Betting the Farm: the First Foreclosure Crisis

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Ekv/lll Lost Photographs _^^_^^ Betting the Farm: The First Foreclosure Crisis

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n the summer of 1883, Spiritualists from around the women's rights to large audiences of men and women.6 Sever country gathered for their tenth annual camp meeting ance spent her life constantly on the move, practicing medi about ninety miles west of Boston in Lake Pleasant, Massa cine, writing, and lecturing on issues of equality, individual chusetts. The attendees, both the zealous and the skeptical, choice, and the state's authority to legislate the most intimate came not only to witness Spiritualist mediums delivering of human relationships—marriage.' messages from loved ones from beyond the grave, but also Severance developed her feminist consciousness early. Ito hear lectures on women's equality and dress reform, labor Born in DeRuyter, New York, on July 1, 1833, Juliet Worth issues, the necessity of an absolute separation of church and state, grew up the thirteenth child in a Quaker family of seventeen and, most shockingly of all, free love. Even among the generally to Walter Worth and his second wife, Catherine. Juliet spent reform-minded Spiritualists, these topics ignited fierce debate her early years on a dairy farm in an upstate area crawling and controversy. A few speakers espoused views so radical that with abolitionists, health reformers, temperance advocates, they threatened to split the movement.1 and mesmerists, as well as Millerites, Quakers, Seventh Day One of those was Wisconsin's own Juliet Hall Worth Baptists, Spiritualists, and other religious sects that emerged Stillman Severance. Controversy seemed to follow her wher from the fervor of the Second Great Awakening. Women's ever she went. Her forthright language and views on religion, rights advocate Lucretia Mott, who would address the Seneca women's rights, and most especially marriage frequently Falls women's rights convention in 1848, was a distant cousin led newspapers and magazines to criticize her. Just six years of Severance's father. Raised in this environment, Severance's earlier, Severance had been denied her speaking slot at the later reformist zeal seems hardly surprising.8 annual Spiritualist camp at Lake Pleasant. Rather than accept Ill health delayed her entry into formal schooling but had her removal from the official program, she decamped to a little effect on her intellectual curiosity. Severance learned to nearby pine grove and spoke to hundreds of eager listeners weave, spin, and to make butter and cheese to support her farm from atop "a large express wagon."2 family. That her work and that of her mother and sisters went Her 1883 address was no less provocative. "I have no uncompensated and largely unacknowledged left a lasting patience at this state of the discussion of Woman suffrage to impression that she returned to time and again in her writing stop to listen to the stale platitudes and senseless objections as an adult. She observed that a woman's work allowed her raised against a movement so evidentlyjust," railed Severance. husband to prosper and to earn "some reward for his labor" "We have laws now which make woman man's slave, owned while his wife who "works more hours than he does owns by him, soul and body, and 'wives submit yourselves unto your nothing, not even herself"9 The success of the farm depended husbands in all things' has been dinned into the ears of woman on the farmer's wife as much if not more than the farmer who. until she has failed to learn the diviner lesson, 'obey the princi Severance speculated, likely could not run his farm without ples of your own soul.'"3 For Severance, the question was very her. Worse still, women had no opportunities to exercise their simple: "Shall mutual love (as is proposed by Free-lovers) or minds, confined to an endless "domestic drudgery" that kept selfish lust (as it exists to-day in and out of legal marriage) be them from reading, debating, and attending lectures. To the basis of the relations of the sexes?" she asked rhetorically. Severance, women's lives looked remarkably similar to the "If you reply mutual love should be the basis, then you are a chattel slavery her Quaker family vigorously opposed.10 Free-lover. If you reply it should be lust, you are in sympathy Finally healthy enough for school, Severance entered the with the present laws and customs of society in which purity of DeRuyter Seminary in 1846. Like many other young people life for woman becomes an impossibility"4 Severance used her of her time, Severance soon had a religious conversion expe speech to argue that traditional marriage oppressed women rience. It led her to abandon the Quaker faith of her child and threatened their moral, medical, and spiritual well-being. hood for the Seventh Day Baptists, a denomination with She advanced a radical viewpoint that called for the abso strong reformist impulses that expected its adherents to work lute right of every individual to live as his or her "reason and toward bringing about a more perfect world. Severance, fired conscience shall decide" in all areas of life, but particularly in by reform, took up abolition, temperance, and woman's rights sexual relationships.5 as a teenager, becoming an able and persuasive speaker as Called the "Woodhull of Wisconsin" for her kinship with she taught during summers and gave speeches to classmates notorious free-lover Victoria Woodhull, Severance's extreme during school terms.11 views pushed her to the far fringes of reform and off the pages With the sickness that had attended her childhood never of most accounts of the nineteenth-century women's move far from her mind, Severance explored a variety of healing ment. But her exclusion does not reflect the contemporary options and cures. She lived in a time rich with medical theo impact of her message nor her prominent role in bringing ries and methods that challenged the prevailing therapeutics—

Portrait of Juliet Severance, undated. Severance's forthright language and views on religion, women's rights, and most especially marriage, drew controversy wherever she went.

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The American Spiritualist masthead, July 6,1872 bleeding, purging, and sweating—of mainstream medicine. Therapeutic College in New York City. An influential leader With the assistance of Dr. Ira Spencer, a local doctor willing of hydropathy in the United States with progressive views of to take on a female student, Severance undertook a three-year women, Trail became an important mentor to Severance. study of "hygienic methods of treatment."12 Trail encouraged women to apply to his school and practice Of these methods, hydropathy, or the water cure, partic as professional hydropaths. Severance's class of twenty-three ularly appealed to Severance's burgeoning reformist mind, students included ten women, six married and four single. She both for its method of natural cures that relied primarily on received her MD in April 1858.M the power of cold water to heal but also its woman-positive Severance gained more than just a medical degree in message. At the time, many doctors as well as American culture New York City: she also found Spiritualism. Though she had tended to regard being female as a disease in and of itself. been initially skeptical of the idea of communicating with the Ruled by reproduction, women were deemed irrational, intel dead through mediums, she attended a seance that "upset lectually inferior, and emotional. Hydropathy, on the other her religious views." On a later occasion, Severance took hand, took the radical step of naturalizing women's physio part in a medical school debate and found herself "positively logical lives. For hydropaths, adolescence, puberty, menstrua controlled" while speaking on a topic "I knew nothing about, tion, and childbearing were not illnesses needing intervention never had I read of it." Even so, she won the debate. "I could but natural processes in a woman's life. Practitioners empow hear what I said as if had been a listener. It was entirely new ered women to take an active role in their own health. Women to me, although no one noticed any change in me," she later learned to maximize their health and happiness through diet, explained.15 She read Thomas Paine, Charles Darwin, and exercise, and other hygienic practices, all of which dramati T H. Huxley to try to understand what she experienced and cally expanded women's power to determine and control their discover the place of humans in the universe. She soon aban own lives within the hydropathic worldview.13 Given Sever doned Christianity for science, believing, as many Spiritual ance's developing views on women, hydropathy seemed a ists did, that spirit communications provided the physical, and near-perfect match. thus scientific, evidence of the soul's immortality. Her conver Severance marriedjohn Dwight Stillman in 1853, and the sion to Spiritualism would prove vital to her activism as well, two settled first in Unadilla, New York, and then in DeWitt, providing her a crucial speaking platform for her critique of Iowa. In 1857, with the financial and, presumably, ideological marriage as well as a support network in a movement that support of her husband, the twenty-four-year-old Severance prized individual freedom and women's equality16 left her family, which now included children, and enrolled in American Spiritualists, while concerned with religious the nation's leading hydropathic school, Russell Trail's Hygeio- matters like the soul, were less a religion than a social move-

wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY ment. Emerging in the late 1840s, Spiritualists believed in the Underground Railroad through Iowa. Severance soon made a equality of all souls regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or place for herself, providing obstetrical and gynecological care religious views. Women played especially prominent roles as to some of the most prominent women in town. Most contro mediums, a role that gave them access to a range of behaviors versially of all, she freely distributed information on contracep outside the narrow strictures of appropriate feminine conduct. tion and abortion and lectured on women's sexual health and In a trance, a woman could become whomever she wanted, the necessary social and political steps for achieving women's albeit in the voice of another. With its large and prominent liberation. Her abolitionist convictions and her observations female contingent, Spiritualists were intricately connected to and treatment of "broken down" women helped to inform her the women's rights movement and focused on subjects that view of marriage as sexual enslavement, "the most famous of affected women, particularly the institution of marriage. all forms of servility"18 Women spoke publicly and with authority on politics, reli In 1862, Severance and her family relocated to Whitewater, gion, and social issues. Not every Spiritualist woman spoke as Wisconsin. The town offered a more like-minded commu a medium. Some, including Severance, simply found a sympa nity, home to people advocating for dress reform, vegetari thetic audience at Spiritualist conventions and camps.1' anism, abolition, and alternative health, all causes Severance With her medical degree in hand, Severance returned to supported and practiced herself. Wisconsin also had an active her family in Iowa. Her husband flourished in the bustling town Spiritualist community, particularly in the triangular corridor but the community proved far less welcoming to Severance. between Lake Mills, Whitewater, and Madison. Whitewater The county medical society denied membership to hydro- would later become home to the nation's only Spiritualist paths and other healers practicing irregular forms of medicine. school, the Morris Pratt Institute, in 1888. The town had a Undaunted, Severance threw herself into her medical practice good railroad connection extending from Lake Michigan to and found an appreciative clientele among the town's African the Mississippi Rver so Severance could continue her busy Americans and women, populations underserved by regular lecturing schedule. She set up her "hygeio-therapeutic" prac medicine. She also assisted slaves escaping to freedom on the tice on Main Street, above the Day & O'Conner apothecary

Illustration of a Seance, depicting a floating guitar and ghostly handwriting. Spiritualist mediums delivered messages from loved ones from beyond the grave.

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•' ,^' .. m <;/h 'i 'mm mm WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY and announced her intention "to give satisfaction to all who wearing" that it was "no wonder that so many [women] are to be employ her" in the newspaper. Patients did not even have to found in our insane asylums," Severance declared.21 Demanding travel to seek her services. Severance also took the train to women's economic, political, and social subordination to man patients' homes to administer the water cure.19 spreads "desolation and ruin over our fair earth" and ensnares The move to Whitewater proved less conducive to her women in a system from which they have no legal means of marriage, however. John Stillman abandoned Severance and escape.22 A woman's health, Severance asserted, depended on their children in the move, later accusing her during divorce her equality and free choice in marriage: the ability to choose proceedings of being an unfit mother. It was true that a woman her mate out of love and to choose to leave freely if love waned. with a medical practice and an active role on the lecture circuit Any other way degraded and deformed women and, even bore little resemblance to the traditional image of middle-class more alarming, threatened the future of American civilization motherhood. "What is a Lady," asked the Whitewater Register because women birthed and raised the next generation. "As in 1863, answering that she is gracious, mild, affable, Chris certainly as like begets like, as surely as temperament, traits of tian, and refined. Although Severance may have been gracious, character, complexion, color of eyes and hair are imparted by she had already renounced Christianity and few would likely parents to offspring, so surely is the loathing, the pollution, the describe her candid opinions as mild, affable, or refined. But hate that filled that mother's mind transmitted to her child," the judge granted the divorce anyway and awarded Severance wrote Severance of women trapped in loveless, unequal unions. care of her children. She later proposed an amendment to the Spiritualists also stressed the importance of health because good nation's marriage laws that would grant mothers full custody physical health now translated to good health in the spirit realm. of their children until they reached an age when "they may "The spirit and physical side of life are so inter-dependent that choose which parent they prefer to live with if they live sepa one can not advance without corresponding progress in the rately, and their choices shall be respected."20 other," she explained.23 By the 1860s, Severance had become Spiritualism and hydropathy provided Severance access to a leading voice on the Spiritualist lecture circuit throughout the many avenues for exploring women's freedom and health. In Midwest.24 fact, she believed the two absolutely depended on each other. The freedom of choice that Severance demanded for Women's duties and responsibilities in marriage and mother women in marriage was known as free love. The idea emerged hood as they then existed were so "tedious, monotonous, and in the 1850s with prominent American hydropaths Thomas

Friends Meeting House, DeRuyter, New York. Severance was raised as a Quaker and would have attended meet ings in this structure builtin 1816.

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Reception of a female free-love convert at Oneida Community Reception of a male convert at Oneida Community depicted in an depicted in an anti free-love publication anti free-love publication and Mary Gove Nichols, who called for unions based solely gave free rein to men's sexuality while punishing wives, many on love and equality without the need for legal or religious women came to the cause after suffering disastrous marriages sanction. The Nicholses' background in hydropathy formed a and divorces. That was certainly true of the movement's best- natural partnership with free love as both emphasized women's known voice, Victoria Woodhull, who was essentially deserted equality and female empowerment. Unlike suffrage, abolition, by her first husband. Intelligent and articulate, Woodhull or temperance, though, free love never became a cohesive spoke out forcefully for woman's rights, even appearing before movement, in part because it was so radical but also because the House Judiciary Committee in January 1871 to deliver a few advocates could agree on what it meant. Some free- memorial on women's suffrage. With her sister, Woodhull lovers called for lifelong monogamous relationships outside published Woodhull and ClaHin's Weekly, a paper devoted to of marriage; some for celibacy; others for serial monogamy; woman's rights and labor reform that would count Severance as and still others for multiple partners. All could agree that indi a contributor until it ceased publication in 1876. Severance gave viduals should be free to pick mates without the involvement her first lecture denouncing marriage when she was in medical of church or state, and they insisted on the open discussion of school. Her husband's later abandonment and her difficultly in female sexuality and its worthiness. Free-lovers formed a kind securing a divorce likely only strengthened her convictions.26 of counterculture within the larger reform movement, and Severance hailed free love as "the most exalted condition they brought their message to the public through magazines, ever reached by mortal or angel."27 She proclaimed that "love, journals, and lectures.25 and love alone" should be the only basis of human relation Even though many men supported free love, women like ships, and that any restrictions were by definition oppressive Severance became the public face of the movement. Trapped because love existed on a higher moral plane than any law in unhappy lives by marriage laws and double standards that created by man. "[WJhen two persons are drawn together by

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husband, Anson B. Severance, who shared her beliefs Wi MtflfflD WWW about Spiritualism, health reform, and free love. The HHJATB MWCAL COUPMIW. two married on May 12, 1869, less than two weeks after her divorce, and soon relocated to Milwaukee. Critics pounced on her marriage as evidence that she was a ? "theoretical" rather than a real free-lover, but in fact STOPPAGE, U""- many free-lovers were married. Severance responded PB-EGNACY, to her detractors by asserting that while legally she was AND "owned soul and body by A.B. Severance," that some mivfiY BE DETERMINED; HOW W MAT BB U wsEASE3. "live above the laws, and in consequence of this fact we ENT 331 WITH TBS ^^™ °* have some happy homes." DXSCOTEBY TO V _ Although she believed strongly in free love, Sever ance recognized that free love would not work for everyone, nor did she necessarily believe that it should. MA^OBMATION^RlN^ She instead saw it as one philosophy within a much larger category that she believed was far more vital to women's equality: social freedom. Social freedom, as Severance defined it, would allow both women and men „ WITH BSTIRB SAFETY. to choose their lifestyles without fear of scorn or legal "T^EOECDBE OPENNESS. requirements. She condemned as a farce Americans' CATJSES AND MODE OE^^ supposed devotion to freedom, equality, and liberty

BY when women suffered under the domination of men pr„^orofBiseaSe3 of Women. in religious, economic, political, and social matters. IAberty steert. Office, 1»9 Outlawing marriage while designating some other social arrangements like free love as preferable, even if Sever NBW T0BK.1 1855. ance herself saw it as the purest form of relationship, infringed on individuals' rights to decide for themselves. "Social freedom recognizes the right of the Shaker to believe in celibacy and practice the same," stated Sever ance. "It recognizes the right of the Catholics to marry according to the rituals of their church, but knows all will not choose that method. It recognizes the right of persons to live in polygamy if they choose, or in complex The Married Woman's Private Medical Companion provided information for marriage as the Oneida community does, or the right of women who wanted to take charge of their bodies and their fertility. the varietist to live in a dual relation."32 Personal choice mattered above all else. For Severance, social freedom reciprocal love and mutual desire," Severance declared, "that boiled down to: "Live your highest life, be that what it may, and is a true union, and all the laws that men can frame cannot mind your own business. "33 make it unholy or immoral."28 Her experience assisting slaves Social freedom and free love scandalized nineteenth- to freedom on the Underground Railroad in defiance of the century America. The idea of social freedom alone may not Fugitive Slave Act provided her an example of a legal institu have seemed so shocking had it not legitimized immoral tion that was clearly immoral. She decried laws and customs choices like polygamy and free love, but because it did, social that made men superior to women and what she called freedom and free love were inextricably equated and widely "marital rights" that turned women into property with "no condemned in the public mind. That free-lovers also talked legal redress, no appeal but death." The current marriage laws. openly about female sexuality outraged a culture in which Severance declared, "are nothing less than a slave code."29 respectable women never admitted publicly to possessing The breakup of her own marriage did not affect Sever even a hint of sexual desire. A woman's virtue depended on ance's commitment to the ideal of love. "Let not the heart a sexuality thought passionless. White middle-class Ameri strings become rusted by bitter tears shed over disappointed cans saw marriage as the core of all human relations and hopes," she declared, "Every human being needs love, as it is its subversion, as free love seemed to call for, threatened to to the spirit as is sunshine to the plant."30 She spoke from expe destroy the very fabric of society34 But free-lovers worried rience. Soon after moving to Whitewater, she met her future about the social implications of disintegrating families too;

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A bird's-eye view of Whitewater, 1870 they just proposed a different way to form and reinforce this right to wander whithersoever their lusts might lead them." social unit than mainstream culture did. Many Americans saw He continued, "To the masses, it is a license to cohabit with free love as little more than granting carte blanche to promis whom they please . .. [and] I consider it a dangerous doctrine cuity, adultery, and unrestrained lust. " [T] o throw down the to advocate in public."35 gates erected for the government and preservation of morality Severance adamantly rejected the idea that free love among the masses," wrote David Jones, editor of the Spiritu would lead to immorality. "We are told wives would desert alist periodical the Olive Branch, "would be the destruction of their husbands, husbands wives, our daughters would be thousands of homes, and give to certain men and women the debauched, and general promiscuousness and prostitu-

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10 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY tion would result," she declared. "This, my friends, is only a to Congress could not prevent leaders of the national women's picture of what actually does exist now, under our most strin suffrage movement from distancing themselves from her, afraid gent monogamic marriage laws."36 Severance contended that of the taint of associating with a free-lover the Milwaukee prostitution and vice were already widespread despite the best Sentinel labeled a "crazy harridan." Not every Wisconsinite felt efforts of marriage and other laws to control it. Free love, she the same about Woodhull, though. Large crowds greeted her claimed, could only remediate rather than exacerbate existing 1873, 1874, and 1875 tours through the state. The editor of the conditions. She refuted the dark image used by her opponents Oconto County Register called her "the smartest, most brilliant of humans as inherently depraved and thus requiring legal female orator we have ever heard."41 restraints. Victoria Woodhull had addressed this same claim, Severance, too, supported woman's suffrage, even taking asserting, " [I] f there is no virtue, no honesty, no purity, no an active role in Wisconsin's first state convention for universal trust among women except as created by the law, I say heaven suffrage injanesville in 1867, but she accorded it a lower priority help our morality, for nothing human can help it."37 Where than social freedom.42 She did not believe that gaining represen critics saw only chaos and promiscuity should free love take tation in government would alone generate change. Real change hold, Severance saw the opposite: social harmony, monogamy, could only come from altering popular conceptions of women's and the end to prostitution. "No woman ever voluntarily pros value and competence. She railed against the "false idea" of titutes herself," wrote Severance. She believed that women inferiority instilled in the minds of girls while boys inherited the became prostitutes out of desperation, forced into the trade for expectation that they would make a place for themselves in the money or because society taught them to submit themselves world. Give girls the same "self-sustaining message," said Sever and their bodies to men.38 ance before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, "that it is To Severance, marriage and prostitution were not all that disgraceful for a woman not to be able to support herself." Only dissimilar. Nineteenth-century law effectively defined marriage then would women "not be dependent upon marriage" that as a contract, which Severance said equated a relationship with made them rush to the altar "because the girl wants a home, the exchange of goods. Just as a prostitute sells her body to a and her father is getting tired of furnishing her one, and she is man for money, Severance contended that a woman entering getting tired of depending upon him."43 marriage sells her body to her husband for food, shelter, and Free love also threatened to divide the Spiritualists. The protection. Marriage was actually worse, though, because movement's openness, lack of formal structure, and emphasis prostitutes had at least some degree of choice in their sexual on equality allowed for a diverse range of voices. Not all relationships; marriage bound women for life in an arrange Spiritualists were free-lovers but it does appear that nearly ment where consent became irrelevant. "[I]n social life our all free-lovers, including both Woodhull and Severance, were laws prohibiting all sexual relations except in legal marriage, Spiritualists, a reality that incensed the movement's more have not prevented people from having different views on the conservative members who disdained the popular association subject, and giving expression to them in acts, on the sly," of free love and Spiritualism. Most Spiritualists recognized that she contended. Marriage laws have instead "converted what the existing form of marriage perpetuated sexual inequality might have been an honest promiscuous man into a promis but many refused to accept the radical call for free love out of cuous hypocrite . . . [and] licensed men to debauch women fear that its scandalous image would injure their larger cause.44 in the marriage bed until the most fearful consequences have Free love "has been a curse to everything religious, social or resulted, and diseases the most appalling, often resulting in life political where it has been introduced," wrote David Jones long misery, or premature death." Elevating women to equal in the Olive Branch, "and because a few who professed to be status with men in free-love relationships would weaken, if not spiritualists have embraced these doctrines, Spiritualism has entirely eliminate, prostitution because a relationship's basis been cursed by it until it is impossible to get an acknowledge in mutual affection precluded the exchange of sex for money ment from the better classes in society of their convictions."45 or any other consideration. Above all, Severance claimed, free A writer in the Freethinkers' Magazine seemed to bear Jones's love elevated the position of women by giving them the same concerns out: "We all know, too, how often interest in Spiri degree of self-control and individual choice enjoyed by men.39 tualism leads to matrimonial infidelity; and how bad the Free love proved even too radical for many otherwise reputation of professional medium is. My own impression is liberal reformers. Many suffragists, concerned about winning that more free love is taught and practiced in this sect than in public support, became increasingly committed to maintaining any other."46 Despite her radical views on marriage, though. social respectability in the late nineteenth century. Few dared Severance was elected president of the Wisconsin State Spiri violate common standards of propriety by discussing sexual tualists Association in 1878, and later served as president of matters publicly, even as they shared the interests of free-lovers state associations in Illinois and Minnesota. She could also be in reducing patriarchy within families by granting women polit found on the speaking roster of nearly every major Spiritualist ical power.40 Even Woodhull's groundbreaking suffrage speech convention in the Midwest and many in the East as well.

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Above: Severance was sometimes referred to as the"Woodhull of Wisconsin"for her kinship with notorious free-lover Victoria Woodhull, shown here in an undated portrait. Right:This political cartoon characterized Victoria Woodhull as a devil tempting a woman away from her drunken husband and her chil dren. Woodhull was a strong voice for women's suffrage, but she was often lampooned in the press.

"GET THEE BEHIND ME, (MBS.) SATAN!"—[SBE TAGS Ui.] WIIJS (n>t'

Public criticism, however, was not nearly as fearsome proponents of birth control, and anyone who dared question to free-lovers as the Comstock Law. Named for Anthony the institution of marriage. Violators faced jail terms of up Comstock and passed by Congress in 1873, the law made to ten years and fines of several thousand dollars. Although it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious book, Severance never faced legal trouble, other free-lovers were not pamphlet, paper, print or other publication of an indecent so lucky, including Chicago sex radical Ida Craddock, who character" through the mail. This included information on committed suicide after she was sentenced to prison in 1902 contraception and abortion, items frequently distributed and under Comstock's law. Severance, then living in Chicago, discussed by free-lovers. The war on indecency quickly turned spoke at a rally in her honor, celebrating Craddock as a martyr into Comstock's own personal crusade against sex radicals. to free speech and free love.47

12 wisconsinhistory.org Illustration of an unwilling bride, a scenario^ which Juliet Severance, with her views on free love, sought to avoid. She argued that traditional marriage oppressed women and threatened their moral, medical, and spiritual wellbeing. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Undeterred by her critics, Severance remained committed to marriage reform until her death. The same could not even be said of Victoria Woodhull, who abandoned free love after facing personal attacks and prosecution under the Comstock Law. She moved to England with her sister in 1878. Despite their often hostile treatment of her, Severance's opponents recognized her charismatic presence and persuasive powers. David Jones conceded that "any subject, no matter how unsa vory it may be, can by a skillful artist be made to appear beau tiful. Mrs. Severance is a very fair word painter."48 Praise of her speaking skills was common in newspaper reports of her appearances. The Chicago Tribune described her as "sharp and well posted" who could "face the most frantic-yelling

DISCUSSION A MM

DAV1D 30NES, crowd without the quiver of a muscle. When

;,0Uve Brand". she opens her mouth, she does not do it to Editor of Ov utter ambiguous platitudes."49 Another noted that she "was perfect in arrangement and she indulged in no circuitous methods of whip 50 PRICE (5 Cents. ping the devil round the stump." Minutes of meetings and conventions she appeared at include frequent notations of "applause" and "laughter" throughout her speeches. Clearly Severance had an audience that longed to Nv"" ism. hear her ideas. Severance immersed herself in labor and political issues in the 1880s. While staying true ^"^ •*r*f to women's rights, she expanded the scope of her fight for personal freedom to include all individuals facing domination, especially working people, as she became increasingly identified with the oppressed. She served as a

AUTUMN 2014 15 fill ^ IN IM \mmM lip a How Daniel Webster Hoan Changed Wisconsin Polities

BY MICHAEL E. STEVENS

•

\ lmost sixty years after the fact, Elmer Beck recalled a picnic on Lake Pewaukee with vivid clarity. Beck, who later became a labor journalist and editor, was a teenager on that day in the 1920s. He remembered families sitting on blankets and at picnic tables, eating their hot dogs, hard-boiled eggs, and potato salad; children riding a merry-go-round; and men standing at a makeshift bar drinking Prohibition-era near beer. But what remained most vivid in Beck's recollection was a man in his mid-forties with a trim mustache, striding with purpose as he walked toward the speakers' platform. That man was Milwaukee mayor Daniel Webster Hoan and the event was the state Socialist Party annual picnic. In his mind's eye, Beck recalled leaning against a tree, listening to Hoan's angry, twangy voice as he addressed the assembled crowd. Hoan began by explaining that the Socialist Party was the only political party that cared about workers and common people—unlike the Repub licans and the Democrats, whom Hoan believed only cared about Wall Street and big business. "They [Republicans and Democrats] are both alike. They are identical. There is no difference between them except their names," Hoan told the crowd that day. "They have different names to fool the people. They are Tweedledum and Tweedledee twins. But they take you for jackasses and tell you they are different. Are you jack asses? Do you have long ears?" Beck looked around. He wondered if Hoan's strong language had made his audience angry. But everyone he saw was smiling. "No," Beck would write in 1982, "now everyone knows that Dan didn't think for a minute that anybody here has been fooled" by the two mainstream parties.1 In fact, Daniel Webster Hoan, the man who so impressed the high school-aged Beck, was one of the most successful politicians in Wisconsin. What set Hoan apart from many other notable politicians of the time was that he ran openly as a Socialist; and in his success, he created a viable political alternative to the mainstream parties. In the first third of the twentieth century, it would be hard to find a state with a more diverse set of polit ical choices than Wisconsin. Only in Wisconsin did the Socialist Party represent a realistic option, with a stun ning record of electoral success. Members of the party held the mayor's office in the state's largest city for all but twelve years between 1910 and 1960, elected a Socialist to the US Congress six times, and held more seats than

Daniel Webster Hoan addressing a crowd at Juneau Park, Milwaukee, undated. The Socialist mayor of Milwaukee left his mark on the city and state politics. WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY the Democrats in the state assembly and state senate for all but sively calling them "Sewer Socialism." But thanks in large part two years between 1919 and 1933. to that pragmatism, Hoan was able to articulate a vision for By the end of Hoan's career, Milwaukee voters would elect civic life in which government enjoyed a central, active role. him city attorney twice and mayor seven times. His picture would grace the cover of Time magazine in 1936, and he would serve as From "Crooked Contractors" president of the US Conference of Mayors in 1934-1935. Hoan to Clean Government became the city's longest serving mayor, a record finally broken Daniel Webster Hoan Jr. was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in in 1984 by Henry Maier. His tenure in Milwaukee represents the 1881. His parents divorced when he was seven years old. The longest continuous Socialist administration in US history. elder Hoan was the most influential adult in the young boy's life In the ensuing decades, however, the memory of Hoan's and taught his son to sympathize with the underdog. In 1886, legacy has faded. The Cold War muddled the public's under for example, Dan's father hid Chicago Haymarket riot partici standing of Socialism, with popular confusion between Social pant Albert Parsons on his property for six weeks. The elder Democracy, which Hoan advocated, and totalitarian Commu Hoan died when his son was only thirteen; young Dan dropped nism, which Hoan and the Milwaukee Socialists opposed. And out of school for a few years to support himself before enrolling because Hoan never held state or national office, his record is at the University of Wisconsin in 1902. After graduating in sometimes overshadowed by fellow Wisconsinite Victor Berger, 1905, he moved to Chicago, worked as a cook, and opened his who helped found the national Socialist Party with Eugene own restaurant. The restaurant failed, but it succeeded in intro Debs and became the first Socialist elected to Congress in 1910. ducing Hoan to his future wife, Agnes Magner, who worked Hoan may never have had Berger's intellectual aspira as its cashier. After selling the restaurant, Hoan clerked for the tions. And Hoan's contemporary critics on the left dismissed Chicago law firm of Stedman and Sulky while studying law at his pragmatic, electoral, and reform-based policies by deri night, and by 1907 he was admitted to the bar.

An aerial view of downtown Milwaukee, ca. 1930 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

A delegation of Milwaukee union leaders led by Victor 16th WARD Berger sensed promise in the young attorney. In 1908, they persuaded Hoan to leave Chicago and move to Milwaukee, Mk SAMPLE BALLOT where he would be on retainer for the Wisconsin Federation of Labor and have his own private practice. The prospect of a regular income allowed Hoan and Magner to wed in 1909 and, later, have a son and a daughter. In 1910, Hoan ran for Milwaukee City attorney. He won that election, and again in 1914. Hoan then sought and won the mayor's office on the Socialist ticket in 1916 and won reelection six more times, holding office through 1940.2 Prior to 1910, Milwaukee was a city "governed by a band of ethically challenged political hacks," in the words of histo rian John Gurda.3 The extent of corruption and graft was hinted at in 1903, when a Milwaukee grand jury issued seventy indictments against city and county officials for corruption and misconduct. By 1905, grand juries had issued 276 indict ments against eighty-three people. With their call for clean government, competitive bidding and cost accounting, the Socialist Party swept the 1910 elections. Emil Seidel became Milwaukee's first Socialist mayor; Hoan won the city-attorney post; and the party gained control of the Common Council, winning twenty-one out of thirty-five seats. As city attorney, Hoan earned a reputation by fighting REFERENDUM QUESTIONS-VOTE FOITZE' the utilities and the street railways, seeking price reductions U) Shall the common council common council. (2,,,) 0Shallu„„ ' ..th. e common council consist of twenty-five ward al- I 1 and better service. Later, as mayor, Hoan developed Milwau dermen only, elected every four X D years ? I } kee's reputation for a fiscally sound, well-managed, and honest city. He was proud of his achievements, claiming that prior to _VOra FOR THE SCHOOL BONDS-QPEST,nN Ho. 3. X Don't Forget to Vote For Socialist control, the city was "in the grasp of the sinister and VICTOR L. BERGER, For U.S. Senator slimy hand of special interests, dive keepers, crooked contrac 4 tors, and political bosses." GEORGE J. INDRAFo7 Supervisor Hoan's honest administration, his reduction of the city debt, and his active promotion of public health and safety ' "'" *>r al>°™ uMHuea, appealed not only to workers but also to middle class voters who were interested in efficient government. Hoan's advocacy The 1912 state law banning party labels in local elections meant that for harbor improvements and the Saint Lawrence Seaway the Milwaukee Socialist Party had to distribute sample ballots to party won him grudging admiration, if not votes, from the busi supporters as illustrated by this 1918 ballot. ness community. Planning became a way of life under Hoan's reign. In 1920, Milwaukee became only the twelfth city in the nation to adopt a comprehensive zoning ordinance. Milwau claiming "under Mayor Hoan, Milwaukee has grown famed as kee's zoning laws regulated land use and controlled the height a paragon of cities."6 and areas of buildings, thus protecting residential areas and ensuring rational growth. Hoan's support of public health and Honey and Vinegar recreational initiatives also dramatically improved the quality Hoan's gregarious personality and impish sense of humor helped of life—for example, in 1916, the city stopped mixing raw him connect with voters. Berger called Hoan "a good hand sewage with drinking water, and public vaccination campaigns shaker" who "proves his radicalism by eating with his knife— helped fight disease. and stamping with his foot, whenever he wants emphasis." During Hoan's quarter century as mayor, Milwaukee Longtime Milwaukee Journal reporter Edward Kerstein "found won numerous national awards for the quality of its municipal him to be a fiery spellbinder who laced his analysis often with a services, clean government, and efficiency5 Even Time maga mild, delightful humor, and a man who could be counted upon zine, which in 1936 labeled Hoan as Milwaukee's "Marxist for the intelligent answer to a knotty municipal problem, the Mayor," noted the city's low crime rate and excellent schools. fine assessment of the facts, the soundjudgment, the knowledge -

AUTUMN 2014 19 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

able insight." Historian William Thompson called him "cantan kerous but charismatic." When Hoan got riled up in a speech, crowds would shout, "Give 'em hell, Dan!"' Hoan needed both honey and vinegar, as well as the force of his personality, to accomplish his goals. Except for a brief period from 1935 to 1936, Milwaukee voters never gave Hoan a majority on the city's Common Council. Throughout the early part of Hoan's tenure, his opponents on the council were determined to obstruct his efforts. For example, for nearly eight years, Hoan was saddled with the previous mayor's health commissioner appointee because the Council refused to confirm Hoan's appointed replacement. The council refused to confirm any of Hoan's appointees until 1922.8 Hoan not only faced opposition from his ideological opponents; he was also challenged by the state's progressives, who normally might have agreed with him on many needed Above: Hoan delivers a speech in his famous animated and reforms. Despite the dominance of the two-party system, emphatic style. Americans have longbeen uncomfortable with political parties. Below: Mayor Hoan exits his office. He was elected seven times and In Wisconsin, progressives moved to created nonpartisan elec became the city's longest-serving mayor until Henry Maier broke tions for many local offices. Hoan differed, maintaining that his record in 1984. "what we need is not the abolition of political parties, but a new political party" that will support the interests of workers.9 Hoan argued that as long as businesspeople and other groups were willing to unite for their interests, positive change would wither if reformers pursued their goals only through temporary coalitions. In his view, only a vigilant party which actively worked on an ongoing basis, could obtain and preserve reforms.10 Politicians could be kept honest since "the Party keeps a constant check on officials and sees to it that they go straight or step out."11 In the name of nonpartisanship, Wisconsin's progressives used electoral "reform" in an attempt to squeeze out third parties. In 1912, two years after the Socialist victory in the three-way Milwaukee mayoral race of 1910, the state legisla ture enacted a nonpartisan election law that banned candi dates for local offices from using party labels. The new law was a curious mix of "good government" and pragmatic anti-Socialist tactics. It resulted in the two main stream parties forming fusion tickets whenever Socialists made it past a primary. The lack of party labels also made straight party ticket voting almost impossible.12 In campaigning, Hoan told voters to "not vote for me unless you see fit to vote for my colleagues endorsed by the Socialist Party. Do not elevate me to a place of honor and then put shackles on my hands, hobbles on my feet and a millstone around my neck."13 Hoan argued that the law was "a scheme whereby the common people could be deprived of any possibility of controlling the city government. Consequently, it is impossible for those who are poor men to run for office unless endorsed by a political party"14 The nonpartisan election law made it exceedingly difficult for Socialist candidates to make political inroads. And yet Hoan did his best to build a party that might overcome this obstacle.

20 wisconsinhistory.org II M \Y\ ° 1 ImR mZ'M Br^flifl ^^"f^ m^Ml V.'' J NR**

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Hoan at the dedication of Lindbergh Park, September 11,1927

He cared little about what his party was called. By 1929, Hoan he mocked regulation as a "fraud and a failure" and a "farce and sought and received Socialist Party approval to change the a fizzle."17 Hoan argued that under regulation, large customers local party's name if useful.15 To critics who thought the word got lower rates, owners and investors were guaranteed dividends, "Socialist" had "foreign connotations," Hoan answered, "if they and regulated industries were protected from competition.18 would rather have it under another name, through a Farmer- Hoan's solution was public ownership. "Industry must Labor Party, or something else of the sort that is all right, too. be democratically managed with a view of returning to The main thing is that the ideas of Marx, Lincoln and Debs are those whose labor makes industry possible the full product the only ideas that offer hope to the American workers."16 of their toil. Our problem is not only to prevent the capi talists from waxing fat, but to get back to the workers—the The "Protection and Care" of the People productive members of society—all that they produced."19 For Hoan shared with progressives a common worry about the Hoan, "workers" were not just the working class or industrial concentration of economic power in the hands of the few, laborers, but included middle-class professionals. "It matters although the solutions they offered differed. Some progres not whether a man uses a spade or a pen," he wrote. "Every sives emphasized trust-busting; others found the solution in person who earns his living by his efforts is a worker. He who regulation. Hoan rejected both approaches, believing that exists by the virtue of others is a capitalist."20 only public ownership would protect the people. He rejected Hoan held an expansive view of government. For him, the the idea of a neutral, disinterested state, and instead called for state was not just a neutral, disinterested umpire that main an activist government, in which taxes, if fairly applied, were tained a fair playing field. Rather, Hoan believed government a tool for doing good. Hoan's worldview offered a different should be active and interventionist. He argued "that the choice—one that turned out to be electorally successful. government should be more than a mere policeman. Govern In The Failure of Regulation, published in 1914, Hoan ment must assume as its proper function, the protection and claimed the progressive approach did not break up many trusts; care of its productive forces, the workers and the farmers."21

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Hoan rejected the notion of government as a necessary evil and believed it should take over many activities performed by private charity. "Philanthropy is a poor and unbusinesslike method of supplementing inadequate incomes," he wrote. "It fails us when we need it most—during periods of economic crisis." Thus government should provide libraries, hospitals, schools, and music "as a matter of right, and not as a matter of privilege."22 Hoan strongly supported civil service, believing that as more government jobs became nonpolitical, patronage would be eliminated. He suggested that top city "executives, instead of being elected for specific terms, will be employed for permanent tenure on the basis of their qualifications and experience."23 In his 1936 book, City Government, Hoan argued that municipalities should not just fix problems after they occurred, but they should instead identify root causes and address them. Thus, Hoan believed cities should not only put out fires, but also prevent them from happening in the first place. Under his watch, Milwaukee invested in fire prevention and better housing. The fight against crime included not only a graft-free police department, but also more recreational and educational facili ties. Health care and city planning became critical.24 Hoan and his fellow Milwaukee Socialists shared a horror of debt and defended taxes that were needed to maintain services. Hoan's opposition to debt was both personal and philosophical. As a young man, he deferred his education rather than borrow because he believed that "being in debt [is] a fearful thing."25 As mayor, Hoan mistrusted bankers and feared that the cost of paying interest on debt would later be used as an argument to eliminate social services. Hoan called for a two-pronged approach to public finance. He worked on an ongoing basis to improve government opera tions through efficiency, competitive bidding, and a merit system. At the same time, he resisted tax cuts. Hoan maintained that most of the benefit would go to the wealthy while most of the cost would be borne by the workers through a reduction in services. Hoan told voters that "you get more for your tax dollar than you do for any other dollar you spend."26 He asked:

Do we really want cheap government at any cost? Do we want to send our children to the cheapest school that employs the cheapest school teachers? Do we want firemen and policemen paid such low salaries that we may expect none but grafters and ignoramuses to man these departments? Do we want our public health services operated so cheaply that contagion and epidemics rage throughout our communities or that care Top: A demonstration less inspection of our food products results in the poisoning against President of ourselves and our families? Do we want dangerous and Franklin Roosevelt, broken streets, defective lighting, inadequate sewage disposal, ca.1935 no garbage collection?2' Right: Handbill from the Socialist Party, Hoan's position was "that civilization should be judged by the 1932 amount of service that the people in a community demand and

22 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The Hoans upon their return from France, where they traveled as guests of the French Government, June 26,1931. The procession traveled down Wisconsin Avenue from the Milwaukee Depot to the Elk's Club. can afford to pay for, and not by how low a tax rate they may dating boards and commissions, and demand salary slashes have."28 all along the line."31 He sparred with those who argued that "Not lower taxes, but fairer taxes, should be our watch excessive taxation caused the Depression, which he claimed word in the fight for a better distribution of the good things was an argument "advanced by the 4 per cent of our popu of life and a decent living for all."29 Hoan argued for tax lation who own 80 per cent of the national wealth."32 Hoan reform, not tax reductions. He opposed the sales tax, called argued that taxes had another end: they were "an effective way for changes in the property tax, and sought the abolition of to redistribute the wealth."33 loopholes. He anticipated federal revenue sharing, in which "the federal government would impose an income tax at such An Excess of Individualism rates as would enable it to rebate a percentage to the state and As the Great Depression deepened in the early 1930s, Hoan's local governments."30 belief in activist government strengthened. In his 1932 mayor Hoan targeted opponents who called for tax cuts. These campaign, he called for old age pensions, public works groups "condemn governmental waste and extravagance, programs, unemployment insurance, and a six-hour work day. speak vaguely of dispensing with useless services and consoli Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal later enacted many of these

AUTUMN 2014 23 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

ELECT PEACE QOAI * * * TAX THE PROFITEERS * * *

FREE IEI0LER ^^^_ FREE PRESS MAYOR ^SPEECH. KEE 62 <<

Above: Card from Carl Zeidler's victorious mayoral campaign against Hoan, 1940 Right: Poster from Socialist leader Victor Berger's campaign for the US Senate, 1918 ICIOR LBERCEi U-S. SENATOR

ideas, although it rolled out much too slowly for Hoan's liking.34 not for profit, it is Socialistic in character."40 He added "such Hoan criticized Roosevelt's efforts as insufficient and charged activities as are now most dear to us are common property. that the Depression "cannot be eradicated by four-minute The parks, the schools, the roads, the museums and libraries. speeches or by ballyhoo."35 Though Hoan conceded that These are now operated for public use, comfort and conve Roosevelt was moving in the correct direction, he predicted nience, not for private welfare, gain and profit."41 the New Deal would fail since "they have to make capitalism Hoan areued that "the railroads, mills, mines, factories, work. Their task is as difficult as solving perpetual motion."36 banks and all the gigantic means of production, distribu Hoan believed that the old order was passing and attrib tion and communication would be owned by the people."42 uted it to an excess of individualism. "We have been grabbing However, he admitted that he didn't know if or how owners from all sides since until a very few have grabbed almost every should be compensated.43 His call for public ownership was thing in sight while the many are either in need or in fear of not all that far from the progressive wing of the Wisconsin being in poverty or want. . . . We find our economic system Republican Party. Three-term Republican governor John is rotten to the core. It is an ungodly system of exploitation, Blaine sounded similar to Hoan when he said, in 1920, "The increasing greed, avarice and all that is unholy"3' railroads, the forest, the shipyards, the mines, the water powers Political opponents sometimes tarred Hoan with a broad must be returned to the people.... Those who have not earned brush that confused Communism with Socialism. In fact, what they have, must lose it. Regulation is ineffectual. Nothing he distanced himself from Communists and disavowed their but ownership by the government will remedy these ills."44 support. In 1936, he forced Meta Berger, widow of party As mayor, Hoan had a limited field for implementing founder Victor Berger, off his campaign committee because of his bold ideas for public ownership, thanks to the lack of a her support for Communist front organizations.38 He defended Socialist majority on the Common Council. When opportuni private property, noting that "there is no method by which ties presented themselves, though, he seized upon them.45 property which is really private can be used for the exploita To prevent profiteering during World War I and in tion of the many"39 Rather it was property that was used to the immediate aftermath, Hoan, without council approval, exploit "the many" that endangered the nation. Hoan pointed purchased railroad carloads of surplus material from the US out that in the United States, certain activities were already run Army and put them on sale at cost through city offices. The on a socialist basis but without the label. According to Hoan, inventory for January 1920 alone included 120,000 cans of peas, "to the extent that the post-office is now operated for use and 100,000 pounds of salt, 3,000 pairs of shoes, 15,000 blankets, and

24 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY a wide variety of other nonperishable foodstuffs and clothing. taxes and bringing jobs and business to Milwaukee, but he As a result, citizens, in an era of high inflation, could buy items was short on specifics.49 Known as the singing mayor, Zeidler at between a quarter and half of their retail price at six locations adopted "God Bless America" as his theme song, which he around the city46 Hoan proudly stated that "the public sale of performed at rallies around the city. According to Zeidler, "I food by me has offered an opportunity of demonstrating the used nothing else than modern merchandizing methods. See Socialist theory of operating a business. It should demonstrate 'em, tell 'em, sell 'em."50 once and for all that the Socialist theory in conducting many Hoan's defeat put an end to his career as an officeholder but of our enterprises without profits can be worked out in a grand not to his avid interest in political life. To the shock of many of and beneficial manner if handled by those who believe in its his former comrades, Hoan resigned from the Socialist Party on success."47 He also succeeded in establishing the Garden Homes December 8, 1941. While Hoan denied any connection between project on Milwaukee's north side, an experiment in coopera the attack on Pearl Harbor and the date of his party resigna tive housing. His efforts to expand public ownership of the elec tion, long-time associates such as Max Raskin claimed it was a tric utilities and the street railways, however, met with defeat. factor.51 Hoan had opposed US involvement in World War II in 1940 but was increasingly worried about the threat of fascism. Defeat and a New Start He told a radio audience in 1944, "It would be unwise to under After winning nine consecutive elections since 1910, the pundits estimate the possibilities of a fascist movement in America. . . . expected Hoan would easily win the 1940 Milwaukee mayoral Outbreaks [such] as the anti-Negro transit strike in Philadelphia election. After all, he had a 25,000 vote margin over his closest should be sufficient to serve warning of the explosive possibilities competitor in the primary. But when Milwaukee voters awoke of racial hysteria, violence and fascist action."52 on the morning of April 3, 1940, many were surprised to learn Hoan joined the Democratic Party in 1944.53 The success that thirty-two-year-old newcomer Carl Zeidler48 had defeated of the New Deal persuaded him to reassess his position on Hoan by 12,000 votes. Zeidler had campaigned on cutting President Roosevelt. He admitted that "yes I do realize there

The Hoan family enjoys beer with a meal at the Milwaukee Auditorium in April 1933, as part of the "Volksfest for Beer" celebration. Seated at the table from left: daughter Agnes, Hoan, and Hoan's first wife, Agnes, who died in 1941. Hoan's son, also named Daniel, is standing.

• "' V, WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

is an awful lot about Roosevelt that can be criticized. . . . All I know is that Roosevelt has fought race prejudice, is favoring social security, has expanded the public power program and has done a hell of a lot of things that no recent president has concerned his mind about."54 Perhaps equally significant in explaining his changed political allegiance was Hoan's marriage to Gladys Townsend of Muncie, Indiana, in 1944, three years after the death of his wife Agnes. Townsend, a Democrat, was a past president of the Indiana State Teachers Federation. After they married, Townsend became active in the liberal wing of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, eventually becoming the state's national committeewoman.55 In the 1940s, the Wisconsin Democratic Party was divided between conservatives who held party leadership and liberals who had left the Progressive, Republican, and Socialist Parties. Hoan aligned himself with those members who wrested control away from the conservatives. In 1944, he won the Democratic nomination for governor. Though he didn't win the general election later that year, his forty-one percent finish represented huge strides for the Democrats. It was triple the twelve percent won by Democrats in 1942 and doubled the nineteen percent won in 1940. For the first time since 1934, a Democratic guber natorial candidate in Wisconsin finished better than third place, and Hoan's percentage was the second highest received by a Democratic candidate for governor since 1912. With his well-recognized name, Hoan continued to run for office as a Democrat throughout the next ten years. And Above: Hoan visited while he lost each race, his respectable showings helped lay the White House with his second wife, the groundwork for the political resurgence of the Democratic Gladys Townsend, on Party in the late 1950s. Hoan lost his race for governor in 1946 December 19,1951, and finished fourth in the primary for Milwaukee mayor in where he met with 1948. Curiously, Hoan was beaten that year by Socialist Frank President Truman. Zeidler, brother of the man who unseated Hoan in 1940. Hoan Right: Brochure from failed to win his bids for the US House of Representatives in Hoan's campaign for 1948 and the US Senate in 1950. governor, 1944 In 1952, at the age of seventy-one, Hoan ran his last race, for the eighth state senate district. He won forty-three percent of the vote in a year when Democrats won only two out of sixteen races for the state senate. His wife Gladys died four months before the election, and Hoan never again sought political office.56 Daniel W. Hoan A Legacy of Ideas Democratic Candidate After leaving the Socialist Party, Hoan publicly backed away — for — from his rhetoric of just a few years earlier, saying in a 1943 speech in Green Bay, "I, too, believe in the free enterprise GOVERNOR of our forefathers. Free enterprise made America great."5' ~of~ Privately, though, Hoan admitted several months after his WISCONSIN Green Bay speech, "I do know the capitalist system is rotten and I know there are a lot of people who do nothing else but find fault with it and everything else without stressing a

26 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY remedy"58 Hoan realized the political realities had changed [unpublished PhD dissertation, Harvard University, 1952), 420-421, 459-460. 59 9. Daniel W. Hoan to Osmore Smith, February 24, 1914, Daniel Webster Hoan Papers, and told a friend that "the day of the third parties has gone." Milwaukee County Historical Society, hereafter cited as Hoan Papers. One of Victor Berger's favorite expressions was, "We lose 10. Hoan, City Government, 65-68, 87-88. 11. Daniel W. Hoan, "Social Pioneering in Milwaukee," (Case Studies in Community Recon but we win," meaning that any campaign, regardless of the struction: I), Social Frontier 5 January 1939): 119. 12. Stachowski, "Political Career," 46; Hoan, City Government, 74—75. See also John D. electoral result, gives an opportunity to promote ideas. Hoan Buenker, The Hstory of Wisconsin: The Progressive Era, 1893—1914, ed. William Fletcher knew both victory and defeat. He won eight out of the nine Thompson (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1998), 171-172. 13. Daniel W. Hoan Form letter, March 28, 1918, Hoan Papers. campaigns in which he ran as a Socialist. He lost all six times 14. Daniel W. Hoan to Osmore Smith, February 24, 1914, Hoan Papers. he ran for office after leaving the Socialist Party, but in doing so 15. Meta Berger to her children, September 14, 1929, Berger Family Papers, Box 35, Folder 10, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison. helped change the Democratic Party in the 1940s and 1950s. 16. Daniel W. Hoan, Abraham Lincoln: A Real American (Chicago: Socialist Party of the Hoan succeeded in improving the quality of life for people USA, 1936?), 15. 17. Daniel W Hoan, The Failure of Regulation ([Chicago]: The Socialist Party of the United in Milwaukee and made the Socialist Party a visible force in States, 1914). See also Daniel W Hoan, Regulation: A Failure and a Fraud, Especially in local and state politics, but he failed to create the permanent Wisconsin (Chicago, [The Socialist Party of the United States, 1914]). 18. The Failure of Regulation, 54. political party he had hoped to establish. Perhaps his greatest 19. Ibid., 88-89. role was in raising issues, not as an intellectual but as a successful 20. Ibid. 21. Daniel W. Hoan, Taxes and Tax Dodgers (Chicago: Committee on Education and politician. The issues Hoan raised—the proper role of govern Research of the Socialist Party of America, 1933), 3—4. ment, the level of taxation, the place of political parties, and 22. Hoan, City Government, 19. 23. Daniel W. Hoan, "The Merit System: A Keystone of Good Government," Wisconsin the distribution of wealth—helped shape the debate in the first State Employee 2 (December 1933): 5. Also see Daniel W. Hoan, "A Mayor Counsels with Managers," Public Management 14 (November 1934): 351; Speech to Gyro Club, March 8, half of the twentieth century and have continued to inform 1928, Hoan Papers. public life over the half century since his death in 1961. 24. Hoan, City Government, 233-237, 295-305; Daniel W. Hoan, "The Way We Suppress Crime in Milwaukee," The Dearborn Independent, February 19, 1927. In doing so, Dan Hoan created a politics of alternatives. kM 25. Daniel W. Hoan to Gertrude Hoan Losey,January 20, 1915, quoted in Stachowski, "Polit ical Career," 7. Notes 26. Hoan, City Government, 25. 27. Ibid., 23-24. 1. Elmer A. Beck, The Sewer Socialists (Fennimore, Wl: Westburg Associates, 1982), 2:237. 28. Ibid., 18. A native of Milwaukee, Beck later attended the University of Wisconsin, where he received a 29. Ibid., 34. degree in journalism in 1935 and joined the Socialist Party. During his career as a journalist, 30. Ibid., 26-31; Hoan, Taxes and Tax Dodgers, 14; Speech at Eagles Club, March 8, 1940, he worked as a reporter and editor for various labor and Socialist newspapers and, after 1953, Hoan Papers. as press representative for the International Association of Machinists. 31. Hoan, City Government, 20—21. 2. Biographical information from Floyd John Stachowski, "The Political Career of Daniel 32. Ibid., 21. Webster Hoan" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1966) and Edward 33. Hoan, City Government, 32. S. Kerstein, Milwaukee's All-American Mayor: Portrait of Daniel Webster Hoan (Englewood 34. Daniel W. Hoan, Radio Addresses, May 21, 1932, April 3, 1934, Hoan Papers. Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1966). 35. Daniel W. Hoan, Radio Address, WTMJ, October 28, 1934, Hoan Papers. 3. John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Milwaukee County Historical 36. Typescript, November 8, 1934, Hoan Papers. Society, 1999), 204. 37. Daniel W. Hoan, Why a Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation? The Federation, 1938), 4, 6. 4. Daniel W. Hoan, City Government: The Record of the Mlwaukee Experiment (New 38. Stevens, Family Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, 17. York: Harcourt, 1936), x. For pre-1910 Milwaukee politics, see Gurda, Making of Mlwaukee, 39. Daniel W. Hoan to Frank B. Leffert, November 12, 1915, Hoan Papers. chapter 5 and Bayard Still, Mlwaukee: The History of a City (Madison: State Historical 40. Hoan, Failure of Regulation. Society of Wisconsin, 1948), chapter 12. 41. Ibid., 87. 5. Gurda, Making of Mlwaukee, chapter 6. 42. Hoan, Abraham Lincoln, 12—13. See also Hoan, "Social Pioneering," 119. 6. "Marxist Mayor," Time, April 6, 1936, 20-24. 43. Hoan, Failure of Regulation, 91-92. 7. Victor Berger to Meta Berger, February 2, 1928, in Michael E. Stevens, ed., The Family 44. Robert C. Nesbit, Wisconsin: A History, revised 2nd ed. (Madison: University of Letters of Victor and Meta Berger, 1894-1929 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin Press, 1989), 464. Wisconsin, 1995), 387; Kerstein, Milwaukee's Ail-American Mayor, 170; William Fletcher 45. Stachowski, "Political Career," 112-113, 118-130; Still, Milwaukee, 508; Robert C. Thompson, The Hstory of Wisconsin: Continuity and Change, 1940—1965, ed. William Reinders, "Daniel W Hoan and Municipal Reform in Milwaukee, 1910-1920," Historical Fletcher Thompson (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1988), 435; Beck, Sewer Magazine of the Mlwaukee County Historical Society 31 June 1965): 40, 42; Olson, "The Socialists, 2:236. Milwaukee Socialists," 429-432. 8. See Still, Mlwaukee, 534-535; Frederick!. Olson, "The Milwaukee Socialists, 1897-1941" 46. "City to Hold Big Food Sale," Milwaukee Journal, January 19, 1920; Gurda, Making of Milwaukee, 229; Kerstein, Milwaukee's Ail-American Mayor, 98-106. 47. Hoan Speech, March 9, 1920, Hoan Papers. 48. Carl Zeidler was the brother of Frank Zeidler (1912—2006), a Socialist, who served as ABOUT THE AUTHOR mayor of Milwaukee from 1948 to 1960. 49. Beck, Sewer Socialists, 2:353. Michael E. Stevens is a historian who lives in 50. Olson, 567. Fitchburg, Wisconsin, with his wife, Therese. 51. Stachowski, "Political Career," 212-213. 52. Radio Address, WEMP, August 6 or 13, 1944, Hoan Papers. He worked at the Wisconsin Historical Soci 53. Richard Carlton Haney, "The Rise of Wisconsin's New Democrats: A Political Realign ety from 1987 until his retirement in 2013, ment in the Mid-twentieth Century," Wisconsin Magazine of History 58 (1974-1975): 90-106, esp. 93. serving as State Historian and State Historic 54. Daniel W. Hoan to Samuel H. Friedman, February 5, 1944, Hoan Papers. Preservation Officer. Stevens has published a 55. Kerstein, Milwaukee's Ail-American Mayor, 194—196; "Hoan and Teacher Marry: Poli tics Lead to Romance," Mlwaukee Sentinel, April 9, 1944. dozen books and two dozen articles on Wis 56. Thompson, Continuity and Change, 1940-1965, 437-438, 465, 575-576; "Hoan Loses consin history and early American history. The Association for His Bid for State Senate," Milwaukee Sentinel, November 6, 1952; Wisconsin Blue Book Documentary Editing recently awarded Stevens its Lyman But- 1954 (Madison: State of Wisconsin, 1954), 760. 57. Address at the Green Bay Conference, August 28, 1943, Hoan Papers. terfield Award for his career in scholarship, teaching, and service. 58. Daniel W. Hoan to Samuel H. Friedman, February 5, 1944, Hoan Papers. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madi 59. Daniel W. Hoan to Frank Carter, April 2, 1946, Hoan Papers. son and is working on a joint biography of Victor and Meta Berger.

AUTUMN 2014 27 •^1 w%;

•m*-

HH • i DM! [W@G@0E)3 M

3P BYAMYGNADT

he Harley-Davidson Motor Company was founded in 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, by three young men with both imagination and technical skills. They built a motor cycle in a backyard shed, and it wasn't long before i

they had constructed a • factory, hired employees, and developed motorcycles a> for a brand that would soon ^£^' be known around the world.

All photos courtesy of the Harley-Davidson Museum. The clarity of this image allows the viewer to identify the picnic meal of sardines am gherkins.The photographer paid attention to the small details, along with the clothing and scenic setting, to create a portrait of women enjoying recreation. Although carefully staged, the relaxed atmosphere incorporated the motorcycle as a compo nent of the women's elevated social status WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

This postal carrier had a sidecar rig for making deliveries.The photo was used in company literature to promote commercial vehicles.

Despite the company's humble beginnings, its founders negatives to capture thousands of moments documenting William S. Harley, Arthur Davidson, William A. Davidson, activity at the growing company. Subjects included Harley- and Walter Davidson (who joined the group in 1907) knew the Davidson products, employees, and facilities, along with new importance of keeping a record of their activities. They saved technologies, changing social customs, and the evolving land catalogs and other documents—an assemblage that evolved scape of the city of Milwaukee. into the company's archives. Today, the Harley-Davidson While a photographic chronicle of the company's history Archives has a photography collection of over 150,000 pieces. has long been the foundation of the company archives, a In addition to acetate and glass plate negatives and the prints discovery in 2012 provided a glimpse into the "missing" years made from them, a wide range of photographic materials 1915 and 1916, a pivotal time period for Harley-Davidson that are represented, including modern examples that exist only was previously not well documented. Over four hundred glass in digital format. Official company photography is stored plate negatives had been overlooked during an earlier transfer alongside photo albums and candid snapshots from the public of materials to the archives from a nearby historical institution that capture the diversity of Harley-Davidson's riders and the where many Harley-Davidson negatives were once housed. brand's historical and cultural significance. The 5" x 7" negatives had not been seen in nearly a century Harley-Davidson first employed company photographers and the incredible find was celebrated in a special exhibition early in the second decade of the 1900s. During this era, a entitled Exposed! Harley-Davidson's Lost Photographs, 1915- series of photographers—some known and others unidenti 1916. It featured more than fifty prints made from the recov fied—used large, unwieldy cameras and fragile glass plate ered negatives. To display the photographs in their entirety

30 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY careful steps were taken to maintain the integrity of the glass with common tasks more efficiently and economically than a plate negatives. Cautious handling prevented breakage, and team of horses. cleaning removed dust that could mar the silver emulsion on Although the motorcycle is typically the focus of the the surface of the negatives, which were scanned and printed. shot, the advertising photos often reveal interesting evidence Without cropping, the viewer can see deteriorating emulsion of cultural change as well. A series of photographs from the around edges of some images, incomplete exposures, and mid-1910s features women riding and posing together with the blurred movements in some pictures, but what some might vehicle at a time when advertising more commonly featured consider imperfections gives each piece its own character. The men. The images chronicle the women's motorcycle tour diligent work to digitally correct exposures also offers value. It around Milwaukee, showing them at familiar area landmarks. reveals a level of detail that is nearly impossible to see in the There is a feeling of relaxation and recreation in the photos, a original format. departure from the photographs of hard-working farmers that The subject matter of the photographs provides insight the same year. into the company's priorities and successes, as well as a view Technical photos of mechanics performing maintenance of the people behind the products and the way business was on engines with close-up views of parts reflected the increasing conducted. Harley-Davidson used them to illustrate the print complexity of the motorcycle and the need for detailed service materials it provided to customers and dealers. One adver manuals. The investment made in these service training tools tising piece touted the benefits of using a sidecar for deliveries. provided a competitive edge for the company and maintained It featured a staged photo of a rider and his 1915 model-year a high level of customer focus. The photographs were used in rig delivering the US mail to rural customers. Other ads, all formats of advertising, celebrating the sport of motorcycling aimed at farmers, demonstrated how a motorcycle could help and reinforcing the pleasures of bike ownership.

he motorcycle in this photo was advertised as a vehicle for armers to use for common chores instead of pleasure riding WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Above: Many photographs of the company's new products were taken in and around the Milwaukee area.This 1915 V model 11 -J sidecar outfit was photographed on a rural road ten miles southwest of Milwaukee, possibly on present-day National Avenue. Advertisements for commercial applica tions portrayed the motorcycle as a way to make travel to the expanding neighborhoods and suburbs easier.

Below: Tire patches branded with the Harley-Davidson trademark bar and shield appeared in the 1915 accessory catalog. Service parts and motorcycle accessories quickly become important segments of the company's business. Images of the individual parts were used in print materials and distributed to dealers and customers.

HARLEY-DAVIDSON RED, QUICK ACTING CEMENTLESS PATCH Above: This image of a 1916 twin appeared in the Harley- Davidson Dealer with instructions on carburetor removal. 'WEY.DAVIDSON MOTOR CCMilx""*"'11-' The padlock on the gearshift lever is an accessory to deter theft. As the complexity of motorcycles increased, more detailed explanation of their technical features became important for both customers and mechanics. Around this period, the company began producing more comprehensive parts, repair, and owner's manuals.

32 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Red Parkhurst (left) and Joe Wolters introduce the company's first factory racers in 1915: the Model 11-KRTwin Roadster Racer (left) and the Model 11-KTTwinTrack Racer.

The Harley-Davidson racing team is the subject of many Members of the factory-sponsored racing team are images from the lost negatives. The team was in its infancy also depicted in portraits taken in the studio. Their photos in 1915 when, for the first time, the company developed appeared in motorcycle industry publications, as well as the new motorcycles specifically for the track. To test these new Harley-Davidson Dealer magazine, to introduce them to the competition vehicles, two team members took to the roads Harley-Davidson community. Some faces became recogniz near the factory with excitement in the air and snow still on able on the competition circuit, including Joe Wolters, Leslie the ground. The photographer captured the moment facing "Red" Parkhurst, and Ray Weishaar, who stood for photos rearward and perched with his camera on another moving in both their street clothes and racing gear. The commercial vehicle, possibly the company truck. It was a precarious task images were shot with an artistic eye that captured small but given the delicacy of the negatives, but the combination of important details, such as the men's helmets and sweaters, and the photographer's fortitude and his raised vantage point photographs of these original materials can be used today to offers a detailed view of the new vehicles not seen in any inform, compare, and identify similar artifacts in the compa images previously held in the archives. ny's archives collection.

AUTUMN 2014 33 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The Kansas prairie provided a sparse backdrop for the Harley-Davidson "Wrecking Crew" race team photo. The three-hundred-mile road race at Dodge City, Kansas, was the pinnacle of the racing season. Harley-Davidson retained its title, taking home the top prize for the second consecu tive year. Results of the event and a photo recap were published in Motorcycle and Bicycling News, a weekly trade magazine.

34 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

AUTUMN 2014 35 A gentleman identified as Mr. Bender visits the factory with his modified "early machine,"as indicated on the original negative's envelope.

Another series of images shows the personal connection between Harley-Davidson and its customers. The now-iconic ABOUT THE AUTHOR front steps of the Milwaukee factory and company headquar Amy J. Gnadt is a curator at the ters appear as the backdrop in many shots. Rders equipped for Harley-Davidson Museum. She began long-distance travel found their way to Milwaukee to pose for volunteering in museums as a high photographs at the place where their motorcycles were built. school student at her hometown The availability of a company photographer to capture these historical society. She earned a BA moments on film demonstrates the value placed on factory visi in history from the University of Rochester and an MA in museum tors. Whether lone enthusiasts, pairs on matching machines, or studies from George Washington families bundled into sidecars, all of these visitors have taken their University, and has been with Harley- place in Harley-Davidson history through these photographs. A Davidson since 2007. Her current work focuses on sharing visit to the old factory is still the culmination of a pilgrimage for company history with an online and social media audience, many motorcycle riders today. in addition to developing of museum exhibits. Amy and Ultimately, the once-lost negatives from 1915-1916 are her husband live in Milwaukee. remarkable both for their survival and also for what today's viewers can learn from them. kVJ

Editor's Note: Harley-Davidson has documented and preserved its history for over one hundred years. Items from the Harley- Davidson Archives are now on public display at the museum and online. For more information see www.h-dmuseum.com

36 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY i

Construction began on the factory at 3700 W.Juneau Avenue in 1912.This facility served as the primary manufacturing plant until 1973, and today serves as the company's headquarters. The iconic front steps of the factory remain a photo opportunity for many enthusiasts traveling across the country.

m V

—-

a* •L At Above Left: Company portraits were used for publicity and recognition of key employees. Ray Weishaar is pictured here in racing gear. This photo is part of a group that highlighted each member of the newly formed racing team, appearing in the Harley-Davidson Dealer. Above Right: Ray Weishaar, pictured here in a formal suit

AUTUMN 2014 37 f 11MMI

WESTERN RAILROADS,EASTERN MONEY, THE HOME LEAGUE, AND THE FIRST FORECLOSURE CRISIS

BY TIMOTHY J. RIDDIOUGH AND HOWARD E. THOMPSON

^ WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

In 1850, after being admitted to the Union second was for cities with sufficient economic heft—which in two years earlier, Wisconsin was the least populated state in those times meant only Milwaukee—to buy railroad stock or the Old Northwest region even though the land was desirable guarantee the repayment of loans made to the railroads. The for farming.1 There were 12,839 farms located in the southeast city of Milwaukee in fact did step up to make a difference, corner of the state, where the counties of Milwaukee, Kenosha, but could only do so much to help fund the capital intensive 6 Racine, Waukesha, Washington, Walworth, Jefferson, Rock, railroad business. and Dodge accounted for nearly sixty-four percent of the total The third, and by far most important source, eventually farms and fifty-five percent of the population.2 The prominent became known as the railroad farm mortgage. Local farmers crop was wheat, and getting it to market was crucial since were eager to have a railroad built nearby in order to reduce Wisconsin farmers produced more wheat than residents of the transportation costs and increase the value of their prop state consumed.3 Crop transportation problems intensified as erty, but most didn't have any spare cash to invest. Railroad Wisconsin's immigrant population expanded rapidly during promoters responded by developing a scheme that allowed the the late 1840s and early 1850s, and settlers located further farmer to purchase stock by taking on debt. In exchange for inland from Lake Michigan. equity shares issued to the local farmer, the railroad in effect Roadways in the interior of the state existed, but, because offered seller debt financing to the farmer in the form of a of ruts, tree stumps, winter ice and snow, and mud after rains, promissory note. The note generally was due and payable in they were nearly impassable for much of the year.4 Rail ten years. To secure the note, the farmer mortgaged his farm roads offered a solution to the transportation problem but, as to the railroad. The note typically carried an interest payment of 1850, they had yet to penetrate state borders. A primary of eight percent, as compared to a ten percent promised divi reason for this was that railroad construction and develop dend payment on stock. ment required significant capital, and securing financing was In 1853, one such note to the La Crosse & Milwaukee a tremendous challenge in a new rural frontier state whose Railroad Company was made by Oren Johnson, a fifty-two- mostly poor resident population had little money available for year-old unmarried Presbyterian clergyman and farmer in the such investment. There was also a constitutional prohibition town of Beaver Dam. His farm, which he mortgaged for six against state government funding of internal improvements hundred dollars in stock, was 160 acres and over fifty miles that was taken to apply to railroads.5 Consequently, Wisconsin from ports on Lake Michigan. Securing efficient transporta railroad promoters turned to capitalists in eastern cities for tion was vital to him. financial assistance. Although not explicitly stated in the note or mortgage, the Securing eastern capital for what seemed like an obvious farmers were told that they would not have to pay the eight golden opportunity was not easy, however, due to the distance percent annual interest because the dividend of ten percent— between the money source and the physical investment. which would not actually be paid to the farmer—was more Because the new Wisconsin railroads were unknown to poten than enough to cover the interest obligation. The extra two tial investors, eastern capital providers wanted local share percent was to be held by the railroad and applied to paying holder investment because they saw it as something of a good down the balance owed on the note. This "in kind" exchange housekeeping seal of approval. Once locals actually committed was beneficial to both parties: the farmer gained a "free" money or items of value to purchase ownership stakes in the ownership stake in a railroad with track located near the farm local railroads, thus constituting an equity cushion to protect to help transport crops to market, and the railroad demon bondholders from possible operating losses, these new capital strated viability to outside financiers by selling equity shares channels could open. to local investors, obtaining valuable collateral in the process Securing some local money here and there was feasible, that could be used to secure much needed bond financing. but larger, more reliable local capital sources were required. Promoters further asserted that the value of the railroad stock Three potential sources of significant local capital were iden would rise over the ten-year period, thus providing a hand tified by the railroads and their promoters. The first was for some profit to the farmer when he settled his obligation on the 7 the local residents to supply labor or timbers for railroad ties note. For many of the farmers living in those speculative, fast- in exchange for stock. This worked fine for grading the right changing times, it was simply an irresistible "no money down" 8 of way, but cash was necessary once the rails and equipment deal which seemed to involve little or no risk. were ordered. And, unfortunately, outside capital sources Once a railroad obtained the note and mortgage in were not enamored with the "sweat equity" approach. The exchange for shares, it could satisfy eastern skepticism by demonstrating local ownership stakes invested in the railroad: Opposite page: The detail of this William AshbyMcCloy mural, located issuing a bond in its own name; and attaching the note and in the Wisconsin Historical Society, illustrates farmers halting a train at a mortgage of the farmer to it as security. The additional collat depot to demonstrate their anger over the farm mortgage foreclosures. eral provided substantial comfort to the bond investor. Eastern

AUTUMN 2014 39 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

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Johnson and the La 3ii6 *<^. ^7 7i^^,A ^ ^i. ^„.^,/ j/^ Jj (toa, j (( 7"T/'/"' Crosse & Milwaukee . •* ^£^ /£_i_ ^ •£> J. /^jCy„ '.*.£- ~^7Q • Dollars, ~s -/=-» ~: Railroad, 1853 Far Right:Title to the lands mort gaged by Oren Johnson investors were interested and purchased most of the bonds, The railroad boom contributed twenty percent to gross albeit at a steep discount to the face value, and at an attractive domestic product in the middle 1850s—a huge amount of new rate of interest of eight to ten percent (often generating yields investment—and predictably busted. The bust that followed of around twenty percent). In a contractual sleight-of-hand, the boom in railroad construction was caused by declining the railroads failed to mention to bond investors that the farm rates of immigration, softening demand from Europe for US mortgagors were not paying interest to the railroad themselves, agricultural products, overinvestment in railroad infrastruc since the promised dividends to the farmers on the stock they ture leading to the emergence of too many competing railroads, purchased more than offset the interest payments they owed and the concomitant decline in railroad revenues. The result on the note. The bond investors believed the interest on their of all this was the financial panic of August 1857, which in turn investments would be paid by the railroads from proceeds of caused New York banks to suspend payments to depositors in railroad operating revenues. If the railroads went into default October, leading to a severe depression in the Old Northwest on the bonds, investors believed they would receive the interest region. All of the railroads in Wisconsin failed.10 on the mortgage notes, which were seen as good security, but Default by the railroads on the railroad farm mort the interest wasn't being paid. gage bonds made it painfully clear to security holders that By 1857, "approximately 6,000 Wisconsin farmers mort Wisconsin farmers had not been paying the stated interest on gaged their homesteads for a total of $4,500,000 to $5,000,000 their notes to the railroads. And, given a consequent sharp to purchase railroad stock."9 Although the railroad farm mort decline in land values, it also became clear that most farmers gage scheme started in the early 1850s, activity peaked from would be unable to pay off their notes upon maturity as 1854 to 1857 as railroad construction boomed in Wisconsin (as promised. With the railroads placed in receivership by the US along with other frontier states located in the Old Northwest). District Court, the only remaining recourse for eastern inves In those years capital flowed freely from US banks, foreign tors in railroad farm mortgage bonds was to make the long investors, and consumers alike. journey to Wisconsin to confront the farmers who had mort-

40 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY gaged their property to the failed railroads. Now Wisconsin mortgages the defense of fraud should be available as well against farmers who had exchanged a mortgage on their property for the assignee as against the original holder and that no assignee of what became worthless railroad stock risked losing what was such a note or mortgage should be permitted to claim that he was typically their one and only asset, not to mention their family an innocent holder without notice."12 home and singular source of income. It comes as no surprise that early lower court decisions favored local farmer interests over eastern bondholder inter Their Day in Court ests. Farmers were neighbors, if not friends, and they voted in The farmers' plight was not lost on the local press. An article local elections, thus eliciting sympathy from county and district from the Galen [Illinois] Daily Advertiser suggested: ". . . the judges. Bondholders proved stubborn, however, and responded time is fast drawing near when creditors can call for a fore by appealing many of the early court decisions. The appeals took closure of the mortgages of the farms, which puts owners in a several years to work their way through the system, but finally state of mind that is decidedly interesting. . . . The trouble is in the summer of 1860 the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided a not that people have mortgaged their farms, but mortgaged trio of precedent-setting cases. The first, decided in June, known them for such large amounts—in some cases for more than as Clark v. Farrington, did not deal with the fraud defense. they have been worth or will be worth at the time the mort Rather, it dealt with the power granted to a corporation in its gage falls due."11 charter. In 1850, the mortgagor, William Farrington, a sixty- As attempts at foreclosure by eastern bond holders mounted, three-year-old Dodge County farmer, patented (purchased from local farm-mortgage leagues began forming in order to lobby the federal government) forty acres to the east of Beaver Dam, local and state politicians. They did this in a concerted effort to paying a total of fifty dollars. He mortgaged the land for eight void the bond holders' claims on the mortgagors, arguing that hundred dollars on March 28, 1853, obtaining a statement from the mortgagors had been defrauded by the railroad corporations. the railroad that he was "entitled to eight shares of one hundred The Wisconsin Legislature, which was dominated by farming dollars each in the capital stock of La Crosse & Milwaukee interests, passed Chapter 49 of the laws of 1858, designed to allow Railroad Company"13 The La Crosse & Milwaukee sold bonds the legal defense of a mortgagor (the farmer) against the assignee secured by Farrington's note and mortgage to William D. Clark of the mortgage (the investor who bought the railroad farm mort on July 1, 1854. When the railroad defaulted in 1857 on the gage bonds), as well as by the original mortgagee (the railroad). bond, which offered Farrington's farm as security, Clark sought The law provided, "in all actions brought to enforce such notes or foreclosure on Farrington's farm mortgage.

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D. Henry Rockwell stock certificate in La Crosse & Milwaukee Railroad signed by Byron Kilbourn, 1857

AUTUMN 2014 41 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

The trial court found for Farrington, but the Wisconsin not a legal issue in the case, Wiram Knowlton's land (which Supreme Court found for the bond holder, Clark. The defense secured the note) was more than eight miles from his home in on behalf of Mr. Farrington claimed that it wasn't in the Prairie du Chien, Crawford County. In addition, Knowlton powers granted by the state of Wisconsin to the La Crosse & was not a farmer but a well-known lawyer and judge in Prairie Milwaukee Rail Road to issue stock in return for a note and a du Chien where he had settled in 1848. He clearly did not fit mortgage since that power was not explicitly stated in the rail the image of the poor hardworking farmer who had improved road's charter. The Supreme Court ruled otherwise, stating, "It the land and struggled to make a living from it. Instead, he was not an attempt to go outside of its charter and accomplish was a land speculator having acquired three parcels of land—a things unauthorized, but was a means of executing the powers total of 283 acres—in Pierce and Crawford counties through granted, as to which, except so far as positively restricted, the federal land patents. Despite Knowlton's prominent status in company possessed the powers of an individual."14 In effect, his community and the state, the Supreme Court again found the Supreme Court held that the railroad had contracted for the bondholder, determining that M & M's charter did not legally with the farmer, who was complicit in the bargain, prevent it from taking a farm mortgage as security for a debt where neither was in a position to complain when they stood financing and in exchange for shares of stock. to mutually gain if everything had worked out as planned. The third case, Cornell v. Hichens, involved shares of The Supreme Court decided the two other farm mortgage Racine & Mississippi Railroad. The decision in this case voided cases in July of that year. One was Blunt v. Walker, involving the the 1858 state statute allowing the defense of fraud, which the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad (M & M). This case centered farm mortgagors had been relying on to protect themselves on the meaning of the language in the railroad's corporate from ruin.15 Anticipating the decision in Cornell, the local charter and the legislature's intention to prevent the railroad associations of farm mortgagors had organized to establish itself from entering into land speculation rather than to prevent the Home League, a newspaper devoted to the interests of the mortgages from being used as security for debts. The issues were affected farmers. The first issue was published on August 11, thus similar to those considered in Clark v. Farrington, hutBlunt 1860, out of Hartford, Wisconsin, which straddled the border v. Walker dealt with a corporate charter that was worded with of Dodge and Washington counties where eight hundred farm a slight variation from that considered in Farrington. Although mortagors, or twenty-one percent of the total, resided.

42 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

Above Left: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Luther Swift Dixon, ca. 1865 Above Center: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Orasmus Cole, ca. 1865 110 Above Right: Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Byron Paine, ca. 1860. Justices Dixon, Cole, and Paine ruled in favor of honoring the original terms of the railroad farm mortgages. MILFAUIEE & MISSISSIPPI

The Home League Leads the Fight The Home League led the fight for the farm mortgagors by reprinting articles from newspapers in and around Wisconsin— typically pro but sometimes con—over the course of its run. The MIL ROAD COMPANY. first issue carried numerous articles dealing with the Supreme Court decisions from the two prevailing points of view.16 The BYRON KILBOURN, W. TAINTOR, President. first was that the Wisconsin Supreme Court had acted respon W. P. FLANDERS, Secretary. sibly and correctly. The second took the position that the Treasurer^ outcome had produced, at best, a technically correct result that was immoral nonetheless. Advocating for the "responsible and correct" viewpoint, the editor of the Daily Wisconsin, a Street, reg- Milwaukee newspaper, wrote from New York to his Milwaukee Milwaukee, Feb. 15th, 1851. E. D. HOLTON, Sup'tdu paper: "We have just heard ... of the decision of our Supreme Court, in favor of the validity of Railroad Farm Mortgages. . . . All honor to [Supreme Court Justices] DIXON, COLE, and H./J. GOFP, PAINE. They could not have performed an act which required CONFECTIONER AND MANUFACTURER OF more moral courage, and which will truly add to the good name of the state." This praise was echoed by the Milwaukee News, a Democratic newspaper, which saw the court reflecting great credibility upon itself and the state.17 Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad Company ad, 1851 Other papers thought the decisions were simply immoral, if not legally incorrect, with the most emphatic being the question. It must not be permitted. The policy of these deci Wisconsin State Rights, a Stevens Point Republican news sions must be made too expensive to benefit those for whom it paper. With strong language, it disputed the legal grounds was inaugurated [Italics original]"18 that supported the decision, and ended with "Toleration of In the first issue of the Home League, editor Alexander M. the general doctrines of these several decisions is out of the Thomson, a thirty-eight-year-old farmer with a railroad farm

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... each road and by whom invested... and issue every man a certificate of stock to just the amount he had really contributed to the building of the road. To the farm mortgagor, to the amount of his mortgage; to the bondholder, to the amount actually paid for his bonds. . . ."20 The Madison Journal proposed that the mortgagors concentrate on an equitable settlement with the bond investor, which would extend the time in which the mortgagor could pay the debt. The Free Democrat urged the state to voluntarily purchase the railroads from the bondholders now Pierce controlling them in receivership, thus modifying the plan proposed by the Waupaca Kewaunee Brown Madison Argus. These proposed alter Buffalo Portage Outaga Trempealeau native approaches illustrate the crux of Calumet Waushara Manitowoc problem that the farmers faced, which Adams Winnebago was that integrity of the legal contract Monroe Marquette La Crosse Fond du Lac (vis-a-vis the note and farm mortgage) Green Lake Sheboygan was something that higher courts in the

Columbia hington land took seriously in those days. What Sauk 21 Richland Dodge Ozaukee to do to dig out of this mess? Amount of Total Crawford The Home League thereafter County Farm Mortgages Dane Jefferson I Milwaukee mounted a weekly defense for the over $300,000 Waukesh ^| $200,000 to $300,000 farm mortgagor, with much focus on Racin[e • $100,000 to $200,000 Walworth "fraud" committed by the railroads Lafayette Green Roc|< • $0 to $100,000 Kenosha in deceptively presenting their finan cial condition. On August 25 and The map shows locations of Wisconsin counties with railroad farm mortgages in 1874. September 1, 1860, the paper printed the opinion of Judge David Noggle of the First Circuit Court in the case of mortgage himself, made clear his purpose of promoting the Strong v. Sage. In this case, Judge Noggle decided in favor interests of the mortgagors and challenging the "Wall Street of the mortgagor, Stephen H. Sage, a forty-two-year-old Juggernot [sic]" that had made its way into the other organs produce dealer from Racine County. The judge pointed of the press. He made no promises, but vowed that when it was out that the bond certificate itself obliged the railroad to all settled he would be looked upon as having worked "indefati- pay the bond holder five hundred dollars on or before the gably" for those who had to do something to "extricate them tenth day of February 1860, with interest at ten percent, and us from the treacherous web which artful and designing and then followed with the words, "And for better security men have woven around us." He continued in the same vein, of such payment being made to the holder thereof, the said "The rattle-snake gives fair notice as he strikes; so beware, o company has assigned and transferred ... a certain note of stock-jobber, when you hear the rattle! The fang follows the five-hundred dollars, executed by S. H. Sage, together with a warning [Italics original]."19 mortgage given collateral to, and for the purpose of securing The second issue of the Home League, dated August 18, the payment of the same . . . which said note and mortgage 1860, printed articles proposing solutions to the mortgagors' are transferrable only in connection with this bond, and not plight in light of the Supreme Court rulings that foreclosure otherwise to any parties and purchasers whatever."22 Simply was available to the farm mortgage bondholders. The Madison stated, Judge Noggle decided the bond holder had a case Argus proposed that the state revoke the charters of the railroads against the railroad, not against the mortgagor. and form new honest companies where a committee of the legis One week later, James H. Knowlton, brother of farm lature would determine "what sums had really been invested in mortgagor Wiram Knowlton, and chairman of the legislative

44 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY committee which investigated the La Crosse & Milwaukee RAILROAD FARM MORTGAGES Land Grant scandal, wrote a "review" of the Clark v. Farrington decision that appeared on the front page of the NUMBER OF TOTAL AVERAGE COUNTY MORTGAGES AMOUNT MORTGAGE Home League.23 Knowlton ridiculed the Supreme Court's Milwaukee 58 $218,757 $3,772 conclusion that, since the railroads were not forbidden to take Green 193 $429,700 $2,226 mortgages in payment by their charter, mortgages as prop Crawford 68 $136,213 $2,003 erty could in effect be used as money: "Under the same prin Grant 82 $146,600 $1,788 ciple, the directors might take negroes in payment for its stock, Iowa 36 $54,700 $1,519 because the charter does not say that the company may do this Ozaukee 147 $215,800 $1,468 any more than it does that mortgages may be taken."24 La Fayette 32 $46,100 $1,441 The Home League continued to focus on the railroads' Dane 85 $112,950 $1,329 "fraudulent paper," "dishonest and fraudulent acts," and Juneau 32 $41,400 $1,294 "encouraging fraud and corruption." In describing the mort Rock 193 $242,100 $1,254 gagors, they were "innocent," "hard working," "debt paying," Columbia 299 $372,900 $1,247 farmers living in "log cabins" or "little white houses" built La Crosse 45 $53,250 $1,183 after the farmer turned the virgin land into a working farm.25 Adams 68 $70,700 $1,040 The Farm Mortgage Leagues around the state resolved that Dodge 477 $455,400 $955 the mortgagors were under no obligation to pay the notes they Washington 323 $306,330 $948 had signed and pledged to assist one another. Marathon 74 $68,700 $928 In an open letter to officials of the Milwaukee & Missis Waukesha 103 $89,035 $864 sippi Railroad, on December 22, 1860, the Farmers' General Green Lake 115 $91,300 $794 Home League26 argued that the bond holders, "never received Wood 60 $46,800 $780 them [the farm mortgages] as a principle security but as Sauk 170 $127,300 $749 collateral only to the bonds of the company; and were hence Kenosha 129 $94,600 $733 fixed with the legal knowledge of all the equities in favor of the Sheboygan 44 $31,600 $718 mortgagor"—a clear paraphrase ofJudg e Noggle in Strong v. Jefferson 198 $140,100 $708 Sage.27 But the basis for their claim was just window dressing Walworth 413 $286,055 $693 to the rest of the open letter. After detailing the way that the Racine 98 $64,703 $660 officers of the Milwaukee & Mississippi had conducted affairs Waushara 47 $29,200 $621 with only their own interests in mind, the letter "warned" Winnebago 206 $78,650 $382 bond holders not to attempt foreclosure because the mort TOTALS gagors would act as a group to run up the costs—adding that 3795 $4,050,943 $1,067 they were predominantly men of mature age who expected not Source: First Annual Report of the Railroad Commissioners of the State of Wisconsin, 1874, pages 250 -251. to see the end of the next decade, and they would resist forcible removal from their farms to their death.28 of Farm Mortgagors, which sponsored the Home League 29 Attempted End Run around the Court The four-column article attempted to frame the whole history As the 1861 Wisconsin legislative session started on January of the railroad farm mortgage problem and put the relevant 10, the nation was in turmoil. South Carolina had seceded on issues before the people and their representatives in Madison. December 20, 1860, and the day before, the first shots were It ended with a note of defiance: fired on the merchant ship Star of the West as it attempted to take supplies to Fort Sumter. Seven of the twenty-six pages in We will never, never, pay these mortgages. We never have the governor's address to the legislature two days later were repudiated any honest debt and never will, but to ask us to devoted to the issues of slavery and the Union. It was the only pay these claims, when all the circumstances are known, is one of twenty-five topics that received more attention than the an absurdity. plight of the railroad farm mortgagors. It is said that widows and orphans at the East have Two days after the governor's address to the people of the invested their means of support in these mortgages. We state, the Home League published an article written by W. pledge ourselves to give at any time, the names, ages, and Curtis, a forty-four-year-old manufacturer of farming equip place of residence of ten widows and orphans in our own ment from Sauk County; and Isaac P. P. Gentil, the fifty- State who would be utterly ruined and rendered penni three-year-old treasurer of Crawford County. The article was less if these mortgages were to be paid, to one that will termed an "address," written on behalf of the Grand League suffer in the least by nonpayment. We challenge those

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the first section required that all testimony in a foreclosure case be taken within the state ,••-<.,, .-•<•.,„ of Wisconsin by a person

t ;,•< f,,J.«>~ appointed by the court. (t / , 7 '"' " • '77- ' ; v "•• • The second section made it

• possible to delay the action of 7 the court by allowing either -**7%i„ party to object to any part of the testimony of the other ? 2.P,(7-< ' side within ten days. The "77v "-»,. / - • , •• - -- •<•••'.;- 7.-, , .

• f^^c* third section allowed for an ••'•- ••- Anuydjt appeal of the judgment dealt by the court in the matter of •' • t ./, : li'J the second section, and while ' }k-~ under appeal the foreclosure At*-* ' ' • • •- -' •' 'Tkj" • action in the trial court would •^ be suspended. The next . '"" - < * sixteen sections were designed ' ' •• • • • 7, , ,< to extend the time of the liti * gation and place a heavy pecuniary burden on the plaintiff in any case against a Above Left: A partial list of claim mortgagor. Section 20 gave ants in the matter of the Wisconsin ***bgy4*t / ..f.'C- ^/tj^at I <•;'•>-. ~,,,7.7'', the loser in the final judg Railroad Farm Mortgage Land ment four years to appeal to Company filed and approved by the Supreme Court. During virtue of the "Private and Local Laws /,,^,/a^, • of 1875." the appeal period, should the plaintiff win, the property Above Right: Document awarding land to the Wisconsin Railroad Farm Mortgage Company, 1877 could not be sold.31 The senate passed the who put this lying count against us to make the trial. bill within 24 hours—but the assembly tabled it.32 The bill, Many of you immigrated to this State with us at an after some amendments, was passed on March 14, 1861, by early day ere the print of the Red Man's foot had become a vote of 47 to 35 in the Republican-dominated assembly. obliterated from the virgin soil, and have borne with us The voting did not follow strict political party lines, however, the hardships and privations incident to frontier life. Most with only a bare majority of Republicans supporting the bill. of us have passed over life's brief journey, and are now Nor was support unified by whether an assemblyman was a descending its western slope. You know that the homes farmer or not, with forty percent of forty-five farmers in the we are now defending have not come to us as a patrimony assembly voting against the bill.33 No matter that support from our fathers, nor were they acquired by speculation, was splintered—the Home League was delighted with the but we have wrought them ourselves from the barbaric outcome. Some other newspapers were dismayed. The Fond clutch of their savage and uncivilized condition by patient, du Lac Commonwealth called it "The scandalous bill." In a unrequited toil—every foot of which we have baptized minority report of the assembly, John G. Clark, thirty-seven, with the sweat of our brow.30 a lawyer from Grant County, called it unconstitutional since "it provides all of the machinery for protracting a suit through During the 1861 session, the first bill introduced to help all time."34 distressed mortgagors was from Democratic senator Densmore The "scandalous" legislation was quickly tested in Oatman W. Maxon, a forty-year-old farmer from Washington County. v. Bond. Joel S. Oatman was a farm mortgage bond holder The proposed legislation was entitled, "A Bill Concerning who was attempting to foreclose in order to recover some of his Proceedings in Courts in Certain Cases." It contained twenty- initial investment. The new rules required Oatman to pay five seven sections designed to make it very costly for the mortgage hundred dollars as security, in advance, for testimony he was holders to sue the mortgagors in foreclosures. For example. to provide to a representative of the court. In ruling in favor

46 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY of Oatman, Supreme Court Justice Cole's opinion first struck Losing Steam: The Home League down the part of the law forcing all testimony to be taken out of Passes into History court as conflicting with the US Constitution. He then wrote, "it is difficult to perceive how any candid person, capable of By the middle part of 1862, the Home League's, defense of reading the law, and comprehending its provisions, can fail farm mortgagors, like the railroads' profitability several years to see upon its very face an intention so to clog, hamper and prior, started losing steam. Each time the Supreme Court embarrass the proceedings to endorse the remedy as to destroy ruled against the farmers and in favor of the bondholders, the it entirely, and thus to impair the contract. . ." This, he said, bondholders would appear and use their newly gained advan was in conflict with the Bill of Rights' provision that every tages to seek a favorable settlement or foreclosure on individual person is entitled to a remedy in law for injuries or wrongs.35 mortgagors. Time, constant pressure, and dwindling numbers In February 1862, a new bill was introduced by Assem had the disconcerting effect of eroding popular support for the blyman Ormsby B. Thomas, a twenty-nine-year-old attorney distressed farm mortgagors. from Prairie du Chien whose father, John, had a five thou Later in 1862, the Home League changed from a paper sand dollar railroad mortgage. The bill called for the railroads devoted entirely to the railroad farm mortgage issue to one that to pay one cent per bushel of wheat they carry "and in that was mostly devoted to stories about the war. The September 27 proportion" for other freight. This would create a source of issue of the Home League was the usual four pages each with revenue to be used to assist distressed farm mortgagors in satis six columns, but only two of the twenty-four columns in that fying their debts.36 The Home League supported the bill but issue were directed at the farm mortgage problem; and those added that there must be a provision against paying face value were on the second page. The war dominated the paper, occu to holders of farm mortgage bonds who acquired their bonds pying ten columns, while miscellaneous stories and ads filled the (often in resale from the original holders) at highly discounted rest. The second page contained a two-column story from the values. The Madison Argus had a different take on the bill, New York Tribune about the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam). noting with concern that the tax would be passed on to farmers Subsequent issues of the Home League reinforced the idea that in the form of a higher shipping rate. the league had been of great benefit to the mortgagors. Editor On April 30, 1862, Chapter 330 entitled "An Act to Thomson emphasized that had the mortgagors paid their debts relieve the holders of Railroad Farm Mortgages made in aid three years earlier, and had otherwise ignored the advice of the of companies" was enacted into law. It was the final product Home League, they would have suffered catastrophic losses. of Orsmby B. Thomas' assembly bill. Section 1 of the bill Samuel Brown, the president of the Grand League of declared that a fund to aid farm mortgagors in satisfying the Farm Mortgagors, announced at the meeting of the League debts to be established, while Section 2 specified that all rail on July 8, 1862, that Thomson had asked to be relieved of his roads in the state that had taken railroad farm mortgages in editorial duties at the end of the second volume of the paper return for stock (and those succeeding the original railroads) in early August.39 The Grand League, which held Thomson in should pay into the fund twelve percent of the amount of mort the highest regard, refused his request; Thomson acquiesced. gages and bonds. 37 The legislation placed the burden on the But interest in the paper was waning. On October 11, the new owners of the railroads (and the customers who used the editor's comments singled out those who had not paid their railroad) and not the "shysters" who "cheated" the mortgagors subscriptions: "Those that are in arrears ought to pay, and in the first place. those that are not ought to pay in advance." On December Although this legislation did contain a partial escape 6, the Home League raised its rate from $1.50 to $2.00. But clause for the railroads, it undoubtably helped move both money wasn't the only problem. The editor went on to say he sides towards settlement. For example, the farm mortgagors needed forty or fifty correspondents scattered about to send in of the Milwaukee & Prairie du Chien (formerly Milwaukee & bits of news on mortgage matters to provide a more complete Mississippi) sent a delegation to the May stockholders' meeting picture of the farm mortgage situation in the state.40 in Milwaukee shortly after Chapter 330 was passed into law. In April 1863, Chapter 305 passed the legislature. It allowed Once the mortgagors explained their position, the president a farm mortgagor to bring action against an unknown mort of the railroad showed an interest and offered to defray the gage bondholder. This was to be accomplished by publication expenses of a delegation of mortgagors to go to New York to of the summons that stated the bondholder had ninety days to meet with bondholders in late July. In the meeting the mort report to the court. If the bondholder did not appear the mort gagors made an offer for settlement with payoffs to bond gagor could apply for relief. The case would then be tried in the holders of between twenty-five and forty percent of the bond's county in which it arose and, if either party so chose, be tried face value. By September 17, 1862 "quite a large number of in the presence of a jury. The Home League hoped that lawyers holders have accepted this proposition, and the prospect seems for the mortgagors would "bring the law to the notice of the to be fair for a general settlement."38 Wisconsin Supreme Court," to test its constitutionality.41

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V^ Girls and Wives- '

-Sort;oU.lv lin* vnllen llio lollowir.g about tho girlM and act Et afloat: (!.d bit-* Uic girls, Devoted to tbo interest of the Hail moaoguldea crl". Blond »iil. ..ur ertniax draani* ; BoadFarm Mortgagors—thefriend 1 lily looul our live*' of Lubor—and tlio uncompromising Xilka .|iiril witca, foo of swindling Corporations. Or—a* naiailB linuni ibu «Uo«'o". PUDLISBBP RVflRY TllUUSDAY AT • A- M- THOMSON. 'IN TJICIOW TH2n^3 IS 8THEMGTII." JInrlford, WiiNhhiBtoii t.'o..\YI*. , TEBME-$1.5U for «&lgk Si.Urrih.TS Jen Copfus or on;r*$[.UJ i-aob n»J one to VOL. 1. HARTFORD, WIS., SATURDAY AUGUST 18th, I860. NO. 2. llio KiMvr up oflln: Club. ' i Uiu i.iiiic« til tin- .flic, limn d lu llu' ••I'ul.llsliini. IBS SIB IT qiESTira. aid all eon ili-.ii.-iic.l 1'cir tlio o.!t- (fed blew ilit a-ivea, lor ulioulil ;o A. M. TBOIUOX. TIi.v bllourl.ivoa .l,iii;i,,....,.ll.oo..ji Above: The front page of the Home League, Saturday, August 18,1860, featured an editorial on "Farm Mortgages-A Remedy Provided in the Constitution." Below: Alexander M.Thomson served as editor of the Home League from 1860 to 1864.

In ending its third year, the Home response to economic conditions after the League noted that most of the papers in the Civil War. Taxation at the time was based state which supported the mortgagors when on land and property ownership, which the Home League was founded, including fell heavily on farmers. The western states the Madison Argus, the Stevens Point State were still short of local capital, so to fund Rights, and the Prison City Item, had quit mortgages and provide working capital for publishing. The editor's valedictory to the farmers these states relied on eastern money. third volume proclaimed the benefit that But this money was in short supply and had accrued to mortgagors as a result of extremely expensive after the war. The tariff the paper. It also pointed a finger at the that protected manufacturers increased the shortcomings of the mortgagors: "[W]e farmers' costs for needed supplies from the are of the opinion now that it might have East, while the farmers' grain export prices been settled had all our friends been alive to were set by world markets. Railroad freight their own interests and worked as zealously rates were unregulated and set by the rail and as industriously as their enemies, or roads to take advantage of their monopoly spent one tenth of the money." The column position. Complaints in Wisconsin focused closed with a rebuke to subscribers who had on unfair discrimination, noting for not paid for as much as two years.42 example that a farmer shipping wheat The paper suspended on March 5, 1864. Efforts made on from the Mississippi to Milwaukee was charged half as much as behalf of the railroad farm mortgagors did not end with the a farmer shipping wheat from Beaver Dam to Milwaukee. The demise of the Home League. In 1867, farm mortgagor inter lower "through" rates resulted from competition on the longer ests passed Chapter 79, requiring that all mortgage foreclosures route, which was recouped by higher rates on the "local" traffic be tried by jury. In 1868, Chapter 79 was declared unconsti for which competition was mostly nonexistent. As a result, the tutional by the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In nearly a decade Patrons of Husbandry (Grangers), a fraternal organization of of legislative efforts to lift the financial burden from the farm farmers, was formed between 1865 and 1867.43 Thomson's edito mortgagors, not a single law survived Supreme Court review. rial advocating the "uniform local tariff," although not the well- The Supreme Court of Wisconsin decided that every law passed spring of the Granger movement, likely helped shift the focus of by the legislature was designed to abrogate the duties that the the railroad farm mortgage interests toward railroad regulation in farm mortgagors agreed to in their contract with the railroads Wisconsin.44 SolonJ. Buck, writing in 1916, states: for purchase of stock, or to make the cost of foreclosure prohibi tively expensive to the mortgage holder. The court could find The farmers felt that, having furnished, either in their no reason why the stock-for-note and mortgage swap contract private or public capacity, a large share of the funds for the was fraudulent, and hence could find no reason to abrogate construction of the roads, they were entitled to more advan the duties of the mortgagor. When the farmer made the stock tages there from. A result of this feeling was a sporadic purchase in hopes of financial gain, he also assumed the risk of movement which might be termed a forerunner of the loss. Each attempt to raise the cost of remedy to the mortgage Granger movement and had for its object the repudiation holder was deemed by the court to make a remedy virtually of the county and municipal railway bonds.45 impossible, and each was struck down. While the railroad farm mortgage efforts lost momentum in The railroad farm mortgagor's fight in the Wisconsin Legislature Wisconsin, there was unrest among farmers across the nation in and the courts could be characterized as a failure, and Thom-

48 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY son's almost four years as editor of the Home League on behalf of investor as long as he possessed title to land that could collateralize a note which in turn was used to purchase the shares. Crawford County and census records show that town merchants, the mortgagors futile. But the mortgagors produced enough soli lumber dealers, the county judge and one clergyman mortgaged some of their "urban" land darity through the Home League's, efforts that, "By one means or holdings in what were likely speculative investments. But the promotion of the scheme by the railroads was clearly targeted to farmers. another most railroad encumberances in the State were cancelled 8. As Byron Kilbourn, the president and principle promoter of the Milwaukee & Mississippi railroad, argued in his "Circular to Capitalists" (1850), the development of a railroad near the before the end of sixties." In many cases the mortgagors' debts farmer's location "would more than double the amount of the farmer's profits, producing a were settled with the bond holder for half their face value. In higher general prosperity of the community, and a consequent enhancement of the value of real estate in all that part of the country falling within the range of its influence." Circular to other cases the railroads compromised with the mortgagors who Capitalists Relative to Milwukee City Loan for the Benefit of the Milwaukee and Mssissippi were able to exchange their stock on favorable enough terms to Rail Road Company: Together with Acts and Ordinances Authorizing Said Loan (Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail Road Company, 1850). satisfy their mortgages. Other mortgagers settled on less favor 9. Merk, Economic Hstory, 243. able terms.46 In the end, contracts were "more or less" enforced. 10. See Charles W. Calomiris and Larry Schweikart, "The Panic of 1857: Origins, Trans mission, and Containment," Journal of Economic Hstory 51, no. 4 (1991): 807—834: The freedom to contract and the requirement to perform under Albert Fishlow, American Railroads and the Transformation of the Antebellum Economy the contract remain a central, and indeed powerful, part of the ^Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966), 202-203. 11. "Farmers of Wisconsin in a Tight Place," Grant County Herald, January 3, 1858. nation's collective value system. kM Reprinted from the Galena (Illinois) Daily Advertiser. 12. Quote from John B. Winslow, The Story of a Great Court: Being a Sketch of the Hstory of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, Its Judges and Their Times from the Admission of the State to the Notes Death of Chief Justice Ryan (Chicago: T. H. Flood, 1912), 140. For the exact wording of the law see F. 1. The Old Northwest consisted of what is now the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and S. Lovell, The Revised Statutes of the State of Wisconsin: Passed at the Annual Session of the Legis Wisconsin. Wisconsin had a population of 305,391 in 1850. Historical Census Browser, University lature Commencingjan. 13,1858, and Approved May 17, 1858 (Chicago: W B. Keen, 1858), 859. of Virginia, Geospacial and Statistical Data Center, http://mapserver.lib.virginia.edu/. 13. Clark v. Farrington, 11 Wis. (306) 1860, at 307. 2. Ibid. 14. Ibid., at 333. 3. Joseph Schafer, A History of Agriculture in Wisconsin (Madison: State Historical Society 15. Winslow, Story of a Great Court; Lovell, Revised Statutes of the State of Wisconsin, 1858. of Wisconsin, 1922), chapter 5; John G. Thompson, The Rise and Decline of the Wheat 16. The ten newspapers quoted in the first issue included nine from Wisconsin and the New Growing Industry in Wisconsin (Madison: State of Wisconsin Historial Society, 1909), chapter York Tribune. Three of the four Milwaukee papers quoted were satisfied with the Supreme 2; Frederick Merk, Economic History of Wisconsin in the Civil War Decade (Madison: State Court's decisions while the German and Democratic Mlwaukee Banner's item was in of Wisconsin Historical Society, 1916), 239. sympathy with the farmers. Five of the remaining six newpapers quoted were in sympathy 4. Merk, Economic History, 239. with the farmers. The Green Bay Advocate supported the court's decision. 5. Influenced by costly railroad and canal subsidies in Illinois and Michgan, the Wisconsin 17. Reprinted in the Home League, August 11, 1860. Constitution of 1848, in ArticleVIII, Section 10, prohibited state aid for such internal improve 18. Ibid. ments. See Joseph A. Ranney, "Wisconsin's Constitutional Amendment Habit: A Disease or 19. Home League, August 11, 1860. a Cure?" Marquette Law Review 90 (2007): 667. 20. Home League, August 18, 1860. 6. For example, in 1849 and 1850, Milwaukee issued a total of $250,000 in municipal bonds to 21. The Madison/ouraai, Argus, and the Free Democrat are all quoted in Ibid. help finance the start of the Milwaukee & Mississippi railroad. By 1857, the amount issued to 22. Home League, August 25 and September 1, 1860. support several different railroads totaled $1,384,000. See Laurence M. Larson, A Financial 23. For background on the scandal see Axel Lorenzsonn, Steam & Cinders: The Advent and Administrative Hstory of Milwaukee (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1908), 49-50, 75. of Railroads in Wisconsin (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2009), 223-230, 7. The mortgagors-investors were primarily farmers, but others also participated in the rail 252—260; "Wisconsin Legislative Investigation—Lacrosse and Milwaukee Railroad Corrup road farm mortgage scheme. Indeed, the railroad had little interest in the endeavors of the tions," New York Times, March 26, 1858, page 2; and "The Wisconsin Infamy—Glimpses of Railroad Management,"New York Times, May 25, 1858, page 4. 24. "A Review," Home League, September 8, 1860, page 1. 25. Every issue of the Home League in its first six months of publication contained at least ABOUT THE AUTHORS one of these terms. 26. The Farmers General Home League was an umbrella organization under which the local Timothy Riddiough holds the E. J. Plesko Home Leagues of mortgagors to the Milwakee and Mississippi Railroad operated. Chair and is a professor of real estate and 27. "An Address by the Farm Mortgagors," Home League, December 22, 1860, page 1. 28. Ibid. urban land economics at the University of 29. For the governor's address sccjournal of the Senate of Wisconsin, Annual Session, A. D. Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his PhD 1861 (Madison: M. A. Watkins, State Printer, 1861), 5-33. Also "Address of the Grand League of Farm Mortgagors to the People of the State," Home League, January 12, 1861, page 2. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison 30. Ibid. "Address of the Grand League of Farm Mortgagors to the People of the State." and was a tenured professor at MIT prior to 31. The bill was printed in the Home League, February 23, 1861, page 2. 32. "A General Howl," and "Farm Mortgage Items," Home League, February 23, 1861, page 2. returning to Madison in 2001. He acknowl 33. The data are compiled from The Journal of the Assembly of Wisconsin: Annual Session. edges that Professor Howard Thompson inspired this project, as A. D. 1861 (Madison: M. A. Watkins, State Printer, 1861) 542 and Crane, L. H. D., Editor, A n Manual of Customs, Precedents and Forms, in Use in the Assmenbly of Wisconsin; Together he has inspired him for the past thirty years. with the Rules, the Apportionments, and Other Lists and Tables for Reference, with Indices, third annual edition James Ross, State Printer, 1861), 8—10. Howard E. Thompson is emeritus pro 34. Clark's report is printed in the Home League, March 23, 1861, page 2. fessor at UW-Madison, where he taught 35. Oatman v Bond, 15 Wis. (20) 1862. 36. "Assemby Bill No. 145," Home League, February 15, 1862, page 2. from 1963 until 2001. Born in West Allis, he 37. General Laws of the State of Wisconsin in the Year 1862, Together Withjoint Resolutions received his BS, MS and PhD from UW-Mad and Memorials (Madison: Smith and Cullaton, State Printers), 192-206. 38. "Mil. & Miss. R. E. Farm Mortgages," Home League, September 27, 1862, page 2. ison. He has written numerous articles in 39. In 1864, Thomson became editor of ihcjanesville Gazette. ^A financial and regulatory journals and is the 40. "To Our Friends," Home League, October 11, 1862, page 2. 41. Chapter 305 was printed in the Home League, May 16, 1863. d ^^ author of nine books. He has been consul- 42. "End of the Third Volume—Some Reflections and Some Facts," Home League, August •^•^•^•^^•^B tant to the World Bank, the US Department 22, 1863, page 2. of Energy, and various state utility commissions. His interest in the 43. See for example, Thomas C. Atkeson, Semi-Centennial History of the Patrons of Husbandry (New York: Orange Judd Company, 1916), chapter 1. railroads of Wisconsin arose while researching the life of his great 44. "Concerning Railroads," Home League, January 30, 1864. grandfather, Ebenezer Thompson, a frontier lumberman. Baptist 45. SolonJ. Buck, The Granger Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913), 10. 46. Merk, Economic Hstory, 265-269. preacher, and vocal anti-monopolist in the Red Cedar River area in the 1850s.

AUTUMN 2014 49 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

SEVENTH GENERATION EARTH ETHICS Native Voices of Wisconsin

BY PATTY LOEW

The following is an excerpt from the book Seventh Generation Earth Ethics by Patty Loew, recently published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. This collection of Native biographies, one from each of the twelve Indian Nations of Wisconsin, introduces the reader to environmental warriors who honor the Seventh Genera tion philosophy, which cautions decision makers to consider how their actions will affect seven generations in the future—some 240 years. This selection comes from a chapter on sculptor Truman Lowe, an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation who approaches his use of materials and creative process from an environmental perspective.

"I believe each artist invents a personal language," Truman the Smithsonian Institution unveiled its newest museum on Lowe once stated. "You assemble elements of a visual language the Mall in 2004, the National Museum of the American shaped by your own perceptions and interpretations. Then Indian, it named Lowe as its curator of contemporary art. Still, you begin to tell a story."' Recognized as one of the country's his accomplishments may not have brought him the celebrity finest modern artists, he has exhibited in some of the world's many believe he deserves. As one journalist observed, "Lowe most prestigious galleries and public spaces, including the remains one of the least known and most underappreciated White House Rose Garden. He has been the subject of dozens artists in Madison."2 of newspaper articles and has been featured in art publica Lowe's story begins at the Winnebago Mission in Black tions, anthologies, and Jo Ortel's acclaimed book, Woodland River Falls, where he grew up the youngest of six children born Reflections: The Art of Truman Lowe. Not surprisingly, when in 1944 to Mabel (Davis) and Martin Lowe. His parents built a

50 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY house below a small ridge along the Black River near Morrison to experiment instead with wood. After collecting his MFA in Greek. With its castellated bluffs, sandstone outcroppings, art education, he took a visiting lecturer's position at Emporia and sylvan coulees, the so-called driftless terrain of western State University in Emporia, Kansas, and moved with his wife, Wisconsin is arguably the most beautiful in the state. Nancy, and two-year-old daughter, Tonia, into an old farm Truman's mother, Mabel, was a noted ribbon applique house at the edge of town.5 There was an abandoned barn on artist, whose skirts, aprons, and leggings continue to be worn by the property filled with old wood. Here he began to develop Ho-Chunk powwow dancers as part of their traditional regalia. a signature style using weathered wood, leather, feathers, and She was perhaps even better known as found objects. a basket maker and colorist. Truman's He missed the Wisconsin wood father, Martin, selected the ash used for lands, however, and in 1974, when his wife's baskets, choosing young, supple offered a position as assistant dean for trees that he'd pound with the flat end multicultural affairs at UW-Madison, he of an axe to separate the growth layers. accepted and moved the family back to For the Lowes, the integrity of their art the state capital. A year later, he became was as much about process as it was the director of the American Indian Studies finished piece. It was about their connec Program (AISP) and began teaching art tion to and intimate knowledge of the education as an assistant professor. The natural world—a relationship Martin return to Madison, where the Lowes communicated to his son: could be closer to their families, was uplifting. The joy of their son Martin's He'd say, you know where the Black birth in 1975, however, was tempered River and the Morrison meet, you have by the loss of Lowe's mother, Mabel, a to go to the third grove and you start year later. The period of introspection looking for the wood and it has to be following her death revealed itself in large clear, without any branches, so that you works that invoked the objects and sacred can bend it as you're carving it. . . . The Truman Lowe, Ho-Chunk sculptor and spaces of his Ho-Chunk homeland. He annual rings should be thicker than a University of Wisconsin-Madison art crafted feather trees and wooden sculp nickel. Then you get the most perfect professor emeritus tures reminiscent of cradle boards and size diameter and the length should be wiigwams. He sketched drawings that four feet and that's where you cut it. You always use that evoked his mother's ribbon applique patterns. From that point growth. It is the clearest and the straightest.3 forward, his "personal, professional and artistic identities would converge and coalesce around his Indian heritage."6 Truman said his father's explanation helped him understand The art world began to take notice. In 1984 he was singled his family's connection to the environment and the ethic of out in a New York Times review of the "Contemporary Native taking only what was needed. American Art" exhibit at the Pratt Manhattan Center Gallery.' Mostly what Truman wanted was a good education, His name was beginning to appear alongside Native notables which his parents instilled in him as an ideal. After college, like Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Kay Walking Stick, and his he was accepted to University of Wisconsin-Madison's MFA inspiration, George Morrison. It was clear from the attention program with a Ford Fellowship, the first of many distinctions he was getting that he had joined an elite class of artists. "I he would collect over his career. In graduate school, Lowe was don't think you ever see it that way when you're living it," his free to explore the creative impulses that were beginning to wife, Nancy, observed. "But from my perspective, when those ignite—a fascination with the avant-garde, themes of land and things happened, it was something he deserved. He worked so identity, and an infatuation with plastic because it was "so big, hard and it's now happening."8 so flexible, so easy to store, and so cheap."4 He experimented The five hundredth anniversary of Christopher Colum with polyethylene, creating large fringed hanging pieces and bus's arrival in the Americas in 1992 created a unique opportu floor sculptures. He drew inspiration from twentieth-century nity for Native artists. The National Gallery in Ottawa invited modernists like George Morrison (Grand Portage Ojibwe) and Lowe to exhibit at its "Land Spirit Power" exhibition. He Alan Houser (Chiricahua Apache) who explored their Native agreed, but only if he could visit the area first. "I really needed identity through abstract expressionism. to see the environment that makes Ottawa. So we spent a day His medium—plastic—reflected that conflict and stood looking at the location of the city and the metropolitan area," he in contrast to his "natural" inclinations as a Native artist. remembered. "What really struck me is that it's the beginning of Aarmed by the toxicity of plastic, in the mid- 1970s he decided where a lot of the streams emptied into the lake there and I said

AUTUMN 2014 51 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY that's what I'm going to do." The result conscious about his decisions. "I think was Ottawa, a breathtaking five-foot- about it before I use it."13 tall waterfall of peeled pine strips that Environmentalism is one reason he cascade from an open-frame scaffold to almost never uses large pieces of birch or the floor, "as if the river were spilling into birch bark, a mainstay of many Native the viewer's space."9 craftspeople. He is concerned about the A flurry of art shows and honors increasing scarcity of the species. "Birch followed "Land Spirit Power," among wood is gorgeous, but I've never used them a prominent exhibit at the Eitel it to build anything. I guess I have too jorg Museum in Indianapolis in 1994, much respect for it." He'd rather see an one of the country's premiere venues for artist like Marvin DeFoe, a Red Cliff American Indian art. "Truman Lowe Ojibwe canoe maker, use the resource. Haga (Third Son)" featured a collection "I'm satisfied with the little pieces that of sculptures, drawings, and paintings I work with; that's enough for me," he as part of Truman's Eiteljorg Fellowship said. "I'd rather that Marvin use it. He for Native American Fine Art, a bien needs it more than I do. If he runs out, nial program that honors and provides what would we do?"14 cash awards to Native artists, purchases A reverence for water is also their works, mounts exhibitions, and reflected in Lowe's work. One of his issues publications about their art that most successful pieces, Waterfall, encourage a national dialogue.10 displayed at the Eiteljorg, was inspired Following his success at the Eiteljorg by Ho-Chunk beading and ribbon there were shows in Denver and Atlanta. applique traditions. It consisted of Prestigious museums and centers, such peeled willow sticks attached to and as the Heard Museum in Phoenix and spilling down from a grid. As Lowe the Indianapolis Art Center, acquired explained it, the rounded edges of his work for their collections. In 1994, traditional Ho-Chunk floral patterns he was commissioned to create a piece transfer nicely to ribbon applique and for a special White House exhibition, freestyle beading, but when reproduced "Twentieth-Century American Sculpture on a loom, the patterns flattened. "If at The White House: Honoring Native the loom was used, it had to become America." For his wife, Nancy, the invi geometric," he explained. Waterfall TC Feather Canoe (1992), featured in the tation was the affirmation of something Haga (Third Son) exhibition of sculpture, explored that geometry. 'Just like bead- she had known all along. Her husband drawing, and painting by Truman Lowe at work, if I did the grid, I could make it really was a special artist. She said it was the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians attach wherever I wanted to. It's just 15 especially gratifying because the couple's and Western Art in Indianapolis applying existing principles." children were old enough to appreciate Lowe's understanding of broader their father's honor. Daughter Tonia flew in from Colorado for themes and his ability to integrate Native tradition and the event. "It was just the coolest thing we've done as a family—to contemporary expression made him the Smithsonian Institu visit the White House!"11 tion's choice to become the first curator of contemporary art at Lowe's entry, Bird Effigy, consisted of aluminum sticks the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), which woven together in an "ethereal lattice work of silver" remi opened in 2004. The years following his success at the NMAI niscent of the ancient effigy mounds of the Ho-Chunk.12 His brought accolades and additional art shows. He received Life decision to use aluminum was a departure from the willow and time Achievement Awards from both the Wisconsin Museum pine he had been using for his sculptures, but necessary because of Art and the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and the sculpture would be displayed outdoors. He decided to use Letters, joining such notables as landscape painter Georgia hollow aluminum tubes partly because of weight considerations, O'Keeffe. In 2008 UW-Madison bestowed its Distinguished but also because of his concerns about the toxicity of bauxite, Aumni Award upon Lowe. Nancy Mithlo, then-UW- the primary source of aluminum. His decisions about which Madison professor of art history and American Indian Studies, medium to use are deliberate and reflect his environmental observed, "Truman's works sing to us, they echo a particular ethics. "Artists in one sense are not factories. They don't use history, a particular place and time richly imbued with culture a tremendous amount of resources," he said. Still, he says he's and a sense of the spiritual."16

52 wisconsinhistory.org WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY

nity and a generosity of spirit that is so evident in his character," Mithlo stated. In an observation that reflects the feelings of many of his friends, colleagues, and admirers in the art world, she said, "A leader and a guide for future generations, Lowe reminds us gently to take notice of our environment and to honor its gifts." 19\Hfi

Notes 1. Artist statement cited in Jo Ortel, Woodland Reflections: The Art of Truman Lowe (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003), 3-4. 2. "Lowe's Art Speaks for Itself," Capital Times (Madison) July 26, 2001. 3. Truman Lowe, author interview, Madison, Wisconsin, April 12, 2013. 4. Lowe cited in Ortel, Woodland Reflections, 29. 5. At the time, the official name of the Truman Lowe's 1999 sculpture. Waterfall, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis university was Kansas State Teachers College. 6. Ortel, 49. Lowe's sculptures of the twenty-first century have reflected 7. "Art: 'Modern Works of American Indians,'" New York Times, November 30, 1984. 8. Nancy Lowe, author interview. not only his Ho-Chunk identity and connection to the past, 9. Ortel, 98. but also his concerns about the future. For example, in 2006, 10. The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, vol. 1 (Indianapolis: Eiteljorg Museum for American Indians and Western Art, 1994), 3. he teamed up with ethnobotanist Donna House for "Between 11. Nancy Lowe, author interview. the Lakes," an exhibition at the Madison Museum of Contem 12. "Bird Effigy," White House website, http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/Tours/Garden_ Exhibit6/lowe.html. The sculpture is permanently displayed at Western Michigan University porary Art. A ghostly tree dominated the installation, with in Kalamazoo. images of long-gone Ho-Chunk villages, broken treaties, and 13. Truman Lowe, author interview, Middleton, Wisconsin, April 30, 2013. 14. Ibid. 17 extinct flora and fauna projected onto the walls. He partici 15. Ibid. 16. Nancy Mithlo, e-mail correspondence with the authorJul y 12, 2013. pated in "Forest Art Wisconsin," an international outdoor 17. "MMoGA Takes Risks with Its First Show," Capital Times (Madison), May 17, 2006. exhibit that explored the theme "Native/Invasive." Twenty- 18. Truman Lowe, USA Free Ticket, Forest Art Wisconsin website, http://2007.waldkunst. com/index.php?DOG JNST= 14. eight artists from countries around the world created pieces 19. Mithlo, e-mail correspondence. that lined a one-and-a-half-mile nature trail in the Northern Highland American Legion Forest near Boulder Junction, Wisconsin. The pieces commented on the cycles of nature, invasive species, and the barriers between humans and nature, ABOUT THE AUTHOR among other themes. For his contribution, Free Ticket, Lowe Patty Loew, PhD, is an enrolled member of wrapped stones in camouflage and placed them along the trail, the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe conveying "how nature and culture blend in and have to be and a recipient of the Outstanding Service distinguished in order to be discovered."18 Award of the Great Lakes Intertribal Coun cil. She is a professor in the Department of The integration of nature and culture is the fundamental Life Sciences Communication at the Univer theme Lowe has explored throughout his career. That he never sity of Wisconsin-Madison and affiliated fac alienated himself from either may explain his success. His ability ulty with the American Indian Studies Program. She has written to express a distinctly indigenous sensibility through abstract dozens of scholarly and general interest articles on Native topics expressionism has distinguished him not only as one of the and is the author of the bestselling Indian Nations of Wisconsin. great Native sculptors, but also as one of the great American She has produced several award-winning documentaries that contemporary artists of his generation. "Truman Lowe's legacy have appeared on commercial and public television stations is the expansion of the dialogue about the American Indian throughout the country. For twenty years she hosted statewide imagination through artistic expression, service to commu news and public affairs programs for Wisconsin PublicTelevision.

AUTUMN 2014 53 WISCONSIN HISTORICAL S O C i E T Y Letters

Wisconsin Historical Society Walter S. Rugland,/App/efon Board of Curators Michael P. Schmudlach, Broo/c/yn My great-great aunt was Lavinia Goodell, the first woman Samuel J. Scinta, Onalaska lawyer in Wisconsin. I found an article on her in WMH 74. Officers Thomas L. Shriner Jr., Milwaukee No. 4, summer 1991. In it a photo is shown of a girl I'm positive John W.Thompson,Madison Pres/denf:Conrad G. Goodkind, is not Lavinia Goodell. The author of the article passed away Milwaukee Aharon Zorea, Richland Center President-Elect: Brian D. Rude, in 2010. I have family photos and would be happy to provide Coon Valley Governor's Appointees scans of them to you for a correction. The photo has appeared Treasurer: William P. O'Connor, David G. Anderson, Wausau online as being representative of Miss Goodell and so the error Madison R. William Van Sant, Bayfield Secretary: Ellsworth H. Brown, has been propagated. The Ruth and Hartley Barker Legislative Appointees Beverly S. Wright, PhD Director, Fitchburg Rep. Frederick P. Kessler, Milwaukee Via email Rep. Steve G. Kestell, Elkhart Lake Term Members Sen. Fred A. Risser, Madison Jon D. Angeli, Lancaster Sen. Dale W Schultz, Richland Center Angela B. Bartell,Mdd/eton Sidney H. Bremer, Green Bay Curators Ex-Officio Norbert S.Hill Jr., Oneida Christopher S. Berry, President, John O. Holzhueter, Mazomanie Wisconsin Historical Foundation Joanne B. Huelsman, Waukesha Laura J. Cramer, President, FRIENDS Gregory B. Huber, Wausau of the Society Carol J. McChesney Johnson, Lane R. Earns, Provost &Vice Chancellor BlackEarth for Academic Affairs, UW-Oshkosh William P. Jones, Madison Terry E.Thiessen, President, Wisconsin Ellen D. Langill, Waukesha Council for Local History ChlorisA. Lowe Jr., New Lisbon Lowell F. Peterson, Appleton Honorary Curators Jerald J. Phillips, Bayfield Thomas H. Barland, Eau Claire

This is the photo published with the 1991 article. You Wisconsin Historical can read the article in its FOUNDATION entirety online at: http:// wihist.org/wmhl991.We received the photo below Wisconsin Historical Foundation from Dr. Wright. Officers Catherine C. Orton, Mauston Pres/denf:Christopher S. Berry, Peter A. Ostlind, Madison Middleton Theresa H. Richards, Marshfield Vice President: Michael L. Youngman, Gregory W Poplett, McFarland Milwaukee Linda E. Prehn, Wausau Treasurer: Stephen F. Brenton, Verona Rhona E. Vogel, Brookfield Secretary: Loren J. Anderson, Elkhorn Gregory M. Wesley, Milwaukee David A. Zweifel, Monona Board of Directors Renee S. Boldt, Appleton Directors Ex-Officio Robert C. Dohmen, Mequon Conrad G. Goodkind, Whitefish Bay, Lavinia Goodell (1839- Dennis R. Dorn, Portage President, Wisconsin Historical 1880) lived in Janesville John R. Evans, Verona Society Board of Curators (Rock Co.), and was C. Frederick Geilfuss, \\,Milwaukee Brian D. Rude, Coon Valley, President- admitted to the bar in Jennifer Hill-Kelley, Green Bay Elect, Wisconsin Historical Society James (Jay) R. Lang, Lake Mills Board of Curators 1874. Prohibited from Thomas J. Mohs, Madison appearing before the Wisconsin Supreme Court Wisconsin Historical Real Estate Foundation in 1875, she appealed their Board of Directors decision and ultimately President: Bruce T Block, Milwaukee won, ensuring the right of Vice President and Treasurer: David G. Stoeffel, Whitefish Bay women to practice law in Secretary: Gary J. Gorman, Fitchburg Wisconsin.

54 wisconsinhistory.org In an article from our Summer 2014 issue, "The Space-Age THANK YOU! Journey of Wisconsin's 1964 World's Fair Pavilion," we weren't able to identify all the people in two of the photos accompa nying the story. Bill Kraus of Madison provided some addi tional names and we've since discovered a couple others. It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes the following individuals and organizations who contributed $10,000 or more between June 1,2013, and June 30, 2014.

Anonymous Drs. Allan and Margaret Bogue Caxambas Foundation Robert C. Dohmen Pleasant and Jerry Frautschi Sally Mead Hands Foundation Robert and Patricia Kern KohlerTrust for Preservation Ruth DeYoung Kohler Estate of Edith J. Meerdink Navistar Clark Prudhon (left), Wisconsin Secretary of State Robert Zimmerman, Old World Wisconsin Foundation and Governor John Reynolds. Alice in Dairyland peeks out from the cab. Gordon V. & Helen C. Smith Foundation Dawn and David Stucki State ofWisconsin

Anonymous American Family Insurance Estate of Ann Bardeen-Henschel Tom and Renee Boldt Thomas E. Caestecker Culver's Edward U. Demmer Foundation Ray and Kay Eckstein Charitable Trust Estate of Richard A. Erney The Evjue Foundation, Inc. the charitable arm of The Capital Times Herzfeld Foundation To the right of the unidentified military officer, is Dorothy Knowles, Highlights Media, LLC wife of the governor, followed by State Senator Gerald Lorge, Sharon Mrs. Peter D.Humleker, Jr. Singstock, Miss Wisconsin, Governor Warren Knowles, State Senator International Harvester Collectors Charitable Trust Taylor Benson, State Senator Martin Schreiber, and World's Fair Vice International Harvester Collectors Wisconsin Chapter #4, Inc. President, retired Major General William E. Potter. Claire and Marjorie Johnson Judd S. Alexander Foundation Ralph and Virginia Kurtzman WE WANT TO HEAR WHAT OUR READERS THINK! Robert and Dorothy Luening Tom and Nancy Mohs Email us at: [email protected] Northwestern Mutual Foundation V3 Comment on our facebook page: Jane Bradley Pettit Foundation www.facebook.com/Wisconsin.Magazine.of.History Racine Community Foundation *" Follow us on Twitter: @WI_Mag_History Patty Sch mitt Write to us at: The George and Jane Shinners Charitable Fund Wisconsin Magazine of History Dave and Maggie Stoeffel 816 State Street Waukesha County Community Foundation Madison, Wisconsin 53706 Wisconsin Council for Local History

AUTUMN 2014 55 **" Curio "*•

This map sampler was stitched by eighteen-year-old Celia Lewis of Flushing, New York, in 1809. The work was completed while she attended boarding school in PleasantValley, New York, where it served as both a lesson in needlework and in geography. Wisconsin had yet to be admitted as a state, but Lewis labeled the region with the names of the Native tribes living there. In the early 1850s, she moved to the land of the "Chipawas"and"Outagamis"with her husband. Dr. Samuel Carman, and three children. Celia died in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1855, but her sampler remained an heirloom treasured by the Carman family for generations. Celia's great-granddaughter, Alice (Palmer) Washington, generously donated the remarkable piece to the Wisconsin Historical Society in 1984. This and sixty-three other samplers from our Museum collections can be viewed on our website: http://museumcollections.wisconsinhistory.org/ Results.cfm?ParentlD=716272. Coming this Fall from the ^ Wisconsin Historical Society Press

SEVENTH The AF GENERATION HEART EARTH o/THINGS ETHICS A Midwestern Almanac

Native Voices of Wisconsin

BIME HUGTRAVIS DEWITEZ PATTY LOEW Whitetail Deer Hunting in Wisconsin Foreword by Winona LaDuke

Blaze Orange: Whitetail Deer Hunting in Wisconsin ft i^ifBLl by Travis Dewitz Seventh Generation Earth Ethics: Heart of Things: ISBN: 978-0-87020-668-9, S29.95 Native Voices of Wisconsin A Midwestern Almanac by Patty Loew by John Hildebrand .4 • ISBN: 978-0-87020-674-0, $22.95 ISBN: 978-0-87020-672-6, S22.95

1 M E T E Rl

A CONTEMPC RARY PORTRAIT OF LA KE MICHIGAN | i 1* KEVIN J. MIYAZAKI mm.

Perimeter: A Contemporary Little Hawk & the Lone Blue Men & River Monsters Portrait of Lake Michigan Wolf: A Memoir by John Zimm by Kevin J. Miyazaki by Raymond C. Kaquatosh ISBN: 978-0-87020-670-2, $18.95 ISBN: 978-0-87020-676-4, S29.95 ISBN: 978-0-87020-650-4, $22.95

The Wisconsin Historical Museum Shop is located on the Capitol Square at 30 N. Carroll St., Madison, Wl 53703 TO ORDER Please call: (888) 999-1669 or (608) 264-6565 (in Madison) Wisconsin Historical Society Shop online: shop.wisconsinhistory.org PRESS Members of the Wisconsin Historical Society receive a 10% discount! The Hoan Memorial Bridge was named for Daniel Hoan, a Socialist and one of the longest- serving mayors of Milwaukee. It connects Interstate 794 in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to the Lake Freeway across the Milwaukee River inlet. Designed by the firm Howard, Needles, Tammen & Bergendoff, it won the American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Long Span Bridge Award in 1975. Read more about Daniel Webster Hoan in Michael E. Stevens's article, " 'Give 'em Hell, Dan!': How Daniel Webster Hoan Changed Wisconsin Politics."

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