(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin • Vol. 76, No. 2 • Winter, 1992-1993

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iSi^ THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Director

Officers FANNIE E. HICKLIN, President GERALD D, VISTE, Treasurer GLENN R, COAXES, First Vice-President H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Secretary JANE BERNHARDT, 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 dissemi­ nating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive of the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, school services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of historic preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular.

MEMBERSHIP in the Society is open to the public. Individual membership (one per­ son) is $25. Senior Citizen Individual membership is $20. Family membership is $30. Senior Citizen Family membership is $25. Supporting m^em.hersh\p is $100. Sustaining membership is $250. A Patron contributes $500 or more. Life membership (one person) is $1,000.

MEMBERSHIP in the Friends of the SHSW is open to the public. Individual mem­ bership (one person) is $15. Family membership is $25.

THE SOCIETY is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected members, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the President of the Friends of the State Historical Society, the President of the Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President of the Administrative Committee of the Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing of the Curators appears inside the back cover.

The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, at the juncture of Langdon and Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial listing of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows:

General Administration 264-6400 Library circulation desk 264-6534 Affiliated local societies 264-658.^ Maps 264-6458 Archives reading room 264-6460 Membership 264-6587 Contribution of manuscript materials 264-6477 Microforms reading room 264-6536 Editorial offices 264-6461 Museum tours 264-6555 Film collections 264-6466 Newspaper reference 264-6531 Genealogical and general reference inquiries . 264-653.5 Picture and sound collections 264-6470 Government publications and reference 264-6525 Public information office 264-6586 Historic preservation 264-6500 Sales desk 264-6565 Historic sites 264-6586 School services 264-6567 Hours of operation 264-6588 Speakers bureau 264-6586 Institutional Advancement 264-6585

ON THE COVER: In 1867, framed copies of this picture of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home in Madison were being sold throughout the state for $3.75. Thirty-Jive per cent of the proceeds went to the benefit of the home, according to i/j^ Jefferson Banner,/anuary 23, 1867. An article on the home begins on page 83. [WHi(D485) 1678] Volume 76, Number 2 / Winter, 1992-1993

WISCONSIN MAGAZE^JE OF HISTORY

Published quarterly by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, "This Noble Monument": 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, The Story of the Soldiers' Orphans' Distributed to members as part of Home 83 their dues. Individual membership, $25; senior citizen Patricia G. Harrsch individual, $20; family, $30; senior citizen family, $25; supporting, From Where Come the Badgers? $100; sustaining, $250; patron, 121 $500 or more; life (one person), KarelD. Bicha $1,000, Single numbers from Volume 57 forward are $5 plus postage. Microfilmed copies The Columbian Mosaic in Colonial America 132 available through University James Axlell Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 Book Reviews 146 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Route Book Review Index 152 100, Millwood, New York 10546, Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Wisconsin History Checklist 153 Society does not assume responsibility for statements made Accessions 156 by contributors. Second-class postage paid at Madison, Wisconsin, Contributors 160 POSTMASTER: .Send address changes to Wisconsin Magazine of History, Madison, Wisconsin 53706-1488, Copyright © 1993 by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin,

The Wisconsin Magazine of History' is indexed annually by the editors; cumulative indexes are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical Abstracts, Index to Literature on tlie American Indian, and the Combined Retrospective Index tojoumats in Editor History, 1838-1974. PAUL H. HASS Associate Editors Photographs identified with WHi negative numbers are from the WILLIAM C. MARTEN Historical Societv's collections. JOHN O. HOLZHUETER This building was originally constructed in the mid-185O's as a private residence for Governor Leonard f. Fanuell. It was subsequently used as the Harvey Hospital during the Civil War, the Soldiers' Orphans' Home after the war, and, at the time this picture was taken by Andrew Dahl about 1877, as the Monona Academy. "This Noble Monument": The Story of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home

By Patricia G. Harrsch

' ' TT IS always best if you wish to home, distributed gifts and medical sup­ J- secure an object... to go at plies, and made available extra surgeons once to the highest power and be your own and nurses."^ When she became convinced petitioner."^ With these words, Mrs. Cor­ that Union soldiers would benefit both psy­ delia A. P. Harvey of Madison described chologically and physically from being her efforts to secure a convalescent hospi­ allowed to convalesce in hospitals closer to tal in Wisconsin for Union soldiers. Mrs. home, and in the healthier climate of the Harvey was no stranger to coping with dif­ North, she went directly to President Abra­ ficult situations. Her husband, Louis Pow­ ham Lincoln. Both the president and the ell Harvey, had assumed office as governor War Department opposed any plan that in January, 1862. In April of that year, fol­ would allow convalescent soldiers to return lowing the Battle of Shiloh, he had to the North on the grounds that large- drowned in the Tennessee River as he left scale desertions would be the only result.^ a hospital boat where he had been visiting But Mrs. Harvey persisted, telling Lincoln the state's sick and wounded soldiers. After forcefully, " ... [Y]ou do not understand his death, his successor as governor, our people. You do not trust them suffi­ Edward Salomon, had appointed Mrs. Har­ ciently."* Ultimately, she prevailed. In vey a "sanitary agent" for the state. This October, 1863, Harvey U. S. Army General involved her in visiting the camps and hos­ Hospital (named after her late husband) pitals where Wisconsin soldiers were opened in Madison, Wisconsin. Other assigned, in order to inform the governor northern hospitals were established there­ as to the physical condition and morale of after. the troops. When she returned from her work in the Described as "probably the most effec­ South in 1865, Mrs. Harvey brought with tive" of the state's agents, Cordelia Harvey her several orphans.* She had apparently "reported on the numbers of sick and wounded, arranged for transporting them

'^Richard N, Current, The History of Wisconsin. Volume II: The Civil War Era, 1849-1873 (Madison, 1976), 369, 'May L, Bauchle, "The Shopiere Shrine," in the Wiscon­ 'Cordelia A,P, Harvey, "A Wisconsin Woman's Picture of sin Magazine of History, 10 (September, 1926), 29-34, President Lincoln," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 1 ^Harvey, "Wisconsin Woman's Picture," 243, (March, 1918), 241, ^Bauchle, "Shopiere Shrine," 5,

Copyrigiit © 1993 hy Ttie State Histoncat Society of Wisconsin 83 All rig/its of reproduction in any form reserved. WHi(X3)19844

Cordelia A. P. Harvey already conceived the idea of establishing the poorhouses were often shockingly a shelter for those children in Wisconsin inadequate, involving, as they frequently who had been left destitute by the war and did, poorly constructed buildings with little she brought the same compassion and or no provision for proper sanitation or the determination to their cause as she had, in health needs of the residents. Also, there 1863, to that of the sick and wounded sol­ were no incentives for inmates to do other diers. than remain in the institution, since there In America, by the 1860's, the problem were no training or educational opportu­ of the care of dependent children had not nities. Those children who were "bound yet been fully worked through. In the early out" could find themselves mere drudges years of the century, society did not in the households to which they were acknowledge that children's needs were assigned. And the jails were perhaps the different from those of adults. Many desti­ worst environment of all for youngsters, tute youngsters were confined to tax-sup­ who found themselves sharing space with ported poorhouses along with the elderly drunkards, petty lawbreakers, and hard­ needy, the infirm, and the mentally ill; or ened criminals.'' they were bound out to "respectable fam­ Orphanages had begun to appear in ines" to earn their board and keep; or, if they found themselves without homes, they might be confined to local jails on the charge of vagrancy. •'Virgil E, Long, "State Supenision and Control of Wel­ fare Agencies and Institutions in Wisconsin: Processes and None of these alternatives was conducive Structures" (doctoral dissertation. University of Wisconsin, to the welfare of children. Conditions in 1944), 31-35, 51-52,

84 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME greater numbers in the 1830's. These were including the wives of Generals Ulysses S. private institutions, established by charita­ Grant and William T. Sherman, promoted ble or religious organizations to meet the the organization of a national home for sol­ needs of specific groups, such as Catholic diers' orphans." Speaking in June of 1866 children, or those orphaned by epidemics. at a fair whose purpose was to raise funds The states often provided additional fund­ for such an institution, President Andrew ing for these institutions, as society seems Johnson was to say that in the work of heal­ to have gradually recognized that special ing the nation, it was fitting that the people asylums for children were a positive "take up the destitute orphans and edu­ response to their special needs.^ cate and guide them, and thus [lay] a solid In Wisconsin, several such "orphan asy­ moral basis which may control them lums" had been established in the 1850's throughout their future lives."'^ The by private organizations. St. Ameliane's for National Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Catholic boys, St. Rosa's/St. Joseph's for Home was brought into being by an act of Catholic girls, and the Milwaukee Orphan Congress on July 15, 1866. Children up to Asylum for Protestant children all were the age of sixteen, from any state in the located in the Milwaukee area and served Union, were admitted until 1879, when the small numbers of youngsters.** But in 1865 Home began the process of closing down.'^ the loss of more than 11,000 Wisconsin men in a terrible war presented the state­ wide community with a problem of a dif­ ferent magnitude. Indeed, the numbers ^S early as 1865, the plight of the were staggering: first estimates suggested A'soldiers ' orphans had been that 8,000 Wisconsin children had been considered by the Wisconsin legislature. orphaned.'^ On February 16 of that year, bill #223A "to Other states faced a similar problem. In provide for founding and maintaining a 1864, Pennsylvania organized a system of Wisconsin Soldiers' Orphans' Asylum" was nine schools, specifically for soldiers' first presented in the State Assembly by orphans. It was hoped that the system James Ross, a Unionist representing Dane would ultimately serve 1,600 children. The County's fifth district. Referred to the schools were scattered throughout the Committee on Charitable and Benevolent state, so as to be accessible, and were to Institutions, which made minor amend­ "culture [the children's] intellect and ments, the bill was then recommended for impress upon them sound and proper hab­ passage.'* It called for the appropriation of its" as well as to give them industrial train­ $15,000 for the founding and maintenance ing. Large, twenty-acre "campuses" pro­ of an asylum, and the appointment by the vided the space needed to enable the state governor of a board of trustees (one from to teach the boys "agricultural and each congressional district and one from mechanical pursuits" and the girls "nee­ the state at large) which would have dlework, cooking, washing and other pur­ suits so indispensable to their sex."'" In Washington, D.C., a group of women. '"Address of Thomas H, Burrowes, Supt, of Soldiers' Orphans for Pennsylvania, in Ceremonies at the Reception of Orphan Children . . . by the Governor and the Legislature . • . , March 16, 1866 (Harrisburg, 1866), 'Robert H, Bremner, ed,. Children and Youth in America: ""An Appeal to the Patriotic & Humane Citizens of the A Documentary History. Vol 1:1600-1865 (Cambridge, 1970), Nation" (undated broadside, Washington, D.C). 631-632, '-New Yorii Times,]une 7, 1866, '^Annual Report of the Wisconsin State Board of Charities & "U.S. Statutes at Large (1866), Ch, 249; (1878), Ch, 359, /te/orm (1880), 294-296, "Wisconsin Assembly Joumat (1865), 266, 349, 448; here­ '^Wisconsin State Journal, September 15, 1865, inafter, Assembly Journal and year.

85 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 responsibility for setting up the institution, phans in Wisconsin was to be reduced to including leasing the building and appoint­ 6,000 when a sur\'ey of towns, initiated by ing the superintendent, teachers, etc. The the secretary of state in late 1865, was com­ trustees were to locate the asylum "at such pleted.^" Not all the orphans were destitute, a place as shall donate for the benefit of but of the total number, some had lost the institution the largest sum of money . . . their mothers as well as their fathers. Such and provide a suitable building."'* children faced a grim future if family or In the Assembly, Jackson Hadley, a Dem­ friends were unable to assume their care. ocrat representing Milwaukee's first and The surviving mothers of many more chil­ seventh wards, moved that Bill #223A be dren found themselves poverty-stricken. referred to a select committee."' This com­ The loss of their husbands had left them mittee presented a bill which was totally dif­ without any resources for caring for them­ ferent from its predecessor. Described as selves or their offspring. Perhaps the family "for the purpose of making some provision farm had been too big, too encumbered for orphan children of soldiers," the bill with debt, for the woman to carry on; or now called for an appropriation of $2,000 the blacksmith shop had been closed when to the Milwaukee Asylum for the support the husband had left for war and the moth­ and maintenance of children under the er's only support had been what he could age of twelve whose fathers had died in mil­ send her from his pay. Such a woman itary service while the family resided in Wis­ might find work as a seamstress, as a laun­ consin. Application for admission was to be dress or a domestic servant, but how could made on behalf of each child by the town she support a family on the wages such jobs chairmen throughout the state, and an paid—even adding to those wages the small average of not more than twenty children government pension she received? per year—apportioned by the governor to The tragedy of these widows and or­ the congressional districts—were to be phans was felt by the community at large, admitted." and particularly by the veterans who had Before this version of #223A was passed survived the horrors of the war. A sense of and sent on to the Senate, S. A. Pease, a obligation to those comrades-in-arms who Democrat from Marquette County, had sacrificed their lives for the Union pro­ attempted to amend it by directing that the vided a strong impetus toward the estab­ provisions "apply to the Town of Montello lishment of some means of caring for their in Marquette Co." The amendment lost,'** orphaned children. but the progress of the bill through the As the state capital, Madison was the cen­ Assembly indicates that, at the time, legis­ ter for much of the political activity of the lative support for the soldiers' orphans was state, and there the voices of the veterans lukewarm at best. When #223A arrived at were listened to with great sympathy. The the Senate on the final day of the legislative veterans' vote was avidly courted by the session, it was indefinitely postponed.'^ Union party (the name adopted by the The estimated number of soldiers' or- Republican party during the war years to encourage Democratic crossover votes). Lucius Fairchild, former colonel of the Sec­ '"Bill #223A in Secretary of State, Elections and Records, ond Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, who Wisconsin State Archives, State Historical Society of Wis­ consin, '"AssemblyJoumat (1865), 473-474, 823, The committee was comprised of Messrs, Hadley; Ross; Allen Taylor, Union­ ist from Grant County; W.J, Abrams, Democrat from Brown County; and Edwin Slade, Unionist from Sheboygan, '^Wisconsin Senate Journal (1865), 803; hereinafter, Senate "Bill #223A, Journal "< Assembly Journal (1865), 878, -"Wisconsin State Journal, January 11, 1866,

86 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME

sented with a fait accompli—an operating institution for which the state had little choice but to accept responsibilit)'. Harvey Hospital had closed in the sum­ mer of 1865. Located in an octagon house situated on an entire city block overlooking Third Lake (Lake Monona) at the foot of Brearly Street, this building, erected in 1854 by former Governor Leonard J. Far- well, had been converted into hospital facil­ ities with the addition of two wings and sev­ eral outbuildings. What better place to succor the needy children of Wisconsin's deceased soldiers! Mrs. Harvey wasted no time in securing the assistance of promi­ nent political and financial leaders in car­ rying out her idea. Thus, a plan was conceived under which she "got from Marshall and Ilsley in Mil­ waukee [the proprietors of the former Far- well property] 22 a proposition to sell that property for $10,000, provided the General Government would donate the buildings and improvements. "2'' Mrs. Harvey herself, with the assistance of N. B. Van Slyke, a Madison businessman and politician, secured the government's agreement to the plan.^'' The necessary refurbishing and fitting up was to be carried out with private contributions, and the property was to be "donated to the State; in which the title WHi{X3)1128,5 should be vested all with a view to its per­ manent establishment under the auspices Governor and General Lucius Fairchild, shortly after his of the State, to be classed with its other arm was amputated. benevolent and charitable institutions. "2"'

had lost an arm at Gettysburg, was active on the political scene as secretary of state and was to run for governor on the Union -'Sam Ross, The Empty Sleeve: A Biography of Lucius Fairchild ticket in the fall of 1865. Known as the Sol­ (Madison, 1964), passim, diers' Friend, Fairchild had fervently sup­ '^^On December 6, 1856, Leonard J, Farwell and his wife ported the veterans' cause during the last had mortgaged the property (Block 152) to Samuel Mar­ shall for $10,000 (Dane Co, Mortgages, bk, 18, p, 264), On years of the war and would continue that April 9, 1860, Farwell and his wife quitclaimed Block 152 support long after the war ended.2' He and to Samuel Marshall, G, Alder Ellis, and Charles F, Ilsley many of his political friends were to assist (Dane Co, Deed.s, bk, 50, p, 360), Mrs. Harvey in her efforts to ease the plight -^Wisconsin State Journal, Jannavy 11, 1866, -•*£, B, Quiner, Military History of Wisconsin (Chicago, of the destitute soldiers' orphans—efforts 1866), 11-12; Wisconsin Necrology, \o\. 6, p, 6, which resulted in the state's being pre- ''^Wisconsin State Journal, January 11, 1866,

87 A drawing of the Harvey Hospital, about 1865.

The subscription list of donors to the vey Hospital for an "Asylum for orphan projected home also makes clear that the children of deceased soldiers. ... "2" The State of Wisconsin was expected to assume meeting was held the next day with Mayor responsibility for the institution. The sub­ Elisha W. Keyes in the chair and D. K. Ten- scriptions were described as being for "the ney as secretary. General Fairchild purpose of establishing a home for the appeared before the group to explain the Orphans of Soldiers from Wisconsin . . . great need that existed among many of the with the design of placing such establish­ Wisconsin soldiers' orphans under the age ment under the full care and management of fifteen who were dependent upon char­ of the State. . . . '"^s ity for their maintenance and education. A committee of nine, including members of the common council and prominent citi­ zens of Madison, was appointed to oversee ,N September 15, 1865, the fund-raising for the establishment of an o Madison common council orphans' home. The committee selections adopted a resolution calling for a meeting included N. B. Van Slyke, president of the of citizens to consider the purchase of Har­ First National Bank; H. Klauber, a mer-

•-"List of Subscribers contributing to the Home's Estab­ lishment, 1865, presented by James Bintliff 1894, in the Wisconsin State Archives; hereinafter, SL, -''Wisconsin State Journal, September 15, 1865, HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME chant; Simeon Mills, another business pure and disinterested benevolence." The leader; Michael Friend, a merchant tailor; names of these donors were printed in the B. F. Hopkins, who was associated with hope that they would set an example for both the Madison Gas Co. and the Madison Wisconsin citizens. Prominent on the list Mutual Insurance Co.; D. K. Tenney, a law­ were Chicago businesses: Field, Palmer and yer and former alderman; Kyron Tierney, Leiter, and Carson and Pirie. alderman for the Second Ward; L. C. Ing- On November 24, the State Journal man, alderman for the Third Ward; and J. reported that the executive committee of K. Proudfit, businessman and politician.^^^ the Home was asking that a special effort B. F. Hopkins and Elisha W. Keyes were be made by Wisconsin churches to ask on members of what was known as the Madi­ Thanksgiving Day for gifts for the Soldiers' son Regency, which controlled Republican Orphans' Home. On the subscription list political patronage in the state.^^ It cannot were churches in Oakfield, Green Bay, and have harmed Mrs. Harvey's cause to have Neenah, as well as those in Ft. Atkinson and had these gentlemen, along with General Koshkonong, and Methodist and Baptist Fairchild, on her side. churches (probably of Madison).*** On September 27, the Wisconsin State Scrutiny of the entire subscription list Journal reported the organization of a tem­ and of the total amount of money raised porary board of trustees for the Home. indicates that the goals of statewide partic­ Members included, as president. His Excel­ ipation and a $30,000 total were overly opti­ lency, James T. Lewis, Governor of the mistic. A total of $12,834.69 was raised, State; vice-president, David Atwood, editor according to Samuel Marshall, treasurer of of the State Journal; secretary, Dennison the fund."" The subscribers included many Worthington, secretary of the Madison more residents from Madison than from Mutual Insurance Co.; treasurer, Samuel other parts of the state, and many more Marshall, associated with both the State prominent than ordinary citizens. S. Bank in Madison and with Marshall and Klauber, a clothing firm; the First National Ilsley in Milwaukee; and, as general super­ Bank; the State Bank (of which Samuel intendent, Mrs. Harvey. The institution was Marshall was president); Marcus Kohner, being organized even as fund-raising pro­ of Kohner Bros., a drygoods establishment; ceeded. Samuel D. Hastings, a lawyer and partner On the same day, the State Journal of Elisha Keyes; George W. MacDougall, reported that "good progress" was being Dane County sheriff; and Alex Findley Co., made in the drive for funds for the Home. a drugs and medicine firm—-all were con­ Some $5,000 had already been raised, and tributors from Madison. A small number of it was hoped that, if general interest donors represented other communities in throughout the state could be aroused, the the state, among them Alexander Mitchell job of raising the $30,000 deemed neces­ and Marshall and Ilsley of Milwaukee, Cad- sary for the project could be easily accom­ wallader C. Washburn of La Crosse, Z. G. plished. On October 18, the paper re­ Simmons of Kenosha, and J. I. Case of ported that Mrs. Harvey was having Racine. Although most donations ranged "excellent success" in raising funds. She had recently returned from Chicago where "a few friends [had] volunteered subscrip­ '"SL, passim, ''Annual Report of the Trustees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home tions" in what was described as an "act of of Wisconsin fortheFiscalYearEndingSept. 30, 1866, 346; here­ inafter, TR and year, (Included in bound volume contain­ ing Annual Reports of the Trustees and the Superinten­ dents for the years 1866-1880; Trustees Report, 1894; '"Ibid., September 16, 1865, Rules, Regulations and By-laws, 1866 and 1867; Physicians '^Ross, Empty Sleeve, 64, Reports; Treasurers Reports and Miscellaneous,) WISCONSIN MAG.A.ZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 from $50 to $500, there were also a few mended the acceptance of] the proposi­ small contributors: the town of Otsego in tion of the Executive Committee [that the Columbia County gave $11.50, and a "little Soldiers' Orphans' Home] be adopted by boy," fifty cents. In general, however, it was the State as one of its benevolent institu­ business and political interests in Madison tions.'""' On January 22, 1866, Benjamin F. which gave the strongest support to the Hopkins, Unionist assemblyman from idea of the soldiers' orphans' home. Madison, presented bill #45A, "to provide The work of refurbishing and refitting for the Orphans of Wisconsin Soldiers."" the former hospital proceeded apace with In mid-March, when #45A was reported for the fund raising. The necessary repairs consideration to the Assembly as a whole, included replastering, painting, and eighty-four children had already been reflooring. The building was lighted by gas admitted to the Home and were being and heated by wood stoves.''^ Water was cared for under the superintendency of piped from zinc-lined tanks on the third Mrs. Harvey.** floor, "to which it was forced by a machine That the plan, as conceived by its origi­ in the basement."'^' nators and supported by Governor Fair- By the time the Home opened, Samuel child, did not receive wholehearted Marshall had paid out $21,106.67 for approval throughout the state is evidenced expenses incurred. Of that amount, by the legislative deliberations on bill #45A, $8,271.98 was his own money. The trustees, and by an editorial which appeared in the in their annual report for 1866, were to Milwaukee Sentinel at the time the appropri­ urge the state to reimburse Marshall as ation for the Home was being considered. "the State has had the advantage of the On March 20, 1866, the Sentinel declared expenditure."** On April 11, 1867, the gov­ on page one that the expenditure of ernor signed the bill approving payment of $25,000 "seems useless." The Orphans Marshall's claim.*'^ had, indeed, to be provided for, the paper On January 10, 1866, the State Journal said; but there were already three asylums announced that the Soldiers' Orphans' in Milwaukee where, with a minimum of Home was ready for occupancy. The board state assistance, the children could be and Mrs. Harvey had apparently been over­ taken care of at less than one-half the cost whelmed with requests for admittance, but in Madison. Further, a home solely for sol­ these were so diverse that town chairmen diers' orphans would be useless in just a few were being urged to help in the selection years and, the editorial concluded, "we process so that the neediest children were cannot afford, in these days of high prices sure to receive consideration. and taxes, to throw away our money under false notions of charity." WTien #45A was argued in the legisla­ ture, questions were raised about the state's UCIUS FAIRCHILD had been being able to secure a clear title to the uelecte d governor in Novem­ property, and representatives from St. ber, 1865. In his message to the state in Rosa's and St. Ameliane's Orphan Asylums January, 1866, he "earnestly [recom­ in Milwaukee offered to care for and edu­ cate the soldiers' orphans for $50 each.*^

"-'By 1867, coal was substituted because of the high price ''"Wisconsin State Journal, January 11, 1866, of wood and its poor quality in the Madison area, TR '^Assemblyjoumal {1866), 100. ' (1867), 3, '"Annual Report of the .Superintendent of the Solrliers' Orphans' ^''Wisconsin State Journal, November 28, 1865, Home fortheFiscalYearEndingSept. 30, 1866, 349; hereinafter «TR (1866), 347. SR and year, ^'•Senate Journal {1867), 1053, '''Milwaukee Sentinel, March 20, 1866,

90 WTIi(D.'i)47

Samuel Marshall, who was active in financing the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, bought this house on Monroe Street in Madison from John W. Ashmead and later sold it to Governor Cadwallader C. 'Washburn for $15,000 in 1873. This picture by Andrew Dahl was taken about 1876; the house, now razed, once stood on the east end ofEdgewood College campus.

But the title question was dismissed as a and the Institution as a State Aims-House, smokescreen and the governor, the board with the sole object of supplying barely suf­ of trustees, and interested citizens appar­ ficient food and clothing to sustain life." ently wanted more for the orphaned chil­ Rather, the board maintained that the dren than a minimum level of custodial Home should be a place of learning where care. (In its 1867 report, the board of trus­ "the unfortunate children of Wisconsin's tees was to say, "We differ in opinion with patriot sons may receive such educational those who regard its inmates as paupers and moral training as will enable them to

9i ^ '/ /• ,.« i . it Jh. , *i J

WHi(X3),?1186

A draimng of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home from the Centennial Records of the Women of Wisconsin (1876).

care for themselves and become good citi­ ate concurred in the Assembly's vote, 26- zens.")* 3. Only Senators Satterlee Clark, an avowed Before #45Awas to pass, the Soldiers and Copperhead from Dodge County; Orson Sailors League of Madison presented a Reed, a Democrat from Waukesha County; petition in favor of a permanent home in and George Barnum, a Unionist from Win­ Madison. And Henry Harnden, a Unionist nebago County, voted in opposition.'''' representing Jefferson County and a for­ Bill #45A'*'' provided that the State pur­ mer officer in Wisconsin's First Volunteer chase block 152 in Madison (the former Cavalry, was to declare himself surprised at Farwell property), provided there was a the opposition to the bill. He would, he clear title to it and it could be purchased said, be "ashamed of his State, if one for $10,000.'"' The governor was to appoint county institution sent soldiers' orphans to seven members who would constitute a the poor house . . . [nor would he] give board of trustees which would have respon­ [the children] to the lowest bidder.'"" sibility for directing the affairs of the Ultimately, on March 19, 1866, #45Awas Home. Board members were not to receive passed in the Assembly by a vote of 79 to 2, compensation for other than necessary with nineteen representatives absent or not expenses. They had the authority to voting.''2 The dissenters were William appoint the superintendent and to estab­ Lynde, a Democrat from Milwaukee, and lish bylaws for the institution. The bill fur­ A. K. Osborn, a Unionist from lola in Wau­ ther specified that all children ages four to paca County. Lynde, a prominent attorney, fourteen, who had no means of support, applauded "Mrs. Harvey's zeal" but said he whose fathers had been residents of Wis- feared that the institution would ultimately fall into the hands of those interested only in making money."** On March 24, the Sen- «/W„ March 26, 1866, "•'Bill #45A became Chap, 39, Laws of Wisconsin, 1866, *On April 12, 1866, Samuel Marshall and his wife and •"TR (1867), 2, Charles F. Ilsley and his wife sold block 152 to the State of "Milwauliee Sentinel, March 20, 1866, Wisconsin for $10,000 (Dane County Deeds, Book 70, p, ''AssemblyJournal (1866), 670, 272),

92 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME

consin while in the military service and had tant qualifying criteria the military service died during the war or after the war from of the appointee and his moral qualifica­ causes resulting from it, were eligible to tions.^* Of the seven members who held apply for entry into the Home,''^ Prefer­ their first meeting on April 18, 1866, four ence was to be given to those who had no had served their state and country in the father or mother, and as near as was pos­ war. Appointed for three-year terms were sible, the entry spaces were to be appor­ Col. R. M. Strong, railroad promoter and tioned by the board of trustees to the num­ stock and grain farmer of Reedsburg who ber of soldiers' orphans actually residing in had lost a leg while serving with the Nine­ a given community. To ensure that these teenth Wisconsin Infantry; Gen. Henry admittance rules were followed, the bylaws Harnden, an assemblyman from Jefferson set up by the board in 1866 decreed that County who had been wounded several the superintendent should maintain a times during his service with the First Wis­ book which would be kept at the Home consin Cavalry; and Gen. Cadwallader C. and would be open to the public at all Washburn, a La Crosse businessman and times. In this, a complete history of each politician who had served as colonel of the child, including such details as father's Second Wisconsin Cavalry before being date and place of death and the child's promoted to general's rank. Two-year means of support were to be described."*** terms were filled by N. M. Littlejohn, a state Finally, the bill decreed that an executive senator, lawyer, and banker from White­ committee of three would be appointed by water; and by W. J. Abrams of Green Bay, a the board from among its own members. state assemblyman and business leader. This committee would be empowered to Benjamin F. Hopkins, the Madison politi­ draw on the funds provided for the insti­ cian who had sponsored the Soldiers' tution at the direction of the board. (The Orphans' Home bill, and Gen. Edward S. bylaws further specified that this commit­ Bragg of Fond du Lac, former colonel of tee examine all financial accounts and pass the Sixth Wisconsin Infantry and com­ on all admittances.)'*^ mander of the Iron Brigade, were appointed to one-year terms.^^ With one exception—Dennison Wor­ thington, a Madison businessman iN March 31, 1866, Governor appointed by Governor Washburn—all o Fairchild signed the bill subsequent appointments to the board establishing the Soldiers' Orphans' Home were former soldiers. Edward Coleman of as a state institution''", and soon thereafter Fond du Lac, superintendent of public he named a board of trustees. In making property for the state from 1866 to 1868, his selection the governor used as impor- had served as adjutant of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Infantry regiment and as lieu­ tenant-colonel of the Forty-Ninth; Col. W. J. Kershaw of Adams and Kilbourn City had ''^While this bill restricted admittance to children of been wounded at Petersburg while serving deceased Wisconsin soldiers, several children whose fathers had served from states other than Wisconsin were admitted with the Thirty-Seventh Infantry; Col. C. K. in 1866, presumably before the state took over the Home, Pier of Fond du Lac had also been ("Residents of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home," compiled wounded at Petersburg in service with the by Patricia and Reid Harrsch, 1991), In 1872 the law was changed to admit orphans of any deceased Union soldiers Thirty-Eighth Infantry; Dr. Andrew J. Ward (Chap, 149, Laws of Wisconsin, 1872), ^''Rules, Regulations and By-Laws, 1866, sec, 15; hereinafter RRB and year. The book has not been found. «RRB (1866), sec, 9, "Ross, Empty Sleeve, 105. '=•" Assembly Journal (1866), 990. '^Quiner, Military History, 15,

93 { lllllliii m4_ Tiiif 11 r'T'^rrli n II Mi lit miTIlITT^w^-r; .«i«|j^s*."^S!8Mp^*- l ||---r 11' 'r-t,i- ijjji

WHi(X3)34597

/I view taken from the Capitol about 1868 of South Pinckney Street with the Soldiers' Orphans' Home clearly visible in the upper right background.

of Madison, as former surgeon with the over its closing. It was they who submitted Second Wisconsin Infantry, had amputated the final report of the board in 1894. Lucius Fairchild's arm; Gen. James Bintliff After the state assumed responsibility for of Monroe had commanded the Thirty- the Home, Mrs. Harvey continued as super­ Eighth Infantry; Gen. Milton Montgomery intendent. When the board provided in the of Sparta had lost an arm while command­ bylaws for a financial agent who was to be ing the Twenty-Fifth Infantry; G. L. Park a former Union soldier,'''* Henry Harnden, was a Stevens Point poHtician and former a board member, was appointed to the captain of Co. G, Eighteenth Infantry; and post. This position, paying $800 a year, Col. William F. Vilas of Madison had seen called for the "general duties of steward," action during the Vicksburg campaign with meaning supervision of the buildings and the Twenty-Third Wisconsin Infantry.'** grounds as well as purchasing and record­ The board was gradually reduced in num­ keeping responsibilities.'"'' ber from seven to five to three. Gen. Bint­ In 1866, $25,000 was appropriated for liff, Col. Pier, and Col. Vilas supervised the expenses for the coming year.''" This Home during its final year and presided

"'RRB (1866), sec, 18, "HUd ''Annual Reports of the Trustees, 1867-1874, passim. '""SenateJournal (1866), 983.

94 4» iiiiiitm

'". ••••'Si' iJiifeS^g-'

tt-HJtXS) 18578

£, ii, Curliss' picture of the mid-1880's reveals the changes on the Capitol Square and in the neighborhood leading up to the former Orphans' Home.

amount was apparently insufficient, for on state; possibilities for reducing present February 13, 1867, the Assembly approved costs; and an accounting of the Home's an additional $10,000, but tied its approval expenditures before it was taken over by the to a resolution calling for a select commit­ state. So that it did not appear that the tee to investigate the past and present Home was the only focus of the commit­ expenditures of the Home.''^ The select tee's investigation, a study of the expenses committee was asked to look into various of the insane asylum was also called for."'*^ aspects of the Home's affairs: names, duties The select committee found that the and salaries of the Home's employees; cost Home employed twenty-six persons as of per child of running the Home; what a March 1, 1867, at a cost of $557.97 per proper cost might be in the opinion of month; that the cost per child was managers of similar institutions in the $108.95'"'-' (not including furniture, repairs.

'•^AssemblyJournal (1867), 279, 301, 347. The committee "^Ibid was comprised of George S, Graves, Republican from She­ ^'The figure in the text comes from the committee report boygan; H, C, Jewell, RepubHcan of Oshkosh; H, C, Hobart, as printed in Assembly Journal (1867), 1280, The Wisconsin a Milwaukee War Democrat; J, A, Watrous, Republican from Statejoumal, April 6, 1867, reported this figure as $168,75; Black River Falls; and Charles H. Miller, Democrat from its source was also the select committee report. The Mil West Bend, waukee Sentinel April 5, 1867, declared that the cost per

95 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992—1993

and insurance);"" and that estimates of cost Both Mrs. Harvey and Gen. Harnden from other institutions were irrelevant, resigned their posts in May, 1867."* That since they were not "designed to discharge year the bylaws were amended, and the the obligations and express the gratitude position of matron replaced that of finan­ of a great and free state towards those who cial agent."'* The matron's duties were to have offered up their lives in its defense." see to the "housekeeping" within the The committee, however, did include fig­ Home—and to make sure that the children ures from the Milwaukee asylums which were clean and well cared for at all estimated the cost of caring for the chil­ times"''—no small task in an institution with dren at between $59.75 and $89.30 per an average resident population of over 250. child. As to cutting present costs, the com­ For this the matron received $400 a year. mittee expressed its confidence in both The financial record-keeping and general Mrs. Harvey and Gen. Harnden, the fund supervisory tasks of the former financial agent, and declared that it could not rec­ agent were turned over to the superinten­ ommend any reduction in the Home's dent, whose salary was raised from $1,000 expenditures. Finally, the legislators to $1,200 annually."" reported that they were unable to present The 1866 bylaws called for hiring a prin­ a report on expenditures of the Home cipal and one assistant for the school which before the state took it over because ade­ was to be maintained by the Home. The quate records were not available.^' principal was to receive $450 and the assis­ In a report which appeared in the Senate tant $200 a year. By 1867, the bylaws spec­ Journal for 1867 (apparently as an attach­ ified four female teachers to be paid $25 a ment to the report of the Committee on month each. Benevolent and Charitable Institutions), As chief executive officer, the superin­ Henry Harnden insisted that, as purchas­ tendent had the responsibility for employ­ ing agent, he had tried to get the best qual­ ing and supervising the teachers and staff. ity in food and materials. He said that only The board, however, controlled the num­ by reducing that quality, as well as the num­ ber of employees."' In 1866, the staff was ber of teachers, could any savings be composed of twenty-six members."*^ By achieved. Furthermore, he regarded the 1868 there were four teachers, a night efforts of the Assembly, in its instructions watchman, an "engineer," a housekeeper, to the select committee, as an attempt to a cook, and three female tailors who were put the Home on a par with the other responsible for the children's clothing."^ orphan asylums in the state, and he The 1866 bylaws declared that the employ- asserted stoutly, "I for one do not en"vy the head or the heart of the man who can attempt the measure.""^ "'Mrs, Harvey retired to Clinton to live with her sister. In 1876 she married the Rev, Albert T, Chester and moved with him to Buffalo, New York, where she lived imtil his child in Madison was three times greater than for the chil­ death. She then returned to Wisconsin where she died Feb­ dren in the Milwaukee asylums. How the Sentinelarr'wed at ruary 27, 1895, at her sister's home in Clinton Junction its figures is not specified, (Milwaukee Sentinel, February 28, 1895); Dictionary of Wiscon­ ""Because the buildings were combustible, $25,000 worth sin Biography (Madison, 1960); Bauchle, "Shopiere of insurance was purchased from various companies at a Shrine," 34, General Harnden remained on the board of cost of $375. In 1869, the superintendent noted that abase­ trustees until 1873, ment furnace had been installed which allowed the removal "^RRB (1867), sec, 10, of all the stoves but one in the main building. This greatly "•'Ibid., sec, 19, decreased the risk since the basement was kept locked and ""Ibid, sec, 18, the children could no longer plav with the fires. SR (1869), "''Ibid. (1866), sec, 10 and 11, 15, ""AssemblyJournal (\8(>7), 1280. "''AssemblyJournal (1867), 1280-1281. ""SR (1868), 5-6,

96 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME ees could not leave the Home without per­ , LMOST from the beginning, mission. They were expected to "donate A^ther e were doubts about the their whole time and attention to advance suitability of the location of the Home. In the interests of the Home and promote the 1854 Leonard J. Farwell, who had served as general welfare of the inmates."™ What governor since 1852, had completed his seems to have been an almost yearly staff three-story sandstone octagon house on turnover, especially among the teachers, is Third Ridge, a drumlin along the north not to be wondered at! shore of Third Lake east of Madison's Cap­ When Mrs. Harvey resigned, she was itol Square. He was soon joined by other replaced by F. B. Brewer, a former teacher Yankee businessmen, including the retired in Hebron, Jefferson, and Whitewater. Mrs. sea captain William A. Briard, the inventor Brewer, a talented musician, was appointed and newspaperman S. D. "Pump" Carpen­ matron. Unfortunately, the couple found ter, and publisher John T. Martin. While it necessary to resign as of January 1, 1868, Farwell's home was situated on an entire when the stresses of the job brought about city block (one corner of which was trun­ a recurrence of Brewer's epilepsy. He later cated by the uneven lake shore), the homes became a well-known itinerant medical further along what became Spaight Street, practitioner in the state.'* The Brewers while stylish, were more modest in lot size were replaced by the Rev. Isaac N. Cundall, and design. Adjacent to Spaight Street, Wil­ a prominent Congregational minister and liamson and Jenifer streets provided small educator from Fond du Lac County, and homes and working space for craftsmen, his wife. The Cundalls resigned in February merchants, and laborers.'''* Even with its lak­ of 1869, to be succeeded by William Potter eside location, the Home was thus not in a Towers and his wife, who held their posts setting which allowed for expansion. for almost three years, until January of The original house contained almost 1872. When Mr. Towers died in 1874, the 9,000 square feet and included three floors Wisconsin State Journal commented upon his topped by a cupola. A circular staircase led "remarkable faculty for winning the affec­ to the upper floors. The imposing struc­ tion of children ... in this exceedingly dif­ ture was substantially built, and with the ficult and trying position."^^ R. W. Burton, addition of the two wings constructed by a schoolteacher from Monroe, and his wife, the Army, it had been well-suited to hos­ Emma, replaced the Towerses in March of pital use, with adequate grounds for con­ 1872. In their final report in 1894, the valescing soldiers to walk about.^'* Edwin B. board of trustees said of the Burtons: "In Quiner visited the site shortly after its open­ executing the views of the board of trustees ing as the Orphans' Home and described and in the exercise of the large discretion it thus: which must always be confided to the offi­ cers of this character affecting the .sanitary, The lower floor of the main building domestic, industrial, educational and is divided into a reception room—din­ moral interest of the institution, the admin­ ing room for the officers and atten­ istration of Mr. and Mrs. Burton was in our dants—store room for bed linen and other articles—a small kitchen with judgment, the most satisfactory and suc­ range, complete with closets, pantries cessful of any period in the history of the Home."^*

""The Third Lake Historic Disticl: A Walking Tour," ™RRB (1866), sec, 19, prepared by Sara Leuchter and Carole Zellie; edited by "SR (1868), 5; Mineral Point Democrat, May 21, 1908, Katherine Rankin (Madison, 1987), passim, ^'•Wisconsin Statejoumal, April 29, 1874, ''David V. Mollenhoff, Madison: A History of the Formative "TR (1894), 12, Years (Dubuque, 1982), 52,

97 <•"#!»?-,*'_- j-i.'jM'. ''mS^

Wlli(X,-))481,54

The Soldiers' Orphans' Home served as the height from which this picture of downtown Madison and the Capitol could be taken in 1868.

etc. A bath and wash room, with a Here the beds are arranged length­ sleeping room for the superintendent wise of the building in four rows. of the lower dormitory, completes the These rooms are well ventilated, light lower floor. The upper stories are and airy. On the south side of the occupied as rooms for the officers and main building is a wing seventy-five attendants, with a public parlor in the feet in length, and twenty-five in second story, and a recitation room width, the lower story of which is used and two rooms used for hospital pur­ as a dining room for the children of poses, and a sewing room in the third the 'Home,' and a large kitchen in story. . . . From the west side of the which is a range sufficient for cooking main building extends a wing two sto­ for a large number of persons. . . . ries in height, used as dormitories. The second story of this wing is occu-

98 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME

pied as a school room capable of seat­ enty-eight youngsters had lost both father ing one hundred and fifty pupils. An and mother.''" Judging by their surnames, office is also attached to this story.^" most of the children seem to have been of Described by Quiner at a time when only Yankee origin; i.e., their fathers and/or eighty-five children were in residence, the grandfathers were New Englanders or New building would certainly seem to have been Yorkers by birth. But German, Irish, and adequate, even suited, to the purpose for Scandinavian names (denoting the largest which it was to be used. But once the state immigrant groups in 1860's Wisconsin) assumed responsibility for the Home, the also appeared on the list. The majority of number of residents rapidly increased. In the children's fathers had served as privates 1867, the trustees reported an average pop­ or non-commissioned officers. Several had ulation of 280 children. By 1868, the been captains in command of companies, reported average had increased to 300.^^ and one had served as colonel of the Nine­ This was in excess of the Home's capacity, teenth Wisconsin Infantry.*^' especially since the new, separate school A quick survey of the residences of the building (for which the legislature had children (insofar as they can be deter­ approved $12,000)™ had not yet been com­ mined) shows that there were entrants pleted. The school building opened in from almost every county in the state. The December of that year, and by 1869 the greatest numbers came from Dane and superintendent estimated that the Home those counties adjacent to it: Columbia, could find room for thirty additional chil­ Sauk, Jefferson, Rock, and Green. South­ dren. The next year, however, saw a declin­ western Wisconsin also contributed a large ing number of residents, and both enroll­ number of residents, and the northeast, ment and new applications were expected central, and western areas all were repre­ to decrease in succeeding years. In the sented by anywhere from three to twenty meantime, there seems to have been a con­ children per county.*^^ stant scramble for efficient use of the avail­ The Milwaukee Sentinel charged in the able space inside the building. In 1870, for spring of 1867 that the Home's admittance example, the superintendent reported that practices favored Dane County. However, a new area for drying clothes was sorely admittance was regulated by law and needed since the old drying room had involved need and the percentage of sol­ been assigned to new purposes and the wet diers' orphans in any given community, so clothes racks were now placed in the favoritism towards local residents seems kitchen and around the dining room unlikely. A more probable explanation is stove.^^ Outside, the grounds surrounding transportation costs. Getting a child to the Home provided neither an adequate Madison from any distance may have cost play area nor sufficient space for training more than the mother could afford. programs of the kind provided in Pennsyl­ Indeed, in 1867 Henry Harnden reported vania. having to provide financial aid to a few mothers so they could return to their

'N 1872, of 262 resident children, ™Quiner, Military History, 12-13. 141 were boys and 121 were "TR (1868), 3, In 1894 the trustees report shows 287 as r the largest number at any one time, TR (1894), 7), girls. The largest age group was the ten-to- ™#13 in List of Appropriations in Laws of Wisconsin, 1868, fourteen-year-olds. One hundred eighty- '"SR (1870) (17, four children had mothers who were living ""Ibid. (1872), 15, "'"Residents of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home," compiled (fifty-eight of whom had remarried after by Patricia and Reid Harrsch (1991), their children entered the Home), and sev- "•Hind.

99 "•.^ *"^ . Wdr'.^^

Vmi(D485)6842

E. R. Curtiss took this picture of the Home, its children, and its staff about 1870. It was number nine in his stereoscopic slide series. The Beauties of the City of the Lakes,

homes after having left their children in the state. However, there were well-estab­ Madison.*'* The counties in southeastern lished orphan asylums in the Milwaukee Wisconsin (in what, in 1866, was the First Congressional District) did have fewer entrants than did those in other parts of 'SenateJournal (1867), 640,

100 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME area, and it seems possible that at least mary.*"' The four groupings meant that some of the needy youngsters in the First each teacher had responsibility for over District were taken care of by those insti­ sixty youngsters, depending upon the num­ tutions. bers and ages of the residents at any given In later years, most of the applicants time. (One wonders how the young women were children of school age. The mothers employed as teachers managed to cope tended to keep their younger children at with their charges day after day!) home until their need for education No records have been found which became apparent.*''* This was especially true detail the overall disciplinary practices at of families in more remote rural areas. The the Home, but they must of necessity have schooling offered by the Home was consid­ been very strict. Thus, Harry Dankoler, ered to be superior to what was available in who entered the institution in 1870, later those areas, and education was probably recalled how "laughing was thrashed out the most important advantage offered to of me [when I was] several times punished the residents of the Home. On April 9, for too much laughing in my classes."^" In 1867, the Wisconsin Assembly had passed the early and mid-nineteenth century, obe­ a bill to constitute the Soldiers' Orphans' dience and the discipline which would Home a school district. Bill #757Awas post­ guarantee it were thought to be essential to poned indefinitely in the Senate,**'' but the a child's upbringing. "Individual respect Assembly's action is evidence of the impor­ for authority [was] the cornerstone of an tance of the school in the minds of the orderly society . . . [therefore] the well- Home's supporters. ordered institution could not be too abso­ Under Mrs. Harvey's leadership. Miss lute in its discipline." Indeed, some of the Persis H. Torrey organized the school on asylums assumed an almost military stern­ April 2, 1866. By the middle of August, Miss ness.^' Keeping some sort of order among Torrey had three assistants to help with the a large number of children in the admit­ task of educating 244 children, the majority tedly restricted physical surroundings of of whom, the superintendent noted, "were the Soldiers' Orphans' Home must have entirely unaccustomed to study or disci­ provided a real challenge to the small staff. pline in school."®" But there is no sense, in the reports of the During that first year, the students were superintendent or trustees, of a "military" divided into six groups, apparently based atmosphere prevailing at the Home. upon age and/or reading skills.**^ By 1868, Indeed, by 1873 critics were complaining the division was among the high school, of too little disciplined^ intermediate, grammar, and primary Instruction in the school was given in schools, and four female teachers were geography, arithmetic, and grammar, as employed at $25 a month.*'*' However, when well as in reading and music. Textbooks it was discovered that there had been a ten­ included Sanders' readers and spellers, dency to over-estimate the children's abili­ Monteith's geographies, Robinson's arith­ ties, adjustments were made, and school metic, and Pineo's primary grammar.^* At groupings were changed to grammar, intermediate, and first and second pri- ""Harry Dankoler, Letter no. 14, Christmas, 1947, p. 12, in [Letters Distributed to Friends, Reminiscing about his life in Milwaukee, Door Co, and Florida, 1945-1955], micro­ ""SR (1870), 20. film. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, "'Assembly Journal {\8(i7), 1150, 1180, 1197, "'David J, Rothman, The Discovery of the Asylum: .Social Order ""SR (1866),.355, and Disorder in the New Republic (rev. ed,, Boston, 1990), 220- "Hbid 221, ""SR (1868), 22, o^Milwauliee .Sentinel, March 19, 1873, ""Ibid (1868), 22 and (1872), 40, "'SR (1866), 356.

101 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY "WTNTER, 1992—1993 the time the Home closed, its educational fined as they were to the one city block equipment included a globe and maps of available to the institution, they had little North America, the United States, South scope for running off the energy young America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the boys seem to harbor. Keeping them occu­ hemispheres, as well as two Webster's una­ pied continued to be a problem through­ bridged dictionaries, two pianos, and two out the Home's existence. In 1868, Super­ organs.-^^ In addition to the standard ped­ intendent Cundall recommended renting agogical fare, the youngsters also received land for raising vegetables as one way of daily lessons in health, manners, and good keeping the boys busy.*"" In 1870, the shoe- habits. Calisthenics, to the accompaniment making for the children was taken over by of music, were provided in the evenings."'' the Home, and some of the boys were able Music was especially encouraged. A second to help with this task.'"' In his old age, piano was provided so that the children Harry Dankoler remembered his chores: could play for relaxation in the evenings on "At [age] nine I milked several cows one instrument while the other was being daily,*"^ worked on the Home Farm in sum­ used for practice.^" mer, helped make lye for soft soap . . . The children arose in winter at 6 A.M. sawed once in two 40 sticks daily of 4 ft. and had breakfast at 7. The smaller chil­ hardwood poles, wrote a German letter to dren were in bed by 7 P.M. and the older my mother."*"* ones by 8. In summer the hours ran from There were also educational opportuni­ 5:30 A.M. to 7:30 and 8:30 P.M.^'' Obviously, ties outside the Home's schoolrooms. In not all those hours were spent in the class­ 1867, twelve boys attended class at the Busi­ room. WTiat did 250 active children aged ness College. "Gratuitously" taught by Pro­ four to fourteen years old do when they fessor Worthington, it met for two hours were not reciting geography or learning each morning.*"^ In 1870 the Legislature good manners? approved a bill appropriating $200 per stu­ Apparently the girls were not a problem, dent so that six residents of the Home (one as they were kept busy with the housekeep­ from each congressional district) could ing activities of the Home. They helped in attend WTiitewater Normal School for two the dining room and with dormitory years.*""' The young people were selected by chores, as well as in the ironing room and examination and in consultation with the with the sewing and knitting. In later years, state superintendent of public instruction. home economics courses were introduced Ultimately twenty students were to take and the girls were given the opportunity to advantage of this program, not only at cut and sew their own clothing. The aim Whitewater but also at the normal schools was to encourage them to be both "neater in Platteville and Oshkosh. Some, because in their appearance and more industrious of inadequate preparation, had to spend in their habits."'*' three years, rather than two, completing The boys were another matter. For them, their course of study; additional funds were chores around the Home were not so time- appropriated for this purpose.'"" Two of consuming. Organized into squads, they split wood, carried coal, and helped to tend the fires and keep the yard clean.*' Con- "SR (1867), 16 and (1868), 22. '"Tbid (1868), 22, ""Ibid. (1870), 19, '""Cows were purchased by the Home after difficulties ^"Ibid (1875), 12, arose over the milk contract, "'Ibid (1866), 356 and (1867), 15, '""Dankoler, Letter no, 22, Autumn, 1950, ""Ibid. (1870), 17, '""SR (1867), 14, "Hbid (1867), 15, '"•'Chap, 49, Laws of Wisconsin, 1870, ""Ibid (1867), 16; (1868), 22; (1872), 42; TR (1872), 6, '""Chap, 124, Laws of Wisconsin, 1871,

102 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME the girls were sent home because they main line in the city, and teaching the would not "submit to the discipline,"'"' youngsters the basics. In 1873, thirty-three but, overall, the trustees considered the boys were enrolled in the class. Unfortu­ program to be a success. In 1876 the trus­ nately, by the time they had completed the tees singled out Ferd B. Hawes as "bright course and were of an age to leave the and industrious—the best scholar sent [to Home, there was such upheaval in the rail the program] from the home."'"** Hawes industry that few got jobs in the field.**' went on to teach in the Eau Claire schools Also in 1872, over five acres of land were for ten years before returning to Madison leased to provide a small "farm"—really a as part owner and business manager of the large garden—which helped to harness the Northwestern Mail, a prohibition paper. He boys' spare time and energy. Their culti­ then moved to Olympia, Washington, vation of vegetable crops, including pota­ where he again taught school and served as toes, beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes, and superintendent before moving to Everett. cabbage, also provided food for the He was tragically killed in a railroad yard Home.**2 accident as he sought to help a woman with Although the superintendent was to her grocery bags. At the time of his death, declare in 1874 that the Home was "not a he was owner of a book and stationery store school for idlers,"*** there must have been in Everett and Prohibition candidate for some spare time when the children were Congress from his district.*"' not in the classroom or doing chores. How Also in 1870, President Grant offered was that time spent? placement in the Naval Academy at Annap­ Outdoor play was limited by the space olis to one resident of the Home. No stu­ available and its quality. In 1868 the super­ dent qualified that year, but in 1871 Men­ intendent complained about how hard the del P. Blakesley of Patch Grove in Grant lack of grass in the play area was on the County passed the necessary exams and childrens' clothes.**"* In 1873 there were entered the Academy for one year. When numerous complaints of petty thievery— he did not qualify for the second year, the mostly in nearby apple orchards—by the trustees felt constrained to point out that boys of the Home.**'* From these com­ out of a class of sixty-three, only twenty-one plaints, it appears that the youngsters must had passed the necessary exams to enable have roamed farther afield than the them to continue at the Academy.**" grounds of the institution. The lake must also have been an attrac­ tion for the children. Harry Dankoler recalled that shortly after his arrival in Mad­ 'N 1872 the trustees approved set­ ison, in February, 1870, he fell through the I ting up a telegraphy class for lake ice and nearly drowned.*'" In summer, those boys and girls with a special talent for did the children go swimming, fishing, or the work. C. E. Bross of Madison was hired boating? The inventory of properties to be to organize the program. His duties sold after the Home's closing Hsted "one included furnishing the machines, con­ boat, 18 feet long, sail, etc., 4 oars."**" necting the Home with Western Union's Patriotic activities were not neglected.

'"SR (1872), 36; TR (1872), 5; (1873), 5, '"'Report of James Bintliff concerning the pupils from ""SR (1872), 42 and (1873), 18, the Home at the Normal Institution at Whitewater '"Ibid (1874), 13. (included with the Annual Reports, 1872), "Hbid (1868), 21 '""TR(1876), '"Madison Democrat, .March 19, 1873, '""Augusta Times, November 6, 1908, ""Dankoler, Letter no, 22, Autumn, 1950, "°SR (1870), 15; (1871), 12; TR (1872), 4-5, '"SR (1875), 10,

103 'P

^, •^ J*W^ 1 —^ M «t Ij ' i n

WHi(X3) 19259

T/ie Park Hotel on the Capitol Square in Madison in the 1870's. Number five in E. R. Curtiss' series. The Beauties of the City of the Lakes,

On July 24, 1867, the Milwaukee Sentinel fathers who sleep in soldiers' graves." At reported that General William T. Sherman the memorial services at Soldiers' Rest in had visited the Home in the company of the cemetery, the children sang and Governor Fairchild, and supposedly the strewed the graves with flowers.**" Wiscon­ children were delighted by his visit. The sin's orphaned children were continually general told them, "... you have a right reminded of the sacrifice their fathers had to call upon me, upon the Governor, and made. upon every other loyal citizen, for the same Although several newspapers were protection and care your fathers would donated by their publishers, there seem to have given you had they lived, for they died have been few reading materials available for their country." On Memorial Day in at the Home, except for textbooks. In 1868, 1868, in the procession to the cemetery the superintendent urgently requested that which formed at the Home, the teachers books be given to the institution for the and children carried flags and a banner reading "The adopted children of Wiscon­ sin.—All honor to the memory of their ""Wisconsin State Journal, June 1, 1868,

104 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME enjoyment of the children. In 1869, the They were, however, to be allowed to trustees asked the legislature to appropri­ attend religious services wherever they, ate $300 a year for three years so a library their mothers, or their friends chose.''^" could be established, and on March 15, (Harry Dankoler remembered walking to 1870, a sum of $200 annually was so appro­ church each Sunday and stopping to visit priated. **'•* The superintendent selected the Old Abe the war eagle in the basement of books which were then covered, labeled, the Capitol, where the bird resided until numbered, and made available for use 1881, the living embodiment of the victo­ "under wholesome restrictions."**^" rious Union.) **^" In 1867 the superinten­ dent reported the gift of sixty-two Bibles and the establishment of a nonsectarian Sunday school conducted by William E. '^ISITORS apparently fre­ Smith, the state treasurer, who was assisted V quented the Home with some by a university student, Mr. Downs. In 1870 regularity. In 1868, the superintendent Smith was succeeded by Llewelyn Breese, urged that visits be short ones, since there Wisconsin's secretary of state.*^'' was no place to house out-of-towners Throughout the Home's existence, except in the dormitories, and this tended there was considerable concern about the to be disruptive.'^* Visitors on Sundays were moral training and character development also discouraged, not only because it was of the children. Because of the varied back­ felt that the children should learn to grounds which they brought to the insti­ respect the day as a day of rest, but also tution, and the restricted physical sur­ because Sunday was the only day when the roundings in which they lived, it is not members of the staff could themselves surprising that there were problems. It is rest.*^^ This practice was apparently not rig­ interesting to look at the superintendents' idly enforced. Indeed, Governor Fairchild evaluation of their charges as the years sometimes took the children on lake excur­ passed. (And it is important to note, of the sions and picnics on Sundays.*^* 683 residents of the Home from 1866 to On the first Monday of each month, 1874, that while many children stayed for those children who could were expected to only a year or two, others remained for write to their family and friends. The teach­ almost the entire eight years.) ers wrote for the younger ones.**^"* In 1868, In 1868, the Rev. Mr. Cundall found the the children were not allowed to go home children "very affectionate . . . tractable in since such visits interrupted their studies. management and orderly in their deport­ By 1869, however, the Milwaukee and St. ment." His emphasis, he felt, should focus Paul Railroad was providing passes so that on cleanliness: "Clean children behave the residents could visit their mothers once best. Filthy premises breed ill-nature."*^" a year.*-'' Since the average age of the children dur­ The 1866 bylaws had decreed that the ing his tenure was under nine, he had cer­ children were not to be subjected to any tainly set himself a formidable task. religious influence of a sectarian nature. In 1869 Superintendent Towers re­ ported that fie had been told, when he assumed his position, that there was very little disciphne in the Home. Although he '"TR (1869), 4; Chap. 75, Laws of Wisconsin, 1870, '""SR (1870), 19, '^'Ibid (1868), 25, '^'Ibid (1868), 22, '••"'Ross, Empty Sleeve, 105. "'"RRB (1866), sec. 13, '"SR (1868), 22, '••"Dankoler, Letter no, 6, February, 1946, '•'Hbid (1868), 22; (1869), 20, "'"SR (1867), 15 and (1870), 14,

105 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 discovered there was some truth in this, he a virulent skin rash, came down with had tried using kindness as a remedy. Some whooping cough and died of dysentery on of the childrens' backgrounds, he said, March 10 of that year.**'' were "not of the best," and he found sev­ There was apparently only one tragic eral youngsters to be incorrigible; perhaps accident at the institution. Five-year-old they would have been "better placed else­ Spencer Johnson fell from the third floor where."**" By 1870, he found the discipline balcony in 1867 and suffered two severely to be very good, and even though there broken arms and a spinal injury which par­ were a "few unruly spirits," the residents alyzed his legs. His arms healed well but he were "a robust and happy lot."*** In 1871, never recovered from his other injuries, he described discipline as being "perhaps and he died July 14, 1868.'*' better than could be expected" and the The early years seem to have seen the Home as "a bright, happy community of greatest health problems. In 1866 Dr. L. S. boys and girls . . . cheerful and contented, Ingham reported one death and 232 cases and in many ways winning our love and of disease, including measles, whooping eiffection." He concluded, "The general cough, and croup. In the 1867 physician's absence of viciousness among children not report, six deaths and 400 cases of disease selected with reference to their good habits were noted, with gastric fever, diarrhea, or morals may be taken as evidence that the and acute opthalmia (rampant throughout good influences with which it is sought to the state) predominating. Two deaths surround them are not entirely un­ occurred in 1868, and in 1869 Dr. John heeded."**^ By 1873 the board of trustees Favil reported good health and sanitary reported "marked improvement [in the] conditions and but one death. In 1870, the moral condition of the children" and superintendent attributed the low level of found the youngsters to be "more circum­ sickness to "good sanitary conditions, spect in behavior [showing] more self wholesome food and proper exercise." respect and character."*** Alhough there were twenty-seven cases of Just as the moral well-being of the chil­ scarlet fever between September 30, 1869, dren was important to the caretakers, so and April 15, 1870, the two deaths which was their physical health, and this seems to occurred during that period were due to have been an area marked by success. other causes. In 1872, Dr. A.J. Ward Among 683 children who resided in the reported five cases of cerebro-spinal men­ Home during its existence, there were only ingitis, none of which were fatal and only twelve deaths. Of these, several were due to one of which resulted in any impairment disease or frail health the children brought of the child's health. In 1873 there were with them.**'* Emma Buelow, who died of few cases of severe illness. The trustees consumption on February 12, 1870, was attributed the generally good health of the described as "an invalid when admitted [at children to "exceptionally good sanitary age eight] in January, 1867."**-^ William H. conditions and the skill of the physi­ Blanchard, admitted January 15, 1867, with cian."**** In that year a monument was erected in the Soldiers' Rest (now Union Rest) sec­ ''"Ibid (1868), 20-21, tion of Forest Hill Cemetery in Madison.**" ""Ibid (1869), 17-18, Dedicated to the children who had died "'Ibid (1870), 17. '"Ibid (1871) 13, 15, '"TR (1873), 6, '"Causes of death included consumption, comailsions, '""Physician's Report (1867), 32, hereinafter PR, dysentery, inflammation of the lungs, and inflammation of "Ubid (1867), 31; (1868), 38. the brain, SR (1866-1870), passim, ""Ibid (1866-1872); SR (1872), 40; TR (1873), 6, "'Ibid (1870), 13. ""SR (1873), 21,

106 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME

while residents of the Home, the 8*/2-foot- may be . . . [while] skilled labor is in high marble obelisk is inscribed with the demand and commands its own price." names of the eight young people who are Harnden clearly felt that training which buried in the plot with Union soldiers who "will make these children in love with the died at the Harvey Hospital or while in occupation of farmers and mechanics" was training at Camp Randall. what was called for. Finally, he asserted that the children really belonged at home with their mothers or other relatives where they 'HEN the annual report was could be well-cared-for and "taught occu­ w issued on September 30, pations and habits of industry" as well as 1872, the board of trustees consisted of five better morals. members, including Gen. James Bintliff, Accordingly, he proposed that the legis­ Col. C. K. Pier, Col. W. J. Kershaw, Dr. A. lature appropriate $50 per child annually J. Ward (resident physician at the Home), for all mothers having children in the and Gen. Henry Harnden, who served as Home. If the mother was unfit or unable president of the board and over whose sig­ to take on the task of caring for and edu­ nature the report appeared. Gen. Harnden cating her children, then relatives should also presented what was termed "a dissent­ be offered the opportunity; and if there ing view . . . not fully meeting with the were no family members able to assume approval of the majority . . . the full board responsibility, the children should be not being present."**" Claiming that the placed in suitable homes or put to trades location of the Home had not been well with a state agent to supervise their pro­ chosen for "a permanent institution," gress. Such a plan, Harnden asserted, Harnden expressed several reservations. would save the state half the cost of run­ The restricted physical surroundings of the ning the Home and would immeasurably Home were inculcating what he consid­ benefit the children.''** ered to be "habits of idleness" in the chil­ On December 20, 1872, the Madison dren; the Home should have had forty Daily Democrat published a provocative acres or more for the cultivation of crops front-page article headlined by such and the establishment of workshops so the phrases as "Orphans Half Clothed and Not residents could have learned "habits of Half Fed," "Tyranny, Corruption, Misman­ industry." The children, he continued, agement and Cruelty Rampant," and were leaving the Home with a little "book "Young Libby Prison" (the last an allusion learning [but] ignorant of the way to meet to the notorious Confederate pesthole). the stern duties of life." The education that The article launched an attack upon the was being provided was giving "wrong superintendent and matron of the Home views of life." The children were taught to for alleged abuse of the children, tyranny "aim at being professional men and over the Home's employees,*'*^ misuse of women—lawyers, doctors, clerks, school public funds for private entertainment, teachers, [but] the professions are and manipulation of the Home's milk con­ crowded . . . and generally yield but a slim tract. The story, repeated by newspapers support, and are quite often but another around the state, must have caused dismay name for beggary—genteel though they among the institution's supporters.

'^'Harnden, Dissenting Report, 8-10, "'The teachers were apparently especially unhappy. Sev­ '^"Henry Harnden's Dissenting Report (included with eral had complained directly to the governor; others had the Annual Reports, 1872, p. 8), resigned or had been dismissed.

107 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993

crated the management of the Home from most of the serious charges of neglect and abuse.*'*'' The children, the committee found, were in fact adequately clothed and fed. Many had entered the Home with almost no clothing of their own. The boys were supplied with "heavy western grays in winter, linsey or linen checks in summer." The girls wore "flannel checks in winter and Scotch ginghams in summer." All had "buff Balmoral shoes and warm Troy hose."**'" The Home's record of expendi­ tures for 1872 shows that beef, mutton, salt pork, potatoes, turnips, bread, milk, dried apples, and dried peaches were purchased in the largest quantities during the year. However, veal, ham, fresh and salt fish, cheese, cabbage, beets, currants, strawber­ ries, raspberries, and blackberries were also listed.''*'' While the smaller purchases of these items suggests that they appeared only very occasionally on the menu, the overall health of the children would seem WHi(X3)48158 to be evidence that the youngsters were, by Dr. Andrew J. Ward the standards of the time, well-fed. The committee did find that the superinten­ dent had, in one particular instance, been over-zealous in meting out punishment. In January of 1873, Governor Washburn But the legislators maintained that charges (himself a former member of the board of of widespread cruelty were not substanti­ trustees) asked, in his annual message, that ated by the hearings.***' the legislature appoint a special committee to investigate the charges against the man­ The story in the Democrat had referred to agers of the Home. Referring to the appar­ the fact that the former superintendent ent lack of harmony among the trustees had so poorly managed the Home that the and to the minority report, he said, "I am board had eventually asked for his resig­ myself opposed to the plan for breaking up nation. The committee found that much of the Home at present unless . . . there is no one capable of managing the institu­ tion."*** '"William H. Hiner, Republican of Fond du Lac, and The legislature moved quickly to create Samuel Burchard, Democrat of Beaver Dam, were chosen as members by the Senate, The Assembly named Charles the committee asked for by the governor. R, Gibbs, Republican of Walworth County; O. W, Thornton, On January 13, 1873, three Republicans Republican of Dane County; and Peter Doyle, Democrat of and two Democrats were named as mem­ Crawford County, to serve as its representatives, .SenateJour­ nal (1873), 16 and 27, bers.*'*'* When the Select Committee to "•'"Report of the Select Committee to , , . Fully Investi­ Investigate the Soldiers' Orphans' Home gate the Management of the Soldiers' Orphans Home," in issued its report two months later, it exon- Senate Journal (1873), 452-458, hereinafter, SCR. '•'"SR (1868), 21. '"Ibid (1872), 36-38, '«SCR, 453-454, '"SenateJournal (1873), Appendix 14, '""Ibid, 455-456,

108 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME the present difficulty stemmed from dissen­ sion on the board because of disagreement over that resignation.**" When the new superintendent, Robert W. Burton, took charge in March of 1872, he seems to have almost immediately antagonized not only some of the employees with whom he was going to have to work, but also at least one member of the board—namely its presi­ dent. Gen. Henry Harnden.*''" Difficulties seem to have arisen over the matter of the superintendent's authority. The board not only had the final say as to who was employed, but also had to approve any dismissals the superintendent might choose to make. The select committee rec­ ommended that the superintendent have authorit)' commensurate with his respon­ sibility, and that he be able to dismiss employees for cause.*''* The alleged manipulation of the milk contract was found to be the result of mis­ understanding and interference by a board WHi(X3)22197 member. Dr. A. J. W^ard, who was also res­ ident physician of the Home. ^ATien a dis­ General Henry Harnden, from a portrait by fames Reeve pute had arisen over the awarding of a con­ Stuan. tract for the milk supply, Dr. Ward had intervened and awarded the contract to the bidder of his choosing. The committee indicated that his action was a usurpation of the prerogatives of the superintendent. Indeed, the committee clearly felt that Dr. Ward should not have been employed at "•"Robert W, Burton, principal in Monroe before his the Home at all—that it was "highly appointment as Superintendent of the Home, was described in the History of Green County (Springfield, Illinois, improper" for "any board member or offi­ 1884): "In him, the Monroe Public Schools had a thorough cer or family member to receive recom­ disciplinarian, a gentleman of culture and a teacher of pense from the institution."*"'^ undoubted integrity. Bold, even to rashness, he ruled so that no rogue could ever say T beat the professor,' His Finally, echoing to some extent the pupils had great respect for him, because of his real man­ minority report of 1872, the committee liness and unflinching courage, his perseverance and found that "educated [the children] are courtly manner," and well versed in the knowledge acquired Colonel Henry Harnden had risen from private to colo­ nel of the First Wisconsin Volunteer Cavalry, Displaying from the study of books, but it follows as a courage and leadership during the war, he had been in necessity of their surroundings that they command of one of the units charged with capturing Jef­ are ignorant of the practical duties of life, ferson Davis at the war's end, A G,A,R, Memorial, quoted and ignorant of a knowledge of man." Fur­ in the History of Dane County (Chicago, 1906), indicated that troops called Harnden "Old Puritan," "the Fighting Cap­ ther, the children were judged to be tain," and "Old Honesty," The memorial further "totally ignorant of every description of described him as a "brave and self-sacrificing patriot and citizen whose high standard of patriotic and political duty , , , governed his life." '•"SCR, 458, ^-Ibid

109 WISCONSIN M.^CVZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 labor, incompetent to perform the most Harnden went on to express dismay that important domestic duties...." (This view what he termed "royal entertainments" by is difficult to reconcile with the superinten- the superintendent and his wife, of their dents' claims that the children were relatives, members of the board, and the involved daily in domestic tasks within the legislature, etc., were not condemned by Home.) Again, echoing the minority view, the committee, which found the superin­ the committee recommended that the chil­ tendent's practices to be not very different dren be returned to their families or from those of other state institutions. He placed in suitable homes.*5* felt strongly, too, that the committee The report concluded by acknowledging should have taken a more positive stand on that the members knew it would "disap­ the matter of the children's conduct and point many individuals who have pre­ morals. The previous summer had seen a judged the case by accepting rumor for lot of petty thievery and trespassing (espe­ fact. Our conclusions have been the result cially in nearby apple orchards), and com­ of patient investigation, conducted neither plaints by citizens had been more numer­ to establish a case that did not exist, nor to ous than in previous years. He said that one prevent disclosure of abuses that should be gentleman had described to him young corrected."*''* women, ages thirteen to fifteen, "ranging the woods with some young men, boating on the Catfish, spending long summer days away from the Home in idleness if not in ^N March 19, 1873, the Demo­ vice.*'''' How do the tax-payers like this pic­ o crat published a strongly ture? How do Christian people like it? How worded rejoinder from Gen. Harnden in do the mothers of the girls like it?" He did which he took exception not only to the not blame the superintendent in this par­ conclusions of the committee but also to ticular matter, Harnden said, but he felt the manner in which those conclusions that surely a system which "brings nearly were reached. Describing himself as "the grown young men and women together in only member of that minority on the board idleness" could he blamed. which was tacitly being blamed for the Finally, he declared himself pleased that Home's difficulties," he castigated the the suggestions which the committee had committee for ignoring the long list of wit­ made were similar to the suggestions he nesses provided to it "by those responsible himself had originally proposed in the for the charges against the Home." Main­ minority report. He expressed gratitude to taining that the committee hearings were the Democrat for having printed the charges held in secret and that only selected wit­ against the Home and, thus, having helped nesses had been called, he charged that the to remedy present abuses as well as prevent entire procedure had been "anything but future ones. fair and impartial." Harnden took partic­ On March 21 the Democrat printed yet ular exception to the moderate approach another letter, this one headlined of the committee to the charges of physical "Another View of the Matter." Signed by abuse. Surely, he said, the case of one of D. Worthington, who described himself as the boys being horsewhipped should not have been justified under any circum­ stances. '•''•'•General Harnden's exact wording is obscured by what appears to be a printing error in the newspaper. It shows ", . , boating on the Catfish" and (on the next line) "ness, if not in vice, " The quote here is taken from D, 'V^'orthing- '"Ibid., 457-458, ton's letter to the Democrat, published March 21, 1873, '''•'Ibid, 458, which apparently quotes Harnden's words fully. no .J-''

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iixi^Rjf^. w'-"'

ar.'..^jmihM^' WHi(X3)48163

TAe woods along Lake Monona in the 1870's. Photograph by f. F. Barks' Academy of Design, Janesville. having "an intimate knowledge of the of redress." Who, he asked, would protect Home from its foundation and a personal these children "if one of those charged acquaintance with most of the children," with their care became public accuser?" the writer said that he felt compelled to Stating flatly that he did not believe the speak out on behalf of the innocent young story, he asserted that everything he knew girls whom Harnden's letter may have of the Home, of the children, and of Gen. irreparably damaged. In speaking of the Harnden himself argued against its truth. girls from the Home having been permit­ Surely, if Harnden had known of such a ted to spend long summer days "in idle­ situation, he would have moved to put an ness if not in vice," Harnden had im­ end to it. pugned every girl at the Home over the age The following day, March 22, the paper of thirteen, Worthington said. While the announced that Gen. Harnden had been boys may have been mischievous or even nominated to the position of U.S. Collector thievish, society would give them a chance of Internal Revenue in Madison. He to reform; but girls "tainted by the breath resigned as a member of the board of trus­ of scandal may be lost forever to the hope tees of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, and

111 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992—1993

Dennison Worthington was named to returned to their mothers, guardians, or replace him. other family members, and five had been With Harnden's resignation, the entire placed in homes around the state. In the matter of abuse and mismanagement at the end, no child had had to seek refuge in a Home seems to have been dropped, at least private asylum.*'^" in the press. In 1873, the board's annual What happened to the children who had report praised the Burtons for their "vigi­ left the Home in the years before 1874? In lance, kindness and tact," and remarked 1866, Mrs. Harvey had reported that upon the generally improved administra­ twenty-five of the thirty-seven children who tion of the Home.*''" had left the Home that year had done so because their mothers were leaving the state; the women had remarried and wanted their children with them; or, hav­ UT the conflict had had its ing received pensions, they felt able to B impact, and the political cli­ assume the care of their young ones once mate had changed. Interest in veterans' again. Nine boys age twelve or older, and causes had gradually waned, and a Demo­ three younger ones, had run away.*"" crat, William R. Taylor, had been elected In 1867, the legislature amended the governor in November, 1873. On February original law establishing the Home in 28, 1874, the legislature passed a bill which order to make the board of trustees the would result in the Home's closing by the legal guardians of the residents. The board end of that year. Under the bill's provi­ could discharge any child fifteen years or sions, the board was instructed to find older who could support him or herself. homes within six months of the bill's pas­ But no child under age fifteen could be sage for all children who were age four­ released—not even to his or her mother— teen, or return such children to their without a certificate from the town chair­ homes or guardians. For those under age man where the mother lived showing she fourteen, the board was to determine the could support and educate her child.*"* suitability of the mother or guardian to be That year the trustees put out a call for responsible for the child's care, and to pay the citizens of W^isconsin to help in finding that person $5 a month until the child homes and employment for the fifteen- reached age fourteen, provided he or she year-olds who had to leave the Home. Most attended school for at least four months of seem to have returned to their families, but every year.*''' If the mother or guardian in 1869, the plea for help in settling such proved unsuitable, the board was to seek children was repeated.*"^ In 1870 the super­ other relatives or homes for the children. intendent reported that all of the children As a last resort, the children were to be who had left the Home had been provided admitted to the care of private orphan asy­ for by friends or family. He added that he lums for a payment of $6 per month.*''*' was often asked for boys and girls of "spe­ WTien the annual report was submitted cific conditions and ages." The Home, he on September 30, 1874, only thirty-five chil­ asserted, was agreeable to adoption only if dren remained as residents in the Home. the applicant and the child were well suited By the end of the year, thirt)' had been to each other; if he himself was satisfied with the applicant; and if the mother was

'56TR (1873), 6, ''"TR (1875), 3, "'"One-half the $5 monthly payment could be withheld '""SR (1866), 356. until proof of schooling was pro\ided, ""Chap, 168, Laws of Wisconsin, 1867, '•'"Chap. 72, Laws of Wisconsin, 1874. '"'•TR (1867), 3 and (1869), 4,

112 HARRSCH: THE SOLDIERS ORPHANS HOME

willing to give up the child—^which, he con­ mend them." Also, the mothers and chil­ ceded, most were not.*"* dren themselves were exhibiting a greater In 1872, the legislature provided that all reluctance to participate in the placement children "now or hereafter" residents in program—a reluctance which the super­ the Home would become wards of the intendent found not surprising. Appar­ state, and that the board would serve as ently, well-qualified families had forgotten legal guardians of only those children who their promises to educate and care for the had none. The board was also enabled to children as if they were their own as soon decide what might be the "best circum­ as the children were within their power. stances" for any child—even to placing Somewhat bitterly, the superintendent him or her in a private home under close remarked, "their deep sympathy (?) for supervision.*"* In 1873, all potential this class of unfortunates soon lies buried "adopters" were asked to submit refer­ beneath their own selfishness." Eight chil­ ences as follows: "The undersigned citi­ dren had been returned to the Home; two zens of do hereby certify that of these had gone to their mothers and they have known three had been placed with other fami­ for years . . . [he is] a person of lies.*"^ ample means to provide properly for and When the Home closed. Superintendent bring up any child . . . [he is] of such integ­ Burton was asked to assist the board in rity and uprightness of character as would supervising those children who had been justify the Trustees in entrusting to his care placed outside their family circles, and also the physical and moral well-being of a sol­ to help in administering both the pensions dier's orphan."*"'' paid to families with underage children That year the superintendent reported and the Ward and Smith bequest.*"** By that many families in the state had asked 1879, the mothers or guardians of 103 chil­ for older children who could help out on dren had received the $5 monthly pension the farm or in the kitchen. But few had payments. Eight youngsters had never wanted to assume the care and expense of applied for the money and six were still taking on younger boys and girls. And, in under the age of fourteen when payments spite of the care taken in placing the chil- were terminated that year.*"" The legisla­ dren, the Home's "trust had been ture apparently felt that enough had been betrayed" in two instances, and the child done for these six children, particularly had had to be returned to the Home or since several of them had received special provided for elsewhere. In three cases, consideration for entry into the Home.*^" either the child or the family had been so It was hoped, too, that the children's share dissatisfied with the placement that the of the Ward and Smith bequest would ulti­ child had been recalled until another fam­ mately fill the gap left by the pension cut- ily could be found.'"" ofL In 1874, difficulties "not heretofore The Ward and Smith Fund was "com­ encountered" were reported. The most posed of the share which Wisconsin attractive children had already found received of $100,000 left to Orphans of homes. This, the superintendent recorded delicately, left a "remnant possessing char­ acteristics not so well calculated to recom- '"Hbid (1874), 11. '""Burton submitted a report as superintendent until 1879, when he designated his account as the Secretary's '""SR (1870), 16, Report, '""Chap, 149, Laws of Wisconsin, 1872, '""Secretary's Report (1879), 8, '"•'SR (1873), 16-17. ""The mothers had died and the fathers were physically "^"Ibid (1873), 16-17, incapacitated, TR (1878), $-4).

113 UHu-\:r]:i0846

Looking southeast from the Capitol down what is now Martin Luther King Boulevard toward Lake Monona. 'Vilas House on Main Street is in the foreground, about 1868.

those who died in the War ... by Horatio dents of the Home, since they had been the Ward, an American banker in London, and neediest.'''* Caroline Smith's money was of $2,000 which was bequeathed to the Wis­ added to the $23,000*'* and, in 1875, it was consin Soldiers' Orphans' Home by Caro­ agreed by the Home's board that a pay­ line Smith of Chicago."*'' In 1871, $23,000 ment of $45 per child should be made plus interest, invested in U.S. 5.20 bonds, upon the date of the child's maturity—age Ohio and Mississippi Railroad bonds, and eighteen for girls and age twenty-one for Pittsburgh City bonds, was deposited with boys. A circular letter issued by the board the state treasurer''-—with the proviso that encouraged the children to apply for a cer- the Ward Fund would be distributed grad­ ually to those orphans who had been resi- "'A small amount was withdrawn from the fund in 1872 to purchase Christmas presents for the children, the teleg­ raphy equipment for the class, and to aid a few of the need­ "The certificates of the Ward and Smith Fund, iest residents, "'•TR (1871), 5, '"TR (187.3), 11.

114 WHi(X;i)2,5,'>37

Looking down Wisconsin Avenue from the Capitol toward Lake Mendota. The City Hall, on Mifflin Street, the Presbyterian church, and Picnic Point stand out in this picture by N. P. fones, about 1868. tificate which was negotiable when they dent Burton issued the certificates and attained the age of maturity.'^'' The initial approved them for payment by the state payments to those already of age were treasurer. made on March 1, 1875. For the younger In 1880, there was an estimated $800 sur­ ones, 5 per cent annual interest was paid plus in the Ward and Smith fund which the from March 1, 1875, to age of maturity.*^" trustees thought to dispose of by paying the By 1877, when only 520 children had mothers of those orphans who had died, or applied, an additional $10 certificate was by including "those boys who ran away and issued to those 520—payable as of July 1, who thus far have been ignored."*™ Ulti­ or upon the maturity of the owner and mately, certificates were issued to 579 chil­ again at 5 per cent interest.*'" Superinten- dren, and all but twelve of each series were cashed in. At the time of the final report in

"•'SR (1875), 7, ""The certificates of the Ward and Smith Fund, "TR (1877), 6, '"•"Ibid (1880), 3,

115 WHi(X3)30110

Looking northwest from the Capitol in 1868. The City Hall, Picnic Point, and the Holy Redeemer Catholic church stand out.

1894, the board requested that the more them in trust for the child.**** In 1873, the than $1,200 left in the fund be turned over secretaiy of the board was given responsi­ to the state's general fund because of the bility for making sure that all the children state's support of the Home.*^" who were eligible to receive pensions had actually applied for them, and that all pen­ sions not needed by the mother were being properly held for the child's future use. OW much did the state sup­ Some guardians were removed from their H'por t amount to? In 1894, the positions when it was discovered that they board outlined a total expenditure of had put the child's benefits to their own $355,000.**^" It is interesting that those chil­ use.****^ dren who received pensions from the fed­ The $355,000 appropriated by the state eral government were not expected to con­ included $10,000 for the initial purchase of tribute any amount to their own care. the property, $12,000 for the school build­ Rather, in 1867, the legislature had author­ ing, and $8,500 for repairs and rebuilding ized the trustees to receive any military of the engine house, which had been pension, bounty, or back pay due to any destroyed by fire in 1869. After expendi­ child, to invest such sums, and to hold tures of $25,000 in 1866, $40,000 was

'""/fad, (1894), 24, ""Chap, 168, Laws of Wisconsin, 1867, '""THd (1894), 21-22, "*TR (1873), 4,

116 WHi(X,'i).'!0105

Looking up North Hamilton Street toward Lake Mendota and Maple Bluff, about 1868. Photograph by N. P. fones.

appropriated for the Home in each suc­ In the early years, in addition to the ceeding year (and $45,000 in 1869) until expenses of initially clothing the children 1872,**** apparently without much opposi­ and paying for medical care for the child­ tion in the legislature after 1867.**** In 1872 hood ailments which occurred,'**^ there a gradually diminishing number of resi­ seemed to be a constant need for repairs dents resulted in gradually smaller requests and improvements to the property. The 59' for funds. by 62' two-story school building, built in 1868 of cut stone over a basement, was designed to accommodate 300 children.***" '"'Ibid (1894), 21-22, In the main building, rooms were '"''Both in 1866, when thirteen of those who had voted for establishing the Home voted against the appropriation remodeled when the school room was for it, and in 1867, there was vocal opposition to the fund­ vacated and the sewing rooms were re­ ing bills. In the latter year, in addition to the investigative organized. A new fence was installed "to select committee's appointment which accompanied the keep out interlopers."***' The fire which initial $10,000 appropriation, the later bill requesting $30,000 for the Home evoked considerable dfscussion as destroyed the engine house in 1869 well as a move to reduce the amount to $12,500. The move resulted in new wash and bathing facilities lost but, in the course of the debate, Henry G, Webb, for the boys as well as a new laundry room. Unionist from Wautoma, charged that the establishment of Even the superintendent's apartment the Home had been a "political measure" (Wisconsin State Journal, April 4, 1867), Webb and Senator Satterlee Clark had issued a minority report to that of the Committee on Benevolent and Charitable Institutions in which they '"TR (1866), 347, argued for the closing of the Home and sending the resi­ '"'''Wiscomin State Journal, May 26, 1868, dents to the Milwaukee asylums. Senate Journal (1867), 701. '"'SR (1869), 15-16,

117 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992—1993 received new wallpaper and paint. In 1870 call upon its resources, and thus sought to the old wash house became an office for provide with as many advantages as possi­ the superintendent, a shoemaker's shop, ble? In 1877, and again in 1880, Superin­ and a sleeping room for the kitchen and tendent Burton, who had circulated ques­ laundry help.***** The cost per child that year tionnaires among those who had applied was $145.55. In 1871 the main building had for Ward and Smith certificates, asserted to be reshingled, and a new wood furnace that the large majorit)' of the former resi­ for the school building was installed.**" As dents had become "useful industrious cit­ late as 1873, all of the wood on the outside izens." Many of the girls had married, most of the buildings was painted and the dor­ to tradesmen. Others, "following tastes mitory floors and inside woodwork were acquired in school," had gone on to fur­ touched up as needed.*"" Apparently, a ther their education and had become fairly well-maintained property was turned teachers. A few had become domestics or over to the regents of the University of Wis­ clerks and were supporting themselves. consin in 1875 when the Home was closed. Most of the younger girls were living in The university had intended to use the "comfortable homes." Some of the older buildings for a medical school, but upon boys had already completed apprentice­ determining their unsuitability for this pur­ ships in various fields and had established pose, the regents sold the property in 1876 businesses of their own.*"'- While most were to the Norwegian Synod of the Lutheran farmers, a few had become clerks or trades­ Church. For the next ten years, two insti­ men, or even teachers. Four young men tutions occupied the site: a theological were homesteading in the far West. Few of seminary and a private high school, the the boys had yet married.*"* Monona Academy. In 1889, the Martin At least two of the residents of the Home Luther Orphanage was established in the achieved sufficient fame to be listed in the buildings, but after a fire in 1893 the Dictionary of Wisconsin Biography. Frank L. orphanage was moved to Stoughton. Devel­ Gilbert graduated from the University of opers bought the property in 1894 and Wisconsin Law School and served as state razed the buildings in 1895. In 1908, the attorney general, 1907-1911. Harry Dan­ land was divided into lots for smaller koler (Damkoehler), whose recollections homes. The developers named one of the of life in the Home are quoted above, new streets Harvey Terrace in memory of became a newspaperman and author and Cordelia Harvey. That street name and a was one of the founders of the Door small red marble stone set in the terrace of County Historical Museum. Other resi­ the Spaight-Brearly Street corner are the dents appear in the Wisconsin Necrology only tangible reminders of the history of maintained at the state historical society the block.'"* and in the biographical sections of various county histories. Norris W. Adair, for exam­ ple, became a promising lawyer in Evans- ville only to have his career cut short by LTIMATELY, what became of death from overwork in 1881.*"* William H. U the children whom the State Langdon returned to the family farm in of Wisconsin regarded as having a special Crawford County where he continued to

'"Hbid (1877), 8, '""Ibid (1870), 18-19, '"'Secretary's Report (1880), 6-7, included with the Trus­ '""Ibid (1871), 13, tees Report (1880), '"TR (1873), 5, '"•'Portrait and Biographical .Album of Rock Co., Wisconsin '"'Mollenhoff, Madison, 151, (Chicago, 1889), 747-748,

118 WH)(X3)48162

Harry A", Dankoler and Mrs. Frank Long, his sister, posing in front of the family log cabin near Sturgeon Bay in 1888. Harry, who entered the Soldiers' Orphans' Home in 1870, was bom in this cabin on March 30, 1863. work the land when his mother moved to yet another that he had "paid it toward my Nebraska.*"'* William H. Smith established claim." Others replied: "gave it to my himself as a manufacturer of wagons and mother to help pay for our home, bought carriages in Waukesha County.*"" Hugo L. clothes for myself and family, payment on Mumm, who pursued various jobs during a farm, bought furniture, paid off a farm his life, devoted much of his time to the mortgage, bought a tombstone for brother study and promotior"! of the Native Ameri­ Willie, bought books, bought music les­ can. He lectured on Wisconsin Indian sons, bought carpenter tools, gave it to my crafts and culture, and in 1939, in connec­ needy grandmother," and so on.*"** In tion with Wausau's centennial, he estab­ 1877, Burton reported that when the lished an Indian village at Rothschild Park young people had received the second under the auspices of the Wausau Civic Ward and Smith certificates, they had Association.'"' been "lavish [in their] thanks and praise When asked by Superintendent Burton of the State and its agents—a thing so rare how they had used their Ward and Smith with the children in years past." Such bequests, the young "graduates" of the expressions of gratitude, the former Home responded with an interesting vari­ superintendent said, "seem to compen­ ety of answers. One said he had "lent it at sate for the care and apparently thankless 7%," another that he had bought a horse. task of years. . . ."'"" How did the children feel about the Home? Coming to Madison must have '"^History of Crawford and Richland Counties, Wisconsin (Springfield, Illinois, 1884), 617, '""History of Waukesha County, Wisconsin (Chicago, 1880), 957, '"Secretary's Report {\i '"''Wiscon.sin Necrology, vol, 43, p, 168, '"SR (1877), 8.

119 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 been traumatic for most of them. To have Soldiers' Orphans' Home? Was "this noble lost their fathers in the war, to have sensed monument of the patriotism and generos­ their mothers' grief and desperation, to ity of Wisconsin's people"-"* a needless have been sent away from their homes and institution, as the Milwaukee Sentinel had friends and plunged into a very large group claimed in 1866? Or did it contribute in a of strangers, and then to have found them­ positive manner to children who might selves confined daily to a schoolroom to have faced far more unpleasant alterna­ which they were not accustomed—it must tives? have been an almost overwhelming expe­ Mrs. Harvey and her supporters had rience. The children must also have felt hoped to give some of Wisconsin's neediest some confusion as to their place in the children a helping hand during a difficult world. As soldiers' orphans, they were "dif­ period in their lives and to provide them ferent" from other children: objects of pity with a background of education which on the one hand ("Fatherless but not for­ would enhance their futures. From what lit­ saken" was emblazoned on one school­ tle we know about the residents, it seems room wall), objects of an ever-mindful safe to assume that, aided by their years in benevolence on the other ("We will love the Home, many of the soldiers' orphans and honor the state which has adopted us" became industrious, energetic, and mind­ was on another wall).'^"" Harry Dankoler, ful citizens of Wisconsin and the nation. beyond the few comments already quoted, Whatever its shortcomings as an instru­ said very little else about his experience. ment of charity or a place of learning, the But his years in the Home do not seem to Wisconsin Soldiers' Orphans' Home was have been remembered with affection. It is probably more successful than its detrac­ worth noting that while the supporters and tors were willing to admit. staff spoke of the "residents" of the insti­ tution, Dankoler spoke of himself as an "inmate." '-'""Mollenhoff, Madison, 151, What judgment then can be made of the ""'TR (1865), 5,

120 From Where Come the Badgers?

By KarelD. Bicha

NTIL its discontinuance in the the facility, or the disposition to erect con­ U' late 1980's, a familiar scene ventional frontier dwellings, created tem­ had for decades unfolded in the environs porary living quarters by constructing dug­ of the University of Wisconsin's Camp outs in the sides of hills or ravines. Some Randall on days known locally as "football anonymous person (or persons) likened Saturdays." At the conclusion of their pre- their behavior to that of the North Ameri­ game warm-up drills, the members of the can badger (Taxidea taxus), a quadruped Wisconsin squad departed the field for a known to possess remarkable burrowing locker room in the bowels of the stadium capabilities. This nickname, which may to receive technical instructions and a final have had single or multiple origins, some­ dose of psychological stimulation. Subse­ how stuck, quickly diffused, and within two quently the team left the locker area and decades of its origin had become synony­ massed in a tunnel which exited onto the mous with residents of Wisconsin, irrespec­ playing field. As the players then swarmed tive of occupation or locale. onto the gridiron, a voice on the public This, at least, is the conventional wisdom address system exulted, "Here come the on the subject. Illustrating its veracity, how­ Badgers!" This procedure was nearly as ever, leads the investigator along an eviden­ integral to the autumnal rituals in Camp tiary pipeline which is ludicrously tenuous. Randall as the emotional rendition of Var­ The conventional wisdom regarding the sity during the halftime ceremonies. origin of the term "badger" and its asso­ It is legitimate to inquire, however, who ciation with Wisconsin derives largely from were the original "badgers" and from "tradition" rather than verifiable "his- where did the namesakes of the Wisconsin tor)'." With a few notable exceptions, his­ athletes ultimately come? Virtually everybody torical traditions encapsulate a sizable ker­ conversant with Wisconsin history or folk­ nel of truth. In the course of their lore knows the answers to these queries. To perpetuation, however, traditions normally wit: In the early days in southwestern Wis­ acquire barnacle-like embellishments consin, then a part of the Territory of Mich­ which modify but do not obliterate the igan, the predominant element in the pop­ original truth. Such was surely the case in ulation consisted of prospectors for and the origin and development of "badger" miners of lead ore. Some of the early min­ as a descriptive term for a resident of Wis­ ers, who lacked the means, the material. consin.

Copyright © 1993 Ijy The State Historical Society of Wisconsin 121 Alt rights of reftroduction in any form reserved. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993

The crucial element in establishing the was abandoned. But in many badger tradition in fixed form was instances the "prospect" proved to be undoubtedly an editorial in the Wisconsin a "lead", and the "badger-hole" was State Journal oi December 10, 1879. Both occupied as a residence for a long the editor of the paper, the New-Hamp­ time, and often replaced by a com­ fortable house, and was sometimes shire born Da'vid Atwood, and his associate the nucleus of a hamlet or village. editor, the young Reuben Gold Thwaites, The term "Badger"—according to possessed an abiding interest in Wiscon­ tradition—was first applied to the sin's past. Either (or both) of these men occupants of those temporary subter­ bore responsibility for the State Journal ranean residences in derision;—as the material which dealt with the Great Seals of term "Sucker" was applied to the Wisconsin and the origin of the term migratory inhabitants of Southern Illi­ "badger." As an authority on the latter nois, who, like the fish of the carp fam­ matter, the editors solicited and incorpo­ ily, came to the "mines" in the spring, rated the views of Moses M. Strong, the Ver­ and returned on the approach of win­ mont-born attorney, land speculator, rail­ ter;—and afterward to all the inhabi­ tants of the lead-mine region, and by road promoter, and Democratic party a not unnatural adaptation, has been activist who had long lived in Mineral applied to the people of the State and Point. Strong, president of the state bar in the State itself.* 1879, had moved to Mineral Point in 1836, some eleven years after the first extraction Reuben Gold Thwaites, who was then of lead by white men in the territorial envi­ superintendent of the State Historical Soci­ rons of Wisconsin. Strong responded to the ety of Wisconsin, repeated Strong's expla­ State Journal's inquiry with the following nation in a 1907 article on "Wisconsin explanation: Emblems and Sobriquet," and pro­ nounced Strong's observations a "reason­ It was the custom of the earlier itin­ erant adventurers to the lead mines to able explanation" of the origins of the go—two together, as "pards"—to term.*^ In briefer terms. Strong's beliefs "prospect" in new and unexplored found corroboration in the reminiscences parts of the country, where neither of Wisconsin's first governor, Nelson food nor shelter could be obtained; Dewey of Cassville, another early migrant taking with them the few tools neces­ to the lead region.* sary to sink a "prospect hole" and the necessary supply of food. Having fixed upon a site, the first effort made was to secure a shelter. Their limited means and the uncertainty of the ^HE ESSENTIAL ingredient duration of its occupancy, forbade T' in the tradition is the that any time or expense not abso­ badger-sucker dichotomy. Badgers con­ lutely indispensable should be noted permanence; they dug deeply, and devoted to providing their precarious abode. The result, in general, was an imita­ tion of the habits of the badger by dig­ ging a hole into a side-hill; extempo­ rizing for a roof, rocks or sods, or ' Wisconsin Statejoumal (Madison), December 10, 1879. both, of such dimensions as would suf­ " Reuben Gold Thwaites, "Wisconsin Emblem and Sobri­ fice for two to sleep in, and to cook quet," in .State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Proceedings, 1907 (Madison, 1908), 303. their frugal meals. If the miner did " Victor Kutchin, "Some Personal Recollections of Gov­ not succeed in finding good "dig­ ernor Dewey," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 10:414 gings" near the site thus selected, it (June, 1927).

122 BICHA: THE BADGERS

they wintered in the region. Suckers rep­ perah. The Four Lake Country." Writing resented the transitory element in the pop­ of the early lead miners, he declared that ulation, and their success as miners was "those from southern Illinois went home predictably negligible. In fact, "sucker" is to winter, those from the east could not, an appellation which occurs with much but dodged the cold in such dug-outs as greater frequency than "badger" in the they could hurry up. The eastern men were early years in the lead region. Illinois-based hence nicknamed Badgers, as if burrowing teamsters who transported Wisconsin lead in similar holes with these animals. This to Galena for eventual transshipment to St. jocose appellation became the badge of all Louis by steamboat drove "sucker teams," the Wisconsin tribe, and it will remain usually four yoke of oxen. They plied indelible forever."' Though his sources routes known as "sucker trails" well into remained undisclosed, Davie had added to the 1860's.* And an early historian of Wis­ the tradition the eastern, presumably Yan­ consin noted that in the 1840's shallow, kee or Yorker, origin of the Badgers. Suck­ rectangular shafts called "sucker holes" ers, or southern Illinoisans, were most were so common in the region that travel likely persons whose origins lay in Ken­ after dark was dangerous."' tucky or Tennessee, and ultimately in Vir­ Adele Gratiot, who settled with her hus­ ginia. band at Gratiot's Grove (Lafayette County) Reuben Gold Thwaites published his in the spring of 1827, added further con­ general work The Story of Wisconsin in 1891. firmation. In her reminiscences, she In a footnote he reiterated the essence of recalled the Illinoisans' habits: "Every Strong's 1879 commentary. It was the only spring, when the grass was high enough to instance in his general writings in which he afford pasture for their teams, large num­ alluded to the badger tradition, and then bers would come and do all the heavy haul­ he relegated the contents to an unnum­ ing during the summer, over beautiful prai­ bered note to the text.** Perhaps he ries furnishing all they could desire. But at remained unconvinced of the veracity of first frost they would all disappear not to Strong's observations. Nevertheless, Thwai­ return until the next spring. 'Their habits tes established a "precedent" followed by of migration being exactly timed with that all subsequent historians of Wisconsin who of a fish, called the 'Sucker,' which bothered to remark on the tradition. That abounded in all the creeks and rivers, is, the "badger" story merited a sentence caused the people of the upper settlements or a footnote, or, in the rarest of instances, to give that name to those of the lower the essence of a paragraph. It was worth no [(i.e., Illinois)] counties."" more. Within a few years of the Statejoumal edi­ The principal historians of Wisconsin, torial, other writers began to appropriate therefore, have disposed of the badger tra­ and modify its contents. In 1885, for exam­ dition succinctly. Louise Phelps Kellogg, ple, James Butler Davie, a University of Wis­ writing in 1919 of the lead-mining period, consin classicist with decidedly eclectic noted that "in cold weather some miners interests, published a paper on "Taycho- adjourned to abandoned shafts in the side

^J, H, Rountree, "Early Remembrance ofj, H. Rountree ' James Butler Davie, "Taychoperah, The Four Lake Lead Mines and Platteville written 1870," manuscript in Country," ibid., 79. Similarly, Louis Albert Copeland, in State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Area Research Cen­ "The Cornish in Southwest Wisconsin," ibid., 14:305, ter, University of Wisconsin-Platteville (hereinafter ARC), explicitly declared that "badgers" came from New England '" Donald McLeod, History of Wiskonsan From Its First Dis­ or New York, He did not divulge his sources for this con- covery to the Present Period (Buffalo, 1846), 214-215, clitsion, " Lyman C, Draper, ed,, "Adele De P. Gratiot's Narra­ " Reuben G, Thwaites, The Story of Wisconsin (Boston, tive," in Wisconsin Historical Collections (1883-1885), 10:268, 1891), 205n.

123 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 of the hill. The residents of Wisconsin on the area, did not concern himself at all because of their burrowing habits were with the badger tradition and whatever called 'badgers.'"" The late Alice E. Smith, truth it may have contained. in From Exploration to Statehood (1973), Tradition aside, it is legitimate to wonder remarked that "many miners qualified for whether there were ever, in reality, any the term 'Badgers,' signif)dng that they dug cave- or dugout-dwelling miners. If so, who themselves into caves during cold first observed them in their natural or man- weather."'" Also in 1973, Robert C. Nesbit made hillside orifices and divined the inel­ declared that "those miners who stayed egant nickname "badgers" to refer to through the winter—some in holes they them? It is clearly impossible to determine had dug in the hillside for ore—were called the creator (or creators) of the nickname, 'badgers.'"** And Richard N. Current but the tradition itself must rest on some alleged in 1977 that "the surface mines evidentiary base. Moreover, it is likely that with their piles of dug earth looked like the nickname originated in the earliest gigantic badger holes, and, much as the years of lead mining, probably in the badgers did, the miners burrowed into the period 1825-1827. No newspapers or print­ ground to make shelters against the win­ ing facilities existed in the lead mining ter's cold. Hence Wisconsinites came to be region at that time. Consequently, any known as Badgers."*- attempt to trace the badgers to their ori­ gins must rely on evidence which survives largely by good fortune: letters, diaries, journals, reminiscences, and travel 'T IS CLEAR that historians accounts. I have added embellishments Aside from the fact that dwelling in a to the tradition and creatively manipulated cave or dugout represented reversion to a it, albeit in harmless ways. It may be fairly residential practice uncharacteristic of asked, however, in what kind of holes-in- human beings since Neolithic times, there the-hillsides did the "badgers" really are many reasons to suppose that the reside? Did they choose caves fashioned by "badgers" of early Wisconsin were few in natural processes, or dugouts created by number and remained only briefly in sub­ human endeavor? If the latter was the case, terranean environs. In the first place, there did they reside in shafts which they, or oth­ is an argument from subtraction. Some ers, had once sunk in search of "mineral," 1,500 persons lived in the portion of the or did they dig new holes explicitly for pur­ lead region which became part of Wiscon­ poses of habitation in sites chosen for their sin in 1829. Considerable concentrations proximity to wood and water? Did they of miners already resided near large-scale dwell in these subterranean en"virons only smelting operations. Some 130 lived adja­ in colder months? If so, what kind of hous­ cent to Henry Dodge's operation near ing did they occupy when the weather was Dodgeville, more than 100 associated more salubrious? Scholars have never themselves with John Rountree at Platte­ addressed these questions. And Joseph ville, and similar numbers worked the "dig­ Schafer, surely the indisputable authority gings" and smelters of William S. Hamilton of Wiota and the brothers Henry and Jean

" Louise Phelps Kellogg, "The Story of Wisconsin, Chap­ ter 3: The Days of the Lead Miners," in the Wisconsin Mag­ ' Robert C, Nesbit, Wisconsin: A History (Madison, 1973), azine of History, 3:54—?,S (September, 1935), 11.' '" Alice E, Smith, The History of Wisconsin. Volume I: From '" Richard N, Current, Wisconsin: A History (New York, Exploration to Statehood (Madison, 1973), 183, 1977), 9,

124 XVII I,

WHi(X3)40.370

A map of the U.S. lead mines on the Upper Mississippi, drawn and published by R. W. Chandkr in 1829.

Pierre Gratiot of Gratiot's Grove.'* Among supply of taverns, as an 1829 map of the the service institutions (and personnel) in area demonstrated, was particularly ade­ the area were groceries and taverns. The quate. At least some of the miners and non- miners had brought wives and children to the area. Clearly the solitary "badgers" in '" William Salter, "Henry Dodge," in Iowa Historical Rec­ their dugouts could not have been numer­ ord, 5:352 (October, 1889); Morgan L, Martin, "Narrative ous. They had no effect on the place names of Morgan L. Martin," in Wisconsin Historical Collections of the lead region, another indication of (1888), 11:397; SylvanJ, Muldoon, Alexander Hamilton's Pio­ neer Son: The Life and Times of Colonel William Stephen Ham­ their transitory nature. ilton (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1930), 6.3-70, The social milieu of the mining region

125 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992—1993 also made a dugout life-style distinctly New-Yorker (1835). Reporting on an eve­ imprudent. Much of the extraction of lead ning spent in December, 1833, in a tavern ore occurred on land from which the near Kalamazoo, Michigan Territory, Hoff­ Indian title had not been extinguished, man noted that he enjoyed the convivial and the relationship between miners and fellowship of "a long-haired 'hooshier' Indians was frequently abrasive. Whites from Indiana, a couple of smart-looking panicked at the news of the minor depre­ 'suckers' from the southern part of Illinois, dations associated with the Winnebago a keen-eyed leather-belted 'badger' from chieftain Red Bird in 1827, and in 1832, the mines of Ouisconsin, and a sturdy, yeo­ when Black Hawk moved through the Wis­ man-like fellow, whose white capot, Indian consin country with 500 warriors, although moccasins, and red sash, proclaimed, while encumbered by twice as many women and he boasted a three year's residence, the children, his activities provoked a militia genuine wolverine, or naturalized Michi- alert as far east as Detroit.** Relations were ganian." Hoffman observed further that little better in the intervening years. Esau the spokesman for the group was a "red- Johnson, a North Carolina-born Illinoisan horse" from Kentucky and that "nothing who came to the lead region in 1827, noted was wanting but a 'buck-eye' from Ohio to in his ample if repetitious reminiscences render the assemblage as complete as it was that such incidents as thefts, threats, and select."*" This may well have been the first the brandishing of weapons were common­ published reference to a Wisconsinite as a place in the years 1827-1832.*5 In case of "badger," and it clearly limited the asso­ serious hostilities a dugout was indefensi­ ciation to the lead-mining region. Hoffman ble. And given the necessary period of also demonstrated that, as early as 1833, visual adjustment which must occur when the sobriquets of the states and future a person moves from daylight to sudden states of the Old Northwest were already in darkness, a dugout was tailor-made for place. lurking Indians intent upon mayhem. These considerations undoubtedly short­ ened the residential tenure of most "badg­ ers." DOCUMENT from 1834 is However few they were in numbers, the A indicative of an important dugout-dwelling lead miners of Wisconsin transformation in the usage of the word. influenced the perception of Wisconsin One George Harrison of Galena, Illinois, and its people by the early 1830's. Charles brother-in-law of Lucius Lyon, United Fenno Hoffman, a young New York-based States Surveyor for Michigan Territory and poet, novelist, and editor of Knickerbocker, a future United States Senator, wrote to resigned the editorship of that journal in William S. Hamilton, fifth son of Alexander 1833 and spent the winter of 1833-1834 on Hamilton, who in 1827 had commenced a an elaborate tour of mid-continent Amer­ large-scale smelting operation at Wiota. ica. His keen and often elegant observa­ The substance of the letter was a number tions, dutifully reported back to New York, of cryptic references to local political real­ became the basis for a classic of antebellum ities; but in conclusion he inquired jocu­ travel literature, A Winter in the West. By a larly, "will the 'Badger-boys' have the priv-

'" Charles Fenno Hoffman, A Winter in the West. By a Nau ''' Cecil Eby, "That Disgraceful Affair, " the Black Hawk War Yorker (2 vols,. New York, 1835), 1:176, There were two (New York, 1973), 157-158, American editions of this work. One of these editions, twice "• E.sau Johnson, "Reminiscences," manuscript in .ARC, reprinted in 1966, contains this quotation on 1:210,

126 BICHA: THE BADGERS ilege of seeing you during the ensuing holes in the ground. Within a year of its summer?"*^ A restless individual, Hamilton founding, however, Hamilton's laborers frequently absented himself from his Wiota had been moved to a complex of cabins enterprise and wandered about the coun­ built on the banks of the Pecatonica tryside or went to Galena to practice law. River.'^' Harrison, in effect, asked Hamilton if he A number of careful observers traversed planned to stay at Wiota and supervise his the lead region in the years following the employees, the "Badger-boys," during the Black Hawk War and offered detailed busy summer season in the mines. He used descriptions of the area. Charles Whittle­ the term "badger" as a modifier, an indi­ sey, a perceptive army officer who rather cation that its usage was frequent and com­ courageously declared that it was the vio­ monly understood in the region. lence practiced by the whites upon the Evidence which has survived pertinent to Indians that comprised the "crying enor­ the large-scale mining and smelting oper­ mities" in the region, toured the mining ations adds little to the search for the area within months of the conclusion of "badgers." Henry Dodge, for example, hostilities. His description of life in the dis­ established himself on Indian lands near trict in the latter part of 1832 included a the present site of Dodgeville in November, night spent in a blockhouse, the deserted 1827. An Indian agent from Prairie du huts of miners, and an occasional farm with Chien ordered him, quite unsuccessfully, comfortable buildings; but his overall con­ to depart the area. Relative to Dodge's clusion was that the housing arrangements quarters, however, the agent noted, "Gen­ in the region were of a temporary nature— eral Dodge resides in a small stockade fort cabins adjacent to lead furnaces.^^ Charles near the principal mine. There are about Fenno Hoffman, mentioned above as an twenty log houses in the immediate vicinity, observer with a practiced eye, visited the besides several more remote. From the best lead region in January and February of information I have been able to obtain 1834 and commented on miners dwelling there are about one hundred and thirty in "shanties" and the existence of block­ men engaged in mining at this place, and houses—"a refuge for the family in time of completely armed with rifles and pistols."*** danger. . . . "^* Neither Whittlesey nor A year later another visitor found Dodge's Hoffman mentioned persons resident in cabins surrounded by a "formidable stock­ dugouts. ade."*" At the Platte River diggings in Travelers who passed through the lead Grant County, John Rountree quartered region in later years also made no refer­ his men, and himself, in tents, while Ebe­ ence to dugout-dwelling "badgers." Alex­ nezer Brigham, the first settler at Blue ander F. Pratt, who visited Mineral Point Mounds in Dane County, entertained visi­ for the first time in 1837, wrote only of four tors in his cabin.^" Only the peripatetic Wil­ log cabins which formed a quadrangle and liam S. Hamilton, "Uncle Billy" to his asso­ served as a tavern.^* General William ciates, had workers at his Wiota enterprise Rudolph Smith, who also visited the region who, according to his biographer, lived in in 1837, mentioned farms, smelting fur-

'^ George W, Harrison to William S, Hamilton, February 25, 1834, in the Lucius Lyons Papers, microfilm copy in "' Muldoon, Hamilton's Pioneer Son, 70. State Historical Society of Wisconsin, The original manu­ '''- [Charles Whittlesey], ".A Tour through Wisconsin in script is in the William L, Clements Library, University of 1832," in Hesperian: or. Western Monthly Magazine, 2:270-271 Michigan-Ann Arbor, (February, 1839), '" Quoted in Salter, "Henry Dodge," 352, ^' Hoffman, Winter in the West, 2:38, '" Martin, "NarraUve," 397, '-* Alexander F. Pratt, "Reminiscences of Wisconsin," in 2" Ibid. Wisconsin Historical Collections (1855), 1:144.

127 WHi(X3)47254

Hauling lead to Cassville in the 1830's. A drawing by L. E. Blair for the Wisconsin Highway Commission, 1948. naces, "comfortable log buildings," and, at recall dugout-dwelling residents in the Pedlar's Creek, "a number of miners' early years of settlement. State Historical houses and Groceries or Taverns, quite a Society officials solicited a number of these settlement."-^ The itinerant Episcopalian documents, and they reflect certain ele­ missionary, Jackson Kemper, who toured mentary evidentiary disadvantages. Not the region in 1838, made no commentary only were they prepared late in the lives of on housing.'^" If "badgers" still existed in the "old settlers" when memories tend to these years they had become terribly elu­ be both selective and deficient, but the pro­ sive. viders also represented a skewed sample, considering that they were persons who stayed in the region and achieved success there. They may have represented an EMINISCENCES of "old set­ "elite" from the outset and paid little R^tlers " in the lead region attention to the residential choices of their also fail, with one notable exception, to marginal neighbors. In point of time the earliest "old settler" to provide an account of his activities in the '^' William Rudolph Smith, "Journal of William Rudolph lead region was Dr. Moses Meeker. In 1825 Smith," in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, 12:308 (March, Meeker began to work the diggings of one 1929), ^"Jackson Kemper, "A Trip Through Wisconsin in John Bonner at Hazel Green and declared 18.38," iUd, 8:430 (June, 1925), that he constructed the first log house

128 BICHA: THE BADGERS north of the old Cave Diggings.*^^ Adele before realizing that his true calling was tav­ Gratiot, the French-born wife of Jean Gra­ ern-keeping, first at Pecatonica and then at tiot and sister-in-law of the better-known Mineral Point. He was undoubtedly the Henry Gratiot, arrived in 1827 at Gratiot's "portly Tennessean" who provided Grove and recalled that, "from the slope refreshment and accommodations to of the hill, you could see as far as the eye Charles Fenno Hoffman, who spent a night could reach, miners' shanties and wind­ in Parkinson's tavern in the winter of 1834. lasses in activity."^** Like Meeker and Gra­ Parkinson emphatically recalled that new­ tiot, John H. Rountree, a Kentuckian who comers to the lead region were so absorbed became the "founder" of Platteville, made with the possibility of economic gain that no mention of dugout-dwelling miners as they eschewed the construction of proper he traversed the region in 1827 on his way dwellings and "usually lived in dens or to the Platte River diggings. caves; a large hole or excavation being The most elaborate of the old settler rec­ made in the side of a hill or bluff, the top ollections are those of Esau Johnson, a being covered over with poles, grass and North Carolinian by birth who migrated sods. A level way from the edge of the hole from Illinois to the Shullsburg area in May, at the bottom was dug out, some ten or 1827. Johnson spent his first year in the twelve feet; and the gang way being closed lead region "hailing mineral" to Galena upon either side, was covered on top thus, for Henry Gratiot. His activities soon forming a sheltered entrance to the 'dug­ expanded, and from 1828 to 1833 he alter­ out,' as such places were usually called." natively farmed, mined, and smelted at the While there is no doubt that Parkinson Blue Mounds. He traveled widely in the saw such jerry-built accommodations, region and on occasion also cut lumber on much of his account does not ring true. He the Wisconsin River near Muscoda. Men­ declared, for example, that in these cir­ tion of miners resident in cabins or "Shan- cumstances families "lived in apparent tees," and in blockhouses during periods comfort and the most perfect satisfaction of white-Indian hostilities, appears fre­ for years" even though such dwellings were quently in his diffuse account. Neither the "miserable abodes." The miners were per­ term "badger" nor reference to dugout- sons who "possessed and practiced many dwelling miners occurs in the document.^" of the noblest traits of our race" and The same is true of the briefer account of reflected "innate integrity of character," Morgan L. Martin, whose recollections of freely sharing their quarters with any min­ 1828 included the observation of Henry ers who passed by.** Parkinson's remarks Dodge's cabins and stockade and John form an interesting contrast to those of Rountree's tent settlement.*" Juliette ELinzie, who recalled in her classical On the other hand, Tennessee-born piece of western Americana, Wau-Bun, that Daniel Parkinson, who came to New Dig­ the miners at "Uncle Billy" Hamilton's gings in 1827 and also entered into an unspe­ were the "roughest set of men I ever cified and short-lived business arrange­ beheld, and their language was as uncouth ment with William S. Hamilton, did recall as their persons. "*2 It is also instructive that miners who lived in the ground. Parkinson Parkinson pointedly did not refer to the spent a mere six months in the mines dwellers in their dugouts as "badgers."

'" Moses Meeker, "Early History of the Lead Region," in Wisconsin Historical Collections (1872), 294, '' Daniel M, Parkinson, "Pioneer Life in Wisconsin," in ™ Draper, "Gratiot's Narrative," 268, Wisconsin Historical Collections (1856), 2:332-333. ""Johnson, "Reminiscences." '"* Mrs. John H. (Juliette) Kinzie, Wau-Bun, the Early Day "" Martin, "Narrative," 385-415, in the North West (New York, 1856) ,112,

129 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993

Theodore Rodolf, a young Swiss immi­ rect."*'' Reuben G. Thwaites obviously grant who traveled through and settled in ignored this disclaimer when he declared the lead region in 1834, provided an in 1907 that Strong's commentary repre­ account of the area in that year which indi­ sented a "reasonable explanation" of the cates that change was painfully slow. Wil­ state's sobriquet. Strong himself may not liam S. Hamilton still lived in two log cab­ have been so sanguine, and perhaps chose ins, both without glass windows, which to omit the badger material from what he served him as a fort. .Along the Pecatonica perceived to be a serious work of scholar­ he encountered some log cabins and out­ ship. buildings, and occasionally he noted crude In sum, there are compelling reasons to log furnaces for smelting. Only at Gratiot's believe that the dugout dwellers were few Grove, equipped with "stores, warehouses in number and represented an early, tem­ and smelting works," did he find that the porary phenomenon in the lead region. countryside exuded a "most charming Most probably they, and the nickname they prospiect" As Rodolf followed the "sucker provoked, date from the years 1825-1827. trails" from one part of the lead region to Since long-term settlers in the region another he apparently observed no con­ seemed not to use the expression, it is likely temporary cavemen.** that someone traveling through the region first associated the miners in their dugouts with the characteristics of the ferocious lit­ tle quadrupeds who also inhabited the INALLY, Moses Strong, area. The nickname, of course, might have F whose History of the Territory of had single or multiple origins; but the ori­ Wisconsin from 1836 to 1848 appeared in gin of the term is really of little signifi­ 1885, six years after his contribution to the cance. Statejoumal, constitutes a serious problem. Realistically, the importance of the sobri­ Strong dutifully called the temporary quet "badgers" lies not in its origin but in inhabitants of the lead region "suckers" its diffusion. The diffusion of the term and the physical remains of their unsyste­ undoubtedly occurred by the same rapid matic labor "sucker holes," but he did not and undocumentable process of oral trans­ refer to the permanent settlers as "badg­ mission characteristic of slang, argot, and ers."** This omission must be regarded as jokes. Within two decades of its creation particularly ominous. Strong did not come the expression had become divested of its to the lead region until 1836, and by that specific association with both miners and year "badgers" had given up their subter­ the lead region. By the mid-1840's it made ranean habitations. But Strong may well no difference whether the badger traditioi"! have deliberately chosen not to repeat his was rooted in past reality or possessed no 1879 explanation. As a preface to his more inherent substance than the legend remarks of that year in the Statejoumal, he of William Tell. It was synonymous with admitted that, relative to the badger-sucker Wisconsin and its people—all of its people. dichotomy, "Whatever I know about it is In 1844, for example, a correspondent call­ traditional, and may not be entirely cor- ing himself the Milwaukie Badger wrote to the editor of Knickerbocker, "do you know there is such a countr)' as Wisconsin? that it is beyond Lake Michigan? that on the •'" Theodore Rodolph, "Pioneering in the Wisconsin western shore of that lake is Milwaukie, the Lead Region," in Wisconsin Historical Collections (1900), 15:344-347, "•' .Moses M, Strong, comp,. History of the Territory of Wis­ consin from 1836-1848 (.Madison, 1885), 118, " Wisconsin State Journal, December 10, 1879.

130 BICHA: THE BADGERS most beautiful village this side of sundown? American Home Missionary Society, that the inhabitants are called 'badgers'? preached to a congregation in Mineral and that the forests they clear and the Point, undeniably the center of the Wiscon­ houses they rear fully attest their right to sin lead region. In a letter to some of his that title? Knick, if you don't know all this, associates he remarked upon the motley you're an ignorant Dutchman!"*" composition of the local population, a dis­ In the next year, 1845, Josiah Bushnell parate group which included Europeans Grinnell, a future minister, attorney, con­ from a number of nations, Americans from gressman, townsite promoter, and college the eastern and southern states, and "rep­ president, toured the Territory of Wiscon­ resentatives of the western states, called in sin under the auspices of the New York/owr- the unique nomenclature of this region nal. His glowing account of territorial pros­ Hoosiers, Wolverines, Badgers, Suckers, Buck­ pects appeared as a tract entitled The Home eyes, etc."*" Eddy clearly did not associate of the Badgers, or a Sketch of the Early History Badgers explicitly with the region in which of Wisconsin, With a Series of Familiar Letters he preached. A Badger was a Wisconsinite and Remarks on Territorial Character and Char­ of any residence or occupation. acteristics. An enlarged second edition bear­ By the 1840's, and perhaps earlier, the ing the prefatory title Sketches of the West expression "badger" was plainly synony­ (plus the 1845 original) was published in mous with the people of Wisconsin. This 1847.*' To Grinnell, "badger" was not a was in many respects fortunate. In the early term which required explanation, and he days in the lead region, "suckers" clearly used the expression largely as an adjective. outnumbered "badgers," but the term He reported, for example, that a group of "sucker" did not survive to affect Wiscon­ angry residents of the territory raided a sin tradition. There is a fortuitous influ­ wild-cat bank and burned its notes— ence, since suckers exist in two variants— "badger-leaf wild-cat shinplasters."*** And red and white. But there is another ele­ he noted that when he inquired of the loca­ ment in the story. While personal piety in tion of the true "West," he received smil­ the lead region was undoubtedly at a pre­ ing replies indicating that it might be mium, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell reported found "among the 'Hoosiers' of Indiana, in 1847 that miners who violated the Sab­ the 'Suckers' of Illinois, or the 'Badgers' of bath by prospecting on that day were Wisconsin."*" known derisively as "gophers."** If they On New Year's Day, 1845, Zenas Eddy, a had been of sufficient influence to Presbyterian minster in the service of the bequeath to Wisconsin the nickname of "gopher state," the potential effects on inter-state comity would have been calami­ tous. And gophers are craven little fellows, "" Knickerbocker, 24:286 (September, 1844). in no way the equals of the badgers with " Grinnell published the first edition of this tract under whom they share a common habitat. the pseudonym "Oculus." The second edition has no author indicated on the title page, Ellis B, Usher, in Wiscon­ sin: Its Story and Biography (8 vols,, Chicago, 1914), 1:13-14, erroneously attributed authorship to 1, A, Hopkins, the Milwaukee publisher, Grinnell reminisced about the prep­ '" Zenas Eddy to "Dear Brethren," January 1, 1845, in aration of the tracts in his Men and Events of Forty Years (Bos­ the American Home Missionary Society Papers, copies in ton, 1891), .38-.39, State Historical Society of Wisconsin; original letters in the '" Sketches of the West, 28. Chicago Historical Society, '" Ibid, 41, « Sketches of the West, 28.

131 The Columbian Mosaic in Colonial America

By James Axtell

FTER the close of the American usually in a north-south direction. Men of A^ Revolution and the adoption every major nation in Europe made the of the Constitution in 1789, the new grand tour from New England to South United States were a source of great curi­ Carolina, often in the company of fellow osity to citizens of the Old World. Not only countrymen or servants. Sometimes they had the American upstarts pulled off the combined their trips with other business— biggest small-r republican coup in recent military, scientific, political, or mercantile. memory; they had, in the process, also But each visitor sought to encompass the beaten the greatest empire in the modern regional and human diversity of the former world. Who were these brash new giant-kill­ colonies, as if his letters and journals would ers? What kind of society had they fash­ give Europe its only true and accurate por­ ioned in the American wilderness? How trait of the new nation. had they managed to wrest their new coun­ In their uneven progress through the try from its aboriginal inhabitants? Where land, the visitors, like tourists in any age, did their wealth—and audacity—come tended to generalize from the small range from? What manner of folks were they, and of details they had seen with their own eyes how did they differ from their European and from the accumulated lore of new, cousins? often chance, acquaintances. When, for To find the answers to these and similar instance, Francisco de Miranda, the gifted questions, a veritable host of European Venezuelan revolutionary, toured Con­ travelers and sightseers struck off on tours necticut in 1783, he inferred from tomb­ of North America in the 1780's and '90's, stones in a Norwich churchyard that "this place is highly salutary, for the age dates are quite high, and among them I counted more than twelve between eighty and EDITORS' NOTE: A slightly different version of this article was first presented at a conference entitled ninety years of life." * Similarly, Louis Phi­ "Respecting American Indian Identity; A Perspective lippe, a future king of France, noticed that from History and Culture. "Jointly sponsored by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Univer­ sity of Wisconsin System, the conference was held November 7-9, 1991, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We 'John S, Ezell, ed,. The New Democracy in America: Travels are grateful to our Society colleague Harry Miller for of Francisco de Miranda in the United Stales, 1783-84, trans, by assisting us in bringing these manuscripts to fruition. Judson P, Wood (Norman, 1963), 111,

132 Copyright © / 993 by The State Historical Society of Wisconsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved. AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia the the dearer the cost, the more work will be young people reached "notable heights." required of them."* Having fled the exces­ Most of them, he said, "seem taller than ses of the French Revolution in 1793, the their elders" and are "increasing still." ^ West Indian-born St. Mery was appalled These and other observations on the that white American children "beat little bounty of American farms suggested that slaves and if grown-up slaves try to inter­ the great white middling population, at fere, adult whites beat them in turn.'"* Vir­ least, was enjoying exceptional health and tually every visitor agreed that slaves were an enviable amount of prosperity. The treated more harshly in the South than in most prosperous colony of all, Pennsylva­ the North. The Italian naturalist Luigi Cas- nia, had on the eve of revolution a popu­ tiglioni heard a South Carolina planter lation of 350,000, of whom the French emi­ "justify his vicious behavior toward gre Moreau de St. Mery estimated 275,000 negroes" by declaring "without blushing were "Foreigners, all bought" as inden­ that they were a kind of animal closer to tured servants or redemptioners. Twenty monkeys than to man."" years later, they, too, were enjoying the By contrast with the imported Africans salubrity of the state's economy and cli­ and Europeans, the most American group mate and reproducing like rabbits.* of all received hardly any notice from the But for everyone who prospered, there travelers—unless they happened to ven­ were many who suffered, usually those of a ture into the still-dangerous "back coun­ darker complexion. Johann David try." For in the settled portions of the new Schoepf, a learned scientist stationed in states, native Americans were in very short America with the Hessian troops until supply, restricted largely to tiny reserva­ 1783, noted that even German and Irish tions. In his discussion of the racial com­ indentured servants were unwilling to be position of Philadelphia, St. Meiy felt no sold in Carolina and Virginia because need to speak of Indians, he said, because "they are too proud to work with and "they inhabit only such places as are set among the negroes who . . . are almost the apart for them; and if they appear in cities, only working people" in those states. "Any ... it is always for some political reason."' [white] man whatever, if he can afford so In South Carolina the Catawbas called much as 2-3 negroes, becomes ashamed of twelve square miles home, while in spa­ work and goes about in idleness, supported cious New York, said the emigre nobleman by his slaves." Most visitors choked on the Frangois Rene de Chateaubriand, "the blatant disparity between a republic remains of the [once-mighty] five Iroquois founded on the philosophical freedom of nations [are] enclaved in the English and men and the actual bondage of men who American possessions." * When a young happened not to be white. Schoepf could Oneida Iroquois returned to Boston in not decide to laugh or cry over a North Car­ 1783 after three years of French education, olina slave sale where the auctioneer talked testified a fellow passenger, Brissot de War- up the slaves' qualities while the "merchan­ dise" sassily downgraded themselves from the platform "because they know well that Johann David Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation [ 1783- 1784], trans, by Alfred J. Morrison (2 vols,, Philadelphia, 1911), 2:40, 149, '"Mcrreau de St. Mery's American Journey, 309, '•'[Louis Phillippe, King of France, 1830-1848,] Diary of "Luigi Castiglioni's 'Viaggio: Travels in the United States of My Travels in America, trans, by Stephen Becker (New York, America, 1785-87, ed, and trans, by Antonio Pace (Syracuse, 1977), 51, 1983), 165, 'Moreau de St. Mery's American Journey [1793-1798], ed. ''Moreau de St. Mery's American Journey, 276, and trans, by Kenneth Roberts and Anna M. Roberts (Gar­ "Chateaubriand's Travels in America, trans, by Richard Swit- den City, 1947), 293, 300. zer (Lexington, 1969), 175,

133 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 ville, "he caused us much surprise as he tion to the uncounted and undercounted, had in Paris, for Indians are never seen the new United States of nearly 900,000 there. They have been gone from Massa­ square miles was populated by almost 4 mil­ chusetts for so long that people have for­ lion people, black and white. A few over 3 gotten what one looks like."" The outlook million were white; three-quarters of a mil­ for their western cousins was no brighter, lion—about 19 per cent—were black. according to a French general, the Marquis Ninety-five per cent of these folks still lived de Chastellux. In 1780 he had predicted in the country; only twenty-four towns with uncanny but sad accuracy that "a nec­ could count more than 2,500 inhabitants. essary consequence of a peace, if favorable More than a third of America's households to Congress, will be their total destruction, contained seven or more persons, though or at least their exclusion from all the coun­ the average was not quite six. Predictably, try this side of the [Great] lakes."'" the white population was predominantly But for all their perspicacity, acquired British in origin: nearly 80 per cent had knowledge, and luck, these traveling eth­ English, Scottish, or Irish surnames. *' nographers invariably missed the big pic­ But one group was conspicuous by its ture of the new America. Like all tourists, absence from the census figures: according they suffered from the myopia of personal to the new U.S. Constitution, Indians who experience. How could it have been oth- were "not taxed" were excluded from the er-wise? They were virtually all white, male, count, and that meant virtually all Indians, foreign, insulated by wealth, class, and con­ since most were either too poor or too inac­ nections, and traveling close to the ground. cessible to fall prey to the tax collector. While they could read the conventional his­ Therefore, the social portrait the census tories of some of their destinations, before paints is strictly chiaroscuro; we don't really or after leaving, and could pick up assorted know how much burnt umber ought to be facts and gossip en route, they were essen­ added to America's features. In one large tially prisoners of their own eyes and expec­ region, however, we have a good idea. The tations. Since they were short of time, they historian Peter Wood's detailed demogra­ took only one road, usually well worn, phy of the colonial Southeast shows that through a region, leaving 99 per cent of its Indians in 1790 numbered about 56,000, or byways and precincts unexplored. Under­ 3 per cent of the population. More than a standably, they gravitated to towns and third of all southerners were black, more great houses, where they could obtain bug- than a million were white, *- But that was less bedding, clean laundry, credit, and a the South, and the complexion of other soup(;;on of society; but in the process they regions was much paler. In Massachusetts, missed much of the country, in both for instance, the black population was only senses. 5,000, less than 1.5 per cent of the total; One source they might have used to Indians numbered only a few hundred. ** trace the social profile of the new America, had it been available to them, was the first federal census, compiled in 1790. In addi- "Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, 2 parts (Bicentennial ed., Washington, 1975), Series A, 1-5, 43-56, 57-72, 91-104, 335-349; Z, 20-23, "J,P, Brissot de Warville, Nau Travels in the United States of "^Peter H. Wood, "The Changing Population of the Colo­ America, 1788, ed. by Durand Echeverria, trans, by Maria nial South: An Overview by Race and Region, 1685-1790," Soceanu Vamos and Durand Echeverria (Cambridge, in Peter H. Wood, Gregory A, Waselkov, and W. Thomas 1964), 82n, Halley, eds., Powhatan's Mantle: Indians in the Colonial South­ '"Marquis de Chastellux, Travels in North America in the east (Lincoln, 1989), 38-39. Years 1780, 1781 and 1782, ed. and trans, by Howard C, Rice, "Historical Statistics of the United States, Series A, 91-104; Jr, (2 vols,, Chapel Hill, 1963), 1:209, Z, 1-23,

134 AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC

In 1790, tourists and census-takers alike saw One short but hardly sweet answer, mostly white faces in the new Republic. which was increasingly heard as we approached 1992, was that Columbus and his European successors found a "virgin" paradise of innocence and harmony and 'HATEVER the regional pro­ proceed to rape the land, kill the natives, w portions, newly independ­ and pillage Africa to replace the American ent America was a triracial, multicultural victims of their "genocide."*^ There is, of society. It was a mo.saic rather than a melt­ course, some truth to this—but not enough ing pot, a huge, constantly changing, to be morally useful or historically truthful. imperfect amalgam of biologies, histories, If we can take our itchy fingers off the trig­ and anthropologies. Perhaps the best way ger of moral outrage for a spell, we might to view such a restless and complex organ­ be able to view the human phase of what is ism is to look at it over time, as if by twisting being called the "Columbian Encounter" the eyepiece of a historical kaleidoscope. less as an excuse for passing judgment than For each twist in time will tumble the mul­ as a vehicle for understanding. For in the ticolored human fragments in space, ideological climate of the 1990's, where throwing them into strikingly new patterns our collective skin is paper-thin and intol­ of American density and destiny. erance has been raised to an art form, we We might well call America a Columbian stand in need of some critical distance mosaic, because it was the Italian admiral from the irreproducible problems of the who effectively bound together all of the past. Instead of picking through the bone world's continents with the shipping lanes heaps of history for skeletons to stuff into of one continuous ocean sea. When the closets of our current nemeses, we Columbus bumped into America en route might better cultivate a little disinterested­ to Asia after a maritime apprenticeship in ness toward both the failings and the suc­ Europe and America, he made it likely— cesses of our predecessors, in the hope of indeed, inevitable—that the peoples of the taking courage and counsels of prudence world's insular continents would no longer from their struggles and solutions. Since live in splendid isolation but would soon their circumstances, their field of experi­ become a single "global village," due ences, their opportunities and limitations largely to European colonialism, technol­ were never the same as ours, we cannot ogy, and communications. Although he draw universal laios from their behavior, never set foot on the North American con­ whether good or ill. We can only try to tinent, Columbus was personally responsi­ emulate their good examples and to avoid ble for introducing Europeans to America their worst mistakes by paying close atten­ and Americans—albeit in chains—to tion to the historical circumstances in Europe. It was left to Nicolas de Ovando, which they acted. We must recognize that his successor as governor of the Indies, to their time is not our time; we must be alert introduce African slaves in 1502, just as to the complexity and uniqueness of our Columbus set sail on his fourth and final own circumstances as we strive to thread a voyage. ** The paternity of triracial America moral path through the present.*" Perhaps is not in doubt; the only question is, how then we may recognize that the social did the new American mosaic of 1790 come about?

'•'Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy (New York, 1990), '"James Axtell, After Columbus: Essays in the Ethnohistory of '^Leslie B. Rout,Jr,, The African Experience in Spanish Amer­ Colonial North America (New York, 1988), ch, 1, "A Moral ica: 1502 to the Present Day (Cambridge, 1976), 22. History of Indian-White Relations Revisited."

135 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 mosaic of the 1990's is the lineal descen­ should avoid language that is inflammatory dant of the 1790's, and that, although we or prejudicial to any historical person or cannot change the facts of history, we can, party. Which is not to say that, once we have through a critical and disinterested exami­ proven our case, we may not call a spade a nation of its causes, suggest a few ways to spade, an imperialist tool, or a killer of improve the personal and group relations innocent worms. If we as historians have we continue to fashion in our modern presented the pertinent evidence on all American mosaic. sides of the issue with fairness and accu­ A test of our moral mettle and patience racy, the audience can make up its own arises as soon as we begin to discuss the mind about the judiciousness of our ver­ influx of Europeans or "white" people dicts. into monochromatic Indian America. At its How, then, did the face of America simplest level, for example, what do we call become so blanched when only three hun­ the process and the participants? Since all dred years earlier it had been uniformly language is loaded with value judgments, it brown? The short answer is that Europeans makes quite a difference whether we refer emigrated in great numbers to the Ameri­ to the process as colonization, imperialism, set­ cas and, when they got there, reproduced tlement, emigration, or invasion. (For reasons themselves with unprecedented success. both historical and moral, my major lec­ But a somewhat fuller explanation must ture course at the College of W^illiam and take account of regional and national var­ Mary is called "The Invasion of North iations. America.") By the same token, were the newcomers imperialists, conquistadors, invad­ ers, trespassers, and killers, or were they, on ^HE first emigrants, of course, balance, only Europeans, whites, colonists, T' were Spanish, not merely the strangers, and settlers} If modern Indians infamous conquistadors, whose bloody deserve to have their wishes respected as to feats greatly belied their small numbers, the generic names by which historians but also Catholic priests and missionaries, refer to their native ancestors, surely the paper-pushing clerks and officials who descendants of European colonists should manned the far-flung bureaucracy of be accorded the same courtesy (recogniz­ empire; as well as ordinary settlers, peas­ ing, of course, that there may be stylistic or ants, artisans, merchants, and not a few other reasons for not fully granting either hidalgos, largely from the cities and towns group's wishes).*' of central and southwestern Spain. Since It has long been one of the cardinal rules permission to emigrate was royally regu­ of the historical canon—one which I see no lated, "undesirables" such as Moors, Jews, reason to lay aside—that the parties of the gypsies, and those condemned by the past deserve equal treatment from histori­ Inquisition reached the New World only in ans: equal respect and empathy but also small, furtive numbers. In the sixteenth equal criticism and justice. As judge, jury, century perhaps 240,000 Spaniards slipped prosecutor, and counsel for the defense of into American ports. They were joined by people who can no longer testify on their 450,000 more in the next century. The own behalf, the historian cannot be any less great majority were young men; only in the than impartial in his or her judicial review late sixteenth centur)' did the proportion of the past. For that reason, I suggest, we of women reach one-third. This meant that many men had to marry, or at least cohabit with, Indian women, which in turn gave rise to a large mestizo or mixed population. '''Ibid., ch, 2, "Forked Tongues: Moral Judgments in Indian Historv," The relative unhealthiness of Latin Amer-

136 AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC ica's subtropical islands and coasts also folks numbered around 194,000; a hun­ contributed to a slow and modest increase dred years later they teemed at 3 million- in Spanish population. When the mature plus. ^" Emigration obviously accounted for population finally doubled by 1628, it had some of this astounding growth. In the taken more than fifty years, and only half eighteenth century, 150,000 Scotch-Irish, the increase was due to biology; the other 100,000 Germans (many of them "redemp­ half represented emigrants from home.*** tioners" from the Palatinate), 50,000 Brit­ In sharp contrast to the Spanish were the ish convicts, and 2,000-3,000 Sephardic French in Canada, which Voltaire airily dis­ Jews made their way to English lands of missed as "a few acres of snow." In a cen­ opportunity. ^* But the proliferation of pale tury and a half. Mother France sent only faces was predominantly a function of nat­ 30,000 emigrants to the Laurentian colony, ural increase by which the colonial popu­ the majority of them against their will. Only lation doubled every twenty-five years—to 500 paid their own way, many of them mer­ that time the highest rate of increase chants eager to cash in on the fur and known to demographers. After an initial import trade. The rest were reluctant enga­ period of so-called "gate mortality," when ges (indentured servants), soldiers, convicts food shortages, new diseases, and climatic (primarily salt smugglers), and filles du roi, "seasoning" might exact a high toll, white or "King's girls," sent to supply the colo­ couples in most of the English colonies ny's superabundant, shorthanded, and began to produce an average of four chil­ lonely bachelors with wives. Not until 1710 dren who lived to become parents them­ were the Canadian genders balanced. But selves. '*^''' even in the seventeenth century, Canadien- The reasons for their success were nes married young and reproduced often, mainly two: in the words of Ben Franklin, doubling the population at least every "marriages in America are more general. thirty years. Fortunately for their Indian hosts and English neighbors, this high rate of natural increase was wasted on a min­ uscule base population. When General '"R, Cole Harris and John Warkentin, Canada Before Con­ James Wolfe's British army climbed to the federation: A Study in Historical Geography (New York, 1974), 19-21, 32-37; Jacques Henripin and Yves Peron, "The Plains of Abraham in 1759, New France Demographic Transition of the Province of Quebec," in had fewer than 70,000 Frenchmen, a defi­ D,V, Glass and Roger Revelle, eds,. Population and Social cit of colonial population on the order of Change (London, 1972), 213, 217, 220; Hubert Charbon- 32 to 1.*" neau et al, Naissance d'une population: Ees FranQais etabli au Canada au XVIIsiecle, Institut National d'Etudes Demograp- The biggest source of white faces in hiques, Travaux et Documents, Cahier no, 118 (Montreal, North America was of course Great Britain. 1987), 15-16; Mario Boleda, "Trente mille Franfais a la conquete du Saint-Laurent," in Histoire social/Social History, In the seventeenth century she sent more 23 (May, 1990), 153-177; Leshe Choquette, "Recruitment than 150,000 of her sons and daughters to of French Emigrants to Canada, 1600-1760," in Ida Altman the mainland colonies, and at least 350,000 and James Horn, eds,, "To Make America ": European Emigra­ more in the next century. In 1690, white tion in theEarly Modem Period (Berkeley, 1991), 131-171, ''"Historical Statistics of the United States, Series A, 91-104; Z, 1-23, ^'R,C, Simmons, The American Colonies: From Settlement to Independence (New York, 1976), 174-185; A, Roger Ekirch, '"Nicolas Sanchez-Albornez, "The Population of Colonial Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Spanish America," in Leslie Bethell, ed.. The Cambridge His­ Colonies, 1718-1775 (Oxford, 1987), 26-27. tory of Latin America. 'Volume II, Colonial Latin America (Cam­ ^^Jim Potter, "Demographic Development and Family bridge, 1984), 15-19; Magnus Morner, "Spanish Migration Structure," in Jack P. Greene and J.R. Pole, eds,. Colonial to the New World Prior to 1800: A Report on the State of British America: Essays in the New History of the Early Modem Research," in Fredi Chiappelli, ed,, First Images of America: Era (Baltimore, 1984), ch, 5; John J, McCusker and Russell The Impact of the New World on the Old (2 vols., Berkeley and R, Menard, The Economy of British America, 1607-1789 Los Angeles, 1976), 2:737-782, (Chapel HiU, 1985), ch, 10,

137 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 and more generally early, than in Europe."^'^ monwealth of the cod spurted to 150,000 Colonial women married at the age of within a century, owing largely to unpuri- twenty-one or -two, about four or five years tanical bedroom behaxlor. Boston alone sooner than their European sisters, and housed over 15,000 people.*^" But the fas­ they remarried quickly if their helpmates test-growing region, both by emigration died, both in part because men tended to and nature, was eighteenth-century Penn­ outnumber women. When their children sylvania. Between 1690 and 1790, "the best were born (at the normal European rate), poor man's country" (as its fans liked to fewer died in infancy and childhood describe it) saw its white population (before the ages of one and ten, respec­ increase thirty-eight-fold. On the eve of tively) and fewer mothers died in child­ independence, Philadelphia was the larg­ birth. In the absence of Catholic prohibi­ est and most diverse city in North America, tions (as in Latin American and Canada) filled with religious denominations, ethnic and birth control (except that partially pro­ groups, and social strata of every imagina­ vided by breast feeding), women contin­ ble stripe. The Iroquois and Delaware ued to have babies every two years. More­ chiefs invited there to be wooed to neu­ over, American mothers were healthier trality or the rebel cause in the imminent and lived longer than European mothers, war cannot have failed to be daunted by its thanks to sparser settlements, larger farms, 25,000 crowded inhabitants.^^ more fertile land, fuller larders, more nutritious food, and less virulent diseases. They therefore produced larger, taller, and healthier offspring, who in turn did the ET numbers alone do not allow same.-* Y'u s to draw a moral bead on The results of all this fecundity were the early American story. We must not only impressive to imperial administrators, cat­ know how many Europeans emigrated to— astrophic for the Indians. The Powhatans or invaded—Indian America, but also why. of Virginia couldn't have been too alarmed For without an understanding of their by the initial wave of English settlers and motives, we cannot treat them as moral soldiers, since 80 per cent of them died of agents with choices to make nor hold them their own ineptitude and disease. But by accountable for the foreseen and foresee­ 1640 the pale-faced population had recov­ able consequences of their actions. The ered from the deadly Indian uprising of one thing we can be sure of is that they 1622 and had reached some 10,000, largely came for a wide and usually mixed variety through persistent supplies from England. of reasons. At the beginning of the "Great By 1680 the contest for the colony had Migration" to Massachusetts, even a Puri­ been decisively won by the tobacco-plant­ tan promoter harbored no illusions about ing English, who now outnumbered the the exclusivity or purity of the migrants' natives 20 to 1.-'' motives. "As it were absurd to conceive Massachusetts, the other pole of arche­ typal Anglo-America, grew even faster. From only 9,000 Puritans in 1640, the com- -^Carville V, Earle, "Environment, Disease, and MortaHty in Early Virginia," in Thad W, Tate and David L, Ammer- man, eds.. The Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society (Chapel Hill, 1979), ch, 3: Simmons, The American Colonies, 24, 76; Wood, "The Changing Pop­ '^"Benjamin Franklin, The Interest of Great Britain Considered ulation of the Colonial Southeast," 38; Helen C, Rountree, . . . [and] Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peo­ Pocahontas's People: The Powhatan Indians of Virginia Through pling of Countries Csfc. [1751] (London, 1760), 51, Four Centuries (Norman, 1990), 96, 104, -•'Simmons, The American Colonies, 174, 179-181: Potter, ""Simmons, The American Colonies, 24, 175, 178, "Demographic Development," 148-150, •-'Ibid, 124, 176, 178,

138 AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC they have all one motive," wrote John European farmers, craftsmen, and mer­ White in The Planters Plea, "so were it more chants for wanting to forge a better life for ridiculous to imagine they have all one their families, even if they wound up on scope. ... It may be private interests may land that once belonged to America's prevail with some. One brother may draw native inhabitants? The vast majority of over another, a son the father, and perhaps immigrants rarely, if ever, saw the original some man his inward acquaintance. . . . owners, much less cheated them or forced Necessity may press some, novelty draw on them from their land. Even male freehold­ others, hopes of gain in time to come may ers seldom knew about the back-room chi­ prevail with a third sort. "2*^ canery of their elected representatives who For many, but by no means all, settlers speculated in ill-gotten Indian lands. Much of New England, religion played a key role less could the voters control the machina­ in their decision to uproot their families tions of imperial officials and army officers and move to America. But religious motives who wheeled and dealed for the same sorts did not always guarantee the health, sov­ of native property. If we blame ordinary ereignty, or well-being of the American colonists for wanting lower taxes, less natives. Believers who wished simply to crowding, more land, higher wages, health­ practice their own faiths without persecu­ ier climates, more and better food, and tion, real or imagined, may be let off the family harmony, we will have to include hook—unless, of course, like the Puritans, ourselves in the blame—and most of the their own intolerance and desire for a state human race, for that matter. Collective monopoly led them to proscribe the guilt of such magnitude does not seem very natives' worship of their own gods. On the productive. other hand, French nuns and missionaries What is more, immigrants were not only were sent (or drawn) to Canada by visions drawn to America but pushed out of of transforming the "pagan" wilderness Europe. Many shipped out because they into a "new Jerusalem" where nomadic were trying to run away from something: native souls "washed white in the blood of death sentences, debtor's prison, bishop's the [paschal] lamb" would join good courts, oppressive seignorial dues, recruit­ French Catholics to form "one [sedentary] ing sergeants. We may have little sympathy people." New English missionaries not for those who chose to evade their civil only reduced the native land base by reset­ responsibilities and the law, but what about tling the Indians in smaller, anglicized the scrupulous avoiders of sin and immor­ "praying towns," but also, though inadver­ ality who ran from drinking, gambling, and tently, increased the rash of contagious dis­ wanton women as if from the plague? eases among their neophytes. In other Should we cut no slack for poor henpecked words, good intentions alone are not suf­ husbands who fled from shrews and harri­ ficient to exempt historical actors from crit­ dans, or young women would could not icism. And history, unlike the law, has no wait an extra four or five years to marry and statute of limitations. -" start a family? How hardened do we have Other motives are equally hard to con­ to become to withhold our empathy from demn wholesale. Can we blame ordinary young servants who escaped abusive mas­ ters or young lovers kept apart by flinty or tightfisted patriarchs?

"'John WTiite, 'The Planters Plea (London, 1630), quoted If we want to take a hardnosed stance on in David Cressy, Coming Over: Migration and Communication the spoiling, illegitimate, or immoral char­ Between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century acter of white immigration, we would do (Cambridge, 1987), 85. ""James Axtell, The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures better to focus on those who came solely to in Colonial North America (New York, 1985), hijack America's wealth to Europe, often

139 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 with the help, witting or unwitting, of its African interior by rival African kings, mer­ native owners and trustees, or those who chants, and war chiefs.** carried war and destruction to Indian Before independence, the Spanish alone country, directly or indirectly, in pursuit of transported 1.5 million blacks to their col­ European geopolitical objectives. Obvi­ onies, perhaps 200,000 before 1650. In the ously it is easier to pillory the designers, Caribbean, blacks replaced the Indian and to some extent the agents, of military laborers who had died in massive numbers and economic imperialism than it is the from oppression, dislocation, and run-of-the-mill emigrant who bore no con­ imported diseases. By the seventeenth cen­ scious intent to defraud, harm, or dispos­ tury, the native population of Mexico and sess anyone. Oppressive Spanish mine coastal Peru were also seriously depleted, owners, freebooting pirates, absentee own­ so black slaves were substituted as panners ers of West Indian sugar plantations, mili­ of gold (they died too easily in the cold tary adventurers, and fork-tongued traders damp of the mines), as cutters of sugar who swindled Indians of their furs and cane, sailors, shipwrights, and particularly skins with watered rum and false measures as domestic servants in urban households. undoubtedly deserve our censure—mostly They did their work so well that by the because they contravened the moral stan­ eighteenth century the majority of blacks dards of their own day, less, perhaps, were free, especially the women and chil­ because those standards resemble our own. dren of the cities who were manumitted by At the same time, we should recognize their owners at death or by purchase.**^ that to condemn every aggressive military, In Canada the French preferred Indian religious, or economic action in the past is slaves from the eastern Plains and Great to question some of the fundaments of Lakes whom they called panis (after the Western society, past and present If every­ Pawnees of modern-day Nebraska). In 125 thing associated with mercantilism, capital­ years they imported only 1,132 Africans ism, evangelical religion, and armed force (fewer than ten a year), mostly as house­ is beyond the moral pale, we may find it hold servants in Quebec and Montreal. difficult, if not impossible, to approach our Since they were expensive and relatively past—or the histories of most of the world's rare, their lot was not onerous and, con­ cultures—with the requisite empathy, trary to expectations, they adjusted to the understanding, and disinterestedness. Canadian winters with little difficulty.** But their brethren in French Louisiana had a much harder row to hoe, to judge NOTHER topic that requires from the mortality rates. Between 1719 and A^an abundance of all three 1735, royal and company administrators qualities, but allows ample room for moral imported some 7,000 Africans, mostly judgment, is slavery. Nineteen per cent of "Bambaras," or acculturated slave soldiers, the human shards in the social mosaic of from Senegal. Yet in 1735 only 3,400 the new United States were black, the result of a legal, culturally sanctioned, but hei­ '"Historical Statistics of the United States, Series A, 91-104. nous trade in African slaves.*" The slave "William D. Phillips, Jr., Slavery from Roman Times to the trade was already ancient by the time Amer­ Early Transatlantic Trade (Minneapolis, 1985). ica was brought into the European orbit in '" Rout, The African Experience in Spanish America, 61-66, ch, 3: Frederick P, Bowser, "Africans in Spanish American 1492. But the discovery of gold, the devel­ Colonial Society," in Bethell, Cambridge History of Latin opment of sugar plantations, and the America, 2:357-379, founding of cities in Spanish and Portu­ "Marcel Trudel, L 'Esclavage au Canada franfais: Histoire et conditions de I'esclavage (Quebec, 1960), ch, 3; Robin Winks, guese America created a vast new market The Blacks in Canada: A History (Montreal and New Haven, for the human chattels brought from the 1971), ch, 1, "Slavery in New France, 1628-1760,"

140 AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC

remained to be counted. The same loss of was only 7 per cent black; by 1720, 30 per life must have occurred during the next cent. The proportion of blacks in South fifty years: over 20,000 arrived but the black Carolina went from 16 to 70 per cent in the population in 1785 was only 16,500. Even same forty years, making it the only main­ immigration could not keep pace with land colony with a black majority. And that Louisiana's morbid climate and the physi­ was just the beginning: between 1730 and cal demands of plantation labor.** 1770, Anglo-America imported between The English demand for black labor 4,000 and 7,000 Africans every year. grew much more slowly than did the Span­ Strangely enough, even this influx did not ish, largely because the supply of inden­ amount to much on an international scale: tured servants from the British Isles was only 4.5 per cent of the 10 million slaves adequate until the late seventeenth cen­ who survived capture and the horrendous tury. With the renewal of tobacco prices in "Middle Passage" to the New World were Europe and the development of rice cul­ landed in the English mainland colonies. ture in South Carolina, however, English The vast majority went to the Caribbean, planters in both Tidewater and Piedmont where their chances for living long were had need for hands that could not be fully very slim, or to Latin America, where they met by white workmen, who in any event were somewhat better. Although the con­ often proved troublesome to the colonial dition of perpetual bondage was never elite upon gaining their freedom. So the easy, life on English farms and planta­ planters turned primarily to "seasoned" tions—for economic more than for slaves from the West Indies to fill the gap. humanitarian reasons—was tolerable Thanks to an increase in the African traffic enough to allow the black population to in colonial and British bottoms, the price increase naturally as well as by constant of a strong male slave remained a bargain infusions of new or "outlandish" Afri- when amortized over a lifetime. But after cans. 1720, demand for acculturated West Indian slaves outstripped the supply, and 80 per cent of the slaves for English plan­ tations came directly from Africa.*-'' |ESPITE the uninvited pres­ D ence of some 4 million Euro­ Black talent and energy were never peans and Africans, it could be argued— equally distributed in time or space. In and was—that America in 1790 had plenty 1690, for example, both Maryland and of elbow room for both natives and strang­ Connecticut had white populations of ers. Even if the natives had been at full, pre- 21,000, but the New England colony had Columbian strength, some said, a slight only 200 blacks to Maryland's nearly 2,200. change in their economy would have freed With double the white inhabitants, Virginia up enough land for all the newcomers with­ had more than four times the number of out any noticeable pinch. By giving up the Maryland's blacks. Overall, the English wild, nomadic life of the hunter for the mainland colonies could count fewer than taming, sedentary life of the farmer, the 17,000 blacks, or 8 per cent of the intrusive population. A hundred years later, more than three-quarters of a million blacks had '^Daniel H, Usner, Jr,, "From African Slavery to Ameri­ moved into Indian America with their can Slavery: The Introduction of Black Laborers to Colonial Louisiana," in Louisiana History, 20 (Winter, 1979), 25-48. white masters. *" ""Donald R. Wright, African Americans in the Colonial Era: After 1680 the proliferation of black From African Origins through the American Revolution (Arling­ faces was especially noticeable in the ton Heights, 1990), ch, 1, '"Historical Statistics of the United States, Series Z, 1-23. South, from the Chesapeake to South Car­ '"Simmons, The American Colonies, 87, 125, 186; Wright, olina. In 1680, Virginia's social complexion African Americans in the Colonial Era, 17-18, 20.

141 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY WTNTER, 1992-1993

Indians (by which was meant male Indians) that eastern America was big enough for would require only a fraction of their for­ everyone made one large, erroneous mer real estate and would be happy to swap assumption about the Indian economy: the residue with their white neighbors for they assumed that the natives were primar­ the more valuable blessings of civiliza­ ily hunters who chased wild game over the tion—among them Christianity, short hair, whole map. In fact, the Indians in the huge and long pants. And if for some perverse area claimed by the kings of England sub­ reason they did not like the sight or sound sisted primarily on vegetables—corn, of foreign neighbors, they could always beans, and squash—cultivated by their move west, beyond the Mississippi, where women in the most fertile soils available. the white man would never think of mov­ Among these three-season fields they lived ing.**^ in semi-permanent towns and villages rang­ But of course the natives were not at full ing from several hundred to a couple of strength in 1790, and their room for thousand inhabitants. Although the maneuvering was greatly circumscribed by women provided 50-75 per cent of the nearly three hundred years of cultural annual diet, native men did have to range crowding and numerical decline. In the far and wide for the rest. Until the men South, where they were at their strongest, could be persuaded by white reason or they had suffered a 72 per cent drop in necessity to obtain their protein from population since 1695, while the white set­ domestic cattle and pigs rather than from tlers had multiplied 21 times and the blacks fish and game, the natives were forced to nearly 18. The hardest hit were the natives guard their extensive hunting and fishing of eastern South Carolina, who went from grounds as jealously as they defended their 10,000 to 300 in a century, a dechne of 97 villages and fields. per cent. The Natchez and other Indians The advent of European farmers in of the lower Mississippi were not far behind search of those same cleared and fertile at 90 per cent: at 4,000 they were actually fields put them on a predestinate collision experiencing a slight rebound from a nadir course with the Indians. Initially, there was of 3,600 in 1760, but they had irretrievably no question of sharing the best soils, lost 38,000 relatives since the seventeenth because in most areas the native popula­ century. The Choctaws and Chickasaws, tion pressed hard against the carrying who had been able to play off the Louisiana capacity of the environment and fully occu­ French and the Carolina English before pied most of the prime farm land. The 1763, had lost only half their people; but issue that was to be decided over the next the Cherokees, located closer to the Eng­ three centuries was whether one intrusive lish colonies, suffered a 75 per cent group of farmers (and land speculators) decline.*" The story in New England, Penn­ would replace another, indigenous group sylvania, and Virginia was no different. Eve­ of farmers. How this was in fact done varied rywhere, the original owners of the thir­ from colony to colony. But in general the teen colonies had been reduced to a English (and their reluctant black helpers) slender fraction of their former selves and prevailed by out-reproducing the natives an even smaller minority of the states' new and causing their precipitous decline as citizens. How had this corae about? independent peoples. Contemporaries who wishfully asserted The Indians could not reproduce them­ selves because their mortality rates far out­ stripped their birth rates. The single ""Bernard W, Sheehan, Seeds of Extinction: Jeffersonian Phi­ greatest cause of native deaths was epi­ lanthropy and the American Indian (Chapel Hill, 1973). '"Wood, "The Changing Population of the Colonial demic diseases imported from Europe South," 38-39. without malice aforethought. In the so-

142 AXTELL: THE COLUMBIAN MOSAIC

called "virgin soil" populations of the traders. The Cherokee medicine men Americas, European afflictions such as attributed the epidemic to a polluting out­ smallpox, typhus, diphtheria, measles, break of "unlav\ful copulation" by young mumps, and whooping cough—many of marrieds who "violated their ancient laws them childhood diseases—turned adult of marriage ... in the night dews." A killers because the natives had acquired no "great many" of those who survived the immunities to them. Ignorant of their onslaught horribly killed themselves, not causes, the Indians treated them like famil­ out of shame for their supposedly sacrile­ iar ailments by immuring patients in a gious actions, but because they literally sweat lodge and then immersing them in could not bear to live with the pock-marked the nearest body of cold water. If this did faces they saw in their recently traded hand not kill them, lack of fire, water, and ele­ mirrors.' mentary nursing usually did, for in the absence of quarantine, virtually everyone contracted the disease at the same time.*" In a shipborne plague of 1616, for exam­ ^HE second major horseman of ple, the natives of coastal New England T' the Indian apocalypse was "died on heaps, as they lay in their houses. war, and the dislocation, starvation, and . . . The livinge being . . . not able to bury exposure that inevitably accompanied it. the dead, they were left for Crowes, Kites, Most of the Anglo-Indian wars were named and vermin to pray upon." One of the ear­ after the Indians involved: the "Powhatan lier English settlers compared the bone- Uprising"—or "Massacre"—of 1622, the strewn landscape to "a new found Golga- "Pequot War" of 1637, "King Philip's tha."** And that was before either Pilgrim War" of 1675 (named for the Wampanoag or Puritan had stepped off the boat. chief Metacomet who was dubbed King Throughout the colonies, from the Philip by the English), the "Tuscarora beginning of contact. Old World patho­ War" of 1763, and so on. This should not gens served as the shocktroops of the Eur­ opean invasion, softening up the enemy "Alfred W. Crosby, ' 'Virgin Soil Epidemics as a Factor in before the battalions of busy farmers the Aboriginal Depopulation in America," in the William waded ashore. From the English stand­ and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser,, 33 (April, 1976), 289-299: point, these were "preparative Stroakes" Crosby, "'God , , , Would Destroy Them, and Give Their Country to Another People ,,,'," in American Heritage, 29:6 of divine providence. As a South Carolina (October-November, 1978), 39-42; Sherburne F, Cook, governor put it succinctly, "the Hand of "The Significance of Disease in the Extinction of the New God was eminently seen in thin[n]ing the England Indians," in Human Biology, 45 (1973), 48.5-508; Indians, to make room for the English. "*2 John Duffy, "Smallpox and the Indians of the American Colonies," in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 25 (1951), And thin them He—or the diseases—did. 324-341; Peter H. Wood, "The Impact of Smallpox on the Smallpox was the worst scourge. In 1699 Native Population of the 18th Century South," in the Neto it typically swept away a whole nation in York Statejoumal of Medicine, 87 January, 1987), 30-36; Rus­ sell Thornton, American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Pop­ coastal South Carolina, "all [but] 5 or 6 ulation History Since 1492 (Norman, 1987), ch. 4, which ran away and left their dead unbu- "Thomas Morton, New English Canaan (London, 1632), ried, lying upon the ground for the vul­ in Peter Force, comp,. Tracts and Other Papers Relating Prin­ tures to devour."** Forty years later the cipally to the Ori^n, Settlement, and Progress of the Colonies in Nonh America. . . (4 vols,, Washington, 1836-1847), 2: doc, Cherokees were suddenly reduced by half 5, pp. 18-19. by a contagion which had been "conveyed '"Alexander S, Salley, Jr,, ed,. Narratives of Early Carolina, in Charlestown by the Guinea-men," as 1650-1708, Original Narratives of Early American History (New James Adair called African slaves, "and York, 19111,284-285, "Quoted in Duffy, "Smallpox and the Indians," 332, soon after among them, by . . . infected ^^Adair's History of the American Indians [London, 1775], goods" carried on packtrain by English ed. by Samuel Cole Williams (New York, 1966), 244-245.

143 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 surprise us; after all, the victors have always slaves.*" Another was to play on the reason­ written the histories and blamed the losers able native regard for European trade for instigating war in the first place. But in goods, particularly cloth, metal tools, guns, every so-called "Indian war" in colonial and addictive alcohol. By extending credit, America, the warring Indians invariably the English traders got the Indians into reacted to European provocations, usurpa­ deep debt, which could not be settled with­ tions, or desecrations—arrogations much out selling real estate or hunting and trap­ more specific and serious than mere tres­ ping the local fur-bearing fauna to obliv­ passing on Indian soil. Because they were ion.*' quickly outnumbered by the prolific and But for effortless cunning, the third ploy technologically superior newcomers, each took the cake. English farmers simply warring tribe or confederacy had to have released their corn-loving cattle and swine their collective back to the wall or their sto­ into the natives' unfenced fields. The ical patience exhausted before risking Indian plea on this score to the Maryland armed conflict legislature in 1666 speaks eloquently for Their caution and forbearance were well the plight of most coastal Algonquians in placed, for once the aggressing colonists the seventeenth century. "Your hogs & Cat­ felt the sting of attack, they became in their tle injure Us, You come too near Us to live own minds aggrieved victims whose cause & drive Us from place to place," Matta- represented holy vengeance. The colonists' gund complained matter-of-factly. "We can retaliations were usually savage, if not par­ fly no farther: let us know where to live & ticularly swift; their very lack of defensive how to be secured for the future from the preparations was predicated on their belief Hogs & Cattle." *** that no one could doubt their innocence. But of course the honorable assembly­ So the Indians suffered doubly. To take but men of Maryland had nothing to say. Like one example, of some 11,600 natives in their successors in the national Congress of southern New England in 1675, King Phi­ 1790, they sat on their hands as Indian lip's War claimed almost 7,900 victims, or America was slowly but inexorably trans­ 68 per cent of the belligerent population, muted into a lopsided mosaic—a mosaic in little more than a year. Perhaps 1,250 predominantly white and significantly died in battle, 625 later died of wounds, black, with only a fading margin and a few 3,000 succumbed to exposure and disease, shrinking islands of native brown. 1,000 were sold as slaves and transported out of the country, and 2,000 became per­ manent refugees from their native land.*'' '^Sherburne F. Cook, "Interracial Warfare and Popula­ tion Decline Among the New England Indians," in Ethnoh­ In every English colony, native peoples istory, 20:1 (Winter, 1973), 1-24, found themselves regarded as environmen­ •'"Almon Wheeler Lauber, Indian Slavery in Colonial Times tal impediments to colonial "improve­ Within the Present Limits of the United States, Columbia Uni­ ment," not unlike awkwardly placed versity Studies in History, Economics, and Public Law, vol, 54, no, 3 (New York, 1913); William Robert Snell, "Indian swamps or undiscriminating wolves. If the Slavery in Colonial South Carolina, 1671-1795" (doctoral crowding of the English did not kill them dissertadon. University of Alabama, 1972); Robert P, Wie- through war or contagion, the colonists gers, "A Proposal for Indian Slave Trading in the Missis­ developed an arsenal of tactics to wrest the sippi Valley and Its Impact on the Osage," in the Plains Anthropologist, 33 (May, 1988), 187-202, land from them or to dispirit them enough *'Paul Chrisler Phillips, The Fur Trade (2 vols,, Norman, to move "voluntarily." One way was to 1961); James Axtell, "The First Consumer Revolution," in incite "civil" war between rival tribes and Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial Norih America (New York, to reward one side for producing Indian 1992), '"William Hand Browne et al, eds.. Archives of Maryland slaves, who were therr sold to the West (72 vols, to date; Baltimore, 1883—), 2:14-15 [Proceedings Indies, often for more biddable black and Acts of the General .Assembly, April 12, 1666],

144 WHi(D31)216

Near Madison, about 1873-1879. A photograph by Andrew Dahl

145 BOOK REVIEWS

Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise Committee (PAG) of the Congress of of American Labor. By STEVEN ERASER. (Free Industrial Organizations (CIO), Hillman Press, New York, 1991. Pp. xvi, 688. Illustra­ struggled to reconcile his heritage in immi­ tions, notes, index. ISBN 0-02-910630-3, grant working-class radicalism with his $29.95.) growing interest in scientific management and bureaucratic politics. He became Steven Eraser's Labor Will Rule is much America's preeminent "labor statesman" more, and occasionally a little less, than a because he embodied, in so may ways, the biography of Sidney Hillman. Eraser charts basic transformation of the American labor Hillman's rise from a Russian Jewish immi­ movement itself. The rise of industrial grant working in the garment industry of unionism, the development of collective Chicago to positions of power in the indus­ bargaining structures in many key eco­ trial union movement and the administra­ nomic sectors, and the growing links with tion of Franklin Roosevelt. This is, literally, the Democratic party were all nurtured by a "rag trade" to political riches story; but Hillman in his capacities as union presi­ it is not quite as Horatio Alger would have dent, CIO leader, and New Deal political en-visioned it. For Eraser also uses the life functionary. of Hillman as a window into the complex Eraser does an especially good job of sur­ evolution of the triangular relationship veying the vast terrain of industrial rela­ between labor, capital, and the state in tions in the first half of the twentieth cen­ twentieth-centur}' America. tury, far beyond the confines of Hillman's Eraser places Hillman at the center of own personal biography, and insightfully crucial events and fundamental debates probing the historical roots of political and which shaped the course of the modern economic conundrums which continue to American labor movement, and American plague the labor movement even today. He history itself in the twentieth century. From traces the lineage of industrial unionism, his ascending to the presidency of the usually associated with the rise of the CIO newly formed Amalgamated Clothing in the 1930's, back into the garment indus­ Workers (ACW) in 1914, to his death in try at the turn of the century. He sees the 1946 while leading the Political Action origins of the big business-big labor

146 BOOK REVIEWS accords of the post-World War II era in the twentieth-century American labor move­ attempts at industry-wide labor agreements ment. In bringing Hillman back to the cen­ before and after World War I. And he ter of labor history, Eraser has also recon- uncovers debates over new technology and ceptualized many of the basic institutional labor-management cooperation, in the first and ideological developments of twentieth- decades of this century, which are strikingly century America itself. This is a book similar to discussions of the same issues in which, on nearly every page, contains new the contemporary workplace. insights into the making of modern Amer­ In a book of nearly 700 pages, it is diffi­ ica and its labor movement—it will make cult to fault the author for leaving out any­ readers ponder the significance of Hill­ thing. Eraser's command of the sources man, unions, economics, and politics long (some of them from the State Historical after the final sentence is read. Society of Wisconsin's vast holdings in American labor history) is nearly encyclo­ DAVID A. ZONDERMAN pedic. Yet, even Eraser admits in his Pref­ University of Wisconsin—Madison ace that this book "is a biography only in the loosest sense. Hillman's private life . . . is scarcely touched on. . . . And ... I have allowed myself the liberty of wandering far Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the afield from the narrative line of his public Lake Superior Copper Mines. By LARRY LANK- life . . . the odd proportions of this biog­ TON. (Oxford University Press, New York, raphy lend an unduly instrumental quality 1991. Pp. xi, 319. Photographs, notes, bib­ to Hillman's life." Thus, this book could liography, index. ISBN 0-19-506263-9, have presented a more complete portrait $39.95.) of Hillman the man without resorting to personal trivia or psychohistory, both of Larry Lankton's work is a "social history which the author was wise to avoid. And if of technology," chronicling twelve decades Eraser, the executive editor at Basic Books, of copper mining on Upper Michigan's had practiced more of his craft on his own Keweenaw Peninsula, located on Lake book, he might have trimmed down some Superior's south shore. Cradle to Grave is a of the elaborate background he provides to wonderfully readable and informative story certain events, and some of the long para­ of the symbiotic relationship between men, graphs listing dozens of names from the the metal they sought, and the physical and "Keynesian" political elite who supported social conditions under which they various Hillman initiatives in industrial labored. Part institutional history, the work relations. also describes the rise and fall of the cor­ The sheer enormity of this book—the porations, particularly Calumet and Hecla, weight and volume of its evidence, and the which dominated the region and its single breadth of its often brilliant analysis and industry for over a century. frequently elegant prose—is the source of The story begins with the formation of so much strength and an occasional weak­ native (in its pure form) copper deposits ness. There are moments when Eraser's several hundred million years ago and ends desire to explain everything leads to con­ with the closing of the last of the major voluted chronologies, and his flair for the mines in 1970. In between, the Keweenaw written word sometimes gets away from became an important commercial mining him and produces dense sentences loaded center. Cornish miners dominated its early down with terms which remain ill-defined. years, but "new" ethnic stocks, particularly Yet, these are relatively minor flaws in an Finns, began to take their places around otherwise monumental achievement in the turn of the century. Because of copper restoring Sidney Hillman to his rightful mining's predominance, it permeated vir­ and crucial position in the creation of the tually all aspects of these and other resi-

147 a- i

VmHXi)?,440i

Loading and handling cars with copper rock, Calumet-Hecla Mines, Calumet, Michigan. A stereo view by Keystone View Company. 148 BOOK REVIEWS

dents' lives, both above and below ground. looked and precisely how it operated. The Second generations and beyond followed same can be said about other mining hard­ their forefathers into the mines, and wid­ ware, such as man-cars and even the hoist­ ows and orphans looked to the mining ing steam engines. The book also should companies in times of need. have included diagrams of a typical mine, This paternalism, Lankton convincingly showing shafts, drifts, winzes, stopes, and illustrates, was the Keweenaw's most salient other working areas and a detailed map of feature. Companies provided benefits, the area. The one small map found in the such as housing, fuel for heating and cook­ photo section is inadequate. Yet, these ing, medical care, and support for schools weaknesses should not detract from Cradle and churches, but these perks came at a to Graves overall high quality. high price. Employers expected, and when necessary demanded, unwavering loyalty; ROBERT F. ZEIDEL they operated on the premise that what was good for the company was good for the University of Wisconsin—Stout worker. Obsequious acceptance of com­ pany policy engendered rewards in the form of paternal favors. But the corpora­ tions responded with unflinching resolve if The Milwaukee Road. By FREDERICK W. laborers balked at management-induced HYDE. (Hyrail Productions, Denver, 1990. innovations, for example, those involving Pp. 192. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, work rules or new technology. They toler­ index of photographers. ISBN 0-9628699- ated no challenge to their hegemony, par­ 0-2, $64.95.) ticularly from organized labor. The com­ panies made this perfectly clear in 1913 The Milwaukee Road, actually the Chi­ and 1914, when they collaborated not sim­ cago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Rail­ ply to break a strike, but to destroy the road, started on February 25, 1851, with a workers' nascent unionism. twenty-mile run between Milwaukee and Cradle to Grave should appeal to a large Waukesha over the Milwaukee and Missis­ and varied audience. While work has been sippi Railway. The railroad's original route done on the history of copper mining, through Milton and Madison to Prairie du most, such as Michael P. Malon's Battle for Chien still exists, owned now by the State Butte, have focused on the mountain West. of Wisconsin and operated by the Wiscon­ Therefore, labor, social, and technological sin and Calumet Railroad. But the Milwau­ historians will welcome Lankton's work as kee Road itself stopped on February 18, a useful addition to the literature in their 1985, when it was sold to the Soo Line Rail­ fields. But this is not a dull, arcane, aca­ road Company. demic monograph, and I recommend it to This is a picture book mostly, with 269 all readers who enjoy stories of the past, full-color images from seventy-seven pho­ especially those familiar with the "UP." tographers. It was published, I suspect, for Both professionals and laymen should railfans. But the Milwaukee Road was a his­ appreciate Lankton's meticulous research toric railroad, ranging from Indiana to the and his engrossing prose. Pacific Northwest, and these pictures pres­ The work has one glaring weakness—a ent a significant part of that history: what lack of illustrations. Several pages of pho­ the system's trains and the regions they tographs do give the reader a visual sense worked looked like in its last thirty-five of the miners' world, but drawings and dia­ years. grams would have helped to clarify the text. In his foreword, author Fred Hyde says For example, the description of a "man- he did not intend the photos he chose "to engines" is interesting, but this reviewer be historically definitive, nor all-encom­ had trouble picturing exactly how one passing, but instead the broadest selection

149 WTSCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993 of color images which best illustrate the tiful, informative, and important book Milwaukee Road at the highest possible about one of Wisconsin's pioneering trans­ level of technical and artistic sophistica­ portation systems. tion." A major part of the Milwaukee Road's DEN ADLER high technical and artistic sophistication, Janesville, Wisconsin however, was reflected in its passenger trains, the famous Hiawathas, with equip­ ment built in the railroad's own Milwaukee shops. For whatever reason, Hyde chose to Reform and Revolution: The Life and Times of concentrate on freights; he included only Raymond Robins. By NEIL V. SALZMAN. The a few photos of the Milwaukee's trend-set­ (Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, ting passenger trains. To me, this is the 1991. Pp. xiv, 472. Illustrations, bibliogra­ book's greatest flaw. phy, index. ISBN 0-87338-426-1, $35,000 Still, Hyde admits he didn't plan to be definitive, and the photos he included As head of the American Red Cross Com­ show the wide variety of terrain and equip­ mission to St. Petersburg in 1917, Raymond ment the Milwaukee Road was known for. Robins tried to persuade Lenin and Trot­ Chapters four and five describe Wiscon­ sky to keep Russia in the war against Ger­ sin operations, with photos ranging from many. Allied aid was the reward. Robins the busy Milwaukee shops yard with County tried to convince the Wilson administra­ Stadium in the background, to trains on tion that the Bolsheviks were listening to the "feeble trackage" of the now-aban­ him. His efforts failed. Lenin promised the doned Viroqua branch, to a red sun setting Russians peace, land, and bread, and Trot­ over a snow-bound locomotive on the Mad­ sky subsequently signed the Treaty of Brest ison-Portage line. Litovsk. Woodrow Wilson believed all rev­ The book carries excellent maps of the olutions ought to eventuate as the Ameri­ Milwaukee Road system and its divisions. can Revolution. But had Robins succeeded, The text is short, presenting only a sum­ twentieth-century history might not have mary of each division's history. Yet there is had as dismaying a career as it has. It wasn't a wealth of detail in those summaries and in the cards, yet this remarkable man in the photo captions. In some chapters, played his hand well and why he was able first-person accounts of former employees to play it well is the core of this estimable present xdews not found in the railroad's biography by Professor Salzman. corporate records. Robins was born in 1873 to a family For greater detail, see August Derleth's trapped by bad economic luck and more 1948 book, The Mihvaukee Road: Its First than its share of psychological traumas. He Hundred Years, and two books by Jim Scrib- was an exploited working man before the bins that Hyde lists in his bibliography, The twenties. He remained uncrushed and Hiawatha Story (1970) and Milwaukee Road dreamt of financial success and fame. He Remembered (1990). Scribbins' first book studied law, passed the California bar, and won a distinguished service award from the took up the cases of the poor and State Historical Society of Wisconsin, and oppressed and unjustly deprived. He pros­ the latter won a certificate of commenda­ pected for gold in Alaska where he took tion from the American Association for desperate, imperiling chances, surmount­ State and Local History. ing them to become a spokesman for min­ You can feel safe judging this book by its ers dispossessed, cheated, and victimized cover: an early-morning photograph of by the shipping interests, the cartels, and orange and black electric locomotives haul­ the mining combines. A little later he was ing freight around a forested Montana a passionate and effective settlement mountain. It's a beautiful cover for a beau­ worker in Chicago, where his reputation

150 WHi (X3) 468,^7 •Will (X3) 46838

Elizabeth, Raymond, and Mrs. Raymond Robins. made him a candidate for the United States senator on the Progressive ticket in 1912. He understood politics and he under­ stood the working man, which enabled him to reason with Lenin and Trotsky. He did not see the world-wide revolution nor did he see the democratic century. He saw the ways and means of 1917-1918. He also had fervor. He was a Christian, an evangelist, in fact, imbued with dedication and the capacity for sacrifice. "He looked like an Indian," writes Salzman, "with a bible for a tomahawk." Robins never made a million. He wanted the million to build a fantasy palace for his sister, an American actress who achieved singular success on the London stage and for whom he indulged life-long, intense incestuous desires to the distress of his wife and the discomfort of his sister. We need to thank Salzman not only for his fine prose but for preserving a page in complex international politics. With another revolution aborning in Russia, who knows what pages the new leaders will want to erase?

RICHARD GOLDHURST WHi(X3)46842 Westport, Connecticut

151 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY WINTER, 1992—1993

Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary 8, 1789) answered its critics, explained his Record from the First Federal Congress. Edited earlier reservations about "parchment bar­ by HELEN E. VEIT, KENNETH R. BOWLING, riers," and also offered the insight that in and CHARLENE BANGS BICKFORD. (The a republican system the courts would pro­ Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore tect the rights of the minority against the and London, 1991. Pp. xxiv, 323. Notes, tyranny of the majority. index. ISBN 0-8018-4099-6, $42.50, cloth; Madison's initial proposal to modify the ISBN 0-8018-4100-3, $10.95, paper.) Constitution itself evoked a remarkable outpouring of respect for the work of the This is an excellent collection of original Philadelphia Convention. According to source materials on the adoption of the Bill Mr. Clymer, "I wish . . . that the Constitu­ of Rights by the editors of the First Federal tion may forever remain in its original Congress project. The book is divided into form, as a monument of the wisdom and three main parts, and includes an inform­ patriotism of those who framed it." Roger ative biographical gazetteer. After describ­ Sherman, who also opposed Madison's ing the passage of the Bill of Rights in a plan, felt that adding amendments as a short introduction, the first section pres­ postscript to the Constitution would dimin­ ents the various amendments proposed by ish their importance. The editors quietly the state ratifying conventions and those identify Roger Sherman's much-bally- made in Congress itself, the second records hooed "Bill of Rights" as a draft committee the debates from the Congressional Register report. and in newspapers, and the third offers a It is unfortunate, if understandable, that unique selection of congressional corre­ this collection was limited to the First Con­ spondence on the issue. A legislative cal­ gress. This decision omits material from endar helps to keep everything in perspec­ the protracted debate between 1787 and tive. 1789 over whether the adoption of the This volume reveals how controversial a Constitution threatened individual liber­ bill of rights in 1789. James Madison, whose ties. A comprehensive sourcebook marking reputation as the father of the Bill of Rights the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights is amply demonstrated here, overcame should ideally include the earlier opinions Federalist opposition and indifference, as of George Mason, James Wilson, Patrick well as surprising antagonism from Antifed- Henry, "Brutus," and the host of lesser- eralists. The former did not want to weaken known writers, if only to place the issue in the new government or waste time in end­ its broadest contemporary perspective. For less debate over nebulous rights, while the this one should consult the edited volumes latter were disappointed with superficial of John P. Kaminski et al.. The Documentary amendments which did nothing to limit History of the Ratification of the Constitution the power of the federal government. (1976—), Merrill Jensen et al.. The Docu­ According to Antifederalist Richard Henry mentary History of the First Federal Flections, Lee, "It must never be forgotten, however, 1788-1790 (1976-1989), and Herbert J. that the liberties of the people are not so Storing, The Complete Anti-Federalist (1981). safe under the gracious manner of govern­ ment, as by the limitation of power." Mad­ WHITMAN H. RIDGWAY ison's masterful defense of his plan (June- University of Maryland-College Park

Book Reviews

Fraser, Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of Salzman, Reform and Revolution: The Life and Times of Ammcan LaAor, reviewed by David A. Zonderman . 146 Raymond Robins, reviewed by Richard Goldhurst .,, 150 Hyde, The Milwaukee Road, reviewed by Den Adler 149 Veit et al., editors. Creating the Bill of Rights: The Lankton, Cradle to Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress, Superior Copper Mines, reviewed by Robert Zeidel .,, 147 reviewed by Whitman H. Ridgway 152

152 Wisconsin History Catharina Burg, 1667-1988. (Oshkosh?, Checklist Wisconsin, 1988. Pp. 219. Illus. No price listed. Available from authors, 1107 West New York Avenue, Oshkosh, Wisconsin Recently published and currently available Wiscon- 54901.) siana added to the Society's Library are listed below. The compilers, Gerald R. Eggleston, Acquisitions Librarian, and Susan Dorst, Assistant Acquistions Bellin, Loretta M., and Bellin, Teri L. The Librarian, are interested in obtaining information Family of Joseph Scholz &' Theresia Winkler, about (or copies of) items that are not widely adver­ 1800-1988 (Oshkosh?, Wisconsin, 1988. tised, such as publications of local historical socie­ Pp. 202. Illus. No price Hsted. Available ties, family histories and genealogies, privately printed works, and histories of churches, institu­ from authors, 1107 West New York Ave­ tions, or organizations. Authors and publishers wish­ nue, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901.) ing to reach a wider audience and also to perform a valuable bibliographic service are urged to inform the compilers of their publications, including the Bernstein, Rebecca Sample. City of Eau following information: author, title, location and Claire Waterway, Historic Sites Report. (Mad­ name of publisher, date of publication, price, pagi­ ison, Wisconsin, 1992? 46 leaves. Illus. nation and address of supplier. Write Susan Dorst, No price listed. Available from author, Acquisitions Section, 309 Norris Court, Madison, Wisconsin 53703.)

Bigler, Brian J., and Mudrey, Lynn Martin­ Alderson,Jo Bartels. Rain From a Clear Sky. son. The Norway Building of the 1893 Chi­ (Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1992. Pp. 198. cago World Fair: a Building's Journey from Illus. No price listed. Available from Norway to America; an Architectural Legacy. THE COMPANY for Wisconsin Arts, (Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. 88. P.O. Box 2191, Oshkosh, Wisconsin Illus. $15.95 plus $3.00 postage and han­ 54903.) Biography of the author's par­ dling. Available from Little Norway, 3576 ents, one-time southern Wisconsin resi­ Highway JG North, Blue Mounds, Wis­ dents. consin 53517.) The building became part of the Little Norway historical site. Apps, Jerry. Breweries of Wisconsin. (Madi­ son, Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. xx, 252. Illus. Bird, Mimi. The Village of Whitefish Bay, Cen­ $19.95. Available from University of Wis­ tennial 1892-1992. (Whitefish Bay?, Wis­ consin Press, 114 North Murray Street, consin, 1992. Pp. 60. Illus. $15.00. Avail­ Madison, Wisconsin 53715.) able from Whitefish Bay Foundation, 5300 North Marlborough Drive, White- Behm, Jeffery A. The 1990 and 1991 Archae­ fish Bay, Wisconsin 53217.) ological Survey and Evaluation of the Bell- haven Estates Property, Section 7, Town of Algoma, Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Boerner, A. Richard. Arthur and Hermine: (Oshkosh, Wisconsin, 1992. Reports of the History of Arthur Richard Boerner I Investigations, Number 1. Pp. xiii, 193, (1858—1909) and Hermine SonnenbergBoer­ A-83. Illus. No charge. Available from ner (1866-1907). (Madison?, Ohio, 1992. State Archaeological Regional 7, Anthro­ Pp. 111. Illus. No price listed. Available pology Program, Department of Relig­ from author, 2295 Green Road, Madi­ ious Studies, University of Wisconsin- son, Ohio 44057.) Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901- 8638.) Boerner, A. Richard. C. Friedrich Boerner and His Family: the First Hundred Years. (Mad­ Bellin, Loretta M., and Bellin, Teri L. The ison?, Ohio, 1989. 1 vol., various pagings. Family of Johannes Peter Guelig & Anna Illus. No price listed. Available from

153 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OE HISTORY WINTER, 1992-1993

author, 2295 Green Road, Madison, Community Library, 311 North Spring Ohio 44057.) Street, Beaver Dam, Wisconsin 53916.)

Brieske, Helen E. Ancestors and Descendants Geesaman, Claire. A Kraemer Chronicle. of Peter Michael Hansen and Christina Marie (Madison, Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. xii, 147. Clements (1879-1990), La Crosse County, Illus. No price listed. Available from Wisconsin. (Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Edgewood College, 855 Woodrow Street, 1990. Pp. iv, 214. Illus. No price Hsted. Madison, Wisconsin 53711.) Biography Available from author, Route #2, Box of Edward Kraemer, founder of Edward A165, Black River Falls, Wisconsin Kraemer &; Sons construction company. 54615.) Goc, MichaelJ. Native Realm: the Polish-Amer­ Childs, Blanche Reardon. A Reardon Family ican Community of Portage County, 1857- History: William J. Reardon and Bridget 1992. (Friendship, Wisconsin, New Past Murray from County Tipperary to St. Croix Press Inc., cl992. Pp. 159. Illus. $29.95 County, Wisconsin. (Evanston, Illinois, plus $3.00 postage and handling. Avail­ cl991. Pp. X, 235. Illus. No price listed. able from Portage County Historical Available from author, 2115 Payne Society, Box 672, Stevens Point, Wiscon­ Street, Evanston, Illinois 60201-2561.) sin 54481.)

Cincera, Angeline. The Family History and Gurda, John. The Bradley Legacy: Lynde and Genealogy of the Metz Family of Baden and Harry Bradley, Their Company and Their the Schieffer Family of Prussia. (Milwaukee, Foundation. (Milwaukee?, Wisconsin, Wisconsin, 1991. Pp. 113. Illus. No price cl992. Pp. in, 170. fllus. No price listed. listed. Available from author, 7136 North Available from the Lynde and Harry 42 Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53209.) Bradley Foundation, 777 East Wisconsin Cover dde is 1690-1990, the Metz and Avenue, Suite 2285, Milwaukee, Wiscon­ Schieffer Families. sin 53202-5395.)

Cutting, Barbara Sloop (Grant). The Cut­ Habermann, Helen (Endl). "Englebrechts ting Tree. (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, from Brandenburg Province — Prussia: a 1992. 154 leaves. Illus. No price listed. Wisconsin Immigrant Family and Their Available from author. Route 5, Box 492, Descendants," 1852-1991. (Watertown, Chippewa FaUs, Wisconsin 54729.) Wisconsin, 1991. Pp. 209. Illus. No price listed. Available from author, 812 North Davidson, Max. Davidsons: One Man's Fam­ Water Street, Watertown, Wisconsin ily. (Oregon, Wisconsin, 1992. Pp. [37]. 53094.) No price listed. Available from author, 6278 Sun Valley Parkway, Oregon, Wis­ Huebner, Betty Jarmer. farmer: Reflections consin 53575.) Past and Present. (Watertown, Wisconsin, 1992? Pp. 82, H. Illus. No price listed. Dillon, Dennis G. Argyle, Wisconsin, Boyhood Available from author, 1006 Meadow Home of Bob La Follette. (Argyle?, Wiscon­ Street, Watertown, Wisconsin 53094.) sin, 1992. Pp. 12. Illus. No price listed. Available from author. Box 1, Argyle, Joseph, Frank. The Lost Pyramids of Rock Wisconsin 53504.) Lake: Wisconsin's Sunken Civilization. (St. Paul, Minnesota, 1992. Pp. xvi, 193. Illus. Emery, Donna, and Arend, Mark W. Beaver $10.95 plus $1.05 postage and handling. Dam Daily Name Index, 1887-1890. (Bea­ Available from Galde Press, Inc., P.O. ver Dam, Wisconsin, 1992. 1 vol. No Box 65611, St. Paul, Minnesota 55165- price listed. Available from Beaver Dam 0611.)

154 WISCONSIN HISTORY CHECKLIST

Kelso, Patricia Moyle, and Sorenson, Juan- Museum, 224 South Seventh Avenue, ita Sumpter. A Genealogy of the Descendants Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin 54235-2216.) of Edwin Bottomley and Martha Jessop on the Occasion of the Sesquicentennial of Their Rosenberger, Alice. Lalley, Lamphier, Mor­ Immigration to Racine County, Wisconsin in row in Wisconsin. (Burlington, Wisconsin. 1842. (Madison?, Wisconsin, 1992. Pp. 1992. 1 vol. Illus. No price listed. Availa­ 86. No price listed. Available from ble from author, 1621 South Browns authors, 123 Vaughn Court, Madison, Lake Drive, Burlington, Wisconsin Wisconsin 53705.) 53105.)

Leinenkugel's 125th Anniversary Commemora­ Sesquicentennial Chronicle Update, 1965— tive Edition. (Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, 1990, First Congregational Church, UCC, Chippewa Herald Telegram, 1992. Pp. Madison, Wisconsin. (Madison, Wiscon­ 58. Illus. $2.00 plus $ .50 postage and sin, 1990. Pp. 96. Illus. No price Hsted. handling. Available from Leinenkugel's Available from First Congregational 125th Anniversary Special Section, 321 Church, 1609 University Avenue, Madi­ Frenette Drive, Chippewa Falls, Wiscon­ son, Wisconsin 53705.) sin 54729.) A collection of articles about the brewery. Sweet, George E. The Wisconsin American Parr, Mickie. A Bit of Green in Lebanon (Wau­ Legion: a History, 1919-1992. (Milwaukee, paca County, Wisconsin): the Hurley Family Wisconsin, cl992. Pp. xvi, 271. Illus. No With Related & Allied Lines. (Maple Park, price listed. Available from Wisconsin fllinois, 1991. Pp. x, 873. No price Hsted. American Legion Press, 812 East State Available from author, 5N340 Wooley Street, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202.) Road, Maple Park, fllinois 60151.) Voeltz, Susanne C. Madison, Wisconsin, Purves, John H. Roen Steamship Company, the Downtown Guide. (Madison, Wisconsin, Way It Was, 1909-1976 (Sturgeon Bay?, cl992. Pp. 51. Illus. No price Hsted. Avail­ Wisconsin, cl983. Pp. ih, 119. Illus. $6.50 able from Downtown Madison, Inc., 615 plus $2.00 postage and handling. Avail­ East Washington Avenue, P.O. Box 71, able from Door County Maritime Madison, Wisconsin 53701.)

155 Accessions obscenity in broadcasting, the develop­ ment of UHF broadcasting, congressional Services for microfilming, xeroxing, and photostat­ relations, the Catholic Apostolate of Mass ing all but certain items in its manuscript collections Media which Lee helped found, and other are provided by the Society, topics; presented bv Mr. Lee, Washington, D.C. Papers, 1900-1985, oi Jackson Merrick, a Mass Communications CoUections public relations specialist in corporate communications, including correspon­ Records, 1969-1980 (mainly 1977-1979), dence, clippings, writings, samples of pub­ from the Carnegie Commission on the Future lic relations work, an autobiography, of Public Broadcasting which studied public engagement calendars, papers from teach­ broadcasting and made recommendations ing in Cairo, Egypt, in 1923, and other for improvement in the published report A papers documenting both his personal and Public Trust. Included are research reports, his professional life. Presented by Merrick staff correspondence, hearing records, Jackson, Ossing, New York. press material, and other records. Research Addidons to the records, 1938-1982, of included studies of programs such as The the National Association of Broadcasters, trade Adams Chronicles, All Things Considered, and organization of the radio and television Nova; funding sources; technological inno­ broadcasting industry, including surveys vations; and public participation. Pre­ and studies, speeches by NAB presidents, sented by the Carnegie Corporation, New records of conferences and conventions, York, New York. staff correspondence, and other records; Papers, 1940-1982 (mainly 1958-1968), presented by the NAB, Washington, D.C. oi Frederick W. Ford (1909-1986), an attor­ Additions to the records, 1925-1977 ney and hearing officer/member/chair­ (mainly 1950-1970), of the National Asso­ man of the Federal Communications Com­ ciation of Educational Broadcasters including mission, including speeches and writings, general correspondence, speeches by correspondence, and subject files on topics NAEB president William G. Harley, board such as equal time and political broadcast­ of directors minutes, committee records, ing, the fairness doctrine, UHF/VHF allo­ files on stations, colleges, and other organ­ cations, investigations of the FCC, the Par­ izations, records of a project directed by amount anti-trust case, and the George MarshaU McLuhan, files of National Edu­ Richards news-slanting case; presented by cational Radio, publications, and other Mary Carter Beary, Naperville, Illinois. records; presented by the NAEB, Washing­ Additions to the papers, 1931-1977 ton, D.C, 1965-1979; WilHam G. Harley, (mainly 1947-1964), of/o/iw W. Hill (1890- 1986; and the Pacifica Foundation, 1987. 1977), a founder of the internationally Papers, 1835-1980, of Sigrid Schultz known public relations firm Hill & Knowl- (1893-1980), an author, broadcaster, and ton; including business and personal cor­ foreign correspondent for the Chicago Trib­ respondence, speeches and writings, and une who served as Berlin bureau chief client files on corporations and trade asso­ (1926-1941), including personal and fam­ ciations. Presented by Mr. and Mrs. Hill; ily papers, extensive correspondence, Bert Goss, New York, New York; Don writings, and files on the Tribune, the Over­ Knowlton, Shaker Heights, Ohio; and Scott seas Press Club, and other activities; pre­ Cutlip, Madison. sented by Sigrid Schultz, Westport, Con­ Papers, 1953-1981, of Robert E. Lee necticut, and her estate, and by Cynthia (1912—), a member of the Federal Com­ Chapman, Vandalia, Ohio. (Restrictions munications Commission, including on quotation and publication.) speeches and articles, correspondence, Papers of George Simkowski, the president and docket and subject files concerning of Prime Time Marketing, a Chicago com-

156 ACCESSIONS pany responsible for product placement in a similar scrapbook, 1891-1902, of Mrs. motion pictures, including scripts anno­ Friend's mother, Petronella Gilbert Oviatt, tated to indicate possible product place­ concerning activities in Oshkosh; pre­ ments, plus a few working files including sented by Neita O-viatt Friend. prop lists, correspondence, and notes. Pre­ Additions, 1947-1987, to the papers of sented by Mr. Simkowski, Chicago, Illinois. Ernest Kinoy, primarily concerning Kinoy's television writing, especially his work in the Performing Arts Collections mini-series and the made-for-television movie genres, consisting largely of variant Additions to the papers, 1892-1983 script drafts and treatments; presented and (mainly 1938-1981), of actor Melvyn Doug­ placed on deposit by Mr. Kinoy, Yonkers, las (1901-1981) pertaining to both his pro­ New York. fessional career and his many political and "Plays and Players," two commercially humanitarian concerns, including scripts, produced scrapbooks for theater goers photographs, correspondence, clippings, containing playbills and added commen­ contracts, and other materials; presented tary by Madison resident/wfia Mailer, 1918- by Melvyn Douglas and by the Douglas 1938, concerning productions in Chicago, Estate (via Tom Arthur). New York City, and elsewhere; presented by Papers, 1951-1965, of radio and televi­ Julia Hanks Mailer, Madison. sion production assistant Barbara A. Fishel Additions to the papers, 1939-1972, of (1918-1986) documenting her work on playwright, producer, and writer Howard numerous NBC television programs which Teichmann (1916-1987); primarily com­ originated in Hollywood, including anno­ prised of scripts for radio programs plus tated mimeographed scripts, timing sheets, correspondence, drafts, outlines, and some schedules, cast lists, and other material for production information for several theater numerous variety and musical programs; plays he authored, files from several tele­ presented by Leslie H. Fishel, Madison. vision productions, and other papers; pre­ Scrapbook, 1902-1908, kept by Neita sented by Howard Teichmann, New York, Oviatt Friend, containing playbills and crit­ New York. ical commentary concerning theatrical and Playbills, 1945-1947, for several plays musical performances in Oshkosh and at broadcast on the radio program Theatre Milwaukee-Downer College, together with Guild on the Air.

157 Corporate Sponsors

AAL MADISON NEWSPAPERS, INC, Appleton Madison ADMANXO, INC, MARQUETTE ELECTRONICS FOUNDATION Ripon Milwaukee THE ALEX.A.NDF.R COMP.-WIES MARSHALL ERDMAN AND ASSOCIATES, INC, Madison Madison AMERICAN FAMILY INSURANCE GROUP .MENASHA CORPORATION FOUNDATION Madison Neenah APPLETON MILLS FOUNDATION MILLER BREWING COMPANY Appleton Milwaukee ARTHUR A.NDERSEN AND CO, NELSON INDUSTRIES, INC. Milwaukee Stoughton BANTA CORPORATION FOUNDATION, INC, NORTHWESTERN MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Menasha Milwaukee THE BUSINESS FORUM, INC, OSCAR MAYER FOODS CORPORATION Madison Madison J, I, CASE PARKER PEN USA LIMITED Racine Janesville THE CHIPSTONE FOUNDATION PLEASANT COMPANY Fox Point Middleton CONSOLIDATED PAPERS FOUND.ATION, INC. RACINE FEDERATED, INC, Wisconsin Rapids Racine CREATIVE FORMINC, INC. RAYOVAC CORPORATION Ripon Madison J, P, CULLEN AND SONS, INC, RED ARROW SALES CORPORATION Janesville Madison CuNA MUTUAL INSURANCE GROUP FOUNDATION RIPON FOODS, INC, Madison Ripon CARL AND ELISABETH EBERBACH FOU.NDATION RURAL INSURANCE COMPANIES Milwaukee Madison FIRSTAR BANK OF MADISON RYAN BROTHERS COMPANY Madison Janesville FIRSTAR BANK OF MILWAUKEE C. G, SCHMIDT, INC, Milwaukee Milwaukee GIDDINGS & LEWIS SYCOM, INC, Fond du Lac Madison GOLDEN STATE W,'\RRIORS TRAPPERS TURN GOLF COURSE Oakland, California Wisconsin Dells GOODMA.N'S, INC, TWIN DISC, INCORPORATED Madison Racine GTE NORTH 1NCORPOR,4TED VALLEY BANK Sun Prairie Madison HARLEY-DAVIDSON, INC, WALGREENS Milwaukee Madison HEARTLAND ADVISORS, INC. WEBCRAFTERS-FRAUTSCHI FOUNDATION , INC, Milwaukee Madison THE HOUSE ON THE ROCK THE "WEST BEND COMPANY Spring Green West Bend INTREPID CORPORATION WESTERN PUBLISHING COMPANY, I.NC. Milwaukee Racine S, C, JOHNSON WAX •WINDWAY FOUNDATION, INC. Racine Sheboygan JOHNSON CONTROLS FOUNDATION WISCONSIN BELL Milwaukee .Milwaukee JUPITER TRANSPORTATION COMPANY WISCONSIN ENERGY CORPORJITION FOUNDATION, INC, Kenosha Milwaukee KOHLER CO, WISCONSIN NATURAL GAS COMPANY Kohler Racine LAB SAFETY SUPPLY WISCONSIN PHYSICIANS SERVICE Janesville Madison MADISON GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY WISCONSIN POWER & LIGHT COMPANY Madison Madison

15^ Patrons

JANET BALDING MRS, K, W, JACOBS, JR, Mequon Hartlbrd OSCAR A.ND P.ATRICIA BOLDT THOMAS MOUATJEFFRIS 11 Appleton Janesville GERALDINE DRISCOLL RUTH DE YOUNG KOHLER Winneconne Kohler TERRY HALLER GERALD AND MARION VISTE Madison Wausau ROBERT H, IRRMANN JOHN AND BARBARA WINN MadLson Madison

Fellows RICHARD N, CURRENT ROBERT C, NESBIT Massachusetts Washington MERLE CURTI Madison

Curators Emeritus

JOHN C, GEILFUSS HOWARD W, MEAD Milwaukee Madison JANET HARTZELL ROBERT B, L, MURPHY Grantsburg Madison NATHAN S. HEFFERNAN LOUIS C. SMITH Madison Cassville ROBERT H, IRRMANN PHYLLIS SMYTHE Madison Milwaukee HELEN JONES MILO K, SWANTON Fort Atkinson Madison

LEON E, ISAKSEN Life Members VIRGIL GEORGE JACKSON EDWARD P, ALEXANDER MRS, CHARLES B, JACKSON J, R, AMACKER RICHARD L, JONES EMMELINE ANDRUSKEVICZ DR. JOHN P, KAMINSKI HELEN C. ANDRUSKEVICZ F. M, KILGORE MR, AND MRS, T, FRED BAKER MRS, HARVEY B. KREBS MR, AND MRS, IRA L. BALDWIN PETER LAMAL LUCYANN GRIEM BESS JOHN I, LAUN MR, AND MRS, ROBERT E, BILLINGS ALFRED A, LAUN 111 E, N, BLONIEN C, LUKE LEITERMANN PAUL L, BRENNER M, FRED LOCHEMES LOUIS H, BURBEY DR, EUGENE 1. MAJEROWICZ THOMAS E, CAESTECKER C, L, MARQUETTE CHARLOTTE D, CHAPMAN ANNABEL DOUGLAS MCARTHUR MRS, FRANCISJ, CONWAY MARTHA B, MERRELL JOHN H, COOK F, O, MINTZLAFF LOUISE H, ELSER MR, AND MRS, JOHN H, MURPHY MR, AND MRS, JOHN E, FORESTER JOHN T, MURPHY MR, AND MRS. WALTER A, FRAUTSCHI MR, AND MRS, ROBERT B, L, MURPHY PAUL W, GATES MR, AND MRS, G, P. NF.VITT ANITA J. GLIENKE DR, AND MRS, E.J, NORDBY WILLIAM K. HARDING RALPH W, OWEN THOMAS E, HAYES MRS, A, J, PEEKE JOSEPH F, HEIL, SR, MR. AND MRS. LLOYD H. PETTIT ANDREW HERTEL JOHN J, PHILIPPSEN CARL J, HOLCOMB MRS, JOHN W, POLLOCK EARLE HOLMAN MARY TUOHY RYAN GERALD E, HOLZMAN S, N, SCHAFER MRS, PETER D, HUMLEKER, JR, MR, AND MRS, LEWIS A. SIBERZ

159 MRS, CLAUS SPORCK WALTER L, VOCE JOHN STEINER WALTER J, VOLLRATH FRED J, STRONG MR. AND MRS. FRANCIS H. WENDT MR, AND MRS, MILO K. SWANTON THEODORE WIESEMAN MRS. WILLIAM D, VOGEL JOHN WYNGAARD

Contributors Madison, he holds a Ph.D. from the Uni­ versity of Minnesota (1963). He is the author of The American Farmer and the Canadian West (1968), Western Populism: Studies in Ambivalent Conservatism (1976), The Czechs in Oklahoma (1980), and a number of articles on western land settle­ ment, the Populist movement, and Czech immigrants in the United States. He has published two other articles in the Wis­ consin Magazine of History.

PATRICIA HARRSCH was born in Chicago and raised in northern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Sweet Briar College and has a masters degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interest in Wisconsin history stems from courses she and her husband have taken through that university's outreach programs and from her volunteer work in the State Historical Society library.

JAMES AXTELL was born in Endicott, New York, and educated at Yale University (B.A., 1963) and Trinity College of Cam­ bridge University (Ph.D., 1967), as well as doing postdoctoral work at Harvard Uni- versity. He taught at Yale, Sarah Lawrence College, and Northwestern University before joining the history fac- tulty at William and Mary, where he is now the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Humanities. He has written eight KAREL D. BICHA, a native of La Crosse, is books, including Beyond 1492: Encounters professor of history in Marquette Univer­ in Colonial North America (1992); edited sity, where he has taught since 1969. A five others; and written innumerable arti­ graduate of the University of Wisconsin- cles, review essays, and reviews.

160 THE BOARD OF CURATORS

THOMAS H. BARLAND DAVID JANKOSKI Eau Claire Stanley JANE BERNHARDT THOMAS MOUATJEFFRIS II Cassville Janesville PATRICIA BOGE RASMUS B, A, KALNES La Crosse Eagle ELBERT S, BOHLIN ERROL R, KINDSCHY Mineral Point West Salem DAVID E, CLARENBACH RUTH DE YOUNG KOHLER Madison Kohler GLENN R, COATES VIRGINIA MACNEIL Racine Bayside JOHN M, COOPER GEORGE H, MILLER Madison Ripon HARRY F, FRANKE JAMES A, OGILVIE Milwaukee Washburn PAUL C, GARTZKE JERRY PHILLIPS Madison Bayfield LYNNE GOLDSTEIN MARY CONNOR PIERCE Whitefish Bay Wisconsin Rapids GREGG GUTHRIE FRED A, RISSER Lac du Flambeau Madison VIVIAN GUZNICZAK PEGGY A. ROSENZWEIG Franklin Wauwatosa BETTE HAYES BRIAN D. RUDE De Pere Coon Valley FANNIE E. HICKLIN GERALD D, VISTE Madison Wausau RICHARD H, HOLSCHER LYNNE WEBSTER Milwaukee Oshkosh MRS. PETER D, HUMLEKER, JR, Fond du Lac

STEPHEN R, PORTCH, Senior 'Vice-F^esident for Academic Affairs, University of Wisconsin NANCY ALLEN, President, Friends of the .State Historical .Society of Wisconsin ROBERT S, ZIGMAN, President of the Wisconsin History Foun­ dation ROLF ETHUN, President of the Wisconsin Council for Local History

Board of the Friends of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin

NANCY ALLEN, West Bend ANITA BAERG, Waukesha President Secretary THEODORE E, CRABB, Madison PATRICIA FRITSCHEI,, Madison First 'Vice-President Treasurer LARRY RIORDAN, Wausau THEODORE E, CRABB, Madison Second Vice-F^esident Past President w^ '•} I

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 history of Wisconsin and of the West. —Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 44

WHi(X3)23870

Governor Leonard f. Farwell's home on Lake Monona, Madison, continued to be a subject of interest, even long after it was razed in 1895. This original pencil drawing was done by Hjalmer A. Skuldt, probably for the 'Works Progress Administration in the 1930's. An article on the use of the building for the Soldiers' Orphans' Home after the Civil 'War begins on page 83.

Isbs^^NTE HISTOt^ CD '^^ 1S40 ^ OF WIS*--