Magazine of History

Tke Boss and the Uptart: Kcycs and La Follette DAVID p. THELEN Tke Lumbering Industry in Pcrsf^cctive CHARLES E. TWINING Wkeat Spculation in tke Civil War Era DOROTHY .1. ERNST Wisconsin's FieUstone Architecture RICHARD W. E. PERRIN Tke Case of Richard T. Ely THERON F. SCHLABACH Fond du Lac Snubs a Presiclent STANLEY L. GORES

Published by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin / Vol. XLVII, No. 2 / Winter, 1963-1964 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Director

Officers JOHN C. GEILFUSS, President HERBERT V. KOHLER, Honorary Vice-President E. E. HOMSTAD, Second Vice-President, Treasurer LESLIE H. FISHEL, JR., Secretary

Board of Curators Ex-Officio JOHN W. REYNOLDS, Governor of the State MRS. DENA A. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT C. ZIMMERMAN, Secretary of State FRED H. HARRINGTON, President of the University ANGUS B. ROTHWELL, Superintendent of Public Instruction MRS. JOSEPH C. GAMROTH, President of the Women's Auxiliary

Term Expires, 1964 THOMAS H. BARLAND GEORGE F. KASTEN CHARLES MANSON FLOYD SPRINGER, JR. Eau Claire Milwaukee Madison Racine M. J. DYRUD MRS. VINCENT W. KOCH FREDERICK 1. OLSON DR. WILLIAM STOVALL Prairie du Chien Janesville Wauwautosa Madison JIM DAN HILL MRS. RAYMOND J. KOLTES FREDERIC SAMMOND E. E. HOMSTAD Superior Madison Milwaukee Black River Falls

Term Expires, 1965 GEORGE BANTA, JR. ROBERT B. L. MURPHY STANLEY STONE CEDRIC VIG Menasha Madison Milwaukee Rhinelander GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. FOSTER B. PORTER MILO K. SWANTON CLARK WILKINSON Milwaukee Bloomington Madison Baraboo PHILIP F. LA FOLLETTE WILLIAM F. STARK FREDERICK N. TROWBRIDGE ANTHONY WISE Madison Pewaukee Green Bay Hayward

Term Expires, 1966 SCOTT M. CUTLIP EDWARD FROMM MRS. HOWARD T. GREENE ROBERT L. PIERCE Madison Hamburg Genesee Depot Menomonie W. NORMAN FITZGERALD ROBERT A. GEHRKE GEORGE HAMPEL, JR. JAMES A. RILEY Milwaukee Ripon Des Moines Eau Claire MRS. ROBERT E. FRIEND JOHN C. GEILFUSS SAM RIZZO Hartland Milwaukee Racine

Honorary Honorary Life Members WILLIAM ASHBY MCCLOY, Winnipeg PRESTON E. MCNALL, Madison MRS. LITTA BASCOM, Madison DOROTHY L. PARK, Madison

Fellows VERNON CARSTENSEN MERLE CURTI The Women's Auxiliary Officers MRS. JOSEPH C. GAMROTH, Madison, President MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee, Vice-President MRS. EDWARD H. RIKKERS, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM E. HUG, Neenah, Treasurer MRS. EDMUND K. NIELSON, Appleton, Assistant Treasurer MRS. W. NORMAN FITZGERALD, Milwaukee, Ex-Officio VOLUME 47, fSVMBER 2/WlfNTER, 1963-1964 Wisconsin Magazine of History

WILLIAM CONVERSE HAYGOOD, Editor PAUL H. HASS, Associate Editor

A.M.S. 102 The Boss and the Upstart: Keyes and La Follette, 1880-1884 103 DAVID P. THELEN

Plunder and Progress: The Lumbering Industry in Perspective 116 CHARLES E. TWINIiNG

Wheat Speculation in the Civil War Era: Daniel Wells and the Grain Trade 125 DOROTHY J. ERNST

Boulders, Cobblestones, and Pebbles: Wisconsin's Fie Idstone Architecture 136 RICHARD W. E. PERRIN

An Aristocrat on Trial: The Case of Richa •d T. Ely 146 THERON F. SCHLABACH

Fond du Lac Snubs a President 160 STANLEY L. GORES

William Best Hesseltine 170

Book Reviews 175

Accessions 191

Contributors 196

Published Quarterly by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin

THE WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY is published not assume responsibility for statements made by contribu quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 816 tors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin State Street, Madison. Wisconsin ^3706. Distributed to mem­ Copyright 1964 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin bers as part of their dues {Annual membership, S5.00 ; Fami­ Paid for in part by the Maria L. and Editoria ly membership, ^7.00; Contributing, $10; Business and Pro­ Fund and by the George B. Burrows Fund. Wisconsin nevins fessional, $25; Life, $100; Sustaining, $100 or more annual­ papers may reprint any article appearing in the WISCON ly; Patron, $1000 or more annually). Single numbers, $1.25. SIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY providing the story carries Microfilmed copies available through University Microfilms, the following credit line : Reprinted from the State Histori 313 North First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Communica­ cal Society's Wisconsin Magazine of History for [insert the tions should be addressed to the editor. Thf? Society does season and year which appear on the Magazine]. A.M.S.

TJEHIND his back, graduate students of my Turner-trained scholar, Frederick Merk, took -*-' generation always used his initials, or over Turner's field of Western history, leav­ called him, affectionately, "the old man." Of ing Mr. Schlesinger to establish his own in­ course, after one of his gentle but probing terests, a social and intellectual approach to interviews, some of the affection temporarily American history. One of his earliest and disappeared. But to his face he was always best students and one of three who won a "Mr. Schlesinger." Pulitzer Prize, is Merle Curti of the Univer­ His full name is Arthur Meier Schlesinger, sity of Wisconsin history department. Senior, and he is now the Francis Lee Higgin- American social and intellectual history had son Professor Emeritus of History at Har­ little status when Mr. Schlesinger first began vard, where for thirty years he taught under­ his course for upper-classmen and graduate graduates and groomed graduate students in students and his seminars for doctoral candi­ the substance and subtleties of American his­ dates. One of his early books which advanced tory. He has recently written a brief memoir several telling interpretations in behalf of this which he calls In Retrospect: the History of approach was entitled New Viewpoints in a Historian, which is very much the mirror American History. Decades later, when social of the man. I say that as one who called and intellectual history had achieved general him A.M.S. behind his back and "Mr. Schle­ acceptance, he laughingly reported that his singer" to his face. colleagues referred to his book as "Few New As he does in his memoir, he approached Points in American History." problems with an ease and a grace which Perhaps his major effort was his joint edi­ belied the depth of his interest. His exposi­ torship, with Dixon Ryan Fox, of the History tion of problems, as in his memoir, was dis­ of American Life series, a thirteen volume ef­ passionate and clear, and his warm sense of fort to detail the social and intellectual life humor kept all discussions in focus. His hu­ of the American people from the beginning. mor, by the way, enlivens almost every page His own contribution to this series marks a of his book. For example, he recalled when, very special interest. The Rise of the City, as a University of Iowa faculty member, he 1878-1898. Mr. Schlesinger. who in his lec­ was invited to deliver a high school commence­ tures and discussions could spoof the theory ment address. The exercises were held in the that one man "fathered" an invention or inno­ basement of the Methodist church and the graduating class, one boy and one girl, "sat vation, is in truth the father of American proudly on a platform . . . under a large urban history. The urban complex fascinated spreading banner inscribed LAUNCHED BUT him and his lectures peered into areas which NOT ANCHORED." After he was established historians before him had ignored. Sanitation, at Harvard, he gradually stopped writing water systems, police and fire protection were book reviews because they took valuable time grist for his mill. and "as my friendship spread with colleagues The man, like the memoir, is calm and re­ over the country, it became increasingly hard flective, with a restless roving mind. Before to render objective judgments." he retired in 1953, he and Mrs. Schlesinger 1 can remember another decision which he held open house every Sunday afternoon for rarely breached. He disliked reading books in students, friends, and Cambridge visitors, and proof and writing a favorable "blurb" for the the discussions were as lively as the students publisher, even though the pressure to do were varied. To some of us greener graduate this for former students was sometimes in­ students, just sitting and listening was an tense. But perhaps his most important deci­ educational delight. Whatever else he taught sion was the one which brought him East us, in or out of the classroom, we could not to Harvard. A midwesterner by birth, Schle­ fail to appreciate that his life and work are singer has unusual if indirect ties to Wiscon­ a powerful testament to the greatness of our sin. When he moved to Harvard, he succeeded democratic experiment. to the position occupied by Frederick Jack­ son Turner. However, a Wisconsin-born and L.H.F., .IR.

102 THE BOSS AND THE UPSTART:

KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE, 1880-1884

The first in a series of historical re-evaluations of the young Robert M. La Follette, Dane County District Attorney

By DAVID P. THLLEN

TN Wisconsin, as elsewhere, the office of by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and -*- county district attorney has frequently which produced the Republican party. Sher­ served as a steppingstone for young lawyers man Booth, the abolitionist and early party intent upon a career in politics. As a defend­ leader, had appointed Keyes to the Republican er of law and order and, frequently, a crusa­ State Central Committee, and in 1858 Keyes der against vice, the public prosecutor has successfully sought the Dane County dis­ always had his name before the public more trict attorneyship. During the Civil War he was often than any other county official. This rewarded for his efforts in the party's behalf was especially true in the case of two of the by appointment to the Madison post office, state's most prominent political figures, both from which he consolidated his political pow­ of whom held the Dane County district at­ er and rewarded friends or punished enemies torneyship early in their respective careers— with the patronage.' At the close of the war, Elisha W. Keyes in 1858 at the age of thirty, while the Republican party was entrenching and Robert M. La Follette in 1880 at the age itself as the majority party in Wisconsin, of twenty-five. And although the two stood in Keyes' influence continued to increase. Dis­ marked contrast, their careers were to be gruntled party members claimed that he and tightly interwoven, even as the younger man's David Atwood, editor of the Wisconsin State political star was rising and the older man's Journal, formed a "Madison Regency" which waning. sought control of the new party. In 1869 Keyes was elected chairman of the Republi­ At the time of his election to the district can State Central Committee after Horace attorneyship. La Follette was a year out of Rublee, the former chairman, was appointed college—a young, handsome orator who was to a Swiss consulate. virtually unknown outside Dane County. The stern, balding Keyes, on the other hand, was widely known thoughout the state. Keyes had become a political power only after a slow rise within the Republican ranks. A Whig for most of his early life, he had capitalized ^ Richard W. Hantke, "The Life of Elisha Williams Keyes" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University on the groundswell which was precipitated of Wisconsin, 1942), 77, 92-93, 121-137.

103 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

It had taken Keyes fifteen years of service before he was accorded the top prize Wis­ consin Republicans could bestow, but he was now at the height of his political powers. Dane County, and indeed the entire state, was widely understood to be the province of Keyes, and a Democratic editor bitterly com­ plained that "He used the post office as head­ quarters for political tramps and devoted his whole time to running the worst political ma­ chine ever set up in any state in the Union."" By the early lo70's, Elisha W. Keyes had be­ come "Boss" Keyes. Sheer love of power, and not the desire for wealth or personal popularity, underlay his control of other Republicans. The meat and drink of Keyes' life was the manipulation of strings, the drafting of platforms, the dictat­ University of Wisconsin Archives ing of candidates, and the suppression of his Elisha Williams Keyes, the irascible boss of Wisconsin enemies. He was not a tactful man, and be­ Republicanism. cause he lacked any solid foundation for his control, his hold on Wisconsin Republicans the party by failing to oppose the Grange.'' was always somewhat tenuous. He was un­ The Potter Law, a compromise railroad re­ able to prevent the wholesale defection of gulation bill, was passed in 1874 as a result Liberal Republicans in the early seventies, and of an agricultural depression and its attendant he failed to dictate Matthew Carpenter's re­ Granger agitation. Although the Potter Law election to the Senate in 1875. was repealed by the next session of the state His machinations made him many enemies, legislature, its passage served notice to the and after 1871 he had to be given a vote of railroads that they could no longer entrust confidence at each state convention. He re­ their interests to the old-fashioned type of peatedly received the majority vote, however, political boss. To prevent another Potter Law, and for the time he was secure.'' the railroads determined to seize direct con­ But Keyes had grown negligent of new- trol of the Republican party. The influence forces being unleashed within the Republi­ of railroad lawyers such as Angus Cameron can party. He was never a rich man, and he and John Coit Spooner, railroad partisans had no personal economic interests to protect. such as Timothy Howe, and railroad and lum­ Consequently, like Senator Matt Carpenter, ber barons such as swiftly he had been reluctant to condemn the Gran­ increased—and the influence of Elisha Keyes ger movement of the middle seventies—and simultaneously ebbed. Political power in Wis­ had thereby irritated those Republicans who consin shifted from the Madison post office viewed the Grangers as a threat to their in­ to commercial Milwaukee, and Keyes, threat­ terests. Timothy 0. Howe, Wisconsin's other ened by the growing participation of big busi­ Senator, wrote Keyes that "you two have ness in politics, became the victim of a species thrown every business man in Wisconsin into of "status revolution." Among those who re­ a tremor," and that "you are trying to beat" cognized that Keyes was being displaced by

* E. Bruce Thompson, Matthew Hale Carpenter, Webster of the West (Madison, 1954), 221, 225-230; '-Ibid., 172-175, 211-212, 216, 225-229; Madison Graham A. Cosmas, "The Democracy in Search of Democrat, October 25, 1882. Issues: The Wisconsin Reform Party, 1873-1877," '' Hantke, "Keyes," 222-224, 239, 242, 259-260, 273, in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 46:97, 108 280-283, 287, 299-300. (Winter, 1962-1963).

104 THELEN : KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE

"stronger men" was Robert M. La Follette.'' told Reynolds that no action would be taken If Keyes had known real political power against him if he declined to seek a second and now felt it slipping from his grasp, La term. He so declined, and his place on the tick­ Follette had never even participated in a poli­ et was taken by the moral and earnest La tical campaign. But in 1880, shortly after his Follette. Four months later Reynolds was dead admission to the bar of the Dane County Cir­ —of pneumonia, the newspapers said, but, in cuit Court, he had a strong reason for con­ the words of a fellow Madisonian, it was "a sidering politics as a career. He had not only clear case of too much whiskey."" to support himself, his mother, and his sister, With his qualifications, La Follette thought but he was waiting to acquire the resources he deserved the consideration of the local poli­ to marry his fiancee. Belle Case. The prospect tical boss. Postmaster Keyes. It was only na­ for a successful private practice seemed dim, tural that he would discuss his plans with considering the large number of able lawyers Keyes, and he probably expected a warm wel­ in Madison. To La Follette, a young attorney come. After all, as publisher of the college who lacked either reputation or clientele, the newspaper, he had repeatedly eulogized Keyes' district attorneyship—and its annual salary work on the Board of Regents, and the post­ of eight hundred dollars—looked inviting." master had given every indication of show­ It was a job which traditionally went to the ing his appreciation." Keyes had presided younger members of the bar.' What was to over the rally Madison gave La Follette when prevent Robert M. La Follette from holding he returned triumphantly from Iowa City. the office and collecting the salary? The interview which followed between the aging boss and the young upstart is one of the most famous in Wisconsin history. Its T^ESPITE his poor academic showing at the fame owes to La Follette's recollection of it -*^ University of Wisconsin, La Follette's re­ over thirty years later. According to La Fol­ cord as a champion collegiate orator had made lette, Keyes called him into the post office him the best-known member of his class. As early as his sophomore year, the Madison Democrat, commenting on one of his speeches, had noted that "the abilities of this gentleman in this direction have been so often appre­ •^ Robert T. Doland, "Enactment of the Potter Law," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 33:45-54 ciated by Madison audiences that any com­ (September, 1949) ; Herman J. Deutsch, "The Ground mendation on our part is superfluous." Af­ Swell of 1873," in ibid., 15:282-296 (March, 1932); Richard W. Hantke, "Elisha W. Keyes, the Bis­ ter his "lago" oration won the Interstate marck of Western Politics," in ibid., 31:29-41 (Sep­ Championship at Iowa City in 1879, La tember, 1947) ; Herman J. Deutsch, "Railroad Poli­ Follette was feted as a state hero in the Wis­ tics," in ibid., 15:391-411 (June, 1932) ; Thompson, Carpenter, 231-232; Richard N. Current, Pine Logs consin Assembly Chamber." Nor did he bring and Politics: A Life of Philetus Sawyer (Madison, only his oratorical skills to the 1880 campaign. 1950), 156, 158-161, 164-165; Robert M. La Follette, La Follette's Autobiography: A Personal Narrative of A second major attraction which La Follette Political Experiences (Madison, 1960), 5. offered was his reputation as a sober and in­ ° La Follette, Autobiography, 3-4. dustrious member of the community. The Re­ ''University Press, May 5, 1877; Madison Wiscon­ sin State Journal, December 18, 1880. publican party sorely needed a candidate who "Democrat, May 18, 1877. For a discussion of La could counteract the scandals which surround­ Follette's college career, see David P. Thelen, "The ed the previous district attorney, James Rey­ Early Life of Robert M. La Follette, 1855-1884" (Unpublished M. A. thesis. University of Wisconsin, nolds. Reynolds, an habitual drunkard, had 1964), 25-70. taken bribes and procured for prostitutes and " "James Reynolds Investigation, 1880," in Box 4, gamblers. Just prior to the county nominat­ Investigation of Charges, Surveys, Relief, Disasters, and Social Unrest, Wisconsin State Archival Series ing convention. Governor William E. Smith 1/1/8-1; Democrat, December 18, 1880; State Jour­ conducted a private hearing into detailed nal, December 18, 1880; Willet S. Main Diary, De­ cember 18, 1880, in the Willet S. Main Papers. All charges of immorality and dishonesty brought manuscript collections cited herein are in the Manu­ against Reynolds by Phil Spooner, the mayor scripts Library of the State Historical Society of of Madison. Although no record of the hear­ Wisconsin. '° University Press, October 22, December 5, 1877, ing survived, it is likely that the Republicans for example.

105 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

collection of testimonials from his more re­ cent speeches, including an Edgerton editor's

'-•^'14 \ characterization of him as "one of the bril­ liant orators in the northwest.'"" From all sides came praise of his oratorical powers. Opposition newspapers admitted that he was a fair orator, but they argued that he was in­ experienced. So much did La Follette and the ....s Republicans emphasize his oratorical accom­ plishments that the Madison Democrat mocked his style: ". . . He brought with him a whole library of books, which he piled upon the stand. . . . He spoke a few words; and he talked for all the world like a strolling play actor."" If there existed any serious disagreement between La Follette and Keyes as the cam­ paign progressed, it went unnoticed in the con­ temporary press. The Madison Democrat, which published as many rumors of Repub­ Uni\'ersity nt Wisconsin Aiciiucs lican discord as it could uncover, never men­ The young La Follette as he appeared shortly before tioned the alleged rift in its stories about running for the Dane County district attorneyship. either Keyes or La Follette. The State Jour­ nal, edited by one of Keyes' closest political and "exclaimed roughly": "You are fooling and personal friends, David Atwood, praised away your time, sir!" He told La Follette La Follette more than any of the other six that permission of the boss was the prerequi­ Republican nominees on the county ticket. site for any county office. The outraged La During the excitement just prior to the elec­ Follette left the post office wondering "what tion, the State Journal urged its readers: "Let business Keyes or any other man had to ques­ no one be persuaded to vote against Robert tion my right of going out among the voters M. La Follette ..." It continued: "It has of Dane County, and saying what I pleased to been our fortune to know Mr. La Follette them. And what had Keyes more than any quite well, having watched his course with other voter to do with the disposal of the dis­ deep interest for some years, and it gives us trict attorneyship?" According to La Follette, great pleasure to state, that it is our deliberate Keyes was "active" in opposition to his cam­ opinion, that if elected, he will make one of paign for the Republican nomination. And the ablest, most industrious and most efficient when his strategy of appealing to the voters District Attorneys that has ever served in Dane directly won out at the county convention, La County." Follette remembered, the bitter Keyes threw Atwood gave neither so much attention nor his support to the Democratic candidate in praise to other county candidates. In an ear­ the general election." lier discussion of the county ticket, the State But in 1880 La Follette said nothing about Journal devoted as much space to La Follette the interview. Instead, he continued the can­ as it did to the other six nominees combined. vass as though nothing had happened at the post office. His campaign literature empha­ sized his oratorical brilliance as his chief qualification. "Opinions of the Press: Mr. La Follette's Oratorical Victory" was a throw- ^° Both pamphlets are in the Wisconsin Biographi­ away which included encomiums of his speak­ cal Collections, State Historical Society of Wisconsin. ""Democrat, September 18, 22, October 8, 1880; ing ability after Iowa City. "Criticisms" was a Stoughton Courier, September 11, October 23, 30, 1880; Sun Prairie Countryman, September 30, Octo­ ber 14, 1880; State Journal, September 16, 18, 30, "La Follette, Autobiography, 6-7. October 5, 23, 29, November 1, 1880.

106 THELEN ; KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE

The same newspaper claimed two days earlier county Republican ticket, Keyes himself re­ that "no man in the State is doing more ef­ ferred "in highly complimentary terms ' to all fective work on the stump . . . than is Hon. Republican nominees." At least a few people E. W. Keyes. . . ."" If the State Journal believed that Keyes had bulldozed the entire were simply muting controversy for the sake county ticket, including La Follette, through of Republican harmony, there would have the nominating convention. The editor of the been no reason for it to exalt La Follette over Republican Stoughton Courier, who had him­ the other county nominees. self sought county office, reported that the La Follette, moreover, was apparently not nomination of La Follette demonstrated "the averse to borrowing arguments for his speech­ absurdity of [Madison] regency selections." es from Keyes. On September 22, at Mari­ He was "by no means the strongest man that nette, Keyes blasted the Democrats for their could have been nominated," but the Madison history of secessionist principles, from the bosses had been victorious." Although prob­ Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798- ably motivated by the desire to create dis­ 1799 to their platform of 1880. This speech sension among the Republicans, the Demo­ was published in the State Journal. Two crat's editor declared that "the 'regency' at weeks later, at Paoli, La Follette reiterated the capital city has things their own way and precisely the same doctrine.^" Although wav­ has placed a ticket in the field. . . ." Ras­ ing the bloody shirt was a popular Republi­ mus B. Anderson, a University linguist and can rhetorical flourish of this period, there political observer, later recalled that Keyes were various forms of spread-eagle oratory, had been one of La Follette's major supporters and it is questionable whether Keyes and La for the district attorneyship.™ Follette evolved the same idea independently within a two-week period. A CTUALLY, Keyes had little time to de- Ohio and held elections in Octo­ -^*- vote to candidates for county office. Hav­ ber, and both parties watched those states for ing recently been shorn of his chairmanship an indication of the national result in No­ of the Republican State Central Committee vember. The city bosses felt La Follette was a and chastised by the party in his unsuccess­ good enough Republican to appoint him to ful bid for the Senate nomination in 1879, the First Ward Committee, which was mak­ Keyes was trying in 1880 to muster his forces ing preparations for a city-wide celebration for another bid against Senator Philetus Saw­ of the Hoosier and Buckeye victories." Willet yer. His first concern was to secure the elec­ Main, the kingpin in Keyes' organization and tion of state senators and assemblymen who probably the boss's closest confidant, saw would support him for the Senate.''^ To re­ nothing unusual in the campaign for county gain his power, Keyes had to beat Sawyer, offices. Returning from the nominating con­ not a political neophyte seeking an unimpor­ vention, he noted in his diary that it was "a tant county office. good ticket, though the Sheriff is not strong." Keyes had received some inkling of the op­ With the campaign in full swing. Main wrote position aligned against him when Matt Car­ that "some meetings are being held in the penter defeated him for the Senate in 1879. county, but there is no unusual political ex­ Although one railroad still awarded free passes citement."" If Keyes was feuding with La to Keyes' friends as a favor, the same com­ Follette, he neglected to inform his chief pany fired a postal clerk because he had cam- henchman of the fact. In a speech calling for the election of the

^'State Journal, September 29, 1880. " Sun Prairie Countryman, September 23, 1880; " State Journal, October 21, 23, November 1, 1880. Stoughton Courier, September 11, 1880. ''Ibid., September 22, October 7, 1880. "•" Rasmus B. Anderson, Life Story of Rasmus B. 'Ubid., October 14, 1880. Anderson (Madison. 1915), 612. "Elisha W. Keyes to Marvin Hughitt, January 8, '" Current. Sawyer, 156-161; Bintliff to E. W. 1880, in the Keyes Papers; Willet S. Main Diary, Keyes, September 10, 1880, in the Keyes Papers; September 15, October 4, 1880. Willet S. Main Diary, October 11, 22, 1880.

107 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 paigned for Keyes. The Madison boss ignored powerful monied combinations that ever unit­ the matter, believing that the clerk had been ed against any one man. . . . The result dismissed for inefficiency, but it was becom­ leaves Mr. Keyes without a political future.""' ing increasingly clear that the state's busi­ If, during the campaign, Keyes had fretted nessmen were opening their coffers to Keyes' about La Follette's candidacy for the Dane enemies."' County district attorneyship, he had success­ Lumber and railroad baron Philetus Saw­ fully concealed his "opposition" from his yer decided to fight Keyes for the expired faithful lieutenant, Willet Main, and from the Senate seat of Angus Cameron in 1880. While voting public, which generally regarded La the neophyte La Follette was seeking a coun­ Follette as a nominee of the Keyes machine. ty office which promised a livelihood, Keyes In any event. La Follette won his first elective was fighting what would be his last battle for post. state-wide recognition in Republican councils. The loss of the Senate race was only the The postmaster had an uphill battle to secure beginning of a series of political catastrophes legislators committed to him in the state elec­ which were to befall Elisha Keyes in the next tions of 1880. Keyes' friends and Democra­ two years. By November of 1882 he would tic enemies of big business watched Sawyer not only be impotent in state Republican cir­ somewhat incredulously as he demonstrated cles, but even his power in Dane County would the modern way of winning a Senate seat. be woefully reduced. The first disaster oc­ To them. Sawyer was simply "a vulgar and curred in January, 1882. The new and wealthy ignorant boor whose wealth is his greatest re­ Republican leaders of Wisconsin were able commendation." Keyes was a sacrificial to convince President Chester A. Arthur lamb to be "slaughtered by the almighty dol­ to appoint ex-Senator Timothy 0. Howe as lar of the monopolists." A wholesale grocer Postmaster General of the United States. Howe from Milwaukee saw the beginning of a poli­ was a vengeful man, and he remembered the tical trend when he wrote that "from present influence Keyes had brought to bear against indications the future historian will see this him in his bid for re-election to the Senate as 'monopoly-age.'" Another observer spoke in 1879. Avenging "an old personal griev­ of "a growing fear of the power of money in ance," he fired Keyes from the Madison post politics." Twenty years before La Follette be­ office. This further embittered Keyes, and came , much fertile Willet Main noted in his diary that "Keyes is ground lay unplowed for progressive ideas."' on the warpath." The La Crosse Chronicle In 1880 Keyes fought desperately to win blamed the "Milwaukee ring" for Keyes' dis­ legislators who would vote for him for the missal, claiming that "Anyone who understood Senate. He tramped across the length and the relations existing between the Madison breadth of the state, but in the end he failed. postmaster and the stalwart senators" would After the election, the Madison Democrat as­ have expected as much. But Keyes was out of sessed his defeat: "It is fair to say that Mr. a job, and Postmaster General Howe appoint­ Keyes has been crushed by one of the most ed an ex-Civil War general, George E. Bryant, to fill the post.'" Robert M. La Follette later remembered -'^ William S. Grubb to Keyes, February 11, 18, Bryant as "a wise man, a good lawyer and 1879; C. A. Swineford to Keyes, November 13, 1878; judge," and La Follette's wife recalled of him Abel Keyes to Keyes, November 26, 1878; F. P. Keyes to Keyes, January 13, 1879; all in the Keyes that "through his own experience on his well- Papers. managed farm, he understood the farmers' •"Democrat, January 12, 14, 18, 20, 1881; Willet point of view." With his huge head of hair, S. Main Diary, October 22, 1880; and the following letters to Keyes, all in the Keyes Papers: Stephen his sideburns, and his long, stringy beard Rowcliff, January 3, 1881; John K. Parish, Januarv which obscured most of his face, General Bry- 31, 1881; D. R. Clements, January 23, 1881; J. H. Topping, January 21, 1881; F. A. Dole, January 19, 1881; C. C. Calkins, January 11, 1881; M. Knight, January 13, 1881; Beriah Brown, January 30, 1881; "' Democrat, September 18, 1880. G. R. Goodrich, January 27, 1881; K. Langland, '-'Ibid., January 20, 21, 1882; State Journal, Jan­ January 15, 1881; and Charles Weiler to T. N. Cor- uary 27, 31, February 1, 11, 1882; Willet S. Main bett, January 14, 1881. Diary, January 27, February 4, 1882.

108 THELEN : KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE

luc Collection The seat of Republican power in the late nineteenth century—the Madison post office. Erected in 1869 on the present-day site of Manchester's department store, this impressive building was demolished in the late 1920's. This early stereopticon view was taken from the Capitol grounds looking toward the corner of Miflin Street and Wisconsin Avenue. ant looked more like a medieval scholar than January 23, 1882, at the same time he lost a politician or farmer. In fact, however, he the postmastcrship. Keyes was awarded cus­ owned many large farms in Wisconsin and tody of their son Louis, who was then attend­ Minnesota, was worth fifty thousand dollars, ing school in Galesville and wrote weekly let­ and was a political power to be reckoned with. ters to his father pleading for money. This His power as postmaster was increased by and other drains on Keyes' income were prob­ his influence as secretary of the State Agri­ ably responsible for his frequent inability to cultural Society and as Quartermaster General pay his bills on time and his occasional over­ of Wisconsin. The forty-nine-year-old Bryant drafts at the bank.'" had previously been a county judge and state Another catastrophe occurred to Keyes dur- senator, and he was an implacable enemy of Elisha Keyes. It was he who had placed Mat­ thew Carpenter's name in nomination for the Senate in 1879, and who had led the battle '^° La Follette, Autobiography, 21; Belle Case and Fola La Follette, Robert M. La Follette (2 vols.. New against Keyes in the state legislature. As the York, 1953), 1:58; Keyes and Gill to P. K. Diederick fiddler for all who wanted to dance on Keyes' & Co., September 16, 1881, in the Keyes Papers; grave, Bryant was to become La Follette's C. W. Butterfield, History of Dane County, Wisconsin (, 1880), 960; Democrat, August 28, 1880; most effective ally during the 1880's.^ State Journal, January 8 to 22, 18'79, cited in Wallace While Keyes' political world was crashing S. Sayre, "Robert M. La Follette: A Study in Politi­ cal Methods" (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, New around him, so was his personal life. His York University, 1930), 43. wife's habit of visiting Chicago to run up '^ Keyes vs. Keyes, Findings of Dane County Cir­ large bills at Marshall Field's, combined with cuit Court; Louis Keyes to E. W. Keyes, February 13, 1882, for example; L. Hanks to Keyes, June 29, other quirks, moved Keyes to divorce her on 1882, in the Keyes Papers.

109 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 ing the early autumn of the same year. In The former manipulator of patronage now view of his stunning loss of the post office, favored, of all things, civil service reform. he realized that if he were ever again to wield The Democrat chuckled at the image of Keyes power, he would need an elective office. He as "a converted and regenerated boss, who, decided, therefore, to become a Congressman seized with repentance and clothed with a new­ from the southwestern part of the state. George found eloquence will proclaim the error of his C. Hazelton, a former friend and political as­ ways and deliver to his old companions in sin sociate whom Keyes had helped elect to Con­ the light of wisdom.""" Not everyone was gress during the mid-seventies, opposed his laughing, however. The Republican split bid for nomination. The two factions were meant that the Democrat, Burr Jones, would approximately equal in strength, and a single probably be elected. At a time when majori­ delegate from Mazomanie who had been ties were so slim that each seat was crucial in pledged to support Keyes "by playing Judas the organization of the House, many Republi­ subverted the will of the majority and actual­ cans were alarmed over the foolhardy and ly split the party into halves. . . ." Through vindictive quarrel between Keyes and Hazel­ the delegate's treachery, Hazelton was nomi­ ton. The Blue Mounds correspondent of the nated. Keyes' supporters, indignant, prompt­ Democrat and the Prairie du Chien Courier ly bolted the convention and nominated Keyes severely chastised Keyes for bolting the re­ at another meeting. The Sun Prairie Country­ gular convention. The Courier blasted Keyes man, appalled at these "enormities of the con­ for throwing "aside all regard for party con­ vention system," asked: "Is it not about time sideration and obligations." In the interest that honest, sensible men set about the task of party harmony, the Republican State Cen­ of devising some plan whereby a choice of tral Committee made many desperate but un­ candidates may be put to nomination by the successful efforts to conciliate the two men, voters" directly ?'''' Some ten years hence but finally had to support the majority candi­ Robert M. La Follette would raise precisely date, Hazelton.'" the same question. The election of Burr Jones to Congress in November disclosed two facts about Madison T^HE ensuing struggle between Hazelton and Republican politics. In the first place, Elisha ••- Keyes demoralized local Republicans. W. Keyes was no longer the power he had Hazelton's nomination was decided by the once been. Hazelton's newspaper, the Third wealthy Republican bosses, declared the in­ District Republican, printed a Shakespearean dependent Countryman, and his chief support­ lament which, while politically inspired, was ers were the federal patronage appointees. not far from the mark: Hazelton's support, said the Stoughton Cour­ Oh for the power I once did wield! ier, came from "over one hundred federal of­ Fd bear down opposition and crush fice holders . . . indebted to Hazelton . . . It 'neatfi my heel .... Those days who are feeding at the public crib. . . ." The Of ripened harvest have washed away. And all the fields of politics lie brown Madison Democrat repeated the same charges And bare 'neath the gray, sour sfcy against Hazelton.™ Of my autumnal discontent. Keyes sounded the note of reform in his Less partisan newspapers also acknowledged campaign. He blasted Hazelton for his sup­ Keyes' demise as an effective political boss.''" port of the rivers and harbors bill, arguing The second fact that the election revealed that this pork barrel bill constituted a "steal."

^"Democrat, October 15, 18, 24, 1882; Stoughton "" Hantke, "Keyes," 227-228; Democrat, September Courier, August 18, 1882; Willet S. Main Diary, 19, October 1, 1882; Sun Prairie Countryman, Sep­ September 12, 1882. tember 21, November 16, 1882; State Journal, Sep­ " Courier, quoted in Madison Third District Re­ tember 19, 1882. publican, November 3, 1882; Democrat, October 1, ^ Stoughton Courier, August 25, September 1, No­ November 1, 8, 1882; Willet S. Main Diary, Septem­ vember 3, 1882; Democrat, September 17, October 15, ber 16, 1882. 29, 1882; Sun Prairie Countryman, October 5, 26, ''-Democrat, October 18, 19, 29, 1882; Sun Prairie 1882. Countryman, October 26, 1882.

110 THELEN : KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE was that Dane County Republicans were voters in the congressional election of 1882. He weary of internal dissension. Willet S. Main had all he could do to save his own political confided to his diary that "politics looks bad skin without taking on the most popular elec­ for the Rep. party. The dissensions in the tive official in Dane County. In the two years party . . . weakened us badly." The national after the 1882 defeats, Keyes grew increas­ Mugwump Revolt of 1884 against corrupt ingly bitter and crotchety. Eventually even politics was foreshadowed two years earlier in his faithful follower, Willet Main, was driven Dane County, in the opposition to "fraud, bri­ to admit to his diary that "his following and bery, boss dictation, and the general bull doz­ prestige is largely withered away." When a ing of machine politics," which tended to candidate for the state assembly sought Keyes' create the dreaded factionalism. Machines, influence, he begged the former boss of the whether the old-style one of Elisha Keyes or "Madison Regency" to assist him secretly, the newer one of George Hazelton, with its for so unpopular was Keyes that if word got federal officeholders and corporate slush fund, out, the candidate would be defeated.'^" Keyes were opposed because they fostered dissen­ continued to alienate local Republican offi­ sion.'" cials by picking fights over matters of little But whatever the harm done Keyes and the account, and as University Regent he stub­ Republican party generally by the feuding of bornly attempted to dictate University poli­ 1882, it had not hurt Dane County's popular cies and personnel.''" By 1884, the once potent young district attorney, Robert M. La Follette. Boss Keyes was politically broken. The county newspapers had overwhelmingly The year 1884 posed a problem for Repub­ supported his re-election that year, and had lican strategists. Although the Republicans spoken of his service in terms accorded no had won every presidential election since 1860, other county candidate. The Madison State the Democrats had since 1876 been able to Journal claimed that "there was no desire on organize every Congress except one. The the part of any one for a change. . . . Mr. House of Representatives was a thorn in the La Follette stands before the people with an Republican side, and as political excitement endorsement of which any man might well mounted to a fever pitch with the June sixth be proud." The Countryman, speaking for nomination of the Plumed Knight, James G. independent Republicans, wrote that "we have Blaine, Wisconsin Republicans were deter­ yet to hear the first fault found with any of mined to give their presidential aspirant a his official acts. We would like to see our majority in the House. But what should be friend 'Bob' re-elected, and trust that he will done about the Third Congressional District? get the full measure of support so justly due Republicans there were hopelessly divided him.'"" Both of these newspapers had warm­ into bitterly warring camps. The Democrats ly supported Keyes in his bolt against Hazel­ had succeeded in electing Burr Jones to Con­ ton. gress in 1882 because neither George W. Ha­ Keyes never recovered from his twin de­ zelton nor Elisha W. Keyes had been willing feats of 1882. He had been rebuked by the to admit the other's nomination. Keyes and party when he bid for the Senate nomina­ Hazelton had split the Republican vote, and tions in 1879 and 1880; he had been stripped the predominantly Republican district found not only of the State Central Committee chair­ itself represented by a Democrat. The sup­ manship but also of the Madison postmaster- porters of Keyes, including friends who had ship; he had been slighted by local Republi­ stayed loyal after their leader had been eased cans in the nominating convention and by the out of top Republican councils, and the sup-

=••''Willet S. Main Diary, April 30, 1884; C. E. "'Willet S. Main Diary, October 6, November 8, Parish to Keyes, September 1, 1884, in the Keyes 1882; Sun Prairie Countryman, November 2, 9, 16, Papers. 1882; Stoughton Courier, November 3, 17, 1882; "' Mount Horeb Blue Mounds Weekly News, June Democrat, October 15, 1882. 20. 1884; Democrat, September 5, 1884; John M. " State Journal, September 21, 1882; Sun Prairie Olin to William Erie, February 25, March 19, 1888, Countryman, October 12, 26, November 2, 1882. in the John M. Olin Papers.

Ill WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 porters of Hazelton, including many Federal . '.^v^><^SSZ:' appointees who had taken office when Hazel­ ton was a Congressman, were determined that the other man would not be nominated for Congress in 1884. So bitter was the fight that neither side trusted the other's choice of a date for the nominating conventions. On March 13, three representatives from each faction met at Madison to agree on a date for the convention and to determine the number of delegates from each county."' Clearly some kind of compromise was in order.

A T what point Robert M. La Follette decid- -^-*- ed to run for Congress is unknown. But as district attorney he had demonstrated his ability to compromise during a skirmish be­ tween Madison saloonists and prohibitionists in the spring of 1884, and had emerged from the moral and legal battle more popular than ever."" Postmaster Bryant believed that it was time for the young prosecutor to move on to • Iconographic Collection higher office, and he used his influence to George E. Bryant, Madison postmaster and La secure La Follette an invitation from the Mad­ Follette's political mentor. ison post of the Grand Army of the Republic have a say in future patronage? The first prob­ to deliver a Memorial Day oration to the old lem was somehow to neutralize Keyes. In this soldiers. Bryant, himself extremely popular mission he had support from many diverse among the veterans, introduced La Follette groups. The big business interests which con­ at the cemetery grounds in Madison. "Amid trolled the Republican State Central Commit­ the grandest applause," the Democrat report­ tee were eager to bury Keyes as deep and as ed. La Follette told his audience that future soon as possible. Using the Milwaufcee Sen­ generations would "keep your campfires tinel as their mouthpiece, the state bosses burning, —with these undying principles will were quick to see the "availability" of La feed the flame—a watchfire to the dead, a sun Follette and the ability of Bryant. A Grant of liberty to the living—lighting up the faces County newspaper thought that the Sentinel's of a free people; shining on no antagonistic advocacy of La Follette meant that Philetus belief which casts a shadow north or south— Sawyer, H. C. Payne, and the commercial shining on perfect concord and national uni­ bosses from Milwaukee were seeking to ty.""" The oration was a huge success. usurp local prerogatives while promoting a Throughout the campaign which was to fol­ candidate who would do their bidding: "There low, Bryant served as La Follette's political is an impression here that there is a good god-father. Bryant himself was quite familiar sized rat under the Sentinel's bag of young with the tactics of compromise, for he had won man meal." The disheartened Keyes firmly his postmastcrship by proving acceptable to believed that La Follette's candidacy was just both factions. Could he negotiate another com­ one more attempt by the Milwaukee machine promise in the congressional race and thus to shove him into political obscurity."

•*" Lancaster Grant County Herald, August 21, 1884. "' State Journal, March 14, 1884. For further evidence of the state bosses' hostility to ""Thelen, "Early Life of La Follette," 125-142. Keyes, see the Stoughton Courier, October 17, 1884; '"' Belle Case and Fola La Follette, La Follette, Democrat, October 14, 1884; J. E. Eldred to Keyes, 1:57; State Journal, October 24, 1884; Democrat, May 21, 1884; and J. B. Treat to Keyes, September May 31, 1884. 10, 1884, both in the Keyes Papers.

112 THELEN : KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE

Bryant could count on considerable sup­ And there was no doubt of La Follette's popu­ port in Dane County. Keyes' bitter quarrels lar appeal. His vote-getting power was shown with University president John Bascom and by his two-thousand-vote lead over the rest the memory of the national distinction which of the Republican ticket in 1882. When the La Follette had brought to the University with State Journal said that "the young blood is his oratorical victory in 1879 made the dis­ enthused to the highest degree," it was ob­ trict attorney very appealing to the "Univer­ serving an important phenomenon which oth­ sity boys."" After Keyes was ousted from the ers had also noticed. In La Follette the young post office and his political fortunes began to men had found a man of immense appeal. slip, two significant "rats" deserted his sink­ Their University war-whoops and their en­ ing ship. Phil Spooner, brother of John C. thusiasm were contagious." For most of his Spooner, and Frank Oakley, United States political career La Follette maintained this Marshal, had tried to curry favor with the new same appeal for young men on the make who postmaster, George Bryant, in 1882,'"' and were tired of professional politicians. The probably offered only token resistance to Monroe Sun grouped La Follette with the Bryant and La Follette in 1884. If La Follette "class of self-made men who are strong and could carry all of Dane County's fourteen popular." La Follette had put himself through delegates, he would need only eight more to the University while keeping "the wolf from be nominated. the door" of his widowed mother and sister, At this point George Bryant made a trip to and Republican newspapers never tired of Boscobel, a village nestled near a crook of pointing out this fact. Young men who "had the Wisconsin River, to see his old friend hopes" could feel that La Follette was one of George Hazelton. Hazelton was weary of poli­ them, and they rolled up their sleeves, attend­ tical wars and wanted to leave Boscobel. But ed caucuses, and buttonholed friends in the he still had friends and influence in Grant interest of this twenty-nine-year-old. After La County, the second most populous in the dis­ Follette's victory in the Madison caucuses, the trict. He was furious with Keyes and wanted defeated Boss Keyes had but one explanation to settle the score for his 1882 defeat before for La Follette's victory: "It's the young fel­ he left. He promised Bryant all the support he lows that did it."" could muster for La Follette's candidacy. He While La Follette and his young law part­ told Bryant that he would secure delegates ner, Samuel A. Harper, were appealing to the "pledged" for a local candidate who would young men. Postmaster Bryant was rallying in fact support La Follette at the congression­ the Civil War veterans to the district attorney's al convention. Bryant wholeheartedly agreed standard. Many of them had fought in Gener­ with this strategy, feeling that this would be al Bryant's regiment and they trusted his the best way to avoid arousing suspicion and judgment completely. Since there were almost thus to further the illusion that La Follette 2,000 old soldiers in Dane and Grant coun­ was a compromise candidate." ties alone, they constituted an important If the support of the politicians was im­ group. Bryant persuaded the state's most portant, the backing of the rank-and-file mem­ popular veteran, three-term governor and bers of the Republican Party—the people who former general, , to stump for attended the caucuses—was equally important. La Follette. Fairchild gave a speech in La Follette's favor to the Iowa County delegates. After La Follette's nomination, the vigorous

"' Lancaster Weekly Teller, September 11, 1884. "Keyes to Ryland, June 24, 1882, in the Keyes Papers. " The best account of the Bryant-Hazelton meeting ''State Journal, September 10, October 18, 1884; is in the Lancaster Weekly Teller, October 2, 30, Stoughton Courier, August 22, 29, September 12, 1884. C. K. Dean to Keyes, October 8, 1884; Thomas 1884; Grant County Herald, August 7, 28, October 16, Peck to Keyes, June 18, 1883; J. B. Treat to Keyes, 1884. August 25, September 10, 1884, all in the Keyes Pa­ '"Monroe Sun, September 27, 1884; State Journal, pers; Democrat, September 9, October 24, 1884; October 24, 30, 1884; Belle Case and Fola La Follette, Willet S. Main Diary, August 11, 13, 1884. La Follette, 1:59.

113 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 young district attorney often appeared on platforms with the aging general who had lost an arm at Gettysburg.""" Although La Follette was very popular in Dane County, he was little known in other parts of the Third District. To rectify this, Bryant distributed literature to the district's Republican editors which gave basic biogra­ phical facts and boasted of the district at­ torney's exploits.''

^ I ^0 win the nomination, Bryant and La Fol- -*- lette reasoned, it would be crucial to car­ ry Dane County's fourteen delegates. This meant a head-on battle with Boss Keyes, who was supporting Green County's favorite son, J. B. Treat. Keyes' lieutenant, Willet Main, made Society's Iconographic Collection many efforts to compromise with Bryant, but Samuel A. Harper, La Follette's law partner. finally had to note in his diary that the op­ position had refused "all offers of settlement had chosen La Follette because he "was known of differences and so we will have a little to be very clever and adroit at packing cau­ war." The University boys and other young cuses." Two Democratic newspapers appealed Republicans, the holders and seekers of pa­ to Keyes' vanity by reporting the "gleeful" tronage, and the old soldiers—including in words of a Dane County delegate, who boast­ each group former Keyes supporters—turned ed that Keyes "and all his dummies" were up in huge numbers at caucuses all over the "buried now." La Follette's nomination, the district to defeat the onetime dictator of Dane Democrats claimed, was "a pretty skilfully County politics. Willet Main, bleary-eyed planned piece of machine work" which had from the defeat, saw the cause of La Follette's been "thrust down the throat of the conven­ victory in Keyes himself: "K[eyes] by his tion in defiant contempt of the wishes of a loss of discretion in temper and talk has frit­ large majority. . . ." If the Republicans tered away nearly all of his once autocratic won the election, "the Madison Postmaster influence and it is not in him to change." will be the real congressman." As for La Main could see countless numbers of the Follette himself, he was "a young man of fair boss's old friends now aligned with the new ability who . . . may be expected to obey the postmaster. The old lion had finally been de­ mandates of the ring that created him.'"' feated in his own lair."" The Democratic strategy failed. David At­ With the memory of their 1882 victory wood, editor of the State Journal, was the first fresh in mind, the Democrats tried desperate­ Keyes supporter to offer La Follette the olive ly to goad Keyes and his supporters into bolt­ branch. He published all statements of back­ ing La Follette's nomination. They repeated­ ing from former enemies of the Bryant-La ly charged that Bryant and his "venal clique" FoUette-Hazelton group. So harmonious was the campaign that Willet Main paid a courte­ sy call on the Republican nominee when he became sick at the close of the canvass."" "Dodgeville Star, August 29, 1884; Monroe Sun, October 18, 1884; Blue Mounds Weekly News, Octo­ ber 10, 1884; Democrat, October 9, 1884; Grant County Herald, August 7, 1884; Lucius Fairchild Diary, October 7, 8, 13, 14, 1884, in the Lucius Fair- child Papers. " Democrat, September 6, 10, 11, 18, November 1, "Lancaster Weekly Teller, August 14, 1884. 2, 3, 1884; Stoughton Courier, October 31, 1884; "Willet S. Main Diary, August 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, Dodgeville Star, August 12, 1884. 19, 20, 27, 1884; Dodgeville Star, August 22, 29, ''"State Journal, August 26, September 13, 26, 1884; 1884; Grant County Herald, August 28, 1884; Demo­ Democrat, September 10, 1884; Willet S. Main Diary, crat, November 3, 1884. October 26, 1884.

114 THELEN : KEYES AND LA FOLLETTE

The basic explanation for La Follette's nom­ pie of University rhetorical trill and whang- ination was provided by the Grant County leather twang. . . .'"" Herald and echoed by the Stale Journal. He James G. Blaine and Robert M. La Follette was the leading candidate "who would unite carried the Third District. The new Congress­ all who are desirous of forgetting every vestige man would not forget the man who had helped of past discord." He was "a man unidentified him so much, and he listened closely whenever with past misunderstandings." He had an "im­ George Bryant spoke. And Elisha Keyes, poli­ mense personal popularity" among the voters. tically ruined, returned to his real estate busi­ One editor spoke of "the boom for La Follette ness and to the promotion of a new street in Dane County" as "a spontaneous and ir­ railway system for Madison.'" repressible movement." He was capable, and he was untarnished by the bitter feuds among 'T^HE legend of La Follette's singlehanded the Third District's Republicans."' -*- crusades against Boss Keyes must be sig­ But over all of his personal traits there nificantly restated. During the 1880's Keyes towered, once again, his "brilliant reputa­ was rapidly losing his former control over tion as an orator." From a Democratic news­ state and local Republican politics. Big busi­ paper in Prairie du Chien, a hundred miles nessmen were seizing control of the party from Madison, came the admission that La from old-fashioned manipulators like Keyes, Follette was one of the state's best orators. and in 1880, when the Madison postmaster H. C. Adams emphasized La Follette's elo­ made a desperate effort to regain his lost quence when he placed the district attorney's prestige by running for the Senate nomina­ name in nomination at the convention. In La tion, he had neither the time nor the inclina­ Follette, the Republicans had a man who was tion to oppose La Follette's bid for the district capable of expressing his constituents' wishes attorneyship. In 1882, after Keyes had been in a manner which would impress people in ousted from his postmastcrship. La Follette Washington."'^ wasted no time in allying himself with the new Nevertheless, voters heard nothing unusual postmaster, George Bryant. For the next twen­ from La Follette's silver tongue during the ty years Bryant was to be one of La Follette's campaign which followed. His acceptance chief backers, and each time La Follette was speech was a typical effort. The Republican successful he repaid Bryant with an office. Party he said, had found a prostrate and cor­ La Follette encountered no opposition from rupt America in 1860, and "it spread the shield Keyes in 1882 because the boss was then en­ of its strong protection over our prostrate in­ gaged in another bitter struggle, this time with dustries, and the busy hum of the thresher, George Hazelton over a seat in Congress. Be­ the ringing hammer and whirling spindles cause he thereafter had to bear the heretical broke the ominous silence and labor looked title of "bolter," Keyes was at the nadir of up and laughed." Wherever he appeared, the his political power in 1884. La Follette sim­ local Plumed Knight clubs enjoyed hearing ply stepped into a political vacuum; with the young speaker—even if his habit of rub­ Bryant as his mentor and campaign manager, bing his lip while he spoke made some cynics he was clearly the most available candidate fear that his luxuriant mustache might be to heal the wounds carrying over from 1882. gone by November. His popularity as an ora­ It was hardlv even a fair fight. tor caused one Democratic editor, perhaps jealously, to scoff at him as "a common sam-

'"State Journal, September 12, 1884; Dodgeville Star, September 12, 1884. •*'La Follette, Autobiography, 21; Belle Case and '''Monroe Sun, September 27, November 1, 1884; Fola La Follette, La Follette, 1:61. Bryant was re­ Stoughton Courier, August 22, 29, 1884; State Jour­ moved from the post office after Grover Cleveland's nal, September 10, October 18, 1884; Boscobel Dial, victory in 1884. Benjamin Harrison's election in September 16, 1884; Grant County Herald, October 1888 provided La Follette the opportunity to repay 16, 1884. his delit to Brvant, and the young Congressman se­ ^^ Dodgeville Star, September 12, 1884; State Jour­ cured his mentor's reappointment to the postmaster- nal, September 25, October 24, 1884; Grant County ship in 1889. See Biographical Review of Dane Coun­ Herald, August 7, 1884. ty I Chicago. 1893).

115 gr.ipliic Collection

PLUNDER AND PROGRESS: THE LUMBERING INDUSTRY IN PERSPECTIVE

By CHARLES E. TWINING lieved what he said when he said it. The his­ torian is continually faced with the problem of placing events in the context of their own time, and nowhere is this problem more ap­ QN July 22, 1852, Wisconsin Congressman parent than when discussing nineteenth-cen­ ^^ Ben Eastman informed the House of Re­ tury lumbering while burdened with mid- presentatives that "Upon the rivers which are twentieth-century notions of conservation. To­ tributary to the Mississippi, and also upon day we find it appalling that our virgin forests those which empty themselves into Lake Michi­ were ravished by ruthless individuals who gan, there are interminable forests of pine, seemingly gave not a thought to the future sufficient to supply all the wants of the citi­ needs of the nation. The purpose of this dis­ zens ... for all time to come.'" cussion is to place the "ravishment" in con­ For reasons all too obvious, it is no longer text. possible to concede any credence to these re­ marks of the Honorable Mr. Eastman. Yet In any area of frontier development, the it might be helpful, for purposes of under­ most accessible resources are the first to be ex­ standing, if we realize that he probably be- ploited—assuming of course, that the resource has current market possibilities and that the frontier area has the means of getting the re­ NOTE: In slightly different form, this paper was source to market. Certainly the history of Wis­ delivered at the 117th Annual Meeting of the State consin lumbering lends substantial support to Historical Society of Wisconsin, Three Lakes, Wis­ such a generalization. Lumber, however, is not consin, June 20-21, 1963. ^ Congressional Globe, Appendix, 32 Congress, 1 entirely typical of natural wealth which is easi­ session (1851-1852), 851. ly, and therefore initially, utilized by man,

116 TWINING : LUMBERING INDUSTRY since the forest was by its very nature doomed prairies was a vast forest, as magnificent as to destruction by the advance of civilization. any in the world, stretching across the north­ The settler had to clear his land in order to ern lake states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and raise his crops, and, if there were a market for Minnesota. Of equal importance, the streams the by-product of his labors, so much the bet­ of the area flowed from the forest toward the ter. But market or not, the great Eastern for­ fertile farmland. ests retreated before the pioneer farmer's axe. In Wisconsin alone, when that state entered Thus the timber trade and the necessity for the Union in 1848, the timber belt covered clearing the land complemented one another. an estimated 16,900,000 acres, or almost half It does not follow, however, that the number the total area of the state.* Despite the occa­ of trees felled in any way represented the com­ sional romantic descriptions, this forest was mercial demand for lumber. The forest was not entirely composed of the stately white the enemy, and those who aided in its destruc­ pine. Yet the white pine, while not the only tion stood on the side of progress. Only representative of the northern forest, was by through their tireless efforts was civilization far the most important, because it was easily able to go forward. How quickly the men of worked by man and because it could be float­ England, "who grew oaks for profit,'"^ adapted ed to market on Wisconsin's rivers." to these unfamiliar conditions. There was no Thus those conditions existed which would need to be concerned about the number of dictate the exploitation of the Wisconsin for­ trees cut. The forest was limitless, its wealth est: the resource, a market for the resource, inexhaustible.'' and reasonable access to the market." And as As settlement continued to advance west­ the prairies and then the plains attracted ever- ward, the "inexhaustible" forest proved less increasing numbers of settlers, so the demand and less an obstacle. The relative ease with for lumber ever increased. Wood was the ba­ which new farms reached a producing state sic material for construction. Settlers did not resulted not from improved methods of re­ build sod houses out of preference. moving the timber, but from the fact that there was less timber to remove. As the fron­ TN this complex, the only factor likely to tier reached westward towards the Mississippi, -•- be slighted, if not overlooked, is that of larger and larger openings appeared with in­ transportation. The tree was of no value un­ creasing regularity in the forest. And when less there was a means of getting it to market, that river barrier was crossed, the frontiers­ and water provided the ideal means. With­ man stood at the edge of a boundless region, out the network of lakes, rivers, and streams, no longer dominated by the trees of the forest, extensive exploitation could not have occurred but by the grasses of the prairie. As settle­ ment spread over this fertile area, the occa­ sional groves of trees were quickly felled, not out of necessity to clear the fields, but to pro­ •* John T. Curtis, The Vegetation of Wisconsin (Madison, 1959), 171-172. Filibert Roth, in Forestry vide for the needs of the settlers. The produce Conditions of Northern Wisconsin (Madison, 1898), of the forest, which had for so many years of estimated that the original forest of the entire state comprised some thirty million acres and included frontier experience been overabundant, was at least two hundred billion feet of saw timber now almost totally lacking. (pp. 10-12 J. This lack, however, proved to be but tem­ "William R. Raney, "Pine Lumbering in Wiscon­ sin," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 19:71-72 porary, for directly adjacent to the treeless (September, 1935). ° These conditions were not the only factors which encouraged rapid cutting. The more obvious of the additional reasons were: timber trespass and the cost inherent in attempting to protect timber hold­ ''Robert G. Albion, Forests and Sea Power (Cam­ ings from unauthorized cutting; the oft-present bridge, Massachusetts, 1926), 232. danger of forest fires; and the taxation rates on " See Lillian M. Willson, Forest Conservation in timber holdings, often intentionally unfair to the Colonial Times (SL Paul, 1948), 1-3. For a dis­ absentee landowner. While recognizing the impor­ cussion of the "Legend of Inexhaustibility," see tance of these factors, it should be understood that Jenks Cameron, The Development of Governmental they are not basic to the question. The trees would Forest Control in the United States (Baltimore, still have been cut even had there been no timber 1928), 1-9. thieves, forest fires, or local taxes.

117 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 when it did. When dealing with a commodity streams is not merely of historical concern; as unwieldy and as inexpensive as logs and rivers are still used when the wood being har­ lumber, the conveyance of this commodity vested is sufficiently buoyant. The continued has to be a consideration of supreme impor­ use that lumbermen make of streams has re­ tance, a factor affecting all phases of the in­ sulted from the fact that no other means of dustry.' Regardless of what land was made transportation has been discovered that can available to the lumberman, and regardless deliver their logs as economically. In the last of the governmental restrictions placed upon quarter of the nineteenth century, the aver­ its acquisition, only those areas which af­ age rate for driving logs down the Chippewa forded transportation opportunities would was about 75^ per thousand feet, and during ordinarily be acquired. When the transporta­ the same period, rafting rates from Beef tion factor was not reasonably considered— Slough to Clinton averaged between 90^ to and there were such instances—then the lum­ $1.05 per thousand; to Rock Island, $1.00 to bering operation had no chance of success. $1.15; to Muscatine, $1.10 to $1.20; and all For logs and lumber, a stream is a one-way the way to St. Louis for $2.25." The entire street, and a stream that does not flow towards trip from the pinery to the Mississippi mills the market is of little benefit to the lumber­ averaged about $1.00 per ton of lumber. man. If the Mississippi ran as the Nile runs, Thus, for the same reason that coal is ship­ our northern pineries would have outlasted ped on Ohio River barges and immense ore those of the South." boats sail the Great Lakes, logs were floated It should be emphasized that river trans­ down Wisconsin's streams and the Mississippi portation was not merely a part of lumber­ River. But pine logs clearly had an advantage, ing during the primitive beginnings of the for here was a product which required no industry, to be supplanted by the railroad at ship but could float itself to market. These the earliest opportunity. The lumberman used circumstances alone permitted the early ex­ the rivers as long as possible, and even the ploitation of the pine in the Lake States. ultimate rejection of the river as the means The task of supplying the treeless area with for transporting forest produce was a decision cheap and unlimited quantities of good wood in which the logger had no option. On the was one which Wisconsin lumbermen assumed streams of Wisconsin, the end of lumbering gradually. As early as 1809, a sawmill was coincided with the end of the white pine. operating at De Pere, just south of Green Their waters could no longer be of use to Bay on the Fox River." By 1830, lumbering lumbermen harvesting hardwoods, which had operations were being carried on along the previously been ignored. Nevertheless, as late banks of most of Wisconsin's useful logging as 1900, it was estimated that over two hun­ streams. At mid-century, however, the tim­ dred million feet of pine logs were driven ber that had been removed was but a trifling down the Chippewa River, and from 1897 amount, and in 1860 "the invading loggers to 1905, the booms at West Newton rafted were yet thundering only at the outer gates three billion feet of logs to Mississippi mills." of the vast forest solitudes of Wisconsin."'" Anyone viewing the Columbia River today The close of the Civil War, however, brought appreciates immediately that such use of an end to this slow advance into the Wiscon-

' See William G. Rector, Log Transportation in and therefore inexpensive, access to the market. the Lake States Lumber Industry, 1840-1918 (Glen­ " Engineer's Report, House Documents, vol. 14, dale, California, 1953), 15-25. pt. 3, 57 Congress, 1 session (1901-1902), 2328. " While this study is not directly concerned with Walter A. Blair, A Raft Pilot's Log (Cleveland, lumber traffic on the Great Lakes, it should be 1930), 289. noted that Lake Michigan was used extensively by "" Captain Fred A. Bill, in the Burlington (Iowa) the eastern Wisconsin lumbermen whose forests Post, December 13, 1930. were tributary to the lake. And though the methods ''' Reuben Gold Thwaites, Wisconsin (, of conveyance were somewhat different, the lake 1908), 281. provided advantages similar to those provided the " Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin western pineries by the Mississippi—an all-water. During the Civil War Decade (Madison, 1916), 60.

118 TWINING : LUMBERING INDUSTRY

sin forests.'" The diversion of American ener­ of their own, to deny the obvious, preferring gies from matters of destruction to those of to preach the archaic theme of inexhaustibil­ construction resulted in great increases in the ity. But regardless of what the lumberman demand for lumber, and, as demand for lum­ said, or failed to say, he understood in the ber increased, so did the activities of the Wis­ 1870's that if logging were to continue at its consin lumberman. Streams, large and small, current rate, the Wisconsin forest would soon were filled with logs in procession toward the be destroyed. Yet he still failed to curtail markets. Railroads soon enabled the lumber­ production. man to attack stands of previously inaccessible There are many possible explanations for pine. By 1869, the annual harvest of the state this failure. It is tempting to say that the lum­ had reached one billion board feet," and this bermen involved were simply human beings increased to a peak of 3.4 billion board feet acting amazingly like human beings, which in 1899, a year in which Wisconsin led the is to say, reprehensibly. Such a cynical as­ nation in the production of lumber." sessment has a certain appeal; yet by its very But if the demands of the rapidly expanding simplicity it ignores those factors which made nation seemed limitless, it soon became evident curtailment of their operations impossible, re­ that such was not the case with the source of gardless of their morality. Most important, supply. It is no cause for surprise that as there were other forests available. Neither the accelerated construction of houses, barns, producer nor consumer had any particular schools, and churches progressed from In­ preference for Wisconsin pine as opposed to diana to the Dakotas, the Wisconsin forest Minnesota pine, or for that matter as opposed fell rapidly before the logger's axe. to the Douglas fir of the Pacific slopes. As Bernard E. Fernow stated in his book on the T^HE participants in this concerted assault history of forestry, "Forestry is an art born of -*- upon the pineries did not long remain necessity. . . . Only when the natural supplies ignorant of the eventual result of their labors. of forest products give out under the demands By the mid-seventies, tables appeared fre­ of civilization . . . does the art of forestry quently in the trade journals estimating the make its appearance."" There was to be amount of standing pine within the various nothing sacred about the pine of Wisconsin; river valleys. While such information was this could only have happened had our forest often made available for. purposes other than been the last forest. conservation, any thoughtful subscriber could It was also unreasonable to expect any sin­ determine from the figures that the end was gle operator to curtail his operations; his ef­ in sight. These estimates seldom failed to forts would have been negligible in view of evoke comment from the readers regarding the total objective, and he would have suffered the authenticity of the figures or the reliability at the hands of his competitors. Unity of pur­ and experience of the figurer, and debates pose was required, but the independent lum­ raged back and forth for weeks in subsequent berman was reluctant to co-operate with his issues. While these and other similar discus­ competitors in controlling the amount of tim­ sions may be of interest, there is no need to ber cut and lumber marketed. Because of this, be confused by the arguments of individual the lumberman was continually berated in operators, many of whom chose, for reasons trade-journal editorials. The only significant curtailment in the pro­ duction of lumber resulted from the effects of a bad winter—that is, one in which tem­ '" While some industries, such as leather and iron, peratures were too often above freezing and profited greatly from the demands of a wartime economy, the lumber industry enjoyed no compar­ snow was not sufficiently deep to permit skid­ able benefits, and probably her most important con­ ding and sleighing activities. While such a tribution to the war effort was that of her labor force. " Ninth Census of the United States, Vol. 3, The Statistics of the Wealth and Industry of the United States (Washington, 1872), 613. " Twelfth Census of the United States, Part 3, '"Bernard E. Fernow, History of Forestry (Toronto, Manufactures (Washington, 1902), 874. Ontario, 1907), 1-2.

119 JR^S-*"^ M>^! 1-1--^f?^",^^;^^^ ' i^JS^*".."

A Forest on the Move A selection from the Society's extensive collection of photographs documenting the history of the lum­ bering industry in Wisconsin.

'. -J/

(Left) Loggers using pulley to load logs on a bobsled about 1910; (right) felling a tree at Ole Emerson's lumber camp near Cable, Wisconsin, in 1905; (below) crew of the Spaulding lumber camp in Clark County about 1890.

• fr-, '••' %^

120 i ^ *

Log-driving crew at Eagle Rapids Dam on the Chippewa River, 1909.

^W^."

(Above left) Turn-of-the century photograph of loggers working below a flooding dam; (above) log jam on the St. Croix River in 1886, containing fifty million board feet of white pine and stretching five miles upriver; (left) the lumberyard of Fountain Campbell at Donald, Wisconsin, 1908. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF tllSTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 winter might be financially fatal to individual to dispose of the resulting product at a fair operators, it was beneficial to the industry price,'"" was no more reasonable. How could as a whole. That these benefits were appre­ the Chippewa lumbermen consider curtail­ ciated by some was shown by an editorial ment unless they were assured of a similar which appeared in the Northwestern Lumber­ movement on the St. Croix, the Black, and man in the spring of 1879—an early spring the Wisconsin rivers? which shortened the logging season by approx­ As a quaint variation on the theme of the imately one month. "It would seem," the evils of cutting, the lumberman also learned editorial stated, "that a wise Providence exer­ "that wherever land has been wholly or par­ cises a much greater care over the loggers than tially cleared of forests, the frequency and they think of taking of themselves. While copiousness of showers and storms has ma­ there was no reason in the world for expect­ terially decreased, often to such an extent as ing another merciful interposition in their to render the adjacent country worthless for behalf, it seems to come in the guise of sum­ agricultural purposes.'"" mer-like weather that has been experienced all through the Northwest for the past week or T> UT despite all of the arguments favoring ten days. . . ."" -'-' curtailment, lumber continued to be pro­ But weather alone could not save the forest. duced in ever-increasing quantities. Was the Furthermore, with each passing year the lum­ lumberman really so stupid, or was there sim­ berman, with new and improved methods of ply no solution to his problem? Occasionally, logging, was more effective. He already un­ as in this letter to the Northwestern Lumber­ derstood his problem, but he continued to re­ man, he turned on his critics: ceive the counsel of interested parties, parti­ cularly in the form of lectures from the jour­ "From No. 1, Vol. 1, to No. 45, Vol. 7, nalists : you have scolded the lumbermen for cut­ ting so much timber! Well, we have cut a "If every manufacturer will stop to con­ great deal, but what can we do about it? sider that, by going into the woods for a Quit? Who will pay the debts or feed those big stock, he is not only not getting the who are now working for us? . . . When start on someone else, but is actually beat­ we are out of timber then we will curtail, ing himself, he will certainly content him­ but until that day, never, so help us Moses! self with logs enough to make his stock "Now quit scolding us for trying to live, even with last year's and no more. Every and tell us how we can manufacture lum­ hundred thousand feet more than that will ber as cheaply as we did with the old only help take a dollar a thousand from the fashioned mill; and quit guessing how much price he will realize for the whole. Let timber there is in the United States of Amer- every man consider that upon his indivi­ dual action may depend the result . . . .'"" Perhaps an even more effective description Yet any hopes that the lumberman would of the situation was drawn by the lumber- or could curtail production, even for basical­ ly selfish reasons, were unrealistic. Producers acting individually were helpless to achieve '^Ibid., November 4, 1876. meaningful reductions. And the alternative '^° Ibid. For a detailed expression of similar views suggestion that "Operators on any one stream regarding the effects of timber removal on soil and climate, see Increase A. Lapham, Joseph G. Knapp, . . . combine together to make such a reduc­ and Hans Crocker, Report on the Disastrous Effects tion in their log cut ... as will enable them of the Destruction of Forest Trees Now Going on So Rapidly in the State of Wisconsin (Madison, 1867), 9-24. See also editorial on "The National Forest," September 17, 1873, and the Wisconsin Lumberman, February, 18'75, 428-430. For an interesting discussion on the relationship between "Timber and Health," see the Wisconsin ' Northwestern Lumberman, March 15, 1879. Lumberman, January, 1874, 215-216. ''Ibid., September 8, 1877. ^'November 18, 1876.

122 TWINING : LUMBERING INDUSTRY man who quietly remarked that "this is lum­ answer, of course, hinged on the fact that al­ ber country and we have no other employ­ though wood was undeniably wasted, this in ment. Men must eat to live and must work itself did not make the operation uneconomi­ to eat. . . ."''" And as the editors began to cal. On the contrary, to the nineteenth-century realize the depth of the difficulties, they, too, logger it was uneconomical to be concerned admitted that there was no answer, at least not with anything but the near-perfect log. It did any more. In 1877, the editor of the North­ not pay him to struggle with a tree, even if western Lumberman wrote that "Four years already felled, if that tree were diseased, dam­ ago, the solution was easy. Then, lumbermen aged, or imperfect to any extent. And this had balances, and they could have stopped was true despite the fact that these forgotten operations. They could have sent their men trees formed massive accumulations of slash, into the woods to clear and cultivate their which were a prominent cause of destructive stripped lands. They could have curtailed the forest fires. The waste continued because supply until it was brought within the de­ cheap lumber was in demand and because mand. But they did not .... The wealth of extravagant methods of logging contributed the forest has gradually disappeared. The ac­ to its cheapness. This may not have been true tive capital has been consumed, and now the economy, but to the individual producer it timber must be cut to meet the current de­ was the only way to operate. To conclude mands of the lumbermen. The end has not otherwise one would be forced to demonstrate been reached . . . but as stumpage is ex­ that these lumbermen did not know their hausted, one by one the lumbermen will cease business, a demonstration which at best would their operations, having no money to buy be difficult. more timber, and their only consolation will be, that for years they furnished labor with "C^INALLY, had the soils of northern Wis- remunerative employment, with no reward for -*- consin, which were for the most part ex­ their own, and at the sacrifice of all their tremely favorable to coniferous and mixed valuable timber.""" forest growth, been equally well adapted to In fact, they had furnished far more than growing standard crops, there doubtless would "remunerative employment"; they had fur­ be little or no criticism of this group of ex­ nished cheap lumber to an expanding nation. ploiters. Indeed, the loggers would have per­ The westward march of civilization had not formed a service to civilization by clearing been "stayed by a few pine trees.'"" One of the land, thus permitting the easy establish­ the prices of progress was deforestation. ment of farms. But despite early dreams, and Yet there remains a question which con­ later propaganda, the farm has been unable cerns not the lumbering itself but rather the to follow the forest into the majority of central methods employed. Even though the forest and northern Wisconsin areas.'"'" Too often was destined for destruction, was it necessary we were left with nothing but the stump, which that the logging operations be so inefficient, served only as a reminder of those good old so wasteful? For example, it was estimated days when majestic pines towered over clear by the Chief of the Division of Forestry that and sparkling streams. And too often we have "hardly more than thirty to forty per cent forgotten the remainder of the story. of the wood in the trees that are cut down It was doubtless for this reason that old reaches the market. Sixty to seventy per cent, , who had been one of the rarely less, is left in the woods unused.'"^ The greatest lumbermen in the state, sat down in 1915 and wrote the following: "In retrospect much has been written of the great wealth

'•''- Northwestern Lumberman, September 28, 1878. ""Ibid., January 6, 1877. •-'Ibid., December 2, 1876. ^ Bernard E. Fernow, "Difficulties in the Way of Rational Forest Management by Lumbermen," in ^ See 'Vernon Carstensen, Farms or Forests (Madi­ the Transactions of the State of Wisconsin Horticul­ son, 1958), and Arlan Helgeson, Farms in the Cut- tural Society (Madison, 1893), 190. over (Madison, 1962).

123 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 these vanished forests have yielded, . . . from That same year Eugene Davenport, who was the point of view of those who have seen not a lumberman but Dean of the College little more than the results and nothing at of Agriculture at Illinois, commenting on the all of the processes. In reckoning the billions use and abuse of the public domain, concluded of feet that have been cut, the vanishing of that "we have these farms, these citizens, these the wilderness and the magical appearance railroads, and this civilization to show for it, of the fertile farms, many historians overlook and they are worth what they cost.'""* the hardships that were encountered, the dif­ ficulties with which the path of progress was strewn. Nor is sufficient consideration given the good that was achieved,—the upbuilding " Isaac Stephenson, Recollections of a Long Life, of the great prairie states into which the flood 1829-1915 (Chicago, 1915), 90-91. of immigration poured.'"" ^ Quoted by Vernon Carstensen, ed., in The Public Lands (Madison, 1963), xxvi.

Society's Iconographic Collection A Farm Security Administration photograph of an abandoned cabin in the Wisconsin cutover.

124 WHEAT SPECULATION IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA:

Daniel Wells and the Grain Trade, 1860 1862

devoted to wheat had reached 53.38 per cent, By DOROTHY J. ERNST including the rich lands along the Minnesota river." As those connected with the marketing of the crop knew only too well, the cost and timing of transportation to major markets (ii'yHERE is a World of Grain on the determined degrees of profit or loss. Scores •*- River." Thus, succinctly, did F. of individual calculations were customarily Lawler, the Prairie du Chien agent for the made by small operators acting as middlemen, Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad, char­ often without access to reliable price informa­ acterize the outpouring of Minnesota wheat tion, or by amateurs whose lack of special which in 1860 dominated the commerce of qualifications was frequently obscured by the upper Mississippi and excited the specu­ brash confidence in their own abilities to lative hopes of thousands.' Though the crop outguess rivals. Nevertheless, their services had been well established a decade earlier in were extremely important in the initial stage; Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, expansion came they negotiated purchases from individual suddenly at the end of the 1850's on the newly farmers, usually in lots of single wagonloads opened lands of western Wisconsin and figured at thirty bushels, and arranged for southern Minnesota, spurred by the hard­ sacking, storage, draying, and shipping. ships accompanying the Panic of 1857. Wheat Sometimes forwarding the crop required sev­ was comparatively easy to raise, requiring no eral transfers, but in every case it was neces­ capital outlay or special skills, and while it sary to arrange for transport by steamer or quickly exhausted the soil, the demand was barge down the Mississippi, since Minnesota so great that the cost of an entire farm could did not boast a single mile of operating rail­ often be repaid from the proceeds of a single road before 1862, and it was not until 1867 crop.'^ The first shipment from Minnesota that through-freight connections were made was made from the southeastern counties in with an adjoining state. 1858, the year statehood was achieved; by Purchase of the new crop of wheat ordi­ the end of the next season the value of this narily began in September and usually con­ crop exceeded the former chief export, furs; tinued in an irregular pattern until the follow­ and by 1860 the proportion of tilled area ing July, when records were closed for the season. Great efforts were made to ship out

' All manuscript citations are from the Daniel Wells, Jr., Papers in the collection of the Milwaukee County Historical Society. ^ Henrietta M. Larson, The Wheat Market and the ^ Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin Farmer in Minnesota, 1858-1900 (New York, 1926), During the Civil War Decade (Madison, 1916), 44. 18, 55.

125 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 as much as possible before the close of currency and credit. Nevertheless, the tempta­ navigation on the Mississippi, sometime in tion to speculate proved overwhelming to November; afterward grain had to be stored very many men in Minnesota and Wisconsin; in sheds or warehouses. During the winter bookkeepers and railroad employees as well months stockpiles accumulated at the main as merchants and bankers bought and sold river ports and along the lesser valleys in wheat, united by common dreams of fortune amounts which depended upon sleighing for themselves and rapid economic growth weather, the state of the roads, and the esti­ for their section of the country. mates of farmers concerning probable price fluctuations. River traffic could be expected A MONG those who plunged heavily into to reopen in April and was usually accom­ •^~*- this inviting market during the season panied by a rush to unload current holdings immediately preceding the outbreak of the and to scrape up any surplus retained in the Civil War was Daniel Wells, Jr., a wealthy interior by those who had optimistically Milwaukee entrepreneur whose experience as gambled on a rising spring market. a produce merchant spanned more than two Some grain was sent directly down the decades. Wells had experimented in the fall river to St. Louis, at that time the great mill­ of 1859 with the purchase of small lots of ing center of the west, but after 1858 the wheat along the upper Mississippi, through wheat from the upper river could be taken several young men whom he had befriended off at the railroad terminal points of La in the past and who were doubltess glad to Crosse and Prairie du Chien. Shipment in do him a service. Thus an undisclosed amount bags or bulk carloads was then made to was received from Shepard Judkins, a Maine consignees in Milwaukee and Chicago; sub­ acquaintance whom he had placed in the sequently the bags marked with the names store operated by William H. Cary in of owners were supposed to be returned by river freight, though there were constant complaints of discrimination regarding this service and the payment of rebates or draw­ backs in return for exclusive contracts. At the lake ports professional dealers offered facilities for selling, storing, or forwarding the crop. In the last case shipment was nor­ mally in bulk via the Great Lakes to Buffalo, where the cargo might be sold, or after still another transfer to Erie Canal barge it could be sent through to New York, the largest market in the country and the one which attracted important numbers of foreign \ buyers. Regardless of destination, profits from a consignment of wheat frequently proved evanescent, particularly since the process of "hedging," by selling wheat for future delivery, was not practiced in major markets until after the Civil War.* Prices during all stages of the marketing process were likely to fluctuate rapidly, reflecting not only the interplay of supply and demand, but also the extremely important factors of available

Society's Iconograpliic Collection Daniel Wells, Jr., whose speculations in grain, land, and lumber made him by the time of his death the 'Ibid., 29, 72. wealthiest man in Wisconsin.

126 ERNST : DANIEL WELLS

Hastings; consignments of wheat totaling $1,620.08, along with amounts of beef and hogs came from Mons Anderson, the owner Duluth •, of a general store in La Crosse; while Samuel W Mayall, a St. Paul politician who owed him a debt, forwarded barley and potatoes as well as some 2,000 bushels of wheat which cost Wells $1,571.20." Moreover, during the same season he had tried at least one pro­ fessional supplier, Noah Payne & Son of Trempealeau, but concluded their services were too expensive. After an advance of $1,200 he elected to receive only 1,3261/^ bushels, on which they charged 5f for han­ dling and commission, and returned a bal­ ance of $325.25, candidly admitting to Wells that wheat could be purchased more advan­ tageously at points which enjoyed better rail and packet connections.'' Although the paper profits from such transactions can not have been great, and in at least one other instance a former employee lost the entire stake supplied by Wells,' the season's total experience must have been Paul Ha sufficiently satisfactory to lead him to in­ La Crescent Bank at Hokah, and after a crease operations the following year. In deposit of $59,000 in state railroad bonds reaching this decision Wells doubtless counted which cost him nothing, to circulate a like upon several personal advantages which gave amount of newly created money." his position unusual flexibility. Well-placed Finally, before the new season opened, friends had proved useful in the past, but Wells had greatly expanded his business in­ the most important consideration may have terests at La Crosse by transfering his bank­ been the availability of paper money pro­ ing operations to that more convenient loca­ vided by his ownership of banks on both sides tion in regard to the river trade. Impelled of the Mississippi. Following its establish­ by pressure from the conservative Wisconsin ment in 1856 his Wisconsin wildcat, the Bankers' Association, which forced the clos­ Green Bay Bank, ostensibly located in Mari­ ing of wildcats within the state," he had nette but in reality existing only on paper, decided to convert his Green Bay Bank into accounted for a circulation of some $30,000 a bona fide commercial institution, and on annually." Furthermore, by taking advantage February 25, 1860, he managed to secure of the incredibly muddled financial and political scene in Minnesota, he had been able in June, 1859, to open the La Crosse &

° Report oi the State Auditor, Minnesota, 1859, 30-31; William Watts Folwell, A History of Minne­ sota (St. Paul, 1961), II: 44^58 gives the best °S. Judkins to Wells, November 24; M. Anderson available account of the state loan; the bonds came to Wells, November 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, December to Wells in his capacity as president of the Root 3, 5; S. Mayall to Wells, November 12, 20, 25, River & Southern Minnesota Railroad. December 21, 1859. '" Leonard B. Krueger, History of Commercial »N. Payne & Son to Wells, November 27, 28, Banking in Wisconsin (Madison, 1933), 71-74. Le­ December 15, 1859; January 12, 13, 1860. gislation pushed through in 1858 by efforts of this group, under the leadership of Alexander Mitchell '' Dorothy J. Ernst, "Search for Fortune along the of the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Co. Bank Mississippi: Letters of A. H. Pratt," in Mid-America of Milwaukee, henceforth restricted the privilege of (January, 1960), 44-52. issuing paper money to banks actually open for " Report of the Bank Comptroller, Wisconsin, regular commercial liusiness in towns with a popu­ 1856, 9; 1857, 31; 1858, 103; 1859, 91. lation of at least 200 voters.

127 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 the necessary legislative permission to relocate a partnership heretofore held by Capt. it in La Crosse." But in reality operation had William F. Davidson, the powerful owner of already begun the preceding December, when a packet line which operated on the Minne­ J. T. Foster, his cashier at Hokah, had quietly sota, St. Croix, and Mississippi rivers." Ac­ closed the office of the La Crosse & La cording to their formal agreement, Shepard Crescent Bank, moved his supplies across the contributed $500 in new capital, while Wells river on the ice, and opened a currency was to put in $1,000 at once and such addi­ exchange business in a side room of Mons tional sums as they might later agree upon, Anderson's store."" After March 27, 1860, but with the stipulation that he would be when the official articles of incorporation entitled to 12 per cent interest on anything arrived, a sign was put out and the Green above $500. Furthermore, Wells paid an Bay Bank of La Crosse began to provide additional $55.75 to cover the value of sacks general banking facilities—a move which already in use, always an important item greatly enhanced the chances for successful since they had to be made by hand; and he circulation of the owner's paper currencies. undertook to furnish more as needed, subject By mid-summer rumors of a bumper wheat to loss and depreciation at his sole expense. crop were sweeping the area, and the Milwau­ Shepard in turn was to contribute his full kee entrepreneur began to make preparations time without salary, with the understanding for the new season. Offers to act as his agent that at the end of the season profits or losses came from several Minnesota residents who would be divided evenly. A final clause had heard of him through friends, including allowed termination of the partnership by one on July 31 from a state senator, John H. either party upon thirty days' notice. Stevens of Glencoe; but evidently none of During the remainder of October Shepard these appeared satisfactory. Instead Wells bought heavily in the Minnesota valley, pay­ directed Judkins to return to his post at ing 66^ to 70^ for delivery aboard at St. Hastings and made attempts to secure the Paul, then rushing it to Milwaukee, for the services of a skillful professional buyer at most part via Prairie du Chien, though when La Crosse. However, on August 27 Anderson connections to that point were missed he advised him that the fee of $2 per day was sent the wheat by smaller boats to La Crosse, excessive, and suggested instead that he use despite dissatisfaction with the railroad agent a clerk who could carry out orders and would at that point. On the whole, however, he was expect no more than $100 for a three-month so pleased with the success of his efforts that period. But no satisfactory arrangement on October 13 he suggested enlarging the seemed possible at La Crosse, and when scale of operations to the point where Wells Judkins finally reached Hastings on Septem­ would put up fifteen or twenty thousand ber 20 after several days of frustrating delay dollars for the remainder of the season. His occasioned by the low level of the river, he idea was to begin a new series of purchases found the streets crowded with agents, but as soon as navigation ended, when he thought the expected new warehouses as yet unfin­ the price could be brought down to 45^' or ished, and he pessimistically predicted that 55^' if paid in gold. This wheat was to be Gary's store would probably pay higher re­ stored in St. Paul, where for $20 per month turns that fall than the wheat. he hastened to rent a 25x50-foot warehouse, In contrast, prospects for operation through capable of holding eight or nine thousand St. Paul must have appeared inviting, and on bushels, with the option to occupy it until October 3 Wells entered into the first of a the following July 1 at $18 monthly—an series of contracts with David C. Shepard by arrangement which would give them safe paying $787.50 to buy out the interest in storage at 1^ per bushel.

" Private and Local Laws of Wisconsin, 1860, chapter 16. '''Robert C. Toole, "Behind the Lines: The La ''•' M. Anderson to Wells, November 24, 28, Decem­ Crosse Packet Company During the Civil War," in ber 20, 1859. Business History Review (Summer, 1960), 170-193.

128 ERNST : DANIEL WELLS

On the basis of October's record, an aver­ kee, he tried sending several consignments age of 414?! on 12,000 bushels shipped. Wells through to St. Louis, at an extra freight decided to continue with this partner; but he charge of 6^ or 7(1; per bushel. demurred at the suggested terms, which would obligate him to supply all the capital, TN reality, the entire wheat market dropped while the other man demanded one fourth -*- precipitously during the next few weeks, of the profits in return for his continued necessitating a whole new series of decisions. services. When he pointed out the difficulties As a result of the election of Abraham Lincoln of obtaining such large sums on credit, and the accompanying threat of secession by Shepard replied rather haughtily on Novem­ southern states, an atmosphere of uncertainty ber 2, "It is a matter of no consequence to and tension prevailed throughout northern me how you raise the money," but suggesting business circles. But the immediate reaction in the next sentence the common practice of of Shepard to what he termed the "panic" borrowing on sixty-day paper and renewing was to urge his partner to put his money into the notes as they fell due, adding that he large quantities of 50^ wheat, arguing that would agree to 12 per cent interest as a it was a much safer investment than holding legitimate claim against profits. Two days current types of paper money which were later Shepard revealed that he had been able often backed by dubious securities, including to use only $418.08 in state currency, though the obligations of southern states. Thus he he expected to work off another $100 for confidently went ahead with preparations for draying and expenses at St. Paul; and he storage, paying out $45 for new bins in the admitted that it was at the moment useless St. Paul warehouse, but also arranging to to offer it for wheat, since farmers were cur­ reduce the rent by subletting the cellar to an rently demanding specie. Nevertheless, he apple dealer who paid $25 for the season."" optimistically predicted profits of $700 or $800 for the shipping phase of the season "D. Shepard to Wells, November 10, 14, 16, 17, and held out glowing prospects for winter 19, 20, 21, 1860; Krueger, Commercial Banking, 75-77, gives an explanation of the role of southern operation. securities. Meanwhile, reports from Judkins contirmed pessimistic regarding both prices and local services." Still anxious to stay in the market. Wells on November 10 entered into a new contract with his St. Paul partner, including the stipulation that he would bear all ex­ penses and any losses during the next months, but that in return he was to control the amounts purchased and the prices paid. In the course of operations Shepard was to for­ ward warehouse receipts covering 1,000 or 1,500 bushels of wheat to serve as collateral for loans. Moreover, since Shepard had been daily receiving wagonloads of wheat from three agents at work in the Minnesota valley, and since the Mississippi remained open, some return could still be gained by shipping as long as possible. As a last experiment of the season, in the hope of reaching a market said to be $1.02 as compared with 91^' at Milwau-

Society's Iconographic Collection " S. Judkins to Wells, October 12, November 3, 7, A Racine buyer and warehouseman shown weighing 9, 13, 15, 16, 1860. a sample of grain in the 1860's.

129 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

Characteristically cautious, his Milwaukee he had anticipated. Though spared all possi­ partner held back, influenced by his long­ bility of personal loss under the existing time agent in Buffalo, who reported "un­ contract, he could not look forward to much paralleled stringency" in the market and return for his labor when on January 2, "business at a dead stand.'"" Nevertheless, 1861, after a trip up the Minnesota to visit on November 22 Shepard insisted upon pro­ storekeepers and agents, he still had to report ceeding with $2,400 scraped together from only 750 bushels in storage. assorted currencies on hand and bills of Nevertheless, the total picture looked hope­ lading not yet drawn against, especially since ful to Wells. By the end of 1860 the price he had been able that morning to buy fifty of wheat at Buffalo had risen to 90^, on bushels with La Crosse & La Crescent money. January 7 a lot of 5,500 bushels representing At the same time he began to play with the roughly one fourth of the amount he had in prospect of returning to his real profession storage there was sold for $1.00, and three of railroad building under his former em­ days later the quotations went as high as ployer, the construction contractor Selah $1.10 for the very best quality. As a result Chamberlain,"' who was currently engaged Judkins was quickly put to work again. By on a project in Havana, Cuba, but who in­ January 9 he had accumulated 1,395 bushels tended to return to St. Paul in January for at an average of 58^, and his March 20 the legislative session, which he hoped would report showed advances of $3,600 in silver revive his Minnesota plans. In case he re­ and drafts on a Hastings banker between joined Chamberlain, Shepard suggested a November 15 and that date. Furthermore, substitute to carry on the wheat buying, but Wells during January ordered three ship­ before Wells would agree to this proposal he ments of 500 bushels each from a Red Wing stipulated that in such a case he alone must storage firm, paying 60^ and 61^ on the control all sales. However, because the Min­ basis of sight drafts; but when they raised nesota legislature failed to approve the the prices to 62^ and 65(i he refused to meet schemes of Chamberlain, this clause never the new terms." went into effect, and his former lieutenant Before the end of the winter even Shepard had to continue for some time to stake his began to report considerable success. He hopes for fortune on wheat.'*' wistfully noted choice loads going to the Meanwhile, returns from the final ship­ mills at St. Anthony for gold which the ments of the season had to be considered. farmers could in turn sell at 4 per cent On December 10 Shepard was obliged to premium, and he seized the opportunity to acknowledge losses on the St. Louis consign­ rent out unused bins in his warehouse to ments, which had been sold in a sliding mar­ speculators in oats, but he was able to buy ket for 85(j; and 821/2^. Hence the final wheat along the Minnesota, using wildcat accounting of December 21 showed a net currency quite freely and obtaining other profit of only $492.19 on a total of 18,500 funds from the St. Paul banking house of bushels shipped; and this sum the partners Thompson Bros, by giving them sight drafts divided evenly. Still more exasperating from on Wells. By March he estimated holdings Shepard's point of view, the Minnesota at 12,000 bushels and felt confident enough farmers simply refused to sell their best to propose another rearrangement of the quality wheat for anything like the prices partnership terms to allow him to buy and ship throughout the season on a scale of two carloads per day and in return for the added work to receive one third of the profits '" P. L. Sternberg & Co. to Wells, November 16, after April 15—the expected date for the 20, 23, 26, December 10, 1860. opening of navigation."" " Important in Wisconsin for connection with both the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad and the La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad; in Minnesota, contrac­ tor for three projected roads, including the Root River & Southern Minnesota. " Meserole & McLaren to Wells, December 26, 31, '"D. Shepard to Wells, November 22, 26, 28, 30, 1860; January 4, 10, 14, 26, 1861. December 10, 24, 28, 1860; February 4, 16, 24, -°»D. Shepard to Wells, January 27, 31, February March 2, 1861. 16, 24, March 2, 8, 11, 18, 1861.

130 ERNST : DANIEL WELLS

When Wells agreed to this third contract bankers discredited a long list of paper cur­ Shepard plunged ahead with renewed zeal, rencies, and financial panic swept over the confidently predicting he would get their state. Farmers reacted immediately by de­ wheat out from the Minnesota valley on the manding payment in gold, but since few very first boats; and on March 28 he agents were able to continue buying, the described a new source of supply at Eden price dropped to 60^ in this medium at both Prairie beyond Ft. Snelling which he could Hastings and St. Paul. Thereupon Shepard tap as soon as the ferry was back in opera­ fairly bombarded Wells with letters and tele­ tion. A week later the Minnesota was open, grams calling for gold; by June 4 he reported but ice two feet thick still blocked Lake that the small buyers were "all played out Pepin, preventing boats from St. Paul from along the Minnesota," while he had reached proceeding downstream beyond Red Wing."" an agreement with rivals to pay no more Nevertheless, Shepard continued to buy daily, than 50(f; in gold or 53^ in currency—a rate paying as high as GStf; in paper currency, at which he intended to buy so heavily that though less when obliged to use New York he would need the help of Judkins at St. Paul. exchange or gold. His first Mississippi ship­ Instead Wells gave orders to stop all pur­ ment was made April 20, when he sent two chases for the season. Though he had sold carloads and drew on Wells for $1,945 in 13,500 bushels at Buffalo for 991/0^ on May order to meet current obligations; however, 3, the market had wavered thereafter, and four days later he enclosed his own draft he was feeling financial pressure on other for $1,500 to be counted as returned capital enterprises. When the records were closed and promised to continue this practice until for this phase Shepard had handled 42,000 his partner's investment had been substan­ bushels, of which 15,000 had been shipped tially reduced. On May 2 he listed holdings the preceding fall. Total expenditures for at 27,000 bushels and gleefully announced the period November 10, 1860—July 1, 1861, conclusion of an exclusive contract with had been $64,095.97, but this figure included Lawler at Prairie du Chien for a special rail­ revolving capital. After deducting the per­ road rate of 12/' per bushel up to July 10, sonal expenses of Shepard and the interest with the added feature that if the public due Wells the net profit totalled $1,853.44. rate of 15(i fell to that figure he was to have .According to the formula of % prior to the benefit of a further reduction. April 15 and % thereafter. Wells received $1,290.79; Shepard's share on the agreed basis amounted to $562.65."" 13 UT at this point currency difficulties -L* again intruded, greatly hampering his When the 1861 season opened July 1 the plans. Shipping went ahead steadily, as partners revised their working rules to pro­ Shepard tried both Milwaukee and Chicago vide that henceforth all purchases were to markets and attempted to protect their inter­ be made in gold or par currency, with prices ests by drawing directly on his consignees and amounts to be controlled by Wells; and for the full value of his shipments, with the this time any profits or losses were to be understanding that Wells would settle any divided equally. Doubtless they started out overdrafts. By June 3 he had managed to hopefully, along with thousands of other send out 25,000 bushels and had another speculators, but during the course of the 15,000 waiting at points along the Minnesota. year new conditions would frequently disrupt Rivalry to obtain the remaining stocks con­ the market, upsetting the best of calculations. tinued intense; during May Shepard had As early as July 23 Shepard feared another panic on account of the disastrous war news, paid about 70^ for most of his new pur­ in this case the setback to Union hopes result­ chases, while Judkins reported prices at ing from the battle of Bull Run. However, Hastings gradually moving up from 74^ on during that summer the most important fac- the sixth to 82(* on May 23. Then St. Paul

' W. H. Cary to Wells, April 5, 1861. "D. Shepard to Wells, July 21, August 16, 1861.

131 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 tor affecting the market proved to be the the tendency of transport companies to rush activity of British and French buyers. When the handling of cargoes so fast that damage Wells sold 12,685 bushels on July 29 at resulted. On the last consignment of the $1.00-$1.01 through J. B. Herrick & Son of season, in which he shared a joint interest New York he was informed that such agents with Wells, the net profits to each reached were expected to take all of the old wheat $347.41."* and the surplus of the new season, at the Though this picture of returns from ship­ same time providing the United States with ping must have been gratifying to Wells at a much needed stock of gold as a result of the end of the season, meanwhile he had been the ensuing favorable balance of trade. Fortu­ forced to wrestle with the problem of obtain­ nately for the Milwaukee shipper, who im­ ing a supply of acceptable currency for use mediately rushed his stored wheat to New in purchasing the new crop. In this respect York in consignments divided among the his New York connections were invaluable, firms of Herrick, David Dows, and Hoffman but the prevailing currency shortage severely & Stevens, this foreign demand continued to limited what his friends were able to arrange push the market up until by the middle of for him. Wheat was sold in New York for November he had disposed of a series of cash in par currency, with payment made by very substantial shipments at prices ranging a certificate of deposit, which might either from $1.18 to $1.26."* Furthermore, personal be forwarded directly to him,'^ or be placed letters from Horatio Stevens predicted that in an account which he maintained in that the European market would remain high, city."'' But collections often proved slow, and despite the uncertainty of ocean freights and in any case valuable time elapsed while the wheat was in transit. Wells therefore fol­ lowed the common practice of drawing on ^ Hoffman & Stevens to Wells, September 5, 20, his consignees and selling their paper in Mil­ 24, October 5, November 6, 8, 1861; Herrick & Son waukee in order to obtain immediate use of to Wells, September 12, 23, 24, October 2, 22, 23, 25, New York exchange."' The same process was 1861; David Dows to Wells, September 27, October 1, 5, 1861. used by Shepard when he sold drafts on his partner or on the Milwaukee shipping firms which they employed, and increasingly after November he borrowed directly from Thomp­ , *^K son Bros, in St. Paul on the security of ware­ house receipts."" Despite the frustrations and difficulties of his position, Shepard estimated on October 1 that he had shipped 19,000 bushels that season, this time favoring the La Crosse route because of a promised 1^ drawback. By the eighteenth 40,000 bushels had passed through his hands, and he hoped with luck to double that amount by November 1. Nevertheless,

"*H. Stevens to Wells, October 24, 28, November 6, 8, 12, 15, 30, 1861. ^Van Boskerck, Rowe, & Butler to Wells, August 10, 1861, for $1,042.92 made out to D. C. Shepard & Co. "" Hoffman & Stevens to Wells, September 20, 1861. ='Herrick & Son to Wells, October 18, 1861; D. Dows to Wells, September 27, 1861; January 31, 1862. ""D. Shepard to Wells, July 26, 27, August 22, > '.Ltv's Iconographic Collection September 25, October 11, 19, November 23, Decem­ A grain tester of the 1860's displays his testing ber 16, 26, 30, 31, 1861; January 7, 15, 17, 27, 31, equipment. February 17, March 28, 1862.

132 ERNST : DANIEL WELLS

he wearily announced that profits would not expected this step to facilitate circulation of exceed $1,400-$ 1,500, since wheat had been the state bank issues currently available in bought on too small a margin all along the St. Paul, businessmen throughout the country river; and he concluded that the most profit­ waited to see the effects. Meanwhile Wells able purchases had been made by Judkins at was hard pressed to pay overdrafts and Hastings before serious illness incapacitated accumulated interest amounting to some him in September."" $3,100 due at Thompson's as a result of his On November 1 the partners entered into partner's purchases during the preceding their final contract, which covered plans to month."" buy along the Minnesota for storage and Nevertheless, Shepard continued to im­ shipment in the spring, upon terms unchanged portune Wells to get back into the market, since the preceding July 1. As usual, the and on January 31 he went to the length of results from the first part of the season could borrowing another $500 from the local not be accurately determined for several bankers without authorization. Actually Wells weeks. On November 23 Shepard estimated was extremely anxious not only to stay in them at $1,618, but the anticipated drawbacks wheat but also to broaden his speculations from the railroad and Davidson's packet line to include corn, and by the end of January had to be compromised for smaller sums, and he had managed to come to an accommoda­ a detailed statement of December 30 showed tion with David Dows of New York which net profits of only $1,389.75. But, still en­ committed him to work closely with their thusiastic over possibilities ahead, he now agent in Chicago, N. K. Fairbank. Hence­ asked for authorization to increase his stock forth he was allowed to buy cargoes of both of 11,934 bushels by another 40-50,000, sug­ commodities in that city for direct shipment gesting that it would be perfectly safe for to New York, and upon forwarding insurance Wells to borrow heavily since there was a and warehouse receipts to draw upon Dows current margin of 25^-35^ between Minne­ for payment after three or four months. sota and New York prices. As a final argu­ Such paper could, of course, be discounted ment, he offered his belief that the wheat in New York, where A. W. Greenleaf & Co. market was on the verge of a great forward regularly handled financial errands for Wells, movement. The possibility of war with Britain or it could be disposed of advantageously in had passed, as a result of the decision of the Milwaukee or Chicago. Finally, it was possi­ ble to take advantage of another contem­ Lincoln administration to release James porary practice of Wells, namely, ownership Mason and John Slidell, Confederate diplo­ of shares In lake vessels. This aspect could mats abducted from a British ship by a be handily arranged through the Chicago Union naval officer in November, 1861. lumber firm of N. Ludington & Co., in which Whether or not Wells completely concurred he was a major partner; and in such cases in this prediction, borrowing on acceptable an amount equal to the current freight charge terms had become almost impossible for him. was regularly counted as the "margin" de­ Conservative banking reforms adopted in manded by Dows as an assurance of their Wisconsin during 1861 had given its currency own commission from customers."" a solid reputation, but only at the cost of a nearly two-thirds reduction of the circula­ The tremendous advantage of this whole tion available in 1859 and the precipitation arrangement lay in the credit facilities thus of a financial depression which would last opened to Wells, but these terms were not for two years."" Furthermore, new currency applicable to wheat purchased by Shepard. complications had arisen from the general Though he several times asked permission to suspension of specie payments by New York bankers on December 28; and though Shepard

"• D. Shepard to Wells, January 2, 10, 15, 20, 1862. "'N. Fairbank to Wells, January 21, 29, February ="0. Shepard to Wells, September 14, 20, 25, 27, 26, 1862; D. Dows to Wells, January 31, 1862; A. October 27, 1861. W. Greenleaf & Co. to Wells, January 31, February "° Krueger, Commercial Banking, 91-95. 3, 1862.

133 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 include wheat stored in Minnesota, it seems and during March and April Dows was warn­ to have been granted only once, when on ing against loading up too much, since prices February 20 Fairbank acknowledged receipts were already depressed by the news of large for 3,000 bushels stored at Winona, where quantities of grain en route along the Great Judkins was now assisting a new local agent, Lakes."" Markets began to improve at the William Everheart. Otherwise the conserva­ end of April because of favorable news from tive New York office demurred on account England, but they dragged again in May as of the uncertainty of the market in relation stocks began arriving in New York, and on to the great distance involved in transporta­ the nineteenth Dows felt obliged to cut down tion from the Minnesota valley.'" At the same advances until they could see whether an­ time another important problem arose from ticipated foreign demand would really ma­ the system of grading, which was based on terialize."' weight. Minnesota wheat was generally of Meanwhile Wells seized the initiative by a hard variety, rated No. 1 and by custom ordering Horton & Fowler to sell 25,000 channeled through Milwaukee; Chicago spe­ bushels of the Minnesota wheat, and his cialized in the softer No. 2 type. Wells there­ partner appeared relieved as he promised fore was obliged to make an arrangement May 5 to exert every effort to ship within for Shepard with the Milwaukee commission the next twenty days; and though not happy merchants Horton & Fowler, from whom he over the accompanying order to wind up secured an advance of 40^ per bushel, but their affairs for the season, he noted that subject to the restriction that it be shipped they still had 10,000 bushels on which to via Prairie du Chien, which presumably obtain any rise in the market. But prices fell allowed them the benefit of a drawback.'" again, and the remaining shipments were His St. Paul partner had no choice but to likewise consigned to the Milwaukee firm, the acquiesce, though he disliked the fact that last on June 14. On the twenty-first Shepard on March 25 the Milwaukee firm controlled estimated profits as short of $1,000 for this 13,000 of his 23,000 bushels in storage; part of the season, but with his usual auda­ clearly he preferred loans from Thompson's, city he asked for an extra $100 for his who held the receipts for the remaining trouble during the last months, adding in­ 10,000 bushels but had no interest in the genuously, "I think under the circumstances shipping. Other developments also began to you can afford this." bother Shepard as the opening of navigation Actually it was extremely unlikely that approached; a 15^ freight rate unrelieved Wells would agree. On the same day his by private concessions reduced their profit Eastern agents reported difficulty in dispos­ margin, while unusually high water at St. ing of cargoes at acceptable figures, and Paul threatened warehouses and made it since his account with David Dows showed a almost impossible to do business directly on debit of $1,283.53 he was advised to cut off the levee."" all purchases for the present. The decision to wind up the partnership with Shepard HIS unwontedly gloomy mood was in was then carried through without further T part a reflection of the course of the quibble. A final statement of July 5, signed New York market. During February the by both partners, placed net profits for the mild flurry of activity following the news of winter and spring at $998.21. The St. Paul General Ulysses Grant's victory at Ft. Donel­ partner received $494.11 and Wells one cent son had been succeeded by a prolonged lull; less; but as a last sign of the liquidation of

•"N. Fairbank to Wells, February 10, 18, 20, 1862; "'N. Fairbank to Wells, February 14, 17, 19, 26, D. Dows to Wells, February 24, 28, March 14, April March 3, 27, 1862; D. Dows to Wells, February 17, 20, 1862. 24, 28, March 5, 20, 22, April 3, 15, 1862. "D. Shepard to Wells, February 7, 22, March 17, "' N. Fairbank to Wells, April 28, 29, May 2, 13, 17, 1862. 22, 29, June 2, 1862; D. Dows to Wells, May 16, 19, "" D. Shepard to Wells, April 1, 19, 28, 1862. 23, 1862.

134 Society's Iconographic Collei tiun The grain ships Superior, Sandusky, and Shawnee loading grain at a dockside warehouse in Duluth, Minnesota, about 1880.

the firm of D. C. Shepard & Co. a total of the Civil War era the advantage lay with 5,424 bags were sold to a St. Paul firm at the shrewd professional operator—a fact 17fi apiece, giving the Milwaukee partner which Shepard for all his ebullience and an additional $922.08."'' optimism had recognized in a statement of From this point the activities of the two November 10, 1861: "... I own up beat. men diverged. Daniel Wells continued to Once in a while I get to thinking I know ship wheat and corn through Chicago, but something about the wheat trade, but there among nearly one hundred pertinent letters is an undercurrent of quiet satire in your and telegrams remaining from the last half letter which takes the conceit all out of me. of 1862 there is no indication that any pur­ When you who have lived in the market for chases were made in Minnesota. Shepard the past 20 years say the older you grow the meanwhile dropped back to the position of less you know about it, it's time for green­ an agent, but he made little money and begged horns like me to stop talking." Wells to help him obtain a position with a Wisconsin railroad."" As a relatively minor ""D. Shepard to Wells, June 6, 13, 21, July 7, 14, figure along the river, he shared the fate of 1862. Borup & Champlin paid $250 cash and the thousands whose bright hopes were frustrated balance in a thirty-day draft which Thompson Bros, by complex market factors which they could offered to discount for Wells. "" D. Shepard to Wells, July 4, August 27, Septem­ not hope to gauge. The flood of wheat from ber 27, December 13, 16, 22, 1862; January 3, 1863. Minnesota continued throughout the decade, S. Chamberlain to "Wells, December 5, 1864, shows but under the swiftly changing conditions of Shepard working for him on a new project, the Minnesota Central Railroad.

135 • "'*-.^

Photos by the autlnjr ^ Fieldstone boulders left in the wake of the I receding glacier, along the Hochheim ^••rt Road in Dodge County.

I

BOULDERS, COBBLESTONES, AND PEBBLESt

WISCONSIN'S FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE

By RICHARD W. E. PERRIN headwall. The continental ice sheet scoured, 4C A '-''^OSS the northern half of America, scratched, grooved, and eroded the land over -'*- from the Atlantic to the Rockies, the which it moved. The soil and rock fragments Ice Age left a colossal hallmark upon our of all types and sizes it had collected were landscape. It is seen in the headlands of Cape mixed and ground within the flow of glacial Cod, in the hills of Michigan; but nowhere is ice, and transported south. This material, this stamp more evident and impressive than called glacial drift or till, was dumped and in Wisconsin. Indeed, the state has lent its mounded by the advancing glacier, and more name to the most recent advance of the con­ of it was deposited across the land as gently tinental ice sheet—the Wisconsin Stage—that undulating ground moraine or till plain as the ended 10,000 years ago."" Thus reads the in­ glacier melted back." Boulders of all sizes, torn troduction to a recent proposal to establish an loose from bedrock hundreds of miles north Ice Age Park in Wisconsin. The legacy of that and appearing in the till, are often identified last glacial stage may still be seen in Wiscon­ as erratics or indicators, since they show the sin's many lakes and ponds, scooped and course of the glacier's path and are usually of dammed by the moving ice, and in the hills igneous and crystalline nature. Only granite, and ridges it mounded. These heaps of rub­ basalt, and quartzite could have withstood the ble still offer some scientific riddles," but as milling and grinding action without being much of their story as is known is one of the crushed into sand and gravel. For this reason great natural history sagas of North America. Now gentled by farms and forests, Wisconsin's glaciated areas provide not only outstanding recreational resources in the impressive land­ ' United States Department of the Interior, Na­ scape they formed, but a significant influence tional Park Service, Ice Age National Scientific Re­ serve, A Proposal for Cooperative Conservation in the early architecture of the state. (1962), 1. As the glacier moved, mountains of frag­ ^ Ivan T. Sanderson, The Continent We Live On mented rock moved in front of it, thundering (Random House, New York, 1961), 52, 53. "David 0. Woodbury, The Great White Mantle down deep ice tunnels and cascading from the (Viking Press, New York, 1962), 7.

136 PERRIN : FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE

the softer, sedimentary sandstones and lime­ stones were seldom carried very far from their place of origin. These boulders became the principal build­ ing material for many of Wisconsin's early buildings. Actually, the boulders scattered over a large part of the countryside had to be removed before fields cleared in the forest j*^ could be put to the plow. In this respect the stones were a real handicap. To gain an im­ pression of the sight that must have greeted the early settlers, a short drive through the Kettle Moraine area in Dodge County will be particularly instructive. For example, along i^&?iMsitmsiiiiUi-s- -s the Hochheim Road in the Town of Theresa typical stone fence built of boulders dragged from there are still expanses of glaciated area from adjoining fields in Washington County. which trees and brush have been cleared, but in which boulders of all sizes and descrip­ tions are reposing exactly where and how the rapidly disappearing and, of course, being re­ glacier left them. Now covered with lichen, placed with barbed-wire enclosures. these stones have acquired a carapace of Earliest roads were nothing more than wa­ greyish-brown hue which almost completely gon spurs in the mud, frequently impassable obscures the bright pink, grey, and clear black during spring thaws and deeply rutted at all of the basalt, granite, and quartzite under­ times. Streets in the towns were no better, neath. Yet it was fieldstone exactly such as and while timber planking became the expe­ this that was turned from handicap to asset, dient treatment for the state's main toll roads, and as a part of the economy of the time and it was in the populated areas that hard sur­ the place. Economy in indigenous architecture facing was first used. For such purposes means taking maximum advantage of all giv­ fieldstone became an important ingredient. en factors, and is less a matter of saving Paving brick and cedar block predominated than of preventing waste.'' in the main streets, but in alleys, lanes, and The first and most obvious use for field­ side-streets of most communities, fieldstone stone boulders dragged from Wisconsin fields was the usual material. Referred to as cob­ was dry-laid stone fence, stretched along pro­ blestone paving," it made an extremely bumpy perty lines as a demarcation of holdings and but virtually indestructible surface. What ap­ as an enclosure for cattle and other stock. pears to be the last vestige of such cobble­ Craftsmanship entered into even such primi­ stone paving of the mid-nineteenth century, tive construction, as an examination of surviv­ and in completely original condition, is that ing specimens will disclose. Since most stones of a Milwaukee alley between South 5th and were round or near-round, the flattest side South 6th, West Madison and West Scott was selected for bearing, with smaller flat Streets. stone chips wedged into the interstices to sta­ bilize the whole and prevent "drifting" of the TN the construction of buildings, earliest fence. Excellent specimens of old fieldstone -*- survivals suggest that at first the field- fences may still be seen along the town roads stones were generally used just as they were of Dodge, Washington, Waukesha, and Fond found, without making any attempt to crack du Lac counties, although even here they are or split them. In working these stones into a wall, as into a fence, the flattest sides were selected for the bed and the surfaces to be

•* Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, Native Genius in Anony­ mous Architecture (Horizon Press, Inc., New York, ° Russell Sturgis, A Dictionary of Architecture and 1957), 171. BuUding (MacMiUan, New York, 19Q1), II: 629.

137 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

exposed. Smaller stones were used to fill the voids and were laid with a liberal amount of mortar. Old photographs and the recollections of veteran stonemasons disclose that no form- work was used in the construction of field­ stone walls, but variously sized stones were carefully selected for tight bonding with a min­ imum of voids, and the walls were raised in free-standing manner. Examinations of ruins show clearly how this was done to achieve a tight and solid wall which would resist wa­ 1^^' ter, wind, and weather. More than that, an extraordinary appreciation of surface color and texture is manifest. It was produced en­ tirely by a common-sense use of material, acted and reacted upon by traditional ways and means. Many of the early settlers com­ ing to Wisconsin during the second and third ^i^' quarters of the nineteenth century were well acquainted with fieldstone, since most of north­ ern Europe was also a glaciated land. In Ger­ S many, particularly, such stones had been used traditionally for the walls of houses, barns, This alley between West Scott and West Madison streets is the last remaining cobblestone pavement in and churches." The architectural effect of Milwaukee. fieldstones almost completely covered over with mortar can be seen to best advantage in the gambrel-roofed silo on the Burow place some of the old silos of Washington and near Ashippun with its nearly white lime- Dodge counties. Outstanding among these is mortar pargetting, and the one on the Groth farm near Cedarburg which, because of more sand in the mortar, has a distinct buff cast. St. Augustine's Catholic Church near New- " Harald Busch, Die Deutschen Lande, Berlin und burg is another excellent example of this type die Mark (Umschau 'Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1957), of treatment, its heavily mortared walls of XHI: 68. pronounced buff color yielding only a sug­ gestion of the fieldstone boulders underneath. This fine old church was built in 1855 under the direction of Father Casper Rehrl, the "apostle of Washington county." A unique architectural feature of this building is the octagonal roof set on top of the square wood­ en steeple. Prototypes of this treatment dating back to the seventeenth century are to be found throughout eastern Germany.' As time went on, and probably as the work of laying stone walls became more and more the prerogative of the trained master mason, displacing the do-it-yourself efforts of the set­ tler-farmer, greater attention came to be paid to the inherent color and texture of fieldstone.

Stonemasons laying fieldstone tvalls near Lebanon in Dodge County, from a 1910 photograph by L. M. ' Harald Busch, Die Deutschen Lande, Schlesien Krubsack. (Umschau 'Verlag, Frankfurt a. M., 1957) XIV: 65.

138 PERRIN : FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE which could only be brought out by splitting purpose, especially in some of the later work. or cracking the boulders. This was done in The period of greatest popularity for the use one of several ways. Since most of the stones, of fieldstone in Wisconsin buildings was be­ especially the granites, have a definite direc­ tween 1840 and 1880, although it remained in tional grain, the cracking could often be favor in some areas as late as 1915. Eventual­ achieved by a single well-directed blow in the ly it became limited to barn foundations, right place with a scutch or mason's hammer. smokehouses, and silos. Fieldstone has recent­ Larger boulders were split by boring holes ly been re-introduced to contemporary work, about three inches deep at strategic intervals. but invariably as a veneer rather than a struc­ Into these holes metal plugs of somewhat larg­ tural material. Modern cutting tools permit er diameter were inserted and driven home the slicing of fieldstone into thin slabs for with heavy sledge hammers, cleaving the facing purposes. Unfortunately, the resultant boulder in line with the holes. In some places, walls seldom attain the subtle integrity of the the stonemasons preferred to heat the stones old work. Even less can be said for simulated by rolling them into a roaring wood fire. fieldstone now being manufactured as a form When extremely hot, the stones were pulled of cast stone. out and cold water poured over them, caus­ ing them to crack along seams and other weak w:j^a-t**a(nft points. Since splitting fieldstones, by any method, was hard and time-consuming work, the earliest examples reflecting this technique are composite walls in which the largest boulders were evidently split, but small and intermediate-sized stones, just as they came from the glacial till, were liberally inter­ •*'*& spersed. Mortar pargetting was still moderate­ ly heavy, but much more of the stone under­ neath came to be exposed. Again, Washington and Dodge counties offer some of the best survivals, outstanding ones being the black­ smith shop and several houses in St. Lawrence, as well as the old distillery and bonded ware­ '•:-'i m. house in that community. Because of the size and shape of the ma­ terial, fieldstone walls had to be massive, nev­ er less than eighteen and frequently up to Ruins of the old distillery at St. Lawrence in Wash­ ington County, built of fieldstone and showing moder­ thirty-six inches in thickness. The forming of ately heavy pargetting. openings and especially of corners required particular skill. Because it was very hard to build square, solid corners with round stones, "DEGINNING in the 1870's, probably with dressed quarrystone was often used. Bush- ^-^ the advent of better and sharper tools, hammered or tooled for better weatherability, fieldstone walls came to be built in which all such quoins not only stabilized the wall, but exposed stone surfaces were split face, laid greatly enhanced its appearance. Curiously with generous but not excessively wide mor­ enough, each stonemason had his own pattern tar joints, cut flush with the stone. Two Wis­ of tooling and dressing the stone. This was consin churches are particularly fine speci­ his hallmark, unintelligible to the uninitiated mens of this phase of fieldstone masonry. The but as evident to a contemporary craftsman first is St. John's Lutheran Church at New as his signature engraved on the stone would Fane in Fond du Lac County, erected in 1871 have been. In a few instances, the fieldstone during the ministry of Pastor G. S. Schilling. itself was cut and squared into a rough quoin As was frequently the case in country congre­ and brick was often a favored material for this gations, the members hauled the boulders to the site and assisted the mason in cracking

139 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 them and then hoisting the pieces to the scaf­ fold. St. John's Church is unique in that the sizes of the boulders in the wall gradually become smaller towards the top. Also, the church has angle buttresses of dressed grey dolomite blocks at the corners instead of the more common stone quoins. Window and door jambs and arches as well as the cornice are buff sand-lime brick, blending very nicely with the adjoining fieldstone masonry. A similarly built church, but with even more colorful walls, is St. Patrick's near Adell. Built in 1877, during the pastorate of Father Denis Tierney, this church has a tower and south front of large, rusticated, rose-colored gra­ nite blocks, evidently not fieldstone but quar­ ried material brought from central Wiscon­ sin. The other walls are split fieldstone of un­ usually fine color, with a liberal amount of browns, pinks, and blacks, the latter provid­ ed by the split faces of basalt boulders. Here again, buff brick window jambs and arches Detail of Acker barn wall near Waterford, Racine establish an excellent relationship with the County, showing assortment of squared fieldstone walls, both as to color and texture. blocks. Carrying the splitting and trimming of field­ about ten inches high, eighteen to twenty-four stone still further, stonemasons managed to inches long, laid with fairly wide joints of lay walls with the barest minimum of mortar white lime mortar. The wall is two feet thick by fitting one stone carefully against the next with facing stone being about ten inches deep. and finally running a tooled half-round mor­ The back-up stones are heavily pargetted, un­ tar bead over each joint. An unusually color­ cut boulders. Another, more nearly perfected ful mosaic was the result. A few outstanding treatment of cut fieldstone in coursed ashlar survivals are to be found in Waukesha Coun­ is found in the Acker Barn near Waterford in ty, and among the best of these is the Rees Racine County. As is frequently the case, the Barn near Genesee Depot. Only the west wall builder remains anonymous, but in work such fronting the highway is thus elaborately treat­ as this barn displays, his craftsmanship de­ ed, and the same wall is further embellished serves more than a passing review. Split field­ with a handsome white marble tablet show­ stones of exceptionally beautiful colors and ing the date of building as 1898, D. T. Rees textures, showing every conceivable grain and as the proprietor, D. E. Monta as the ma­ stratification, were carefully chosen to reveal son, and a low-relief profile carving of a dairy their finest attributes. Cut into eight-inch-high cow. coursing blocks, some of the stones are over From such mosaic treatment it was a short three feet long. Black basalt adds interest to step to square the stones on all sides and lay the blend, and glistening mica, feldspar, and them up as coursed ashlar. One of the earliest pyrites make the wall come alive. Irregulari­ attempts along these lines, which might be ties near the corners of the blocks were called a transitional example, is the Scheibe brought out flush with buff sand-lime mortar, Barn in Brookfield, Waukesha County. Built overlaid with a tooled, half-round bead of around 1874, the walls are generally of a white lime mortar. This barn was built in rough mosaic type but near the corners and 1895. openings as well as in most of the east wall, In England, since earliest times smaller the fieldstones of variegated granite and ba­ stones and fragments of larger boulders have salt were roughly cut into rectangular blocks been delightfully combined to make a so-called

140 PERRIN : FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE

"plum-pudding" wall. Not altogether for decoration, small wetted flint chips were in­ serted into the pargetting of the wall to help retard the drying of the mortar. Admittedly it added a kind of embroidery to the appear­ ance and the practice generally was known as "pinning" or "garnetting."" Precisely such walls, though hardly of English lineage, are still to be seen near Mayville and Theresa in Dodge County. One of the best preserved is the Seefeld House built around 1865 and now owned by the Schellpfeffer family. The walls are built of colorful split fieldstone boulders, small to medium in size, rather heavily par­ getted and studded with chunks of jet black basalt about the size of chestnut coal. Vermi­ lion, sand-molded bricks of regional origin were laid up into segmental and round arches ^diHr.-IiT'iS'^m over window openings. Few combinations of The walls of the Helgert house near Lake Geneva are laid up with conglomerate fieldstone of cobble­ materials have ever resulted in such an in­ stone size. teresting effect. Opus mixtum was the name the Romans consin was perhaps the last transition. A ty­ gave their masonry of conglomerate compo­ pical, although now rare, survival is the Hel­ sition." It was used extensively and later found gert House near Lake Geneva in Walworth its way into northern European building prac­ County. Built around 1850 by Nikolaus Hel­ tice. From Europe to nineteenth-century Wis- gert, who had come from Bavaria three years earlier, the walls of conglomerate fieldstone of irregular cobblestone size, interspersed with small shives of dolomitic ledge rock, were built " Basil Oliver, Tlie Cottages of England, A Review as characteristic opus mixtum. Unfortunate­ of their Types and Features from the 16th to the 18th ly, the house is rapidly becoming ruinous and Centuries (B. T. Batsford, Ltd., London, 1929), 70. " G. T. Rivoira, translated from the Italian by may soon be demolished. A further carry­ G. McN. Rushforth, Roman Architecture, and Its over from Roman-northern European stone Principles of Construction under the Empire (Claren­ masonry traditions was opus incertum—de• don Press, Oxford, 1925), 70, 97. fined, even when carefully constructed, as "a wall made of round stone blocks, set anyhow and not after a regular pattern settled before­ hand.""" Such walls were the ancient fore­ runners of the mid-nineteenth-century cobble­ stone wall.

/COBBLESTONE walls, as a building con- ^^ cept, were very probably brought to Wis­ consin by settlers from New England and New York State. This is borne out by documentary information and the pronounced visual simi­ larity between Wisconsin and eastern, especial­ ly New York examples. Hardly coincidental is the fact that the best Wisconsin cobblestone

Seefeld house near Mayville, Dodge County, built around 1865. Note brick: window arches and basalt- studded walls. '"Ibid., 21.

141 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 work would be located in or near places with cobbles, still of irregular dimensions, with names such as Rochester, Palmyra, Troy, bonding stones reaching into a rubble core. Genesee, Geneva, and Walworth. Carl F. The outwardly exposed tips, however, would Schmidt of Scottsville, New York, an eminent match almost perfectly in shape and size. authority on the architecture of that region, The third type showed the cobblestones laid divides the cobblestone era into three periods up in mortar, simply as a veneer, and ob­ which he designates as "Early," "Middle," and viously structured independently as a ma­ "Late Period.""" sonry shell laid against a back-up of fieldstone The early period includes the work of the rubble with little or no bonding."' latter 1820's until about 1835, when the stone­ Wisconsin cobblestone architecture follows masons used cobblestones of various sizes, the New York State classifications quite close­ shapes, and colors, just as they were gathered ly, except for chronology. The earliest known from the fields. The stones ranged from two Wisconsin examples can not be dated before to three inches in height and were three to 1840, and a few were built after the Civil six inches long, with a few stones up to ten War. There is also a possibility that direct inches long sometimes scattered in the wall. English influences were brought to bear on The middle period covers the years 1835 to Wisconsin cobblestone architecture, despite its 1845. It was during this decade that stones obvious eastern American provenance. In a were much more carefully selected for size place such as Wisconsin, with settlers of di­ and shape, seldom larger than two inches by verse ethnic and national origins living in four inches. Greater skill was also evident in close contact, acculturative processes can not the striking and tooling of the mortar joints. be ruled out. For example, in communities Additionally, the masons began to mix round­ ed, water-washed beach stones with the field stones. These beach stones were picked up along the shores of Lake Ontario and at first were laid up in the wall without regard to '" Gerda Peterich, "Cobblestone Architecture of Upstate New York," in the Journal of the Society color. Then it became fashionable to select of Architectural Historians, XV: 2, 13. stones of the same color, and finally for uni­ formity of size. During the later period, 1845 to 1865, most of the cobblestone work was characterized by increasing uniformity and the tendency to use smaller and smaller stones and to reduce the width of the horizontal joint. Stones only one inch high, little more than pebbles, were used and the jointing be­ came very mechanical. Architecturally, the middle period seems to have been the most satisfactory. Craftsmanship and skill were nearly balanced and there was a sound struc­ tural feeling. By the end of the late period that feeling was lost, even though the stones were laid with nearly mechanical perfection."" Structurally speaking there were, therefore, three kinds of cobblestone wall, of which the first represented a coursed rubble wall, with an interlacing of face with back-up stones. The second showed a facing of lake-washed

"Carl F. Schmidt, Cobblestone Architecture (Carl F. Schmidt, Scottsville, New York, 1944), 19. English prototype of true cobblestone work, as seen "-Ibid., 24. in eighteenth-century house at Morston in Norfolk.

142 PERRIN : FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE

such as English Settlement near Honey Creek in Racine County, it may very well have hap­ pened that an immigrant English stonemason was hired by a recently arrived New York State farmer or merchant to build him a house of cobblestone at East Troy similar to the one he had left back East. Certainly some of the Wisconsin work bears a strong resem­ blance to the best flintwork and masonry of coursed kidney cobbles in and around Brigh­ ton, Shoreham, and Worthing in southeastern England, where some buildings so faced date back to the Regency."" Brick dressing for con­ trast was frequently used in Wisconsin cob­ blestone walls, which is also more reminiscent of English than American practice. While no exact count of Wisconsin cobble­ Egg-sized cobblestones laid in even courses compose the walls of this house near Eagle in Waukesha stone houses has ever been made, there are at County. least a dozen really good specimens concen­ trated in Racine, Walworth, and Rock coun­ Quoins, lintels, and sills are cut and dressed ties, with a scattering elsewhere in the state. buff dolomite. Of the simpler, though regularly coursed walls, West of Burlington, just past the Walworth the Big Bend area in Waukesha County of­ County line along the White River, is the fers several prime illustrations. Among these site of Voree, the Mormon settlement estab­ is the Martin House, a well-preserved struc­ lished in 1844 by James J. Strang. Also known ture built in 1859. The cobblestones are about as the Garden of Peace, the Voree colony was as big as coconuts, laid with fairly generous abandoned in 1849 because of economic fai­ mortar joints without tooling of any kind. lures and religious dissension caused mainly Another house situated between Eagle and by Strang's despotic rule."" Yet, during their North Prairie has a foundation of similarly brief sojourn the Mormons built some of Wis­ sized stones, resembling small cannon balls, consin's most charming stone cottages, among but the field of the wall proper above a cut them a number of good cobblestone examples, limestone water table is composed of egg- a few of which have fortunately survived. sized cobbles laid in even courses and sepa­ One of these is the Aldrich house, still occu­ rated by a continuous horizontal V-joint. pied by direct descendants of the builder. They Both the texture and color of this wall are are Mrs. Howard Peck, granddaughter, and extremely good, and, very interestingly, neith­ Mrs. Wallace Zabler, great-granddaughter of er quoins nor special corner treatment were William Aldrich, who had come from New employed. Slightly elongated cobblestones Hampshire in 1846, counting himself as one were used to form their own returns at the of the 3,500-member Mormon settlement. The corners without any apparent structural diffi­ house had been started the same year by Sam­ culty. The historic style of this house is uel Neff and the cobblestone masonry had Greek Revival, which is the style of nearly all been laid as far as the first-floor window sills Wisconsin cobblestone buildings. Near East when he sold the place to Aldrich, who then Troy stands the Loomis House, now owned by completed the house. Brick quoins were used the Ames family, and built in 1851. Another at the corners and medium-sized cobblestones, cobblestone classic, the walls were built of laid quite freely, make up the walls. fairly small oval stones set out rather promi­ The Holtz House near Big Bend in Wauke- nently for exceptionally pronounced texture.

"" Wisconsin Library Association, Wisconsin, A " Alec Clifton Taylor, The Pattern of English Guide to the Badger State (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, Building (B. T. Batsford, Ltd., London, 1962), 197. New York, 1941), 554.

143 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 sha County, built in 1842 as attested by a It is the unique treatment of the cobblestones datestone in the south gable, is perhaps the that invites attention, since nothing quite like earliest and also one of the finest cobblestone it has thus far been turned up anywhere else. houses in the state. This very substantial struc­ The stones, of medium size and obviously ture in Greek Revival style was built by Orien taken from glacial till, are not particularly un­ Haseltine of Andover, Vermont, who with his usual, but each one is literally set in a frame. brother Curtis, John Dodge, and Prucius Put­ The horizontal and vertical inverted V-joints nam arrived in 1836. The house was owned for are of equal size and profile, thus giving each many years by Roman Holtz and at the present stone a niche of its own. Quoins are irregular, time is owned by the Buckett family. The cob­ roughly cut of local buff and grey dolomite. blestones appear to be of glacial origin, most Rock County is another area in which a of them somewhat elongated and about the number of good cobblestone buildings are size and shape of Idaho potatoes. Set with a still extant, the largest grouping being in and heavy inverted V-joint, each stone is sepa­ around Beloit. Unfortunately, even here, these rated vertically from the other with a smaller buildings are being rapidly lost. Generally joint of similar profile. speaking, the Beloit examples were meticu­ lously built and the cobblestones more near­ T3ERHAPS the most curious piece of cobble- ly of pebble size, often as small as an inch and -^ stone masonry in Wisconsin is the Hazelo one half in diameter. Also, raised and beaded House near Rochester in Racine County, built half-round horizontal joints were frequently in 1858. Only the south front of the house fac­ used, as may be seen to good advantage in ing the road is done in cobblestone, the rest the Rasey House which was built in 1857. being dolomite ledge rock laid random ashlar. The stonemason was Chester Clark of Am­ herst, Massachusetts, who for some time prior to coming to Beloit, had lived in Marion, New York. He laid the walls with stones gathered from Turtle Creek."" In the Beloit area, cob­ blestone walls were also quite frequently laid in a banded effect by using alternate rows of light and dark stones. Some of the best of these were situated along Broad Street," but most have disappeared except for one old commercial building now used for tavern pur­ poses. Because of the size, shape, and surface, it is evident that much of the cobblestone ma­ terial used in Rock County work must have been water-milled either by fluvial or marine action, but whether all of it came from sur­ rounding creeks and streams appears doubt­ ful. The appearance of some of the stones strongly indicates Lake Michigan origins, sug­ gesting that the material may have been trans­ ported inland from Racine and Kenosha Coun­ ty beaches, sixty or more miles distant. Unquestionably the finest house built of beach stones still remaining in Wisconsin is the old Dodge House, now a gate lodge of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company's

'" Bertha Kitchell Whyte, Wisconsin Heritage Unique treatment of cobblestone wall in the Hazelo (Charles T. Branford Company, Boston, 1954), 86. house in Racine County. " Ibid., 89, 91.

144 PERRIN : FIELDSTONE ARCHITECTURE

There were, no doubt, other methods used by various stonemasons, but they were never recorded and must therefore be regarded as lost, particularly since it is known that most masons made every effort to keep their par­ ticular methods a trade secret. In any event, it was painstaking work. There was no quick- drying cement available, only lime and sand for mortar which dried slowly, making for a process of construction which was mo.st laborious. After every few feet of wall had been completed, it was necessary to pause and allow this to dry properly before further pres­ sure could be applied from above. Water- The Dodge house at Port Washington, now the gate rounded stones were difficult to handle, and lodge of the Wisconsin Electric Power (Company plant. under pressure there was always the risk of their rolling and slipping out, which could plant at Port Washington in Ozaukee County. prove troublesome. Yet, as in the case of the Built in 1848 as indicated by the datestone Dodge House and others, beautifully con­ over the main entrance, the house is still in trolled surfaces were produced, and their sta­ excellent condition, thanks to the efforts of bility is in large measure attributable to the its present owners. The interiors, of course, enduring qualities of the crude sand-lime mor­ have been altered to accommodate the office tar, the lime for which was occasionally purposes for which it was acquired. The burned and invariably slaked right on the stones are all water-washed cobbles and peb­ premises. bles gathered from the nearby beaches. They have a fine eggshell surface which gives them an unusually smooth and tactile quality. Laid "W7HAT the fate of Wisconsin's still remain- for a pronounced banded effect, the pattern '^' ing examples of fieldstone and cobble­ generally involves two contiguous courses of stone architecture may be is a serious ques­ black basalt pebbles, than a single course of tion. There are few places in America that granites of pink and grey cast, then two still possess such a heritage of fine buildings courses of buff, pink, and white flints and evolved out of boulders, cobblestones, and quartzites. There are five rows of stones per pebbles deposited by glaciers ages ago. In quoin, and the quoins themselves are rough- the hands of pioneer stonemasons of many dressed Ozaukee County dolomite of bluish ethnic and national origins, the material which grey color. Here also may be visualized the had literally been waste and a handicap was technique which very probably was used in turned into a versatile medium of architec­ laying up cobblestones facing such as this. tural expression. To save the best of this The inner structural rubble-stone wall was work for posterity is both a challenge and an built up several feet or more in advance of obligation. In New York State, for example, the facing. A wood framework was built up action is being taken by The Cobblestone So­ on the outside of the wall and a plank set up ciety,"' a voluntary group dedicated to the pre­ horizontally on the frame in line with the servation and restoration of cobblestone archi­ proposed course of cobblestones. The plank tecture. Its efforts are laudable and its ob­ was the same thickness as the height of the jectives seem attainable. Wisconsin would do cobblestones and the stones were laid up so well to follow this example. that their outside tips just touched the plank. It kept the outside edge of the stones in per­ fect alignment vertically and horizontally. Af­ ter a course of stones was laid the length of '" Carl F. Schmidt, op. cit., 33. " See Portfolio of The Cobblestone Society, found­ one side of the house, the plank was raised ed in 1960, Childs, New York; available from Miss to lay the next one."" Katherine Billings, Secretary, 120 East Avenue, Al­ bion, New York.

145 AN ARISTOCRAT ON TRIALt THE CASE OF RICHARD T, ELY

By THERON F. SCHLABACH of the University of Wisconsin's Board of Regents, and, according to one observer, "as pugnacious as an Irishman at a fair."" In a letter to the editors Wells asserted that "the teaching and practice of the University of 44 A S the world now stands, we hold it to Wisconsin" supported The Nation s state­ ^A be the solemn duty of all writers, ment—especially the teaching and practice preachers, and professors, who are engaged of the German-educated director of Wiscon­ in the work of reform, to refrain from denun­ sin's School of Economics, Politics, and His­ ciations of the existing society and social tory, Richard T. Ely." arrangements." Thus wrote the editors of Ely, charged Wells, justified strikes and The Nation, Edwin L. Godkin and Horace practiced boycotts. A year or so earlier, White, in June of 1894, a year of economic when printers had struck against two Madi­ depression, unemployment, and the violent son printing firms, Ely had entertained in Pullman railway strike and boycott. Godkin his home a union organizer from out of town and White's solution to the prevailing social and had constantly consulted with him. At ills was to reassert the principles of laissez one firm where Ely was having some printing faire. "The common practice among Chris­ done, he had demanded that the management tian and other socialists and Utopians of sign a contract with the union and had with­ abusing . . . the existing constitutions of drawn his printing when the firm did not society as an engine of fraud and oppression," comply. Furthermore, Wells alleged, Ely had they continued, "has undoubtedly done much told a proprietor of the firm that it was better to produce the 'militant anarchist' and give a to employ "a dirty, dissipated, unmarried, sort of moral justification to his attacks on unreliable, and unskilled" union man than life and property."" "an industrious, skillful, trustworthy, non­ The editors did not reveal to just which union man who is head of a family"; the socialists and Utopians they were referring, skilled family man could join the union, and but when Oliver E. Wells read the editorial if he had scruples against that, he was merely he was able to apply its charges more specific­ a "crank." In effect, Ely had said "to citi­ ally. Wells was Wisconsin's State Superin­ zens and taxpayers, 'Stand and deliver, or tendent of Education, an ex officio member

" Manitowoc Pilot, quoted in Madison Wisconsin State Journal, July 21, 1894. ' "The Moral of Carnot's Assassination," in The " Oliver E. Wells to the editor, in The Nation, Nation, 58:480 (June, 1894). 59:27 (July 12, 1894).

146 SCHLABACH : THE ELY CASE

down goes your business,' and to the laboring unsigned book review in The Nation had men, 'Join the union or starve with your accused Ely of a bias and bitterness against families.' "* wealthy classes which only "the ravings of Such was Ely the "socialist," Wells con­ an Anarchist or the dreams of a Socialist" tinued. Ely the professor taught the same could parallel, and had concluded that "Ely principles and incorporated them in his seems to us to be seriously out of place in scholarly writings, but he adroitly masked a university chair." Two years later, in 1888, them "by glittering generalities and mystical The Nation had again complained that "in and metaphysical statements" to prevent season and out of season" Ely had been troubles ensuing to himself. The University, pleading for state and municipal socialism. Wells contended, was promoting Ely's books, Embracing the "socialism of the chair, not which had great appeal because even the that of the streets," Ely was putting forward uneducated could easily understand them; worthless suggestions to revolutionize the because they pandered to prohibitionists; and existing system. So in 1894 the editors were because they appealed to "the religious, the quite happy to print Wells' condemnatory moral, and the unfortunate," by their ostenta­ letter. Not only did they publicize it in The tious sympathy for all who were in distress. Nation, but also in their newspaper, the New "Only the careful student will discover their York Evening Post, in which they had recently Utopian, impracticable and pernicious doc­ accused economics professors who had learned trines."" anti-laissez-faire doctrines in Germany of re­ Godkin and White were receptive to Wells' turning and "transplanting a pestilent crop indictment of Ely. Eight years earlier an of social fallacies.'"' In The Nation Godkin and White followed Wells' letter with their own editorial rebuke * Ibid. " Ibid. to the "ethical professor." "Nobody can say surely" that Ely was "heading directly for the camp of the socialist and the anarchist," they admitted, for Ely was too clever to let his writings reveal that. But they accused him of being far too suspicious of millionaires as the source of industrial poverty, when he should have considered the extravagance, the improvidence, and the dissipation of work- ingmen themselves. Instead of seeing "in­ sidious capitalist deviltry," Ely should have appreciated the good works of industrialists, particularly those of George Pullman, the railway car manufacturer, whose system of company-owned housing for workers Ely had denounced as enmeshing labor in the capi­ talists' net of control. Quoting no less a champion of laissez faire than Professor William Graham Summer of Yale, the editors

" "Dr. Ely and the Labor Movement," in The Nation, 43:293-294 (October 7, 1886), ascribed in Ely's autobiography. Ground Under Our Feet (New York, 1938) 178-179, to Simon Newcomb; "Ely's American Municipal Taxation," in The Nation, 47:359-360 (November 1, 1888) ; New York Evening Society's Itonogiaplii Post, July 14, 1894; "Our Socialists of the Chair," Richard Theodore Ely, economist, author, and social in New 'i'ork Evening Post: Semi-Weekly, June II, reformer. 1894.

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denounced all would-be "world movers and . . . that in its thousands of years of history renovators," with their "doctrine of making and struggle humanity has accumulated treas­ the world over again.'" ures of all kinds;" a "which is determined to cling to them tenaciously; but ' I "'HAT Ely had a vision of a world made a conservatism which . . . recognizes the fact -*- over was a fair charge, for he found that much remains for humanity yet to "inspiration" in the faith that America was achieve" and therefore resists the "brute-like" "entering on the dawn of a more glorious objection to change which in the end would civilization than the world has yet seen." lead to violence."" But he believed that the new order should Central in Ely's philosophy was his Chris­ come by long and patient scientific study, tianity. As a stanch proponent of the social rather than by the natural impulse to use gospel, he blamed social institutions for men's direct means." Ely's writings in the years sins and looked forward to nothing less than preceding 1894 certainly implied no covert the establishment of a kingdom of righteous­ belief in anarchy, as Godkin and White had ness on earth. But he continually looked suggested, nor any kind of revolutionary or backward as well to past Christian tradition complete socialism. Ever the champion of for its inspiration, revelation, accumulated law, order, authority, and tradition, Ely en­ wisdom, and specific social values. A convert tertained a reform philosophy which drew to Episcopalianism whose rearing had been heavily on the past for its ideals and which puritanical, he condemned the traditional contained deeply conservative strains. vices of intemperance, "bad habits," idleness, At times Ely described his philosophy as and pauperism, elevating the virtues of thrift, the Golden Mean, the path "between the too industry, self-control, and stewardship, as little; namely rigid, obstructive, and revolu­ well as charity, patience, and long-suffering."' tionary conservatism—that conservatism He vigorously denounced anarchy by terming which refuses to recognize defects in the it an old-fashioned social disease "with an existing social order, and resists obstinately old-fashioned name . . ., namely sin, and all reform and progress—and the too much; that fundamental sin, rebellion."^' Even as namely reckless radicalism, which, in reach­ he looked forward to a better social order, ing out for improvement, risks" the construc­ Ely's model was strongly reminiscent of a tive work of many ages." Insofar as the pre-industrial society in which some men Golden Mean suggested looking at the ex­ lived by the craftsman's skills and others tremes and merely splitting the difference ruled by divine right. The model for the between them, however, it was too negative masses was "not the self-made man—that is and passive adequately to describe Ely's the self-made millionaire," Ely wrote, "but entire social philosophy. A better description the contented and reasonably prosperous of the positive strains in his thought was his artisan or mechanic, gradually getting ahead other favorite label. Progressive Conservatism. "Progressive Conservatism," Ely wrote in 1890, was "a conservatism which recognizes

"" "Peabody Lecture," manuscript in Ely's hand­ writing, dated February 11, 13, 1890, in the Richard T. Ely Papers, Manuscripts Library of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. ^^ See the following articles by Richard T. Ely: ' "An Ethical Professor Rebuked," in The Nation, "A Programme for Labor Reform," 940, 951; "The 59:41-42 (July 19, 1894). Inheritance of Property," in the North American " Richard T. Ely, "A Programme for Labor Re­ Review, 153:66 (July, 1891) ; "Suggestions on Social form," in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, Topics: Making Men Good by Statute," in The 39 [n.s. 171:940 (April, 1890); Ely, "The Unem­ Christian Advocate, 66:321 (May 14, 1891) ; "Social ployed," in Harper's Weekly, 37:845 (September 2, Observations in Germany," in The Congregationalist, 1893). 77:222 (July 14, 1892); "Natural Monopolies and " Richard T. Ely, Socialism, An Examination of the Workingman," in the North American Review, Its Nature, Its Strength and Its Weakness, with 158:303 (March, 1894) ; and his Socialism and Suggestions for Social Reform (New York and Social Reform, 236, 307. Boston, 1894), 255 (hereinafter cited by its cover ''' Richard T. Ely, "Anarchy," in Harper's Weekly, title, Socialism and Social Reform). 37:1226 (December 23, 1893).

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in the world, enjoying life, developing all strain the hot tempers and impetuosity of his powers and living worthily with his union members. "Workmen are so frequently family.""" And the way to meet the challenge ignorant, low in tastes, immoral" and "rude of the disruptive anarchists was for political and coarse," Ely wrote, and so seldom "thor­ scientists to reassert the divine origins of the oughly competent and honest." The rich authority of the state."" seemed to feel their ethical obligations more A second basic strain in Ely's philosophy strongly than did workingmen, who did not was an organic view of the state and society. even appreciate efforts and self-sacrifice made "The great thinkers in economics and politics in labor's behalf. "Put aside bitterness and in all ages," he wrote, had seen society as contention," Ely counseled workmen during "not a mere aggregation of individuals, but the labor strife of 1893 and 1894. "Cultivate a living, growing organism," operating under peace, patience, and long-suffering." Pursue laws different from the laws of individual your purposes, but pursue them with "charity" ,action. His ideal was a Christian state, and "friendly relations.""" where men submitted to the authority and sovereignty of God, recognized the state as TF the "mobocracy" was not fit to lead God's instrument and therefore something -*- society, according to Ely, neither was the sacred, and lived harmoniously in a social "plutocracy." He admitted that a society organism held together by righteous laws, organized around monopolies and run by a sense of stewardship among the upper plutocrats might have made for steady work, classes, obedience by the lower classes, and no strikes, and even high wages; but he did a consciousness of duty and mutual obligation not believe that it would have been a healthy among all. It was a state led by a natural society. Already the ethic of the entrepreneur aristocracy, a "true aristocracy . . . serving had too much invaded political and social the entire people with all their gifts, natural thought, making public office an article of and acquired." The masses, unequal to solv­ merchandise and the dollar the only measure ing the problems of industrialism by them­ of a man. Yet Ely stoutly defended the selves, he declared, would "willingly follow institution of private property, rightly under­ culture and wealth, provided culture and stood, and advocated private entrepreneur- wealth are wise and virtuous and show sincere ship in fields of economic activity that were devotion to their interests.""^ not naturally monopolistic."' Ely vigorously opposed any suggestion of The reformer's task, Ely maintained, was allowing the working classes themselves to not to destroy private property but only to bring about industrial reform through class modify it by measures such as the inheritance conflict. Socialists who advocated class tax so that it might better serve society. When struggle, he wrote in 1891, failed to see the many reformers were advocating that a gov­ need to "compel submission, and introduce ernment acquiring the property of a monopo­ a kind of subordination into the industrial list should pay the monopolist only the cost ranks of society." He strongly supported labor unions, but his chief defense of them was that they were conservative organizations. "The labor leaders . . . are always holding back and restraining the rank and file," and "See the following articles by Richard T. Ely: union constitutions were instruments to re- "Valid Objections Against Socialism," in The Inde­ pendent, 43:7 (May 28, 1891); "Suggestions on Social "Topics: Labor Organizations," in The Chris­ tian Advocate, 66:602 (September 10, 1891) ; "Other Favorable Aspects of Socialism," in The Independent, 43:14 (May 7, 1891) ; "Suggestions for Social " Ely, "A Programme for Labor Reform," 951. Topics: The Widening and Deepening of Ethical "Ely, "Anarchy," 1226; Richard T. Ely, "Sugges­ Obligation," in The Christian Advocate, 66:538 tions on Social Topics: The State," in The Christian (August 13, 1891) ; "Natural Monopolies and the Advocate, 66:386 (June 11, 1891). Workingman," 303. ^'^ Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 3-4; Richard " Richard T. Ely, "Socialism and the General T. Ely, "Objections to Socialism," in Harper's Welfare," in The Independent, 43:13 (April 23, Weekly, 38:58 (January 20, 1894) ; Ely, "A Pro­ 1891) ; Ely, "A Programme for Labor Reform," 938; gramme for Labor Reform," 951. Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 197.

149 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 of duplicating the property, Ely advocated harbored much truth, and had a mission to paying the full market value, so strong was make its truths a part of American conscious­ his respect for the individual's property ness. It served to expose the evils of the rights. Private property had definite social American industrial situation and to place usefulness as an incentive to thrift and in­ high ideals of humanitarianism, brotherhood, dustry, he believed, and private entrepreneur- and service before the people. Although he ship had made men responsible, cautious, and considered the proletarian socialism of the yet prudently bold. Competition between Socialist Labor Party, with its theory of class entrepreneurs had led bold and daring men conflict, a social disease only somewhat less of individualistic bent to make admirable serious than anarchy, he was willing to exertions which redounded to the benefit of co-operate with "the extreme right of so­ all. And so Ely had no wish to destroy pri­ cialism.""" vate capitalism, particularly in agriculture, Ely's reluctance to go any further with the commerce, and much of manufacturing where socialists lay in his belief that their system it had not led to monopoly."" He only wished had certain potentially fatal weaknesses. In to put it on a higher ethical plane and to a system where government would provide circumscribe it within its own proper sphere. all goods and services, people would direct That sphere, however, was strictly limited to all dissatisfaction with those goods and serv­ economic leadership and services and did not ices against the government, and possibly include ideological leadership in society. revolt. Since most men had not progressed Ideological leadership was to be the task of to the point of being willing to exert their men of culture, as well as of wealth. "We best efforts solely for the general welfare, must remember that the universities contain socialism did not provide adequate motiva­ the flower of the land," Ely wrote in 1894, in tion for many of the most talented leaders reference to professors such as himself."" in society. A socialistic state, being too A third strain in Ely's social thought, which egalitarian, might not provide adequate ma­ operated within the limits set by his Chris­ terial support to learning, the arts, and the tianity and his organic view of society, was cultivation of the finer graces of life by the a kind of pragmatism that came into play few, which were necessary for a full flower­ whenever Ely moved from the more theoretical ing of civilization. A socialistic order would face the technical problems of equating sup­ realm to the advocacy of concrete measures. ply and demand, of bringing centralized con­ It was this pragmatism, this willingness to trol to agriculture, of coping with population consider the consequences of change and to growth, and of actually providing the prom­ accept what he considered beneficial, that ised level of material production. And finally, helped open him to the frequent charge of socialism aroused too much opposition from being a socialist. He was a persistent student private interests. "Wise social reform will of socialism, and although he usually claimed always seek the line of least resistance," Ely to regard it only with the "perfect impartial­ wrote in 1891. "Before committing ourselves ity" of an "unbiased searcher after truth," to any extreme doctrines it is well to ask, in 1889 he told a group of Boston churchmen that "Christian socialism—if you will take it in my conservative sense—is what I think we need." Socialism, he declared in 1892, ^ Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 113, 169-170, vi, 256; Richard T. Ely, "Socialism, Its Nature, Its Strength, and Its Weakness," in The Independent, 43:8-9 (March 26, 1891) ; Richard T. Ely, The Needs '"Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 307-310, 198; of the City: An Address Delivered Before the Bos­ Ely, "Natural Monopolies and the Workingman," ton Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, Decem­ 302; Richard T. Ely, "Underestimate by Socialists ber 4, 1889 (printed as a pamphlet), 6; Richard T. of the Benefits of Competition," in The Independent, Ely, "Suggestions on Social Topics: Are We Going 43:7 (June 4, 1891); Richard T. Ely, "Objections Too Fast?," in The Christian Advocate, 67:205 to Socialism," in Harper's Weekly, 38:31 (January (March 31, 1892) ; Ely, "A Programme for Labor 13, 1894). Reform," 951; Richard T. Ely, "The Elements of "Ely, "Objections to Socialism" (January 13, Socialism, in The Independent, 43:5 (February 19, 1894), 31. I89I).

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What can be done without radical change?""" cialism and Social Reform, published early Nevertheless, Ely believed that socialism, in 1894. No doubt, Ely wrote in his preface, being a theory of monopoly, "roughly speak­ those "whose one test of conservatism, or ing" held good insofar as the reformer was radicalism, is the attitude one takes with facing the problem of monopoly;"" and he respect to accumulated wealth" might charge saw a sharp distinction between nonmonopo- him with radicalism. "A writer's whole listic and monopolistic industries. Conse­ nature may be that of a conservative; he quently, while defending private enterprise may love the old ways; he may to some in large economic spheres, Ely's favorite extent draw his social ideals from a past reform was the municipalization of electric which he considers, with respect to feeling companies, gasworks, waterworks, and street about wealth, saner than the present age, and railways. He also favored the nationalization yet, because he would, by social action, of telegraph and telephone companies, rail­ endeavor to change certain tendencies, and roads, canals, and forest and mineral lands, to conserve the treasures of the past which and supported a roster of other reforms, he feels threatened by new and startling many of them requiring more active govern­ forces, he is still a radical in the eyes of ment—the inheritance tax, factory regulation those men whose one and sole test is money.""* for women and children, civil service reforms, With Oliver Wells' public attack in June, better court treatment of labor organizations, 1894, Ely's words became ironically pro­ slum clearance and the creation of urban phetic. parks to benefit city populations morally as well as materially, savings banks to help the LTHOUGH Ely's father's reaction to the masses cultivate the habit of thrift, restriction attack was to advise his son to "fret not of immigration, and tax relief for the lower A thyself because of evildoers" and to "commit classes. His reform program, he believed, thy way unto the Lord," Ely was genuinely went far enough along with the radicals to alarmed by Wells' letter and immediately capture what was good in their programs and, therefore, to dissipate their strength and pre­ vent their excesses. But as for a complete ** Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, viii. program of socialization, he wrote pragmatic­ ally, he feared that "judged by the social consequences it is likely to produce," this "untried remedy involving uncertainties and dangers of its own" would not pass the test."' Such pragmatism was a conservative strain in Ely's thought, for it put the burden of proof on the advocates of change; but it was progressively conservative, because it was willing to listen to evidences of proof.

It was in the spirit of his Progressive Conservatism that Ely wrote his book, So-

"' Richard T. Ely, "Objections to Socialism," in Harper's Weekly, 38:15 (January 6, 1894); Ely, "Objections to Socialism" (January 13, 1894), 31; Ely, "Objections to Socialism" (January 20, 1894), 58; Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 188-248; Ely, "The Inheritance of Property," 54. ^" Ely, Socialism and Social Reform, 262. '^ Ely, "A Programme for Labor Reform," 938-951; Ely, "Suggestions on Social Topics: Are We Going Too Fast?," 206; Ely, "Vahd Objections to Social­ University of Wisconsin Archives ism," 11; Ely, "Underestimate by Socialists of the Benefits of Competition," 7. Oliver E. Wells, who precipitated the Ely Trial.

151 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 consulted a number of his friends, asking the editors of The Nation had interpreted as their advice as to whether or not to sue for a deliberate repudiation of Ely's philosophy. libel, to seek a vindication before the Uni­ But Adams wrote privately that while he versity regents, or both. Their counsels indi­ and Ely had arrived at somewhat different cated a wealth of sympathy and support, but conclusions, he was sure that their "funda­ were rather uncertain. At first his friends mental ethical concepts" were similar. At favored some sort of decisive confrontation any rate, Ely was entitled to be understood, with Wells. But on second thought they began and Adams was sure that Ely's writings could to see dangers in creating a public furor. stand the test of searching public scrutiny Breese J. Stevens, a Madison attorney and in a trial. As a personal friend, but not regent of the University, advised silence and officially as president and ex officio regent, no lawsuit—at least for a time. Frederick Adams advised Ely that if he felt perfectly Jackson Turner, professor of history under sure of his ground, he might do well to ask Ely, and William Scott, Ely's associate pro­ for an investigation by the regents."" fessor of economics, agreed that it would not The regents, however, decided the matter be wise to drag Ely's writings too much before Ely and his friends had chosen a before the public during the agitation over course of action. At a regents' meeting on the railway strikes. Scott feared that a hear­ July 31, 1894, the regents' president, William ing before the regents might result in an Bartlett, proposed that since one of their num­ unfavorable minority report, and perhaps ber had made the attack the board appoint even in an unfavorable majority report."" a committee to study the matter carefully. Ely's friends advised him to lean heavily Stevens objected on the ground that "the on the advice of the president of the Univer­ times were too much disturbed to permit of sity, Charles Kendall Adams. In an address a careful investigation." But the board sus­ in June, Adams had expounded economic tained its president, and Bartlett appointed views somewhat at variance with Ely's, which Herbert Chynoweth, a Madison attorney, John Johnston, a Milwaukee banker, and Harvey Dale, an Oshkosh physician, to con­ duct the inquiry."' Ely had reason to believe that Johnston might be sympathetic, for in the preceding months the two men had been in friendly correspondence. Johnston was something of a man of letters, having earned a master's degree in his native Scotland and written several scholarly encyclopedia articles. In May he had assured Ely that a "teacher who can teach only what is accepted by everybody, will be confined to a very narrow line of tuition," and that he hoped that "the Uni­ versity of Wisconsin will always hold fast to the apostolic injunction to 'prove all things

==Ezra Ely to Richard T. Ely, August 2, 9, 1894; Charles Kendall Adams to Ely, July 23, 1894; Amos P. Wilder to Ely, July 19, 1894; Lyman Abbott to Ely, July 19, 1894; Albert Shaw to Ely, July 19, 1894; Charles Gregory to Ely, July 19, 1894; William Scott to Ely, July 21, 1894; all in the Ely Papers. -"" "An Ethical Professor Rebuked," 42; Adams to Ely, July 23, 1894, in the Ely Papers. Charles Kendall Adams, from the portrait by J. '^ Records of the University of Wisconsin Regents, Colin Forbes in the Society's Iconographic Collection. Vol. D, 293, in the University of Wisconsin Archives.

152 SCHLABACH : THE ELY CASE and hold fast to that which is good.' " Ely, conservative owner-editor. Hod Taylor, pre­ in turn, had assured Johnston that he would vented Wilder from making Ely's cause the never teach in a dogmatic fashion, because editorial campaign that he would have liked. he believed in freedom and independence of Wilder found ways to put Ely's case before thought for both himself and his students. the Madison public. On several occasions he And, he added, his students were liberal and published Ely's views and denials of Wells' progressive leaders in many communities, charges and on other occasions printed state­ "but at the same time conservative men in ments which probably originated in his own the true sense of the word.""" office, attributing their source to "a friend Ely had little cause for such confidence in of Dr. Ely" or to "sentiment on the curb­ Chynoweth and Dale. Scott reported that stone." He published a long interview with he suspected Chynoweth to be unsympathetic David Kinley, one of Ely's students who had and that Dale had actually expressed himself become professor of economics at the Univer­ unfavorably. A number of Ely's friends sity of Illinois. Kinley contended at length quickly began working to change the opin­ that while study in Germany had perhaps ions of the investigators, as well as those of influenced Ely excessively, he certainly was the general public. Jerome Raymond, a not a socialist.'"" sociologist at the University of Chicago who knew Dale slightly, wrote to him in Ely's TT was Kinley, vacationing in Madison, who favor and induced a friend, who he believed -*- did the most to prepare Ely's defense. could be even more influential, to do the First he offered Wells the opportunity to with­ same. He also worked to get favorable draw the charges. When Wells refused, material printed in Chicago papers, which Kinley set about to substantiate Ely's firm smaller Wisconsin papers often copied. In denials that he had done anything to aid the Cincinnati Philip Ayres, secretary of a Cin­ printers' strike, had withdrawn his printing cinnati charitable organization and a former in order to coerce the company to unionize, student of Ely, induced his city's papers to or had stated that a shiftless union man was print several articles in Ely's favor. Another better than a respectable nonunion man. He former student, a free-lance newspaper writer, also kept Ely, who was vacationing in the Edward Ingle, used his influence on news­ East, informed with encouraging letters— papers in the Baltimore area. And when the which Ely no doubt needed, for the attack Chicago Evening Post published an editorial had come soon after the death of Ely's nine- absolving Ely of charges of socialism and month-old child, and while Mrs. Ely was ill. expressing confidence that the regents would Ely himself maintained an overt public silence, judge him fairly, Scott requested the news­ although his denials of the charges reached paper to send a copy to each of the Univer­ the public through the discreet publishing sity regents."" efforts of Wilder and of Lyman Abbott, editor Ely had a valuable friend on the editorial of Tfte Outlooft. Finally, however, taking an staff of the Wisconsin State Journal in the opportunity that his position as a Chautauqua person of Amos P. Wilder. Although a rather lecturer provided, Ely prepared a forthright public statement which the Reverend John Vincent, chancellor of the Chautauqua lec­ ture system, read in the Chautauqua, New "" Merle Curti and Vernon Carstensen, The Univer­ York, amphitheater on August 14, six days sity of Wisconsin: A History, 1848-1925, (2 vols., before the regents' hearing. Thus Ely de­ Madison, 1949), 1:513; Johnston to Ely, January 19, May 3, 1894, in the Ely Papers; excerpt of letter, fended himself before a vast audience from Ely to Johnston (June, 1894, from internal evidence), many parts of the nation and by arrangement in Papers, Board of Regents Meeting, in the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin Archives. '•"' Scott to Ely, August 3, 1894, in the Ely Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, August 6, 1894; Raymond to Ely, August 9, 10, 13, 1894; Raymond to Dale, August 13, 1894 (copy) ; Ayres to Ely, August 15, 1894; Ingle to Ely (internal evidence suggests ca. "Wilder to Ely, July 19, 1894, in the Ely Papers; August 15, 1894) ; Scott to Ely, August 8, 1894; all Wisconsin State Journal, July 31, August 20, 1894; in the Ely Papers. ibid., August 3, 1894.

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of his friends got wide press coverage for nor consider his books. A Wisconsin State his statement; but he avoided turning his Journal editorial protested that this limitation case into the journalistic fight which he and was fair neither to the public, who wanted a his friends believed their opponents wanted."" complete, unrestricted investigation, nor to Ely's statement specified each of Weils' Ely, who should have been allowed to intro­ charges and categorically denied every one duce any of his writings that he wished to "in each and every particular." "The man use in his defense. But Kinley thought that who makes these charges against me," he the scope of the investigation was just right, declared, "is well known to his neighbors as inasmuch as it provided "a clear, definite a politician of the meaner sort, who, too series of charges to meet.""" small to appreciate the most important trust Kinley was beginning to feel elated about ever committed to him, betrayed it in his Ely's prospects for complete vindication. "I insensate love of notoriety." The statement feel today that the sky is clearing rapidly for went on to assure the Chautauqua audience you in the local situation," he assured Ely on that Ely was neither an anarchist nor a August 10. He believed that the investigating socialist, and that although he favored labor committee was feeling the drift of sentiment unions, he had only limited faith in them. and would not dare to show any hostility While he had not changed his fundamental toward Ely if, indeed, it had any. And from beliefs, he had become increasingly conserva­ conversation with the man of whom Ely alleg­ tive over the years. Nor had President Adams edly had made his demands in favor of the rebuked him, Ely asserted; Adams would union, Wheeler A. Tracy of the printing firm speak out for him when the proper time of Tracy & Gibbs, Kinley became more came. This, indeed, was what Adams, who and more convinced that Ely and his friends was staying in the background, had pri­ had Wells "in a nice little hole of his own vately promised Ely. Ely was attempting to digging." Wilder did what he could to help reap the full benefit of Adams' covert support, clear the sky by publicizing some of the while following Kinley's advice not in any facts that Kinley dredged up, and when Ely, way to force Adams openly to take sides."" after returning to Madison, became ill three Meantime, Chynoweth, Dale, and Johnston days before the hearing date. Wilder used met and set the date of their hearing for even that fact to maximum advantage. Al­ August 20. They requested that Wells appear though Ely had fairly recovered. Wilder, in and present whatever evidence he could to his last issue before the hearing, stressed the support his charges concerning Ely's conduct fact of Ely's illness and had "a friend of in the printers' strike, and they instructed Dr. Ely" declare that the regents ought to Ely to come bringing whatever lecture notes finish the whole investigation in twenty-four he could produce from classes he had taught hours and be done with the excruciating, at Wisconsin. Chynoweth, the chairman, an­ irresponsible attack on the University's most nounced that the committee would concern prestigious professor."" itself only with Ely's activities in the strike and with his teachings in the University: it npHE evening of the hearing arrived and would not probe into his personal beliefs -*- Ely appeared with his counsel. Burr W. Jones, Madison attorney, politician in Wells' own Democratic party, and teacher in the

""Ely, Ground 'Under Our Feet, 225; Kinley to Ely, August 2, 7, 10, 11, 1894, in the Ely Papers; The Outlook, 50: 127-128 (July 28, 1894) ;^ "Prof. Richard T. Ely Makes a Personal Statement," in the '"Edward F. Riley to Ely, August 9, 1894; copy Chautauqua Assembly Herald, August 15, 1894; of resolution requesting Ely and Wells to appear, Raymond to Ely, August 10, 1894; Ely to Albert in the Ely Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, August Shaw, August 8, 1894; Ingle to Ely (internal evidence 10, 11, 1894; Kinley to Ely, August 10, 1894, in the suggests ca. August 15, 1894) ; all in the Ely Papers. Ely Papers. '="Prof. Richard T. Ely Makes a Personal State­ '"Kinley to Ely, August 10, 11, 1894, in the Ely ment"; Adams to Ely, August 2, 1894; Kinley to Papers; Wisconsin State Journal, August 16, 20, Ely, August 7, 1894, in the Ely Papers. 1894.

154 SCHLABACH : THE ELY CASE

University's law school. About 200 observers That evening Wells did attend with his attended. Wells, however, did not appear. counsel, Madison attorney George Bird, and Shortly before the time of the hearing he the protagonists spent much of the evening sent a messenger to the committee with a arguing whether or not Wells might introduce letter stating that he had been called out of the books as evidence. The committee insisted town on business, and that the committee that it did not intend to scrutinize all of Ely's did not need his presence until they had voluminous writings, since the regents could decided to change their procedure to include not hold themselves responsible for the writ­ Ely's books as evidence. He argued that the ings of about 200 faculty members—Johnston committee's policy excluded the only evidence arguing that position most emphatically, that he could produce in his own behalf, while Chynoweth supported it and Dale while Ely, being allowed to present anything remained virtually silent. Bird, trying to dis­ he wished as lecture material, had a free tract the hearing from charges surrounding hand. To support his position. Wells attempted the printers' strike, argued that the charges to show by quoting from Ely's books that against Ely's books were the only ones of Ely had made strong statements in favor of any consequence, but Jones insisted upon socialism, but only weak refutations against examining the strike charges in order to it. After considering Wells' objections and vindicate Ely's personal character. In an argu­ conferring with Ely and Jones, the committee ment over just who should bear the burden adjourned the hearing until the following of proof, Wells suggested that Ely answer 35 the charges so that the committee would have evening. specific issues to discuss. Chynoweth, in turn, The next day the committee again requested suggested that Wells file formal charges Wells to be present, informing him that they against Ely. Finally they agreed to accept had only meant to follow the regents' resolu­ the original letter to The Nation's editors as tion which had initiated the investigation. a statement of charges, and Jones read a state­ This resolution, noting that Wells had charged ment for Ely, once more categorically deny­ that "Ely's teachings, in the University" were ing each specific charge. This drew applause socialistic, Utopian, and pernicious, had au­ from the audience, leading Bird to protest thorized an investigation of "the charges and Chynoweth to promise to prevent fur­ made, the effect of Dr. Ely's teachings upon ther demonstrations. After more arguments, the students, and the whole matter connected the committee decided that Wells might pre­ therewith." The committee informed Wells that pare excerpts from Ely's writings to produce it understood the resolution to exclude Ely's as evidence at a later time, and proceeded books, especially since Wells had not specified to consider the specific charges surrounding any books in his charges. But they assured the strike."' him that they would listen to any of his suggestions if he would attend."" The record of the strike was particularily disappointing for Wells. His key witness, Tracy, testified that Ely had not threatened to withdraw his own printing from the firm "" Wisconsin State Journal, August 21, 1894; "Pro­ if it expelled the union, but that he had said ceedings before Committee appointed by the Board of Regents to investigate and report concerning the that the executive board of the Christian charges made against Dr. Richard T. Ely contained Social Union, of which Ely was secretary, in a communication written by State Superintendent might require that he withdraw the Union's Oliver E. Wells, dated July 5th, 1894, and published in the Nation of New York, in its issue of July 12, 1894" printing. Ely had eventually stopped patroniz­ (hereinafter cited as "Proceedings before the In­ ing Tracy's firm, but under cross-examination vestigating Committee"), document in the Papers, by Jones, Tracy admitted that he and Ely Board of Regents Meetings, University of Wisconsin Archives, p.l; Wells to Chynoweth, Dale, and John­ had disagreed over the payment of a bill. ston, August 20, 1894, reprinted in the pamphlet. The Ely Investigation: Communications of Super­ intendent Wells to the Investigating Committee, 1-6. ^^ Chynoweth, Dale, and Johnston to Wells, August 20, 1894, in Papers, Board of Regents Meetings; Re­ cords of the University of Wisconsin Regents, Vol. "' "Proceedings before the Investigating Commit­ D, University of Wisconsin Archives. tee," 1-38.

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Tracy indicated that the statements concern­ With Wells absent and the observers nearly ing a dirty, profligate union man versus a all friends of Ely, the final hearing was clean, trustworthy nonunion man had been virtually a pro-Ely demonstration. Edward his own words, put to Ely in the form of a F. Riley, secretary to the Board of Regents, question. Ely had replied that the trustworthy read Wells' latest letter. Then Stevens read man could join the union, and Tracy himself a number of communications which Adams had replied that the man might be a crank had sent, and which, along with Wells' letter, with scruples against union membership. The the committee accepted as evidence. These most that the prosecution could establish was included a review of Ely's book Socialism that Ely had admitted that unions at times and Social Reform, in which Adams asserted had to resort to unlawful boycotts to win that Ely had been thorougly scientific, had their goals and that that was one of the written not "a paragraph or a sentence that "bad things" about them. The testimony of can be interpreted as an encouragement of Thomas Reynolds, a striking printer who lawlessness or disorder," and had led the was supposed to know that Ely had counseled reader away from, not toward, socialism; a and entertained J. F. Klunk, the out-of-town statement from E. Benjamin Andrews, presi­ union organizer, was even more disappoint­ dent of Brown University, asserting that ing. Reynolds could produce only hearsay while Ely's teachings led to enlarged govern­ evidence, and had mysteriously changed his ment action, they were not socialistic and mind about information that Wells and Bird did not advocate lawlessness; a statement were sure he had held a month earlier. At from U.S. Labor Commissioner Carroll that juncture the committee adjourned the Wright, stating that it was too strong even hearing until two evenings later, when Wells to label Ely a Christian socialist, and that presumably would produce allegedly damag­ Ely's students were men of "conservative ing extracts from Ely's writings."" judgment"; and similar letters from Albert The next day, however, Kinley made pub­ Shaw, editor of Review of Reviews, and lic the fact that he had a letter from Klunk Albion W. Small, profesor of sociology at indicating that Ely had neither entertained the University of Chicago. Ely, Kinley, Tur­ Klunk in his home nor advised him in regard ner, and Professor Henry H. Swain, an Ely to the strike. Klunk did believe that he had student and teacher at Yankton University interviewed Ely once, but Ely's friends in South Dakota, testified in Ely's behalf asserted that he had mistaken another man concerning the harmlessness and the positive for Ely. value of his teaching. Jones read some ex­ tracts from Ely's writings to illustrate Ely's Wells decided not to attend another hear­ "reverence for law, government, and the ing. He complained that he had attended rights of private property," and submitted one hearing against the advice of his friends, a number of reviews of Ely's books. Al­ and the demonstrations by the audience had though Jones had earlier stated that Ely did prevented a fair trial. Once again he at­ not wish to see the investigation closed as tempted to show by a lengthy letter to the long as undecided accusations remained, the committee that excerpts from Ely's writings investigating committee, clearly disgusted showed a pro-socialistic influence. And while with Wells' performance, closed the hearing he admitted that certain specific accusations and terminated the investigation.*" concerning Ely's role in the strike had been false, he asserted that it was still true that Ely had encouraged the strike and had tried HROUGHOUT the entire trial Ely did to coerce Tracy. Nor was Ely's statement T not raise the issue of academic freedom, that union boycotts were "bad things" but took a safer line of defense. He even enough to appease Wells."" admitted that if the attacks on his personal

^'Ibid., 38-73. " Wisconsin State Journal, August 24, 1894; mis­ "' Wisconsin State Journal, August 22, 1894; J. F. cellaneous documents, manuscripts, and clippings Klunk to Kinley, August 17, 1894, in the Ely Papers; among the Papers, Board of Regents Meetings, Uni­ The Ely Investigation, 6-10. versity of Wisconsin Archives.

156 SCHLABACH : THE ELY CASE character had been true, they would have the editors of liberal religious journals who shown him "to be unworthy the honor of gave Ely general support qualified their being a professor in a great university." Yet defense. The fact that Ely differed with his before the trial he had declared privately accuser on social questions was not enough that "if I am slaughtered, others in different to prove him "politically heretical," wrote Universities will perish, and what will become the editor of The Evangelist, and only if of freedom of speech, I do not know." He "the State authorities are defied openly, as encouraged Wilder to argue for academic well as theoretically," was there "peril in freedom in his newspaper, because if the any man's hypothesis or theory." But if Ely's University "should yield to popular clamor views were "radically erroneous and incon­ and discharge me for my views, it would sistent with loyal citizenship," he was an be an injury to the University from which it unsafe teacher of youth. George Gates, presi­ would not soon recover. . . . Freedom is the dent of Iowa College, writing an editorial glory of a State University and intolerance for The Kingdom, strongly de>fended Ely's is its shame.'"" "liberty to prophesy," arguing that truth was His friends also saw the implications for always dangerous, but dangerous only to academic freedom. Wilder had his "friend firmly entrenched wrongs, never to righteous­ of Dr. Ely" compare the trial to "the Salem ness. But he asserted that the liberty to witchcraft iniquity," and predict that the prophesy did not mean that a man had "a community, like Cotton Mather, would soon right to say and teach anything he pleases," "rub our eyes in self-contempt." Turner for society had to walk a narrow path between declared that "surely the University must be censorship and "fatal license of speech.""" a place where a man can seek the truth, and The editor of a secular newspaper, the present both sides in a scientific way," and Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, struck Abbott assured Ely that The Outloofc would much the same note when he warned of the always support liberty of teaching in the seriousness of the state's branding any doc­ nation's universities. At the final hearing trine a heresy, but maintained that certain President Andrews' communication advised conditions might justify retirement of a pro­ the regents that if they deposed Ely it would fessor for economic heresy. The editor of be "a great blow at freedom of university the Milwaukee Wisconsin was less equivocal. teaching in general and at the development While calling for a fair trial, he declared of political economy in particular." And that if the regents found that Ely was teach­ Kinley, before the trial, publicly predicted ing heresies, they would have to remove him. "a vindication of the principle of free speech The state could not "maintain a propaganda and the harmlessness of truth," declaring directed against the political and social prin­ that "even if it were true that Dr. Ely's views ciples embodied in the constitution." The were far in advance of those commonly Milwaukee Journal editor agreed. "Our free accepted, it would be a serious matter to institutions are too valuable to be imperilled curtail freedom of opinion.""" by such teachings as are attributed to Dr. Other commentators, however, were not Ely," he wrote." all agreed that the regents ought to allow John Olin, a professor in the University's opinions that were too far advanced. Even College of Law, had rather different ideas for protecting free institutions. Olin had fought his own bout with the regents, who had fired him in 1887 for his prohibitionism, " Untitled and undated manuscript addressed to his legal counsel to people with claims Chynoweth, Dale, and Johnston, from internal evi­ dence appearing to have been read at the August 20 hearing by either Ely or Jones, in Papers, Board of Regents Meetings; Ely to Shaw, August 8, 1894; Ely to Wilder, July 22, 1894, in the Ely Papers. ''' Wisconsin State Journal, August 20, 1894; Turn­ •" The Evangelist, August 16, 1894; George Gates in er to Ely, August 4, 1894; Abbott to Ely, July 19, The Kingdom, August 24, 1894. 1894, in the Ely Papers; Andrews, quoted in the " Wisconsin State Journal, August 7, 1894; Milwau­ Wisconsin State Journal, August 24, 1894; ibid., kee Wisconsin, quoted in ibid., August 3, 1894; The August 3, 1894. Milwaukee Journal, quoted in ib'id., August 10, 1894.

157 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 against the University, and possibly his un­ missal or even the criticism of a teacher even popularity among the state's Republicans, if some of his opinions should, in some and then reinstated him in 1893. After the quarters, be regarded as visionary." A pro­ trial he wrote to Regent George Noyes of fessor could not cut his curriculum to a Milwaukee asserting that the committee small body of facts that everyone accepted should do more than exonerate Ely; in order as true. Because they could not "for a to repair the University's damaged reputation moment believe that knowledge has reached they should declare the freedom of Wisconsin its final goal, or that the present condition professors to speak out on "living questions." of society is perfect," they welcomed from He believed that Johnston and Chynoweth teachers discussion which might lead to the would be willing."' extension of knowledge and the removal of Encouraged, no doubt, by Olin's suggestion existing evils. "It is of the utmost importance and by the sentiment that the trial had that the investigator should be absolutely created in the University coinmunity, the free to follow the indications of truth wherever committee turned a trial in which academic they may lead," they declared. Then, in a freedom had scarcely been mentioned into climactic piece of rhetoric from President an occasion for a bold assertion of the right Adams' pen, they added: "Whatever may of free inquiry and expression. Noting that be the limitations which trammel enquiry over two million people of vastly divergent elsewhere we believe the great State Univer­ views shared the support of the University, sity of Wisconsin should ever encourage that the committee in their final report to the continual and fearless sifting and winnowing regents asserted that they "could not for by which alone the truth can be found.""" a moment think of recommending the dis- "PiESPITE the fine rhetoric, Ely and his -'-^ friends had based their defense not on '" Curti and Carstensen, The University of Wis­ consin, 1: 457-458, 524. the sanctity of academic freedom but on denials of specific charges and on assertions of Ely's essential conservatism. It had been the expediential course to follow, and it had worked, aided by Wells' ineptness. Wells had not only made the mistake of tying his attack to completely unprovable charges con­ cerning Ely's personal conduct, but had also alienated the regents by including the Uni­ versity in his attack. He had, moreover, brought embarrassment to his entire com­ munity by making his attack through Eastern papers and, in general, had confirmed his local reputation for being a contentious, irresponsible politician. Ely's triumph was complete. Not only did he win technical acquittal, but also his friends arranged a great reception for him as an expression of their support, and he saw his opponent humiliated.

'"' Report by Chynoweth, Dale and Johnston to the Board of Regents, September 18, 1894, in Papers, Board of Regents Meetings. For the authorship of the "sifting and winnowing" statement, see Theodore University of Wisconsin Archives Herfurth, Sifting and Winnowing: A Chapter in Herbert W. Chynoweth, the Madison attorney who the History of Academic Freedom at the University headed the Board of Regents' investigating committee. of Wisconsin (Madison, 1949), 12-13.

158 SCHLABACH : THE ELY CASE

"We are pleased to say that the result is qualifications to lead the country through a complete vindication of Dr. Ely and the a change that would require "the best brains teachings and the practices of our Univer­ and the ripest experience." Did a party have sity," the regents concluded in their final wild ideas in regard to money and public report, then added an extra rebuke to Wells by finance? Ely asked in the midst of a strong resolving that they disapproved of his failure campaign by the Populists. "If so, we may to bring his criticisms first to the president conclude that adherence to older parties is or the regents of the University. This was preferable to support of a party deficient in Wells' second public rebuke. Several weeks leadership." He emphasized strongly that earlier Democratic party members, meeting his own scheme of socialization did not in a state convention, had greeted his name include the unremunerated confiscation of with hisses and boos. In 1890 another con­ any private property, and ended his article vention had raised Wells, whose highest on the note that the doctrine of the essential previous office had been superintendent of equality of men was the source of much Waupaca County Schools, from the principal- misfortune and misdirected social effort. To ship of Appleton's public schools to candidacy treat the "feebler members of the community" for the office of state superintendent. The as equal to the superior merely caused them 1894 convention nominated another man for to suffer; and to treat the superior members his place. And finally The Nation's editors as equal to the inferior robbed them of hastened to disassociate themselves from their feeling of responsibility toward their Wells. Godkin and White declared that the brethren."' apparently unjust charges concerning Ely's "I may say then that I am a conservative personal conduct were matters solely between rather than a radical, ... an aristocrat rather him and Wells, and professed that they were than a democrat," he concluded. "I have in very pleased to see Ely vindicated. But, they mind . . . not an aristocracy born for the added, Ely's economic teachings were still enjoyment of special privilege, but an aristo­ a proper subject for public discussion."' cracy which lives for the fulfilment of special service.""" In Ely's view, men of culture and During the crisis, Walter Hines Page, editor refinement were the naturally superior aristo­ of The Forum, asked Ely to spell out his crats who should lead society, and men who economic creed as a sequel to the trial. Ely's led by reason of their enterpreneurial abilities statement, "Fundamental Beliefs in My So­ were to be relegated to second place and cial Philosophy," once more systematically even subjected to social controls, through set forth the tenets of his Progressive Con­ government ownership and regulation, and servatism. While reasserting the value of through toleration of the trade-union move­ studying socialism, and declaring that social­ ment. It was his misfortune that his sophisti­ ism was a force which had stimulated con­ cated kind of conservatism differed from the sciences and beneficially transformed men's more popular brand current in the 1890's, lives, Ely asserted that it was "radically and that the difference led to his public em­ different" from his own thought, and gave barrassment. a summary of his reasons for rejecting it. He emphasized the limitations of trade unionism, denounced the violence surround­ ing the recent railway strikes as "barbarism and not civilization," and, in an obvious •" Report by Chynoweth, Johnston, and Dale to the Board of Regents, September 18, 1894, in Papers, reference to the government's use of militia Board of Regents Meetings; Reports of the Univer­ in those strikes, declared that a discussion of sity of Wisconsin Regents, Vol. D, 295; "Wells Dis­ abstract rights could not interfere with deter­ placed," unidentified newspaper clipping in Vol. 9 of Ely's personal scrapbooks, in the Ely Papers; mined action. Once more he upheld his Wisconsin State Journal, August 21, 1894; The ideas of government ownership of monopo­ Nation, 59:151 (August 30, 1894). listic industries, but declared that not every­ "Page to Ely, August 20, 1894, in tbe Ely Papers; Richard T. Ely, "Fundamental Beliefs in My Social one who had a scheme of achieving that Philosophy," in The Forum, 18:173-183 (October, goal had the mental capacity nor the moral 1894). "Ibid., 183.

159 FOND DU LAC SNUBS A PRESIDENT

By STANLEY L. GORES

TfAHILE President not welcome. Yet this was the sort of perplex­ ' ' relaxed his ample frame in the swaying ing situation that could arise when a powerful luxury coach of the special train carrying him man such as Taft enjoyed what his military on an extended national tour, his loyal per­ aide, Archie Butt, referred to as an almost sonal secretary, Charles Dewey Hilles, was in "ghoulish delight" for travel." Although his disturbed possession of a recently received tel­ handlebar mustache possibly may have egram. The message had been sent on October twitched momentarily when he read the tele­ 7, 1911, sent by a man Hilles had never met, gram, the jovial Taft, beset by a growing split Frank J. Wolff, the outspoken mayor of the in Republican ranks, refused to become a wor­ small lumber and dairy city of Fond du Lac, rier. Working out the touchy Fond du Lac Wisconsin. In militant language the telegram problem was a task Hilles more than likely had informed Taft that an earlier invitation to to solve alone. visit the community was being withdrawn and, The mayor's impertinent telegram, how­ somewhat comically, concluded with the com­ ever, bore the seeds of an embarrassing na­ mand, "Give all your time to Oshkosh and tional incident, especially at a time when Taft Appleton."" needed all the good will he could muster in Hilles, an astute political advisor who had anticipation of the challenges of the 1912 made the arrangements for the President's presidential campaign. Mayor Wolff, a dap­ scheduled 13,000-mile, forty-eight-day jour­ per, energetic fellow, who also doubled as a ney, recognized the telegram for what is was— real estate and insurance salesman while in an actual snub of Taft. It was ridiculous, of office, made it plain that he was angry over a course, that a small-town mayor could tell the scheduling change in Taft's tour. He said he President of the United States that he was was sorely disappointed that the two and one- half to three hours originally alloted to Fond du Lac on Taft's Wisconsin itinerary had been slashed to provide added time for visits to AUTHOR'S NOTE: In addition to extensive news­ the neighboring cities of Oshkosh and Apple- paper research, interviews for this article were con­ ton. What was more, he gave Taft no official ducted with relatives of those involved and with others associated with this incident in Fond du assurance that he would get any kind of wel­ Lac's history. Among those interviewed were C. J. come in Fond du Lac, even if the Presidential Wolff, son of the late Fond du Lac mayor; Otto E. Special halted for only a few minutes. Dehnel, who served as the railroad fireman aboard Taft's special train; and Mrs. Helen L. Peterson, granddaughter of General Edward S. Bragg, at whose home Taft stopped briefly and who intro­ duced the President before his speech at the Fond ^Archibald Butt, Taft and Roosevelt: The Intimate du Lac courthouse. Letters of Archie Butt, Military Aide (Doubleday, ' Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 7, 1911. Doran, New York, 1930), I: 316.

160 GORES : FOND DU LAC

to the fair. No city in Wisconsin, other than Milwaukee, had issued an invitation to the President and an acceptance from the Chief Executive, Zamzow realized, would amount to a major triumph. This grandiose plan, however, met with trouble from Congress. The nation's law­ makers went into an extended session, creat­ ing a delay of six weeks in the start of Presi­ dent Taft's trip and, consequently, ruling out all possibilities of a Fond du Lac visit that would coincide with the dates of the County Fair. But while Zamzow's hopes went astray. Mayor Wolff, seeing an opportunity to boost his community, began promoting the invita­ tion on his own. He kept in close contact with \ on I OK Senator Isaac Stephenson, and Congressmen Michael E. Burke and James H. Davidson, t RANK J. WOLFF the latter of Oshkosh. Wolff's efforts, to his own amazement, met with success. Hilles in­ M \ ^' () R formed him that President Taft would be de­ lighted to include a stop at Fond du Lac on Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter his tour. Complications began to arise on August 16, While Mayor Wolff's telegraphic snub of 1911, when Congressman Davidson called on President Taft in no way carried the threat of the President and extended an invitation also another war between the states, it was glee­ to visit Oshkosh, just eighteen miles north of fully reported in the press—and the nation Fond du Lac. Always eager to explore new characteristically responded with good-natured territory, Taft was receptive and, eventually, amusement. Few regarded the episode as a the whole of Wisconsin's populous Fox River colossal breach of political etiquette, which it Valley was added to his itinerary. was. More saw it as an indication of demo­ By August 30, Hilles—swamped with de­ cratic spunk on the part of the mayor and the tails—outlined Taft's Wisconsin itinerary. little Wisconsin city for which he spoke. No Mayor Wolff was informed that the President matter how it was viewed, however, the hu­ would make stops in Green Bay, Appleton, morously historic incident actually whetted Oshkosh, and Fond du Lac on October 26, Taft's interest in Fond du Lac, and his visit to and would sleep that night in Milwaukee. the city of 19,000 wound up as perhaps the The President was scheduled to preside at most warmly memorable highlight of his en­ ceremonies in Milwaukee on October 27 and tire national tour. then, with added stops along the way, would depart from Wisconsin.^ T^HE whole affair began on a humid August Mayor Wolff, who hastily assembled a re­ -*- day in 1911 when the secretary of the ception committee of 200 of Fond du Lac's Fond du Lac County Agricultural Associa­ most prominent citizens, was overjoyed at the tion, E. R. Zamzow, sat alone in his office and favoritism shown to the city when Hilles an­ tried to come up with an idea that would pull nounced the time schedule. The mayor re­ bigger crowds to the County Fair. Zamzow, leased it to the local press, announcing that glancing through a newspaper, happened to it had been sent to him by Taft's personal read that President Taft was embarking upon secretary. It showed that Taft intended to his western tour, and planned a stop in Mil­ waukee. He decided he had nothing to lose by extending an invitation to the President, asking him to stop in Fond du Lac as a visitor ' Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, August 30, 1911.

161 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 spend one and one-half hours in Green Bay; instructed to drop the cards from 1,000 feet.' a mere ten minutes in Appleton; two hours in All of Fond du Lac now was ready to doll Oshkosh; and, by contrast, close to three up in a splendor befitting a visit from the na­ hours in Fond du Lac—including the prime tion's President. In a gay mood, the people time from 1:50 to 4:50 P.M. busily planned for what a newsman said would It was concluded that Fond du Lac's fine be "the most notable event in the history of reputation as an up-and-coming city, and the the municipality." And that included, officials fact that an early invitation had been sent to pointed out, the time a former President, Taft, had resulted in this preference. "I think Ulysses S. Grant, was a guest on June 15, it is hardly necessary for me to express my 1880, after his term in the White House. satisfaction that the President is arranging to This joyous tranquility was shaken abrupt­ make a far longer stop in Fond du Lac than ly, however, during the first week of Octo­ in the other cities along his route in Wiscon­ ber when reports of President Taft's tour sin," Mayor Wolff proudly told a reporter. comments began filtering back to Fond du "It will be up to the citizens and business­ Lac. Press dispatches indicated that Taft, men to show their appreciation."" Thereafter, through arrangements made by Hilles, had de­ things began to move. cided to prolong his brief stop at Appleton to F. M. Givens, president of the Fond du Lac one hour and five minutes. A ten-minute stop Businessmen's Association, spearheaded meet­ also was added at Neenah, located between ings of such groups as the Fond du Lac Appleton and Oshkosh. And then came a re­ Women's Club, Regent Daughters of the port that Oshkosh's time with the President American Revolution, and the Grand Army had been increased to two and one-half hours. of the Republic. Original plans called for Mayor Wolff quickly realized that these special trains bringing to Fond du Lac 10,000 changes would cut into Fond du Lac's time. to 20,000 visitors from other areas. A hall Taft's arrival in the city by 1:50 P.M. on Octo­ was arranged as site for a speech by Taft, ber 26 was now an impossibility, and city of­ and speculation had it that he would deliver ficials expressed deep concern. So did the a talk of national significance on the contro­ hard-working chairmen of the various com­ versial tariff question. A cavalry escort of mittees. thirty-five horsemen was arranged for the On the morning of October 5 Mayor Wolff President's auto, along with plans for a motor­ fired off a telegram to President Taft, asking cade which one newsman said would include him to confirm reports that his Fond du Lac "hundreds of automobiles," despite the fact visit was being shortened to accomodate the that Fond du Lac at that time had only 445 residents of Appleton, Neenah, and Oshkosh. cars, in contrast to 16,043 horses. Banners He waited for a reply. None came. On Satur­ were ordered. Flags were purchased. Con­ day afternoon, October 7, 1911, Mayor Wolff tacts were made with bands. Schools were assembled committee chairmen in his office notified that students should be excused, and and told them of the situation. He said that an announcement was made that the post of­ with all the changes that had been made in fice would close on the afternoon of Taft's Taft's original schedule, the city might easily visit. Advertisements were placed by Mayor find itself stuck with a five-minute talk from Wolff and his committee in surrounding com­ the rear platform of the Taft train. He could munities. And among the more spectacular get nothing verified, he said, and found it preparations, arrangements were made to quite impossible to make definite plans. have a daredevil airplane pilot named Lincoln Angry, hurt, and doubtless somewhat em­ Beachey fly over the city of Sheboygan, thirty- barrassed, committee leaders authorized eight miles away, dropping 1,500 small cards Mayor Wolff—without a dissenting vote—to reading, "Fond du Lac Invites You To Meet dispatch a telegram to the President through President Taft, October 26." The aviator was Hilles. The group agreed that Fond du Lac

" Ibid., August 30, 1911; Fond du Lac Daily Com­ * Ibid., October 7, August 30, 1911. monwealth, October 2, September 30, 1911.

162 GORES : FOND DU LAC had planned for a minimum visit of two and ledge. His failure to answer it is a marked one-half hours, if not three, and if that much discourtesy to the municipality of Fond du time could not be granted, then Taft might Lac and I believe we are fully warranted in as well skip the city completely. Tempers cancelling his invitation to visit us."° were short at the October 7 meeting and when it ended Mayor Wolff sent the following pOND DU LAC'S snub of the President telegram to Charles D. Hilles: •*• made news across the country. Wire ser­ vices referred to it as an "incident" of Taft's As all arrangements fiad been made to cover tour, and many people chuckled that the re­ the President's visit to Fond du Lac for two latively unknown Wisconsin community had and one-half hours as per original schedule, enough pride not to be afraid of anyone—even which permitted no deviation whatever, the the man in the White House. general sentiment in cutting down the origi­ Within an hour after the telegram had been nal program is disappointing. All arrange­ sent, however, forces were at work, both in ments have been abandoned. Give all your Fond du Lac and in the Taft party, to smooth time to Oshfcosh and Appleton. things over. Fond du Lac Republicans, grip­ ped by a wave of penitential breast-beating, Mayor Wolff affixed his signature to the sent a wire to the President, asking him to telegram as "chairman of all committees." withhold a decision on his plans to visit the The Fond du Lac Daily Reporter of October city. H. E. Swett, popular local attorney, 7, 1911, splurged with an extra edition to an­ cautioned against any quick action spurred nounce the brash decision, its streamer read­ by emotional flareups. "It seems to me," ing, "Invitation Is Rescinded." The newspaper Swett said, "that it is a mistake to close the observed on that day: "Fond du Lac has never telegram to the President with the command, had a visit from a living President. It may 'Give all your time to Oshkosh and Appleton.' secure the visit, but the President will not re­ However, we should bear in mind that we are ceive the honors which had been planned for all subject to irritation and all liable to make him. Appleton and Oshkosh, according to mistakes." Mayor Wolff's telegram, must extend the Postmaster George W. Watson sent another honors for the Fox River Valley." The story telegram to Hilles on Sunday, October 8. further stated that the city attorney had ruled "Kindly give the people of Fond du Lac an that the local council could not authorize opportunity to express their loyalty to the $1,200 from city funds for the President's President in accordance with his plans and visit, thus killing financial backing for Taft's convenience," the telegram said. "The peo­ official welcome. Another local newspaper, ple wish to greet him and hear him." the Daily Commonwealth, headlined the story, L. A. Williams, head of the entertainment "President Turned Down By This City," and committee for Taft's visit, was also vexed. noted that Fond du Lac authorities had He said news stories indicated that Mayor "washed their hands of the entire matter." Wolff's telegram had the approval of all com­ mittee chairmen. He pointed out that he had "I am greatly disappointed that we cannot not been in attendance at the meeting which entertain the nation's chief," Mayor Wolff preceded the wire, and added that its senti­ told a reporter. "But under the circumstances ments in no way had his "sanction and ap­ I think we are justified in cancelling the in­ proval.'" vitation. Fond du Lac, outside Milwaukee, was the first city in Wisconsin to extend an Givens announced that a meeting to dis­ invitation to President Taft. If he had seen cuss the Taft invitation would be held for local fit to come here under the conditions which citizens at Library Hall. "We do not desire his own secretary had proposed, the event would have been a red letter one. "My [October 5] telegram to the President was delivered to him within a few hours after 'Ibid., October 7, 1911. ' Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 9, 1911; it had been sent. Of this I have positive know­ Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth-, October 9, 1911.

163 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 to criticize anybody or raise any protest," he With Fond du Lac having done its share explained. "We simply intend to conduct the to squirm out of the uneasy predicament. Pres­ plans for the President's entertainment along ident Taft and Secretary Hilles proved equal­ a new line, as we feel Fond du Lac cannot af­ ly gracious. Hilles began by sending a brief, ford to overlook a visit from the Chief Exe­ straight-to-the-point telegram to Mayor Wolff. cutive of the nation." "The President will be pleased to comply with Sparks continued to fly and on October the wishes of the committee," it read. 10 Mayor Wolff and the committee chairmen Then from Salem, Oregon, came a press re­ again assembled at the mayor's office. What lease from the Taft party stating that the went on there, nobody knows for certain. Af­ "Fond du Lac incident was the most interest­ ter the storm that followed the sending of the ing connected with recent travels of a Presi­ snub telegram, the local press was barred. dent."" Taft himself told newsmen that the But after three hours behind closed doors, the incident was now closed as far as he was con­ mayor and his committee leaders emerged with cerned, and added that he looked forward to the text of another telegram, also addressed coming to Fond du Lac, more so than most to Hilles, this one referring to him as "Honor­ cities on his schedule. He also took pains to able" rather than by his first name, as had explain that "no unfairness" had been in­ the controversial message of October 7. The tended to anyone in mapping his Wisconsin new telegram bore all the marks of an apolo­ itinerary. In fact, he put the blame for the gy: mixup with Mayor Wolff squarely on the iron shoulders of the railroad. In making arrange­ The mayor and the citizens of Fond du Lac ments for his tour, Taft said, the railroad had are anxious to entertain the President and erred in allowing only ten minutes for a stop his party on the 26th of October. The mis­ at Appleton."" This made scheduling changes understanding as to the time assigned to necessary and ultimately led to the misunder­ Fond du Lac led to hasty action in telegram standing. cancelling visit by President. The city of President Taft also told reporters that he Fond du Lac extends its good wishes to the really intended to stop in Fond du Lac, in­ President and desires to assure him that he vited or not, but had feared that withdrawal will receive a hearty welcome when he ar­ of an official reception might have left him rives in our city. We stand ready to carry with inadequate police protection while in the out the program in accordance with the time city. Reporters on the Taft train were shown at our disposal. correspondence relating to the snub, and now had all the details they needed for their stories. This was a far cry from the independent, The Fond du Lac Daily Reporter of October belligerent tone of the original wire. It was, 12,1911, in running the story from Salem, pro­ in short, a plea to be taken back into the good duced another extra and headlined the article: graces of President Taft and his secretary. "Taft Eagerly Awaiting Visit In Fond du Lac." The telegram was signed not only by Mayor Preparations thereafter proceeded at a fast Wolff but also by six committee chairmen, in­ pace. It was decided that Taft should deliver cluding Williams. Asked for a comment on two speeches, a short one for between 5,000 the change in attitude, Wolff replied: "All and 6,000 area students at the high school that I have to say is that I am heartily in ac­ grounds and another at Courthouse Square. cord with the decision of the committees. We A huge sign, with wooden letters eight feet will go right ahead with our original plans high, would spell "Welcome" from the top of a and give President Taft a rousing and hearty Main Street store and also would feature a welcome. Nothing that will conduce to making huge portrait of Taft. An order went out for his visit to Fond du Lac an enjoyable one will 150 American flags, eight feet in length, to be overlooked.'" be used for street decorations.

° Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, October 11, 13, 1911. 'Fond du Lac Reporter, October 9, 10, 1911. "Ibid., October 12, 1911.

164 GORES : FOND DU LAC

Nine autos, including a handsome Alco for the little city that had stirred up a national President Taft, were secured for the parade fuss. which was scheduled to start when the Chief Shortly before 3:30 P.M., as thousands of Executive stepped off his private railroad car, spectators pressed close to the tracks and the "The Ideal," at Fond du Lac's Forest Avenue Fond du Lac Military Band struck up a well- crossing of the North Western tracks. Taft, rehearsed rendition of "Hail To The Chief," Hilles, and Mayor Wolff, along with Butt Engine No. 1518 chugged slowly into the de­ and James Sloan, a secret service man, were pot. Flags waved on each side of the cow­ designated as passengers for the lead car. catcher, a portrait of Taft fluttered under the Walter Susan, a professional chauffeur, was to front light, and assorted banners rippled be the driver for a seven-mile-per-hour tour of loosely from the engine and coal car. the city lasting between forty-five and fifty Every eye was on the President's luxury minutes. A circuitous motorcade route was coach when Engineer Dennis Hogan of Green mapped, with the President to be driven down Bay guided the train to a clanging halt. In twenty streets and past St. Agnes hospital a matter of seconds, Taft, a broad smile hoist­ while en route to the courthouse. ing the corners of his luxuriant mustache, Mayor Wolff and his co-workers, in addi­ waved his top hat with a friendly sweep of tion to having flooded the state with invita­ his right hand and moved to the edge of the tions, made arrangements to be hosts to a rear platform. His portly frame was covered delegation from neighboring Ripon, birthplace by a dark coat, and the fur trim collar was of the Republican party. A platform fifty feet pulled tight under an opulent chin. wide and thirty feet long was erected at the He was greeted by a resounding wave of courthouse, with tables placed on the north cheers that reflected no hint of the confusion and south sides of the rostrum to accomodate that had preceded his visit. Obviously de­ newspapermen representing the Associated lighted, Taft bowed, nodding to welcoming Press, United Press, Cincinnati Times-Star, committee members, and then stepped ginger­ New Yorfc Press, New Yorfc Herald, New Yorfc ly from the platform into the handsomely dec­ Tribune, and Hearst News Service. orated Alco that had been driven alongside On October 21, five days before Taft's ar­ the train. Mayor Wolff, already in the auto, rival. Major L. G. Wheeler, a secret service gave him a smiling welcome. "It's wonder- man, called on Mayor Wolff and said he wanted to make an inspection of the parade route."" The mayor and Wheeler discussed safety measures during the tour, and the fed­ eral man reportedly declared he was "well satisfied." Local police, however, were wor­ ried about an influx of pickpockets who might try to fleece the crowd, and extra men were added to the force for the occasion.

T) Y the morning of October 26, the fall winds -'-^ of Wisconsin stirred the shedding trees and caused flags, banners, and assorted de­ corations to sway with postcard gaiety, the likes of which the city had never before seen. By noon, crowds had formed along the parade route, and newspapermen aboard the Taft train, then about fifty miles away, were grow­ •• -If if', ing anxious to get a look at Mayor Wolff and Courtesy Otto E. Dehnel The crew of the special train which brought Taft to Fond du Lac stands in front of the gaily decorated 'Ibid., October 17, 21, 25, 1911. engine.

165 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

I. W.'Uf In this chauffeur-driven Alco, President Taft and party ride triumphantly down Fond du Lacs Mam Street. To the right of the President are seated Taft's secretary, Charles D. Hilles, and Mayor Frank J. Wolff. ful to have you here, Mr. President," he said. responded in like manner. And President Taft responded with a hand­ "And I want to squeeze your hand until shake. "Thank you, sir," he replied. Then you know somebody has a hold on it," Hilles came Hilles. Newspapermen, aware that Hilles commented, looking directly into Wolff's and Wolff had been featured in the exchange face."' The ice was broken. Both men smiled of telegrams, paid close attention to the meet­ as they grasped hands in friendship. Butt— ing between these two. A Chicago reporter, who six months later was destined to die with describing the event, said Mayor Wolff wore the sinking of the Titantic—and Sloan entered a quizzical smile when Hilles climbed into the the car and another secret service man stood car. on the runninig board. The governor of Wis­ "Say, I want to meet you and shake your consin, Franci" s E. McGovern, was almost for- hand," said the disarming Fond du Lac mayor gotten in the proceedings. He had to take a to the President's secretary. On his face Mayor seat in the third car."" Wolff wore an expression which meant that bygones were bygones, and Hilles, his fears '-Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 26 27 1911 of a nightmare visit at least partially lifted. '''Ibid., October 26, 1911.

166 GORES : FOND DU LAC

Children and adults waved flags and shout­ "Now, children," Taft concluded, "this is ed, "Welcome, Mr. President," as the Taft the way I want you to be—love your parents car, aided by national guardsmen in full dress and your state and your country and you will uniform, inched slowly through the crowd. always be successful." Then, with a wave of The Taft auto halted a short distance from the his hand and a smile, he said a final, "Good- depot to allow other cars in the parade to line 1 ,,r.) bye. up for the tour of Fond du Lac streets. News­ As the tour resumed along Fond du Lac's papermen, Congressmen, and committee chair­ brick-paved streets, residents stood on their men were represented in the motorized seg­ porches, or along sidewalks and curbs, wav­ ment of the procession, and it took a few min­ ing and smiling. The parade of cars moved at utes to get everyone organized. five miles per hour, and when the party "You're a great advertiser for your city, Mr. reached Division Street President Taft spot­ Mayor," Hilles said good-naturedly to Wolff. ted the home of Fond du Lac's Civil War hero. The mayor, recalling the publicity that stem­ General Edward S. Bragg. med from the snub telegram, grinned and The old general, then eighty-four, was seat­ nodded. Meanwhile, a mounted private guard ed on a chair at the foot of his front porch. of local military men moved alongside Taft's To fend off the chilly October winds, Bragg car and the parade got under way."" was bundled in blankets from the tip of his The President saw nothing but warm friend­ grey beard to the tops of his shoes. His wife liness beaming back at him from the cheering stood by his side. Taft signaled the chauf­ faces that lined the streets. When his car feur to halt, and the eight cars behind the reached the high school grounds, where stu­ President's vehicle also stopped. General dents awaited his arrival, he was received with Bragg, a lawyer who led the famed Iron Bri­ another playing of "Hail To The Chief," this gade in Civil War battles and had been wound­ time by a band from Waupun. Students waved ed at Antietam, watched as Taft emerged flags and sang the first stanza of "America." Taft watched and listened. After an introduction by the mayor, Taft "'Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 26, 1911. stood up, peered at his youthful audience with a prankish gleam in his eyes, and asked loud­ ly, "Children of Fond du Lac, are you glad to see me?" "Yes," they chorused. "Did you get a holiday today?" asked Taft. "Yes," came the happy reply. "Are you glad to see me for that reason?" the President asked, smiling. "Yes," shouted the children. This gave Taft a chuckle, and his big frame shook as his gaze moved hastily across the >V^/' rows of students. "You children remind me of a little girl whose father once asked her if she were the best in her class," he said. "She promptly replied, 'Yes.' 'Did your teacher tell you that you were?' asked the father. 'No,' answered the child, 'but I knew it myself.'" The stu­ dents laughed with this friendly man who was President of the United States.

C^ouitesy Helen I.. Peterson " Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, October 27, General Edward S. Bragg, Fond du Lac's celebrated 1911. war liero.

167 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 196.3-1964 from the car and began strolling toward him, tion's leader, the Honorable William Howard past the picket fence and up the walk toward Taft." He again shook hands with Taft, and the Bragg home. then the President began to speak. President Taft grasped Bragg's hands warm­ Taft did not, as had been hoped earlier, ly and, in turn, greeted the general's charm­ touch upon the tariff question. Instead, he ing wife. The three chatted briefly, perhaps praised General Bragg, saying his name was recalling when the old soldier had twice been "a household word throughout the country" Taft's host during Bragg's postwar diplomatic and calling him "a brave soldier" who served service as U.S. consul in Cuba and Hong in peace as well as war. Then he gave what Kong. And then, amid cheers from Bragg's Butt once described as "his peace talk," found neighbors, the President climbed back into to be the most effective for audiences on the his car and the parade resumed. It had been national tour. He noted that Europe was a rare moment for Bragg, and to this day resi­ "armed to the teeth" and said it was time that dents recall "the time when President Taft the world reached international agreement on stopped at General Bragg's home." Ironical­ disarmament. His words drew an appreciative ly, while Taft continued his indirect route to response. the Fond du Lac courthouse, the feeble Bragg When he finished speaking. President Taft was being transported to the same place—to was escorted to his auto at the rear of the introduce him. courthouse and was taken to the North West­ While the tour went on, Hilles and Mayor ern railway depot to board his special train. Wolff were getting along famously. "If I'd Because of the stop at Bragg's home, Taft's have known what a grand reception we were visit ran a little longer than expected and the going to receive in Fond du Lac," Hilles told train was about twenty minutes behind sche­ him, "I'd have arranged to stay here all day.""" dule. Cheers followed Taft all the way to the depot but even after he climbed aboard, he President Taft was not without a few ad still had a minor treat coming from his Fond libs of his own during the parade. When his du Lac area admirers. He was presented with car approached a busy Fond du Lac corner a huge potato, nine inches long and weighing he observed a former mayor, E. W. (Dad) three and three-quarters pounds, a gift from Clark, lifting his hat in salute. Taft didn't two Town of Lamartine youngsters, Robert know Clark, of course, but noticed him be­ Jones, nine, and his brother, Albert, eleven. cause of his hat-lifting antics and his exces­ In the President's honor, the boys had named sive weight. Not to be outdone, Taft lifted the robust specimen a "Taft Potato.""' his hat in return and smiled at Clark. The former mayor responded by raising his hat nnHE nation's leading newspapermen, re- again, and adding a manly curtsy. Obviously -*- porting with more than customary interest fascinated by this face in the crowd, Taft once on the Fond du Lac reception, had nothing again lifted his topper and duplicated the but praise for the community. One Milwaukee curtsy. When his car had passed beyond the reporter saw it this way: "Here, where a pep­ corner, the jovial Taft turned to Hilles and pery mayor had withdrawn official invitation Wolff and commented, "There is one man at because an hour of time proposed for Fond du least who is as heavy as I am." Lac had been awarded to Appleton, the decora­ After the President had been given another tions were more brilliant and the crowds more noisy ovation by an estimated 10,000 spec­ dense in proportion to its size than any other tators at the courthouse. General Bragg was city visited during the day, and the enthusiasm introduced by Mayor Wolff, and the aged more marked.""'' general had to be assisted as he rose to speak. His once sharp voice had lost its resonance, and the huge audience could scarcely hear '" Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, October 27, him when he said, "Gentlemen of Wisconsin, 1911. ladies and children. This is indeed a great " Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 26, 27, day in the history of Fond du Lac. It affords 1911; Fond du Lac Daily Commonwealth, October 26, 27, 1911. me great pleasure to introduce you to the na­ " Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 27, 1911.

168 GORES : FOND DU LAC

Another correspondent observed that "every ber 26, 1911, and mailed to Mayor Wolff house in the city showed the national colors." from Milwaukee. The letter read as follows: A Chicago reporter said the city displayed the same independence it had in rescinding "My Dear Mr. Mayor: Taft's invitation by "turning out the biggest It is now a matter of very great regret that crowd, the most elaborate decorations, and we did not spend three full hours in your the most varied entertainment of any town beautiful city instead of two, for every of the size that held a place on the Taft itin­ member of our party fell in love with it and erary." He referred to Mayor Wolff as "the commented very favorably on the city and hero of the day." the decorations; and the warmth of the wel­ When it was all over, the mayor also had come given to the President. Our stay in a statement for the press: "It certainly was Fond du Lac was thoroughly enjoyable, a red letter day in the history of Fond du and you make all of us your debtors by Lac, and the city certainly observed the occa­ your genial and cordial reception. sion with a demonstration second to none met With Very Warm Regards, on the long trip being made by Mr. Taft. . . . Charles D. Hilles It was a rare treat to chat with President Taft, Secretary To The President'"'" Secretary Hilles, Major Butt and other mem­ bers of the party. Of course, we joshed each With that the matter was closed. There other back and forth during the ride about were no scars—on either side. And the time the city and the President was about as active that a small-town mayor amused the nation as his secretary in this respect. They certain­ by snubbing the President of the United States ly are a fine lot of men—whole-souled, open- became lost, and almost forgotten, somewhere hearted, the kind that make you like them. in the pages of history. I can't conceive of anyone meeting President Taft or Secretary Hilles and not taking a great liking to them.""" But the final moment of glory came, unex­ "•Ibid., October 27, 1911; Fond du Lac Daily Com­ monwealth, October 27, 1911. , pectedly, in a letter writen by Hilles on Octo­ "° Fond du Lac Daily Reporter, October 26, 1911.

Society's Iconographic Collection Taft addressing the crowd in Monument Square in Oshko.sh, October 26, 1911.

169 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

Harold Hone

170 William Best Hesseltine

1902 — 1963

WILLIAM BEST HESSELTINE died during his term of office as President of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, long before his period of service should have terminated, after he had served the Society in many capacities for twelve years. To the Society he brought the breadth of a historian, the wisdom of a scholar, the perspicacity of a teacher, and the liveliness of a man who loved life. Individually and collectively, we mourn his passing and measure our loss. As historian, William Best Hesseltine saw the development of this Society in wide perspec­ tive and worked to enhance its traditions and stimulate its innovations. He wrote the definitive biography of the first Superintendent, earning new respect for the Society and well-deserved plaudits for the author. At every turn he encouraged scholarship in this Society, realizing that all of the Society's activities rested, in the first and last analysis, upon historical schol­ arship. History was his first love and the Society his beneficiary. As scholar, he viewed judiciously, but not without emotion, every new project, every turn in the road which engaged this Society. His counsels ranged over the Society's total program and he was heard and heeded. Even those activities for which he had little sym­ pathy received a just portion of his advice, but he reserved his choicest and most percep­ tive observations for those activities nearest his heart. His was the encompassing wisdom of the scholar. As teacher, he helped to train many of the men and women who have served on the So­ ciety staff. More than that, he was an ever-present ear and voice for those who turned to him. As Curator and President, he helped to guide the Board through years of re-evaluation and change, earning the friendship of many and the respect of all. As with all great teachers, he taught by precept and example. As a man, he deepened our understanding and sharpened our insights. When our dis­ cussion grew tense, he could ease it; when discussion became irrelevant, he could relate it. When compromise was needed, he provided it; when conviction slipped, he shored it up. With pipe in hand and gravel in his voice, with compassion in his heart and courage in every nerve, William Best Hesseltine served well his own pioneer's mission. We acknowledge his service in gratitude and with pride. The Board of Curators of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, in meeting assem­ bled, do hereby adopt the foregoing resolution in tribute to the late William Best Hessel­ tine and order that it be spread upon the minutes of this meeting.

(The above resolution was adopted by tfie Board of Curators of the State Historical Society at its Founders Day meeting in Milwaufcee, January 18, 1964. Professor Hesseltine died at his home in Madison, December 8, 1963.)

171 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

Bibliography of William Best Hesseltine

Except for the books authored, co-authored, or edited by Professor Hessel­ tine, the list which follows is selective. A complete listing of the scores of articles, reviews, and newspaper essays which he published during his distinguished career is on file in the Manuscripts Library of the State Historical Society and in the Department of History of the University of Wisconsin.

BOOKS

Civil War Prisons, A Study in War Psychology. (Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 1930.)

Twelve Representative Americans. (The University of Chattanooga, Chatta­ nooga, 1930.)

Ulysses S. Grant, Politician. (Dodd Mead and Company, New York, 1935; reprinted by Frederick Ungar, New York, 1957.)

A History of the South, 1607-1936. (Prentice Hall, New York, 1936.)

A Syllabus of United States History. (Universitv of Wisconsin Press, Madi­ son, 1940.) The South in American History. (Prentice Hall, New York, 1943; revised with David L. Smiley, 1960.) A Nation Divided. (Informative Classroom Picture Publishers, Grand Rapids, 1948.) The Rise and Fall of Third Parties from Anti-Masonry to Wallace. (Public Affairs Press, Washington, 1948; reprinted by Peter Smith, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1957.) Lincoln and the War Governors. (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1948; re­ printed by Marboro Books, New York, 1956.) Confederate Leaders in the New South. (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1950.) Pioneer's Mission, The Story of Lyman C. Draper. (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1954.) Dr. J. G. M. Ramsey, Autobiography and Letters, Editor. (Tennessee Histori­ cal Commission, Nashville, 1954.) In Support of Clio, Essays in Memory of Herbert A. Kellar, Edited with Donald R. McNeil. (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1958.) Lincoln's Plan of Reconstruction. (Confederate Publishing Company, Tusca­ loosa, 1960; reprinted by Peter Smith, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1963.) Three Against Lincoln; Murat Halstead Reports the Caucuses of 1860, Edi­ tor. (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1960.) The Blue and the Gray on the Nile, with Hazel C. Wolf. (The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1961.)

172 HESSELTINE : BIBLIOGRAPHY

Trimmers, Trucfclers, and Temporizers; Notes of Murat Halstead from the Political Conventions of 1856, Edited with Rex G. Fisher. (State Histori­ cal Society of Wisconsin, Madison, 1961.)

The Tragic Conflict, Editor. (Braziller, New York, 1962.)

Third Party Movements in the United States. (Van Nostrand-Anvil Books, Princeton, 1962.)

ARTICLES

The 'Third House' in the Arkansas Assembly." Soulftwest Political and Social Science Quarterly, 6:276-277 (December, 1925).

St. Louis Prisons, 1861-1865." Missouri Historical Review, 23:380-399 (April, 1929).

The Underground Railroad from Confederate Prisons to East Tennessee." East Tennessee Historical Society Publications, 2:55—69 (January, 1930).

Methodism and Reconstruction in East Tennessee." East Tennessee Histori­ cal Society Publications, 3:-42-61 (January, 1931).

Look Away Dixie." Sewanee Review, 39:97-103 (January-March, 1931).

Tennessee's Invitation to Carpetbaggers." East Tennessee Historical So­ ciety Publicaions, 4:102-115 (January, 1932).

Propaganda Literature of Confederate Prisons." Journal of Southern His­ tory, 1:56-66 (February, 1935).

Economic Aspects of the Abandonment of Reconstruction." Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 22:191-210 (September, 1935).

Twenty-five Years of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and His­ tory." Journal of Negro History, 25:440^49 (October, 1940).

Regions, Classes and Sections in American History." Journal of Land and Public Utility Economics, 20:35^4 (February, 1944).

The Pryor-Potter Duel." Wisconsin Magazine of History, 27:400-409 (June, 1944).

New England Governors vs. Lincoln; The Providence Conference." Rhode Island History, 5:105-113 (October, 1946).

Lincoln's War Governors." Abraham Lincoln Quarterly, 4:153-200 (De­ cember, 1946).

With Hazel Wolf. "The Altoona Conference and the Emancipation Proclama­ tion." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 71:195—205 (July, 1947).

With Hazel Wolf. "The Cleveland Conference of 1861." Ofiio Archeological and Historical Quarterly, 56:258-265 (Summer, 1947).

173 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

"Robert Marion La Follette and the Principles of Americanism." Wisconsin Magazine of History, 31:261-267 (March, 1948).

"The Value of Regional History." Arfcansas Historical Quarterly, 7:11—19 (Spring, 1948).

With Hazel Wolf. "Lincoln, the Governors, and States Rights." Social Studies, 39:350-355 (December, 1948).

With Larry Gara. "Arkansas Confederate Leaders after the War." Arfcansas Historical Quarterly, 9:259-269 (Winter, 1950).

With Larry Gara. "Confederate Leaders in Post-War Alabama." Alabama Review, 4:5-21 (January, 1951).

With Larry Gara. "Georgia's Confederate Leaders after Appomattox." Geor­ gia Historical Quarterly, 35:1-15 (March, 1951).

With Larry Gara. "Mississippi's Confederate Leaders after the War." Journal of Mississippi History, 13:88-100 (April, 1951).

"Lincoln's Problems in Wisconsin." Historical Bulletin. (Lincoln Fellow­ ship of Wisconsin, Madison, 1952.)

"Lyman Copeland Draper." Wisconsin Magazine of History, 35:163-169 (Spring, 1952).

"Lyman Draper and the South." Journal of Southern History, 19:20-31 (February, 1953).

With Larry Gara. "Draper: Historian Turned Educator." Mid-America, 35:131-143 (July, 1953).

"The Mississippi Career of Lyman C. Draper." Journal of Mississippi History, 15:165-180 (July, 1953).

"Lyman C. Draper and Alabama." Alabama Review, 6:191-197 (July, 1953).

"The Civil War Industry." Michigan History, 4-2•.4:2l^34. (December, 1958).

"Clifford L. Lord: An Appreciation." Wisconsin Magazine of History, 42:94-95 (Winter, 1958-1959).

"Abraham Lincoln: Architect of the Nation." (The Allen County-Fort Wayne Historical Society, Fort Wayne, 1959.)

"Sectionalism and Regionalism in American History." Journal of Southern History, 26:25-34 (February, 1960).

"Abraham Lincoln and the Politicians." Civil War History, 6:43-55 (March, 1960).

"Four American Traditions." Journal of Soutfiern History, 27:3-32 (Feb­ ruary, 1961).

"Speech and History." Central States Speech Journal, 12:176-181 (Spring, 1961).

174 REVIEWS

The Papers of Madison and Franklin: A Review Article

By MERRILL JENSEN

The publication of the papers of the Found­ difficult to justify the inclusion of material ing Fathers takes a long step forward with such as the proceedings of the Virginia Coun­ the issuance of the first two volumes of the cil of State while Madison was a member. Papers of James Madison who has his own On balance, however, the editorial notes and particular claim to the title of "Founding most of the documents are a godsend to the Father." The editors have followed the pre­ scholar, as is the index at the end of each cedents established by Julian Boyd in his volume. Some idea of the scale of the project edition of Jefferson's papers. They print the can be realized by comparing it with the letters written to Madison as well as those Hunt edition of Madison's writings. That written by him, and documents in any way covered the years to March, 1781, in 125 pages relating to his career. These are accompanied and perhaps 40,000 words, whereas the pres­ by elaborate editorial notes, which are, in ent edition takes 636 pages of text and at least some cases, perhaps, unnecessarily detailed. 400,000 words for the same time span. For instance, a two-line receipt for money What does the new edition reveal of Madi­ received in 1770 is followed by twenty-eight son himself? In 1781, the wife of his fellow lines of notes. Sometimes too, it would seem delegate in Congress, Mrs. Theodorick Bland, admitted that he might be clever in Congress, but that he was "a gloomy, stiff creature . . . has nothing engaging or even bearable in his The Papers of James Madison: Vol. I, 16 manners—the most unsociable creature in March 1751-16 December 1779; Vol. II, 20 existence." Nevertheless, in college he made March 1780-23 February 1781. Edited by friends with some remarkable men such as WILLIAM T. HUTCHINSON and WILLIAM M. William Bradford, Philip Freneau, and H. H. E. RACHEL. (University of Chicago Press, Brackenridge, and he continued to do so Chicago, 1962. Vol I: Pp. xiii, 344. $10.00; throughout his life. When he left college in Vol. II: Pp. xix, 344, $10.00.) 1772 he became a recluse interested only in books. He told Bradford that he did not The Papers of Benjamin Franiclin: Vol. Ill, "meddle" in politics and was apologetic for January 1, 1745 through June 30, 1750; Vol. mentioning the scarcity of money in Virginia. IV, July 1, 1750 through June 30, 1753. By the end of 1773 a change was under Edited hy LEONARD W. LABAREE and others. way. He wrote Bradford that the "inquisitive ( Press, New Haven, Vol. HI, mind" could not ignore the principles and 1961. Pp. xxvi. 513. $10.00; VoL IV, 1961. modes of government and asked for informa­ Pp. xxix, 544. $10.00.) tion about Pennsylvania, and in particular

175 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 about its religious freedom. A month or so was not solved until the purchase of Louisiana, later he confessed that he had been too much when he was Secretary of State. There was captivated by poetry, romances, plays, and the struggle over the control of western lands the like. His "political awakening" was the which did not end until long after his death. result of the prosecution of Baptist ministers And there was the attempt to solve the prob­ by his fellow Virginians: "that diabolical lems of public finance, which only romantics Hell conceived principle of persecution," he assume have any solution either in time or wrote Bradford. He became interested, too, place. in the conflict between Britain and the These two volumes therefore serve as an colonies after 1774, but he seems to have introduction, not only to the life of an extra­ been an understudy to his father, who was ordinary man, but also to the life of the a leader in Orange County politics. nation. Then, in the spring of 1776, Orange County The Papers of Benjamin Franklin for the elected Madison to the convention that voted eight and a half years between 1745 and the for independence and wrote the first Virginia summer of 1753 are the record of a man with Constitution. Here he made a major contri­ an almost infinite variety of interests, an bution. George Mason's first draft of the bill incredible amount of energy, and a capacity of rights provided only for religious tolera­ for wit and commonsense unequalled at the tion. Madison offered amendments that pro­ time, and perhaps ever since. During no duced a far wider declaration in the final period in his long life did Franklin engage draft: that men are entitled to "the free in so many and such varied projects and with exercise of religion." Thereafter he served so much success. He turned active manage­ in the legislature, with no apparent distinc­ ment of his printing business over to David tion, until defeated for re-election in the Hall in 1748 and thereafter received a hand­ spring of 1777, when he refused to treat the some income. However, he continued to voters to the liquor they expected from candi­ supervise his almanack and in 1748 he began dates on election days. publishing Poor Richard improved, an en­ He returned to politics in November, 1777, larged version which reflected an ever-wider when the legislature elected him to the range of interests. He found time to write Council of State where he served with gover­ such occasional pieces as the advice on choos­ nors Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson ing a mistress, the "speech" of Polly Baker, until the legislature elected him to the Con­ and the hilarious poetic parody on the tinental Congress in December, 1779. He at speeches of the governor and council of Vir­ ginia after the burning of the Virginia capitol. once undertook the study of a central prob­ lem of the times: public finance. This was During the same years he was more and the sort of thing he was to do time and again more active in politics. By 1745 he was clerk in the future, as in his preparation for the of the assembly. In 1748 he was elected to Constitutional Convention of 1787. His essay the common council of Philadelphia and in on the quantity theory of money is well worth 1751 to the board of aldermen, and to the comparing with Hamilton's financial essays colonial legislature as well. He was also of the same period, and it was first printed postmaster of Philadelphia and was shortly in 1790 as an answer to some of Hamilton's to become deputy postmaster-general for financial policies. British North America. Madison took his seat in Congress in the Meanwhile, Franklin was one of the pro­ spring of 1780, and for the next thirty-seven moters, and often the principal promoter, of years he held one public office after another, a whole series of public measures, as earlier a remarkable record for a man without he had promoted the Library Company and political or personal glamor. And through­ the Philosophical Society. In 1747, despite out he was involved in an internal conflict. the fact that French privateers were raiding At heart he was a Virginian, devoted to her in Delaware Bay and threatening Philadel­ interests, yet intellectually he was a nationalist phia, the Quaker-controlled legislature re­ whose aims could be achieved only at the fused to vote money for defense. Franklin seeming expense of at least some of the therefore organized a voluntary militia, interests of his state. As a member of Con­ secured weapons, and established a successful gress he was at once involved in crucial and lottery to pay the cost. He won colony-wide long-range problems. There was the struggle fame and popularity, and the enmity of Pro­ over the navigation of the Mississippi, which prietor Thomas Penn, who declared him a

176 BOOK REVIEWS

"dangerous man." However, the Proprietor English education was done by a Trades- was forced to admit that he must be treated man. with regard since he was "a sort of Tribune The above review is only a catalogue, and of the People. . . ." a very partial one at that, of activities of one In 1749 Franklin began the campaign that of the most fertile-minded men of the age. soon resulted in the establishment of the The editors have provided full notes which Academy, the predecessor of the University illuminate the letters and documents, and of Pennsylvania, and despite the Proprietor's the years during which they were written. early objections, secured a charter and a gift More than that, one can not ask from editors. of money from him. When Dr. Thomas Bond tried to raise funds for the establishment of the Pennsylvania Hospital without consulting Franklin, he got nowhere. But when Franklin STATE AND REGIONAL took charge, the money was raised and the hospital founded. He also helped organize a fire insurance company, and when Philadel­ Zona Gale. By HAROLD P. SIMONSON. (Twayne phia sent an expedition to search for a North­ Publishers, New York, 1962. Pp. 157. $3.50.) west Passage, Franklin was one of the man­ agers. Perhaps it was inevitable that an academic Despite all the time spent on public affairs, study of Zona Gale would some day be writ­ Franklin still found time and energy for ten, and Twayne's admirable United States "natural philosophy," but unlike many eight­ Authors Series afforded the chairman of the eenth-century "scientists" he combined theo­ Department of English at the University of rizing with practical experimentation. Above Puget Sound an opportunity to write it. Yet all he was fascinated by electricity. He Professor Simonson's book is primarily criti­ summed up his ideas and his experiments in cal analysis of Zona Gale's work, and only a series of letters to Peter Collinson and to secondarily, in a rather episodic manner, a others. Collinson, the London merchant- biography. But that this was the author's philanthropist, published the letters in Lon­ intention is clear in his conclusions about don in 1751 and by the next year they were his subject—"Zona Gale will be remembered translated into French. Franklin soon had as a village laureate whose stories range from an international reputation. Others had theo­ the saccharine to the bitter, from the idyllic rized that electricity and lightning were iden­ to the mordantly critical .... [an] artist tical but Franklin suggested how to prove it, [who lacked] the imagination to create a and then did so by flying a kite during a world in which [her] ambivalences powerfully storm. He invented the lightning rod. He interact." tried electric shock treatment for illness and Yet, as an academic study, Professor Si­ he electrocuted hens and turkeys, insisting monson's is readable and cogent. He gives that they were better eating than those killed a little too much space to the Friendship Vil­ in the normal way. Once, in a moment of lage stories; he is guilty of something close carelessness, he was knocked out by an to academic nonsense in his lines about Zona electrical charge. Gale's "use of symbols"; he seems not—if I No eighteenth-century scientist limited him­ have correctly interpreted his references—to self to a single field, nor did Franklin. He have understood either Thoreau's Walden ex­ speculated at length about waterspouts, the periment or the attitude of Edgar Lee Masters weather, agriculture, and medicine. He in Spoon River Anthology; he has a curious studied the origins and results of population idea indeed of what the word "Wisconsin" growth. He circulated his ideas in letters means; he seems to believe that Zona Gale's and essays to other leading "scientists" of attempt to curb excessive smoking among Uni­ the times such as Cadwallader Golden, James versity of Wisconsin students by prohibiting Bowdoin, and Jared Eliot. He won their tobacco advertising in the Daily Cardinal was respect and admiration in a class-conscious a "bizarre" idea; and, though he complains age, a consciousness reflected in the Rev. that the romance with Ridgeley Torrence is Samuel Johnson's comment on the proposal but "skimmed over" in Still Small Voice, the for the establishment of the Academy. He only extant biography, he only expands in wrote Franklin: "Nobody would imagine his book what was in that earlier study, and that the draught you have made for an adds nothing conclusive to that account. But,

177 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

apart from these moot points on the debit And yet, for all that. The Shadow in the side of the ledger. Professor Simonson's book Glass is by no means a useless book. If it must certainly stand as the definitive critical fails as a novel it succeeds as fictionalized study of Zona Gale's literary work. biography and, for the general reader, it tells "The present study," writes Professor Si­ more about Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin's first monson in his brief preface, "offers no liter­ governor, than they are likely or willing to dig ary 'discovery,' nor is its purpose to prove out of infinitely bleaker tomes. No man who that a prolific writer who won a Pulitzer Prize sincerely tries fails entirely, and Derleth has necessarily deserves special laud. Zona Gale not failed entirely here. Indeed, if I were as a minor figure in American literature re­ casting around for a fairly easy but absolutely mains such at the conclusion of this study." honest approach to the history of Wisconsin Professor Simonson generally agrees with of the 1830's and thereafter, I would recom­ most students of the subject—as well as with mend this book. We have few better story­ most of Zona's friends— that Birth, Faint tellers than Derleth and if he doesn't succeed Perfume, Miss Lulu Bett, Bridal Pond, Yellow in bringing Nelson Dewey to life, he most Gentians and Blue, Preface to a Life, and certainly does cover his life with scholarly Portage, Wisconsin and Other Essays, remain thoroughness. That, I submit, is no incon­ from this perspective, a quarter of a century siderable achievement. after Zona Gale's death, her best books, Nels Dewey came to Wisconsin in 1836 though his own devotion to symbols occasion­ from mid-state New York. When he reached ally leads him to read perhaps more into Cassville the place was jumping, and he was some of these books than Zona Gale intended just the man to make it jump even harder. He —which is ever the way of symbols-devotees. entered the practice of law and from there he Though those who knew Zona Gale in her went into politics by easy stages until he was last years did not know quite the same wom­ the logical man for the Democrats to run for an Professor Simonson saw and sets forth governor. He won going away in 1848 and here, the flaws in his study are relatively gave the state as good an administration as minor, and what remains to his credit here it has ever had, considering the special prob­ far outweighs them. His Zona Gale is a val­ lems of setting up a state government that uable addition to the little that has been writ­ would work. Dewey made it work and, his ten about his subject since her death; per­ haps nowhere else has the entire body of her work been scrutinized and analyzed so cri­ tically. Professor Simonson's perspective is no whit different from that which maintained at the time of her death, but it is here set forth clearly and concisely. The student of Ameri­ can literature will find his critical-analytical study of the first importance.

AUGUST DERLETH Sauk City

Tfie Shadow in tfie Glass. By AUGUST DER­ LETH. (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1963. Pp. 471. $6.95.)

August Derleth himself has said—and re­ viewers generally have agreed with him—that "this is not a very good novel." So be it. As a novel it does leave much to be desired, for it is stiff, often unwieldy, studded with cliche situations, and the unhappy fact is that the characters sometimes talk at each other rather Society's Iconographic Collection than with each other. Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin's first governor.

178 BOOK REVIEWS two terms over, retired into the wings. Fifty sary to recount all of the exploits of LaVerend- years after Dewey had entered Wisconsin, he rye, Lewis and Clark, or the various Indian stood unrecognized on a train platform while wars of the post-Civil War period, which the bigwigs greeted Grover Clevelatid. He helped to open the region and gave American was the living residue of the shadow in the folklore some of its more colorful episodes. glass. Neither does the author succumb to the temp­ Why? Lack of the unrelenting drive that tation to write in detail of the Black Hills min­ takes a man to the political heights for one ing frontier. Rather the farmers, railroad men, thing and marriage for another. Dewey did miners, and Indians are all placed in proper not want to be a United States Senator and perspective. he married a giddy beauty who wanted nothing The development of South Dakota did not else for him. Kate Dunn, of all the girls in take place in a vacuum, and Mr. Schell pro­ Wisconsin at the time, surely was the one vides the larger view of his home state in rela­ Dewey should not have married. He wanted tion to the surrounding states and the nation. the quiet richness of his beautiful home, Stone­ The relations between the state and the federal field, at Cassville; she wanted Washington's government are particularly interesting, for glitter. Dewey made a fortune and spent most during the territorial period and the years of it on Stonefield. The rest he frittered away since World War I, many of the state's prob­ on the unthinking and selfish Kate. When she lems have been too large for the people to finally left him she might as well have killed handle and the intervention of the federal him; his life was over. government has often been essential. Perhaps All this Derleth weaves into his story of a closer analysis of the state's dependence upon Wisconsin bustling and brawling into state­ the federal government should be made. hood. All the chief figures of the state's his­ The final four chapters are among the most tory are here, from Dodge to Doty to Dous­ valuable. The discussions of the changes in man and many others. You see them in their agriculture and industry since 1890 give a milieu and Derleth has recreated that milieu broad interpretation of the development of the with fidelity and feeling. And it is this, plus state and provide a deeper understanding of the material which goes into the tragedy that the problems facing the Plains states today. was Dewey's life, that makes this novel a The chapter dealing with the Sioux Indians is small success as history, however great its not only enlightening, but unusual in its non­ failings as fiction. partisan approach to the social and economic problems of the Sioux. Here is presented a VICTOR P. HASS picture of the Sioux as they have attempted to Omaha, Nebrasfca live in harmony with white society and of the efforts by the whites to rectify past injustice. (Mr. Hass is Boofc Editor of the Omaha World-Herald.) Mr. Schell's study is competent in the light of available monographic sources; however, there are areas in which further research might History of South Dafcota. By HERBERT S. be done. The land booms and the disposal of SCHELL. (University of Nebraska Press, Lin­ the public domain are adequately covered and coln, 1961. Pp. xiii, 424. Illustrations, notes, good sources have been used; it is possible, bibliography, maps, index. $5.50.) however, that with current methods of statisti­ cal analysis, studies might show that there was less speculation in the disposal of the To begin the detailed study of any aspect lands in South Dakota than in other areas of of a state's history, an accurate general history the trans-Mississippi West. The history of the is essential. Until Mr. Schell's book, there Populists in South Dakota also needs more has been no such history of South Dakota study. since Doane Robinson's two-volume history was published in 1930. The culmination of History of South Dafcota fills the need for a thirty years of research and writing. History scholarly, objective and comprehensive history of South Dafcota reflects the well-balanced of the state, and the bibliography provides the scholarship of an author who goes beyond the material for the diligent historian who wishes lifeless dates and names to the personalities to pursue the subject farther. The author is and folklore which make history exciting. to be congratulated for his fine work. In tracing the early history of South Dako­ ta, Mr. Schell deals thoroughly with the In­ NANCY JO TICE dians and explorers without finding it neces­ University of Wisconsin

179 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

Moorings Old and New: Entries in An Im­ pietism, drinking and abstinence, legends, migrant's Log. By PAUL KNAPLUND. (The homes, and families. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madi­ This is material for a big book, but still, son, 1963. Pp. xxii, 276. Illustrations, index. it is the transatlantic career that lifts the story $4.00.) to heights. The fisherman-farmer landed in New York in 1906. He was the American This book records a sensitive understand­ Immigrant, Hope, Dreams, Ambition, — and ing of the changes in thought and feeling that Character. He was ready to tackle any job, accompanied and came after migration from however humble. In his mind ran some lines the Old World to the New. from a verse: "Weigh anchor . . . there is Professor Knaplund lived two decades in no return." He went to the Middle West and Norway, the country of his birth, and he has got a job as a hired man for a Minnesota now lived well over a half century in the land farmer named Hans Christ, a remarkable un­ of his choice. His story thus has a generous known who, with some little changes of cir­ span on both sides of the Atlantic—but this cumstance, might have been poet or governor, does not explain its importance. Thousands senator or scholar. of other immigrants have felt the pulls of old The farm was part of the education of the and new moorings. Very few, however, have man of changing worlds. But soon his curio­ had Dr. Knaplund's disciplined will to record, sity and ambition lured him to a Lutheran his sharpness of memory, his skill as a writer, seminary in Red Wing, Minnesota, puritanical depth of interpretation, and scholar's grasp of in its rules, unpretentious, but with sharp- the meaning for history of the transatlantic minded, dedicated teachers. He worked hard; life he has lived. The result is an immigrant and in 1913 the boy from the Arctic won the classic. It should have a secure place in our B.A. as valedictorian of his class. He tried historical literature because of its perceptive his hand at several jobs, but whatever he did, appraisal of immigrant cultural transition. he never surrendered his educational aims. Like Henry Adams—but with a different Eventually he won admission to graduate stu­ motivation—Dr. Knaplund tells his story in dy in the University of Wisconsin, worked un­ the third person. His "I of today," he ex­ der notable teachers, and in 1919 blossomed plains, "is not the T of yesteryear." The old out as a doctor of philosophy. I has vanished, he believes, "like a winter's All this is prologue. Dr. Knaplund went on snow." One must admit that the scenes and to a long career as a teacher and scholar, and man portrayed by Dr. Knaplund are one with his integrity and productivity won interna­ the past, but his story is of a continuous life, tional fame. As one reads the final chapters, a life bridging two worlds. Whatever the however, one can not escape a feeling of dis­ forces of change, the melting snows of other appointment. One wonders why Dr. Knap­ years have not melted the author's memory. lund is so reticent about his achievements as It is distinct, sharp, realistic, comprehensive. teacher, scholar, and writer. Surely this part The Knaplund story—all too short, in my of the narrative he might have expanded ten­ opinion—is divided about equally between fold without incurring any charge of ego­ Norway and America. Seven chapters are tism—and with gain in the dramatic and his­ given to each, and then a few pages of reflec­ torical quality of the book. Readers, whether tions are added. The time span is from 1885 scholars or not, will want to know about his to the present. Dr. Knaplund's memory lin­ research and writing, his germinal ideas, his gers over the island fishing-farming commu­ own appraisal of results—but he tells us very nity near Bodo, north of the Arctic Circle. little. Yet those of us who are acquainted with This was his home, here were his first moor­ the Knaplund bookshelf know that he wrote ings. Seemingly effortlessly, he recaptures the or edited ten or more books. What is the in­ Arctic past he knew, with its setting of moun­ ner story of his unending research on Glad­ tains, land, sea—of glaciers, tides, fjords, stone, the British Empire, British foreign af­ "creeping things," birds, fish, traps, sailing fairs? His adventures? Excitement? Joy? vessels, lore of water and soil, and human Frustrations? courage. A chapter on Lofoten and the cod Inevitably one recalls Laurence Larson's fisheries interweaves experience with the his­ Log Boofc of a Young Immigrant. Larson tory of the famed fisheries. All this is back­ brought his story just to the edge of his career ground for a warm narrative focused on the as a scholar and stopped. Dr. Knaplund does folkways and institutions of an old commu­ not precisely stop; he suggests the direction nity: its churches, schools, reading, dissent. and flavor of the historian's career; but I

180 BOOK REVIEWS

wish he had allowed himself a hundred or servation, those "irretrievably" lost, and those more additional pages. It is time for someone facing an uncertain future. Very probably to write a handbook for autobiographers, es­ much of the information the authors have pecially to warn them against underestimating gleaned for this book, a bit here and a bit the major contributions of their mature years. there, in the face of such hazards as rotted Still, we are grateful for Moorings Old and floors and wobbly steps, blizzards and un­ New, and not least for the author's ancestral friendly dogs, will not be available twenty or "concept of a common humanity." This con­ even ten years from now for two of these cept, he realizes, had facilitated for him his classifications. Therefore, the book is a record "change of anchorage." for the future as well as a guide for the pre­ sent. THEODORE C. BLEGEN The authors of the Minnesota guide per­ Minnesota Historical Society sonally visited every site in their publication, in contrast to a number of historic sites guides produced in recent years, in which most of the material was accumulated through the use of Minnesota's Major Historic Sites: A Guide. mail questionnaires. Authors Holmquist and By JUNE DRENNING HOLMQUIST and JEAN A. Brookins write "because we visited in person BROOKINS. (Minnesota Historical Society, the sites described—and many others not Saint Paul, 1963. Pp. xii, 182. Illustrations, included—we were on occasion brought face maps, index. $3.50.) to face with problems not encountered while doing research in the library." While the Sightseeing is America's favorite pastime, authors undoubtedly had to do a substan­ and during the last thirty years historic sites tial amount of the "research in the library," have made a spectacular contribution to this it is the personal treatment of the sites de­ activity. Thousands of people annually visit scribed that gives this book a genuine feeling historic sites on mere impulse or as a stop not found in many other guides. The infor­ on a joy ride. Consequently, the visit results mal and interesting style with which they in only superficial historical experience, par­ write reflects the authors' keen sense of ob­ ticularly if the site is not well presented or servation and their feeling for history beyond well interpreted. For those who do a little the limitations of the printed word. It is ob­ homework before they make the trip, a visit vious that they know whereof they speak. to an historic site offers a truly worth-while opportunity to attain a deeper understanding The sites selected for this guide have been of and appreciation for history, and a sense handled in four categories, determined by geo­ of involvement and participation. graphic distribution. The Twin Cities Area contains important and varied sites, ranging It is for the latter group—which, fortunate­ from the Falls of St. Anthony and Old Fort ly, is growing in number—that this guide has Snelling to places identified with such person­ been prepared. The authors state that "this alities as Governors Alexander Ramsey and book was written in response to numerous Henry Sibley, and Peter Gideon, whose con­ requests for brief, accurate information on tribution lay in his development of fruit spe­ Minnesota's historic places." The book ful­ cies that thrived in Minnesota's climate. fills that need admirably, and it accomplishes at least one other important purpose. In the In the Central Area numerous historic introduction, Russell W. Fridley, director of houses offer a diversified historical associa­ the Minnesota Historical Society, points out tion. While the home of General William Le that a state-wide survey which preceded the Due at Hastings depicts the ornate mansion of book's publication disclosed "depressing evi­ the Civil War period, the Oliver Kelley Home­ dence" that some major sites have been lost stead near Elk River portrays the typical beyond recall. Because the next century, like modest farm home of the same period. At the last, may see additional sites lost as some Little Falls, the Charles A. Lindbergh House die a natural death through old age and de­ presents the stories of two men, a father who terioration while others die more suddenly and achieved considerable prominence as a Con­ dramatically as they fall before the progress gressman and controversial political writer, of the bulldozer, it is important that this in­ and a son who rose to international fame ventory of the state's sites has been compiled more quickly and more dramatically through for the official record. his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927. Director Fridley classifies the Minnesota Except for the home of Dr. William W. sites in three categories: those assured of pre­ Mayo at Le Sueur and the Pipestone Quar-

181 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 196.3-1964 ry in Pipestone National Monument, most of the sites in the Southern Minnesota Area relate to the Sioux Uprising, with the entire episode covered from the beginnings at Ac­ ton on August 17, 1862, to the conclusion, with the execution of thirty-eight Sioux at Mankato on December 26, 1862. Usually known as a land of woods and waters. Northern Minnesota also has its share of significant sites, with its geographical fea­ tures governing the emphasis. Here are fur- trading post and portage sites, iron mines and the source of the Mississippi River. More than a million people annually visit Itasca State Park to see the mighty Mississippi River start, as a bubbling rivulet, on its 2,236-mile jour­ ney to the Gulf of Mexico. With sixty-six sites handled in 172 pages, it goes without saying that the treatment has been concise. For its stated purpose, the book is completely adequate, with the brief narra­ tive effectively supplemented by excellent maps and photographs. The well-selected photo­ graphs by Eugene D. Becker add considerably to the attractiveness of this informative and interesting book. According to the authors, Society's Iconographic Collection this publication represents a good deal of teamwork on the part of a substantial number Henry O. Flipper, first Negro graduate of West Point. of Minnesota Historical Society staff mem­ in 1916, he jotted down random reminiscences bers. They have done a good job. of his later life. It is this material that Theo­ dore D. Harris has made available—twenty- RAYMOND S. SIVESIND three years after the author's death. Since Tfie Stale Historical Society of Wisconsin Flipper was not writing for publication this memoir lacks the polish of a finished product. Yet, it is a clearly written account of a fasci­ nating life. GENERAL HISTORY The first part deals with his service in the Tenth Cavalry. As a young lieutenant Flipper shared experiences common to dozens of other cavalry shavetails. But he was a Negro. Em­ Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs barrassed but never humiliated by occasional of Henry 0. Flipper. Edited by THEODORE D. incidents of prejudice, he also found frequent HARRIS. (Texas Western College Press, El acceptance in the service. However, after five Paso, 1963. Pp. X, 54. Illustrations, notes. years, he left the army—his military career $3.00.) shattered, he maintained, by the animosity of a few officers led by William R. Shafter of Henry 0. Flipper was a remarkable man. later Spanish War fame. In his lengthy career he graduated from West For the next thirty years he travelled ex­ Point, served on the frontier as an army of­ tensively throughout the Southwest and Mexi­ ficer, mining engineer, newspaper editor co. His friends and acquaintances whom he (briefly), and as a government agent. During described are as varied as his jobs. They the latter stage of his life he was assistant to included Jesse Grant, the President's son, and the Secretary of Interior and a petroleum en­ a Mrs. Hill who did his laundry and claimed gineer in Latin America. In his early years to be a neice of Jefferson Davis. At one point he was a slave. he spent a couple of weeks with his old army As the first Negro graduate of the Military friend, Henry Lawton, and got to know the Academy he attained prominence and pub­ young doctor Leonard Wood "quite well." lished an account of his experiences. Then, Later. Lawton would die as a famous general

182 BOOK REVIEWS in the Philippines and Wood would become nothing but brains and driving ambition into a formidable contender for a presidential no­ control of a utilities empire worth nearly mination. $3,000,000,000, McDonald takes pains to point In addition to the people he knew. Flipper out that the empire was not built through wrote of the religious and social customs he financial wizardry alone. Rather, from his came across in Mexico. His description of a early days as Thomas Edison's secretary, the Mexican Christmas celebration of seventy story of Insull's career is the story of a strug­ years ago is as charming as his account of gle against the forces, both personal and im­ frontier politics is amusing. Then, there is personal, of the money market. Insull's genius his involvement in frontier land-claims cases. lay in organizing the production and distribu­ The editor has placed the memoir in a pro­ tion of electricity, and in that field he made per setting with an excellent introduction and many contributions. In the field of High brief editorial comments. In addition, he has Finance he eventually found himself outclassed supplemented the original manuscript with a and outmaneuvered by the titans of Wall lengthy letter, written also in 1916, in which Street. Flipper gave a chronological summary of his McDonald argues that Insull's empire was career. This, together with the introduction, built on an essentially sound basis of pro­ provides a frame of reference for the reminis­ fitable operating companies, that the organi­ cences. The lack of an index is the book's one zational shambles in which later investigators major shortcoming. found it was primarily the result of the frantic Flipper led an interesting life. His memoir last-minute shufflings and reshufflings to covers three fields of history—Negro, frontier, which Insull was driven in his vain attempt and military. In all three areas it is a con­ to avoid collapse. The real culprits, McDonald tribution. contends, were the "buccaneers" of Wall Street, led by J. P. Morgan & Co., who con­ EDWARD M. COFFMAN spired to prevent Insull from borrowing the rather paltry sum he needed to stay above University of Wisconsin water. They were motivated primarily by their greed for the lucrative job of underwrit­ ing the bond issues of the vast array of Mid­ western utilities which Insull controlled. Af­ Insull. By FORREST MCDONALD. (University ter they had shot him down, the politicians and of Chicago Press, 1962. Pp. xvi, 350. Illus­ the mass media jumped on the corpse, with trations, notes, index. $4.95.) the result that, although in court he was easily

Every era produces its share of folk-heroes and folk-villains. Yet, few people have had to watch their public image change so swift­ ly from the former to the latter as did Samuel Insull from 1931 to 1934. Revered throughout the 1920's as one of the Industrial States­ men of the New Era, he became, in the 1930's, the symbol of all that had been rotten on Wall Street. In general, it is the Insull of the 1930's who dominates historical works today. His name is associated with "pyramiding," ped­ dling worthless stocks to poor workingmen, and all the other nefarious activities deemed worthy of a financial magnate of the twenties. It would appear inevitable that by the 1960's someone would come along to try to fish In- suU's reputation from the mire of New Deal propaganda in which it lies. Forrest McDonald has attempted this and, to a remarkable de­ gree, has almost succeeded in getting the old man spotless again. In chronicling the Alger-like story of how Society's Iconographic Collection Insull, the product of a respectable but poor Insull surrounded by newspapermen on his return lower-middle-class English family, parlayed from Europe to stand trial.

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acquitted of all charges against him, in his­ plains editor Jeffrey Auer, "has been to pro­ tory books his name is still linked more of­ vide a record of rhetoric that failed to main­ ten with that of Ivar Kreuger, the interna­ tain peace" and "to present a series of case tional swindler, than with Thomas Edison. studies of public address on specific issues McDonald builds his argument carefully and at a particular time in American history." and convincingly. The book is based upon In achieving this purpose the book at hand extensive research in corporation files and succeeds admirably. manuscript collections, many personal inter­ Each of the twenty-three case studies here­ views, and McDonald's thorough knowledge in presented has been thoughtfully and care­ of the workings of the power industry. It is a fully prepared by a contributor, who is him­ sympathetic biography, but not a panegyric. self a respected authority in the field of However, the author's sympathy for his sub­ American public address or American history. ject does lead him, at times, into overempha­ The variety of case studies is broad in terms sizing Insull's benevolence and uniqueness, of speakers, incidents, and discussions exam­ such as in his account of labor relations in ined. The speakers range from the prominent Insull's firms in the 1920's. It also leads him and influential, like William H. Seward, Wil­ to dismiss rather too lightly, those rabid foes liam L. Yancey, Abraham Lincoln, and Ste­ of Insull. the Chicago "reformers" of the phen A. Douglas, to the less well-known and 1920's, led by Paul Douglas, Donald Richberg, relatively obscure, like Ford Douglas and Ben­ and Harold Ickes. On the other hand, Mc­ jamin Palmer. The incidents, events, and dis­ Donald's treatment of the question of Insull's cussions examined vary from the Oberlin- role in the corruption of Chicago politics as Wellington rescue to the Presidential nomi­ a whole, his refusal to wax moralistic about nating conventions of 1860, from the delibera­ Insull's looking upon graft as a necessary tions of the Senate Committee of Thirteen and business expense, seems reasonable. In con­ the Washington Peace Conference to the re­ nection with this, he also makes the point— marks of incoming Republican governors of an important one—that Insull and the utilities Northern states at the beginning of 1861. The companies actually supported the "progres­ focus in each of the twenty-three studies is sive" movement for state utilities regulatory upon some particular aspect of (1) the attack commissions as a more tractable alternative upon or defense of slavery, or (2) the main­ to the multitude of city councils they had to taining or breaking of the Union, together with deal with. accompanying arguments and appeals for ac­ tion, compromise, or resistance. In sum, this is a fine book, convincing and eminently readable. The author's ability to The opening chapter offers Gordon Hostett- write about the intricacies of finance and in­ ler's thorough and able analysis of the "Par­ dustry as lucidly and vividly as he does makes son" Brownlow-Abram Pryne debate on the the book stand as a model for future busi­ slavery question held during five September ness historians to emulate. days in 1858. This is a particularly useful piece in setting the stage for the ensuing stu­ HARVEY A. LEVENSTEIN dies because Brownlow and Pryne presented University of Wisconsin in fully elaborated form the stock arguments that proslavery and antislavery advocates had developed up to 1858. Additional arguments made after that time simply further refined Antislavery and Disunion, 1858-1861; Stu­ already stated positions, often accompanied dies in the Rhetoric of Compromise and Con­ by appeals for immediate action. Indeed, the flict. Edited by J. JEFFREY AUER. Prepared chance for rational communication and rea­ under the auspices of the Speech Association sonable consideration of issues leading to com­ of America. (New York, Harper and Row, promise and accommodation seemed virtual­ 1963. Pp. xii, 427. Notes, index. $6.00.) ly to have passed by that time. Subsequent discussion in an effort to forge "The studies in the present volume" consti­ an acceptable alternative to disruption of the tute "an inquiry into the nature of public ad­ Union and violence—while attempted, most dress on antislavery and disunion and into notably in Douglas' 1860 campaign swing the conditions which led to the disruption of through the South and in the sessions of the public discussion" in the months from Sep­ Senate Committee of Thirteen and the "Old tember, 1858, until Lincoln's first inaugural Gentlemen's Convention"—foundered on the address. "Our purpose in these studies," ex­ rocks of hardened attitudes and irresponsible

184 BOOK REVIEWS

emotionalism. Seemingly the process of free the narrative centers. Indeed, there are exten­ discussion and open debate resulting in suffi­ sive sub-plots in which Smith is all but for­ ciently satisfactory compromise, which Ameri­ gotten. The interrelations of these families, can public spokesmen had employed so suc­ their economic interests, their defensive unity cessfully during three preceding generations, against the back-country and the popular lead­ simply could not function effectively in the ers, their standards of value, their ideological hostile, emotion-charged atmosphere of 1858- loyalties and apostasies—these are the major 1861. While the quality of the chapters in the determinants of politics, and the analysis of present volume is somewhat uneven, the re­ them reveals a great deal about state and na­ search, for the most part in primary sources, is tional history. impressive, and the illumination cast by each Dr. Rogers makes some nice points, and contributor's analytical study upon the twin most of them tend to refute the current re­ problems of antislavery and disunion is most visionism of the period. He leaves no doubt helpful in contributing to understanding a that an aristocracy existed in South Carolina, highly complex and critical moment in Ameri­ that it knew itself, and that it dominated pro­ can history. vince and state. He describes the Anglo- American colony resident in Charleston before DAVID LINDSEY the Revolution, its Loyalism, its return in Los Angeles State College 1783, its support of conservative politicians, including Smith, and its advocacy of Hamil­ tonian policies. Rogers considers sectional con­ flict a leading factor in state politics and in Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton the ratification of the Constitution. He traces Smith of Charleston (1758-1812). By GEORGE the linkage after 1790 of a segment of the C. ROGERS, JR. (University of South Carolina planter class with Northern mercantile-capi­ Press, Columbia, 1962. Pp. xiv, 439. $8.00.) talists. After the turn of the century, as he re­ lates with some nostalgia, the aristocracy of The real subject of this book is the rice the low country declined, its status undermined aristocracy of South Carolina. William Lough­ by political and economic change. Separa­ ton Smith is known to history mainly for his tion from the British empire and the gradual career in the national House of Representa­ extinction of the English mercantile commu­ tives from 1789 to 1797, when he got the re­ nity in Charleston impaired its economic base. putation of being Alexander Hamilton's per­ Cotton culture raised a new breed of wealthy sonal spokesman. He was the work horse of aristocrats in the back-country. The state be­ the Federalist party in Congress. The book came Republican in politics as William Lough­ is thin on national issues, even those in which ton Smith tried vainly to shift his party alle­ Smith was closely involved, and although giance. The first "solid" South Carolina Smith was active in South Carolina politics emerged. from 1783 on. Dr. Rogers makes no effort to enlarge the biography into a review of state history. In some ways Smith is an unconge­ E. JAMES FERGUSON nial subject. He was personally without graces, University of Maryland distinguished, as even Hamilton observed, by a certain "hardness of character" which ren­ dered him "popular with no description of The Farm Bureau and the New Deal: A Study men." He never married, and his life moved of the Mafcing of National Farm Policy, 193.3- under a tight rein of expediency. From the 1940. By CHRISTIANA MCFAYDEN CAMPBELL. occasional bare spots visible in the delinea­ (University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 1962. tion of his career one suspects, too, that in Pp. viii, 215. Notes, bibliography, index. spite of the author's enormous research, the $4.75.) material on Smith is rather sparse. The book nevertheless succeeds as an evoca­ This study, the recipient of the 1961 Agri­ tion of the aristocratic milieu in which Smith's cultural History Society Award, is another of lot was cast. Smith, who was himself a weal­ the soundly researched monographs in agri­ thy lawyer and the son of a rich Charleston cultural history published in recent years by merchant, is always presented in his rela­ the University of Illinois Press. The book's tions with the great planter families of the background is unusual. Mrs. Campbell, who time—the Laurenses, the Manigaults, the had access to the heretofore untapped papers Pinckneys, and the Rutledges—upon whom of the American Farm Bureau Federation

185 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

(AFBF) and who interviewed the organiza­ to Franklin Roosevelt and his agricultural pro­ tion's long-time president, Edward O'Neal, gram. It is an irony of history that they completed the bulk of the research and writ­ helped to develop the policy. ing in the late 1940's. She then moved to Australia, where she is now a teaching fellow LAWRENCE H. LARSEN in the history department of the University The State Historical Society of Wisconsin of Sydney. In 1959 she returned to the Unit­ ed States for twelve months, talked with sever­ al key people, looked at additional manuscript collections, and rewrote the entire manu­ Old Forts of the Northwest. By HERBERT M. script. The result was worth the trip, for HART. (Superior Publishing Company, Seat­ added insight and maturity of scholarship en­ abled her to turn out what must be considered tle, 1963. Pp. 192. $12.50.) a definitive work on the role of the farm bu­ reau in influencing and attempting to influ­ No one interested in the history of the ence farm policy during the New Deal. American West can ignore the , which explored, guarded, and helped According to Mrs. Campbell the AFBF was to develop the vast area west of the Mississip­ essentially a democratic body. "The Ameri­ pi River. Army installations were scattered in can," as the rank-and-file called the national great profusion throughout the West—along organization, had little control over the in­ the Oregon Trail, up the Missouri River into dividual state federations. As a matter of the heart of Montana, in the mining regions necessity national leaders, including O'Neal, of Idaho, and wherever else Indian dangers a strong-willed and at times ruthless man, had threatened. These forts served as fortresses to pay close attention to the views of the mem­ in Indian uprisings, as supply depots and bar­ bership. "The initiative in the making of po­ racks for far-ranging cavalry, and as welcome licy usually came from 'the American' rather milestones for weary overland migrants. But than from the grass roots, but the directors as the needs which called them into existence did not dictate to or drive their members," died away, the forts, too, passed largely into she explains. "The process was one of gov­ oblivion. They have now been resurrected by ernment by consent—of persuasion rather Major Herbert M. Hart of the United States than coercion—for in the last analysis the Marine Corps, a man who has ridden a hobby power of the Farm Bureau depended upon its hard and well. ability 'to deliver the vote' in state and federal government elections." Major Hart travelled 11,000 miles to visit the sites of regular army posts in the trans- The AFBF started as an education orga­ Mississippi West. Calling upon the resources nization, encouraged in its growth by county of innumerable libraries and historical socie­ agents under the Smith-Lever Act of 1916. ties and relying upon his own photographic It soon drifted into politics, and in the 1920's skill, he has brought to life seventy of the its leaders manipulated the "Farm Bloc" in western military posts in a picture story that Congress, evolved a parity price program, and could hardly be excelled. By neatly tying to­ worked out the first stages of what in the gether a plat of each post layout, a contem­ next decade became an alliance between South­ porary photograph or drawing of the post in ern and Midwestern agricultural interests. In its heyday, and his own shots of the site and the early days of the New Deal, harmonious its historic remains, he places the reader right relationships between government and AFBF on the spot. He manages to catch the mood of officials were partly responsible for the pas­ the western forts—some of the grandeur of sage and implementation of the first Agri­ the country they guarded as well as the dreari­ cultural Adjustment Act and several other key ness of posts too temporary to merit extrava­ pieces of legislation beneficial to agriculture. gant construction. The relationship deteriorated following the In this volume the author includes pictures 1936 general elections. In particular. Farm and accounts of the major forts in an area Bureau leaders expressed concern that vari­ arbitrarily set west of the Mississippi and ous direct New Deal "action programs" north of the fortieth parallel. (Other volumes threatened their own positions and that the in the series will cover other regions.) The Democratic party intended to take full cre­ posts, arranged somewhat quixotically by dit for political reasons for what they con­ function, are presented under such headings sidered a nonpartisan program. By 1940 as "headquarters forts," "post-graduate school many AFBF leaders were in violent opposition for future generals," "guardians of the river,"

186 BOOK REVIEWS

"guardians of the trails," and "peacekeepers." of the effect of the NIRA on the automobile The endpapers provide a map which is gener­ industry, some of them of sufficient impor­ ally complete and accurate, although its legi­ tance to leave one with the feeling that they bility is obscured in places by the map deco­ ought to be explored further. The process of rations. framing codes, for example, raised questions Unfortunately, the page or two of text de­ about the status of dealers, which were left voted to each fort are not as expertly presented unresolved but indicated that the manufac­ as are the pictures. Although a good many turer-dealer relationship was not as happy as data have been carefully gathered, the goal it might have been. The decision to introduce has been to present interest-catching anecdotes new models in the fall rather than in January about the posts and their personnel, rather was highly significant, because it was meant than definitive histories of the posts. Major to diminish the peaks and valleys of produc­ Hart is not as skillful a writer as he is a photo­ tion schedules and did partially accomplish grapher. its purpose. There is also the intriguing mat­ Wisconsin forts do not fall within the limits ter of the privileged status accorded Henry of this book, but any person interested in the Ford, for the simple reason that NRA offi­ life of the western frontier army between cials were unwilling to risk a showdown with 1850 and 1890 will find much to fascinate him him. here. Major Hart has thoroughly investigated The organization of the automobile work­ the sites with intelligence and imagination and ers, however, provides the main theme of the has written about the forts themselves with book. When the first attempts were made to sympathy and enthusiasm. apply Section 7 (a) of the NIRA, the A. F. of L. naturally dominated the scene. The FRANCIS PAUL PRUCHA author is cautious, perhaps too much so, about Marquette University taking positions, but the picture that emer­ ges is that A. F. of L. leadership was luster- less, uninspired, and uninspiring. The craft unions, indeed, clearly preferred to protect The Automobile Under tfie Blue Eagle: Labor, their jurisdictions than to organize the as­ Management, and the Automobile Manufac­ sembly-line workers. Under the circumstances turing Code. By SIDNEY FINE. (The Univer­ the radical groups were given an opening, but sity of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1963. Pp. they also muffed their opportunity. Dr. Fine x, 566. Notes, bibliography, and index. has clarified the role of the communists and $15.00.) other leftist movements and made it clear that while they caused trouble, they failed to This book is a detailed analysis of a period appeal to the bulk of the automobile workers. of vital change in the history of the American The author also makes clear his disapproval automobile industry. Before the National In­ of the Automobile Labor Board and in parti­ dustrial Recovery Act the industry was de­ cular of its chairman. Dr. Leo Wolman. terminedly non-union. By the time the NRA My principal criticism of the book is that passed unlamented into history, the rise of the concentration on labor pushes everything the United Automobile Workers was clearly else into the background, but this was perhaps marked, although the eventual triumph was unavoidable. The management side of the pic­ still a year or so in the future. The account of ture does not really come through; nor, for the transition period makes a detailed and that matter, does the government's. We are complicated story. told that Franklin D. Roosevelt took a parti­ There was, to begin with, the plethora of cular interest in the automobile code because administrative agencies characteristic of the of the importance of the automobile industry New Deal. Both author and reader have to to the whole American economy, but in these pick their way among the Automobile Labor pages the President is never more than a Board, the Labor Advisory Board, the Na­ shadowy figure in the background. And if tional Labor Board, and the National Labor General Johnson had a major role in this Relations Board. There was also a bewildering story, it does not emerge in this book. (to this reviewer at any rate) assortment of These are minor criticisms. With the vol­ labor organizations trying to get a foothold in ume of material at his disposal the author had the automobile industry. to decide where to put his emphasis, and there While the focus of the book is on the labor will be little dispute over his choice of the problem. Dr. Fine has discussed other features labor situation as the most important for the

187 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 period he is covering. Beyond the volume of reliable party leadership in either. Jefferson information he has assembled and organized, himself developed a variety of methods to he has made two other major contributions. exercise leadership of Congress, by preparing One is to show the way to other historians: bills for trusted legislators to introduce, by the records of the NRA are there waiting to entertaining small groups of legislators at din­ be used. The other is to point out that, con­ ners where public questions were discussed, trary to appearances, the NIRA can not be and by having cabinet members supply infor­ dismissed as a dead end. Its career was short mation and make reports and recommenda­ and stormy, but in the automobile industry at tions to Congressional committees. any rate it set in motion forces which could Four chapters analyze party machinery at not subsequently be halted. Because of the the national level and in each state. The na­ mass of detail, this is not an easy book to tional party machinery centered in Congress, read; but it is one which no student of econo­ where Republicans made patronage recommen­ mic history can afford to ignore. dations to the administration and kept it in­ formed of local opinion; and in turn main­ JOHN B. RAE tained contact with the state organizations Harvey Mudd College and informed voters of the administration's achievements by circular letters and other means. By 1808 the caucus was firmly estab­ lished as the focus of national party ma­ The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party chinery and the decisive voice in the nomina­ Operations, 1801-1809. By NOBLE E. CUN­ tion of presidential and vice-presidential can­ NINGHAM, JR. (The University of North Caro­ didates. lina Press for the Institute for Early American State party organizations varied greatly History and Culture, Chapel Hill, 1963. Pp. from the highly centralized machinery of the ix, 318. Bibliography, index. $7.50.) New England states and Virginia to an all but complete lack of organization in Georgia, the This book is a continuation of the study Carolinas, and the new western states. The begun in the author's earlier volume. The degree of party organization depended some­ Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of what on the strength of Federalist opposition Party Organization, 1789-1801 (Chapel Hill, and whether a state had state-wide elections 1957), which traced the organization and or gave the legislature authority to choose growth of Jeffersonian opposition to the do- presidential electors and other officers. Be­ mitiant Federalist party during the Washing­ cause of the variety of machinery, the amount ton and Adams administrations. The present of popular participation in party affairs also volume analyzes the party during its first varied, but was greatest in the states of Penn­ eight years of power and responsibility, re­ sylvania, Delaware, New York, and New Jer­ sulting from the election of Thomas Jeffer­ sey. Mr. Cunningham's brief analyses are no son to the Presidency in 1801. substitute for the more detailed and exten­ Following a brief introductory chapter, the sive histories of the party which we still need author begins his analysis by taking up the for such states as Massachusetts, and he problem of patronage and how the Jefferson touches very slightly on the local issues which administration dealt with it. While Jeffer­ might have influenced party organization and son was admittedly partisan in his appoint­ functions. ment policies, he tried to avoid removals from The author devotes a chapter to analysis of office on purely political grounds. Thus many various party schisms, including the expulsion Federalists remained in office throughout his of Aaron Burr, the defection of John Ran­ administration, and Cunningham concludes dolph, and the strange candidacy of James that "Republican popular opinion would have Monroe in 1808. Mr. Cunningham states that supported a far more partisan policy." the description of "Randolph and the Quids" In an interesting chapter on party leader­ as the first third party in the United States ship and operations in Congress, the author is inaccurate, since neither the New York nor demonstrates that Jefferson never had the iron Pennsylvania Quids supported Randolph or control over the legislative branch charged by James Monroe, Randolph's choice for Presi­ contemporary Federalists and echoed in Hen­ dent in 1808. ry Adams' later histories. While Jefferson Jefferson and the Republicans were aware enjoyed safe majorities in both houses, he of the importance of the press, encouraging was never able to develop a really strong and the establishment of Republican papers

188 BOOK REVIEWS wherever possible. Government printing was secretaryship, Hemphill will necessarily use given to Republican printers, and Jefferson "a high degree of selectivity" (xxiv). personally subscribed to many newspapers to Hemphill chose this way of handling Cal­ encourage their editors. On "several occa­ houn's stewardship of the War Department sions" he also wrote pieces to be published because he believed that during these eight anonymously in the papers, despite his earlier months Calhoun brought order to a chaotic well-known vow never to engage in this prac­ department, instituted far-reaching and long- tice, and he used the National Intelligencer in lasting reforms, and faced "developments that various ways to promote the views of the ad­ became turning points in his career" (xvii). ministration, although he had no formal con­ He believed, too, that a volume providing trol over it. coverage in depth of a few crucial months Mr. Cunningham concludes his study with would reveal "the nature and flavor of the pa­ a chapter on the electioneering practices of the pers received in the office of the Secretary of day, and a brief analysis of the Jeffersonian War or written by Calhoun when he presided party, its contribution to the development of over the War Department" (xi). the two-party system and the democratic pro­ What Hemphill has conceived is both ima­ cess, and of Jefferson as a party leader. There ginative and sensible. Moreover, he recog­ is a short bibliographical note, an adequate nized that the volume demanded a lengthy in­ index, and footnotes where they are needed— troduction to review "the setting in which at the bottom of each page of text. The vol­ Calhoun and his correspondents wrote," to ume is solidly researched and clearly written. spotlight "themes that can be detected amid It is a welcome and important contribution the welter of official routine," and to explain to our understanding of early party develop­ "the complex nature and multiple duties of ment. the Secretary's office" (xii). On the whole, Hemphill accomplishes these objectives. His RICHARD A. ERNEY introduction is a valuable contribution to a The State Historical Society of Wisconsin fuller understanding and deeper appreciation of both the papers themselves and of Cal­ houn's tenure as War Secretary. Unfortunate­ ly, this introductory material is poorly writ­ The Papers of John C. Calhoun: Volume II, ten, and parts of it are meaningless. Note, 1817-1818. Edited by W. EDWIN HEMPHILL. for example, Hemphill's denial that there can (Published by the University of South Caro­ be no valid distinction between a man's "pri­ lina Press for the South Caroliniana Society, vate" and "official" character—a distinction Columbia, 1963. Pp. xciv, 513. Illustration, the editor will most assuredly be forced to notes, bibliography, index. $10.00.) make the basis of his "high degree of selec­ tivity" in future volumes covering this period of Calhoun's career. Note, also, a section in W. Edwin Hemphill faced a difficult prob­ which the editor lists without analysis some lem when he took over the job of editing the of the personnel problems Calhoun faced. John C. Calhoun papers from his predecessor, the late Robert L. Meriwether, who had set The nature of the documents themselves out to reproduce "the most important of Cal­ fails to give much insight into Calhoun either houn's letters, reports, and speeches" and to as a person or as Secretary of War. The few provide a guide to all known Calhoun papers. documents Calhoun himself wrote reveal lit­ How could he have lived up to these ambi­ tle about him, for Calhoun either did not un­ tious goals in view of the fact that eighty-eight burden himself to close friends, or his cor­ volumes would be required to cover in full respondents destroyed this type of letter. Two- the years from 1817 to 1825 when Calhoun thirds of the correspondence in this second was Secretary of War under President James volume is incoming mail, most of it making Monroe? Hemphill's solution was to publish simple requests of one kind or another; yet in this second volume of Calhoun correspon­ we seldom have any idea what kind of ac­ dence every known document concerning Cal­ tion was taken. The editor admits he made houn during his first eight months as War no search of the files of Calhoun's subordi­ Secretary. To do even this much required nates, to whom these letters were probably re­ summarizing very briefly about 3,000 docu­ ferred. Why, then, are they included? If only ments, referring to perhaps 2,000 more, and to reveal "the nature and flavor" of the papers printing verbatim about 200. In editing the Calhoun received, they are needlessly repeti­ papers of the remaining years of Calhoun's tious. Edited as it is, the volume certainly

189 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 can not give, as Hemphill claims, "unprece­ desperately needed both. One can see, too, dented insights into the way in which the Calhoun's propensity for viewing things in federal government's affairs—or at least the coldly legal rather than in human terms, al­ War Department's—were administered more though (as his letter to Andrew Jackson about than a century ago" (xxi). the chain of command shows) he could be All this is not to say that the documents pro­ tactful when the occasion demanded. vide no insights, for they do reveal, as Hemp­ This second volume of Calhoun papers, hill intended, the nature of the work of the then, is a unique and useful attempt to handle Secretary of War. The papers demonstrate that a difficult editorial problem, for which Hemp­ Indian affairs, money matters, and patronage hill deserves credit. That the volume does not and personnel problems dominated the daily reveal more is regrettable and only partially routine of the office. And they do give some the fault of the editor. small picture of John C. Calhoun. One senses, for example, that a leader and an orderly ALAN W. BROWNSWORD mind had taken charge of a department that Long Beach State College

BOOK REVIEWS:

Auer (ed.), Antislavery and Disunion, 1858-1861; Studies in the Rhetoric of Compromise and Conflict, reviewed by David Lindsey 184

Campbell, The Farm Bureau and the New Deal: A Study of the Making of National Farm Policy, 193.3-1940, reviewed by Lawrence H. Larsen 185

Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operation, 1801-1809, reviewed by Richard A. Erney 188

Derleth, The Shadow in the Glass, reviewed by Victor P. Hass 178

Fine, The Automobile Under the Blue Eagle: Labor, Management, and the Automobile Manufacturing Code, reviewed by John B. Rae 187 Harris (ed.), Negro Frontiersman: The Western Memoirs of Henry 0. Flipper, reviewed by Edward M. Coffman 182

Hart, Old Forts of the Northwest, reviewed by Francis Paul Prucha 186

Hemphill (ed.). The Papers of John C. Calhoun: Vol. II, 1817-1818, reviewed by Alan W. Brownsword 189 Holmquist and Brookins, Minnesota's Mafor Historic Sites: A Guide, reviewed by Raymond S. Sivesind 181

Hutchinson and Rachel (eds.). The Papers of James Madison: Vol. I, 16 March 1751 - 16 December 1779; Vol. II, 20 March 1780 - 23 February 1781, reviewed by Merrill Jensen 175

Knaplund, Moorings Old and Neiv: Entries in An Immigrant's Log, reviewed by Theodore C. Blegen 180

Labaree and others (eds.). The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. HI, January 1, 1745 through June 30, 1750; Vol. IV, July 1, 1750 through June 30, 1753, reviewed by Merrill Jensen 175

McDonald, Insull, reviewed by Harvey A. Levenstein 183

Rogers, Evolution of a Federalist: William Loughton Smith of Charleston (1758-1812), reviewed by E. James Ferguson 185

Schell, History of South Dakota, reviewed by Nancy Jo Tice 179

Simonson, Zona Gale, reviewed by August Derleth 177 190 ACCESSIONS

ACCESSIONS

Services for microfilming and photostating all but certain restricted items in its manu­ script collections are provided by the Society. For details write Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manuscripts Librarian.

Manuscripts Wisconsin Papers. Within the past year the Manuscripts Library has processed and in­ ventoried the papers of Edwin E. Witte, Uni­ versity of Wisconsin economist. During his long and impressive career. Dr. Witte held many state and federal appointments and was frequently a guest lecturer at other univer­ Society's Iconographic Collection sities. An economist of national reputation, he Edwin E. Witte, at the time of his appointment as was highly regarded by both labor and man­ head of the Legislative Reference Library in 1922. agement, frequently served as an arbitrator, and was a recognized authority on labor legis­ refer to the state of Wisconsin, especially in lation. In 1934 and 1935 Dr. Witte spent much connection with legislation affecting labor of his time in Washington, D.C, as executive and pensions. The theme of labor legislation director of the President's Committee on Eco­ in the country runs throughout the corre­ nomic Security, the committee responsible spondence, as does the subject of social for writing the first Social Security Act. security and old age and survivor's insurance. The Edwin E. Witte Papers, represented by The correspondence constitutes 30 per cent 292 file boxes, comprise the great bulk of of the collection, and Dr. Witte's research correspondence and research materials kept files make up another 56 per cent. Miscel­ and used by Dr. Witte between 1921 and his laneous files such as articles, addresses, class death in 1960. There are materials from 1922 lectures, and studies account for 7 per cent; to 1933 when he was chief of the Wisconsin and the remainder is composed of his biblio­ Legislative Reference Library and a lecturer graphical card indexes. at the University of Wisconsin, but the papers The papers were presented by Mrs. Edwin are most voluminous following 1933, after E. Witte, Madison. Also available, on micro­ he became a full-time teacher and began to film, are selections from Dr. Witte's scrap- undertake federal appointments. books and personal correspondence and from With the exception of one letter, the only diaries he kept while on trips to Europe. materials predating 1921 are Dr. Witte's These were loaned for microfilming by Mrs. diaries, 1905—1911, kept while he was a stu­ Witte. Until 1966, use of the Witte papers dent at the University of Wisconsin. He fre­ is restricted to researchers who have the quently wrote at some length concerning his approval of the director of the Society and impressions, aspirations, and activities, mak­ Professor Edwin H. Young, dean of the Col­ ing references to teachers, students, lectures, lege of Letters and Science, University of the debating society, and student government. Wisconsin. In his correspondence with former students, Other recently organized collections in the other teachers, industrial relations experts, field of \^ isconsin history include: papers, and government personnel Dr. Witte often 1920-1941. of Stephen Bolles, editor and revealed his own thinking concerning social U.S. Congressman, including correspondence, and economic problems. Throughout the cor­ articles and addresses, notes, Bolles' con­ respondence there is information relating to gressional voting records, clippings, and the University of Wisconsin, particularly the scrapbooks. presented by Mrs. Stephen Bolles, Department of Economics. Letters sometimes Janesville. and Donald Bolles, Philadelphia,

191 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964

Pennsylvania; correspondence, 1883-1902, of clippings relating to the Ludington Guards, General George E. Bryant, Madison, relating presented by Ada Hosford, Menomonie; con­ chiefly to Bryant's horse-breeding and horse- stitution, by-laws, and minutes, 1885—1916, raising interests at his farm in Blooming of the Pine Bluff Detective Association, Dane Grove, Dane County, purchased by the So­ County, presented by R. W. Farrell, Madison; ciety; papers, 1854^1896, relating to Christian papers, 1892-1924, of Paul S. Reinsch, pro­ Burfchardt, including family letters from Ger­ fessor of political science and Minister to many, 1854-1875, and correspondence, 1891- China, 1913-1919, including personal and 1896, concerning the establishment of electric diplomatic correspondence, files concerning power lines in St. Croix County, presented China, manuscript books and articles, clip­ by Esther Burkhardt, Hudson; a series of pings, diaries, and scrapbooks, presented by sketches of pioneer life in the southern part Fred Harvey Harrington, Madison; three let­ of Columbia County, written by descendants ter books, 1874-1882, and three account of early settlers, presented by Andrew W. books, 1846-1895, relating to the Rich Hopkins, Madison; papers, 1919-1946, of Brothers Manufacturing Company of Ontona­ Theodore Dammann, secretary of state for gon, Michigan, and Horicon, Wisconsin, and Wisconsin, including chiefly a letter, Febru­ to minor busines enterprises with which Com­ ary 3, 1919, from Senator Warren G. Hard­ pany officials may have been at some time ing, expressing Harding's lack of desire for connected, presented by AUie Freeman, Hori­ any higher public office than that of Senator, con; additions to the Carl Schurz papers, presented by Mrs. Theodore Dammann and including the manuscript of Schurz' life of Mrs. Ruth Dammann Effler, Milwaukee; ac­ Henry Clay, autographed statements of con­ count book, 1864^1877, kept by John Foley, gratulations to Schurz on the occasion of his Sr., Wauwatosa, showing cash expenditures seventieth birthday, clippings and military and receipts for his store and his family, court records, 1863, relating to the 39th presented by Mrs. James L. Foley, Wauwa­ Regiment, New York Volunteers, and a letter, tosa; papers, 1855—1948, of Estelle Hay den, July 25, 1860, from Carl Schurz to his wife resident of Sun Prairie and a Wisconsin col­ describing Schurz' ineeting and conversation lege teacher, including Civil War letters from with Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Illinois, William Hayden, letters from Ada Bird writ­ presented by Mrs. John Downes, Chicago, ten from Europe in 1904, and material relat­ Illinois; article, "Training For Workers In ing to the history of Sun Prairie, presented Industry," by Alice Shoemaker, Director, by the Eleanor Hayden estate. Sun Prairie; School for Workers in Industry, University papers, 1806-1892, of Henry W. Jacfcson, of Wisconsin, and a letter, February 26, 1963, Centralia businessman, concerning family and from Miss Shoemaker containing" reminis­ business matters and including ledgers relat­ cences and observations concerning the School ing to a store operated by Stedman Jackson for Workers in the 1930's, presented by Miss in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; corre­ Shoemaker, Monrovia, California; a "History spondence, 1899-1940, of Jane Lloyd-Jones of Juneau County,' paper read by Mrs. and Ellen C. Lloyd-Jones relating to the vicis­ William Weber at the October, 1962, meeting situdes of the Hillside Home School, Town of the South Wood County Historical Society, of Wyoming, Iowa County, presented by presented by Mrs. William Weber, Mauston; Franklin Porter, New York, N.Y.; papers, and minutes, 1914-1958, of the annual meet­ 1921-1954, of William Kirsch, chief statisti­ ings of the Wisconsin Association of Modern cian, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Foreign Language Teachers, including the including correspondence, research files, ar­ constitution adopted in 1914, presented by ticles, and clippings relating to Wisconsin the Wisconsin Association of Modern Foreign agriculture and especially to co-operative Language Teachers, Milwaukee; "Early His­ marketing and the investigation of monopolies tory of Grafton," a paper presented before the in the cheese industry, presented by Mrs. Ozaukee County Historical Society, February William Kirsch, Madison; minutes and rec­ 26, 1962, by Ralph L. Zaun, presented by Mr. ords, 1876—1888, of the Ludington Guards, Zaun, Grafton; correspondence, 1926-1929, militia cavalry unit organized in Menomonie between Warren K. Stratman-Thomas and in 1876, enlistment record, 1892-1898, for A. S. Loevenhart, University of Wisconsin the unit's successor. Company H, 3rd Regi­ Department of Pharmacology, relating to ment, Wisconsin National Guard, copy of Stratman-Thomas' trip to Central America roster, 1898-1899, for the 1st Battalion, 3rd testing drugs for the relief of sleeping sick­ Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and ness, presented by Mrs. Arthur L. Tatum,

192 ACCESSIONS

Madison; papers, 1825-1882, of William R. Madison; diary, January 1 to August 7, 1864, Tallmadge, including letters from his brother, of Orin M. Jameson, 17th Regiment Wiscon­ Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, territorial governor sin Volunteers, describing his army life in of Wisconsin, referring to opportunities in Tennessee, northern Alabama, and near At­ Wisconsin and the conduct of the Civil War, lanta, ending on the day he was killed, pre­ presented by Mrs. Dorothy Stolp, Wilmette, sented by Mrs. Alice A. Weidenkopf, Madi­ Illinois; three letters, 1857, from John M. son; correspondence, 1862-1864, and two Vaughn, farmer near Waupaca, concerning diaries, 1862 and 1863, of Henry R. Jones, farm purchases and prices, presented by Miss 49th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteers, re­ Louise Wipf, Madison; sketches on the early lating to army life on Long Island and to history of communities and lakes in Waupaca battles in the lower Mississippi River area County, presented by the Waupaca County near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, presented by Historical Society, Waupaca; the "History of Mrs. H. W. Haven, Clintonville; papers of Medicine in Walworth County in the 19th Elisha R. Reed, 2nd Regiment Wisconsin Century," by J. Howard Young, presented Volunteers, including diary, January to May, by Dr. Young, Elkhorn. 1862, written at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Salisbury, North Carolina, prison camps, diary. May to July, 1863, describing manu- vers and battles involving the "Iron Brigade" Civil War Papers. Letters, 1862-1863, writ­ south of Gettysburg, and an essay by Reed ten by Henry W. Beecham, 7th Regiment Wis­ called "General Lee at Gettysburg," presented consin Volunteers, from Fredericksburg, Vir­ by Mrs. Nelson C. Hall, Whitefish Bay; letters, ginia, in the opening months of the Civil 1827-1891, of Robert Steele, 23rd Regiment War, and from his brother, Robert K. Bee­ Wisconsin Volunteers, and members of the cham, 2nd Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, Steele family, the greater number of which written from Virginia and Maryland, source cover Steele's Civil War experiences in Ohio, unknown; register, April 20 to June 21, 1862, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, of Confederate prisoners of war who died in and Texas, 1862-1866, presented by Mrs. Madison at Camp Randall hospital and bar­ Henry Gluth, Lodi; papers, 1857-1892, of racks, and medical examiner's [Dr. Joseph Cornelius Wheeler, including his Civil War Hobbins] reports, January 3, 1862, to Janu­ correspondence and an incomplete history of ary 3, 1865, on Northern soldiers applying Company 1 of the 2nd Regiment Wisconsin for medical discharge, presented by Mrs. Volunteers, purchased by the Society. Shirley Fuller Hobbins, Madison; letter, Janu­ ary 4, 1862, from George W. Chandler, 5th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, describing activities and camp life at Camp Griffin, Miscellaneous Papers. Business records, Virginia, presented by Mrs. Helen Pierce 1902-1954, of the Associated Gas and Electric Tredennick, Miami, Florida; three diaries, Company, including annual reports, accounts, August 20, 1862, to September 16, 1864, contracts, court and litigation records, prop­ kept by H. R. Curtiss, Company B, 7th Illinois erty and stock holdings, minutes, and reor­ Cavalry, describing army activities, guard ganization plans, presented by the General duty, and skirmishes in the lower Mississippi Public Utilities Corporation, New York, area in 1863, and duties in the regimental N.Y.; papers, [ca. 1928]-1960, collected by bakery and at Overton Hospital dining room the trust department of The Hanover Bank at Memphis, Tennessee, presented by Dan of , relating to its philan­ Anderson, Holcombe; letters, 1862-1863, thropy and foundation accounts, presented by written by Henry T. Drake, 24th Regiment The Hanover Bank, New York, N. Y., through Wisconsin Volunteers, describing army life the courtesy of Craig R. Smith; miscellaneous in Kentucky and Tennessee and battles while materials, known as the Heath Indian Manu­ with the army of the Cumberland under scripts, 1809—1940, relating to the Stockbridge General Rosecrans, containing frequent refer­ Indians of New Stockbridge Community in ence to other regiments involved in fighting, Wisconsin, the Chippewa Indians of Leech presented by W. Norman FitzGerald, Jr., Lake Reservation in Minnesota, and other Milwaukee; diary, 1864, of James B. Fowler, United States Reservation Indians, presented 17th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers, describ­ by Glen H. Ridnour, Madison; copy of "The ing his army life in Tennessee, northern Ala­ Flying Circus," a history of his squadron, bama, and Georgia, and near Philadelphia, July 23, 1944, to October 12, 1945, by Frank presented by Mrs. Alice A. Weidenkopf, T. Creeron, Jr., Richland Center, radio opera-

193 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1963-1964 tor with the Fifth Air Force, Fifth Fighter CIO, including correspondence, publicity, Command, Thirty-third Fighter Control news releases, schedules for meetings, speeches Squadron, World War II, presented by Frank by Senator Hubert Humphrey, background T. Creeron, Jr., Richland Center; papers [ca. material, and clippings, presented by Frank 1935]-1952, from the personal files of Wallich, Milwaukee. Arnaud C. Marts, chairman of the board of Marts and Lundy, Inc., an organization de­ Area Research Centers voted to the problems of fund raising and philanthropy, presented by Arnaud C. Marts, Working through its Archives and Manu­ New York, N. Y.; diary, April 15, 1852, to scripts Division, the State Historcial Society December 21, 1856, of Charles G. Schneider, has established Area Research Centers at the describing his journey to California and his University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the work in the gold fields, presented by Kathryn Wisconsin State Colleges at River Falls, Eau Schneider, Madison, and Herbert Schneider, Claire, Stevens Point, Oshkosh, and White­ Milwaukee; an incomplete biography of water. Each center contains archives of Ephraim Willis and letters concerning his county and local governments, as well as trip to Pike's Peak in 1859, his work as a manuscript collections originating in or per­ surveyor in the West, 1859—1861, and his taining to the area assigned to the specific experiences as a soldier in the 5th Iowa center. In addition, the centers at the state Volunteer Cavalry, 1861-1864, presented by colleges contain the institution's own archives. the Roscoe A. Barnes family through Mrs. Title to all archival and manuscript collec­ Roscoe A. Barnes, Madison. tions in the centers is retained by the Society, whose Madison staff members collect, process, and catalog all materials deposited in the several centers. Each center maintains a cata­ Labor Papers. Scrapbook, 1915, of clippings log of its own holdings, while a central cata­ compiled by John R. Commons, economist, log for materials contained in all of the cen­ concerning the United States Commission on ters is maintained in the Society. Reference Industrial Relations and its chairman, Frank service necessary to the proper use of the P. Walsh, presented by Mark Perlman, Balti­ area collections is provided by the libraries more, Maryland; papers, 1938-1952, of the of the colleges involved. Inquiries may be Dane County Labor Defense Council relating addressed to the librarian of the appropriate to unions and auxiliaries engaged in defense college, or to Dr. Josephine L. Harper, Manu­ efforts during World War II and in 1950, scripts Librarian, State Historical Society of including correspondence, radio scripts, and Wisconsin. also papers of the Wisconsin State Employees Association, 1938-1941, presented by Marvin The following collections are among the Brickson, Wisconsin State Federation of papers processed by the Society for use by Labor, Madison; papers, 1936-1944, of the area research centers: Labor's Non-Partisan League, forerunner of the Political Action Committee (PAC) of the At River Falls: records, 1872-1911, of the CIO, including correspondence, convention C. B. Cox Mill Company, known locally at proceedings, news releases, clippings, and one River Falls as the "Junction Mill," including scrapbook, presented by Robert Howe. Wash­ daily cash journal, 1872-1873, record of ington, D.C; papers, 1908-1958, of the Madi­ transit points, and miscellaneous expense ac­ son Typographical Union, Local 106, includ­ counts, 1904-1911, for Fred Chinnock of Col­ ing correspondence, 1920, 1940-1958, seven­ fax and River Falls, presented by Mrs. Earl teen volumes relating to treasurer's and secre­ Foster, River Falls; papers, 1956-1959, of tary's records, and six ledgers containing in­ the Pierce County Democratic Party, consist­ dividual accounts, presented by the Madison ing of correspondence, minutes, news releases, Typographical Union through J. J. Barken- and clippings, presented on behalf of the hagen and Vincent Brunker, Madison; radio Pierce County Democratic Party by Walker scripts, 1958-1959, international constitution, 1958, 1960, and agreements of the United D. Wyman, Whitewater; papers, 1824-1909, Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, Local of Osborn Strahl, Clifton, including family- 1533, Beloit, presented by Dee W. Gilliam, correspondence, speeches, essays, and gene­ Beloit; papers, 1958-1960, concerning the alogical information, presented by Walker D. Wisconsin "Humphrey for President" cam­ Wyman, Whitewater; records, 1884-1946, of paign conducted by the Wisconsin State AFL- the Willow River Power Company and the various milling and power firms owned by

194 ACCESSIONS

Christian Burkhardt at Burkhardt and Hud­ sented by Mrs. Frank P. Hixon, Lake Forest, son, including account books, grain and ship­ Illinois; business records, 1881-1944, of the ping records, electric power records, tran­ North Western Lumber Company, Eau Claire, scripts of hearings, and a history of the com­ Wisconsin, including correspondence, ac­ pany, presented by Esther and Bertha Burk­ counts, annual reports, audits, contracts, prop­ hardt, Hudson; papers, 1845-1956, of Gert­ erty and stock holdings, minutes, and liquida­ rude M. Cairns, Ellsworth, including family tion plans of the parent company and sub­ correspondence, diaries, local governmental sidiaries. papers of George Washington Cairns, bird and weather records, and records of the Ells­ worth Pioneer School Girls' Club, presented At Stevens Point: papers, 1884-1937, of by Walker D. Wyman, Whitewater; business the B. F. McMillan Lumber Company, McMil­ records, 1871-1892, relating to a general lan, including correspondence, 1912-1924, merchandise store owned by Thomas H. and a nearly complete set of account books, Thompson, St. Croix Falls, including day 1884-1937, relating to the operation of the books, invoices, account books, ledger, and mill at McMillan, presented by Mrs. Thorn­ warehouse records, presented by J. M. Thomp­ ton Green, Jr., Marshfield, and C M. Green, son, St. Croix Falls; records, 1886-1910, of Grant and Sons, a Somerset cheese factory, Mosinee; papers, 1852-1922, of /. L. Pren­ including letter book, 1889-1892, and records tice, Stevens Point surveyor, including corre­ of milk deliveries, payments, and cheese pro­ spondence, 1857-1907, survey maps and duction, presented through the courtesy of notebooks, 1852-1889, for Adams, Juneau, Walker D. Wyman, Whitewater; records, Marathon, and Portage counties, and draw­ 1884-1931, of the La Grandeur Mercantile ings, maps, and survey notebooks for Stevens Company, a general merchandise and grocery Point, 1860-1904, presented by Mrs. Thorn­ store owned by members of the La Grandeur ton Green, Jr., Marshfield, and C M. Green, family at Somerset, including daybooks, cash Mosinee; business records, 1881-1924, of the books, journals, ledgers, and account book, Menominee Bay Shore Lumber Company, presented by Alfred J. La Grandeur, Somer­ Soperton, including minute books, ledgers, set; papers, 1920, 1929-1962, of Walker D. inventories, and pay records, and five volumes Wyman, formerly on the history faculty at of records of related companies, presented by River Falls State College and now president James P. Soper, Chicago, Illinois, and Harry of Wisconsin State College, Whitewater, in­ E. McGraw, Jr., Soperton. cluding correspondence, writings, club rec­ ords, materials relating to the graduate study program for teachers, and miscellaneous clip­ At Milwaukee: business records, 1885- pings and pictures, presented by Dr. Wyman, 1907, 1918, of Meyer and Finck Realty Com­ Whitewater; six diaries, 1885-1891, by Wil­ pany, Milwaukee, including correspondence, liam Cairns, professor of English at the Uni­ letter books, minute books, journals, ledgers, versity of Wisconsin, kept while he was a and lot books relating to company real estate student at the University, including accounts activities in Milwaukee and its suburbs, and of several terms of teaching near Ellsworth, miscellaneous records of subsidiary com­ at Fairchild, and in 1887-1888 at an army panies, presented by William H. Momsen post in [New Mexico?], presented by Mrs. through the U.S. Works Progress Administra­ Philip Wilkie, Waukesha. tion—Historical Records Survey.

At Oshkosh: records, 1866-1915, of the At Eau Claire: papers, 1856-1928, of various lumbering and milling operations and Hixon and Company, La Crosse, including allied businesses of the Paine Lumber Com­ G. C Hixon correspondence, 1869-1893, pany, Oshkosh, including financial accounts, Company correspondence, 1892-1922, and log shipping and yard records, records of the business records, all relating to the many yard and operations at Merillan, 1878-1892, facets of the Company's lumbering enterprises and the Minnesota Percheron Horse Com­ and to other interests such as woolen mills, pany, 1886-1893, presented by the Paine paper making, flour milling, cattle market­ Lumber Company, through the courtesy of ing, railroads, and hydro-electric power, pre- R. Carlson, Oshkosh.

195 Contributors

DOROTHY J. ERNST, associate THERON F. SCHLABACH was professor of history at the ^I**^^ born in 1933 in northern In­ University of Wisconsin—Mil­ diana where he was reared and waukee, received her B.A. and where he attended Goshen Ph.D. degrees from the Uni­ College, from which institu­ versity of Wisconsin and her tion he received his A.B. in M.A. from Smith College. Be­ 1960. A fellowship from the fore joining the faculty of the d\k Danforth Foundation of St. University Extension in Milwaukee in 1944, Louis enabled him to pursue his graduate stu­ she taught at Stephens College. Miss Ernst, a dies at the University of Wisconsin where he native of Milwaukee, is a member of the Mil­ was awarded the M.S. degree in history in waukee County Historical Society and a con­ 1961 and where he is continuing his studies tributor to its Historical Messenger and to the for the doctorate. His particular field of in­ Wisconsin Magazine of History. terest is American social history, and he is currently engaged in a biographical study of the late Edwin E. Witte, the University econo­ mist so prominently identified with the pas­ DAVID P. THELEN was born sage of the Social Security Act. Mr. Schlabach JHH|| in Berkeley, California, and participated in the History of American Phi­ lanthropy Project which Professors Irvin G. t%.jr--JI raised in Chicago. He received Wyllie and Merle Curti conducted with finan­ his B.A. from Antioch College cial assistance from the Ford Foundation. j_^g, in 1962 and his M.A. from the From his work on that project emerged his ^JlSj^jl^ University of Wisconsin in Pensions for Professors, a Logmark book pub­ wS I JH 1964. Mr. Thelen has worked lished in 1963 by the Society for the history for the State Historical Socie­ department of the University of Wisconsin. ty of Wisconsin as a field representative and He has also contributed to Radcliffe College's as research assistant for the Director. He is forthcoming biographical dictionary, Notable currently continuing his graduate work at the American Women, 1607-1950. University, where he is doing a study of the origins of Wisconsin Progressivism and the Wisconsin Republican party in the late nine­ teenth century. Mr. Thelen's article on Keyes and La Follette was supervised by Professor E. David Cronon and is an expanded version of a paper he read at the Society's annual STANLEY L. GORES, a native of meeting in June, 1963. Fond du Lac, is currently tele­ graph editor for the Fond du Lac Commonwealth Reporter and editor of Pet Shop Man­ CHARLES E. TWINING, a native agement, a trade magazine of Kansas, received his B.A. with national distribution. degree from the University of Shortly after graduating from Akron, Ohio, in 1956, hav­ high school in 1940, Mr. Gores served thirty ing majored in political sci­ months with the army in the southwest Pacific. ence. After two years of ser­ He then attended Oshkosh State College vice with the United States (1946-1948) and the Medill School of Jour­ Army in Germany, he taught nalism at Northwestern University (1948- for one year in the Akron Public Schools be­ fore beginning his graduate study in history 1950), from which he received his B.S. de­ at the University of Wisconsin. In 1960-1961 gree. He has served as editor of the Fond du Mr. Twining taught at the Monona Grove Lac Times Weekly, as sports editor of the High School in Madison and the following Commonwealth Reporter, and as president of year was recalled for a brief tour of duty with the Wisconsin Associated Press Sports Editors Wisconsin's 32nd Division. In June, 1963, he Association. His feature stories and articles received his M.S. in history from the Univer­ have appeared in many newspapers through­ sity of Wisconsin and at present is Assistant out the country, and in such magazines as Dean of the College of Letters and Science at Wisconsin Tales and Trails, All-Pets, and The the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Aquarium.

196 ite» .>,^mitym^^^Mmi'\Ak-im...>sm.j- , M^ FIVE CIVIL WAR TITLES

Black Utopia: Negro Communal Trimmers, Trucklers & Temporizers: Sxperiments in America. Notes of Murat Halstead from the By William H. and Jane H. Pease. Amer­ Political Conventions of 1856. ican and Canadian efforts at re-settling Edited by William B. Hesseltine and the free Negro. 240 pp. $4.00. Rex G. Fisher. The acerb commentary of a Cincinnati journalist on the politicians who compromised the issue of slavery in Abel Parker Upshur: 1856. 128 pp. $3.50. Conservative Virginian, 1790-1844. By Claude H. HalL A study of the Southern apologist, naval reformer, and 'Wisconsin and the Civil ^Var. diplomat. 271 pp. Illustrated. $5.50. By Frank L. Klement. A survey of the role of Wisconsin in the Civil War. Paper. Service ivith the 112 pp. $ .75. Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers. By Rufus R. Dawes. This new edition of a classic regimental history has an in­ troduction and editorial note by Alan T. Nolan. 313 pp. Illustrated. $5.00.

. . . and coming on May 29: The Empty Sleeve: A Biography of Lucius Fairchild, by SAM Ro.ss. A biography of the colorful general whose empty sleeve became a trademark of his political career. (283 pages, lllus. $5.50.) To promote a wider appreciation of the American heritage The Purpose with particular emphasis on the collection, advancement, of this and dissemination of knowledge of the history of Wisconsin Society shall he and of the Middle West.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin 816 State Street Madison 6, Wisconsin Second class postage paid Return Requested Madison, Wisconsin