...VY Connect and Collaborate with the Local History and Field Services Program

The Local History and Field Services program offers support and services to a state network of over 390 local historical organizations, historic preservation groups, and individuals interested in local history. In partnership with the Wisconsin Council for Local History, Field Services coordinates workshops, webi- nars, regional meetings, and onsite consultations. Author Michael Perry signsa bookfora 2014annual conference attendee Contact us Field Services staff: www.wisconsinhistory.org/localhistory Ninth Annual Local History and Northern Region: Historic Preservation Conference Janet Seymour, [email protected] Join us October 9-10, 2015, in Middleton 715-836-2250 for the ninth annual, two-day event offering Southern Region: workshops, tours, and networking events. Rick Bernstein: [email protected] 608-264-6583 www.wisconsinhistory.org/conference "New in 2015: Members receive a 10 percent For more information, visit our website: discount on Annual Conference registration fees." http://wihist.org/aboumeldservices

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL Follow Wisconsin Historical Society Field Services on Facebook for more information on local history! WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Director, Wisconsin Historical Society Press Kathryn L. Borkowski Editor Jane M. De Broux Managing Editor Diane T. Drexler Image Researcher John H. Nondorf Research and Editorial Assistants John Zimm and Colleen Harryman Design Nancy Rinehart, University Marketing

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), published quarterly, is a benefit of membership in the 2 Nous Vous Remercions Wisconsin Historical Society. The French Gratitude Train Full membership levels start at $55 for individuals and $65 for institutions. To join or for more information, visit our website at by John Nondorf wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership Office at 888-748-7479 or e-mail [email protected]. 14 A Generation of Oxen The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright© 2015 by Dirk Hildebrandt by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

ISSN 0043-6534 (print) ISSN 1943-7366 (online) 28 Father Louis Nicolas and the Natural History of Wisconsin For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, (ISSN 0043-6534), please access www.copyright.com or contact the by Michael Edmonds Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA, 01923,978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. 42 Reconnecting Photography to For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine the Draper Manuscripts of History identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison, Wl, 53706 or by Simone Munson [email protected].

Wisconsin Magazine of History welcomes the submission of articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on the 50 BOOK EXCERPT Wisconsin Historical Societywebsiteatwww.wisconsinhistory.org/ Polka Heartland wmh/contribute.asp. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. Why the Midwest Loves to Polka Contact Us: by Rick March Editorial: 608-264-6549 [email protected] Membership/Change of Address: 888-748-7479 54 Letters [email protected] Reference Desk/Archives: 608-264-6460 [email protected] 56 Curio Mail: 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706 Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage from the Wisconsin Historical Museum store. Call toll-free: 888-999-1669. Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, www.napubco.com.

On the front cover: A team of oxen work at Old World Wisconsin with Dirk Hildebrandt, historic farming and transportation coordinator

PHOTO BY LOYD HEATH

VOLUME 99, NUMBER1 / AUTUMN 2015 Nous Vous Remercions The French Gratitude Train BY JOHN NONDORF WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

ostwar Europe was no place for children. Major roads and cities lay in ruins, farm fields had been stripped by retreating German soldiers, and millions of Pits citizens had been killed or wounded. Food production and distribution was nearly impossible. In his October 11, 1947, "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column, popular syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, best known as a muckraker attacking politicians he felt worked against the public good, proposed sending a gift of food from the people of the United States to the children of war-ravaged Europe. The United States was already supplying foreign aid that was delivered "efficiently and unostentatiously" at the docks at Le Havre. France. Pearson noted in contrast that compa­ rably small amounts of Russian wheat came into Marseilles harbor, but arrived "with flags flying, bands playing . . . street parades, a municipal holiday and paeans of praise for the great benefactors of the French people— Soviet Russia."1 Pearson's plan was for the United States to do something both more personal and more impressive. He asked people to bring food from their own fields and kitchens to a train car that would travel across the country.2 The public responded quickly and enthusiastically and, in just five weeks, with the aid of a grassroots news­ paper campaign, what would soon be known as the Friendship Train started gathering donations across the country from Los Angeles to New York. Though the train only physically passed through twelve states, all forty-eight states and the Territory of Hawaii sent contributions. Friendly competitions sparked among communities to see which could make the largest donation. Mrs. D. M. Liltersky of Sheboygan Falls summed up her feel­ ings about the Friendship Train in her challenge to readers of the Manitowoc Herald Times: "We are poor people living at most from one payday to the next, so the cost of a case of milk is more than our budget can stand. Yet as I looked at my children—fat, rosy, and bursting with health—then thought of PROVENCE those many hungry infants in Europe,

DE FER FRANCAIS I wondered if there weren't some NAT,ONALE DES CHEMIHS SOCIETE way we could help." She closed with of Brown County © Neville Public Museum a challenge to clubs, churches, and neighborhood groups to collect dona­ Railroad poster inviting visitors to Provence, currently at the Neville tions for European children in need, Public Museum adding, "Even the poorest of us are

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

far better fed than the Europeans. Let's show them our hearts are bigger than our appetites."3 LA FRANCE PITTORESQUE By the time the train reached the East Coast, it consisted of 275 box cars full of the "fruits of California, the grain of the Middle West, milk of Wisconsin, dried peas and beans... from all the states" with an estimated value of $40 million.4 Pearson accompanied the gift to France, where it was presented on Christmas Eve and feted with a parade. Similar fanfare continued as foodstuffs were distributed throughout France and Italy. Two years later, prompted by Andre Picard, a railroad worker and veteran of World War II, the people of France organized a train of their own in response to the generosity shown by the people of the United States. Known in France as Le Train de la Reconnaissance Francaise, or the "Train of French Recognition," the idea proved very popular. Like the Friendship Train from the United States, the French response was not sponsored by the French government but rather French publisher Maison Charles Duffit donated twenty-four copies of La France Pittoresque.

AUTUMN 2015 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

"Autumn Trees" by Henri Boisgontier was donated by M. S. Cattela of Seine-et-Marne. It is now held by the Oshkosh Public Museum.

consisted of donations of personal items from individuals and gifts from businesses and organizations to be sent to the people of the United States. Initially conceived of as a single boxcar, the French enthusiastically filled forty-nine—one for each state plus one to be shared by Washington, DC, and the territory of Hawaii. The train was loaded on the steamer Magellan and arrived in New York Harbor on February 3, 1949. Because railroad gauges in Europe are not the same as in the United States, the cars were mounted on flatbeds so they could be pulled to their ultimate destinations. On February 13, 1949, a green boxcar decorated with the coats of arms of the forty historic French provinces arrived in Madison, Wisconsin. Accom­ panied by the French vice consul, Jacques LeMonnyer, and his wife Olga, the car was greeted at the Chicago & North­ western depot before it paraded half a mile up King Street and around the Capitol Square to the Main Street entrance of the State Capitol. Several dignitaries attended a ceremony in the Assembly Chamber including Governor Oscar Rennebohm, Supreme Court Justice Marvin Rosenberry, University Presi­ dent E. B. Fred, and State Historical Society Director Clifford Lord, who was also chairman of the Governor's Committee to Receive the French Gratitude Train. In his speech, the Mary Rennebohm arranges flowers in a bowl from the French governor accepted the gift on behalf of the people of Wisconsin 5 Gratitude Train, Wisconsin's Executive Residence, 1950. as "part of the heart of France."

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The boxcar itself was historically significant as it was a "40-et-8" car. These cars were already antiques when they arrived in the United States, having been built prior to World War I. The 40-et-8 was a standard boxcar used for transporting troops to the front in both world wars. Each car was capable of transporting forty men or eight horses— the origin of the nickname. Before the car was opened, the keynote speaker, University of Wisconsin French professor Julian Harris, reminded Wisconsinites not to expect the fine wines, gourmet foods, and haute couture we tend to associate with Paris, "for the people of France know nothing of such objects of great luxury and it must be remembered that A toy drum and wooden box from the train in the collections of the Wisconsin Historical it was the people who filled the Grati­ Museum tude Train."6 Indeed, with few excep­ tions, a twenty-three-page inventory and Compiegne sent what seem to be of the train's contents shows a long list tourism books; Renault donated models of simple, thoughtful contributions of their automobiles; clothing company reflecting French culture and personal Devanlay & Recoing sent underwear sacrifice. The list includes dozens of they manufactured, a Parisian publisher poetry, art, and history books; dolls in donated twenty-four copies of La regional costumes; oil paintings and France Pittoresque; and the Association other art works; personal letters of France-U.SA contributed four maps of thanks; flags; coins; handkerchiefs and the Champagne country.8 In addition to lace doilies; knick-knacks too numerous their generosity, these donations show to count; and even soil from Napoleon's pride in place and, perhaps, an attempt tomb.7 In contrast to the simpler gifts to promote French products and bring from ordinary citizens, each boxcar US visitors to a recovering France. contained a Sevres vase contributed by After Wisconsin Historical Society President Vincent Auriol, a tree from Museum staff inventoried the collection the French minister of agriculture, a and furnished display cases, the collec­ collection of medals from the French tion was exhibited in the State Capitol mint, and a bronze school bell from the rotunda from February 20 through City of Caen. The Chambre Syndicale March 25, 1949. The exhibit then de la Couture de Parisienne, an orga­ moved to the Milwaukee Public Library nization that oversees haut couture and Museum, where it spent most of fashion designers, commissioned a the month of April.9 Requests to display collection of forty-nine dolls portraying This porcelain Joan of Arc statuette is items from the French Gratitude Train, the history of French fashion. One doll among the Gratitude Train items currently known elsewhere as the Merci Train, was to be sent to each state, but due to found atthe Neville PublicMuseum in came from all corners of the state, and Green Bay. shipping difficulties, they were all sent by October, the train had visited at least in the New York boxcar. The collection remains intact at the twenty-nine communities.10 The boxcar was converted to a Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection at the Metropolitan trailer for ease of transportation, and each city that hosted Museum of Art in New York City. the display shared the cost of conversion. Host cities were also Perusing the inventory, one also gets a sense of commer­ required to pay insurance costs of $1.03 per day. The total cost cial promotion. The cities of Orleans, Bordeaux, Grenoble, for a community to host the French Gratitude Train collec-

AUTUMN 2015 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY tion was $30.89." In Milwaukee alone, one estimate showed 75,000 people viewed the exhibit.12 Even a small town like Baldwin logged more than 1,000 visitors in a week. In keeping with the spirit of giving, no admission was charged to view the exhibit, so costs to present it had to be minimal. Transporta­ tion between cities, the indoor exhibit space, and security were all donated by local businesses and institutions. When the tour ended, the Governor's Committee to Receive the French Gratitude Car was left to decide what should become of the gifts. State Historical Society Director Clifford Lord was the committee chair, but relatively few of the items from the Gratitude Train were added to the Historical Museum collection. Lord preferred to devote the resources of the perpetually overcrowded Historical Museum to docu­ menting Wisconsin history. It was also more in keeping with the spirit of the gift from the people of France to distribute the items as widely as possible. Some items arrived addressed to individuals, including an entire crate to Cardinal Samuel Stritch of Milwaukee and a painting addressed to Eleanor Roosevelt. These were sent to the recipients indicated. A list of available items was circulated to museums, schools, and libraries throughout the state, and items were distributed to these institutions on a first-come-first-served basis. Only three requests for personal gifts from the collection were received. Two came from curio collectors and were denied. One came from Mrs. Mary Lucille O'Connor of Milwaukee, whose son, Robert, was killed near Le Mans, France, during the war. Evidence suggests that she was given a memento from the area where her son's plane was shot down by Germans during a bombing run on the Gnome Rhone Aircraft Works.13

A painted gold cup was among the Gratitude Train items found at the Oshkosh Public Museum.

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Two young women view the Gratitude Train exhibit at the Iwaukee Public Library, April 1949.

AUTUMN 2015 p*7 Doll dressed in French fashion of 1785, m+_: designed by Maggy Rouff, Legroux, and Antoine, from the New York boxcar t *

V 4. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The Beloit Historical Society is home to this Quimper platter, a distinctive item from Brittany. It was sent by the Hotel de Bretagne in Vannes.

Many of the items from the French Gratitude Train are now lost to history. One of these, Wisconsin's Sevres vase from President Auriol, was stolen decades ago. It was a valu­ able piece from the porcelain factory in Sevres, which was once a royal factory. Wisconsin Historical Museum staff were able to identify twenty-four items that can still be seen. Other items have been found in Special Collections at UW- Madison's Memorial Library, the Kenosha Public Museum, the Whitewater Historical Society, and the Oshkosh Public Museum. The La Crosse County Historical Society found records showing receipt of items from the train, but their staff were unable to locate the items.14 The Rock County Histor­ ical Society reported eleven items lost or not found as ofjune 1968.15 A few items were loaned to Wisconsin's Executive Residence and were on display during Oscar Rennebohm's administration. The Department of Administration staff searched their inventory but were not able to confirm any items from the train still in storage.16 Other repositories were able to locate some, but not all, of the Gratitude Train items in their inventories. A small set of dolls in regional dress from the Wisconsin collection were available for loan from the University of Wisconsin Extension Bureau of Informa­ tion and Program Services by 1950 but have not resurfaced. Doubtless, many items still reside anonymously in schools, libraries, and historical or art museums throughout the state, their connection to the Gratitude Train forgotten. Other items were likely discarded as storage space dwindled and the story behind them faded from memory. The boxcar itself was a bit worse for wear after touring the A doll depicting French fashion of 1900, designed by Calixte, Maud et state. Visitors had etched their names into the side of the car. Nano, and Phyris

AUTUMN 2015 11 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY and it lost most of its forty provincial crests during the tour. The car was turned over to a state veterans' organization that in turn donated it to the Mid-Continent Railway Museum in 1969. In 2000, it was transferred to the National Railway Museum in Green Bay, where it now resides in a climate-controlled building. Upon arrival in Green Bay, all of its exterior deco­ rations were missing. Adam Carey, a graphic designer and an intern at the National Railway Museum at the time, re-created the crests and banners decorating the car. The car has since been fully restored with the assistance of the Wisconsin Forty and Eight organization and can be seen along with many other historic train cars and locomotives in the Frederick J. Lenfestey Center at the National Railroad Museum.17

Notes 1. Drew Pearson, "Washington Marry-Go-Round," Manitowoc Herald-Times, October 11. 1947, 6. 2. Ibid. 3. Manitowoc Herald Times, November 11, 1947, 9. 4. Herman Klurfield, Behind the Lines: The World of Drew Pearson (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1968), 154. 5. Warren Jollymore, "Gifts Express Appreciation of American Aid," Wisconsin Statejournal. February 14, 1948, 3. 6. Ibid. 7. List of Objects in Merci Train, 1949. State Historical Society : Project Files, 1919-1996, folder 20, box 5, Series 1762, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison. 8. Ibid. 9. Clifford Lord letter to Drew Pearson, October 20, 1949, State Historical Society: Project Files, 1919-1996., box 5, folder 20, Series 1762, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison. 10. Invoices for French Gratitude Car Exhibit costs. State Historical Society: Project Files, 1919-1996. Box 5, folder 20, Series 1762 11. Ibid. 12. Joe Goetz letter to Clifford Lord, July 7, 1949. State Historical Society : Project Files, 1919-1996, box 5, folder 19, Series 1762 13. Minutes of the Meeting of the Governor's Committee to Receive the French Gratitude Train, 15 December 1949. State historical Society : Project Files, 1919-1996, box 5, folder 20, Series 1762 14. Peggy Derrick, email to author, May 27, 2015. 15. Laurel Fant, email to author, May 5, 2015. 16. Michelle Sampson, Wisconsin Department of Administration, phone call to author, June 2,2015. 17. Daniel Liedtke, email to author, March 3, 2015.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Nondorf has been the image researcher for the Wisconsin Historical Society Press since 2002 and worked in the Archives Division of the Wisconsin His­ torical Society from 2000 until 2015. He currently drives the bookmobile for the Dane County Library Service in addition to his work for the WHS Press. A lifelong Wis- consinite, John grew up in Racine and relocated to Madison in the 1990s, where he now lives with his wife, Bryn, and son, Rilo. He enjoys spending time with his family. Cubs baseball. Packers football, and making music with his friends. His previous articles for the Wisconsin Magazine of History include "The Wisconsin Sketches of Franz Holzlhuber" (Winter 2014-2015) and "The Story of Our Centennial Stamp" (Winter 2005-2006).

12 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

While most of the objects survived the tour of the state, the Wisconsin boxcar, seen here on December 5,1949, suffered extensive damage. •

AUTUMN 2015 13 A Generation

!f H

;

n the 1840s and 1850s, oxen brought settlers i to the opening frontiers of the upper Midwest. Many farmers arrived in wagons with their live­ stock. A milk cow might be tied behind the wagon, of Oxen BY DIRK HILDEBRANDT

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- Farmers breaking sod with five yoke of oxen. Rock County, Wisconsin, 1855

with pigs and chickens in crates bouncing along inside, but in front, pulling it all, were the oxen. They led the way into Wisconsin as they had on other frontiers throughout history. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Pioneers uprooted themselves and their families and relo­ a necessity, and trainers choose the breed best suited to the cated to undeveloped areas and other countries throughout all intended use of the animal. Large breeds, such as Holsteins, of recorded history. Ever since their domestication some 9,000 are selected for pulling competitions and logging, and small years ago, cattle have provided power for humans and have breeds, like Devons or Jerseys, are more appropriate for farm- always been found on any frontier.1 They provided meat and work. All cattle trained as oxen must retain their horns, which milk and played an integral part in the development of farming. act as brakes to hold back a load when going downhill. The Oxen are not a separate breed of cattle but rather steers— horns also prevent the yoke from sliding over the animals' adult, male bovines that have been castrated. They come from heads. bull calves of any breed of cattle and are castrated and taught These steers, trained for work, were the first domesticated to follow voice commands and work with humans. Male cattle animals stronger than their masters, and their strength, once are selected because they grow to be larger than the females, tamed and harnessed, became useful to humans as they trans­ and cows are more valuable for their milk and their ability to formed their environment into something more habitable. Ox produce calves. Their training can begin as early as one week power revolutionized transport and agriculture and allowed after birth, and the breed of the animal is less important than people to grow more food, transport goods for trade, and its intelligence, demeanor, and overall health. In nineteenth- travel over long distances. Oxen were especially adapted to the century Wisconsin, before the rise of the dairy industry, the environment of an expanding frontier, and their very presence predominant breed of cattle was Shorthorn, an English breed helped define the frontier experience and westward expansion noted for both meat and milk production. Thus, most oxen of the United States. of that period were at least part Shorthorn. Today, making Oxen were cheaper to buy than horses, which made them cattle into oxen and working with them is a hobby rather than well suited to the cash-poor economies of the frontier. Although

Ateam of oxen pull a large bobsled in front of the General Merchandise Dry Goods store in Luck, Wisconsin, undated

16 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY prices fluctuated, between the 1830s and 1870s, a horse might cost as much as $150, while a team of oxen cost $50. It was still an investment, to be sure, in a period when a laborer might make $1.50 in a day and pay $2 for a pair of shoes and ten cents for a pound of butter, but for people who had sold almost everything they had to outfit their jour­ neys, the investment was worth it and the savings immense.2 According to a popular guide for immigrants coming to Wisconsin written in 1847 by Dr. Carl de Haas, "The cost of transportation inland is very high and ... if the place chosen for settlement is very distant, one can take only the most essential things besides one's baggage. Whoever has more than 600 dollars at his disposal would do best to by a yoke (two head) of strong oxen and a strong wagon in Milwaukee."3 This wood engraving depicts a team of oxen breaking sod, Milwaukee, 1835. Relating his own experience in coming to Wisconsin, de Haas goes on to say, "We bought a yoke of oxen Since cattle are hardier than horses, they can also get by with which, including hay for the whole winter, cost 47 Vt dollars."4 less refined shelter. In 1862, the Wisconsin Farmer stated, He further related that, "A good horse costs 60-70 dollars, the "Oxen are not half so liable to disease as horses are. An insurer small Indian horses are cheaper."5 will ask fourfold more for insuring the health of horses than of Frontier farmers were so busy clearing land and building oxen."7 When not needed for chores, oxen could be turned out shelter that growing enough grain to keep a horse in working into the woods to forage for themselves and rounded up again condition was difficult in many situations. Oxen were less when there was work to be done. expensive to feed since they required no grain to work, and The fact that horses were faster meant little in an envi­ their ruminant digestive system allowed them to eat and ronment where tracks knee deep in mud passed for roads and thrive on rougher fodder than any horse could tolerate. the market was as far as the next town, a day's travel away. Gustave Buchen, whose parents were early pioneer settlers The slow pace of the ox was better suited to the backbreaking in Sheboygan County, recalled, "This is why the ox was the work of carving up a wilderness where speed was less advanta­ chief draft animal. It is slow, but strong and hardy, and able geous than the ability to work steadily day in and day out. An to thrive on rough native forage plants, on which a horse article written in the Germantown Telegraph and reprinted in would starve."6 The ox's ability to eat grass along with grain the Wisconsin Farmer stated, "Two good horses and a yoke of and hay allowed subsistence farmers on the Wisconsin frontier oxen were all the working stock used on this farm for several to concentrate on growing crops to feed themselves. For the years. Young farmers will do well to remember that oxen will pioneer heading west, the ability of an ox to thrive on grass do as much work as horses, eat less grain, require less expen­ alone was a major factor in deciding which draft animals to sive harness, can be geared in half the time, can be managed purchase for the trip. Valuable cargo space was not wasted on more safely by boys, and in fine are preferable in very many grain for a horse when oxen could survive on the grass that ways."8 In addition, a horse past its prime wasn't worth much grew alongside the westward tracks. to a farmer on the early Wisconsin prairies, but an ox could Harnessing an ox was also less expensive than equipping a be eaten. Not a small consideration in a neighborhood where horse. Ox yokes, made of wood with a few iron fittings, could a trip to town might be a rare occurrence and grocery stores be easily made with simple tools and were well within the capa­ did not exist. bilities of those pioneer farmers whose necessary skills need to Anyone looking at the livestock in Wisconsin in the 1840s encompass every eventuality. Horse harness, by comparison, would have recognized the region for what it was: a vibrant was relatively fragile and harder to make and repair. Although and expanding frontier where oxen outnumbered horses by both animals benefit from wearing shoes, oxen are less likely virtue of their suitability, necessity, and adaptability to their to develop foot problems by going unshod over long distances. environment. This was confirmed by the federal census of

AUTUMN 2015 17 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

/•' Mr .>t/rtt/J ///t/rt<, ,0ft Afe //> //u.i f'/Ztrr, //•///'/ /'/ftf fa/I < nftttunat/4 <'*//i,'

• «H v4*M f^»4?2t Township of Herman federal survey map, 1836

Road Blocks to Progress 1850. Oxen comprised fifty-nine percent of all draft animals in the state; 42,801 working oxen as compared to 30,335 horses, By 1836, before Wisconsin became a territory, the surveyors, asses, and mules. Draft animals concentrate in agricultural hired by the federal government, had come through, marking areas, and in 1850, that was the southeast section of the state. the boundaries of the new land. They recorded what they saw Dane, Dodge, Rock, Washington, and Waukesha counties and divided the land into broad categories that would be of each counted more than 3,000 oxen, while the surrounding interest to newly arriving settlers and land speculators. The counties were not far behind.9 lands south of the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers were categorized

18 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

A team of oxen harnessed to a loaded logging sled in an unknown location, ca. 1890 as level, rolling, rough, or swampy. Land cover such as prairies that they did not reach there until ten o'clock at night, stiff and oak openings10 were also recorded. and worn out. Thus, it took them eighteen hours to cover six Some of the first settlers into Wisconsin came not to farm miles!"16 but to mine lead. Because the southwestern part of the state The first attempts at improved roads brought mixed was the frontier and the lead had to be hauled across the state results. Regarding plank roads on a positive note, the Editor's to the ports of Lake Michigan, "it was a common thing to Table of the March 1851 issue of Wisconsin and Iowa Farmer see oxen laden with lead from Grant and La Fayette counties reported the roads enabled multiple vehicles pulled by oxen to appear at the wharves after a journey of eight or ten days."11 be directed by a single driver, "Several times too, have noticed In 1847, A Milwaukee newspaper reported, "The Lead Schoo­ four loaded wagons drawn by one yoke of oxen each, and ners are constantly arriving here from the Mineral region. driven by one person—the three hind yokes being hitched with These singular teams drawn by six, eight or more yoke of oxen, ropes around their horns to the wagon preceding."17 Plank excite some curiosity in those who are not used to such sights roads, however, often required users to pay tolls and, as noted at the east."12 in an 1853 immigrant guidebook, had, "the effect upon horses The farmers that followed found few decent roads but which traverse it for a long time that they become stiff, and many tracks through the forest. Early settlers recounted unshod oxen easily slip upon the plank and therefore are very travel as "slow and difficult" and "nearly or quite impossible unwilling to go upon them."18 in certain seasons."13 In the 1840s, before the railroad came The lack of good roads meant more to early Wisconsin to Wisconsin, a round trip from Waupun to Milwaukee took farmers than just difficult travel. It also meant difficulty at least five days by ox wagon.14 A round trip from Fox Lake reaching markets. Without markets for their animals, crops, to Milwaukee with three yoke of oxen hitched to a "Hoosier" and produce, there was no profitable farming. Instead, small, wagon took eleven days with the first leg of the journey passing poor farms raised a little bit of everything, and the goods "through the woods" to Watertown.15 Travel in the winter produced were for local or personal consumption. A settler meant no mud or dust but presented other difficulties. Swiss rushed to build a shelter and clear a patch of land for a first immigrant Oswald Ragatz remembered when, in 1843, "my crop, most likely corn to feed his family and his beasts. Oxen brothers yoked two oxen to a sled at 4:00 A.M. and set out excelled at the slow deliberate work of hauling logs and pulling for Sauk City But the snow was so deep and the going so bad stones that was the mainstay of converting forest into field.

AUTUMN 2015 19 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Trees were cut down, and a small percentage of them were the pace a horse walked. Speed has never been an ox's strong turned into logs or lumber for building and fencing. The excess suit, despite the claim that a hay mowing innovation, the cele­ was burned. Often these hardwood forests were the only land brated buffalo mowing machine, could be used, "with oxen that early European immigrants could afford. In contrast, the to good purpose."24 Christian Ficker, in his immigrant guide­ prairies were more conducive to growing wheat and required book, recalled an earlier time when he said, "For such first less work. Because prairies had the prospect of quicker returns, breaking of the land only oxen are used, for horses are too fast they were settled first and often sold at a higher price per acre and would soon destroy both harness and plow. The oxen . . . than the forests. stop stock still at the plow when they feel that it is fast."25

Plowing Ahead A Symbol of the Past The prairie was covered with grasses with roots that extended New farming methods would eventually leave the use of oxen down five feet or more. Before this fertile soil could be behind. In 1842, Jerome Increase Case came to the Wisconsin harnessed for cash-cropping wheat, the prairies needed to be Territory with six groundhog threshers. He sold five of them broken and the grasses plowed under. This work was ideal for and used the sixth to demonstrate the mechanical threshing oxen, and an 1852 advertisement for a "Self-Holding Breaking technology.26 By 1844, he was building improved threshers Plow" specifically said that the machine was "for breaking at a small factory in the city of Racine.27 Cyrus McCormick prairie with a heavy team of several yokes of oxen." It also patented his first reaper, pulled by horses, in 183428 and began stated that, "In some sections of the country these plows are to manufacture it in Chicago in 1848.29 These two machines, extensively used, and are tho't [sic] to be the best breaking along with a host of others, transformed Wisconsin agriculture plow in use, for heavy teams."19 from frontier subsistence to cash farming and replaced oxen Immigrant reminiscences and letters written to friends with horses. The time was seen when "our heavy farm work be and family in Europe often mention plowing with cattle. [sic] performed by machinery, to relieve us from a large part David Sayre, who came to Rock County in the 1840s, remem­ of this devouring army of horses and oxen."30 bered the early days of agriculture, "Those of you—I am not It wasn't only technological advances that pushed oxen off talking to the ladies now—those of you who have broken your the agricultural scene. Attitudes among farmers fostered change acres during the last thirty years with three or four horses just as much as new machinery. As the frontier retreated west­ and a narrow breaking plow can scarcely understand the ward out of Wisconsin, oxen were seen as a thing of the past. slow process of breaking land with six yoke of oxen and a Your grandfather may have farmed with oxen, but modern thirty-inch plow. I wish you could have seen the long string farmers used horses. This technological bias for anything new of droning cattle."20 Oswald Ragatz, writing his Memoirs of and improved has always been a part of farming, and oxen were a Sauk Swiss, reported, "In the spring of 1844, father bought on the short end of the goad when it came to modern advances. eight more oxen so that we had six pair and began breaking An alternative view of using oxen to break land was given on the prairie in earnest with a big thirty-inch plow which turned the front page of the June 1856 Wisconsin Farmer and North­ some two feet of sod at a time"21 western Cultivator, "No, Sirs, it takes a plow and oxen or horses, Even the heavy labor of breaking land could be remem­ to do that, and our experience has taught us, under all reason­ bered fondly, as in this description contained in a 1925 sketch able circumstances, to prefer the latter." The writer went on to of Mads Knudtson Fauske of Trempealeau County: "I like to say, "The big plow is simply to make up for the slow motion of think of Knudtson in action. ... I like to think of him as I first the oxen, which at best are usually slow enough, even with a saw him, driving seven yoke of oxen on a 24-inch breaking power of whipping and shouting." Showing no sentimentality plow. He carried a whipstock of pliant oak, six to eight feet he concluded, "The time will soon come, when their mighty long, and as he walked back and forth among the long grasses prairie rooters, and all their accompaniments, will be banished and brush he cracked his whip which sounded like the firing of to some newer, and less civilized western region."31 a gun."22 It was slow work, but it paid off. By 1850, the coun­ Oxen were already a symbol of the past in 1856, when ties of southern Wisconsin had a high proportion of improved a letter to the editor of Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern acres, and by 1860, the region had more improved than unim­ Cultivator opined that any farmer who would deliberately proved acreage.23 hook up his oxen and spend ten or twelve days traveling to Even as oxen converted the Wisconsin woods and prai­ Milwaukee rather than taking the train was "living at least ries, agriculture became mechanized. From the decade half a century behind his time."32 Later that year, another before Wisconsin became a state until the end of the Civil letter to the editor, written by C. H. Cleaveland of Cincinnati, War, inventive minds and entrepreneurial spirits produced touted the new steam-powered plows. Steam power, the editor machines for the newly created fields. These machines were responded, would, "not be long in abolishing the miserable also particularly suited—and indeed designed—to operate at old-fogy institution of the ox-horse-and-mule team."33

20 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

(Above) All cattle trained as oxen must retain their horns, which act as brakes to hold back a load when going downhill. The horns also prevent a yoke, like this one, from sliding over the animals' heads. (Right) Because oxen have cloven hooves, they require two shoes for each foot.

Farmer Oscar Sayles with his two oxen,Tom and Jerry, Rockton, Wisconsin, September 1946. The team is hitched together with a yoke.

AUTUMN 2015 21 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

A team of oxen in front of the Schuette Brothers store grain warehouse on Jay Street in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, undated

These changes occurred throughout the state and are six square miles designated by the surveyors in the summer of demonstrated by the farming records of Dodge County 1836. The township of Herman was completely forested when located in southeastern Wisconsin. The county is roughly Yankee settlers began arriving in the early 1840s. Germans soon square in shape, thirty miles to a side, and contains 576,000 followed, and by 1880 there were only three American or native acres. Prior to European settlement, about half of the county born Yankee families living within the township.36 was forested while the remaining land was oak openings and In 1850, Herman had 129 farms. These farms included prairies with a rolling landscape. The good soil and ample 1,844 improved acres and 11,063 unimproved acres for a water drew settler farmers from the start, and Yankees from recorded total of fifty-six percent of the 23,040 total acres in New England began settling in the Watertown area around the township. The population was of mixed heritage, with 1836.34 By 1845, Yankees and newly arrived German immi­ Yankees and Germans predominating. The farms were rela­ grants farmed the eastern half of the county35 By 1880, it had tively small, an average of one hundred acres each. By order some of the highest agricultural wealth in the state and ranked of importance, defined by amount harvested, the primary within the top five counties in population size. field crops were potatoes, wheat, corn, oats, and rye. Food for A good example of the changes in Wisconsin agriculture can humans came first, then profit, then animal feed. The relative be found on the northern border of Dodge County in the thirty- importance of each of these crops reflects the pioneer/subsis-

22 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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American Mammoth Ox, described as weighing 4,000 pounds, undated tence type of farming that was indicative of the frontier. Hay acteristics of a frontier township. The population increased, was also raised as fodder, and in 1850 in Herman the crop and the number of recorded farms rose to 305. Only four amounted to 250 tons.3' percent of the available land went unrecorded, with forty-six A look at the draft animals found on the farms of Herman percent of the available acreage defined as improved and fifty in 1850 shows that it was a region of frontier farming. Land percent listed as unimproved. The same five crops predomi­ clearing was the primary task, and oxen dominated the agri­ nated as they had in the previous ten years, but their rela­ cultural scene as early settlers turned vacant land into produc­ tive importance changed from frontier subsistence farming tive fields. Seventy-one percent of the farms in Herman had to a more market-oriented system of agriculture. Their order oxen, while only five percent had horses. There were 195 oxen was now wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, and rye. The subsistence on ninety-two of the 129 farms, and 13 horses on six farms. farmer was cash-cropping now, and wheat was king. Between The vast majority of the farms had two oxen apiece, although 1850 and 1860, the amount of harvested wheat increased by a few had as many as four.38 707 percent. Profit came first, then high-energy animal feed, Ten years later, in 1860, the census workers who traveled and then people. As the number of farms and farm buildings from farm to farm recorded the next step in the progression of increased, so did the ability to store crops. Correspondingly, farm evolution. In 1860, Herman was rapidly losing the char­ the hay harvest in 1860 was over five times that of 1850.39

AUTUMN 2015 23 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Oxen have a clear advantage when it comes to slow, heavy work. Here a team of horses appears to make little progress pulling a farmer's wagon with its wheels sunk deep into a muddy field, Rushville, Illinois, 1898.

The composition of the draft teams changed as well. While culture in the form of dairying was becoming evident. Indi­ oxen still dominated the Herman agricultural scene, the use vidual farms shrank in number as they increased in acreage. of horses was increasing. In 1860, there were 496 oxen found The federal census of 1870 recorded 217 farms with forty-nine on seventy-six percent of the farms. There were 227 horses percent of the total available land being tilled. The crops were found on thirty-two percent of the farms in the township.40 still the same, but the quantities of each crop planted changed. This increase often meant that both oxen and horses could Wheat production rose eighty-two percent in the last decade, be found on the same farm. An 1860 article in the Wisconsin oats up seven percent, potatoes up sixteen percent, corn down Farmer compared working cattle to horses and summarized eight percent, and rye down twenty-two percent. Even as their findings by saying, "Where the business is sufficient for farmers continued to cash in on what appeared to be the coun­ the employment of both, it is advantageous to combine them; try's never-ending demand for wheat, Herman was also begin­ but where a farmer can own but a single team, especially in a ning to take its place in Wisconsin's new dairy industry. Every new country, oxen are usually much the best."41 farm recorded in the township had over three milk cows, and In 1870, the township of Herman as a frontier existed only ninety-eight percent of the farms produced an average of 171 in the stories that parents told to their children. Wheat farming pounds of butter each. still reigned supreme—production had almost doubled since Oxen were no longer needed for clearing land and heavy the preceding decade—but a more diversified system of agri­ work, and their numbers fell. There were 529 horses on eighty-

24 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY eight percent of the farms, but only 116 oxen were recorded within the township. Farming had become mechanized, and Journey Back to the Past investments in horses and their feed paid handsome dividends in bushels of wheat.42 at Old World Wisconsin In 1880, the changes of the preceding decades solidified. Visitors to Old World Wisconsin discover a vivid There were now 634 horses in Herman, almost three per re-creation of the working farmsteads and settlements farm. There were seven oxen in total. The number of recorded established by European immigrants in America's farms dropped by one, but farm productivity increased. Since heartland, including oxen and horses working in the 1870, wheat, corn, oats, and rye production had increased. fields. For more information on Old World Wisconsin, Only the potato harvest dropped. But Wisconsin wheat was go to: oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org. no longer profitable as the western prairies were settled and farmed, flooding the market and lowering prices. German farmers began to search for new crops and saw dairy prod­ ucts as an attractive and profitable alternative to wheat. Milk oxen as lumbermen moved north to harvest what appeared to production meant initiating a new cropping system based be endless tracts of timber. The forests of Wisconsin had been on the nutritional needs of cows, and the huge increases in capitalized on since the beginning of European exploration the corn, oats, and hay harvests pointed to this change. New and settlement. In 1840, the value of lumber in Wisconsin was inventions played their part in allowing sufficient feed to be greater than the value of wheat.46 By 1848, lumber camps had harvested and stored, letting cows efficiently produce milk been established at Green Bay and along the Wolf River. Prior year round. The early 1880s also saw the first aboveground to the Civil War, most of the logging was done with oxen. After silo in Wisconsin built at Oconomowoc, and the third silo the Civil War, when lumbering in Wisconsin increased expo­ in the state was constructed by John Steele in Alderly, south nentially, horses became more common to haul the raw wood of Herman.43 More cows also meant more bull calves, and for the millions of board feet of lumber that were needed by with oxen no longer a major part of the agricultural scene, farmers on the prairies. In 1872, on the Saint Croix River, they were considered excess animals that could be eaten. The "3,500 men, 1,600 horses, and 250 oxen logged off about 1880 census recorded, for the first time, milk sent to butter or 35,000 acres, cutting some two hundred million board feet of cheese factories. Herman contributed 6,774 gallons to the new logs."47 industry44 Wisconsin was becoming the dairy state. In the lumber industry each animal had its advantages. The federal census schedules of 1890 were damaged in a Horses might be faster on the long hauls, but for the awkward fire and no longer exist.45 Because of this loss, there is no way business of close-in woods work oxen were much easier to of knowing for sure the number of draft animals in Herman maneuver around, over, or through trees and brush. In the at that time. Based on the percentages of previously recorded winter of 1891, in northern Wisconsin, Norwegian immi­ draft relative to Dodge County as a whole, the number of oxen grant Olaf Erickson earned fifty cents a day hauling logs for in 1890 can be estimated at four. They had had little use in the his neighbor Ernest Davis. He recalled, "After we had cut the wheat farming of the preceding decades and now had none at logs, the snow was so deep and so packed that one team could all in the new dairy industry. For all practical purposes oxen not skid the logs out so Ernest sent me down to my brothers' as draft animals had become obsolete in Dodge County. The to hire a yoke of oxen from them. ... I could always start the federal census of 1900 did not record working oxen. Their time log with them but, as soon as it was loose, Ernest hitched his was over. horses ahead and away we would go to the skidway"48 Many logging companies owned their own oxen. These New Frontiers animals were left to graze in the forests during the summer and Oxen still had a role to play in other parts of the state, as were rounded up in the fall as the lumberjacks prepared for pioneers had already moved west to the new frontier of the the winter's work. Teamsters and their beasts were up before prairies and north to the pineries. The lumber companies were dawn to prepare for their daily tasks. Teams of oxen dragged the first into the wilds of northern Wisconsin, but the farmers logs out of the woods to landings and staging areas to await soon followed and brought their oxen with them. Farms often transport to the mills. The simplicity of oxen was an advantage sprang up near lumbering operations, as these concerns in remote camps. Felled trees might be loaded onto bobsleds provided a ready and convenient market for food, supplies, or go-devils or simply dragged along the frozen ground. Little and draft animals. In addition to selling oxen and horses to more than a yoke and chain were required, and these could the rapidly growing industry, many farmers took their oxen to easily be repaired with simple tools. The oxen were shod in the woods in the winter to work as lumberjacks. Thus a second the winter to provide the animals with better traction over the Wisconsin frontier was overtaken and transformed by men and frozen ground. Iron shoes with long caulks were nailed to the

AUTUMN 2015 25 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY bottom of the ox's hooves, and since cattle have a split hoof while their fields yet have many stumps and farming is in a two shoes were required for each foot. crude, partially developed condition."53 While Mr. Colman Oxen's minimal feed requirements were a real plus in may have disagreed with the description of his farm, no one an industry where everything had to be shipped in from the could dispute the description of frontier farming as crude and outside. In the logging camps of northern Wisconsin, "Oxen partially developed. Nor could they argue the efficacy and were used because they could live and work on a diet of marsh value of oxen in such a farming situation. The cutover lands hay and rutabagas which were produced here. Horses required were the last farming frontier in the Badger State, and oxen hay and oats, neither of which could be had until the coming were there to clear and plow and plant. of the railroads."49 The common use of oxen in Wisconsin lasted a little over As long as there were trees to cut there were oxen avail­ fifty years as the state was transformed from raw frontier to able to haul them away, but the vast forests ran out and the settled agricultural industry. The only constant was change, heyday of logging in Wisconsin was over by the 1890s.50 Many as wheat replaced forest and prairie only to be supplanted by former lumbermen became farmers as the cutover land was dairy cows. Oxen are remembered today through historical promoted as a new agricultural frontier to land hungry immi­ documents and museum displays. Little physical evidence grants. The cutover lands were cheap and already cleared so remains of their primary role in the creation of Wisconsin they sold before the remaining hardwood forests. Burned- agriculture. A farmer may turn up a rusted ox shoe in a field, over land, the huge tracts that had been devastated by forest and old yokes are now sold as antique decorations, but the fires, were also sold as farmland. In 1895, the Wisconsin State animals themselves are mostly gone. Their legacy remains, Legislature passed an act providing for the publication of evident in the smooth broad fields of Wisconsin farms and the the book, Northern Wisconsin, A Handbook for the Home tractors that continue the work the oxen started. IM Seeker. The purpose of this book was, in part, to "set forth the advantages of the newer portions of this state for those seeking Notes homes on lands in the effort to draw to Wisconsin a desirable 1. No one can be sure, but archeologists generally agree that the dog is the oldest domesti­ cated animal, having been bred to serve humans approximately 15,000 years ago. Sheep, cats, 51 class of farmers." The legislature hoped that, "With farms goats, and pigs followed, with the domestication of cattle occurring 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. 2. Pioneer letters home and immigrant guidebooks made a point of including current prices supplanting the forest northern Wisconsin will not revert to for goods and services as well as wages. Examples include: "Documents: Norwegian Emigrant a wilderness with the passing of the lumber industry, but will Letters," Wisconsin Magazine of History 15, no. 3 (1932): 362; "Documents: Letters of Joseph V. Quarles," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 16, no. 3 (1933): 314; "Documents: A Norwegian be occupied by a thrifty class of farmers whose well directed, Pioneer Letter," Wisconsin Magazine of History 16, no. 4 (1933): 449; "Documents: Sample intelligent efforts bring substantial, satisfactory returns from Letters of Immigrants," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 20, no. 3 (1937): 327; "Documents: 52 Immigrant Letter," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory'21, no. 1 (1937): 76; Angie Kumlien Main, fields, flocks, and herds." One of those thrifty and desirable "Thure Kumlien, Koshkonong Naturalist," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 27, no. 1 (1943): 39; and Angie Kumlien Main, "Thure Kumlien Koshkonong Naturalist (II)," Wisconsin farmers was Charles Colman, who farmed near Butternut in Magazine ofHstory 27, no. 2 (1943): 196—197; "Documents: Pioneer Kjaerkebon Writes from Ashland County. He came north from Sheboygan County in Goon Prairie," Wisconsin Magazine of History 27, no. 4 (1944): 441; Kenneth Duckett, ed. "A TJowneaster' in Wisconsin: Sears Letters, 1849, 1854," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 41, no. 1880 and earned money to pay for his eighty-acre farm by 3 (1958): 207; Jack J. Detzler, ed. "T Live Here Happily': A German Immigrant in Territorial cutting cord wood. Described as a pioneer settler, he is pictured Wisconsin," Wisconsin Magazine of History 50, no. 3 (1967): 256. in the handbook in front of his home along with his family and 3. Carl DeHaas, North America Wisconsin Hints for Emigrants, 2nd Edition, trans. (F. J. Ruepmg, 1943), 22. his oxen. The caption reads, in part, "Many of the pioneers 4. Ibid., 28. 5. Ibid., 37. in northern Wisconsin should use oxen rather than horses 6. Gustave W. Buchen, "Sheboygan County out of a Wilderness," Wisconsin Magazine of Hstory 25, no. 4 (1942): 436. 7. "Ox Teams and Horse Teams," The Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Cultivator 14. no. 1 (1862): 9. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 8. "Making a Poor Farm Rich," The Wisconsin Farmer 18, no. 9 (1866): 319. The "gearing" or harnessing of draft animals is no small consideration. Although less efficient in transferring an Dirk Hildebrandt has been working and animal's strength, ox yokes are well suited to bovine physiology. An ox yoke is more compact training oxen for over twenty years. A past often lighter, and much simpler than horse harness, making it easier to put on and take off 9. J. D. B. DeBow, The Seventh Census of the United States: 1850 (Robert Armstrong Public president of the Midwest Ox Drovers Asso­ Printer, 1853), 930. ciation, he has used oxen and horses for 10. Oak openings was a term used in the nineteenth century to describe what today is often logging, farming, and historical reenact- called oak savanna. Both terms describe lightly forested land where various species of oak predominate. This unique landscape is maintained by frequent grass fires and once covered ment. He currently holds the position of much of west-central and southwestern Wisconsin. Historic Farmer at Old World Wisconsin, 11. Orin Grant Libby, "Significance of the Lead and Shot Trade in Early Wisconsin History," Collections of the State Hstorical Society of Wisconsin 13 (1895): 314. where he oversees agricultural program­ 12. Ibid., 325. ming. Although he will always side with the cattle in any debate 13. Richard N. Current, The History of Wisconsin v.2, The Civil War Era, 1848-1873 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976), 28. over the use of draft animals, he is nevertheless willing to con­ 14. The History of Dodge County Wisconsin (Chicago, Western Historical Society, 1880), cede that a tractor definitely has its advantages. He prefers, how­ 517. ever, to walk beside his oxen, goad in hand. 15. Ibid., 322. 16. Oswald Ragatz, "Documents: Memoirs of a Sauk Swiss," trans, and ed. Lowell Joseph Ragatz, Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 19, no. 2 (1935): 212; Oswald Ragatz, "Documents:

26 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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Memoirs of a Sauk Swiss," trans, and ed. Lowell Joseph Ragatz, Wisconsin Magazine of 34. The History of Dodge County, Wisconsin (Chicago, Western Historical Society, 1880), Hstory 19, no. 2 (1935): 212. 321. 17. "Our Plank Road Works to a Charm," Wisconsin and Iowa Farmer, and North-Western 35. Ibid., 323. Cultivator?,, no. 3 (1851): 69. 36. Ibid., 412. 18. "Documents: Christian Traugott Ficker's Advice to Emigrants (II)," Wisconsin Magazine 37. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850, Schedule 4-Productions of Agriculture in of History 25, no. 3 (1942): 352. Town Herman Division 42 in the County of Dodge State of Wisconsin during the Year 19. The Wisconsin and Iowa Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator 4, no. 6 (1852): 128. EncUngJune 1, 1850. 20. David F. Sayre, "Early Life in Southern Wisconsin," Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 3, 38. Ibid. no. 4 (1920): 422. 39. Eighth Census of the United States, 1860, Schedule 4-Productions of Agriculture in Town 21. Oswald Ragatz, "Documents: Memoirs of a Sauk Swiss," trans, and ed. Lowell Joseph of Herman in the County of Dodge in the Post Office Mayville, 25—39. Ragatz, Wisconsin Magazine ofHstory 19, no. 2 (1935): 214. 40. Ibid. 22. "The Society and the State," Wisconsin Magazine of History 29, no. 2 (1945): 254. 41. "Working Cattle vs. Horses," The Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Cultivator 12, 23. Joseph Schafer, A Hstory of Agriculture in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society no. 12 (1860): 308. of Wisconsin, 1922), 86-87. 42. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870, Schedule 3-Productions of Agriculture in 24. The Wisconsin and Iowa Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator 6, no. 6 (1854). Herman, in the County of Dodge, in the State of'Wisconsin, 1—12. 25. "Documents: Christian Traugott Ficker's Advice to Emigrants (II)," Wisconsin Magazine 43. Eric E. Lampard, "The Rise of the Dairy Industry in Wisconsin: A Study in Agricultural of History 25, no. 3 (1942): 337. Change, 1820-1920 (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1963), 157. 26. The groundhog thresher was an early mechanized threshing machine that replaced hand­ 44. Ibid., 90. held flails. Invented in Europe in the eighteenth century, it consisted of a spiked cylinder 45. The federal census schedules of 1890 were damaged by fire in 1896 and 1921 and were mounted in a wooden frame. Run by a hand crank or by animal power, the grain heads were subsequently destroyed in the early 1930s. fed past the spinning cylinder that separated the kernels from the plant. Although the grain 46. Joseph Schafer, A Hstory of Agriculture in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society still needed to be cleaned of chaff and straw, the groundhog thresher sped up the process of ofWisconsm, 1922), 132. threshing and began the mechanization of grain processing that still continues today. 47. William G. Rector, "The Birth of the Saint Croix Octopus," Wisconsin Magazine of 27. Graeme Quick and Wesley F. Buchele, The Grain Harvesters (Saint Joseph: American Hstory 40, no. 3 (1957): 176. Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1978), 6. 48. Oluf Erickson, "Olaf Erickson: Scandinavian Frontiersman (III)," Wisconsin Magazine of 28. Ibid, 32. Hstory 31, no. 3 (1948): 330. Ibid, 33. 49. Edmund C. Espeseth, "Early Vilas County—Cradle of an Industry," Wisconsin Magazine "Statistical Facts in Agriculture," The Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator 8, ofHstory 37, no. 1 (1953): 31. 7 (1856): 296. 50. Joseph Schafer, A History of Agriculture in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society 31 "Suggestions for June," The Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator 8, no. 6 ofWisconsin, 1922), 133. (1856): 241. 51. W. A. Henry, Northern Wisconsin A Hand-Book for the Homesteader (Madison: Demo­ 32. "Theory in Farming," The Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator i 2 crat Printing Company, State Printer, 1896), 1. (1857): 49. 52. Ibid., 6. 33. "Steam Plowing," The Wisconsin Farmer and Northwestern Cultivator 9, no. 8 (1857) 53. Ibid., 153. 289.

AUTUMN 2015 27 Father Louis Nicolas and the Natural History of Wisconsin

BY MICHAEL EDMONDS

Wisconsin residents appreciate their environmentalist heri­ tage. They proudly trace it back from Gaylord Nelson's Earth Day through Aldo Leopold's sand county to John Muir's boyhood and youth. Some even celebrate Increase Lapham, who warned in 1867 about the disastrous effects of destroying the northern forests. But few people know that a seventeenth-century priest stationed on Lake Superior created the first book on our plants and wildlife. He penned almost 200 pages and drew 180 sketches describing more than 350 plants and animals. It's not only the first book about North America's flora and fauna—it also shows how strangely our ancestors thought about nature.1

Father Louis Nicolas, 1634 to ca. 1701 The book's author, Father Louis Nicolas, was born in 1634 in the south of France and began training as a missionary at age twenty with the Society ofJesu s Jesuits). His teachers consid­ ered him "better suited for manual work and service than for

(Top) Rattlesnake, which is found in the country of Manitounie (Bottom) Chausarou or armed fish (Lower left box) Map of the new discovery that the missionaries made in the year 1673 beyond the lake of the Illinois. These new lands are called Manitounie. ALL IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COURTESY OF THE GILCREASE MUSEUM, TULSA, OKLAHOMA. RARE BOOK COLLECTION. CODEXCANDENSIS, LOUIS NICHOLAS. REGISTRATION 4726.7. GILCREASE MUSEUM ARCHIVES.

WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY intellectual activities," but after a decade of study and repeated requests, they allowed him to go to New France in May 1664. He spent two years learning American Indian languages in Quebec (where his teachers found him "proficient at letters, weak in theology") before setting off in August 1667 for Mission Saint Esprit, on Lake Superior's Ghequamegon Bay with Father Claude Allouez.2 Allouez had established this mission in 1665 near the modern Bad River Reservation because hundreds of families from the Ottawa, Huron, Illinois, Ojibwe, and other nations had taken refuge there from Iroquois attacks. Allouez wrote that they "cultivate fields of Indian corn and lead a settled life. They number eight hundred men bearing arms, but are gathered together from seven different nations, living in peace, mingled one with another."3 After settling Nicolas on the shore of Lake Superior with his Indian hosts, Allouez immediately departed for Green Bay and left his assistant to make converts all by himself. But Nicolas was more interested in worldly matters than spiritual ones. He spent much of his time traveling around the western Great Lakes, sometimes for days at a time, to study wildlife and urge hunters to kill beaver for the French. Nicolas reportedly had "rough manners and behaviors" and probably fit right in with the unlettered voyageurs and fur traders.4 Nicolas was also pompous and arrogant. Allouez complained about "his lack of foresight in business, and his frequent and sudden movements of wrath." He behaved like a petty tyrant at Ghequamegon Bay, trying to rule over local tribes rather than serve them. In 1669, an outraged Ottawa chief protested to the French governor that Nicolas had "carried these excesses so far as to beat himself, a chief of the nation, with a stick."5 So Jesuit authorities called him back to Quebec in June 1 Miner 1668, reprimanded him, and sent him in 1670 to preach to the 2 Ounonnata, which grows roots like truffles Mohawk in upstate New York. Again he spent much of his time 3 Three-colour herb wandering through the woods instead of making converts and 4 Nolie me tangere (touch-me-not) was ordered back to Quebec, where his superiors could keep an 5 Lymphata eye on him. In the spring of 1673 they gave him one last chance, 6 Wild garlic in a remote outpost at the mouth of the Saint Lawrence, but 7 Cotonaria, which bears honey, cotton, hemp, a beautiful flower and Nicolas disappointed them again, and in the summer of 1674 asparagus they finally shipped him back to France.6 8White hellebore

The Histoire Naturelle des Indes peoples with whom he'd lived. There were in total twenty- While detained at Quebec from 1671 to 1673, Nicolas began four sections in three volumes. When he returned to France in compiling a dictionary of Algonquian languages to be used 1674, he brought his notes for these books and began to revise by other missionaries. In its introduction, he mentioned that them. In the summer of 1676, he submitted a book proposal he intended to follow it with two other books, one on North and an unspecified manuscript to church authorities.' America's plants and animals and one about the indigenous Before a book could be published in France, Catholic offi­ cials had to certify that it contained no heresies and govern­ OPPOSITE ment censors had to approve it. Nicolas's manuscript on plants (Left) Fishing by the Passinassiouek. I describe this fishing elsewhere; and animals shows marks that may have been made by the it is one of the marvellous things concerning fishing. censors, and in one place he says that he's revised his text to (Bottom) Instruments for fishing please certain readers.

AUTUMN 2015 31

WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

But the authorities were not pleased. They may have objected to his praise of native peoples, who were in their eyes nothing more than ignorant heathens waiting to be saved. Or they may have been prejudiced against him because of his previous infractions. Whatever the reason, Jesuit authorities refused to approve Nicolas's proposed works on North America. He protested their deci­ sion in a letter on November 10, 1677, which prompted them to discuss his work for several months in letters among themselves. Finally after a year of controversy, Nicolas and the Society of Jesus parted company at the end of 1678. Whether he resigned from the order or was expelled is unclear, but the separation was probably welcomed by both parties.8 Nicolas resumed his attempt to describe and illustrate all the plants, wildlife, and native peoples that he had encountered between Lake Superior and the Atlantic. He was the first author to try. The Spanish had described Central American flora and fauna, and English writers had cataloged the natural history of the Caribbean and of Massachu­ setts Bay9 But no one before Nicolas had tried to thoroughly describe the animals and plants living across the northern regions of the continent. Three-quarters of the species he discussed or pictured were native to Wisconsin.10 "My God, how I regret embarking on an enterprise as difficult as this one," he wrote about 1684. "What likelihood is there that, even after 20 years of assiduous work and repeated great travels, I can say all that is necessary about so many fine curiosities of a foreign country, where everything is different from ours?" He had charged himself with "treating in general and in particular: Simples Elk or caribou; alces, according to the Latins [medicinal plants], flowers, grains, herbs, 1,2 Female elk with her three young from the same litter fruits, bushes, trees, four-footed animals living on land and in water, birds that live on land and those that figures." He spent the rest of his life working on the project and live above or in water; and finally fresh-water fish, and some died without finishing it.11 saltwater ones; various insects, and several reptiles, with their Unlike modern biologists, Nicolas wasn't interested in nature for its own sake. He focused instead on how plants OPPOSITE and animals were valuable to humans. He wrote in great The whistler detail about herbal remedies, for example, but simply listed 1 The manitou 2 (Left and right) Common hares the names of plants with no practical value to him. In his 3 Large hare, as big as a milk calf discussion of "the vast and almost endless forests" where "one 4 Porcupine or kak sees only the earth and the sky through the leaves, and tree 5 The stinking animal because it smells very bad branches so thick that one ordinarily can see only for five steps

AUTUMN 2015 33 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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Beautiful pigeon of the foreign countries like the one that Noah sent from the Ark to see whether the waters of the Flood had abated, and which returned carrying Coucowo an olive branch in its beak. A«-nuif-3

A' m M X«n ahead," he explained maple sugaring and the use of white pine in framing ships but said almost nothing about trees that had no similar uses.12 Nicolas treated animals the same way, giving several pages each to how his tribal hosts made use of bears and moose. He noted that under pressure from French traders, their hunters killed every fur- bearing animal they could find, but that among (Largest figure) Coucoucouou, which can be heard three or four leagues away in the themselves, "it would be a crime to kill more forest or on river banks animals than is necessary." He had little to say 1 The heron about animals with no economic value, including 2The crane Wisconsin's favorite, the badger: "It is twice as large as the fox; its nose is not so sharp. Its hair is quite different— For example, in his article on bald eagles he noted, "Some French coarse, long, ash-colored, marked on the flanks by two fairly people make fine candlesticks of the leg, the foot and the talons. It large white stripes. It is carnivorous; its flesh is coarse."13 is amazing how fine and useful these candlesticks are when they Although his book focused on practical applications, are elegantly decorated with silver or some other metal, on which Nicolas himself was fascinated by all animals. He tamed two one places little candles of white wax. Many people have them as bear cubs at the priests' residence in Quebec and taught them a curiosity in their chapels or their oratories."15 to perform tricks. He also trained a pair of chipmunks, brought OPPOSITE them back to France, and exhibited them at court, where Louis Unicorn of the Red Sea, where some are seen. Some have been taken 14 XIV knighted them in jest. to Medina and to Mecca, where the caravans going there have seen With birds, as with plants and mammals, Nicolas emphasized some. practical uses, some of which sound bizarre to our modern ears. (Center) Tiger

34 wisconsinhistory.org

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Besides describing conspicuous birds like the eagle, Nicolas also discussed nearly thirty songbirds that most other writers overlooked. The smallest was the ruby-throated hummingbird, "the rarest, most beautiful and most wonderful of all those seen in the New World." When Europeans first discovered it, he wrote, "These birds were precious. Ladies of the court wore them instead of earrings; but the fashion has passed, and collec­ tors are content to have them in their studies."16 Like everyone else, Nicolas was astonished at the number of passenger pigeons and how easy it was to kill them. In spring and fall, "for fifteen or twenty days one sees flocks pass which cover the sky all this time over a space more than three or four leagues long." They migrated in numbers "so great that people kill as many as they like with clubs in the streets of Mont Royal [Montreal]; . . . seven to eight hundred of them [can be] taken by two or three persons, who stretch out a little net across a valley"1' Between 1678 and 1689, roughly, Nicolas described 335 North American plant and animals this way in a large note­ book filling 196 pages. Though he intended to include sections on indigenous peoples, no such manuscript has survived. He could be exuberant and fanciful at times, but his descriptions of wildlife and plants were also accurate enough for biologists to assign modern scientific names to most of them.18

The Codex Canadensis Throughout the Histoire Naturelle Nicolas referred to sketches he drew in a companion volume. The Codex Canadensis, as OyOA this second notebook came to be called, contains seventy-nine iwt- cyl~vtlM— large-format pages with pen-and-ink drawings. Most pages w depict several species, bringing the total number of images to Sea horse that is seen in the meadows along the Chisedek River, 180. It opens with eleven full-page illustrations of American which flows into the St. Lawrence River Indian elders and warriors, three color plates showing how 1 Mountain rat as large as a spaniel the Ojibwe at Sault Sainte Marie harvested whitefish, and five pages with sketches of their homes, clothing, and tools. The of Marquette andjoliet down the Mississippi River in 1673. rest of the album is devoted largely to illustrations of plants Apart from calling the Mississippi Valley "Manitounie" ("Holy and animals described in the Histoire Naturelle—four pages of Country" or "Country of Spirits"), his map adds nothing to plants, sixteen of animals (including mythical beasts), fourteen the version first printed in 1681. The map inside the back of birds, and ten of fishes. The Codex ends with thirteen pages cover shows the extent of his travels "more than 900 leagues of sketches of French settlers and ships and illustrations of birds inland." It is wildly inaccurate and, since better maps were and animals from other lands. already available, it may have been intended more for decora­ The front and back endpapers contain hand-drawn maps tive purposes than for reference.19 spreading across two facing pages. The first shows the route Nicolas probably drew plants, animals and Indian life from memory or rough sketches he'd made in America, but some­ OPPOSITE times he copied well-known models. For example, his image of Sea monster killed by the French on the Richelieu River in New France the pelican shows it in exactly the same posture as a popular 1,2 Firefly, which is seen by the thousands on the evening of a fine drawing by Conrad Gesner (though Nicolas inserted a fish in day on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River in America 3 Very poisonous tailed frog, found on the banks of the Saint its beak). His figures of Native Americans often mirrored those 20 Lawrence. of his contemporary, Francois Du Creux. 4 Big green frog found on the shores of the Saint Lawrence River. As an artist, Nicolas was certainly no Rembrandt or When it croaks at night in calm weather, it can be heard from a Audubon. But his sketches have a naive energy that still pleases distance of two leagues. the eye. Many of his animals, such as the quizzical owls and

AUTUMN 2015 37 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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Nicolas as Naturalist The Codex Canadensis is not a field guide, Small, very poisonous snake that kills immediately those that it bites. however, and the Histoire Naturelle is certainly 1 Large rattlesnake, which is three fathoms long. If it bites someone, within twenty- not a biology text. Nicolas was educated before four hours the person becomes very swollen. If one knows the secret to avoid the the methodology of modern science (system­ venom—one simply buries the injured part of the body for twenty-four hours—one atic observation, logical analysis, hypothesizing, does not feel any pain. Otherwise one is sure to die. testing, and concluding) was widely accepted. 2 Picture of the eel. In the French colony, more than fifty thousand barrels of them are caught in three months every year. The Scientific Revolution was underway, but he could see it only dimly, through the fog of his intellectual see coincidence. Father Paul Lejeune, superior of the Jesuits inheritance. Our concept of the environment was literally in Quebec, told one Native American shaman, "The devil unthinkable to him. meddles with your imaginations in the night" and wrote home Nicolas's teachers in Quebec knew that God and Satan that, "There is no doubt that the Demons sometimes mani­ were locked in an eternal combat manifesting itself in the fest themselves."21 Missionaries like Nicolas lived, according physical world. They knew that the American wilderness was to historian Dominque Deslandres, "in an atmosphere of enchanted, and they saw the supernatural where we would wonders. ... In New France, every mark of good fortune was

38 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY attributed to divine intervention," and every setback was cred­ them shows the limits of his science. He appealed to empirical ited to Satan's scheming.22 evidence ("I heard this from his own mouth") and cited "those In most secular matters, the Jesuits accepted the authority who had seen this terrible incident," but he didn't analyze of classical authors whose works had been rediscovered during their claims logically or test them the way a modern scientist the previous century. Their understanding of nature came would. Although he insisted on confirming some facts with his from Aristotle and Pliny, whose two-thousand-year-old teach­ own eyes, Nicolas often accepted whatever he was told—by his ings they consumed through the filter of medieval philoso­ Jesuit teachers, by Aristotle, or by mischievous voyageurs. phers and Renaissance editors. This smorgasbord of ideas mingled in their minds with their Christian faith, enabling Almost Lost to History Nicolas to reject the religion of his Indian hosts ("all these silly Nicolas worked most of his adult life on the Histoire Naturelle ideas of these blind people") while at the same time believing and Codex Canadensis. From 1664 to 1675, he explored the in mermaids and unicorns.23 By the time Nicolas wrote, this worldview had started to crumble as Jesuit missionaries <#?,•,*, &4W^peJ~v£t? LQ-nXjUL* reported from exotic lands about birds that didn't fly, fish that soared out of the sea, and other oddities not explained by Aristotle or the Bible. Between 1620 and 1690, they produced more than eight hundred works on geography, zoology, botany, astronomy, anthropology, linguistics, and mathematics. Their center at Quebec even had a telescope. This flow of new information was hard to reconcile with Catholic dogma and ancient Greek and Roman teachings. Nicolas was firmly caught in this dilemma. He was a faithful Catholic, of course, and also retained his deference toward classical authori­ ties. He even chided some of his contemporaries for "doubting that unicorns exist, since there are so many excellent, well-informed writers who assure us that they do," and pictured one in the Codex. But at the same time, he tried to embrace the new scientific method and denounced armchair naturalists. "We cannot know or even understand," he wrote, "other than by looking at [natural phenomena] and examining them closely in the course of several repeated journeys. ... I have made a careful study and I took great pleasure in observing everything."24 Nicolas's predicament was revealed in his article on the golden eagle, where he repeats a motif popularized in Greek literature. "I know a Canadian Frenchman named Joliet," he wrote, "who between the age of six and seven was carried more than a hundred feet by an eagle that would have devoured him if he had not been rescued. I heard this from his own mouth and from those who had seen this terrible incident."25 But golden eagles can't actually lift more than Micipichik, or the god of the waters according the Americans fifteen pounds. Irreverent fur-traders were prob­ 1 Michinenh, small turtle ably pulling the leg of the priest known for his 2 Michinak, large turtle of the island of Saint Helena, which is so large that the roof pomposity and arrogance. That Nicolas believed of a large coach can be made from it

AUTUMN 2015 39 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

to the royal family and may even have intended to present a final, perfected copy to the king. But ap a CJL onpc rD rod yn«y- neither of his manuscripts ever appeared in the catalog of the royal library, and experts suspect that the royal binding on the Codex, stamped with the arms of Louis XIV, was actually fabri­ cated during the twentieth century2' The Histoire Naturelle was lost for much of its life. Nicolas may have given it to Pierre de Meridat, a counselor to King Louis XIV whose ownership marks appear on it. Meridat died in 1689, and the manuscript only resurfaced in the Bibliotheque Nationale after the Revolution of 1789. The Codex Canadensis disappeared for 250 years until it suddenly showed up in 1930 in the shop of a Paris book dealer. After passing briefly through several private owners, in 1949 it was bought by American collector Thomas Gilcrease and is now preserved in the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma.28 The fate of Father Louis Nicolas himself is shrouded in even more mystery than his manu­ scripts. After leaving the Jesuit order in 1678, he must have had patronage of some sort to support his literary and artistic work, but no details about his life are known. His text mentions several specific locations in Paris and the south of France, and he may have moved between the two. Captions prove that he was revising the Codex as late as the year 1700, after which liter­ ally nothing is known about him. Even the date of his death and his final resting place are unre­ corded. Luckily we can still hear his voice and see his vision of wild America in his books. )tifi

Notes 1. Francois-Marc Gagnon, ed., The Codex Canadensis and the Writings of Louis Nicolas (Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Montreal: Gilcrease Museum and Pa pace, or grey partridge. This partridge is remarkable because of the noise that McGill-Queens University Press, 2011). 2. Gagnon, 10—12; Germaine Warkentin, "Aristotle in New France: Louis it makes beating its wings on a rotten tree in the woods. It can be heard almost a Nicolas and the Making of the Codex Canadensis," French Colonial league away. Hstory 11(2010): 77. 3. Private communication from archaeologist Robert Birmingham: Claude Allouez, 'Journal of Father Claude Allouez's Voyage into the forests and streams of North America jotting notes, making Outaouac Country," in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Docu­ ments, 1610-1791 (Cleveland: Burrows Bros. Co., 1896-1901), vol. 50, 271, 295; Guy sketches, and assembling drafts. From 1676 into the 1680s, he Tremblay, Louis Nicolas, Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre; les Divers Modes de Transport des Indiens "corrected all my papers many times word by word."26 For Americains (unpublished MA thesis, Univ. of Montreal, July 1983), 10. 4. Gagnon, 13, 19; Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Collections of the State Hstorical Society of another decade he perfected and captioned his drawings. Wisconsin, vol. xiii (Madison: Democrat Printing Company, 1895): 404-405; Tremblay, 13. Then, instead of reaching a wide popular audience like other 5. Gagnon, 19-20; Warkentin, 81. 6. Warkentin,81-82; Gagnon, 18-26; Tremblay, 24-32. contemporary books on America, his lifework vanished. 7. Tremblay, 25, 33. 8. Tremblay, 37; Warkentin, 90. After the Jesuits refused to print his book in 1678, Nicolas 9. The earlier works were: Francisco Hernandez, Plantas y Animales de la Nueva Espana, y probably set out to create a single manuscript copy to be sus virtudes por Francisco Hernandez, y de Latin en Romance por Fr Francisco Ximenez 'Mexico, 1615; Latin editions published 1628, 1648); Hstoire Naturelle des Indes: The Drake lavishly bound and presented to a patron. This was a common Manuscript in The Pierpont Morgan Library (New York: W.W. Norton, 1996); and John practice at the time, the uniqueness of the volume adding value Josselyn, New-England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes, Serpents, and Plants of That Country. . . (London: G. Widdowes, 1672; reprinted Boston: William Veazie, 1865). to the gift. Like other well-traveled Jesuits, Nicolas had access 10. Gagnon, 265; Warkentin, 90. Statistically, 253 of Nicolas's 335 identifiable plants and

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NicoIas7s Manuscripts The manuscript of the Histoire Naturelle des Indes Occidentales consists of 196 closely written pages measuring about thirteen by eight inches. Nicolas folded large sheets of blank paper and sewed them into note­ books. He filled these with text in longhand, which he later edited and revised. The manuscript discusses 335 animals and plants, three-quarters of them from Wisconsin. Because it bears the ownership mark of a collector who died in 1689, it presumably dates from the 1680s. Today it is in the Bibliotheque Nationale (BNFr24225); a digital facsimile is at http://gallica.bnf.fr/ ark:/12148/btvlb9063606f/f5.image. Nicolas made another notebook of seventy-nine large pages for his drawings. It was given the title Codex Canadensis in 1930. Because most pages depict several subjects, the album contains a total of 180 images. Besides plants and animals, it includes two large maps, portraits of American Indian warriors or elders, and a few other sketches unrelated to the Histoire Naturelle. Nicolas's captions show that he was working on it as late as the year 1700. The Codex vanished after his death, only to resurface in the twentieth century. Today it is in the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma (GM 4726.7.19); a full-color digital facsimile is online at http://www. collectionscanada.gc.ca/codex/026014-1100-e.html. In 2011, Nicolas's two manuscripts were reunited and published in a single large volume containing the French text, an English translation, extensive footnotes, color facsimiles of all Nicolas's artwork, and a scholarly Large ox of New Denmark in America introduction. The Codex Canadensis and the Writ­ animals are from Wisconsin: 56 of 63 birds, 18 of 27 fish, 28 of 39 mammals, 128 of 185 plants, ings of Louis Nicolas, edited by Francois-Marc Gagnon and 15 of 17 insects and other animals. (Tulsa, Oklahoma and Montreal: Gilcrease Museum and 11. Gagnon, 265. This summary is the subtitle Nicolas gave to his manuscript. 12. Gagnon, 292-295. McGill-Queens University Press, 2011) can be borrowed 13. Gagnon, 315, 319-325, 329-339. 14. Gagnon, 304-305, 321. from the Wisconsin Historical Society's library. 15. Gagnon, 364. 16. Gagnon, 349. 17. Gagnon, 356. 18. The manuscript bears the ownership mark of a collector who died in 1689, so must have reached its present form by then; Warkentin, 99. 19. The first map of Marquette andjoliet's 1673 voyage appeared while Nicolas was working on his manuscripts: "Carte de la decouverte faite fan 1673 dans lAmerique septentrionale" in ABOUT THE AUTHOR Recueil de voyages de Mr. Thevenot. . . (Paris, 1681). 20. Conrad Gesner, Icones Avium Omnium, quae in Historia Avium Conradi Gesneri Michael Edmonds is Deputy Director of Descrihuntur . . . (Zurich, 1555); Francois Du Creux, Hstoriae Canadensis, sev Novae-Fran- the Society's Library-Archives division. He ciae Lihri Decern . . . (Paris, 1664); Gagnon, 15—17, 63—65. is the author ofOutoftheNorthwoods: The 21. ThwaiteSiJesuit Relations, vol. 12: 15 and vol. 11:251. 22. Dominique Deslandres, "Exemplo Aeque ut Verbo: The French Jesuits Missionary Many Lives of Paul Bunyan and the editor World," in John W. O'Malley, The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773 of Risking Everything: A Freedom Summer 'Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999): 261. 23. Gagnon, 354-355. Reader and Tools for Teaching the History 24. Gagnon, 301-303, 329. of Civil Rights in Milwaukee and the Nation. 25. Gagnon, 363—366. There were only four Joliets in Canada at the time, the famous WMMmm |_| | t|y at work on a social history explorer Louis Joliet and his three brothers. Dictionnaire Genealogique des Families du e s curren Quebec (Montreal: Presses de l'Universite de Montreal, 1983), 603. of people and birds in the Midwest, from which this article is 26. Tremblay, 25. 27. Gagnon, 3-4, 28; Warkentin, 90, 99. adapted. 28. Warkentin, 99; Gagnon, 3.

AUTUMN 2015 41 ©connecting Pilotjrnotograpn' y TO THE DRAPER MANUSCRIPTS

BY SIMONE MUNSON

Tintype portrait of Lyman Draper "^ his September we celebrate the two-hundredth birthday T of Lyman G. Draper, the Wisconsin Historical Society's legendary corresponding secretary and collector. Throughout his life, Draper's deep interest in the history of western expan­ sion, the American Revolution, and the settlement of trans-Appalachian America guided his efforts to collect the stories of the people who settled ^C ^ /^—*-£**- £^ a^f^ this region and took part in the events that became the foundation for our county. As a young man Draper was w <^-*L » converted to the Baptist faith, and it «-o was through this faith that he defined <="W his personal life mission to preserve Ofc^ the stories of the previous genera­ ^^t^k^ tions. Draper was interested in the history of the people of the United A^Z) States. The events and places and outcomes mattered, but his real interest was in the forgotten people who made those events happen. In his own words, he expressed his beliefs that "very much precious historical incident must still be treasured up in the memory of aged Western Pioneers, which would perish with them if not quickly rescued."1 Throughout his lifetime, Draper traveled ^<£<2*=>z<_ the region of Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and surrounding areas meeting with aging pioneers and their families, collecting stories and documents, and writing about the people he met. The result of his work is a collection of nearly five hundred volumes of records, dating from 1740 to 1830, which have been grouped into fifty series based on Draper's primary research interests and geographic areas.

(Right) Quarter-length daguerreotype of Josiah Ficklin with hand coloring on the cheeks. Ficklin was from Lexington, Kentucky.and one of the defenders of Bryan's Station when it was attacked by Indians in 1782, just before the battle of Blue Licks. (Above) Copy of a published extract from Schoolcraft's "Indian Tribes of the U.S.," created by Joseph Ficklin. Ficklin and Draper had an ongoing correspondence in which Ficklin created many copies of original documents and assisted in Draper's research. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

In my work as a Reference Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society, my primary connec­ tion to the Draper Manuscripts is to guide researchers through the process of locating documents within the collection and providing access to the letters and manuscripts they need. At first glance, the volume of the manuscripts is mammoth, they can be diffi­ cult to navigate, and many find Draper's hand­ writing very difficult to read. It wasn't until I had spent years working in the collection that I noticed a significant omission. There were almost no photo­ graphs included with the manuscripts. As I helped researchers find the documents they needed, they would eventually ask about the photos that origi­ nally accompanied the manuscripts. To provide the answer required a search of the Society's archival holdings beyond what we traditionally thought of as the Draper Manuscripts. Our Visual Materials hold­ ings, which include photo-

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(Above) Quarter-length portrait of Rebecca Boone Grant Lamond with hand coloring on the cheeks. Mrs. Lamond was born on June 4,1774, married James Lamond on April 19,1793, and died on December 7,1858. She was the niece of Colonel Daniel Boone. (Left) Letter signed by Mrs. Lamond as a statement of her support and the authenticity of the information provided in Draper's writings on The Life of Colonel Daniel Boone graphs in all formats, are vast, and the results of searches in the collection vary; sometimes we were able to find some images and not others. It was only when I began working with some of the Society's earliest photography collec­ tions that the question occurred to me: what about photos that could have been collected by Draper to accompany his manuscripts? Our photograph and visual materials collection is cared for by archives staff, who have clearly defined criteria regarding the formats they care for in the archives. This was not always the case. For roughly the first one hundred years of the Society's

44 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

1

i

(Right) Daguerreotype portrait of Captain James Ward in front of a painted backdrop. Ward was from Mason County, Kentucky, and a compatriot of General Simon Kenton. (Above) The first page of a biographical sketch for Captain James Ward found in the Draper manuscripts -

AUTUMN 2015 45 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

COMJIUNICA'I ©Miliary. KT WEAKLEY departed this life on the morn- h inst. He was born in Halifax county, Va..„ uly ^d, 1764, and of course had numbered four score years and upwards. "This brief announcement J^has heretofore been made in the newspapers of the day; J)ut when a man reaches his advanced age and has rendered so much public and private service to his country and./ fellow-citizens, a more extended notice is due to his memory. Col. Weakley, when but.a boy in his 16th year, ten­ dered his services, with his elder brother, Thomas, to the1 country, and was in the skirmish or action of AlamaneE and the hard fought battle near Gilford Court-house.— Shortly after, he went to North Carolina, and in the' family of Gen. Rutherford, under his directions, became a practical surveyor. In his 19th year, winter of. '83-4, he came to Tennessee, in this immediate neigh­ borhood, and has resided in this county from that period- Shorfly after he arrived at age he was appointed a Justicei of the Peace, and continued in the commission till shortly before his death, when, by reason of age and in­ firmities, being unable to discharge the duties of the of­ fice, he resigned. During a part, of that time, and while the Quorum Court presided over a Jury, he was a mem­ ber of the Quorum. In '88 he was elected a member of the Convention to which the Federal Constitution was submitted for ratification. At that period he was a. States Rights man; afterwards he called himself a Re­ publican until the late division of parties in Tennessee,, since which period he has acted with the Democratic par­ ty. In '91 he married Jane, daughter of Gen. Matthew Lock, of the county of Roan, and Representative of the: District of Salisbury in Congress. After marriage he.' was frequently a member of the Legislature—usually of; the Senate, and has also represented this District in Con-. gress; and as a happy close of his political course, he was.; elected in this county a member of the Convention which: revised our present Constitution. These important' ap­ pointments, commenced in early manhood and continued : to advanced old age, show that Col. W. had taken strong; hold of the affections of his countrymen; and he de-- served their confidence, for few of our fellow-citizens have rendered more honest or mere able service. During their joint lives lie had a disinterested and an able coun­ sellor in Mrs. W., who was an intelligent and pious lady... Their eldest, daughter, Mrs. Braham, preceded her, leav­ (Above) Daguerreotype of a painting of Colonel RobertWeakley, who served asa ing seven children. Col. W. leaves a son, Robert L.* and tvvs daughters, Mrs. Hickman and Mrs. Blown,, and US Representative from Tennessee. He joined the Continental Army at the age of twenty-one grand-children, and several descendants in • sixteen and served until the close of the Revolutionary War. He was a member of the third degree. By the aid of his chain and cqmpass : and attention to business he has made a large es«i|e, not . the North Carolina convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States compared with the city fortunes, but compared' with * in 1789 and a member of the first state house of representatives in 1796. He was our most intelligent and enterprising men who came? here in the cane-breaks and among the savages. And elected and served as a Democrat-Republican member to the Eleventh Congress indeed he deserved success, for, as he had risked his life for the country, he risked his life in surveying lands for from March 4,1809, to March 3,1811. In 1819, he was appointed US commis­ his children; and was present on Duck river, with a small sioner to treat with the Chickasaw Indians. He then served asa member of the surveying party, when, in the morning at light, the state senate in 1823 and 1824, where he served as president inl 823. He was a Indians approached, and with their deadly file killed hia; | COi-;inanion and friend, the brave Capt. E'd'tvin, Hickman.. member of the state constitutional convention in 1834 and died near Nashville, """ °- "nw?;? relations, Col. W. was honest, saeiaMft Tennessee, on February 4,1845. wJfV^ST » ^r0"s iraW friends and acT""'"** and friendly. Anu„... • •• ..„ i,„„ . , .'"-v--—- (Left) Obituary of Colonel RobertWeakley ancowere in the habit of visum,, ™ whcn,l^y came to Nashville to attend the" Legislature ana iuJ ^ourto, and weie hospitably entertained, and his doors were wide history, photographs were cared for by museum staff. Because of this open to t)ie poor, especially the old Reyolutionany ppl, diers. separation, photographs would have been removed from the collections The Weakley family were of Welsh origin and went to Ireland to enjoy religious freedom. Some time before . of letters and diaries they came with and sent to the museum for storage the Revolution his grand-father came to America, bring­ and access. So when Draper's manuscripts and photographs came to the ing two sons, William and Robert—the father of Col. W. being then about ten years old. William remained in Society, they were separated from each other for administration. Pennsylvania, Robert moved to Virginia and married Jane Stuart. We have been advised they were pious, But as the Society holdings grew, caring for the artifacts, books, and that Robert, Sr., was an Elder in the Presbyterian and documents in the collections became a more complicated endeavor. Church. Col. W. was himself a member of the Methe- dist Church; and though much of his time and attention, The procedure changed after the Society hired its first Visual Mate­ was given to the world, his money was given freely for religious purposes, and his kindness and attention were rials Curator, Paul Vanderbilt, in 1954. Vanderbilt's first task was to bestowed on the ministry, and when his mind woe brought to bear on the subject, exhibited many of the best consolidate and organize existing visual material from the Library and traits of Christian character Museum divisions into a single Iconography section. Vanderbilt came to

46 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

103

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the Society after having worked for the Philadelphia Museum of Art (1929-1941) and the Library of Congress (1946-1954). During his time at the Library of Congress, Vanderbilt was responsible for the organization of the image collections created by the Farm Securities Administration and the Resettlement Administration. During those years, he published a number of influential articles on the organization of visual materials. Vanderbilt's experience and the work he did to organize the UMPgpmffiH Society's Visual Materials collection is still in place today and Daguerreotype portrait of a painting of Bland Ballard (1761-1853). is used regularly by archivists to search and provide access to Ballard was a noted Kentucky pioneer and also served as a scout for photographs in the collection. General George Rogers Clark during his expedition to Ohio in 1780. Part of this organizational system includes a collection of (Above) Handwritten copy of Major Ballard's pension application what are commonly referred to as cased images. These photos made by Draper during his visit to the Pension Office in Washington, get their names from the small wood cases they are stored in. DC. Pension application files are now cared for by the National They range in size and have varying degrees of ornamenta- Archives.

AUTUMN 2015 47 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

tion, depending on how much money the subject was able to pay for the photograph. The cased image collection is made up of approximately four hundred daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes.2 Because some of these early photographic processes are rare \IKHMJJ and extremely fragile, they have been organized and an- are stored together to preserve them and keep them safe. These images represent the oldest photographs in the Society's holdings, and I have always found (7 -iuMnyiuCs them fascinating. In 2012, I began a project to digitize cased images in the collection, especially those images in which the subject was clearly identified. As I slowly worked my way through the collection, I noticed that a large number of the images showed early settlers from the Tennessee and Kentucky area. A number of the images even included small slips of paper written in Draper's distinctive handwriting that identified the subject or added contextual notes. It did not take long for me to redirect the w focus of my project from cataloging and digi­ 4 J^,J'^ tizing all the cased images to a sub-project more focused on the images that may at one point have accompanied the Draper Manuscripts. I waded through volumes of nineteenth-century documents in search of evidence to reconnect these early photographs with the manuscripts Draper collected. It didn't take long and, in total, roughly thirty images have been iden­ tified with ties to documents in the Draper Manuscripts. As further evidence of the connection between the photographs and the documents, five letters written to Draper that reference the donation of photographs or likenesses have been found among his correspondence. In a modern era filled with colorful multimedia, it can be difficult for an individual to feel a connection with the experiences of the past. Side by side, the documents and photographs preserve a human element to the people and events of the past. The reconnection of the images with the manuscripts brings richness and a sense of comple­ tion to the biographies that Draper worked so hard to preserve. In honor of Draper's two-hundredth birthday, an exhibit of reproductions from the photo-

(Left) Daguerreotype of Captain Joseph Dickson, who fought in the Black Hawk War in 1832 (Above) A letter written September 4,1853, and signed by Joseph Dickson, which accompanied his daguerreotype portrait when it was mailed to Draper

48 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

WHI IMAGE ID 109568 Daguerreotype of Colonel William Martin of Tennessee with hand coloring on the cheeks. Martin was an early Tennessee settler who fought in the Indian Wars and the War of 1812. He died near Dixon's Spring,Tennessee, on November 4,1846. (Left) One of many letters shared between >fe^ <*•* ^i-^ Martin and Draper.The two maintained an active correspondence related to their graph and manuscript collections will be displayed shared interest in pioneer history. in the fourth floor hallway of the Society's Headquarters building from August 2015 until February 2016. Unable to make it to Madison? Visit our website to see reproductions of ABOUT THE AUTHOR all the images: http://wihist.org/lSAlKZc kVi Simone Munson is a reference archivist Notes for the Wisconsin Historical Society. She has been affiliated with the Society, in one 1. Letter from Lyman Draper to Lucy Sample, May 16th, 1849. Draper Mss 10J46, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison Wisconsin. way or another, for the last fifteen years, 2. The daguerreotype was the first publically announced, commercial form of photography. and she walks past the portrait of Lyman The process was invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839 and required a silver-plated piece of copper to be polished to a high shine. The plate was then treated with chemicals to make it Draper almost daily. She earned a mas­ light sensitive. After the plate was exposed to an image, it could be developed directly on the ter's degree in history from the University plate using mercury fumes. The image was then set through a chemical process and allowed of New Mexico and a master's degree in to dry. Daguerreotypes are most easily identified by their mirrorlike surface, size, and the cases in which they are kept. Ambrotypes look very similar to daguerreotypes, but they use library and information sciences from the University of Wisconsin- different materials and use a different developing process. Ambrotypes originated in the 1850s Madison. Munson currently resides in Madison with her husband and were developed on glass plates using a silver nitrate solution. The plate was exposed while still wet and then developed and fixed. Tintypes were most widely used between the 1860s and and four children. 1870s. They were developed on thin sheets of metal and were faster and cheaper to produce than previous methods.

AUTUMN 2015 49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY POLKA HEARTLAND WHY THE MIDWEST LOVES TO POLKA

BY RICK MARCH

The following excerpt is from Polka Heartland: Why the Midwest Loves to Polka, written by Rick March with photographs by Dick Blau, which will be published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press in autumn 2015.

'[PJolka is danced and played a lot, but its story is seldom written.

European immigrants arrived in the Midwest with polkas Plenty of evidence suggests the polka originally emerged ringing in their ears. in the 1840s as a dance fad that rapidly spread throughout Polka arose from the same currents of social unrest that Europe before quickly moving to the Americas. Multiple launched thousands of European villagers on a perilous migra­ versions of polka's origin story persist. Each version offers its tion to the American Midwest. Society was changing. People own twist, but key elements remain: In the 1830s, in the area were taking risks. The old village way of life was fading. People of the Habsburg Empire where today the Czech, Polish, and were on the mover And in the upper Midwest all the requi­ German borders converge, a servant girl, who is sometimes sites were lining up for the emergence of new American ethnic Czech and sometimes Polish, demonstrates to her employer, polka traditions. who is sometimes a schoolteacher, a doctor, or some other

50 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY learned person (though in all versions he is a man), a dance their empowered class, her employer, an educated Germanic that she has invented. He observes her, writes down what he male who establishes polka's significance by rendering it into sees, and disseminates it to the world. a fixed written form. The name polka is given to the dance, variously inter­ In truth, no single step from a peasant line dance convinc­ preted as referring to the word for "Polish woman" (polka). ingly can be shown as the true source of polka. There was, or deriving from a Slavic word for "half (pol, or pulka), however, an earlier dance that burst upon the scene in Europe supposedly in reference to half-steps or half-beats in the dance in similar circumstances. The waltz, which came into vogue motions or rhythms.1 in the 1780s, seems to be a more likely model for the polka. In Polka's origin story relies on a wealth of detail to sound its era, the waltz craze shocked conservative sensibilities, just convincing. One source cites Hradec Kralove in Bohemia as as the polka did years later. The waltz was the first couple's the town of origin. Others site dance popularized in Europe4 the Bohemian village Lab ska and stretched the conventional ii'Uisi iirj)'i>irj>crj,AiriM S^NJ&ISA, Tynica, where the servant girl mores of its time. It was nothing Anna Slezakova danced the like the refined dances that first polka at three o'clock on preceded it in elite society, such 2 a Sunday afternoon in 1834. %>• as the quadrille and minuets, However, other authorities claim which, according to a nostalgic the dance was mentioned before account by an anonymous high- 1830 and do their best to debunk society dame in 1853 in Black­ this widespread story3 wood's Magazine, "admitted of With so many opinions, who a slight and tremulous pressure is right? Well, no one, actually. of the hand—nothing more— If our concern is historical between parties ripe for declara­ veracity, these stories all come tion."5 up deficient. Their sources are In the waltz, however, a obscure, usually not cited, and man and a woman danced with often unreliable. Moreover, arms around each other, gliding the basic story seems unlikely. across the floor at a comfortable A single person demonstrates tempo. Such intimate dancing a couple's dance. Then it is was considered outright licen­ "written down." Did this rural tious by some. "No father of a schoolteacher know dance nota­ family . . . can rejoice in seeing tion? And were there enough his daughter's waist spanned people who could read that by the arm of some deboshed notation and become excited dragoon," wrote the same !L enough to begin a dance craze? si'si&iRS. woman in Blackwood's Maga­ Rather than accurate history, "" zine.6 the story sounds like Romantic- But, by the 1840s, the waltz era hype used to promote polka had achieved acceptance in as the popular fad it had become. Romanticism had emerged in society ballrooms. As the waltz lost its shock value, along came Europe in the late eighteenth century, and in typical Romantic- the polka, in which couples whirling in each other's arms now era style, intellectuals of the day were fascinated by all things hopped frenetically to a spritely, rapid tempo. related to the peasantry. High society was outraged by this fast couple's dance. It's Connecting the polka to peasant origins would have no wonder polka was embraced not only by young members of appealed to Romantic-era intellectuals who were infatuated the elite but also by the middle and working classes, too. with the idea of peasant culture but had little knowledge of In a time of social change, commoners relished an oppor­ actual peasants and their ways. The underlying hierarchical tunity to taunt the aristocracy. By dancing the polka, the notions typical of the thinking of Austria's intellectual class non-elites of the 1840s defied the customs and rules set by the are embedded in the polka origin story. The writers who waning aristocracy that still repressed them. Revolutionary spread the legend ascribed polka's origin to the romanti­ tides were swelling throughout Europe, and the polka was a cized peasants, specifically a lowly, illiterate Slavic servant dance to express rebellion, self-validation, and liberty in the girl. Then the dance was culturally elevated by a member of burgeoning industrial society.

AUTUMN 2015 51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Thus, the polka fad that our people have a fashion emerged simultaneously among of imitating all the new follies of the middle and working classes Europe."8 and in elite ballrooms. The best The next week, polka was evidence indicates the fad likely featured in a Broadway show began in Prague in 1835, spread at Niblo's Garden. The show to nearby Vienna in 1839, began with an "Apropos Baga­ and then moved to Paris and telle entitled POLKA-MANIA" London in 1844. Everywhere it a strikingly modern-sounding appeared, the dance was rapidly name. In the course of the piece, embraced.7 two couples danced "La Polka."9 In the 1840s, if the weather The polka was also accepted was good, it took at least ten UltA.S'l' l\H.K ; by the city's poor. An 1846 news days for a message to cross the story noted that every "street Atlantic by ship, from England to North America. The polka urchin" was chanting a song, "Won't you dance the polka?"10 craze must have been considered a stunning development, Between 1850 and 1855, the publishing of polka sheet given how quickly news traveled to the United States. music spread from New York to Baltimore, Philadelphia, Polka hit New York with blinding speed. Onjune 10, 1844, Louisville, Cincinnati, New Orleans, and others. As the fad a New York Daily Tribune writer cited a notice about polka in spread, the controversy over the dance's decency widened. A the latest London Courtjournal and sardonically commented, writer in the Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Chronicle wrote, "The "It is of course known to that portion of our readers who modern imported dances such as the 'Polka' . . . are redolent delight in 'fashionable intelligence' that a new dance has been with the lasciviousness of Paris and Vienna."11 In September introduced [in Europe] called the 'Polka.'... It is odd to think 1853, American newspapers widely reported that Queen Victoria had prohibited polka dancing in her presence. No doubt, the queen's consternation only increased the dance's appeal to rebellious youth. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Although the sheet music for polkas was almost exclu­ Author and folklorist Rick March has par­ sively published as instrumental music without lyrics, their ticipated in the Midwest polka scene for titles were evocative of trendy interests of the time, such as more than three decades as a bandleader, sideman, deejay, and writer. March has a "The Hippodrome Polka," "Electric Polka," and "Barnum's PhD from Indiana University and is a pre­ Baby Show Polka." eminent scholar of Midwest music history As the United States drifted toward civil war, poli­ and culture, with an emphasis on previ­ tics came to be reflected in polka titles. In 1860 a Boston ously little-studied music traditions. He music publisher issued "Rail Splitter's Polka" to support was the longtime radio host of "Down Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign. In 1861 Southern Home Dairyland" on Wisconsin Public Radio and a producer of firms published several polkas dedicated to the Confederate polka CDs for Smithsonian Folkways. As the State Folklorist for cause: "Southern Rights Polka," "Dixie Polka," and "Seces­ Wisconsin from 1983 to 2009 based at the Wisconsin Arts Board, sion Polka," which was dedicated to Confederate President March organized festivals, exhibits, and other educational pro­ Jefferson Davis. grams in partnership with numerous Midwestern arts and cul­ Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the polka was part of tural organizations. mainstream American culture. But the influx of central and Photographer Dick Blau has a BA from Harvard and a PhD from eastern European immigrants began to dilute the polka's Yale. A self-taught photographer, filmmaker, and performer, he unhyphenated "Americanism." The polka began to be asso­ cofounded the highly regarded Department of Film at the Univer­ ciated especially with German immigrants, its earliest ethnic sity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Blau calls his work an ethnography group association. of the feelings. His subjects range from highly personal dramas In the latter half of the nineteenth century, immigration to huge communal events. Blau has authored three books on to the United States mushroomed. Throughout the 1820s, the culture of celebration: Polka Happiness, Skyros Carnival, and 152,000 immigrants came to the United States. By the 1840s Bright Balkan Morning. An exhibit of his polka work was recently that number was 1.72 million, more than 25 percent from shown at the Wisconsin Museum of Art in West Bend. Blau lives Germany. Immigration in the nineteenth century peaked in with writer Jane Gallop in downtown Milwaukee. the 1880s with more than 5.2 million immigrants, of whom 28 percent were German.12

52 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Many German immigrants settled across the Midwest, By the early twentieth century, the polka had evolved—it where they established vibrant communities with German- was no longer a mainstream American fad but rather the music language newspapers, theaters, and choirs. When these of still-unassimilated European newcomers. Over time, these immigrants left Europe, polka was all the rage in their home­ immigrant communities created the many polka traditions that lands. Those who emigrated in the 1850s and '60s found continue across the US heartland today. Ml that polka was entrenched in the United States. But while mainstream enthusiasm for the polka began to fade across Notes the United States by the 1870s, German and other central 1. "Polka," Oxford English Dictionary, www.oed.com. 2. Charles Keil, Angeliki V. Keil, and Dick Blau, Polka Happiness (Philadelphia: Temple European immigrants' devotion to polka remained undimin­ University Press, 1992), 10-14. 3. Jake Fuller, "Polka—History of Dance," www.centralhome.com/ballroomcountry/polka. ished. Interestingly, even though it was a recent fad when htm; "The Polka," Independent Lens, PBS, www.pbs.org/independentlens/polkatime/polka. they left Europe and not an ancient tradition, these immi­ html; Maja Trochimczyk, "Polka," Polish Music Center, University of Southern California. www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/dance/polka.html. grants reconceived polka as important to their European 4. Cenek Zibrt, !Jak se kdy v Cechach tancovalo: dejiny tance v Cechach, na Morave, ve heritage. It would be as if a group of Americans migrated to Slezsku a na Slovensku z vekuv nejstarsich az do nove doby se zvlastnim zfetelem k dejinam tance vuvbec,"[How and where dancing was done in the Czech lands: History of dance in a distant country in 1960 when the twist was the latest dance Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia from the oldest ages to the new era with consider­ fad, and then preserved twisting as an important part of their ation of the history of dance in general] Prague, 1895, p. 339—340. 5. The Mouton Bay Courier, October 1, 1853 (from Blackwoods Magazine, Brisbane, American cultural legacy for years to come. Queensland), 4. By the close of the nineteenth century, the ethnic mosaic 6. Ibid. 7. Keil, Keil, and Blau, Polka Happiness, 10—11; Zibrt, 'Jakse kdy v Cechach became ever more varied. Fast on the heels of the Germans tancovalo." 8. "The Best of the Pictorials," New York Daily Tribune, May 2, 1844, p. 3. came the famously polka-loving Czechs, Swiss, Poles, Slovenes, 9. "Music from Atwill's," New York Daily Tribune, June 4, 1844, p. 1. Ukrainians, and Lithuanians. Many chose America's upper 10. New York Daily Tribune, September 22, 1846, p. 1. 11. "Fashionable Dancing," Lewisburg Chronicle, October 22, 1851, p. 1. Midwest as a prime destination. 12. US Bureau of the Census, Hstorical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1975).

Madison 608.257.5321 Milwaukee 414.272.878 findorff.com ______•___•_____

AUTUMN 2015 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL S O C i E T Y Letters

Wisconsin Historical Society Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee I was enjoying the article about Franz Holzlhuber in the recent Board of Curators Robert Smith, Milwaukee John W.Thompson,Madison winter issue of Wisconsin Magazine of History when my jaw Officers Aharon Zorea, Richland Center dropped as I read the illustration caption that claimed the Pres/denf:Conrad G. Goodkind, Martin Stein House was the "sole Euro-American dwelling in Milwaukee Governor's Appointees President-Elect: Brian D. Rude, David G. Anderson, Wausau Milwaukee unit the 1840s." I see that this Holzlhuber painting Coon Valley George Jacobs, Madison of the Stein House is indeed listed on the State Historical Soci­ Treasurer: Walter S. Rugland, Appleton R. William Van Sant, Bayfield ety's website with information that reads, "As late as 1840 this Secretary: Ellsworth H. Brown, Keene Winters, Wausau house was the only one in Milwaukee." However, historical The Ruth and Hartley Barker Director, Fitchburg Legislative Appointees records can attest to the fact that before 1840 there were, Past President: Ellen D. Langill, Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Milwaukee beyond the Native, French-Native, and French dwellings, Waukesha Sen. Mary Lazich, New Berlin many houses, both frame and even brick, built in Milwaukee Rep. Todd Novak, Dodgeville Term Members Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison by "Yankee," Euro-Americans. Should you wish to see the Jon D. Angeli, Lancaster historical records upon which I base my assertion, Fd be Angela B. Bartell,Mddteton Curators Ex-Officio happy to provide them. Sidney H. Bremer, Green Bay Michel Youngman, President, Norbert S.Hill Jr., Oneida Wisconsin Historical Foundation Julia C Ince Gregory B. Huber, Wausau Laura J. Cramer, President, FRIENDS Lecturer, Art History Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha of the Society Department of Art and Design Carol J. McChesney Johnson, Lane R. Earns, Provost &Vice Chancellor UW-Whitewater BlackEarth for Academic Affairs, UW-Oshkosh ChlorisA. Lowe Jr., New Lisbon Roy Ostenso, President, Wisconsin Thomas Maxwell, Marinette Council for Local History Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Jerald J. Phillips, Bayfield Honorary Curators Michael P. Schmudlach, Brooklyn Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska

Wisconsin Historical FOUNDATION

Wisconsin Historical Foundation Officers Thomas J. Mohs, Madison President: Michael L. Youngman, Peter A. Ostlind, Madison Milwaukee Gregory W Poplett, McFarland Vice President: Stephen F. Brenton, Linda E. Prehn, Wausau Verona Theresa H. Richards, Marshfield Treasurer: Catherine C. Orton, Wlliam S. Schoyer, Elm Grove .«©IdostHouse inMikvaulk Mauston Derek L Tyus, Milwaukee Secretary: Loren J. Anderson, Elkhom Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfleld Gregory M. Wesley, Milwaukee From the author, John Nondorf: Board of Directors Cathi Wiebrecht-Searer, Madison Christopher S. Berry, Middleton David A. Zweifel, Monona Fhank you for contacting us regarding the Martin Stein house Renee S. Boldt,/App/efon illustration caption. The information for the image record in Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon Directors Ex-Officio our online gallery and for the caption came from a transla­ Dennis R. Dorn, Portage Conrad G. Goodkind, Whitefish Bay, John R. Evans, Verona President, Wisconsin Historical tion of Holzlhuber's handwritten description of the painting. Patrick P. Fee, Wauwatosa Society Board of Curators It's possible the passage was mistranslated or that Holzlhuber C. Frederick Geilfuss, W.Milwaukee Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, President- himself had the information wrong. After receiving your letter Chris Her-Xiong, Milwaukee Elect, Wisconsin Historical Society I found documentation in A History of Milwaukee, City and Jennifer Hill-Kelley, Green Bay Board of Curators County, Volume 3, that states Stein's home was the first "on Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation the east side" in 1837.1 do not know what constituted the east Board of Directors side at that time—Juneau town? I also discovered Stein's name President: Bruce T. Block, Milwaukee was Matthias, not Martin as the translator of Holzlhuber's Vice President and Treasurer: David G. Stoeffel, Whitefish Bay Secretary: Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg journal deciphered it.

54 wisconsinhistory.org THANK YOU!

It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes the following individuals and organizations who contributed $10,000 or more between July 1,2014, and June 30,2015. Anonymous Caxambas Foundation Pleasant and Jerry Frautschi Robert and Patricia Kern Kohler Trust for Preservation Ruth DeYoung Kohler Navistar Old World Wisconsin Foundation Estate of John A. Peters Gordon V. and Helen C. Smith Foundation State of Wisconsin

Loren J. Anderson and Terri Weiland Bader PhilanthropiesTsabel & Alfred Bader Fund Ruth and Hartley Barker Advised Fund through Incourage Community Foundation Christopher and Mary Pat Berry Tom and Renee Boldt Mary and Stephen Brenton John Busby The Edwin E. & Janet L. Bryant Foundation Carole A. Brandt Living Trust Culver's Demmer Charitable Trust Robert C.Dohmen The Evjue Foundation, Inc. the charitable arm of The Capital Times FRIENDS of the Wisconsin Historical Society Greater Milwaukee Foundation's Robert J. Stark and Fredric A. Thompson 0h %gk.A «4*J*^<£&LU6 ,c; iMj&UtJ&Zy/gifP* Fund, Black Point Historic Preserve Operation and Maintenance Funds, Black Point Horticultural Fund, and Caroline Draves Fund Conrad and Sandra Goodkind The Alan G. Hembel Family From our reader, Ms. Ince: Highlights Media, LLC The Society webpage with the twentieth-century map I Mrs. Peter D. Humleker, Jr. mentioned entitled, "A Map and Illustration of Milwaukee Jeffris Family Foundation Ltd. Claire and Marjorie Johnson Showing the Settlement in 1835," by Mel Kishner. The Ralph and Virginia Kurtzman Fund for National History Day in Wisconsin Robert A. and Dorothy Luening Tom and Nancy Mohs The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America John and Catherine Orton Plenco Racine Community Foundation's Helen T. Kammerer Fund, Friends of Seniors Fund, and Louis S. Ehrich, Jr. Fund Walt and MillyRugland Sally Mead Hands Foundation Patty Schmitt The George and Jane Shinners Charitable Fund Dave and Maggie Stoeffel John W.Thompson and Jane Bartell Julia A. and David V. Uihlein, Jr. Gregory C. Van Wie Charitable Foundation Robert A. Wagner Estate of William and Janice Ward Wisconsin Coastal Management Wisconsin Hospital Association, Inc. Wisconsin Public Radio Dave and Sandy Zweifel

AUTUMN 2015 55 **" Curio "*•

his wood bicycle, nicknamed the "Grabtree Special," sports a frame fashioned from the crotch of a crabapple tree. According to an undated interview that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal in the 1940s, TWalter Atkinson of Bunker Hill, Wisconsin, made the bicycle in 1891, when he was eighteen years old. He sold it to Platteville bike dealer, Edward Grindell, for $7.50. Grindell, in turn, sold it to William Park of Madison, who then sold it to D.D. Warner in 1893. The Wisconsin Historical Society's documents state only that an anonymous builder rode the wood bicycle to Madison where he visited the office of D.D. Warner, owner of the Warner Cycle Go. Warner exchanged a new, factory-made bicycle for the wooden one and gave the man a job in his factory. The bicycle was eventually deposited with the Wisconsin Historical Society by Allan and Maurice Park of Madison, likely in 1916. Warner had willed them the bicycle. In 2007, Walter Atkinson's grand-nephew, Merlyn Atkinson, wrote to the Society to confirm that, "Walter [Atkinson] and his brother, Jesse built the bicycle. Walter was my great uncle and Jesse was my grandfather. . . . Grandad used to laugh while telling how he and Walter made the bicycle and I would also." The newspaper article includes more specifics, but some of them conflict with the earlier account. Although the details of the story are lost, the one-of-a-kind bicycle had an equally unique inspiration in the wedge-shaped crotch of the crabapple tree. Coming this Fall from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press HIS WISCONSIN A HISTORY AGRICULTURE MILWAUKEE luKT lil lul MURDER AND MYSTERY

IN THt CREAM IIIV S FIRST CENTURY

'•'*["'''' • '", ; :S, . '..• ""—

wa JERRY APPS s '. • MATTHEW J. PRIGGE Wisconsin Agriculture: A History Polka Heartland: Why the Ifil If-1 by Jerry Apps Midwest Loves to Polka ISBN: 978-0-87020-724-2 Photographs by Dick Blau Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder Words by Rick March and Mystery in the Cream City's ISBN: 978-0-87020-722-8 First Century by Matthew J. Prigge ISBN: 978-0-87020-716-7

Ship Captains Daughter

CROWING UP ON THE GREAT LAKES

A SETTLER'S YEAR PIONEER LIFE THROUGH THE SEASONS

Dickey Chapelle Under Fire: ANN M. LEWIS

Photographs by the First American KATHLEEN ERNST Photographs by LOYD HEATH/ftrnw'ng Old World Wisconsin Female War Correspondent Killed Ship Captain's Daughter: in Action Growing Up on the Great Lakes A Settler's Year: Pioneer Life by John Garofolo by Ann M. Lewis through the Seasons ISBN: 978-0-87020-730-3 Foreword by Jackie Spinner, former war by Kathleen Ernst correspondent for the Washington Post Photographs by Loyd Heath ISBN: 978-0-87020-718-1 ISBN: 978-0-87020-714-3

The Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop is located on the Capitol Square at 30 N. Carroll St., Madison, Wl 53703 TO ORDER Please call: (888) 999-1669 or (608) 264-6565 (in Madison) Wisconsin Historical Society Shop online: shop.wisconsinhistory.org PRESS Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! wi ~?V'

elations in the first half of the 1900s. The car was originally built for fre iss France to battle during the World Wars. They came to be known as - i of 40 men or 8 horses. World War II left France's many of the is with starvation. Their suffering prompted U.S. ldren of France. In response to the gift from the American people, the French put the 40-and-8 boxcars back to use. This time the cars were assembled into the French Gratitude Train and were filled with gifts for the people of the United States. Forty-three of the original forty-nine cars are known to exist today. Wisconsin's boxcar, seen here, is preserved for posterity and can be seen along with many other pieces of railroad history at the National Railway Museum in Green Bay.

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