(ISSN 0043-6534) MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 65, No. 4 • Summer, 1982 mm- •

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He THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN

RICHARD A. ERNEY, Director Officers JOHN C. GEILFUSS, President WILSON B. THIEDE, Treasurer MRS. R. L. HARTZELL, First Vice-President RICHARD A. ERNEY, Secretary ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Second Vice-President

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN is both a state agency and a private membership organization. Founded in 1846-two years before statehood-and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans- West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Annual membership is $15, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is $50; supporting, $100; sustaining, $200—500;patron, $500 or more. THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes, ex officio, the Governor, the Secretary of State, the State Treasurer, the President of the University of Wisconsin, the President of the Society's Auxiliary, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the Chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. The other thirty-six members of the Board of Curators are elected by the membership. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows; General Administration 262-3266 Library circuladon desk 262-3421 General information 262-3271 Maps 262-9558 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of library materials and ardfacts 262-0629 Museum tours 262-9567 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0585 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference inquiries 262-9590 Public information office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-3271 Historic preservadon 262-1339 School .services 262-9567 Historic sites 262-3271 Speakers bureau 262-2704

ON THE COVER: Oil portrait by an unknown artist of Ma-ka-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, the Sauk leader known to history as (1767-1838). The painting is reproduced by permission ofthe owner, the Peabody Museum of East India Square, Salem, Massachusetts. Volume 65, Number 4 / Summer, 1982 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY (ISSN 0043-6534)

Pubhshed quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wi.sconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wis­ consin 53706. Distributed to members as part of their dues. (Annual membership, $ 15, or The in Retrospect 239 $12.50 for those over 65 or Roger L. Nichols members of affiliated societies; family membership, $20, or $15 for those over 65 or members of affiliated .societies; contributing, $50; supporting, $100; sustain­ Prelude to Disaster: ing, $200-500; patron, $500 or The Course of Indian-White Relations more.) Single numbers from Which Led to the Black Hawk War of 1832 247 Volume 57 forward are $2. Microhlmed copies available Anthony F. C. Wallace through University Microhlms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and Wisconsin at the most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 289 Kraus Reprint Company, Route Marilyn Grant 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Society does not assume responsi­ bility for statements made by Reading America 298 contributors. Second-class post­ Mary Lou M. Schultz age paid at Madison, Wisconsin, and at addidonal mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. Book Reviews 302 Copyright © 1982 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Book Review Index 320

The Wisconsin Magazine of History Wisconsin History Checklist 321 is indexed annually by the edi­ tors; cumulative indexes are Contributors 324 assembled decennially. In addi­ tion, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Editor Literature on the American Indian, PAUL H. HASS and the Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, Associate Editors 1838-1974. WILLIAM C. MARTEN JOHN O. HOLZHUETER MARILYN GRANT M^'^.^^'^'X'^^^x*^',

With its nose vandalized and the head of its totemic hawk missing, this figure of Black Hawk is somehow a fitting symbol for the 150th anniversary ofthe destruction ofthe "" of Sauk and Fox Indians. The statue, designed by Harry Stinson and dedicated in 1934, stands in 238 Lake View (Sac County), . "General Atkinson's Victory Over Black Hawk," from a pictorial history of the published in 1845.

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The Black Hawk War in Retrospect

By Roger L. Nichols

TORIES of wars between invad­ consin experience fit into the broader national S ing white pioneers and Native story, whenever the tide of a growing and American people trying to defend their home­ greedy population flowed onto Indian-held lands dot the pages of nineteenth-century lands, there was sure to be trouble. The pat­ American history. In Wisconsin, however, this tern of land disputes was widespread and is was not the case, flere only the brief Black clear to modern readers. Realizing why such Hawk War in the summer of 1832 shattered incidents happened is a second justification the usually peaceful process of settlement. for recalling this war. It arose out of errors of Students of history have made much of judgment, incomplete information, and fear this conflict, but north of the state line it has rather than conscious, evil actions taken by ei­ been considered to be of little importance, ex­ ther Indians or whites. It shares these charac­ cept in a few communities where episodes of teristics with many contemporary issues. Most the war occurred. This is not surprising, be­ such disputes are complex, and this was no ex­ cause among early territorial and state leaders ception. Finally, we need reminding that the only gained any fame in the Black Hawk War was not part of a gallant and campaign. Later national figures, among heroic frontier past. Most of the soldiers of them Abraham Lincoln, Jefiferson Davis, and 1832 ate bad food, marched and slept in mud , all served here; but none of and rain, and spent more of their time swat­ these men ever pointed with pride to his par­ ting mosquitoes than they did chasing In­ ticipation. Clearly the war created no state or dians. In fact, most never saw any hostile war­ national heroes, except perhaps for the van­ riors at all. Any effort to describe the conflict quished Black Hawk, and it failed even to pro­ in glowing terms would be as big a mistake as duce stirring tales of adventure or danger. the war itself. Rather it was a minor disturbance which As so ably noted in the essay by Anthony slowed the population movement into south­ F. C. Wallace which follows, the causes of this ern Wisconsin just briefly while national and war were broad, deep, and of long standing. regional authorities crushed the offending In­ While admitting that, it should be made clear dians. that the actual fighting in the summer of 1832 Having said aO this, the obvious question came as a surprise to Indians and pioneers becomes, why commemorate the Black Hawk alike. Neither group anticipated any major War at all? One answer might be that its causes, disruption of their lives that year, and neither conduct, and results proved more typical than was prepared for war. The pioneers and their unusual on the American frontier. Thus, by leaders in Wisconsin and Illinois, however, remembering the war, we can see how the Wis- quickly perceived opportunities for adven-

Copyright © 1982 by The Stute Hislmkal Society ofWisccmsin 239 All rights of reproduction in any form reseroed WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 ture, land, and cash bounty from the federal eral Atkinson moved his army regulars slowly government. When the campaigning ended, up the Rock River to join the militiamen. By they were not disappointed. The Sauk and this time Black Hawk and his associates had Fox, on the other hand, stumbled into the learned that the nearby and Win­ conflict by accident, sustained many casualties, nebago, whom they expected to welcome and and lost much of their land base. So, although help them, wanted little to do with the Sauk the actual fighting usually consisted of minor and Fox. Realizing that they had made a mis­ skirmishes, locally it was of major importance take, the disappointed "invaders" decided that to whites and Indians alike. they had no choice but to return to Iowa. They feared moving back down the Rock River, however, because ofthe militamen they would have to pass. VENTS leading to the war began While the Indians searched frantically for a E on April 5, 1832, when between way out of their dilemma, the Illinois militia one and two thousand Sauk and Fox Indians took actions which prevented any peaceable crossed the from Iowa into solution. On May 12, 1832, Governor Rey­ Illinois. This group, known as the British nolds ordered a battalion of mounted rangers Band and led by the aging Black to search out the main Indian camp. Two days Hawk, had been driven west across the Missis­ later, the militiamen encountered a small sippi less than a year earlier. After a miserable party of Sauk scouts bearing a white flag. The winter in Iowa they longed for their old home­ Indians carried Black Hawk's message that the land in Illinois. In the mistaken belief that if Indians wanted no war, and hoped to return they returned to Illinois in peace and demon­ peaceably to Iowa. Unfortunately, none ofthe strated their desire to raise crops and to be left militiamen understood Sauk. Fearing treach­ alone the whites would not object, the hapless ery, when they sighted other Indians watching Indians recrossed the Mississippi. Their re­ from a nearby hillside, the pioneer soldiers turn to Illinois sent a ripple of fear across the opened fire on the emissaries. Of the Indian frontier and set in motion the forces that flag-bearers, only one escaped. Next, the ex­ would ultimately destroy most of them. cited milidamen dashed after the fleeing In­ While the Sauk and Fox moved slowly dians, who led them toward the Sauk encamp­ northeastward along the Rock River, the gar­ ment. There the few warriors who were not rison commander of Fort Armstrong on Rock off hunting ambushed the attacking whites, Island and the there sent frantic catching them almost totally by surprise. messages to their superiors and to Governor Then, according to Colonel Zachary Taylor, John Reynolds of Illinois. Just a week later the militiamen "became panic struck & fled in General arrived with six com­ the most shameful manner that ever troops panies of U.S. troops from Jefferson Barracks were known to do. . . ." (The incident, which near St. Louis. Atkinson met quickly with the cost eleven whites and three Indians their Sauk and Fox chiefs who remained in Iowa, lives, was derisively called the Battle of and they assured him that the tribes wanted Stillman's Run after a luckless militia captain, peace. The general also learned that Black Isaiah Stillman.) Prior to this skirmish there Hawk and his followers expected to resume had been at least a slight chance that fighting farming along the Rock River. He informed might be avoided. Afterward there was no such Governor Reynolds that the Indians said they possibility. would attack no one, but that they would de­ fend themselves if the whites tried to force them west beyond the Mississippi again. Atkinson also requested the governor to call VENTS now moved quickly. The out the state militia. Governor Reynolds re­ E Sauk fled north and eastward acted by ordering over twelve hundred along the Rock River toward southern Wis­ mounted Illinois militiamen to report for duty consin. Less than two weeks after Stillman's against the "invading" Indians. Run, General Atkinson and Governor Rey­ Less than a month later, in early May, these nolds had disbanded the militia and sent most troops gathered at Dixon, Illinois, while Gen- of the citizen-soldiers home. During the next 240 Map by Judv Patenaude

241 (X3)18222 The , from a lithograph made by Henry Lewis and published in Germany in 1854. Crude though it may seem, Lewis' drawing does convey the plight of Black Hawk's follown as they perished trying to cross the river. month, new militia units were raised and the naled destruction for the tired fugitives. army moved slowly northward. The Indians, Weakened by near starvation and unable to meanwhile, scattered into small groups to get help from other Indians they had trusted, avoid detection, occasionally raiding outlying the dispirited Sauk and Fox now fled north farms and settlements, and spreading terror and westward toward the Mississippi River. throughout the region. By late June they had Once having lost the element of surprise, the arrived in southern Wisconsin, and most of Indians could only hope to outrun their pur­ the small bands congregated near Lake suers, but that hope was vain as the old, the Koshkonong. There, they scoured the coun­ sick, and the starving dropped along the trail. tryside for food of any kind and figuratively For the army, which had spent much ofthe caught their breath. summer stumbling around in the marshes The pursuing army, unable to track the In­ without seeing a single Indian, the discovery dians through the marshy, largely unmapped meant a chance to redeem itself. If the soldiers terrain, paused to build a blockhouse at caught up with the Sauk they might be able to present-day Fort Atkinson. Then some of the overcome the ridicule which their summer command went north to Fort Winnebago near campaign had provoked, so the troops hur­ Portage to obtain supplies. On the return trip, ried after their elusive foe. Now they had no this force discovered the Indians' broad trail. trouble following the trail, because the fleeing The hunt was on again. Sauk dropped or discarded all but their most Some of the troops hurried to notify Gen­ essential items. Blankets, pots and pans, farm­ eral Atkinson, while the rest raced after their ing tools, old people, and dead horses lay quarry. On July 21, 1832, they overtook Black along the route. When Black Hawk and his Hawk's followers as they tried to cross the Wis­ followers reached the Mississippi their hopes consin River near present-day Sauk City. The for a quick escape ended abruptly when the militiamen attacked the retreating Indians, steamboat Warrior opened fire on them de­ but after a desperate fight the warriors suc­ spite their white flag. (Again, the whites had ceeded in delaying the white troops long no trustworthy translator and feared Indian enough for most of their number to get across treachery.) Early the next morning, August 2, the river at Wisconsin Heights. The accidental 1832, General Atkinson's force of soldiers and discovery and subsequent fight at the river sig­ militiamen reached the , and as

242 NICHOLS: IN RETROSPECT the sun burned the mist off the riverbottom, the United States government during the the troops killed most of the remaining In­ war!) dians. Some tribesmen got across the Missis­ sippi, but once on the west bank, their tradi­ N this, however, the Sauk and Fox tional enemies trailed and killed most of I received typical treatment from them. When the fighting ended only about the government. Both the fighting and the 150 of Black Hawk's band had survived. Al­ treaty of cession which followed place the though casualty figures for the Indians re­ Black Hawk War directly in the mainstream of main vague to this day, the war cost the lives of nineteenth-century American experience. seventy-two citizens and soldiers and between From the first days of national independence 450 and 600 Indians. on, white Americans viewed Indian Ameri­ The evening prior to the final battle. Black cans with ambivalence. In the fur trade they Hawk and a few other Sauk leaders slipped were important partners. During wartime away, hoping to find refuge among the Win­ they served as allies, auxiliaries, guides, or nebago farther north. This ploy failed, and by spies, as well as deadly enemies. To pioneer late August Black Hawk and the others had farmers, trappers, foresters, and miners they surrendered to the authorities at Prairie du appeared as dangerous competitors who Chien. For the next year the government kept claimed and often used land or resources him and eleven other Sauk-Fox in custody. At which the whites coveted. Eventually they first they languished in chains at Jefferson came to be seen as a despised minority. As a Barracks. Later General Atkinson persuaded result, throughout the first seventy years of in­ the War Department to bring the captives east dependence, the government of the United to view American size and might, hoping to States strove to get Indian land and to move end forever any Indian dreams of further re­ the tribal people out of the way of the advanc­ sistance. In early 1833 the Indians spent six ing pioneers. Sometimes this was done peace­ weeks as nominal prisoners at Fort Monroe, fully. Often violence resulted, and military Virginia, before being moved to Baltimore. force achieved the general goal of opening the They visited briefly with President Andrew frontier to settlement. Jackson in Washington and then were sent to In the broad outline of Wisconsin history, view New York City and Philadelphia. On Au­ the Black Hawk War was the only major gust 2, 1833, exactly one year after their de­ conflict between pioneers and Indians after feat at the Bad Axe, Black Hawk and the other the region became part ofthe United States. It prisoners rejoined their fellow tribesmen at occurred while the population was sparse, and Rock Island, Illinois. There the former war resided chiefly in the region between Madison leader had to pledge his willingness to follow and Prairie du Chien. Only a few years earlier, the leadership of and the other Sauk- in 1827, several murders and wild rumors Fox leaders who had kept 80 per cent of the stemming from them had frightened the pio­ Wisconsin and Illinois tribes at peace the pre­ neers of the lead district into calling for troops ceding year. to quell the so-called Winnebago War of that While the government dealt in this manner year; but no fighting resulted. During the with the leaders ofthe British Band, it turned 1830's and well into the next decade Indian its negotiators loose on the peaceful and coop­ agents and federal negotiators worked stead­ erative majority ofthe two tribes. The result of ily to remove villages, bands, and whole tribes these meetings came on September 21, 1832, of Indians from this region. By the time Wis­ when the Sauk and Fox agreed to cede a strip consin achieved statehood in 1848, most of the of land fifty miles wide stretching from Mis­ resident Indians have been moved west peace­ souri northward almost to . Known fully. locally as the , this ces­ The Black Hawk War needs to be under­ sion gave much ofthe best tribal land, includ­ stood as one minor accident in this on-going ing the rich lead deposits near Dubuque, to process of American expansion and settle­ the United States. For this six-million-acre ment. The Indians lived in a manner seen as tract the tribes received about ten cents an different from and, to pioneers, inferior to acre, or four dollars for each Indian. (So much that of the whites. To the invaders it seemed for having remained at peace and for helping reasonable that if the Indians refused to alter

243 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 their culture to fit into that of the whites, they John Reynolds wrote his memoir. My Own should be willing to make room for the new­ Times. In it he defended his actions and poli­ comers. In fact, many Indians did choose cies, explaining that the Indian invaders peace and tried to adapt to the changes being posed a major threat to the frontier settlers of forced on them. But Black Hawk and his Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Other partic­ Sauk-Fox followers, like the Seminoles of ipants added their stories, but none were more Florida, and the Creeks of Alabama, and the outspokenly anti-Indian than Wakefield and Shawnee of Indiana, rejected this means of Reynolds. dealing with the whites. Each of these tribes Only a few studies of the war attempted to turned to or was forced into warfare. Each lost take a judicious, evenhanded view of what lives and lands as well. happened. In his brief Story of the Black Hawk War (1892), the superintendent of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Reuben G. OR those wondering what to Thwaites, gave a thoroughly professional look F think about the Black Hawk at what happened. More than sixty years later, War, it is interesting to consider brieffy how Wilham T. Hagan wrote his widely acclaimed past accounts portray it. Shortly after the The Sac and Fox Indians. This project began as a Black Hawk War ended, participants and his­ study of the war, but he expanded it into a torians alike rushed to describe, explain, jus­ general history ofthe two tribes. Hagan noted tify, or denounce the actions of nearly every­ the errors of both pioneers and Indians, and one involved in the conffict. State and regional found plenty of blame for both to share. His histories fall into three categories when discus­ treatment of the conflict is the only one to sing the war. Some books favor the Indians; place it in the broader context of tribal history others support the pioneers; a few try to give a and American expansion during the nine­ balanced view of what happened. teenth century. Surprisingly, Black Hawk himself was the Two works about the war appeared during first to offer his story. Shortly after he re­ the 1970's. Cecil Eby's "That Disgraceful Affair": turned to Iowa in 1833 he dictated a memoir The Black Hawk War traces the movements of or autobiography which clearly explained his both sides with care, but tends to be preachy motivations and understanding of the war. He and includes a series of anti-American denun­ described having been lied to and tricked by ciations stemming chieffy out of the anti- other Indians and whites alike, and once at­ Vietnam War period. For the most part it adds tacked at Stillman's Run he felt bound by the little except modern indignation to our under­ warriors' code to defend his followers. (A standing of the process of "removing" the In­ modern edition of his autobiography, edited dian peoples of America. On the other hand, by Donald Jackson, is available from the Uni­ Ellen M. Whitney's monumental compilation. versity of Illinois Press.) In 1838, Benjamin The Black Hawk War, is a work of meticulous, Drake published The Life and Adventures of dispassionate scholarship. Published in four Black Hawk, the first strongly pro-Indian book parts by the Illinois State Historical Library about the war by a white author. After that it between 1970 and 1978, it contains virtually was not until 1887 that another author took every letter, military order, map, muster roll, this view. That year Perry Armstrong's The journal, and document relating to the war in Sauks and the Black Hawk War denounced the all its aspects. But even Whitney's great work is pioneers as greedy, unwilling to avoid blood­ probably not the last word on the Black Hawk shed, and cowardly. Much of Armstrong's ma­ War, for quite recently Crawford B. Thayer of terial came from interviewing men who had Fort Atkinson, where the war is very much a served in the campaign. part of local history and folklore, has pub­ Anti-Indian material appeared as well dur­ lished Hunting a Shadow: The Search for Black ing the nineteenth century. In 1834 John A. Hawk, the first of a projected four volumes in Wakefield published his History of the War be­ which all known documents are to be woven tween the United States and the Sac and Fox Na­ into a chronological narrative. Clearly, there tions of Indians. A rabid Indian-hater, his nar­ remains an interest in, and questions about, rative gave the mflitiamen's side of the story. that melancholy border skirmish of 1832. Two decades later, in 1855, Illinois Governor If the participants failed to understand the 244 NICHOLS: IN RETROSPECT

LIFE

MA-KA-TAI-ME-SHE-KIA-KIAK BLACK HAWK,

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J. B. FattersoR, of RiKk Isianii, J!i. Editor RM Ptjpuetoi. BLACK H AW K BOSTON: RUSSELL, OI)R)R,\E & METCALP. NEW YORK I MONSOK BANCHOPT.-pmLiDEI.Pini: MASSHAU, OhOm.» OCW EAL-nMORE! JOS. JEWKTT.^MOmLKi SmKET SM£Ttr. 1834.

Wlli(X3)38405 Frontispiece and title page of Black Hawk's autobiography, published in Boston in 1834. signihcance of what was happening, and histo­ National leaders were of little help either. rians since then cannot agree about who was to Throughout the entire summer, Andrew blame or why, it is not surprising that modern Jackson demanded that the federal troops and readers have some difficulty in deciding what their militia auxiliaries locate, defeat, and to think about this long-forgotten event. punish the Indians for their refusal to accept Clearly Black Hawk and his advisers misread American decisions about where they should the situation in the spring of 1832 when they live. Individual mistakes, fear, hatred, and made their ill-fated return to Illinois. At the misunderstanding on the parts of Indians and same time, both General Atkinson and Gover­ whites alike, combined with the opportunism of nor Reynolds over-reacted to the potential Governor Reynolds and President Jackson, ah threat this Indian "invasion" posed. The war contributed to the tragic outcome. which followed resulted from a series of specific mistakes by individuals; but chance played a part too. When the Indians tried to HERE are no heroes who de­ turn back, undisciplined militiamen shot and T' serve our thanks or honor for killed Indian flag-bearers in part because they the parts they played in that campaign of lacked competent interpreters. The pioneers' 1832. At best, the Black Hawk War was a sorry obvious thirst for Indian blood turned a bad combination of mistakes, bungling, and bad situation into a disaster. luck. At its worst, it illustrated many of the

245 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

darker strains in the story of frontier settle­ Hawk War is a compelling, and by no means ment which most twentieth-century Ameri­ unique, lesson in America's historic willingness cans neither remember nor care to under­ to fasten upon military solutions to difficult po­ stand. But the factors that brought about the litical and diplomatic questions. It is sobering to war should not be forgotten. One was a lack of reflect that Americans had had two hundred concern about or outright rejection of fair years of frontier experience in which to de­ treatment for minority peoples. An abiding velop attitudes and courses of action by the ethnocentrism showed itself in the whites' self- time Black Hawk and his band of followers righteous certainty that the Indians had to "invaded" Illinois. We might well ask our­ move aside for "civilization." Political oppor­ selves if, in the ensuing one hundred and fifty tunism displayed by frontier officials made years, we have learned anything that might matters worse rather than easing tensions or improve our capacity to respond to similar seeking peaceful solutions. Finally, the Black emergencies in other, less warlike ways.

National Gallery of Art. Washington Black Hawk and five other Sauk and Fox prisoners, painted by George Catlin. "We were now confined to the barracks, and forced to wear the ha\l and chain," said Black Hawk in his autobiography. "This was extremely mortifying, and altogether useless."

246 Prelude to Disaster: The Course of Indian-White Relations Which Led to the Black Hawk War of 1832

By Anthony F. C. Wallace

After discussing ways of commemorating the permission of the Trustees of the Illinois the sesquicentennial ofthe Black Hawk War in State Historical Library. It was first published some lasting and meaningful way, we arrived and copyrighted in 1970 as the Introduction at the conclusion that we might perform a to the four-part documentary collection The service to our readers, and perhaps to a larger Black Hawk War, 1831-1832, edited by Ellen audience, by republishing the following essay M. Whitney of the Library stalf. That series, by Professor Anthony F. C. Wallace ofthe an­ which includes militia rolls, diaries, official or­ thropology department of the University of ders, soldiers' correspondence, and maps, was Pennsylvania. Probably better than any other the recipient of an Award of Merit from the single document, it captures both the cultural State Historical Society of Wisconsin in 1979. and political complexities as well as the tragic We would like to express our thanks for their human dimensions of that half-forgotten bor­ cooperation to the Trustees of the Illinois der fray of 1832. And although it is based State Historical Library, and especially to Ol­ upon prodigious scholarship in history, law, ive S. Foster, Illinois State Historian. anthropology, and other disciplines, it is none­ Professor Wallace's essay has been re­ theless a model of clear, vivid narrative writing printed in an indexed, clothbound edition and thoughtful analysis. It is, in short, a which is obtainable for $2.50 from the Illinois classic—and we are honored to present it in State Historical Society, Old State Capitol, the pages of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. Springfield, Illinois 62706. Professor Wallace's essay is reprinted with THE EDITORS

PRELUDE TO DISASTER tives of the Sauk and Fox tribal councils had advised them similarly. After an initial skir­ mish between Black Hawk's band, attempting PROLOGUE to descend the Rock, and a group of militia blocking their passage, the Indians withdrew north and westward in order more safely to re- N the spring of 1832 a band of cross the Mississippi above the Wisconsin. r Sauk, Fox, and Kickapoo They were harassed by pursuing soldiers and Indians—about one thousand men, women, finally trapped by federal forces at the mouth and children, led by a Sauk warrior named ofthe Bad Axe River, where many were killed. Black Hawk—crossed the Mississippi River Those who managed to cross the Mississippi into the state of Illinois and proceeded up the were pursued by Sioux, acting at the behest of Rock River. Their movement was defined by United States officials; the Sioux killed many the Governor of Illinois as an invasion. He mo­ more. The Sauk and Fox nation surrendered bilized militia and demanded the support of most of the few survivors of the band to the the Army of the United States. Federal au­ federal military authorities at Rock Island, thorities had already ordered Black Hawk's and the leaders were imprisoned. The matter band to descend the Rock and remove them­ was officially closed in the fall of 1832 by treaty selves west ofthe Mississippi, and representa­ at Rock Island in which the Sauk and Fox sold

247 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 to the United States, at a lower price than ear­ turning to it. Furthermore, they were be­ lier negotiations had contemplated, the east­ mused by the apocalyptic teachings of the ern part of Iowa, bordering on the Mississippi Winnebago Prophet, who dreamed of a renas­ River and containing the lead mines in the vi­ cence of native civilization, and believed that cinity of Dubuque. even if the whites attempted to dispossess the Conflicting understandings ofthe event ex­ combined Black Hawk and Prophet's bands isted at the time and have persisted since. To on Rock River, aid from many quarters—from most whites on the frontier and in official the British, from the rest of the Winnebago, places it appeared that Black Hawk's band was from the Potawatomi—would make it possible a war party invading the state of Illinois, bent for them to maintain their position. on attacking the frontier settlements, and But from everyone's standpoint, the Black threatening to precipitate a general Indian Hawk War was ultimately seen as a disaster. It war against the United States. To many meant death and dishonor to most of the whites, furthermore, the action of Black Black Hawk band. It meant internal dissen­ Hawk's band was an action sanctioned, if not sion and loss of diplomatic bargaining position directed, by the Sauk and Fox nation. The re­ to the Sauk and Fox nation. And it brought, in sponse, consequently, by white men of such addition to the relatively few deaths of soldiers opinion, was not merely protestation but or civilians which resulted from Indian mili­ armed resistance, first by militia and second by tary action, great anxiety, considerable eco­ the Army of the United States, which mobi­ nomic loss, and numerous additional cholera lized large numbers of men and dispatched casualties to the citizenry ofthe United States. them, first from St. Louis and then, despite the Let us now analyze the train of events which cholera epidemic that was sweeping the conti­ brought about the unhappy circumstances of nent, from the East Coast through Chicago to the Black Hawk War.' the scene of conflict in Illinois and Wisconsin. Federal officials, however, in the end did not hold the Sauk and Fox nation responsible for the war, even though they made use, in the THE SAUK AND FOX INDIANS treaty, of the diplomatic disadvantage under which the recent events placed the Sauk and LTHOUGH they were often Fox negotiators. A called the "Sauk and Fox Na­ By Indians, the "war" was viewed very tion of Indians," because in dealing with other diiferently, and not all Indians viewed it alike. Indian tribes and with white governments Sauk and Fox chiefs and their spokesmen re­ they acted in concert, the Sauk and the Fox garded it as a foolish and catastrophic gesture were ethnically and politically distinguishable by a chronic malcontent and his faction. The peoples. They spoke closely related languages Sauk and Fox nation, through their tradi­ of the Algonquian stock. Central Algonquian tional representatives, had for years been making the best of a difficult frontier relation­ 'The writer wishes to acknowledge the research assist­ ship, maintaining peace with the advancing ance of Mrs. Michal Kane, who collected and subjected to whites on the east while acquiring new hunt­ preliminary analysis many of the materials employed in ing grounds of their own to the westward. this study. Much of the research was conducted, Black Hawk's return to the lands on Rock 1956—1958, in preparation for testimony in Dockets 83 and 158 before the Indian Claims Commission as an ex­ River, while understandable emotionally, thus pert witness retained by attorneys for the Sauk and Fox: merely embarrassed the Sauk and Fox leaders George Pletsch, of Dallstream, Schifi, Hardin, Waite and in their efforts to carry out the peace-and- Dorschel; Lawrence C. Mills, of Mills and Mills; and Stan­ orderly-withdrawal policy. ford C. Clinton, of Pritzker, Pritzker, and Clinton. To Mr. Pletsch in particular I am grateful for scholarly discussion Black Hawk and his band saw the "war" in a and for patient assistance in tracking dovvn source mate­ third light. Inspired by legalistic arguments, rials. And to Mrs. Ellen Whitney, editor ofthe Black Hawk based on traditional native understandings War papers, I am indebted for invaluable editorial criti­ and misunderstandings of earlier treaties, cism and advice. This essay was written in 1958 and does not, therefore, contain references to recent literature on they regarded the Rock River area as Sauk and the Central Algonquians; it is the writer's opinion, how­ Fox property. Hence, in their own eyes, they ever, that the conclusions reached herein are still valid.— were merely asserting their legal rights in re­ A.F.C.S., October 16, 1969.

248 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

group; they shared, in pre-Columbian times, Sauk and Fox social organization was based typical technological features of the eastern partly on kinship and partly on the local woodland culture area, such as the birch ca­ bands, with both kinship and territorial units noe, the bow, war club, and tomahawk, and being represented in the political structure. earthenware pottery; they combined hunting Each tribe had about a dozen patrilineal sibs and corn gardening for subsistence, and lived (groups who called themselves by some "to­ in permanent villages. Their difference was temic" name, like Trout or Sturgeon, and who perhaps most marked in the sphere of political maintained a belief in some remote common organization, the Fox being radically individu­ ancestry). There was also a moiety organiza­ alistic in comparison with the relatively well- tion (division of the tribe into two parts); the coordinated Sauk. Nineteenth-century ob­ individual received his moiety assignment not servers, like Sauk agent Thomas Forsyth, from sib membership but from the order of remarked from time to time on the greater birth, successive children within the family be­ regularity with which the Sauk conducted ing assigned alternately to one moiety and the their affairs. Forsyth, for example, reported in other. Among the Fox, the Bear and Fox sibs, 1824: and among the Sauk (perhaps) the Trout and Sturgeon sibs, customarily had the privilege of Altho the affinity of language between providing respectively a "civil chief and a the Sauk and Fox Indians are great, and "war chief who were executive officers pre­ they are in strict alliance with each other, siding over and carrying out the instructions yet there is no kind of comparison to be of the tribal councils. The Fox council was made between the two nations, as the composed of various notable men distin­ Sauk Indians are a people of much ar­ rangement, and their Chiefs are listened guished for wisdom, military skill, bravery, or to with much respect by the warriors and other laudable attributes. Among the Sauk, on young men, but among the Fox Indians the other hand, the members of the council it is very different, the Chiefs are made may all have been sib representatives; such a tools of by the warriors and are compel­ custom is suggested by the circumstance that led in many instances to act as inferiors neither Keokuk nor Black Hawk was known as and to do many mean actions. . . ? a chief, despite their prominence and influence. The Sauk, and presumably also the The Fox indeed have been made the sub­ Fox, were also organized into local bands. The ject of an ethnological study in which their ir­ Sauk bands about 1804 were about seven in reverence for the pretender to authority is number. Bands were essentially winter hunt­ taken as the extreme Central Algonquian con­ ing groups, and might or might not also con­ trast to the European authoritarian tradition.' stitute the bulk of the population of a summer The organizational tendency in Sauk culture village. These bands could include individuals is an important theme in our analysis, for it of any moiety or clan."* Band leaders were not underlies both the abihty of Black Hawk to re­ necessarily "chiefs" (i.e., members ofthe tribal cruit a faction, and the ability of the chiefs' councils).^ council, even without recourse to court, po­ lice, or army, to suppress, for a time, this fac­ The chiefs' council (whether sib- tion, and when suppression was no longer pos­ representative or a sort of council of elders) sible, effectively to abandon the faction to its was in both tribes a policy-making, advisory, fate. and quasi-executive body whose function was not so much to make "laws" (i.e., to set or change custom) as to interpret important situ­ ^Forsyth to McKenney, Aug. 28, 1824, Forsyth Papers, ations from the standpoint of traditional cus­ Vol. 4 in the Draper MSS, Wisconsin State Historical Soci­ toms and to recommend or set in motion the ety, Madison; cited hereinafter as WHi: Draper MSS, 4T. The "T" is the file designation for the Forsyth Papers, and the arable numeral the volume number; the page num­ ^Alanson Skinner, Observations on the Ethnology of the ber, if given, follows the "T." AU quotations in this essay Sauk Indians (Bulletin ofthe Public Museum ofthe City of Mil­ are from original documents in the Black Hawk War Col­ waukee, Vol. 5, Nos. 1-3, Milwaukee, I923-I926); William lection ofthe Illinois State Historical Library or from tran­ Jones, Ethnography of the Fox Indians (Bureau of American scripts also in that library. Ethnology Bulletin 125, Washington, 1929). 'W. B. Miller, "Two Concepts of Authority," American ^For example, Black Hawk, a band leader, was not a Anthropologist, LVII (1955): 278. chief. 249 .\ational Gallery (){.\n Black Hawk and the Prophet, from a painting by George Catlin in the Paul Mellon Collection in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. proper means of handling these situations. Its sion.'' Among the Sauk, each moiety had a members were usually about a dozen in num­ "war chief who was responsible for mobiliza­ ber, and they were organized according to a tion ofthe warriors in his moiety, and one such formal structure with traditional rules of pro­ "war chief," Keokuk, also functioned as cedure. Presiding over the council of the Fox official council "speaker," which gave him was the "civil chief mentioned above. His role great power as the negotiator with white au- was essendally that of a chairman: he con­ thorides. vened the council meedngs as necessary; he This council was, among the Sauk, very im­ had as his deputy a councilman who "sup­ portant in the control of hunting and the fur ported" him "in his arguments" as well as a trade. It allotted hunting territories,' and in sort of secretary who "[kept] track of the do­ the spring, after the winter hunt, formally ings ofthe council"; he formally received visi­ placed the tribe under a kind of martial law. tors and ambassadors. This chairman had to The war chiefs then had authority to round up he chosen from the Bear clan, but he also had to be acceptable to the whole council. Council decisions were made by consensus after dis­ "Jones, Ethnography ofthe Fox Indians, 82-83. cussion; in case of a deadlock, the ceremonial 'Emma Helen Blair, ed., The Indian Tribes ofthe Upper runners were called upon to make the deci- Mississippi Valley and Region of the Great Lakes . . . (Cleve­ land, 1911-I9I2), II: 148,187. 250 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER stragglers (who might be cut off by alien war ble for the alienation of lands and for the mak­ parties) and to prevent anyone from return­ ing of treaties or agreements with other tribes ing to the viOage early (to forestall the possibil­ and nations." The minimal proper procedure ity of a few individuals' digging up their neigh­ for a sale of land to whites involved a number bors' corn caches).** Martial law remained in of steps: force until everything in the village had been put in order. This careful control of the 1) the receipt by the tribal council or councils hunting-trading complex was necessary be­ of an official invitation from white authori­ cause the Sauk and Fox played something of a ties to a treaty council to discuss a cession of role as middlemen in the fur trade; earlier land; among the Huron, who also had been fur- 2) an announcement of the pending issue to trade middlemen, there was considerable the nation at large (members of which power vested in the national council in matters could bring strong pressure to bear on the of trade.' On occasion also the Sauk chiefs council); could appoint "soldiers" as a kind of police 3) a meeting of the tribal council to discuss the and could give orders to the whole popula­ advisabihty of this step; tion: for instance, in 1823, agent Forsyth was 4) whether the decision be to treat or not to unable to obtain annuity receipts. treat, the sending of a formal reply, accom­ panied by wampum belts (which had the After acquainting them with the effect of an official seal or notarization, in­ strength of their Great Father the Presi­ dicating that the matter had been handled dent, by Sea and Land, his peaceable dis­ position towards all mankind, and his officially and legally); good will towards all his red children 5) a treaty, at which both the council and a who deserved it &c. &c. that the Specie representative sample of the whole popu­ before them were their annuities for the lation, including warriors, women, and present year, which they might take after children, are present and at which Indian signing the receipts then in my hand. I councils run concurrently (but separate was answered by several Chiefs and from) the treaty councils, so that the Indian Braves of both nations, and all refused to speakers may be formally instructed what sign any papers or accept of their annui­ to say, and so that ah negotiations may be ties, saying that not a man, woman or publicly conducted and statements attested child of their nations would ever sign any as official by the proper exchanges of wam­ paper, as they had httle enough, Land pum; for their own use; and the Chiefs imme­ 6) if the treaty results in a sale, ratified by diately drove the whole of the Indians wampum, an on-the-spot apportionment off. . . [Rock] Island with the exception of goods and money paid among the whole of four warriors that the Chiefs left as Centinals to prevent any Indians from population.'^ signing any papers. This Sir is no more than I expected, and it will be useless for "Mary A. Owen, Folk-lore of the Musquakie Indians of me, ever to attempt to procure the signa­ North America. . . {Folk-lore Society Publications, LI, London, ture of any ofthe Sauk or Fox Indians in 1904); Boilvin to Secretary of War, Feb. II, 1811, in Clar­ future to any Instrument of writing."' ence Edwin Carter, ed., The Territorial Papers ofthe United States (Washington, 1934- ), XIV: 438-441; cited hereinafter as Territorial Papers. Such police control by the council, however, '^This composite account of the valid cession proce­ could only be applied to the occasional indi­ dure is based on a number of sources, particularly For­ viduals who would not conform, or to unor­ syth's and Marston's statements in Blair, ed., Indian Tribes ganized groups. The council had no power to ofthe Upper Mississippi, II; Caleb Atwater, Remarks Made on a Tour to Prairie du Chien . . . in 1829 (C^olumbus, I83I); coerce an organized group or faction. United States Statutes at Large, VII (Indian Treaties, The council also was specifically responsi- 1778—1842); Skinner, Ethnology ofthe Sauk Indians; ]onei. Ethnography ofthe Fox Indians; and William Jones, "Notes Hbtd,\\: 163-164. on the Fox Indians," Journa/ of American Folklore, XXIV 'George T. Hunt, The Wars of the Iroquois (Madison, (1911): 209-237. The sketch thus drawn is congruent 1940). with the general practice of the tribes of the northeastern '"Forsyth to Calhoun, July 7, 1823, WHi: Draper MSS, culture area, and of the United States, Britain, and France 4TI68. in dealing with them.

251 WISCONSIN MACTAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

It is particularly important to note that in 5) leaving women, children, and old people connection with land cessions, not only did the behind, the war party, ranging in size from tribal council have to make a formal decision half a dozen to five or six hundred (and in favor of the cession, but the consensus of perhaps several other parties set out at the warriors and the women had to be se­ about the same time from the same tribe) cured. Sauk and Fox women informed Gen­ leaves the village and travels under tight eral Edmund P. Gaines in 1831 that the sale of discipline; 1804 was invalid because the women, who cul­ 6) the party may stay out for only a week or tivated the cornfields, had neither agreed to two, or it may stay away for several years; the sale nor ever been consulted in the mat­ 7) the attack is almost always made by ambush ter.'^ The need for consent by all the citizenry or surprise; it may involve merely cutting was the reason for the large deputation of offstragglers and isolated small groups like women and children which almost invariably hunting parties and (among whites) farm­ was in attendance at treaties of cession. In the steads, or it may involve laying siege to Sauk and Fox case, furthermore, it probably fortified villages and encampments; was considered essential for both of i:he tribal 8) on the party's returning with scalps and councils and populations separately to give captives (if any), ceremonies of adoption their consent to the sale of land. (and/or torture) are held, together with cel­ ebration of the triumph or mourning of losses. (VER the whole area of North This basic war-party pattern was modified America south of the Great o in various ways and to various degrees by the Lakes, east of the Great Plains, and north of different tribes, depending on the political or­ the Ohio (and probably outside this region ganization of the tribe and the extent of sur­ too) there was a common process basic to In­ plus food and goods it could afford. The basic dian warfare. This process with minor pattern was virtually unmodified among the modifications remained fairly constant hunting peoples north ofthe St. Lawrence. In throughout the period of contact, until war general, among the agricultural peoples (such activities as such were ended under the pres­ as the Iroquois, Sauk and Fox, Miami, et al.) sure of white military force. This basic and un­ south of the St. Lawrence, the modifications derlying process was characterized by the fol­ consisted of a better supply of food and other lowing steps: resources, enabling larger parties to stay out longer, and of controls over the war party ex­ 1) a member of the tribe is killed, insulted, or erted more or less directly by representatives otherwise injured (or a tribal member of the chiefs' council. dreams of such an event); Fundamentally, the council of chiefs could 2) a well-known warrior declares that he is go­ influence the war party in three ways: ing to lead a war party, perhaps as a result of a dream, against the offending tribe, and asks for volunteers; 1) "Putting on the brakes." In such instances, the chiefs as a group recognized the proba­ 3) volunteers declare their willingness to go bility or fact of a war party's preparations, along with the self-appointed leader on the openly advised the warriors not to go, de­ warpath (sometimes they are encouraged scribed the bad results of their doing so, to go by the women, chiefs, and old men, confiscated their "medicine," persuaded while sometimes these groups try to dis­ the women to speak to the warriors, and so courage them); on. These activities, which were frequently 4) a ceremony involving sacred ritual is held successful, did not depend upon the threat shortly before the party leaves; of force since there was no police force at the council's disposal apart from the war­ "Memorandum of talks between Edmund P. Gaines riors themselves, but upon the force ofthe and the Sauk, June 4,5,7, 1831, Adjutant General's Office argument and sentiment organized against files, War Records Branch, National Archives, Washing­ ton; cited hereinafter as DNA: AGO. The Iroquois also the expression of hostilities. When the gave final say in land cession questions to the women. chiefs did take a stand against war activi-

252 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

ties' being initiated or continuing (if the ment, tacit consent, direct discouragement. It other side had sent peace emissaries), they might also be noted that even where economic were not likely to do so without knowing motives were prominent (as in the Sauk war that a sizable portion of the women and with the Sioux), the basic rationalization for warriors would back up their views—in war was the avenging of an injury done to a other words, peaceable activities by the tribesman (or even more closely, a kinsman).''' chiefs were a symptom of a widespread The Sauk and Fox, despite the fact that sentiment in favor of peace. Putting on the they did some buffalo hunting on the Illinois, brakes could occur on various occasions: Iowa, and prairies, had a basically ag­ when the war party seemed likely to pro­ ricultural economy with a pronounced em­ voke retaliation on too destructive a scale; phasis on the hunt for small game, especially when acceptance of a war belt (invitation to during the fur trade era.'' These two tribes, join in a war) sent by another tribe threat­ like others of the area, lived according to a ened to involve the nation in a risky enter­ clearly defined annual calendar of activities: prise; when the aims of the war party were from fall (October) to early spring (May), there directed against a valued ally; or when the was hunting and trapping, particularly for enemy sent ambassadors asking for peace beaver, on hunting grounds far up river from and it was considered advisable to agree. the villages, and the making of maple sugar; 2) "Silence gives consent." On occasion, a war the spring and early summer (May to June) party might make preparations, and the were spent in the village planting corn; there council take absolutely no official notice of was a summer hunt for buffalo and other it. In other words, if the brakes were not game (June to August) on the prairies; and a put on, it was a sign to the warriors that return to the village for harvesting in the late their path was clear. Such tacit recognition summer and early fall (August to October). might be the actual "declaration" of war. The hunting grounds in this area, unlike those Such was likely to be the course after prov­ to the north among some of the Ojibwa, were ocation by an enemy, or in the course of nationally owned, and a tribal council decided one of the chronic wars, as for instance the where the hunters should go each season. Sauk and Fox war with the Sioux, or the Ir­ These decisions were made in the light of var- oquois with the Cherokee. 3) "Encouraging the warriors to go out." On occasion—either when the security of the "This sketch ofthe relation between political structure tribe demanded concerted action, or when and warfare in the Northeast is based in part on the writer's knowledge of a wide range of primary source ma­ a war belt from an ally seemed worth ac­ terial and in part on the studies contained in the following cepting and a confederate campaign was to works: William N. Fenton, "Review of Primitive Warfare, be effected—the council might notify the by H. H. Turney-High," American Anthropologist, LII tribe, invite representatives of the warriors (1950): 246-247; Wendell S. Hadlock, "War Among the into council, stir up the people, advise the Northeastern Woodland Indians," American Anthropolo­ gist, XLIX(I947): 204-221; Hunt, Wars of the Iroquois; Ro­ warriors on strategy, serve as a communi­ bert H. Lowie, The Crow Indians (New York, 1935); cations center, and so on. Although it was Bernard Mishkin, Rank and Warfare Among the Plains In­ still up to the individual leaders to an­ dians (Monographs of the American Ethnological Society, III, nounce a war party, the council could stim­ New York, 1940); W. W. Newcomb, Jr., "A Re­ ulate them to do so, and to a degree coordi­ examination of the Causes of Plains Warfare," American Anthropologist, LII (1952): 317-330; Marian W. Smith, nate the plans of various leaders. Here "American Indian Warfare," Transactions of the New York again, however, the council had no coer­ Academy of Sciences, Ser. II, XIII (1951): 348-365; George cive power and could not raise an army Snyderman, "Behind the Tree of Peace; A Sociological against the will of the warriors. Analysis of Iroquois Warfare" (Ph.D. dissertation, Uni­ versity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1948); Harry Holbert Turney-High, Primitive War: Its Practice and Con­ The basic situation thus was of a body of cepts (Columbia, S.C., 1949); Anthony F. C. Wallace, King warriors constantly straining at the leash, of the Delawares: Teedyuscung, 1700—1763 (Philadelphia, ready to take to the warpath on the slightest 1949). provocation. Where a chiefs' council was ''See A. L. Kroeber, Cultural and Natural Areas of Native North America (Berkeley, 1939); Skinner, Ethnology ofthe effective, its relation to the war party could Sauk Indians; Forsyth and Marston in Blair, ed., Indian take one of three forms: direct encourage­ Tribes ofthe Upper Mississippi, II.

253 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 ious considerations: current peace or war in Louisiana Purchase area. It may be worth ob­ the neighborhood of a hunting ground; the serving that, beyond the above-mentioned extent of white settlement in an area; the loca­ technological traits, there were also several tion of trading posts; and the necessity of leav­ others which went to make up the frontier cul­ ing an area untouched for a season or so, now ture shared by both white and Indian. One of and then, in order not to kill off the breeding these was a dependence on kinship ties as the population of animals. The tribes in the area primary social nexus; another was a heavy in­ all had clear notions of tribal boundaries, and dulgence in hard liquor, with an attendant all recognized the principle of tribal bounds; pattern of brawling; and there was a tendency, there were regular conventions according to perhaps more marked among frontier whites which friendly tribes permitted their neigh­ than among Indians, to disregard formal laws, bors to hunt on their lands, if formal applica­ orders, and commands outside of kin relation­ tion was made or invitation extended; two ships and to depend on force and loud protes­ tribes might hunt in a specific area—even a tation to settle arguments. Yet it is difficult to disputed area—by common agreement. Areas avoid the impression that, even without police, could be won and lost by conquest; could be courts, or standing armies, Indian tribes were abandoned; could be preempted if found va­ more orderly than neighboring white settle­ cant.'^ Hunting grounds during the fur trade ments, for there existed among the Indians a era were thus treated in some respects rather remarkable tradition of self-discipline by indi­ like capital property owned by a corporation: viduals which achieved for the tribe a degree properly maintained and worked, they pro­ of social coordination, even under severe duced an annual product of furs for the trade stress, which whites cannot be said to have which, when sold, netted the tribal owners matched, for all their apparatus of law and po­ substantial sums of money. The Sauk and Fox litical structure. But a crucial difference ex­ in the period about 1804 brought in annually, isted: the Indians of the frontier culture, or­ to St. Louis alone, furs worth $60,000." derly as they might be (except when drunk), The importance of the hunt extended be­ were part of no larger organization; whereas yond the mere provision of food, clothing, white frontiersmen, however lawless, were and other consumption goods. For the hunt part of a vast organization which could bring for furs and skins linked the Sauk and Fox to bear in their behalf overwhelming eco­ with Europeans in that ancient intercontinen­ nomic and military force. In many ways, the tal chain of commerce, the fur trade, and this Indians were more orderly; but the whites had link with Europeans brought to the Sauk and the larger organization. Fox, as to the members of other Indian tribes, quantities of trade goods. These goods— supplemented by what was given as "presents" at treaty councils, and what might be seized in T is sometimes difficult for us to re­ war—gradually replaced much of the pre- I alize that a "nation" like the Sauk, Columbian material culture. By 1804, cer­ or even the Sauk and Fox together, amounted tainly, most of the Sauk and Fox regarded to no more than a few thousand men, women, steel knives, traps, guns, brass kettles, needles, and children—the population of a country vil­ awls, beads, cloth, and whisky as elemental ne­ lage, no more. Together the Sauk and Fox cessities of life. Thus Indian and white were in were one of the largest tribal organizations in certain technological respects sharing a com­ their area, yet their joint population ranged mon "frontier culture" at the time when the (with allowance both for the uncertainty of United States was assuming control of the early figures and for the fluctuations pro­ duced by wars and other misfortunes) be­ tween about 3,000 and about 6,500 (roughly two thirds being Sauk) during the period from '"See Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Political Organization 1700 to 1842."* Such a group, if it is part of no and Land Tenure among the Northeastern Indians, 1600-1830," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, XIII (1957): 301-321. '"The writer has compiled a table of thirty-three con­ "Pierre Chouteau's estimate in 1804, in A. P. Nasatir, temporary estimates ofthe Sauk and Fox population dur­ ed., Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History ing the period 1710-1842. The estimates for 1829, 1831, of tlie Missouri, 1785-1804 (St. Louis, 1952), II: 758-759. and 1834 are, respectively, 6,600, 6,000, 6,900 (Porter in 254 This oil portrait from life by Charles Bird King is in the Warner Collection ofthe Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Reasonably accurate as to dress and adornment, it nevertheless idealizes Black Hawk, casting him as a Roman senator. larger organization, cannot make many mis­ comparable considerations of the surround­ takes: an ill-placed alliance, a faulty campaign, ing tribes. There is no point here in attempt­ a divisive faction, an epidemic of smallpox, a ing to delimit the area in all possible detail for wrong guess about the movement of game, any given time, or to show changes in use, oc­ can reduce the population to the point where cupancy, control, and claim through the per­ political survival is improbable. iod from first contact ofthe Sauk and Fox with The combined territory ofthe several thou­ whites in Michigan to removal beyond the Mis­ sand Sauk and Fox Indians in 1804 may be souri in the 1840's. For purposes of a discus­ bounded with reasonable certainty, using a va­ sion of the Black Hawk War, we may say that riety of indications: the location of villages, the the Sauk and Fox territory in 1804 lay on both distribution of hunting grounds, claims of sides of the Mississippi, roughly between the ownership, the nature of land use, summary on the north and the Missouri observations of contemporary white men, and on the south, and extending east to the middle of present Illinois and west to the watershed between the Des Moines and the Missouri Henry Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge [Phila­ rivers. Parts of this region they shared with the delphia, I860], HI: 593; Reynolds in E. B. Greene and Clarence W. Alvord, eds., The Governor's Letter-Books, Iowa, a small alhed tribe, who also occupied in­ 1818—1834 [Illinois Historical Collections, IV, Springfield, dependently some other areas along the Mis­ 1909], 182; Cass in Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal souri. Major settlement areas of the Sauk and Knowledge, 111:609). The estimates for 1804 and 1805 are, Fox, in 1804, were along the Mississippi: at the respectively, 3,200 and 4,600 (estimates by Lewis and mines about Dubuque, at the mouth of Rock Clark in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 1:711, and in Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., Original Journals of the Lewis River (Saukenuk and Musquakenuk), at the and Clark Expedition, 1804-1806 [New York, 1904-1905], , at the mouth of Henderson Creek VI: 92-93; Pike in Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal in Illinois, and about the mouth of the Des Knowledge, 111: 562). Where estimates of number of war­ Moines River; smaller summer settlements, riors only are given, the conventional correction factor of 4 has been used to give number of .souls. other than those named, lay on one side or the

255 if

Library of C;ongress A cigarette card of about 1940 brazenly depicted a warrior chieftain of uncertain affiliation under the guise of Black Hawk. Other of the Mississippi, north of Dubuque migrated before 1700 into what is now Wis­ and south of the Des Moines, within the gen­ consin, the Sauk settling near the head of eral territory. In and about the villages, within Green Bay, and the Fox a short distance to the a radius of perhaps fifteen miles, land was south, near the Fox-Wisconsin portage. Fox used for gardening, for hunting small game, efforts to control the fur trade with more west­ for the gathering of various wild vegetable erly tribes led them, in the first half of the products. In general, primarily Sauk villages eighteenth century, into a chronic war with tended to be in the southeast portion of the the French, which resulted in their moving, area, and the primarily Fox villages tended to with their allies the Sauk, to the lower Wiscon­ be to the north and west ofthe Sauk. On both sin River and the Mississippi below the Wis­ sides of the Mississippi, about present Dubu­ consin. By about 1764 there was a settlement que, Iowa, and Galena, Illinois, Sauk and Fox at Rock River and at the mines near Dubuque; mined lead for sale to white men. Winter soon thereafter the Sauk established them­ hunting of skins and pelts for the fur trade selves on the Des Moines. Between 1780 and took place at varying distances, often consid­ 1800 the Sauk and Fox, with the aid of the erable, from the summer villages, on both the Iowa (also on the about 1764 east and west sides ofthe Mississippi. at least), drove away Osage, Missouri, and The Sauk and Fox had not always lived in Kansas hunters from the region between the this region. When first heard of by white men, Missouri and the Des Moines. in the seventeenth century, they resided on The tribes neighboring them were several: the Michigan Peninsula. As a result of wars east of the Mississippi, on the south (disre­ with the Iroquoian peoples to the east, they garding sales of land) the Illinois, on the east 256 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER the Potawatomi and Winnebago, and on the the mouth of the Ouisconsing river and north the Sioux and the Chippewa; west of up the same to a point which shall be Mississippi, on the south the Osage, on the thirty-six miles in a direct line from the west the Iowa, the Oto and Missouri, and the mouth of the said river, thence by a di­ Omaha, and on the north the Sioux. rect line to the point where the Fox river It is within the region just delineated, and (a branch of the Illinois) leaves the small with the tribes named, that the events leading lake called Sakaegan, thence down the to the Black Hawk War occurred. Fox river to the Illinois river, and down the same to the Mississippi. And the said tribes, for and in consideration of the THE TREATY OF 1804 friendship and protection of the United States which is now extended to them, of the goods (to the value of two thousand two hundred and thirty-four dollars and ^HE grievances of Black Hawk's fifty cents) which are now delivered, and T' band, and the claims of the of the annuity hereinafter stipulated to United States to the Rock River country, dated be paid, do hereby cede and relinquish back to 1804, when a treaty was negotiated be­ forever to the United States, all the lands tween certain Sauk and Fox Indians and rep­ included within the above-described resentatives ofthe United States. According to boundary. the language of this treaty, as it is printed in the Statutes ofthe United States, the Sauk and ART. 3. In consideration ofthe cession Fox ceded to the United States a large terri­ and relinquishment of land made in the preceding article, the United States will tory, on both sides of the Mississippi, includ­ deliver to the said tribes at the town of St. ing the lands on Rock River. The treaty (as ex­ Louis or some other convenient place on ecuted by the Sauk and Fox signatories in the Mississippi yearly and every year 1804) read as follows: goods suited to the circumstances of the Indians ofthe value of one thousand dol­ ARTICLES of a treaty made at St. Louis in the district of Louisiana between Wil­ lars (six hundred of which are intended liam Henry Harrison, governor of the for the Sacs and four hundred for the and of the district of Foxes) reckoning that value at the first Louisiana, superintendant of Indian cost ofthe goods in the city or place in the affairs for the said territory and district, United States where they shall be pro­ and commissioner plenepotentiary of cured. And if the said tribes shall hereaf­ the United States for concluding any ter at an annual delivery of the goods treaty or treaties which may be found aforesaid, desire that a part of their an­ necessary with any of the north western nuity should be furnished in domestic tribes of Indians ofthe one part, and the animals, implements of husbandry and chiefs and head men of the united Sac other utensils convenient for them, or in and Fox tribes of the other part. compensation to useful artificers who may reside with or near them, and be ARTICLE 1. The United States receive employed for their benefit, the same the united Sac and Fox tribes into their shall at the subsequent annual delivery friendship and protection, and the said be furnished accordingly. tribes agree to consider themselves un­ der the protection of the United States, ART. 4. The United States will never and of no other power whatsoever. interrupt the said tribes in the possession ART. 2. The general boundary line be­ of the lands which they rightfully claim, tween the lands of the United States and but will on the contrary protect them in of the said Indian tribes shall be as fol­ the quiet enjoyment of the same against lows, to wit: Beginning at a point on the their own citizens and against all other Missouri river opposite to the mouth of white persons who may intrude upon the Gasconade river; thence in a direct them. And the said tribes do hereby en­ course so as to strike the river Jeff reon at gage that they will never sell their lands the distance of thirty miles from its or any part thereof to any sovereign mouth, and down the said Jeffreon to the power, but the United States, nor to the Mississippi, thence up the Mississippi to citizens or subjects of any other sover- 257 WISCONSIN MACTAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

eign power, nor to the citizens of the zens; provided that the property so United States. stolen cannot be recovered and that ART. 5. Lest the friendship which is sufficient proof is produced that it was now established between the United actually stolen by a citizen of the United States and the said Indian tribes should States. be interrupted by the misconduct of in­ ART. 6. If any citizen of the United dividuals, it is hereby agreed that for in­ States or other white person should form juries done by individuals no private re­ a settlement upon lands which are the venge or retaliation shall take place, but, property ofthe Sac and Fox tribes, upon instead thereof, complaints shall be complaint being made thereof to the su­ made by the party injured to the other— perintendant or other person having by the said tribes or either of them to the charge of the affairs of the Indians, such superintendant of Indian affairs or one intruder shall forthwith be removed. of his deputies, and by the superinten­ ART. 7. As long as the lands which are dant or other person appointed by the now ceded to the United States remain President, to the chiefs ofthe said tribes. their property, the Indians belonging to And it shall be the duty of the said chiefs the said tribes, shall enjoy the privilege of upon complaint being made as aforesaid living and hunting upon them. to deliver up the person or persons ART. 8. As the laws of the United against whom the complaint is made, to the States regulating trade and inter-course end that he or they may be punished with the Indian tribes, are already ex­ agreeably to the laws ofthe state or terri­ tended to the country inhabited by the tory where the offence may have been Saukes and Foxes, and as it is provided committed; and in like manner if any ro- by those laws that no person shall reside bery, violence or murder shall be com­ as a trader in the Indian country without mitted on any Indian or Indians belong­ a license under the hand [and] seal ofthe ing to the said tribes or either of them, superintendant of Indian affairs, or the person or persons so offending shall other person appointed for the purpose be tried, and if found guilty, punished in by the President, the said tribes do prom­ the like manner as if the injury had been ise and agree that they will not suffer any done to a white man. And it is further trader to reside amongst them without agreed, that the chiefs of the said tribes such license; and that they will from time shall, to the utmost of their power exert to time give notice to their superinten­ themselves to recover horses or other dant or to the agent for their tribes of all property which may be stolen from any the traders that may be in their country. citizen or citizens of the United States by ART. 9. In order to put a stop to the any individual or individuals of their abuses and impositions which are prac­ tribes, and the property so recovered ticed upon the said tribes by the private shall be forthwith delivered to the su­ traders, the United States will at a con­ perintendant or other person authorised venient time establish a trading house or to receive it, that it may be restored to the factory where the individuals of the said proper owner; and in cases where the ex­ tribes can be supplied with goods at a ertions of the chiefs shall be ineffectual more reasonable rate than they have in recovering the property stolen as been accustomed to procure them. aforesaid, if sufficient proof can be ob­ tained that such property was actually ART. 10. In order to evince the sincer­ stolen by any Indian or Indians belong­ ity of their friendship and affection for ing to the said tribes or either of them, the United States and a respectful defer­ the United States may deduct from the ence for their advice by an act which will annuity of the said tribes a sum equal to not only be acceptable to them but to the the value of the property which has been common Father of all the nations of the stolen. And the United States hereby earth; the said tribes do hereby solemnly guarantee to any Indian or Indians of promise and agree that they will put an the said tribes a full indemnification for end to the bloody war which has hereto­ any horses or other property which may fore raged between their tribes and those be stolen from them by any of their citi­ of the Great and Little Osages. And for the purpose of burying the tomahawk

258 ^ •1l

VVHi(X3)2812 /t well-known and oft-published lithograph from a painting by James Otto Lewis ofthe great treaty held at Prairie du Chien in 1825. Such assemblages might last weeks, involve many hundreds of participants, and evoke much pageantry and oratory. and renewing the friendly intercourse And that for such passage they shall at no between themselves and the Osages, a time and on no account whatever be sub­ meeting of their respective chiefs shall ject to any toll or exaction. take place, at which under the direction ART. 12. This treaty shall take effect ofthe above-named commissioner or the and be obligatory on the contracting par­ agent of Indian affairs residing at St. ties as soon as the same shall have been Louis, an adjustment of all their ratified by the President by and with the differences shall be made and peace es­ advice and consent of the Senate of the tablished upon a firm and lasting basis. United States. ART. 11. AS it is probable that the gov­ ernment of the United States will estab­ IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF. The said Wil­ lish a military post at or near the mouth liam Henry Harrison, and the chiefs and ofthe Ouisconsing river; and as the land head men of the said Sac and Fox tribes on the lower side ofthe river may not be have hereunto set their hands and suitable for that purpose, the said tribes affixed their seals. Done at Saint Louis, in hereby agree that a fort may be built ei­ the district of Louisiana, on the third day ther on the upper side of the Ouiscons­ of November, one thousand eight hun­ ing or on the right bank of the Missis­ dred and four; and ofthe independence sippi, as the one or the other may be ofthe United States, the twenty-ninth. found most convenient; and a tract of (Signed) WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON land not exceeding two miles square Layouvis, or Laiyuwa, Outchequaha, or Sun shall be given for that purpose. And the Fish said tribes do further agree, that they will Pashepaho, or the Gi at all times allow to traders and other ger, Hahshequaxhiqua, or persons travelling through their country the Bear. under the authority ofthe United States Quashquame, orjump- ing Fish, a free and safe passage for themselves In presence of (the words "a branch of the Illi­ and their property of every description. nois," in the third line ofthe second article, and the

259 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

word "forever," in the fifth line ofthe same article, whites—an invitation which the Kickapoo being first interlined,) Wm. Prince, Secretary to the refused. A Kickapoo reported that the Sauk Commissioner. John Griffin, one of the Judges of the Indiana Territory. J. Bruff, Major Art'ry U.S. had dragged an American flag in the dirt at Amos Stoddard, Capt. corps of Artillerists. P. the tails of their horses. The Sauk and Fox, on Chouteau, Agent de la Traite Louisiaina pour le the other hand, were apprehensive because Departement, Innuage. Ch. Gratiot. Aug. they had not received any of those marks of fa­ Chouteau. Vigo. S. Warrell, Lt. U.S. Artillery. D. vor and friendship, or promises of protection, Delaunay. Sworn Interpreters, Joseph Barron, Hy- polite Bolon." from the United States which certain other na­ tions had received. The Osage, traditional en­ emies of the Sauk and Fox, seemed especially favored; the Secretary of War had instructed N the years to come, contention Indian Agent Pierre Chouteau to be "particu­ I flared about three issues: the va­ larly attentive" to that tribe.^- (The Spanish re­ lidity of the treaty itself; the language in Ar­ gime, by contrast, had at times favored the ticle 2, by which the cession's boundaries were Sauk and Fox over the Osage.) Only the year defined; and the interpretation of Article 7, before, furthermore, the United States had which guaranteed to the Indians the use ofthe bought from the Kaskaskia the land on the lands ceded as long as these lands remained south side ofthe Illinois River, to part of which the property ofthe United States. the Sauk and Fox felt that they and the Kicka­ There can hardly be question that, from the poo had a claim.^' This neglect appeared to be Sauk and Fox standpoint, the treaty was not especially ominous to the Sauk and Fox be­ valid as a cession of land. The circumstances cause United States officers in August turned preceding and surrounding the treaty were back a war party of three hundred men who unusual and require discussion in some detail. had marched from the river Wisconsin to at­ The misunderstandings about the language tack the Osage: a proceeding manifestly irri­ and interpretation of the treaty itself seem to tating and, in addition, threatening, inasmuch have developed only later, after the existence as it implied that the United States was siding ofthe treaty became an accomplished fact.^" with the Osage in their ancient quarrel with In September of 1804, relations between the Sauk and Fox. Equally ominous was the the Sauk and Fox and the whites in Illinois and trespass of the whites on the Cuivre River, Missouri were becoming tense. The United where Sauk and Fox hunting parties were in States had but the year before bought the the habit of wintering. These settlements not French (and through them, the Spanish) only were an infringement on Sauk and Fox rights to the huge area of "Louisiana," and the hunting lands, but further hampered the local tribal situation was in a state of flux. Each Sauk and Fox in their conflict with the Osage. side suspected the other of plotting war. It is entirely likely that the Sauk and Fox saw United States officials were uneasy because the the grim possibility that the Osage, as allies of Sauk were a large group, not bound by any the United States, would take over the south­ treaty with the United States, and were refus­ ern Sauk and Fox hunting lands and would try ing to give up prisoners or stolen horses.-' It to divert United States fur traders from the was rumored that the Sauk and Fox had "in a Sauk and Fox to themselves. In earlier years, speech with wampum" (i.e., an official speech) the Spanish trade with the Osage had been in­ invited the Kickapoo to war against the terrupted by their wars with Sauk, Fox, and Iowa on the Des Moines River.-' In November, 1804, Pierre Chouteau at St. Louis estimated ^''United States Statutes at Large, VIII: 84-87. The article concerning the lead mines, which was introduced at the time of ratification by the Senate, has been omitted from the text reproduced in this essay. ''''Territorial Papers, XI11: 31. '•'"Except as otherwise noted, the account ofthe circum­ ^'Stoddard to Dearborn, June 22, 1804, in Glimpses of stances surrounding the Treaty of 1804 is based on docu­ the Past (publication ofthe Missouri Historical Society, St. ments published in Territorial Papers, XIII; American State Louis), 11 (May-Sept., 1935): 114-115. Papers: Indian Affairs, I; and Black Hawk, Life of Ma-ka-tai- ^'Lawrence Kinnaird, ed., Spain in the Mississippi Valley, me-she-kia-kiak . . . (Boston, 1834). 1765—1794: Translations of Materials from the Spanish Ar­ ^'Logan T. Esarey, ed., Messages and Letters of William chives m the Bancroft Library (Annual Report of the American Henry Harrison, Volume I (Indiana Historical Collections, Historical Association for. . 1945,11, IV. Washington, 1946, VIII, Indianapolis, 1922), 30. 1949).

260 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER that the annual value of the Sauk and Fox strain'd from falling on an innocent Sack vil­ trade at St. Louis with the Spanish was $40,000 lage & destroying the whole."^* A deputation for the Sauk and $20,000 for the Fox, or a total of two chiefs came down to St. Louis to an­ of $60,000. The nearest competitors of the nounce their disapproval of the murder "and Sauk were the Grand Osage, with an annual to enquire what satisfaction we demanded; trade worth $35,000.^" Nevertheless, the Sauk but hoped we were just and would not punish and the Fox both seem to have been in favor of the innocent for the Guilty."^' These Sauk a conciliatory policy toward the United States, deputies found the settlements in great alarm, at least as far as the tribal councils were con­ some settlers fleeing, a stockaded fort being cerned, and attempted to control the ire of built on the Cuivre River, preparations for their young men, who tended to favor hostili­ war being made, and a general conviction ties against the whites. The United States, on among the whites that the Sauk also were pre­ her part, was aware that "it was a subject of paring for war. These Chiefs were given a complaint with the Sacs, that they received message in "strong language" to take back to nothing, and were connected with us by no their nation, demanding that the murderers treaty."2'' be given up under the implicit threat of war, and inviting "a large proportion of them" to a treaty council with Governor William Henry Harrison at which "measures may be taken NTO this tense situation four Sauk that will produce those warriors."'" Harrison I hunters tossed a bombshell in had been instructed in June of 1804 to obtain 1804 by murdering some white settlers who cessions of land from the Sauk, on both sides were trespassing on Indian hunting lands on of the Illinois," but there is no evidence to the Cuivre River. Later one of the murderers show that the Sauk envoys were informed by and his countrymen admitted that they had the United States that a cession of land was been expressing their jealousy and hatred of contemplated as a major part ofthe business. the Osage in thus killing whites who favored the Osage above themselves. "The Saukies The Sauk deputation hastened back, and own'd it was on the account principally that next month, on October 27, another small their young men committed the murders. deputation arrived in St. Louis, led by one They seem to think we give them the most, we Quashquame, who was "a prominent man of a fear the most—those who are the most daring small group of people who happened to have and desperate." But the act seems also to have their camps near by one another. This smah been an attempt by a rebellious party of war­ band made up the party that went to camp riors to force the hand of their conciliatory near Shallow Water [St. Louis]."'^ Presumably chiefs. When the hunters returned to the Sauk at least one of the murderers was a member of settlements, they "threw down the scalps be­ Quashquame's band. Quashquame and the fore their town Chiefs, and tauntingly said others were acting, as the party responsible for 'Now you that make the land to smile, go cry the murder, under charge from the Sauk na­ with the whites."" tion as a whole to settle the matter of the mur­ der before the Americans launched a war. The Sauk chiefs who heard ofthe murders They brought with them one of the murderers were greatly alarmed. They denounced the for trial and possible punishment by the murder, and four of the bands living lowest Americans. down the Mississippi abandoned their settle­ Harrison, who had arrived in St. Louis only ments and retired "over the river Du Moins, two weeks earlier and had been "employed apprehensive of retaliation." In this anxiety ever since in organizing the civil department," they were not unrealistic, for according to Ma­ met the Sauk deputation shortly after sending jor James Bruff at St. Louis, "It was with away a party of Osage chiefs "loaded with difficulty, and upon promises of amplejustice, that the settlement on Cuiver cou'd be re- •'nbid, 57, 77. •'''Ibid., 57. ^'Nasatir, ed., Before Lewis and Clark, II: 758-59. "•Hbid., 58. ^''American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 1: 693. ^'American State Papers: Indian Affairs, I: 695. '"TerritorialPapers, XIII: 80, 57. '••Jones, "Notes on the Fox Indians," 235. 261 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 valuable presents & puffed up with ideas of (identified as Cession 50"') subject to a pro­ their great superiority to other nations—on viso which may have implied to the Sauk account of the distinction paid to them by our and Fox (unacquainted with the custom of government."'" (Major Bruff, indeed, ob­ private as opposed to public ownership of served that the evident favoritism of the land) that the land actually was being re­ United States toward the Osage had "excited served to them forever under United the jealousy & hatred of the other nations to States guardianship. This proviso read: such a degree that I am apprehensive of the "As long as the lands which are now ceded consequences if as large presents are not made to the United States remain their property, them also."'^ Just as the details ofthe murders the Indians belonging to the said tribes, are not recorded, so the details of what actu­ shall enjoy the privilege of living and hunt­ ally happened during the negotiations do not ing upon them." appear in the records; there are no treatyjour- 7) gave to the Sauk and Fox the sum of nals available; and probably no one will ever $2,234.50 and an annuity of $1,000. In know the full story. Harrison entered upon view ofthe subsequent "pardon" ofthe In­ negotiation with the desire to buy land, as had dian murderer who gave himself up (al­ been suggested in his general instructions though the pardon arrived after the In­ from the War Department of June 27, 1804, dian had been shot "when attempting to which mentioned the desirability of a cession make his escape"), it seems likely that an from the Sauk on both sides of the Illinois unwritten part of the bargain was the free­ River.'' Quashquame and his colleagues, as we ing of the prisoner. A second possible in­ have seen, had not been given authority to sell terpretation of the motives of the Indian any land, but they were authorized—indeed, representatives in signing a treaty of "ces­ charged—to settle the issue of the recent mur­ sion" is that they were panicked into acced­ ders on the Cuivre River and by so doing to re­ ing to a land cession, defined as "weregild," move the threat of war and invasion, thus pav­ under threat of war and the death of the ing the way to friendly trading and pol­ prisoner if they refused. itical relations with the United States. Quashquame, Pashipaho, and three other In­ dians (at least one of whom was a Fox) signed a treaty which effected several things; it HUS the most reasonable inter­ T pretation of the Treaty of 1804 1) established the Sauk and Fox as allies ofthe is that it was understood by the Indian signers United States, under their friendship and to be an authorized settlement on both sides of protection (thus putting them, officially at a specific incident which was threatening to least, on a par with their ancient rivals, the develop into a full-scale war. When the United Osage); States offered to make the settlement general, 2) guaranteed the Sauk and Fox secure pos­ and not merely specific to the Cuivre River in­ session of their lands; cident, by receiving the Sauk and Fox into 3) made an explicit agreement providing for their alliance and protection and establishing an orderly and just settlement of com­ regular modes of handling problems of trade plaints by individuals of one nation against and international grievances, the deputation those of another (thus theoretically obviat­ doubtless eagerly accepted the opportunity. ing the possibility of another war scare); From the language ofthe treaty, it seems likely 4) provided fortheregular conduct of the In­ that the Sauk and Fox deputies either inter­ dian trade; preted the cession clause as a purely formal 5) provided for a peace treaty (duly held gesture of extending United States protection later) between the Sauk and Fox and the over a substantial part of their territory or that Osage; they were panicked into accepting it at the 6) ceded to the United States a vast territory time (even though they had no authority from in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Missouri '"This area is designated as "Cession 50" by Charles C. ^territorialPapers, XIII: 76-80. Royce in Indian Land Cessions m the United States (Eighteenth ^'Ibid., 80. Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Pt. 2, ^'American State Papers: Indian Affairs, 1: 695. Washington, 1899).

262 Oil portrait of Black Hawk by an unknown artist ofthe nineteenth century.

their tribes to do so) under threat of war, death of the prisoner, or perhaps even per­ sonal injury. The bounds described exceeded, on the east, the territory occupied or even claimed by the Sauk and Fox. The interpreta­ tion of the cession as an empty gesture could very easily occur to Indians unfamiliar with the public land system ofthe United States (by which such land is alienated to private individ­ uals) but familiar with their own allotment sys­ tem (by which the tribal council retained the right of disposition of the hunting lands year after year) and earlier French and British practice of making formal claims of political sovereignty to vast territories without any in­ tention of infringing compensable rights of use and occupancy possessed by the aboriginal inhabitants. Furthermore, the Sauk and Fox had been carrying on a very busy fur trade for WHi(X3)38421 a hundred years or more, a trade worth per­ tions were made long after the event by haps $60,000 annually, and it is extremely im­ Quashquame at a time when he was sorely probable that they would have been so naive as pressed to explain away the treaty as a thing willingly to sell several of their villages and a for which he was not to blame.'" major portion of their hunting territories for a fraction of the income derived annually for them. It would seem much more likely that Articles 2 and 7 actually reassured them of un­ THE PEACE POLICY, 1804-1828 disturbed tenure, and that the Sauk deputa­ tion, not authorized to sell land, did not per­ ceive the language ofthe treaty as a cession. ^NE ofthe remarkable character­ O' istics of native American politi­ It has sometimes been claimed that the In­ cal structures was their capacity to maintain dians were deliberately made drunk and their policy over extended periods of time. Indeed, signatures obtained under the influence of in­ possibilities for theoretical analysis exist here toxication. This is possible but not confirm- which may excite the fancy of scientifically in­ able, just as the story of the murder's having clined historians and historically minded so­ been committed by a father as a result of a cial sciendsts, for consideration of the prob­ white man's indecent advances to his daughter lem of policy-maintenance leads to the is possible but not confirmable." These asser- question of the relationship between policy and culture: a policy, beginning as the imple­ "Certainly in later years Indian resentment of white mentation of a particular relationship with men's attentions to their women provoked trouble. In 1820, for instance, Sauk and Fox objections to white men's taking liberties with Indian women led to the calling out of "Black Hawk, Life (1834 ed.), 27-28; Cyrenus Cole, / the militia of Boonslick Settlement. See Forsyth to Clark, Am a Man: The Indian Black Hawk (Iowa City, la., 1938), March 24, 1820, as quoted in Sac and Fox Exhibit 317, 30—31. Black Hawk's account of the affair seems to be eth- Docket 83, Indian Claims Commission, Washington, D.C. nologically reliable (in noting, for instance, the customary The "Winnebago War" was in part aroused by Winnebago usage of compounding for murder—the "weregild" prac­ resentment of the sexual liberties taken by white miners. tice) but is not completely accurate in historical detail (he See Forsyth to Clark, June 10, 1828, WHi: Draper MSS, refers to the murder of "an .American," when at least three 6T85. were killed). 263 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 traditional cultural tools, may after a period of will allow us Something in addition, to time elicit change in the tools themselves. The what Governor Harrison has promised struggle ofthe Sauk chiefs' council to maintain us." the peace policy required them to make des­ At the close of the war of 1812 the Sauk and perate attempts to control irresponsible indi­ Fox separately, in 1815 and 1816, made peace viduals and dissident factions; and in this with the United States, and both (under pres­ struggle, the power to dispose of annuity and sure to end a war in which their allies had ca­ other tribal payments in cash and kind from pitulated) assented to the Treaty of 1804,'" in white sources became crucial. Keokuk's effi^rt spite of earlier reports that they would refuse in the 1830's and 1840's to secure certain oper­ to do so.*' In 1817 chiefs of both the Sauk and ating funds to the council in order to give it Fox accepted the annuities for that year after power to forestall feuds by compounding kill­ Forsyth explained that the receipts did not ings, to recompense those of whom sacrifice constitute a new cession of land, that the was demanded, to care for the indigent, and to United States intended only to retain posses­ acquire the tools of civilization, deserves full sion of what it had bought in 1804.'^ In 1822 treatment by a student ofthe dynamics of cul­ the united Sauk and Fox (the signatories in­ ture change. cluding both Quashquame and Keokuk) The peace policy of the council, and the signed a treaty exempting the United States council's difficulty in maintaining that policy from one of its obligations under the 1804 in the face of dissent by rebellious warriors, treaty.*" The Sauk and Fox furthermore had was already formed in 1804 and, indeed, was discharged certain of the other provisions of responsible for the fact that a treaty, instead of the 1804 treaty, in 1805 entering into a treaty a frontier war, occurred in that year. The of peace with the Osage.*' And they may be ar­ council, quickly learned that the treaty was re­ gued to have acceded, at least technically, by garded by the United States as a land cession. their participation in the negotiations and Their attitude was essentially one of accepting treaties, to the land arrangements in 1816 and the treaty as a fait accompli, however irregular 1825 by which the United States ceded to the it might have been (since to reject it outright Ottawa, Chippewa, and Potawatomi the bulk would embroil them in war with the United of the lands in Illinois north of an east-west States), hut at the same time of pressing the line from the southern extremity of Lake United States to remedy the treaty's injustices. Michigan, as well as the whole of Cession 50 in In 1805, at a formal council in St. Louis, Wisconsin—amounting in all to nearly half of "several" of the Sauk and Fox chiefs spoke the cession. Likewise, they recognized Winne­ their minds on the issue of the 1804 treaty in a bago rights to part of Cession 50 as defined by message which they requested to be sent on to the 1825 settlement at Prairie du Chien.*^ the President of the United States. This mes­ sage expressed deep regret and discontent with the treaty and a desire for more adequate compensation. The chiefs said: HUS it seems apparent that the T' legally constituted chiefs, act­ We were desirous to oblige the United ing in formal treaties and councils, did consist­ States, but we had never before Sold ently refuse to reject outright or to sanction Land, and we did not know the value of physical resistance to the carrying out of what it, we trusted our beloved white men to Speak for us, and we have given away a great Country to Governor Harrison for ^''TerritorialPapers, XllL 168. a little thing, we do not say we were "'UnitedStatesStatutesatLargc'Vll: 13.5-136, 141-142. cheated, but we made a bad bargain and "Portage des Sioux treaty report, July 11, 1815, Mer­ the Chiefs who made it are all dead, yet cantile Library, St. Louis. the bargain Stands, for we never take ^^Forsyth to Clark, June 3, 1817, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. back what we have given, but we hope ^'United States Statutes at Large, VIII: 223. our Great Father will consider our Situa­ ''TerritorialPapers, XIII: 245-247. tion, for we are very Poor, and that he '^United States Statutes at Large, VII: 272-277.

264 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

the United States said were the terms of the ously pro-American. After the Black Hawk Treaty of 1804, even though they just as con­ War, in order to secure advantages from sepa­ sistently protested its irregularity, argued over rate dealings with the United States, the Mis­ its interpretation, and demanded more ade­ souri Sauk branded the Mississippi chiefs as quate compensation. It is questionable anti-American. whether they understood the terms of the But while the Missouri Sauk eventually treaty, either in 1804 or later, even when as­ tried to promote their interests by assertions senting to it under protest, in precisely the that the Rock River chiefs were hostile to the same way that the United States did. United States, the chiefs' policy came under Quashquame, for instance, later insisted that early attack by recalcitrant young warriors he had not intended to sell any of the lands who condemned them as weaklings under the north of the Rock River,'"' and the Sauk may influence of the United States! This issue came never until 1831 have realized how badly they to a head in the course of the protracted war had been taken. Thus, we may say that in the between the Sauk and Fox and northern and interests of peace the chiefs of the Sauk and western tribes, particularly the Sioux, Omaha, Fox not only refused to sanction any physical and Oto. After 1812, Sauk and Fox hunters resistance to the carrying out of the terms of had been hunting increasingly westward and the Treaty of 1804 but also honored many of northward, invading lands of neighboring its provisions, though complaining constantly tribes. The cycle of revenge raids amounted, that proceedings had been irregular and the when seen in conjunction with the extension compensation unreasonably low. of hunting west of the Des Moines-Missouri The middle-of-the-road policy ofthe chiefs watershed, to a war of conquest. The pressure was not popular with many of the warriors, for new hunting grounds was aggravated by however, and circumstances made the coun­ the loss of grounds to the east, as a result of the cil's task of maintaining coordination increas­ 1804 cession and the 1824 cession of lands in ingly difficult. Indeed, the chiefs eventually Missouri, and by the increasing intrusion of found themselves between an upper and a white miners in the lead regions of Galena and nether millstone. During the early part ofthe Fever River. In 1825 the United States, fearful War of 1812, the bulk of the Sauk and Fox, at that Sauk and Fox aggressions would kindle so the invitation of the American government, general an Indian war that the fur trade as retired from their upper villages on the Rock well as the white frontiers would suffer, and Mississippi to the Missouri, about the brought about the treaty at Prairie du Chien. Grand, Famine, and Osage rivers. Failure of By this treaty, various intertribal boundaries trading opportunities during the war led to were agreed upon and the parties pledged dissatisfaction with the new location, and themselves to peace. Sauk and Fox expansion many of the Sauk and Fox returned to Rock was recognized. River and the influence ofthe British. A small Now the chiefs were committed to restrain­ group remained on the Missouri, however, ing the young men from further acts of vio­ until several years after the war. In the early lence. Although the chiefs were by no means 1820's there was another movement south and inclined to give up anything which they had west to the Grand River by a group, primarily gained, they saw no advantage in profitless Sauk, who henceforth are identified as the bloodshed which would only embarrass their Sauk of Missouri. These people lived in close relationship with the United States. association with the Iowa, on traditionally Black Hawk and Keokuk locked horns over Iowa land, and like the Iowa became vocifer- this issue in the spring of 1827. The incident is worth describing in detail, both because ofthe light it sheds on later events, and because of its «Forsyth to Clark, May 24, 1828, and May 17, 1829, ethnological interest. Keokuk, the speaker of Bureau of Indian Affairs files, Letters Received, Illinois the council and war chief of the major moiety, (Interior Records Section, Natural Resources Records Branch, National Archives, Washington), cited hereinaf­ came to Thomas Forsyth, the agent at Rock Is­ ter as DNA: BIA, L Reed., followed by the appropriate file land, about the matter. On May 24 Forsyth re­ description. ported to his superior, WiOiam Clark:

265 WISCONSIN MAC;AZ1NE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

Kiocuck with other braves called on me ing to go to war against the Sioux In­ the other day and informed me that the dians. The Sauk Chiefs as well as myself Black Hawk was organizing a party of In­ have done every thing in our power to dians to go to war, that the Chiefs had dissuade him from going to war, but his given him (the Black Hawk) three horses answer is that nothing but death will pre­ and other property to prevent him from vent him. going to war, but without any effect. There is also a report in circulation Kiocuck also said, that the Chiefs and that a Fox Indian named Morgan resid­ Braves would (in a body) once more talk ing at Dubuques Mines is also preparing to the Black H. and if they did not suc­ for war. I yesterday sent an express to ceed in preventing him from going to Piemosky the principal Chief at Dubu­ war he must take his chances. I told ques Mines stating to him the conse­ Kiocuck to tell the Black Hawk that if he quences, if he allowed any of his people went to war, I would demand him and to go to war, I hope Piemosky will be able party and have them sent down in Irons to prevent Morgans going to war should to St. Louis where they would pass the re­ their be any truth in the report. It is im­ mainder of their days in prison, that possible to know, how many each party should the Nation not give the Black may consist of should they go to war, but Hawk up when demanded, you would may suppose each party will not exceed come up to their village and take him & twenty five or thirty, as a very great ma­ party down to St. Louis and put them in jority of the youngmen are for peace, prison, that you had now Two Thousand and blames the Black Hawk for wishing soldiers near St. Louis at your command, to disturb the peace of the Nation. I ready for any emergency, and that the would suggest to your better judgment Treaty of Prairie des Chiens must be ad­ that they (Sioux Indians) may be advised hered to. Kiocuck said he would repeat of these war parties and be prepared to all I said to the Black Hawk and ap­ meet them, and I sincerely hope that not peared satisfied what I told him. Kiocuck one of any war party from this country also informed me that a war encamp­ may ever return to their homes.'"' ment of Sioux Indians was discovered on Meanwhile the Sauk chiefs were exerting the Raccoon fork ofthe Demoine early in themselves by the only means available to the Spring which prevented the Sauks them to call off Black Hawk. Forsyth reported and Foxes from making a Spring hunt in to Clark again on May 30: the country, they intended which has in­ jured them in some measure. Two young Sauks accompanied by Kiocuck deliv­ Sir—The Chiefs, Braves and women ered up to me four waggon horses, that of the Sauk Nation of Indians residing they found some short distance up near the mouth of Rock River have (al­ Rocky River all in good order and sup­ ternately) done every thing in their pose they come from Fever River. I have power to dissuade the Black Hawk from written the Sub-agent at Fever River going to war, but all to no effect. about these horses and if from that quar­ The Sauk Braves offered the Black ter, the owner will shortly come for such Hawk seven horses with other property four valuable animals.*" and also repeated to him my message but he said, it was useless, as nothing but The Black Hawk was intransigent, how­ death should prevent him from going to ever, and Forsyth on the twenty-eighth wrote war—Morgan and Fox Indian residing to Lawrence Taliaferro, the Sioux agent, at Dubuques Mines is also preparing for warning of the brewing trouble and noting war. I have sent by express a talk to that the Fox warrior Morgan was also anxious Piemosky the Chief of that village ac­ for war: quainting him with the consequences if he allows Morgan or any other Indian to I am sorry to inform you that a Sauk go to war from his village—I have writ- Indian named the Black Hawk is prepar­

"Forsyth to Clark, May 24, 1827, WHi: Draper MSS, "Forsyth to Taliaferro, May 28, 1827, Taliaferro Pa­ 4T. pers, Minnesota State Historical Society, Minneapolis. 266 A pipe with a conciliatory speech has been sent (and delivered) by Wabashaw a Sioux Chief to Piemosky's village at Du­ buques Mines. A Similar pipe and Speech with wampums from same Sioux Chief is now in my possession, and will be delivered to the Sauk Indians tomorrow or next day.=" The situation remained tense, however, the Sauk and Fox chiefs striving desperately to maintain organization in an unstable situa­ tion. The next five years saw their efforts fail.

THE ROCK RIVER CONTROVERSY, 1828-1831

OME of the public lands held by S the government of the United States in the territory which it regarded as hav­ ing been ceded in 1804 were not opened to private purchase until many years later. In

Liijrary ol Clongress particular, the lands in the neighborhood of Rock River were not advertised for sale until Well-mounted and plainly hawk-eyed, this representation 1829. In the meantime, the Sauk and Fox resi­ ofthe Sauk raider graced a packet of tobacco. dent on the east side of the Mississippi re­ mained in their village, their local movements unhampered and their tenure undisturbed. ten Mr. Taliaferro fully on the subject of To the south, and in the Missouri portion of those Indians intending to go to war, so the area, many of the lands were early dis­ that the Sioux Indians may be prepared posed of; but until 1828—a generation after to receive them, and I hope be able to the treaty—the Rock River people were not se­ punish these disturbers ofthe peace. riously troubled. Auguries of resistance to A very great majority of the Sauk and eviction were evident, however, in the Fox Indians are for peace but as Kiocuck indifference of the Indians to earlier, mild werily says that the Black Hawk and suggestions that they move, in the uneasiness Morgan will find some worthless young which surrounded the opening of the mining men to follow them."^ concession on Fever River in 1822, and the At last, on June 15, the combined persua­ plague of squabbles between rowdy frontier sions of the Sauk and Fox chiefs, and the di­ whites and touchy Winnebago which culmi­ plomacy of the Sioux (no doubt stimulated by nated in the so-called "Winnebago War" (few Taliaferro), brought Black Hawk to reason: bullets, much shouting on both sides, negotia­ tions at gunpoint in 1827, and a later cession in Sir—I am happy to have in my power 1829 of the lead-rich lands on which the to acquaint you that thro the Industry of miners had been trespassing). the Chiefs and Braves of the Sauk and Fox Nations of Indians, the Black Hawk Forsyth's first mention of removal in 1828 a Sauk Indian and Morgan a Fox Indian produced a negative reaction. On May 24 he have been prevented from going to war. reported to Clark:

"Forsyth to Clark, May 30, 1827, WHi: Draper MSS, '"Forsyth to Taliaferro, June 15, 1827, WHi: Draper 4T. MSS, 4T. 267 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

On thursday last I had a meeting with the In the meantime, Ninian Edwards, gover­ chiefs of the Sac & Fox Indians who re­ nor of Illinois, was issuing threats of his own to side in this vicinity, on the subject of re­ Clark: moving next spring on their own lands. Yesterday they gave me for answer, that I have only time to ask you whether any, they had never sold the land higher up and what definitive arrangements have the Mississippi river than the mouth of been made for removing the Indians Rocky River—that they would not move from the ceded lands of this State, in from the land where the bones of their pursuance of the directions of the Secre­ ancestors lay, and that they would de­ tary of War, and what is the prospect of fend themselves against any power that immediate success? The Secretary's let­ might be sent to drive them from their ter gave me reason to believe that this present villages &c.—to this kind of lan­ measure would have been accomplished guage, I answered them by saying that I before this time. The General Govern­ was not come to quarrel with any of ment has been applied too long enough them—that it was for their own good, if for its own action to have freed us from they moved on their own lands—that so serious a grievance. If it declines act­ there would be so many white people ing with effect, those Indians will be re­ travelling on the great road which was to moved, and that very promptly."^ be made from opposite St. Louis to Fever In another letter, four days later, Edwards re­ River, and which road would pass through the Sac & Fox villages, that mis­ ferred to the presence ofthe Sauk and Fox on understandings 8c accidents must hap­ Rock River as "an invasion of the rights of a pen between the white people & sovereign and independent State," and de­ Indians—that when anything ofthe kind clared that if the Indians did not remove at did happen, they must not complain to once, either the President would use force, or me &c. &c.—but that I would acquaint he would, on my own responsibility."=' The you with their answer, and they must not general tension was aggravated by a clandes­ be surprised at anything that in future tine visit by two Indians to Clark in St. Louis. may happen them, as it was my opinion As Forsyth learned the story. that you would on the receipt of my letter on this subject, communicate it to their It appears that a Sauk Indian named Great Father the President. A Sac chief Whish-co-baugh and a Fox Indian called the Red head, was somewhat inso­ named Naw-t-waig visited you sometime lent in delivering the answer to what I past, that the Fox Indian abovemen- said to the Indians on thursday last; but tioned told you that the Sauk Indians when I told him not to forget what he had been listening to bad Birds who live had then said, as perhaps he would be towards the Sunrising (the British in called on at some future day to repeat the Canada) and that they (the Sauks) in­ same words, he sneakingly went away tended to make war against the United without saying a word. This Red Head is States, that a Sauk Chief named the Bad the principal chief of the Sac Nation & is Thunder and a Sauk Brave named the a vile, unprincipled fellow. I have not, as Ihowai were at the head of all this mis­ yet, had any visit from any Winnebagoes, chief and that War would shortly com­ but have been informed that the Prophet mence by the Sauk Indians attacking the of that nation, with his relatives, have set­ Whitepeople, but that the Fox Indians tled at Wetecotes' village a distance of 50 had nothing to do with the Sauks in this or 60 miles up Rock River. This Prophet intended war against the Whitepeople is a very influential Indian & will always be but on the Contrary, they were for peace, within call (at his present residence) that he (the abovementioned Fox In­ should any thing happen among the dian) had proposed to sell Dubuques Winnebagoes of Rocky River.'' Mines to you, saying that he was author-

'^Edwards to Clark, May 25, 1828, in E. B. Washburne, ed., The Edwards Papers (Chicago Historical Society's Collec­ ''Forsyth to Clark, May 24, 1828, DNA: BIA, L Recd.^ tion, Chicago, 1884), 338. Illinois. •••'Edwards to Clark, May 29, 1828, ibid, 339-340. 268 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

ised so to do by all the Fox Chiefs. On the point will be settled the ensuing Au­ return of those two fellows (above men­ tumn."" tioned) at their homes near this place Whish-co-baugh told the Sauk Chiefs But a faction now existed, among the Sauk what the Fox Indian had said to you in St. and Fox, which maintained a contrary view. Louis, and also repeated the same words This faction, led by Red Head, Bad Thunder, to me yesterday in presence of all the In­ and Ihowai (or loway), was hostile both to the dians then here. Search was made yester­ United States and to the councils of the Sauk day morning for the Fox Indian who had and Fox. At this time Black Hawk does not told you this Story, and have reason to seem to have been prominent in the dispute, believe that he had been found, the other nor was the Winnebago Prophet. The Indians would have killed him, he is Prophet, reputedly "half Sauk half Winne­ gone no person knows where. bago," was the head man (although not a The Sauk & Fox Chiefs who were pre­ chief) of a small village about forty miles up sent yesterday requested of me to write the Rock River, whose residents operated a you on the above Subject, and they hope ferry used by white men traveling to the mines you will pay no attention to these false­ at Fever River. The Prophet had a great per­ hoods or any others that may be carried sonal religious following among the Winne­ to you in future by such idle fellows as bago, and was influential also among the Sauk the two abovementioned Indians who and Fox. In 1827 he had been invited by the run from place to place telling false­ Sauk to winter among them "low down on hoods simply to get a few presents. Rocky River," and he was making converts Kiouck very properly observed to all the among them as well. "He is for peace," re­ Indians present Yesterday that he was ported Forsyth in 1827,*' and during the argu­ satisfied that you did not believe the ment in the summer of 1828 he still appeared Story ofthe Fox Indian because you are to Forsyth to be a peaceable man: to well acquainted with Indians, to sup­ pose that the Sauk Indians intended war This Winnebagoe Prophet is an Indian against the United States, but also said of very great influence among all the In­ that if these false-hoods have been men­ dians residing in the country bordering tioned to the people in the Settlements, on Rocky River and its tributary streams, they not knowing the Indians may be­ he has promised me that he will use all lieve the report.*'' his enfluence to keep peace and quiet­ A deputation of Fox Indians headed by ness among all the Indians who reside in the Surrounding Country and should he visited Clark in St. Louis to straighten hear any news he will immediately com­ out the misunderstanding," and councils municate it to me, and I on my part have among the Indians at Rock River resulted in made him a similar promise.*" an affirmation ofthe peace policy. As to the Sauk and Fox Indians remain­ ing in future at their present villages on the East Side of the Mississippi is alto­ HE first sales of land in the Rock gether out of the Question, and I never T-River village area were not heard that any of the Indians intended to made until October of 1829; and between Solicite your permission to remain in then and the beginning of the Black Hawk their Old Villages where they now re­ War, in 1832, only a little more than three side, because it is now settled among thousand acres were sold. Most of that, how­ themselves, that they will make new vil­ ever, was in the Indian settlement area.*' lages next Spring but they have not »"/Azrf. agreed among themselves where they "Forsyth to Clark, Dec. 2, 1827, DNA: BIA, L Reed. will make those new Villages, but that *»Forsyth to Clark June 10, 1828, WHi: Draper MSS, 6T85. "Affidavit of L. A. Dunlap, "Sale of Certain of the iporsyth to Clark, June 16, 1828, WHi: Draper MSS, Lands in Royce's Cession 50, Between the Military Tract 6T. and the Indian Boundary Line Prior to June 1, 1832," Sac ^Forsyth to Clark, July 6, 1828, WHi: Draper MSS, and Fox Exhibit 146, Docket 83, Indian Claims Commis­ 6T. sion, Washington, D.C. 269 This undated oil by George Catlin, painted from life during Black Hawk's eastern tour, accurately portrays the defeated but unvanquished old warrior. Compare it, for example, with the life masks reproduced on <;285.

National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Instittition White squatters began arriving in large num­ and both these Indians made use of bers in the spring of 1829, before the Indians every argument they were master of to returned from their winter hunt, "and en­ convince me that they never had sold the closed nearly all the Sac Indians cornfields." land above Rock River &c. Forsyth remarked blandly, "The Indians on I acquainted all the Indians then their arrival were surprised at this, as also the present of the Treaty of 1804, where destruction committed by the settlers, by tear­ Quashquamis name is as one of the ing down many of their lodges." The whites, chiefs who sold the land in question (the on their part, were vociferous about their other chiefs being dead.) I also reminded rights, frequently calling on Forsyth, an­ the Black Hawk of the Treaty of 1816, nouncing that the Indians must go and asking when the Commissioners refused to him to drive them away. smoke with him & the other Sac chiefs who accompanied him down to St. Louis Forsyth held a long meeting with the In­ to make peace, until they signed the dians on May 16, 1829, advising them to leave. Treaty. The Black Hawk denied that any In this meeting, Quashquame and Black mention was made to him about land, in Hawk became principal figures in the contro­ making the Treaty of 1816, but that the versy, commr, must have inserted in the Treaty Quashquami denying that he ever sold what was not explained to him & friends. any land above Rock River and also the The Indians and myself had a great deal Black Hawk saying that the white people of talk at this meeting, the most of which were in the habit of saying one thing to was quite unnecessary, & at the winding the Indians & putting on paper another, up of which I told the Indians I would 270 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

not listen to any complaints that might Keokuk, however, refused to be present at the come in future from who would remain talk and asserted that "the Sauks who spoke at Rock River. The Chief Keeocuck en­ did not know what they were saying." It was quired of me, in private, if he & some of plain that it was only "the Black Hawk with a his friends could remain at Rock River to few others . . . who are making all this fuss." raise the corn they had planted? Saying The official position of the Sauk and Fox was at same time, that most of the principal clear: chiefs & braves had gone to reside at a place a few miles within the mouth of lo­ The stabbing chief, Pishke nawnee and way River, and that more than half of all the influential Indians have gone to those now at Rock River would also go their own Country, during last month to shortly to the same place. I told Keocuck a new village and there are some going that he had heard what I said to the In­ daily from Rocky river, those who have dians in council, and that it was out of my planted corn will remain and they will be power to give any Indian such permis­ few in number to the whole Sauk popula­ sion as he asked for. tion .... It is my opinion that but few Indians Keokuk himself was in an uncomfortable posi­ will remain at Rock River this summer, tion: but yet I am fearful that some difficulty will take place between them & the set­ . . . The Indians now at Rocky River did tlers during the ensuing summer. not like him, and his intention was to go All the Fox Indians, formerly residing down to the Ihowai river to reside but in the vicinity have gone and made a new that the head chiefs who are now at Iho­ village at the Grand Mascoteen.™ wai river directed him to remain at Rocky River to keep things in order if This dispute during the summer became possible, and that he must obey the ugly. The squatters, although they were tres­ chiefs, otherwise him and those of his passing on public lands, could not be ordered family now here would have been at their off by Indian agent Forsyth; the Black Hawk new village at Ihowai river long since. faction refused to be ordered off by either That he had succeeded in preventing Forsyth or their own chiefs. Clark recom­ two partizans, who have been fasting mended a treaty but no negotiations were since last winter, from going to war. held."' At the end of May the Black Hawk fac­ Keokuck appears to be much de­ tion announced "very fiercely" that jected, from his chiefs compelling him to stay at Rocky river, as part of his large . . . the land was theirs, that they never family now here would have been at their sold the land, that this land contained the he sees the necessity that the Indians bones of their ancestors and would not should abandon their old village at give it up, that they had defended it Rocky river and live on their own lands."' against all your power during the late war, and would again defend it as long as Matters remained unpleasant all summer. they existed, that they had formed an al­ There was no gunfighting, but Indians were liance with the Chippeways, Ottoways, beaten by white men; white men fought with Pottowatomies, Kikapoos and Menomo- each other over Indian cornfields; Indians nies, who were ready to assist them, at tore down white men's fences and sheds and anytime in defending their country broke their whisky barrels. Fhe council strug­ against any force whatsoever &c. &c. A gled to maintain smooth relationships with the number of Chippeways, Ottoways and United States, even to the point of scrupu­ Pottowatomies, with some few Kicka- lously adhering to the Treaty of 1825 which poos were present, and assented to what the Sauk Indians had said."^ established peace with the Sioux. In June, Wa­ pello and Katice, two of the Fox chiefs, gave up to Clark in St. Louis a woman who had been taken prisoner in a Fox raid. The woman's ""Forsyth to Clark, May 17, 1829, DNA: BIA, L Reed. child had meanwhile been adopted by a Sauk "'Clark to Eaton, May 20, 1829, DNA: BIA, L. Reed., Sac and Fox. "'Torsyth to Clark, May 22, 1829, DNA: BIA, L. Reed. •Hbid. 271 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 woman. Keokuk went to great pains to get this ultimate tragedy: the so-called "Warner inci­ child, offering a horse and other articles for it; dent." Forsyth also offered to add to the ransom, but The Warner incident flared out of the still- the child had been adopted into a Sauk family smoldering war between the Sioux and the and the Sauk woman's answer was "that if I in­ Sauk and Fox. Although hostilities supposedly sisted on having the child, she would kill it and had been interrupted by the peace arranged at I might have the body for nothing.""^ Prairie du Chien in 1825, and the principal In the fall the Rock River Indians went off men were said to be in favor of a real reconcili­ on their hunt, Keokuk vowing never to return, ation, territorial encroachments by hunting since his efforts to keep peace between whites parties from both sides continued to occur, and Indians had cost him his summer's hunt and there were people killed. According to In­ and had earned him the reproaches both of dian custom, such deaths demanded payment the chiefs at the new village on the Iowa River either in blood or in "presents" to the relatives and the mutinous band at Rock River. As for of the deceased, and the chiefs had no power the mutinous Indians, they were to be left to to prevent offended relatives from taking to their fate; said Keokuk: "If any Indians did at­ the warpath as long as their dead lay "uncov­ tempt to return to reside at Rocky River next ered." Leaders like Keokuk did indeed try to spring they must take their chance.""* cover the dead by gifts of horses and other But in the spring the Black Hawk band re­ valuable presents, but the resources of the turned, refusing to accept the combined rec­ councils were small because of the general ommendations of the council and of Forsyth. poverty of the tribes and because the trivial Keokuk, speaking for the chiefs, observed in tribal income derived from annuities and council: other treaty goods was distributed to individ­ uals at annuity time and thus was not generally My chiefs and Braves have worked hard at the disposal of the chiefs for purposes of to persuade those Mutinous Indians to maintaining social control. Recognizing these abandon our old village on Rocky River difficulties, Clark and other knowledgeable and follow the footsteps of our chiefs to officials developed the plan of settling old our new village on Ihoway River, that the scores, which constantly threatened to erupt Chiefs and Braves were now waiting the into an explosive chain of killings, by a treaty final answer of the Mutinous part of in which the United States would cover the their Nations and when received his Chiefs would communicate it to me."" dead on all sides and thus (it was hoped) elimi­ nate the primary motive of warfare. Such a proceeding would, Clark felt, be far less ex­ pensive than military intervention. Further­ HE leaders of the mutinous more, Clark regarded the failure of the T' band, in the meantime, were United States to carry out certain boundary- conferring with the Winnebago, perhaps with fixing measures, which it had obligated itself a view to settling with them farther up the to do in the 1825 treaty, as also in part respon­ Rock River. Forsyth suggested that a show of sible for the continuance of trouble."" These force from the troops at Rock Island, the mo­ considerations led to the planning for a treaty bilizing of a party of three or four hundred council at Prairie du Chien in 1830, at which militia, would persuade the mutineers to the Sauk and Fox and their enemies would be leave."' But all of these arrangements were exhorted (indeed, threatened, under pain of thrown into disarray by an event whose se­ military punishment) to keep the peace, and rious consequences contributed heavily to the the dead of both sides would be covered at the expense ofthe United States government.

'••Forsyth to Clark, June 7, 1829, WHi: Draper MSS, The arrangements for the treaty pro­ 6T. ceeded normally during the spring, but con­ 6''Forsyt h to Clark, Oct. 1, 1829, WHi: Draper MSS, siderable anxiety was felt by local Indian 6T. agents on the upper Mississippi lest an attack. 6'"Forsyt h to Clark, April 28, 1830, WHi: Draper MSS, 6T. "'Forsyt6 h to Clark, April 30, 1830, WHi: Draper MSS, "Clark to McKenney, Sept. 28, 1829, DNA: BIA, L 6T. Reed.

272 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER long threatened, be made on the Sauk and Fox letter was received, advising peace and a by a combination of Sioux, , and meeting at P. du Chien, our people were Winnebago before the treaty could be negoti­ killed. ated. Early in May Captain Wynkoop Warner, My father,—We don't want to go to P. subagent at Fever River and an employee of du Chien. We wish to meet you at Rock Joseph Rolette (the American Fur Company Island. Our reason is, that we do not factor at Prairie du Chien), summoned the want to see our Chief Pie-mos-ky's Fox chiefs to meet and parley with the Sioux grave .... near du Chien. Warner informed the Sioux of My father,—Genl. Street is here, and the Fox acceptance of his invitation and of understands my words—/ can't shake their traveling plans. In response to Warner's hands with the Sioux and , until invitation (which was, in view of Warner's po­ we are paid for covering our dead. sition as subagent, an official request by a rep­ My father,—If our G. Father were to resentative ofthe United States government), send for you, and you obeyed his words by going where he directed, and you "all the principal Indians" ofthe Fox village at were to be killed on the way when not ex­ Dubuque set off by the canoe. This party, six­ pecting mischief, he'd feel sorry for you teen men and one woman, was unarmed, as and revenge you, so we now feel. Our befitted their mission. On the evening of May chief was sent for, and killed when thus 5 they put to shore to cook their meal. They obeying the frustrations of the Agent."'' were there attacked by a war party of about fifty Sioux, Winnebago, and Menominee, and Clark was able to persuade them to come to most of the Fox were killed. One man, half- the council; he himself even entertained the Winnebago, was sent home with a broken arm hope that they might sell "a part of their coun­ to tell the news. try immediately on the Mississippi, embracing their rich mineral lands, with a view to pay­ Forsyth, the Sauk and Fox agent, and Ta­ ments and an annuity sufficient to enable liaferro, the Sioux agent, now had the respon- them to settle back from the Mississippi, and to sibihty of preventing the war from becoming assist in supporting themselves hereafter."'" general. Both Sauk and Fox and Sioux mobi­ And as if all this were not enough, a body of lized about five hundred warriors; the Fox vil­ over a hundred white men took advantage of lage at Dubuque was evacuated; the Sauk and the Fox evacuation of the settlements at the Fox chiefs' councils both met and took the Dubuque mines to cross the river and take steps preparatory to war, the chiefs of the two possession! Forsyth advised that these in­ tribes giving Katice, a Fox chief, supreme truders should be driven off, writing to Clark: power to direct the warriors. Forsyth was able . . . the Sauk and Fox Indians are to persuade Katice to hold back the warriors sufficiently soured against the whites, by while a party of 213 chiefs and warriors made their people having been killed going to a visit to Clark in St. Louis. Prairie du Chien last month, on an invi­ The Sauk and Fox, speaking there through tation of some of the Government Keokuk, were eloquent. agents. You must know what will be the consequence when they are informed When our people are killed in war our that their mineral land is occupied by the hearts are not grieved; but when killed whites, and permitted to remain. If endeavoring to do a good act—when drove off the Indians will then say, that striving to make peace—when obeying the Government is friendly disposed to­ the words of the Agent, it makes us feel wards them. This, in my opinion, is the bad. It was the death of Pie-mos-ky (1st moment for the Government of the Chief of the Fox Tribe) that made both nations mad. He always advised peace. United States to show their affection to­ He had a hook put in his mouth, and a wards the Sauk and Fox Indians." rope round his neck. He was sent for by Genl. Street to meet the Menominies, the ""Talk of Sauk and Fox with , May 24, Sioux, and the Winnebagoes, and was 1830, DNA: BIA, Treaties, Talks & Councils. '"Clark to Eaton, May 26, 1830, DNA: BIA, L. Reed., killed on his way up. My father, We al­ St. Louis. ways take notice of your words and our "Forsyth to Clark, June 14, 1830, 23d Cong., 1st Sess., G. Father's words—twelve days after your S.Doc.512,11:65. 273 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

F" relevant to the Black Hawk War was paid in 1832, and for the sake of clarity, it may be mentioned here. By Indian custom, the rela­ tives of murdered persons were to judge the adequacy of the gifts offered to cover their dead. Some ofthe relatives and friends ofthe murdered Fox chiefs did not feel that the pro­ visions ofthe 1830 treaty were adequate. And in August, 1831, a Sauk and Fox war party massacred twenty-five Menominee camped near Prairie du Chien, in revenge for the pre­ vious summer's killing of the Fox chiefs. The United States, fearful that her gifts for cover­ ing the Menominee dead would not forestall the Menominee and their allies in still another round of attacks, took military action. The fol­ lowing spring, General Henry Atkinson, act­ ing on orders of the Commander in Chief of the Army ofthe United States, summoned the Sauk and Fox chiefs to council at Rock Island and, under threat of force, demanded that the principal men involved in the attack be sur­ 1/ i'WW.iJi I rendered. Three men, "of rank, and connex­ VVHi(W6)l.-.l(i;i ions & descendants of the Fox Chiefs murdered This oil portrait by an unknown artist borrows from other by the Menominies," were given up as hos­ likenesses of Black Hawk, but the huge soulful eyes are tages. But the chiefs were unable to surrender unique. the rest, "as the other principal persons who lESPITE the difficulties, matters were concerned have gone off with the hostile D'wer e pressed to a conclusion by Indians to Rock River." Atkinson, noting that the United States. The intruders on the min­ "the conduct of the friendly chiefs, Wapella, eral lands were driven off, and the treaty was Stabbing Chief, & Keokuck has been so deci- negotiated in July as planned. Although the dely earnest, and persevering to obey the or­ Sauk and Fox would not sell the mineral lands ders of the Government in bringing the mat­ for the price Clark was ready to offer, a peace ter to a satisfactory conclusion," decided "not among the tribes was concluded, and certain to press them beyond their ability to comply, lands on the Missouri and in northern Iowa, as a contrary course might tend to drive to the between the Sauk and Fox and the Sioux hunt­ enemy a still greater number of their young ing grounds, were purchased subject to var­ men."'^ ious conditions. The American Fur Company, Thus, in part. Black Hawk's band was re­ anxious to recover its debts from the Sauk and cruited from relatives of the Fox chiefs who Fox, obtained an agreement whereby those had been murdered (in Indian eyes) for com­ Indians obliged themselves to pay $40,000 to plying with the wishes of the United States the company's agents and government. The avenging relatives were now Russell Farnham in the event that the tribes threatened with jail for following Indian cus­ should sell land to the United States. This tom in obtaining revenge." agreement should be considered in relation to The Warner incident and the Treaty of Davenport and Farnham's purchase of part of the land at the Rock River village and to Dav­ enport's request early in 1832 to allow the '^Macomb to Atkinson, March 17, 1832, Black Hawk War Collection, Illinois State Historical Library, Sauk and Fox to come to Washington to settle Springfield, cited hereinafter as IHi: BHW Coll.; Atkin­ their grievances and arrange a land cession. son to Macomb, April 19, 1832, Atkinson Letter Book, Alienation of the Sauk and Fox was a threat to IHi: BHW Coll. the company's investment. "The foregoing account of the Warner incident is based on a series of documents in the Forsyth Papers, the But the legacy of the Warner incident most National Archives, and elsewhere, and particularly on the 274 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASl ER

1830 obscured the problem, during that sum­ ofthe Sauks to release one of our Braves who mer, of the presence of the stubborn Black was in jail; but neither I nor any of my braves Hawk band at Rock River. But preparations know of any sale of all our lands East of the were made to terminate the nuisance in 1831. Mississippi river."'" The Indians denied any The knowledgeable Forsyth was removed as hostile intentions; all they wanted to do was to Indian agent by the Jackson administration, stay in their old village. Keokuk, attending the and when the Black Hawk band returned to council on the next clay, reported the village in the spring of 1831, they found an Indian agent who not only was unskilled in In­ . . . that he had already drawn off ten or twelve large lodges (near 50 famihes) & dian negotiation but also was more responsive was in the expectation of being joined by to the clamors of the frontier settlers. others, as he should continue to "pull at The news of the return of the so-called them," until he drew off all that would "British party" in May was carried to Gover­ come. And that he wished that the Gen­ nor John Reynolds, who at once called up eral would not apply force to the Black seven hundred mounted mihtia in order, as he Hawk band, until he (Keokok) could get said, "to remove them dead, or alive over to the all his friends & relations across the Mis­ west side of the Mississippi."''' General Ed­ sissippi. But as they had planted corn at mund P. Gaines, at St. Louis, commanding the Rock River, it was now too late in the sea­ military forces in the district, on being re­ son to prepare new fields to plant more quested by Reynolds to provide further mili­ they would suffer from want of food." tary force, ordered ten companies of federal troops to Rock Island, and (possibly fearing Gaines too was adamant: the Indians would the interference of an undisciplined and irre­ have to leave; but he promised to provide sponsible mob of militia) advised Reynolds them with corn if they left voluntarily. By the that seventh of June, Black Hawk asserted that he was willing to go, "if the chiefs of his tribe con­ . . . under existing circumstances, and sented to it." the present aspect of our Indian rela­ But in the meantime Gaines, having be­ tions on the Rock Island section of the come anxious because Black Hawk was re­ frontier, I do not deem it necessary or ported to have invited the Prophet's band of proper to require mihtia, or any descrip­ Winnebago and some Kickapoo and Potawat­ tion of force, other than that of the Reg­ omi tojoin him, had called on Reynolds to sup­ ular Army at this place and Prairie du ply his militia." Rumors were flying about that Chien.'* the Sauk and Fox were threatening to fight to resist removal and that they had driven off the Gaines then hastened to Rock Island, reaching white settlers in the neighborhood.™ that place by steamboat by June 4, safely in ad­ vance of the militia. Gaines, however, found The stalemate continued in effect until the Black Hawk and his men adamant, insisting end of June, when about fifteen hundred mili­ that the land had never been sold. tia arrived at the Sauk village on Rock River, Quashquame, as usual, disclaimed the full ces­ under cover of a barrage of grapeshot and sion: "Some time ago I sold a part ofthe land canister. (The Indians supposed to be hiding there to resist the militia were found to have deserted the village the preceding night.) At following letters: Eaton to Commanding Officer, Fort the councils which followed, the militia force, Crawford, April 5, 18.30, DNA: BIA, L Sent, Vol. 6; For­ with the Regular Army troops under Gaines, syth to Clark, May 6, 1830, DNA: BIA, L Reed., Rock Is­ land; Hardy to Warner, May 7, 1830, DNA: BIA, L Reed., presented the Black Hawk band with the spec- St. Louis; Forsyth to Clark, May 17, 1830, DNA; BIA, L Recs., .St. Louis; Clark to McKenney, July 23, 1830, 23d Cong., 1st Sess.,£)oc.5/2, II: 80-81; Macomb to Atkinson, '"Memorandum of talks between Edmund P. Gaines March 17, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll. and the Sauk, June 4, 5, and 7, 1831, DNA: AGO. "Reynolds to Clark, May 26, 1831, Crovernors' Corre­ "/iirf. The italicized phrase is underlined in the origi­ spondence, 1809-1831, Vol. 2, Illinois State Library, Ar­ nal. chives Division, Springfield, cited hereinafter as 1-A: Gov. "Gaines to Reynolds, June 5, 1831, 1-A: Gov. CMXC. Corr. 1809-1831, Vol. 2. 1809-31, Vol. 2. '*Gaines to Reynolds, May 29, 1831, I-A: Gov. Corr. "Cutler to Munn, June 9, 1831, DNA: BIA, L Reed., 1809-31, Vol. 2 Sac and Fox. 275 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 tacle of an imposing army spoihng for a fight. went for the fence. We tried to stop them On the thirtieth of June, under the combined from taking the rails, but could not; go­ promptings of that "artful negotiator" ing to the Governor and General Gaines, Keokuk, and of the more heavy-handed Gen­ they went out to the field and told the eral Gaines and Governor Reynolds, the "Brit­ men they must not take the fence. While ish band" of Sauk signed articles of capitula­ they were present the men stopped oper­ tion, acceding to the validity of the 1804 ations, but as soon as they turned to re­ cession, admitting their previous intention turn the men, to the number of four or forcibly to resist eviction, submitting to the au­ five hundred, took each a rail on his thority of the "friendly" chiefs, and agreeing shoulder, and marched behind them to remove west ofthe Mississippi."" into camp. By this operation I lost all my crop for one year, for which I never re­ The immediate aftermath of the affair was ceived a cent, the soldiers doing me ten a torrent of verbiage, all white persons con­ times as much damage as the Indians cerned in it being eager to justify their actions. had ever done. When we asked Black Depositions, official reports, and copies of let­ Hawk why he did not do as he said he ters were accumulated by the dozen, for trans­ would, "sit down in his wigwam and let mittal to Washington, to show that Black them do as they pleased with him" he Hawk's band was a savage military force which said, "If General Gaines had come with had invaded Illinois, attacked peaceful set­ only the regular troops at the Island, he tlers, and was planning to drench the frontier should have remained in his wigwam, with blood. General Clark justified forcing the but to have done so with men that the Indians to cross the Mississippi (not merely to officers had no control over would have get off lands purchased by individuals) on the been sure death to him." In this he acted dubious grounds that the Sauk and Fox had wisely, as among these volunteers were given up their rights to settle or hunt on any many frontiersmen who had had friends land east of the Mississippi by the second ar­ killed by the Indians, and were prepared ticle of the Washington Treaty of 1824.*' (The to avenge their death on these or any phrasing of this article can be interpreted with other Indians.**^ equal plausibility as referring to the lands specifically ceded by the treaty, which lay en­ tirely within the state of Missouri.) The story BLACK HIAWK CROSSES THE RIVER, 1832 of the deputation of Sauk and Fox Indians who had gone among the tribes of the South­ west and the relation of the Black Hawk band lURING the winter of to the British and to the Winnebago, Potawat­ D 1831-1832, the Winnebago omi, and Kickapoo was touted as demon­ Prophet sent two messengers to invite the strating an intention of the whole tribe to or­ Black Hawk band "to join him at his village, ganize a general war against the United States, there to live." Early in April he came to Felix with military aid from Canada. Governor Rey­ St. Vrain, the Sauk and Fox agent at Rock Is­ nolds was embarrassed when he discovered land, to inform him of this. He said he had not that the settlers were digging up the bones in yet received an answer from Black Hawk. On the old Indian graveyard and burning the re­ being quizzed, he asserted that he had not mains. Perhaps the later recollections of an old known that the terms ofthe "treaty" of 1831 settler who was present are more reliable indi­ prohibited the Sauk and Fox from setting foot cators of the real situation. John W. Spencer, in Illinois, but thought it referred only to the one ofthe volunteers, observed: old village, and on being informed by St. Vrain that he too might be "ordered from [his] 1 had a field of twenty acres of corn village by the whites," he replied, "Perhaps and potatoes, and the [militia] volunteers you expect to do so, but you may lay my bones

""George A. McCall, Letters from the Frontiers . . . (Phila­ delphia, 1868), 240; articles of agreement and capitula­ *^From Reminiscences of Pioneer Life in the Mississippi Val­ tion, June 30, 1831, in DNA: BIA, L Reed., Sac and Fox. ley by J. W. Spencer, reprinted in The Early Day of Rock Is­ "Clark to Secretary of War, Aug. 12, 1831, DNA: BIA, land and Davenport (M. M. Quaife, ed., Chicago, 1942), L Reed., St. Louis. 49-50. 276 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

course, varied widely at the time and in retro­ spect. The number of Sauk and Fox "war­ riors" (men and youths capable of bearing arms) with Black Hawk was estimated by For­ syth, in his manuscript essay of October 1, 1832, at 368; with them were about 100 Kicka­ poo "warriors."*" John Connolly, a former Sauk and Fox subagent, estimated the Sauk and Fox men and boys at 400.*' Keokuk, in council with General Atkinson, gave the figure of 500 (probably implying "warriors"), equally divided into Sauk and Fox, and Atkinson re­ ported the figure of 500 warriors.** With the men were a large number of women and chil­ dren, since whole families were moving with the band.*" They were carrying with them the skins and furs obtained in the winter hunt on >,••.)• •••! Salt River (in northern Missouri or southern Iowa)."" Later, of course, they were joined by some ofthe Sauk-Winnebago half-breeds and WHi(X3)2708.i stragglers at Prophet's village, about ten With his grim visage and Vandal's topknot. Black Hawk lodges"' (probably about fifty "warriors" and a appears more savage and less noble in this lithograph of total of 100 souls). The estimate of 1,000 souls the mid-nineteenth century. as the total number of Sauk, Fox, and Kicka­ poo in the band, agrees closely with the break­ there."*' General Atkinson at St. Louis, in­ down of fatal casualties and prisoners ob­ formed of the possibility of Black Hawk's re­ tained during the course of the campaign and turn, announced his intention of preventing its aftermath. It may be noted that the Kicka­ Black Hawk from "reoccupying his old vil­ poo who came with Black Hawk were a band lage"; meanwhile Atkinson was concerned which had broken away from their tribe after with obtaining the surrender of the Menomi­ their cession of Illinois lands in 1819 and had nee murderers and keeping the Sioux and asked, and been given, about 1820, permis­ Menominee from attacking the Sauk and sion to hunt on Sauk and Fox territory and es­ Fox.** He proceeded at once to Rock Island tablish a village near the mouth of the Rock."^ with troops, leaving St. Louis on the eighth of April. Atkinson learned ofthe crossing on the tenth of April, when he reached the Des Moines river.** ""Forsyth report headed "Original causes of the trou­ bles with a party of Sauk and Fox Indians under the direc­ Before proceeding to the denouement of tion or command ofthe Black Hawk who is no chief," Oct. Black Hawk's venture, let us now pause to 1, 1832, WHi, Draper Mss, 9T. evaluate the composition and probable mo­ "'John Connolly, "Memorandum on Sauk Trouble," tives of the band. Events from this point on ca. 1832-1833, John Connolly Papers, Minnesota State were rapidly to remove from Black liawk the Historical Society, Minneapolis. ""Atkinson to Reynolds, April 13, 1832, Atkinson Let­ possibility of choosing his course of action. ter Book; Atkinson to Macomb, April 13, 1832, Atkinson The number of Indians with Black Hawk Letter Book; and minutes of a council at Fort Armos- when he crossed the river was probably in the trong, April 13, 1832; all in IHi: BHW Coll. neighborhood of 1,000 souls. Estimates, of "'Minutes of a council at Fort Armstrong, April 13, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll. ""Whiteside to Atkinson, May 18, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll. «St. Vrain to Clark, April 6, 1832, DNA: BIA, L Reed., "Minutes of examinations of Indian prisoners, Aug. Rock Island. 20 and Aug. 19, 1832, both in Secretary of War files, War '^Atkinson to Macomb, April 7, 1832, Atkinson Letter Records Branch, National Archives, Washington, cited Book, IHi: BHW Coll. hereinafter as DNA: SWF. "'Atkinson to Macomb, April 10, 1832, Atkinson Let­ "^Forsyth to Clark, May 25, 1830, DNA: BIA, L Reed.: ter Book, IHi: BHW Coll.; Atkinson to Jones, Nov. 19, Forsyth to Clark, Jan. 2, 1820, and Sept. 5, 1822, WHi: 1832, IHi: BHW Coll. Draper MSS, 6T. 277 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

Evaluation of the motives and intentions of sonal motives, no doubt even some in the hope Black Hawk's band must recognize first of all of finding an excuse for killing Americans. that it was a polyglot group composed of per­ But the leadership, and the bulk of the war­ sons who, while sharing a resentment against riors and their kinfolk, were acting on the both the Sauk and Fox chiefs and American basis of a policy based in turn on a peculiar settlers, agents, and military personnel, were theory which grew in part out of the past gen­ not necessarily homogeneous either as to the erations' disappointments and stresses, and in origins of their resentment or as to their pur­ part from the dreams of the Winnebago poses in making the move. Prophet. For this nuclear group, the eloquent One group, of course, had a clear and ob­ Black Hawk emerged as the spokesman; and vious motive for joining Black Hawk: the Sauk the little group of so-called "chiefs," as well as and Fox warriors who had killed the Menomi­ most of the warriors, generally followed his nee in 1831, and their relatives. These and the Prophet's advice. people—perhaps fifty or sixty souls—had the The theory which guided Black Hawk was a overriding motive of escape. If they remained combination of panicky fear about losing per­ with Keokuk's party, they might be turned sonal integrity by giving in to a powerful and over by Keokuk's friends to United States au­ contemptuous adversary, stubborn legalistic thorities for punishment or exchange to the argument, and wild fantasy. Menominee. As long as they were with Black The fear of loss of personal integrity is a Hawk, they were safe (or so they probably motive whose power to determine political thought) from this danger. Some of these peo­ events cannot be overestimated, and in this ple had no particular attachment to the Rock event it was probably the major determinant. River settlement itself. We have already noted how bitterly many The Kickapoo group of twelve lodges"' did Sauk and Fox resented their tribes' being have an attachment to the Rock River in the sHghted by the United States, in favor of their form of their village there. Because they had enemy the Osage, in 1804. This resentment no spokesman of their own, before or after the was said indeed to have prompted the mur­ war (and their menfolk were almost all killed ders which nearly began a frontier war in that in the fighting") we do not know what their ra­ year and which led directly to the disastrous tionale for resenting eviction was. Perhaps Treaty of 1804. One consequence of that they felt they had little to lose, since they had treaty was to force the Sauk chief already lost their own lands in Illinois, and Quashquame to go to great lengths to deny were evidently not being supported in their that he had been so foolish as actually to sign tenure at Rock River by the Sauk and Fox knowingly a document ceding the major Sauk chiefs. Perhaps also some of them were devo­ settlement area. We have also noted the re­ tees of the Prophet. In any case, they seem to sentment by the Sauk and Fox of the arro­ have identified themselves unequivocally with gance, brutality, and contempt shown them by whoever was willing to support their hopes of rough frontiersmen. This contempt was par­ remaining in their new home on Rock River. ticularly galling when it was accompanied by Leaving aside Kickapoo and refugees from sexual exploitation of Indian women by white justice, we have then about 350 Sauk and Fox men, who regarded objections by Indian men warriors, and some of their families, to pro­ to white philandering with (in white eyes) vide the nucleus ofthe band. Some, but not all, "loose" native women as threats against white of these regarded Rock River as their proper supremacy. Indeed, the relationship between home; others doubtlessjoined for various per- Americans and the Sauk and Fox had become, by 1832, a classic race problem, with lurid sex­ ual fantasies determining public sentiment on "Among the Sauk and Fox, Keokuk once noted the both sides. Whites complained periodically of equivalence "twelve large lodges (near fifty families)," Mc­ Indian men who insulted white women, and Call, Letters from the Frontiers, 231; see also the memoran­ dum of talks between Edmund P. Gaines and the Sauk, during the war the capture of two white June 4, 5, 7, 1831, DNA: AGO. This would imply about women (later released unmolested) roused fifty extended families of Kickapoo, with an average of sensational rumors of rapine and pillage. The two warriors per extended family. Sauk and Fox, on their part, entertained com­ "'Minutes of examinations of Indian prisoners, Aug. plementary fantasies. In July, 1832, Taimah 19 and 20, 1832; DNA; SWF.

278 Robert Matthew Sully (1803-1855), a portraitist of Richmond, Virginia, was commissioned to paint Black Hawk m 1833. He later did this second portrait and gave it to his friend Lyman Draper, superintendent ofthe State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

\VHi(X!i).186()0 and Apenose, chiefs of the Fox and Sauk re­ ofthe above fables, they have uniformly spectively, wrote to Clark describing the "fa­ treated the dead bodies of the unfortu­ bles" believed by, and circulating among, the nate white men who have fallen into members of Black Hawk's band before the their hands, with the same indignities which they themselves so much war: dreaded."* Father,—We will relate one of these fables:—We were told that the Ameri­ To Indians entertaining such anxieties, cir­ cans were determined shortly to lay cumstances like American interference with hands on all our males, both old and their wars against the Sioux, which involved young, and deprive them of those parts both the securing of new hunting grounds to which are said to be essential to courage; replenish the dwindling game supply and re­ then, a horde of Negro men were to be venge for past insults; the seizure ofthe killers brought from the South, to whom our ofthe Menominee, when no similar action had wives, sisters, and daughters were to be been taken against Sioux and Menominee given, for the purpose of raising a stock killers ofthe Fox; the continual trespassing on of Slaves to supply the demand in this Indian lands in the lead regions; the desecra­ country, where negroes are scarce. tion of Indian graves; and the use of force to We assure you. Father, that this, and evict the residents of the Rock River village many other similar stories have had a from their homes—these and other circum­ great influence on the minds of all, or at stances ofthe same kind appeared like system­ least of most, of that unfortunate band, atic, sadistic persecution, in the face of which which seems now abandoned from retreat would bring dishonor without security. heaven and humanity. For the evidence of this fact, I will refer you to the enthusi­ astic madness with which our women *Tai-mah and Apanos-okimant [so spelled] to Clark, urged their husbands to this desperate July 22, 1832, DNA: BIA, L Reed., Sac and Fox. Apenose resort; & secondly, influenced by a belief is sometimes identified as a Fox chief. 279 Black Hawk was the perfect spokesman for men and women plagued by such fears, for, while he shared the fears, he was able stoutly and steadfastly to express their denial; he was able to denounce the whites, but also able to vow resistance only if attacked; and he was able to sew together the tattered shreds of na­ tive self-respect in a scheme, legalistic and vi­ sionary, which promised victory, honor, and security—all without aggressive war. He be­ came, both in the eyes of his band and to many whites who later saw him and read his autobi­ ography, the prototype of the noble redman, defending the honor of a dying race. Thus, facing General Gaines and Governor Rey­ nolds in 1831, he identified himself in council: You asked "Who I am"—I am Sauk; my fathers were great men, & I wish to re­ main where the bones of my fathers are laid. I desire to be buried with my fa­ thers; Why then should I leave their fields?"" And when he met General Jackson in Wash­ WHi(X3)27087 ington, after the war, he is reported to have James Otto Lewis painted B lack Hawk from life at Detroit said proudly: "I am a man; and you are an­ in 1833. This lithograph from his painting was published as part of the artist's Aboriginal Portfolio two other!" On his capture, he gave a statement years later. which rang the theme of pride: duty. His Father will meet and reward My warriors fell around me. It began to him. The white men do not scalp the look dismal. I saw my evil-day at hand. heads, but they do worse—they poison The sun rose clear on us in the morning; the heart. It is not pure with them. His at night it sunk in a dark cloud and countrymen will not be scalped, but they looked hke a ball of fire. This was the last will in a few years become like the white sun that shone on Black Hawk. He is now man, so that you cannot hurt them; and a prisoner to the white man, but he can there must be, as in the white settle­ stand the torture. He is not afraid of ments, as many officers as men, to take death. He is no coward—Black Havi'k is care of them and keep them in order. an Indian. He has done nothing of which Farewell to my nation! Farewell to Black an Indian need be ashamed. He has Hawk!"' fought the battles of his country against the white man, who came year after year The pages of his autobiography are liberally to cheat his people and take away their sprinkled with professions of courage— lands. You know the cause of our making professions, indeed, that he was entitled to war. It is known to all white men. They make and that were not out of character for a ought to be ashamed of it. The white war captain among a people who expected men despise the Indians, and drive them brave men to announce their bravery in pub­ from their homes. But the Indians are lic. not deceitful. Indians do not steal. Black The legalistic features of Black Hawk's pro­ Hawk is satisfied. He will go to the world gram have already been outlined. Like most of spirits contented. He has done his

"Speech of Black Hawk on his surrender to Joseph M. ^"Memorandum of talks between Edmund P. Gaines Street, Aug. 27, 1832, printed in A. R. Fulton, The Red and the Sauk, June 4, 5, 7, 1831, DNA: AGO. A slighdy Men of Iowa ... (Des Moines, 1882), 210-211. Agent different version is in McCall, Letters from the Frontiers, Street's official report ofthe proceedings at the surrender 230-231. ceremony (in DNA; AGO) does not include this speech.

280 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER legal arguments, they provided a defense in by Davenport the trader, that the matter be depth. The first point was that the "cession" of settled by negotiation and the modest pay­ 1804 was not a cession at all because the repre­ ment of (in one proposal) $6,000, were re­ sentatives of the Sauk and Fox had not been jected both by Clark in St. Louis and by authorized to cede land but only to negotiate a officials in Washington.'"^ The third tactic—to settlement of the murders."* The second was move elsewhere on the public lands—was the that even if a cession had been made, it had only one remaining, short of a surrender been made for a smaller tract of land than the which would have been abject and humiliating entire area claimed by the United States, and to Black Hawk in the spring of 1832. And this that specifically it did not include any lands tactic was made particularly feasible by the north of the Rock River. Winnebago Prophet's invitation to the Black According to this argument, the whites at Hawk band to join his people on the public the treaty council had not told the illiterate In­ lands on Rock River, about forty miles above dians what the document really said."" The the mouth (where the Prophet had been in­ third was that even if all the lands claimed by vited to live by the Sauk in the first place'"'). the United States had been ceded, and various The Prophet, however, did more than facil­ tracts including the Rock River settlement itate a move which Black Hawk would very area had been sold to individual citizens, the likely have made, in one form or another, any­ Sauk and Fox retained the right, by the Treaty way. The Prophet provided much of the fan­ of 1804, to settle and hunt on such public tasy which gave to bitter feeling and stale argu­ lands as had not been purchased. This argu­ ment the leaven of hope. The Prophet was a ment was provided Black Hawk, by white men much younger man than Black Hawk, proba­ who could read the Treaty of 1804, in 1829 bly being in his late thirties at the time of the and ISSO.'"" war, and although he was accused by whites at On the basis of these arguments, then, that time of being cruel, vindictive, and mili­ Black Hawk was prepared to undertake sev­ tant, desirous only of making trouble, he eral alternative policies, depending on the tac­ seems actually to have been originally, like tics employed by the whites. He could simply Black Hawk, a very conscientious person, anx­ remain, with his band, at Rock River, and try ious to lead a morally sound life and to follow a to defend the position by defiance and by policy friendly to whites, but stubbornly insis­ force if necessary; he "could honorably give tent on maintaining what he regarded as his up, by being paid for it [the Rock River vil­ rights. Like Black Hawk, too, he was rejected lage]";"" and he could move elsewhere onto and disapproved of by the chiefs of his tribe, the public lands in the cession. The first alter­ and he and his small band of two hundred or native, of brazening it out at Rock River, with so mixed Sauk and Winnebago therefore lived or without force, was the tactic employed, at a point intermediate between the settle­ against the advice of all white and Indian ad­ ments of the two tribes. Little is known of his visers, until 1831, when it became evident that teachings, except that he seems to have the whites were ready to use overpowering preached a return to moral purity among the mihtary force. The second tactic—to withdraw Indians, and to have had various apocalyptic after receiving a face-saving present of money visions, including (disastrously for Black and goods—was blocked after suggestions by Hawk) heavenly assurances that if the Ameri­ Keokuk, by agents Forsyth and St. Vrain, and cans attempted to dispossess the Black Hawk- Prophet band from the Rock River, Indian ""This argument is stressed in Black Hawk's autobiog­ tribes from the region—Winnebago, Potawat­ raphy and in Forsyth's report on the causes of the Black omi, Ottawa, Chippewa, Osage, Creek, and Hawk War, Oct. 1, 1821, in WHi: Draper MSS, 9T. others as far away as Texas—would rise to ""This argument has been produced on many occa­ their defense. They never did. He also, equally sions. It probably prompted the refusal, for many years, falsely, prophesied that the British in Canada ofthe Sauk and Fox to sign annuity receipts lest they be told they had sold more land. It was brought up by Quashquame at the Rock Island negotiations in 1831 and was used by Black Hawk in his autobiography. "'•'Ibid, 99-100; St. Vrain to Clark, May 15, 1831, '"'•Black Hawk, LJ/*! (1834 ed.), 92, 94-95; Forsyth's re­ Greene and Alvord, eds., ///. Hist. Colls., IV: 178; John port of Oct. 1, 1832, in WHi: Draper MSS, 9T. Connolly, "Memorandum on Sauk Trouble." '"'Black Hawk, Life {1834 ed.), 99. '"'Forsyth to Clark, Dec. 2, 1827, DNA: BIA, L Reed.

281 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

WHi(X3)18967 From left to right: the Winnebago Prophet, Black Hawk, and one of Black Hawk's sons—probably Nasheaskuk, or the Whirling Thunder—from a lithograph published in 1833.

would come to their assistance, sending vessels Napope was the only member of the Sauk by way of Milwaukee with guns, ammunition, chiefs' council tojoin Black Hawk in 1832, and provisions, and clothing, to support the be­ he was recognized as the principal chief of the leaguered band if it was attacked! (The British Black Hawk band. Napope was probably a actually advised Black Hawk not to go devotee ofthe Prophet. Forsyth described him fight.""*), But, said the Prophet, since the band thus in 1830: was simply exercising its legal rights (as defined by the three arguments) in a peace­ Na-bobe i.e. Broth is a smart active youngman of about 28 or 30 years old, able way, the Americans would not dare to use he has been often to war, and is admitted force, being bound by treaty (the Treaty of by his Nation to be descended from some Ghent of 1815, which ended the War of 1812) of their ancient and great Chiefs, and to respect the rights of Indians! Driven by fear that he is a warriour of note. This Chief and previously inspired only by argument, has told me he never tastes whiskey or Black Hawk took the Prophet's dreams, for a smoked Tobacco, he is passionate for an time, hterally as gospel.'"* Indian, very talkative and fond of war, yet to take him all and all he is not a bad '"'Black Hawk, Life (1823 ed,), 95. Indian, altho some of the old Chiefs do '"*For sketches of the Prophet, see Black Hawk, Life (1823 ed.); F. W. Hodge, ed., Handbook of American In­ not like him on account of his blustering dians, North of Mexico (Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin way he has. When any thing concerns the 30, Washington, 1907-1910), s.v. "Wabokieshiek"; and Nation he is to be seen sitting in council, Forsyth to Clark, May 24, 1828, DNA: BIA, L Reed., Illi­ but with defference to the old Chiefs will nois; Forsyth to Clark, June 10, 1828, WHi: Draper MSS, not give an opinion, but coincide in opin­ 6T85; Forsyth to Clark, July 1, 1828, DNA: BIA, L Reed., ion with some favourite chiefs.'"" St. Louis; St. Vrain to Clark, April 6, 1832, DNA: BIA, L Reed., Rock Island; talk of Black Hawk and the Prophet to Henry Atkinson, Dec. 28, 1832, DNA: BIA, L Reed., .Sac '""ForsythtoMcKennev, Augusts, 1830, WHi: Draper and Fox. MSS, 6T. 282 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

When he was examined as a prisoner in Au­ embassy.'" Whatever the purpose ofthe em­ gust, 1821, he observed piously: bassy, it failed to secure the Black Hawk band any support. In the end, Napope, the "head For myself I have no vices—I do not chief and one who "affects to be a prophet,""^ smoke or drink and 1 cannot think what could have led me into such bad roads as turned out to be not only unreliable but I have been travelling as I now find."" guided largely by self-interest: he deserted his wives and children and comrades when they Napope in 1830, however, was one ofthe most were first threatened by an overwhelming ardent advocates of a half-formed plan to United States force.'" If the band can be said murder Forsyth and others responsible for at­ to have had an "evil genius," it was Napope. tempting to remove the Rock River Indians, These three men—Black Hawk, the including the interpreter at Rock Island, the Prophet, and Napope—were the real leaders trader Davenport, Clark in St. Louis, the com­ ofthe band. There was, however, a formal po­ manding officer of Fort Armstrong on Rock litical structure, at least in 1832, which made Island, and Keokuk!'"* According to Black ofthe band an entity separate from Sauk, Fox, Hawk, this young fanatic was a source of much or Winnebago. Nine chiefs were recognized: ofthe difficulty. He acted as a speaker and dip­ the Winnebago Prophet, Napope, Pamisseu, lomat, and maintained communication be­ Weesheet, Chakeepashipaho, Checokalako, tween Black Hawk and the Prophet. In 1831, loway (a younger loway than the one who when General Gaines was on his way to evict died on the southern embassy), Pamaho, and the band, Napope went to the British in Can­ Towaunonne. Napope had been a chief in the ada and came back with the fantastic story that Sauk chiefs' council. Five war captains were a British officer had assured him that in event recognized: Black Hawk, "the leader of all," of war "they would stand hy and assist usl" Na­ Menacou, Makatauauquat, Pashetowat, and pope on his way back from Maiden visited the Kinnekonnesaut.'" Half of these men were Prophet, and reported the Prophet's dreams killed. of a successful defiance ofthe United States.'"" Napope also carried the Prophet's invitation to the Black Hawk band to join him on the Rock River. It may be speculated also that Na­ HE period between the crossing pope was in part responsible for the myste­ T of the Mississippi River on rious embassy to the Arkansas, the Red River, April 5, and the skirmish at Stillman's Run on and Texas in 1830 and 1831, on which three May 14, saw the last hopes of a reasonable set- chiefs ofthe Sauk and Fox were sent with sev­ dement founder in a sea of suspicions, misun­ eral braves. Two of these chiefs—loway and derstandings, and incompetences. The skir­ Namoett—died on the trip; the spokesman, mish at Stillman's Run precipitated a Kinnekonnesaut (later killed in the war), catastrophic withdrawal which ended in the claimed that his mission was "to make peace death of about three quarters ofthe band and with all the Indian Nations of that Country.""" the ignominious surrender of the survivors, Opinions of the purpose of the mission have including its three leading men, Black Hawk, varied among whites: by some, it has been the Prophet, and Napope. The April 5—May taken to be a preparation for the migration of 14 period may be divided into three stages: Black Hawk's band; by others, a mobilization 1) April 5 to about April 26, during which the of Indian allies against the Sioux; by still band proceeded up to the Prophet's village others, an effort to organize a general Indian and beyond, in the belief that they could uprising. Black Hawk in his autobiography probably maintain their residence east of stated that he was "not at liberty" to discuss this

"Tbid: Gaines to Jones, June 14, 1831, DNA: ACxO; Black Hawk, Life {1834 ed.), 96. '"'Minutes of an examination of Indian prisoners, "^ohn Connolly, "Memorandum on Sauk Trouble." Aug. 20, 1832, DNA: SWF. "''Examination of prisoners, Aug. 19 and 20, 1832, '""Black Hawk, LJ/C (18.34 ed.), 93. DNA: SWF. "»Ibid., 108-109. "^Minutes of an examination of Indian prisoners, ""St. Vrain to Gaines, June 15, 1831, DNA: AGO. Aug. 27, 1832, DNA: AGO.

283 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

the Mississippi without bloodshed but, if I am sorry to learn that you have taken attacked, could withstand the American your Band across the Mississippi and car­ forces; ried them up on Rock river contrary to 2) about April 27 to May 13, during which the treaty you made last year with Gen­ time the leaders came to realize that their eral Gaines & Governor Reynolds. Your dreams of support from other tribes and great father will be angry with you for the British were groundless and that they doing so. 1 advise you to come back and would have to return to the west side of the recross the Mississippi without delay. It is Mississippi in order to avoid annihilation; not too late to do what is right—and what is right do at once. If you do not come 3) May 14, when the Illinois militia under Ma­ back and go on the other side ofthe great jor Isaiah Stillman attacked the band while river I shall write to your great father & it was attempting to negotiate safe passage tell him of your bad conduct. You will be down the Rock River, forcing them there­ sorry if you do not come back. after to flee northward toward the Wiscon­ Some foolish people have told you sin in their roundabout, and ill-fated, that the Brittish will assist you—do not effort to escape to the west of the Missis­ believe it—you will find when it is too late sippi River by a northern route. that it is not true. The first period began with the crossing of If your hearts are good I will send an the river on April 5. The band proceeded up officer to talk with you in three or four the east bank of the Mississippi, the women days. and children and heavy baggage in canoes; the Send an answer to my words by Peat- men, carrying their arms, on horseback. They chony & Wacomme."" turned up the Rock River on the thirteenth, Napope, Black Hawk, and Kinnekonnesaut and about the twentieth of April they had replied uniformly that they were peaceable reached the Prophet's village, some forty miles but would not return: up the Rock River, where they prepared to plant corn and settle down. During their Napope, now the principal chief, said: move, no hostile action was taken: there were We have no bad feelings, why do they no murders, no stealing, no destruction of send to us to tell us to go back—we will property. They were being repeatedly urged not look back, we will go on. 1 had no bad by the Sauk and Fox chiefs to turn back before intention when I came up Rock river. I it was too late; and the Sauk and Fox chiefs, was invited by the Winnebagoes at Peke- anxious not to be accused of helping or en­ tolica to go and live with them. couraging Black Hawk, gave what informa­ Black Hawk said: Why do the whites tion they had about the band to the Ameri­ enquire of me the reason of my coming cans. To this advice from their fellow-Indians here. I do not command the Indians. the Black Hawk band responded with scorn, The Village belongs to the Chiefs. Why do they want to know my feelings. I have accusing the peaceable party of Keokuk of be­ no bad feelings. My opinion goes with ing cowards. Keokuk's efforts to draw away his my Chiefs. I will follow them up Rock relatives and the women and children were river, and my braves are all of the same met with threats of violence against interfer­ mind. ing Indians."* Not until about the twenty-fifth The same words that Black Hawk of April did any United States official directly gave were repeated by all the braves instruct Black Hawk and his band to turn through Kene-ko-esat, a Brave."' back. On that date Black Hawk received from General Atkinson, by way of two Sauk Indian The couriers observed some developing couriers, a formal demand that he recross the differences of opinion among the band at this Mississippi: time, however; "there was a lodge of women that wanted to come back," on the one hand, "•''Minutes of a council at Fort Armstrong, April 13, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll.; extracts from the journal of Felix St. Vrain, April 15-May 9, 1832, Iowa State Historical So­ ""Atkinson to Black Hawk, April 24, 1832, IHi: BHW ciety, Iowa City; St. Vrain to Clark, .A.pril 18, 1832, DNA: Coll. BIA, L Reed., Rock Island; minutes of council at Fort '"Black Hawk and his band to Atkinson, April 26, Armstrong, April 19, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll. 1832, IHi: BHW Coll.

284 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER and a group (overruled by the leaders) who Prophet's village with their agent Henry Gra­ wished to hold two white visitors hostage."* By tiot. After the principal men in the Winnebago this time, furthermore, the band was running party left the village to go on down the Rock low on provisions, and plans had changed: no River, the other chiefs reneged on the invita­ longer were the Indians planning to stay at the tion, informing Black Hawk that "they had no Prophet's village; they would instead accept objection to our making corn this year, with another, earlier invitation from a few of the our friend the prophet; but did not wish us to Winnebago tribe (not merely the Prophet) to go any further up.""" live with the Winnebago still farther up the river, at Pecatonica. This invitation had been ""/fe'rf.; Journal of Felix St. Vrain; Gratiot to Atkinson renewed by the Winnebago who arrived at the (2 letters), April 27, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll.; Black Hawk, Life (1834 ed.); minutes of a council with the Rock River 'Hbid Winnebago, Sept. II, 1832, DNA: SWF.

,

I :.\J9' 3K- ll I E

(••-•• • »•'

"* !,,|( %'

PHRENOLOGY, a pseudo-science of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by which mental faculties and character traits were deduced by carefully measuring all aspects of the human skull, was applied to the defeated Black Hawk following his eastern trip of 1833. Using a plaster cast ofthe living chiefs head and face, the American Phrenological Journal for November, 1838, published an eleven-page article which analyzed in some detail various indices to the Sauk warrior's Amativeness (large), (x)mbativeness (very large), Constructiveness (small), and thirty-four other personality traits. Black Hawk was much admired by his captors, who somewhat condescendingly viewed him as the ideal ofthe "noble savage"; and this assessment was borne out by the phrenological profile. "His head is large," wrote the editors, "giving much more than an ordinary amount of intellect and feeling, and indicative also of weight of character and extent of influence. His temperament is bilious-nervous, combining great strength with great mental and physical activity, and power of endurance. . . ." But Black Hawk's index of C^ausality was only moderate, and thus "too feeble to originate very comprehensive plans, and successfully adapt means to ends." (To this last, the editors primly appended a footnote: "The deficiency of this organ [Causality] in the Indian head, generally, is one of the principal causes why they have not been able to cope more successfully in battle with the whites, or destroy their enemies by other means.") Despite its ludicrous origins, however, this likeness ofthe aging Black Hawk is probably quite accurate.

285 WHi(x;i):i0530 The Wisconsin Heights battleground in northwestern Dane County, painted by Samuel M. Brookes and Thomas H. Stevenson about 1856, to this day presents one of the most pleasing vistas in southern Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, military preparations were well Having ascertained that the White underway to bring both the United States Beaver [Atkinson] would not permit us Army and the Illinois militia into the field to to remain here, I began to consider what force Black Hawk to recross the river and to was best to be done, and concluded to destroy the band if resistance was ofl'ered. The keep up the river and see the Pottowato­ United States garrison at Rock Island was re­ mies, and have a talk with them. Several inforced; information of the emergency was Winnebago chiefs were present, whom 1 sent to the army's commanding general, Alex­ advised of my intentions, as they did not ander Macomb, to Governor Reynolds, and to seem disposed to render us any assist­ the Secretary of War. Reynolds called up ance. I asked them if they had not sent us fifteen hundred mounted militia. Atkinson, wampum during the winter, and re­ however, preferred not to strike at once, be­ quested us to come and join their people and enjoy all the rights and privileges of cause the band had not committed any acts of their country? They did not deny this; violence and because his force was "too small and said if the white people did not inter­ to oppose to them with a prospect of success fere, they had no objection to our mak­ without great risk. . . ."™ ing corn this year with our friend the Although Black Hawk did not know the de­ prophet; but did not wish us to go any tails of the military preparations against him, further up. he was doubtless aware that such preparations The next day, I started with my party were underway. Furthermore, food was run­ to Kish-wa-co-kee. That night I en­ ning low. In the week following the receipt of camped a short distance above the the message from Atkinson, he gained further prophet's village. After all was quiet in information, which made it plain that the en­ my camp, I sent for my chiefs, and told terprise was bound to fail. He recorded his them that we had been deceived! Yhat all own disillusionment: the fair promises that had been held out to us, through Ne-a-pope, werefalse! But '^"Atkinson to Macomb, .-Vpril 13, 1832, Atkinson Let­ it would not do to let our party know ter Book, IHi: BHW Coll. it. We must keep it a secret among

286 WALLACE: PRELUDE TO DISASTER

ourselves—and move on to Kish-wa-co- were vain imaginings. In fact, they were an iso­ kee, as if all was right, and say something lated "village," abandoned by their fellow- on the way to encourage our people. I tribesmen, without food or supplies. And will then call on the Pottowatomies, and against them might at any moment be hear what they say, and see what they will launched an overwhelming assault by thou­ do. sands of angry frontiersmen and soldiers, well We started the next morning, after armed and supported by artillery. If Black telling our people that news had just Hawk's band had been only a party of war­ come from Mil-wa-kee that a chief of our riors, they might have concluded to fight; but British father would be there in a few they were encumbered by their women and days! children. The only thing to do was to go back. Finding that all our plans were de­ And so, during the first and second weeks feated, I told the prophet that he must go in May, Black Hawk made plans to return with me, and we would see what could be down the Rock River. On May 4, Poyne- done with the Pottowatomies. On our ar­ hanesa, a deserter from the band, came rival at Kish-wa-co-kee, an express was sent to the Pottowatomie villages. The through Rock Island. He reported that next day a deputation arrived. I inquired . . . the Sac Indians of Rock River were if they had corn in their villages? They returning to the west side of the Missis­ said they had a very little, and could not sippi, that they had been disappointed spare any! I asked them different ques­ about the assistance expected from the tions, and received unsatisfactory an­ Winnebagoes, and others, that he had swers. This talk was in the presence of all left them all at Proffets Village three days my people. 1 afterwards spoke to them ago.'^^ privately, and requested them to come to my lodge after my people had got to And on May 12, Thomas Owen, the Indian sleep. They came, and took seats. 1 asked agent at Chicago, learned from a deputation them if they had received any news from of Potawatomi that the lake from the British? Ihey said no. I inquired if they had heard that a chief of . . . the Sacs are on Rock River about 30 our British father was coming to Mil-wa- miles above Ogee's ferry, in a state of kee, to bring us guns, ammunition, Starvation and are anxious to recross the goods and provisions? They said, no! I Mississippi but dare not descend Rock then told them what news had been River for fear of being intercepted by the brought to me, and requested them to Militia & indiscriminately slaughtered return to their village, and tell the chiefs without affording them an opportunity that 1 wished to see them and have a talk of explaining the cause of their recent with them. movements. They aver most positively to the Potowatimies that they have no de­ After this deputation started, 1 con­ sign of committing any wrong whatever cluded to tell my people, that if the White towards the people of their great Fa­ Beaver came after us, we would go ther.'^' back—as it was useless to think of stop­ ping or going on without provisions. 1 The denouement came on May 14. That discovered that the Winnebagoes and evening a straggling detachment of about 275 Pottowatomies were not disposed to ren­ Illinois militia under Major Isaiah Stillman der us any assistance.'^' made their disorderly camp about eight miles below Black Hawk's. Black Hawk immediately sent three young men, unarmed, under a HUS, between April 26 and May white flag "to meet them, and conduct them to T' 14, Black Hawk and the other our camp, that we might hold a council with leaders learned that the rosy visions of sup­ them, and descend Rock river again." But the port and approbation of their stand, which embassy miscarried: the militia command had had been retailed by the Prophet and Napope, no semblance of authority, and many of the

'^yournal of Felix St. Vrain, May 4, 1832. ''•"Black Hawk, Li/c (1834 ed.), 116-118. '^"Owen to Reynolds, May 13, 1832, IHi: BHW Coll.

287 •Naliotial Gallery of An George Catlin's conceptualization of the funeral of Black Hawk is part ofthe Paul Mellon Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Following his death on October 3,1838, Black Hawk was buried in the traditional Sauk manner in northeastern Davis County, Iowa. The following summer his grave was robbed by white men who took his skull and other parts of his skeletal remains and put them on exhibition. Eventually Black Hawk's bones were recovered and deposited with the Burlington (Iowa) Geological and Historical Society, where they were destroyed by fire in 1855. men were drunk; they seized the ambassadors petence of Stillman's militia, it could have as hostages, then took fright at the sight of In­ ended then, either by negotiation, or by the dian observers on the hill, murdered one of capture of Black Hawk. The consequence of the now-captive ambassadors, and chased the that inglorious skirmish was a campaign which observers almost to their camp in an undisci­ ended in the almost complete annihilation of plined stampede over the prairies. When the Black Hawk's band, the demoralization ofthe men under Black Hawk in the Indian camp re­ Sauk and Fox nation, and untold hardship turned fire from cover, the militia fled, leaving and inconvenience to thousands of white their dead on the field. They were pursued persons—to say nothing of the impetus camp some distance beyond their camp by the angry life gave to the spread ofthe cholera epidemic. Indians. The Indians engaged in the battle Reviewing the circumstances from which were a few dozen: most of the men were out these unhappy events flowed, the anthropolo­ hunting at the time.'^" gist and the historian may perhaps draw one conclusion: that the prime emotional factors in the entire situation were the white man's at­ EPILOGUE titude of contempt for persons of an alien color and culture, and the Indian's bitter re­ 'HE Black Hawk War might have sentment of and gradual demoralization un­ T-been avoided at any time up to der that contempt. In a world where such and including the evening of May the four­ small and foolish wars as the Black Hawk cam­ teenth, 1832. If it had not been for the incom- paign can be the sparks which ignite an entire planet, and all peoples do in fact live in close '^iBIack Hawk, Life (1834 ed.), 118-120; militia contact with others of alien color and culture, officer's report on Stillman's defeat, May 18, 1832, from intelligent men must realize that contempt is the Life (1834 ed.), 118-120; militia officer's report on one of the most suicidally destructive emo­ Stillman's defeat, May 18, 1832, from the Illinois Advocate [Edwardsville], May 29, 1832, in IHi. tions which the human mind can entertain.

288 Wisconsin at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904

By Marilyn Grant

N the journal she kept during her Besides the exhibits at St. Louis, about 540 I visit to the Louisiana Purchase concessions and amusements lined The Pike, a Exposition in 1904, Miss Mary E. Stewart, lit­ one-and-a-half-mile street where food, gifts, erary critic for the Milwaukee Journal, wrote and clothing grossed nearly $15,000,000. An­ glowing descriptions of the exhibits and other $ 1,000,000 came from some 800 foreign amusements, the storybook grounds along the concessionaires. A thousand buildings in River des Peres on the northern edge of St. "ivory white with dashes of color on the roofs" Louis, and the country charm of the Wiscon­ were set among man-made lakes and ponds on sin Building where she and her friends "sat on 1,240 acres of landscaped parkland, nearly the platform and had ices and cakes, and twice the acreage of any previous exposition. watched people coming and the handsome Just inside the entrance, water cascaded into dresses." basins at the feet of three giant fountains that During the seven months of the fair, which became the fair's most recognizable landmark opened on April 30 and closed on December as their images appeared again and again in 1, 1904, Miss Stewart was one of more than drawings and photographs. At night the eighteen million people who toured the grounds and buildings sparkled, illuminated grounds ofthe exposition heralding the great by 120,000 electric lamps. international fairs of the twentieth century, Day and night, bands played and flags and where ideas and knowledge were shared by banners waved. There were festivals, Olympic the nations of the world and the rapidly ad­ games, bicycle races, and automobile parades, vancing "new technology" was exploited. The a popular diversion in the early years of the managers ofthe St. Louis fair claimed to have twentieth century. One auto was put on public taken experiments right out of the laboratory display when it arrived at the fair following a and placed them in open exhibits for the drive from New York City. Gentlemen and world to see. The fair was, they said, "a com­ ladies strolled the grounds and, in a manner prehensive collection ofthe best works of man rather indelicate for the time, licked ice cream and the best collective products of society—a from the cone-shaped wafers that had just full and accurate reflection of civilization in its been introduced. One newspaper reported perfection as reached at the beginning of the that "people are buying sackfuls of what looks twentieth century." World expositions were like pink cotton and eating it; it turns out to be exercises in chauvinism, and the states as well taffy fanned into a fluff by electricity." Public­ as nations planned exhibits for the glorifi­ ity for the fair enticed summer tourists away cation of local interests. from usual vacation spots such as the hotels in the Waukesha area, which were already in the final throes of decline. The pleas of Wisconsin resort owners went unheeded, and the Mil­ MARILYN GRANT is associate editor of the Wisconsin Magazine of History and editor-in-chief of the Society's waukee Journal somewhat callously offered annual Wisconsin Calendar. free tickets to St. Louis as the prize in a mail

289 \\Hi(\3)!S3')4 The cascade and fountains (foreground) and festival hall at the Louisiana Purchase exposition in St. Louis. subscription contest, and special train excur­ priated by the Wisconsin legislature to con­ sions were organized. Wisconsin Day on June struct the state building at the fair and to cover 29 and Milwaukee Day on October 19 fea­ other expenses of the State Board of Man­ tured state dignitaries, and throngs of Wiscon- agers, which was responsible for supervising sinites went south to participate in the special Wisconsin's participation in the exposition. Of events scheduled for both days. The essence this sum, the Board of Managers set aside 10 of the era and of the fair was portrayed best, per cent for emergencies, most of which was perhaps, by three musicians popular during returned to the state at the end of the fair. The the early years of the twentieth century. In­ average expenditure by the other forty states spired by the three majestic fountains, Scott and territories represented at the fair was Joplin, the leader of a community of ragtime $173,000, topped by Missouri's appropriation musicians living in St. Louis, composed "The of $1,000,000. Wisconsin spent approxi­ Cascades," acclaimed as one of his finest rags; mately $15,000 to construct its building. Con­ and Kerry Mills and Andrew B. Sterling col­ struction costs of the other forty-four partici­ laborated on the immortal "Meet Me in St. pating states and territories and the cities of Louis, Louis, Meet Me at the Fair." Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Francisco, New York, and Kansas City ranged from Arizona's expenditure of $4,172 to the $160,429 spent by Missouri. The average construction cost of UT those who journeyed to St. state buildings was just over $28,000. B Louis found much more than Wisconsin's penchant for economy was musical froth and cotton candy. They discov­ pressed upon the general public and fair ered that although Wisconsin's appropria­ board members with much vigor by William tions were modest when compared with other Dempster Hoard, president of the State states, its state building and its exhibits were Board of Managers. Atone point, after the ex­ unique. A total of $100,000 had been appro­ position opened, he admonished Grant

290 GRANT: LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Thomas, secretary ofthe Board and manager called for a commission of five members ap­ of the Wisconsin Building in St. Louis, to re­ pointed by the governor and known as the duce the amount spent for cigars given at so­ State Board of Managers to "provide suitable cial gatherings in the building, reminding him building or buildings to be erected . . . upon that while Wisconsin must be gracious, "it the ground of said St. Louis World's Fair and must not be forgotten that our State is very to the performance of such details relating to close and conservative in its expenditure of the representation of citizens of the State of funds. Our appropriations were not on a par Wisconsin. ..." The bill also provided for an with many other States and we must cut our appropriation of $25,000. In addition to garment according to our cloth and not as we Hoard, Governor Robert M. La Follette ap­ would have it." pointed William Gender of Milwaukee; Wil­ As president of the Board of Managers, liam H. Flett of Merrill; S. A. Cook of Neenah; former governor Hoard directed Wisconsin's and William A. Scott of Madison. The board exposition contributions with a sharp eye on selected R. D. Rood of Stevens Point as secre­ the state's agriculture interests. Hoard, pub­ tary and house manager. Following the death lisher of Hoard's Dairyman in Fort Atkinson of William Gueder, La Follette appointed A. J. since 1885, had helped to establish the Wis­ Lindemann of Milwaukee, and when Rood re­ consin Dairyman's Association in 1872 and signed, the Board selected Grant Thomas of was an early advocate of the special-purpose Madison as his replacement. In 1903, the bill dairy cow, an animal that truly came into its was amended to include an additional $75,000 own at the 1904 exposition. During his one and to increase the Board from five to seven term as governor (1889-1891), Hoard created members, "at least two of whom shall be the state dairy and food commission and con­ women." La Follette appointed Mrs. Lucy tinued his fight for regulation of the quality of Morris of Berlin and Mrs. Theodora dairy and other agricultural products even af­ Youmans of Waukesha; both were active ter he was defeated by the Democrat George suffragists and club women. In addition to her Peck in 1890. He conducted the business of state-wide club and political activities, Mrs. the Board of Managers with a dry wit and a Youmans also assisted her husband, Henry good deal of patience with the many peti­ Mott Youmans, in editing the Waukesha Free­ tioners who came to the Board seeking em­ man from their marriage in 1889 until her ployment at the fair. Much to the annoyance death in 1932. of Hoard and the other members of the The board's first order of business was to Board, the exposition management decided to set aside $15,000 for construction of the Wis­ fill most of the positions with people from St. consin Building. (The sum, it noted in its min­ Louis first, and then from elsewhere in Mis­ utes, was necessitated by the "high prices for souri. The only employment left to the discre­ labor and material.") The well-known Milwau­ tion of the State Board were two staff positions kee architectural firm of Ferry & Clas was se­ at the Wisconsin Building. Grant Thomas was lected in an area-wide competidon, and the hired as manager and Mrs. Emma J. Walsh of construction contract was let to Henry W. Baraboo was appointed over several other Schleuter of Chicago. When compared either candidates as the official state hostess. with traditional exposition buildings or with other work done by Ferry & Clas, the Wiscon­ sin design was singular. According to the Louisiana Exposition Guide ISCONSIN'S involvement Book, written to direct visitors around the w with the Louisiana Purchase grounds, buildings at the site represented a Exposition began officially in May, 1901, in re­ "free treatment ofthe Renaissance." The pro­ sponse to a proclamation by President William totype for exposition structures was the Crys­ McKinley inviting the states and other coun­ tal Palace, built in London's Hyde Park in tries to participate. (McKinley was to die on 1851 for the Exposition ofthe Industry of All September 14, 1901, from wounds inflicted Nations. After that, and until the end of the eight days earlier by an assassin at a reception era of the gigantic world fairs at the onset of in Music Hall at the Pan-American Exposition World War II, Roman columns and elaborate in Buffalo, New York.) The state legislature Beaux Arts features dominated fair grounds.

291 Exactly forty years after this picture was taken, Judy Garland and her movie family enjoyed the Ferris wheel in "Meet Me in St. Louis."

At St. Louis the French Building, an exact rep­ tions; 140 carpenters sawed, planed and ham­ lica ofthe Grand Trianon at Versailles, epito­ mered for that period; 100 plasterers were mized the grand and elegant style of exposi­ employed two months; 100 staff workers were tion structures. The magnitude of the engaged 200 days, with 100 nailers following construction process and the difficulties of them to fasten the staff to the frame during transpordng materials to the Missouri site for 100 days; these nailers had 100 helpers; fifty the huge exhibit buildings were graphically roofers were busy for half a month and then described by David R. Francis, president of came the 100 painters with two month's steady the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company. wielding ofthe brush to apply the color. These "Suppose a freight train to consist of forty figures on construction and on labor must be cars," Francis wrote in his final report. "Eight­ multiplied by twelve to convey realization of een of these trains were required to haul the the vast quantities of lumber and other things lumber from the forests of the South, of the which entered into construction and of the Atlantic coast and of the Pacific coast to St. army of labor which put the exhibit buildings Louis for the construction of a single exhibit in place." building. The structural iron for that building Displays were housed in the twelve exhibit called for two trains of twenty cars each, the buildings, while the state and nation buildings weight per car being much greater than for served as club houses where visitors could lumber. Three trains of one hundred cars of meet, rest, and socialize. Here the states and plaster and two trains of fifty cars of sand en­ nations held receptions, dinners, teas, and tered into the construction of the palace; special "days," often vying with each other to eighteen carloads of roofing material, ten cars fashion the most elegant affair. In such grand loaded with glass and four carloads of nails surroundings, the striped awnings, cool-white were the smaller items. To color the palace af­ stucco, dark wood trim, and English cottage ter its completion there were required 3,000 decor of the Wisconsin Building with its cen­ gallons of paint. tral court and large, shaded verandas on ei­ "But between the arrival of the material ther side, were refreshing. Ice-cooled and the finish by the painters, eighty diggers Waukesha spring water was served daily and laborers worked 200 days on the founda­ throughout the summer to hot, tired visitors 292 GRANT: LOUISIANA PURCHASE who chose to rest on the Mission-style settees George B. Ferry and Alfred C. Clas, who were and chairs on the verandas and in the main re­ better known for their neoclassical civic build­ ception room. A large fireplace with gas logs at ings and Queen Anne homes. More typical of the end ofthe reception room warmed visitors their work are two Neo-Renaissance buildings during the fall months. designed in the 1890's: the Milwaukee Public Library and Public Museum (now housing the Central Library of the Milwaukee Public Li­ brary System and several city agencies), which jURING their deliberations, the was strongly reminiscent of the buildings at D'Boar d of Managers cited two the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago reasons for departing from the usual fair ar­ in 1893; and the State Historical Society of chitecture: "First, with a desire to get away Wisconsin in Madison, completed in 1900. from the sameness and similarity of exposition The firm, active from 1890 to 1913, was in­ state buildings, and second, because the con­ strumental in popularizing Georgian Revival ception of the architects seemed to so fully and Colonial Revival designs—already popu­ meet the desire of your Board to provide a lar in the more sophisticated East—in Wiscon­ building which should in every detail breathe sin. The relaxed and casual appearance ofthe out a 'Wisconsin air' of hospitality and homey- Wisconsin Building drew more from the ness." The International Jury of Awards ap­ country manor atmosphere of Tudor Revival parently agreed with the board's assessment of than from the urban refinements of Georgian the architects' plan, for it presented a Gold or Colonial revival or from Queen Anne.' As Medal to Ferry & Clas for the artistic concep­ tion and appropriateness of their design. The only other state building to receive that dis­ 'Although several residences designed by Ferry 8c Clas tinction was the traditional New York Build­ in the twentieth century showed the Tudor inspiration, ing, embellished with stately porticos and they were closely related in scale, massing, and plan to the erected at a cost of over $ 100,000. ubiquitous Queen Anne and late Picturesque styles. For the Wisconsin Building, Ferry 8c Clas incorporated ele­ The "country" or informal style of the En­ ments from the progressive American experiments with glish cottage signified a shift in form for Arts and Crafts and Shingle Style concepts.

To fully appreciate the "homeyness" of Wisconsin's building, you had to compare it to the overblown neoclassical architecture that prevailed elsewhere at the St. Louis fair. WHi(X3)38524

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On "Wisconsin Day, "June 29, 1904, Governor Robert M. La Follette and other guests and WHi(X3)27461 dignitaries listened to former Governor Hoard's reading of a proclamation on the veranda ofthe Wisconsin Building.

early as 1870, the influence of Tudor Revival F the Wisconsin Building was de­ was visible in the state. By the turn of the cen­ I signed to suggest a mood of tury, versions of Tudor Revival and English homeyness and hospitality, the Wisconsin ex­ cottage styles were favored as summer homes, hibits were meant to reflect, more than any especially in the lake country of southeastern other element, a progressive agricultural and Wisconsin, and variations of the architectural intellectual climate. The Board of Managers styles continued to appear throughout the decided that although funds were scarce, "ex­ state well into the twentieth century. After hibits could be made in the several depart­ 1904, the popularity of the design undoubt­ ments adequately portraying the vast re­ edly was enhanced by the publicity given the sources ofthe state . . . to justify the high class Wisconsin Building in St. Louis. that has come to be conceded to Wisconsin." When the fair closed, most ofthe buildings The Board was delighted when the exposition were torn down, save for a few that remained authorities allotted space for the exhibits of as part ofthe campus of Washington Univer­ the University of Wisconsin in the space "set sity. Several plans were advanced to move the aside for the great universities." There, Wis­ Wisconsin Building from St. Louis back to consin was "ranked with Yale and Harvard." Wisconsin, but the costs—unduly high, the Three hundred and eighty-one prizes, in­ Board of Managers suggested, because of the cluding twenty-one grand prizes, were exaggerated prices charged in Missouri— awarded to Wisconsin and to individuals and proved prohibitive. The building was there­ organizations from the state. Of the grand fore sold for $600 to the Illinois Construction prizes, thirteen were won by individuals, busi­ Company, which wrecked it. Some ofthe fur­ nesses, or organizations; two were awarded to nishings were sold to individuals as keepsakes; state education programs; two to the Univer­ the remainder were taken by the State Board sity of Wisconsin—both of which related to of Control for eventual disposal. dairying; and one each to the dairy school at

294 GRANT: LOUISIANA PURCHASE the University; state fruits; forestry; and the frigeration and its promotion at world exposi­ grains and grasses exhibit. The displays that tions. Skepticism about butter statuary as an elicited the most publicity during the fair all art form was expressed by one critic who wrote promoted some phase of dairying. Although in a newspaper account: "But butter is butter. Wisconsin's dairy industry was well estab­ Graceful and ethereal as its forms may be, one lished by 1904, and the state was within five would not hesitate long to slice off a nose or a years of becoming the top cheese and butter finger to butter his pancakes. . . ." Another producer in the country, the state did not win critic noted: "Butter is now becoming so rare any grand prizes for its dairy exhibit. How­ as compared with other forms of 'oleaginizing' ever, in addition to the three grand prizes the staff of life, that it seems entirely suitable awarded the University, a state cow won the that it be employed in the fine arts. It is too "greatest dairy cow test of modern times." valuable to eat. . . . Butter in this country is be­ In the years since 1876, when the Wisconsin coming like roast beef in the British Isles, Dairyman's Association had won more medals something to be indulged in only on Fridays or than any other exhibitor of cheese and butter Tuesdays." at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Board President Hoard's main concern was the quality of Wisconsin cheese and butter had to promote quality, and he viewed butter stat­ been compromised by the introduction of lard uary as a travesty that compromised the image or vegetable oil instead of butterfat in produc­ of butter as a healthful food. Toward the end ing cheese, and by watering milk that was sold of the controversy over the cow sculpture, he by the pound to creameries for butter making. wrote to Grant Thomas, who was overseeing When dairymen and dairy promoters were construction of the Wisconsin exhibits at the convinced that high standards benefited fair: "I am not very enthusiastic about putting them, the quality of the state's dairy products a hairy cow into the butter. I don't know but improved. By l904, technological advances in what you might possibly plaster butter enough the preparation of milk for the market and for on her to cover up so as to make her into a but­ the making of butter and cheese, the develop­ ter cow, but would it be best?" But eventually ment of the special-purpose dairy cow, the ed­ Hoard relented and approved the purchase of ucational efforts ofthe College of Agriculture 600 pounds of butter for the dairy maid and in Madison, and the forceful guidance of the cow. "Anyway, find such butter as you leaders like William Dempster Hoard had all need for the work," he wrote to the chairman brought about improvements in Wisconsin's of the dairy exhibit. "Of course, the cheapest dairy products. butter would be just as good as any other." Hoard had devoted a good share of his life to promoting high standards in the industry, This life-sized sculpture in butter ofthe discovery ofthe and as president of the State Board of Man­ Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi was part ofthe agers for the Louisiana Exposition he cajoled Minnesota exhibit. and wheedled exhibitors to represent Wiscon­ WUi(X.S)38,i9,S sin in their displays as the leading dairy state in the nation. He hovered over exhibit designs and waged a vigorous albeit losing battle against installing a life-size sculpture in butter of a dairy cow and milk maid in a refrigerated case at the entrance to the Wisconsin exhibit. Since the Philadelphia Centennial World's Fair in 1876, when an Iowa woman had mod­ eled the prize-winning head of "Dreaming lolanthe" in butter, butter statuary had be­ come a popular art form at fairs and exposi­ tions. Before then, special butter designs of swans and other figures were incised in molds and used especially as table decorations at so­ cial functions, but life-size butter sculptures were an outgrowth of the development of re­

295 WHi(X3)28558 Wisconsin's tribute to the culture of rye was quite sublime, thougino doubt some critics sniffed at the pennants tacked to the steps.

NOTHER crusade of Hoard's 1880's, acceptance of the idea was spreading A'wa s to improve the state's dairy throughout the state. The rivalry continued, herds by promoting the single-purpose dairy however, among the advoc;ates of the Ayr­ animal. Before the Civil War, the dual- shire, Guernsey, Jersey, and Holstein-Friesian purpose animal that would withstand Wiscon­ breeds. After 1890, the most numerous sin's weather and could produce beef as well as breeds in the state were the Jersey and the milk was favored. The popular animal of the Holstein-Friesian. At the World's Columbian time was the Shorthorn, and farmers hesitated Exposition in Chicago in 1893, Jerseys had set to become dependent upon the smaller, less several records during dairy production tests, hardy dairy types. The Shorthorn Breeders' adding to their popularity. Association presented a united front in de­ Great interest focused on the St. Louis ex­ fense of the breed, while advocates of various hibits of dairy animals, and the Guernsey herd dairy breeds argued among themselves about of George C. Hill & Son of Rosendale in Fond the attributes of individual favorites. Through du Lac County and the Jerseys belonging to his publications—first the Jefferson County Un­ H. C. Taylor of Orfordville in Rock County ion in Lake Mills and later its successor Hoard's won several prizes. The laurels of the Louisi­ Dairyman—Hoard argued on behalf of the ana Purchase Exposition, however, graced the concept of a special-purpose cow. By the horns of Loretta D., who had traveled to St.

296 GRANT: LOUISIANA PURCHASE

Louis with other members of the Jersey herd reporter described the test and then wrote, "It owned by F. H. Schribner of Rosendale and is a pity that every housewife visiting the Expo­ who won the dairy cow contest. sition should not see this exhibit, because it Loretta and seventy-three other cows rep­ would bring the milk problem home to her in a resenting four breeds were entered. Each was very simple way that almost any amount of milked three times a day and their milk reading could not equal. . . . One of the most weighed, sampled, and tested to measure but­ common forms of graft, and one ofthe mean­ ter fat and solids. No restrictions were placed est, is adulteration of milk in a great city, and on the kind or amount of feed given to each too many people cannot be taught this lesson contestant, but each cow's feed was sampled of detecting adulteration, if we are to reach a and weighed each day. Over the 120-day test time when adulterated milk will have become period, Loretta produced 5,802.7 pounds of a thing ofthe past." milk testing 4.82 per cent butterfat, which Surrounded though they were by the gran­ equalled 330.03 pounds of butter, or an aver­ deur of the exposition, Wisconsin's modest age of two and three-quarters pounds of but­ contributions nonetheless focused attention ter each day for 120 days. The cost of her feed on the state, and Wisconsinites attending the was $31.99, and the difference between the fair were proud of the accomplishments even cost and the value of her butter at twenty-five as they were dazzled by the spectacle around cents per pound was $50.52. Similar tests had them. For many, their visit to the exposition been suggested before to collect the data for was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and they scientific and economic purposes, but no state probably would have agreed with Mary Stew­ or institution had been able or willing to un­ art, who wrote wistfully in her journal, "It is dertake the expense and work involved.^ all over except in memory. This memory will During the dairy cow test, butterfat content be long held as a real and valued pleasure." was measured by means of the Babcock milk test, which won a grand prize as part of the University of Wisconsin exhibit of various ap­ SOURCES paratus invented by faculty. The test itself, an improvement upon earlier chemical tests and Information for this article came from the Public In­ formation Office of the Knoxville International Energy perfected in 1890 by Professor Stephen M. Exposition, the 1982 World's Fair scheduled for Knox­ Babcock, had won a grand prize at the Paris ville, Tennessee, from May 1 through October 31, 1982, Exposition in 1900. Simplifying earlier proce­ and from other sources available at the State Historical So­ dures, Babcock placed acid and milk in a glass ciety of Wisconsin. Material about the 1904 exposition was bottle with a percentage scale at its neck. He found in: Wisconsin at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the Report of the State Board of Managers of the Saint Louis shook the bottle until the acid and milk World's Fair, published by Cantwell Printing Co., Madi­ blended into one liquid and the acid had dis­ son, Wisconsin (1904); volumes I and II of The Universal solved everything except the butterfats. Next, Exposition of 1904, the report of President David R. Francis he whirled the bottle, separating the fats from published by the Louisiana Purcha.se Exposition Com­ pany, St. Louis (1913); and the Guide to Louisiana Purchase the acid. The fats gathered as a yellowish oil on Expo.sition, published by the Official Guide Company of St. top of the acid. Finally, he poured hot water Louis (1904). Other books included Joseph Schafer, A into the bottle, forcing the oil to the top where History of Agriculture in Wisconsin (Madison, State Histori­ it was measured by the scale. cal Society of Wisconsin, 1922); Eric E. Lampard, The Rise of the Dairy Industry in Wisconsin: A Study of Agriculture Change, 1820-1920 (Madison, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1963); the Wisconsin Blue Book; and the state statutes for 1901 and 1903. HE value of the test for dairy­ Wisconsin information is from the Papers and Corre­ T men, creamery owners, educa­ spondence of William Dempster Hoard, the Minutes of tors, and the general public was well publi­ the State Board of Managers, and the diary of Mary E. Ste­ cized. In an article written for Cosmopolitan, a wart, all in the Archives Division ofthe State Historical So­ ciety; and from the Milwaukee Journal during the summer ^The popularity of the Jersey diminished eventually, of 1904. Architectural information is from the files ofthe and by 1922, about 8,000 purebred Jerseys were regis­ Historic Preservation Division at the Society. tered as compared with 80,000 Holsteins and 20,000 Other contemporary news sources are from the bound Guernseys. By 1980, there were about 25,000 Jerseys in volume Sights and Echoes of the Exposition, Clippings Compiled Wisconsin compared with 131,000 Guernseys and by Minnie Mclntyre Wallace, St. Louis, Missouri, 1904, and 1,600,000 Holstein-Friesians. from Cosmopolitan, Volume 37, May—October, 1904. 297 READING AMERICA

This issue we are reviewing chronicles of and no letters of her life and forty-year career. immorality, murder, and other fractious What we do know of her comes from trial tran­ forms of human folly. Focusing on various scripts, contemporary articles and books, and periods of American history, they illuminate the fact that her flourishing business enabled undersides of life many of us never experi­ her to follow her wealthy clientele uptown as ence personally or consider from a historical the city shifted northward from Murray Hill perspective. These books enlighten as they en­ to Central Park. tertain. Because ofthe paucity of information avail­ able, Allan Keller, a former newspaper editor and prize-winning journalist, has devoted Scandalous Lady: The Life and Times of Madame more of his book to Madame Restell's times Restell, New York's Most Notorious Abortionist. By than to her life. In doing so he has described vividly a sexually addled society in which peo­ ALLAN KELLER. (Atheneum, New York, 1981. Pp. vui, 191. Illustrations, sources. $12.95.) ple from all walks of life, showing more pas­ sion than prudence, succumbed to their desire Behind her back, many New Yorkers called and then, panic-stricken, tried to eliminate the her "Madame Killer." When she appeared in evidence. Keller feels the double morality public even her neighbors shunned her. But standards ofthe nineteenth century persist in under cover of darkness desperate women our society and that this "period story speaks furtively came and went through the side door directly to current social issues and the ques­ of Madame Restell's Fifth Avenue mansion. tion of civil liberties." We will probably never know how many Decades before postal fraud regulations women availed themselves of the notorious and federal food and drug laws, quacks and Madame Restell's services—abortions, in­ swindlers in the mid-nineteenth century made duced miscarriages, lying-in rooms, and adop­ small fortunes preying upon men and tion arrangements for unwanted children. women's weaknesses and mistakes. In coyly She kept no diaries or journals, no records, couched advertisments appearing in newspa­ pers and on broadsides, they offered "reme­ MARV LOU M. SCHULTZ is a free-lance editor and book dies" for "problems" such as venereal disease, reviewer. She holds a bachelor's degree in American pregnancy, and impotency, as well as nos­ history from the University of Wisconsin and has done trums and gadgets "guaranteed" to improve postgraduate work in American history and urban affairs upon Nature's handiwork. The victims who at Boston University. sent away for these worthless antidotes were

298 SCHULTZ: READING AMERICA too ashamed or embarrassed to protest pub­ come an object of public ridicule. As the su­ licly that they had been taken because then ev­ perintendent of the Woman's Christian Tem­ eryone would have known why they ordered perance Union's Department of Purity in the product. It was amid this atmosphere of Literature and Art in New York State put it: fear and secrecy that a woman like Madame "The trouble with Mr. Comstock is that he Restell, a midwife from rural England, could thinks no one has the right to work for social practice with relative impunity, for who of her purity without first obtaining permission from clients would charge her in a court of law and him." thus reveal her own shame and sin? Comstock's extremist activities in suppress­ Who were Madame Restell's clients? Just ing immorality and vice eventually led him to about anyone in trouble, apparently. She grew mount an attack against Madame Restell. By a wealthy (her estate was valued at one and a process of entrapment he succeeded in having half million dollars when she died in 1878) at­ her arrested in 1878. Despite the efforts of tending to the needs of the upper class. She several influential friends, her attempts to knew every prominent family's financial avoid trial failed. The night before her trial standing and charged them on a sliding scale. opened, Madame Restell committed suicide. No one challenged her boast that "much of the Upon learning of her death, Comstock coldly credit for holding the population down commented, "A bloody ending to a bloody among the well-to-do belonged to her." (A hu­ life." Such a callous reaction did not help his morous illustration depicting "Fifth Avenue, reputation any. The newspapers, although Four Years after the Death of Madame Re­ deploring Madame Restell's practice, excori­ stell" appeared in a contemporary magazine ated Comstock for his underhanded tactics. showing the street overrun with pregnant Concluding its story on Madame Restell's women and small children.) death, the New York Sun noted that, "Everyone She also provided services for poor women has rights. Even Anthony Comstock has his; and prostitutes. A police poll conducted in the but there is a healthier sentiment afloat today mid-1860's uncovered "621 houses of prostitu­ than usual, concerning the policy of doing evil tion, only 99 houses of assignation, and a mere that good may come. . . ." 75 concert-hall saloons rated as being of evil Scandalous Lady does not tell us as much repute." A local bishop lamented. "There are about Madame Restell as we may like, but it as many prostitutes plying their trade in this graphically describes a society mired in a wicked city, as there are Methodists on our moral dilemma—whether to strive actively for church rolls." the ideals of sexual purity and fidelity and New York's reputation as a modern-day crush age-old patterns of sexual behavior, or Gomorrah had prompted the YMCA to form to wage war verbally against promiscuity and the Committee for the Suppression of Vice in other improper passions while realistically the early 1870's. They put in charge Anthony providing for their consequences. These are Comstock, a thin-lipped fanatic on the sub­ problems society continues to wrangle with jects of immorality and vice. So committed was and although there are no easy answers pro­ he to carrying out his crusade that within a few vided here, Keller's book does offer a brief years he had seized "134,000 pounds of ob­ look at the problem by examining one seg­ scene books, 14,300 pounds of plates used to ment of our history. This is a book worth read­ print such books, 5,500 decks of indecent ing for the thoughtful questions it raises on playing cards, 3,150 boxes of pills and pow­ several controversial issues. ders used for contraception, miscarriages, or sexual stimulation, and 60,300 rubber ar­ People to See: An Anecdotal History of Chicago's ticles." Makers and Breakers. . . . By JAY ROBERT NASH. By 1873 the YMCA, embarrassed by Com- (New Century Publishers, Piscataway, New stock's zealousness, dissociated itself from the Jersey, 1981. Pp. xii, 265. Photographs, bibli­ committee. One of the directors explained ography, index. $14.95.) "that the matters with which he (Comstock) had to deal were too unpleasant to be touched Carl Sandburg, the poet who immortalized by persons of sensitive feeling, and that more Chicago, early in his career worked for the harm was done by stirring up the pool than let­ prestigious Chicago Daily News. One of his edi­ ting it lie." tors, tagging Sandburg as an expert on labor Within five more years Comstock had be­ affairs, packed him off to Minneapolis to cover

299 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 the AFL convention. Two days passed with no New York gambler Arnold Rothstein fixed the word from Sandburg. The third day a brawl series, and the White Sox threw away the pen­ broke out, landing several seriously wounded nant to the Cincinnati Reds. In football, Nash labor leaders in the hospital. Still no word ar­ describes the careers of Amos Alonzo Stagg, rived from Sandburg. His irritated editor coach of the invincible University of Chicago wired him to return to Chicago. Sandburg's football team and the father of modern foot­ reply read: "Dear Boss. Can't leave now. Ev­ ball, and George "Papa Bear" Halas, who built erything too important and exciting. Sand­ the powerful Chicago Bears around Harold burg." "Red" Grange, "The Galloping Ghost," and Everything in Chicago— the city many ob­ helped organize the National Football League servers, domestic and foreign, have called the in 1922. "most American of American cities"—is im­ One also learns of Chicago's underworld— portant and exciting to Jay Robert Nash, the rowdy, raucous unregenerates who crime historian, playwright, novelist, and flourished from the beginning of Chicago's twenty-year resident of the "City of the Big history and bestowed upon the city its reputa­ Shoulders." In his rollicking romp through tion for being "the most wide-open town that Chicago's colorful history, Nash has honed in America had ever seen, or probably will ever on the movers and shakers, rascals and scala­ see." There are the Everleigh sisters who ran wags, criminals and thieves. His writing is Chicago's flossiest brothel; Big Mike Mac­ crisp, lively, and witty, propelling the reader Donald, "King ofthe Gamblers" and overlord along through chapters on Chicago's newspa­ of a small fiefdom of vice and prostitution; pers, baseball and football teams, political hi­ and Big Jim Colosimo, who ruled Chicago's jinks, bootleggers, and writers. underworld until his cousin, Johnny Torrio, In these pages one meets Albert G. Spald­ hired a hoodlum, Al Capone, to kill Colosimo ing, who pitched for the White Stockings in because he had thwarted Torrio's attempt to the 1870's, revolutionized baseball, and estab­ add bootlegging to their multimillion dollar lished a sports equipment empire. Nash retells operation. the story of the 1919 World Series in which This is just a smattering of examples of the

300 SCHULTZ: READINC; AMERICA highlights and low life Nash describes inPeople "Murder-for-Hire," Al Capone, "The Wrong to See. Many ofthe characters in this book were Man," as well as the "Scottsboro Boys." The unique to their time and we probably will author ends his book abruptly at the conclu­ never see their like again. If only for that rea­ sion of the second Scottsboro trial. Readers son, it would be well worth your time to read who wish to learn more about Leibowitz's ca­ Nash's breezy account of the "Windy City." reers as lawyer and judge might seek out Quentin Reynold's 1950 biography of Leibo­ witz, Courtroom. The Defender: The Life and Career of Samuel S. Leibowitz, 1893—1933. By ROBERT LEIBOWITZ. Murder, America: Homicide in the United States (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, from the Revolution to the Present. By JAY ROBERT 1981. Pp. V, 255. Photographs, index. $15.00.) NASH. (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1980. Pp. 479. Illustrations, bibliography, index. Samuel S. Leibowitz was a lawyer's lawyer. $16.95.) As one of this century's foremost criminal de­ fense attorneys, Leibowitz, unlike Clarence Nash, a popular and prolific writer of crime Darrow, crusaded for no causes and recoiled fact and fiction, combed his colossal collections from reform movements. But he did believe in of contemporary clippings, books, broadsides, giving every defendant, regardless of class, and articles to assemble this chronological en­ race, or rehgion, the best defense possible, and cyclopedia of American murders from 1773 to he built his cases on common sense and emo­ 1978. Among these zestfully written accounts tional appeal. Leibowitz was a flamboyant, are the usual tales of murder motivated by spellbinding actor who once claimed, "A greed, jealousy, and revenge, committed with courtroom is a stage and atmosphere is every­ guns, knives, and the odd "blunt instrument." thing." During the course of his career he suc­ But Nash also has unearthed tales of unusual cessfully defended seventy-eight accused murders—unusual because of the motive or murderers. weapon. Thus we learn of the woman who Leibowitz's most famous case was his de­ killed her doddering husband because he fense of the Scottsboro Boys at their second threatened to become a permanent burden to trial in the 1930's. Seven young Alabama her. In another case a woman whose patience blacks were accused of raping two white girls. had worn thin under her mother's constant The case gained international attention when harping about her daughter's unmarried the International Labor Defense (controlled state, permanently silenced her mother's tart by the Communist party) and the NAACP tongue. As for the instruments of murder, the vied with one another for control of the boys' list is impressive: arsenic, strychnine, axes, defense. fire, black widow spiders, rattlesnakes, and in­ Robert Leibowitz has written an admiring jections of virulent viruses. The subject may be account of his father's life, providing some gruesome, but Nash's book provides a fasci­ unique insights into Leibowitz as husband and nating, albeit limited, insight into the innu­ father. Drawing upon his father's notes, trial merable reasons and ways Americans have transcripts, and newspapers, Leibowitz re­ come up with for doing away with one an­ counts a number of his colorful cases— other.

Special Book Service As A SERVICE to members, the Society will order any book cur­ rently offered by any American publisher at a discount of 10 per cent. Please supply the author's name, the full title, and (if known) the publisher. Members should write to: Special Book Orders, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706. A special handling charge of $1.50 will be levied on each com­ plete order under $20.00. The charge for orders over $20.00 will be $2.50. Please do not send payment with your order; the Society will ship and bill you when the order is fulfilled.

301 BOOK REVIEWS

Hunting a Shadow: Tlie Search for Black Hawk. Wisconsin reader unfamiliar with the state's By CRAWFORD BEECHER THAYER. (Crawford extensive Black Hawk literature. But the care­ Beecher Thayer, Fort Atkinson, 1981. Pp. ful and previously informed reader can glean xliii, 452. Illustrations, maps, endnotes, bibli­ much: the mystery island in Lake ography, index. $11.60, paperbound.) Koshkonong turns out to be near Oconomo­ woc, not in at all; the linea­ No one in Wisconsin has a firmer grasp on ments of the fort at Fort Atkinson are given the day-to-day details of the Black Hawk War with some precision, although it was not much of 1832 than Crawford B. Thayer of Fort of a fort; and errors in various historical Atkinson. His only competitor anywhere is markers are set aright. Besides that, the illus­ probably Ellen M. Whitney, "gracious lady trations are excellent. Thayer appears to have and meticulous scholar" from Illinois, to done as much work tracking images of Black whom Thayer dedicates his chunky (5'/2" X Hawk and his contemporaries as he has in un­ 8'/2" X 11/2") documentary history, the first of raveling details. what may be four or more volumes about the Unfortunately Thayer expects too much Wisconsin aspects ofthe war. from his readers—too much prior knowledge, Thayer relies heavily upon Whitney's mon­ too much enthusiasm for the topic, too much umental four-book series published by the Illi­ endurance. He does not supply a chronologi­ nois State Historical Society as two volumes cal narrative, but rather dissects the docu­ (volume two consists of three books, or, in the ments themselves into chronological snippets, publisher's phrase, "parts"), thereby inviting so that the reader encounters a host of comparison. There really is none, but the Illi­ different versions for every day's events. Be­ nois model has not received the Wisconsin at­ sides that, he starts somewhere in the middle tention it deserves. Nothing written about the ofthe story, and quits before the end—a short­ Black Hawk War comes close to serving the coming that may be remedied if the other vol­ general reader as well as Anthony F. C. Wal­ umes come to light. His summaries read like lace's masterful introductory essay in Whit­ well-informed asides, but only those who al­ ney's initial volume. Nor will anyone ever sur­ ready know what is going on can appreciate pass Mrs. Whitney's annotated versions of them. Finally, the typography is maddening: almost every document emanating from the huge chunks of boldface type, two sets of an­ war, which will satisfy the most discriminating notations (both footnotes and endnotes), and specialists. unwieldly page size and binding. Would that Thayer appears to have committed the Thayer had given us the benefit of his splen­ Whitney volumes to memory, and he is capa­ did research in a well-ordered and sprightly ble of telling in brisk prose many anecdotes 150-page book, written in his own wry prose. about the war. Unfortunately he has not He desperately needed better editorial and ty­ woven his warehouse of notes and facts into a pographical advice. chronological narrative which will satisfy the Even so, Wisconsin has waited 150 years for

302 BOOK REVIEWS a volume like this about the Black Hawk War, late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. and I for one am glad to have it. Crawford Describing each ofthe conventional categories Thayer deserves thanks for his efforts, en­ of medical institutions—societies, hospitals, couragement to proceed, and blandishments practice, sects, and schools—is the task of sep­ to toss modesty to the winds and tell the story arate contributions, while other essays survey disease and its management in frontier, rural, in his own words, not by means of a string of and urban Wisconsin. The editors acknowl­ notecards. edge that this division of labor inevitably sacrifices unity and comprehensiveness JOHN O. HOLZHUETER (among the notable omissions being nursing, State Historical Society of Wisconsin pharmacy, laboratory medical research, and midwifery), but they believe that the depth and complexity achieved through the collabo­ ration of historians representing diverse spe­ Wisconsin Medicine: Historical Perspectives. cialties will redress the balance. Nevertheless, Edited by RONALD L. NUMBERS and JUDITH the historiographic hegemony of descriptive WALZER LEAVITT. (The University of Wiscon­ social history in this collection is clear. sin Press, Madison, 1981. Pp. ix, 212. Illustra­ Only rarely do these essays compare the tions, tables, graphs, notes, annotated bibliog­ medical experience in Wisconsin with that in raphy, index. $18.50.) other contexts in a systematic fashion that would inform an assessment of either the dis­ The essays that comprise this volume, many tinctiveness or representativeness of "Wiscon­ of which were presented in Madison at a Bi­ sin medicine." In the essay by Phihp Shoe­ centennial symposium on "Wisconsin Medi­ maker and Mary Van Hulle Jones on cine, 1776-1976," focus upon health and hospitals, for example, transformations in in­ medicine in Wisconsin principally during the stitutions and in the perceptions and needs

,,,ii(\.' 1)11). Medicines on wheels. Black River Falls, c. 1890. 303 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 that ordered their functioning are skillfully Writings on Wright: Selected Comment on Frank chronicled, yet these transformations in Wis­ Lloyd Wright. Edited by H. ALLEN BROOKS. consin are viewed in an isolation intruded (MIT Press, Cambridge, 1981. Pp. xvi, 229. Il­ upon by few referents transcending state bor­ lustrations, bibliography, index. $17.50.) ders. Most of the essays accord far too much attention to projecting onto a Wisconsin During the last forty years every imaginable canvas a portrait that is commonplace in ex­ tant historical literature on medicine in Amer­ kind of book has appeared on Frank Lloyd ica. The dearth of comparison and repetition Wright: biographies, monographs, antholo­ of common wisdom are both characteristic gies of his writings, bibliographies, studies of deficiencies in most of the numerous existing clients, photo essays, memoirs by people who medical histories of individual states. This vol­ knew him, childrens' books, drawing collec­ ume also shares with its genre a compulsion tions, design lists, and works on individual for breadth in narration, encompassing the buildings. But only once, in 1925, and that entire state, that contributes to a lack of depth from Holland, was there an anthology of writ­ in analysis. ing about him. The Life-Work ofthe American Ar­ The best piece in the anthology, Judith chitect, Frank Lloyd Wright (new edition. Hori­ Walzer Leavitt's analysis of urban public zon Press, New York, 1965) assembled essays health, avoids this latter weakness by focusing by contemporary designers—H. P. Berlage, almost exclusively upon Milwaukee. Her per­ J.J. P. Oud, Robert Maillet-Stevens, Eric ceptive study of changing sources and expla­ Mendelsohn, Louis Sullivan, and others—and nations of morbidity ana of the concomitant was thus a book for specialists. foci of public health activity augurs well for Fifty-six years later H. Allen Brcjoks has put the importance of her forthcoming mono­ together another anthology of Writings on graph on The Healthiest City: Milwaukee and the Wright, this one differing from its predecessor Politics of Health Reform. Yet, it is the very ex- by including scholarly and popular, contem­ pansiveness of the essay surveying the vari­ porary and retrospective, professional and lay eties of sectarian practitioners who competed for Wisconsin patients, written by Elizabeth accounts by architects, critics, historians, cli­ Barnaby Keeney, Susan Eyrich Lederer, and ents, journalists, students, employees, rela­ Edmond P. Minihan, that makes it singularly tives, and friends between 1900 and 1979. useful for assignment in the classroom. The thirty-three entries fall into five catego­ Ronald L. Numbers cogently points out in his ries: "His Personality and Life-Style," eight account of medical societies the mundane nat­ first-hand accounts from 1916 to a 1966 post­ ure of many meetings and their preeminent humous recollection by Wright's widow; "His role as convivial social gatherings designed to Clients and His Work," nine memoirs and one foster harmony among physicians. interview survey published between 1946 and Wiscomin Medicine is generously illustrated. 1979 which recapture prior events as far back Most of the illustrations, such as a frontier as 1903; "American Assessments,"fivereviews physician's sketch of his cabin drawn on a let­ of Wright's work between 1900 and 1912; ter to his father, add considerably to the "European Discovery," four views of the ar­ reader's grasp ofthe subject. An extensive and chitect prior to 1921 although Mies van der excellent annotated bibliography, compiled Robe's did not appear until 1946; and "More by Deanna Reed Springall, is extremely use­ Recent Evaluations," six critical essays from ful, especially in its enumeration of manu­ the 1960's and 1970's excepting Lewis Mum- script sources which other contributors could ford's pathbreaking \929 Architectural Record have exploited to fuller advantage. article, "Frank Lloyd Wright and the New Pio­ There can be no doubt that regional and lo­ neers." Everything has been published previ­ cal studies are undergoing a revival among ously although some are difficult to obtain, es­ historians concerned with America. Such in­ pecially pieces by Dutch architects J. J. P. Oud vestigations must take care not merely to retell and Jan Wils (1918 and 1921) appearing here familiar stories supported by new, local for the first time in English. sources. Those interested in the history ofthe Midwest who are not widely read in the history In his introduction Brooks states that his of medicine will find this collection valuable collection, "about people's perceptions of and informative. Wright and his work," was intended to "dispel fable and attempt to reveal the truth." Perhaps JOHN HARLEY WARNER this is tilting at windmills, because scholarly Harvard University work during the last decade has already ex-

304 posed most ofthe myths about Wright in part by utilizing the very sources Brooks has repro­ duced. Misconceptions and inaccuracies nev­ ertheless persist even in the many Wright books currently appearing. It is unlikely that this anthology with its inevitably small audi­ ence will be better able than previous publica­ tions with wider readerships to influence those who refuse to accept certain truths. But the editor has succeeded in producing a handy, balanced, and varied compilation of some of the most intelligent and informative writings on Wright's life and work, buttressed by a succinct introduction and headnotes tying WHi(N48)97 it all together. He also provides a useful work­ Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife Olgivanna at a ing bibliography, thirty well-chosen illustra­ Democratic party banquet, Madison, 1952. tions (albeit a bit skimpy on Wright's greatest achievement, the Prairie House), and two that merits thoughtful reading." This is true if quite necessary tables of contents. Filling a real one considers only the opinions of "profes­ gap in Wright literature, this collection is easy sional journalists and critics." But "people's to use and a pleasure to read. perceptions" were something else again. Ex­ cept for Harriet Monroe's 1907 Chicago Exam­ Any anthology is in one sense a sitting duck, iner review of a Wright exhibition. Brooks did open to criticism for inclusions and omissions. not tap newspapers which in small town and Brooks started out to assemble the most big city alike spotlighted individual Wright quoted writings on his subject but finding structures. Press material from Lake Geneva many of them dated shifted to documents re­ and Madison, Wisconsin; Oak Park, Illinois; cording peoples' actual relations with Wright, and Buffalo, New York, for example, would either personal contacts or, in the case of ar­ have fleshed out an incomplete picture of the chitects and critics, those with intimate knowl­ Prairie period (Brooks has only six documents edge of his work. With the possible exception by on-site observers) and would have added an of one or two contributors to Part V, every­ important dimension not found in the vol­ one's personal experience provides a refresh­ ume: assessments by those who lived near to ing dimension of sympathetic understanding, or occasionally frequented Wright's build­ an important contribution to the literature. ings, in other words, the general public. This is both a liability and an asset. Editorial Knowing the Wright literature including pri­ decision and Brooks's own feelings about mary sources as well as anyone. Brooks could Wright make the book a virtual paean of surely have found time during "six summers praise. Only four of the thirty-three entries of intermittent work" to consult local newspa­ are at all critical and two of those—by Harriet pers. Monroe and Montgomery Schuyler—are ac­ tually more favorable than not. If Brooks in­ Thus we come to the one serious flaw in this tended to "dispel fable" about "people's per­ otherwise excellent anthology. A valuable and ceptions," he might have reproduced more of pioneering book suffers from an old problem the many well-intentioned evaluations of with Wright studies: an in-group, elitist assort­ Wright's pre-1910 work by architectural tradi­ ment of friends and sympathizers are almost tionalists other than Russell Sturgis who, hav­ the only voices to be heard. It is certainly use­ ing no axe to grind, simply did not under­ ful to gather so many of these voices together, stand. This would have demonstrated a but there were others—average folk, skeptics, broader range of responses to Wright's work, and opponents—who also deserve a hearing. belying Brooks's contention that American From them we would understand the full critics simply did not care. range of attitudes toward Wright, get a better feel for the complexities of the obstacles he Prairie period sources like these might have overcame, and more fully appreciate the made Part III, "American Assessment significance of his vast achievements. (1897-1912)," less "vexing to edit." Lament­ ing the paucity of good material on Wright at ROBERT C. TWOMBLY the time. Brooks says that "little was published The City College of New York

305 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

Dictionary ofthe History of the American Brewing ately into the course of events when he became and Distilling Industries. By WILLIAM L. adviser to the North Jackson NAACP Youth DOWNARD. (Greenwood Press, Westport, Con­ Council. necticut, 1980. Pp. xxv, 267. Appendices, bib­ Chronicle is an apt subtitle, for Salter re­ liography, index. $35.00.) cords the nearly daily activities from the move­ ment's tentative beginnings in the fall of 1961 Like some French scholars of the eight­ through its height and then rapid demise fol­ eenth century, Mr. Downard has chosen to be lowing the murder of Medgar Evers, Jackson an encyclopedist rather than an historical syn­ leader and revered civil rights figure, in June, thesizer. For ready reference the form nas 1963. The period is brought to life by Salter's some advantages, and many have been re­ re-creation of countless meetings in homes, quested by the unstated underwriter of the offices, and churches where strategies were task. This form also has an advantage in treat­ hammered out for boycotts and direct actions, ing the history of such a diverse and localized and the resulting picketing and mass demon­ industry as brewing, but somewhat less so for strations against Jackson's white power struc­ more centralized distilling. A twelve-page in­ troduction gives a brief history of botn indus­ ture, symbolized by intransigent mayor Allen tries. Thompson, who offered token changes only "if the Negro citizen will reject the pressure As far as I can tell, Downard's accounts are accurate and based on the best available mate­ policies and practices of racial agitation." rials. Pre-Civil War, that is pre-tax, statistics on A major and famous confrontation occurred both industries are admittedly open to ques­ May 28, 1963, when students (including Anne tion, particularly in the case of spirits, so much Moody who wrote of the incident in Coming of of which never reached any market. One sus­ Age in Mississippi) and Salter were assaulted by pects that the real consumption of hard liquor whites while sitting in at a segregated lunch and wines including cider in the 1830's, re­ counter. The physical and verbal abuse the duced in the appendix table to absolute alco­ participants absorbed while Justice Depart­ hol, was much higher than the recorded 3.9 ment officials looked on drew more black sup­ gallons per capita. Beer, on the other hand, port for the movement. was difficult to make and was produced largely It is clear that Salter felt real concessions by professionals, so the estimates taken from would come only when the demonstrations es­ an earlier study, in both cases, are probably calated. This tactic at times separated Salter more accurate. and the black youth from a contingent of Jack­ Business historians would no doubt like to son's black ministers. Salter suggests, how­ have a more detailed analysis of the recent his­ ever, that it was not the vacillation of the Jack­ tory of brewing, in particular, which offers in­ son moderates, but the insidious pressure of teresting problems in competitive marketing. But that would be a different book that I hope the national NAACP leadership in New York Downard may be inspired to write. and the shadow of the Kennedy administra­ tion that ultimately accounted for the dissolu­ THOMAS C. COCHRAN tion of the movement after Evers' death. University of Pennsylvania Though the NAACP's public rhetoric was in complete support of the Jackson campaign, Salter cites instances where bail money for picketers was suddenly unavailable and Roy Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Wilkins' stormy visit to Jackson when he at­ Struggle and Schism. By JOHN R. SALTER, J'R. tempted to prevent mass demonstrations (Exposition Press, Hicksville, New York, 1979. from continuing. Pp. xxi, 248. $10.00.) In Salter's remarks at the 1979 Freedom Summer conference in Jackson, he was ada­ Activist and sociologist John R. Salter, Jr., mant that the Jackson movement, "the first has written a first-rate, firsthand account of real mass movement in the most intractable one of the major grassroots struggles of the segregated state in the Union," was destroyed southern civil rights era: the Jackson move­ by "the corporate liberals of New York," and ment of 1961-1963, which undertook to de­ the "self-styled pragmatism" of the Kennedy segregate public facilities and win decent administration, "those splendid scoundrels re­ treatment for that city's black residents. Salter, siding in the Camelot on the Potomac." a teacher at predominantly black Tougaloo Salter's book does not offer much direct evi­ College at the time, was drawn almost immedi- dence of federal subversion ofthe movement, 306 WHi(X3)36638 John R. Salter, Jr. (seated, left) achieved a kind of fame as "the mustard man" when he and two female students from Tougaloo College were set upon by louts at the lunch counter ofthe Woolworth's store in Jackson, Mississippi, May 28, 1963. beyond allusions to the presence of federal The relative absence of individual voices ana­ officials in Jackson and news stories at the time lyzing events may very well be deliberate on that the Kennedy brothers were in direct con­ Salter's part, however, since he is able to pro­ tact with the Jackson city administration. duce an excellent case study in social change Sources which could strengthen that argu­ by focusing not on personalities but on the col­ ment (FBI files, Kennedy Library archives, lective will and actions of people involved in a oral histories) are not brought into his chroni­ mass movement. As William Chafe does for cle, which, though published sixteen years af­ the history of the Greensboro sit-ins (in Civili­ ter the events, reads as if it is a diary written at ties and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, the time. and the Black Struggle for Freedom), Salter dem­ Medgar Evers, movement leader and onstrates for Jackson that black citizens began friend of Salter's, is curiously not as central in to gain a measure of political power only when Salter's account as one might have expected. they confronted white resistance head-on. As Mississippi NAACP field secretary, Evers Only with collective action was white social was clearly caught between the national's control, maintained so well by the culture's at­ waffling about direct action and his own desire tachment to order and propriety, significantly to carry a mass people's movement forward. challenged. Still, we rarely learn how Evers personally dealt with this dilemma, except that he is char­ SARAH COOPER acterized at the end as "tired and withdrawn." State Historical Society of Wisconsin 307 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants. By JOHAN soil-exhausting crops year after year until the REINERT REIERSEN. Translated by Frank G. original fertility disappears." Their cabins had Nelson. (The Norwegian-American Historical a rocking chair for the lady of the house and a Association, Northfield, Minnesota, 1981. Pp. stove in the middle of the room, instead of a xiv, 239. Introduction, notes, appendices, in­ long table with benches and a corner fireplace. dex. $12.00.) The Yankees paid a hired man to do a Norwe­ gian woman's work of milking and caring for Wisconsin in 1843, as J. R. Reiersen saw it, cattle, hoeing, weeding and winnowing. Yan­ was a place inhabited mainly by Norwegians kees threshed in a wasteful way with oxen and otner Scandinavians. For all of that, they treading the grain, or else with threshing ma­ were a varied group. Some were filthy moun­ chines, instead of with flails. Their homes and taineers, transplanted to forty-acre home­ clothing were spotlessly clean, and they in­ steads among the malarial bogs of Muskego. sisted on three warm meals a day, consuming Others were teams of two miners working ten- large quantities of pork instead of fish, to- acre stakes near Mineral Point. Still others etner with foods unknown to Norwegians: were gentlemen educated at the universities of f ot wheat biscuits, buckwheat pancakes, and Oslo, Uppsala, and Copenhagen, settled corn bread. around the shores of Pine Lake. These Scandi­ Many Wisconsin pioneers built their cabins navians lived among other peoples in a plural­ of unseasoned oak, producing damp, vermin- istic America which Reiersen praised for its infested dwellings. Reiersen thought adobe freedom, democratic institutions, and lack of homes were far more suitable and described social distinctions. their construction in detail. He also wrote a Reiersen was the editor of a crusading fascinating chapter about mining techniques newspaper in the town of Christiansand, Nor­ used in the lead fields of Wisconsin. He de­ way. Emigration to the freedom and opportu­ scribed the techniques for producing wheat, nity of America gradually took on the charac­ corn, maple sugar, broomcorn, hemp, to­ ter of a means of social reform in his eyes. He bacco, and many other crops unfamiliar to promoted emigration in his newspaper. In Norwegians, as well as the opportunities for 1843, he departed for America himself, sup- emigrants with skills in milling, brickmaking, >orted financially by a group of prosperous blacKsmithing, tinsmithing, tanning, and farmers who wanted him to scout out a place other trades. for them to settle. The book gives a splendid picture of Wis­ Sailing to New Orleans, Reiersen traveled consin and other parts ofthe Mississippi valley widely in the Mississippi valley, visited the Re­ in the preindustrial, pioneering era before the public of Texas, and returned to Norway by Civil War. It is one of over fifty volumes pub­ way of New York after nine months in the lished by The Norwegian-American Histori­ New World. Most Norwegian settlements in cal Association since 1926. America were in Wisconsin at that time, and Reiersen described each of them on the basis J. R. CHRISTIANSON of first-hand observation. Luther College By the end of 1844, Reiersen had published the guidebook for emigrants which Frank G. Nelson has translated and introduced with ad­ Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Man­ mirable clarity and care. Reiersen was an acute agement. By DANIEL NELSON. (The University observer and a clear thinker. His book was well of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1980. Pp. xii, organized, with a wealth of reliable basic infor­ 259. Notes, bibliographical note, index. mation enlivened by the author's personal ob­ $19.50.) servations. In 1845, Reiersen emigrated to Texas, where he helped to found a Norwegian Frederick W. Taylor was the single most settlement and spent the rest of his life. important figure in the introduction of sys­ Any traveler's account contains a compara­ tematic management to American industry. tive element, at least by implication. In trying Taylor's method, "scientific management," to explain American ways to Norwegians plan­ stressed efficiency in plant layout, machine op­ ning to emigrate, Reiersen pointed out that erations, work flow, and worker's movements. the Yankees harvested grain with a cradle in­ Most present-day Americans have some famil­ stead of a sickle and bought factory-made iarity with systematic management, and the tools and woolens instead of producing their popular images of efficiency engineers like own. They "seldom follow a regular system of Taylor are not very favorable. One impression rotation but burden the earth with the most emerges from Cheaper by the Dozen, the story of

308 BOOK REVIEWS one of Taylor's chief colleagues, where the assume more and more of those duties. In this efficiency engineer is a ridiculous man pos­ quite readable account of Taylor's role in that sessed with a neurotic urge to run his family as process. Nelson has produced a valuable work efficiently as possible. Another impression is for students of labor and management his­ the working person's picture of the "time- tory. study man," an extension ofthe profit-hungry The biography has broader appeals, too. boss determined to wring ever-greater efforts Nelson examines the now familiar link be­ out of his employees. tween Taylor and the efficiency concerns of In this biographic treatment of Taylor, the Progressive movement. His findings are Daniel Nelson avoids both images. He notes consistent with those of Daniel Rodgers and Taylor's deep concern for efficiency and or­ others who have argued that upper-class der. But despite that concern. Nelson's Taylor Americans hke Taylor were engaged in a cam­ is not an obsessed person with psychological paign to bring order to a world that seemed to disorders. Where other historians have ar- them disturbingly chaotic. Nelson's notion of ued that serious psychological difficulties lay Progressivism is not consistent with most re­ f ehind Taylor's decision not to attend Har­ cent analyses, however. He argues that while vard, Nelson says that Taylor merely had a Taylor's concerns with efficiency were in har­ physiological problem with his eyesight. Nor mony with those of other Progressives, does Nelson oescribe Taylor as a man who Taylor's antipathy toward labor reform abused workers in a quest for prompt profits. placed him outside the Progressive main­ He shows the disastrous ramifications Taylor's stream. But, as Gabriel Kolko and others have efforts could have for workers' well-being, as shown, pro-labor attitudes were not necessar­ well as Taylor's antipathy towards most la­ ily part of the Progressive impulse, and many borers. But Nelson argues that Taylor's chief Progressives were far from being the worker's foal was not profit. Instead, he was of a new friend. reed of engineers whose aim was orderliness rather than immediate gain, and as a member DAVID P. PEELER of that breed Taylor disdained quick-profit University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma financiers who had no appreciation for the glories of systematic production. One comes away from this book wishing Detroit and the Problem of Order, 1830-1880: A that Nelson had tried to resolve Taylor's con­ Geography of Crime, Riot, and Policing. By JOHN tradictory assumptions about worker motiva­ C. SCHNEIDER. (University of Nebraska Press, tion. On the one hand, Taylor believed that all Lincoln, Nebraska, 1980. Pp. xiv, 171. Maps, persons engaged in manufacturing should be charts, notes, note on sources, index. $13.50.) part of a community of producers, subsuming their personal interests to the larger goal of American cities of the mid-nineteenth cen­ turning out a product. Indeed, some of tury were violent places in which to live. Taylor's happiest moments came when he was Rampant crime and frequent rioting were part of that community as a worker on the commonplace, as massive immigration, eco­ shop floor. Yet, on the other hand, when Tay­ nomic change, the breakdown of neighbor­ lor actually listed the laborer's chief motive for hoods, and an obsolescent constabulary con­ working, he chose neither love of the produc­ tributed to social disorder. Many cities ing community nor love of work. Instead, responded to disorder by establishing police Taylor believed that the worker labored sim­ forces, ancestors of today's big-city police. ply for money. Other works have examined the political This book flows from Nelson's earlier work. and social origins of urban police, but John There he showed that as industrialization de­ Schneider adopts an original approach. Using veloped in the late nineteenth and early twen­ the concepts of sociologists, urban geogra­ tieth centuries, management assumed many phers, and urban historians, Schneider ex­ of the responsibilities which had earlier be­ plores the relationship between Detroit's spa­ longed to labor. In the present work, we see how tial development and urban disorder. Taylor's efforts encouraged that develop­ Changing uses of urban space, he says, ment. The older American factory system, in influenced both the incidence of violence and which individual foremen and workers ran consequent efforts to establish a city police their own fiefdoms within a plant, was any­ force. thing but an orderly place. With Taylor's al­ Schneider relates the development of nine­ most esthetic appreciation for orderliness, he teenth-century Detroit's social geography to devised methods that enabled management to patterns of crime and violence. By the 1850's

309 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

spatial development had divided Detroit into city's business elite, departments in eastern four distinct areas—Irish and German resi­ cities were interwoven with the decentralized dential districts, the elite's fashionable down­ ward organization of city politics. In eastern town residential enclave, the central business cities, the Yankee middle class struggled with district, and a bawdy amusement area called ethnic groups for control ofthe police and for the Potomac Quarter. Associating the spatial enforcement of certain laws, especially tem­ expanse of their neighborhoods with particu­ perance laws. lar styles of ethnic, class, and occupational be­ Nonetheless, Detroit and the Problem of Order havior, residents of these areas acquired a is an important book, since it shows that cities' sense of "turf." Threats to their territory were spatial development had important social as threats to their way of life. Fearful of en­ well as physical ramifications. In a thoughtful croachments from other sections of the city, and engaging manner, Schneider provides a residents defended their territory, sometimes new perspective on the origins of uroan police with political action and at other times with ri­ departments. oting. Detroit's spatial division and residents' DONALD W. ROGERS sense of turf led to the creation of the city's po­ University of Wisconsin—Madison lice force. After crime swept over the central business district, a downtown riot occurred, Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Re­ and vice in the Potomoc Quarter threatened to construction, 1865—1869. By EDWARD L. GAM- spill over into adjacent areas, elite residents of BILL. (Iowa State University Press, Ames, the fashionable district championed a full- 1981. Pp. vih, 188. Notes, bibliography, index. time day-and-night police. Once established, $15.95.) the police patrolled the central business dis­ trict and the Potomac Quarter, but rarely ap­ In 1965 Edward Lee Gambill's article "Who peared in outlying Irish, German, and work­ Were the Radicals?" appeared in Civil War ing-class neighborhoods. The police force was History. He stressed that difficulties "in deter­ established to protect the elite's downtown mining group relationships" from conven­ turf, especially against the "dangerous class" tional sources were "practically insurmounta­ which resided in the Potomac Quarter. ble." Arguing that speeches, reminiscences, Detroit and the Problem of Order persuasively editorials, and private correspondence were locates the roots of Detroit's police reform in ill-suited to the task, Gambill turned to con­ the social ramifications of spatial develop­ gressional voting records and "the research ment. Schneider skillfully weaves together techniques developed by other disciplines"— municipal records, newspapers, city directo­ specifically "the Guttman scaleogram." Gam- ries, and other sources, particularly in describ­ bill was not alone: that same year David ing the Potomac Quarter. The study closely Donald published The Politics of Reconstruction, examines the Potomac Quarter and elite dis­ 1863—1867, which suggested that conven­ tricts, but skims over the Irish and German tional sources and questions must be replaced neighborhoods. One wonders why Detroit's by statistical techniques to "bypass those road­ ethnic communities played a lesser role in city blocks which have done so much to retard re­ politics, police reform, and police administra­ writing the history of Reconstruction." tion than ethnic groups did elsewhere. Roll-call analysis has not disappeared, but It is not clear that Detroit's experience was like other excessively optimistic panaceas and typical of mid-nineteenth-century cities. Com­ nostrums it has failed to cure the complica­ pared to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, tions endemic to historical complexity. Now, Detroit was relatively free of violence and eth­ without explaining his loss of faith in those nic conflict. In the eastern cities violence was techniques from other disciplines, Mr. Gam- so much greater and ethnic conflict so much bill has utilized all those previously deplored more acute that the concerns of police re­ conventional sources to examine the group re­ formers transcended the demography of spa­ lationships within the Democratic party dur­ tial development. Reformers there were at ing Reconstruction. The results are edifying. least as concerned about the general break­ So much writing about Reconstruction has down of social order as about the defense of emphasized political battles between moder­ privileged enclaves in the city. ate and radical Republicans, and between all Moreover, ethnic divisions in eastern cities Republicans and President Andrew Johnson, played a greater role in police work than in De­ that close attention to Northern Democrats troit. While Detroit's police force was a cen­ has been infrequent. Gambill contributes a de­ tralized metropolitan force controlled by the tailed chronicle of the minority party's efforts

310 BOOK REVIEWS to return to office in the postwar era and thus In this volume Remini treats his readers to a provides a helpful sequel to Joel Silbey's A Re­ colorful narrative of what might be termed the spectable Majority. Gambill's Conservative Ordeal crucial decade of Jackson's public career. shows diverse, even conflicting thought From the first murmurings of^a presidential among Democrats and seeks to undermine the candidacy to the opening guns of the Bank view of dogged Democratic unity depicted by War, JacKson grew tremendously as a politi­ Eric McKitnck, among others. While Demo­ cian. Remini would have us believe that he crats indeed split badly about forming a bipar­ grew tremendously as a statesman as well. To tisan Nation Union Party, Gambill does not this end, the author firmly declares that Jack­ sufficiently acknowledge, however, that di­ son's presidency was in fact the reform move­ verse thought seldom brought divided politi­ ment that he claimed it to be: the so-called cal action. "Era of Good Feelings" was actually an "era of Displaying their racist demagoguery— corruption" in which scandals were common assuming that Democrats shared many anti- within the federal government. Jackson's black views with Republicans—Gambill can­ actions as chief executive must therefore be not adequately trivialize that Democrats viewed in this light. sought to win votes by smearing the Repubh- The first term for Jackson, which this vol­ cans in associating them with miscegenation. ume covers, is portrayed as a constant struggle He convincingly concludes that the Demo­ by a determined hero to implement reform in cratic political strategy failed, 1865—1868, be­ the face of petty party and personal struggles. cause postwar voters feared the return of Con­ Remini asserts that under General Jackson's federates and Copperheads to political power direction the executive branch was purged of more than they did black enfranchisement. many corrupt elements, the treasury was re­ Amidst the voluminous historiographical formed, and the national debt was retired. In debates about the difficulties in reconstructing the process, this president permanently al­ the South and counter-factual arguments tered the balance of power between the execu­ about possible options not taken, this book tive and the legislative branches. Nothing was provides an unstated conclusion: least likely to more important in this struggle than the veto occur after the war was political victory for the power, particular the negative ofthe Bank re- Democrats. Conservative Ordeal ably explores a charter, which Remini terms "the most impor­ panoply of economic, political, and social tant veto ever issued." ideas; but the most cherished Democratic be­ Some historians will argue with this last lief was the need to get elected. In pursuing claim, as well as with the warm sympathies that this goal, the Democrats were not much Remini has always shown his subject. In fact, different from Republicans. Only Andrew however, Remini is more critical of Old Hick­ Johnson seems different. If he had known ory than in his previous efforts. He rightly what he wanted he would not have known how judges the Peggy Eaton affair to be Jackson's to get it. Trying to work with Johnson was most absurd moment in the White House. He truly a conservative ordeal, but radicals and also recognizes that the president's Indian re­ moderates did no better. moval policy was "disgraceful to the American nation," a program that nearly destroyed the TILDEN G. EDELSTEIN culture ofthe southwestern Indian tribes. Rutgers University Yet there are still areas in which Remini's obvious respect for Jackson has colored his Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Free­ judgments. During the battle with John dom, 1822-1832. By ROBERT V. REMINI. Calhoun, for example, past scholarship has (Harper & Row, New York, 1981. Pp. xvi, 469. convincingly shown that Jackson went to the Illustrations, notes, index. $20.00.) length of falsifying some early correspon­ dence. Remini chooses to ignore this charge. This book is the second of a planned three- In another case, while attempting to demon­ volume biography of Andrew Jackson, nabob, strate Jackson's role in the reformation ofthe Indian fighter, war hero, and seventh Presi­ Democratic party, Remini makes the highly dent of the United States. Once it is com­ questionable statement that "the Jackson pleted, Remini will have provided scholars movement as it began had nothing to do with with a well-documented, comprehensive state­ the desire of southerners to protect slavery." ment of Old Hickory's place in the politics of Most students of this period, this reviewer in­ the Middle Period. This second volume au­ cluded, cannot agree with that remark. gurs well for the successful completion of that Despite these shortcomings, no one can ar­ task. gue with the overall quahty of this work. Re-

311 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

mini is the current authority on Jackson, and consin Department of Natural Resources. At his biography reflects his ability. The careful the resultant hearing, EDF based its case on research, tne judicious use of primary and sec­ the persistence, mobility, and bioconcentra- ondary materials, coupled with clear, vivid tion of DDT in the environment. The Madi­ prose combine to make this an informative son hearing was the first time that massive and enjoyable book. Scholars and general scientific evidence was used in environmental readers alike can only hope that more Ameri­ litigation and that citizen environmentalists can historians will follow Remini's example. and scientists cooperated to effect public pol­ icy within a judicial context. The significance TERRY L. SHOPTAUGH of this, and the rapid expansion of environ­ University of New Hampshire—Durham mental law after the hearing, justify Dunlap's detailed attention to it. The book concludes with the banning of DDT by various govern­ DDT, Scientists, Citizens, and Public Policy. By mental units in the United States and the crea­ THOMAS R. DUNLAP. (Princeton University tion of the Environmental Protection Agency Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1981. 318 pp. and the Council on Environmental Quality to $18.50.) provide within the federal government an es­ tablished mechanism for addressing environ­ Thomas R. Dunlap's well-written narrative mental concerns. opens with a history ofthe rise of economic en­ Having done this, and done it well, the au­ tomology and the shift among its practitioners thor concludes that "the terms in which the away from the holistic naturalist tradition of initial inq^uiry were phrased—how DDT the nineteenth century to the specialization of affected scientists and science—were in part the twentieth; the development of chemical misleading." He states that "the 'problem' of insecticides and the ease of^their acceptance by DDT is not a scientific one" but instead a ques­ the agricultural community; and the evolution tion "of value, and the struggle over banning it of government research and regulation from was over what values should be explicit (and the Civil War to the Second World War. Next, implicit) in public policy." Seldom do authors the author describes the introduction of DDT so oaldly admit their shortcomings. Indeed, in 1942 and the affect of its dissemination on the study should have given more attention to the intimate relationship among the federal the role of citizens, public opinion, and the government, the pesticide industry, and the media. A final irony is that, having concluded agricultural land grant colleges. These advo­ that the media and public opinion were essen­ cates of DDT based their case for its safety and tial to the banning of DDT, Dunlap donated to non-toxicity on the absence of immediate ill­ the State Historical Society of Wisconsin his ness or death to humans. Opponents of DDT, taped interviews with scientists and judicial who argued that environmental residues was figures—but not his interview with Whitney the problem which should be addressed, were Gould, the newspaper reporter whose cover­ largely ineffective because their theory was age of the Madison hearing proved not only impossible to prove without long-term re­ the importance of the media in the case at search. Twenty years after the introduction of hand but also the ability of reporters to make DDT, its opponents were still either ignored complex scientific questions comprehensible or ridiculed. to the public. The publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962, in conjunction with the anti­ KENNETH R. BOWLING nuclear and anti-war movements, quickly First Federal Congress Project changed some basic values in American soci­ ety and provided fertile ground for the argu­ ments of DDT's opponents. Specifically, tech­ A Heritage Deferred: The German-Americans in nology, progress, and experts were no longer Minnesota. Edited by CLARENCE A. GLASRUD. to be deifiecl, and the federal government was (Moorhead, Minnesota, Concordia College, no longer assumed to always act in the interest 1981. Pp. 168. Illustrations, bibliography, in­ ofthe public. Carson's widely discussed (if not dex.) widely read) book shifted the debate over DDT away from its toxicity to humans to its This book consists of papers presented at effect on tne total environment. two conferences on German-American heri­ Dunlap focuses his study on the 1968—1969 tage sponsored by Concordia College campaign of the Environmental Defense (Nfoorhead, Minnesota) in October, 1979. It is Fund to have DDT declared a pollutant in divided into four major parts, each consisting Wisconsin by means of a ruling from the Wis­ of a major paper followed by three shorter

312 BOOK REVIEWS

"reactions'—critiques, commentaries, or re­ danz, Diana Rankin, and Kathleen Conzen. In lated observations. A variety of academic disci­ general, this book will have its greatest appeal plines was represented by the participants in among readers who are casually interested in the conferences, including history, folklore, German American or Minnesota history. geography, anthropology, and political sci­ They will appreciate it as an affectionate intro­ ence. duction to an important topic; they will also It is not entirely clear whether the essays value the extensive interdisciphnary bibliogra­ and critiques in the volume were meant to be phy compiled by Diana Rankin. All readers scholarly contributions to knowledge and un­ will welcome the numerous, excellent illustra­ derstanding ofthe German ethnic experience of tions. Eresentations intended for neophytes in the eld. The first major part, by Rachel Bonney, an FREDERICK C. LUEBKE anthropologist, illustrates the problem. Her University of Nebraska—Lincoln purpose is to show that there was no single or common German-American experience be­ cause ofthe exceptional variety in the social, cul­ tural, and economic characteristics of the Ger­ From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City man ethnic group. Her point, which is largely Planners and Urban Transportation, 1900—1940. based on a limited set of outmoded secondary By MARKS. FOSTER. (Temple University Press, sources, would be disputed by no informed stu­ Philadelphia, 1981. Pp. xiv, 246. Illustrations, dent of ethnicity in America. notes, bibliography, index. $19.95.) The second major paper surveys the pat­ terns and marks ofGerman settlement in Min­ Mark S. Foster has written a superb history nesota. The author, LaVern Rippley, a profes­ of the planning profession's view on urban sor of German, moves from historical transportation from 1900 to 1940. He sub­ concepts to material culture as manifested stantiates quite clearly that the profession had chiefly in the buildings erected by Germans in the state. Although his essay is well-written a love affair with the automobile, which most and grounded in a thorough knowledge of planners welcomed as a way to reduce popula­ German-American history, his treatment re­ tion density and ease urban congestion. Plan­ mains introductory. ners liked the auto, in part, because of their The third section ofthe book is intended to hostility to privately owned transit companies treat the religious experiences of German which had enormous political clout and often Americans in Minnesota. The major essay is a planned their systems irrationally, primarily summary by Colman Barry, a church histo­ to serve their owner's subdivisions, rather rian, of what he wrote in his important and than overall community needs. The auto re­ well-received book. The Catholic Church and quired road construction, historically a public, German Americans, published nearly twenty not private function, and the public sector uti­ years ago. The paper reflects little ofthe excel­ lized planners. lent research conducted in recent years that The transit companies, in turn, did not of­ shifts attention away from the leadership of ten perceive the auto as a serious threat until the church to the common people who occu­ massive patronage declines began in the pied the pews. Except for illustrations, it says 1920's. By then public policy was set on the nothing of the Minnesota experience. auto, even though trafficjams were rapidly be­ The final part treats German ethnic poli­ coming a problem. When the New Deal began tics. Here Carl Chrislock, a historian, offers to push urban planning in the 1930's, its the most substantial essay in the volume, a officials operated on the assumption that ev­ study ofthe role played by German Americans eryone owned autos. After all, even Okies had in Minnesota politics from 1850 to 1950. Tra­ them. Federal funds went to auto-based ditional in methodology, this study is excel­ lently written and reflective of Chrislock's Greenbelt suburbs or to roadbuilders like New deep knowledge of Minnesota history and his York's Robert Moses, who abhorred rail tran­ understanding of German-American behav­ sit. ior. Foster does a fine job of outlining the shift­ It is not possible to comment individually ing values of planners. He effectively destroys on the presentations of the dozen commenta­ the conspiracy thesis that somehow auto man­ tors. They ranged in quality from highly ufacturers had subverted mass transit systems effective and perceptive mini-essays to mate­ in the 1930's. There are some weaknesses in rial that should not have been published. the work. The technical and economic Among the best are those by Timothy Klober- differences between transit modes are not al- 313 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982 ways evident. For example, the merits of German civilian casualties are reported in one trackless trolleys are not presented clearly. place as 57,000 and as 300,000 in another, and Foster might also have delved more into so­ American P-47 Thunderbolts are misde- cial and political roots of urban transportation scribed as "twin-engined." But these few mod­ policy. After all, he acknowledges the impo­ est imperfections mar only slightly an other­ tence of the planners on whose ideas he wise valuable adjunct to anyone's historical lavishes so much attention. If the planners did library. not make policy, who did and how did they do it? EDGAR R. GEESAMAN Readers who want to know about the evolu­ University of Wisconsin—Madison tion of urban transportation policy in the cru­ cial interwar years will have to begin with this valuable study. Foster has made an excellent The History of American Wars from 1745 to 1918. contribution to urban history. By T. HARRY WILLIAMS. (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1981. Pp. xviu, 435. Bibliography, CLAY MCSHANE index. $20.00.) Northeastern University Sadly, this is the last book of the distin­ guished historian T. Harry Williams. After re­ The Historical Encyclopedia of World War II. ceiving his doctorate in history from the Uni­ Edited by MARCEL BAUDOT et al. Translated by versity of Wisconsin in 1937, Professor JESSE DILSON. (Facts on File, Inc., New York, Williams spent much of this career at Louisi­ 1980. Pp. xxii, 548. Maps, tables, graphs, bibli­ ana State University in Baton Rouge. While ography, $24.95.) there he became a prolific and widely-read scholar. His books included Lincoln and His The vast ramifications of the first total war Generals (1952) and Huey Long- (1969); the lat­ dictate the scope of this panorama of World ter won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Na­ War II. The stress falls upon the political up­ heavals and the social and economic disloca­ tional Book Award. Williams intended to write tions which fostered the far-reaching changes a history of American wars through Vietnam, in part bedeviling and in part enhancing our but his death in 1979 meant that this last book lives to this day. Because the book is edited by extends only through World War I. Europeans, such topics as "The Church and The book has a clear and simple structure. the Third Reich" and "Collaboration" receive After a brief first chapter on late colonial wars, far more attention than the generally accepted the main sections of the book are on the Revo­ reat military turning points of El Alamein, lution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the f lidway, and Stalingrad. Civil War, the War with Spain, and World War Because of its encyclopedic form, it is al­ I. Between these sections are "interludes" in most impossible to read as a conventional his­ which Williams discusses both the peacetime tory when such unrelated sections as Appease­ history of the military as well as a number of ment, Arab League, Sadao Ara\Ji., Arbeitsdienst, other topics including the Indian wars. For and Ardeatine Caves appear in sequence. each major war Williams follows the same gen­ However, the rewards of easy reference to eral structure—origins, strategy, military or­ areas of particular individual interest com­ ganization, and a condensed account ofthe ac­ pensate, as do the fascinating bits of obscure tual conflict. Interwoven with the narrative information scattered throughout, e.g., the are vignettes of leading military figures, but role of Himmler's Estonian chiropractor in the book is less involved with personalities the escape of many of his patient's victims and than one would expect from a historian of Wil­ the Japanese attempts during the war to pre­ vent their children from saying "mama" and liams' interests. "papa." Although the general approach is the same A few strange value judgments and errors for each conflict, the results are somewhat un­ crop up. The editors devote two full pages to even on the wars through 1848. The main General Charles De Gaulle while limiting Win­ strength of this part of the book is the discus­ ston Churchill to one page and Franklin De­ sion ofthe military organization and the fight­ lano Roosevelt to even less. The peripheral ing on land. Causation is passed over swiftly, importance of General Giraud is magnified by maritime events are treated with less authority 150 lines while Montgomery receives only 31; than the land war, and the post-Revolutionary MacArthur, 16; Rommel, 12; and Bradley, 9. controversies surrounding military policy, a 314 BOOK REVIEWS standing army and navy, and the role of the ration Monarchy from attacks by the Carlists militia in a republic do not form an important on the right and the republicans on the left. part of the discussion. The book takes on To the defenders of the constitutional settle­ much greater authority when it reaches the ment of 1875, an honorable defeat on the Civil War years. In a hundred pages Professor battlefield appeared preferable to negotiated Williams perceptively and gracefully moves independence for Cuba. By 1898 a grant of through causation, organization, personali­ autonomy would no longer satisfy the insur- ties, and the actual fighting. His knowledge jents, who clearly sensed the military and po- and interest are obvious in the writing and in fitical weakness of Spain. Public opinion in the United States woulcf not allow the insurrection the general importance he gives to the conflict. to continue indefinitely. The Grover Cleve­ To Williams the Civil War was a more vital land and William McKinley administrations struggle than the Revolution. The last part of pursued an ineffective policy of mediation the book is a useful survey of the main lines of which was unraveling even before the destruc­ military history from 1865 to 1918. One tion of the Maine. Then a firestorm of public misses the insights that Williams' research on opinion demanded Cuban independence, and Lyndon Johnson would have given to his ac­ President McKinley, although personally in count of the Vietnam War years. favor of a pacific approach, yielded rather This is a well-written, balanced account of than risk the leadership of his party and his America's wars from the mid-eighteenth cen­ party's control of Congress. tury to 1918. It is stronger in narrative than in Historians have rightly wondered whether its analysis of the shaping of policy, but like all the United States could nave obtained so ex­ of T. Harry Williams' books it is written with tensive an insular empire in 1898 without con­ perception and vigor. It well demonstrates siderable premeditation. Trask argues that why he was able to reach a much wider audi­ the acquisitions came as an unintended conse­ ence than most academic historians. Both the quence of McKinley's grand strategy, which historical profession and the general reading sought to force an early peace by successive public have suffered a sad loss. hard blows on the periphery of Spanish power. This early application of what Liddell Hart called "the indirect approach," devised REGINALD HORSMAN in part to avoid the staggering number of University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee losses which McKinley and the Civil War gen­ eration had suffered in a war that emphasized The War With Spain in 1898. By DAVID F. a direct assault on the sources of enemy TRASK. The Macmillan Wars of the United power, succeeded brilliantly in a narrow mili­ States; Louis Morton, General Editor. (Mac­ tary sense but carried with it an unintended millan Publishing Company, New York, 1981. political consequence: popular support for re­ Pp. xiv, 654. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. tention ofthe Spanish colonies. Readers famil­ $29.95.) iar with the work of Margaret Leech, H. Wayne Morgan, Ernest R. May, and Graham David Trask's The War With Spain in 1898, Cosmas will find many of these arguments fa­ the latest offering of the prestigious Macmil­ miliar. Trask's contribution is to fit them into a lan Wars of the United States series, is based coherent whole. In the process he effectively upon a close reading ofthe prodigious Ameri­ demoHshes the more mechanistic assertions of can, Spanish, Cuban, and Filipino secondary what twenty years ago was sometimes called literature regarding this conflict and upon "the Wisconsin school of diplomatic history." considerable research in American, Spanish, At the same time Trask does not consider the and Cuban primary sources. Trask deals with cultural assumptions of the politicians or the the diplomatic, political, and military back­ voters which made a maritime empire appear ground of the American declaration of war, desirable in 1898. Ample scope remains for a the conduct of operations, and the diplomatic subtle analysis ofthe evidence. maneuvering which ended the conflict. Given Trask's volume is strongest where a well- the emphasis ofthe series, Trask concentrates developed secondary literature already exists, on the conduct ofthe war, yet his analysis of its in particular on the origins of the war and mili­ origin will probably generate the most com­ tary administration in the United States. The ment. book is weakest in the sections dealing with na­ Trask is very conscious ofthe impact of do­ val and military operations, reflecting the mestic politics upon the formulation of the dearth of scholarly interest in these questions foreign policies which led to war. The Sagasta and the inability of one scholar, no matter how ministry in Spain sought to protect the Resto­ dihgent, to read all the available primary ac- 315 ,•28 Harry S. Truman waved from the platform of the presidential car on a stopover in Madisonfust prior to the outbreak ofthe Korean War in June, 1950. counts. His criticisms of General William (eight), and a twenty-four-page bibliographi­ Schafter's conduct of the Santiago campaign cal essay. are well founded, but Trask understates what The price of the book, I fear, exceeds its Shaffer did correctly. The author accepts the value. The academics do not offer anything strictures of Shaffer's bitterest critics, Leonard particularly new, and do not appear to be try­ Wood and Theodore Roosevelt, without in­ ing very hard—though they are an able group. quiring into their own activities. Trask agrees The veterans of the Truman Administra­ with the argument of French Ensore tion—men like W. Averell Harriman, Leon Chadwick about the effectiveness of naval Keyserling, Charles Brannan, Walter Salant, gunfire against entrenched troops, a technical John W. Snyder, and James E. Webb— argument defensible in 1911 but rendered suspect by the Dardanelles campaign in World generally summarize views they have ex­ War I and the amphibious assaults in the pressed many times in memoirs and oral histo­ Pacific during World War II. ries. They describe how bright and hard-working they all were, what a fine presi­ But these are matters of detail. Trask has written a volume that promises to serve as the dent Harry Truman was, and how they pulled standard account of the Spanish War for the the country through those difficult years. If next generation. one of the essays stands out, it was to me the Brannan commentary, in which I was led to EDGAR F. RAINES, JR. understand the Brannan Plan (1 think) for the Center of Military History first time. Nobody disagreed with anyone else, apart from an occasional minor quibble. It Economics and the Truman Administration. must have been a very pleasant conference, and I'll bet that more went on over breakfast Edited by FRANCIS H. HELLER. (The Regents Press of Kansas, Lawrence, 1981. Pp. xviii, than is reported here. The bibliographic essay 193. Notes, bibliography, index. $17.50.) and bibliography (on economic matters) are handy to have in print. But we still do not have This short book constitutes the results, one a leading monograph on the economic policies supposes, of a conference held at the Truman ofthe Truman years. Library in 1979. It offers twelve chapters—a mix of brief essays by scholars (three), chatty OTIS L. GRAHAM, JR. memoirs by officials from the Truman era University of North Carolina, Chapel Hitl 316 BOOK REVIEWS

Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Bi­ sion of the possible roles of work and other ography. By EDWIN A. WEINSTEIN. (Princeton stressors in causing Wilson's strokes is illumi­ University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1981. nating. The potential contributions of genetic Pp. xiii, 399. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, endowment and diet are less carefully consid­ index. $18.50.) ered. Weinstein is less convincing in describing The bare outlines of Woodrow Wilson's his subject's psychopathology. The problem is infirmities while President and their probable in the nature of biographical psychoanalysis effect on his functioning toward the end of his rather than a particular defect of Dr. Wein­ second term are familiar enough. He suffered stein's analysis and exposition. He emphasizes an incapacitating stroke in the autumn of 1919. the effect of Wilson's mother's hypochondri­ It remains a minor scandal of the process of asis on his early neurotic preoccupation with presidential succession that Wilson remained health, his heavy use of bodily metaphors in propped up in office by his second wife and speech and writing, and his subsequent denial personal physician. of the very real effects of his strokes. Hypo­ chondriasis is an unreasonable and un­ Edwin A. Weinstein, a neurologist and psy­ founded fear of illness, but such fears were choanalyst, has written a thoughtful and me­ neither unreasonable nor unfounded during ticulous description of the interactions be­ Wilson's childhood. In 1870, 40 per cent of tween mind and body which brought Wilson those developing pneumococcal pneumonia to his end as an acquiescent President. died from it, and tuberculosis, with its myriad Weinstein chronicles Wilson's unusual pro­ presentations and frighteningly descriptive gression from academician to President. After popular name, "consumption," was the lead­ graduating from Princeton University and ing cause of death. completing graduate work at Johns Hopkins, he became professor successively at Bryn Weinstein seems chary of psychiatric diag­ Mawr, Wesleyan, and finally Princeton. Later, noses and, when he makes them, sometimes as president of Princeton, he successfully in­ fails to use the nomenclature correctly. After troduced the preceptorial, a program that his first wife's death from kidney failure, permits professors to meet with small groups Wilson is described as suffering from "a severe of students for intimate discussions. This in­ reactive depression." Modern classifications novative didactic practice continues as part of clearly differentiate uncomplicated bereave­ the appeal of a Princeton education. Wilson, ment (which often includes many depressive however, was unsuccessful in several other symptoms) from actual depressive disorders. major undertakings at Princeton and, in 1910, It is striking that Wilson's affair with Mary left under something of a cloud to become a Allen Hulbert Peck, which is discussed in gen­ reform governor of New Jersey. The next eral terms at considerable length, never deals year he was elected President. Wilson particu­ with the sexual aspects of their relationship. larly admired and essentially repeated Ed­ Weinstein's biography is particularly mund Burke's career, which had "demon­ worthwhile for its focus on the medical aspects strated that the world of books was a better of Wilson's life. Convincing psychoanalytic preparation for statesmanship than training contributions are more difficult to achieve and in subordinate posts." Dr. Weinstein has perhaps gone as far with Weinstein is notably successful in describ­ Wilson as that genre will permit. ing Wilson's medical infirmities. His elucida­ tion of Wilson's progressive cerebrovascular JOHN H. GREIST, M.D. disease, from the first known stroke in 1896 University of Wisconsin through several "little strokes" to his massive Newspapers and New Politics: Midwestern Munici- and incapacitating stroke in 1919, is clearly palReform, 1890-1900. By DAVID PAUL NORD. documented. He provides a learned and use­ (UMI Research Press, Ann Arbor, 1981. Pp. ful neurologic education for laymen and pro­ 204. Notes, bibliography, appendix, index. fessionals, rarely slipping into medical jargon. $31.95.) The descriptions of the effects of stroke on movement, thought, and personality provide David Nord has examined every issue of valuable insights into Wilson's dysfunctions, his the leading newspapers in St. Louis and Chi­ denial of illness and his grandiosity in seeking cago during the 1890's. In his main sample a third term as President. Weinstein's discus­ alone this amounts to 32,196 stories and 1,191

317 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

editorials. More than anything else, he has accepts from communication theory. His ex­ read the controversy over streetcars. tensive use of editorials shows there can be no Nord chose this painstaking and precise re­ clear dividing line, yet this wall blocks his view search design to address both nistorians ofthe of the rhetorical tactics and iconography that Progressive era and communication theorists. we have good reason to suspect changed the This book joins a larger movement to empha­ way citizens understood the city. Nora quotes size the organizational changes Progressives with approval Richard Hofstadter's observa­ made in American politics, replacing rituahs- tion that big city daihes were "creating a men­ tic party voting with issue-oriented group poli­ tal world for the uprooted farmers and vil­ tics. Nord believes that we have much to learn lagers," but Newspapers and New Politics does about how editorial policies and reporting not take such insights very far. Journalists as practices set agendas. There is little here about well as readers get too little attention in the the familiar variety of exposes, headhnes, or streetcar story. We learn nothing about the en­ cartoons of the "yellow press." Nord believes trepreneurial strategies and the peer pres­ he has isolated an "information function" dis­ sures in newspaper work, and so this vital part tinct from such direct persuasion, and that the of agenda setting (and the possibility of hid­ "influence dimension of information" throws den agendas) is left mysterious. new light on urban Progressivism. This is a remarkable omission. In both cities Streetcars, Nord shows, were as easy to find the press corps produced rich memoirs, from in these newspapers as gossip and stunts. Chi­ Theodore Dreiser to the reporters who sat cago and St. Louis had newspapers dedicated with Finley Peter Dunne and Brand Whitlock to the defeat of traction trusts. In both cities, in the Whitechapel Club. Nord has a commend­ pressure groups formed in the 1890's to pro­ able reluctance to retell the stories about wine mote utility regulation and to end the corrupt drunk from skulls in Bohemian retreats. But accommodations the established parties had to pass over all of this in silence is an unneces­ made over the franchises. Around 1898, Chi­ sary sacrifice on the altar of a communication cago and St. Louis took different paths. News­ theory. Nord writes clearly and gracefully, but papers and civic organizations stood together more empathy and wider interests would bet­ and defeated the traction magnate, Charles T. ter reveal the significance of his material. Yerkes. In St. Louis only Joseph Pulitzer's old The political analysis here is sensible but paper, the Post-Dispatch, kept attention on the not conclusive. There seems no way to judge railway. There the reform coalition became whether the reform elites held together be­ dispirited and split; the boodlers prospered cause the newspapers gave them the facts or (at least until Lincoln Steffens picked up their whether the newspapers supplied the facts be­ trail in The Shame ofthe Cities a few years later). cause the Progressive called for them. The Since the problem, the pace of discovery, and "new politics" in Chicago may have worked be­ the pattern of reform organization, was cause the villain was so easily typed as a de­ largely the same in Chicago and St. Louis, bauched outsider (St. Louis did not have such Nord argues that the steadier flow of informa­ an ogre). And perhaps it was the machine and tion in Chicago was a crucial factor bringing not the newspapers that cleared the way for reform. the new politics ("Bathhouse" John Coughlin There is no question that such local investi­ and "Hinky Dink" Kenna cast crucial votes gations of the course of Progressive reform against Yerkes). are needed. Newsjjapers and New Politics makes It is not very satisfactory to say that "in Chi­ intelligent use of^ the monographic literature cago the people were persuaded while in St. to show the emerging picture of reform in the Louis they were not' by the newspaper- Midwest. Nord shows he has mastered his ma­ reformer alliance since no one has a very good terial both in the careful but unobtrusive con­ measure of public opinion in these cities. Na­ tent analysis and the clear path he charts tionally, voter turnout began a dramatic de­ through the unending squabbles over street­ cline in the Progressive era and it would be in­ cars. Only those historians who have chained triguing to have better voting statistics in this themselves to a microfilm reader and at­ book to see if there are signs that the drumbeat tempted to place years of local news in a of streetcar stories in the press drove some citi­ significant political pattern can fully appreci­ zens away from the polls and made the reform ate just how well Nord has brought tnis off. constituency more influential. Information, But this book takes too narrow a view of both after all, may set an agenda for some and journalism and politics to do full justice to its throw others into a world they do not under­ theme. stand. Nord is ill-served by the distinction between THOMAS C. LEONARD persuasive and information functions that he University of California, Berkeley 318 BOOK REVIEWS

Ethnicity Challenged: The Upper Midwest It required eight years' work and is based on Norwegian-American Experience in World War I. archival sources as well as those that are pub­ By CARL H. CHRISLOCK. (The Norwegian- lished; these sources are, of course, in Norwe­ American Historical Association, Northfield, gian as well as in English. Minnesota, 1981. Pp. 174. Illustrations, notes, This book does have shortcomings, but index. $10.00.) they appear to be largely editorial in origin. The professional historian will lament the lack of a bibliographical essay, or at least a biblio­ Carl H. Chrislock, professor of American graphical list, to provide an overall view of history at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, is available sources. This is one of the rare books, known for his work on political movements too, that should have been longer than it is. In and immigrant communities in America. This this case, brevity was achieved by relegating to study, focusing on the years between 1915 and the notes both information and well-chosen 1922, examines the clash within the quotations that would better have been placed Norwegian-American community between in the text. Despite these shortcomings. Ethnic­ those members who sought to preserve their ity Challenged is a highly regarded contribution ethnic identity and tradition and those who to the areas of both regional and immigration chose to abandon them. The "Upper Mid­ history. west" is defined as the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, and South ALLAN KOVAN Dakota. This was a special region because of its La Crosse Public Library high concentration of Norwegian-Americans, and because nativist pressures were entwined with a wartime crusade against the Nonparti­ san League. They Chose Minnesota: A Survey ofthe State's Eth­ Ethnicity Challenged is divided into five re­ nic Groups. Edited by JUNE DRENNING markably concise chapters. In the first, and HoLMQUiST. (Minnesota Historical Society most effective, Chrislock asks why the appar­ Press, St. Paul, 1981. Pp. xiii, 614. Notes, ta­ ently flourishing Norwegian-American com­ bles, maps, index, and appendix. $45.00.) munity was so susceptible to the nativist pres­ sures generated by the war. He finds that most In the past few years, as part of a larger his­ Norwegian-Americans had already begun to toriographical trend toward social history a lose their ethnic identity and ethnic commit­ number of anthologies have appeared de­ ments prior to 1914, so that the strains of war scribing various aspects of regional ethnic his­ merely sped up a development already in pro­ tory. Some of them—like Papanikolous' The gress. Most of^the remainder of the book ex­ Peoples of Utah, Luebke's Ethnicity on the Great amines the nature of the anti-hyphenist pres­ Plains, or Jones and Holli's Ethnic Chicago— sures that were exerted, and how have been fine collections of original research, Norwegian-Americans responded to them. welcome contributions to American ethnic The same "Americanization" thesis intro­ and immigration history. But none of them duced in chapter one also explains why the de­ can compare to June Drenning Holmquist's cline in Norwegian-American ethnicity con­ They Chose Minnesota. It is a magnificent, indis­ tinued beyond the pressures of the postwar pensable work for anyone interested in ethnic­ period so that by midcentury the community's ity, immigration, or Minnesota history. cultural assimilation was complete. The late June Holmquist has brought to­ There is much to commend this book. gether, along with her own excellent introduc­ Chrislock successfully combines the history of tion, the work of several distinguished ethnic leadership-elites with that of the non- scholars (including Carlton Qualey, John elites comprising the bulk of the Norwegian- Rice, Theodore Saloutos, Joseph Stipanovich, American community and making up its elec­ torate; he reveals the diversity of the and Rudolph Vecoli) who, in twenty-seven community's attitudes toward its own ethnicity original essays, describe the sixty separate eth­ and toward the political issues and movements nic groups who settled in Minnesota. From the of the time; and, lest we forget, he shows us early migrations of the Dakota and Ojibway with remarkable objectivity that the much- tribes to the recent arrivals of people like the praised "Americanization" of immigrant Vietnamese, Hmong, Lao, and Cambodians, groups was often accompanied by massive They Chose Minnesota richly illustrates the indi­ pressures and the repression and persecution vidual contributions of various religious and of hyphenists. The research upon which Eth­ nationality groups as well as the critical role nicity Challenged is founded is also noteworthy. ethnicity played in the history of Minnesota. 319 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

Here we learn that Germans, not Scandina­ Minnesota. The prose is clear and lucid, the re­ vians, were the largest immigrant group in the search soundly based, and the maps, tables, state; that ethnic loyalties revolved far more and illustrations carefully and tastefully done. around internal bonds than external hostili­ Those of us interested in immigration and the ties; and that the processes of acculturation general history of Minnesota and the Upper and assimilation did not work their magic Mississippi Valley will long be indebted to the nearly as fast as most Americans assumed. If 1 Minnesota Historical Society for its willingness were making any criticism, it would be that by to support the project. At $45.00 the book is a concentrating so carefully on individual bargain, a handsome work to be prized by its groups. They Chose Minnesota lacks any general readers. The Minnesota Historical Society can synthesis. Sometimes one can see the trees but be proud of this fine piece of work. It is sad to not the forest. think that her untimely death makes it the last But I offer that criticism with only the great­ such book to issue from the pen of June est trepidation, for fear that someone may de­ Holmquist. cide not to purchase the book on those JAMES S. OLSON grounds. I cannot say enough ahoutThey Chose Sam Houston State University

Book Reviews

Baudot et al., editors, The Historical Encyclopedia of World Nash, Murder, America: Homicide in the Unded States from the War II, reviewed by Edgar R. Geesaman 314 Revolution to the Present, re\iewed bv Mar\ Lou M. Brooks, editor, Writings on Wright: Selected Comment on Schultz .' ' 301 Frank Lloyd Wright, reviewed by Robert C Twombly Nash, People to See: An Anecdotal History ofCJiicago's Alakers ' 304 and Breakers, reviewed by Mary Lou M. Schultz. . .299 Chrislock, Ethnicity Challenged: The Upper Midwest Nelson, Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Manage­ Norwegian-American Experience in World War I, re­ ment, reviewed by David P. Peeler 308 viewed by Allan Kovan 319 Downard, Dictionary of the History of the American Brewing Nord, Newspapers and New Politics: Midwestern Municipal and Distilling Industries, reviewed by Thomas C. Cxjch- Reform, 1890-1900, reviewed by Thomas C. Leonard. ran 306 317 Dunlap, DDT, Scientists, Citizens, and Public Policy, re­ Numbers and Leavitt, editors, Wisconsin Medicine: Histori­ viewed by Kenneth R. Bowling 312 cal Perspectives, reviewed by John Harley Warner 303 Foster, From Streetcar to Superhighway: American City Plan­ Reiersen, Pathfinder for Norwegian Emigrants, reviewed by ners and Urban Transportation, 1900-1940, reviewed by J. R. Christianson 308 Clay McShane 313 Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom Gambill, Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Recon­ 1822-1832, reviewed by Terry L. Shoptaugh 311 struction, 1865-1869, reviewed bv Tilden G. Edelstein Saher, Jackson, Mississippi: An American Chronicle of Struggle '. 310 and Schism, reviewed by Sarah Cooper 306 Glasrud, A Heritage Deferred: The German-Americans in Schneider, Detroit and the Problem of Order, 1830-1880: A Minnesota, reviewed by Frederick C. Luebke 312 Geography of Crime, Riot, and Policing, reviewed by Heller, editor, Economics and the Truman Administration, re­ Donald W. Rogers ' 309 viewed by Otis L. Graham, Jr 316 Thayer, Hunting a Shadow: The Search for Black Haivk, re­ Holmquist, editor, They Cliose Minnesota: A Survey of the viewed by John O. Holzhueter 302 State's Ethnic Groups, reviewed by James S. Olson. 319 Trask, The War with Spain in 1898, reviewed by Edgar F. Keller, Scandalous Lady: The Life and Times of Madame Re­ Raines, Jr 3L5 stell, New 'York's Most Notorious Abortionist, reviewed by Mary Lou M. Schultz 298 Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychologiccd Bi­ ography, reviewed by John H. Greist 317 Leibowitz, The Defender: The Life and Career of Samuel S. Leibowitz, 1893-1933, reviewed by .Mary Lou M. Williams, Tlie Histoiy of American Wars from 1745 to 1918, Schultz ' '. 301 reviewed by Reginald Horsman 314

320 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Wisconsin History ety of Wisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706.) Checklist Blei, Norbert. Door Way: the People in the Land­ Recently published and currently availa­ scape. (Peoria, Illinois, cl981. Pp. 305. Illus. ble Wisconsiana added to the Society's Li­ $14.95. Available from Ellis Press, Box brary are listed below. The compilers, 1443, Peoria, Ihinois 61655.) Thoughts Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librar­ about people and places in Door County. ian, and Susan Dorst, Order Librarian, are interested in obtaining information about Boettcher, Kenneth; Kressin, Lois; and (or copies of) items that are not widely ad­ Ivaska, Bernice. The Boettcher Genealogy. vertised, such as publications of local histori­ (Bloomer?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [69]. Illus. cal societies, family histories and genealo­ No price Hsted. Available from Mrs. Lois gies, privately printed works, and histories Kressin, Route 3, Bloomer, Wisconsin of churches, institutions, or organizations. Authors and publishers wishing to reach a 54724.) wider audience and also to perform a valu­ Brown, Lydia. Black Heritage in Milwaukee; a able bibliographic service are urged to in­ Program of the Wisconsin Humanities Commit­ form the compilers of their publications, in­ cluding the following information; author, tee: Preliminary Guide to Blacks in Milwaukee title, location and name of publisher, price, and Wisconsin. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, pagination, and address of supplier. Write 1981. Pp. iv, 19. Illus. No price listed. Avail­ Susan Dorst, Acquisitions Section. able from University of Wisconsin- Extension, Arts Development Department, Office of Resource Consultant, Inner City Amundson, James Allen. The Ancestors of Arts, 929 North Sixth Street, Milwaukee, Laura Kay and Eric Allen Amundson. (Bran­ Wisconsin 53203.) A bibliographic guide to don, Mississippi, 1981. Pp. 401. Illus. sources of black history in Milwaukee. $19.95. Available from author, 40 Crossga- Built in Milwaukee: an Architectural View of the tes Drive, Brandon, Mississippi 39042.) A City. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1981? Pp. 218. number of the families included are from Illus. $12.95. Available from City of Mil­ Chippewa and Barron counties. waukee, Department of City Development, Anderson, Harry H., and Olson, Frederick I. William Ryan Drew, Commissioner, 734 Milwaukee: at the Gathering of the Waters. North 9th Street, P. O. Box 324, Milwau­ (Tulsa, Oklahoma, cl981. Pp. 224. Illus. kee, Wisconsin 53201.) $24.95. Available from Continental Heri­ Cemetery Inscriptions of Sauk County, Wisconsin, tage Press, P. O. Box 1620, Tulsa, Okla­ Volume 2: Washington and Westfield Town­ homa 74101.) ships. (Sauk City?, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Armstrong, John Edward. The Coyer Clan and State Old Cemetery Society, 1981. Pp. 116. the Carrier Connection. (Madison, Wisconsin. Illus. No price listed. Available from Myrtle 1982. Pp. 96. No price listed. Available E. Gushing, 809 John Adams Street, Sauk from author, 325 South Yellowstone Drive, City, Wisconsin 53583.) Madison, Wisconsin 53705.) Curkeet, Abigail. Ancestral Voices, Part I: the Bailey, Mrs. Sturges W. Index to Names in the Circuit Rider. (Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, History of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, 1981. 1 volume, various pagings. Illus. Thomas H. Ryan, Editor, Goodspeed Historical $28.00. Available from author, 3926 Moe Association, Publisher, Chicago, 1911. (Madi­ Road, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin 53572.) son, Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Genealogi­ Consists primarily of letters ofthe Dinsdale cal Society, Inc., 1981. Pp. 73. $8.00 plus family about life in the United States, in­ $ .32 tax. Available from WSGS Book Store, cluding Wisconsin. c/o 465 Charles Lane, Madison, Wisconsin Edgewood High School, 1881-1981. (Madison, 53711.) Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 139. Illus. $6.50. Berry-Caban, Cristobal S. Hispanics in Wiscon­ Available from EHS Development Office, sin: a Bibliography of Resource Materials = Edgewood High School, 2219 Monroe Hispanos en Wisconsin: una Bibliografia de Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53711.) Materiales de Recurso. (Madison, Wisconsin, Forest History Association of Wisconsin, Inc. cl981. Pp. 258. $5.00. Available from Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting of Forest Publications Orders, State Historical Soci­ History Association of Wisconsin, Inc. 321 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY SUMMER, 1982

(Wausau, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 28. Illus. No about life in northern Wisconsin written in price listed. Available from author, 403 the late 1960's. Mclndoe Street, Wausau, Wisconsin Johnson, Jean Lindsay. When Midwest Million­ 54401.) The papers presented at the an­ aires Lived Like Kings. (Milwaukee, Wiscon­ nual meeting were "History of Logging on sin, 1981. Pp. 326. Illus. $15.95, cloth; the Menominee Indian Reservation" by $12.95, paper. Available from author, 4025 Sanford Fowler and "Logging Methods in North Sawyer Road, Oconomowoc, Wis­ the River, the Railroad and the Gasoline consin 53066.) History and biographies of Eras" by Gordon R. Connor. the wealthy who lived in Oconomowoc at Goc, Michael. The Bud Norton Story: Green the turn of the century. Lake's Legendary Fishing Guide. (Princeton, Jolliffe, Jean Saxe. Richard Jollijfe and his De­ Wisconsin, cl982. Pp. 168. Illus. $12.95. scendants, 1800-1980; from Tremaine Parish, Available from Fox River Publishing Com­ Cornwall, England to Palmyra, Wisconsin. pany, P.O. Box 54, 114 Washington, (Brookfield?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 158. Il­ Princeton, Wisconsin 54968.) lus. No price listed. Available from Mrs. Gollmar, Robert H. Edward Gein: America's Ronald R. Jolliffe, 2405 North Brookfield Most Bizarre Murderer. (Delavan, Wisconsin, Road, Brookfield, Wisconsin 53005.) cl981. Pp. 236. Illus. $9.95. Available from Karsh, Bernard. Diary of a Strike. (Urbana, Illi­ Chas. Hallberg & Co., Inc., P. O. Box 547, nois, University of Illinois Press, 1982. Sec­ Delavan, Wisconsin 53115.) ond Edition. Pp. 177. $5.95. Available from History of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Pre- University of Illinois Press, 54 East Gregory Historic Times to the Present Date. . . (Milwau­ Drive, P. O. Box 5081, Sta. A, Champaign, kee?, Wisconsin, 1981? 2 volumes. Pp. Illinois 61820.) Recounts the four month 1663, 124. Illus. $60.00 plus $4.00 postage long strike at the Marinette Knitting Mills and handling. Available from Milwaukee in 1951. County Genealogical Society, 2943 South Kenosha Retrospective: a Biographical Approach, 94th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53227.) edited by Nicholas C. Burckel and John A. Reprint of the 1881 edition. Neuenschwander. (Kenosha, Wisconsin, Index, Cemetery Inscriptions, Town of Cooper- Kenosha County Bicentennial Commis­ stown. (Manitowoc?, Wisconsin, 1981. 1 vol­ sion, cl981. Pp. 384. Illus. $10.00. Availa­ ume, various paging. No price listed. Avail­ ble from Archives and Area Research Cen­ able from Manitowoc County Genealogical ter, University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Box Society, P. O. Box 342, Manitowoc, Wiscon­ 2000, Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141.) An ex­ sin 54220.) Cover title is Cemetery Inscrip­ amination of nine industrial, labor, and po­ tions, Township of Cooperstown, Manitowoc litical leaders ofthe nineteenth and twenti­ County, Wisconsin. eth centuries. Index, Cemetery Inscriptions, Town of Mishicot Komro, Nancy Benjamin. The Komro Family (Manitowoc?, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [121]. from Pepin County, Wisconsin: an Account of No price listed. Available from Manitowoc the Lives and Genealogies of Joseph and Jo­ County Genealogical Society, P. O. Box hanna Komro Immigrants from Austria. (Pres- 342, Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220.) Cover cott, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 159. Illus. title is Cemetery Inscriptions, Town of Mishicot, $25.00. Available from author. Route I, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Box 40, Prescott, Wisconsin 54021.) Moll, Mrs. Allan and Bailey, Mrs. Sturges./n- Ingbretson, James E. A History of Grand Avenue dex to the History of Northern Wisconsin, Illus­ Congregational Church: 1947-1981. (Milwau­ trated, Western Historical Company, Chicago, kee, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [12]. No price 1881. (Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin listed. Available from author, 2955 North State Genealogical Society, Inc., 1981. Pp. 57th Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53210.) 124. No price listed. Available from WSGS Brief history of a Milwaukee church. Book Store, c/o 465 Charles Lane, Madison, Jackson, E. Louise. Letters to Lucie. (Lutz?, Flor­ Wisconsin 53711.) ida, cl981. Pp. 54. Illus. $2.95. Available Mueller, Elizabeth S. The Luitink Lineage. (Elm from author. Box 67, Lake Padgett Grove, Wisconsin, 1981. [56] leaves. Illus. M.H.V., Lutz, Florida 33549.) Letters No price listed.)

322 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Mueller, Elizabeth S. The Middleton Memories. $1.25 postage and handling. Available (Elm Grove, Wisconsin, 1981. [58] leaves. from Fort Atkinson Historical Society, 407 Illus. No price listed.) Merchants Avenue, Fort Atkinson, Wiscon­ Mueller, Elizabeth S. The Mueller Memories. sin 53538.) (Elm Grove, Wisconsin, 1981. [49] leaves. Thayer, Crawford beecher. Hunting a Shadow: Illus. No price listed.) the Search for Black Hawk; an Eye-Witness Ac­ Mueller, Elizabeth S. The Semmens Story. (Elm count of the Black Hawk War of 1832. (Fort Grove, Wisconsin, 1981. [67] leaves. Illus. Atkinson?, Wisconsin, © 1981. Pp. 452. Il­ No price listed. The above four genealo­ lus. $11.60. Available from author, 522 gies are available from author, 13330 Wilcox, Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin 53538.) Brook Avenue, Elm Grove, Wisconsin 53122.) Thomas, Eleanor Kroll. Three Steeples. (Rice Olsen, T. V. Our First Hundred Years: a History Lake, Wisconsin, 1980. Pp. 88. Illus. $5.00 of Rhinelander. (Rhinelander, Wisconsin, plus postage and handling. Available from 1981. Pp. vi, 133. Illus. $9.50, cloth; $6.25, author, Route 1—Island Lake, Weyer­ paper; plus $1.00 postage and handling. haeuser, Wisconsin 54895.) Author's life in Available from Rhinelander Centennial Iowa, Monroe and Rusk counties. Book, P. O. Box 558, Rhinelander, Wiscon­ Wisconsin Women: a Gifted Heritage. (Neenah?, sin 54501.) Wisconsin, cl982. Pp. 328. Illus. $9.95 Olson, Rollin. Civil War Letters. (Tucson?, Ar­ plus $1.25 postage and handling. Availa­ izona, 1981. Pp. [165]. Illus. No price listed. ble from Wisconsin Women, P. O. Box 646, Available from Morgan Olson, 1032 North Neenah, Wisconsin 54956.) Biographies of Jones Boulevard, Tucson, Arizona 85716.) Wisconsin women spanning three centu­ Letters of a member of the 15th Regiment ries. Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, translated from the Norwegian by his great grandson, Woodhouse, Peter. The Travels of Peter Morgan Olson. Woodhouse: the Memoir of an American Pio­ One-Hundredth Anniversary, St. Paul Evangelical neer, edited by Thomas E. Barden. (Gil- Lutheran Congregation, Wittenberg, Shawano lingham, Wisconsin, cl981. Pp. 82. Illus. County, Wisconsin, 1881-1981. (Wittenberg, $5.70. Available from Ocooch Mountain Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. 56. Illus. No price Press, Route 1, Box 110, Gillingham, Wis­ listed. Available from St. Paul Evangelical consin 54633.) Originally written in 1898 Lutheran Church, Wittenberg, Wisconsin for his family, he chronicles his life in 54499.) southwestern Wisconsin and Cahfornia. Perrin, Richard W. E. Historic Wisconsin Build­ Wrend, Joseph R. Coaching in the Garden of ings: a Survey in Pioneer Architecture, 1835- Eden, Galesville, Population 1154, 1929. 1870. (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1981. Sec­ (Madison, Wisconsin, 1981. Pp. [23], 103. ond Edition, Revised. Pp. 122. Illus. $8.30. Illus. $10.00 plus $1.00 postage and han­ Available from Milwaukee Public Museum, dling. Checks should be made payable to 800 West Wells Street, Milwaukee, Wiscon­ Bell-Wrend Scholarship Fund. Available sin 53233.) from author, 4017 Tokay Boulevard, Mad­ Swart, Hannah. Koshkonong Country, Revisited: ison, Wisconsin 53711.) Memoir of the au­ an Anthology, volume I. (Fort Atkinson, Wis­ thor's year of coaching high school athletics consin, 1981. Pp. 268. Illus. $7.95 plus and subsequent visits to Galesville.

323 Contributors

ROGER L. NICHOLS, a native of Racine, is pro­ ANTHONY F. C. WALLACE has long been associ­ fessor of history at the University of Arizona. ated with the University of Pennsylvania, Since obtaining his doctorate at the University where he earned both undergraduate and ad­ of Wisconsin (1963) he has focused his teach­ vanced degrees and where, since 1980, he has ing and research interests primarily upon been the Geraldine R. Segal Professor of nineteenth-century Indian and military American Social Thought. From 1955 to 1980 topics. His dissertation was published by the he was also a member of the faculty of the University of Oklahoma Press in 1965 as Gen­ Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute. In eral Henry Atkinson: A Western Military Career. addition to serving in the United States Army, In addition to various articles, Nichols' publi­ 1942—1945, he has advised or sat on various cations include: Natives and Strangers: Ethnic governmental panels and agencies, including Groups and the Building of America (joint author, the U.S. Office of Education, the National In­ 1979); Stephen Long and American Frontier Ex­ stitute of Mental Health, the National Science ploration (co-author, 1980); and The American Foundation, and the U.S. Subcommission of Indian: Past and Present (editor, 1981). At Anthropology of the U.S.—U.S.S.R. Commis­ present he is on sabbatical leave and is working sion on the Social Sciences and the Humani­ on a comparative study of American and Ca­ ties. He is a fellow of both the American An­ nadian Indian affairs. thropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Of his many publications, perhaps the best known is his study of a cotton-manufacturing center in Pennsylvania,i^ocMa/e; The Growth of an American Village in the Early Industrial Revo­ lution, published by Knopf in 1978 and winner of the Bancroft Prize in American History in Vietnam Article Honored 1979. Dale Reich's memoir, "One Year in Vietnam: A Young Soldier Remembers," published in the Spring, 1981, issue ofthe Wisconsin Maga­ zine of History, won the 1981 Robert Card Award for short nonfiction in the annual com­ petition sponsored by the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association. The judges praised the article as "valuable not only for its historical significance, but also for its wisdom. . . . An honest and beautifully written record of how one man's life was changed in one year."

324 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

LEE SHERMAN DREYFUS, Governor ofthe State ROBERT M. O'NEIL, President ofthe University

VEL PHILLIPS, Secretary of State MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, President of the Auxiliary CHARLES P. SMITH, State Treasurer ROBERT B. L. MURPHY, President, Wisconsin History Foundation

GEORGE MILLER, Chairman, Wisconsin Council for Local History

THOMAS H. BARLAND, Eau Claire MRS. EDWARD C.JONES, Fort Atkinson E. DAVID CRONON, Madison WILLIAM C. KIDD, Racine

MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Evansville MRS. HERBERT V. KOHLER, JR., Kohler

MRS. WILLIAM B. GAGE, Williams Bay HOWARD W. MEAD, Madison

PAULC. KARTZKE, Madison GEORGE H. MILLER, Ripon

JOHN C. GEILFUSS, Milwaukee NEWELL G. MEYER, Milwaukee

MRS. HUGH F. GWIN, Hudson JOHN M. MURRY, Milwaukee

JOHN T. HARRINGTON, Milwaukee FREDERICK I. OLSON, Wauwatosa

MRS. R. L. HARTZELL, Grantsburg JOHN A. SCHONE.MAN, Wausau

PAUL E. HASSETT, Madison DR. LOUIS C. SMITH, Cassville

MRS. WILLIAM E. HAVES, De Pere MRS. WILLIAM H. L. SMYTHE, Milwaukee

MRS. R. GOERES HAYSSEN, Racine WILLIAM F. STARK, Nashotah

NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN, Madison MILO K. SWANTON, Madison

MRS. JEAN M. HELLIESEN, La Crosse WILSON B. THIEDE, Madison

MRS. FANNIE HICKLIN, Madison CHARLES TWINING, Ashland

WILLIAM HUFFMAN, Wisconsin Rapids EDWARDJ. VIRNIG, New Berlin

MRS. PETER D. HUMLEKER, JR., Fond du Lac CLARK WILKINSON, Baraboo ROBERT H. IRRMANN, Beloit

The Women's Auxiliary

MRS. JOHN ERSKINE, Racine, President MRS. E. DAVID CRONON, Madison, Secretary MRS. WILLIAM B.JONES, Fort Atkinson, MRS. GEORGE STROTHER, Madison, Treasurer Vice President MRS. A. PAUL JENSEN, Madison,

Fellows

VERNON CARSTENSEN

MERLE CURTI

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

L'SD.V pliolngiaph l)y Foisyliic Pearl Harbor was six months away when these young sailors posed for a publicity photo in the canteen at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station north of Chicago. The three in front—Erdman Panhow, Tony Lamia, and Jim Grann—were all from Wisconsin.

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