ip" AUTUMN 2018 WISCONSIN magazine ^/history
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ices of Wisconsin Latina Activist 4 L k STEP INSIDE A CARRIAGE AT WADE HOU GO SITE SEEING! Take your friends and family on a historic adventure! Make history come alive this fall as you travel to the Wisconsin Historical Society's 12 sites and museums across the state.
BLACK POINT PENDARVIS ESTATE & GARDENS Mineral Point Lake Geneva REED SCHOOL CIRCUS WORLD Neillsville Baraboo STONEFIELD FIRST CAPITOL Cassville Belmont VILLA LOUIS H.H.BENNETT STUDIO Prairie duChien Wisconsin Dells WADE HOUSE MADELINE ISLAND Greenbush MUSEUM Madeline Island WISCONSIN HISTORICAL OLD WORLD WISCONSIN MUSEUM Eagle Madison
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WISCONSIN MUSEUMS & HISTORIC SITES wisconsinhistory /sites n 0 Letter from the WISCONSIN HISTORICAL Editor S O C i E T Y
Director, Wisconsin Historical Society Press Kate Thompson Editor Sara E. Phillips Image Researcher John H. Nondorf Research and Editorial Assistants Molly Biskupic, Rachel Cordasco, KelliWozniakowski, Elizabeth Wyckoff, and John Zimm Design Nancy Rinehart, Christine Knorr, University Marketing THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534), published quarterly, is a benefit of membership in the Wisconsin Historical Society. Full membership levels start at $55 for individuals and $65 for institutions. To join or for more information, visit our website at wisconsinhistory.org/membership or contact the Membership Office at 888-748-7479 or e-mail [email protected]. The Wisconsin Magazine of History has been published quarterly Of the many journeys I've taken into researching history since 1917 by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Copyright ©2018 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. genealogy isn't one of them. And so I was delighted when my ISSN 0043-6534 (print) aunt, my late father's sister, gave me a beautifully framed photo ISSN 1943-7366 (online) of what she called my "Wisconsin family" a month into my For permission to reuse text from the Wisconsin Magazine of History, tenure as editor. Until then, I'd thought of myself as unrooted, (ISSN 0043-6534), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, a transplant who'd chosen this soil out of happenstance and MA, 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that then planted myself only after I'd grown to love it. provides licenses and registration for a variety of users. But it turns out that my great-grandmother, Amy Carson For permission to reuse photographs from the Wisconsin Magazine of History identified with WHi or WHS contact: Visual Materials Phillips, spent her early years outside the village of Ontario in Archivist, 816 State Street, Madison, Wl, 53706 or Vernon County She's there in the photograph, with long hair [email protected]. in a checked dress standing next to her father, George. I also Wisconsin Magazine of History welcomes the submission of articles and image essays. Contributor guidelines can be found on the learned that my grandmother, Marjorie Reynolds Phillips, was Wisconsin Historical Society website at www.wisconsinhistory.org/ born in Marinette County on a farm operated by her paternal wmh/contribute.asp. The Wisconsin Historical Society does not assume responsibility for statements made by contributors. grandmother, Lecca Mae Reynolds. How could I not have Contact Us known this? Why had I considered myself placeless for so long? Editorial: 608-264-6549 This summer I attended a family reunion, the first in twenty [email protected] years. One cousin came from Calgary to meet the family of the Membership/Change of Address: 888-748-7479 father he'd never known in life, but whose last name he shared. [email protected] Everyone had a story about Uncle Dan, who told tall tales about Reference Desk/Archives: 608-264-6460 [email protected] our family that he half-believed and that, at some point, each Mail: 816 State Street, Madison, Wl 53706 cousin realized were spun out of imagination and longing. Periodicals postage paid at Madison, Wl 53706-1417. My brother and I pored over aging photo albums trying Back issues, if available, are $8.95 plus postage from the to guess at who the strangers in the 3x5 snapshots might Wisconsin Historical Museum store. Call toll-free: 888-999-1669. be. Aunt Margie could simply point and say, "That's Jasper, Microfilmed copies are available through UMI Periodicals in Microfilm, part of National Archive Publishing, your great-great-grandfather. He died young, and that's when 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, www.napubco.com. Lecca moved to Wisconsin." Reconnecting with my family is On the front cover: Favianna Rodriguez, Freedom. Justice. Voice. Power., like repairing a broken chain, adding charms where before there monotype collage,12 x 17.5 inches, 2017. Rodriguez's piece appears on the cover of Somas Latinas: Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists by were only broken links. Andrea-Teresa Arenas and Eloisa Gomez, which is excerpted in this The photograph sits on my desk at work, a reminder of my connections to my adopted home. Am I a Wisconsinite? Yes and COPYRIGHT 2017 FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ, FAVIANNA.COM no—but a little more now that I know this slice of my family's past. —SP
VOLUME 102, NUMBER 1 / AUTUMN 2018 1 In This Issue
1 Letter from the Editor
4 The "University of Wausau and the Perfect Season byMattFoss
14 They Brought Their Beer German Brewing on the Wisconsin Frontier by Dirk Hildebrandt
28 a On, Wisconsin! 95 Celebrating Camp Randall by John Zimm
YOU AND THE DRAFT BOARD By a Member of One I- ICONVENTIDN! All the People of this State, who are opposed to -being.made SLAVES or SLAVE-CATCHERS.and to having the Free Soil of Wisconsin gjade\the hunting-ground forlljuman Kidnappers, aj'd all who are willing to unite in a '£•*«&*-•
Wisconsin Magazine of History Autumn 2018
38 BOOK EXCERPT Somos Latinas Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists by Andrea-Teresa Arenas and Eloisa Gomez
44 Abolition and the Law in Civil War—Era Wisconsin From Glover to Gillespie by Grace Castagna
54 Letters
56 Curio FRTY NOV. 21,1942 10*
THEY FIGHT WITH FILM """***Crews' Dramati' '•""*""c Job • The "University of Wausau" and the Perfect Season
BY MATT FOSS
While not as revered as it is in Texas or Ohio, football is an integral part of the Wisconsin high school experience. Bright lights on a crisp fall evening combined with the sound of pads and helmets crashing together is a familiar Friday night attraction. Wisconsin football culture is special, and many schools across the state, including Arrowhead in Hartland, D. C. Everest in Weston, and Edgar, Lancaster, and Kimberly, named for their towns of origin, boast excellent traditions.
flow 4: Gabrilska; Keilnhauser; Holzem; Tobey; Trigg; Hanke; Kaiser, Trainer; Schira. Student Manager; Biwer; Brockmeyer. Row 3: Zender; Bendrick; Discher; Dalnodar; Gaulke; Dudek; Parsons; Fogarty; Blackmer; Baum- gardt. flow 2; Young; Sampson; Chapman; Rozmenoski; Scheel; Kraft; Schmitz; Freeman; LaPorte; Eggebrecht. Row 1: Nowitzke; Schulta; Wyzkowski; Berndt; Bliese; Saindon; McKoen; Dahm; Raymond; Koppa; Trotzer.
Left: The cover of Liberty Magazine on November 21,1942, the same month the Wausau High School team won their conference with a perfect season. Battles on local gridirons were a welcome distraction from news of battles raging in Europe and the Pacific. Above:The unbeaten, un-tied, and un-scored-upon 1942 Wausau High School football team
AUTUMN 2018 5 One of the most successful teams in state history hailed In 1937, after coach Clyde "Cabby" Ewers left for a similar from Wausau. From 1937 to 1971, the Wausau High School position in the southern Wisconsin community of Edgerton, football team went a combined 230-33-9, won twenty-five Wausau hired Winfred "Win" Brockmeyer as head coach.2 Born conference championships, had thirteen undefeated seasons, in Mankato, Minnesota, Brockmeyer was a football man. As a and could name two future Pro Football Hall of Famers among collegiate player, he led the University of Minnesota in rushing its many talented players.1 Because of this long period of success, in 1928, playing in the same backfield as future Pro Football some in central Wisconsin referred to the team as the "Univer Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski.3 After his playing career sity of Wausau." ended, Brockmeyer coached at two high schools in Minnesota, Although Wausau had many great teams, one in particular at Fergus Falls and Faribault. At the latter, he coached future stands out. In 1942, the team completed a feat accomplished Heisman Trophy winner Bruce Smith.4 only a few times in Wisconsin high school football history. That It wasn't long after his arrival in Wausau that Brockmeyer squad not only went undefeated and un-tied, but also un-scored- put his stamp on the team. Stressing the fundamentals of proper upon. blocking and tackling and ensuring his teams had the best- The accomplishment of attaining this perfect season was conditioned players on the field, Wausau won a conference rooted in the team's successful past. Beginning in 1897, Wausau's championship in Brockmeyer's first year as head coach. In the first forty years of football ended with several conference following four seasons, the team went a combined 25-1-1, with championships and tremendous community support. Besides many of the games ending in shutouts.5 It didn't hurt that one of attending games, Wausau community members gave time and his best players during this time was future Los Angeles Rams materials to help the team and its players, including donating star and Pro Football Hall of Fame receiver Elroy "Crazylegs" motion picture cameras for team film study and providing funds Hirsch. However, it would be in Brockmeyer's sixth year that for recent graduates to compete at the college level in the days the Wausau Cardinals (also known as the Lumberjacks) reached before athletic scholarships. their apex.
Wausau High School, circa 1935
6 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY A team sweatshirt owned by Brockmeyer J?--f. 'i 1 '^y^y' * L\£^ L ^^h '£&•; f KM ^•"r ^
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In his thirty-four years as head football coach atWausau Senior n$fe High School, Win Brockmeyer won 230 games, lost 33,and tied 9. He coached thirteen undefeated teams atWausau High School, including Kicking practice with the 1941 team.This team also had a strong showing, winning all seven the 1942 team. conference games, with four of the games being shutouts.
AUTUMN 2018 7 Because the Wisconsin Valley Conference banned spring play both. Second, neither team attempted much of a passing practices, Wausau didn't start practicing until September 1. game. Football in the 1940s, at all levels, was about running just over two weeks before the start of the season. To prepare, the ball and stopping the run. The real test was to see whose Brockmeyer sent letters to prospective players asking them to offensive or defensive line could control the line of scrimmage. condition themselves by running and performing certain exer It was no surprise to see five or fewer passes attempted from cises.6 The lack of spring practices also kept coaches in the either team during a game. dark about what their rosters were going to look like. Gradua Weather also played a factor in the lead-up to the second tion always hit schools in the conference hard, and with World game of the season, played against the powerful Rhinelander War II raging in Europe and the Pacific, many football candi Hodags. The game was predicted as a championship preview, dates withdrew from school to but Wausau players were not either enter the military or work able to practice as much as they in wartime industry.7 Fortu "My players have learned desired due to wet grounds. In nately, Brockmeyer had plenty that tackling and blocking fact, the teams postponed the of talent to choose from when game for two days because of seventy-three players tried out hard and viciously wet conditions.15 Wet conditions for the team.8 often postponed practices and When players arrived on is good football." games because of the damage September 1, Brockmeyer and done to equipment. Before his two assistant coaches conducted two-a-day practices—one plastic equipment, helmets and pads were made of leather in the morning, one in the afternoon—every day for a week and sometimes needed repair if run through wet grass or mud. to get the boys in football shape and perfect their running of Laundry and repair bills for wet equipment and uniforms were the single-wing offense. Brockmeyer stated, "Workouts so far a large, unwanted expense for schools.16 have shown that the players are slower and probably will not When the game finally took place, Wausau beat Rhine- develop the finesse that their predecessors showed in winning lander by a score of 28—0 in front of a home crowd of 2,400 championships." Yet, he also praised their "fine spirit" and people. Brockmeyer said before the game that it would take "eagerness to learn." It didn't take long for the team to get in "sound tackling" to defeat the Hodags and their fleet-footed shape. Brockmeyer said, "It is the first time that players have running back. It took a little innovation as well. Wausau been physically fit for the initial conference games since I have displayed an uncommon 5-3-2-1 defense, loading the defen been in Wausau."9 sive line to fill the running lanes against the Hodag runners. The season started on September 18 with a game in Stevens Rhinelander attempted nine passes to combat this defense but Point. Wausau beat its "young, inexperienced" opponents with had little success. However, Rhinelander has the distinction of a score of 6-0. The rain and field conditions were so poor, offi making it to the twenty-eight yard line of Wausau during the cials shortened the game from twelve-minute quarters to just game, which would be the farthest any team in the 1942 season ten minutes each. "The Point offense was almost nil because would advance into Wausau's territory17 of the stalwart defense Wausau threw against them," claimed A week later on October 3, Wausau beat the Antigo Red the Wausau Daily Record Herald.10 Stevens Point managed Robins 13-0 in a downpour. The Cardinals allowed only one only one first down and seventeen yards of offense. Because of first down and eleven total yards of offense all game. Not a the conditions, Wausau itself only gathered seven first downs juggernaut itself, Wausau gained only 101 total yards, with for 113 yards. Combined, the teams completed only one pass no passes attempted. Antigo had been the only team to beat and committed seven fumbles.11 Even though the game was not Wausau in conference play since Brockmeyer's arrival in pretty, Stevens Point saw a silver lining. From the Stevens Point Wausau, and based on this, Brockmeyer predicted a poten Journal: "Pregame dope pointed to an easy Wausau victory, tial loss.18 Additionally, he said, Antigo featured one of the but the local boys scrapped hard all the way and time after "fleetest and shiftiest backfield men to trot conference grid time stopped the Cardinal ball carriers in their tracks."12 Coach irons" behind an offensive line that was the only one in the Brockmeyer admitted his team did not play particularly well. conference to rival the size of Wausau's players.19 However, "My gridders will have to improve their game greatly over that Wausau's line played better, with Coach Brockmeyer citing which they displayed against Stevens Point."13 the line play as "brilliant."20 Looking at the statistics of the first game, one can see the Wausau's offense got into a groove the next week against 1940s were a different era of football than the one we know the Red Raiders from Wisconsin Rapids. Playing just three today. First, Brockmeyer used only thirteen players in the entire days after the rain-soaked game against Antigo, Wausau beat game.14 In the days before offensive players played just offense Wisconsin Rapids 42-0 in front of a crowd of 1,500. The Red and defensive players stuck to defense, players were expected to Raiders managed only one first down and forty-seven yards
8 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY of offense, while Wausau racked up over four hundred yards. players," Brockmeyer commented after the game. "My players Because of the lopsided score, Brockmeyer was able to put have learned that tackling and blocking hard and viciously is several reserves in the game, using twenty-four players total, good football."26 To cement his status as an all-conference whereas he used only thirteen or fifteen players in the first three player, fullback Roger Trotzer rushed for two touchdowns and games.21 Brockmeyer himself said about his team's performance: threw for three more.2' "It was the best exhibition of offensive and defensive play of any Vicious blocking and tackling was not needed against high school team I have ever seen."22 Although many replace Wausau's next opponent. Outmatched in the conference, ments got playing time against Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau's Nekoosa had not scored a point all season, and things wouldn't premier ball carrier started to set himself apart from other great change in a 67-0 loss to Wausau. Brockmeyer was able to put players in the conference. Senior fullback Roger Trotzer, who thirty-four players in the game to give them playing time. Brock did not miss a practice in three years, carried the ball twenty- meyer complimented Nekoosa on their endurance, but noted three times, totaling 184 yards and five touchdowns against the they would be far better in a conference with even competition. Red Raiders.23 Because of Nekoosa's frequent losses, there were more players With the team on a roll, Brockmeyer resorted to a familiar on Nekoosa's sidelines than spectators in the stands. Even if tactic. To keep the enthusiasm of the Wausau community there had been more fans, they only would have seen their home grounded, he told local boosters and the press that he expected team gain one first down and twenty-one yards of total offense a letdown against the next opponent, Marshfield. He admitted over the course of the game.28 his team was excellent, but prepared for a loss against "tricky" In the lead-up to the final conference game against their Marshfield, who had two good passers playing in their double- rivals to the north in Merrill, Brockmeyer again tempered wing offense.24 In preparation for the game, Brockmeyer gave expectations. He told local boosters that "Merrill players are his gridders "a heavy dose of scrimmages and polishing plays well drilled in the fundamentals" and that "one or two mental for the Marshfield aggregation."25 lapses by his team may allow the fleet footed Merrill Blue Jays It was not a letdown. Wausau defeated the Marshfield to score and turn in a surprise victory"29 Brockmeyer and the Tigers 45-0 in front of a full-capacity homecoming crowd in players who remembered the 1940 season knew this was a possi Wausau on Saturday, October 17. Wausau dominated the field, bility. The 1940 Wausau team almost went undefeated, un-tied, and in the final ten minutes of the game Brockmeyer played his and un-scored upon, but it gave up two touchdowns to Merrill second- and third-string players. Wausau gained over 500 yards in the last game of the season. of offense, with 399 rushing yards and a season-high 109 passing Before the game, there was tension in the local press. yards. "[There's] not a single undesirable one on the squad of Writers from the Merrill Daily Herald stated that "preparing for
The 1942 team mastered the single-wing offense.The dominant offensive formation across America for the first half of the twentieth century, the single-wing needed strong blocking from the offensive line and versatile fullbacks and tailbacks who could run, throw, or block on any given play.
AUTUMN 2018 9 The starting players of Wausau's 1942 team, as they appeared in a spread in the school's yearbook, the Wah iscan. Top, from left to right: Russ Raymond, right halfback; Cyril Koppa, quarterback; RogerTrotzer, fullback; Leonard Schulta, left halfback; bottom: Morris Nowitzke, right end; Richard Berndt, right tackle; Fred Bliese, right guard; Gordon Saindon, center; Jack McKeon, left guard; Jake Dahm, left tackle; and Chester Wyzkowski, left end.
10 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY all that beef and brawn possessed by the Wausau High School squad isn't just the easiest thing in the world. It's all upstream swimming trying to move those 200 lb. huskies on the line."30 Brockmeyer took offense to this statement and other claims that Wausau had a distinct size advantage. In response, he sent the ages and weights of his eleven starting players to the Wausau Daily Record Herald to "correct the false statements that other papers have made about the number of 200 lb. players we have." Sure enough, only senior center Gordon Saindon weighed over 200 pounds, with senior left guard Jack McKeon coming close at 196 pounds.31 On November 1, Wausau defeated Merrill 24-0 and completed the perfect season. The Merrill Blue Jays put up some resistance but could not get within the Wausau thirty yard line, watching as Wausau fullback Roger Trotzer scored three more touchdowns.32 Brockmeyer praised Merrill as the best team his squad faced all season, but noted that Wausau played its worst game of the year: "After the good work in pushing over the first touchdown, the boys played listlessly most of the remainder of the game."33 The Merrill players considered the game a "moral victory" because they did not let Wausau score more than four touchdowns.34 This was the final game of the season because Wausau could not secure a postseason game. The Wisconsin Interscho- lastic Athletic Association did not regulate a football playoff system until 1976, so in the 1940s, teams arranged their own postseason matchups.35 Wausau High School Principal G W. Bannerman wrote letters to many larger high schools around the state to arrange a game, but all replied they intended to play out their remaining schedules without a postseason.36 The 1942 Wausau football team finished the season with seven wins and zero losses, outscoring its opponents 225-0. Players achieved eighty-eight first downs, surrendering only fifteen. They gained a total of 2,133 total yards and yielded only 303. Six starters received all-conference recognition: full back Roger Trotzer, center Gordon Saindon, left end Chet Wyzkowski, right guard Fred Bliese, left tackle Jake Dahm, and quarterback Cyril Koppa. Trotzer ended the season as the conference's leading scorer with 106 points, besting Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch's mark of 102 points set in 1940.3/ An examination of the 1942 season uncovers several factors that allowed the Wausau team to complete this perfect season. First, the team suffered no major injuries. Football, especially in this era, was violent, and players expected to sustain injuries and miss games. The 1942 Wausau team went through the season mostly unscathed. An example of the minor injuries players received comes from an article on the September 28 game against Rhinelander: "All players came out of the game in good physical condition, but several players had black eyes and scratches."38 Commenting on the good luck of suffering no major injuries before the last game of the season, Brockmeyer said:
AUTUMN 2018 11 This is the first time in 6 years of coaching here that we are going into the final game without a single injury. It would be a real accomplishment to finish the season without a serious accident, especially when we have boys who play football for all its worth. As hard as we run, block, and tackle, it's surprising more are not bumped. Perhaps our good physical condition is the answer.39
A second aid to the team came in the form of bad weather. Although weather makes the playing field equally bad for both teams, the games against Stevens Point and Antigo took place during rainstorms in conditions that likely hampered offen sive output. Whether Stevens Point or Antigo could have scored points in better weather is unknown, but the adverse conditions helped Wausau's defense in shutting out its opponents. Finally, Wausau at the time was not facing equal competition. While schools like Stevens Point, Marshfield, and Rhinelander had and still have fine football teams, those cities were smaller than Wausau. At the time, 27,268 people lived in Wausau. Stevens Point was the next biggest city in the conference with 15,777 residents. Wisconsin Rapids and Marshfield were just over the 10,000 population mark, while Rhinelander, Antigo, and Merrill were under 10,000. Nekoosa, whose football team failed to score a single point against other teams in the conference, had less talent to draw on, with a population of only 2,212.40 The Wausau High School Annual emphasized this point:
Wausau citizens are proud of the glory the team has brought to our fair city. A lot of them are beginning to think, however, that this conference is beginning to cramp the style of a "university" team. Maybe, The Wausau Senior High School cheer squad. Top, from left to right, are Audrey Stieber, Clifford Sherfinski, Rosemary Sawyer, Albert it wouldn't be a bad idea to play in a league where Kaufert, and Cathleen Griggel; in the middle are Marvanne Arnold, we can really show how good we are—then, we will 41 Griggel, and Stieber; lower left: Stieber; lower right: Arnold; and really have something to brag about. bottom: Sherfinski.Their cheer, according to the Wahiscan, was"And now let's give a mighty roar for those who make each Wausau score!" Changing conferences would not happen for another thirteen years. In that time, Wausau High School remained In 1955, Wausau played teams around and outside the state, a dominant force in its conference. Wausau would not lose a including South Minneapolis, La Crosse, and Marinette. Bigger conference game until 1949, when it finally ceded to Stevens and better competition didn't change the outcome for Wausau, Point. In March 1954, dissatisfied with the lack of competition in as the Cardinals had one of their best seasons, going 7-0-1, the Wisconsin Valley Conference, Antigo, Rhinelander, Merrill, scoring 228 points, and only allowing 14 to Eau Claire in the and Marshfield petitioned to either leave the conference or force final game of the season.43 This team featured another future Wausau to drop its football team from conference play. Wausau Pro Football Hall of Famer, longtime Oakland Raiders center dropping its football team was not seriously considered, and all Jim Otto. seven schools in the conference voted to allow the four schools In 1956, Wausau joined the Big Rivers Conference and to leave, thus ending the Wisconsin Valley Conference effective continued to dominate its opponents for the next fifteen years. in June 1955.42 In the autumn of 1970, a new high school, Wausau West, opened In 1955, Antigo, Rhinelander, Merrill, and Marsh- its doors for the first time. Wausau High School became Wausau field formed the Northern Conference while Stevens Point, East, and the students and football talent the old school drew Wisconsin Rapids, and Wausau became "freelance" teams. upon split in half.44 With the players separated between the
12 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 31, 1942. 8. "School Gridders Drill Twice a Day This Week," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 3, 1942. 9. "Wausau Plays at Stevens Point," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 18, 1942. 10. "44 Yard Touchdown Run by Raymond Defeats Point, 6—0," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 19, 1942. 11. "44 Yard Touchdown Run by Raymond Defeats Point, 6—0." 12. Quoted from the Stevens Pointjournal in "44 Yard Touchdown Run by Raymond Defeats Point, 6-0." 13. "Brockmeyer Fears Rhinelander Hodags," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 22, 1942. 14. "44 Yard Touchdown Run by Raymond Defeats Point, 6—0." 15. "Football Game Here Tonight," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 28, 1942. 16. "Football Game Here Tonight." 17. "Roger Trotzer Leads Wausau to 28 to 0 Win over Rhinelander," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 29, 1942. 18. "Brockmeyer's Grid Teams Have Won 25 Consecutive Contests," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 1, 1942. 19. "Antigo Comes Here for Game Saturday," Wausau Daily Record Herald, "October 2, 1942; "Antigo Comes Here Tonight," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 3, 1942. 20. "Local Gridders Busy in Practice against Rapids' Aerial Play," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 6, 1942. 21. "Wausau's Power Plays Crush Rapids, 42 to 0," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October In the days of one-platoon football, when players played both offense 9, 1942. and defense, a talented starting roster and few injuries meant the 22. "Brockmeyer Expects Letdown for Squad," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 13, 1942. bench could be crowded with patient reserves. Fortunately, there 23. "Sport Chatter," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 10, 1942. were several blowouts in the 1942 season during which many 24. "Brockmeyer Expects Letdown for Squad." The double-wing offense featured two tight ends lined up next to the two offensive tackles, with two "wingbacks" behind at an angle. The non-starting players were able to prove themselves. offensive backfield consisted of a quarterback directly behind the center and a fullback as the lone back behind the quarterback. two high schools, the games between Wausau East and Wausau 25. "Wausau and Marshfield Clash in Annual Homecoming Contest," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 16, 1942. West were competitive. In the first ten years of the East vs. West 26. "Brockmeyer Praises His Wausau Gridders," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 20, series, Wausau East won four games, Wausau West won five, 1942. 45 27. "Wausau Rolls over Marshfield, 45—0, in Homecoming Game," Wausau Daily Record and there was one tie. Herald, October 19, 1942. 28. "Wausau Highs Smother Little Nekoosa, 67—0," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October Brockmeyer resigned as coach of Wausau East High School 24, 1942. on April 14, 1971. Following open heart surgery that March, 29. "Merrill's Speed May Beat Wausau Highs," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 27, 1942. his physician advised him to stay off the sidelines. No longer 30. "Merrill's Speed May beat Wausau Highs." coaching, Brockmeyer was named the director of athletics by the 31. "Sport Chatter," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 30, 1942. 32. "Merrill Fails to Score, Local Highs Win, 24-0," Wausau Daily Record Herald, November Wausau School District, responsible for the athletic programs 2, 1942. at Wausau East and Wausau West.46 It was the end of an era 33. "No Post-Season Grid Tilt for Local Squad," Wausau Daily Record Herald, November 3, 1942. when Win Brockmeyer passed away in March 1980 at the age 34. "Merrill Fails to Score, Local Highs Win, 24-0." of seventy-two. 35. "Football History," Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association web site, https://www wiaawi.org/Sports/Football/History.aspx. Looking back, it is remarkable that the 1942 Wausau team 36. "No Post-Season Grid Tilt for Local Squad." could go through an entire football season without losing, tying, 37. "Roger Trotzer, Leading Scorer in Conference, Gets 106 Points," Wausau Daily Record Herald, November 4, 1942. or allowing a single point or even an opposing offense to get 38. "Sport Chatter," Wausau Daily Record Herald, September 30, 1942. within twenty-eight yards of the goal line. Missed field goals, 39. "Sport Chatter," Wausau Daily Record Herald, October 30, 1942. 40. US Census Bureau, "Population of Counties by Minor Civil Divisions: 1920 to 1940," dropped touchdown passes, and red zone turnovers weren't the 1940 US Census-Wisconsin, 1168, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html. 41. Wausau ttgh School Annual (Wausau High School: Wausau, Wisconsin, 1942), 82. reason for Wausau's dominance. Opposing teams just never 42. General Football Folder. came close to scoring during the season. 43. Wausau Hgh School Annual (Wausau High School: Wausau, Wisconsin, 1956), 68. 44. General Football Folder. The "University of Wausau" benefitted from a bigger roster, 45. "VFA-North Football All-time Head-to-Head Results," Appleton Post Crescent, August bad weather, and lesser competition, but the feat it accom 14,2015. 46. Win Brockmeyer Biography Folder, General Football Collection, Records of the Mara plished in 1942 was rooted in the foundation provided by prior thon County Historical Society. teams and coaches and the enthusiasm of the Wausau commu nity, and it remains worthy of celebration. LVJ ABOUT THE AUTHOR Notes Matt Foss is the Assistant Director of the Leigh 1. General Football Folder, Records of the Marathon County Historical Society, Wausau. Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wis Wisconsin. Hereafter General Football Folder. consin. He received his bachelor's and master's 2. General Football Folder. 3. "Year-by-Year Rushing Leaders," Golden Gophers web site, http://www.gophersports.com/ degrees in history from the University of Wis- sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/yearly-rushing-leaders.html. consin-Eau Claire. Originally from Door County, 4. General Football Folder. 5. General Football Folder. he lives with his wife, Mallory, daughter Lucy, 6. "Sport Chatter," Wausau Daily Record Herald, August 20, 1942. and son Brooks. 7. "Brockmeyer Gives Forecast of Football Outlook," Wausau Daily Record Herald, August
AUTUMN 2018 13 German Brewing on the Wisconsin BY DIRK HILDEBRANDT ^3j|fthen nineteenth-century Europeans ^V left their homes to live in North America they brought more than clothes, money, and tools to start their new lives. Cultural traditions, language, and a sense of identity came along as well. Maintaining some of their old ways helped ease the transition for these new Americans. Food and drink were of primary importance in bridging the gap when leaving one home for another. Along with heirlooms and memo ries, these new Americans brought with them their thirst for beer and the knowledge and expertise to make it.
This promotional poster, created in 1884 for Fauerbach's Brewery in Madison, emphasizes the German character of early brewing in Wisconsin. ©as UTYlj
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The brewing standards found in the Reinheitsgebot, or purity law, have been in use for more than six hundred years.
Europeans immigrating to Wisconsin in the mid-1800s stipulated that only barley, hops, and water were to be used in came from long-established brewing traditions. The peoples of the brewing process. The law also addressed immediate local Europe had been brewing beer for centuries. The processes were concerns such as protecting drinkers from high prices and stop understood and the necessary ingredients easy to find in agrarian ping unscrupulous brewers from adulterating their product. By societies. In these early days, sanitation and knowledge of disease- requiring only barley and hops to be used in brewing, more causing pathogens was practically nonexistent. The boiling and wheat would be available to produce bread.2 fermentation required in the brewing process did away with many In nineteenth-century Wisconsin, there was no shortage of of these organisms, making beer one of the safer beverages to wheat, and barley and hops were easy to grow. In fact, southern consume. By the Middle Ages, it was a common drink at all levels Wisconsin's rolling prairies and short growing season made it of society. So much beer was consumed, in fact, that individual an ideal place for brewing. The success of German brewing on household production could not meet demand. Dedicated brew the Wisconsin frontier—which spread from rural markets to the eries began to emerge, and organizations like monasteries and urban center of Milwaukee from the 1840s to the 1860s—can universities were often large-scale producers.1 be attributed to several factors: an existing (and expanding) Of all the immigrant groups to arrive on American shores, market for the product as waves of European immigrants came the Germans had the strongest and most-established brewing to Wisconsin; the know-how and experience to excel in the traditions. So important was beer to the German people that art of brewing; and ingredients that were ideally suited to the it was the basis for the oldest recorded consumer protection growing climate and seasons of their adopted home. As German law in the world. The German Reinheitsgebot, or purity law, immigrants strove to maintain their culture and heritage, beer was issued in 1516 by Bavarian duke William TV. The decree was a vitally important aspect of their new lives in Wisconsin.
16 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY A Beer Primer The difference in beers is a result of the fermentation process, how the barley is Strong Beer, or Ale. processed, and the amount and type of hops used. Ale is brewed at a high tempera Twelve bushels of malt to the hogshead for beer, ture and is top fermented. This means the yeast rises to the top of the brew during eight for ale ; for either pour the whole quantity fermentation. Beer brewed in this manner needs to be kept cool if it is to be stored of water hot, but not boiling, on at once, and let it infuse three hours close covered ; mash it in the for any length of time, and thus, the time between manufacture and consumption first half hour, and let it stand the remainder of the was necessarily short before the advent of pasteurization and refrigeration.3 Ale time. Run it on the hops previously infused in also is distinguished by the aroma and strong flavor of hops. water ; For strong beer three quarters of a pound to a bushel, if for ale, half a pound. Boil them with Lager was developed in Germany and was the type of beer most familiar to the wort two hours from the time it begins to boil. Cool a pailful to add three quarts of yeast to, which German immigrants to Wisconsin. As opposed to ales, lager beer is brewed at will prepare it for putting to the r^il when ready lower temperatures and is bottom fermented; the yeast sinks to the bottom of the next day ; but if possible, put together the same liquid during the brewing process. After it is brewed, lager is stored for months in night. Tun aa usual. Cover the bunghole with a cool place. This last stage of fermentation, termed Lagern (meaning stored or paper when the ueer has done working; and when 4 it is to be stopped have ready a pound and a half kept), results in the light, crisp taste preferred by immigrants to the New World. of hops, dried before the fire, put them into the bunghole, and fasten it up. Other "beers" could also be found in the United States at this time. Often brewed Let it stand twelve months in casks, and twelve at home in small batches, these beverages were easy to make and were seen as in bottles before it be drank. It will keep, and be safer to drink than water. Spruce beer was a commonly made beverage with a very fine, eight or ten years. It should be brewed low alcohol content. The Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Cultivator printed the beginning of March. a recipe in 1857 that contained water, molasses, essence of spruce, yeast, and Great care must be taken that bottles are per- lectly prepared, and that the corks are of the best ginger. Spruce beer was drinkable after twenty-four hours and was considered 3 •sort. "a palatable, wholesome beverage." The 1823 book American Domestic Cookery included recipes for beers, ales, and wines.6
A page from American Domestic Cookery, 1823. Beer and ale were such an integral part of early American life that recipes were found in many cookbooks.
Early American Brewing with them the English brewing tradition of ales and porters. These brews were preferred by people of English descent in the Prior to the 1850s, not much beer had been brewed in the eastern United States and were the mainstay of early Wisconsin United States. In the mid-nineteenth century, large brewing brewing. All this changed as Germans began moving westward. operations were expensive to open and operate. Significant They found the shorter summers and proximity to markets in capital was required to establish a brewery, and skilled labor Wisconsin and Milwaukee uniquely situated to alleviate many was hard to come by. Becoming a brewmaster took years of of the problems of East Coast brewing.8 apprenticeship, and the American labor force could not support Wisconsin's oldest recorded brewery began operations in such training programs. There were technical difficulties in 1835 near the mining town of Mineral Point. It was run by a American brewing as well. Before 1840, the English brewing Gornishman, John Phillips.9 The History of Iowa County does methods that dominated the industry gave poor results in the not record the brewing method or the quality of the product, but eastern United States. Long, hot summers caused brewers to it does state that the brewery operated for many years without shut down operations because they could not keep their prod competition.10 Wisconsin's second recorded brewery was built ucts cool. Once brewed, beer had to get to the consumer.7 It by Henry Rablin and Thomas Bray, both of Cornish descent, was typically sold in kegs or barrels that were difficult to handle in 1836 in the town of Elk Grove.11 The building was made of and expensive to ship. hewn logs and stone and was located on the site of an old fort. Wisconsin's brewing history began even before state The beer sold well, and Rablin and Bray kept the brewery hood. When Yankee farmers moved from the eastern states open until 1850, when it was rented to different operators. The into the territory that would become Wisconsin, they brought business was abandoned in 1856.12
AUTUMN 2018 17 A mid-century German homestead, as depicted by Franz Holzlhuber, ca. 1858. Many small farms produced their own brews, and some produced enough to sell at nearby markets.
Other breweries followed. In the 1840s, Thomas Young, German immigrants and their American-born children made an English immigrant, brewed ale in Beaver Dam. No brewery up the majority of Milwaukee's population, and Germans were building is recorded, but he did dig three large cellars that he may the largest group of immigrants in the state.21 have used for production.13 The Gutsch Brewery, Sheboygan's It was almost an accident that Milwaukee became a magnet for first, was started in 1847.14 In Port Washington and Kenosha, German immigrants. Timing is everything, and Wisconsin opened breweries were established in 1847 byjacob Moritz and Conrad up for setdementjust as large numbers of Germans left their homes Muntzenberger, respectively.15 These early brewing operations in Europe to come to America. Its existing port and growing rail were just the beginning. Explosive statewide growth followed, connections made Milwaukee a natural conduit for people traveling and by 1849 there were twenty-two breweries in Wisconsin.16 to the upper Midwest in the nineteenth century. Often the city became a destination as people stopped for a short time to work and German Immigration get a stake for future endeavors. The early German inhabitants of German immigrants had initially come to Wisconsin in the Milwaukee wrote letters to family and friends describing Wisconsin 1830s to escape religious persecution. The first large influx was and the city in glowing terms. More and more Germans came to in 1839 when the Old Lutherans arrived and settled in Freistadt, the area. For those who chose to make Milwaukee their home, north of Milwaukee.17 Later, immigrants came to Wisconsin for the city became an epitome of German culture and lived up to its economic and political reasons. In 1840s Germany, crop failures moniker, "The German Athens."22 led to farm foreclosures, and political unification and industri Not all Germans settled in Milwaukee, of course. Many came alization led to loss of land. A failed revolution in 1848 forced to farm, and many found the rolling hills and open prairies of thousands more countrymen and -women to leave.18 Improved southern Wisconsin ideal farmland. Wheat was the main crop of transportation across the Atlantic made travel to America easier. the 1840s and 1850s and, like the Yankee settlers before them, the During this period, the Wisconsin Commission on Immigration Germans wanted to cash in on the nation's seemingly inexhaustible encouraged settlement and Wisconsin passed laws and created appetite for this staple. As farmers settled in an area, the tradesmen pamphlets to market the state to potential immigrants.19 and professionals who supported them came as well. Soon small By 1850, Germans made up the majority of the non- communities sprang up with blacksmiths, harness makers, store English-speaking residents in the state, and the decade that keepers, wagon makers, and millers clustered together. These early followed saw the largest wave of immigration.20 By I860, rural communities had to be self-sufficient since travel over the
18 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY primitive network of roads and paths was difficult, and often impos Prior to Wisconsin statehood, most hops were grown in sible, during certain parts of the year. This pattern of development New York, but as Yankee immigrants moved west, they brought was common across ethnic lines, but when the Germans came, they their hops-growing expertise with them. In 1837, James Weaver brought with them particular cultural aspects that would come to brought hops plants from New York when he settled in Lisbon, define Wisconsin to the rest of the nation. Wisconsin, where his brother-in-law, David Bonham, operated a One aspect of German settlement that was true of both small public house and brewed beer in small batches. The 1850 rural and urban immigrants was a vital desire to maintain their Agricultural Census shows that Waukesha County grew over home culture. Germans brought to Wisconsin a strong sense of 13,000 pounds of the almost 16,000 pounds of hops produced community and connectedness, much of it centered on public in the state. Sauk County was also an early hops producer. and private social functions. Weddings, music, and sports were The founder of Sauk City, Count Agostin Haraszthy, planted occasions for joining together with friends and neighbors. In the first hops yard in that area in 1842—1843. William Libby Germany, these gatherings inevitably included beer. It was of Lisbon exhibited his hops at the 1852 Wisconsin State Fair.24 natural for new immigrants to Wisconsin to desire the same The practice of the brewer-as-grower was common, as beer feeling—and the same product—in their new home. researcher Wayne Kroll writes: "As was true for all farm brewers in Wisconsin, they grew their own hops."25 Hops and Barley The demand for hops was apparent as early as the 1840s. As Wisconsin's German population grew, opportunities for In 1846, the Milwaukee Daily Sentinel and Gazette advertised brewers and brewing expanded. Everything from one-man "Eastern hops for sale by the bale" and in 1847, the Eagle Brewery operations to large city breweries filled the need.23 But the in Milwaukee was advertising hops "of the best quality, for sale by Germans' knowledge of brewing wasn't the only contributor the bale."26 Whether these were imported from the East Coast or to Wisconsin's beer boom. The state's climate and soil were supplied by local farmers, the need grew, and Wisconsin rose to perfectly suited to growing the ingredients of beer. Barley and the challenge. By the 1850s, its farmers were producing hops with hops grew well in southern Wisconsin and were common crops the same flavor as those grown in Bavaria.27 This made it easy to of the early Wisconsin farmers. brew a lager beer that German immigrants were familiar with.
Like threshing, harvesting hops was an opportunity for rural communities to celebrate as neighbors gathered together to work, eat, and socialize.
AUTUMN 2018 19 Barley was a common European crop and had been grown Certain structures were common to these early frontier in the United States since immigration began. Although never a breweries, and their presence served to distinguish them from major crop, barley, like buckwheat and rye, was often grown in other farms or businesses in the area. The barley used in limited areas by specific ethnic groups.28 Early crops were small brewing beer first needed to be malted. The barley was soaked compared to the more profitable wheat, but as the demand for in water and then spread on the floor of a specialized building beer increased so did the amount of barley planted.29 called the malt house.33 The purpose of this was to allow the barley to germinate. Germination converted the starches in Rural Brewing the barley into sugars that were used in the brewing process. In early Wisconsin, most settlers outside cities were farmers When dried, the germinated barley was called malt. Much of one sort or another, and the brewers of the time were no as in smoking meat, fires were kept continuously burning to exception. KJOII calls these early establishments—which oper provide the heat for drying. The malt house was often a separate ated between 1830 and 1880—"frontier farm breweries" and building because of the risk of fire during this process.34 lists several common attributes in their construction and oper A brew house was also needed.35 This was where the ations.30 Typically built on hillsides so that cellars for cooling barley, water, yeast, and hops were turned into beer. After and aging could be easily dug, early Wisconsin breweries were aging, the malt was crushed and mixed with hot water to located near clean, pure, and permanent water sources. Clean produce a mash. The heated mash was stirred, and as the water for the brewing process would ideally be supplied from sugars dissolved a liquid called wort was produced. The grain artesian wells, but lakes and ponds were necessary as well.31 was removed and the wort boiled with hops. The wort was The process of lagering beers requires long periods of storage then cooled and strained. Yeast was added, and then the in cool conditions, and ice was needed in large quantities.32 wort was poured into vats to begin the fermentation process. Because of its specialized nature and the need for cleanli ness and sanitation, the brew house was often a stand-alone building as well.36 The era of frontier farm breweries was short. Started by necessity in the mid-1840s, by 1880 they were put out of business by larger, often urban, brewing operations. Taking advantage of an improved rail and road network, aggres sive marketing, and the new science of pasteurization, large 3^k Milwaukee breweries were able to ship their products to the rural areas of the state.37 Federal liquor taxes begun during the Civil War also proved prohibitive for the smaller part- time breweries.38
Hops were processed in a specialized building called a hops The role that brewing played in German culture is evident in the intri house. Stoves on the ground floor provided the heat needed cate design of this malting kiln door. Hops and grain are represented to dry the crop. as well as a shovel and broom, the raw materials and tools of the trade.
20 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Milwaukee: A Brewing Powerhouse
Milwaukee became a brewing center because it enjoyed the same OLD WORLD advantages as the rest of the state. The shorter summers made year-round brewing possible, with cold winters and abundant waters providing ice to cool the brewer's product. The city's large and growing German population provided a ready source of labor, brewing expertise, and consumers. Raw materials were at hand, and what could not be grown in Wisconsin could be easily shipped in through the region's growing transportation networks. Milwaukee's access to Lake Michigan and railroads also facilitated shipping to both regional and national markets. Despite all its advantages, Milwaukee would not have emerged as a brewing powerhouse without a superior product. The Germans provided this with their lager, and as it became more widely avail able, this style beer came to be preferred by the American public. The English-style ales that had predominated the United States beer markets were pushed aside, and by 1856 the New York Times was warning that lager was "getting a good deal too fashionable."39 Milwaukee's role as a brewing powerhouse had humble beginnings. Around 1840, three Welsh immigrants, Richard Owens, William Pawlett, and John Davis, established the first Brewing History Comes Alive brewery in Milwaukee. They called it the Milwaukee Brewery. at Old World Wisconsin Their ale was brewed five barrels per batch in a copper-lined wooden box. As sales increased, they expanded their operation. This fall, visitors to Old World Wisconsin in Eagle, In 1841, a twelve-barrel copper kettle was installed, and in 1844, Wisconsin, can experience a vivid re-creation of the historic a forty-barrel kettle was built on the premises. In 1845, Owens brewing processes used by German immigrants in America's 40 bought out his partners and changed the name to Lake Brewery heartland. For the second full season, Old World Wisconsin The Germans were not far behind. Hermann Reuthlisberger and volunteers from the Museum of Beer and Brewing have started what was most likely Milwaukee's second brewery in 1840. partnered to brew historic beers using the equipment and His German-style brewery was located on the corner of Virginia techniques of mid-nineteenth-century farm brewers. and Hanover streets on the south side of Milwaukee.J. B. Maier financed the enterprise, and the property reverted to him a short Over the past two years, Old World farmers have cultivated time later. Maier sold the business to his father-in-law, Francis a field of heirloom Manchuria barley while Museum of Beer Neukirch, in 1844. Neukirch partnered with his son-in-law, C. T. and Brewing volunteers have tended to fivevarietie s of hops, 41 Melms, in 1848. The business was then moved to Virginia and including Hallertau and Saaz, all grown and harvested on Oregon Streets and became known as the Menomonee Brewery. site for use in the brewing process. The largest brewery in the city at that time, it suffered its share of difficulties. The wall and cellars caved in three times before In the picnic area adjacent to the 1880 German Immigrant they were secured. Melms became the sole proprietor in 1859 Farm, brewers use copper kettles, wooden tubs, and open fire and ran the business until his death ten years later.42 to recreate the age-old brewing process. Guests can interact Throughout the 1840s and 1850s, breweries sprang up like with costumed brewers and participate in brewing-related mushrooms after a summer rain. Names like Stoltz, Schneider, activities such as grinding barley, harvesting hops, and Altpeter, Schweickhart, and Obermann came and went as busi threshing. Guests age twenty-one and older can taste a nesses opened or failed and were bought and sold in a frantic sample of the beer being brewed at Old World Wisconsin rush to deliver beer to the German population of Milwaukee and purchase a featured beer from a local craft brewery. and Wisconsin. In 1856, Milwaukee could count more than two dozen breweries, most of them owned and operated by German Remaining brewing demonstrations will take place on immigrants.43 By 1860, two hundred breweries were operating September 8, September 22, and October 6. For more infor in Wisconsin. More than forty were located in Milwaukee.44 mation, see https://wihist.org/OWWbrewing2018. Wisconsin never looked back.
AUTUMN 2018 21 ^'-•*fc*i ^gt5 This 1880 advertisement for Phillip Best Brewing includes a prominent malt house on the banks of the Milwaukee River, with direct access to both steam and rail.
The Beer Barons of Milwaukee institution. The Biergarten played a conspicuous role in the Just as mighty oaks grow from tiny acorns, the names most asso social life of Wisconsin Germans. These venues were used as ciated with Milwaukee brewing, the future beer barons, also had meeting places for social and cultural gatherings. Everything humble beginnings. The four Best brothers, Jacob Jr., Phillip, from wedding dances to political meetings took place there. Lorenz, and Charles, immigrated to Milwaukee and in 1840 It could be a destination for the entire family, a place for opened a vinegar factory. Their father, Jacob Best Sr., joined relaxation, entertainment, and the celebration of one's own them, and in 1844, the family opened the Empire Brewery, language and culture.46 located near the intersection of Ninth and Chestnut Streets. Jacob Valentin "Val" Blatz was born in Miltenberg, Germany, in Sr. had been a brewer in Mettenheim, Germany, and continued 1826. He worked in his father's brewery and traveled throughout the brewing techniques and traditions that he had used there. Bavaria to learn from experienced brewmasters. He immigrated In the first year, the brewery yielded three hundred barrels of to the United States in 1849, and in 1851, after working in light lager beer, and production went up from there. In 1850, various breweries for two years, he opened the Valentin Blatz brothers Charles and Lorenz left the family enterprise because Brewing Company in Milwaukee. Blatz's operation was located of personality clashes and opened the Plank Road Brewery. After at Broadway Street and Juneau Avenue, next to John Braun's the death of Lorenz, Charles shut down the business and moved City Brewery. After Braun's death in 1852 (ironically in a wagon to Illinois. The abandoned brewery was purchased by Frederick accident while delivering beer), Blatz bought the City Brewery Miller in 1855. In 1853, Jacob Sr. retired and Jacob Jr. and Phillip and later married Braun's widow. The Blatz brewery produced continued operations as the Phillip Best Brewing Company. Fred 150 barrels of beer in its first year of operation, and in 1875 it erick Pabst, who married Maria Best, the daughter of Phillip, became the first brewery in Milwaukee to bottle its beer.4' bought the brewery in 1866. The name was changed to the Pabst Frederick Miller was born in Wiirttemburg inl824 and Brewing Company in 1889.45 followed the traditional path to becoming a master brewer. In its heyday, the Best brewery, with its hillside beer After studying for several years with Bavarian brewmasters. garden, was a prime example of a uniquely German cultural Miller took an apprenticeship under his uncle in France. After
22 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY PABST BREWING COMPANY, «»-»«JKEE. w,s.
(FORMERLY PHILLIP BEST BREWING COMPANY.) •Si-LHGER •»• MND ••• BOTTLE ••• BEERS, «<
STANDARD SELECT HOFBRAEU Bohemian BEST BAVARIAN TONIC, A Concentrated Fluid Extract of EXPORT MALT AND HOPS. *;i* w
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By 1890 when this print was created, Phillip Best had changed its name to Pabst and was one of the largest producers of beer in Milwaukee, with operations stretching over several city blocks.
becoming a master brewer he returned to Germany and began brewing beer in the city of Sigmaringen. He immigrated to the United States in 1854 and selected Milwaukee as his new home. With the proceeds of the sale of his German brewery, he purchased the abandoned Plank Road Brewery for $8,000 and immediately began brewing beer in the new Frederic Miller's Plank Road Brewery (the k was dropped from his name). The brewery was located in the Menomonee Valley a few miles west of Milwaukee. Contemporary photographs show that the hillside beer garden continued under the new management.48 Joseph Schlitz was born in Mainz, Germany, and immi grated to Milwaukee in 1850. He was hired as a bookkeeper at August Krug's brewery and became the manager in 1856 when Kxug died. Kxug had started his brewery in 1849 with an annual production of 150 barrels. Schlitz purchased the Bottling beer became business in 1857. In the age-old tradition of keeping things safe, and popular, with the widespread use in the family he married Krug's widow, Anna Maria. The of pasteurization after name of the business was later changed to the Joseph Schlitz 49 1875. Early bottles were Brewing Company. made of clay, but in 1880 By 1860, the names Best, Pabst, Miller, and Schlitz became Milwaukee's first glass synonymous with brewing expertise and quality beer, and factory opened, partly in Milwaukee had become known as the beer brewing capital of response to the popularity the West. The relationship between Wisconsin and beer was of bottled beer.
AUTUMN 2018 23 Frederic Miller's Plank Road Brewery, photographed ca. 1870, was located in the Menomonee Valley a few miles west of Milwaukee's downtown noted in the Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Cultivator in Wisconsin's first official temperance society was formed in 1859 when a correspondent attending the Michigan State Fair Green Bay in 1835, and the new movement soon spread state asked, "Where, oh where, are your stalls, your sheds, your pens, wide. The first annual meeting of the Wisconsin Temperance where lager beer is dispensed? With them you are complete: Society was held on February 13, 1840, in Troy, Wisconsin.54 without them, oh Wolverines, your brethren of the West will The society had the following mission: "We the undersigned, have you on the hip."50 do agree, that we will not use intoxicating liquors as a beverage, nor traffic in them—that we will not provide them as an article The Early Temperance Movement of entertainment, or for persons in our employment—and that, Not everyone approved of Milwaukee's emerging role as a in all suitable ways we will discountenance their use throughout brewing powerhouse. In an 1861 essay on manufacturing in the community"55 The first issue of the Wisconsin Temperance Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Culti Journal was published the following April. The object of the vator described the role of Milwaukee's breweries as converting paper was to spread the message of temperance to Wisconsin the gifts of God into damning poison "suited to the morbid and the rest of the country. In its journal, the society resolved cravings of suicidal men."51 to "discountenance the manufacture of ardent spirits in our The temperance movement of the nineteenth century Territory"56 and to elect men "of sound temperance principles arose from a general spirit of reform prevalent at the time. and habits"57 to political office. In order to secure lasting change, The movement began in New England, and Yankee immi the members of the society pledged to petition the legislature, grants brought conflicting views of temperance to Wisconsin. as well as "every village, town and settlement in the Territory" Farmers knew that turning their grain into liquor and beer to enact laws prohibiting the sale of liquor.58 was a highly profitable business. Itinerant workers and farm From the beginning, Milwaukee was targeted by temper laborers often looked forward to alcohol as part of their ance forces. Churches and religious organizations stood at the wages.52 These ideas and practices often clashed with a New forefront of the movement. It was a natural fit as sobriety in life England view of temperance as a response to the perceived dovetailed nicely with their religious message. Churches at the scandal of national insobriety.53 time, as well as today, were natural gathering places and social
24 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY STEP 1 STEP 9. A glass sidcitLt:
The "Drunkard's Progress" was a common image in the early days of the temperance movement. This version, printed by Currier & Ives, tracks the life cycle of the drinker from beginning ("a glass with a friend") to end ("death by suicide"). outlets for their parishioners. Milwaukee's first temperance The Wisconsin Temperance Society also believed in action. society, the Catholic Total Abstinence Society, was formed in With the goal of leading Milwaukee's burgeoning Irish popula 1842. Perhaps because they saw a separation between the activ tion to "sober respectability," they organized a Saint Patrick's ities of Saturday night and those of Sunday morning, German Day parade in 1843.61 The parade continues to this day but, as and Irish Catholics never supported the movement.59 Protes any Milwaukeean can attest, the message has changed. tant temperance organizations were very active and had robust As early as 1849, laws aimed at curtailing the sale and financial support. These included the Washington Temper availability of alcohol were passed in Wisconsin. The "dram ance Society, founded in 1840, and the Sons of Temperance, shop laws" made tavern keepers responsible for local welfare Wisconsin Division No. 1, founded in 1846. costs if they regularly supplied liquor to known alcoholics. There were also individual reformers in the movement. Families could even sue the tavern keeper for loss of economic Traveling from town to town they spread their message and support.62 These laws were opposed by Milwaukee's German were received as popular performers and good entertainment population. After several years of advances and repeals with a message. Others did more than preach. Caleb Wall was a including bonds, license fees, and outright prohibition of reformer who put deeds before words, with mixed results. Wall intoxicating liquor, the effort ran out of steam. Despite the traveled from Springfield, Illinois, to Milwaukee in 1842. There strenuous efforts of the reformers, these early attempts at he turned the Milwaukee House Hotel into a temperance hotel prohibition had not slowed the growth of Wisconsin's brewing established on moral principles. He refurbished the structure industry. There was a tenfold increase in operating breweries with all modern accessories and drew up a code of conduct in the decade of the 1850s. Changing cultural habits was no that guests of his hotel were expected to follow. Other reformers easy task, especially when the people targeted were unwilling praised his efforts, but his guests did not. They regularly flouted to change and had the power to vote. By 1855, Germans the rules, and Wall responded by modifying his code in order to had become a political force in Milwaukee, and reformers attract customers. His establishment soon became just another turned their attentions to the more pressing cause of slavery63 hotel, albeit a popular one. Even so, Wall couldn't make ends It wasn't until after the Civil War that additional laws were meet, and in 1844, he sold the property and moved on.60 passed concerning the consumption of alcoholic beverages.
AUTUMN 2018 25 Marketing Beer
Despite the huge German population of Wisconsin, beer did not sell itself. Early rural breweries were small and did not widely distribute their product. The heavy barrels were difficult to transport. This became especially true in winter when the ice and snow made delivery by the heavy brewery wagons difficult. In rural markets, the brewer often knew his clients so advertising was not necessary. But in Milwaukee, the competition was greater, so retail sales and advertising became increasingly important as brewers competed for customers. The Best brothers began advertising in Milwaukee's German-language newspapers in the late 1840s. An ad in the June 17, 1851, edition of the German-language Wisconsin Banner began with the eye-catching declamation, "Lagerbier!" The ad went on to say that because its new bottom-fermented beer was sold out, Best & Co. would like to offer "lager beer SRddjften Sottntag, fctn «. Suit, from the barrel" to customers.64 A week later, the Best broth fctfltnnen »fr mil tern Slu^npfcn utifrrfS noefe SKfincfcentr Slrt gtStauttn er's Plank Road Brewery advertised the opening of the beer 303u"i'52- Best & <&o., hall on East Water Street in Milwaukee. The advertisement, 53ier:.S3iille an fc« 9Ratft
26 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY 26. Advertisement, Daily Sentinel and Gazette (Milwaukee), October 19, 1846; Advertisement, 0 Daily Sentinel and Gazette, February 19, 1847. CONTENTS TUafte unftrt th* formula 27. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 40. 12 FLUID OZ of a famous olb 28. J. Sanford Rikoon, Threshing in the Midwest, 1820-1940 (Bloomington: Indiana University <&nman-jBrew Press, 1988), 1. 29. Dirk Hildebrandt, "A Generation of Oxen," Wisconsin Magazine of Hstory 99, no. 1 ;Autumn2015): 19. 30. Wayne F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 2. 31. Kroll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 3. 32. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 4. 33. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 4. 34. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 4—5. 35. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 5. 36. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 5. 37. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 13—14. 38. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 14. 39. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition, 109. 40. F^roll, Badger Breweries Past and Present, 78. 41. Kroll, Badger Breweries Past and Present, 83. 42. F^roll, Badger Breweries Past and Present, 73. 43. "History Gomes to Life," Milwaukee County Historical Society, accessed at https://milwau- keehistory.net/education/Milwaukee-timeline/. 44. Magee,-Brewing"in Milwaukee, 13. 45. Magee, Brewing in Mlwaukee, 43-52. 46. Richard H. Zeitlin, Germans in Wisconsin, 21-22. 47. Magee, Brewing in Milwaukee, 53—60. 48. Magee, Brewing in Mlwaukee, 61—74. 49. Magee, Brewing in Mlwaukee, 93—110. 50. "A Bird's Eye View of the Michigan State Fair," Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Blatz continued to celebrate its German origins during Prohibition. Cultivator 11, no. 11 (1859): 418. 51. "Industrial and Commercial Towns of Wisconsin," Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western This ad, created in 1926, advertises Old Heidelberg near beer, whose Cultivator 13, no. 7 (1861): 237. low alcohol content was still legal. 52. Joseph A. Ranney, Wisconsin's Legal Hstory (Madison: DeWitt, Ross & Stevens, 1998), 23. 53. Colleen McDannell, ed., Religions of the United States in Practice, v. 1 (Princeton: Princ eton University Press, 2001), 158. 54. The Committee on the Suppression of Distilleries, "The Suppression of Distilleries," Wisconsin Temperance Journal 1, no. 1 (April 1840): 2. Notes 55. Hintz, A Spirited Hstory of Mlwaukee Brews & Booze, 103. 1. "The History of Beer: Monastic Brewing Traditions," British Broadcasting Corporation, 56. "The Suppression of Distilleries," 2. http://www.bbc.co.Uk/religion/0/20909447; Thomas G. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company: 57. A. Dickenson, "On Political Action," Wisconsin Temperance Journal 1, no. 1 (April 1840): 2. The Hstoryofan American Business (New York: New York University Press, 1948), 11-12. 58. The Committee on Temperance Publications and Agencies, "Temperance Publications and 2. "Reinheitsgebot. . . 500 Years Strong," Museum of Beer & Brewing 29 (Fall 2016): 1. Agencies," Wisconsin Temperance Journal 1, no. 1 (April 1840): 2. 3. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company, 12. 59. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company, 37. 4. Wayne Kroll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 1830s-1880s (Fort Atkinson, Wl: 60. Harry Ellsworth Cole, Stagecoach and Tavern Tales of the Old Northwest (Cleveland: self-published by author, 2003), 3. Arthur H. Clark Company, 1930), 151-154; Andrew Carpenter Wheeler, The Chronicles of 5. Cotton Planter, "Spruce Beer," Wisconsin Farmer and North-Western Cultivator 9, no. 10 Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Germain & Brightman, 1861), 108-111. (1857): 370. 61. Hintz, A Spirited Hstory of Milwaukee Brews &Booze, 104. 6. Maria Elizabeth Ketelby Rundell, American Domestic Cookery: Formed on the Principles of 62. Ranney, Wisconsin's Legal Hstory, 23. Economy, for the Use of Private Families (New York: Everet Duyckinck, 1823), 268-271. 63. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company, 37—40. 7. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company, 12. 64. Advertisement for Best & Co., Wisconsin Banner (Milwaukee), June 17, 1851. 8. W J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York: Oxford 65. Advertisement for Plank Road Brewery, Wisconsin Banner, June 24, 1851. University Press, 1979), 108-109. 66. Advertisement for Best beer hall, Wisconsin Banner, July 9, 1851. 9. Warren B. Carah, "William Bowden Phillips: Early Pioneer of Mariposa County, California," 67. Advertisement for Best beer, Wisconsin Banner, June 30, 1852. http://www.mariposaresearch.net/Phillipswc.html. John Phillips was one of many siblings of 68. Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz, Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin's Hstoric Bars & Brew William Bowden Phillips, all of whom were born in Cornwall between 1801 and 1809. John and eries (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012), 63. William emigrated to the United States in 1832. 69. Draeger and Speltz, Bottoms Up, 68. 10. History of Iowa County, Wisconsin (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1881), 660. 70. Kevin Revolinski, Wisconsin's Best Beer Guide: A Travel Companion (Holt, MI: Thunder 11. According to census records, the parents of Henry Rablin and John Bray, both born in Bay Press, 2010), 35-36. Wisconsin, were Cornish immigrants; see www.ancestry.com and www.findagrave.com. 71. State Craft Beer Sales & Production Statistics, 2017, https://www.brewersassociation.org/ 12. Hstory of Lafayette County, Wisconsin (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1881), 603. statistics/by-state/. 13. "Caves of Beaver Dam," Museum of Beer & Brewing 31 (Spring 2017): 8. 14. Wayne Kroll, Badger Breweries Past and Present Jefferson, Wl: self-published by author, 1976), 124. 15. Kroll, Badger Breweries Past and Present, 113, 39. ABOUT THE AUTHOR 16. Martin Hintz, A Spirited Hstory of Milwaukee Brews & Booze (Charleston, SC: History Dirk Hildebrandt is the historic farmer at the Press, 2011), 9. 17. John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Milwaukee County Historical Society, Old World Wisconsin state historic site where 1999), 59. he oversees agricultural programming. At Old 18. Richard H. Zeitlin, Germans in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2000), 6-7. World, he keeps Wisconsin's agricultural history 19. Zeitlin, Germans in Wisconsin, 9-10. alive through the use and breeding of heritage 20. "19th-century Immigration," Wisconsin Historical Society, www.wisconsinhistory.org/ /'/ ^ livestock and raising heirloom crops. Dirk is a turningpoints/tp-018/. 21. Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee, 60. J member of the Livestock Conservancy, and he 22. Cochran, The Pabst Brewing Company, 40-41. -"*-' '—' is currently working to grow and harvest his 23. Brenda Magee, Brewing in Milwaukee (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014), 13-18. 24. Michael R. Reilly, "Hops Growing History in Lisbon, Wisconsin, Waukesha County, and toric varieties of barley and hops for the traditional brewing program Wisconsin," Sussex-Lisbon Area Historical Society, www.slahs.org/history/local/business/ at Old World. He is the author of Wisconsin Magazine of History articles hops. htm. on the roles of oxen and hemp in the history of Wisconsin agriculture. 25. F^roll, Wisconsin's Frontier Farm Breweries, 40.
AUTUMN 2018 27 k i
.••,**-*«? r.-'iwft-.. .,,**•* i,.(', IL.-I" ..^.^.^i^- "ON, WISCONSIN!"
BY JOHN ZIMM 31 D 11 • i ii i ii ii 1111 wiiiiNiii unfiifpnnri iiti
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A group of people poses in front of the Camp Randall Memorial Arch during its dedication on June 19,1912. The arch stands on the site of a'guardhouse dating to the Civil War, when Camp Randall served as a training ground for Wisconsin soldiers.The statues commemorating Civil War service that sit in front of the arch were installed later. ^^T) n any given autumn Saturday, tens of thousands Camp Randall in the Civil War W[ J of men, women, and children pack the bleachers In May 1861, Colonel S. Park Goon, newly commissioned to Vi^^ of Camp Randall Stadium to cheer on their lead the Second Wisconsin Infantry, rode out a mile or so west favorite team, the Wisconsin Badgers. The massive bowl of Madison to inspect some land where he might house and 1 of concrete and steel, enclosed on the south by the stone train his men. No one yet knew how many men would be walls of the Field House, has been home to the Badger sacrificed to suppress the rebellion of the Southern states, but Wisconsin governor Alexander Randall continued to accept football team for over one hundred years and has hosted recruits after the initial regiment for which his state was respon a multitude of memorable events, athletic and otherwise. sible had been raised. These men would need a place to learn Camp Randall is a place where rivalries are renewed how to be soldiers, and when the State Agricultural Society and traditions are sustained, a held rich with history that offered use of its fairgrounds, Randall sent Colonel Goon to predates Badger athletics, and a setting made special by assess the land. the fans and athletes, and the musicians and celebrities, Goon arrived and saw that the land was good. The fair who have entered its gates. grounds sat on gently sloping land with good drainage, bound
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Soldiers of the Third Wisconsin Artillery train at Camp Randall in 1861.
30 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY on the west by low hills and to the east by the city of Madison. It of the most remarkable combat records of any unit in the also held several buildings that could be of use. Goon endorsed Union Army—and suffer one of the highest casualty rates in the location, also suggesting a name for the place to which the the process. In their wake, tens of thousands more Wisconsin governor reluctantly agreed: Camp Randall. Work immediately boys came to Gamp Randall, either as volunteers or draftees, began to make the camp ht for solders. The cattle pens on the to receive uniforms, rifles, and rudimentary training. Out of north, east, and south sides of the fairgrounds were remodeled, the 92,000 Wisconsin men who served in the war, 70,000 were roofed, outfitted with bunks, insulated with straw, and rechris- mustered into service at Gamp Randall.4 tened as barracks.2 The Fine Art Hall on the western edge of In addition to serving as a training ground for the state's the grounds became a hospital and store rooms, while a large soldiers, Gamp Randall was also used for a brief time to house hall once used to exhibit "Operative Machinery" became "the Confederate prisoners captured at the Battle of Island Number shrine at which hungry soldiers worship," the mess hall.3 10, a month-long face-off at a bend in the Mississippi above Soon, troops of the Second Wisconsin were on the grounds, New Madrid, Missouri, in the spring of 1862. In all, about 1,200 training and getting equipped for their service as part of the prisoners made the journey by steamboat up the great river to legendary Iron Brigade, with which they would assemble one Prairie du Ghien, and by rail to Madison for imprisonment at the camp. The Confederates arrived in Madison tired and unwell, with the lack of provisions, harsh weather, and hardships of war having taken a toll on the young men. Several died along the way; dozens more died at Gamp Randall and were buried in Madison's Forest Hill Cemetery. As one batch of prisoners arrived in late April looking "tired and jaded," a regimental band started playing "Dixie," lightening the step and bright ening the eyes of the prisoners.5 A few weeks later, two pris-
Wisconsin State Fair, 1879. The fair, sponsored by the State Agricultural Society, was held at locations around the state including Camp Randall, which reverted to the State Agricultural Society after the Civil War.
AUTUMN 2018 31 oners escaped and were recaptured by the commander of the to the public, sentiment arose among veterans, politicians, and camp, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Whipple, who hunted them citizens that the grounds ought to be spared development. The down wrapped in a buffalo robe and armed only with a club.6 Wisconsin department of the Grand Army of the Republic, an On the way back to the camp, Colonel Whipple berated the organization of Civil War veterans, adopted a resolution stating escapees, telling them they ought to be ashamed of themselves that "the ground upon which the camphres were hrst built in for escaping after having been treated so humanely7 By early this state in the war of the union, where the knowledge of war June 1862, all of the Confederate prisoners had been moved to and its hardships were hrst taught, where the ties of comrade Gamp Douglas in Chicago. ship that will hold until the end were hrst formed, should be When the war ended in 1865, Camp Randall returned to its purchased by the state and beautified and forever held as a antebellum use as one of several fairgrounds for the State Agri memorial park."8 cultural Society. In 1892, however, the society began holding its annual fair at State Fair Park in Milwaukee. The next year, A New Purpose for Randall Field society leaders decided to sell the land once used to train so The University of Wisconsin acquired Gamp Randall in the many Wisconsin soldiers. As news of the impending sale filtered spring of 1893, trusting that the held would make a hne place
Top: A football game inside the old stadium. The stadium was oriented east to west until it was replaced by the new concrete stadium, which is oriented north to south, in 1917. Bottom: The wooden grandstand at Camp Randall was full of spectators in this 1906 photograph taken from atop Bascom Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus.
32 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY "i ®HWISCONSIN ! ,jSSBs:> MARCH SONG
CAR-ITBECK ^8P jUt a ™, W J&
The battle cry of "On, Wisconsin!", first used by Lt. Authur McArthur Jr. to rally the 24th Wisconsin during the Battle of Chattanooga Aerial view of Camp Randall, 1910. The football field was surrounded by a running track, while at Missionary Ridge during the Civil War, has wooden bleachers and a wooden grandstand provided seating for spectators. These wooden been used since 1909 as the fight song for structures were already in need of improvement but would be in use for several more years. the Wisconsin Badgers.9
The bleachers at Camp Randall undergoing strength testing after the 1915 collapse
AUTUMN 2018 33 Top: Wisconsin on its way to a 10-7 victory over Minnesota, November 3,1917. During halftime of the game, which was also homecoming, the new Camp Randall Stadium was dedicated. Bottom: An aerial view of Camp Randall in 1934, just four years after the completion of the field house. The mostly enclosed bowl had taken shape.
34 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY for practices and matches for its growing athletic department. In addition to a flat, open field, which was located near the college campus, a wooden grandstand also offered seating and shelter for spectators. The track and field team had previously used the field for meets, and it continued to train and compete in the camp for the next fifty years. Additionally, the site could be used by the University of Wisconsin football team, which had enjoyed a meteoric rise in popularity since its start in 1889. During those first years, the football team played a handful of games each year on a field in Lower Campus, which is presently occupied by the university's Memorial Library, the Library Mall, and the Wisconsin Historical Society headquarters building.9 Lower Campus had no seating; spectators merely lined the sides of the field to cheer on their team. Games could easily be viewed from Bascom Hill without paying admission for the privilege. In 1895, the football team began playing games at Camp Randall, which was much more suitable for athlete and spectator alike. In repurposing the field, the Civil War veterans were not forgotten. In 1911, the Wisconsin Legislature appropriated $25,000 to create a memorial arch, set on a little knoll at the Dayton Street entrance where a guardhouse once stood. On the afternoon of November 20, 1915, fans packed the wooden bleachers of Camp Randall, which also was known as Randall Field, to watch a football game against the visiting Minnesota Gophers. During the game, the east side bleachers gave way and collapsed, injuring hundreds, though none were seriously hurt. The accident caught the attention of the Wisconsin Legislature, however, which promptly appropriated $20,000 to fund the construction of a new concrete and steel stadium that would hold 10,000 fans.11 Work began on the new stadium on March 16, 1916, and 12 Aviator Charles Lindbergh addressed a crowd at Camp Randall on was complete the following year. Ten thousand fans were in August 22,1927, shortly after making his historic transatlantic flight attendance on November 3, 1917, to see the official dedica in the Spirit of St. Louis. tion of the new concrete stadium during halftime of a game against Minnesota. The Badgers prevailed 10-7. A writer for the UW—Madison yearbook later prophesied: "In time to come, larger crowds are expected to require further concrete stands, and future generations of students will undoubtedly witness the playing field entirely enclosed by a mammoth concrete 'bowl.'"13 The yearbook writer's predictions proved true, and football only became more popular in the 1920s, necessitating several expansions to Camp Randall. In 1921, an additional 4,000 seats were added. In 1922, fire destroyed the wooden grandstand that had been retained from the prior incarnation of the stadium. Repairs and more concrete seating added more capacity, but the north and south ends of the stadium remained open. In 1930, the Field House was built on the south end; in 1940, concrete seats were added on the north end. A novel expansion occurred Jesse Owens competed for Ohio State in a Big Ten track meet at in 1957 when the field was lowered and made smaller to add Camp Randall in 1936, shortly before his record-breaking showing at 10,000 seats. This expansion eliminated the running track that the Berlin Olympics, during which he won four gold medals. formerly encompassed the football field. The concrete bowl
AUTUMN 2018 35 The Badgers prepare to kick a field goal against Illinois, November 12,2016, surrounded by fans clad in red.
grew once again in the mid-1960s, bringing the available seating to 77,745. Finally, a major renovation in the early 2000s brought Gamp Randall to its current capacity of 80,321.
Highlights and Traditions Though it is best known as the home of the Wisconsin Badger football team, Camp Randall has seen a variety of uses over the past one hundred years. In addition to hosting the univer sity's track team for fifty years in the early part of the twentieth century, the stadium was also home to the Badger soccer team in the 1970s and 1980s. The Green Bay Packers played a dozen preseason games at Camp Randall in the 1980s and 1990s and set records for the largest Wisconsin crowds to see the team play until Lambeau Field was renovated with larger capacity from 2001 to 2003. When not in use for athletic events, Gamp Randall has hosted musicians and dignitaries, as well as impromptu cele brations. In 1927, aviator Charles Lindbergh flew to Madison in his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, and spoke in front of a crowd of 40,000 at Camp Randall. Before leaving town, Lindbergh circled the capitol in his plane and helped dedicate the UWs Memorial Union. In 1972, the stadium hosted a concert by the legendary Duke Ellington Orchestra, drawing 6,000 fans for the occasion. Later, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, considerably more fans showed up to watch legendary bands such as Pink Floyd and U2 play concerts in the stadium.14 Dave Schreiner, tight end for the Badgers and two-time All-American, But of course, it is for Badger football that Camp Randall chats with two young women on the steps of Camp Randall's bleachers, is best known today, as the stadium and its adjacent neighbor ca. 1942. Schreiner was drafted by the Detroit Lions, but enlisted in the hoods are submerged in a pulsating sea of red during football Marines before joining the team. He was killed in Okinawa. season. Over the past one hundred years, there has been no
36 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Amid much fanfare, Bucky Badger rides into Camp Randall atop the Bucky Wagon during homecoming, 1983. Bucky Badger has been a fixture at Camp Randall since 1949. shortage of memories and traditions, thanks to the Badger 6. Quiner Papers, Volume 6, 91. 7. Quiner Papers, Volume 6, 91. teams and fans. Illustrious coaches such as Harry Stuhldreher 8. Daily Independent (Chippewa Falls), January 21, 1893. and Barry Alvarez have roamed the sidelines, while legendary 9. "100 Years of 'On, Wisconsin,'" University of Wisconsin Archives and Record Management website, https://www.library.wisc.edu/archives/exhibits/campus-history-projects/100-years-of- players such as Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne have created on-wisconsin/. havoc for opposing teams on the field. Cheering them on have 10. Oliver E. Kuechle with Jim Mott, On Wisconsin: Badger Football (Strove Publishers: Huntsville, Alabama, 1977), 13. been tens of thousands of fans, who have made their own mark 11. Kuechle, On Wisconsin, 87-88. 12. Kuechle, On Wisconsin, 88. on the stadium by jumping to their feet before the fourth quarter 13. Harry H. Scott, "Wisconsin's New Stadium," Badger 33 (1919): 160. for House of Pain's 'Jump Around," which has become one of 14. Jenny Price, "11 Legendary Concerts," On Wisconsin (Winter 2017), accessed at https:// the most outstanding traditions in college football, or by staying onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/features/ll-legendary-concerts/. after the game for the "fifth quarter" listening to the UW band. This relationship between performers, athletes, and fans has ABOUT THE AUTHOR made Camp Randall a special place in Wisconsin, a venue with a long history behind it and many years ahead for more John Zimm received a BA in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has memories and traditions to be made. Ml worked for the Wisconsin Historical Society Notes Press since 2002. He is the editor of Blue Men and River Monsters: Folklore of the North from 1. Carolyn J. Mattern, Soldiers When They Go: The Story of Camp Randall, 1861-1865 'Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1981), 3. the press. His articles for the Wisconsin Mag 2. Correspondence of Wisconsin volunteers, 1861-1865, Volume 5, 205-206, E. B. Quiner azine of History include "A Close Encounter of Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. 3. Quiner Papers, Volume 5, 205-206. the Steam-Powered Kind"and '"Run It, and Let's 4. Richard N. Current, The History of Wisconsin Volume 2: The Civil War Era (Madison: Get the Hell Out of Here': Remembering the Ice Bowl." Zimm lives in State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976), 338. 5. Quiner Papers, Volume 6, 90. Waunakee with his wife and son.
AUTUMN 2018 37 SOMOS LATINAS Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists
ANDREA-TERESA ARENAS AND ELOISA GOMEZ
Somos Latinas: Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists by Andrea-Teresa Arenas and Eloisa Gomez shares the powerful narratives of twenty-five Latina activists who have worked for community change in Wisconsin. The stories are drawn from interviews conducted as part of the Somos Latinas Digital History Project housed at the Wisconsin Historical Society. The book also includes the authors' analysis and in-depth exploration of key themes like the activists' role models, support systems, motivations, and risk-taking. The following excerpt features the Wisconsin Latina activist Maria Rodriguez.
38 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY aria Isabel Rodriguez was born in Milwaukee on heritage and culture, to strengthen their resiliency, and, hope September 11, 1952. She became active in commu fully, to do well in school. We created dance groups and annu M nity organizing efforts at an early age through her ally I coordinated Fiesta Navidena [Christmas Party]. It was an involvement with the Latin American Union for Civil Rghts event at the downtown Performing Arts Center. In this beautiful as an education advocate. She became executive director of the facility, we featured many of our children, and the event was City of Milwaukee Election Commission in 1990 and became usually sold out; a couple thousand people attended each year. a founding member of Latinas en Accion, a philanthropic fund Our children danced la botella, la bamba, el merengue, and of the Women's Fund of Greater Milwaukee, in 2003. other folkloric dances. It was great. I stayed with LAUGR until 1980. During these years, I also Ethnic identity: Mexican. learned from working with high school students who we hired Do you consider yourself an activist? Over the course of that many had feelings of being treated "less than," with lower my life, yes. expectations by teachers and administrators in the schools. I How do you define community activism? A person who think their poverty was a part of feeling frustrated and angry. advocates for more resources. There are many ways to do this. This may have led to our Latino students' high dropout rate, As I have aged, my ways of advocacy have changed. but I also saw their resistance to this treatment. Areas of activism: Education and cultural knowledge advocacy. Location of activism: Milwaukee. Supporting Parents, Schools, and Years of activism: Early 1970s, starting right after high school. Community Advocates Fortunately for BBEP staff, our access into the schools was Activism after High School with the permission of the parents, and so we were able to get I was pretty young when I became aware of the social unrest information and work with the teachers. We really didn't have in Milwaukee's Latino community. I was hired part-time by any problems. There were some stubborn teachers, individuals the Latin American Union for Civil Rghts (LAUGR) in 1970, who would not give us any updates or help us in any way, but while I was a junior in high school, for their Bilingual-Bicultural most were caring individuals and did work with us. We were Education Program. The organization was involved in many helping them do their jobs to see student improvements. Now civil rights causes affecting the Latino community. If Latino bilingual-bicultural education, as a whole movement, is seen as members were trying to organize a strike or a walkout or some a little more threatening. thing of that sort, LAUCR was likely involved. They wanted In my second or third year with LAUCR I took a part-time better enforcement of civil rights for Latinos, and to make job as a teacher's aide in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) and people see that we were all human beings, just like anybody I worked with only bilingual children—all bilingual children: else. The underlying work was always about equality and justice, Yugoslavian, Latino, anybody who didn't speak English. One whether it was for the improvements of migrant workers on the time, I went to the principal to meet with him because parents farms in Wisconsin, job access in the tanneries or breweries, or had asked for bilingual services. He was a good principal and addressing police brutality toward our youth. The organization agreed to a meeting. As it was occurring, the union steward of really took a front-line role on these issues. that school rushed into the meeting and objected to us meeting with the principal. She objected to the principal even listening The LAUCR Bilingual-Bicultural Program to what we had to say. At one point, I recall her saying, "This The LAUGR Bilingual-Bicultural Education Program (BBEP) is about us [the teachers]!" Certain teachers were fearful that had about twenty part-time staff during the school year and a bilingual program was going to be coming to that school. In twice the number for our summer camp programs. It was an fact, several of the teachers refused to talk to me for the rest of academic program for children of migrant families who settled the school year. So, you know, a couple years down the road in Milwaukee. We served about one hundred families during the the bilingual program became available for the entire school school year and about two hundred during the summer. The because the majority of the school population was Latino. academic part of the BBEP was really about helping children My role included support for the advocacy efforts of the meet their benchmarks in school, and so we worked very closely Citywide Bilingual-Bicultural Advisory Committee (CWBBAC). with the schools, too. Children were attending neighborhood They were mostly Latino parents who wanted a bilingual schools, so it was easier to work with the schools because the program implemented in the MPS. I helped them organize children had to live in a certain radius to attend. We followed demonstrations before the MPS administration and the school their academics throughout the year. After high school, I ran board to advocate for bilingual education. The parents were not the program. the experts but knew there was a need. We formed an alliance The BBEP offered the cultural arts, too. We actually had with two academics, in particular, to speak on strengths of the dancers, musicians, and artists to help children understand their program based on research findings; they were Dr. Tony Baez
AUTUMN 2018 39 and Dr. Rcardo Fernandez, who came from UW-Milwaukee, opportunity to learn about their backgrounds and struggles. I though Tony played a much greater activist role in our overall recall there was a woman from Bolivia who had been jailed and efforts. They helped the parents, who were primarily women, raped for simply organizing the women working in the mines. understand the need, and offered strategies. We had, in some Now she came to the conference by way of her priest. He helped cases, busloads of families going to school board meetings, pay her way to the conference to build awareness about the staying at school board meetings until one or two o'clock in struggles of women in that country and what the government the morning until our agenda items were addressed. My job was refusing to do in terms of their safety, equity, pay, and things was to help them stay organized and help them in any way that of that nature. I didn't realize how much it really affected me. I I could. The administration's acceptance of the program took was struck by her. She was a small, indigenous-looking woman four to five years. who experienced horrible treatment in her own country, and There were three major community leaders in that city- she was willing to speak out against the injustices against not wide organization, and those women were dynamic in bringing just her, but other women; that really hit home to a lot of other together Latinos of many backgrounds. They were Mercedes women, too. One of my initial reflections was, "Those are not Rvas, Amparo Jimenez, and Aurora Weier. They led the the things that happen back home." And then I thought about effort to motivate and mobilize hundreds of parents to attend the mistreatment of our own women and thought that, to some community strategy meetings, and school board and adminis extent, we were victims of injustice, and we needed things to trator meetings. By doing so, they were successful in making change, too. the CWBBAG the recognized group to negotiate with admin istration on the program's development. These women, and Latina Mujeres Conference in New Mexico others, worked hard. Amparo and Mercedes were doing this Sometime between 1974 and 1976, we were invited to a LRUP as volunteers, and Aurora did this work through her nonprofit mujeres-sponsored conference in Montezuma, New Mexico, organization. The grassroots work was a large part of what led and some of us from Wisconsin decided to go, including Patricia to the bilingual education program in MPS, to make it happen. Goodson. We met with women from all across the States, talking about Latina issues and building a group consciousness about Involvement with La Raza Unida Party our roles as women in the movement and how to support and Latina Feminist Issues ourselves in becoming better organizers of our own communi One of the organizations LAUCR collaborated with was La ties. We didn't see ourselves as the Gloria Steinem feminists; we Raza Unida Party (LRUP). They both were creating awareness saw our men as participants of community change. We wanted of the social, political, and economic oppression and our need to to identify ways to help our men see how they could help the organize for change. Both groups, along with the whole national movement by sharing leadership responsibilities and power. Chicano movement, believed that Chicano people were a nation By doing this together, we would all gain more in the end, so within a nation. I became more involved since I worked for that was kind of our philosophy. The other thing about that LAUGR and participated in meetings, conferences, and work conference that has stayed with me was that our protection shops for women involved with La Raza Unida. There were not seemed necessary. Our Latino men served as armed guards that many LRUP women members in Milwaukee or Wisconsin. at the conference because there had been a rash of killings in I attended three mini-conferences of LRUP women. One was in New Mexico of Latinos and Native Americans at that time. So Illinois and another in Indiana. I was amazed by these strong, there we were, driving up to an old building, which I think had smart Chicana leaders, but also somewhat unsettled because, been a convent, and seeing our men with guns. It was kind of an while we discussed many women-focused issues, the overarching eye-opener because every day that I was there, the newspaper effort was about how to support our men's roles within LRUP. reported that several people had been killed the night before. It I became the selected delegate from Wisconsin's LRUP was very eye-opening to see how dangerous it was to be a Latino to the United Nations Conference on Women in Mexico City or Native American and how little our lives mattered to some. in 1975, and I can't remember how I was selected! LRUP was recognized by the UN as a nation within a nation, so that's Helping to Found the Latina Task Force why LRUP delegates could attend. Although I was the only The idea for starting the Latina Task Force (LTF) came from official delegate, two women from Wisconsin affiliated with several Latinas in the early 1980s; some of them are close friends LRUP attended. Our delegates came from several states, such of mine. Patricia Villarreal, Barbara Medina, Eloisa Gomez, as California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Indiana, Illinois, and several others were looking to improve the conditions for and Wisconsin. Latinas in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin. We thought Delegates came from all over the world. LRUP delegates that by working together we could better advocate for more met with the Third World women who were organizing in services for women and their families. I became a member, their countries of Bolivia, Vietnam, and elsewhere. We had the and other women were attracted to the idea of a Latina-led
40 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Center ,
A brochure for leadership training offered From left to right: Margaret Zarate, Gloria Rodriguez, and Maria Rodriguez attend a LAUCR by the Latina Task Force for current and new Sixteenth of September Community Event, ca. 1975. Latina activists in 1985 advocacy group. A number of the women had tried to work with politically involved because we saw that elected officials had various community leaders, who were almost all men, but they a say in how government resources were distributed and how felt limited in what they could do largely based on their gender. programs could be directed toward different populations. We One of the very first activities that we organized under our would interview candidates based on their level of support group was a weekend training for grassroots women from various for the Latino community and fund-raised for them once we neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Racine, and Madison who really decided to back them. did not understand their power or potential. Through a grant I think we walked away from our time in the LTF with a we obtained, the women, their children, and LTF members better understanding of who we were individually; we saw the came together at a former convent in Madison. We offered different strengths we could contribute and the power of our child care, organized by some of our male supporters, while collective force. This was certainly needed, as we were viewed the women took part in different trainings. Many didn't speak by Latino men as being dangerous; we were viewed by heads English, so our sessions were bilingual or all in Spanish. We of different organizations as being ball-busting. Watch out for attempted to affirm that they were already leaders in certain those Latina Task Force women! But that's not what we were ways and that they had the abilities to further develop their about. We were not anti-men, even though some of our men organizing skills in order to make change in their neighborhoods couldn't understand why their leadership wasn't fine as it was. and cities. It was this effort that clearly said to me that there's In the process of exerting our power, some [men] did hurtful so much potential in women. That experience has stayed with things to us. There were verbal attacks, and direct and indirect me. They were amazing women, and I think they recognized intimidating statements, but for the most part, it did not go their strengths, too. beyond that. Electoral politics was one way our power became For several years, the LTF worked on different advocacy visible in the community. We would meet with politicians as a projects. We gathered research information so we could better group and show that there was strength in organizing voters. In articulate the issues of Latinas to policy makers. We dealt with the process, many of us ended up working for [the politicians]. I local and state government, as they were the largest service think good contributions were made by all these women. Even providers to the Latino community. Eventually, we became after we moved on, we stayed connected and helped each other
AUTUMN 2018 41 out personally and professionally. We continued to team up from time to time as certain issues arose. Some of the fruits of that can be seen at the university, within MPS, and in a better relationship with politicians—and also in understanding our relationship to our men, Latino men. Many of them continue to make contributions and, hopefully, can continue to influence younger people.
Helping to Start Latinas en Accion Around 2000,1 started to serve on the Women's Fund of Greater Milwaukee (WFoGM). I sat on the Grants Advisory Committee for six years, and I felt out of place among the women, and that felt very strange to me. But again, I learned that you have to know how to work with people different than yourself or those that aren't aware of their own biases. In either 2004 or 2005, Cecilia Vallejo and I decided to formalize a fund specific to Latina girls and women within the WFoGM [called Latinas en Accion (LEA)]. Since then, we've raised over $70,000 and started awarding small grants just a few years ago; we have already given out over $35,000. So it is small, but it is growing. I saw this as an extension of the work of the Latina Task Force and so did Patricia Villarreal, who was very involved in the LTF and is now active with LEA. We developed a steering committee for fund development and Maria Rodriguez, 2014 grant making. By LEA being part of the WFoGM, it sort of who came to vote. In 1994, I transferred to the city's Housing gave us an edge, because we were part of an institution, and Authority, where I have been ever since. The agency has a they had a bigger reach that we didn't have in terms of philan strong philosophy of supporting the person toward greater thropy. Broadening the understanding of Latina issues and economic independence, which includes resident leadership and concerns with a group that traditionally just deals with repro supporting parents to see that their children do well in school. ductive health added another layer of education. I've had some As I can, I enjoy time with my husband, Emilio Lopez, and reflection on my role to support Latinas and my community. expanding family. I'm now a grandmother often grandchildren. Rght now, it's about broadening the knowledge with others It's a wonderful experience, and when I retire, I plan to enjoy as to who we are as Latinas, that we are a vital part of this time with all of them even more. community now and in the near future, even more so as our population grows, and we need to make sure that our girls and women are advancing. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Some older members of our original group and myself Andrea-Teresa Arenas, PhD, have begun to step back and let the younger members of our left, recently retired from her committee take over. Formalizing a group was one thing. positions at UW-Madison as Getting it started, building the fund, having it as part of the a Chican@ and Latin@ Studies WFoGM, and negotiating how we use those dollars in the Faculty Affiliate and the direc community was all part of the steering committee. But in the tor of the Office of Service last couple of years we really wanted, very strategically, to bring Learning and Community- in young women, and we've done that. I think we are better, Based Research in the Col lege of Letters & Science. She is currently the director of the Somos we are stronger, and they are going to carry out the mission of Latinas Digital History Project. LEA into the next generation. Eloisa Gomez, right, is the director of the Milwaukee County UW- Life Today Extension Office. From 2008 to 2012, she was vice-president of the In 1990, I was hired by Mayor John Norquist to be the exec Latino Historical Society of Wisconsin, and she served on the Somos utive director of the Election Commission. I always thought Latinas Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2015. that voting was so important. When I was in high school, I To hear interviews and read transcripts from the Somos Latinas Digital volunteered as a poll worker and translated for Spanish speakers History Project, visit http://wihist.org/SomosLatinasOralHistories.
42 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Your planned gift to the Society is a contribution that can last for generations
For Nancy Marshall Bauer of Madison, appreciating Wisconsin's history is ingrained in her DNA. After all, she is the great-granddaughter of Samuel Marshall (left), who in 1846 was a founding board member of the Wisconsin Historical Society. "The Society seems to have always been part of my life," Nancy says. It will be part of her legacy, too. "My husband Helmut was also a YOU CAN HELP NANCY SUPPORT THE SOC. history buff, and when he died in BY INCLUDING US IN YOUR WILL 2003, setting up an endowment in Contact the Wisconsin Historical Foundation at (608) 261 -9587 [email protected]. our names seemed a wonderful way to promote the Society's mission." The legal name for a bequest or beneficiary designation is Wisconsin Historical Foundation, Inc. Tax ID number: 39-0921093 Thanks to Nancy's generous decision, powerful stories of our history will I Wisconsin Historical be shared far into the future. „ FOUNDATION Abolition and the Law in Civil
Thomas Nast published this engraving in Harper's Weekly in January 1865 celebrating the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation with scenes depicting slavery's past and an optimistic view of future possibilities for African Americans. Like Nast, abolitionists in Wisconsin wanted to believe their efforts would lead to opportunities for the formerly enslaved.
44 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY War-Era Wisconsin FROM GLOVER *"! TO GILLESPIE
BY GRACE CASTAGNA
In 1849, more than a decade before the start of the Civil War, a Wisconsin election asked voters whether suffrage rights should be extended to people of color. The United States was beginning to show signs of discord as the debate over whether to admit new territories as slave or free states plagued the nation. Despite this tension, the question of black male suffrage was presented to voters on the gubernatorial ballot in Wisconsin's 1849 election. The votes came back with a 5,265 to 4,075 majority in support of the measure. Unfortunately, the motion was denied on a technicality. The question of black suffrage was one of several items on the ballot that day, and the majority of citizens only voted on certain issues. The State Board of Canvassers determined that since far fewer than half of the voters had chosen to vote on suffrage, it must be assumed that those who did not vote for or against it were opposed. The decision reversed the majority vote, and African Americans were denied voting rights.1 Sixteen years later, a tall, mixed-race man walked into the polling place in Milwaukee's Seventh Ward and requested that his name be added to the voting registry.2 As expected, the request was denied. The man was Ezekiel Gillespie, a former slave who had lived in Wisconsin since 1852.3 While the nation was still reeling from the Civil War, Gillespie took his case to trial, and ultimately the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that African Americans not only had the right to vote, but that they should have been allowed to do so since the election of 1849.4 The decision to overturn the 1849 ruling and grant voting rights to black men came four years before the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1869 and a full century before the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965. Though groundbreaking, the decision in the Gillespie case is consistent with Wiscon-
AUTUMN2018 45 JANE3VILLE, WIS.. APRIL 12, 1849.
The Rfclil of Sufl'rage. Ac-o.-Jing to the provisions of an act of the 1 >g slature, which we published laut week, the question of extending the right of sufViage to colored persona is to be i ubmitted to the people of this State at its nest annual election. If a inijority of all the voters at that election be in favor of so extending this right and will so vote, then this law take* immediate effect, and the colored man can exercise thi* right at once.— Rut if not, even though nr majority «>f those vo ting on this question, should vole in favor of granting this right, it will still remain unsettled. Left: Sherman M. Booth, ca. 1860 It is certainly desirable that this trial should be Right: Byron Paine, ca. 1870, when he was a Wisconsin Supreme «. decisive one—that every voter should vote on Court justice this question, so that it may be kuown whether o majority of the people of Wisconsin are for or against granting this right. We therefore sin's history as an abolitionist state that fought against slavery think it is time to direct the attention of the pub through legal (and sometimes extralegal) means during the Civil lic to the subject. War era. Two white Wisconsinites emerged during the mid-1800s as Articles leading up to the election show that the voting language champions for the abolitionist cause: Sherman M. Booth and may have been a point of contention even before the election, with Byron Paine. The two gained national attention for their attack some newspapers interpreting the wording as inclusive of all votes cast, and others interpreting it as inclusive of only the votes cast on on the Fugitive Slave Act after their involvement in the escape of the issue. According to the Janesville Gazette, the "majority of all the former slave Joshua Glover in 1854 four years after the act passed. votes cast" included those who did not vote on the issue of suffrage. While history tends to remember Booth and Paine only for their To ensure a "decisive" vote, the paper urged that"every voter should role in the Glover case, both were instrumental in fighting for vote on this question." African American suffrage in Wisconsin. Booth accompanied Gillespie when he attempted to vote, and Paine served as his VOT* ON FIIKK SuKKR.vr.it.—The vote of Mil lawyer during the trial. As a result of their efforts, Wisconsin 5 waukee on the " Free Suffrage " question stands became the first state in the Midwest to pass black suffrage. th ns: Sherman Booth gained attention for his abolitionist senti VKS. NO. ments immediately upon moving to Wisconsin in 1848, just 1st Ward, - - - 183 181 2d " 44 1\ months after the state's founding. He moved to Wisconsin 3d '• - - - - 26 17 following years of political activism on the East Coast, where 4th " - - - 105 71 5th » - - - - 39 49 he had been involved with the abolition movement while a student at Yale University. After his graduation in 1841, Booth 397 379 Majority for Suffrage in the city 18. worked with Ichabod Codding, editing Codding's abolitionist newspaper, the Christian Freeman. Booth and Codding moved THE SUFFRAGE QUESTION.— Th« re from Meridan, Connecticut, to Milwaukee to continue their turns indicate that a majority of the votes cast activist work, and Booth took control of the Christian Freeman, upon that particular ijuestion, will be for the 6 extension of suffrage to colored persons— which he renamed the Wisconsin Free Democrat. the law says, "a majority of ALL the vote* east." Booth remained an ardent abolitionist and used his paper to promote his ideals. In his first address to Wisconsin readers, he wrote, "We shall endeavor to promote the peaceful and The Weekly Wisconsin reported a majority of votes cast for"free suffrage" in Milwaukee, predicting the same returns throughout the constitutional abolition of American slavery by presenting state. Though its forecast proved true, the ambiguous "majority of all facts and arguments adapted to impress the public mind with a the votes cast" would give officials reason to invalidate the results and sense of the impolicy, unprofitableness and wickedness of slave- keep the vote from African American men in 1849. holding, and by urging those who exercise the right of suffrage
46 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY All the People of this State, who are opposed to -being .made SLAVES or SLAVE-CATCHERS, «.nd to having the Free Soil of Wisconsin RiadcUhe hunting-ground forJHuma* Kidnapper*, tfid nil who are willing to unite in a fr STATE Fj/EAGUE,^m to defend our State Sovereignty, our State Courts, and our State and National Constitutions, against the flagrant usurpations of t". S. Judges, Commissioners, and Marshals, and their At- oruevs: and '" maintain, "•*f ipJaiS those oy^yifCujtsl itutioiml Safeguards of Freedom—the BBr'V?" iiAili^istoRPI-S, and (ffeftlGHT OF TRIAL BY JURY—as old and sacred as Constitutional Liberty itself; and all who are willing to sustain the cause of those who are prosecuted, and to be prosecuted in Wisconsin, by the agents and executors of the Kidnapping Act of 1K50, for the alleged crime of rescuing a human being from the hands of kidnappers, and restoring him to himself and to Freedom, are invited to meet at YOUNGS' HALL. IN THIS CITY, An etching of Joshua Glover by Chauncey C. Olin, who conveyed him from Waukesha to Racine after the rescue. Olin portrays him as light THURSDAY, APRIL 13th, skinned and dressed in a high-collared shirt and tie. At 11 o'clock A. M., to counsel together ,and take such action as the exigencies of the times, and the cause of imperilled Liberty demand. FREEMEN OF WISCOJWBMJTl In the spirit of our Revolutionary Fathers, come fp to this gathering of the Free, resolved to speak and act as men worthy of a Free Heritage. Joshua Glover, a former slave who escaped to Wisconsin, ftLe t the plough stand still in the furrow, and the door of the workshop be closed, while you hasten to the rescue of your country. Let the Merchant forsake his Counting Room, the fell victim to the Fugitive Slave Act several years after its passage. Lawyer his Brief, and the Minister of God his Study, and come up to discuss with us the broad principles of Liberty. Let Old Age throw aside its crutch, and Youth put on the strength of manhood, and the young men gird themselves anew for the conflict; and faith shall Glover escaped from Missouri in 1852 using the Underground make us valiant in fight, and hope lead us onward to victory; " for they that be for us, are more than they that be against us." Come, then, one and all, from every town and village, come, Railroad and eventually took up residence in Racine, where and unite with us in the sacred cause of Liberty. Now is the time to strike for Freedom. Come, while the/rwspirit still burn* in your bosom. Cornel ere the fires of Liberty are ex he worked at a local sawmill. In 1854, Glover's former master tinguished on the nation's altars, and it be too late to re-kindle the dying embers. Benammi Garland learned of his whereabouts and traveled to BT ORDER OF COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 9 MILWAUKEE, April 7, 1854. Wisconsin to reclaim him. Glover was apprehended and taken to a Milwaukee jail, where he was to remain until his trial. Milwaukee abolitionists organized a mass meeting to take place on When Sherman Booth learned that a fugitive slave had April 13,1854, about a month after the Glover incident, to protest been apprehended, he immediately understood the implica what they termed "The Kidnapping Act of 1850." Booth and Paine tions. Alleged fugitives had very few rights; though they were were among the featured speakers. sometimes granted a trial, they could not testify and were not tried by jury10 There was no doubt that Glover would be to employ the moral suasion of the ballot-box to break every returned to Missouri with Garland if a trial took place. Taking yoke and let the oppressed go free."7 Booth became well-known quick action, Booth printed a handbill stating, "The object is throughout Wisconsin for his abolitionist speaking and writing, evidently to get a secret trial, without giving him a chance to and he would quickly earn national attention for his role in the defend himself by counsel. Citizens of Milwaukee! . . . Shall a Glover case. Man be dragged back to slavery from our Free Soil, without an The Glover case was prompted by the passage of the Fugi open trial of his right to Liberty?" Booth then rode his horse tive Slave Act of 1850. Building on earlier legislation of the same throughout the town, yelling, "All citizens who are opposed name, the Fugitive Slave Act required citizens to assist in the to being made slaves or slavecatchers turn out to a meeting in capture of runaway slaves and to return them as property to the court house square at two o'clock."11 His summoning was their owners—even in states where slavery was not legal. The effective, and a large crowd gathered outside the courthouse law made it illegal to harbor or conceal a slave, and there were the next day. strict punishments for anyone aiding in an enslaved person's While Booth claimed the meeting was intended to be escape. Many Northerners were outraged by the law, which peaceful, called solely to ensure Glover received council and forced them to support and perpetuate the institution of slavery a fair trial, the crowd soon became unruly12 Dozens stormed despite previous laws that stated slavery would not extend past the jailhouse, removing Glover from custody and smuggling the state of Missouri. Some refused to comply, continuing to him away. He escaped to Canada and was never returned to help slaves escape to the North and to Canada.8 Others, like Garland.13 While abolitionists were thrilled at Glover's escape, it Booth, worked actively to end the Fugitive Slave Act, preaching infuriated many others, and it caused resentment against Booth the illegality and hypocrisy of the law. for encouraging extrajudicial action. An effigy of Booth was
AUTUMN 2018 47 «J
MCONSTITUTIOSALITY
FUGITIVE SLAYE ACT.
DECISIONS
jSnprratt €uxt ai W&istmh tuuns. .4 IN THE CASES BOOTH AND RYCRAFT. tCLAAA; lfr-€eCC J24CC&C C&tsc4~-&4 V&&S&JLCCJ C^X^L^L^', ()f «4» &piy CL&ti^y Soon after Booth's trial, Rufus King Jr., a Whig news paperman with abolitionist leanings, published /l**r. this slim volume, which included the official rulings and outlined the specifics of the groundbreaking Ableman v. Booth. 14 burned following the escape. After an inves ^6L£C &i fori ^e-L^Uv^^-. tigation, US Marshals determined that Booth had gathered and incited the crowd, and they charged him with violating the Fugitive Slave Act. Following his arrest, Booth sought the council of a young local lawyer, Byron Paine. Paine used a writ of habeus corpus to bring Booth before the court to determine Like Booth, Byron Paine moved to whether he should be held. Justice Abram Smith ruled that there was "no sufficient Wisconsin with his abolitionist ideals already cause or warrant for the detention of the said Sherman M. Booth.'The decision was formed. Paine's father, brother, and uncle were overturned multiple times, resulting in Booth's off-and-on imprisonment in the years also abolitionists and lawyers, and the fami leading up to the US Supreme Court decision. ly's move from Perrysville, Ohio, to Wisconsin in 1847 may have been due to his father's dislike of Ohio's rienced lawyer when Booth hired him, only twenty-six years old Black Laws, which greatly restricted the movement and legal with less than a year of work under his belt.18 Through Paine's 15 standing of black freemen and freewomen. The Black Laws writing and their burgeoning friendship, Booth became aware also made it illegal for any person to assist in helping former of and developed a trust in Paine's strong argumentation skills: slaves, with a fine of one thousand dollars written into the otherwise he might not have taken a chance on a new lawyer 16 statute. There's little doubt that the enactment of the Fugitive during such an important case. Slave Act, a federal law, incensed Paine and fueled the fire of Despite his inexperience, Paine proved to be the perfect his abolitionist beliefs. person to argue Booth's case. Ableman v. Booth was as much a Booth and Paine became acquainted through the Wisconsin political battle as a legal one. Paine understood the significance Free Democrat, which Paine wrote for as he studied for the bar of the trial and used the publicity to attack the Fugitive Slave exam. Given their similar political leanings—both were Free Act. In fact, his debate over the legality of the Fugitive Slave Soil Democrats, a faction well-known for its staunch aboli Act made Ableman v. Booth one of the most important cases tionist views—it is likely the men collaborated on antislavery of the nineteenth century as it was eventually heard by the US campaigns prior to Booth's arrest.17 Paine was a young, inexpe- Supreme Court. 48 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The time was ripe for a case like this to be tried in Wisconsin. Resentment toward the Fugitive Slave Act, and the Southern attitude toward slavery in general, provided a favor able audience for Paine to make an argument against the federal government's involvement in Booth's arrest and against strict enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act.19 Paine shifted his argument to make a case that the trial was not about whether Booth had violated the Fugitive Slave Act, but whether the federal government had the right to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act in Wisconsin. This was a calculated legal maneuver, and it made an already publicized case national news. Paine ignited the states' rights debate, arguing that the state of Wisconsin had the right to interpret the Constitution and that it could reject a federal law if the state deemed it unconstitutional. Thus, Paine claimed that Booth could not be held accountable for Glover's escape, as Glover was illegally detained in the first place.20 The case quickly traveled to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Judge Abram Smith listened to Paine's argument and, taking into account the public distaste for the Fugitive Slave Act, agreed with Paine and ordered the immediate release of Booth. In his ruling, Smith stated that the Fugitive Slave Justice Smith, who served on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from Law "is unconstitutional and void; because Congress has no 1853 to 1859, was sympathetic to the abolitionist cause. His historic constitutional power to legislate upon that subject." Further, ruling that the Fugitive Slave Law should not apply to a state that he wrote, it deprived "any person alleged to be a fugitive . . . finds it unconstitutional would be overturned multiple times, most of his liberty 'without due process of law.'"21 The implications notably by the US Supreme Court. were significant. According to the ruling, the federal govern ment had no power to overrule a state's rights because each uphold the US Supreme Court's decision.26 In a further act of state possessed individual sovereignty. States had the power to defiance, Wisconsinites elected Byron Paine as a Milwaukee interpret the Constitution as they saw fit, and they had final say County judge in 1856. He was appointed to the Wisconsin on the constitutionality of a law. The ruling was appealed, and Supreme Court three years later, proving the public was in the case moved to the US Supreme Court.22 support of his politics. In a fascinating twist, the Wisconsin Supreme Court refused While a disappointment to Wisconsinites at the time, to send the trial papers to Washington, delaying the Supreme Ableman v. Booth has been a crucial case in United States Court trial for four years. When it did take place in January legal history, setting the precedent for Supreme Court decisions 1859, no one stood for the side of the defense. Instead, Booth to apply to all states. Though it worked against the antislavery sent a pamphlet outlining Paine's arguments.23 On March movement and escalated tension in the years leading to the 7, 1859, as expected, the US Supreme Court overruled the Civil War, it has also worked to uphold civil rights. In cases Wisconsin court's decision. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote where the Supreme Court outlines basic rights granted under of the Supreme Court, "Without such a tribunal, it is obvious the US Constitution, Ableman v. Booth is routinely cited as the that there would be no uniformity of judicial decision, and basis for state courts' obligations to enforce those rights. For that the supremacy, (which is but another name for indepen instance, Ableman v. Booth was cited by the Supreme Court dence) so carefully provided in the clause of the Constitution in the 1958 Cooper v. Aaron decision concerning resistance . . . could not possibly be maintained peacefully." Taney went to school desegregation as mandated by Brown v. Board of on to declare that the Supreme Court was created to balance Education.27 While the ruling was initially regarded as a great the powers of state and federal governments, and that its rulings upset for the abolitionist cause, Booth's case would go on to interpreting the Constitution would be final and would apply protect minority rights in the future. to all states in the Union.24 Many Wisconsinites felt this was an Booth and Paine received national attention for the trial attempt to reinforce federal power and quell antislavery politics and for their attack on the Fugitive Slave Act. Abolitionists in the North.25 Thus, when the decision reached Wisconsin, around the nation voiced their praises, and Paine even received the state's Supreme Court made another shockingly bold move letters from well-known abolitionists such as politician Charles and refused to comply, with officials stating they would not Sumner and attorney Wendell Phillips, the latter writing, "I AUTUMN 2018 49 tently list him as "mulatto," and court records from Wisconsin say he was "of half white and half African blood."34 According to his obituary, Gillespie remained a slave until he purchased his freedom from his father for eight hundred dollars before the Civil War.35 Little is known about Gillespie's early life; there are no records that indicate how he obtained the money or at what age he bought his freedom. Nevertheless he did, and after his emancipation, Gillespie moved to Indiana, where he met and married a woman named Sophia, a mixed-race former slave born in North Carolina who was ten years younger than him. They had three children and lived in Evansville for several years. Evansville was located along a common route for slaves escaping to the north, and Gillespie's known involvement with the Underground Railroad possibly started there.36 In the early 1850s, the Gillespie family moved to Milwaukee, joining the steadily increasing black population of Wisconsin. In 1854, the Gillespies became the fifth family to move to the city, arriving just in time to witness the Glover escape.37 Gillespie Ezekiel Gillespie, date unknown made his living selling fruit, poultry, and other groceries on street corners. He advertised his business in the Wisconsin hoped to have met you last evening to tell you with what Free Democrat, which led to an acquaintance with Sherman unbounded delight I read your argument in Booth's case. Booth. After living in Milwaukee for several years, Gillespie You know you have many companions in the pathway of that was hired as a bank messenger for Alexander Mitchell. When effort."28 Ableman v. Booth was easily the most notable moment Mitchell became president of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail in both Paine and Booth's careers. However, the two would go road, Gillespie followed him, working as a messenger in the on to achieve other great feats that history tends to overlook. president's office. Gillespie stayed at this job for the rest of his Paine continued his successful legal career following the life, working there for thirty years. In his obituary, Gillespie Booth case. After his 1859 appointment to the Wisconsin was said to be "one of the oldest and most faithful employees Supreme Court, he chose to forgo his seat and instead became of the road."38 lieutenant of the Forty-Third Wisconsin Infantry in the Civil A dignified and respected man, Gillespie was known not War.29 He returned to his practice after the war, working against only for his dedication to the railroad but for his civil rights the movement to subsidize railroads, and he fought for labor activism as well. He worked on the Underground Railroad and rights as well as civil rights.30 As the Wisconsin State Journal with other local efforts to help blacks overcome oppression.39 wrote of Paine in his obituary, "The cause of the poor and the It is likely due to this reputation that Sherman Booth chose weak, and the cause of justice was his cause."31 to collaborate with Gillespie when testing the 1849 Wisconsin Booth spent several years following his trial in and out of referendum on black suffrage. Gillespie had signed a petition custody as he tried to avoid serving the term of his sentence. in January 1865 asking for a new vote on black suffrage, and He appealed to President Buchanan for a pardon several times in early October 1865 he attended a mass meeting of like- and was refused until the day before Lincoln's inauguration, minded African American men from as far away as La Crosse.40 when Buchanan excused Booth from paying the fine and Wisconsin had challenged the suffrage laws since the 1849 elec finishing his remaining jail time.32 Though he did not fight tion, offering up another referendum for African American in the Civil War, Booth continued to be an activist for civil suffrage in 1857, though it failed. Now, with the gubernatorial rights. After the Civil War, he turned his attention to securing election of 1865, it was back on the ballot.41 Ultimately, that vote African American suffrage and used the election of 1849 to failed as well, but it did set the stage for what would become a petition the Wisconsin Supreme Court for these rights. He successful strategy to gain black men voting rights. enlisted a fellow Milwaukeean, Ezekiel Gillespie, for help in On October 31, 1865, Gillespie and Booth walked into the fight for black suffrage. Best's Beer Hall, the Seventh Ward's place of registration, and Ezekiel Gillespie was born into slavery in Green County requested that Gillespie's name be added to the registry. This Tennessee, on or around May 31, 1818.33 While not explicitly request was denied, but the following day both men returned to stated in any documents, it is likely Gillespie was the product of the polls and attempted to vote. Gillespie was not allowed to cast a master-slave relationship, as demonstrated by his mixed race his vote, and Booth asked the official who denied Gillespie to and lack of birth records. Census records from the 1850s consis sign the back of the ballot stating that he had refused to receive 50 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY it. The perplexed official, Henry L. Palmer, complied with this request, thus making him the defendant in the upcoming court case.42 The case wouldn't focus on Gillespie being denied the vote in the 1865 election. Instead, Booth returned to the 1849 election, hoping to challenge and reverse the ruling.43 Booth had previously approached his friend Paine and explained the case, as well as the argument he wanted Paine to make to extend suffrage rights to African Americans. Paine agreed to take Gillespie's case for one hundred dollars, which Booth happily paid. In the years since the Glover case, Paine had made a name for himself as the leading civil rights lawyer in Wisconsin, and the prospects of making a strong case improved when Paine came on board, especially as he was still widely praised for his role in Booth's trial years earlier. Paine first tried the case in the Milwaukee County courts. But when he didn't get the ruling he wanted, he appealed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which heard the case in March 1866. Paine argued that the Board of Election Commissioners had incorrectly interpreted the results of the 1849 election. He asserted that election results are decided by the number of votes for and against each specific issue, not the number of total votes compared to the number of votes in favor of an issue. Since there were more votes in favor of black suffrage in the 1849 election than specifically against it, he argued, African Americans had been granted the right to vote; the commissioners had merely misinterpreted the results. The Wisconsin Supreme Court came back with a unani mous decision in favor of Gillespie, agreeing that black suffrage had been approved at the 1849 election. In the opinion, Justice Jason Downer stated. Henry Palmer, the defendant in the Gillespie case, was overseeing voter registration in the Seventh Ward when Gillespie attempted To declare a measure or law adopted or defeated— to vote. A lawyer by training. Palmer served as a Democratic state not by the number of votes cast directly for or against assemblyman in the 1850s and a senator in the 1860s. He lost a bid it, but by the number cast for and against some other for governor in 1863. measure . . . not connected with the measure itself would not only be out of the ordinary course of and Paine beforehand.47 The entire trial was resolved within legislation but, so far as we know, a thing unknown a year, a very fast turnaround time for any case, much less in constitutional law.44 one as important as Gillespie's. Further, Paine's connections to the Wisconsin Supreme Court may have affected the judge's Thus, African American men were granted suffrage rights, results, as they were all former colleagues and political allies and those who met the qualifications required of voters in the of Paine.48 Whether preplanned or not, Gillespie v. Palmer is state constitution were able to cast their ballots in the upcoming crucial to Wisconsin's legal history, and it culminates decades spring election, which several dozen did.45 Though no records of abolitionist work from across the state. survive, it is likely Gillespie was one of them. While some offi Following his court case, Gillespie went on to lead a rela cials feared rioting at the election, the state of Wisconsin was tively quiet life. After the death of his first wife, Gillespie married calm, and those who chose to vote were able to cast their ballots a woman named Catherine. Together they established a black without difficulties.46 church in Milwaukee, succeeding in 1869 with the founding of Gillespie's case was monumental, occurring four years the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Gillespie had over before the federal government acknowledged African Amer a dozen children between his two wives, and his descendants ican suffrage rights in 1870. The speed and ease with which spread across the United States, with many staying in the Gillespie v. Palmer traveled through the Wisconsin court system Midwest and others leaving for the West Coast, some settling indicates there was likely manipulation of the case by Booth in black communities and some in white.49 AUTUMN 2018 51 The first page of the Wisconsin Supreme Court's opinion in Gillespie v. Palmer states that "the law is hereby reversed." Gillespie remained a dedicated employee of the railroad, The growing immigrant population in Wisconsin had supported even moving to Chicago with the company in 1890 and working the abolishment of slavery, but it quickly turned on free blacks there until his death in 1892.50 His body was returned and buried after the war as the two groups competed for the limited jobs in in Milwaukee. An article in the Evening Wisconsin lamented the the area.53 It is possible that Gillespie chose not to remain in the loss of a kind, honorable man, though there was no mention of spotlight because it would have been dangerous for his family, Gillespie's case or his impact on black civil rights. This reflects or simply because he did not want all the attention. a pattern, as Gillespie's role in Gillespie v. Palmer is often over Whatever the reason, Gillespie remained silent about the looked or understated. In fact, historian Jack Holzhueter has case throughout his life, and as Holzhueter found in inter suggested that Gillespie was less an agent and more a pawn viewing Gillespie's descendants in the late 1970s, many of his in Booth and Paine's greater political game and that he may family members knew nothing about the role he played in not have seen the suffrage accomplishment as his.51 However, securing black suffrage rights. However, Gillespie's children other factors may explain Gillespie's absence in Wisconsin's and grandchildren had the ability to move freely across the collective memory. United States, and many became highly educated.54 This alone Gillespie was known to be a private man who did not stands as testament to Gillespie's achievement, as his relatives often discuss his civil rights actions.52 And while Wisconsin was were able to secure comfortable lives for themselves thanks to regarded as an antislavery state, it was still dangerous for black the rights afforded to them through his work, as well as the work men to be involved in civil rights. While abolitionists in Wiscon of activists like Booth and Paine. sin's legal system were active in the attempt to end slavery, Gillespie helped more than just his own family. At a time many who were against enslavement still felt that blacks were when the South had just surrendered and the United States was inferior to whites and did not deserve to be politically active. navigating its tenuous new union, Gillespie challenged a law that 52 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY he deemed unjust, serving as the face for all African Americans 13. As Schultz finds, Glover's life in Canada was not always easy or happy. Schultz, "In Search of Northern Freedom," 50-52. in Wisconsin who were not satisfied with being free if they did 14. Theron W Haight, Memoirs of Waukesha County, vol. 2 (Madison: Western Historical not also have full access to their rights. While Northern and Association, 1907), 115. 15. Joseph Ranney, "Concepts of Freedom: The Life of Justice Byron Paine," Wisconsin Midwestern states were more welcoming to blacks than those in Lawyer 75 (November 2002), https://wihist.org/2uaSJSX; Winslow, The Story of a Great the South, nonslavery states were still no haven, and race riots and Court, 74. See also Stephen Middleton, The Black Laws: Race and the Legal Process in Early Ohio (Cincinnati: Ohio University Press, 2005). 55 lynchings occurred across the Midwest. Gillespie bravely faced 16. "(1804) Ohio Black Codes," Black Past website, http://www.blackpast.org/primary/1804- o hio-black- co de s. the dangers of being a politically involved black man by working 17. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court, 74; Michael J. McManus, Political Abolitionism in with activists to maintain Wisconsin's role as an antislavery state. Wisconsin (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1998), 75. 18. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court, 74. Booth, Paine, and Gillespie helped establish early civil 19. For a fuller view of the political and legal climate at the time of the Glover incident, see rights in Wisconsin, creating and maintaining a forward- McManus's chapter on "The Dangerous Doctrine of Nullification" in Political Abolitionism in Wisconsin, 133—147. thinking approach to the rights afforded to African Americans 20. A. J. Beitzinger, "Federal Law: Enforcement and the Booth Cases," Marquette Law both before and after the Civil War. While Booth and Paine Review 41.1(1957): 12. 21. "Wisconsin Reports," The Unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law (Milwaukee: were able to gain national attention for their attack of the Fugi Rufus Kingjr. Printers, 1855), 2. tive Slave Act, some of their most important work is less noticed 22. Beitzinger, "Federal Law." 23. "In re: Booth," Famous Cases of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, Wisconsin Courts by the public but nonetheless vital to the African Americans website, http://www.wicourts.gov/courts/supreme/docs/famouscases01.pdf, n.p. 24. 62 U.S. 506, Ableman v Booth. who were able to vote years before other states granted the same 25. Schmitt, "RethinkingAbleman v. Booth," 1343-1344. right to their citizens. 26. Butler, "Sherman M. Booth," 186. 27. 358 U.S. 1(1958). In a span of just ten years, Booth and Paine worked first to 28. Wendell Phillips to Byron Paine, November 24, 1854, Box 2, Folder 1, Byron Paine Papers challenge a law that legalized the abduction of African Amer 1845-1869, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Wisconsin. 29. Ranney, "Concepts of Freedom"; Obituary for Byron Paine, Wisconsin State Journal. icans and then convinced the state supreme court that racial January 14, 1871. minorities deserved to vote. The rapid transition in the way 30. Ranney, "Concepts of Freedom." 31. Ranney, "Concepts of Freedom." the public viewed African Americans and the role they played 32. "In re: Booth." in Wisconsin was carefully orchestrated by the abolitionist and 33. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 180. 34. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 180. civil rights legal activists of Wisconsin. The strides Booth and 35. Ezekiel Gillespie obituary, Evening Wisconsin, March 31, 1892. Paine made with the Glover case paved the way for Gillespie 36. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 180; Ezekeiel Gillespie obituary. 37. William J. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City, Milwaukee: 1835-1870," to secure black suffrage rights years later. While Wisconsin's (MA Thesis, Marquette University, 1968), 34. history with race relations cannot be idealized, the efforts of 38. Ezekiel Gillespie obituary. 39. Michael Edmonds and Samantha Snyder, Warriors, Saints, and Scoundrels: Brief Booth, Paine, and Gillespie were pivotal for African Americans Portraits of Real People Who Shaped Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2017), 146-47. in early Wisconsin. IMI 40. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 182. 41. Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 76-77. Notes 42. "First Colored Voter," Evening Wisconsin, June 12, 1897. 43. The "court test" had been in the planning for some time before Gillespie was chosen. See 1. Christy Clark-Pujara, "Contested: Black Suffrage in Early Wisconsin," Wisconsin Maga Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 182. zine of History 100.4 (Summer 2017): 21—27. Clark-Pujara provides an in-depth account of the 44. Quoted in Vollmar, "The Negro in a Midwest Frontier City," 81-82. legality of the contested election and the history of black suffrage in Wisconsin. 45. Danny Benson, "Ezekiel Gillespie: The Man Who Wanted to Vote," MKE Memoirs 2. "First Colored Voter," Evening Wisconsin (Milwaukee), June 12, 1897. website, February 18, 2013, http://wihist.org/2MXnXoK/. 3. John O. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," Wisconsin Magazine of History 46. Leslie H. Fisheljr., "Wisconsin and Negro Suffrage," Wisconsin Magazine of Hstory 60.3(1977): 180. 46.3(1963): 196. 4. "Gillespie vs. Palmer et al," Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme 47. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 182. Court of the State of Wisconsin, XX, http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm/ref/collection/ 48. Wisconsin Court System, "Supreme Court Former Justices," https://www.wicourts.gov/ tp/id/47278. courts/supreme/justices/retired/index, htm. 5. For a more detailed account of how black suffrage was passed in Wisconsin, see Clark- 49. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 183-184. Pujara, "Contested." 50. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 181. 6. Diane S. Butler, "The Public Life and Private Affairs of Sherman M. Booth," Wisconsin 51. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 184. Magazine of History 82.3 (1999): 170-172. 52. Ezekiel Gillespie obituary. 7. Sherman M. Booth, Wisconsin Free Democrat (Milwaukee), May 31, 1848, quoted in 53. Joe William Trotter Jr., Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat. Howard Louis Conard, ed., History of Milwaukee County: From its First Settlement to the 1915-45 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985), 112. Year 1895, vol. 2 (Chicago: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1895), 55. 54. Holzhueter, "Ezekiel Gillespie, Lost and Found," 183-184. 8. See Jaclyn Schultz, "In Search of Northern Freedom: Black History in Milwaukee and 55. Schultz, "The Myth of the Free North," 43-44; "Lynchings: By State and Race, 1882- Southern Ontario, 1834-1864," Wisconsin Magazine of History 101.1 (Autumn 2017): 42-53. 1968," http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/shipp/lynchingsstate.html. Schultz, who starts with a nuanced reading of the Joshua Glover "rescue," offers a thoughtful look at the lives of formerly enslaved and free black men and women in the upper Midwest and Canada, arguing that "the mythologiz [ing] of places like Wisconsin and Canada hides the realities of racial discrimination and inequality that those seeking freedom often faced in ABOUT THE AUTHOR these places." Grace Castagna graduated from the University 9. Ruby West Jackson and Walter T. McDonald, Finding Freedom: The Untold Story of Joshua Glover, Runaway Slave (Wisconsin State Historical Society: Wisconsin Historical of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017 with a degree in Society Press, 2007), 38-39. history and communication arts. As a student, 10. Further, asjeffery Schmitt points out, federal commissioners received more money when they ruled in favor of the slave owner or slave catcher. Jeffrey Schmitt, "Rethinking Ableman she interned attheWisconsin Historical Society v. Booth and States' Rights in Wisconsin," Virginia Law Review 93.5 (September 2007): 1319. Press. She enjoys researching legal history and 11.John Bradley Winslow, The Story of a Great Court (Chicago: T. H. Flood and Company. 1912), 73. the American civil rights movement. 12. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court, 73. AUTUMN 2018 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL Letters SOCIETY We received a letter from Chomingwen D. Pond, the daughter Wisconsin Historical Society Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee of Alzonzo Pond, who was the subject ofjudith Siers-Poisson's Board of Curators Robert Smith, Milwaukee Leonard Sobczak, Milwaukee article on Pond's 1925 expedition to Algeria, published in the Officers John W. Thompson, Madison Spring 2018 issue. President: Brian D. Rude, Chia Youyee Vang, Glendale Coon Valley TerriYoho, Adell President-Elect: Gregory B. Huber, Aharon Zorea, Richland Center Dear Editor: Wausau I'm delighted to see "A Dash through the Sahara" (Spring 2018). Treasurer: Walter S. Rugland, Governor's Appointees Appleton David G. Anderson, Wausau It's a story worth remembering! Secretary: Christian 0verland, George Jacobs, Madison Unfortunately, the article has significant errors. Michael The Ruth and Hartley Barker Keene Winters, Wausau Tarabulski, professional archivist, who has "lived with this story Director Legislative Appointees since [he] first heard it from Alonzo Pond himself in 1982," Past President: Conrad G. Goodkind, Milwaukee Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Milwaukee corrects some major ones. Rep. Cody Horlacher, Mukwonago Ms. Siers-Poisson uses the Expedition's leaders to illustrate Term Members Sen. Van Wanggaard, Racine Angela B. Bartell, Middleton Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison her thesis that early anthropologists sought evidence to prove Mary Buestrin, Mequon that Western Civilization was superior to the "ignorant, back Curators Ex-Officio Ramona Gonzalez, La Crosse ward and uncivilized" "primitive" cultures. Mary Jane Herber, De Pere Catherine Orton, Chair, Wisconsin Norbert S. Hill Jr., Oneida Historical Foundation Prorok and Reygasse perhaps are such examples, but Pond Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha Phillip Schauer, President, FRIENDS was of the Boasian school of anthropologists. Boasians sought to Carol J. McChesney Johnson, of the Society John Decker, President, Wisconsin understand each culture on its own terms rather than judging Black Earth Council for Local History James Klauser, Pewaukee it by the standards of another culture. They rejected the idea of Greg Summers, University of Wisconsin Thomas Maxwell, Marinette ranging cultures in a hierarchical order of evolutionary develop System Designee Susan McLeod, Eau Claire ment. They believed that educating people about other cultures Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Honorary Curators would lead to lasting peace, an attractive goal so soon after Donald Schott, Madison Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska World War 1.1 wish there were space to tell of my father's later work educating US Air Force personnel about desert cultures if they faced a forced landing in the desert. Wisconsin Historical Lastly, the article depends heavily on Prorok's account of FOUNDATION the Expedition, and Prorok never let facts spoil a good story! No, they were not in danger from hostile natives, and no, Pond Wisconsin Historical Foundation Linda E. Prehn, Wausau did not pronounce the skeleton to be female. That was all in Officers Richard A. Reinhart, Minocqua Chair: Catherine C. Orton, Mauston Jack L. Rhodes, Waupaca Prorok's colorful retelling. In fact, the skeleton's characteristics Vice Chair: Theresa H. Richards, Karl Robe, Mukwanago are more male than female. Marshfield David S. Ryder, Mequon But the illustrations are great and the story fascinating! Treasurer: Patrick P. Fee, Wauwatosa Derek L. Tyus, Milwaukee Secretary: Susan Crane, Burlington Jane Villa, Madison Thanks for introducing your readers to them. Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfield Chomingwen D. Pond, PhD, Board of Directors Cathi Wiebrecht-Searer, Madison Minocqua Christopher S. Berry, Middleton Michael L. Youngman, Milwaukee Stephen F. Brenton, Verona Diane Dei Rossi, Rhinelander Directors Ex-Officio In response, the author wrote: Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, It's a rare historical event that benefits from five first-person Jessica Garcia, Shorewood President, Wisconsin Historical accounts, and that is one of the elements that attracted me Thomas P. Handy, Wausau Society Board of Curators Chris Her-Xiong, Milwaukee Gregory B. Huber, Wausau, to the story of the 1925 Sahara expedition. Of course, such a Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee President-Elect, Wisconsin fascinating cast of characters was quite a draw as well. As we Lauren D. Langill, Waukesha Historical Society Board of all know, witnesses of the same event can have wildly different Edward L. Murray, Fitchburg Curators Daniel M. Pfeiffer,Sussex memories of what happened, and their own role in it, espe cially as time passes and recollections fade and change. While Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation it was a challenge to combine accounts from Pond, Prorok, Board of Directors Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg President: Bruce T. Block, Milwaukee Joshua Jeffers, Milwaukee Tyrell, Reygasse, and Denny, I think the story is richer for their Vice President: John Beck Madison Joseph D. Shumow, Madison differing impressions of the land and its people. Treasurer & Secretary. David T. David G. Stoeffel, Whitefish Bay Wilder, Madison 54 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY THANK YOU! Regarding Pond's approach to anthropology, I argued It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes individuals and organizations who contributed $5,000 or more between July that the members of the expedition were not the same in their 1,2017, and June 30, 2018. acceptance of the prevailing ideas: "To differing degrees, the $25,000+ Pace Woods Foundation members of the expedition to the Sahara were informed by Anonymous Prairie du Chien Area Chamber of these attitudes, which are evident both in their actions and in Rima and Michael Apple Commerce Ruth and Hartley Barker Advised Fund Fred Schnell first-person accounts written after their return." I would argue through Incourage Community The George and Jane Shinners Charitable that while Pond was much better than the others, there were Foundation Fund Angela and Jeff Bartell John W.Thompson and Jane Bartell still incidences (like his acquisition of the Tuareg necklace) that Black Point Historic Preservation Operation Thrivent Financial for Lutherans and Maintenance Fund at the Greater show traces of this. Verizon Milwaukee Foundation Jane and David Villa Judith Siers-Poisson, Oscar and Patricia Boldt We Energies Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Madison Wisconsin Council for Local History Briess Malt & Ingredients Co. Wisconsin Humanities Council Caxambas Fund at the Greater Milwaukee Wisconsin Preservation Fund, Inc. Foundation JoAnn and Michael Youngman Bob and Susan Crane Robert Dohmen $5,000-$9,999 Ray and Kay Eckstein Charitable Trust American Girl Rachel Egelseer Mr. and Mrs. Dave Anderson Pleasant and Jerry Frautschi Anonymous (2) Estate of Lorenz Heim Ascension Herzfeld Foundation Nancy Marshall Bauer Claire and Marjorie Johnson Christopher and Mary Pat Berry Robert and Patricia* Kern Helen J. Bewick Revocable Trust Kohler Trust for Preservation Black Point Horticulture Fund at the Greater KwikTrip Milwaukee Foundation Richard and Joan Leffler Black Point Preservation Fund at the Dale Leibowitzand Ron Suliteanu Madison Community Foundation Stuart D. Levitan, Jr. Briggs & Stratton Corporation Foundation, Navistar Inc. Old World Wisconsin Foundation Pat and Anne Fee The O'Neill Foundation Rockne and JoAnne Flowers Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation John J. Frautschi Family Foundation Richard SearerandCathi E.Wiebrecht-Searer Walter A. and Dorothy Jones Frautschi State of Wisconsin Charitable Unitrust St. Croix Falls Historical Society Mike Gallagher NatalieTinkham Conrad and Sandra Goodkind Toro Giving Robert and Elke Hagge Members of the 1925 expedition to Algeria stand with Tuareg Gregory C. Van Wie Charitable Foundation Tom and Char Hand chiefs at the gravesite of a French Catholic missionary. Among the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum Hayssen Family Foundation, Inc. A.William and Joanne B. Huelsman Fund at Westerners are Count Byron Khun de Prorok, right, Bradley Tyrrell, $10,000-$24,999 the Greater Milwaukee Foundation Alliant Energy center with blonde hair, and next to him with a red tie, their driver, Herbert H. Kohl Anonymous Lake Geneva Garden Club Foundation, Inc. Martini. Alonzo Pond is not pictured. AT&T Donald Lamb O.C.and Pat Boldt Family Fund within the Community Foundation for the Fox Valley Hank Lufler and Mike Gerdes Region Barry and Eileen Mandel John and Barbara Bowlin Audrey and Rowland McClellan Thomas E. Caestecker Nick Meriggioli City of Milwaukee Arts Board MGE Foundation Inc. WE WANT TO HEAR WHAT OUR READERS THINK! John and Sandra Decker MIG Commercial Real Estate The Robert Eckert Family Fund Mr. Van Mobley Email us at: [email protected] Mary M. Eckstein Estate and Trust Phillip and Kathleen Pellegrino Wl Comment on our facebook page: The Evjue Foundation, Inc., the charitable Mary and Lowell Peterson a rm of The Capital Times Quincy Bioscience www.facebook.com/whspress Friends of Wisconsin Public Television R.J.WilliamsQuesters#1288 ^ Follow us on Twitter: @WI_Mag_History Gorman & Company, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Sensenbrenner William O. Peterson Charitable Fund at the Miriam Simmons Write to us at: Greater Milwaukee Foundation James S.SIattery Wisconsin Magazine of History Hammes Company Elizabeth Uihlein International Harvester Collectors Wisconsin Uline 816 State Street Chapter #4 Rhona E.Vogel Madison, Wisconsin 53706 S.C.Johnson &Son, Inc. WaterStoneBank Kikkoman Foods Foundation, Inc. Waukesha County Community Foundation Kohler Foundation, Inc. Wisconsin Hospital Association, Inc. Ruth DeYoung Kohler WPS Health Insurance Ann L.Koski Wisconsin Society of Mayflower Descendants Memorial Pendarvis EndowmentTrust *ln memoham NancyMohs AUTUMN 2018 55 P" ^ **" Curio "*• On the surface, this is just an ordinary wooden chair. But to anyone who has spent some time at the Wisconsin Historical Society, it might be familiar. Several dozen chairs in this style were purchased when the headquarters building opened in 1904, and they can still be found in some offices and conference rooms. This particular chair happened to sit in the Director's Office. What makes it unique is not its age, but the fact that Charles E. Brown, curator of the Wisconsin Historical Museum from 1908 to 1944, penned the names of several notable people who sat in it on the bottom of the seat. Several of the names belong to members of the Wisconsin Archeological Society, an organization founded by Brown. Other prominent posteriors that perched here were Pulitzer Prize winner Zona Gale; Potawa- tomi chief Simon Kahquados; pioneer limnologist Edward A. Birge; general and author Charles King; agricultural chemist Stephen R. Babcock; Scandinavian studies scholar Rasmus B. Anderson; writer and Nobel Prize nominee William J. Neidig; anthropologist and explorer Alonzo Pond; and the first editor of the Wisconsin Maga zine of History, Milo M. Quaife. The chair currently resides in the University of Wisconsin Archives. The list as it appears on the chair: Stephen R. Babcock '23 W. W. Bartlett Gen. W. G. Haan Dr. Charles Van Hise Angel Decora Dietz '35 Prof. L. R. Jones Wm. Ellery Leonard Huron Smith Zona Gale Prof.Julius L. Olson Gen. John G. Sainman Mrs. Lucius (Frances Bui William J. Neidig Fair child E. A Birge Emil Baensch M. M. Quaife W. A. Titus W. A. Titus Col. Howard Greene Dr. Aes Hrdlicka (listed twice) Prof. Rasmus B. Anderson Col. Marshall Cousins Dr. H. H.Jungbull Dr. George L. Collie Chief Simon Kahquados Julia A. Lapham S. A Barrett Prof. Byron Cummings I f^e-.VS. -,.<^iie.s. 1 Huron H. Smith Ralph Linton fVa^, (. R Jbrt«a; rfuf^Mn jSti^Ml ; P'pjf J"'""S I*. «^< P»**stfivn-*7 Er«.i TS»«*T'5«-*-» ; •vV.'V-T.f- Your generous support helps publish books that connect readers of all ages to our Wisconsin heritage. Learn more at wihist.org/readerscircle from WISCONSIN HISTORICAL the SOCIETY PRESS WISCONSIN IN WATERCOLOR The Life and Legend of Folk Artist Paul Seifert SIMPLE THINGS Lessons from the Family Farm fr<< k^f "*- _ by Jerry Apps •f'ntfVunjiiiSlffi VJJ'I'A, A. I.I.A., ISBN: 978-0-87020-887-4 WISCONSIN INWATERCOLOR SETTLIN' The Life and Legend of Stories of Madison's Early Folk Artist Paul Seifert African American Families by Joe Kapler by Muriel Simms ISBN: 978-0-87020-891-1 ISBN: 978-0-87020-885-0 IN THE SIXTIES he Making of STUART D. LEVITAN PIONEER WISCONSIN MADISON IN THE MAKING OF PIONEER WISCONSIN THE MISUNDERSTOOD MISSION OF JEAN NIC0LET THE SIXTIES Voices of Early Settlers Uncovering the Story of the 1634 Journey by Stuart D. Levitan by Michael E. Stevens by Patrick J. Jung ISBN: 978-0-87020-883-6 ISBN: 978-0-87020-889-8 ISBN: 978-0-87020-879-9 The Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop To order: Please call 888.999.1669 or 608.264.6565 (in Madison) is located on the Capitol Square at or shop online at shop.wisconsinhistory.org PRESS 30 N.Carroll St., Madison, Wl 53703 Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! "On Wisconsin, On Wisconsin, Fight on for her fame, Fight, Fellows, Fight, Fight, Fight We'll win this game!" So goes the famous "fight" song of the University of Wisconsin Badger football team. But its origins hail back to the Civil War, when "On, Wisconsin" was a battle cry used to rally troops—many of whom trained at Camp Randall in Madison. As John Zimm recounts in '"On, Wisconsin'! Celebrating Camp Randall," more than one hundred years of history have helped make Camp Randall what it is today. From a training ground for 70,000 Civil War recruits to the gridiron where the UW Badgers meet their foes on foot ball weekends, Camp Randall holds a sacred place in Wisconsinites' hearts. In the 1931 postcard of the stadium above, the seating has been expanded to take on a U-shape, and the Field House encloses most of the south end of the field. WISCONSIN magazine of history WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY