proceeded to shift Populism toward conservatism. Shaw argues that Wat­ The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the son led an "effort to make a stronger appeal to American South Since Emancipation. By JOEL the urban middle class." WILLIAMSON. (Oxford University Press, New Georgia Populism's similarity to other York, 1984. Pp. xiv, 561. Notes, index. ISBN southern political movements of the 1890's is 0-19-503382-5, $25.00.) fully exposed in Shaw's treatment of the par­ ty's election behavior. Shaw believes that white The Crucible of Race is a work which should Populists were as attracted to bribery, intimi­ be read, but read with care and with skepti­ dation, and murder as their Democratic rivals. cism. Hailed by many as a major addition to Blacks were invited into the party with appeals the historiography of Southern race relations, to economic interest, but also with physical this book, as Joel Williamson himself admits, is threats and violence. Populists organized a "revisionist interpretation" which sidesteps night riders whose activities were reminiscent the noted "Woodward thesis" of Jim Crow's of the Ku Klux Klan. Unfortunately for the "strange career." Based on twenty years of ar­ Populists, however, such displays of force chival research, Williamson's book fills in proved unsuccessful. An inability to convince many gaps in C. Vann Woodward's signal con­ enough blacks, farmers, or middle-class tribution through an excruciating use of de­ whites to come under the third-party banner tail, and from this flows an interwoven frame­ doomed them to defeat. work with an arresting thesis. But, in his By writing a history that emphasizes the po­ attempt to write the "big book," Williamson litical expediency, shifting doctrines, racism, demonstrates that the history of race relations and violent tactics of the Georgia Populists, cannot be interpreted through traditional Shaw demonstrates the connection between methods—not if it is to "tell the truth as exactly the agrarians of the 1890's and the dominant as possible." It should be made clear, however, traditions of southern politics. Yet, when at­ that no brief review can do justice to this tempting to interpret his findings, Shaw takes lengthy, complex, and often imaginative work this generally laudable approach too far. He of prodigious research. This is a book that claims that "there were in fact few differences must be read to be appreciated—and ques­ between Georgia Populists and Democrats." tioned. To be sure. Populism was both created and de­ After taking W.J. Cash to task for his sole stroyed by events in the arena of national poli­ appreciation of one white Southern "mind," tics, but it is difficult to comprehend Georgia's Williamson goes perhaps two steps further to

238 BOOK REVIEWS analyze three "mentalities" which flourished white soldier at the expense of slaveholding in the post-Civil War South. By mentality, the generals. Segregation, accordingly, dictated author means "something less perfectly that blacks "disappear" behind the walls of le­ formed than a philosophy," but which indi­ gally enforced racial separation. Lynching, cates "more than 'notions,' 'opinions,' and 'at­ the symbolic core of violent Radicalism, was titudes.' " The first of these mentalities, the built upon blacks as scapegoats in which the "Conservative," formed the bedrock of South­ victim was offered as a "sacrificial lamb for the ern white racial thinking, and had its origin in sins of white men." the I830's. Racial conservatives believed the Southern whites had great difficulties, after black person to be inherently inferior to the 1889, coping with economic and political white, and, as a consequence, the question of changes that "impacted upon a social- "place" was at the center of Conservative psychological-sexual order" centered on Vic­ thought and action. A second mentality, the torian mores. Unable to protect themselves "Liberal," briefly came to the fore in the and their white women. Southern white males I880's, and it was prompted by an optimistic, felt threatened by the black male's perceived progressive belief that blacks need not be ability to have "no-fault" sex: the black man closed out of Southern life. Liberalism, to indi­ became the "Beast Rapist"—the task became viduals such as Atticus Greene Haygood, his destruction. Oddly, and without sufficient George Pierce, and George W. Cable, was explanation, the image of the black-as-beast founded upon an "open-ended" view of blacks died with Radicalism in I9I5; in its stead arose in white American society in which racial mix­ an image of "neo-Sambo" and a resurgence of ing, in a limited, non-sexual sense, remained racial Conservatism, but with a strange and possible. Of most import in Williamson's significant twist. The mythic Southern past schema is his notion of the "Radical" mentality created by whites in the I920's and 1930's saw and the reasons for its emergence, with fury, the black escape from the white mind to be­ in the I890's. Radicalism was, like Liberalism, come nothing more than a "cipher in South­ an offspring of the fundamental Southern ra­ ern white calculations." After 1915, the white cial Conservatism, but unlike its more san­ South "lost" the black problem, and with it guine counterpart. Radicalism was at root pes­ whites lost an understanding of race as a "pri­ simistic, and often vicious. At the tortured mary determinant" of Southern history and heart of Radical racial thought lay the opinion culture. that there was no place for blacks in white soci­ In his ambitious work, Williamson gives his ety; ultimately, it was believed, blacks would reader much to ponder. He suggests, for ex­ retrogress and disappear. For their part, white ample, that disfranchisement was distinctly ra­ Radicals wished to hasten blacks' demise cial and not political, and he refers to an "echo through lynching, segregation, and disfran­ Reconstruction" and a "Second Redemption" chisement. in the f 890's. The use of a psycho-sexual con­ Williamson graphically depicts the explo­ struct to explain the violence of lynching is sion, and the persistence, of the Radical men­ worth further examination, particularly in the tality between 1889 and I9I5, a period in analysis of the Southern white man's mentality which Southern blacks were subjected to se­ in which patriarchy—and its vulnerability— vere repression in all spheres of life. Fhe white could be explored. In his investigation of indi­ Radical elite acted "vigorously" to place blacks vidual cases, as with Benjamin Tillman and to one side to create a "cultural system that. . . Thomas Dixon, Jr., Williamson is masterful in tied the mass of white people tightly to the demonstrating the interplay of personal, idio­ white elite." In this conception, the "Great syncratic tendencies and the underlying Changeover" involved a profound racial shift Southern racial mentality, which both men did that obliterated previous lines of class; no much to promote—and inflame. The author longer would the white mass be marginal, for engages in an interesting comparison of the black mass would be. Consequently, the Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois foundation of Southern culture shifted from in his attempt to assess the black perspective. being based on black slavery to one resting In addition, Williamson analyzes Northern upon a "communion of whiteness," illustrated presidential politics and argues that the quite clearly in the appearance of the "Con­ Wilson administration witnessed a replay of federate myth" which sanctified the common the earlier Southern debate on racial policy.

239 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986

The major problem with this book, how­ versify Press for the Swedish-American His­ ever, is that race relations are viewed from a torical Society, Carbondale and Edwardsville, white perspective; the black becomes both foil 1985. Pp. xvii, 372. Illustrations, notes, bibli­ and object, despite Williamson's effort to de­ ography, index. ISBN 0-8093-1204-2, pict some elements of black folk culture and $24.95.)' leadership. Only in the introduction is the term "Afro-American" to be found, and this The publication of this translation is an im­ highlights the author's glaring failure to see portant event in the historiography of Swed­ black culture on its own—and uniquely ish immigration and a fitting memorial to its American—terms. The key concepts of "race " author. Otto Robert Landelius (1897-1977), a and "culture" are interchanged promiscu­ journalist from Gothenburg, devoted more ously, and these need clarification and defini­ than a quarter-century to ferreting out often tion, as do other terms such as "elite," "mass," fugitive data for his magnum opus. The result "community," "myth," and "feudalization." amply reflects his indefatigability. Nearly four Other methodological problems surface when hundred double-columned pages, most of one or two individuals, however well- them written in a highly economical style, tes­ documented or explained, are used to buttress tify to Landelius' labors. Of these, fifty-one the structure of a distinct—and collective— pages are devoted to Canada and most of the white racial mentality. In other words, the rest to the United States. The bibliography thoughts and actions of a handful of elite spans six pages; the index, itself an instructive white males (with one exception, that of indication of the proliferation of Swedish Rebecca Latimer Felton) are judged sufficient place-names in North America and the ortho­ to explain the evolution of Southern race rela­ graphic license taken with many of them, an tions. The masses are left voiceless, and their additional twenty-four. connection with the elites is not proven. The The distribution of these names tells us most serious charge to be raised, in this con­ much about Swedish immigration. Landelius text, is that of "reified history" in which the found them in forty-one states (New Hamp­ mentalities take on a life of their own. Con­ shire, Vermont, Rhode Island, West Virginia, sider, for example, the introduction to an im­ Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Okla­ portant chapter on the "rise of the Radicals": homa, and Hawaii are the nine not so blessed) "In the 1880s Conservatism downed Liberal­ and most of the Canadian provinces. Presum­ ism rather quickly and with relative ease ... it ably to no one's surprise, Minnesota leads the turned to face a new and more powerful foe. pack; fully fifty-five pages are given to the Go­ The new enemy was Radical racism." Here pher State. Illinois, by contrast, occupies only Williamson's framework is simply too rigid. five pages, although that state attracted Joel Williamson tries to cover the many con­ roughly the same number of newcomers from tours and nuances of Southern race relations Sweden. This discrepancy can be attributed to with ingenuity and exhaustive research, yet the fact that most towns in Illinois existed well new interpretations demand novel methods. before Swedes arrived on the scene and, sec­ To speak of race relations one must include the ondly, to the relatively small number of bodies perspectives of the minority, of the masses, of water in that state. In most instances Swed­ and of women, for this is a dynamic process ish place-names were surnames of otherwise operating between peoples and cultures on anonymous immigrants attached to villages, many levels. To do otherwise is to perpetuate townships, and lakes, although other social, blind spots. Although Williamson has exposed geographical, and geological bodies also bear and explored major inentalities for elite white them. In some cases they also testify to popu­ males in the post-bellum South, this is but one lar culture and our need for heroes; the name piece of the puzzling nature of American rac­ of Charles Lindbergh has been bestowed on ism and race relations. fourteen places from Georgia to California. Wisconsin, which attracted relatively few EARL F. MULDERINK III Swedish immigrants, occupies no fewer than University of Wisconsin—Madison thirteen pages in this volume. Landelius found sixty-two explicable Swedish place- names in the state and listed thirty-four others as "probable," although some of these might Swedish Place-Names in North America. By OTTO have been more properly relegated to a "possi­ ROBERT LANDELIUS. (Southern Illinois Uni- ble" category. Most of the Wisconsin entries 240 BOOK REVIEWS are naturally clustered in Burnett County and to this volume in Twayne's Immigrant Heri­ Other areas in the northwestern quadrant of tage of America series, this book is not, as the the state which drew appreciable numbers of title might imply, a social history of immi­ newcomers from Sweden among their earliest grants in Wisconsin. It is primarily a summary white settlers. Many of the sixty-two entries of the impact of European immigrants on the are obvious, such as Stockholm, Lund, and Fa­ state's sociopolitical fabric. lun. Others, like Daniels, Siren, and Wilson For more than a generation, Wisconsin has Lake, will surprise many readers. been a focal point in the study of ethnocultural Swedish Place-Names in North America will influences in American politics and voting be­ prove useful to historians and others in need havior, largely because of the Badger State's of this kind of reference work. Only a few unique multi-ethnic mix, its excellent electoral weaknesses should be noted. Most seriously, and demographic statistics, and its colorful Landelius sacrificed depth in the interest of political history. Rippley has produced a comprehensiveness. As a result, many of his workmanlike synthesis of the major research explanations of individual place-names, which undertaken in this area. The book's coverage vary from a sentence to more than half a page, is extensive, ranging from the earliest immi­ are superficial. Moreover, they are inconsis­ gration in the territorial period to the influx of tent in terms of content; some trace deriva­ manelito Cubans in the early I980's. The book tions of names while others are capsule histo­ focuses, however, on the impact that the major ries of the places they identify. A few are ethnic groups—Germans, Scandinavians, and amusing, but many are boring, such as those Poles, especially—have had upon the state's relating to the seven Larson Lakes in Minne­ politics and political culture. sota. Some derivations, such as Dahlia, New Constructing a synthesis that attempts to Mexico (named after the flower which, in blend in one short volume the contribution turn, commemorates the eighteenth-century over a century and a half of so many ethnic botanist Anders Dahl) are so diluted that their groups that by virtue of their conceittralion in inclusion seems questionable. The photo­ at least one county have made each of them a graphs are technically of mixed quality. Some, political force is no easy task. As a result, Rip- such as that of a Swedish immigrant holding a pley's work is often much more summary than dead rabbit, add color; but many, especially synthesis. those of railroad stations with Swedish place- Rippley is best at suinmarizing the ethiio- names nailed to them, are merely redundant. religious conflicts that permeated Wisconsin The translation and editing are, by and politics in the late itineteenth century and de­ large, commendable. This reviewer detected scribing the shattering impact that World War only a few definite errors. One of them, how­ I had upon both the social and political life of ever, might irk knowing readers in Wisconsin. Germans and other immigrant groups in Wis­ In explaining the derivation of Lenroot consin. Rippley is especially good at descrif)ing- Township in Sawyer County, Landelius the religious, social, and political conflicts guessed wrong and declared that Irvine within the German communities in Wisconsin. Lenroot's original surname was Lonnrot, thus The weakest chapters are those dealing inadvertently placing the senator into the with the last half-century. As the political same clan as the nineteenth-century Kalevala ramifications of ethnicity became more dif­ compiler Elias Lonnrot. In fact the family's fused and indirect, the approach of simj:)ly ex­ name went from Larsson via Linderoth to amining election returns from ethnically ho­ Lenroot. mogeneous units that works well for earlier periods is less eff'ective. FREDERICK HALE The trauma of World War I ushered in a University of California- -Berkeley thirty-year period of political turmoil in Wis­ consin politics as generations-old ethnic [politi­ cal loyalties were shattered and the Republi­ can party fragmented. Rippley's treatment of The Immigrant Experience in Wisconsin. By LA ethnic politics since the 1920's is overly epi­ VERN RIPPLEY. (Twayne Publishers, Boston, sodic and gives only scant treatment to signi­ 1985. Pp. xiii, 220. Maps, notes, bibliography, ficant long-term realignments. For example, index. ISBN 0-8057-8424-1, $19.95.) ' he virtually ignores what is perhaps the most significant factor in revitalizing the Demo­ As La Vern Rippley explains in the preface cratic party after it was virtually destroyed be- 241 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, 1986 tween 1916 and 1924: the gradual but steady Despite his outrageous statement that the shift of progressive-minded Scandinavians, "abject living conditions of the Poles in their especially Norwegians, out of the party to early life in Milwaukee, coupled to a maverick which they had been steadfastly loyal since the attraction of the southside Poles for socialism, days of Lincoln. These most staunch sup­ seems to explain their 1964 enthusiasm for porters of the GOP since its birth, and of the George Wallace," Rippley's assessments are state's progressive Republicans since "Old generally sound and well-founded. Relatively Bob" La Follette, formed the backbone of the minor complaints include a lack of any tables resurgent Democratic party that elected Wil­ of data, virtually indecipherable maps, and an liam Proxmire and Gaylord Nelson in the late irritatingly large number of typographical er­ 1950's and that has since continued to com­ rors. pete with the GOP on an even basis in the state. By contrast, Rippley devotes almost half a ROGER E. WYMAN chapter to George Wallace's aberrant adven­ University of Miami ture in the 1964 presidential primary.

Book Reviews

Collier and Horowitz, The Kennedys: An American Drama, reviewed by Thomas C. Reeves 228 Davis, The Kennedys: Dynasty and Disaster, 1848-1983, reviewed by Thomas C. Reeves 228 Den Boer, editor, The Documentary History of the First Federal Elections, 1788—1790. 'Vol­ ume II: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, reviewed by Jared Lob- dell 232 Feller, The Public Lands in Jacksonian Politics, reviewed by James W. Oberly 231 Hoxie, A Final Promise: The Campaign to Assimilate the Indians, 1880—1920, review-ed by David Rich Lewis 234 Kronenvvetter, Wisconsin Heartland: The Story of Wausau and Marathon County, re­ viewed by Howard R. Klueter 236 Landelius, Swedish Place-Names in North America, reviewed by Frederick Hale . . . .240 Martin, The Mind of Frederick Dougla.ss, reviewed by Brooks D. Simpson 235 Rippley, The Immigrant Experience in Wisconsin, reviewed by Roger E. Wyman ... 241 Shaw, The Wool-Hat Boys: Georgia's Populist Party, reviewed by James L. Hunt . . . 237 Smith, Chicago and the American Literary Imagination, 1880—1920, reviewed by James Stronks 232 Williamson, The Crucible of Race: Black-White Relations in the American South Since Eman­ cipation, reviewed by Earl F. Mulderink III 238

242 Wisconsin History Bohlin, Bert. A Narrative about the Parley Eaton Checklist House: Being a Compendium of Things Well Known to Little Known to Totally Obscure Re­ lated to the House on Jail Alley in Historic Min­ eral Point, Wisconsin, Built in 1846—47. (Min­ Recently published and currently available Wisconsiana Ided to the Society's Library are listed below. The eral Point?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. 48. Illus. compilers, Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, $4.00. Available from Needlewood, 105 Jail and Susan Dorst, Order Librarian, are interested in Alley, Mineral Point, Wisconsin 53565.) obtaining information about (or copies of) items that are not widely advertised, such as publications of local historical societies, family histories and genealogies, Bong, Carl, and O'Connor, Mike. Ace of Aces: privately printed works, and histories of churches, The Dick Bong Story. (Mesa, Arizona, cI985. institutions, or organizations. Authors and publishers wishing to reach a wider audience and also to perform a Pp. xiii, 152! Illus. $14.95. Available from valuable bibliographic service are urged to inform the Champlin Fighter Museum, 4636 Fighter compilers of their publications, including the following Ace Drive, Mesa, Arizona 85205.) Bong, a information; author, title, location and name of publisher, Poplar native, was a highly decorated date of publication, price, pagination, and address of World War II fighter pilot. supplier. Write Susan Dorst, Acquisitions Section.

Chojnacki, Mary Jane Klein. A Klein Family Albrecht, Frances. Book of Remembrance. (Wit­ History, Chnstoph Klein, 1883-1985. (West tenberg?, Wisconsin, f985? Pp. 152. Illus. Allis?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. 58. Illus. No $25.00. Available from author. Route 1, price listed. Available from author, 5822 Box 5, Wittenberg, Wisconsin 54499.) Ge­ West K. K. Parkway, West Allis, Wisconsin nealogy of the Mroczenski family and allied 53219.) lines.

Armstrong, John Edward. TheBoesch Chronicle Cory, Jack./flcA Cory's Scrapbook. (Lake T'oma- and the Bosch Bond with Stade (Die Boesch hawk, Wisconsin, Northland Historical So­ Chronik und die Bosch Verbindung mil Stade). ciety, cl985. Pp. X, 122. Illus. $6.95 plus (Madison, Wisconsin, cl985. Pp. 129. Illus. $.80 postage and handling. Available from $18.00. Available from author, 325 South Northland Historical Society, Box 325, De­ Yellowstone Drive, #329, Madison, Wis­ partment E, Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin consin 53705.) 54539.) A compilation of newspaper columns that appeared in the Rhinelander Beane, Kathryn, and Sondreal, Linda. Cars in Daily News and the Hodag Shopper about the La Crosse: a Checklist of Automobile Dealers in history of the Rhinelander area. La Crosse, Wisconsin from 1907 to 1980. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1985. Area Research Center Checklist Series, number 7. 45 Cushing, Myrtle E. Cemetery Inscriptions of Sauk leaves. No price listed. Available from Area County, Wisconsin, Volume 6: Bear Creek, Research Center, Murphy Library, Univer­ Franklin and Spring Green Townships. (Sauk sity of Wisconsin—La Crosse, La Crosse, City, Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Old Cem­ Wisconsin 54601.) etery Society, 1985. Pp. 146. Illus. $7.00 plus $1.00 postage and handling. Available Blumer, Evalyn Attoe, and Carlton, Jerry W. from author, 809 John Adams Street, Sauk To the Last Bird: the Story of a Wisconsin Pio­ City, Wisconsin 53583.) neer Family. (Amherst, Wisconsin, Palmer Publications, Inc., cl985. Pp. xiii, 397. Illus. $27.95, hardcover; $23.95, softcover. $1.50 Door County Almanak [sic] no. 2. (Sister Bay, postage and handling. Wisconsin residents Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. 224. Illus. $5.95. add 5% sales tax. Available from The Last Available from The Dragonsbreath Press, Bird, Box 181, Hancock, Wisconsin 54943.) 10905 Bay Shore Drive, Sister Bay, Wiscon­ A factionalized history of the Bird family in sin 54234.) Primarily a history of the Door New York and Wisconsin. County orchard industry.

243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SPRING, f986

Engel, Dave. River City Memails III. (Wisconsin Study of axes and arrowheads found in Rapids, Wisconsin, South Wood County Wisconsin. Historical Corporation, cl985. Pp. 119. Il­ lus. $13.95 plus $1.00 postage and han­ A Historical Stroll Through the Churches of Mar­ dling. Wisconsin residents add 5% sales tax. quette County. (Monteflo, Wisconsin, 1985. Available from River City Memoirs, 540 Pp. 148. Illus. No price listed. Available Third Street South, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis­ from the Marquette County Extension consin 54494.) A compilation of articles Homemakers Cultural Arts Committee, which appeared in the Wisconsin Rapids Jane Oravetz, Chairman, Route 2, Box 333, Daily Tribune about the history of the area. Montello, Wisconsin 53949.)

Gilmore, Stephen C. Index to Names in a History Hoff', Evelyn. Yesterday: a History of Noriuegian of Madison, the Ciapital ofWisconsin: Including Ancestry. (Winona, Minnesota, Apollo the Four Lakes Country, Daniel Steele Durrie, Books, Inc., 1985. Pp. 258. Illus. $31.50. Madison, Wisconsin, 1874. (Madison, Wis­ Available from author, 1719 Lincoln consin, Wisconsin State Genealogical Soci­ Street, Whitehall, Wisconsin 54773.) ety, Inc., 1985. Pp. [30]. No price listed. Available from WSGS Book Store, c/o 465 Horsted, Esther A. The Ancestors and Decen- Charles Lane, Madison, Wisconsin 53711.) dants [sic] of William Marsh and Annie M. Hanson. (Waunakee?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. Goc, Michael. One Man, One Village: James P. 97. Illus. $7.00 plus postage and handling. Coughlin and Winneconne. (Friendship, Wis­ Available from author, 6616 CIH I, consin, New- Past Press, cl985. Pp. ix, 229. Waunakee, Wisconsin 53597.) Illus. $14.95. Available from Winneconne Historical Society, 226 North Ninth Ave­ Jensen, Don. Kenosha Kaleidoscope: Images of the nue, Winneconne, Wisconsin 54986.) His­ Past. (Kenosha?, Wisconsin, 1984? Pp. 137. tory of Winneconne which includes a biog­ Illus. $7.99. Available from Barnes & Noble raphy of community leader Jim Coughlin. #762, University of Wisconsin—Parkside, Campus Store, Library Learning Center, Wood Road, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141.) Hammond, F. W. Memories and Recollections: More About the Hammond Clan. (Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Manitowoc County Historical Jones, Evelyn Haas. Trails and Tales of My Haas Society, Occupational Monograph 57, 1985 Ancestors. (Beloit?, Wisconsin, 1985? 2 vols. Series. Pp. [12]. Illus. No price listed. Avail­ Illus. $10.00. Available from Evelyn Haas able from Newsletter, Ruth Beyer, Secre­ Jones, 1920 Roosevelt, Beloit, Wisconsin tary, Box 574, Manitowoc, 'VVisconsin 53511.) 54220-0575.) Katz, Myer. Echoes of Our Past: Vignettes of His­ Hayes, James Terrence. The Stewart Family of toric La Cro.sse. (La Crosse, Wisconsin, La Iowa and Dane Counties, Wisconsin: a Pimieer Crosse Foundation and Washburn Foun­ Wisconsin Family, 1825— (and Selected Re­ dation, 1985. Pp. xix, 389. Illus. $17.95. lated Families). (Highland Park, Illinois, Available from author, 1525 State, La 1985. 16 leaves. No price listed. A\ailable Crosse, Wisconsin 54601.) from author, 1900 Greenbay Road, Apart­ ment G, Highland Park, Illinois 60035.) Kaukauna, Glimpses of its History. (Kaukauna?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. 104, 108. Illus. $9.95 Highsmith, Gale V. The Fluted Axe. (Milwau­ plus $1.00 postage and handling. Available kee, Wisconsin, cl985. Pp. 608. Illus. from Kaukauna Times, 210 Main Street, $40.00 plus $3.00 postage and handling. Kaukauna, Wisconsin 54130.) A reprint of Wisconsin residents add $2.00 sales tax. The Lion of the Fox, first published in 1891, Available from author, 2825 South Burrell and three shorter pieces: Hiskny of the Streets Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53207.) of Kaukauna by H. B. Tanner, Early History

244 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

of Kaukauna by Mel A. Raught, and Histoiy Rickert, Betty. Rickert and Zilch. (Birnam- of Kaukauna's Revolutionary Hero by H. B. wood?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. 76. Illus. No Tanner. price listed. Available from author. Route I, Box 345, Birnamwood, Wisconsin Komro, Nancy Benjamin. The Peter Benjamin 54414.) Cover title is Rickert and Zilch Re­ and Gabriel Johnson Families from Buffalo union 1985. County, Wisconsin. (Decorah, Iowa, Anund­ sen Publishing Company, 1984. Pp. 195. Il­ lus. $30.00 plus $2.00 postage and han­ Ross, Rodney A. From Slobodke to Milwaukee: a dling. Available from author. Route I, Box Ross Family History. (Washington, D.C, 40, Prescott, Wisconsin 54021.) 1985. Pp. X, 20. Illus. No price listed. Avail­ able from author, 1311 Delaware Avenue Lappin, Zoe von Ende. Stmie Histm~y of the Sav­ SW, Apartment S-849, Washington, D.C. age Family, and Also Some Mystery. (Denver, 20024.) Colorado, 1985. Pp. 57. Illus. $6.00. Availa­ ble from author, 1246 Glencoe Street, Den­ ver, Colorado 80220.) St. Michael's, Dotyville, Wi. Parish History. (Mt. Calvary?, Wisconsin, 1985? Pp [26], Illus. Linley, Vernona. Roberts, a Genealogy: the Fam­ No price listed. Available from St. Michael's ily of John Hugh Roberts Who Came from Wales Parish, Route 1, Box 190, Mt. Calvary, Wis­ to Western Dane County, Wisconsin in 1846. consin 53057.) This history was compiled in (Middleton, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. x, 220. Il­ 1944 by I'heodore Loehr and recently up­ lus. $24.50. Available from author, 6404 dated by I'racy Helmer. Elmwood Avenue, Middleton, Wisconsin 53562.) Schlicht, Helen. George Schlicht Ancestry. (La Mount Hope Memories. (Mount Hope, Wiscon­ Crosse, Wisconsin, 1985? [110] leaves. Illus. sin, 1985? Pp. 106. Illus. No price listed. No price listed. Available from author, Available from Mount Hope Historical So­ 2825 South I'wenty-Second Street, La ciety, c/o Constance E. Carmody, Box 2, Crosse, Wisconsin 54601.) Mount Hope, Wisconsin 53816.)

On the Line: a History tf the Telephone Industry in Schlicht, Helen. Patrick Eraivley Sr. Histmy. (La Wisconsin. (Madison, Wisconsin, cl985. Pp. Crosse, Wisconsin, 1985? 1 vol. Illus. No 131. Illus. No price listed. Available from price listed. Available from author, 2825 Wisconsin State Lelephone Association, South Twenty-Second Street, La Crosse, 4610 University Avenue, Suite 640, Box Wisconsin 54601.) Cover title is Patrick 55088, Madison, Wisconsin 53705.) Frawley Sr. and fohn Ilusttm Descendants.

The Pioneer Pilgrimage, 1885—1985, Plymouth United Church of Christ, Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A School and Community, Janesville High School. (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. [36]. Il­ (Janesville, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. ix, 49. Il­ lus. No price listed. Available from Plym­ lus. $10.00. Available from Rock Cx)unty outh United Church of Christ, 1814 Bel- Historical Society, 10 South High Street, Hnger, Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54701.) Janesville, Wisconsin 53545.)

Poole, Eleanor. Centennial History of Richland Center Christian Church, 1885-1985. (Rich­ I'ennis, Lyle. History of Tennis Families in Wis­ land Center?, Wisconsin, 1985. Pp. [16]. No consin. (Racine, Wisconsin, 1985. [16] price listed. Available from author, 464 leaves. No price listed. Available from au­ North Main Street, Richland Center, Wis­ thor, 3722 North St. Clair Street, Racine, consin 53581.) Wisconsin 53402.)

245 Accessions dence and speeches of Charles Sr., and files from his law practice and his membership on Services for microfilming, xeroxing, and photostating all the Wisconsin Industrial Commission; papers but certain restricted items in its manuscript collections are provided by the Society. For details write Harold L. from Jessie Evans Crownhart's service as Miller. Douglas County superintendent of schools, 1897-1901, and as a member of the Board of Regents of Normal Schools, 1931-1943; and political papers from Charles Jr.'s manage­ ment of John J. Blaine's 1932 Senate cam­ paign and Fred M. Wylie's 1934 campaign for General Collections Attorney General; presented by Marion Legislative papers, 1963-1977, oi Norman Crownhart, Madison. (Restricted.) C. Anderson (1928 ), a Madison Democrat Records, 1950-1979, of the Democratic who served in the Assembly in 1957-1958 Party of Dane County, a Wisconsin county orga­ and 1961 — 1976 and was Speaker, 1971 — nization important to the state party's revital- 1976; including extensive information on en­ ization and often considered the state party's vironmental legislation, particularly the 1966 "intellectual power base"; including constitu­ Water Pollution Control Act; presented by tions, minutes, correspondence, financial and Mr. Anderson, Madison. membership records, and subject files; pre­ Papers, 1910—1960, ofWisconsin Reform sented by Kate Barbash, Madison. rahh'i Joseph L. Baron (1894-1960) document­ Records, 1944-1978, of the Democratic ing his education, publications and speeches, Party of Wisconsin and its predecessor, the his role in the establishment of several syna­ Democratic Organizing Committee; including gogues and many Jewish organizations and minutes, constitutions, convention files, ex­ programs, his rabbinical leadership of Tem­ tensive early correspondence, financial and ple Emanuel in Davenport, Iowa (1920 — membership records, and other materials; 1926), and of Temple Emanu-El in Milwaukee providing exceptional documentation of both (1926— 1960), and his family life; presented by policy making and day-to-day activities for the Bernice S. Baron, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ra­ 1940's and I950's, with fragmentary records chel Baron Heimovics, Longwood, Florida, for later decades; presented by the Party with and John Hirschel Baron, New Orleans, Loui­ small additions from several other donors. siana. (Partially restricted.) (Restriction: One folder is closed until 1989.) Papers, 1912-1965, of University of Papers, 1946-1978, oi Donald E. Francke Wisconsin—Madison professor of rural sociol- (1910—1978), an American pharmacist and ogy John Rector Barton (1897—1965) concern­ editor of several publications related particu­ ing his work in Danish folk schools in the larly to hospital pharmacy, consisting primar­ 1930's, his U.W. teaching of a Farm Short ily of files from his activities in international Course and working with the rural commu­ organizations and study missions; including nity, and his nurturing of rural cultural activi­ information on the Federation Internationale ties, particularly painting; presented by Rebe­ Pharmaceutique, the FIP Press and Documen­ cca Chalmers Barton, Santa Barbara, tation Section, the 1949 American Pharmacy California, and by Eloise Barton, Brightwa- Association mission to Japan, and other top­ ters. New York. ics; presented by Gloria Francke, Washington, Papers, 1964-1975, oi Michael N. Bleicher D.C. (1935 ), a former state chairman of the Papers, 1898-1958, of//ar%//. T.Jackson Democratic party, related to his involvement (1891 ), a zoologist employed by the U.S. in Madison electoral campaigns and in efforts Biological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife to reform the party structure and delegate se­ Service who authored a survey of mammals in lection procedure; presented by Mr. Bleicher, Wisconsin; consisting of correspondence, Madison. 1922-1958, concerning publications and ex­ Papers, 1862-1943, of Charles H. changing information on mammals, and re­ Crownhart, his w'lie Jessie Evans Crownhart, and ports on field observations in Wisconsin and their sons,/. George and Charles H. Crownhart, the western United States; source unknown. Jr. Primarily family correspondence and An unpublished five-volume manuscript financial papers, the collection also includes history of unions in the meat packing indus­ Progressive Republican political correspon­ try, particularly the United Packinghouse

246 ACCESSIONS

Workers; written in the late 1940's by Arthur ject files, press releases and speeches, and Kampfert, an early UPWA leader in the Chi­ other papers; presented by Fred A. Risser, cago area; purchased from the Illinois Labor Madison. History Society. Papers, 1932-1979, oi Joseph R. Starobin Papers, 1964-1969, of William M. Kraus (1913-1976), a leftist writer, professor, and (1926 ) pertaining to his chairmanship of activist who was acquainted with many Com­ the Knowles for Governor re-election cam­ munist party leaders throughout the world paigns of 1966 and 1968; including corre­ and who attempted to arrange peace talks in spondence, campaign literature and ads, and the Vietnam Conflict; including primarily cor­ reports; presented by Mr. Kraus, Madison, via respondence, plus writings and subject files; S.Joseph Woodka. presented by Norma Starobin, Hancock, Mas­ Records, I938-I971, oi the Madison Area sachusetts. Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, a group Additional papers, 1894—1969, of agricul­ which acted as a liaison between local PTA tural economist Henry Charles Taylor including units and the state and national PTA; includ­ correspondence, biographical material, ing annual reports, minutes, and other re­ reflective WTitings on agricultural and general cords with information on conditions, prob­ topics, and manuscripts of several books; pre­ lems, and accomplishments of Madison's sented by Corabel Bien, Sandy Spring, Mary­ schools; presented by Mrs. Robert Boyd, Mad­ land; Mary A. Lescohier, Madison, Wisconsin; ison. and Esther E. Taylor, Arlington, Virginia. Papers, ca. 1960—1967, irom James N. Mays' Papers, 1951 — 1974, of former Wisconsin activities as a field representative in Mississippi governor and congressman Vernon W. Thom­ and Alabama for the National Sharecroppers son (f 905 ); consisting of speeches, press Fund, and his other civil rights activities in­ materials, and Congressional correspon­ cluding files on Freedom Schools; presented dence, bill files, and case files; presented by by James N. Mays, Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Thomson, McLean, Virginia, and by Records from the National Plant Board, an Steven T. Boyle, Madison. (Restricted.) organization of state officials in charge of Records, 1903—1967, ofthe Wisconsin Dair­ plant inspection and quarantine formed to ies Cooperative, Baraboo, and its predecessor promote "uniformity and efficiency in horti­ firms; consisting of audit reports, minutes, ar­ cultural and quarantine regulations"; consist­ ticles of incorporation, agreements, corre­ ing of minutes of annual meetings of the Na­ spondence, lists of members, and other re­ tional Board (1940-1960, 1962-1970, 1977) cords, primarily from the 1940's-1960's; and ofthe Central Board (1925-1926, 1928- presented by the Cooperative via William 1979 plus a 1953 inspection manual), and scat­ Piernot. tered minutes from the Southern Board Records, 1963-1973, of the Democratic (I961-I980), the Eastern Board (1965- Party of Wisconsin's official youth organiza­ 1973), and the Western Board (1964-1980); tion, the Young Democratic Caucus ofWisconsin, separated from Wisconsin Department of Ag­ also known as the Young Democratic Clubs of riculture records accessions. Wisconsin; including constitutions, executive Wisconsin legislative papers, 1958—1979, committee minutes, correspondence, conven­ oiFredA. Risser (1927 ), a Democratic rep­ tion papers, newsletters, directories, and resentative from Madison in the Assembly other records; presented via George Wilbur, (1956-1962) and the Senate (1962 ); in­ Madison; Ronald San Felipe, Milwaukee; and cluding correspondence, committee files, sub­ Gordon Hendrickson, Cheyenne, Wyoming.

247 Contributors Mound, Minnesota, and Neenah, Wisconsin (1940-1944), before beginning her career with the United States government in the Pan­ ama Canal Zone. During part of her stay in oc­ cupied Germany from 1945 to 1952 she was a research analyst for the subsequent proceed­ ings of the Nuremberg war crimes trials. She served as a biographic officer in Washington, D.C. (f 952—f 963), and, on her second tour in Germany (1963—1968), she was director ofthe Berlin Document Center, a vast repository of Nazi and SS records. Since her retirement from government service, she has been a freelance researcher/translator. She lives in Falls Church, Virginia.

CAROLYN WEDIN SYLVANDER was born and graduated from high school in Frederic, Wis­ consin. She earned a bachelor's degree from Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, Minne­ sota; a master's degree from the University of Kansas; and a doctoral degree from the Uni­ versity of Wisconsin—Madison. She is cur­ rently Professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, spending the 1985-1986 aca­ demic year at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her other publications include books on Jessie Fauset and James Baldwin, articles in several reference books, and many journal ar­ ticles and book and theater reviews. Dr. Sylvander has done commentaries for Wis­ consin Public Radio for the past five years. She is married and has three almost-grown chil­ *¥"' dren. CAROL LOHRY CARTWRIGHT was born in Mil­ waukee, Wisconsin. She received a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point (1973) and a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin—Madison (1984). Cartwright worked part time for a year in the State Historic Preservation Office in Madison writing National Register of Historic Places nominations. She is currently a private historic preservation consultant and has just completed National Register nominations for the Abram Bowman house in Wisconsin Dells, the Grimm Book Bindery in Madison, and the Langdon Street historic district in Madison. LUCILLE PETTERSON holds bachelor's and mas­ She is on the board of the Madison Trust for ter's degrees from the University of Minne­ Historic Preservation and wTites articles for sota. She taught languages in high schools at their newsletter.

248 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac

MRS. B. L. BERNHARDT, Cassville BLAKE R. KELLOGG, Madison

PATRICIA A. BOGE, La Crosse MRS. MICHAEL MCKEEVER, Prairie du Chien

DAVID E. CLARENBACH, Madison GEORGE H. MILLER, Ripon

E. DAVID CRONON, Madison FREDERICK I. OLSON, Wauwatosa

MRS. JAMES P. CZAJKOWSKI, Wauzeka FRED A. RISSER, Madison

MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville BRIAN D. RUDE, Coon Valley

C. P. Fox, Baraboo ROBERT SMITH, Seymour

PAUL C. GARTZKE, Madison MRS. WILLIA.M H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee

MRS. HUGH F. GWIN, Hudson WiLLiAiM F. STARK, Pewaukee

WILFREDJ. HARRIS, Madison WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison

MRS. RICHARD L. HARTZELL, Grantsburg ROBERT S. TRAVIS, Platteville

KIRBY HENDEE, Madison CHARLES TWINING, Ashland

MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN, Madison GERALD D. VISTE, Wausau WILLIAM HUFFMAN, Wisconsin Rapids

KENNETH SHAW, President ofthe University ROBERT B. L. MURPHY, President ofthe Wisconsin History Foundation

MRS. JAMES H. CONNORS, President ofthe PETER M. KLEIN, President ofthe Friends ofthe State Historical Society Wisconsin Council for Local History of Wisconsin

Friends ofthe State Historical Society ofWisconsin

MRS. JAMES H. CONNORS, Madison MRS. WILLIAM J. WEBSTER, Two Rivers, President Secretary MRS. GLENN COATES, Racine, Vice-President WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison, Treasurer

HAROLD L. NELSON, Madison, MRS. WILLIAM B.JONES, Fort Atkinson, Vice-President Past President

Fellows Curators Emeritus

VERNON CARSTENSEN JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Milwaukee

RICHARD N. CURRENT ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Beloit MERLE CURTI MRS. EDWARD C. JONES, Fort Atkinson

ROBERT C. NESBIT HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison

ALICE E. SMITH MILO K. SWANTON, Madison PAUL VANDERBILT THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SHALL promote a wider appreciation ofthe American heritage with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin and ofthe West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

WHi(X3)H0()3 Seating for six in the fireplace ofthe Chester Thordarson boathousel great hall on Rock Island. An article on Thordarson and his buildings begins on page 211.

rsbsS RCO| a 184C5 J •^ OF W16<-^